I’ve really been reluctant to post this one because there are only two left and well, I want one, but here it is:
Yes, it’s the prettiest and cutest thing ever. Katie Vernon of Chipmunk Cheeks created it. Now go off and buy the last two, so I can spend my money on bills instead of art.
I’ve also had my eyes on this spring bear.
Isn’t he grand? From Lizzy Stewart.
Happy Spring!
Modcloth now sells some apartment furnishings a la Urban & Antrhopologie. Just like these stores – yes, it’s all over priced, and no, you’re not sure you really need it. Regardless, some of it is pretty cute.
This canister is the first in a whole line of kitchenware in this design.
How heartwarming are these two lovers?
If the light emitted from this lantern is anything like the picture, it will be a cozy addition to my cabin-style home.
For the Grater Good - hedgehog cheese grater. I would feel guilty every time I used it.
Strangely, there wasn’t much cute cat stuff. I did find these Meow for Measuring Cups.
These shoes from Seychelles.
Cast Iron Dutch Ovens
A bath with lush products, like Dragon’s Egg.
Furniture made with reclaimed wood (and that rug!)
What about you? What are you in the mood for?
On our final day we headed over to the insectarium. Where we looked at bugs for two hours.
And where Ryan ate bugs, because he’s gross.
Actually, because I made him, so I could blog about it.
But he was being tricky and wouldn’t pose. So all of the pictures came out blurry, like this one.
So I could only give you pictures of the food.
The insectarium has a live butterfly room, which is terrifying. They fly around and can land on you without a moment’s notice. I didn’t take pictures. I was too busy running for cover. The woman working was sure to remind me that butterflies are completely harmless to humans. Tell that to the heart attack I almost had.
Also, butterflies like to eat eggplant. There were slices of eggplant on serving dishes and the butterflies piled high on top of them.
We had to check out of the hotel, but we stopped by the Garden District before we left. We just went for lunch, but I really regret not spending a whole day there. We chowed down at Cafe Abyssinia, an Ethiopian restaurant.
Yeah, it was delicious. You eat it with your hands. Tallahassee doesn’t have Ethiopian food, so whenever I leave town I always seek it out.
Do yourself a favor, and if you’ve never had Ethiopian food, go out and try it. There’s nothing to be afraid of. And if your town doesn’t have any, just try something different. Swear off the chain restaurants (Chili’s, Pizza Huts, Subways) and American Grill-style food and try your local Indian, Middle Eastern, Vegetarian, Asian, whatever, as long as it’s ethnic and you’ve never tried it before.
Boring people eat boring food.
I feel like I only have a three-day period to cash in on the whole green food thing. This is a nourishing appetizer to chase away the green-beer hangover.
It’s a non-mayonnaise based spinach dip. I love dip. So does my boyfriend. Since our consumption of dip is at least weekly, I’ve had to resort to healthier options.
Healthy Spinach Dip
Ingredients
1 10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 medium tomato
1/2 cup basil
1/4 cup part-skim ricotta
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 tsp minced garlic
salt & pepper
Cavender’s Greek Seasoning
1. Defrost the frozen spinach in the microwave. If you want a cold dish, keep it a little icy. If you want a hot dip, heat it up.
2. Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender.
3. I added a few dashes of salt & pepper, and a little bit of Cavender’s Greek Seasoning.
4. Turn on food processor and blend until you receive a desired consistency. This can get really creamy or you can prepare it a little chunky. The one above was lazily done and is pretty chunky. I recommending processing it longer for a more creamier and dip-able consistency.
I ate it with cucumber slices. It tastes great with chips.
(image from purrlivia via weheartit)
Happy weekend! I plan on locking myself in my house and getting everything done on my to-do list. We’ll see how well that works out. What about you? Any plans?
Here are some links to get you through the weekend.
What a dream house.
A fun crocheted marius cover.
Apartment Therapy shows you how to turn your table into a work of art with their post on How to Tile a Table.
A basic zipper pouch tutorial, because you can never have too many zipper pouches.
This has to be one of the prettiest dress refashions I’ve ever seen.
J. Crew’s new swimwear collection is outstanding with many tasteful and adorable one-pieces. My favorites: here, here, here, and here.
Healthy and Sane rounds up the best breakfast ideas. Breakfast pizza? Count me in.
The cutest luau themed cupcakes. You can totally do these, they look too easy.
This bicycle wedding, how charming. Part of me sees my bestie doing this. Love you Leah!
And a special thanks to the Velvet Bird’s miracle toner recipe, which has saved my skin this week.
The beau and I woke up bright and early and were at Cafe du Monde around 7 a.m. There was almost always a line at Cafe du Monde, which is famous for its beignets.
They’re French-style doughnuts covered in a mound of powdered sugar.
I had mine with another menu favorite – cafe au lait.
After breakfast we headed about 45 miles out of New Orleans to the town of Abita, home of one of our favorite southern brews.
The town of Abita is smaller than my hometown, really, like no Wal-Mart. Yet it is home to the Abita Brewery and Tasting Room.
We took a tour, which lasted about an hour.
The first 45 minutes of the tour is all you can drink Abita on tap. Seriously. Open bar. Just walk up and help yourself.
Watch a little video on the brewing process, then take your drinks and walk into the brewery to take a look around.
It’s a little boring, because, well, brewing beer isn’t that exciting. It’s a lot of waiting and fermenting, but the tour guide gives you lots of interesting tidbits as he sips his own beer. Every employee we saw was drinking. They all seemed really happy.
Then you go back to the tasting room, buy some merchandise, top off your drink and hang out on the patio. Abita has a Save our Shores Beer, which benefits the gulf coast cleanup effort. Part of the video we watched also discusses Abita’s green initiative, which is pretty impressive.
We then headed over to the Abita Brew Pub. The building was their home when they were a micro-brewery. Since then they’ve had to move to a bigger building.
I finally snagged me an elusive Abita Strawberry. It’s seasonal and hard to find in Florida.
The boyfriend had a mixed beer drink called The Barney. It was Abita Andy Gator and Abita Purple Haze. A fine dessert beer.
Then we ate. Brew pub food is so great.
The best spinach artichoke dip.
a ruben.
and portabello sandwich.
I didn’t pass first grade. Well, at least the part where they teach you how to cut a straight line with safety scissors. How brilliant is this?
Laser guided scissors for those of us who make puzzle edges instead of straight lines.* What do you think? Do you think this will help you with crafts?
(Image from Think Greek, via mylifescoop.com)
*Note: Both of the sewing classes I’ve taken had to re-train me how to use scissors. I’m that bad.
I’m a southern lady and we believe in two things: sweet tea and frying. We even fry healthy things like zucchini. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day I made zucchini fritters. Not because they pertain to the holiday in any way, they’re just green.
You will need:
4 Tbs olive oil
1 lg. zucchini
1 lg. egg
3/4 cup of whole wheat bread crumbs
1 green onion
white pepper
garlic powder
salt & pepper
1. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Repeat after me: “I will not use more than 4 tablespoons of oil.” There’s no need.
2. While the oil is warming, use a food processor or cheese grater and grate the zucchini.
3. Chop the green onion
4. Beat the egg
5. Combine the zucchini, egg, bread crumbs, green onion, and spices (to taste) in a large bowl.
6. Using your hands, five small patties from the mixture. Mine were about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.
7. Place patties in the oil. My skillet comfortably fit about two at a time. Cook them on each side for about five minutes or until golden brown. Use medium heat. I’ve tried doing this with high heat oil and they fall apart.
I hope you enjoy!
New Orleans Day 2: aka The Foodies Eat and Drink Themselves Silly
We worked up quite an appetite after exhausting ourselves the first day in NOLA. We woke up and did some shopping. Then we embarked on our food adventure. Every website we referenced planning this trip mentioned the great food and told us to come prepared to eat. We ate so much this trip, I sort of got sick of food, which has never happened before.
Early in the day we headed over to Central Grocery for their World Famous Muffulettas.
(Those dead hanging fish were $80!)
The grocery has become super touristy, I couldn’t imagine being a local and shopping there. However, it is pretty much stocked with all sorts of Cajun spices.
The sandwich originated here more than a hundred years ago. Now you can find them anywhere in New Orleans. There is almost always a line, so we headed there around 10:30 a.m.
Ryan got a half order.
Look at that face. The face of hope, joy, and world peace…or possibly just the face of hunger. He always has this look when he’s around good food.
Muffulettas are famous for their olive salad mixture and Sicilian meats.
This particular Muffuletta was non-vegetarian, so we headed over to the Chartres House for my lunch. I had the option to get an eggplant muffuletta, but I’ve had muffuletta before, so I picked this instead.
Vegetarian po’boy. Holy cow. I’ve never had a po’boy before, but who knew tomato sauce and pickles would taste so good together. Ryan also ordered some local beers where were pretty good, but we never found out which brewery they were from and it’s not on their menu.
Here’s the view from the Chartres House. We were able to sit on the balcony and watch the street below.
We headed over to Bourbon Street, which was surreal. It’s hard to picture a street composed entirely of bars until you walk on it. I had one of their famous Hand Grenades.
This is a small. They’re usually served in this giant plastic grenade shaped cup. My rule of thumb for liquor is “don’t drink anything that glows.” This was a fun exception. They won’t tell you what’s in the hand grenade, but it was certainly some type of melon liqueur, which is my favorite type. You can get a hand grenade in only five locations in the world, all on Bourbon St. We got this at the Funky Pirate Bar. Ryan had some Abita beers, which you can find anywhere on draft in NOLA.
We went back to the hotel for a late afternoon nap and woke up to venture out to the Gordon Biersch Brewery & Brew Pub. We were able to sit at the bar, which has a view of the brewing room.
I had one of their brewed root beers, but it was so sweet I couldn’t drink it. They had a vegetarian menu, but it was new and the cooks were completely unfamiliar with it. They messed up my order twice. I did get a free meal from it though. Ryan had steak.
On our ventures we stumbled across the Louisiana Loom Works. Unfortunately, it was closed. I wanted to go back, but it never worked out. I did, however, want to feature it on my blog. They make beautiful rag rugs on their giant looms. You could see them from the street. They were all so beautiful. But what really caught my attention was cats, lots of them, all over the store. You can also see the rugs and kitties in their photo gallery.
