Long and Overdue

Hello Sweets,

Well it's been almost two and a half months since I posted :/  Life has been a little crazy lately and busy too, but I had the urge to give y'all an update as to what is going on with me.  I haven't been in the kitchen as much as I would like to be, but that doesn't mean I haven't been creating when I am.  I have a few recipes that I have not shared with y'all, so I should have no reason to not put some posts out for everyone. 

Part of the reason I've been busy lately is that I am searching for a new apartment, well actually I was ;)  Yup I found my perfect apartment and it's even a new build, so everything will be brand new!!  I was starting to feel a little hopeless while searching, then I passed this apartment building and knew I had to apply.  Have you ever had the feeling that something was meant to be?  That is exactly how I felt about this place, I could see myself in the apartment and everything.  I was so confident that this was where I was destined to move to, some people would say that's crazy but it worked for me!  Needless to say I've been going through all of my boxes in storage, purging everything I should have the last time I moved lol.  I move in to my new home on the first of February, and I couldn't be more excited :D  Here are some pics of the building in progress, they're not great but you get the idea;

my apartment is not on the street side, woohoo!

my grandfather measuring the window in my new bedroom

where the kitchen will be, lol wasn't installed at the time

my new little living room, looks smaller in the picture

brand new bathroom

 

it's small, but I don't need a huge space so it's perfect!!

I didn't do anything for Halloween :( but I can thank my fun time health issues for that.  Christmas was quiet too, I spent the holidays with Nathan and his family in Texas.  Nothing too big but just enough of the holiday spirit to make you smile.  Now the way we spent New Years eve was pretty amazing, we flew above the Dallas area checking out the Christmas lights from above until about 11pm.  Then we went home to ring in the new year with a glass of bubbly and some cuddles.  Check out some pretty lights from above;

 

Happy New Years y'all!!  I'm off to make some cookies, but will be back in the next day or two with a yummy recipe to share!

Love of my life and best friend

Doesn't matter where we go, as long as we're together

Stay sweet....



Jennifer xoxoxoxo

Bring on 2013!

Hello Sweets,

Happy New Year!!!  I hope you all had a fantastic evening last night, whether at a party or spending it in with the ones you love.  No matter how you rang the new year in as long as you were in a happy moment, I take that as a sign of how your year will be (Nathan and mine will be full of love).

So I know I said yesterday that I would have a great recipe for today's post, but with all the excitement last night, I am honestly a little tired, no a lot tired lol.  I have literally fallen asleep probably 3 times since we got home, so I will do a full post with recipe tomorrow (pinky promise) and tonight's will be a recap of my first ever romantic New Years :)

In all my years I have never done a romantic New Years just for two.  I've done the parties, bars, countdowns with crowds of people, and even just staying home, but nothing as romantic as what Nathan had planned.  Nathan had planned a romantic New Years celebration for two and had an aspect that I love, it was almost a complete surprise.  All I was told was to pack a bag for overnight.  Nathan had bought me a beautiful dress from Victoria Secret and a killer pair of blue heels, so I was really excited.  I threw a bag together, put on my comfy Lulu Lemon pants, grabbed my leather jacket and new Louis Vuitton, and headed out the door about 6pm.  As we headed towards Dallas Nathan started to give me more clues of what our night would entail; a romantic hotel room at a very nice hotel, late dinner reservations, and finally ringing in the new year with fireworks and champagne, just the two of us (and it sounded like perfect night to me!).  We pulled up to a huge beautiful hotel, the Hilton Anatole (check it out here!), with an Asian inspired decor, an endless art collection, beautiful lighting, and impeccable customer service.  Nathan had reserved a beautiful room on the 17th floor with a view of downtown Dallas, perfect view to where the fireworks would be displayed.  The room was also Asian inspired decor with one extra to it, a bottle of champagne already on ice with two glasses waiting for us to enjoy :) (not that we didn't bring some with us).  Nathan popped the cork on the bottle as soon as we were settled so I could get ready for dinner while enjoying some bubbly, and considering it was complimentary it was quite delicious!

All dressed up with places to go!

Nathan had made reservations at an extremely nice steak house called SER (Yum!) located on the top floor (27th) of the hotel.  Our reservations were for 8:15pm and needless to say, I was hungry, but Nathan always picks great steak houses so I was very much looking forward to it.  It was a romantic setting, dimly lit with the kind of service where they pull out your chair and place your serviette in your lap (very classy).  When you first walk in there is a huge wine cellar visible to the clients which displays almost 2,000 bottles of different wines, and the best part is they set an iPad at your table so you can go through their extensive list that gives flavor notes to help make the right choice for your meal.  I'm not a wine connoisseur but I do enjoy it, and since Nathan doesn't drink a lot of wines he let me choose.  We both love our red meat and knew that we would be getting beef, so that definitely helped me decided what to get, obviously we were going to have a red wine but Nathan prefers a sweeter wine then a bold like I do, so I had to really read the descriptions.  I finally settled on a red wine with a mild undertone called Nobil Casa Contini Bonacossi Villa Di Caperrana and ordered a bottle.  Our waitress brought the bottle over and uncorked it allowing me to smell and taste prior to airing, and I am pleased to say that Nathan enjoyed it as much as I did :)

romantic lighting = darker photos, sorry

We started with a shrimp cocktail, then I settled on the fillet and Nathan had a 45 day aged bone in rib eye.  Both were accompanied with creamy garlic mashed potatoes,  Nathan's also came with white asparagus and some mashed potatoes with the skins left on (I love those kinds of mashed potatoes lol).  However there was one aspect of my dish that I didn't think I wanted to even give the time of day and that was roasted bone marrow, but our waitress gave me the quick run down that either you like it our you don't.  It has a buttery flavor, and most people use it atop their steak.  Now I've never been one to not try something new and I wasn't about to start now, so I dived in and ate it atop my steak.  The best way to describe it is, that to me, it tasted like buttery mushrooms and even had a similar texture, and Nathan who does not like mushrooms thought that it wasn't bad either :)

 Nathan's

 Mine

 Sparkly me with yummy wine

 Asked our waitress to help us capture the moment, I sparkle like our view!

After dinner Nathan and I spent the rest of our evening drinking champagne, dancing in our hotel room (how romantic!), and then finally at the stroke of midnight fireworks went off in downtown Dallas and we had a perfect view.

 some bubbly

 fireworks from our hotel room

our first kiss of 2013

Needless to say we had a wonderful start to 2013, full of love, smiles, and laughter.  I hope all of my readers enjoyed their evening as much as we did and that 2013 brings you lots of love and prosperity!  

 couldn't think of a more perfect place to start my new year :)

Until next time.........

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo

So Long 2012 :)

Hello Sweets,

Well it's the last day of 2012, and I thought I would take the time to reflect and see what the last year has meant to me.  Plus I have another fun kitchen gadget to share with all of you, since this will be a shorter post :)

As you may or may not be aware I have a rare diagnosis that will require me to have a type of brain surgery, well when 2012 started they did not want to go ahead with surgery just yet (which I can tell you can be devastating).  It had caused me to go off work in August of 2011 and a huge part of who I am was tied to my job, but this year I decided to start discovering who I am without the job title and it has been a wonderful journey.  Life isn't easy at times, and when it is easy it's probably not worth it.  I finally received the news this October that they will be going ahead with the surgery (finally!), I cannot even begin to describe how happy this news made me as this has been a hard adjustment in my life.  I also started my blog in October.  I started it because I was feeling down because of being off work.  However, the support I have received from all of you, coupled with the fulfilling feeling of blogging was just what I needed.  I've always enjoyed writing, and realize now that I should have never stopped because I feel like even when I'm having a bad day I can be thankful for what I do have and that I can peruse my passions.  Rediscovering my love of the kitchen, being encouraged to pursue it from the ones that mean the most to me, and not to mention the meaning it has brought to my life.  The one thing that can make a bad day better is creating in the kitchen, even though it can sometimes be hard on my body the feeling that it gives me encourages me in all other aspects of my life.  Nathan has even got me thinking about possibly starting my own little bakery shop, and I can't tell you what it means to have an amazingly supportive man in my life.  I think probably the best part of this past year was being completely accepted by Nathan's family and friends, knowing that when I move to Texas one day that I already have some family and friends makes the decision of change that much easier :)

Okay enough of the touchy feely emotional reflection of this past year, I have a super cool and helpful kitchen goodie for you again.  I had a recipe that is ready to blog about but wanted to save it for tomorrow, I did this because I wanted to do a reflection post with a fun ending.  Don't worry I will give you a super recipe tomorrow that is definitely worth the wait, not to mention this recipe has now spawned a new one of a kind recipe that is fully in the works and will be completed probably on the weekend, so keep your eyes peeled!  So as you all know, Nathan's family gave me a TON of cool kitchen tools for Christmas, and I am trying to show you all the cool items over multiple posts and today's is one of those posts!  I have mentioned in a previous post that I love everything that goes into creating in the kitchen, even the mundane prep work that has to go into each recipe.  I have also mentioned how much I love doing small things for Nathan, such as picking out the perfect melons at the grocery store and cutting it all up for him to it's ready to enjoy.  Well guess what one of the gadgets were, a melon slicer!  Now it really is a fun and easy tool but with my weak shoulders I needed Nathan's help  pushing in through the melon, however I am confident that post surgery I will be able to do it all on my own!  Okay lets get to the fun stuff :) (here's a link, not my exact one but just the same :) )

Let the fun begin!

 Start with a ripe melon, slice the top of the melon off

Place the melon cutter on top then rock back and forth a few times to get a grip

 Firmly push down, then remove.

 

 So pretty

There you have it, if you or anyone in your house really enjoys eating melons but hate the messy and annoying preparation, GET THIS!  It is so worth it lol it makes the cutting process much easier (not to mention pretty), and it's even cuts every time!

Well I hope you all have something enjoyable planned for your New Years eve, spend it with those you care about the most so you ring in the new year with a positive bang ;)  Nathan and I are going to share our first new years together with just the two of us, a romantic dinner first, and then sharing champagne at the stroke of midnight.  This will be the first time I have ever had a new years celebration like this, and I honestly cannot wait because I think the best way to ring in the new year is to be with the ones that make you the happiest.  There isn't a single person I would rather be with at midnight.  Spending it with my best friend and soul mate is the perfect scenario.  Happy New Years everyone, and I'll see you all in the new year!!!  Until next time (year lol)..............


Stay sweet,



Jennifer xoxoxo