Christmas Wishes

Christmas is sooo close!  So why not post a little wish list? :-)

Rag & Bone Harrow

I seriously love these shoes.  They retail for $525 (crazy!), but with sites like Ebay and Tradesy they're easily going for around $200 - the last 2 ebay auctions I followed my size went for around 195 each time.  I don't mind Aaron giving me a gift from one of those sites (or rather, me buying it with Aaron's approval).  I seriously think they could change my life.

AG Legging Jeans

I love my AG Legging ankle jeans and I'd love a pair in black.  Sometimes a pair of sleek black jeans really step up the glam factor.  These jeans, a cropped sweater and the booties above?? YES.

Lastly, on the budget friendly side of things, I really want some books!  This is a basically a snapshot of my Amazon wishlist.  I would like to have a really impressive bookshelf someday and many of these books are inspirational must-haves.   Maus is an amazing story of the author's father's experience as a Jew during the Holocaust.  Full Catastrophe Living is a book that serves an introduction to mindfulness.  The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was written by the editor-in-chief of Elle after he experienced a stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome.  Yes, you read that right.  He authored this book after he was locked-in.  He communicated by blinking only his left eye for 4 hours a day for 10 months to narrate this.  So, there is a fair preview of my book list and why I think they're amazing books that I would love to have in library. 

What's on your Christmas list??

Phil & Amanda Get Hitched

Last month our friends Philip & Amanda got married!!! Is Amanda's dress not to die for???

The Merrimon-Wynne House, a new wedding venue in Downtown Raleigh

Yes, that is a paper plane flying in front of Amanda & Phil

 Friends...Emily (on the left) sang at my wedding!

Just as delicious as it was stunning

Aaron & I took some photos but none I liked enough to share!  I find that as you become a budding photographer (ha) you become really critical of photos people take on your camera.  Like I will tell my subjects to stand straight or fix their hair, or the lighting is bad etc.  Other people won't do that for you with your own camera!  Oh well :-)

Girl Crush

You guys, I feel like I've been around the world and back.  Since my last post, I've been to Charlotte, to DC and to my alma mater Hampton for their homecoming. It's been amaaazing. But right now the last thing I feel like doing is uploading pics!  So instead, let's talk fashion. :-)

Do you have a girl crush?  You know a girl whose style is effortless, she could make a paper bag look flawless?  For me that girl is Gala Gonzalez.  We go back.  I've been reading her blog,  Amlul, for about 6 years.  She's a socialite, DJ, Vogue reporter, blogger.  And she's perfect.  Let's let the photos speak for themselves.

She has a best friend, Miranda Marakoff.

She's clearly awesome, just in general.

www.amlul.com

Pie Hard

2 Fridays ago, my good friend Libby came back to visit.

Libby lived in Raleigh, but now is getting her masters in science at App State, because she's smart like that.  She comes and visits her friends in Raleigh every so often, because she's nice like that. We all went out to Sono followed by dessert and champagne at Bittersweet.

Nick & Amanda came :-)

and Debs!

Bittwersweet is a new downtown bar that specializes in drinks and desserts.  It's pretty cool. 

We all shared the pumpkin pie, bacon apple streusel and a cookie platter.

And then took some group pics. I'm showing much more leg than everyone else.

No pictures of Aaron and Libby's bf but they were there too!

Good times.

Cooking Lessons

I love to cook, but lately I've been having some mishaps in the kitchen.

This fig, bacon and goat cheese pizza was a success.

But these mussels were a sandy, gritty fail.  They looked pretty though!

Kitchen Lessons I've Learned

-Purchase an oven liner to avoid a feast of dinners past from accumulating on the bottom of your oven.  Don't use aluminum foil or parchment paper. Also, put your oven liner on the bottom rack, not the floor of the oven.
-to avoid grit, only buy PEI Mussels.  Optional - soak your mussels in cool water with some cornmeal at the bottom before preparation.  Lastly, remove the beards from your mussels.
-Find a cookie sheet brand you like and can trust. Use this brand to bake all your cookies for consistency. I like Chicago Metallic and it's cheap.  Also, use your silpat.
-Let the cookies cool before removing them from the cookie sheet.  It doesn't matter if this is the only cookie sheet/silpat you own :-/
-Be ridiculously generous with butter and marshmallows when making rice krispies.  Like 1.5x the recommended amount :-)

And what I'm still learning...
I love steak and have successfully cooked a steak before.  However last Thursday I found myself setting off the fire alarm 4 times and coming to close to having a heart attack over fear the sprinkler system would be next.  The kitchen was just so smoky!  I've been reading about the smoke points of oil and trying to figure out how to avoid this problem in the future.  My phone is the galaxy s5 and it often stalks my google searches and suggests I check out things (usually the NC state score on game days).  After my mishap, it recommended I read  No Grill, No Vent, No Problem.  Great, so my phone knows I've been struggling in the kitchen too!

I've had a lot of good days in the kitchen so of course I was due for some bad days.  Practice makes perfect!

Chicken Sauteed in Brown Butter and Sage with Parmesan Spinach Orzo.  

This was a success. Well kinda. :-)  Always room for improvement!

G2B Gastropub

Sunday 2 weekends ago I had to work 12 shift on consult-liaison psychiatry.  It was pretty exhausting, mainly from all the notes I had to write.  Aaron and our friend Sarah were so kind and patiently waited for me to get off at 9pm so we could all go out to dinner!  We met up at G2B Gastropub in Durham. 

It was delicious! 5 stars for sure!  In front of Sarah is a braised lamb chop.  

We also had fried artichokes and a scottish egg.

The Scottish egg opened- it is lightly boiled, wrapped in meats and fried.  A little odd to be at first but I paired it with french fries at the table and then it tasted like a delicious hash.

 Scallops and butternut squash

Sticky toffee pudding and chocolate cake

Everything at G2B was delicious, my favorite being the sticky toffee pudding which unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of.  They also are well known for their burgers, including a lamb burger.  I'm looking forward to heading back to try that with and the toffee pudding again!  If you are ever in Durham definitely try them out.

State vs FSU

So, Saturday was pretty epic.  My husband's fraternity, Pi Lambda Phi, partnered up with another frat on campus for the tailgate.  Which culminated in a band and hundreds of drunk undergrads.  Just to clarify, I do tailgate on the alumni side and most of us are alumni (or wedded to an alum!).  But not Saturday...

sorry a lil blurry :-)

 Yeah. This is crazy

Adam 

 Shrodog came to town! 

State played great and lead most of the game but ultimately we lost to FSU.  Overall, this season is much better than last year's and I couldn't be more proud of the boys.  It's funny because in the past I was hesitant towards football and tailgating, now I'm the one dragging Aaron out of bed and asking him about tickets to the game.  BBQ, beer, friends and football though - the perfect Saturday. :-)