Playing dress up

Hey all! 

As I mentioned, Halloween is my favorite holiday, and so it's only natural that I looovveee to dress up! This year, after many ideas were kicked back and forth, we decided to be Don and Betty Draper from Mad Men.  Check it out...

in my Betty costume

 my hubs as Don

I ordered the wig online and I think it was pretty perfect.  I had to wear two dresses on top of each other in order for the skirt to puff out, but I think the overall final product looked great!  


What are you being this year?  

Happy Hallo-weekend, everyone! 

Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I love to decorate and host get-togethers around this time of year.  On Wednesday I had a few friends over for pumpkin carving, and it was a lot of fun!  Here are some spooky pictures of my decorations:

Have fun and be safe this weekend!

PSA: do NOT buy one of these costumes for halloween

Last year I posted some of the most WTF costumes here.  This year I have two to add to the my "who-the-hell-would-wear-this" list of the worst adult costumes...

 a giant lady fish

I admit, I hate fish...I don't eat any seafood and hate the smell and thought of seafood...so maybe this bothers me more than others, but STILL.

a creepy lady turkey

Would you have to walk around bent over like this? 

What's the most ridiculous costume you've come across this year?  

*photos courtesy of the Frisky

Morning, everyone! 

Last night I ordered our holiday cards for this year and got a great deal- so I wanted to share!  Now, for paper goods related to our wedding I used Wedding Paper Divas and Tiny Prints-- which were truly fantastic-- but out of our price range for holiday cards.  I also spent some time perusing Snapfish, Shutterfly and Kodak, but couldn't find a cute budget card saying what I wanted-- happy new year!  

I stumbled upon walmart.com and realized that they have holiday photo cards for GREAT prices!  I settled on this card with a picture from our wedding and little message below: 

Cute, right?  And they were only 64 cents a card!  If you want to do your holiday cards on a shoestring- head over to Walmart.  

*Walmart didn't pay me to say this, I just wanted to share the deal I found! 

routine

Morning, all!

Lately I haven't had much to post because, honestly, I've fallen into a daily routine that is rather boring. My days consist of:

a pumpkin coffee from Dunkin (not a latte, just the coffee)

doing (LOTS) of legal research, all day long, with my friends Westlaw and Lexis

hitting the treadmill

coming home from the gym and promptly enjoying a beer or glass of wine...

This week it's been Kennebunkport Pumpkin Ale from Trader Joes ($5.99/6 pack)--try it if you like pumpkin spice lattes-- this beer is very spicy!

watching (a LOT) of Mad Men with my husband every night

I'm currently obsessed with Don Draper and his sunglasses....

What's your routine?

a (reconstructed) irrevocable act

Hey all!

As you might remember from my two years of wedding planning, R and I had a civil wedding ceremony (we were legally married at the court house and then his brother "married" us at our actual wedding) but we embraced many jewish traditions.

One of such traditions was the breaking of the glass at the end of our wedding ceremony. If you aren't familiar with the tradition, there are several meanings that have been attributed to the breaking of the glass. One is that the breaking of the glass is an irrevocable act-- as are your marriage vows. It is often also said to serve as a reminder of the frailty of marriage.

R's parents were nice enough to send off our broken glass to a company that reconstructs them and puts them in a glass cube with your names and wedding date. It is a really nice memento to have of our wedding that we can display in our home.

Here it is:

Sorry for the crappy phone picture... but you get the idea!

**Wedding pictures should be coming soon! We have almost all of them but my photographer is getting married next weekend so she has been a little preoccupied...

apples and ravioli? YES.

Ravioli with Apples and Walnuts

via Real Simple

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. cheese ravioli
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
• 1 crisp apple cut into matchsticks
• Parsley
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup of parmesan

Directions:

1. Cook the ravioli as directed
2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Add walnuts and saute for 4-5 minutes until toasted and fragrant
3. Toss apples, oil, walnuts, salt, pepper and parsley. Add in ravioli and sprinkle parmesan on top.
4. Enjoy!

I used mozzarella cheese instead because that's what I had and skipped the parsley. The ravioli I used was from Trader Joe's and contained parmesan and arugula. I really liked this dish! It was something different for when you have some pasta but don't feel like Italian food or want something fall-inspired. Try it out!

While at Trader Joe's I picked up some of my favorites-- Joe Joe's! I am obsessed with their peppermint ones around the holidays and these look just as delish and festive :)

Can't wait to eat these!!!

tailgating and tailwagging!

This past weekend R and I went to our old law school stomping grounds to meet up with a couple friends who were in town. We went to tailgate on Saturday morning and then spent the afternoon watching football and grilling out. It was a lot of fun!

me and the hubs at the game

bestie A and her man

Then on Sunday R and I went to a SPCA fundraiser in Raleigh. It was $10 to get in and then you got a cup to get delicious draft beers. There were tons of booths set up with different dog food and treat samples, live music, a picture booth for you and your dog, and lots more. We had a really nice time and I know our dog Sam did too!

We got a slice of pizza from this food truck and it was amazing!

they also had baby pools filled up with water for the dogs to splash around in!

our little man having a blast!

We also got our dog a harness at the pet store nearby. As you can see from the picture above, the hair on his neck by the front of his collar is essentially rubbed off because he pulls so hard when he walks on a leash. I think the harness might be a good change.

Hope you had a good weekend!

fall food: spicy chili!

Are you all as excited about this fall weather as I am? On Sunday I decided to make R and I spicy chili. It was SO good! R even went back for seconds. Definitely try it out!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1/2 red bell pepper, seeded, chopped
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, seeded, chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, chopped (carefully!!!)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)
• 3/4 cup of red wine
• Salt to taste
• 1 (16 oz) can of black beans, drained, rinsed
• 1 (28 oz) can of crushed tomatoes
• Corn chips/cubes or slices of day old bread/pita chips

Directions:

1. In medium soup pot, on medium heat, cook ground beef with thyme. Drain fat off and set aside.
2. In the same pot, add oil, bell peppers, jalapenos, onion, and garlic. Cook until slightly browned, 7-10 minutes.
3. Add cayenne and red pepper flakes and stir.
4. Add in red wine. Allow to bubble and reduce by half.
5. Add tomatoes and bring to a boil.
6. Add black beans and beef, reduce heat, and allow to simmer on low heat for about 1 hour, partially covered.
7. Serve with corn chips, bread or pita chips.

Enjoy!

Adapted from Food Network online.

BEST chocolate chip cookies!

Over the last few weeks I've been experimenting with my brand new stand mixer (!!) and baking things from scratch (for the first time ever!). I made these this week and I think they came out really good! I brought a bunch into my office and they got great reviews! Try them!

Flat and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies via the Essential New York Times Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 scant tbsp kosher salt
• 2 sticks of softened butter
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups of bittersweet chocolate
• 2 cups chopped toasted walnuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
2. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter and sugars until fluffy (about 3 minutes).
3. Add the eggs one at a time.
4. Add the vanilla.
5. Add the flour mixture all at once and blend until a dough forms.
6. Fold in the chocolate and walnuts.
7. Refrigerate the dough until chilled.
8. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
9. Roll about 2 tablespoon lumps of dough into balls, place 3 inches apart on baking sheet.
10. Flatten the balls into 1/2 inch-thick disks.
11. Bake until edges are golden brown, about 14-16 minutes. Let cook slightly and then transfer to cooling rack.

Note: I didn't use walnuts, because I didn't have any, but that would be delish. I only used 1 1/2 sticks of butter because that's all I had left, and I thought that it was enough. I substituted splenda for sugar and it tastes great. Also- I didn't let the dough chill quite enough because I was impatient and my husband really wanted cookies, but I recommend doing so. It will make rolling the dough and putting it on the baking sheet much easier. Otherwise it's hard because the dough is so buttery.

Enjoy!