New Kitchen Toys

In addition to getting some time off before Christmas to go to Alaska, my office was also closed between Christmas Eve and New Year's, so once we got home from our trip I had an entire week off to run errands, get things done that I had been putting off, and play with some of my new fun kitchen gadgets that I got for Christmas like my new Crockpot and my new Cricut Cake :) I also had a chance to cook up some meals that usually are too time-consuming to make when I get home from work. It was really nice to have that week to spend some time with Sayre and take care of all of those little things that had accumulated on my to-do list.

  

Savannah Sunrise

As I mentioned in the previous post, last weekend Sayre and I had a belated birthday celebration for me since he was out of town on the actual day. We headed north about 2 &1/2 hours to beautiful Savannah, Georgia where the flowers were in full bloom and the hints of summertime were abundant. It truly is such a beautiful city sprinkled with history and quaint parks all throughout. We had a great time exploring all of Savannah's little treasures!

Our adventures began on Saturday with a Paula Deen Trolley Tour! That's right... you heard me... a Paula Deen Trolley Tour. You see, this sweet southern gal has made quite a name for herself, but many years ago she had very humble beginnings in Savannah. In fact, that's where her restaurant called The Lady & Sons is located. Anyway, because Sayre is such a great sport (and a wonderful husband... I mean really... what normal guy would actually agree to take his wife on a Paula Deen Trolley Tour!? I am defintiely spoiled by him), we hopped on the trolley around 10am and rode all around Savannah hearing about its history as well as the life & times of good 'ole Paula. The tour wrapped up at her brother's restaurant called Uncle Bubba's Oyster House where we were able to sample some of his great food buffet style. It was wonderful! We were quite pleasantly full by the end of that adventure. In fact, someone even unintentionally took a little siesta on the ride back to the trolley station because he was rather comatose ;) Before returning to the trolley station, our tour guide held a drawing for a Paula Deen gift bag and yours truly won! I got a bag full of great little goodies including a signed recipe journal, a signed photo, and an awesome tote bag. Yay! Anyway, we spent the rest of the day just walking around the city on foot and popping in & out of the cute little shops along River Street. It was a  perfect spring day that left us full and satisfied!

On Sunday we woke up and headed back into town to resume our explorations. The main event for the day once again included a plate full of goodies, but this time it was at The Lady & Sons! Since we had ridden on the trolley tour, we were able to make reservations ahead of time. Thaaaaaank goodness for that! Honestly, that little perk alone made the tour worth it because at 9am there was already a line wrapped around the building just for people to put their names on the list for when the restaurant opened at 11! Craaaaziness! The food really is that good though. I can see why people would wait there for so long just to get a tiny morsel of Paula's famous fried chicken, pulled pork, mac-n-cheese, or creamy mashed potatoes to name a few. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.... MmmMmmm! Once again, after that experience, we were feeling just a weeee bit full ;) so we decided to head back to Jacksonville to catch up on life before Monday rolled back around. All-in-all, it was a perfect weekend and a wonderful birthday celebration. If anyone is anywhere near Savannah at any point in their travels, I highly recommend checking it out. You won't be disappointed!

LOSSSSSST

Just over a year ago, when Sayre and I were visiting Alaska for Christmas in 2008, we were introduced to the world of LOST. In case you've been living under a rock for the past 6 years, it's a widely popular television show about a bunch of people that crashed onto an island... but, really, it's sooooo much more than that. Anyway, during our 2 week visit that Christmas, we watched almost the entire first season. After that, we were hooked and officially became "LOSTies" allowing the show to consume us as we proceeded to watch seasons 1 through 5 within a year in order to prepare ourselves for the final 6th season, which just so happened to begin last night! To celebrate such an exciting occaison, I cooked up a delicious recipe for Cajun Pasta that I found on The Pioneer Woman's website. She made hers with chicken, but I made mine with ground beef instead. Sayre and I both loved this recipe! I also made some little cupcakes for dessert :) I was planning on something much more elaborate and LOST-related; however, since it was just the two of us and we didn't have a LOST party, I decided to just make some simple cupcakes, and then later proceeded to have a photoshoot with them :)

Steaks!

As mentioned in the previous post, we got our grill set up and ready to go on our little porch, so tonight we put it to use! I found a great steak marinade online so we let them soak in that for a few hours and then Sayre put them on the grill and we had a great feast! I think it's safe to say that we will be getting A LOT of use out of this new grill :)

Chicken & Stuffing & Brownies... oh my!

Tonight I tried another fun slow cooker recipe. I wasn't too sure how it was going to turn out, but I was thrilled with the results! The recipe called for you to coat some chicken breasts in a mixture of flower and seasoning and then brown it in a skillet before placing it in the slow cooker. Once in the cooker, you cover it with low fat cream of mushroom soup and stuffing and then allow it to cook on high for 3 hours. It sounded great, but I honestly thought it would turn to mush by the time it was done. Fortunately I was wrong! It was sooo good and sooo filling! The chicken was incredibly tender. I made some deviled eggs, a little fruit salad, and some green beans to go along with it.

In the meantime, I finally let Sayre bake us some dessert. He's notorious for having a mouth full of sweet teeth (ok... I admit it... so do I), so he's always trying to sneak into the pantry to bake a cake or two, but usually I cut him off and stop him lol. We've been eating way too many sweets lately... we don't need one every single night! Anyway, I finally let him make something tonight. We have a ton of chocolate cake mixes, but no brownie mixes, which is of course what he wanted. Instead he decided to improvise... He looked up "cake mix brownies" online and the results were fantastic! Seriously, from now on, when we want brownies, I think this is the way to go. The brownies are now like the perfect balance between cakieness and brownieness! Mmmm perfectly moist and chocolately! Instead of following the instructions on the cake box, you just add 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of oil. The dough is very thick, so you then spread it yourself in a pan and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350. Needless to say, we are very well fed tonight. Now it's time to watch the season premier of Bones!

Yummy!

Since getting married, I've had so much fun trying to cook and bake new things. Before, when I lived in an apartment by myself, it never seemed worth it to me to cook big meals or try new recipes because I was only cooking for myself. Left-overs are only good for so long. Now that I have a hungry little hubby to feed (and impress), I'm a lot more inclined to spend some extra time in the kitchen. I've found some great recipes in some handy cookbooks, websites, and from my very experienced and reliable mom :)

So far, some favorites have been: honey bar-b-que ribs (cooked in the slow-cooker) with macaroni and green beans, chicken enchiladas with mexican corn, good old hamburgers, baked bar-b-que chicken, and jambalaya just to name a few. Tonight I decided to try an intriguing dessert recipe that I found on blog called picky-plate.com. They're chocolate chip cookie pies :) and they were goooooood! Basically you just put cookie dough in the middle of little mini pie crusts. She specifically said not to over-stuff the pie crusts because they will ooze out as they bake, but I didn't think that the amount of cookie dough I put in was too much. Apparently I was wrong! As they baked, they started taking on a life of their own and oozed out a bit... it was pretty funny actually lol. BUT once I took them out and put some powdered sugar on them, they looked pretty good... amost like a little cookie dough benigt. Yum!! Don't worry... Sayre and I didn't eat them all in one sitting... Ok, so we each had 2, but at least we didn't eat the whole plate of them! Anyway, this recipe is highly recommended :) And it's pretty easy to make... especially if you buy pre-made pie crust & the mini break & bake cookie dough from Tollhouse.