What a great day to be alive.

Happy St. Patty’s Day, sweet ones!

I am wearing my green today!  Are you?  I loveee St Patrick’s Day.  I love celebrating the Irish heritage in my blood.  Growing up, my mom made St. Patty’s Day extra fun in our household.  In college, St. Patty’s Day was probably one of the best, most fun days out of the whole year.  (STATE Patty’s Day, anyone?)  Tonight, Hubster and I have a hot Irish date planned.  Woo hoo!  Really, any excuse to be festive and have a celebration is taken advantage of in my world.  Are you doing anything fun or green related today?

In college, I used to spend EVERY green holiday with these beautiful ladies below, the ones I spent my time with in NY recently.  I wish I were able to see them this holiday, BUT I have the sweet memories of our weekend spent together in NY just two weeks ago.  Our time together went above and beyond my expectations of a relaxing and FUN weekend.  It was so special!  We shopped, dined, drank delicious wine, went dancing (SO FUN), and RELAXED!  It has come to our attention that in addition to our annual Girl-cation/Maine-cation event every year, we also need an annual Winter Weekend Un’WINE’ding event as well.  I already can’t wait for the next one.

Me with my fabulous four faves…

 

Shopping on Long Island!  It was a GORGEOUS day, but still a little chilly.  We all went for a run together in the morning. How fun is that?!  I wish I could wake up EVERY morning and go running with my besties.

Okay, I have to stop looking at these pics, my heart is about to burst.

I hope you all have a wonderful, green-filled day!  I’m taking a tiny, little bit of a hiatus from the blogging world.  Not for too long, but long enough to come back with a completely, entirely different virtual world of mine.  Do you remember this post?  It’s time, ladies.  There are so many changes happening in my heart and in my life, and it’s time for my blog to reflect it.  I hope you’re okay with saying goodbye to pink.  It may be confusing to change things up so much (name included), but for several reasons I am at peace with such changes - no matter what the outcome is.  My little blog is a little over a year old now, and while the theme of pink was cute and charming to me when I began it, I am sooooo ready for a more subdued and broader theme.  Something that will carry my precious Hubby and I over into the next several seasons of our life… (and no, this is not a subtle attempt to reveal we’re having a little babykins, I can just see some of our friends’ reactions while reading this. Not yet, sweet friends!).  New beginnings are the best, and I can’t wait for this one to start.  You know what my favorite part about it is?  My new virtual world is a concept that was equally created by my husband and me – that is so special to my heart.  The name has so much meaning behind it and is a picture of our life together and the life we are continuously building.  It’s time for a change.  And I’m excited.  :o)

I hope you’ll still be a part of my journey.

HUGS, LOVED ONES!

Insanely Yummy

It’s all about food again.  As mentioned in the post below, my mom and dad drove up Wednesday night to see Hubster and moi.  We visited, laughed, drank some vino…and they cooked us dinner!  OH.EM.GEE. I can not even begin to describe just how delicious this meal was.  And you know what?  The two recipes were from Rachel Ray!  My mom is a cooking genius so really ANYTHING she makes is always insanely tasty.  But when I found out we were eating a Rachel recipe, I knew it was something I could tackle myself someday for a dinner party or when I’m craving some lemony goodness.  Seriously, sweet friendlys – YOU MUST TRY THESE RECIPES!  YUMMMMMM!  They are the perfect combination together – SO refreshing and pleasantly perfect.  The lemon risotto has fresh lemon zest in it – AMAZING!  You can omit the cheese and sugar in the risotto to make it more health conscious.  I’m running a lot more these days (trying to at least!) for my race training, so I don’t feel quite as guilty indulging, but we still decided to omit the sugar and we didn’t miss it AT ALL. 

Lemon Risotto and Orange Balsamic Chicken

(topped w/baby arugula)

We added the sweet pepper for visual appeal.  :o)

 

Lemon Risotto (source) 

Directions

Pucker up! This risotto is super-tangy but you'll still want to kiss it, it's so good.

Ingredients

• 1 quart chicken stock
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small to medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese, a couple of handfuls
• 2 tablespoons slivered mint leaves
• A handful basil tops, shredded or torn
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a large pot, heat the stock and 2 cups water over medium low heat.

In a risotto pot or large skillet with a rounded bottom, heat the extra-virgin olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic to pan and saute to soften 3 to 4 minutes Stir in the rice and add the zest of 1 lemon. Heat the rice for 1 to 2 minutes, then add the wine and cook until evaporated. Add in the hot stock, a few ladles at a time, and stir for a minute with each addition, to develop the starch and the creamy aspect. Total cooking time will be about 18 minutes or so. Keep adding stock each time the pan starts to become dry at the edges. While the rice cooks, peel and supreme or section the flesh of a lemon and finely chop. Sprinkle with a 1/2 teaspoon sugar. When rice is cooked to al dente, stir in the butter, lemon sections, juice of 1 lemon, the cheese and herbs. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and transfer to a serving bowl. Serve immediately.

Orange Balsamic Chicken (source)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts or any combination of light and dark meat
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 2 to 3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves chopped
• 1/3 cup orange marmalade
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 scallions, whites and greens, finely chopped
• 4 cups baby arugula

Directions

In a large pan, heat the extra-virgin olive oil over medium-high to high heat.

Season the chicken liberally with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. When the oil is hot and ripples, add the chicken and brown for 5 minutes, then turn and sprinkle with rosemary. Cook until the chicken is tender and cooked through, about 5 minutes more.

In a small bowl, stir together the marmalade, vinegar and stock and pour over the chicken. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the sauce has thickened and becomes a thin glaze. Add the scallions during the last minute of cooking time. Arrange on a serving platter and serve topped with arugula greens.

J & J night

It’s Wednesday already?!  This week is flying by so fast!  My time in NY with my ladies was PHENOMENAL! I came back so refreshed and so head-over-heels in love with them, all over again.  I am so excited to share all about it.  Guess who brought her camera WITHOUT her memory card in it?  Yes, that would be me.  So I was able to snap a total of THREE pictures before my camera was “full”.  Thank goodness my sweet girls were there to snap away!  I’m going to wait and post after I receive the rest of our pictures from their cameras.  I do, however, have a memory card with me today that has pictures of….

Julie and Julia night!

YAYYYY!  So excited to share these.  My husband was out of town on business a few weeks ago so I took the opportunity to invite my mom, sister, niece and dad over to wine and dine with me and little Tucker.  We wish my oldest sister and her sweet family could have been there, too.  Move to PA, already!  We cooked up a storm, drank delicious wine, watched Julie and Julia, and had a sleep over.  It was so much fun!

Toasting to the night…

On the menu: Coq au Vin with pearl onions and asparagus.  YUMMM! 

Translation: “rooster in red wine”

 

Anything with sautéed bacon HAS to taste divine.

Sweet little T in the kitchen

The caramelized pearl onions were HEAVENLY! YUMM! 

The infamous fire pictures…

There is a very important part in the recipe that calls for adding bourbon.  Naturally, this would cause a little bit of an explosion, but we weren’t preparing for THIS much of an explosion.  The flames went all the way up to the top cabinets.  My sister and I were DYING; we were rolling on the floor laughing so hard.  My dad didn’t think it was so funny, naturally.  My niece started crying because she didn’t know what was going on.  It was chaos in the kitchen for a few seconds and it was HYSTERICAL.  It happened so fast and then the fire went down, which is why I can deem it funny and not disastrous.  I can’t believe I got a picture of it.  Of course, it wouldn’t have been so funny if the fire spread, but luckily there was NO trace of it – and now I still crack up every time I see these pictures.  When I show them to hubby I think his heart stops a little bit.

My niece and Tucker decided to stay out of the kitchen after the commotion.

 

Back to cooking… 

 

TA DA!  Sooo yummy!  Have you made Coq au Vin before?  No?  You must! We used the recipe out of her cookbook, but here is the recipe found online.

We had SUCH a special, fun and memorable evening!  I loveee the blessing that is my family, and the times we get to spend together are so precious to me.  My mom called me this morning and asked if she and my dad could drive up tonight and cook dinner for Hubby and me.  HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!  I love them SO so SO much. 

Hope your Wednesday is going fabulously well!

Blessings/XOXO

2010 Girls ‘Un”WINE”ding’ Getaway

I am BESIDE myself with excitement right now!  I am headed to New York today for an entire weekend with my girls!  These girls are my ROCKS, and the weekends we get to spend with each other are SO precious to me.   It is rare that ALL five of us are able to be together at once; this weekend is going to be spent making so many precious memories!  We have an agenda full of nothing but the utmost GIRLIEST of GIRLY things.  EEEEEK!  SO EXCITED!

My Blessings…

K, M, J & C

I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL weekend!  I’ll be back next week with a weekend re-cap and finally a post about our amazing Julie & Julia night!

Blessings/XOXO

love.

 

Happy Wednesday!

Blessings/XOXO

Vegas Style

This was my third time in Vegas for work and I have to say, there is a side to Vegas that is NICE and NORMAL!  Haha.  Who would think it?!  A few people cringe when they hear I’m off to vegas for a week, and I just smile.  We saw some AMAZING shows and dined at some INCREDIBLE restaurants.  We went up a few days before the conference actually started so we could enjoy some fun stuff before working all week.  I mean, how cool is my boss?!  I feel blessed. 

A few pics:

Standing in the lobby of our hotel.  They need to make hotel casinos that have WINDOWS!  No joke, by the end of the week I was DYING to get out of “the cave” of darkness and gambling, lol.

Me and my sidekick, our beautiful and talented marketing intern.

Santana Concert!

Before we went in to see Cirque du Soleil’s O.  INCREDIBLE!

We ate lunch at this restaurant every day – it was the PERFECT spot!  We sat outside right across from the Bellagio and were treated to the fountain shows non-stop throughout our lunch.  It was in the 70s and GORGEOUS!  SUCH a treat from the snow storm we escaped just two days earlier in PA!

And, (PS.) for lunch EVERY DAY, I had a yummy salad with a glass of champagne with blueberries.  It was heaven.  I am now CERTAIN that champagne was made to accompany salads.  So crisp and refreshing!  And not to mention I felt like the classiest little lady, ever.  :o)

Little blue plumps of deliciousness.

And in case I run out…

I loveee trying the restauarnts in VEGAS.  YUM!

Compliments of Bobby Flay’s restaurant, Mesa Grill.

All in all, it was a great trip! 

BUT, of course, my absolute favorite part of the whole week was finally being back home with this cutie…

They say that absence makes the heart grow stronger/fonder and I couldn’t agree more.  There is always an air of crazy-ness in Las Vegas that makes me long for the comfort of my man.  It was so much fun, but it didn’t compare to the feeling of coming home.

Happy Monday, Lovelies!

Blessings/XOXO