BAI 2014!

Well..happy almost 2015 everyone!! I cannot believe how fast this year went by! I started my own little tradition a few years ago where I list my top 5 favorite moments of the year, 2014 was no exception for having great things happen!

Here are my top 5 favorite moments from 2014!

1. Celebrating one year of marital bliss with my favorite person!
2. Buying a house and starting a new life with my husband and puppy in South Carolina!
3. The amazing week Mr Tan Lines and I spent in Cabo San Lucas under the sun and on the sand!
4. My parents celebrating 36 years of marriage and my sister and her husband celebrating 10 years of marriage!
5. Attending my best friend’s wedding in October on the beach in Annapolis, MD!

I feel like I need to add a #6 in there for my friends Clam who got engaged this past month! Can’t wait to share in their special day!!

And a special #7 just for my friend because we had such a blessed year! She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl Summer Elizabeth! Isn’t she the cutest?!

We went home to Virginia for Christmas and had a wonderful time with my family and friends! We went to some of my favorite restaurants like Coastal Flats and Mon Ami Gabi where we met Clam for happy hour!

We also went to Peking Gourmet Inn where would you believe it but Daniel Dae Kim was there! He’s one of the stars of Hawaii Five-O and plays Detective Chin Ho Kelly! Mr Tan Lines and I are HUGE fans of the show, we watch it every Friday so it was hella cool for us to meet one of the stars! I stopped to say hi to him on the way out and he was so sweet, I told him that we were huge fans of his work and the show and raved about the delicious food we just had! He resides in Hawaii so what a small world for us to run into him in a tiny little restaurant in Falls Church, VA! Here is a picture of him just in case!

2014 came in went, time for a new year and new memories! Thanks to all of you for reading through my posts! Can’t wait to see what the future hold! Until next year :)

Tomato Bisque, Grilled Cheese & Wine!

Happy almost Christmas everyone!! 

I am so excited that we are heading to Virginia tomorrow to spend time with my family! I cannot wait to see them all! This past weekend my work had their Christmas party at a local store that supplies lawn accessories and large plants called Hay Hill Garden Market. They also specialize in gorgeous home decorations and furniture! We had so much fun with everyone and the decorations were beautiful! We even had a special guest swing by, check it out!

Last night I made a delicious home cooked meal; tomato bisque soup and the best grilled cheese sandwiches, here’s what I did!

Tomato Bisque Soup, I looked over several different recipes and then went with my own invention, here’s what I used:

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes

1 16 oz can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

3 cups chicken broth

2 tbsp chopped fresh Italian flat leaf parsley

1 small can tomato paste

3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp pepper

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 chopped white onion

2 tbsp good extra virgin olive oil

And here’s what I did!

Put the olive oil, onions, garlic powder and pepper into a large soup pan and cook on medium for 10 minutes. Add canned tomatoes, chicken broth, parsley, basil, salt, sugar and tomato paste to pot. Bring to boil and cook for 12 minutes on medium. Add in heavy cream, cook for another 2 minutes. Turn off heat and blend soup with immersion blender, blend until there are no large chunks. Cook for another 5-10 minutes. You can also keep it off and then re-heat it when you are ready to eat.

Best Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, again I looked at a few recipes then came up with my own thing!

Here’s what I used:

Sour dough bread, cut into sandwich slices

Gruyere cheese

Sharp cheddar cheese

3-4 tbsp Fresh grated parmesan cheese

3 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Salt & pepper, a few

2 tbsp butter

As for the cheese I went to my local deli and asked for 8 slices of gruyere and 6 slices of cheddar.  Here’s what I did!

Pre-heat pan to medium on stove. Combine the mayo, mustard, salt & pepper in small bowl. Spread a generous amount of butter on each slice of bread, place bread butter side down on cutting board, spread an even amount of the mayo mixture on each side of bread. Place 4 slices of gruyere on one piece of bead, 2 slices of cheddar and 1-2 tbsp of the grated parmesan (repeat on another piece of bread). Place the piece of bread with no cheese onto the other piece and place onto your pan. I put some aluminum foil on each sandwich and used a pot to weigh them down a little. Cook on medium-low for 10 minutes until cheese is melted and bread is golden brown. Slice in half and enjoy!

Guys, everything turned out DELICIOUS! Mr Tan Lines was so impressed, he’s not a big soup guy and he had two servings of the bisque! The grilled cheese was nothing but ooey-gooey yumminess and the soup was so creamy and tasty! I will definitely make this again in the near future! I paired our dinner with a special wine a client gifted Mr Tan Lines, it was an estate red from Medlock Ames Winery in Napa and it was wonderful! It had a great, smooth and light taste that went great with our dinner! Also, I don’t think I showed ya’ll my cute palmetto wine glasses I got over the summer!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!!  Cheers! :)

Meowie Christmas!

Happy Monday! 

Mr Tan Lines and I had the most fabulous weekend and I hope you all did too! We can start off with Thursday, we went to Mr Tan Lines’ work party at a local place called Jillian’s. It was similar to a Dave & Busters except with less games to play. I had a great time meeting all of his co-workers and finally putting a face to a name! We played pool and shuffleboard as well as a few other classic favorites!

On Friday night our neighbor held their annual Christmas party so we headed on over for some fun. It was great getting to know new people and they had a Yankee Swap, anonymous gift exchange, that was really fun!  Here is Mr Tans Lines and I before we left!

Saturday we hosted our annual Christmas party that was so much fun! It took me about two weeks to fully decorate the house but it makes me so happy to have Christmas lights everywhere! We did the “Ugly/Tacky Christmas Sweater” theme again this year and it turned out great! I purchased my “Meowie Christmas” sweater off of Etsy from the seller owltheshirtsyouneed and it was a huge hit! The best part was that it was super comfortable and easy to hang out in.

Mr Tan Lines and I provided alcohol, mixers and a few appetizers. I made my yummy meatballs, a few cheese platters and a bacon-ran dip that everyone loved. Here is the recipe!

Bacon-Ranch Dip

16 ounces Sour Cream
1 Package of Ranch Dressing Mix
2 ounces Bacon Bits I used the kind in a bag)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 Bag of Frito's Chips

I also made little sandwich pinwheels that turned out delicious, I found the recipe online but modified it a bit, here is what I used. I ended up doubling the recipe as well since we had around 30 guests.

Christmas Pinwheel Sandwiches

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 cups shredded mild cheddar cheese

1 cup (8 oz.) diced green chiles

1 cup diced red bell pepper

1 cup diced yellow bell pepper

Deli sliced turkey

8 12-inch spinach tortillas

Cherry tomatoes for decoration

1. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, cheddar cheese, chiles and  bell peppers.

2. For each tortilla: Cover tortilla with a thin layer of the cream cheese mixture. Then create a thin layer with the sliced turkey. Roll tortilla tightly, then roll with plastic wrap. Place rolled tortillas in the refrigerator for one hour, or until firm.

3. Remove plastic wrap and cut into 1-inch thick slices. Place on a large platter in tree formation. Decorate with cherry tomatoes on toothpicks.

Here are some pictures of our house right before the party started with all of the decorations!

On Sunday we spent the majority of the day cleaning and lounging around. I made a yummy beef stew for dinner and we cracked open this bottle of wine, it was a gift our neighbors brought over on Saturday! It was a Syrah, Monsatrell & Petit Verdot blend and it was so delicious!

We couldn’t have asked for a more fun filled weekend with new friends. Thank you everyone for the great memories :)

When In Cabo Wabo!

As promised here are some pictures and details about our trip to Cabo! When we left South Carolina the weather was actually starting to get a little chilly so it really was the perfect time to head out! We arrived on a Monday and immediately fell in love with Cabo. Our resort was located about 10 minutes from the downtown area and the marina and was right on the beach. It was situated on a hill so you really had stunning views from anywhere and everywhere.

Our resort was called the Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach and on the first evening it wasn’t hard to figure out why, the sunsets were fantastic! I mean, really they were something out of a fairy tale or a painting. Every night it was like they were too good to be true, the entire sky turned a deep orange and everything just seemed to glow :)

The ocean water and beaches in Cabo were so beautiful; the water was so clear and pretty warm for it being mid-November!

We rented a jet ski and rode around the bay area and then headed over to El Arco! It was SO cool! We had seen so many pictures online it felt surreal to be seeing it with my very own eyes! We even saw some seals swimming around near our jet ski, they were so so cute.

The neatest thing about our resort was the location of one of the pools, it was called the Sky Pool and it was located on the highest point of the resort. It just provided a panoramic view of the ocean and Sea of Cortez. It soon became our favorite spot to watch the sunset!

We were also lucky enough to be visiting during whale watching season which was SO cool! We actually saw whales on two separate occasions. The first time we saw a few fins and you could see the water shooting out of their blow holes but the second time they were jumping out of the water! It was such an incredible experience to see these gentle giants playing and showing off for us! We took a few videos of them and we will never forget those memories!

We loved exploring downtown Cabo and the marina, there were so many restaurants, bars and shopping areas! We ate dinner downtown twice and were not disappointed, I will never be able to eat “Mexican” food the same in America again! From the guacamole to the carne asada, everything was outstanding, especially the tequila! I can confidently say we blended in with the locals just fine trying different tequilas everywhere we went!

Mr Tan Lines did something really cool while we were there, he did the extreme baja moto cross excursion that he loved! He took a private tour through the beaches and drove through sand dunes and cliffs! He had an awesome time!

We met so many sweet and friendly people while we were exploring. The city itself is still in heavy recovery mode from hurricane Odile. However compared to the devastating pictures released shortly after the hurricane they have really come a long way. Sadly there is still much damage and work that needs to be done. Many resorts and restaurants were not open during our visit. Directly on Medano Beach you could see roof damage, pool damage and building damage. It was humbling to see the people of Cabo coming together, smiling and making every effort to get their lives back to normal. Cabo really is #unstoppable and we cannot wait to return!

“there is no gift or asset that is so precious than to have another 24 hours to prove how worthy or not our existence under the sun is. leave a distinctive footprint each day”