Running thru life..... Happy Birthday

Today my hubby turns 30!!!

Happy Birthday to him....

Joe ended taking the day off and I had the day off.  

So we spent the morning at the repair shop getting everything squared away with my car...

URRRR...... another future post!

Then headed home to open Birthday presents......

Clemson was playing keep away with the Birthday Cards

 Then on to a Birthday Lunch at Restaurant Eve!

 Restaurant Eve was awesome!!!

Then home to spend the rest of the day relaxing and Joe playing with his new Ipod Nano.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!!

Running thru life... Goat Cheese, Fig, & Walnut Mac

Another recipe from Family Circle:

Goat Cheese, Fig, and Walnut Mac

I love Mac and Cheese and this recipe caught my eye because it was different:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups 2% milk

1 spring of fresh rosemary

1 pound gemeli

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all purpose floor

2 logs (4 ounces each) goat cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup dried figs, sliced

1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Instructions:

Step 1: Add milk and rosemary to a small lidded saucepan over low heat.  Cover for 20-25 minutes, allowing herb to infuse.  Remove rosemary sprig.

Step 2:  Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil- add gemeli.  Cook per package directions; drain and set aside. 

Step 3:  In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Sprinkle in flour, whisking constantly for 2 minutes.  Pour in infused milk, whisking until it comes to a boil.  Simmer until thickened, about 3 minutes.  Crumble in goat cheese, piece by piece, stirring until smooth.  Add salt, figs, walnuts and cooked gemeli.  Serve immediately.  

Finished product!

Excellent and very very different.

Very easy and will be using this recipe again!

Running thru life... Cake Time!

 With Joe's Birthday just around the corner, I thought I would try out some dessert Recipes that I have been saving.  First up:

Snowball Cake

Ingredients:

1 pkg. (2-layer size) devil's food cake mix

1  pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 egg

2Tbsp. granulated sugar

1pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1cup cold milk

1tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

1cup BAKER'S ANGEL FLAKE Coconut

Instructions

HEAT oven to 350ºF.

PREPARE cake batter, in 2-1/2-qt. ovenproof bowl, as directed on package; scrape side of bowl. Beat cream cheese, egg and granulated sugar until well blended; spoon into center of batter in bowl.

BAKE 1 hour 5 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in bowl 10 min. Loosen cake from bowl with knife; invert onto wire rack. Remove bowl. Cool cake completely.

MEANWHILE, beat dry pudding mix, powdered sugar and milk in bowl with whisk 2 min. Stir in COOL WHIP. Refrigerate until ready to use.

PLACE cake on plate; frost with pudding mixture. Cover with coconut. Keep refrigerated.

So I made the cake on Friday night and then Frosted in Saturday morning.  

Finished Product:

What is looks like when you cut into!

It was an easy recipe that tasted delicious!

Next time I think I might try using a flavored cream cheese to add a little something extra like strawberry.  

Happy Baking...

Running thru life... Let the sunshine IN!

You may recall in December I posted Home Project that I am taking on this year. 

Well another one in complete!
Installing a Storm Door

Our basement is quite dark and would love to add some natural light into it-
also it would be great to have to let Clemson look out. 

This sounds easy enough- you go to to Home Depot/Loews, Pick out a door and install it- right?

WRONG!!!

Apparently the way our front door is, it is necessary to build out the frame in order to install a day. 

Something that HomeDepot/Lowes/Our normal handy man is not comfortable with doing. 

URRR.... something easy turned into hard. 

So I started looking into options-
I contacted a couple contractors, and a couple companies that specialize in installing doors. 

I ended up getting estimated from 4 companies-  Ranging from $500 to $1250.

Talk about range!

We decided to go with JustDoors which is based out of Ashburn for $500. 

So they came on two Fridays ago and installed our door in less then 2 hours.

This was definitely worth paying for someone to do it since the door alone would have been 200-300 dollars.  We got an Anderson door that has a interchangeable screen for the Spring and Fall time.  I really do not know how much will with use this but only time will tell.  

After the door was installed I did a little touch up painting that I wanted to do....

 and here it is....

The only thing that still needs to be done is the guy from Just Doors has to get some more nail covers so the black nails which you can not really see in the picture will be covered and blend in with the white.  

So far we love it because it add so much light into our house!!

Clemson also loves it!!

Next house project...... Carpet 

Urrr....

Running thru life.... A giggle

My friend in the UK sent me a bag that she found over there:

Love it!!!!

Totally love the crazy hair of the pregnant woman!!!

Running thru life.... Evo Bistro Review

This weekend was a nice relaxing weekend- we had a couple things planned but we were not booked!

With Joe back in school we are now trying to limit ourselves to one thing on the weekend.  

This weekend we had something Friday and something Sunday.

So on Saturday morning I decided that we need to head to Tyson's to return two things to Macys.  

Joe has purchased a Robe for me that was huge on me and I got Joe a shirt that just did not fit.  

I wanted to go to the Tyson's Macy to see maybe if they had better selection.  

OMG- I hate Tyson's!!!

So Joe and I started looking where we could go to dinner that night that was near Tyson's.

We settled on Evo Bistro which was one of the Top 50 Restaurant in Virginia.  

It is located right off Chain Bridge Road, about 5 minutes away from Tyson's in McLean.

It is a cute little restaurant that does not sit more than 100 people.  

It is a wine/tapas Restaurant- which I love.

We had reservation for 7:30pm but got there a little early so got to sit at the bar.  

They have Prosecco by the glass so I was sold.

They even gave you wine cards so you could go and pour your own wine.  

We ended up just ordering off the menu but it is a really cute idea.  The wines were reasonably prices- any where from $7 to $14 up to $25 (most expensive) a glass.  

My prosecco was $9 and Joe's was $9.  

The wait staff then came and got us and sat us at our table.  

She even commented on how much she liked my boots- which my hubby found totally commical!

Our waiter ended up being the same guy who was our bartender.  

Andrew- very nice and had some good recommendations. 

 

 We ended up getting 4 tapas:

The Patas Bravas

The Butternut Squash Ravioli

Spicy Tuna

Bacon Wrapped Dates

We did not have a single thing that was not delicious.  

Joe's favorite was the spicy Tuna while mine was the Squash Ravioli

What I loved is they only brought one or two out at a time so it was not rushed in any fashion.  Andrew checked back on us a couple times to make sure everything was good.

We loved Evo Bistro!!

Running thru life.... Presidents Day Savings

Two scores I made during Presidents Day Sales!!!
I found that if you wait until Presidents Day Weekend you can get so many good sales.
So I went ready with my gift cards in hand.
My hubby's jaw hit the floor when I walked thru the door until I explained that I scored some major sales:

Michael Kors Hood Puff Coat
I have been wanting this coat since November.  I tried it on but could not rationalize buying it.
So when I walked into Lord and Taylor and it was there on sale....OMG!

Normally Priced:  $285
Price at Lord and Taylor $69 dollars
- 15% coupon I had = $58.65
- Gift Card = 8.65 + tax

 Nine West Acomback Boots
I needed a pair of black dress boots to wear with a couple sweater dresses that I have and also to wear with Jeans.  I love my boots that I bought in November the camel colored ones and decided if I found a pair that I liked at the right price I would consider getting a black pair.  

Normal Prices:  189.99
Sale Price at Macys-  $66.70
- 15% coupon =  56.60  + tax

So for about less than $70 two major scores occurred and my wardrobe could not be happier!!