I'm Back

I'm finally back to the blogosphere.  Did y'all all think I was gone for good?   I can't believe it has been 2 months!  I've been posting way too often on Facebook, and my posts are WAY too long & WAY too descriptive for the Facebook critics (my so called friends), so I need to revert back to my blog for need to share my life with the world.  

Soooooo......if you really want to know what has been goin' on with me, I'll tell ya.  A whole lot of nothin'.  Well, not really.  But kind of. 

I've been slacking. 

However, we HAVE been enjoying this fabulous warm weather.

Let's see what else.  I'm just a little bit skankier than I was 2 months ago.

Yes.  I'm going to admit it.  I'm the proud owner of a new set of gel nails.  They are long.  They are red.    They are SQUARE.  I've also been visiting the tanning bed.  There I said it.  And just to let y'all know, I have fake nails AND a tan and I feel GREAT. 

Oh, one more thing.  To top it off.....I now, own a Fry Daddy.  SKANK.

Brown Sugar Chess Pie

Today I'm sharing a fabulous recipe with y'all for one of my all time favorites which is Chess Pie.  Chess Pie is a Southern thing and just in case you don't know about this old fashioned Southern dessert, it's pretty much the best thing that you'll ever put in your mouth...it's a buttery sugar, egg and cornmeal blend baked until it's golden brown.    

Brown Sugar Chess Pie is a little different than the traditional version of the dessert because you add brown sugar to give the pie a stronger, carmelly flavor.  It's rich and delicious and goes perfectly with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzled with butterscotch sauce!

 I found this particular recipe for Brown Sugar Chess Pie over at Twirl and Taste and I've made it several times.  It's perfect.  Everyone I've made it for is in love at first bite! 

Here's the recipe:

Brown Sugar Chess Pie

3 large eggs, beaten

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornmeal

1 stick butter, melted

1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 deep dish unbaked pie shell (thawed)

Melt the butter and then add the sugar and brown sugar and beat. Add the remaining ingredients and stir--don't beat.  Pour into pie shell and bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour until set (I have to cook mine for 1 hour).  I covered the edges of my pie crush with foil to keep them from burning.

 Remove from oven, place on wire rack to cool.

  Cool completely for about 40 minutes.  Slice & enjoy!

This pie doesn't last long in our house....

ENJOY!

SCANDAL {My Newest TV Obsession}

I started watching Scandal this week and I must say that it is my new favorite show!  I'm all caught up and I can't wait to watch more. 

 I just love Olivia Pope.  She's beautiful & classy and obviously a bit scandalous.  Kerry Washington is absolutely perfect for this role.

And Pres. Fitz himself is a total HOTTIE!

I also love Quinn Perkins on the show.  Katie Lowes does such a great job and is beautiful!

 You can find Season 1 episodes 1-7 on Netflix and Season 2 episodes on Hulu if you want to catch up and watch!

 Who's obsessed?

P.S.  If you love this show a great book to check out is "Once Upon A Secret" by Mimi Alford.  It's VERY scandalous and really makes you think twice about what goes on in the White House.......

Mason Jar Apothecary Jars {Easy DIY Project}

I was searching for a cute Easter/Spring centerpiece for our kitchen table last week.  I wanted something fun and unique that HPK would like to look at while he's sitting at the table, eating his breakfast etc...  I couldn't find anything that wasn't cheesy or too Eastery so I decided to try to make something myself with some stuff that I already had. 

I wasn't quite sure how this little project would turn out when I decided on a whim to make some Mason Jar Apothecary jars that I found online while HPK was taking his nap.

I used some old bottle lids and different odds and ends glued together for the toppers.  I simply glued the toppers to the top of jar lids and spray painted them with 2 coats of brown/bronze spray paint.  Since I collect Kerr jars I had no problem finding a few that would work perfectly for my little project.  I spray painted some old candle sticks and glued the jars to the top of the candle sticks.

 After they dried I put the lid toppers on the jars and that was it!

I decorated them with some ribbon, basket filler and some candy eggs.

My little Easter centerpiece project ended up costing me zero dollars since I already had everything I needed at home! 

I don't think my husband was very impressed.  When I showed him, he gave me the big eyes.  But I think they are cute and unique and that's all that matters!!! ;)

Skinny Butt..........I don't even know what week I'm on

I'm back today to share my weight loss progress and to share my non-scale victories.  I'm linking up with Katie who has set out to lose over 100 pounds and she's doing it!

This week I've been on the elliptical everyday.  My elliptical is finally functioning!  We've got it set up in the back of our junk room/man cave, so I've been working out during the day so I don't bother the Hubs while he's hiding out at night.

 I'm currently watching Scandal on my iPad while I workout.  So far I've been burning 300 calories a day.  Is that good?  I'm not really sure, but it kicks my butt!  

 

I also started back on Weight Watchers.  My other method of just watching what I was eating, was just not working for me.

I've had a huge sweet tooth this week and I stocked up on some yummy peanut butters and instead of having the cookies, cake or the Pecan Cluster Blizzard that I'm craving, I'll have a Honeycrisp apple with one or two tablespoons of peanut butter.  That's definitely better than the 500+ calories that I would consume otherwise.

I've also been drinking this detox tea.....

and this fabulous tea that I love!

I did soooo incredibly bad last weekend that I can't believe I didn't gain 10 pounds.  So far I've lost one measly pound and I don't weigh in again until Saturday.  

I'll keep y'all posted!

Olive Garden Copycat {Chicken & Gnocchi Soup}

I love being able to make recipes from restaurants that I love at home and I'm always amazed at how simple most restaurant copycat recipes are.  This Chicken & Gnocchi soup is pretty much identical to the Olive Garden soup and I actually think mine was better!  I found some sweet potato gnocchi at World Market and decided to use that instead of the potato gnocchi and it was great. 

 I served this fabulous soup with "Hold The Club, Turkey Clubs" on Ciabatta bread. 

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 large chicken breasts, diced and cooked
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 pint heavy cream (or half and half)
• 1 32 ounce can chicken broth
• 1/2 cup celery, sliced
• 4 Tbsp flour
• 2 Tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 cup carrots, shredded (chopped mine instead of shredding)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cups fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• salt and pepper to taste
• 16 ounce package gnocchi

Preparation:

In a large pot or dutch oven, saute the onion, celery, carrots and garlic in the butter and olive oil.  Meanwhile in another pan, cook the gnocchi until it floats and drain. When the onion is clear, add the flour and form a roux. Stir and cook for one minute. Add the half and half and continue to stir as it thickens .  Add the chicken and the seasonings to the stockpot. Stir often and when it gets thicker, add the chicken broth, gnocchi and  spinach. Cover and heat thoroughly.

**I added 1/2 to 1 Tbsp of cornstarch diluted in equal amounts of warm water to thicken

ENJOY!

Sunday Social

Revisiting the middle school and high school days..... 

1. What was your biggest middle school fashion mistake?

Seriously.  Do I have to pick just one?  Because there were so many I can't even begin to tell you and most of them were SO BAD that I've totally blocked those years from my memory.  I will tell you that I wore overall shorts.  OMG.  I said it.  

2. Who were your best friends in high school? Pics?

My best friend's were Carrie & Becky.  We have been friends since middle school and I've known Carrie since the 2nd grade. We are still good friends but we don't see each other very often since I live so far away.  I got to see Becky last year and Carrie and I stay in contact by texting etc....  I wish I had some old high school pics to share with y'all but I don't.  Here are some more recent ones of us from the last time we were all together in 2008 for our 10 year reunion....

I still love those girls with all my heart and miss them everyday!

3. What was a typical weekend like for you in high school?

 I didn't have a very exciting life in high school.  It was pretty boring.  I spent most of my time being grounded because my parents were soooo strict about curfew, dating and sneaking out.  I mean what was wrong with them???  I lived in a small town and I usually just hung out with my girlfriends at one of our houses and made out with my boyfriends in my parent's living room.  I moved three times during my senior year and went to 3 different high schools during that time, which was a nightmare and pretty much ruined my senior year.

4. Did you have any boyfriends/girlfriends? Tell us about that.

Yes.  I had a few boyfriends.  I was so stupid when it came to boys.  Uggh. Won't even go there.

5. Did you have any secret codes with your friends? Spill your secrets!

No we didn't have a secret code.  Ummm.....I think my best friend Carrie and I thought we could communicate without speaking though.  We thought we were on a different communication level than the rest of the world.  We thought we could send messages to each other's brains without speaking.  I am not joking.

6. If you could relive one day/moment/experience from middle school or high school, what would it be?

I don't even want to think about all of the moments I would like to go back and relive.  I had a great time but I was so, so stupid in middle school and high school.  All I can say is, I'm so glad those days are over! 

{Fancy Little Things} $360+ Giveaway!

I'm giving away a Nars Gift Set this month over at the Fancy Little Things network!  Check out all of the details and register to win HERE.

Be sure to check out all of the other FABULOUS things they are giving away this month as well! 

Reasons You Should Be Glad I Didn't Blog In My Twenties

1.  You would have known every single calorie that I ate on any given day and exactly how many minutes I spent exercising and how many diet pills I had taken that day. 

2. I'm pretty sure there would have been a little bit of DB going on.  I would have embarrassed my family with tipsy posts every weekend and too many Miller Light bottles in my pictures.

3. You would be extremely annoyed with me because I had absolutely nothing to complain about, but I thought I had EVERYTHING to complain about.

4.  You would hear too many sob stories about how I lost my car.  Lost my keys.  Lost my purse.  Lost my wallet.  Lost my credit card.  Lost my drivers license.  Got locked out of my apartment.  Lost my money.  Lost my checkbook.  Lost my cell phone.

5. For most of my twenties my hair was bleached blonde.  Enough said.  No one wants to look at that.

6.  My BFF and I lived in our own little drama filled world.  We were busy obsessing over boyfriends, weight loss, boyfriends, boyfriends, parties, boyfriends.  No one would've really cared. 

7. There would have been no posts on playdates or potty training and I'm pretty sure I would have shared WAY too many recipe creations using Ramen noodles.  Thank God.

8. You would've had to meet my alter personalities Helen and Skank Dawg.  That would not have been good.  That's all I'm saying about that.  

9. My fashion advice would have been heavily influenced by leather pants and burgundy lipstick.

10.  Everyday was a crisis.  

I cannot believe I survived.

What's This "Scentsy Stuff" All About?

All of the buzz these days is about Scentsy.   At first I wasn't 100% sure that Scentsy was any different than any of the other plug ins/wax warmers etc....  

Now I know!

My friend Kristin sent me a Scentsy plug in warmer, wax bar and room spray to try and all I can say is that I'm in LOVE.  

I seriously was blown away after the first time I used it!

Our house is fairly old and sometimes it gets a weird musty smell.  Gross.  I know.  So I set up my little Scentsy plug-in warmer using her instructions.

 In less than 15 minutes my ENTIRE house smelled wonderful.  This one little scentsy plug in warmer worked throughout the entire house in no time!  I was wowed by this.  

I had previously used the Bath & Body Works Wallflower plug ins, which I now know are dangerous and can even be harmful, not to mention they leak and are so hazardous to have around kids.  I had invested quite a bit of money in the Bath and Body Wallflowers, putting one in every room in the house and buying refills to have on hand.  (FYI it's over $25 to buy 2 Wallflowers and a 2 pack of refills that last only a couple of weeks)  But with the Scentsy warmers, you really only have to have a couple in your home and it's such a small investment to make your house smell wonderful all the time!

It's the perfect amount of fragrance.  I can't be around any scent that is overpowering because I'll be stuck with a horrible headache for the rest of the day, but the Scentsy level of fragrance is PERFECT.  I can't even explain it to you in words, the best I can say is that it's just enough of a scent to be extremely pleasant, if that even makes sense.  You just have to try it.

They are so simple to use, you just plug your warmer into any outlet and pop one of the pull apart cubes from the wax bar in the warmer and that's it! 

I also love it because it's safe for the little ones, as there's no flame and the wax never gets hot enough to burn children or pets.

There are soooo many scents to choose from!  I can't wait to get some of the new scents that I ordered this week.

So, I have to tell you, if you haven't tried Scentsy, DO IT.  Just try one of the small plug in warmers and see how wonderful your house smells.  You will be hooked.  

Promise.

P.S.  You can visit Kristin's website HERE to check out all that Scentsy has to offer and she's super sweet and will be very glad to help you place an order!