Last of the Winter Clean Out

I've put up the last of my items from my winter clean out. Check out my ebay listings here.

I love Boden!

Printed Tunic

Glam Tunic

Pretty Cotton Dress

Fun Dress

Favorite Jersey Dress

Curacao Here I Come!

So excited that Hubby and I booked a Caribbean vacation for the beginning of May! We are headed to Curacao (an island next to Aruba) for five relaxing nights with our good friends Lisa and Lee! We booked this trip through CheapCaribbean.com and got a great deal. This is the second time we are booking through them. Two years ago we went to Barbados (with Lisa and Lee) and got a great deal via TravelZoo from CheapCaribbean. We are staying at the Marriott Beach Resort & Emerald Casino. I can't wait to be lounging here.

Great New Recipe - Grape Tomato Risotto

On Friday Hubby and I wanted to stay in and make a nice dinner. We decided to try scallops since we got a great lesson from my cousin-in-law. With the scallops we made a risotto. I got the recipe from the Planet Green website. It's by Emeril and it's from his show Emeril Green. It was sooo yummy and pretty healthy (I think). The actual recipe is for an Orzo risotto but I used arborio rice since that's what we had in our pantry. If you use traditional risotto rice then you just need add another half cup of chicken stock to cook the rice through. We also decided that next time we make it we would cut the "greens" part in half because we didn't need or want to extra. Click here for the recipe. Enjoy!

Blizzard of 2010

Here are a few more pictures from the blizzard a couple of weeks ago.

Super Cute Dress!

I'm so over this cold weather and ready for it to get warm. Old Navy is helping me getting in the warm weather mood with this adorable dress! I definitely want to get one for the spring/summer. The purple stripe (shown above) is not available online in my size. :( I told myself that I wouldn't buy anything new until I lost at least five more pounds. I hope by the end of the month I will be close to that goal. Check out Gigi's review of this super cute dress.

Amazing Three Course Dinner

Things have been crazy busy for me and of course the first thing that gets neglected is my blog. Here's a long over due post about the amazing meal that my cousin-in-law made for us the other weekend.

First Course: Fresh tomato, mozzarella salad with basil pesto and a fig balsamic glaze. This was soooo yummy. I'm not a big fan of tomatoes and mozzarella (I know, I'm weird) but this was so good. The basil pesto and the glaze really complimented this dish.

Second Course: Scallops with a tomato risotto. This was by far my favorite dish. The scallops were cooked perfectly (I got a lesson on how to cook the perfect scallop...there will be a post on that soon. I promise). And the tomato risotto was amazing! This dish seemed pretty easy to create so I'm hoping that I can recreate it myself.

Third Course: Braised short ribs with a cauliflower puree and sauteed asparagus. Another amazing meal! He braised the short ribs all day and it was so tender I didn't even need a knife to cut it. I was so glad he made the cauliflower puree because I've always wanted to try it. It is such a great substitute for starchy potatoes and Hubby and I are definitely going to start making that instead of potatoes.

My cousin-in-law Greg is so talented and is an amazing chef!!! I learned a lot from him. I wish they lived closer so we could enjoy his food more often. And special thanks to my cousin for taking these creative pictures of the food.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Hubby and I aren't very big on V-Day. Tonight we are heading to dinner at a local Italian place Amici Miei Ristorante. We also exchange cards and he sent me these beautiful flowers to work on Friday.

Clarisonic's Newest Product

Clarisonic has a new anti-aging product. The Opal Sonic Infusion system is supposed to infuse "serum into the epidermis to help refresh and renew the appearance of delicate skin around your eye area." I watched the video and it really does look like it works. The price tag is high - $245 so I think I will wait on purchasing it to see some blog reviews. Have you tried this yet? What do you think?

Copy Cat Soup Recipe

Hubby is a big fan of Panera's Broccoli-Cheddar soup so I was very excited when the last month issue of Food Network magazine had that as their Copy That recipe. I made it over the weekend when we were snowed in and it was a big hit. Here's the recipe for the Almost-Famous Broccoli-Cheddar Soup. Definitely check it out. It's the perfect snowed in soup recipe.

Snowy Weekend Recap

This weekend was super fun and filled with snow...lots of snow. My cousin and her husband came in for the weekend on Friday afternoon. They got here just as the snow was coming down.

We decided that we would venture out that night for dinner since we would probably be stuck in our house for most of the weekend. We walked to the Rockville Town Center around 6pm and the snow was coming down fast.

We woke up early Saturday morning to NO POWER! It was sooo cold in our house. Thankfully our fire place and stove are gas powered so we were able to warm up and eat. Thankfully the power came on later that afternoon. This is what we woke up too.

I couldn't believe how much snow had fallen and it was still coming down. My cousin's car is somewhere under all this.


Hubby and my cousin-in-law got to shoveling right away. This was round 3 of snow clearing. They had shoveled twice Friday night and the snow was still up to Hubby's shins.

One of the cars left in the parking lot in front of our house was pretty much buried.


Once the snow stopped I decided to trek through it to see how much we really got. It went up to almost my waist. I'm guess we got close to 30 inches.


Here's another shot of the trees after the snow had FINALLY stopped.


It was soo much fun to be snowed in with my cousin and her husband. He was a huge help shoveling with Hubby and he also is a gourmet chef and made an AMAZING dinner Saturday night (blog post to come on that). I had so much fun spending quality time with my cousin. She's my only female cousin and we are four years apart and we're like sisters.


On Sunday, we were able to venture out of our neighborhood and make it to the Cap vs. Penguins game. This was the whole reason my cousins came in because this was our Christmas present from them. We had a blast and it was a very exciting game.


Stay tuned for more snow pictures. We are supposed to get 10-20 inches of snow starting tonight. Should be interesting. Not sure where are the snow is supposed to go.

New Years Resolution Month One Update

Well we are one month into 2010 and in order for me to keep my resolutions I need to revisit each month and make sure I'm staying on track.

1. Be Healthier - I've lost a few pounds. I'm not as toned as I would like to be. Thinking about getting a few sessions with a personal trainer. What do you think? Definitely eating better. I need to be better about making a trip to the grocery store each week to get fresh fruit and vegetables so that we have them in the house at all times.
   
2. Be consistent with running - I definitely could be running more. I've logged a little over 25 miles this month. I did have one good 5 mile run. I'm anxious for the weather to warm up and I will definitely be running outside.
   
3. Focus on my blog - I have not been doing a good job of focusing on my blog. I did get a few more followers this month but I'm still a good ways away from 200. Promise I will try and be better this month. Not as much traveling in February so I should have more free time.
   
4. Cook at home more - I was very good in the beginning of the month trying out new things (none of them good enough to share on the blog). Then both Hubby and I were traveling so we just weren't around enough. I hope to be sharing some new recipes with you soon.

On another note, my friend Shannon has cleaned out her sweaters and put some of them up on ebay. Check them out here.

Another Electronic Transition?

I'm finding more and more people are fans of the Kindle. When it first came out I was completely against it. I didn't want one because I really like the feeling of reading a book and turning the pages. Now my mind is slowing changing and I think I might need to ask for one for my birthday. I've been traveling a lot more and everywhere I look there is a Kindle. I love to read and this would be perfect to take on all my trips. Maybe it's time I make yet another electronic transition. What do you think?