Weekending - February 6, 2015

This was a great weekend!  I hate to see it come to an end.  Eric was off work and we totally had a fun, relaxing couple of days.  We kind of treated it like a mini vacation.  And the St. Louis weather could not have cooperated more!  On Saturday the high was 67 degrees and Sunday was close to that too.

In our quest to see all the Best Picture nominated files, Friday night we headed to see The Imitation Game.  Loved it!!  I can totally see why Benedict Cumberbatch is nominated for Best Actor.

                                                        

Saturday I got to sleep in and it was glorious!  Now, granted "sleeping in" was waking up at 7:30 am, but for me that was two-and-a-half hours later than I normally get up.  So, yes - I slept in.  Eric was a dream guy and brought me hot tea in bed.  We had decided the night before to skip breakfast because we were going to eat a big lunch at a place we hadn't been to before -- Pappy's Smokehouse.

                                                  

This place has AMAZING food!  Eric and I tried the burnt ends.  YUM!  They are known for their ribs, but I'm not a fan of eating ribs in public.  You might have heard of Pappy's before.  They have been on a couple shows from the Food Network.  If you are ever in St. Louis and like barbecue, this should be on your list of places to eat.  Be prepared for a wait (the line to get in is typically out the door) and go early (they serve until they run out and they run out daily even though they start with one ton of meat each day).  Here's a pic of my plate -- yes, that's fried corn on the cob.  DELISH!

After a little shopping, we headed to the Central West End area.  With the weather so fantastic, we couldn't stay inside.  What a better way to soak up the sun than getting a drink at The Moonshine Grill, sitting outside and people watching.

When the sun went down, we caught a movie at the Chase Park Plaza.  It was one of the few theaters in St. Louis still playing Birdman.  Wish I could say I liked it -- I tried to, I really did.  But not my favorite.  Anybody else share my view?

                                                             

So far my tally for seeing the best picture nominated films is five.  Three still to cross off the list.  It looks like I'm seeing them in alpha order, but that's totally coincidental.

American Sniper

Birdman

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

Sunday was another beautiful day.  We tried a new church -- enjoyed it.  Then Sherri and I took a 5 mile walk.  One of my favorite things is to walk and talk with a friend!!  Now I have spring fever -- can't wait for the warm weather to get here to stay a while.

As I'm penning this post, we have the Grammy's on.  Kudos to Lady Gaga -- I just love the way she's so protective of Tony Bennett.  ACDC opening -- love it!!  I'm signing off so I can concentrate on the music.  Oh -- Eric, if you want to get me something I'll love for Valentine's Day, the Grammy 2015 Nominees soundtrack would be it.  :)

                                         

Have a great Monday!

Check out what others were up to this weekend.

Champagne and Suburbs

B Loved Boston

I Should Be Mopping the Floor

Life of Meg

More Pieces of Me
Bella and the City
Oak and Oats
A Cute Angle

Five on Friday - February 6, 2015

Who's ready for a weekend?  I am, I am!!  Tomorrow morning I'm planning to sleep until my eyes open all by themselves -- no alarm.  Oh my gosh, just the thought of it makes me giddy.  Then I'm going to lay there and read my book and check out blogs on the computer.  It's going to be the best morning I've had in quite a while.  (Can you tell how excited I am about it?)

I'm also excited to share today's Five on Friday, so here goes.

1.  Send A Card To A Friend Day
Tomorrow - Saturday, February 7 -- is Send A Card To A Friend Day.  Come on, we all have a friend that could use a little surprise card in the mail.  What a fun way to let them know you are thinking about them and appreciate their friendship.  Don't assume they know you love them -- tell them in a card!

                                                      

2.  KushyFoot
Speaking of surprises -- When we got home from our little trip to Charleston back in November, I had a wonderful package from Lipton Publicity waiting for me with these goodies inside.  I had to borrow these pictures off the internet because I was so excited to try the items, I forgot to take my own picture.  Guys -- I love these things.  I threw the little Flats To Go in my briefcase and honestly had kind of forgotten about them until one day it was raining when I got off work.  I didn't want to wear my shoes outside so I slipped the Kushfoot flats on.  Life Shoe saver!!  See the little note on the tights about how they message your feet? -- it's true.  The bottoms of the feet have little ridges and honestly feel so good when you walk.  Yup, I'll be purchasing more of these things.  You can get yours HERE.  Check them out -- great prices!
Lipton Publicity/Kushyfoot sent me these products.  All opinions are my own.

3.  Cooking Spaghetti
Someone had this posted to my Facebook feed and I had to try it.  Turns out it's a pretty cool way to cook pasta!  You should give it a try.

4.  Energize Spa Shower Tablets
A couple weeks ago I blogged about lavender relaxing shower tablets.  Well now, I'm blogging about shower tablet that energize you!  My friend, Debbie, gave me a pack of her favorite shower tablets.  I love using these in the morning before work.  Breathing in this scent of orange really helps wake you up and give you a little boost to start your day.  Aromatherapaes Energize Spa Shower Tablets are worth investing in!

                                                          

5.  Quote
With Valentine's Day just around the corner and love in the air, I thought this might be a nice reminder it's not just words but actions that matter.

                                            

So now let's head for the weekend!  Eric is off all weekend (which doesn't happen very often) so I'm excited to spend some time with him.  Maybe if I'm really lucky he'll even give me breakfast in bed tomorrow!  Hope your weekend is fantastic.  Anybody else planning to watch the Grammy's Sunday night?  I'll be back Monday for the recap of my weekend.  Hope to see you then!

Linking up with:

Rebecca at XOXO Rebecca

Jennie at The Diary of a Real Housewife

Amy at The Farmer's Wife

Amanda at Meet At The Barre

Erika at Little Bit of Everything

The Grits Blog

Simply Sweet Home
High Five for Friday
5 on Friday 
The Jenny Evolution

Thinking Out Loud Thursday

Something great happened to me this week -- I teamed up with Vanessa over at X-tremely V to host a link up party!  Doing this makes me feel like a such real blogger!  This week I'm answering 10 questions Vanessa sent me and next week she'll answer the same questions.  So here's my answers:

1. Go-to date night idea?

Eric and I both love doing dinner and a movie.  We have a couple theaters by us with the big comfy reclining chairs – those are our favorites!!    I'm the girl that always carries a blanket into the theater and snuggles up for the entire movie. 

2. Favorite recipe to make?

Any comfort food – hearty soups, roasts, you get the picture.  I also love making special salads.  Oh, and I also love making appetizers.  Hmmm…..I guess when I think about it, I love making all kinds of recipes!

3. Pink or Red?

This pretty much sums me up!

4. Favorite sport and team?

I favor all the St. Louis teams – Cardinals baseball, Blues hockey and Rams football.  If I had to pick one, it would definitely be the Cardinals. Go Cards!!  Post season play is amazing and we are so lucky to have a team that makes the playoffs often.

 5. Chocolate or Flowers?

Tough one – I think I lean more towards the flowers.  But if you really want to win my heart, get me the bucket of Garrett's popcorn!  I love the Garrett Mix which combines sweet CaramelCrisp with savory CheeseCorn.  Put some of that in front of me and I'm all yours!

6. Favorite St. Louis dish?

Pork steaks – grilled with beer and bar-b-q sauce on them.  I can't believe the rest of the country hasn't picked up this cut of meat!  We have them mostly in the summer so all winter I think about how good they are going to taste when we fire up the grill.

7. Dress up or dress down?

I'm a dress up girl - see above.

8. Favorite holiday excluding Christmas?

It would have to be Thanksgiving.  I love having a big gathering on Thanksgiving with the fall decorations in place and a fire in the fireplace.  We have the standard Thanksgiving menu so planning is fairly easy.  When my son, Ian, was small he and my dad would go outside and build a fire.  They would then pretend to have a pilgrim Thanksgiving meal by popping popcorn on the open flames.  Great memories! 

9. Rock, Pop or Country?

Rock – and the louder the better.  I love going to concerts and being close enough to the speakers that you "feel" the sound bouncing off your chest. 

And because I loved high school so much...

10. Who were you in high school?

I was definitely the social butterfly in high school (and college, and now!).  If there was fun to be had, I wanted to be in the middle of it.  My grades could have probably been a little better if I had spent more time studying, but I don't regret it at all!  My best friend in high school was Linda – and she's still my best friend today.  Even though she lives across the state from me, we talk almost daily and see each other often.  

Now join the fun and link up your blog.  No subject needed to link up!  We would love for you to follow us and check out some of the others who link up.

Enjoy more Thoughts for Thursday at

Home of Malones

East Coast Chic

A Handful of Everything
Hodges Podges
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
All Life's Little Adventures
The Deliberate Mom

Tuscan Tortellini Soup

A cold, winter day is the perfect time for fixing a hearty soup -- and I stumbled upon this recipe from Damn Delicious which fit that bill.  On Saturday when the girls came over for lunch, I whipped up a batch and it was a hit!

Want the recipe?  Well say no more -- here you go:

Tuscan Tortellini Soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound spicy Italian sausage, casing removed 

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, diced

2 cups chicken stock

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 (9-ounce) package refrigerated three cheese tortellini

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1 cup croutons

Instructions

~ Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add Italian sausage (I used mild instead of spicy) to the skillet and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the sausage as it cooks; drain excess fat.  Stir in garlic and onion.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes.

~Whisk in chicken stock, crushed tomatoes, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes and 1 cup water; season with salt and pepper, to taste.  Bring to a boil and stir in tortellini; reduce heat and simmer until tortellini is cooked through, about 5-6 minutes.

~Stir in heavy cream and Parmesan until well combined and heated through, about 2-3 minutes.

~Serve immediately, garnished with croutons, if desired (I desired).

I scooped this robust soup into bowls and topped it with grated Parmesan cheese and croutons.  We enjoyed it with a loaf of crusty bread and salad.  Perfect lunch!!

This soup literally takes about 30 minutes from start to serve.  It was an excellent choice for lunch with the girls on Saturday and it would be an equally excellent choice for a quick dinner after a busy day because it came together easily and tasted FANTASTIC!  

Look at this thick wonderfulness!

I'm excited to check out other recipes from Damn Delicious.  If they are anything like this one, they will be wonderful.  We will definitely be enjoying this recipe again.  Let me know if you try it and what you think.

Linking up with:
Pint Sized Baker
Mandy's Recipe Box

Handmade Tuesday's with Kristen

Let's Be Friends Blog Hop with The Dwelling Tree
Green Fashionista and Martinis & Bikinis: Recipe Swap Eat Drink & Be Mary: Delicious Dish Tuesday Love From The Kitchen: Tuesday's Table The Diary of a Real Housewife

Weekending - Last One In January

I just love weekends!  This one was lots of fun - full of friends and good times.

Friday night I stayed late at work and then made a few stops on my way home.  I was looking forward to hosting lunch on Saturday for the girls and wanted to get all my shopping done before I got home and settled in for the evening.

I got up Saturday and started on the Valentine's decorating.  It felt good to have things on the mantel again -- it looked so bare the few weeks it was empty.  I'll have a full post on all our Valentine's decorations later in February, but here's a little preview.

My friend, Carol, gave me the vintage metal letters for Christmas and I knew immediately that I wanted to make them a part of my Valentine mantle.  Love the way they look!  Guess what sign the letters came from?

Lunch was so fun -- and lasted most of the day.  We met at 11:30 am and was still sitting at the table chatting when Eric got home from work 4:30 pm.  We had a large agenda to get through.  Yes, we seriously have agendas most of the time when we get together.  We learned a long time ago that if we don't have an agenda, we forget some important items we wanted to discuss.  Agendas -- it's the way to go.

Lunch was great -- I'll be sharing the recipe for this wonderful Tuscan Tortellini Soup in a later post.  It was fabulous!!  The spinach salad was pretty wonderful too -- recipe coming soon.  Carol made some cinnamon rolls that were to die for.  Overall, great food - great conversation.  I just love my friends!

Tracy gave each of us a "to-go" gift -- a pastry called The Darkness from our favorite bakery, La Patisserie Chouquette.  It was the perfect thing to have for breakfast on Sunday!  Just look at the layers of goodness.

Sunday my monthly book club met at noon and it was fun catching up with that group of friends.  We're still working on our Book Club Bingo I blogged about here. To be honest,  we chat about other things more than we talk about books.  Movies were more the topic than books this month.  With the Oscar nominations out, we all had thoughts to share on the movies we had seen.

Came home after book club to get ready for Super Bowl watching.  Our menu was pretty old school this year.  I didn't try a single new recipe -- just stuck with some old tried and true crowd pleasers.

What did you think of the commercials this year?  Several had a little sad overtone I thought.  Which one was your favorite?  I liked the Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric one and of course who didn't fall in love with the Anheuser Busch puppy.  There were several that were Super Bowl worthy. We had so many leftovers!  I know what I'll be having for lunch this week.  Anybody else wish the game was played on Saturday so we would have a day to recover before returning to work?   I vote for that.

Monday is here too fast.  I really love weekends!  Don't you?  Well, we'll have another one in just a few days and I'm already looking forward to it.  Have a great week!

Check out what others were up to this weekend.

Champagne and Suburbs

B Loved Boston

I Should Be Mopping the Floor

Life of Meg

More Pieces of Me
Bella and the City
Oak and Oats
A Cute Angle

Five on Friday - January 30, 2015

Guess what today's post is?  It's my 100th blog post!  I have to say, I've enjoyed writing each one of them.  Thanks for sticking around and it's been fun gaining some blogger friends!  I'm learning as I go and am truly enjoying the journey.

Now, back to business.  Here's my Five on Friday for this week.

1.  St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training
I booked my flight to Spring Training this week!!  So excited!!  It's been an item on my bucket list for years to go to Florida for some Cardinal spring training games and it looks like this year I'll get to move it over to the "done that" column.  Two friends from work and I are headed down in March and I couldn't be looking forward to it more.  Go Cards!!  Anybody else going?  We need some recommendations on places to stay near Jupiter.

2.  Apricot Pork Chops
On Monday, I posted about Apricot Pork Chops.  These are not only delicious, but oh so good.  They can also be made in a freezer bag ahead of time and frozen.  Makes a great gift to give a new mother, someone recuperating, housewarming -- you get the picture.  I serve them over rice.  Here's the recipe:

6 pork chops

1 (1 oz.) package dry onion soup mix

10 oz. Russian-style salad dressing

1 cup apricot preserves

1.  Preheat over to 350 degrees.
2.  Place the pork chops into a casserole dish.
3.  Mix onion soup mix, Russian dressing and apricot preserves together.
3.  Pour mixture over chops and bake uncovered for 1 hour.

Apricot Pork Chops

3.  Harney & Sons Earl Grey Imperial Tea
I have a new love for hot tea and am digging this Harney & Sons Earl Grey Imperial tea.  It's available to purchase at Barnes and Noble.  This may sound really silly, but one of the things I love about it is the precious silk tea bags!!  Makes me feel so fancy when I make a cup.  They have lots of different flavors, but I haven't ventured out to try any of them yet.  Maybe soon -- we still have some winter left and I love curling up with a book and cup of hot tea on a cold day outside.                        
                                        
4.  Alex and Ani
My friend, Tracy, gave me a skeleton key charm bangle bracelet from Alex and Ani and I love it!  The one she chose represents power, choice and liberation.  The description says to wear this bangle to help propel you toward greatness.  These are excellent gifts and they have a bangle to go with about anything you could want (sororities, sports teams, zodiac signs).  You might have seen them in Cosmopolitan, Real Simple or Lucky magazines.  If you're looking for a gift that has some meaning to it, check them out.

                                              
5.  Super Bowl Humor

                           

Enjoy your weekend!  I'm having the girls over for lunch on Saturday and Sunday is book club.  I also hope to get out my Valentine's decorations and spruce up the house a bit.  And, of course, we have the Big Game on Sunday.  We're having our son and daughter-in-law over to watch the game and enjoy the commercials and half-time show.  Hope to see you back here on Monday for the weekend recap.

Linking up with:

Rebecca at XOXO Rebecca

Jennie at The Diary of a Real Housewife

Amy at The Farmer's Wife

Amanda at Meet At The Barre

Erika at Little Bit of Everything

The Grits Blog

Simply Sweet Home
High Five for Friday
5 on Friday 
The Jenny Evolution

Farewell Bravermans

Tonight, after 103 episodes and six seasons, we will be saying farewell to the Bravermans on Parenthood.  I'm truly sad to see them go.  We were late joining the Parenthood craze and spent some time between season 3 and 4 binge watching to catch up, but ever since then we have kept current with the help of our DVR.  Are you a fan?

Sometimes after you watch a series for years, you feel like the characters are actual people.  I remember when Sex and the City was having their finale show.  Of course, I had to have a party to commemorate the event with my friends.  Ian was thirteen at the time and we were going someplace in the car together.  I was daydreaming about how I thought the show should end and let out a sigh.  Ian asked what the matter was and I said I wasn't sure I wanted Carrie to end up with Big in Sex and the City.  He gently put his hand on my arm and reminded me that it was just a TV show, not real life.  Thanks, Ian, for the reminder.

I've caught myself doing the same melancholy daydreaming about how I want the Parenthood series to finish.  Will Joel and Julia make it?  Will Max be able to mainstream into life as an adult?  What will happen to the Luncheonette?!?!

Here's some fun facts about the show:

Sarah Lauren Graham and Adam Peter Krause are dating in real life.  Gross -- brother and sister!!

                                           

Max Max Burkholder does not have Asperger's in real life.

                                            

Some posts I've seen on Reddit is predicting Crosby (Dax Shepard) will die in the finale.  Say it's not so!!  They wouldn't do that to us, would they??

                                             

Do you remember some of these quotes:

Max: I don't get why we have to raise our hands, because if we were in a real conversation you wouldn't raise your hand every time you wanted to contribute something to the conversation.

Crosby: Yeah, well I'm so sorry sweetie. I'm sorry I failed you again.
Jasmine: Well, at least you're consistent!

Kristina: I was standing next to that goddess that you hired and I started leaking.
Adam: What, breast milk?
Kristina: No, oil. Yes breast milk!

So, farewell my Parenthood friends.  Thanks for many good hours of TV time.  I have my box of tissues handy to keep me company while I watch your last visit to my family room.

Enjoy more Thoughts for Thursday at

Home of Malones

East Coast Chic

A Handful of Everything
Hodges Podges
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
All Life's Little Adventures
The Deliberate Mom