Food + Drink

Our Thanksgiving! I Know It’s January.

- Melody 2 Comments

Okay… so Thanksgiving was more than a month ago. More like, two months ago. But hey! It’s Thanksgiving and nothing makes me feel better than looking at pictures of delicious food.

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The turkey was huge and mom basting it made her hand look like an alien. Also, turkey butt.

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Mmm… pie.

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Mom’s fall decorations on the porch. Simple and festive. Plus we really love burlap around here.

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YUM. I still crave this meal every time I look at these pictures. We stayed home and had Thanksgiving with just us. We missed our extended family but it was nice to lounge around with the windows open all day knowing we had nowhere to be. Smelling the turkey cook and watching mom bake and her pajamas… it’s the best. Also not having to put on makeup or look presentable to stuff my face was a big plus.

How was your Thanksgiving? What kind of pie did you have? I’m hungry.

 

 

xx

Melody’s Miraculous Momofuku Meltaways

- Melody

If you know me, you know I am a chocolate fanatic. I’m selling myself short here. I would marry it if I could. Yeah, that’s right. I said it. I love dark, milk, white, full of almonds, full of cream, full of anything really. So you can imagine my disappointment when I ventured into the kitchen for my fix and found *GASP* none! What’s a girl to do? Hit up Pinterest, duh. I almost immediately found this recipe in my Sweet Treats board.

choc+chip+cookie

I started to make them but quickly realized we had almost none of the required ingredients. Spoiler Alert! There is a happy ending and you can go HERE to my mom’s Free Recipe Friday blog (amazing, succulent food every Friday!), read it AND get my recipe! 🙂 Say hello to my mom while you’re there!

Hi, mom!

 

Happy Saturday!

 

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A family dinner

- Melody 2 Comments

Last Friday my family came over for dinner and I crossed some things off of my fall goals list. 🙂 I roasted my first chicken and was thoroughly disgusted… until I tasted it. Oh, sweet chicken how I love you. Juicy, lemony, and buttery. I used this recipe from Eat, Live, Run. (Her buttermilk fried chicken is the BOMB and I made it the last time the fam was over!) Mom brought over her famous sopapilla cheesecake and brand spankin’ new olive and sun-dried tomato bread (which I’m sure will be on her blog soon!) and we all had a grand time. 🙂 Dad, in his classic fashion, fell asleep on the couch after dinner while the gals yacked it up.

I love, love, LOVE having them here. It just feels more like home with people in the house talking, moving around, laughing, and eating. I miss living so close.

Food. Good food.

- Melody

I had high hopes for food this summer. I’m sure looking at all that summery food on Pinterest had absolutely nothing to do with it, too. 😛 One of my summer intentions was to experiment more with food and cook more at home. While I’ve been pretty good at this in the past, ironically when I’m busier during the school year, we’ve fallen out of a routine with me being out of school.
Since we’ve already spent our grocery money this month and have run out of some things I’ve been trying to get a little “creative” over here with lunch. Of all things, I have a big jar of Nutella. No milk or chicken, but dangit I’ve got Nutella. Couple that with peanut butter and mini marshmallows, you’ve got yourself a mighty tasty sandwich, my friend. Oh, don’t forget to grill it like your life depends on it. And don’t put too much Nutella/PB on it unless you want most of your sandwich on your hands. Goes great with cherries on the side!

That second yummy meal was made in part by Shelby. Actually it was made in whole by Shelby. She’s made that a few times over here, the latest being our sleepover Sunday night. (post later!) Cream tomato sauce over garlic butter pasta, with mozzarella grilled chicken. Un.Believable.

Oh and that doozy at the bottom is the classic nacho. Microwaved for convenience of course. With leftover chicken and guacamole. Why did I forget about this food?

So my question is what are some quick delicious meals for two? I’m a champ at frozen pizza and carb-loaded meals but for some reason light meals evade me. Help! I kind of need to fit into my senior recital dress this fall. 😉

3 Tart Summer Drinks

- Melody

The heat has really started to kick it up these past couple of weeks. What better way to kick back than with some cool, tart drinks?

Up first is the Flamingo.


Start with 3 ounces of pineapple juice. Add 4-5 ounces of cranberry juice along with 1/4 ounce of lemon juice. Top off with bubbly club soda. (If your club soda is old it will taste watered down and flat. Trust me on this.) Drink up!

Up next is the Cinderella.

Pour 4 ounces of pineapple juice, 4 ounces of orange juice, and 1-1/2 ounces of lemon juice. Add a bit of grenadine and/or sugar if it’s too tart. I did! Strain over ice!

Last up there’s the Cranberry Cooler.

Fill a glass with ice. Pour 1 tablespoon of lime juice and 2 ounces of cranberry juice. (It’s better if it’s really concentrated. Mine wasn’t so I had to add quite a bit more.) Top with club soda.

Mmm! Three tart drinks that could definitely be accompanied by some alcohol or blended into a slushie. YUM! Let me know if you try them!

5 Recipes I Want to Try

- Melody 2 Comments

1. Key West Grilled Chicken
2. Clean and Lean Lettuce Wrap
3. Dark Chocolate Bacon Ice Cream
4. Browned Butter Strawberry Shortcake
5. Dijon Chicken Linguine

These seem perfectly light and delicious for summer. Well, besides the pasta and bacon ice cream. 🙂

There’s lots more on my Pinterest food board. I make myself hungry just looking at it. I was thinking the other day about this Word document FULL of recipes I copied before Pinterest existed. I haven’t touched that document since. I’m sure it’s spilling over with deliciousness but who wants to sift through text when I could be looking at beautiful pictures of food? 🙂

Have a food board? Leave a comment with the link so I can find more food!