End of Wedding Season

Well as you have noticed all summer I’ve been running back and forth between Haymarket and Richmond for various things, including lots of weddings!  I’m about to head home from the last wedding of the summer and this is my last trip to Richmond in the immediate future (not counting having to come down for a student teaching orientation because thats just for a couple hours).  Its sad that I don’t have any immediate plans to see my friends down here, they will just have to come up and visit me!

Anyways- Thursday night I headed over to Sara’s for dinner and Project Runway!

Sara made a hummus kind of dip made from edamame

And a spinach dip in endive leaves

And the most amazing tarts ever- puff pastry, parmesan, onions, goat cheese, tomatoes, basil, and more parmesan!  They were so delicious!

And of course it isn’t dinner at Sara’s without a cocktail!  Limoncello, sparkling water, blueberries, and mint leaves!  Yummy!

Everything together!

And a roasted artichoke salad!

 

Sara with all her delicious food!

After dinner we started watching 3 hours of Project Runway!  It was pretty fierce- I loved the All Star one and I’m glad that Daniel V won- he was always one of my favorites!  And I love all the new people on this new season, I was way impressed by all their first designs!

 

Friday there was mass thunderstorms, so besides a quick run back to campus to pick up a copy of my graduation application that my undergrad advisor had messed up and had to fix I mostly lounged around Maggie’s house with Corbin while she was roadtripping it down to Charlotte to see the Jonas Brothers.

For lunch I had a new Bunny Butts item!  Annie’s Cheesy Ravioli, I was pretty impressed with this and would buy it again!  Its like Chef Boyardee meets Spaghettios.  Its a cheese ravioli with a spaghettio like tomato sauce.  Yes I am a kid at heart- thats why I am going to teach elementary school.

I also snacked on some Haagen Dazs Brown Sugar ice cream- aka the most addicting ice cream ever.  The best thing about this ice cream is that it has only 5 ingredients and they are all straight forward things you would expect in ice cream- nothing sketchy about it.

Dinner was an Annie Chun’s Noodle Bowl- I didn’t bother taking a picture because I’m sure everyone knows what they look like by now.  I pretty much live off them when I come down to Richmond because the only way to cook things here at Maggie’s is in the microwave!

Saturday was Amy and Nathan’s wedding!  Amy is one of my friends from VCU and Nathan is one of my best friend- Ashley’s- brother.  In the five years I’ve known Ashley she has been forever trying to marry off her brother to one of her friends and it finally happened!  yay!

Of course I took pictures of the food- here are the hors d'oeuvres we had while the bridal party was taking pictures in between the ceremony and the reception.  The marinated mushrooms were probably my favorite!

Here was the food at the reception- my favorite thing was they had a make your own pasta thing set up.  In front of the pasta they had set up basil, mushrooms, and various other things that I can’t remember, that you could add into your pasta!  It was super cute!  Also they had chicken which looked like it would probably have been pretty good if you liked chicken.

And there was lots of catching up to do with old roomies and friends! 

Me and Kylin!

 

Ashley, Me, and Courtney! (Ashley is the groom’s sister who succeeded in marrying him off to one of her friends!)

I already miss these ladies!

And what would the wedding be without the cake-

We started off with a tiny piece of chocolate cake

Then noticed that they were cutting another layer that was strawberry so we may have sent Carlos (Courtney’s boyfriend) up to get us some strawberry to try.  The strawberry was definitely my favorite, I always forget how much I love strawberry cake!

After the wedding Maggie and I went to hang out with Sara because she was pet sitting!

I want a puggle!  This was probably one of the cutest dogs I  have ever seen.  After hanging out with Sara and the dogs (there were 2 others) for a while Maggie and I headed to the mall to get some food.  Maggie wanted the cheap chinese mall food but they were closing so there wasn’t anything left.  I wanted a parmesan pretzel because I really wasn’t that hungry from all the food I ate at the wedding but I felt like I needed something.  However they were closing too and they couldn’t make me a parmesan pretzel so I had to settle on an already make cinnamon sugar one.

Then Maggie and I proceeded to have a Zac Efron night watching 17 Again and then High School Musical 3.  It was pretty fantastic.  Now I’m about to go have another Annie Chun’s noodle bowl and then head back to Haymarket.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Baked Tortellini

Well I am in Richmond at Maggie's for the last time of the summer. :( This week has been crazy trying to get my sister all organized and packed up! On Monday her and her friends did a scavenger hunt around Haymarket and Gainesville that I prepared for them! While they were gone I had a delicious breakfast of a Kashi waffle topped with 0% Fage and pineapple preserves. And of course some apple, beet, carrot, and ginger juice to go along side.

After they came back I tallied up their scores, declared the winner then ate the most delicious sandwich ever- tomato, basil, mozzarella, sprouts, and feta! YUM!!!!
And now that I am writing this blog I am realizing that I never actually ate dinner Monday night! I headed over to Leesburg to a bible study with a friend from VCU who has just moved back up to the area. We met at a Starbucks so I had an Apple Chai but no food food. Anyways the bible study was great and I'm so glad that I found an awesome group of girls nearby to have a bible study with! Also I found out the school that I will be student teaching at, but still no teachers or grade levels. The exciting thing is that in Fairfax they get early release Monday's so Monday's won't be as stressful trying to get from Fairfax to home then to Leesburg!

Tuesday I woke up nice and late and had some bunny butts for lunch. I don't have a picture but they were the Annie's White Cheddar mac and cheese with some tomatoes thrown in from the farmers market! Dinner was my baked tortellini- as requested by my sister for her last meal at home before college!
Baked Tortellini

1 lb tortellini- cooked
1 jar pasta sauce- whatever kind you like the best, this one was Newmans Own Fire Roasted Tomato and Garlic and it worked great!
1 tub mascrapone cheese (an 8-9 oz tub)
1/2 chopped parsley
2 cups feta
fresh mozzarella

1. Stir together the pasta sauce and the mascrapone until the mascrapone is fully incorporated into the pasta sauce
2. Add the parsley and half the feta and stir together
3. Add the cooked tortellini and stir until all the tortellini is coated with sauce
4. Dump everything into a 9x13 pan
5. Top with mozzarella and feta (I also usually add more parsley on top but totally forgot this time!)
6. Bake at 350 for about half an hour until the cheese is all gooey and bubbly!

Wednesday was move in day for Alicia! We stopped on the road and I got Arby's for lunch (the rest of my family got Hardees- so gross!) We also made a brief stop in Richmond to drop my car off at Maggie's since we were only allowed to bring 2 cars for move in day (one was my sister's that is staying down there with her). We helped her set up all her stuff, get her parking pass, and then left! By the time we got back to Richmond it was dinner so I took my parents to Palani Drive! I got another amazing quesadilla- Smoked Gouda and Veggies! I also subbed the rice for some more of that yummy tabouli!

Then I headed over to Maggie's! Today we both got up early and headed to campus. Today is the first day of class and neither one of us are taking classes this semester- I am student teaching and she has to do an internship- yet we both had to go to campus to get all that administrative stuff squared away! I met with both my advisors so I can graduate in December with my bachelors and masters. So now I've turned in my graduate and undergrad graduation applications and I'm all set to graduate! Yay! We met up with Monica for lunch and she swiped us into Shafer for some free food since she is a freshman! There were long lines everywhere so we all just got pizza because it was the shortest line. It was dining hall pizza, nothing to even warrant taking a picture of! However after lunch and my second advising appointment we went to the TT Lounge!
Oh bubble tea I miss you so much! I don't know why there is no boba tea place in Haymarket/Gainesville/ Manassas but there needs to be! I got a coconut milk tea and it was delicious and extra bobay! Now I'm back at Maggie's chillin for a little until I head over to Sara's for the Project Runway season premiere! And she is also making me a fabulous dinner, because as you should all know by now Sara is pretty amazing and always cooks awesome things (look a couple posts back at all the little cakes and everything she made for her birthday party)

6 Month Blogiversary!

Today is my 6 Month Blogiversary!!! I can't believe I've been blogging for 6 months!
This week has been and will continue to be insanely busy because my sister leaves for her freshman year of college on Wednesday! She is stressing out about all she has to get done before she leaves!She has been putting off doing lots of stuff and has tons of things to get done before that. I've spent all day today helping her finish up scrapbooks that were suppose to be her graduation presents to some of her friends. She also still has to write thank you cards for graduation presents and not to mention laundry and packing. Also tomorrow her and her friends are doing a city wide scavenger hunt before they all leave each other! My brother is also going back to school, but not until Saturday. They actually will be at the same college but freshmen move in is during the week and returning students are on Saturday. And boys don't have near as much stuff to do and pack as girls do- I doubt he has even thought about packing things yet!

Anyways we got some of our first tomatoes this week! They are mortgage lifters? Last year we grew a bunch of different tomatoes but they all got blight, so we were going to not grow any this year because the blight can stay in the soil, but my grandpa brought these back from Ohio when we went up for Memorial Day. So we are growing them in big pots instead of actually in the soil to try and avoid the blight. They are looking pretty good and are pretty delicious too!

I made a yummy capreseish salad with the tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, spinach, basil, topped with a balsamic vinaigrette.
And some Amy's chunky tomato bisque alongside!
I was really needing something sweet that night so I dug around in the freezer and found some Vita Brownies that I heated up and topped with some vanilla ice cream and some butterscotch!
The next morning for breakfast I used my neglected for too long juicer to make some juice! We have been out of one or the other ingredient to make juice for a long time and I finally got some apple, carrots, and ginger juice (we didn't have beets). And I finished off the end of the vanilla chobini with the end of the mango granola!

That was kind of my brunch because it was 11:30! After brunch my mom and I headed to Target with my sister to get some last minute college shopping done. We were in there for hours and by the time we were leaving I was starving. So I headed over to the grocery side (we have a Super Target which is the most amazing thing ever) and picked up some Vermont White Cheddar Artisan Wheat Things aka crack crackers. They are so addicting.
My mom decided she didn't really like them- she is crazy! So we drove through chick-fil-a so she could get some fries instead and of course we got peach milkshakes as well.
My mom and I did some more shopping, including grocery shopping at Wegmans! By the time we got home it was dinner time! My mom made chicken so for myself I made some Cous Cous! I found a box of Cous Cous at Wegmans that sounded similar to the Moroccan Cous Cous I made a couple months ago. I added some raisins and topped it with feta! I had some of my mom's mandarin orange salad on the side! It was a delicious dinner!



And I finally found Starbucks Ice Cream at Wegmans. I had a coupon for a free pint but they do not have it at Giant, I should have known my beloved Wegmans would have it!

It was pure bliss in an ice cream carton!

The next morning for breakfast I had some 0% Fage with pineapple preserves and apple granola. The one thing they did not have at Wegmans that they have at Giant is the mango granola!!!
Lunch was a delicious tomato, basil, mozzarella sandwich. These are probably my all time favorite sandwiches. We picked up some heirloom tomatoes at the local farm and they are the most amazing tomatoes ever!
I spent the rest of the day working on graduation applications! When I graduate in December I get both my bachelors and my masters because of the way the teaching program I'm in works. So I have to fill out two different forms, meet with two different advisors, etc etc. When we move my sister down to CNU on Wednesday I'm going to go to Richmond afterwards instead of back home. I am going to a wedding on Saturday and didn't feel like driving home and then back down there again (Richmond is in between our house and CNU). So I figured while I was down there I needed to go meet with my advisors to get all my graduation stuff squared away since I won't be able to once I start student teaching. All the paperwork was giving me a headache so I made some tea. I got some peach tea at Wegmans so of course I tried combining the two teas together. It worked out wonderfully and was delicious! Exactly what I was expecting the original one to taste like.

That evening my sister and her friends came over for a bonfire. We had hot dogs with watermelon on the side!
And then of course late we had smores! We have a fire pit in our backyard and usually make smores throughout the whole summer but this was actually the first time- and probably the last too!
This morning I ate a cherry pie larabar on the way to church. This was the last week in church with the whole family :( When I got home I made the best sandwich ever for lunch!
Tomato, basil, mozzarella, feta, and sprouts!! Holy yum!!!!!!!!

And for dinner we had BLTs. We have definitely been eating a lot of these over the summer! Its just the perfect way to eat all these delicious tomatoes!
And then for dessert was a brownie mousse cake!

Brownie Mousse Cakes are infamous in my group of friends in Richmond. It is like my signature dessert and I can't believe in my 6 months of blogging that I haven't made one yet! It is super easy, I could see this being on Semi Homemade with Sandra Lee because you use box brownie mix, can of frosting, and cool whip. All things that I would frown upon when baking many things because I am definitely a made from scratch is always better kind of girl. However this recipe was my absolute favorite dessert that my mom used to make when I was little and although I suppose you could make this more homemade with making your own brownies, icing, and using real whipped cream I never have because it is pretty amazing just the way it is! Also be sure to get the bigger size box of brownies- you know the ones that are made to be cooked in a 9x13 pan not a square pan. I had a coupon for free brownie mix at Wegmans and didn't realize until I went to mix them up that it was the smaller size so the "crust" part is a little thinner in my pictures.

Brownie Mousse Cake

15 oz brownie mix
1 can vanilla or cream cheese frosting
8 oz pkg cream cheese (softened)
12 oz Cool Whip
1 pkg mini chocolate chips

1.Preheat oven according to directions on brownie mix.
2.Grease the bottom of a spring form pan.
3.Follow the directions to make the brownie mix and cook it in the spring form pan
4.After cooking, let completely cool
5.Combine the frosting and cream cheese until smooth
6.Fold in the Cool Whip and about ¾ of the bag of the mini chocolate chips
7.Spread on top of the completely cooled brownie in the spring form pan
8.Top with the rest of the chocolate chips.
9.Refrigerate 3 hours before eating.


Well the rest of this week will be pretty busy helping my sister pack up then heading down to Newport News to move her in on Wedneday, then running around Richmond until Sunday! I'll try to blog in between all the craziness! Hope you guys have a great week and thanks for helping me get to the 6th month point in blogging!

Organized Mess

Well in my last update I just briefly touched on the weekend so we are going to pick up normal food blogingness on Tuesday night! So there is this BBQ place in Manassas called Hogs on the Hill which my dad and brother are absolutely obsessed with. They closed a couple years ago for remodeling or something that was suppose to be a temporary closing but they never reopened. Every time we go by them we would look to see if they were opened yet, but they never were. We had just about given up on them when my dad and brother drove by this weekend and they had a huge Grand Reopening sign out. So of course they brought home tons of barbecue and we've had several meals with it. Also it is run by an adorable Asian man (yes I know super random but they do make pretty amazing barbecue) and this guy actually recognized my dad, even after being closed for 2 years. They give you the plain pulled pork and both regular and hot bbq sauce for you to mix in to your own meat. So I made a delicious open faced sandwich on 7 Grain bread with a little of both of the sauces! Delicious! I don't know if i I would go far as my dad and brother to say this is the best barbecue ever but it is pretty delicious!
Yesterday was a wonderful day of sleeping in, which was much needed after the little amount of sleep I got in Richmond and babysitting the next morning I came back. So of course I skipped breakfast and went straight to lunch. My mom and I went to the farmers market on the local farm by our house and got some awesome tomatoes so of course my lunch revolved around those. Tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil from my basil plant!! (its still not huge but big enough to take a couple leaves off occasionally for sandwiches like this!), and a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar all on 7 grain bread. It was delicious! The only thing that would have made it better would have been some pesto, but I certainly don't have enough basil on my plant to make any pesto yet and I didn't think to buy any at the store!
For dinner my mom made lasagna. My mom was a stay at home mom and we use to get homemade lasagna and other meals all the time. I always took it for granted until she started working and stopped cooking all these awesome things. She started going back to school when we were all school age and actually graduated from college the same year I graduated high school and started teaching the same year I started college. Since she is a teacher she basically doesn't cook during the school year, which is why when I would come home I would always be able to cook and go to the store. Now that it is summer she has been able to cook more, which I think is one of the biggest reasons I'm not as motivated to update my blog as much. I'm really not getting to cook many meals because my mom is home cooking.

Anyways I can't remember the last time my mom made a lasagna, but it has been so long that I really associate lasagna taste with the frozen Stoffers ones that she would pull out of the freezer when she didn't have time to cook anything else. Needless to say this is 500 times better! I was starving so I got myself a ginormous piece before it cooled enough- thus the lasagna mess all over my plate hahaha. Of course we also had some garlic bread to go with it! It was delicious!
For 'dessert' after dinner I had bought some new tea to try! It was ginger peach green tea and I was super excited to try it.

The verdict? Not that impressed with it, it definitely has a strong ginger flavor but I could not taste any peach in it at all. I will drink the rest of the ones in the packet but I would probably never buy it again. Actually I might buy some normal peach tea and brew them together to get an actual ginger peach flavor, hahaha. If I do that I'll let you know how it turns out.

This morning I ate an Apple Pie larabar in the car on the way to babysitting. When I got home I busted out some more of that lasagna for lunch, I didn't take a picture of it because my camera was upstairs and microwaved lasagna might be delicious but is certainly not pretty because it oozes out everywhere! Much of the rest of the day has been spent organizing the bathroom that I share with my brother and sister who are both leaving next week for college. It was stressing me out and now that I know they will not be here to mess it up I designated all the shelves and drawers for specific things and put post it notes on them so that until they leave they can know what goes where! I'm definitely an organized mess kind of person, things don't have to be spotless, they just have to be where they belong. The best example of this I can give you is that there are random small piles of clothes all over my room. I've got my pjs next to my bed, work out clothes on the floor underneath my laundry bags, and tank tops that I have worn once and might need to wear again before washing hanging on the closet door knob. It might look messy to you but it is where things belong!

So everyone who reads this blog regularly knows how much I am in love with all forms of goat cheese. So head over to Mara's blog for a chance to win some free goat cheese! Yummmmm!