My Etsy store was mentioned on Finding My Feet yesterday! Thank you Raechel for putting together this great list of Etsy shops. I can't wait to check them all out. I have been reading Raechels blog for about two years now. She has the sweetest little family and I love reading about all her creative ideas (and her house is super cute!) so check out her blog...
Have a great day!
xoxo
P.S. I am working on a new "section" of Lucy Kate & Co. and I can't wait to share it with you guys really soon!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Another Soup Recipe: Vegetable Beef with KALE!
I promise to get back to reviews soon (and a HUGE New York post). I have just had no time to blog lately but I have made some yummy soups and other food that I figured I would share. Kale is a super food and it is SOOO good for you. Full of vitamins and nutrients. A lot of people have probably never had it because it has to be cooked right or it can have a "rubbery" texture and taste kind of bitter. I think cooking it in a soup is a great way to help it loose that bitter flavor...
Ingredients
Pour in beef broth, and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Add tomatoe sauce, diced tomatoes, poultry seasoning, corn, green beans and Kale. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes on medium-low.
While simmering, add beef back to pot along with salt and pepper to taste, and continue to simmer until kale is soft and tender. I added a little water at this point to thin out the soup but that is up to you. You can do any veggies you like but these were what I had on hand. I made this up completely so if you make it and dont like it I am sorry! This was one of my favorites and Sayer really liked it too. Hope you enjoy!
Happy Hump Day
xoxo
Ingredients
- 1 pound of stew beef
- 1 32 ounce carton of beef stock
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 1 can of tomato sauce
- 2 large carrots (or about 12-15 small) - diced
- 2 celery stalks - diced
- 1 small can of green beans (the little half cans..not sure the amount)
- 1 small can of corn (same as above)
- Half an onion - diced
- 2-3 cloves of garlic - minced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon of poultry seasoning
- 5-8 cups of chopped Kale (depends on how much you want in your soup)
- 1 cup of water
Pour in beef broth, and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Add tomatoe sauce, diced tomatoes, poultry seasoning, corn, green beans and Kale. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes on medium-low.
While simmering, add beef back to pot along with salt and pepper to taste, and continue to simmer until kale is soft and tender. I added a little water at this point to thin out the soup but that is up to you. You can do any veggies you like but these were what I had on hand. I made this up completely so if you make it and dont like it I am sorry! This was one of my favorites and Sayer really liked it too. Hope you enjoy!
Happy Hump Day
xoxo
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Chicken n' dumplings
This is seriously one of the best things I have ever made and it was SO easy. I got the recipe from a friend at work and then altered it a little based on a few other recipes I have seen...
Sayer said it "tops any chicken n' dumplins he has ever had"...
Ingredients
While soup is simmering you can work on the dumplings!
First take biscuits out of can and flatten each one out to about 1/8 of an inch. Mix flour with pepper and salt in a bowl. Cut biscuits in long strips that are about a half an inch wide. Should make about 5-6 strips per biscuit. Next take each strip and cover both sides with flour mixture. This will help to thicken the soup and also to keep biscuits from dissolving in hot water.
Turn heat back to medium high and once boiling add the dumplings to the pot one at a time. Gently place dumplings on top of soup. Do not stir dumplings around or they will dissolve. All the dumplings will rise to the top and float around while they cook. Turn heat down to low and cover for about 20 minutes. Every 5 minutes or so you can push down lightly on the dumplings into the soup to make sure they are not sticking together. That's it! Enjoy :)
This will serve about 4-6 people, depending on your serving size. Its great for fall weather and it really is super easy!!
New York post coming soon!
xoxo
Sayer said it "tops any chicken n' dumplins he has ever had"...
Ingredients
- 2 large chicken breast
- half a medium sized onion - finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic - minced
- 1 32oz container of chicken broth
- 1 celery stalk - finely chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon of poultry seasoning
- 1 can of cream of chicken soup
- 1 can of jumbo buttermilk biscuits
- about a cup of flour
- salt and pepper to taste
While soup is simmering you can work on the dumplings!
First take biscuits out of can and flatten each one out to about 1/8 of an inch. Mix flour with pepper and salt in a bowl. Cut biscuits in long strips that are about a half an inch wide. Should make about 5-6 strips per biscuit. Next take each strip and cover both sides with flour mixture. This will help to thicken the soup and also to keep biscuits from dissolving in hot water.
Turn heat back to medium high and once boiling add the dumplings to the pot one at a time. Gently place dumplings on top of soup. Do not stir dumplings around or they will dissolve. All the dumplings will rise to the top and float around while they cook. Turn heat down to low and cover for about 20 minutes. Every 5 minutes or so you can push down lightly on the dumplings into the soup to make sure they are not sticking together. That's it! Enjoy :)
This will serve about 4-6 people, depending on your serving size. Its great for fall weather and it really is super easy!!
New York post coming soon!
xoxo
Friday, October 8, 2010
Blog Shout-out!
My cousin, Marj, has a really cute blog about her journey to become less messy and other life adventures...its funny and you will enjoy it:) Todays post features some of my sisters artwork...check it out (link below)!
One mess at a time
One mess at a time
Rockford: Simple and Fresh
Last week I had dinner with a friend at Rockford on Glenwood. When you first walk up to this restaurant you are not really sure what to expect because it is just a simple glass door with the restaurant name and address printed on front which leads to a random staircase. But when you walk up the stairs there is a beautiful restaurant with gorgeous wood floors, a well stocked bar and lots of cute little tables. After doing a little research I found out that this place closed down for a few months and was opened back up recently under new management. I can not speak for the restaurant before the current management but the experience I had was excellent. 
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The service was great. Our waiter was not overly attentive, which can be annoying…but instead filled our waters when they were empty, asked us for our order after we had time to catch up and asked how our food was after we had actually had time to taste it. Don’t you hate when you go out to eat and before you can even taste your food the waiter is asking “how is everything?” umm well I will let you know once I actually have a bite. Sorry. Random pet peeve of mine. Anyways….
I had the Turkey Bacon Avocado sandwich with a side of seasonal succotash (stewed tomatoes, Lima beans and corn). It was delicious. All of the ingredients were very fresh and the unique flavors were out of this world. I am a sucker for succotash and this one was really good. Again, all fresh ingredients that tasted like they were straight from the farmers market.
I will definitely be coming back here to try some other things on the menu. Apparently the pimento cheese sandwich is to die for!
Sayer and I are heading to the mountains this weekend for a wedding and then to NYC next week! I am so excited because I have never been…I will definitely have to do a blog post when we get back about our trip.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
xoxo
The service was great. Our waiter was not overly attentive, which can be annoying…but instead filled our waters when they were empty, asked us for our order after we had time to catch up and asked how our food was after we had actually had time to taste it. Don’t you hate when you go out to eat and before you can even taste your food the waiter is asking “how is everything?” umm well I will let you know once I actually have a bite. Sorry. Random pet peeve of mine. Anyways….
I had the Turkey Bacon Avocado sandwich with a side of seasonal succotash (stewed tomatoes, Lima beans and corn). It was delicious. All of the ingredients were very fresh and the unique flavors were out of this world. I am a sucker for succotash and this one was really good. Again, all fresh ingredients that tasted like they were straight from the farmers market.
I will definitely be coming back here to try some other things on the menu. Apparently the pimento cheese sandwich is to die for!
Sayer and I are heading to the mountains this weekend for a wedding and then to NYC next week! I am so excited because I have never been…I will definitely have to do a blog post when we get back about our trip.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
xoxo
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Raleigh Farmers Market
Saturday morning we headed to the Raleigh state Farmers Market to see what it was all about. I have been to a few other farmers markets but I have to say this is one of the best I have been to. It is HUGE and you just can't beat the prices on fresh fruits and veggies. I love the colors of the farmers market.
Bright red tomatoes and peppers, orange peaches and pumpkins, green cucumbers, yellow squash...its so vibrant!
The Raleigh farmers market also has a huge selection of house and outdoor plants. The prices were reasonable compared to lowes or home depot but somethings seemed a bit over priced. I am not a frequent buyer of plants though so I am probably not the best judge.
If you are looking for a great place to get LARGE pumpkins this fall you should definitly try the farmers market. They had massive pumpkins for $8-12. The pumkins were all very pretty and round and great for carving. They also had varities of pumpkins that I have never seen before. White pumpkins, light green pumpkins, pumpkins with bumps all over them (the farm owner told us these were called "Goose-bumps" haha) and all kinds of gords and mini-pumpkins. These odd varities would make a great fall display on your front porch or dinning room table.
We ended up buying a few different things. First were the juiciest, yummiest tomatoes I have ever had. One was a German Johnson tomato and one was a Cherokee Purple tomato. They made the best BLT's! We also bought some fresh basil because we are big basil fans but can not seem to grow it ourselves even though everyone says its the easiest thing to grow. We bought some string beans for 99 cents that I plan on cooking tomorrow night (I will let you know how they turn out). We probably tried about 10 different kinds of peaches and about 15 different kinds of apples but did not end up buying any of those. They were REALLY good though. I think it must be peach season because there seemed to be an abundance of peaches.
The farmers market also has a section called the "Market Shoppes" which is an enclosed building that has a lot of canned items, home grown dried spices and lots of diary products. We tried some great goat cheese and salsa's. The even had a salsa that was made with strawberrys. I know it sounds weird, but don't knock it till you try it...its yummy!
There are two restaurants at the farmers market, one is the Seafood restaurant and one is theState Farmers Market Restaurant. We walked into the Seafood restaurant and it was packed and smelled amazing. We plan to go back and try them both at some point...that will be another post!
I think the farmers market is a great thing to do on a Saturday morning and if you are in to eating fresh foods, you really can not beat the deals you are getting here. And the freshness is something you just can't get at the grocery store. There is also a North Raleigh farmers market that we have heard good things about so I would like to go to that one and see how it compares to the state market. Overall though we had a great experice and we will be going back again soon!
Thanks for stopping by the blog! I plan on doing a restaurant review later this week about Cafe Luna...so stay tuned for that!
Have a great week everyone:)
xoxo
The Raleigh farmers market also has a huge selection of house and outdoor plants. The prices were reasonable compared to lowes or home depot but somethings seemed a bit over priced. I am not a frequent buyer of plants though so I am probably not the best judge.
If you are looking for a great place to get LARGE pumpkins this fall you should definitly try the farmers market. They had massive pumpkins for $8-12. The pumkins were all very pretty and round and great for carving. They also had varities of pumpkins that I have never seen before. White pumpkins, light green pumpkins, pumpkins with bumps all over them (the farm owner told us these were called "Goose-bumps" haha) and all kinds of gords and mini-pumpkins. These odd varities would make a great fall display on your front porch or dinning room table.
We ended up buying a few different things. First were the juiciest, yummiest tomatoes I have ever had. One was a German Johnson tomato and one was a Cherokee Purple tomato. They made the best BLT's! We also bought some fresh basil because we are big basil fans but can not seem to grow it ourselves even though everyone says its the easiest thing to grow. We bought some string beans for 99 cents that I plan on cooking tomorrow night (I will let you know how they turn out). We probably tried about 10 different kinds of peaches and about 15 different kinds of apples but did not end up buying any of those. They were REALLY good though. I think it must be peach season because there seemed to be an abundance of peaches.
The farmers market also has a section called the "Market Shoppes" which is an enclosed building that has a lot of canned items, home grown dried spices and lots of diary products. We tried some great goat cheese and salsa's. The even had a salsa that was made with strawberrys. I know it sounds weird, but don't knock it till you try it...its yummy!
I think the farmers market is a great thing to do on a Saturday morning and if you are in to eating fresh foods, you really can not beat the deals you are getting here. And the freshness is something you just can't get at the grocery store. There is also a North Raleigh farmers market that we have heard good things about so I would like to go to that one and see how it compares to the state market. Overall though we had a great experice and we will be going back again soon!
Thanks for stopping by the blog! I plan on doing a restaurant review later this week about Cafe Luna...so stay tuned for that!
Have a great week everyone:)
xoxo
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
What a Mess!
Please excuse the mess on my blog. I am trying to figure out how to change things around and I am not doing a very good job of it...HELP!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Six Little Happys
The new blog is not quite ready so I figured I would write a short little post about six things that are making me happy right now. Don't ask me why I chose six.
1. Fall is coming. I can smell it in the air. I can feel it in the morning when I walk Lucy. I CANT WAIT!! for now I am enjoying the first signs of it...
2. College Football has begun. I have never really had a team to pull for because my Dad was not big into College football and UNCC did not have a team. Now that I am dating Sayer and have been brainwashed into cheering for UT, I love it! We went to the season opener in Knoxville this past weekend and it was a blast!
3. Starting over in a new City. It is so refreshing to move somewhere new and just start over. I have never done that before and I am loving it. I am loving Raleigh and I cant wait for all the fun things to come.
4. Being creative. I am really trying to use more creative juices lately. I am working on restoring an old chair I got a few months ago. Sayer might kill me if I don't hurry up the process. I will reveal the before and after soon. For now here is the color/fabric I am using. I know, its BOLD! (the paint color is called Lemon Lime and it is a lot brighter then it shows up on Behrs website)
5. Cooking. I have been trying to cook dinner for Sayer and I every week night and so far I have done pretty well except the nights we eat leftovers or have something else going on. I made a yummy recipe from Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen site last week that was delicious. If you have a chance you should try making these Red Curry Coconut Noodles.
6. Food Network. This kind of goes a long with #6 but I have been watching a lot of it lately and it really does give me good ideas. I love the girl who won the next food network star, Aarti. Her food looks so yummy...maybe I will be brave enough to try something soon of hers. Her show comes on Sundays at noon, btw :)
I am hoping to get the new blog header and first post done tonight so please come back and let me know what you think :)
xoxoxo
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
BLOG UNDER CONSTRUCTION
My new blog will make its debut very soon....as...
From Raleigh With Love ♥
I am so excited about the change and all the fun things to come so please keep your eye out for my first post under the new name. Thanks to anyone who reads my blog still!
From Raleigh With Love ♥
I am so excited about the change and all the fun things to come so please keep your eye out for my first post under the new name. Thanks to anyone who reads my blog still!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
HELLO RALEIGH!
So...I am going to be changing the direction of my blog...
I have decided to start writing about Raleigh and my experiences there. Anything from food to shopping to events around town. We love to try new restaurants and so I thought it would be fun to start reviewing them on here for local Raleigh folks. I will still be doing personal stuff as well and other random things but I think this will be a fun new thing for me. I am really excited about it. I dont have many friends in Raleigh yet so this will give me something to do. Sayer will also be guest blogging!!
The only problem is I want to re-name the blog. Any ideas?
I have decided to start writing about Raleigh and my experiences there. Anything from food to shopping to events around town. We love to try new restaurants and so I thought it would be fun to start reviewing them on here for local Raleigh folks. I will still be doing personal stuff as well and other random things but I think this will be a fun new thing for me. I am really excited about it. I dont have many friends in Raleigh yet so this will give me something to do. Sayer will also be guest blogging!!
The only problem is I want to re-name the blog. Any ideas?
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
6 Months...really?!
Wow I am embarrassed to say it has been 6 months since my last post. Life has been kind of crazy these last six months for me. I have had a LOT to blog about but I guess I was just not feeling motivated...
A few things to catch you up:
-Lucy celebrated her year Birthday. We threw her a Paw-ty and it was so much fun!
-Sayer got a job in Raleigh
-Sayer moved to Raleigh
-Things fell apart with my roommate
-moved out of my house and into my sisters apartment
-Lucy moved to Raleigh with Sayer
-moved out of my sisters apartment and into my parents house
-I got a job in Raleigh at BB&T
-I am moving to Raleigh in 2 weeks!!
Told you it was a lot. It has been a whirlwind to say the least. I have had a lot of stress and have not handled it as well as I should but things are looking up. I am really excited to move to Raleigh and start this new chapter of my life. It is a huge step for me. I have never left Charlotte. So a fresh start will be good for me. Sayer is amazing. I am just so blessed to have him in my life. He gives me tough love when I need it(which is a lot) and he encourages me and loves me in good times and in bad times. He is more then I could ever ask for and I am so excited about what the future holds for us:)
Picture updates coming soon. Hope everyone is having a fantastic week so far!!
xoxo
A few things to catch you up:
-Lucy celebrated her year Birthday. We threw her a Paw-ty and it was so much fun!
-Sayer got a job in Raleigh
-Sayer moved to Raleigh
-Things fell apart with my roommate
-moved out of my house and into my sisters apartment
-Lucy moved to Raleigh with Sayer
-moved out of my sisters apartment and into my parents house
-I got a job in Raleigh at BB&T
-I am moving to Raleigh in 2 weeks!!
Told you it was a lot. It has been a whirlwind to say the least. I have had a lot of stress and have not handled it as well as I should but things are looking up. I am really excited to move to Raleigh and start this new chapter of my life. It is a huge step for me. I have never left Charlotte. So a fresh start will be good for me. Sayer is amazing. I am just so blessed to have him in my life. He gives me tough love when I need it(which is a lot) and he encourages me and loves me in good times and in bad times. He is more then I could ever ask for and I am so excited about what the future holds for us:)
Picture updates coming soon. Hope everyone is having a fantastic week so far!!
xoxo
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