Trying my hand at scallops!

Today I made scallops for the first time!

Mark and decided for dinner to have some grilled shrimp, so while I was at the store buying them I saw some fresh sea scallops. I LOVE scallops, but always thought they were above what I could make. I decided to try my hand at it. I have to say I really impressed myself. I googled how to cook them and here is what I did...

1) Sprinkle some sea salt onto both sides of the raw scallops. 

*From here on all steps need to happen together. Make sure you are about 5 min. away from serving dinner.*

2) Heat up 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of vegetable oil on the stove. You want to make sure the oil and butter get really hot. If you put your scallops on and they don't sizzle then the pan is not hot enough.

3) Once you put the scallops in the pan you MUST let them sit for around 2 min. Do not move them to look at the bottom. During this step I also spooned some of the butter on the top. I think that it really increased the flavor. *This is a suggested time based on large sea scallops. You might need to scale the time depending on the size.*

4) Check the bottom of the scallops. If it looks nice and bronzed like the above picture then it is time to flip the scallop over. Let cook for just 1 more minute. The sides of the scallops should still be soft. 

5) Let the scallops sit for around a minute to allow them to finish cooking. Then serve!

Note: A perfectly cooked scallop should be caramelized on the outside, but once you cut into it should slide through like butter.

While making these I had this cute little boy patiently looking on. I think he thought I was making something for him. ;)

We added some shrimp and peas to make a wonderful meal.

This was my first time cooking them and they turned out wonderful. I was very pleasantly surprised. I will for sure be making these again!

Enjoy!!

2nd Anniversary... Part 2

In my last post I mentioned that since it is Mark and I's 2 year wedding anniversary we are celebrating 2 times. Mark was in charge of last Tuesday, which was our actual anniversary. It was a wonderful date to Eddie V's. Today was my day of planning. 

I gave him his present on Tuesday which was a date each month for a whole year. The first one he opened was April, that is when he found out what we were doing for today. 

As I was doing some research trying to figure out what to do for our date I ran across some interesting information. The traditional gift for your 2nd anniversary is cotton, where the modern take is a gift of china. So keeping with the theme of 2 I decided to embrace both. 

For cotton we went and got a massage. I know it isn't a literal meaning, but I was thinking cotton/something cozy. I thought a massage would be nice and relaxing. So we went to Massage Envy. It was a nice place and we both came out feeling relaxed. Definitely some place we will go back to.

For china I decided to go a touch more literal. The website I was looking at suggested buying another place setting to our wedding china. While I am not apposed to that idea, I thought that wasn't very fun. So I needed to find something else. Now Mark and I LOVE food. All kinds from a dive to fine dining, we love to try everything. So I decided on a chinese restaurant. I searched on open table and came up with Yao Fuzi Cuisine. The food was delicious, it really brought up your traditional chinese food. We both really enjoyed ourselves and our meals. I just have to say that has some SERIOUSLY delicious curry calamari. 

So thus ends the celebration of our 2nd wedding anniversary. It was a great time and we both really enjoyed planning our separate date and surprising each other.

2 Year Anniversary... Part 1

Today Mark and I have been married for a wonderful 2 years. It is surprising to me that it has been that long. It honestly feels like just yesterday. It has been a great 2 years.  We decided that since it has been 2 years we would celebrate 2 times. So Mark was in charge of tonight, our actually anniversary.

First I received these beautiful flowers at my office.

Then we exchanged gifts. He got me a really pretty light pink pearl necklace. I gave him 12 months of dates. 

I thought this would be a fun gift, and something different. I feel like even though our lives aren't super busy right now, we sometimes forget to have romantic or fun dates. We go out to eat, or we go to a movie, but it normally is about the same. I think this is going to be a year full of fun. Plus he has something to open every month. The gift that keeps on giving.

Then Mark took me to Eddie V's! Mark and I first went there last August for Restaurant week. We love fine dining and like to take that chance to find nice places that we really like. We enjoyed it so much and knew we wanted to go back. It was a nice surprise. 

We had a great waiter and everyone was very nice, coming over to wish us a happy anniversary. They even gave us a wonderful dessert. We had Banana Foster Cake. It was amazing.

When we came home we lit our wedding candle.

My parents got us this candle for our wedding. It is a family tradition to get your wedding invitation turned into a candle. My parents have one as well and light their wedding candle every year on their anniversary. We hope to keep up the tradition.

Keep the spark alive! ;)

That concludes part 1 of our 2 year wedding anniversary. Come back this weekend to see part 2.

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter! 

Baby Shower Gift...

About a year ago a good friend of mine had her first baby shower. I was so excited for her and her new venture in life. I really wanted to give/make her something special for this momentous occation. After some thinking I decided on some fabric blocks that spelled out her new daughters name. I got the idea from my friend Biz that makes wooden blocks for friends. I figured if I made them in fabric then a baby could play with them.

This is what I came up with for Madeline:

Sorry I don't have step by step pictures. These were made before I started planning for a blog.

They turned out so well.... and my friend was super excited. 

This is the picture she sent me the other day.

I am really glad these blocks are well liked and being used.

If you would like to make some blocks like these I found this website with instructions.

http://www.sewfun.com/2009/11/04/how-to-make-perfect-fabric-baby-blocks/

A quilted carrot for my painted bunny...

I have started to put out my Easter decorations since it is now March and came across a super cute ceramic bunny I painted back in 2006. This year I thought a cute quilted carrot would go with him, so I set out to make one.

For this project you need:

7 assorted designs or orange fabric (I used the pre cut fabric quarters and had PLENTY of fabric.)

1/4 yard of orange fabric for the backing of the carrot

1 green fabric quarter

1/4 yard of felt or another stabilizing fabric.

You want to make sure you iron the fabrics before you start cutting. This will help you keep control of the fabric.

Now cut your 7 assorted design fabric into 1 inch strips. I used a rotary cutting tool to help me with it. It was my first time using the tool, I would highly recommend using it. It was very efficient. 

I cut out only 8 strips of each design. It was more then enough. Of course the larger you want your carrot the more strips you need to cut out.

After you have cut out all your strips you can start to sew them together. Make sure you sew the fabric design side together. This way when you turn it back around the seam is on the bottom and the design side of the fabric is up.

When you are finished you will have a long row of fabric that you can cut the carrot out of. 

After I sewed the fabric together I sketched out a picture of a carrot and the stems on paper. This allowed me to get the size and shape just the way I like it.

From these designed I cut out the paper and used the newly created pattern to cut out the stabilizing felt for both the carrot and the stems, the green fabric for the stems, and the orange fabric for the backing of the carrot. After you have all designs cut out you want to sew the respective portions together.

I sewed the stems onto the carrot and then added a trim around the carrot to hide the unfinished edge of the fabric. 

With that my bunny has a lovely quilted carrot!

Weddings, Weddings, and more Weddings

I love a good wedding. I love watching how happy the bride and groom are. I love all the details and thought the couple have put into planning. I love how a wedding reflects the couple and their style. I love the creativity. Most of all I love the cake!  :)

In the last 2.5 years Mark and I have been attending around 6 weddings a year. I know it is a lot, but I truly love seeing all my friends so happy. The last 2 weekends have started our list of weddings for this year.

March 3rd was our good friends Laura and Wes.

Unfortunately I didn't really take pictures for either wedding, so I am borrowing them from friends and facebook. These are curtsey of Alex.

I was a bridesmaid in Laura's wedding. Although I could tell at times she was a little stressed with all the details that go into planning a wedding, she was so happy. You could really see it as the day of event progressed.

Ceremony

It was fun being a bridesmaid. I even got to be escorted but our friend Matt. Alex - I got to walk down the isle with your husband too ;) Haha.

Mark and I. I just really love this picture.

Cake cutting

Matt and Alex. (As I mentioned earlier Matt was a groomsman.)

It was a good night and both Laura and Wes seemed to be having the time of their lives.


Last weekend, March 10th, was my childhood friend Calissa. We traveled to Cincinnati, OH to join in the festivities. She married Michael who, although I don't know well and have only met a few times, I think is REALLY great for Calissa and just seems to be the perfect man for her. The only thing I can say is just how very very happy Calissa was. She was literally beaming. I am so happy for her that she was able to find such a great man and wish her all the best in the feature.

Here are some borrowed pictures from her wedding....

First kiss as husband and wife.

The happy couple!

They were just so happy all night. I am glad I was able to help her celebrate this joyous day!

So there is the first 2 weddings of this year. Only 3 more to go... that I know about right now. ;)

Like I said before I just love weddings. Most of all though I love seeing my friends and family so happy on their special day!

Oh How I Love My Bird Dog!

As I have mentioned before, Mark and I have a one year old chocolate lab. He is just one of the cutest dogs in the world. Labs are known as hunting dogs.... specifically bird hunting. They normally are trained to flush out birds and then retrieve them. They are also well known water dogs, they love to swim. So it is a interesting display of domestication how sometimes the natural characteristics of an animal can change when put into a different environment. This was never more apparent as it was today. When I let Dutch out for lunch this is what I saw....

Three ducks had landed in our back yard. Dutch of course immediately noticed them and alerted me with a bark. (Such a good guard dog.) What he did not do is run after them chasing them off. In fact the ducks just kept on keeping on after noticing him. Only when I tried to get closer to get a better picture did they fly off. 

Perhaps in the feature these guys will be friends.