Christmas Trees

This morning Kara and I popped a few cities over to check out some Christmas Trees.

For the past few weeks I've been buried under loads of homework and haven't been able to enjoy the holiday season. Now that finals are done, I'm ready for mulled wine and Christmas carols!

"O Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree..."

Anyway! First things first... run through all of the trees.

It has been raining nonstop, so it was a bit muddy, but in the 'mud'st of beautiful greenery, it isn't an issue.

There were some large ladies that cost a pretty penny....

And a plethora of shorties waiting for their sprinkle of Christmas magic.

To our surprise, there were 50 kids on a field trip which made for a fun game of "hide behind the trees."

Some hide better than others...

Finally after much deliberation, we found the perfect tree!

But didn't quite have enough room in the car...

Our noses were starting to turn pink so we moseyed into the gift shop where homemade syrup and jelly lined the walls.

I think I'm feeling the Christmas spirit now!

Galentine's Day!

It's such a shame when you don't have a Valentine...

Unless you have a bacon rose.

Just kidding. I'd like a bacon rose and my crush to like me back.

Today, though, is Galentine's Day where you get together with your... you guess it! Gals!

The wind was gusting at roughly 94 miles per hour, so the streamers became part of our outfits.

 

Mom arranged these beautiful flowers!

We had some brunchy foods: a donut topiary, quiche, obviously bacon roses...

Then it was time for dessert! Pink Velvet Trifle, served by darling Rachel.

Being the weird human I am, I figured we needed a little game- "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not"! Basically it's the Bean Boozled game, where there are two identical jelly beans, one is barf flavored and one is peach, or lawn clippings and lime, dog food and chocolate pudding... you name it, they got it. We'd pop one in our mouth, and if we got the bad flavor, "HE LOVES ME NOT!!!!"

Thankfully we washed them down with some bubbles.

Surprisingly, we ended up getting a valentine after all!

Naturally we had to dance our food off. Kara, your hair?

I had such a fun time. Big thanks to Mom and Dad for helping a girl out. And actually, a gigantic thanks to my Dad for BUILDING THE ENTIRE DECK AND PERGOLA WITH HIS BARE HANDS HELLO. It's beautiful- thank you for providing a lovely location for Galentine's Day!!

Missing Summer

"You always want what you don't have."

This is true for me when it comes to the seasons. In the depths of summer when my hair is a ball of damp frizz and lotion rolls off my legs with every bead of sweat, I picture a crisp winter day. Conversely, when it has been chilly for a few weeks, I long for bathing suits and watermelon... and a beach in SoCal.

Let's daydream together for a bit?

King Cake Galore

So Mardi Gras is just around the corner... A lot of people are really quite excited.

I think the whole "Mardi Gras" scenario dives so deep into the Cajun culture, of which I try and stay in the shallow. Sue me, the food is tasty but the accents make my throat hurt.

Thankfully, I found a little Mardi Gras-ish activity that was perfect for me- a King Cake Taste-Off at The Grove. I brought my trusty sidekick Lexi and we got to tasting!

 

There were at least 15 different places to taste from and luckily we were third in line :)

There was even a king cake flavored snow cone from Kona Ice!

A boudin stuffed king cake with pepper jelly... hellur!

 

Cheers!

We had such a good time. Thank you for putting it on, Sulphur! Let's do it again!

Tia Tuesdays

Tia Tuesday should be a weekly thing, I think.

 

There's a "new to me" restaurant downtown, Tia Juanita's. I have been roughly 74 times since I found out about it though. I keep hoping the next time I go, I will find out they're ready to serve brunch!

The style is quite off the wall and unique! I love the ceiling and blue wall if I do say so myself.

 

Karla got the shrimp tacos.

 

The salsa threw her into hysterics. I almost floated off of my chair from the flood of tears. I think it caught her in the back of the throat, but catch it on your tongue and the flavors will make you want to salsa.

I had the shrimp bread bowl which was cheesy and shrimpy goodness.

I think had we gotten there a second later, there wouldn't have been a place to sit. The place is always packed!

We ate until there wasn't any room left and decided to take a stroll by the water to walk off our lunch! It was a beautiful day.

On that note, have a firey day (from Karla's hair to yours)!

Looks Can Be Deceiving

Well, Happy New Year! I've been working but being out of school has been quite joyous. I got a Kitchen-Aid Stand Mixer for Christmas and I have been itching to use it! I knew the first thing I was going to make in it was brioche bread. I made it last Christmas by hand and about every recipe I read said that to make the perfect brioche you must use a stand mixer. My bread was quite dense last time so I didn't make it again until last night. I used a recipe I found on Pinterest.

But what's with my title, you ask? Well, the color of the bread isn't the issue. I like just about all things in life uncooked. Bread, cookies, cakes, biscuits... well, maybe just bread products. Bring me a moo-ing steak and that's a no. The problem is her Majesty (me) forgot to add the butter to the bread dough until I had already beat the living yeast out of the stuff. So basically it was doomed from the beginning. I figured it shouldn't have made too much of a difference. Lol.

The bread has roughly the same texture as couch foam. There is no light airy brioche texture at all. Also, I was at church during the baking process and I left Mom in charge. She followed my directions but unfortunately I wasn't home to make the judgment call that my uncooked bread literally wasn't finished cooking. There was still a rather large raw portion which I didn't know until I cut into the other butt.

Things went awry, but I'll give it another try. I knead more practice.

Also, don't you love little brothers who don't understand the life of a blogger with one reader? They just don't know what it's like trying to get "the shot".

^Screen-shat from my brother's snapchat.