Charlotte Food Adventure - Episode 3

Uriah and I have lived in Charlotte for over a year and we hadn't had ANY Thai food (GASP!). Now, we had a spot in Florida that serves the BEST Thai food... ever. Hands down. No contest. That is probably why we hadn't had any in Charlotte yet because we knew that nothing would ever match up.

There is a Thai place called Siam Garden pretty close to our house and we always throw it in as an option when we're trying to figure out what we should have for dinner but we never pick it. Until yesterday, when I got a coupon in the mail for this very place and it was kind of like kismet.

The best news? It did not disappoint!

Uriah ordered Thai Iced Tea (which is not something that I enjoy) and he raved that it was better than the Thai Iced Tea at our old Florida place. We took this as a sign of amazing things to come and we were right!

Appetizers! Tom Yam Soup (hot and sour soup) and Crab Rangoons

That soup was the most amazing soup that I've EVER tasted. I may have said "I would bathe in that" and I don't think that I was exaggerating.

The Full Feast! Chicken Phad Thai and Beef Fried Rice

The Phad Thai was different that I'm used to but it was still deeeelicious. We got it "mild" for fear that their spicy would be insanely spicy but next time I think we'll get a little spice added. And the beef fried rice was so good. Almost exactly like our favorite from Florida.

In general, this was a great find! And with the coupon, we got $10 off our bill so that was perfect.

Hippity Hoppity Easter's On It's Way!

So, today I spent under 30 minutes and under 3 dollars and created this lovely festive door decoration!

I actually found a tutorial for this online but evidently I didn't save it to my computer (just to memory) so when I went looking to find it to link you to it... fail.

Luckily, I know how I made it so I can give you general directions (if you feel like you have time on your hands this weekend)

Things you will need:
Cardboard box to cut out your wreath-backing (I used a sturdy clothing box and double layered it)

Glue Gun and Glue

Plastic Easter Eggs (I got a giant bag at BigLots for $1.20)

Easter Grass (again, BigLots for $1.00)

Ribbon to hang it when you're done

Instructions:
1- Cut out your wreath backing - I used various sized mixing bowls to trace the outer and inner circles on my cardboard. Then I had to glue my 2 wreath bases together because my cardboard was flimsier than I would have liked

2- Glue your eggs to your wreath backing. Really, just go for it making sure they are as close together as possible. I had to rip a couple of mine off and reattach them. Oh well.

3- Fill in the open spaces with your Easter Grass. I hot glued it and shoved it into the nooks and crannies using a wooden skewer (trust me on this, use a skewer... hot glue is HOT and I have a little finger burn to prove it).

4- Give your grass a "haircut" so that it doesn't look totally unruley.

5- Tie on some ribbon and hang it up! All done. Super easy

Herb Update 3

Uriah killed my Cilantro. I went away for 4 days and asked him to water my new little plants. I even gave him a tutorial on it. You'd think that the fact that they are sitting on the windowsill directly above the sink that he would see them and remember. You would think, but you would be wrong.
I didn't take a photo of the initial carnage. Uriah felt very badly and was very confident that we could revive them (even though the cilantro looked very, very dead and brown). Well, the Basil seems to be doing alright but the cilantro is struggling... hard.



Sad, Sad Cilantro

Basil going strong



By Any Other Name ...

I'm sure you've all seen little fabric rosettes on everything imaginable (mostly headbands). They are so sweet and I went on a hunt to figure out how to make them. As it turns out, It's super easy! I found a lot of tutorials online but found this one by "Our Best Bites" to be the most helpful.

My iPhone didn't capture the full cute-ness of these (no surprise there) but, trust me when I say that they are a-dore-a-ble. I have a ton of fabric already cut to make more of these and I can't wait to attach them to all sorts of things.

Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken

I tried something new today and it was a HUGE success! So much flavor! The bonus? It's super healthy!

View the recipe and nutrition info HERE and view the yummy finished product below :-)

I just ate mine with some steamed veggies but I cooked up some white rice for Uriah and he poured the remainder of the pan sauce over it (I had spooned about a Tablespoon of the "sauce" over each of our chicken pieces). His immediate reaction? "Mmm Hunny, this is delicious". That's my favorite kind of reaction!

This chicken would be AMAZING over some spring greens as a salad. Next time I'll have to remember to make some more so that there's leftovers ;-)

** In the recipe I omitted the final 2 tsp of garlic because, well, I didn't think that it would need it and also, I seasoned the chicken in the middle of the day so I figured the seasonings would have had plenty of time to make an impression**

All American

I'm not a huge fan of pie but Uriah loves it so, back in the fall, I made an apple pie. The recipe was super easy and I'd like to think that I racked up some "good wife" points while I was at it.

The recipe is on the Pilsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust box and not having to make the crust is key in it's simplicity.

It turns out lovely and tasty! Just top it with some vanilla ice cream and you're in business!

Herb Update!

Last week I posted an entry about the $1 herb grow kits I bought at Target. I bought Cilantro and Basil.

If you recall, last week the Basil was showing no sign of life but the Cilantro was growing a little bit. Well, the Cilantro is still going strong:

Whoa! Check that out! I bet I'll have some fresh Cilantro in no time!

As far as the Basil, well....

Holy Moly! Just when I thought there was no hope for it, Ta-dah! Just goes to show that you shouldn't give up!

So I guess now you can say that I have an official "Herb Garden" even though it's rinky-dink, I'm going to go ahead and dub it legit!

New Style!

So today I decided to make a brand new apron style! I'm a little bit obsessed with it and I have a feeling that it might become my newest best-selling style! Now I just have to work on making a variety of these for my shop!

L.O.V.E

Blue

I haven't missed Florida too much since we moved away about a year ago but every now and then, I'm browsing through my photos and I stumble upon one that tugs at my heart a bit. Like this one:

It was taken by Uriah on a December day at the beach that was just 5 minutes from our house. The pier looks endless and everything is so blue and pretty.

Paradise (but not always).

Stuff it!

I'm not sure why I had zucchini laying around the house. It's not something that I typically buy but maybe I used it in some other recipe. I can't remember at the moment but the point is that I had zucchini and I had to cook it. So, I googled recipes and came across this one. It looked simple enough and I had everything that it required so I dubbed it the winner.

I took a picture of the 'boats' before they went into the oven but then failed to take one when they were all cooked up. They looked pretty much the same just with melted cheese.

They turned out pretty good and were definitely different! We gobbled them up!