aruba, jamaica, oooh i wanna take ya

6 weeks ago today, I was lucky enough to spend a day in Aruba.

Am I the only person who has that song by the Beach Boys stuck in their head all the time?   Come on pretty mama, Key Largo, Montego… No, just me?  If you mention any of the places in that song to me, I will have that song stuck in my head for a week.  And unfortunately for you, it won`t just stay in my head- i`ll be singing it.  And I only know about 4 lines.  So that gets annoying fast.

Anywho.  Before I got off track there, I was going to say this- Here are some photos from Aruba:

I miss you, bathing suit weather.  This is what is looks like here:

Not cool Canada.  That photo wasn`t even taken today- today is actually much worse.  Add about a gazillion tons of extra snow to what you see in this picture, and you can imagine the joyous winter wonderland I am now living in.

Back to the dreamy beachy-ness that is Aruba.  Look at that water:

This is not my dog.  But look how cute!  That dog definitely deserves to be blogged about, don`t you agree?

On that note, I`m going to go crank up the heat, make myself a pina colada & celebrate that fact that tomorrow is Friday :-)

southern-themed party fun

This past weekend, I hosted a southern-themed party.   Meaning? Sweet Tea, Mac & Cheese, Blues & Jazz, Southern Comfort- all that fun stuff!  It was a really good time.

Homemade sweet tea with lemon

White hydrangeas Mmm cocktails

I made sweet potato pie tarts, and pecan tarts- Wow, they were both great (if I do say so myself).  In pre-made tart shells, of course. I`m not Julia Child…

For the pulled pork, I used pork shoulder and the Club House Slow Cooker Pulled Pork mix.  You just throw the packet of spices, plus 1/2 cup each of ketchup and brown sugar, and 1/3 of a cup of cider vinegar along about a kilo of meat into your slow cooker, or in my case, my oven.  I cooked it for about 7 hours at about 275 degrees F ( though I did crank it up at the end.) until a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the meat hit 170 degrees F.   So yummy!

obsessing over…

1. Gorgeous spring colors

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Tell me those colors aren`t stunning!  I especially love the coral, Mango Bango.   From left to right the colors are Good As Gold, Mango Bango, and Lights.  

2.  Homeland

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Have you guys been watching Homeland?  I just discovered it, and I am addicted.  I`m a little behind, because I usually shy away from the “action” type shows, in favor of chick-shows like Grey’s, or sitcoms.  But I tell ya, this show sucks you in- I`ve torn through the whole first season in about a week.

3.  Loaded salads

I`m weirdly obsessed with salads. I love to bring them to parties- who does that? I sneak Subway salads into the movie theater.  I`ll throw anything on a salad, its the healthiest way to enjoy many of my favorite foods.  If i`m craving tacos, sometimes i’ll turn them into a taco salad, and since I`m forgoing the tortilla, I allow myself a little extra of the good stuff: taco meat, cheese, salsa, sour cream, guacamole- yum!    Take some inspiration from the amazing Andie over at Can You Stay For Dinner- the one gal who may actually like salads more than I do.  Take it from her, and me: you can throw pretty much anything on a salad.  Pulled pork on salad, like I showed you yesterday, is amazing.

4.  Fresh Flowers

Having flowers in the house makes my whole day just a little bit better.  Flowers on sale? Even better.  I buy them when they are 50% off, and last week I managed to get two bouquets for a total of $11.  Happy day.

5.  If I Had A Million Flavors

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This stuff is insaaaane!  You`ve probably tried Ben & Jerry’s awesome Half Baked, which is half vanilla ice cream, half chocolate ice cream, with tons of brownie & cookie dough chunks thrown in, right? Well this is like a super-amped up, extra delicious version of that.  Half chocolate ice cream, half vanilla, with white chocolate chunks, chocolate covered nuts, chocolate covered toffee, and best of all, tons of chocolate peanut butter cups.  Ah-maze-ing.  If you try it, you`ll be tempted to buy it again every single time you enter a story.  Consider yourself warned.