A Friendly Foodie Thanksgiving

If by "foodie" you mean a consumer of delicious food items and nothing else, then count me as such. Cooking is not one of my giftings. I wish it was. But unless a dish has under 5 main ingredients, I will neither pin nor prepare it.

Thankfully, I have dear friends with the culinary chops & ambition to take on the November issue of Bon Appetit Magazine and host the most incredible friendsgiving feast possible. Funny how one women's dream is another woman's nightmare...

If you are interested in any of the recipes mentioned, you will have to google my description of it;)

[Above: The turkey was soaked in a cider brine the day before the meal. Pieces were juicy throughout, even the lighter sections.]

Skillet cornbread with sauteed onions and apples.

My plate was also adorned with stuffing (made with olive ciabatta & sweet bread), whipped sweet potatoes (made with butter & cream cheese, garnished with pecans & blue cheese), brussel sprouts w/ bacon, and an array of veggies.

Not pictured: the chocolate Cognac pecan pie I had for dessert. OHMYGOODNESS, YUM.

Special thanks to Allison & Leslie for all of your hard work. Everything was THE BEST. You truly blessed us with this spectacular meal and we are so thankful to have you in our quiver of friends.

As always, THANK YOU for reading and a Happy Thanksgiving to you & yours!! xx

Nicole's SPECTACULAR Baby Shower

This past weekend, I had the honor of hosting a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Nicole. Our babies (& future cousins/ buddies) are due a month apart and like us, Nicole and her husband decided to opt for suprise in waiting to find out the gender.

Since I didn't have a pink or blue palatte to work with, I was inspired to keep it natural, neutral, and classy. Much like the Mama-to-be:)

 Our dessert selection included:
- Dark chocolate Neopolitan layer cake w/ Nutella, strawberry, & vanilla buttercream frosting
- Neopolitan spritz cookies with marshmallow buttercream frosting
- Rice Krispy treats made with sea salt and browned butter

All credit for the food & fanciful spread goes to this lady—Leslie Poyzer—one of the most talented homemakers I know. A self-taught baker & crafter, Leslie heads up wedding production & desserts for The Wedding Format in addition to being a regular contributor for Meredith publications like D.I.Y. Magazine.



Crackers served with Englishwhite Stilton cheese w/ peaches, Cotswold Double Gloucester w/ onions & chives, and Honey Gouda from Trader Joe's.

The Mama-to-be, Nicole!

No baby shower is complete without playing some corny shower games. I searched for some good ones and settled on Mad Libs, "What's in Mommy's Purse, Celeb Baby Names, Scattergories, & Wishes for Baby.

I'm pretty sure Nicole left Iowa feeling super blessed by all the goodies, gifts, & girlfriends in attendance. We are super excited to meet your little one!!

Shark Love & Burger Lust

Every Memorial Day Weekend since Ruby was born (that being 2), our little family has made a tradition of going to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha.

Now that Ruby can identify animals by name, we were super excited to take her this year!

Ruby doing her best monkey faces!

 The Sno Cone might have been Ruby's favorite thing at the zoo...

I'm so happy that Wayde captured this photo, complete with shark lurking ominously above our heads. Here's hoping that Ruby's "Mama's girl" phase lasts forever<3>

After a full afternoon at the zoo (and hauling around my 32 week prego belly), Wayde sweetly suggested that maybe we don't have to do this zoo trip every year, to which I agreed. As great as it is, we found ourselves taking many of the same pictures from last year and awkwardly shuffling through crowds (with stroller in tow) that were bigger than we remembered. 

I guess I would consider an annual trip if we could always end the day here...



Louis M's Burger Lust Cafe. We got the referral from a friend and this place DID NOT disappoint. Even the staff were excited to hear how much we loved our burgers.

My parmesan encrusted special topped with swiss cheese & morel mushrooms. Too good to even think about tainting with ketchup. And if you know me, that's saying a lot.

Not that we even had the room for it afterwards, but since we were in town, we trekked across the city for some eCremery goodness. You only live once, right?

We fell in love with their cardamom ice cream last year and enjoyed the Shark Bait (sea salt carmel w/ chocolate covered pretzels) & strawberry basil selections this time around. Until next time, Omaha...xx

KC Anniversary Weekend!

Last weekend marked Wayde & my 5th wedding anniversay, which is just totally surreal to say the least. We wanted to go somewhere we didn't feel obligated to meet up with friends or family and since we've never been to Kansas City together, Kansas City became the destination.

We got some solid recommendations from friends ahead of time and found ourselves on W 39th Street, a hip little area full of kitschy shops & restaurants. Late lunch at d'Bronx followed by coffee and dessert at Rm. 39.

Rock Candy was a vintage boutique we popped into. Though I'm not in the market to buy a lot of clothes right now (28 weeks pregnant, hello!), Wayde had a few sweet finds by the end of the day.

I'm super thankful that my guy enjoys and could kill more time in a secondhand store than I even could.

We also checked out Donna's Dress Shop, which is pretty much the ultimate new & vintage ladies clothing boutique. Like, if I ever aspired to be a boutique owner, Donna's would be the living example of what I would like to open. Even the shop girls were dressed to the nines with their retro hair & ensembles.

Boomerang was another shop we hit, which reminded me of a Buffalo Exchange/ Ragstock type place. Wayde walked out with a pair of Allen Edmunds shoes, so he was a pretty happy camper.

After checking into our hotel, we walked towards the Power & Light district for dinner. There are few restaurants worthy of a 45 minute wait, but the Drunken Fish is one of them. I had Asian lettuce wraps, BLT sushi (yes, you read that correctly), and green tea fried ice green. Bloody fantastic.  

We stopped in a fancy grocery store for some snacks where I stumbled upon this selection of local, flavored milks from the Shatto Milk Company. I got a pint of the cotton candy. Seriously, cotton candy flavored milk!!

It was kind of a bummer for this pregnant lady to fall in love with so many food & drink items this trip and not have ready access to them back home:(

Since we didn't do any major traveling for this trip, we splurged on our accomodations by staying at the beautiful Hotel Phillips in downtown KC. And I am so glad we did.

It was actually more cost effective to do the in-room breakfast package which included valet and a $35 food & beverage voucher. Room service just might be one of my favorite things in the world.

Nothing like a lazy Sunday morning eating potato pancakes while watching HGTV...

Later that day we hit The Plaza, bought stuff at H&M, and grabbed some more food at Westport Coffeehouse before hitting the road home. We did NOT visit the art gallery which apparently is the thing to do while in Kansas City. Maybe next time...xx

Happenings.

With the arrival of Spring, slowly but surely, we are seeing for the first time what our backyard actually looks like. And it's not pretty. It used to be. What was once a heavily landscaped area (we have the maps to prove it) is nothing but dead leaves & dirty ground in it's current state.

Though we probably won't be able to plant anything new this year, as there are several perrenials popping their way through the soil, we're looking forward to the prospect of backyard picnics & blowing bubbles & sidewalk chalk-a-thons in our own backyard.  



In other sprouting news, Ruby's hair is just long enough now to wrangle into pigtails. She sits super still while Mama tugs on her tresses & is always so pleased with the finished product. Little girls are such a joy!

After seeing this place on a recent episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, we decided to check out the infamous B&B Grocery and Deli on Des Moines' southeast side.

It was gritty, unexpected, and oh so tasty - we love places like this. The sandwiches are pretty killer, indeed.



Mama's wardrobe is fastly becoming one of Ruby's favorite hangout spots. I think every little girl's mama ought to have one;)

Wayde things it's weird that I have styled the top shelf to feel less like a storage space and more like a boutique. It's still a work in progress. What are your thoughts??

And lastly, the closest thing this prego mama is going to get to a cocktail for a very long time. But a worthy substitute, I might add.

 

Lemonade + chopped strawberries + rosemary. You NEED to try this. Just looking at this photo has me thirsting for another one. Right. Now.

 

Be back soon...xx