Milk Boy Coffee

We decided to head out of the city for a little suburbs adventuring this weekend and visited parts of Wayne, and Ardmore, PA. I'll be honest and say it was mostly for shopping purposes, but it did feel good to hop in the car for a little drive. We started in Wayne at the first ever Anthropologie store, and I was surprised how precious the whole town was. I didn't really know what to expect, but perfect, ritzy suburb wasn't it.

Our next stop was Ardmore, where we popped into Milk Boy Coffee for a late brunch and delicious coffee. I got the breakfast slider meal with chipotle sour cream, and Ryan decided on the breakfast chili rellenos. A long abandoned tradition is coming back to the blog, BRUNCH! But more importantly, a long abandoned tradition is bringing our weekends closer together, because nothing bonds Ryan and I more than our mutual love of food. Just kidding, sort of... How was your weekend? big kiss, bekuh

Mamaw's Gingersnap Cookies

Spice cookies are some of my favorites. I love dunking them in milk, eating a few with a hot cup of coffee or tea, or gobbling them up with spiked egg nog. Growing up my mamaw would always have some gingersnaps in the icebox waiting for us to visit. These days I make them as a holiday treat for friends and family, and I'm happy to be carrying this tradition on in my own home. Along with our mounds bars from yesterday, we made these crispy delights to eat as we watched Christmas movies all Sunday evening. 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup crisco or margarine

1c sugar

1 egg

1/4c molasses

1/4 tsp salt

2c flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ginger

1 tsp ground clove

Directions:

1. Cream the crisco and sugar.

2. Mix in the egg and molasses, until fully combined.

3. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients. Then, slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, until combined.

4. Chill overnight*

5. Preheat oven to 325F

6. Pinch off a portion of the gingersnap dough and form a 1" round ball.

7. Press to form a disk, and sprinkle with sugar. 

8. Place on a greased cookie sheet, to bake. Cook for 10-2 minutes, do not let brown.

9. Cool and serve with your beverage of choice.

*Note: We made the dough on Saturday and baked them on Sunday.

It means so much to me to share these recipes and traditions with you; as you have become a part of my life story. As the Holidays approach I'm reminded of all the blessings in my life, and I count this blog as one of them. Without it I wouldn't have connected with so many amazing people, and felt like I'd found a place to share in all the things I'm passionate about. Thank you for your readership. big kiss, bekuh

Homemade Mounds Bars

It's a long standing tradition in my family to make these homemade mounds bars every Christmas. Even my Dad and Ryan who aren't coconut fans drool at the mention of these cookies. They're simple, delicious, and can feed an army (if you don't eat them all yourself). As one of our 12 dates of Christmas Ryan, and I spent an afternoon baking, and these beauties were on the top of the list. Today I thought I'd share this family favorite with you too.

Ingredients:
1 box graham crackers  (you'll only use 2 of the inner packages)
1/4c sugar
1/2c melted margarine
2c chocolate chips
1 tbsp peanut butter (or peanut butter substitute)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
7 oz shredded coconut

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350F
2. In a large ziplock bag dump the 2 packages of graham crackers inside, and using a meat tenderizer or rolling pin crumble the graham crackers into tiny pieces.
3. Put the graham crackers in a mixing bowl, and mix in the melted butter and sugar.
4. Grab a 9"x13" baking dish and grease it. Press the graham cracker mixture into the pan, forming a crust on the bottom. Cook for 10 minutes, and let cool for a couple minutes.
4. In a separate bowl mix the sweetened condensed milk, and shredded coconut. Spread over the graham cracker crust. Place back in the oven and cook for another 10-15 minutes until the coconut topping starts to brown. Let cool completely.
5. Melt the chocolate chips with the peanut butter, mixing until all is smooth and combined. Pour the chocolate over the coconut, and graham cracker crust. Carefully spread the chocolate out, covering everything.
6. Chill in the fridge, or a cool place and serve after the chocolate is completely set.

A rich treat for sure. I pretty much save up all my baking until Christmas time, so these are a real treat. What are some of your family recipe traditions? I'm always game for learning a new recipe. big kiss, bekuh

PS- Don't forget to enter the Dot & Army giveaway going on now!

From Biloxi to New Orleans: Part 2

I love New Orleans! It's always one of my favorite places to visit because it just reeks of culture. There's just something about the dilapidated old French/Spanish influenced architecture, the smell of seafood and liquor that permeates the air, and the raucous good time that people seem to have all hours of the day. Our Saturday adventure in the city was Ryan's first experience with New Orleans so we kept things as touristy as possible. Wink wink.

We started out shopping a little, since the holidays are quickly approaching, but it didn't take long for our bellies to start grumbling. We headed straight to a tourist (and local) favorite Johnny's Po-boys for lunch and attempted to eat sandwiches as big as our heads! They were delicious, and our foodie hearts sang. On our way to the biggest-sandwiches-ever-made we spotted a spice shop, and decided to pop in after eating for a look around. Thirty minutes later, and a couple of dollars later too, we stepped out moving a little deeper into the French Quarter. On our adveture we spotted street performers, heard a little karaoke, and my sister told us a funny story about the Cornstalk Hotel. Apparently it's haunted by a jealous mistress. Oh, and we decided it was probably time to eat again.

Our final stop before heading back to Biloxi was my favorite beignet shop, Cafe Beignet. I discovered this adorable spot on my last visit to Nola and couldn't resist the urge to visit once again. We shared one order of beignets, so I don't feel the least bit guilty. There was a quartet singing in the streets as we ate, and talked, and enjoyed this very New Orleans treat.

I tell yea, if I could eat, and live this way everyday I'd be a happy, and plump girl. Emphasis on the happy. I love that Ryan got pictures of my sister, and I devouring our doughnuts, while the only photo of him is one where he looks dashing. I love it when he layers! See part one of our trip here. big kiss, bekuh

PS- Don't forget to enter the Large Ad Space Giveaway. Enter for your chance to win TWO large ads on Secondhand Sundays and Lemons, Avocados & The Bay!

Thanksgiving: The Meal

I hope all you wonderful US readers had a fabulous Thanksgiving day yesterday. Ryan and I drove through the night to make it to my sister's on Thanksgiving morning. It was totally worth the drive. Despite the lack of sleep we gathered our strength, and cooked a gorgeous meal to share between the three of us. Well, and a few table scraps for the puppies too. Here are a few pictures from the meal:

We started the meal off with some cheese and crackers. My favorite combo was the brie with fig, and spicy plum chutney. For dinner we served our turkey with chunky cranberry sauce, garlic and sage cornbread stuffing, rolls, roasted root vegetables, and gravy. Washing everything down with local southern pecan beer, and wine. Ryan and I brought the veggies from our last CSA yield, and the turkey soaked in a brine all the way to Mississippi. You could say we take our Thanksgiving meal prep pretty seriously. After the giant meal we slept for a couple of hours, and got up for a little dessert too.

What was your favorite dish on the Thanksgiving table yesterday? big kiss, bekuh

Party at our house

Summer time is the most perfect time to get all of your friends together, cook a lot of food, and just enjoy each other's company. With all the hoop-la that comes with Independence Day, it can sometimes be hard to gather all of your friends in one place in July. That's why this year we decided to host a little Bastille Day party. We doubled up on fun with this event because I'm also guest posting over at Uncommon Good's blog next week, and they sent us a few products to use for our party! I had so many photos that I decided to share some with you on Secondhand Sundays too. I apologize in advance for the photo heavy post you are about to read.

Ryan was itching to use his smoker again, so we decided to cook both pork and chicken like we did way back in March. We also sought to keep as much of the food and drink locally sourced as possible,  and created a lot of great sides from our CSA bounty, and farmer's market expeditions. 

One farmer's market purchase in particular made my day. I picked up the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers full of wild purples, and giant sunflowers. I love how just a couple of flowers can elevate a space from ho-hum to perfectly quaint. We definitely had a country garden feel going with the decor.

It was a lot of fun to gather new and old friends on the porch and with a little help by an afternoon shower, and a fan we were able to keep everyone pretty comfortable with little to no melting. Little Nellie pulled out all the stops entertaining guests, and greeting everyone who stopped by to chat.

In addition to the pulled pork and chicken, Ryan also made bread and hummus for the event. I contributed the cold couscous salad, roasted veggies, and peach cobbler. I totally forgot to snap pictures of the peach cobbler, which makes me so sad because it was so perfect. That's what I get for having a good time I suppose. Some of the Uncommon Goods items we got to show off included a beautiful solar powered tea light, nifty one-handed bottle opener, and a rocking wine carafe. The wine carafe and bottle opener were definitely hits with everyone.

After stuffing our faces and talking through the sunset we brought out our old school projector and played a little game of improvised Pictionary. This was the best idea Ryan has ever had. We split everyone into two groups and spent two hours yelling answers out, and laughing at each other's sketches. Not really competitive but silly fun. We must have gotten pretty loud because one of our neighbors called the cops on account of all the noise.

At the end of the night with the citronella candles still going strong we said good-bye to all of our friends and fell into bed content, and full of love. It was a perfect summer night. big kiss, bekuh

PS- Be looking out for my Uncommon Goods post on Monday, I'll be sharing some tips on feeding a lot of people with locally sourced food on a budget. You might be surprised how little we spent.

TODAY'S THE LAST DAY. DON'T FORGET TO ENTER MY VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY HERE!

A Hobo Dinner on Our "Fire Pit"

It's no secret that Ryan and I love good food and the outdoors, I talk about it all the time. So it shouldn't catch any of you off guard when I say we loooovvve to cook outdoors. There is little else in life that can bring as much pleasure as food cooked over an open fire. Unfortunately Ryan and I don't own a fire pit, or land to build one, but "necessity" is the mother of all invention and we decided to make a "faux" pit out of our charcoal grill in order to make Hobo dinners one night. What are Hobo dinners you ask? Read on and find out.

Ryan is my resident master fire builder and I usually leave the grilling to him. I was able to help by walking with him behind our house collecting sticks for the fire. We filled a bucket full of smaller sticks, and carried a few smaller logs to chop down into grill sized chunks. In less than an hour we had a nice hot bed of embers and a roaring fire to make our dinners on.

For our hobo dinner packs we used turkey kielbasa, potatoes, kale, onion, salt & pepper, paprika, garlic cloves, and olive oil. Roughly chop everything and make sure it gets a good coating of oil and seasonings before closing the aluminum foil. Once the packs are made you just toss them into the fire.

Make sure that your packs are sealed tight, you don't want the oil to leak out, or your veggies to tumble into the embers. Cook the packs on each side for about 20 minutes, 40 minutes total, and voila dinner is served. The hardest part is resisting the urge to check inside the packs, don't do it! You have to let all the yummy ingredients steam and cook in merriment.

For a touch of class I brought out our nice plates and cloth napkins to serve. Ice cold beer is the perfect beverage to go with this dinner (if you're asking my opinion). We love enjoying a simple meal together outdoors. big kiss, bekuh

PS- If you haven't already, you should click around on my right sidebar. There are a lot of amazing bloggers, waiting for you to find them, hanging out in that space.

You Should Always Eat Lebanese with Friends

Every year, May through September, Roanoke is enlivened by a season of festivals and one of the most delicious occurs the weekend after Memorial Day, the Lebanese Festival. This year Ryan and I went with our friends Martin and Mollie, and since they like food as much as we do it made our pigging out seem less pathetic.

 We chowed down on traditional fare like kafta, spinach rolls, tabouleh, falafel, and hummus. Add a heap of homemade pita and you've got the picture. After dinner we picked up some dessert, and headed out to the patio to enjoy a beautiful sunset.

 Ryan and I split a piece of walnut baklawa, while Mollie and Martin had Lebanese cheesecake and a roasted pistachio roll. We ended up running into other friends and talked for a long while before leaving with full bellies and a happy memories fully in place. big kiss, bekuh