Julia Night

Last Thursday I invited Mom & Emily over for a fun night in celebration of Julia Child. We had all read and loved the book Julie & Julia and as you can all tell I'm obsessed with cooking and planning things to look forward to (like fun impromptu parties). Also, we all had yet to watch the movie Julie & Julia so I thought we'd make a whole night out of it together- just for fun!

Julie's recipe we made together was Crepes Roulées a la Florentine (savory stuffed crepes with a spinach, mushroom & cheese sauce) accompanied by warm french bread. It turned out delicious! For dessert I had previously prepared us another of Julia's recipes: Petites Pots de Creme au Chocolat, which we enjoyed with homemade whipped cream. Yum!

Emily was a pro and turned out crepe after crepe

The table turned out quite cute if I do say so myself!

Dear Earth,

Happy you day! I'm sorry I haven't done all that is possible to make you better & last longer. I want you to know I am quite grateful for what you do for me every day- sustaining my and everyone else's life and all. This year I have been working on my compost pile & garden so that I am able to reuse some of your resources for wonderful things this summer. Keep up the good work and I promise to try a little harder every year!

Love, Laura

Xena's 1st Bday

Xena's 1st birthday was last Saturday and of course we celebrated...who wouldn't?! I made her wear a bow and made cute cupcakes (which she did not get to eat) however she did get a new Frisbee to fetch. I do love occasions to celebrate so I'll probably do something for the 1 year anniversary in May of the day we brought her home :)

Southern Comfort

We got back from a mini-vacay to South Carolina last week in celebration of Amina's wedding- it was so much fun and absolutely beautiful!
We met Mom & Dad there on St. Patty's day and spend a couple days exploring Charleston's history, golf and amazing culinary scene. Then we were off to Kiawah Island for the wedding celebration and festivities. We found Kiawah to be a spectacular vacation destination for golfing, beaches and outdoor wildlife. One of the highlights was riding bikes along the beach to The Ocean Course Golf Course- where the 2010 PGA Championship will be played! We didn't fork out the $330 to play but we did enjoy lunch, cocktails (my new fave drink is a "John Daly"-sweet tea vodka & lemonade- so good!) & the gorgeous ocean views.
Amina's wedding Saturday evening was so beautiful and sweet. We wish Amina & Ryan all the happiness in the world! Enjoy some pics!

A much needed vacation

Our mini vacay to Playa del Carmen was amazing! We had the best time with our friends Ted & Brooke who graciously let us stay in their timeshare at the beautiful Royal Haciendas. Brooke & Ted are seasoned travelers to Playa & took us to all of their favorite local spots and we really experienced Mexico 'off the beaten path' for a change - we loved it! We ate at local joints, shopped at the local grocery store, and rode public transportation- saving $ & seeing a lot more of Mexico without the touristy stuff.

Highlights included:

-making homemade smoothies & frozen drinks out of fresh local fruit

-snorkeling in the lagoon at Akumal

-walking 3 miles along the beach to get to an awesome breakfast spot

-happy hour in the hot tub

-lounging under Palapas while enjoying the gulf/ocean views

-exploring the Cave Bar & Restaurant

Here is a visual taste of some of the amazing food we enjoyed:

And a few more pics of the fun we had:

sitting on swings at the bar! photo op at the beach

Speedy Feb

This month has flown by and I've been slacking on some updates. I never got around to the Souper Sunday Synopsis...and I haven't yet posted about my wonderful bday either. Now I find myself a day away from our Riviera Maya Mexican vacation! We leave for Playa Del Carmen early Saturday morning and are quite looking forward to a drastic temperature change and some much needed R&R &M (you know what R&R is and I've added an M for margaritas)
Ahhhhh....DIOS! Mexico here we come!

Super Sunday!

Last weekend was jammed packed full of friends, food & football. It was a great weekend but to be honest I am so glad it only comes around once a year (we're still trying to clean up and get the house back to normal)! We had the pleasure of hosting the big football party on Sunday for all our friends and we think we had about 20 people throughout the day! We had a great variety of food and of course a chili cook off competition....which I won! What better way to end my Souper Sunday tradition but by winning the glory of best chili!

Here are some pics of the weekend.

Colleen, Natalie and me at College Street Billiards Club. We revisited our old college hangout in Iowa City on Saturday night.

Mike works the 'books' during the party. We had friendly wagers throughout the day on everything from the Wii Bowling Tournament to the coin toss

the partygoers watching the big game. Go Saints!

Next post will be a synopsis of all I did from start to finish for Souper Sundays.