Quick Shrimp…

I received the newest copy of Cooking Light last week and this quick and easy Shrimp Scampi dish caught my eye. We’ve had a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer that’s been begging to be used up. This recipe is definitely going into the rotation. This was the first time I made Orzo it was super quick and easy. This had just the right amount of butter too since sometimes scampi means the shrimp is swimming in the fat.

The only modifications I made to the recipe were I added lemon zest in addition to the lemon zest. If you have any spinach on hand, this would be a great stir in for the green color. We served it with side salad, but grilled asparagus or steamed broccoli would also make a great side. Enjoy!

Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi (Cooking Light)

• 1 cup uncooked orzo
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
• 7 teaspoons unsalted butter, divided
• 1 1/2 pounds peeled and deveined jumbo shrimp
• 2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Cook orzo according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain. Place orzo in a medium bowl. Stir in parsley and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cover and keep warm.

While orzo cooks, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle shrimp with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add half of shrimp to pan; sauté 2 minutes or until almost done. Transfer shrimp to a plate. Melt 1 teaspoon butter in pan. Add remaining shrimp to pan; sauté 2 minutes or until almost done. Transfer to plate.

Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in pan. Add garlic to pan; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in shrimp, juice, and pepper; cook 1 minute or until shrimp are done.

A Mexican Fiesta

In honor of the Oscar’s tonight and my Mexican craving…we made a Mexican themed dinner complete with Margaritas! I found a simple recipe for Chicken Enchiladas with a 5 star rating and tons of reviews. I have a recipe we’ve used many times in the past that is more salsa-based and I think we enjoyed the new recipe better.

On our weekly grocery shopping trip today we picked up a rotisserie chicken to use, which saves a lot of time and the chicken has tons of flavor. This version was a little drier than I’m used to for enchiladas. Next time I think I’ll top them with extra cheese before baking…anything can be more cheesier!

Chicken Enchiladas (Southern Living)

• 3 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with peppers
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
• 1 (8-ounce) bottle green taco sauce
• Toppings: diced tomato, chopped avocado, chopped green onions, sliced ripe olives, chopped cilantro

Stir together first 5 ingredients. Spoon chicken mixture evenly over each tortilla, and roll up. Arrange in a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Coat tortillas with vegetable cooking spray.

Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Stir together sour cream and taco sauce. Spoon over hot enchiladas, and sprinkle with toppings.

Finding January & February…

I’ve been slacking in my blogging world, but January and February have flown by. We’ve been incredibly busy getting back into the swing of things after the holidays. Ben’s school load has seemed to pick up and my work seems never ending. I guess with year-end close was expected to be crazy given the crazy market the past few months.

We did get to do a few fun things…lots of beer tastings with our friends Tara and Rick. We also tried a few new restaurants and beer pubs in Raleigh. I highly recommend The Raleigh Times!!

So scroll down to see what we’ve really been up to the past few weeks. Hopefully I’ll have a few new recipes to add soon as well.

First 5k of 2009

Yesterday we completed our first race of 2009! I love getting back out on the road and having a race on our calendar always provides enough motivation to keep our runs throughout the week.

My sister, Sara’s sorority at ECU held their 1st Annual Kappa Delta 5k For Kids in Greenville. Ben and I drove down after work on Friday for the Pasta Dinner, then went to Eddie and Lisa’s house to spend the night in New Bern. The morning came very early as we struggled to get out of bed and the temperature outside was in the 20’s! After a quick bowl of hot oatmeal we were on our way back to Greenville.

The race kicked off at 10am with a little over 100 people running. Most of the family participated and it ended up being a successful race. Ben completed the 5k in 26:01 and I came in at 32:24. Not too bad for our lack of training over the holidays and winter.

Next up: Cooper River Bridge Run 10! Just 7 more weeks!!! This is by far, my favorite race…40,000 people running in Charleston and many many more lining the streets cheering you on!

Our New Toy…

A Canon DSLR!! I’ve been wanting one forever and after a larger-than-expected bonus this year, we decided to splurge. We’ve got a couple of weddings, vacations and other exciting things coming up this year and thought a new camera would be perfect to capture those special memories.

The best part is all our older telephoto lenses from my old 35mm SLR are compatible. Now I just need to sit down with the manual and go through all the fun settings and actually learn what this camera can do! From straight out of the box, it takes amazing pictures and we couldn’t be more pleased with the quality.

I’m sure we’ll have plenty more “test” photos. In less than a day we took 100 pictures!

Foothills Brewing Company

Earlier this month we took a day trip to Foothills Brewing Company in Winston Salem with Tara and Rick. We were very fortunate enough to get 8 of 600 limited release bottles of their Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout…which equates to 1.3% of the World’s supply (yeah I’m a math dork).

You know we’re beer snobs when we wake up at 5am to make the drive to Winston Salem and stand in line for 3 hours just for one particular beer. It was definitely worth the trip and the fun times we had in line meeting other beer snobs. And beer snobs are always nice and hospitable – offering tastings of rare beers they brought, such as The Dark Lord Imperial Stout, Abyss, Cottonwood Hazelnut Stout, Highland Kashmir and Mikkellar Black Hole. After we purchased our 8 bottles of Sexual Chocolate, we enjoyed a glass on tap, lunch and a flight tasting of their other brews. Ben had an amazing Cuban sandwich with pulled pork, while I enjoyed a Buffalo Chicken Wrap. As far as their other beers we were all in agreement that Torch Pilsner was not good at all…most of the other beers are just ok, however the Total Eclipse Stout was pretty good too. Of course there is no disputing how great the Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout is. After lunch we took a short drive a few blocks down the street to City Beverage and bought even more beer. This was a great store with an amazing selection of beer. They had an in-house bar with 3 different beers on tap that you could try. Also, they have great deals on cases at rock bottom prices.

Ale to the Chief

Ben and I have been watching the Inauguration events all day today. Neither of us felt like making dinner tonight…I think we both had a little Cabin Fever and were itching to leave the house. The roads were clear, so we placed an order for pizza at Namoli’s NY Pizza and set out for the pick up.

Of course the night wouldn’t be the same without a special beer. Ben purchased the Avery Ale to the Chief, made specifically for the Inauguration today. When he bought it several months ago, no one knew who we’d be toasting to January 20, 2009, but regardless it was a fun occasion. It was pretty neat to have our own little piece of celebration for this historic day. As for the beer, it was a “Presidential” Pale Ale: Not an “Imperial” pale ale, this is a democracy. It’s Presidential! Take the all-American pale ale, a bipartisan blend of malt of hops, increase both the Avery Brewing standards, and then of course, dry hop the result with that most quintessential of American hops, Cascades, and you get this…Ale to the Chief. A brew worth of the Oval Office!

Snow Day 2009!

After receiving calls from my manager and auto text from the company regarding the Winter Weather Advisory last night, I still was expecting to go to work this morning. Ben woke me up around 3am and the ground was covered. When I woke up at 642am by the alarm, the roads were covered and I instantly decided today would be a “work-from-home” day! By 730am I was logged in online…I was feeling a little anxious since yesterday was a US holiday and many of my Indian and UK clients were waiting on emails and files. Working from home is so nice and comfy…never mind very productive. It’s amazing to be able to work alternatively on the couch or the dining room table all day by the fire! I enjoyed coffee in a mug and took a quick mid-day break to shower, then one for lunch. I thawed out some turkey soup I had froze many moons ago and it was perfect for a snowy day. Ben worked on school stuff, napped and we both watched the Inauguration all day…which was amazing to see history made regardless what party we belong to, what color our skin is or where we live in the world.

Finally after a little pleading from Ben, we set out for a walk in the snow. Freddie has not really ever seen the snow besides a few flurries and he absolutely hated it. He shivered the entre time and tried to pull back towards the house. For the rest of the afternoon he settled down by the fire for a long nap while we enjoyed a big cup of Hot Chocolate with handmade Peppermint Marshmallows!

We ended up with almost 6 inches of snow, but by the evening it had all melted on the roads. I’m hoping to make it into work tomorrow, but we’ll see how the roads are in the morning…ICE is never a good thing!

Current Obsessions…

During my run this afternoon, I realized I have a few obsessions lately…

Running (obviously). I set out for a late afternoon run and took it easy since I’ve got a bad case of shin splints, which I thought had improved. I made it 2.5 miles and decided to stop. I guess this cycle will continue until the days get long enough for me to get some regular and consistent runs in during the week and get my muscles back into shape…and keep them there. I’m currently icing my shins on the couch…no fun when I really just want to RUN!

During my run I had a great playlist. I get sort of obsessive with one particular song and play it over and over again for a few weeks. Today’s selection is Love Story – Taylor Swift…which I replayed 3 times! Other songs that kept me moving today:

~Womanizer – Britney Spears

~Disturbia – Rihianna

~Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) – Beyonce

~Let It Rock - Kevin Rudolf & Lil Wayne

~Run (I’m A Natural Disaster) – Gnarls Barkley

Love Story by Taylor Swift captured my attention since I’m in LOVE with the Twilight series and could pretty much be the theme-song of this series. I finished Twilight last night and stayed up until 1:30am reading. At 9am when I woke up, I picked up New Moon and read until 3pm, stopping only for coffee, oatmeal and bathroom breaks. Ben tried to convince me to ride with him to American Brewmaster for brewing supplies, but I was too engrossed in reading. While he was gone I found the perfect Twilight T-shirt and placed my order. Forks Brewing Co: The Ultimate Thirst Quencher – Reach for a Cold One! I’ve already placed my order online and hopefully it’ll arrive soon.

I’m pretty certain the rest of my Sunday evening (what’s left of it) will be spent reading…I cannot get enough of Edward Cullen! The possibility of sipping on a beer might be in the future too…if only there was a true Forks Brewing Co.

Uggs. I thought I wanted these last year, but honestly they aren’t that cute looking and I honestly was not sure I was cool enough to wear them. But, this year I finally gave in and got them for Christmas! I don’t care how ugly or stupid looking they are…they are so, so, so comfy and feel just like bedroom shoes. I also don’t like wearing shoes in the house and almost immediately take them off when i get home, however, I could leave these on all day!

Forced Relaxation…

For the first time this week, I was home before 7pm and excited to have a night of TV and Internet surfing. Since the weather turned cold from our crazy weather from yesterday, I was also craving a hot dinner…perhaps an omelet or leftover chili. I guess this is my usual relaxation…

No sooner than I changed out of my work clothes and was checking my home email did the power go out…no TV, no internet! I light candles and waited a while to call the Police Station to report the outage (yeah my little suburban town still does this) and was told they knew of the outage and had a crew working on it, but it would be another 2.5 hours! That’s after my bedtime.

I decided it would be a perfect time to try a new Yoga class I downloaded that KathEats had recommended. I’m really trying to like Yoga better, not only for the relaxation benefits, but in hopes it will improve my flexibility and in turn improve my running. The class was called Gentle Hatha Yoga and is perfect for beginners. I’ve taken yoga classes before at my gym, but I always have felt funny; like I’m not doing the poses correctly. I very much enjoyed taking the class at home. There is a pictorial guide with the poses if you aren’t familiar with them, but Jackie, the instructor, is very descriptive. Best of all, the 20 minute class is free to download and they have tons.

By the time my yoga class was over, I was getting pretty hungry and decided the power would not be on anytime soon to make a hot dinner. So cold cereal and a small peanut butter sandwich sounded only slightly appealing. We keep our heat set very low (66 F) and I was already chilly…it finally dawned on me the hot water heater is gas and still works. So I enjoyed a nice hot bath by candlelight. I even found the salt scrub in the back of my bathroom cabinet…now my arms, hand, feet, legs and chest are perfectly smooth! The bath did the trick in warming me up too.

Now that I was finally relaxed and settled down with my book, Twilight, that I have not been able to put down. I knew it was getting good and honestly just a little scary. I know it’s a teen love story, but really…vampires, night time, attacks and darkness here. I put it down and started blogging! Good thing I downloaded Windows Live Writer yesterday so I could do that and upload my post when the power was back on! One more reason I love this thing.

Just as I was halfway through this the power came back on! I’m still sitting by candlelight with the tv off as I finish this. Sometimes it’s nice to be forced to relax…even if your idea of relaxation isn’t the same. I’m pretty sure I’m more relaxed now after a hot bath with candles, reading, yoga than I would be with the internet and tv!

Happy Friday!

Hello From Windows Live Writer

This is more like a test post than anything. Today I discovered Windows Live Writer and hopefully it will make it easier to post and add pictures. Which means more posts, recipes, pictures and fun updates from us.

If you have a blog, you definitely need to download this. It’s super easy and quick to set up, within 10 minutes of downloading the program I had set up a profile and it found my blog.

Other things I love so far:

• No waiting for the Blogger, Wordpress, etc websites if they are slow. This is a desktop application and essentially uploads or publishes your blog post to your host website.
• A much larger space for blogging rather than the small tiny window that blogger offers
• The drag and drop feature for pictures. No more individually selecting and uploading pictures one by one…

Only two more days left in the week…after this week, I’ll be ready for a nice relaxing weekend. Hopefully we’ll have a few updates and pictures that are blog-worthy since my little sister, Lillie, is having her 6th Birthday Party on Sat. And we’ll be cheering on the Carolina Panthers in the NFL Playoff game Saturday night.

Enjoy the rest of the week and Windows Live Writer! I’m freezing with the winds whipping outside…some Sleepytime Tea sounds so perfect, plus it really does make me sleep better!

A Little Work...A Little Play!

As usual with the New Year, I'm in an organizing mood after the dreaded thought of de-Christmasing the house. Plus, we've been in our house for 8 months and are finding out how our routine works with where things are placed. I've already sorted through my closet, so this weekend we organized the garage. Everything finally has a place and there are different zones on our built in shelves for each specific task...grilling, yard/gardening, tools and sports equipment. While everything was drug out, we swept and used the blower in every nook and cranny to get it really clean. Let's see how long this lasts!

Once the garage was complete, we pulled down all the boxes for the Christmas decor from the attic. We collected all the decorations and organized them as well. We decided not to take down our tree since it's still perfectly fresh and we are still enjoying it so much. We'll officially finish de-decorating next weekend once we take down the tree...but for now we're those people!

Of course the weekend wasn't complete without a little play, especially with some of our new things we received for Christmas. Saturday, Ben's friend Chris, who was just accepted for a Beer Master program in Chicago and Munich, came over for a little celebration of helping Ben brew his next beer. My parents gave Ben a turkey fryer to use for brewing, so it was quite interesting to see the new process. I very much enjoyed my house not smelling of wort! If you're interested in his process, check out his blog: Jamm'n Brews. His next batch is a Double Scottish Ale!!



After a much need grocery shopping trip, I spent most of Saturday engrossed in Twilight...falling in love with Edward Cullen. And today we started off the rainy morning by making pancakes on our new griddle.

I also used my Williams-Sonoma Chopper and my Dutch Oven to make a big pot of chili. It's sitting on the stove cooking now, but it smells wonderful. Since Christmas Day, when we missed a chili dinner at Ben parents, he's been craving chili. We found a 5-star recipe from Cooking Light that includes a bottle of beer. We used Ben's home brewed Cinnamon Oatmeal Stout! I hope it tastes as delicious as it smells.

Smoke's Chili (adapted from Cooking Light)

2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
2 pounds lean, ground beef
3 cups chopped green bell pepper
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1 (12-ounce) can tomato paste
1 (12-ounce) bottle beer
2 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, drained
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
3/4 cup low-fat sour cream
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese

Heat 1/2 teaspoon oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add half of meat. Cook 10 minutes or until browned; remove from heat, and drain. Repeat procedure with 1/2 teaspoon oil and remaining meat; set aside.

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in pan over medium heat. Add bell pepper, onion, red pepper, and garlic; saute 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add chili powder and cumin; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add meat, sugar, and next 5 ingredients (sugar through beer); bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes. Add beans, and simmer, uncovered, an additional 40 minutes or until meat is tender. Serve with sour cream and cheese.

Note: To freeze, cool chili, and place in an airtight freezer container or a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag. Freeze chili up to 3 months.

UPDATE!! The Chili was a success in our new DK Clay pasta blows from my parents! It had an interesting flavor that was very complex...lots of spice and a little sweet from the brown sugar. You couldn't really tell it was made with beer, but I guess knowing it's in there is good enough. It was very very filling and I'm going to freeze half of what we have left for dinner in a few weeks. I'm pretty sure this will become our standard chili recipe with a few modifications.

I'm off to spend the rest of the evening with Edward Cullen!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We hope you had a wonderful 2008 and had fun celebrating New Year's Eve!

Ben and I celebrated New Years Eve with 3 other couples. We had an abundance of food & fun! We ate dinner at Maggiano's, Family Style, and surprisingly 8 adults were able to quickly decide on two of each appetizers, salad, pasta, entrees and desserts within a reasonable amount of time. The food was delicious as always, and I always overeat, but I guess that's what New Year's Resolutions are for!


After dinner, Tara and Rick hosted us to watch the ball drop with champagne and of course an impromtu beer tasting. They had just gotten back from NJ and picked up tons of beer that you can't buy in NC. What better way to ring in the New Year...with good beer and company!


Looking back, 2008 was a great year for us. We bought our house and made it our home, took a few little weekend trips and vacations with family, celebrated our 2nd Anniversary, Ben graduated with the first part of his degree and started the second part at ECU, and of course all the time we were able to spend with each other, family and friends!

In 2009, we're looking foward to seeing the economy improve a little and beef up our savings, complete the backsplash and microwave addition in our kitchen, being apart of my college roommate, Stephanie's wedding in May, possibly a trip to Seattle and enjoying the small things in our lives that make it so great!

Christmas Toys!

Late Friday evening after one more celebration my Granny Dot's house, we made our way to the beach...thanks to our new GiGi the Garmin for getting us here!

Saturday was a beautiful spring like day at the beach and Ben started the morning off putting together his bike. By noon, we all headed out for a bike ride and rode for over 30 minutes. It was a little scary getting back on a bike. I doubt either of us had been on one in at least 10 years! But it was fun and we're looking forward to using them more.


We built up an appetite on our bike ride and returned home for cranberry turkey sandwiches. My mom, Amanda and I all received a Williams-Sonoma Professional Chopper for Christmas. We weren't sure if it'd slice tomatoes, but evidently it does not! The tomato squished every where and half way across the dining room to the living room!


Our afternoon was spent doing shopping round #1. We got some great deals on Christmas decor at World Market for 75% off and then went to Target. We found light garland, wrapping paper, tissue paper for next year, and a few more bike accesories and a running shirt for Ben. We stopped by Green's Beverage on the way back for a beer run and I finally bought a bottle of Firefly Iced Tea Vodka that so many people have been raving about. We enjoyed a glass of this with lemonade prior to dinner...wow...this stuff could be dangerous. I'm glad I limited myself to just one! It'll make a perfect summertime drink.

Christmas Celebrations

Beginning Christmas Eve, Ben and I started our celebrations with family. Over the past few years, we've started a tradition and get to spend special times with all of our families. On Christmas Eve we headed to Sanford for gifts, Candlelight Service at Church, and our special dinner. We received so many great gifts from my parents and sisters and can't wait to "play" with them all!


Ben and I woke up early Christmas morning! I'm pretty sure when we have kids, we'll be just as excited as they will be. Ben did a fabulous job of gift giving this year...he really set the bar for future gifts! We gave each other bikes for Christmas, but in addition to that he filled my stocking with Godiva truffles, Itunes & Starbucks gift cards, 2 bottles of rare beer, a silver monogrammed book mark and a beautiful pearl and diamond pendant necklace. He also gave me new pj's, books, and accessories for my bike.


From me, Ben got a few new dress shirts, lounge clothes, accessories for his bike, Godiva truffles, Breckenridge Christmas Ale, a few gift cards, boxers, and tons of candy. We love shopping for each other and all the surprises. Even Freddie got a few surprises too...a new Chew-Proof bed from Orvis and some treats!


Our second celebration was held at our house, Brunch, with my mom and brothers. I made the usual Creme Brulee French Toast, fruit with dip, bacon, sausage, and my mom and Amanda brought an egg casserole and sweet danishes. We also enjoyed Christmas mimosas! I love tradtions and hosting everyone at my house really puts us in the Christmas mood.


After another round of gift giving, we headed to Ben's family Christmas Swap. With so many people in his family we do a Secret Santa and it's always fun to see who has each other. We enjoyed more food and great company with them. Hopefully, we'll see them at the beach this week too!

All in all, we've had a wonderful Christmas. We're so appreciative of all the gifts we've recieved and love them all. We love giving gifts and shopping for each person too! We're headed to the beach for much needed relaxing after a crazy few weeks of the normal holiday stress.