Thoughts on Thursday - February 12, 2015

Today I'd like to introduce you to the co-host of Thoughts on Thursday -- Vanessa.  I just love reading her blog - X-tremely V!  Take a peek at her blog and you're going to love it also.

So let's play 10 questions and learn a little bit more about Vanessa:

1. Go-to date night idea? 

Going out to dinner is the easiest option for us. I am not a movie theater person, so we rarely go there. Last summer most of our date nights were going to couple’s yoga, followed by dinner with friends. But if I had my choice it would be to attend a sporting event like a Cleveland Browns game.

2. Favorite recipe to make? 
Dinner in a Pumpkin – You definitely have to plan ahead when making it since it takes about 2 hours, but the results are more than worth it! It is the perfect fall dish!

3. Pink or Red? 

RED always! I am too much of a tomboy for pink. Plus my high school colors were Red, Black & White!

4. Favorite sport & team? 

Pro football! Of course my favorite team is the Cleveland Browns! #diehardfan

5. Chocolate or Flowers? 

Neither – While I don’t mind chocolate, I would totally prefer a coffee from Starbucks J But for answering the question sake, I would say chocolate. I can just picture a warm pot of fondue now!

6. Favorite Ohio dish? 

While I am not a Cinci girl, hands down my favorite Ohio dish is Cincinnati Chili! Skyline Chili to be exact! The town/county I live in currently is known for making shredded chicken – so not my thing! And Cleveland is more known for all different kinds of ethnic foods – Polish, Hungarian, Italian, etc.

7. Dress up or dress down? 

I am such a dress down person! While I don’t mind getting dressed up for weddings and such, I am so much more comfortable in a pair of jeans and a comfy tee. And that is also as laid back as I go! Unless I am going to workout, you won’t catch me running errands or anything in yoga pants or sweats. I.Just.Can’t.Do.It.

8. Favorite holiday excluding Christmas? 

Halloween! I love the colors, the fun of picking out a costume, seeing the little ones so excited to walk around and get candy, and the fact that it takes place in the Fall.

9. Rock, Pop, or Country? 

All of the above! I LOVE music! From ACDC to Justin Timberlake to Carrie Underwood…I love it all! My first concert was when I was 8 years old! I saw Madonna with my dad JI just love live music!

And because I absolutely loved high school

10. Who were you in high school?  

First and foremost I was super shy! But I was also a cheerleader and softball player all throughout growing up and through high school. I was also in the band for a year, but gave it up because cheerleading was more important to me (at our school you couldn’t cheer football and be in the band). After high school I went back and coached cheerleading and helped my dad from time to time with the softball team (he became the head coach after I graduated). I would still be a cheerleader today if I could! Lol! I am always sporting the colors of the team I am cheering for, dressing the part for a themed party, and overall being matchy-matchy J

See why I love her -- she's just the sweetest thing!!  So glad she let me be a part of Thinking Out Loud Thursdays.

Enjoy more Thoughts for Thursday at

Home of Malones

East Coast Chic

A Handful of Everything
Hodges Podges
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
The Deliberate Mom

Now it is your turn!

Just add the photo below to your Thursday post, and make sure to link back to

 X-tremely V and Penny's Passion!

It's that simple!

And if you are posting anything social media use #ThinkingOutLoudThursdays.  

Let's Be Friends Blog Hop - February 10, 2015

Hello friends!  I'm hooking up with Tiffany from The Dwelling Tree and Chelsee from Southern Beauty Guide to bring you another blog hop.  Hope you enjoy clicking around and seeing what other bloggers are posting.  If you're a blogger, we would love to have to link up and join the fun.

Welcome to the Let's Be Friends Blog Hop!

A blog hop is a set time frame for current or aspiring bloggers to find new blogs and quality content. It is a great way to make new friends and find inspiration! It is also a fabulous way to promote your own blog and posts.

Dear Friends,

What a day to celebrate! This is the 103rd week of the Let's Be Friends blog hop! Thanks for joining us on this special day. Chelsee and Tiffany are extremely delighted to see the way this hop has grown and love to see your faces each week!

Join us every Tuesday at 7am (MST). This blog hop focuses on content. LINK UP YOUR FAVORITE POST from last week in this fun content-sharing blog hop! I love the idea of blog hopping, but I love the idea of reading posts and quality content on new blogs I've never been to even more. Instead of simply linking up your blog button, you are now able to link up your favorite post you recently wrote. Have a delicious recipe to share, DIY tutorial, or heartfelt post? Share it with us! All hosts and co-hosts put up some unique and fun content from the past week. Make sure to check them out. P.S.- you may still link up your blog button and blog name, but it is encouraged to link up your favorite post instead. You will get more page views and interest if you do so! Some of the most successful blog hops I have participate in focus on content rather than just exchanging follows. You never know who will become a loyal follower or pin that delicious new recipe you posted!

The BEST part of this blog hop? Each week there will be a WINNER! That's right, each week we will choose one lucky blog to feature from the previous week's hop. This hop receives thousands of page views every week, so your blog will have the chance to be center stage for free. You must follow all the hosts and co-hosts in order to win. Only those who link up a specific post are eligible to be featured! *You must follow all the hosts and co-hosts in order to win.

The last exciting change is that the co-host spots will now be available to all sponsors of The Dwelling Tree or Southern Beauty Guide. If you are interested in co-hosting the blog hop, email Tiffany or Chelsee about sponsorship opportunities and how to co-host the weekly hop!

There are a couple of great giveaways going on right now at Southern Beauty Guide and The Dwelling Tree. Go check them out! :)

Let's Be Friend's Blog Hop Guidelines

1. Link up your favorite post from your week.

2. Follow your hosts and co-hosts.

3. Grab the button and post it on your blog so we can share the love.

4. Visit 3 other blogs, comment, and follow them along!

5. Tweet about this blog hop, using #letsbefriends

6. Pin the button on pinterest so we can spread the news!

***Once a week, one blog will be chosen to be the featured blogger from the previous blog hop.

Meet your hosts:

The Dwelling Tree: Blog, Bloglovin'

Southern Beauty Guide: Blog, Bloglovin'

Meet this week's co-hosts:

Tabitha @ A Hundred Tiny Wishes

Penny @ Penny's Passion

***This weeks featured post from last week's hop:

Mommyzoid

Time Saving Blog Tools

Thank you all once again for continually linking up at our blog hop. It is such a fun time and I am so impressed each week with all the amazing posts. Please continue to link up an actual post instead of your blog. We want to keep reading your content and it makes it more fun to pick a winner!

Is there anything we can do differently or better? Please share in the comments!

... onto the winner!

Hello everyone! This is Tiffany. I always love a great post that can offer some blog tips. This post from Mommyzoid is great, and offers some tips to save you time blogging. Her blog is filled with other awesome posts that you will love! Stop by and check out this post, and follow Mommyzoid!

Thank all of you for your amazing posts each week. I love reading all that you share!

Keep posting awesome content! You make it so fun for us to read all your posts! If you can, please link up a specific post. It makes it easier for us to come and visit!

An InLinkz Link-up

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