Coziest Love Nest

Friday, November 11, 2011

Christmas Ornament Exchange!

This year I am participating in my first ever Christmas Ornament Exchange! Sooo excited!

I am exchanging through Miss Mommy & YOU should too!

xoxo

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Another Gussy Giveaway!

Maggie over at Gussy Sews is doing another GIVEAWAY!

How SWEET is she??

Hop on over and enter away!

Monday, August 8, 2011

the start of birthday week

Birthday week is officially here!

And I started it off right...

Skinny Vanilla Latte and homemade zucchini bread.

Bliss.

one of my favorite birthday gifts ever

We celebrated Bushi Appreciation Day this past weekend.

Bushi Appreciation Day (BAP) is just a day when the whole family gets together
and celebrates our wonderful Grandma (better known as Bushi). Bushi is my dad's mom and throughout my whole life, being in their (Papa and Bushi's) home is one of my favorite places to be.

As kids, my sister and cousins spent countless weekends at their home and it soon became a tradition that on every visit we went to Wendy's, the dollar store (where we got to spend $5 on whatever we wanted - no rules! We LOVED that!) and then ordered dinner - usually either a pizza or chicken.

I can't say it enough, I am so grateful for the weekends at my grandparent's house.

Those weekends are my favorite childhood memory, hands down.

So this weekend, we all got together. Dana (my sister) made spaghetti, Brittani (my cousin) brought a salad, I brought zucchini bread and peach cobbler (I used fresh zucchini and peaches from the farmer's market, loved that).

Bushi and I got to talking and started talking about recipes and baking. I asked her if she had any recipes she loved and she asked me to go get a little yellow box out of her hall closet.
Inside were dozens of recipes, mostly handwritten or cut from old newspapers (so cute).

After going through them, she said, I could have them. I was beaming!

I love shared recipes.

Each time I bake a recipe that was given to me, I think about the person it came from.
So now, I have a good handful of recipes, straight from Bushi. That makes my heart happy.

And, it gets better...
Inside, was a handwritten recipe for lasagna...
from my mom's mom, Grandma Connie.
So now I have handwritten, original copies from each of my grandmas. :)

Friday, July 29, 2011

Target Birthday Haul = Weekly Favorites for July 29, 2011

So the big 3-0 is approaching.

Quickly.

But I'm ok with it.

So far.

And to help me be ok with it,

I got a little birthday moo-lah in the mail today.

And you know what that means...

Hello Target & Starbucks!

Birthday Haul:

Sweater - Mossimo - $19.99

Tank - Long & Lean - $8

Men's slippers (size xs) - $6.48 - Clearance!

John Mayer's Battle Studies - $9.99

Make up sponges - $1.79

Hair dye - $3.89

Starbucks Iced Vanilla Latte, 2 Sugars, please ;) - $4something

Couple side notes:

1. Who knew iced vanilla lattes would be a million times better with 2 sugars??

2. I know the JM cd is old news, but I went from loving (like obsessed) to hating (like loathing) to loving him again in the past few years.

AND, as if this could get any better...

It is currently drizzling, I am blogging and reading blogs, JM is on in the background, my latte is still icy AND...wait for it...Kennedy is NAPPING.

Ahhhh...Heaven.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

3 Ingredient Vegan Oreo Truffles

A few years ago, my sister (aka Sissy) started breaking out in hives, throwing up, migraines, etc.

After several (like, 100) trips to different specialists and even a handful of trips to the ER,

she was finally diagnosed with an allergy to dairy.

Which means no more cheese, milk or ICE CREAM :(

Poor Sissy.

Not many people know what to avoid when cooking for someone who is allergic to dairy and often make mistakes that could threaten my sister's life...pretty big deal in my book!

And even if you do know, often times vegan food can come out

bland, dry and flavorless.

Not exactly adjectives that anyone would want used to describe their dinner,

much less their dessert.

So, I am bound and determined to find recipes that she will look forward to eating.

Recipes that make her speechless instead of uttering "oh, that was thoughtful of you"...which she is so grateful when people go out of their way to make an effort, don't get me wrong.

But I want to make her tummy happy, not just full.

So, in comes the 3 ingredient vegan truffles.

{...oh, she is vegan, too...more on that later}

And even if you don't eat a vegan diet, these truly are yummy.

Even my husband likes them, and he isn't exactly pro-vegan...or is he?

Ingredients:

2 boxes, possibly even three, baker's chocolate (semi-sweet is vegan)

1 8oz container Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (even though two is pictured, I was making a double recipe)

1 box of Oreos (which are vegan, crazy, huh? Again, 2 are pictured b/c I was making doubles)

Tools/Supplies Needed:

Large bowl (love these white ones from Kohls's Food Network Line)

Large Ziplock baggie

Meat mallet (ironic, since this is vegan and all. ;))

Ok, let's get started. First, allow your husband to steal an Oreo. :)

Next, place all your (remaining) Oreos in your baggie.

Think of all the things that have driven you crazy, stressed you out, caused boob sweat...and hammer away on those Oreos using your meat mallet.

Take your 8oz vegan cream cheese

And dump it in your big bowl.

Mix well and it should turn out looking like this:

If not, eat the whole bowl and start over. :)

Next, melt your baker's chocolate over LOW heat. Be careful not to scorch your chocolate or it will be useless.

Roll your Oreo mixture into little balls

And dunk them into the melted chocolate

Assemble the little balls of goodness onto a cookie sheet

And place in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour before serving.

I wish I had a pretty picture of the completed dessert, but they had to be packaged up and sent on their way to my sister's before I got to snap a pic.
But trust me, they are DELISH.
Enjoy!