Friday, January 28, 2011

Friday Faves!

Sorry I left ya hanging last week with no Friday Faves. I promise I'll make up for it this week with lots of good finds! I'm totally ready for spring... you're not going to find any winter wear in this mix!

Forever 21 - Falling Flowers Top - $14.90

Forever21 - Art Nouveau Dress - $32
Target - Mossimo Sandal - $17.99

Anthro - Skirt The Issue Dress - $118

Banana Republic - Sasha mixed media jersey top - $45

Fossil has a new line of "Vintage Re-Issue" bags and I kinda love them all, but here are my faves:
Click the picture to go to the website.
Fossil at ShopStyle


Fossil at ShopStyle



And my Friday Least Favorite goes to...
I mean really what the heck??
Anthro - Corset Pants - $88

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Busy Planning

I'm busy busy planning our spring break trip to visit my sister in Barcelona. When I first started looking for our trip I realized we'd be there over St. Patrick's Day, which prompted me to see how much a flight from Barcelona to Dublin would be... low and behold RyanAir (the Southwest of Europe) had flights for around $125 round trip. Score! Now we're making spring break a 2-parter.

Part 1: Barcelona!!!
City skyline
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Las Ramblas, "possibly the best street in all of Europe to people watch" - Rick Steves
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Gaudi's Sagrada Familia:
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Picasso Museum:
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and Part 2: Dublin!
Pub Food and Drinks:
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St. Patrick's Day Parade:
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Guinness Brewery:
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Jameson Distillery:
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Cliffs of Moher: (where Princess Bride was filmed)
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I couldn't be more excited! I've seriously got 25 pages bookmarked of things to see, eat, shopping etc. If you have ever been to either of these places please let me know of any suggestions you might have!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

What Would Happen?

What would happen if Barefoot Contessa and Pioneer Woman merged together to create a delicious meal?!
Can you imagine?

I love Barefoot Contessa because I almost always have all the ingredients I need for her meals without having to make a trip to the store. And I love Pioneer Woman because everything she makes is unbelievably delicious.

So I ask you, what would happen if these two collaborated and created a meal together?

I think I may have found the answer the other night... I wanted to make Chicken Parmesan and I remembered seeing a recipe for it in Barefoot Contessa Family Style, but then I remembered seeing one on PW's blog.... They were pretty similar so I merged them together!

To give you a visual, here's what Barefoot Contessa's looked like:
And PW's:
See, they both look too good! I had to try both... well kind of!

I started with Barefoot Contessa's Recipe:
Ingredients:

4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I only had 3)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 extra-large eggs
1 tablespoon water
1 1/4 cups seasoned dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
Unsalted butter
Good olive oil

Directions:

Pound the chicken breasts until they are 1/4-inch thick.
Combine the flour, salt, and pepper on a dinner plate. On a second plate, beat the eggs with 1 tablespoon of water. On a third plate, combine the bread crumbs and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan. Coat the chicken breasts on both sides with the flour mixture, then dip both sides into the egg mixture and dredge both sides in the bread-crumb mixture, pressing lightly. (this produces lots of dirty dishes)


Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan and cook 2 or 3 chicken breasts on medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until cooked through. Add more butter and oil and cook the rest of the chicken breasts.

Then I decided to merge PW's sauce into the mix, because it looked so good in the picture!

Pioneer Woman's parmesan chicken sauce:
Ingredients:
1 whole medium onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3/4 cups red wine
3 cans (14.5 oz) crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons sugar

Directions:
Without cleaning your skillet, add onions and garlic and gently stir for 2 minutes. Pour in wine and scrape the bottom of the pan, getting all the flavorful bits off the bottom. Allow wine to cook down until reduced by half, about 2 minutes.
Pour in crushed tomatoes and stir to combine. Add sugar and more salt and pepper to taste. Allow to cook for 30 minutes. Toward the end of cooking time, add herbs and give sauce a final stir.

I cooked the sauce separately and just poured it over the chicken and served with Angel hair pasta and herbs. This was deeelish!

Have you ever merged 2 recipes together? I know these 2 will be collaborating more often in my kitchen!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Pixies from Lately

I jazzed up my desk with some new decor for the new year.
It's much more pleasing to look at now!

We went out last Friday to watch our friend Ashley sing:



We had a few drinks..


The band was awesome!
And the bar had a daybed in it so we could all snuggle :)

Then on Saturday after stepping outside for a minute, my plans to lay around all day were ruined by the unusually warm weather.. It just wasn't in the cards to be lazy all day.
So we walked the dogs to the park for a picnic!

We had packed some delicious Lee's Sandwiches.


We let Cooper off his leash for about 30 seconds before a big dog walked by and we had to chase him..
I couldn't stop singing "Saturday In the Park..." It was a lovely little break from the ice cold weather!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Quest - for a Cute Camera Bag

I'm on a Quest, for a super Cute Camera bag. We just booked our tickets to visit my sister in Barcelona in March. So now, I need to find a new bag to fit the camera and all my junk. I've already given up on finding a "legit" camera bag. There are not any cute ones out there for less than $200. I decided to start looking for just a cross-body bag that will fit the camera + more + will be cute in all my pics from Spain!

I want a more structured bag for this venture. So that I don't end up cramming 30 pounds worth of junk in along with the camera, I'd like to try and keep it organized.

Here's one I fell in love with:
Piperlime - Cole Haan Valise Jenna Bag - $428 (Yeahhhh Right like I'd pay that!)

After searching for something similar, I found 2 very good "Looks for Less" in my opinion.
Which do you like best?
Option 1:
Aldo at ShopStyle
Aldo - Canova - $55

Or Option 2:
Aldo at ShopStyle
Aldo - Cyphert - $45

Which one do you like best?

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Looky What I Got!!

My First D-SLR Camera!!!

And I have NO idea how to use it! This is where you all come in,
do you have any tips or advice for a newbie like myself?
Are there any websites that you frequent for help?
 Is there a book I need to get?
Emily, I'm hoping you'll have some tips, seeing how you've been taking awesome pics for your magazine!
Kristin, you too.

And almost as important as being able to use the camera, where I can get a cute bag for it? I am NOT carrying around a big black camera bag. I will not do it. They are ugly and I can't do it. I love the Kelly Moore bags, but man they're pricey. After shelling out so much on a camera I can't afford it.

Please help friends! :)