Menu Monday

Monday:

I had a JL event so I made a frozen pizza when I got home.

Tuesday:

Spicy Baked Shrimp

Salad

Rolls

Wednesday:

General Tso's Chicken

Steamed Veggies

Rice

Thursday:

Leftovers

Friday:

Dinner Out

Barefoot Contessa Dinner Party

I decided to have our friends over for dinner on Friday night. I had some new Barefoot Contessa recipes that I wanted to try and some that I already love.

Here is what I made:

Linguine with Lemon Shrimp Scampi

Garlic Bread

Green Salad with Homemade Vinaigrette

I added carrots and tomatoes

Brownie Pudding

I served it with vanilla bean ice cream

All of these recipes were good but the Brownie Pudding was super amazing!!

Thoughtful Thursday

Meal Plan Monday

Sunday:

Cashew Chicken

Steamed Rice

Steamed Veggies

Monday:

On Our Own

Tuesday:

Roasted Chicken (picked up at the grocery)

Cranberry-Avocado Salad with Candied Spiced Almonds and White Balsamic Vinaigrette

Wednesday:

Using leftover shredded chicken to make Sweet Chili Chicken Salad

and Sweet Chili Dressing

Thursday:

On Our Own

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Friday:

Hosting a dinner party...recipes coming in their own post!

Saturday:

We have a birthday party....leftovers or pick up a pizza

The Kitchen Reveal

I am so excited to finally share our big kitchen reveal to y'all! To refresh your memory....this is what we started with... a regular outdated galley kitchen.

 

 Joe and my brother did the demo and this is what was left.

 They took out the wall that divides the kitchen and living room.

And here is the final result. We did this kitchen on somewhat of a budget. We got the Viking cooktop/hood, microwave and wall oven off Craigslist...score!! Without that I would have never been able to afford Viking appliances. The granite is "absolute black". The hardware is all Martha Stewart special order from Home Depot. 

 I love the farmhouse sink and faucet.

 The pendant lights came from Restoration Hardware. The rug is Dash and Albert. 

 We found this antique butlers pantry at my favorite local antique mall and Joe refinished it and painted it. We had them cut some granite for the top and replaced the hardware to match the rest of the kitchen. Joe also added trim to make it look like it matched the rest of the kitchen.

We also got the chairs and light fixture from that same antique mall. We spray painted the chairs and aqua blue...love them!

 Here is the view of the kitchen from the living room. The stools are from World Market. I LOVE how open everything is now!!

So there you have it. In my wildest dreams I never thought I would ever have a kitchen like this. Luckily we found a house that needed a new kitchen!! It was so fun (and a little stressful) to pick out everything and make all the little decisions. I am so happy with the finished product and I LOVE cooking in my new kitchen!!

Weekend Wrap Up

 

We were all under the weather this weekend at Casa del Moske so our weekend was very low key. 

 

We met some friends for a yummy dinner on Friday night at Las Delicias (the BEST Mexican in Memphis!). I crashed early and had the chills all night....not cool!

 On Saturday we did some things around the house, got a Redbox and a pizza and called it a night.

 On Sunday we slept in, made breakfast and once again hung around the house. Joe worked on the bench in the mudroom. 

I painted the chairs for the kitchen table.

I made Cashew Chicken for dinner (yum!!) and we watched another Redbox....so scary!! Why do I do this to myself??!!

Sally cut her first tooth on Thursday and has been kind of fussy all weekend. Poor baby!!

Thoughtful Thursday

Fun With Pain KIllers

LOVE this video!!!

Sally's First Christmas

We had a whirlwind of a Christmas. Our house was covered in an inch of dust (thanks kitchen remodel) and we barely had our decorations up by the 25th. This year I had to scale back quite a bit so that I wouldn't go coo-coo bananas. Next year we will go all out...but Sally had no idea what was going on this year so it didn't really matter. 

First of all...Sally LOVED the tree. She loved the lights. She loved cookies (yes I let her have a bite). She also caught on pretty quickly how to tear the paper off her presents. 

We went to Christmas Eve service at Hope and it was beautiful. After wards we went over to my Aunts for Christmas Eve festivities....opening presents for the kids, Dirty Santa for the grown-ups, and lots of yummy food.

Joe and I came home and put Sally to bed....taking time to read The Night Before Christmas ;)

Later we wrapped Sally's gifts and set up the stockings. We had a disagreement over whether or not the Santa gifts should be wrapped or not. When I was little we would walk in and see a pile of our stuff and it was so exciting. Joe, on the other hand, had all his gifts wrapped. What did y'all do? We agreed to leave one big gift unwrapped and to wrap the rest.

On Christmas morning we all slept in and then woke up and had some snuggles in the bed.







 

Look at that belly....I could EAT HER UP!!

My dad came over to film Sally opening her gifts. She crawled right over to her Zany Zoo and started playing with it. 

Sally's Christmas gifts from Mommy/Daddy and Santa

Santa was good to me as well. Check out my "loot".

My stocking stuff:


  

My gifts from Joe: Coach bag, blazer, house slippers, Tory Burch wrap bracelet and cupcake ornament. I also got a custom built closet....pictures coming soon!!






Joe's stocking stuff. His big gift was a wet saw....I didnt take  a picture of his other gifts....boo!

Then we went over to my dads for Christmas breakfast and to open more gifts. Later we went to my other side of the family's house for more Christmas fun!

My cousins and I...we all have little girls...Carol Hannah, Sally and Emma Claire!!

Sally and Emma Claire


All in all in was a great Christmas!!! It was magical to see everything through Sally's eyes....so many new things to explore. Next year will be even more fun!