Making Me Smile...

Here are a couple of things that have currently been making me smile...

Cute popsicle dish towels that I picked up from Crate&Barrel at the end of this spring.

So, I made this take on chocolate covered pretzels a few weeks ago and Matt and I loved them - they're the perfect amount of salty + sweet and they're so easy to make. I call them Chocolate Pretzel Twists, but you can call them whatever you would like...

The ingredient round-up

Place a chocolate kiss in the center of each pretzel and then bake for a few minutes.

After baking for 2-3 minutes at 275 degrees, they'll come out with the chocolate all shiny and melted like this.

Next, place an M&M in the center of the chocolate on each one

And once they're cooled, they will look like this. Ready to taste!

These are soooo simple to put together! I made my own variation of these cute little things, but here is the "recipe" I very casually followed.

This is a super easy treat to make and there are so many varieties to make. I used tiny twist pretzels, but just use whatever you like or have around. You don't have to make any certain amount, just make however many you would like to! I just filled up my baking sheet. I did not grease my baking sheet (that did not sound like the best idea to me), I just lined mine with parchment paper and they turned out perfect.

I chose to use dark chocolate Hershey Kisses, but you can use any variety. I also, used a combination of regular milk chocolate M&M's as well as peanut butter M&M's. The peanut butter were our favorite. The combination of the pretzel, dark chocolate and peanut butter was perfection! After assembling them, I let mine cool for at least a couple of hours in the refrigerator before trying them. We really liked them straight out of the refrigerator, so we continued to store them in there in a sealed container and they were delicious! Mmmm!

oxox,
lauren

New Year, New State

Hello! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!

We went down to Florida to spend Christmas with my mom and two sisters and we had a great time! We all had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you did too! We came back to Atlanta to celebrate the New Year and Matt and I had a wonderful dinner out at Pricci (one of our favorite restaurants in Atlanta) to celebrate and it was delicious.

With the New Year brings some big changes for us. First of all, we're moving to Nashville, TN! My hubby got a great job opportunity there and now we're relocating. Matt and I have been a whole three times in our entire lives, two of which were for his interviews and one to house hunt last weekend. It's been a whirlwind. The whole process began back in the beginning of October! They brought us over twice for him to interview, and then made him an offer right before Christmas and he accepted a few days later! Whew! So far I know where the two best malls are (sounds a bit lame, but one of the days he interviewed for nine and a half hours and I was by myself all day wandering around Nashville, so, yes that is how I spent my time alone!), some great restaurants, cute shops, Vanderbilt and that is about it. Last weekend we had a tour of downtown Nashville and the surrounding areas so we learned some more about the city. It is going to take a little while. We are very excited for this change in our lives! It is always a bit intimidating to move to an unfamiliar city and also in our case, an unfamiliar state, but 99% of the people we have spoken to about Nashville really love it and we think we will too!

So, back to December when this became official, I surprised Matt with a very nice dinner. I cooked him a porterhouse steak, and that was the first time I have ever cooked steak in my life! I went to a butcher in Buckhead and bought a 1 1/2" thick porterhouse and used an epicurious recipe that you can find here, if you would like. I cooked these mashed potatoes as a side dish along with asparagus. I bought some rolls that he did not even touch because the steak was the size of a basketball and he had two side dishes to go along with that...it was a lot of food, but I had planned out the whole menu and bought the ingredients before I got to the butcher and saw how enormous the steak was! I was so nervous about messing up the steak, but Matt promises it was the best steak he ever had! I feel like I set the bar a bit high though, I mean let's be honest, I am not going to be cooking him porterhouses on a regular basis here! My husband is definitely a meat and potatoes kind of guy and he had a permanent smile on his face that whole meal. It was so fun to see how excited he was...I mean, he was giddy...I am not kidding!

I told you it was a lot of food! The steak was huge! He ate the entire thing though, just not all of the mashed potatoes and he could not eat any of the bread (understandably)!

Mixed cherry tomatoes are not really in season, so I just used all red, but I don't think Matt had a problem with that!

This is now my husband's favorite meal and he talks about this darn steak a lot!

I don't eat steak, so I had chicken instead. I have to say that the mashed potatoes were really good, if you're looking for a new recipe you should try these.

Well, we have a lot going on! It looks like we are headed back up to Nashville tomorrow to continue our house hunt (we did not find a place last weekend) and we're keeping our fingers crossed that we find a place because Matt starts his new job in the middle of next week!

oxox,
lauren

Better than your average apple a day

One of my bff's, Catie, sent me a sweet and thoughtful "bag of random" (that's what we call it because it's a bunch of random little goodies) a couple of weeks ago! Catie is such a dear friend of mine and we always have the best time together! Well, in this particular "bag of random" she included this super delicious recipe for Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bread!

Ummm. hello. YUM. :)

This recipe rocks! I made it two weekends ago and Matt went through that loaf of bread so quickly it seemed as if he was scared a "bread thief" was going to break into our home in the middle of the night to steal the bread away from him! He absolutely loved it, and so did I! This bread is great for the Holidays, would make a wonderful hostess gift and is perfect to whip up when expecting company!

So, imagine my sweet hubby's delight when he gets home today and opens the door to the amazing smell (this bread smells sooooo scrumptious, but Warning: it will make you hungry!) of this yummy bread baking in the oven...he is going to be one happy man!

The prepared batter almost ready for the oven

But first, a sprinkling of cinnamon/sugar and oats on top

Ta-da!

Mmmm...soooo good!

Here is the recipe for Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bread if you would like to bake some up yourself...

Equipment needed:
Stand mixer with paddle attachment
9x5 loaf pan, lightly coated with cooking spray
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 ounce quick oats (about 1/3 cup) *plus more for sprinkling on top
2 eggs
1/2 granny smith apple (cut into small chunks)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (bleached or unbleached)
1/2 cup raisins, or nuts (or both if you prefer)
cinnamon/sugar mixture to sprinkle on top
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In the bowl of the stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light & fluffy
Mix in the applesauce, cinnamon & oats
Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well each time
Stir in the apple chunks
Fold in the baking soda and flour just until the dry ingredients are incorporated
Add the raisins and nuts, folding gently
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and sprinkle cinnamon/sugar and oats on top
Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean
Remove from loaf pan & cool on wire rack
Enjoy!

*I chose to add both the raisins and the nuts (my go-to is pecans) in mine and it's delicious!

Thanks again for this tasty recipe Catie...i have a feeling this one is going to become requested pretty frequently around here! Love you dear and I can't wait to see you soon!!! :)

oxox,
lauren

Yumm...cheesecake!

About two and a half months ago I baked my first cheesecake. I baked the marvelous Barefoot Contessa's (I just love her!) Raspberry Cheesecake and I used her Raspberry Sauce recipe to top off each slice. I was intimidated by this at first, but it actually turned out really well! I made the cheesecake the day before Katie came up to visit back in June so that Matt and I could share with someone! Kidding, I really made it for Katie! The cheesecake itself is plain, but the recipe calls for one tablespoon of freshly grated lemon zest which makes it a little lemony and different! I used Mrs. Ina's raspberry sauce recipe (if you watch her show she makes this sauce all the time) which the cheesecake recipe did not include, it included another kind of raspberry sauce. Katie, Matt and I really enjoyed the cheesecake...it was a big hit!

Here is the finished crust

2 1/2 pounds of softened cream cheese and 1 1/2 cups of sugar

The creamed, light and fluffy cream cheese and sugar

After all the other ingredients have been mixed in

The finished cheesecake

The beginning of the raspberry sauce

The sauce, after being cooked down

Smoothing the sauce out in the food processor

This sauce is soooo good!

The finished product

I garnished the cheesecake with fresh raspberries and grated dark chocolate...mmmmm!

If you would like to make one here is the link to the cheesecake recipe and here's the link for the raspberry sauce. Try it...it's delicious! And surprisingly easy to make!

P.S. Well, as you may know, I am a southern girl and in the south we love our college football! Needless to say, Matt and I are soooo excited for the kickoff of college football this weekend (actually it kicks off on Thursday, but our teams (Alabama- me and Georgia Tech- him) don't play until Saturday!)) Yay! We are so ready for this long and fun-filled weekend!

oxox,
lauren