Cucumber & Peach Smoothie

You know that moment when you open your eyes and you can feel that your face is puffy? You reach over to your nightstand in hopes that your fingers will meet a glass of water, but instead you just end up unplugging a lamp, knocking off an alarm clock and dropping your cell phone. The headache sets in. A headache that can only be described as “this is what happens when you mix champagne with gin.” Or, “this is what happens when you mix half a bottle of champagne with gin.” OR, “this is what happens when you mix half a bottle of champagne with gin, eat animals from both land and sea, have butter as a legitimate side dish, swear you are not going to have dessert and then eat half of a chocolate bar, pass out on the couch in a sloppy champagne fueled coma” situation.
Sounds like another successful Steak and Lobster Day (or shall I say “Valentines Day” for all you non Steak and Lobster-ers). The husband got home a little bit early. We cooked together. I spiced up the steaks and got to work on our side dishes. I whipped up a mashed cauliflower with garlic and wilted chard situation as well as a Greek salad. Peter cooked our meat to perfection, melted some butter and mixed us some cocktails. I had planned to get a bottle of wine at the grocery store, but in my intense steak and lobster excitement I managed to forget. Instead, we went rooting through our cabinets and found a a bottle of champagne. We then proceeded to make ourselves French 75’s. This is a cocktail that combines gin with champagne (yes, this might be a red flag). Of course once we opened the bottle of champagne we decided that we could not let it go to waste (Perhaps we are the red flags?). […]

Buckwheat Waffles with Cinnamon Apples | Gluten Free

Tomorrow is one of my favorite holidays.

It’s Steak and Lobster Day!

That’s right. Some people might refer to it as “Valentines Day,” but in this house we refer to it solely as Steak and Lobster Day. After a few years of going out to over-priced fixed menu dinners and suffering through people coming over to our tables and loudly serenading us with accordions or trying to sell us roses, we decided that we needed to go another route. One can only be serenaded by an accordion while eating overpriced lamb so many times. We started to notice that really good quality steak and lobsters were on sale at our local market during the Valentines madness. Jackpot. Thus was born Steak and Lobster day. […]

Kale, Spinach & Artichoke Dip With Greek Yogurt

I have some confessions for you…
I know pretty much nothing about football, unless you count watching every season of Friday Night Lights (Clear eyes, Full Hears, Can’t Lose). I know there are touchdowns and fumbles and first downs but I cannot tell you which is which. I grew up in a football household. My parents would wear jerseys and make large volumes of guacamole for Super Bowl Sunday. I would play with my Barbie Dream House, make things with glitter, and occasionally comment on how tight all the football players wore their pants. I somehow managed to miss learning all the rules. When my father asked me if I would be watching the Super Bowl this year, I responded honestly and told him probably not. He was disgusted. How could he have gone so wrong? The 49ers were playing and I wasn’t even going to turn on the TV? Awful. So, on game day I decided to get into the spirit of things in order to not be a total disappointment to the man who raised me. I bought a lot of spinach dip and a bag of crinkle cut potato chips and ate my weight in both. Apparently getting into the spirit means me eating myself into a dip coma. […]

DIY Sugar Cookie Foot Scrub | A Valentine To Yourself

I was blessed with a lot of things. I have a great family and a wonderful husband. I live in a beautiful part of the world. My friends are the coolest and usually laugh at my jokes. I feel fortunate. However, one thing I wasn’t blessed with was pretty feet.
I was made aware of this fact when my Hawaiian grandfather looked down and my flat, calloused, chubby-toed footsies, and then looked at his equally flat, calloused and chubby-toed footsies. He smiled at me and said “Look at those Hawaiian feet! You got cute feet. They look just like mine!”  It was true. They did. Uh oh. Maybe I just needed a fresh coat of polish.
Later in life, someone (my mother) would tell me that every time they heard Jack Johnson’s song “Bubbly Toes” on the radio they thought of me. Cute. Is this because my big toes actually have fat rolls? Perhaps, yes.
Even later in life I would try to snuggle in bed with my husband and he would gingerly tell me “Honey, do you want to go get a pedicure? I will go with you.”  This is his polite way of telling me that I had hooves, and it totally hurts to snuggle with someone who has hooves. […]