RAVE: Becca's Bachelorette

A few weeks ago (during my blog hiatus), I went home to Minnesota to celebrate my good friend Rebecca's upcoming wedding. It was a blast to celebrate with her and several of my high school girlfriends. I think it's safe to say that we made quite an impression on downtown Minneapolis that night.

Rebecca married her prince charming on February 14th in Costa Rica.

Happy 11-day anniversary Rebecca!

RANT: Dead Herb Gardens

I thought I should update you all on how the herb garden has fared. And as you can see, the basil has survived:


One of the empty pots next to it used to house the parsley plant that just never quite revived from its initial trip home from the grocery store. And the other pot was the home to a cilantro plant for about 5 days. To be honest, the basil has touch-and-go moments at least once a week. If I can keep it alive through Easter, I might try parsley again. Anyone have tips? I feel like it shouldn't be this hard!

RAVE: New York City

As you may have noticed, my blog went on a bit of a hiatus throughout the month of January. Well, I think we're back up and running...An event I was always meaning to blog about in January was our trip to New York City for New Year's Eve. Our good friends Jared & Megan headed there to celebrate the New Year and they invited us to join them! Well technically, Jared invited us (Megan had no clue where she was going...or that we were coming). By the time we met them in NYC, they had navigated the city for a few days, so they served as great tour guides for us. Here are the highlights of the trip...

We went out for a delicious dinner and topped it off with a celebratory shot before heading out to join the masses to watch the ball drop.

We made it to 50th street (ball drops around 42nd, but 46th has the best view). I chose this pic because the guy holding this umbrella was quite the dancer. He almost poked our eyes out on several occasions.

You can't NOT get a pair of these glasses.

With 15 minutes left until midnight, we ditched our 50th street spot and headed towards 46th. The police were blocking crowds from going in, but we had a hotel on 46th street, so they had to let us through. We got there just in time to celebrate with all the crazies!

The cops were so relieved everything went off without a hitch that they started taking pics with all the cute girls :)

The next day was a day of visiting the typical NYC sites including Central Park, FAO Schwartz, and Rockefeller Center. But, no trip to the big city is complete without a broadway show. After standing in line for an hour, Megan and I scored tickets to "The Understudy" starring, none other than, MARK PAUL GOSSELAAR!!!

He's so cute.

While Zack was great, his co-star, Justin Kirk (Jack & Jill anyone?) was the true standout on stage and off.

Such a great trip...What places do you think we should visit next time?

RAVE: Roasted Beet Salad

This salad seems to be on every restaurant menu this Winter. And why wouldn't it? The combination of roasted beets and goat cheese is absolutely delicious. So in an effort to recreate this restaurant creation, I picked up some beets this weekend. Let me tell you, they do not sell them looking the way they do at restaurants! So, after scouring the internet to figure out just how to cook these crazy looking vegetables, I stumbled upon what I thought to be the most reliable recipe. It was quite easy and I hope you all can conquer your beet fears after reading these simple instructions:

(Don't let the amount of steps deceive you, I just wanted to be super thorough - I always need that when working with unknown foods!)

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

2. Cut off the stems at the root of the beet (there are recipes for this part of the beet, but I haven't conquered them yet so I have no advice for what to do with them at this point).

3. Then, cut off any extra-long "points" at the end of the beet (not all beets will have this). Hopefully this picture helps explain what the "points" are...anyone know if they have a more technical name?


3. Scrub and wash the beets like crazy. They are grown in mud, so it will need a quality scrubbing.

4. Wrap each beet loosely in tin foil and place on a cookie sheet.

5. Bake/Roast for 1 hour.

6. Let them cool. Remove the tin foil. Peel the skin away with your thumbs (it should come off easily, if not, put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes)

7. Slice them up (however you want) and add them to your salad!

Warning: Beets will dye your hands (and anything else they come in contact with) So, be careful...

Use these beets to make your own version of a Roasted Beets Salad. The one pictured above has organic baby lettuce, goat cheese, and Amy's Balsamic Vinaigrette (if you haven't tried any of Amy's salad dressings before, you should, it is THE BEST!) This salad is good, but candied walnuts or pinenuts would make it extra special.

One final tip: I roasted 3 beets on Sunday and refrigerated the ones I didn't use. I recreated the salad tonight and it wasn't quite as good as when the beets were warm - but still a quality salad!

Correction: I originally said the salad dressing was "Amy's" Balsamic Vinaigrette, in fact, it is "Marie's" Balsamic Vinaigrette. Marie's salad dressings are amazing. But for the record, Amy makes some nice organic frozen pizzas and burritos.

One final final tip: I ate the beet salad again tonight. This time I nuked the beets for 15 seconds and that made the salad all warm and delicious like the first time all over!

RAVE: The Livesay Family

First of all, how cute are they?

I hope they don't mind - I borrowed this picture from their blog.

As I've been praying and processing all that is happening in Haiti I've stumbled upon this family. Troy & Tara live in Haiti with their children, who have recently been sent back to the US to be cared for by their older sister since the earthquake. Over the last few days I've been reading their blog and catching up on posts written long before the earthquake.

I love their philosophy on family...on mission work...and on what it means to "listen" to God.

I highly recommend following their blog (be sure to click on each of their pictures!) or follow Troy on twitter.

They are a relatable, inspiring, and truly beautiful family.
I feel so blessed to have stumbled upon them.

RAVE: Green in January

Now that the holidays are over and winter is clearly still here to stay, I find it helpful for my disposition to fill the house with plants. Since our condo isn't that big, and since I did this last year (and surprisingly I managed to keep most of them alive!), I was a bit limited in how many I could buy. So, I decided to just buy the one plant I've been eyeing all year....Mr. Jade:

I LOVE him! I have no clue how to take care of a jade plant, but hopefully I'll figure it out and he'll make it through to next Winter - stay tuned.

And as usual, the inexpensive herb plants got me once again. This is my third attempt at an herb garden so hopefully these basil and parsley plants have a fighting chance. Don't let the droopy parsley plant deceive you, it actually looks better now that it's been in my care. Maybe the trendy black terracotta pots will help too...what do you think?

RANT: Izzy on the Banister

In case it's not obvious what's going on here...Izzy is walking along the banister that overlooks the lower level of our condo (where she could potentially fall a story and a half).



Why can't she be more like her brother?...