Misty's Shower

My cousin's wife is pregnant with their first baby (a boy!) so we threw her a shower last weekend. Please remember, I use the term "cousin" loosely in my family. I think Misty is actually my second cousin, once removed, in-law? Anywho, we are related. Moving on! 


The shower was held at my mom's house and my sister, another "cousin" (who happens to work for a wedding planner), and I were in charge of the decor. The baby's room will be rock-and-roll theme so we did the shower to match. I think it turned out so cute!


Sign-in book. I love this idea for all showers. I used it here. The party-planning cousin had these flowers made at Central Market with the baby blocks. I am so using that idea in the future. One says "D+M" for the mommy and daddy Dustin and Misty. The other is "1-2-3." I went Hobby Lobby creative on this shower and made the picture frame. It currently holds the shower invite but will hopefully hold a pic of baby Colton one day!

The Mantle! I copied the clothes-line idea from another shower. I love the decorations that are also gifts on display. The 2 guitar prints were from her registry and I made the "C" for Colton. She used the "C" in some maternity pics that turned out really cute.

Close up of the mantle flowers:

This was my first attempt at a diaper cake. I am kind-of proud of myself. I looked up a video on YouTube of how to do it and it is actually super easy. Time consuming, but easy. I think I used 110 diapers. 

And finally... My favorite shower dessert: Crave Cupcakes. We, again, matched the theme with music notes, baby bottles, and strollers. Crave always makes beautiful cupcakes and they are super easy to work with. Highly recommend!

Can't wait to meet the little one in about 8 weeks!

Lights in the Heights

Today will be blog-a-palooza since I've been a slacker recently. First up: Lights in the Heights! This was the post from last year. To freshen your memory, LITH is a neighborhood festival the second Saturday of December. The city was trying to scale-down the party this year because it became too expensive. They took away the parade (which I never went to), changed the hours (roads only closed from 6PM-9PM), and no vendors (which I never bought from). I think we still had a blast! 

My house is only 2 blocks away from the route so we started there with some drinks and appetizers. 

Katherine had a work Christmas party later that night but did not miss the chance to hang for a few hours. Reason #485 why I love her.

This is a pretty good example of what makes Lights so great! Pretty house, decorated for Christmas, with a band for everyone to enjoy!

Sisters!

Johnny and Kyle made some new friends!

Ornament Exchange

My mom's BFF, Lisa, has hosted an ornament exchange for the past several years. Sunday, we headed to Lisa's for the par-tay! This year, we dressed up in tacky Christmas gear. Below is the sweater I wore. My mom gets really defensive about this sweater because it was "expensive" and from Neiman Marcus. I actually believe that it is from Neiman's because she still has the box... This pic of the sweater is from a party last year. Eww, my hair is too long. The sweater is 100% sequins and weighs about 20 pounds:

We had some pretty handsome bartenders!

All of the ornaments!

We do the rule of "3rd owner." Meaning, each gift can be opened and then stolen twice. The 3rd person to get the gift is the final owner. Brooke's, my mom's, and my ornaments were all received by the 3rd owner. Meaning, we're good at picking our ornaments. 

Engagement Party!

This past weekend, my parents hosted an engagement party for us. We had a blast! I still had no camera (problem now solved, new camera arrived Monday!) so I am waiting on the Judy to upload her pics. Evan did a post about it so you can see some additional pics. 


We started the evening with tons of yummy appetizers and drinks. Story on the drinks: My mom and I went to Spec's on the Wednesday prior to place our order. They help you decide how much you need, order what you choose, and then they put it all together and chill the cold stuff. You can pick it up whenever you need. Naturally, we nominated Johnny to pick up the order and naturally he nominated me to go with him. When we got to Spec's on Friday and asked for help, the guy said, "Oh. Is this for that really big order?" Yes, yes it is.


For the food, we used Demeris Catering. Demeris is a Houston family that owns a BBQ restaurant and has expanded to large-scale catering. Our family has used them several times before for BBQ catering and this time we branched out to Pasta Alfredo with Chicken. I highly recommend Demeris. They are very easy to work with, always on time, polite, and bring tons of food! Yummy.


For dessert, we did a S'Mores bar. It was a hit! We had:
Graham Crackers: traditional honey flavor, cinnamon, and chocolate
Gingerbread Men Cookies
Chocolates: traditional Hershey's, Hershey's Cookies and Cream, Andes, Reece's peanut butter cups
Marshmallows


The worst part was individually unwrapping every. single. candy.


For the fire: I got a wee bit scared because we couldn't get it to light! (By "we" I mean Johnny, but I like to pretend that me standing 2 yards away giving my 2 cents was "helping.") We had 2 types of wood: 1. Given by a friend and 2. some that we bought from Kroger. "We" started with the donated wood and it (truly) was my suggestion to just use the Kroger wood and it lit! We had previously purchased camping skewers from Target to use. Everyone was able to make their own s'mores bar and it was so funny to see all of the combinations. 


The best part was that we had so many friends come! We had several out-of-town guests and that meant so much! We are blessed to be surrounded by such great people. I am looking forward to all of the festivities to follow!

Thanksgiving with Friends

This past weekend we had the third annual Thanksgiving with Friends. This is one of my favorite things of the year. I have everyone over to my house to celebrate the season with a pre-Thanksgiving Feast. Every year, I make the turkey and some appetizers and everyone brings a side. It is a blast. 

This is the "S" cutting board I bought for Johnny at the Nutcracker Market. Don't tell him, but it was only $19.99. There is a similar one from Williams-Sonoma for $100. I win.

Some of my appetizers plus the table scape. The table scape is up all season. 

More appetizers with the Paul Michael iron and wood cutting board I was telling you about last post. I did mixed cheeses and crackers with Spiced Cranberry Dip. Tip: to make this dip, you need (literally) 4x the amount of cayenne recommended to taste the spice. I also made this yummy Spinach & Artichoke Dip (not pictured). 

My new turkey platter! I used to always borrow the Judy's. I think she was sick of me taking it so she bought me one for myself! 

The boys' job! Carving the turkey. I bit the bullet this year and bought the turkey lifters from Williams-Sonoma. Again, I used to just borrow my mom's. 

Finished product

All of our grub! Sorry it's a little blurry and that I have no more pics. I just got too excited and forgot! 

Nutcracker Market

Nutcracker Market. Oh, the joy! The thought of it makes me smile. I purposely plan my work schedule to be off for it. 


Every year in Houston, there is a huge market to kick off the holiday season. It benefits the Houston Ballet, but I think that is the last thing on everyone's mind. There are (literally) hundreds of booths from all over selling their goods. They sell everything from home goods to Christmas decor to food. It is so fun! This year, we decided to have some breakfast at my house before heading up to Reliant. My mom, mom's BFF, sister, and sister's friend came over for some fuel. Here is the breakfast:


Coffee (of course)
Williams-Sonoma Pumpkin Bread with Pumpkin Butter, baked in my pretty loaf pan
Healthy Egg Casserole from Kraft
Fruit

Once we got there, the "grown-ups" (my mom and Lisa) split from the "kids" (sister, sister's friend, and myself) so we could maneuver more easily. We all walked away with tons-o-stuff. My purchases:
1. Large monogrammed "S" cutting board for Johnny (pic in next post)
2. Large iron and wood cutting board (pic in next post) from Paul Michael
3. Black and sparkle dress from Lot 8
4. Cute, patterned Gift Boxes from It's a Wrap
5. Cross for my Cross Wall from Paul Michael

6. The Pewter Lady- I have a few of her things and have loved them. The pewter is oven to table and always so pretty. This year I added a casserole dish holder and deviled-egg tray to my collection

We decided that all of the good stuff is on the perimeter: Round Top, Paul Michael, and The Pewter Lady. It would take you days to see every booth so save yourself the trouble and keep to the edges. This reminds me, I need to check the dates for next year to plan!

Memorial Day Crawfish Boil

Over Memorial Day Weekend, we partied like freshmen in college. It was awesome... and exhausting. We spent the weekend hanging out with friends and family. Because I had to work Monday night, my family decided to celebrate on Sunday with a crawfish boil. I did this a few weeks ago with some friends from work. It is actually really easy to do! The hardest part is getting all of the equipment and supplies together, but after that, you are set! There are about a million recipes, theories, and ways to do it. You should probably ignore all of them and do what looks easiest. It will all turn out fine. Trust me, this is a hard thing to mess up! We served 8 people. Here is what we did:


Ingredients

• 3-5 pounds crawfish/person. Suppliers usually use 35 lb. bags. We used one.
• 1 box salt
• 1 bag crawfish seasoning
• 6 oranges
• 6 lemons
• 6 onions, peeled and cut in half
• 6 large cloves of garlic with the top of the head cut off
• 1 medium bag new (red) potatoes, whole
• 8 ears corn, shucked and cut in half
• 30 mushrooms, whole
• 2 lbs smoked sausage

1. You'll need to rinse the crawfish of their nasty dirt. Some say to then pour salt on top and rinse, some say not. Just do whatever. 

2. Fill up your cooker 1/2 way with water, bring to a boil, add seasoning.

3. You'll cook everything but the crawfish next. Place the strainer in the pot. Add the lemons and oranges (squeeze the juice out first), onions, and garlic. Wait until it returns to a boil and add the potatoes. They will take about 25ish minutes to cook. When you are half way there, add the corn, in another 5 minutes, add the mushrooms and sausage. You can fish one of each of them out and make sure they are done.

4. Take them out and put them in a bowl, cover with foil or place in the oven to keep warm.

5. Place the cleaned crawfish in the strainer and add to the water! I think they take about 8 minutes to cook. I was too busy cooling off inside.

6. Our friends brought this crawfish table from crawfishtables.net to use. It is so neat! You place the table over a round trash can. It has spots for paper towels, drinks, condiments, and (duh) crawfish.

 7. On our way!

8. We borrowed my dad's t-shirts to wear over our dresses. Crawfish can get messy!

9. Table all set up!

10. Digging in.

11. We got full and had to take a break.

12. Our YUMMY desserts from Sweet in City Centre.

Winston supervised...

Book Club Dinner Party

As I have mentioned before, I am in a book club with my sister and some friends. This month's book was Water for Elephants and the meeting was held at my house. I read Water for Elephants last summer at the suggestion of a work friend. My friends and I have a movie-going date night planned for next weekend when we are all off. It looks so good! I will not ruin the movie by telling you about the book, so let us just talk about the food.


Just so you know: 1. Our "book club meetings" consist of getting together for dinner, drinking wine, and talking about everything other than the book. 2. That pretty much sums it up. 


I made Emeril's Tex-Mex Gooey Casserole. Read on!


Appetizers: chips, guacamole, salsa, Texas caviar (all store-bought, I might add)

The Main Dish (I put my additions and suggestions). Sorry about the blurry pics, it happens when I turn the flash off.
Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onions (about 1 large onion, chopped)
• 1 lb ground beef (I used ground turkey)
• 1 pound diced stew meat (could have lived without it)
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 2 tablespoons chili powder (didn't have it)
• 2 teaspoons cumin (I used 1 large tablespoon to make up for the lack of chili powder)
• S&P
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 4 cups peeled, seeded, chopped tomatoes (I used 1-28oz can diced tomatoes, drained)
• 3 cups beef stock
• 10 flour tortillas (I used wheat)
• 2 cups grated medium Cheddar cheese (I used 2% milk cheese)
• 2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese (again, 2%)

1. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the onions and saute for 3-4 minutes.

2. Add the ground beef (turkey) and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the stew beef and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Looking back, I would have drained the meat at this point.  

3. Stir in the garlic, chili powder, and cumin. Season with S&P. 

4. Stir in the tomato paste. Stir in the tomatoes and stock.

5. Simmer the mixture for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The mixture will really thicken up at this point.

6. Remove from the heat and let cool.

7. Spoon a couple of tablespoons of the mixture on the bottom of a greased casserole dish. Place a layer of tortillas on top. Scatter the tortillas with some of both of the cheeses. Repeat this process until you reach the top!

8. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes until the cheese is melted. 

I served with a side of Mexican rice and refried beans. Enjoy!

SHS Girls Dinner

My group of girlfriends from high school decided to start a monthly dinner club. It has been so much fun! We rotate houses, chit chat, eat, and share good times with each other. I hosted this month. I have included the recipes and the party stuff. 


Bar Area:

I had red and white wine, and water. This was really just an excuse to use my wine decanter, Cork Pops wine opener, and water servers! 


Appetizers:

The main dish was Italian so I had some coordinating apps- 2 types of olives in my new olive boat, crackers with cheese, and store-bought bruschetta with toasted bread.


Salad:

We started with a simple salad of mixed herb greens, cherry tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, and selection of dressings. 


Bethenny's Skinnygirl Baked Ziti
This recipe was super exciting to me because I got to use my other Le Creuset casserole dish. The only pic I could find was lid-less but mine has a pretty lid. The other Le Creuset recipe can be seen in my Beef Stew post.
Ingredients:

• 16 ounces whole wheat ziti or rigatoni- I like Ronzoni Healthy Harvest 
• 15 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt (I do not have garlic salt so I just used a little less salt)
• 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 8 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• Optional: chopped parsley or basil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Boil water and cook the pasta for 8 minutes. Do not overcook the pasta, it will cook more in the oven while it bakes.
3. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray.
4. Drain the ziti, return to the pot, let cool. 
5. In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta, parmesan, garlic salt, black pepper, and egg white. 

6. Stir the ricotta mixture into the pasta.

7. Once everything is combined, add the tomato sauce.
8. Transfer the pasta to the casserole dish.

9. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top.

10. Bake for 20 minutes.

11. Top with chopped parsley and basil.

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake


Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs (about 3 large crackers-I put them in a plastic baggie and mashed until crumbled)
• 1 tbsp light butter, softened
• 8 oz package reduced fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 6 oz fat-free vanilla Greek yogurt (not plain flavor, Vanilla!)
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (about 1 lemon's worth)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar free strawberry jam 

1.  Heat oven to 350°. Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick spray.

2. Mix together graham cracker crumbs and butter with a fork until evenly moistened. Press evenly into bottom of prepared pan.

3. Gently beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth using an electric mixer. Gradually beat in fat free yogurt, egg whites, lemon juice, and flour. Do not overbeat.

4. Pour over graham cracker crust.

5. Stir jam until smooth. Drop by small spoonfuls over surface of filling. Using a knife, swirl jam gently through filling to create marble effect. I made a bunch of figure-8s to make this pretty look.

3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool to room temperature. Chill a few hours in the refrigerator. 

*Soooo, I had not read the recipe all the way through before I made it and missed the "chill a few hours" note. After a mild freak-out, I thought back to a few episodes of Cupcake Wars. When the contestants get in a crunch and need to cool their cupcakes quickly before icing them, they throw them in the freezer. I copied, and it worked!

On a side note: hats off to my Williams-Sonoma 10-Piece Glass Bowl Set. While making this dinner, I used 8 of the bowls.