I'm Definitely Thankful for Chocolate Chip Bourbon Pecan Pie

This is my favorite pie and I have making it for Thanksgiving ever year for almost the past ten years. I remember the first time I made it. Right beforehand I had been watching Martha Stewart and she was making this pretty pie crust. Well, when my mom then gave me the task of baking the pie, I decided to give it a go. I remember being so proud of the way it turned out. In fact I thought my pie should be on the cover of MS Living, it was so pretty. Every year since then I've been doing the decorative leaves around the edges of my pies. This year I had to make the pies at my house, not my Mom's, so I used cookie cutters that were a little different, but I still think they turned out pretty. Below you'll find the recipe in case you want to try it this holiday season. I PROMISE you will LOVE this pie and it is well worth the hard work!

Reeves’ Thanksgiving Bourbon Pecan Pie

• 2 single pie crusts for a 9” pie, 1 to be rolled and fit into a low pie pan and 1 for outside decoration
• 1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 T flour
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar
• 5 eggs (4 for pie and 1 for the egg wash)
• ¾ cup corn syrup
• 3 T bourbon
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup pecans, broken into large pieces

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Melt butter and let it cool. Place pie crust into pan. Cut leaves or any other shape from the other dough. Place around the edges of the pie crust. (I make an egg wash to help the leaves stick to the edge of the pie crust and then at the end I also brush the tops with egg wash so it'll brown nicely).

Measure chocolate chips into the pie crust and cover them with the pecans. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine flour and sugar. Stir together until flour is evenly distributed.

In a large bowl, beat eggs and corn syrup.

Add bourbon and vanilla.

Add the sugar mixture. Stir well.

Add the butter, stir again, and then pour this mixture into the pie crust.

Bake in the lower 1/3 of the oven at 300 degrees for about an hour, or until set.

This pie can be made well ahead of time.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thankgiving!

Look - Emery likes Martha Stewart, too!

Gobble up your scraps this Thanksgiving!

My friend Emily Huband made an adorable applique turkey shirt the other week which inspired me to try some, as well. All the little cousins will be together this Thanksgiving so I thought it might be cute for them to wear matching turkey shirts on Thanksgiving morning. I've only tried a couple of things so far with applique on my machine, so I thought this might be a good idea for more practice.

First, I made my pattern pieces out of card stock for the feathers and body of the turkey. Afterwards, I cut all my fabric out and then did the same with the interfacing. I then attached the interfacing to each piece of fabric with an iron. Next, I cut some triangle beaks out and appliqued them to the bodies. Then I hand-stiched a few french knots to make the eyes. To attach to the shirts I started with the center feather and appliqued each one. Last step was to applique the body and then I was done! I started off using a tan/cream colored thread for everything but then switched to a brown thread for the bodies on the last two shirts - which i think look better. To applique things onto fabric I use the zigzag stitch on the machine and put the width of the stitch at 2.0 and the length at 1.0.

Simple Salad

I used to hate salads but lately I've been loving them. I think it's because I used to not put anything good in my salads because I was worried about calories and fat. But now that I don't worry about that and concern myself instead with making sure the foods I eat are not processed and natural, my salads are yummy!

Here is a simple, yummy salad I've been into lately. It's nothing new, but thought I would post it in case you were in a salad rut and needed an idea for something different. It's a great salad to get you into the mood for fall, too.

I call it my Fruit, Cheese, and Nut Salad (got the idea from Crisp's "Fruit Cheese and Nut" salad. Really good if you haven't visited it in Charlotte - www.crispfoods.com)

This is how I make it for just me:

Lots of baby spinach

One apple sliced (make sure it's organic - apples are one of the foods on the "must get organic" list)

Sliced red onion

1 oz. of cheese of your choice (I do whatever I have on hand - today it was Gouda)

Handful of nuts (I actually buy this "Omega Trek Mix" from Trader Joes which has pecans, sunflower seeds, pistachios, and dried cranberries)

For the dressing:

Salt

Pepper

Red wine vinegar (2 parts)

Extra virgin olive oil (1 part) and make sure it's the good kind since you're not cooking with it

Toss together and eat. See - told you it was simple.

My Panera

Yes, I LOVE me some Panera and I REALLY loved it when I was pregnant. I still go there pretty often and now they have this new "My Panera" card. Have you gotten one? If only they had this nine months ago! It's free and they scan it each time you order and pretty much every 2-3 visits you'll get something free. I've already gotten a free pastry, free bagel, and two free mochas out of maybe six or seven visits. Definitely pick one up when you go in next time and keep it on your keychain.

My First “Real” Coupon Experience

I got all of this for only $66!

I’ve always loved looking at the coupons in the newspaper every Sunday, but not until recently have I begun to save them. I’ve heard about those people who go into the grocery store and walk out with a basketful of groceries for under $10, but I’ve never understood how they do that. I talked to my friend, Emily, about it because I knew she did it and she gave me some good information and resources to help me with my couponing. I’m still a beginner but today I did my first real coupon shopping experience and it felt great!

Emily told me to just save all the coupons each week and write the date on the front page. Then when you see deals come up from the websites she gave me, you can go back and clip them. Honestly, I’ve been too lazy to just shop for the things that are on special, but I did go through them yesterday and clip all the coupons that were over $1 and less than $1.98 for Harris Teeters’ Super Double Coupon Week that has been going on this week. I don’t like to eat processed food so I just went though and clipped things I actually use: toothpaste, Fish Oil vitamins, Ziplock bags and containers, shampoo for Elton, deodorant, contact solution for Elton, laundry detergent etc. I then wrote down all the items I needed to purchase so I wouldn’t spend too long in the store.

It did take me a lot longer to find all the items and I was definitely thinking, “Do I really need all this stuff?” As I approached the checkout counter I was nervous about some of the coupons not working and looking “stupid.” (Those who know me know what a freak I am about things like that.) Anyways, she scanned all the items I got and the total was $155.82. Yikers! Then she scanned my VIC card and I got $25.31 marked off. Then came the scanning of the coupons. That was fun to watch! My total came down to $66.22. So… I saved $25 with my VIC card and $66 with coupons - pretty awesome!

To sum it all up, I’ll definitely do this again the next time they have a Super Double Coupon Week. I saved the coupons for under $1 for the Triple Coupon weeks because they only triple the coupons under $1 for that. The one thing I think I'll do differently next time is ONLY get things that are also on VIC special so I'm really getting the bottom of the barrel price for each item.

Happy Couponing!

Prosciutto, P-R-O-S-C-I-U-T-T-O, Prosciutto.

I bought prosciutto last week because I really wanted a prosciutto and fontina cheese panini. Since then I ended up using it in all my recipes this weekend because I had it and didn't want it to go to waste. So, to say the least, I'm a little "prosciutto-ed out," BUT I did have some really yummy recipes that I wanted to share with you all. Here are my four prosciutto recipes from this past week:

1) Thursday night: Prosciutto and Fontina Cheese Panini (see previous post)

2)Friday night: Prosciutto and Fontina Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I just butterflied our chicken breasts, wrapped some prosciutto around some fontina cheese and put it in the middle and then grilled the chicken on the grill pan for 5 minutes, flipped them and put them in the oven for another 5 or so minutes. Pretty good.

3) Sunday morning: Herb and Goat Cheese Scrabbled Egg Sprinkled with Prosciutto

This is a REALLY good breakfast recipe that I got from Ina Garten. I baked some prosciutto at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes and crumbled it on top of the eggs and served it with whole wheat toast. Really good! Definitely try the egg recipe - that's what was truly good about it, but the sprinkled prosciutto was a nice touch, I thought.

Here is Ina's recipe:

Slow-Cooked Scrambled Eggs with Goat Cheese

I didn't use the half and half or the butter (just sprayed the pan with some extra virgin olive oil) and I used thyme instead of the chives this time.

4)BBQ Chicken

I love trying a Tyler Florence Ultimate recipe and usually they are pretty complicated, but this one really wasn't so bad. I'd definitely do this recipe again. It's definitely a "weekend" recipe. I love spending time on a Sunday afternoon cooking a yummy dinner while playing Scrabble with my husband.

Here is his recipe and I used prosciutto in the BBQ sauce instead of the bacon.

The Ultimate Barbecued Chicken

I served it with this roasted potato salad which I really like and got off of food network a couple of years ago. It's a love it or hate it kind of recipe. Some people don't like the vinegar/mustard flavor in it, but I love it!

Ann's Roasted Potato Salad

Okay, folks. If you see prosciutto at the store and want to buy some you've now got yourself some recipes. Enjoy! Personally, I don't think I'll be eating any more for a while but maybe in a few months I'll get that craving again. I'm also pleased to say I learned how to spell it correctly after writing this blog. I kept wanted to put the u before the i. I'm ready for an Italian spelling bee!

Simple Supper

I really needed something different for dinner tonight and definitely something simple. Here's what I came up with and it was really good. Just wanted to post it in case you also need a simple supper idea for the future.

Proscuitto and Fontina Panini with Sauted Asparagus

Ingredients:

Whole wheat bread

Proscuitto

Fontina cheese

Basil

EVOO

Asparagus

Garlic

Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper for taste

For the asparagus:

All I did was chop up the asparagus and garlic and saute it in a little EVOO, toss in some salt and pepper and then sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top. So good!

For the panini:

Put proscuitto and fontina cheese and a few leaves of basil on the bread, spray a little EVOO to it and press it on a grill pan. Also, really good!

Enjoy!

My Happiness Project

I’m sure a lot of you have heard of “The Happiness Project.” I found out about it last fall and was intrigued enough to put Gretchen Rubin’s blog in my Google reader. Since then I haven’t looked at it much but a post the other week grabbed my attention and afterwards convinced me to buy the book.

What was this post? I can’t remember the exact details but it was a list of “heuristics” or rules of thumbs she had written for herself to remember when she needed to make a decision.

For example, here are a few of her heuristics:

• Whenever possible, choose vegetables.
• Exercise every day.
• Try to attend every party or event I’m invited to.
• “Yes” comes right away, “no” never comes.

In this post she was re-examining her rules, which then made me wonder what rules of thumbs I would create for my own life. Well, I haven’t come up with that list yet and I don’t think I’ll have it anytime soon, but I have decided to read her book this year, one chapter at a time.

After reading the introduction to this book I learned this book is not for people who are depressed, which is great, because I know I’m not “depressed” and actually consider myself a pretty happy person. This book is more about making your life better. You only have one so why not make it even better, right? The idea is to consider ways in which you could improve habits/rituals in your daily life and to focus on one aspect of your life at a time throughout the course of a year. Rubin dedicates each month of the year to one quality she wants to improve and the idea is your habits will change within that month which you would continue as you began to work on another aspect of your life. If this works, think about where you will be in a year!

I read the first chapter the other night. Rubin decides to spend the first month on “boosting energy.” Her list of traits to work on for this month are to exercise, sleep more, de-clutter, and tackle the nagging items on her “to do” list. All of these things sound like qualities I’d like to improve. My hope is to get into the habit of actually tackling the things I need to get done around the house instead of letting them nag me for months on end. I want to actually find the energy to get my “to do” list accomplished this month and it’s a long one.

So… yesterday I woke up excited to tackle something. As I sat up in bed and looked around the room I noticed how frustrated I was with my husband’s clothes. They were piling out of his drawers and we had a slew of his button-down shirts hanging from our bedpost instead of on hangers in the closet. He also was complaining about not finding an undershirt and pair of underwear and asked if there were clothes in the dryer. Nope. I had done all the laundry the day before so I knew he had those things somewhere – he just couldn’t find them. Right then I decided what I was going to do that morning. I had been telling myself that I was going to get him to tackle this task on the weekend himself, but every weekend has come and gone. I realized this was never going to get done unless I did it myself. Plus, it was probably bugging me more than him. Well, I have to say, it was a lot less work than I had predicted and I felt GREAT afterwards. I also noticed what a better mood he was in when he came home that evening and found all his clothes organized.

I decided to write about this on my blog because I know I’m going to want to share the things I organize this month and now you’ll know why and where I’m coming from. If anyone else wants to do this with me and dedicate this month to boosting your energy, I’d love to have someone to chat to about what you’re doing. Again, it’s just about making your life even better.

Now I’m off to change the air filters and take all the clothes I decided my husband didn’t need to a donation center. By the end up this month I’m expecting my house to be de-cluttered and organized which I know will boost my mood each day.

I hope you all find some energy to tackle something on your “to do” list today. If not, there is always tomorrow.

Migas!

I was about to make a healthy pot of oatmeal for breakfast this morning until Elton proclaimed he wanted migas. I had most of the ingredients already and I even had a jalapeano that grew in my little herb box that I was excited to use. This is not a healthy breakfast whatsoever, but it is pretty good if you like Mexican food. There are lots of different recipes out there but here is how I make mine.

Ingredients to have:

Corn tortillas

Flour tortillas

Vegetable oil for frying

Jalapeano

Onion

Bell pepper (I used a red one this time)

Eggs

Mexcian cheese

Salsa

Cilantro (optional - I didn't use this time b/c I didn't have any)

1) Chop up corn tortillas for frying. Fry the tortillas and drain. (When I did this I thought about Michael Pollan's rule in his "Food Rules" book which is "make your own junk food" and told myself I was going to fry my own tortillas chips from now on b/c it's so easy and they're really good!)

2) Chop onion, bell pepper, and jalapeano and saute in extra virgin olive oil.

3) Meanwhile crack eggs and break apart for scrambling.

4) Add egg to skillet.

5) Add corn chips you fried and cheese to egg scramble.

6) Broil your flour tortillas.

7) Serve like tacos (put egg mixture in a flour tortilla and top with cheese and salsa).

Enjoy!

Emery watching her mamma make migas.

One bouquet - Four arrangements

I love fresh flowers and I always find some reason to treat myself to a bouquet every week or two to put around the house. I notice how much my mood improves when I look up and see fresh flowers as I hang around the house. What I do is buy one big arrangement for $10 or less and then I split them up among many vases around the house.

This is my FAVORITE vase and I love putting flowers in it each week. They are giant medicine vases. I found this at an antique store in Charleston, just around the corner from where I was married.

Another arrangement for the coffee table.

Another one for the hallway.

Another one for the bathroom.

All of this for only $10! Definitely worth it in my opinion. One day I'd love to grow my own garden and be able to pick flowers from my yard. Mason and Brady (my dogs) are keeping that from happening right now but hopefully in a couple of years they'll be too old and tired to dig up my plants.

Take advantage of the summer fruit!

With all that great fruit out right now here are two ways to incorporate it into your meals:

1) Strawberry and Avocado Panzanella

This is basically my panzanella recipe which I seriously make every day for lunch, but I’ve been swapping strawberries for the tomatoes since strawberries have been in season and it’s REALLY good!

Here’s what I do so you don’t have to go looking for the recipe on my previous post:

Mix all of the following in a large bowl and then serve.

For one serving size:

1T chopped red onion
1 slice whole wheat bread*, toasted and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 roasted red pepper or poquillo pepper (from a jar), chopped
1T sun-dried tomatoes (jar with oil), chopped
½ ripe avocado
3 mozzarella balls (the little small balls), quartered
1 glove of garlic, chopped
Chopped fresh strawberries (I usually use about 5-6 depending on the size)
3-4 basil leaves, chopped (I LOVE basil!)
1-2T balsamic vinegar
1T extra virgin olive oil (use good quality since you’re not cooking with it)
Salt and pepper to season

It’s really good and I just keep all the above ingredients on hand so I can have it for lunch whenever I want. It’s very filling and healthy!

*Oh, one thing I learned from my friend, Cecelia, who loves to freeze EVERYTHING, is to put your bread in the freezer and then pop it in the microwave for 15 seconds to defrost it and then pop it in the toaster and you’ll never notice it was frozen. (Why I didn’t ever know to do this before, I’m not sure – guess it’s because my parents never did this so I didn’t see this process growing up.) This is great for when you buy whole wheat bread that hasn’t been processed b/c it tends to go moldy REALLY fast.

2) Watermelon Tomato Salad

My mom found this recipe in Southern Living a couple of years ago and we tried it and it was REALLY good. Here’s a link to the recipe online. It’s a great way to put some of that watermelon to use.

Hope these two recipes inspire you to put more fruit into your meals this summer. If you have any other great recipes, I’d love to hear them.

Food Rules

Yes, in my opinion food does RULE! I love food. In fact I think about food ALL THE TIME!
The "Food Rules" I'm talking about today, though, is the title of Micheal Pollan's book. I ended up purchasing it last week because I had been eyeing it for months. The reason I hadn't bought it before is because you can basically read it and get all the information you need right in the bookstore, but I decided I wanted to have it as a reference book at home and it really wasn't too expensive. Anyways, I've wanted to write about it for two reasons: 1) I've been taking on some bad eating habits lately and I need to head back towards the lifestyle of eating like I used to do which focuses around the ideas in this book and 2) I want to share the ideas in this book in case you hadn't heard of them because they seriously changed my life for better.

Some quick background info about me and food for those of you who don't know me: I used to be a HUGE "dieter" and my weight has fluctuated up and down ever since I started dieting in high school up until about a year and half ago when I adopted the ideas in this book. Throughout those 10-15 years I would jump from the "no carb" diet, to Weight Watchers, to even a diet I named myself called the "WWGD Diet" which stands for "What Would Giada Do?" and is named after Giada de Laurentiis from Food Network. Anyways, what I FINALLY came to realize about a year and a half ago is that dieting sucks and I was sick of consuming all my free time worrying about how many calories, fat grams, sugar, etc. I was consuming (and yes, I was seriously OBSESSED!). At this point in my life I decided I was going to eat what I wanted, as long as it was natural, meaning no preservatives, and I was not allowed to think or even look at calories anymore. Well, that was probably the best decision I've ever made because once I did that I began to relax about the foods I ate but was surprisingly still able to ENJOY what I was eating. On top of that, I lost the last five pounds I had been wanting to lose without even trying and had a healthy pregnancy where I only gained 20 pounds and lost all of them seriously within one week of having my daughter. Yes, that REALLY surprised me! So... if you're like the way I used to be and are jumping from diet to diet or always thinking you need to lose 5 more pounds, you might want to check this book out. It seriously could change your life when it comes to food and make you a happier, healthier person without a lot of sacrifice.

So here's a quick summary of what this book is about. Michael Pollan is the guy who wrote "Omnivore's Delemma" and it all about not eating processed foods and eating foods that are organic and natural. This means you can eat REAL cheese, REAL butter, REAL chocolate chip cookies (if you make them yourself, of course). No more Lean Cuisines, "spray butter" and baked chips. You can eat anything you want as long as it comes from the ground and if it's not, then as long as it doesn't have more than 5 ingredients listed on the product and you can pronounce and recognize it as a "real" food. Yep, it's that simple!

In his book he divides his "rules" into three parts: What should I eat?, What kind of food should I eat? and How should I eat?.
I highly suggest you check this book out the next time you see it at the bookstore. Like I stated above, you technically can read it within 10 minutes so you don't even need to buy it, but it's nice to have as a reference.

I'm going to leave you with a few of my favorite rules, which may intrigue you to read more:

*Eat only foods that will eventually rot.

*Don't ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap.

*Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

*Have a glass of wine with dinner. (YES!!!!!)

The two hardest rules for me?

*Eat slowly

*Always leave something on your plate

The most important rule in my opinion?

*Break the rules once in while (This one is HUGE! That means, yes, you can still have french fries every once in a while or have more than one glass of wine every once in a while, and even Dairy Queen once in a while. Just make sure it's not more than once in a while. He says in this book that some people choose to have treats on days that start with the letter "S" which I think is a great idea. Having what you consider as "treats" two days a week instead of seven makes a huge difference!)

Hope this has intrigued some of you to check out this book. I highly recommend it.

Happy Eating (because eating IS one of the best things in the world)!

A good summer wine

I found this wine at Trader Joe's last month and have found myself buying it each time I go as my preferred choice of white. I think it's great for the summer. I love white wine in the summer and red in the winter. This one is even made from organic grapes and it's less than $5. I'm not good as describing wine, but if I gave it a shot I'd say it's light and fruity.

Why didn't anyone tell me?!

EMILY GIFFIN HAS A NEW BOOK OUT!!!

Emery and I were browsing around Barnes and Noble with my mocha frappucino light -b/c that's what we like to do when we are bored- and I was noticing that Jen Lancaster has a new book out (who I personally can't stand). I thought, "When is Emily Giffin gonna come out with another book?" Then as I exited the elevator upstairs I saw her name on top of a book like all of her others, although this time the book cover was purple. I thought, "What?! Purple? None of the covers of her books are purple. This must be new!" I then read the title and realized it WAS new. Why didn't anyone tell me?!

Okay, so I've never been a big reader, but I can't get enough of her books. They are really easy to read and extremely entertaining. (FYI - I"m sure all of you Emily Giffin fans know this, but they are currently making a movie out of "Something Borrowed, Something Blue" starring Kate Hudson and Gennifer Godwin.) So, yes, this is probably the only author that I've read all the books of and have LOVED every one. The Barnes and Noble store patrons definitely saw me jump up and down and give it a hug when I found it.

Once I get off this computer to feed Emery and put her down for a nap I'm gonna pause on the other book I'm reading (which surprisingly I'm almost done with and decided I'm not going to abandon) and start this one. If it's like her other ones, I'll probably have it done by Monday. So...note to book swappers who read my blog: Make sure you're there next week at Monica's pool if you want a chance at getting it! For the rest of you, I'll let you all know how it goes. I really hope I"m not disappointed.

If you have no willpower, like me

I really lack willpower when it comes to consuming food. Last weekend I made my favorite dark chocolate chip cookies (recipe in blog - look for it - so good and semi-healthy) and I ended up eating probably 15 cookies within 24 hours. Today I made them again because I wanted to take some to a friend who just had a baby and came to the realization that I could probably freeze the dough for half of the cookies and save them for another time. I decided to scoop out the portions and freeze them on a cookie sheet.

Then I placed them in a tupperware container so now I can just take out one or two cookies, bake them, and not be tempted to eat a whole slew of them.

Now I'm wondering how I could do this with cake... I seriously had to throw out half of a cake the other month b/c I knew if I didn't I'd eat the whole entire thing by myself. (And yes, I'm not even pregnant anymore.) Could I make mini-cakes to freeze? Not so sure about that one...