Yum Diddles!!!

Happy Friday, friends!!!

Today's post will be super short, as I have some legal research that I need to get started.

As you know, I had friends/family over last weekend and we served bbq for Saturday late lunch/dinner. Dr. Love handled the grilling, while I whipped together potato salad and macaroni and cheese. I tweaked the potato salad recipe slightly by keeping in five of the ten egg yolks. Let's face it friends, egg yolks are yum diddly-ocious. I also did half curly parsley and half Italian parsley because the recipe did not specify which one to use. I liked the slight variation in the flavors so decided to include some of both. As for the macaroni and cheese, I used store bought bread crumbs, and put the (turkey) bacon on the side. Other than that, I pretty much followed the recipe.

 Sorry about the crappy pic...this was one or two day old potato salad/mac 'n cheese (with a Subway sandwich). I forgot to take pics of the fresh products on the day of the bbq. You get the point though...

Hope you guys enjoy these recipes as much as we all did.

Have a great weekend!

x

Grimy to Shiny House Cleaning Time-y

Hi friends!!

I hope that you all had a wonderful and sunny good time this past weekend.

As you know, Dr. Love and I had a few friends and family over all weekend and had a bigger group over on Saturday. We had the best time ever with our loved ones...we spent a few hours at the beach on Saturday in absolutely perfect summer weather, followed by a bbq at your place late Saturday afternoon. On Friday night, we had some of our favorite people spend the night (total head count on Friday night = 5 people, not including Dr. Love and me). On Saturday night, we had 4 additional house guests (= 9 people, not including Dr. Love and me). I loved every single minute of it and my dream of having a home in which my friends and family would visit, party in, and crash the night in has finally come true this past year!!!

When dreaming about throwing parties, having huge slumber parties, and entertaining, I naively did not consider the aftermath. :) Now, before I show you some pics of the aftermath, I want to say that, in recent years, I have become somewhat of a neat and clean freak. Therefore, these images may not even make most of my readers flinch. Needless to say, I have/will be putting my time and effort to getting our home back to it's organized clean self this week.  That includes, washing bedroom linens, cushion covers, towels, vacuuming, mopping the floors, washing dishes, cleaning out the fridge, scrubbing bathroom floors and toilets, and tidying up the place. The cleaning may sound like hell to some, but I would do it all over again next week if it meant more fun times with our loved ones. You guys are the best! Special shout-out to my bro and his best friends who couldn't make it because they were on a pre-planned camping trip, and to my cousins Sahi, Mali, and Matthew...we missed you guys tons!

Now, some pics of Dr. Love and my grimy home after the weekend of fun:

You know what, looking back at these pics, I feel pretty proud of the crew we had over...they partied like rock stars, but didn't trash the "hotel room" like rock stars would...the best combo!

I'll be returning with a new post later this week which will include post-cleanup pics and some yummy new recipes that I tried out over the weekend.

In the meantime, have a great rest of your Wednesday and "see" you soon!

x

Summa' Summa' Summa' Tiiiiiime

Holy crap, it's hot outside...and I love it!!!

I just love the summer time. Even now that I'm a grown-up (lame), I get so excited about the summer. All I want to do is enjoy the sun with my family and friends.

As you all know, I wasn't able to enjoy the sun for quite some time now (note: deep chemical peels are probably less of a hassle in the winter), but this weekend officially marks the first weekend when I can safely spend time in the sun (with a huge hat and sunscreen on, of course). So, in celebration I'm having a "coming out" party this weekend! Woohoo!!!! Don't get too excited though, it's not that kind of coming out, nor is it really a party. It's more of a weekend surrounded by some great friends and family.

The friends start rolling in tonight, starting with my friend from law school, Mario, who is visiting from Chicago. Then tomorrow night, L.E.Robins, Bro-Yo, and Dr. Love's cousin, Justinian, arrive in preparation for Saturday's beach day and bbq with a number of other friends. I'm pretty excited about some old school fun in the sun with some of my favorites. (Side note: Dr. Love and I both have winter birthdays, and I have been telling him for years now that we better calendar baby-making out so that we end up with summer babies, 'cuz this lady likes planning summa' parties!)

In light of the many visitors that we will be entertaining this weekend, I don't think I'm going to get a chance to post again this week, but I promise lots of good pics and deets next week.

In the meantime, here are some summer beauties growing in our patio and outside our front door...

 Sweet Basil

 Snap Dragon

Forgot the name of these flowers :( (Anyone know what they are called?)

 

Beautiful tree right outside our front door.

Love the leaves on the tree.

And last but definitely not least, remember this guy?! Yes, that is our peach tree. No fruit yet (and none expected this year), but it is a happy, growing tree. I need to re-plant it in a much bigger pot soon, though, and I think that I need to insert some support beams for the branches.

Have a great Friday tomorrow and a wonderful weekend!

x

Slimmer Stuffed Mushrooms

Happy Friday the Thirteenth, friends!!!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been making leaner, higher protein meals for Dr. Love and myself lately in an effort to make our lives healthier and our waistlines slimmer.

A childhood friend of mine visited last year and made us the most delicious stuffed mushrooms I have ever had. They were soooo yummy, but not really super healthy. In an effort to experience that level of stuffed mushroom euphoria again, I searched the web for healthy stuffed mushroom recipes. I found this recipe, and boy is it yummy. I highly recommend that you try it out...it was great!

Unfortunately, I didn't have all the necessary ingredients to make those stuffed mushrooms last week, nor did I feel like having something filled with bacon and bread crumbs. So I got creative and came up with two types of stuffed mushrooms with ingredients that most of us already have at home. Even better, these recipes can be made leaner by reducing the amount of cheese or by opting for a skimmer/lower-fat cheese.

So, without further ado, here are my original stuffed mushroom recipes!!!

Goat cheese, garlic, parsley stuffed mushrooms on left; Parmesan cheese, pizza sauce, red pepper, basil stuffed mushrooms on right.

For Both Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients:

Eight medium sized portobello mushrooms (rinsed and dried off, stems gently removed and finely chopped). 

Cooking Time and Temp:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Once mushrooms have been filled (mix recipes below), place both types of stuffed mushrooms on a greased cookie sheet, then lightly spray some cooking oil over them.

3. Place in oven and bake for about 20 minutes (check oven periodically to make sure mushrooms are not overcooked).

Goat Cheese, Garlic, Parsley Stuffed Mushrooms

Instructions:

1. In a bowl, mix together half of chopped mushrooms stems, about 3/4 cup of goat cheese, garlic powder/garlic salt/a clove of fresh garlic, about half a teaspoon of dried parsley flakes (or more if desired), and black pepper, and a dash of salt.

2. Stuff half of your mushroom caps with goat cheese mix and top with sprinkles of parsley. 

3. Place on greased cookie sheet. 

Parmesan Cheese, Pizza Sauce, Red Pepper, Basil Stuffed Mushrooms

Instructions:

1. In a different bowl, mix together the remaining half of chopped mushroom steps, about 1/4 -1/2 a cup of grated parmesan cheese, pizza sauce (I used a jar of Trader Joe's Pizza Sauce that I had in my pantry...it was a little more bitter than I generally prefer, but still good), half a teaspoon of red pepper flakes (less for those that don't like too much spice), about half a teaspoon of dried basil flakes, and salt and pepper to taste. 

2. Stuff the remaining half of your mushroom caps with pizza sauce mix and top with sprinkles of parmesan cheese.

3. Place on greased cookie sheet along side goat cheese stuffed mushrooms and cook as instructed above.

These stuffed mushrooms were very easy to make, on the healthier side of the stuffed mushroom spectrum, and absolutely delicious!!! Dr. Love and I loved both recipes, but he preferred the pizza sauce ones, while I fell in love with the goat cheese version.

Hope you enjoy these stuffed mushrooms as much as we did and that you have a great Friday and weekend!

x

A Week of Celebrations

Hi friends!!

My apologies for being MIA last week. While I had fully intended on writing my regular two posts per week, an unexpected extension to our 4th of July trip left me with hardly any blog-posting time.

I hope your 4th of July week was as fun as ours ended up being, and that it lasted way longer than the San Diego, CA fireworks show! Did you hear about that? Aren't modern day firework shows completely automated? Looks like someone had a bit too much to drink and hit a couple too many buttons at once :). When I read the story, I felt so bad for the families that presumably spent a good amount of time finding the "perfect" spot to view the fireworks from. They probably hauled seats, kids, and snacks to the spot and as soon as the show started, it was over. I felt disappointed on their behalf. Dr. Love assured me, however, that the 9-15 second all-fireworks-going-off-at-once show was probably the coolest firework show any of the viewers had ever seen. After seeing the pictures and video of the show, I think I may agree.

Our week of fun, family, and food got off to a great start on Tuesday evening when we headed to a friend's house for a bbq. The beef kabobs were delicious and the company was great! By late evening, my brother, Dr. Love, and I were off to another friend's house for post-dinner drinks with another great group of friends.

As if that was not enough to make  a girl happy, we spent the day of the 4th bbq-ing with my family at my aunt and uncle's house.

My cousin and me on the 4th of July.

After dinner, we headed to a friend's house for post-dinner, pre-fireworks fun. While waiting for a friend to join us, we all missed the local firework show. While I was a bit disappointed to not see any fireworks this 4th of July, the company and music at the get-together fully made up for it. 

Dr. Love and I had lunch on Thursday with my brother, another friend, and a very good friend of ours that surprised us all by coming into town for the holiday week. We were so excited to spend time with him that our lunch lingered on forever. By the end of lunch, the boys had decided that Dr. Love and I would not return home that day (as planned earlier), but rather stay to spend an extra day with my family and our visiting friend. The boys also arranged dinner plans with a big group of our friends for that evening. Having dinner with some of our best friends was my idea of the perfect summer evening and I could not help but smile from ear to ear the entire night. 

Friday was a day of work for both Dr. Love and I (he spent the day working out of the conference room at my brother's company, while I spent the morning/afternoon in a meeting with a graphic designer from my aunt and uncle's company who is helping me design my logo and letterhead for a very exciting company I'm launching later this month...more on this soon...I promise!!!). After a long day of work (and some fun with my cousins), Dr. Love and I got in our car and headed to my brother-in-law (Dr. Love's brother) and sister-in-law's house to commence my brother-in-law's bday celebrations. After sake shots at a local sushi restaurant on Friday night, and a Saturday filled with birthday activities and more friends, Sunday was a calmer family day spent at Dr. Love's parents' house, where we bbq'd, had birthday cake, looked at the boys baby pics, and watched their childhood videos. Overall, the perfect weekend, to cap off the perfect week. 

My sister-in-law and good friend, L.E.Robins, and my brother-in-law, Bro-Yo...

Bro-Yo and his cousin at Bro-Yo's birthday bar crawl on Saturday evening.

 Dr. Love relaxing at his parents' house...

Bro-Yo and L.E.Robins at Dr. Love and Bro-Yo's parents' house. 

I hope that after reading about how hectic and jam-packed of a week I had last week, you forgive me for my absence from the blog. I also hope that your pre-4th, 4th, and post-4th of July celebrations were as food, friend, and fun-filled as Dr. Love and mine were...but that you actually got to see some fireworks, and that the fireworks you saw did not all go off at the same time ;). 

Coming up later this week...two yummy stuffed mushroom recipes that are easy, healthy, and delicious!!! Until then, have a great Tuesday!

x