Ice Cream AND Pie

I've got a special treat for ya'll today! (Look at me being all Paula Deen-ish.)

It's a peanut butter pie. No.

It's an ice cream pie. No.

It's a peanut butter ice cream pie. Oh yes!

This summer dandy combines some of my favorite flavors: peanut butter, chocolate and ice cream.

Picnic-Ready Potato Salad

It's been pretty hot around here lately.

I know, it's summer in the south so it's bound to be scorching.

You know it's been really hot when 85 degrees feels cool.

Counting Beans Doesn't Have to be Boring

I've been doing a lot of budgeting lately.

And I've actually enjoyed it.

I think it's fun figuring out the cheapest way to cook meals and make leftovers last for a few days. I think the challenge of not just eating out every day makes life much better (also cheaper) and healthier.

Booya!

Lately we have been eating a lot of black beans in our meals because they're such a cheap, easy and tasty protein.

Chicken Nuggets in Style

I hated my college cafeteria.

The food was seriously gaumy and bad. The carpet always smelled weird and it was always really loud and packed with people.

I prefer to dine in a more quiet place with a few people so that I can have conversations with those around me.

It was nearly impossible to do this in the caf.

Thank goodness for the salad bar and cereal or I would have wasted away at college.

Anyway, there was one meal that I got excited about in the caf: chicken nuggets and mac and cheese!

Mom's White Bean Hummus

I don't know if I mentioned it here on the blog, but my mom is one of my biggest culinary inspirations.

She has always been the absolute best cook I know.

She's always trying something new and she's not afraid to get the kitchen dirty while doing it.

Whenever my dad and mom first got married they lived with my grandmother (my dad's mom) for a little while before they got a house of their own. Since Penny (my grandmother) wasn't a cook, she and my mom worked out a deal. My mom would cook dinner and Penny would clean up. 

The story goes that many nights Penny would say that she didn't know whether to clean the kitchen or just burn it.

I definitely feel that way sometimes. But no matter what the kitchen looks like, my mom's cooking is absolutely worth any amount of cleaning.

Grown Up, Goat Cheese Dessert

I absolutely love looking at other food blogs.

It's so fun to see the different way that food bloggers cook and photograph various ingredients. And I love using recipes from other blogs.

Birthday Cake With Tang

We had a birthday at our house recently.

My husband, Jason, turned 24 on Tuesday and I made sure that we had a few parties to celebrate his wonderfulness!

On Tuesday, I made him a birthday dinner of filet mignon (ok, so he cooked that part), bacon-wrapped asparagus, goat cheese mashed potatoes and an incredible dessert of goat cheese custards with red wine berry sauce (these will be up on the blog soon).

Easy Hummus

One food that I discovered during my time in England was hummus.

There were always two flavors of hummus (regular and Moroccan) at my little grocery store in Oxford and I always had a package in my fridge while living there.

Hummus is a perfect, healthy, creamy dip. I love it on pita or pita bread, tortilla chips, raw carrots and as a condiment on sandwiches.

Almond Shortbreads

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I had a wonderful culinary gift delivered to my door a few weeks ago.

My own retro blue Kitchen Aid stand mixer!

I have been wanting one of these mixing magic machines for quite a few years. And finally I was able to combine some wedding gift cards with some cash to get one.

Perfection in Baked Chocolate Pudding Form

I love to eat, bake, cook, read food blogs and constantly try new recipes.

You would think that I would be a cookbook book queen, right?

Well, although I have quite a few a cookbooks that I have bought or been given over the past few years, I rarely ever use them.

True confession.

I haven't even cooked from my Jamie Oliver Cookbook. Eek-I know, it's awful. I'll get there someday, hopefully.

But, I decided to leap into my Ina Garten "Back to Basics" Cookbook and pull out a decadent and delicious dessert.

Eating and Drinking Through Napa Valley

Here's post two from our honeymoon adventures in California.

For the second part of our trip, we drove to the lovely and absolutely gorgeous Napa Valley to stay for a few days and visit some wineries.

It was amazing there. Perfect weather in the 70s, delicious food everywhere, breathtaking vineyards and some tasty wine.

Eating Through San Francisco

So Jason and I went to California on our honeymoon...and ate A LOT!
Here are some of the more delicious things we discovered in San Francisco. Get ready for lots of pics and for your mouth to water.

By the way, this was our view of Union Square form our hotel room. Love this city!

A Chip off the Old Kale

Everyone has that snack that they couldn't live without.

It's that pantry treat that curbs your sweet or salty craving.

For me, it's chips...tortilla chips to be exact.

I actually can't remember a time in my life when I wasn't munching on tortilla chips as a snack. Although they're not the worst snack, they're pretty salty and very addictive.

For a while I have been hearing about a new chip that's healthy and delicious: kale chips.

Bland Chicken Be Gone

Hello all!

Jason and I are finally moved into our new apartment and really enjoying getting into the swing of things.

Ok, so I still have one box to unpack, but I'm close enough for now.

We have been cooking dinner pretty much every night, which keeps dinnertime fun, a team effort and cheap. I'm proud to say that most of our dinners come in at under $5 a person! But I will probably enjoy going out to eat again soon.

Although it's nice to cook, it's always nice to be cooked for. When I wasn't feeling well this weekend, Jason cooked two homemade meals for me (including making his own pasta sauce from scratch). I'm very blessed.

A Real Housewife of Fayetteville

I've officially been married for over a week now...and it has been wonderful!

I'm already doing that lame wife thing where I can't hardly wait until my husband calls at 5 p.m. and tells me he's headed home from work. I know, lame! Although being an apartment wife (for now) was not my original plan, I'm enjoying the time to get organized and plan and cook delicious meals for my husband and me.