Shrimp Creole, Chardonnay, and Guilty Pleasure TV

I have been busy. I know, I know! Everyone swears that they are always busy. For me though, this was a busy few months. As an Events Marketing Specialist for Best Friends Animal Society, my job revolves around the adoption and fundraising events that we have throughout the year. In the spring, I traveled to New York City and Salt Lake City for our Super Adoption events, which were amazing! Hundreds of pets were adopted and went to good homes. After that I went right into the marketing for ten Strut Your Mutt events across the country. If you have ever tried to manage volunteers, media, and other staff from all over the country, then you know what I mean when I say that for six months, I feel like I was wrangling cats...lol. At the end of September, though, we had raised over $2.1 million for homeless pets, gained recognition for both Best Friends and the rescue groups we work with, and everyone had an amazing time! Translation: Totally worth it!

Me at the Super Adoption in Salt Lake City

Representing NKUT (No Kill Utah) in Salt Lake City 

A look at Strut Your Mutt

Well now that I can finally breath again, I realized that I hadn't made a great gourmet meal in ages! Hubby actually started getting worried for me because I was so stressed that I was beginning to burn everything when I cooked. Not good! Well during my recent trip to NYC, I went to a New Orleans themed restaurant and had the worst shrimp creole that I have ever had! It was literally shrimp tossed in marinara sauce. How could they desecrate such a wonderful dish?! Well when I came home, I was determined to make an authentic shrimp creole. 

Where do you go when you want a great recipe? Pinterest, of course! How I lived life before this wonderful website it beyond me! I searched dozens of recipes for shrimp creole. Everyone has their variation, but the one that caught my eye was one that instructed me to make my own stock. Anyone who would take that extra step in making a labor-heavy stock is going to be my expert on a good creole. 

What I did not anticipate, though, was that with a great, detailed recipe comes lots of ingredients! Hubby and I broke the bank alone on spices and fresh herbs. And have you seen the price of quality shrimp lately? Whew! Well I did the full recipe, did not skip steps, even making my own shrimp stock, and the end result...MAGNIFICENT! I strongly suggest that you make this recipe. Seriously, leave your house now and get the ingredients. Check it out here.

Yum! Yum! Yum!

Oh, what is that behind that delicious plate of shrimp creole in the picture? Wine, of course! The recipe requires a dry white wine to be added and that was all you needed to tell me to send me in search of a good bottle. Automatically, I thought Chardonnay. Since this would be used for cooking, I stayed away from the more expensive French or Italian wines and walked over to the American whites. I went with the Poppy Wines Chardonnay. The description of the wine said that it had notes of lemon, melon, nutmeg, and clove. Because this was a shrimp dish, I knew that all of those flavors would work really well and would not clash with any of the other spices in the dish. 

Additional notes about this wine: It stayed within my budget comfort zone of under $15. My local market is great in giving the wine rankings of wines, which helps wine newbies like me, so with a ranking of 90, I felt good about trying this out. The verdict: It was actually a really good wine. I expected it to be too dry, but it went down smooth and left a great citrus aftertaste that went well with my meal. It was so good that I finished the bottle and did not know it was empty until I reached for another glass. Sad Face! This will definitely be going into my wine arsenal. 

Hubby and I sat down to a great meal with great wine and it was a great evening. Then we capped it off with horrible TV. OK, ok, it is not horrible, but it is a definite guilty pleasure! Tyler Perry's newest dramatic soap opera, "If Loving You is Wrong." 

Let me first say that this show is LITERALLY just a rewritten version of his movie, "Single Mom's Club." Did he not think we would notice this? It even has the same actress playing the same role in both movie and TV show. Come on Tyler, stop being lazy. For some reason though, while I thought the movie was only so-so, I am addicted to the TV show. Maybe it is because of all the juicy drama that seems to be nonstop or maybe the bad acting that I love to make fun of. Either way, Hubby and I DVR it every week and every week, we are absorbed in the antics of this new soap opera. 

Movie Version

TV Version. You ain't tricking me Tyler!

So there you have it - a night in the life of me and Hubby. He definitely deserved a special evening because he has been amazingly understanding with my work and constant travel. And I am sure he is thanking God that I will now stop burning all of our food. Lol.

Talk later!

Crystal

Bucket List #31 - Elope in Vegas...Uh Savannah (The Day of Our Wedding)

Wow, I am telling you. Time flies around here. Work has kept me so busy that I forgot to finish the story of our elopement. My apologies...so here is the final installment of "How Hubby and I Crazily Eloped."
________________________________________________________________________________

Get Engaged to Marry...Check!

Decide to Elope...Check!

Do Majority of Wedding Planning...Check!

Off to Savannah to Get Married!!!

So here we are, finally in Savannah for a week for our elopement. During this week, Hubby and I planned on doing some sightseeing, finishing some wedding planning details, and getting married, all while I was working full time remotely. Yeah, easy enough, right? 

We check into our beautiful Airbnb suite. Can I say that I have never even had a hotel room this nice. We were in our own wing of this huge historic house with a large bedroom and a grand bathroom. Words can't even describe...see the Airbnb listing here. 

The beautiful home we stayed in. Our room was overlooking the park. 

The week went really well. In between taking conference calls and staying on top of work (this was literally the busiest time at work), I did some wedding errands, took in the sites of Savannah, and truthfully, just had fun times with my love.

So here we are the day of the wedding and I wake up frazzled. In all of my planning and fun during the week, I still had to find shoes, a bustier for my dress, and needed to get my nails done. UGH! And anyone who has seen me frazzled knows that that eventually leads to me being an angry, grumpy, witch. Poor Hubby. I spent the morning running around to store after store like a chicken with my head cut off and at the same time complaining to him about all that was wrong. This went on until I finally had a meltdown, complete with tears because I had run out of time and did not have time to get my nails done. Not proud of this moment, but it happened.

So Hubby sat me down, told me everything would be ok, then proceeded to paint my toenails for me. It was the best part of the day and it definitely did the trick. It wasn't the best pedicure that I have received, but it was given with no much concentration and love that it was the most special thing ever.

After Hubby calmed me down, I thought to myself, "This day is meant to be stress free. If everything is not perfect, it is ok. Just enjoy it."

The time had come to get dressed and go to the chapel. Hubby and I quietly got ready, with me doing my hair and makeup while he showered and started dressing. I still wanted that element of surprise though, so before I put my dress on, I kicked him out of the room and made him go downstairs to wait on me.

Putting on that dress was again one of those moments when I wished I had my mom with me to primp and make sure that my dress was perfect. Plus the zipper was really long and I needed someone to help me into that sucker...lol. So after struggling with the zipper and glaring at myself in the mirror, I walked downstairs to the man who would be my husband. The look on his face when he saw me was amazing. He gave me the biggest, goofiest smile I have ever seen. There were also some ladies who worked in an office in the historic house we were staying in who also saw me and clapped. It was a special moment.

We proceeded to the chapel to get married. Instead of describing it, I will just show you some pics of the ceremony.

After the ceremony, we had our "reception" at Vic's on the River on River Street in Savannah. If you have read my blog by now, you know I LOVE food and wine, so let me tell you that this place was AMAZING! Everyone smiled at us when we came in in our wedding attire and the piano player played "Hear Comes the Bride" when we walked in. Nice touch! And because my boss at work knew I was getting married, she sent us a wonderful bottle of champagne to celebrate. How she remembered where we were going for dinner or how she knew the perfect champagne is beyond me, but she is just sweet!

What is a reception without music and dancing?! It was really time to celebrate, so we went over to Savannah Smiles Dueling Piano Bar where we spent the night being celebrated by perfect strangers, being filled to the brim with free drinks, and dancing until we were giddy. By the end of the night, we were totally drunk, totally happy, and totally ready for bed. We hailed a cab back to our Airbnb and fell asleep within minutes. Needless to say, we did not consummate our marriage that night, which I hear is quite common for newlyweds. 

In summary, Hubby and I took control over what could have been a stressful situation - a wedding - and made it into something that we will remember forever. Sure, it was unconventional and went against everything our families wanted, but in the end, it made us happy and everyone should appreciate that. Do I plan on doing something later that is a bit more elaborate? Hmmm, maybe for our five year anniversary. But for now, I will remember my pedicure, my beautiful dress, and the man who was there for the entire journey. 

For any bride who is considering eloping, I would say to think hard about it. It is a personal decision and I would not suggest it for everyone. Think about what makes you and your future husband happy and take it from there. Whether a wedding or an elopement, just be happy. 

Talk later!

Crystal