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."
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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

Bucket List #31 - Elope in Vegas...Uh Savannah (How We Planned the Elopement)

My last blog discussed why Hubby and I eloped. The decision was a hard one and unlike what my family now thinks, it wasn't one that we took without thinking of everyone involved. In the end, we wanted a ceremony our special way and eloping did just that. Well, now comes the hard part...planning the elopement.

First decision: Location? Savannah, GA. 

This was a no brainer. We LOVE Savannah, GA. We love the history, romance, and the southern charm of this city. It is a gorgeous place and we had dreams of taking photos under the Spanish moss. If you have never visited Savannah, you must visit. 

So we knew what city we were going to stay in, but then we needed a place to lay our weary heads. Hubby and I are HUGE fans of the website, Airbnb. You can rent someone's home or a room for a week for the cost of a hotel for one day. It is amazing. Because we were limited in our budget, we decided to rent a suite in a home in historic Savannah. Location? Check! House to Stay In? Check!

Second Decision: Church or Justice of the Peace? Church. 

Hubby and I are religious people. We believe that God and prayer are an integral part of our lives. Although we were not having a traditional wedding, we were going to have a traditional ceremony. With that in mind, I needed to find a church that would allow us to wed in their sanctuary with us not being members and for not a lot of money. 

I searched the net and happened upon a website that promoted elopement packages for Savannah. They would do everything from the ceremony to the flowers to the cake. While tempting to do a ready package, I wanted to do something more personalized. However, in the package description, they mentioned Rev. Steve Schulte who does elopements. I researched him and saw that he had amazing reviews from brides and I loved his snappy dressing. So I emailed him and got a response within days. Within a week, we had decided that he would be our pastor for the ceremony and we could get married in his church, St. Luke's Lutheran Church, outside of Savannah. Score!!!

Rev. Steve Schulte

The entrance to the church

Third Decision: Full Wedding Attire or Casual? Wedding Dress, Duh!

Most people would think, "Hey, you are getting married with no one there, why dress up?" Because I want to feel like a bride! While I could not afford to buy my dream Monique Lhullier dress, I wanted to wear a wedding dress that made my feel beautiful and I wanted Hubby in a nice suit to accompany me. He was in luck because he already had a suit, but I don't just have a wedding dress lying around. So here I go to David's Bridal. 

I can honestly say that this is the part where I missed having my mom and aunt there. Shopping for the most important dress in your life is not as much fun without the opinions of the women you love the most. So I trudged into DB with no idea what I wanted and with a budget of only $500. 

In a matter of hours, I tried on nearly all dresses that would fit me and I narrowed it down to a traditional gown and a teacup dress. I was torn. I could not make up my mind. Both were equally beautiful. So, I had to break tradition and bring in the person who's opinion I value the most - Hubby. With his opinion, I went with the traditional dress. 

Sidenote here: I did the typical bride mistake! When I bought my dress, it was tight on me. I vowed to work out, lose weight and fit into that dress. Well I worked out a bit too much, got injured, and spent 4 weeks before our wedding completely sedentary. When I went back the week before our wedding to pick up the dress, I not only could not fit into it, but I had to convince them to trade it in for one in a larger size. Buy the dress in the size you need it at your first fitting.  

My dream Monique Lhullier dress...sigh

The beautiful teacup dress I was considering.

My wedding dress!

Final Details: Decide later? Yes!
So with a few weeks before our wedding, planning of the details came to a halt because of my work-related travel. We still needed a photographer, cake, flowers, my veil, and other smaller details. Hubby told me to stop spinning circles in my head and to just deal with it when we went to Savannah, so that is what we did. I think I got a lot of the major plans done before we got there, but if I had known what I know now, I would not have waited.

So next I will tell you about our wedding day...

Talk later!
Crystal

Bucket List #31 - Elope in Vegas...Uh Savannah (Why We Eloped)

When I say that time flies, I mean it. It was six months ago that I last wrote on this blog. In that time, I have worked more hours than humanly possible, gotten more animals in my household (all foster failures!), had some life changing moments, and had some equally normal and boring moments. I won't bore you with them all, but to get back into the swing of writing, I will tell you the wonderful story about how hubby and I eloped. This is a long story, so I will split it up into three parts - Why We Eloped, How We Planned the Elopement, and The Day We Got Married.

Ryan (Hubby) and I had been friends long before we even became a couple. Finally, three years ago, we became an exclusive couple and despite the fact that most of the time we were in a long distance relationship, we grew more in love and knew that we wanted to spend our lives together. Well when two people figure out that they love each other and want to spend even more time together, what do they do? Get married, of course. 

Long distance loving in 2012

Us at a friend's wedding in 2012

Well here we are. Ready to get married. My Pinterest board is filled with wedding dresses, table settings, and all kinds of great ideas for the ultimate wedding. I am ready to blow things out of the water. Then Ryan gets the call one day while at work. "Babe, let's elope!"

So why did I decide to go against tradition and elope? 

1) Money. (The root of all evil)

Do you know how much weddings cost these days? The dress, the food, the venue, the DJ, the travel and hotels, transportation, gifts for guests. Yes, I could have done a very simple wedding, but I know me and I know that I would have wanted the world. To have something less than ideal for a real wedding would have been more disappointing to me. 

Then you have two people who are still young, having moved to a new city, with me traveling a month straight for work, and with Hubby just getting established at a new job. There just was not enough money for what we dreamed of. In the end, we were not going to hold our MARRIAGE for a WEDDING. 

2) Family. (Who do you invite and who do you cut?)

If we were going to do a wedding, we had decided that we wanted it to be small. We originally set a cap of 40 people. For me, that was easy. My family is small and I could have easily stuck to 20 people on my side, but Hubby has a family that could fill both sides of the church. So the number soon grew to 50, then he was asking for 75. Everyone was essential and important in his life and after meeting his family, I could not think of one person who I didn't instantly love and did not want there. There was too much pressure and when you think of reason #1, you will see how this was soon becoming a major issue. 

3) We wanted something intimate and special

I am sure every bride says that her wedding was special, but if you think about it, 80% of the day is not actually spent with your spouse. You start the day away from each other getting ready and getting fussed over by friends and family. Then you have a 30 minute ceremony where you have to profess your undying love and affection in front of God, your parents, 50 friends and family, and other random people who you may not know. Followed by a reception with said people where the majority of the night is spent walking around thanking them for being there. Hubby and I did not want this for our wedding day. We wanted to be more intimate with each other and really feel the major decision that we were making. 

After my initial phone call, Hubby and I talked about it for another week. We discussed how our families would react. We talked about how we would feel about it. He dealt with me changing my mind over and over and over again. I read blog after blog about eloping. I thought about other friends who decided to elope and how it affected them. Finally, we made the decision that this is what we wanted to do.

So then, planning began...

Talk Later!
Crystal

Ain't Got No Baby Mama Drama...Preventing Teen Pregnancy

Did you know that your dog or cat can get pregnant as early as four months old. That is truly babies having babies. I have witnessed this happen many times and it just breaks my heart. So today, I took our baby, Bella, to get spayed.

We had to wait a little longer than 4 months because the doctor suggested we wait until she started getting adult teeth. So at 5 months, she has her teeth and we are not waiting any longer. She got her beautiful new adult teeth! (Proud mama over here.)

Atlanta Humane Society has a great low cost spay and neuter program that allows your dog or cat to get spayed, micro-chipped, and a rabies shot for the super low cost of $35 ($40 with pain medication.) All we had to do was sign-up and get an appointment.

Well as a worry wart mama, I was scared of the surgery even though I have gone through this many times before. She is my baby and I love her. We started the day at 6:00 in the morning, so that we could get there by 6:30. God must have been watching over me because the dang dog almost caused an accident when she tried to climb behind my back as I was driving! Then she proceeded to get in the back seat, where she threw up all over the floor! UGH!!!

When I finally got there, I signed in and then brought her in to await our time to go in the back room. She was not liking all of the new dogs and she could not sit still. I did, however, get a few pics of her before her surgery.

Mama, what are you doing?

A selfie with Bella Louise 

About to go in and be spayed

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So I go back to get her and was given the typical post-surgery instructions - give pain medicine, don't let her be around the other dogs, walk her on a leash only for ten days. And then we were off to home.

Or so I thought...Atlanta traffic was horrible as usual and it took us an hour of driving through the city to get home. Both Bella and I were exhausted and ready to get out of the car by the time we got home.

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It has now been two days since surgery and she is doing great. Anyone who has a puppy knows that you can't keep them still. We crate her mostly to keep her from playing, but those pitiful whines just hits my heart. She is going to heal nicely and no more worries about pregnancy.

I would like to partake to anyone reading this blog, the importance of spaying and neutering. There are 9,000 dogs and cats who die in America's shelters every day. Many of those are puppies and kittens who were born because their mom was not spayed. Living in a trailer park in South Carolina, I witnessed this over and over again. The dogs seemed to be pregnant every 6 months and no one took ownership of the dog or the pups. Many of them eventually getting picked up by the pound or getting hit by a car.

This is why I do what I do now in animal welfare because I want to Save Them All! As Bob Barker used to say, "Help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered."

On a side note: Bob Barker was a HUGE animal lover and advocate all of his life. Here is a video about his work to save not only dogs and cats, but bears, large cats, and dolphins!

Talk soon, XOXO!
Crystal

Before I Kick the Bucket...List

Hola All!

It has been a very slow week for me. Work is filling up more and more time as I prepare to do marketing for two of Best Friends largest events, Pet Super Adoptions and Strut Your Mutt. If you are looking for a new fur baby or have a dog and want to find something fun to do with them, check out those events. Ok, enough of the shameless plug...lol. 

Other than work, Hubby and I have just been sitting around watching our favorite trash TV, looking for a new home, and dreaming of vacations. (I desperately need some beach in my life right now.) While sitting around, I decided to go through some of my old blogs and websites and check out how far I have progressed in life. In my search, I found the bucket list that I made in 2009. 

Let me tell you a little about 2009. I had taken a job in  Star, NC, the center of the state. It was in the middle of no where. It was a small town of about 800 people and I was like the only black person there. I was single, broke, unhappy, and not really sure why I had taken a position that had me so secluded. Let me preface, though, that the company I worked for was a great place. Starworks and Central Park NC is an organization that is really working to build a sustainable economy in the counties in central North Carolina. They actually employ lots of young and innovative people from all over the country. But in the end, it wasn't for me. 

Well there I was bored and broke - two of the worst things to be - and I decided to make my bucket list. I looked at many different websites and read others' bucket list and made the following list. I look at some of these things and find them very insightful and I look at others and wonder what the heck I was thinking. Well I have made some edits to my original bucket list and you will see them below.

100 Things I Want to Do in My Life...

(in no particular order)

1. Write the story of my life. (I guess I am on my way to this with this blog!)
2. Break a world record.
3. Go without a cell phone for a month.
4. Spend one month's paycheck on a pair of shoes.

(Louboutins here I come!!!)

5. Learn to play one song on a musical instrument.
6. Learn a different language and use it for a year.
7. Fly on a trapeze.
8. Swim with a dolphin...in its natural habitat, not in an aquarium or in captivity.
(Because I have learned so much about dolphins and other animals in captivity, I have now changed my viewpoint on how I want to do this.)
9. Ride on the world's tallest rollercoaster.
10. Pay for my sister's entire college education. Help my sister find the right college. 

(My little sister will be going into the military, so she won't need help paying for college (thankfully!) but she will need help finding the college that is right for her. I want to do the whole college tour with her like my parents did.)
11. Kiss a perfect stranger without telling them of my intentions. Learn how to do standing paddle boarding. 

(I have wanted to do this every since I saw this on a show about Hawaii. It probably is harder than it looks, so looking forward to doing this!)
12. Fast for one week and give the money that I would have spent on food to the church.
13. Run a marathon.
14. Test drive an expensive car that I can't afford.
15. Attend the Super Bowl.
16. Be in a movie.
17. Win a ballroom competition.
18. Fall deeply in love -- helplessly and unconditionally. Stay in love and be married to the same person for a lifetime. 

(I have already found the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, so the goal is to keep the promises that we make in our vows.)

19. Drink beer at Oktoberfest in Munich.
20. Sing my favorite song in front of an audience.
21. Visit all 50 states.
(15 down already!)
22. Go to Carnival in Brazil.
23. Participate in La Tomatina in Valencia, Spain.
24. Get to my perfect weight then spend the next day eating junk food all day.
25. Dive off the Australian Great Barrier Reef.
26. Walk all of the stairs in the Statue of Liberty.
27. Play an entire 18 holes of golf.
28. Climb the Great Pyramid of Egypt. Visit the Great Pyramid of Giza. 

(Had to change this because it seems that it is illegal to climb the pyramids.)
29. Walk the entire Great Wall of China.
30. Eat a meal good enough to be my last. Be in a cooking competition. 

(I changed this because I have already had several meals that could have been my last. I want to give myself more of a challenge. Chopped here I come! Lol)
31. Elope in Vegas.
(Keeping this one. You never know what could happen...lol)
32. Spend New Year's Eve in New York.
33. Write an article for Lonely Planet.
34. Write all of my friends a letter in a single day.
35. Adopt 50 homeless shelter dogs. (Not all at once!)
36. Get my MBA...or my Masters degree. 
37. Go to an airport and buy a ticket to the next place leaving. 

(Gonna keep this on, but with the current airport security, this may lead to me being put in jail for suspicion of something. Lol)
38. Go camping for a week.
39. Be photographed professionally - naked.
40. Get a full body wax.
41. Get my mother to ride on a plane.
42. Drive to Mexico.
43. Take a Transatlantic cruise.
44. Become debt free.
45. Visit India.
46. Make an important speech on television.
47. Write a letter to the Editor of the New York Times.
48. Fill my iPod to the limit with songs.
49. Make a documentary.
50. Work a night at a suicide hotline.
51. Spend a week partying in Miami.
52. Be celibate for one year. Drive the Pacific Coast Highway in California. 

(Having visited California, I am very eager to explore more!)

53. Be the head of an organization.
54. Buy a house.
55. Buy 20 acres of land.
56. Donate to a charity anonymously.
57. Donate blood and plasma.
58. Suntan naked on a beach.
59. Make a large piece of art.
60. Read over 1000 books.
61. Swim in the Dead Sea.
62. Read the Bible from start to finish.
63. Watch a tornado.
64. Visit the world's largest farmer's market.
65. Make a cake from scratch. 

(OMG, I did this this weekend! I need to write a blog post about it!!!!)
66. Eat fish and chips in England.
67. Apologize in person to someone I have hurt greatly.
68. Forgive someone who has greatly hurt me.
69. Vacation at a nudist resort. Vacation on a private island. 

(After watching shows about nudist resorts, I have no interest in this! Don't know what I was thinking in 2009 with this.)
70. Participate in speed dating. Take a cross country road trip. 
(Hubby and I want to do this when we eventually move to San Diego.)
71. Drink champagne that is from IN the champagne region of France.
72. Spend an entire day making myself happy.
73. Buy an expensive pearl necklace.
74. Send a dozen roses to all of the women in my life.
75. Let a man sweep me off of my feet. Visit all of the U.S. National Parks. 

(Hubby does the original every day just by the way he treats me and the fur babies, so I wanted to make this something different. I have a love of national parks, so my new bucket task is to visit all of the U.S. National Parks, even the ones in Alaska!)
76. Have a child. Visit an orphanage and donate clothing for all of the kids there. 

(After contemplating life, I have decided that children are not something I want. Hubby and I agree on this, also. However, we love kids and want to make an impact in their lives, whether it is our friends' kids or kids we don't know.)
77. Make the perfect cornbread stuffing.
78. Dance with a stranger in the street.
79. Wash my hair in the first rain of spring.
80. Watch a music icon in concert.
81. Swim in Bora Bora.
82. Kiss someone until my lips get numb. Have a huge wine cellar with wines from all around the world. 

(I changed this one because the original was just boring and definitely was an indicator of how single I was in 2009...lol. Since I love wine so much, I think the new item is better for me.)
83. Become a vegetarian for a month. Develop a lifestyle of organic foods and clean eating. 

(I have deleted this because in 2009, I actually went vegetarian for 6 months. It wasn't for me. However, it did change my idea of how important good foods are to a diet, which is why I changed this.)
84. Eat an authentic Philly Cheesesteak.
85. Sleep in a zoo. Fully renovate a house.

(Because of my evolving views on animals in captivity, I took the original off the list. Lately, Hubby and I have tossed around the idea of buying a fixer-upper and fully renovating it ourselves. I would love to do this!)
86. Have a picnic in Central Park, NY.
87. Buy and sell stocks.
88. Hug a huge redwood tree.
89. Get my 401k to over $1 $2 million before I retire. 

(In today's economy, the original $1 would not have kept me through my first ten years of retirement. I am sure by the time I retire, this number will need to go to $4 million.)
90. Own all of my favorite movies.
91. Become certified in something.
92. Get a boob job.
93. Buy my mother a house.
94. Spend the day floating in a boat reading a book.
95. Kiss someone in the rain Hubby in a rainforest. 

(Changed this because anyone can be kissed in the rain, but it is more of a challenge to kiss in a rainforest.)
96. Fulfill a wish for someone.
97. Spend an entire day praying.
98. Give $100,000 to my church.
99. Take my little sister on vacation once every year until she no longer wants me to.
100. Eat real Paella in South America.

I think I like those changes. They reflect where I am in life now. Now I have something great to blog about for years to come as I knock out my bucket list. I hope you enjoy mine and make a list of your own!

Talk soon, XOXO!

Crystal

Pin-Up Steak - How Pinterest Made My Dinner Great!

Isn't that a beautiful sight? Definitely restaurant quality meal.

With Hubby home from a weekend away with his family and our precious Arty back at home after surgery on his broken leg, I figured that we had some celebrating to do. If you don't know it yet, I like to celebrate over EVERYTHING! So I went to Pinterest and started planning the ultimate meal. 

The inspiration for my meal was a bottle of Layer Cake's Primitivo that was recommended by my friend, Wendy. (Hi Wendy!) This wine is delicious! I love a good red, but Hubby is not as much a fan. He says that they are too tart for him. Well this was a little more palatable for him, since it had a sweetness to it that reduced that sharpness. Let me state though that this is not a sweet red. It is just a good Zinfandel that has a bit of sweetness. 

A review for Layer Cake's Primitivo states, "A balance of elegance and power, the wine impresses with inky black fruit, spice and white pepper, jammy black cherries, plums, truffles and espresso." I could definitely taste the cherries and the plum in the first sip, which gives it that sweetness. However, I don't remember the truffles or espresso being at the party at all. I think I should buy another bottle and try to find the other flavors. ;-)

So we have our inspiration red wine. Now we need a meal to equal this. What is the perfect dancing partner for a red wine? STEAK!

Lately, I have been on a health kick and my diet has consisted of fruits and lots of salads. I haven't had a good steak in almost 6 months. For a great steak, Hubby and I usually get dressed up and go to Fleming's, our favorite steakhouse. We celebrate our anniversaries and birthdays there and they know our name and treat us wonderfully! For this meal though, I wanted to try doing a steak myself. 

In the past, my trials at steak have resulted in very juicy tender steaks, but I could never get any temperature but well done. My challenge to myself was to find a recipe that let me get a good medium steak for Hubby and a medium-well for myself. Off I went to Pinterest to scour the thousands of steak recipes and found one that had the title, "How To Cook Perfect Steak in the Oven." With a title like that, I could not pass it up. This recipe was simple and to the point, but I wanted to take it to the next level, so I found this wonderful marinade to do the day before. 

I went to my favorite market here in Decatur, Dekalb Farmer's Market, and chose a huge, bone-in, 18oz, Angus ribeye steak. So many adjectives to describe a beautiful piece of beef and it was only $13! I only got one because I planned on cutting it in half, giving Hubby and I two good sized 9 oz steaks. I marinaded the steak for a full 24 hours and then proceeded in cooking according to the directions in the cooking recipe. 

The result was a juicy, perfectly cooked steak...but it was at a medium-rare! I did not take into consideration that my steak was thicker than the recipe. So after three more times under the broiler, I ended up with medium for Hubby and medium-well for me. YAY!!!! 

Close-up of my medium-well steak

Well with a mouthwatering steak, you need some awesome sides. I knew I wanted to do some type of potato because I had some in my pantry that needed to be used before they went bad. (I hate wasting food.) I did not want to do a plain baked potato, it just would not live up to the star of the show! So I again looked on Pinterest and found the recipe for a twice baked potato loaded with butter, green onions, and CHEESE!

Close-up of the cheesy goodness

I did the cheat that the recipe suggested where you do the first bake of the potato and fix it up, then put in the fridge and bake again the next day. I am glad that I did this because in the process of baking my potatoes, I forgot my timing and one of them exploded in the oven. What a mess! It scared the dogs and they spent the next 30 minutes barking their heads off. Needless to say, I had quite a mess to deal with. The next day, when I turned on the oven, it smelled like burnt french fries.

And finally, every good meal needs something green. Hubby and I were watching Chopped one day and saw a chef fail at doing bacon-wrapped asparagus. How a professional chef failed at something so simple, I don't know, but I was determined to make some. I did look up a recipe on trusty ole Pinterest, here, just to make sure I was doing it right. I must admit that I slightly overcooked the asparagus, but I wanted to make sure the bacon was done. 

So is the plural of asparagus, asparagi? Lol

So add all of those delicious things together and you have what could be last meal worthy. I ate and ate and ate. And I drank and drank and drank. In the end, I was stuffed, but incredibly happy. I hope you try these and let me know how yours came out. 

After my good meal, I spent the rest of the night kissing my precious Arty and enjoying having him home. 

Please ignore the hair!

Talk Soon, XOXO!

Crystal