The Summer Peddler's Show

Last November, Aubrey took me to my very first Peddler's Show. I have such fond memories of that trip!  The weather that day was perfectly fall-ish and I bought some really cute Christmas decor for my first apartment out of college. So when Aubrey asked if I wanted to go back to The Peddler's Show on Sunday for their summer weekend event, I immediately said YES! We spent about 2 hours out in Robstown and I bought a couple more items than I had originally anticipated, but who could help it? The hand-made house decor, jewelry, and baked good/spices/mixes call to me!!

{This is one of my favorite booths! I'm a coffee lover and you can try as many samples of coffee as you'd like. They have amazing flavors and you just add hot water. This is great for those early mornings before work!}

{The homemade soup/dip booth is another favorite. So many samples at the Peddler's Show!}

{You can buy tons of jewelry, clothing, and shoes at the show. This is a picture of individual beads that a buyer could string on a necklace or bracelet chain}

{I just HAD to take a picture of these boots with the cute husband sign on them! I actually found a turquoise and tan pair in my size that I fell in love with, but gasped at when the saleslady told me they were $400. NO WAY!! But after telling Luke how beautiful they were, he asked me, "Why didn't you get them?" Seriously babe?!}

These are the few items I actually purchased...

{Two bags of coffee: Turtle and Snickerdoodle. Three bags of dip mix: On The Border, Tangy Jalapeno Ranch, and Dilly-icious}

{I feel in love with these two items instantly! The wall decor on the left could be hung anywhere in our apartment and has a blank space for a 4x6 picture to be glued to it. I already have a wedding picture in mind! The block on the right stands alone and is now hanging out on our entertainment center}

{I can never pass on a good jewelry deal! Cocktail ring: $3, Pearl earrings: $4}

{And lastly, this sweet little leaf/fall wall decor will be hanging on the front door of our apartment come October 1st}

The next Peddler's Show will be in November and I can't wait!! I'm ready to do some Christmas gift shopping and to buy more Christmas decor. :) Plus, once November rolls around, the weather will be cooler and hopefully I'll have a pumpkin spice latte in hand. Pleeeease hurry fall!!!

Domestic Diva, Take Two

If you read my blog post from yesterday, you learned about my first endeavor with cooking from scratch. The herb roasted chicken, rough mashed potatoes, and green beans were so yummy and fun to cook that mom and I decided I needed to make a second dinner tonight. So after another quick trip to HEB, I had all the ingredients I needed for homemade pizza!

First, I rolled out the dough on a pan. Then I put a small amount of olive in my hands and lightly spread it over the dough. After sprinkling some rosemary, thyme, and chopped onions on the dough, I put in the oven for just a few minutes to get it slightly warmed and golden.

{Before the oven (and onions)}

{After a few minutes in the oven (plus onions)}

After I pulled the pan out of the oven, I added pizza sauce, turkey pepperonis, lean sausage (previously browned on the stove), sun-dried tomatoes, jalapenos, and mixed cheese. This completed pizza was put into the oven until the cheese was melted.

{Before it's final round in the over}

And voila! The finished product. I cut in into square pieces and Luke ate 8 of them! I guess this means I did a good job. :)

I also made a second smaller pizza the exact same way, but instead of sausage and pepperonis, I used some of the leftover chicken breast from last night. This will make a great healthy lunch to take to work tomorrow. I'm pretty excited!

{Chicken pizza}

{And of course, making any meal is worth it when I have such a cute dish washer to clean up after me. Love him!}

Domestic Diva

I am proud to announce that tonight, for the very first time in my life, I cooked an entire meal from scratch. And the best part is, it was SO tasty! After my mom read my blog post where I talked about how I can't cook for crap, she decided to give me a cooking lesson. I think this is partially because I never inherited the love for cooking that my sisters did and also because she feels sorry for Luke. I mean, who wouldn't? We don't want Luke to starve after we get married, now do we? So, without further ado, here is the storyboard of my first home-cooked meal!

First, mom and I went to HEB to grab the items we needed to create this meal. We bought chicken breast, red potatoes, green beans, an onion, lemons, light margarine, light sour cream, parsley, rosemary, and thyme. I already had olive oil and the seasonings. 

Next, I pulled out my small cutting board and a small bowl. I poured extra virgin olive oil into the bowl, enough to cover the bottom of the bowl and then a little, and I squeezed half a lemon into the olive oil (no seeds allowed!). Then I began to pull apart the rosemary and thyme and chopped up the parsley. These herbs then went into the bowl to be mixed together and rubbed over the chicken as a home-made marinade. At this point, I had already placed three chicken breast on a small pan.

 {Chopping!}

{I also added a little Nature's Seasoning and garlic powder to the chicken breasts}

I had pre-set the over to 400 so that the chicken could go in the oven immediately after being marinated. After the chicken was in the oven, I began to wash the red potatoes. These went into a medium-sized pot with water covering them and were set to a boiling temperature. I made sure to add a little salt to help them boil faster (thanks for the tip Jules!!). As these were boiling, I began to chop the green beans. These were rinsed and then put into a small frying pan with a little bit of olive oil and a few shakes of seasoning and garlic. A lid went over the green beans to help steam them.

{Brooklyn and I cookin' up a storm! Please excuse the trash in the background, lol}

So at this point, the chicken is in the oven, the potatoes are boiling, and the green beans are sizzling. I added a little more seasoning to the green beans at one point and also realized that I forgot to cut up onion for the chicken. I added this about 15 minutes into the cooking and everything was fine. The green beans were done first, so I turned off the burner, but left the lid on so they would stay warm. Then, I rinsed the potatoes and added some butter, sour cream, a small amount of garlic and some pepper. I mashed these with a spoon. Apparently not completely mashing potatoes is called a "rough mash." They are a little chunky this way. Learning many new things! The chicken was done last and it was just perfectly golden and crisp. The herbs and onions smelled divine!!

{The finished project!}

{I love how pretty this chicken is!}

{YUM!!!}

I'm so sad that Luke wasn't here to experience my cooking ability (who knew??), but that's alright. One meal under my belt means that it will be even better next time. Plus, I think we may use the left over chicken breast, onions, and herbs to make a healthy, home-made pizza tomorrow night. This means another quick trip to HEB, but it will be worth it because Luke will be in town to enjoy it with me! Thanks mom for your cooking lesson tonight! We made need to have a couple more of these before June 25th. :)

But what was for dessert you ask? Well, that would be...

Leftover bridal shower cake!!!

Can't go wrong here.

And speaking of bridal shower, that post will come soon. We had a fabulous time today, but I was so pre-occupied that I forgot to pack my camera. I was SO upset! I'm now waiting to get pictures from a couple of other people that were kind enough to take pictures for me. 

Well, I'm pretty satisfied with my first entire meal that I cooked completely from scratch. It definitely turned out way better than I expected and gave me hope for more cooking in my future. And the best part is, we can all rest easy knowing that there is a pretty good chance that Luke won't be starving to death. Lucky him! ;)