My Disaster Night With Cauliflower Pizza Crust!

Yay we’re so close to Friday! I cannot wait for this weekend, it’s Mr Tan Lines 29th birthday and I have some really fun things planned! Using the fun app Timehop I found this picture we took exactly 3 years ago in Miami when we were celebrating his birthday! We went with Luti and her husband and it was so much fun!

So remember yesterday when I said was attempting cauliflower pizza crust last night? Yea well I did…and it went horribly wrong! The crust was not a crust at all, it was just a huge pile of flavored cauliflower mush. I followed the directions I found on Pinterest exactly and was so disappointed! Mr Tan Lines couldn't help but laugh, hey nobodies perfect right?! Here’s what I did and I’ll point out the areas that might have lead to my demise.

First the instructions said to place your pizza stone in the oven and pre-heat to 450 degrees. I did this. I wish I hadn't (see below). I was so excited and ready to go, look at all the yummies I purchased for our pizza!

Chop up 1 head of cauliflower (I ended up using 2, luckily I had two or it would have been even worse) and put into food processor. The highlight of the meal was that I actually got to use my food processor for the first time! Isn’t she gorgeous!?

After my cauliflower looked like “snow” the instructions said to microwave it for 4 minutes, done. Then place onto a towel, let cool and “wring out” as much juice as possible. I had Mr Tan Lines help with this part and we got about 1/3 cup of juice out of each cauliflower head. 

Then we put it back into a bowl…and umm then this is what I looked it…I know…this was when I knew something wasn’t right. But, I persevered.  This is when I decided to use 2 cauliflower heads instead of 1. So imagine the image below with twice the...the...the whatever we want to call that mess.

I then added all of the items to my bowl with the cauliflower and mixed well:

1 egg

1/2 cup parmesan cheese (shredded)

1/2 mozzarella cheese (shredded)

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp kosher salt

Here I am, mixing away the beautiful crust!

Next, mold your mixture into a ball and place on greased parchment paper. Shape your crust, not too thick and not too thin (that’s exactly what the instructions said). I used aluminum foil because I didn’t have parchment paper. After I shaped my crust I realized there was NO WAY to get it off of the aluminum foil and onto my (now super hot) pizza stone. The crust was a huge mush pie, it had the texture of mashed potatoes essentially. So plan B, I placed the aluminum foil with the mush pie on top of the pizza stone and into the oven. Baked it for 15 minutes and nothing. The edges burned but the mush remained mush.  After another 15 minutes the mush circle was burnt and you guessed it, still mush!! Mr Tan Lines threw away the mush before I could snap a picture, but trust me it wasn’t a sight to see!

So at this point I was way off my game, but had to think of someway to use our pizza ingredients. So, plan C I decided to try to make a pizzadilla. I used a flour tortilla, sprinkled mozzarella on it, along with onions, green bell peppers and pepperoni. I then cooked it stove top and voila! I ended up slightly burning it, like I said…I was way off my game but it was actually really, really good! We used the pizza sauce as our dipping sauce and we both agreed next time this is a much easier route to take!

Plan D (I wasn't just going to give up on our pizza night!) I decided to use the whole wheat pita pockets we had as crust and make some mini pizzas. These also turned out fabulous and tasted so good. Thankfully, I was able to save the meal. It was a long, hard fought battle but I came out victorious!

We both agreed next time pre-made pizza dough will work just fine, but it did make for a night full of laughs; and that’s all that matters in the end! :) 

Miss Lily captured my reaction to the cauliflower pizza crust perfectly, don't you think?!

Gone Girl Review & Wine

Happy Wine Wednesday!!

We’re halfway through the week, yay! I wanted to start off by sharing yet another new and delicious wine I tried this week; it was a cabernet sauvignon from Chono Single Vineyard that I purchased at Publix. It was another incredibly smooth wine with a really nice sweet note at the end; the best part was that it was only $9! I love these great wine deals! We paired it with my yummy grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato bisque; I told you Mr Tan Lines just couldn’t get enough! I am making my first attempt at cauliflower crust pizza tonight, can’t wait to show you guys how it turns out!

Monday nights episode of The Bachelor did not disappoint per usual, so much drama! I love that Farmer Chris is coming into his own and really giving all of the girls a fair shot. If he keeps this is up there is no doubt in my mind that he will find a women to wife!

One of the one-on-one dates that they went on looked like such a dream, it was a helicopter ride over the grand canyon. It looked so, so petty! I remembered when we flew to Las Vegas and over the grand canyon and how beautiful it looked from 30,000 feet up, I can't imagine how it must have looked from their helicopter! 

My favorite right now is still Britt, she is so pretty and nice. It's also obvious that Chris really likes her! I cannot believe crazy Ashley S. is still around, that girls is nuts!

So I haven’t done my book/movie reviews in a while so I thought I’d start with one that was just recently wildly popular and ended up being a really great read! SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t read or seen Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn stahp reading, book/movie endings ahead!

What it’s about: Nick wakes up unhappily married to his wife Amy on their five year wedding anniversary. He goes to work, gets a call from a worried neighbor and POOF Amy is nowhere to be seen. We follow the detectives through the investigation and they determine that Nick killed Amy. But wait, then we find out Amy is alive and has faked her death in order to seek the ultimate revenge on her cheating husband. She plans on killing herself, changes her mind, kills an old friend instead, blames this old friend for kidnapping her and returns home to Nick. By this point Nick has figured out Amy’s plan and truly loathes her, upon her return he plans to go to the police. But wait, Amy steals Nick’s sperm from the sperm bank, impregnates herself and then tells Nick she wants a family. Nick wants a baby so bad so he decides to forgive Amy and live happily ever after. Oh, and they’re both sociopaths. One of the few books where I’ve actually mouthed “WHAT THE F**K” on more then once occasion. It was SO good!

The book switches back between both Nick and Amy’s thoughts on their relationship, which are completely different. Nick’s version is dark, depressed and show that he’s clearly miserable. Amy’s version (through a convenient journal she wrote) paint them out to be the perfect, happy couple.  Nick is completely awkward and admits that he lies to the police on various occasions, so you are lead to believe he is guilty of killing Amy. He is also having an affair with one of his students. I was truly fooled throughout the first part of the book, with Nick’s lying and cheating he is painted out to be a real jerk. My jaw dropped when we discover Amy is alive, even more that she plotted for more then a year to do this. EVEN MORE SO when we read that she let herself bleed on the kitchen floor for hours to create the necessary blood pool, that she secretly stole small amounts of money from their bank account in order to save up and how she completely made up everything in her journal! I felt like every chapter brought on some super, crazy, creepy twist…and I loved every minute of it.

You’re probably like wait—you said Amy killed someone, who?? Well, let me tell you! Amy ends up getting robbed by two people who could have had roles in Deliverance and is left with $0 to her name. She decides to call up her ex-college boyfriend, Desi, (who she claimed tried to kill himself because she dumped him) to help her out. It helps that he’s crazy rich and nuts. He is clearly still in love with Amy and willing to do anything for her, he shacks her up in his mansion of a lake house and feeds her. Amy then gets bored and begins to feel trapped; did I mention he has surveillance cameras on her 24/7? Amy wants to return to Nick so naturally she decides Desi has to die, she slits his neck and steals his car.

So now you figure out that Amy is a crazy compulsive liar who is willing to do anything to make sure you look guilty. The ending really blew my mind, first that Amy got herself preggers, second that Nick decides to stay, third that she had a frozen stash of vomit (she drank anti-freeze) ready to go in order to frame Nick again, fourth because Nick finds said vomit and throws it away so that she can’t leave him again…it just goes on and on. Halfway through the book I remember telling Mr Tan Lines that I had zero clue how the book was going to end…and I loved that! It’s so rare to read books these days that really keep you on your toes!

The movie did a great job sticking to the book; it actually followed it almost perfectly. Of course details will be lost but overall had I not read the book the movie still would have kept me guessing. I highly recommend reading the book before seeing this one. I give the book 8/10 and the movie 6/10. For some reason I wasn’t in love with Rosamund Pike and other casting choices, so that brought my rating down a bit!

I hope you all have a great rest of the day! Until next time!

It’s Bachelor Monday!!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a great weekend, I know we sure did! I am so excited for tonight’s episode, can’t wait to see who Prince Farming takes out on the first round of dates! But first, here’s a recap of how we spent our weekend!

Friday night, with a ton of help from Mr Tan Lines I made steak skewers over quinoa with a chimichurri sauce!  Everything was really easy to make, here’s what you’ll need:

1 lb steak, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 green bell pepper

1 orange bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

1 medium white onion

Salt & pepper

For the chimichurri sauce you’ll need:

1 cup flat leaf parsley

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

5 cloves of garlic

1 tbs crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Juice if 1/2 a lemon

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 white onion

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tbsp kosher salt

1 tsp black pepper

And here’s what I did:

Cut the steak, bell peppers and onion into similar 1-inch cubes, skewer onto skewer sticks (we have metal ones we purchased from Bed, Bath & Beyond). If you use wooden skewers make sure to soak them in water for 10-15 minutes before you add your meat and veggies. Drizzle olive oil over the skewers and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Grill for 10-15 minutes. You can also do these on the stove or even bake them, up to you!

For the chimichurri sauce take everything I listed above and throw into a blender, blend it up! Super simple! The chimichurri sauce is seriously delicious! It was really spicy though, if you want to eliminate some of the heat don’t add the red pepper flakes and use 3 garlic cloves instead of 5. 

Serve over your favorite quinoa and enjoy!!

We paired ours with this (hands down one of my favorite wines ever) cabernet sauvignon from my local Earthfare. Earthfare is a new mecca I discovered upon moving to South Carolina. It’s similar to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, they offer the same organic, healthy food options as well as hot pre-made meals and a large salad bar. I purchased this wine for $9, a real steal considering how delicious it is. It was one of the smoothest wines that I have ever had, the flavor was delicate and nomlicious! I can’t wait to go back and buy more!

On Saturday I started off my day at the spa! Mr Tan Lines purchased a mini spa package for me for Christmas and it was finally time to cash it in! I got a facial, hand & foot massage with hot chocolate and a full body hot stone massage…it was amazing and so relaxing!

After I got home we spent most of the day lounging around the house and I went through about 6 episodes of Pretty Little Liars, it’s getting so good! It was a much needed “let’s not do anything” day and we both really enjoyed it. In the evening we couldn’t decide where to do date night so we gave into my wing craving and went to our local Buffalo Wild Wings; they really do have the best wings! We watched some football and I was happy to see the Ravens lose, but was then sad to see the Panthers lose as well!

We then went home and watched some tv, hung out with our favorite puppy and cracked open this delicious bottle of merlot. I actually purchased this one from Wal*Mart for $8, can’t beat those prices! It was really good and we both enjoyed it.

Sunday we tried to run outside but it was just so cold! Instead we went to the little gym in our neighborhood and got a nice work out in. Sunday night I made a dish I’ve been antsy to make for a while now; Peruvian chicken with an aji verde sauce and yucca fries! The aji verde sauce recipe I followed must have been wrong because it was SO spicy, like you can’t even eat or breathe it spicy so I had to add quite a bit more of some stuff to make it edible, I put my revised ingredients list below!

For the chicken marinade here’s what you’ll need:

1 whole chicken

1 cup beer (I used Corona)

1/4 cup white vinegar

Juice of 1 lime

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

Mix all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Place chicken into a large bowl and pour marinade on top. Let sit for 1-2 hours (or overnight if you can). 

Once it’s done marinating cut the chicken in half, place into baking dish skin side up and bake for 1.25 – 1.5 hours at 425 degrees. The last 10 minutes I switched to broil in order to crisp up the skin.

For the aji verde sauce here’s what I used:

2 jalapeños (original recipe called for 3)

3 tbsp fresh cilantro

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (original recipe called for 2 tbsp)

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 cup sour cream (the original recipe only called for 2 tbsp’s)

Put everything into a blender and you guessed it, blend! Serve on the side or pour on top of the chicken.

As for the yucca fries here’s what I did. I purchased a fresh yucca root but I would recommend buying it frozen if you can (I couldn’t find it anywhere). The skin is hard to get off but is a must, you cannot eat the skin. Cut the yucca into 2 inch pieces and remove all of the skin. Boil for 45 minutes. Cut into “fry sized” pieces. In a deep pot put 1 cup of vegetable oil and heat. Place the yucca into the oil once it’s hot and fry until golden brow. Voila!

The chicken was delicioussssssss Mr Tan Lines couldn’t get enough! I shredded what we didn’t eat and plan to make chicken salad with it for lunch tomorrow! We paired our meal with this yummy merlot that I purchased at Publix, again it was a great price $9 and had a great taste!

Like I said I cannot wait for tonight’s episode! We will be watching the championship game as well though, pulling for Oregon!! Quack! Quack! 

Hide Yo Kids, Hide Yo Wife, The Arctic Chill Is Coming to SC!

Happy Hump Day! I hope you’re all having a great week!

The media is a frenzy this morning as the arctic chill approaches, temperatures are going to drop down to around 15 degrees tonight ya'll...not looking forward to it! Although it is cold I heard on the radio that the high in some places right now is around -40 degrees. I cannot even fathom that kind of cold. I thought we moved south for warmer weather?! Oh well, I have my scarves and gloves ready, bring it on arctic chill! And it could always be worse, it could be snowing right?!

I wanted to share a few things with you today, they’re pretty random and all over the place, per usual I guess I should say? :)

First of all, look at Miss Lily on her walk yesterday, isn’t she the best?!

Second of all Mr Tan Lines and I decided to create our own little football bracket for this years’ first bowl playoff season. I am happy to announce that I came out victorious! I picked more winning games then he did and I still have a shot to get the bonus points if Oregon comes out on top next Monday! I don’t think we’ll be watching since Monday night is Bachelor night with Prince Farming BUT we will be checking in on it!

Winning our bracket also got me reminiscing about this time last year when we were in Pasadena at the BCS National Championship game, what an awesome experience that was! Hopefully we’ll get to go again sometime soon!

I know I’m a day late on this but did you all catch Monday nights Bachelor episode?! True to form it didn’t disappoint and I am so excited for this season! I could have forgone the hour long fake red carpet segment however; honestly no one really cares what the past bachelor candidates are doing. And if I’m feeling nosy they are ALL over social media so it isn’t hard to see what they’re up to these days. Prince Farming (I love this) seemed so genuinely excited to be there and I really think he is going to find a girl to wife. There were the usual desperate, crazy girls two of which I was surprised did not get the boot. However we only get to see what ABC wants us to see, which is nothing more then drama and laughs, so hopefully Chris saw a more sincere side to them. Can’t wait for next week’s episode! Yay for Team Britt!

I am also excited to watch yet another crazy season of The Challenge: Battle of the Exes II on MTV. This show really is my guilty pleasure, it's so jam packed with drama I just cannot resist! However this season will be sad I feel as two cast members on the show have passed away since it's taping. Ryan Knight passed away in November and Diem Brown passed away just a few weeks before that. Diem was one of my favorite cast members, not only was she beautiful inside and out but she was one hell of a fighter. You will be forever missed Diem! 

Recipe Nommms, Enjoy!

Happy, happy Monday!! I hope you all had a great weekend! Mr Tan Lines and I spent the majority of our weekend on our feet; we took down all of the Christmas decorations and did a little New Year cleaning around the house! We ran some much needed errands and took advantage of the warm weather and exercised outside! I also made some really delicious food this weekend, definitely not the healthiest ones in my arsenal but hey, like they say, life is too short to skip dessert!

The fist meal I made was for Friday night, I made a delicious steak, mashed potato and brussels sprouts dish!

Here’s what I used:

2 4-5 oz. small sirloin steaks

1 lime, juiced

2 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tbsp chopped basil

1/2 tbsp pepper

1/2 tbsp salt

2 tbsp Worcestershire

1/2 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3-4 medium sized yellow potatoes

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup light sour cream

2 cusp brussels sprouts (I cut the large ones in half)

Here’s what I did. For the steak marinade blend the lime juice, parsley, basil, Worcestershire, garlic powder, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper in a blender or food processor.  Coat the steaks on both sides and let marinate for 4-5 hours. We grilled ours on our gas grill but stove top is okay too. Before cooking, rest the steaks on the counter and bring them up to room temperature. It took about 12 minutes to cook the steaks on our grill.

Peel and chop the potatoes, boil until super tender. I used my kitchen aid mixer but a hand blender works great too! Throw the potatoes, heavy cream, sour cream and butter in the blender, mix until smooth. Add a few pinches of salt and pepper to taste.

Place the brussels sprouts in a single layer on a baking dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil and a heavy dose of garlic powder. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

The second dish I made was for breakfast on Saturday morning, I’m expanding my southern cooking skills ya’ll! I made a yummy and surprisingly easy dish which also happens to be one of Mr Tan Lines favorite; biscuits and gravy!

Here’s what I used:

1 package of Pillsbury buttery biscuit rolls (bake according to directions)

2 1/2 cups of heavy cream

1 cup skim milk

1/3 cup flour

2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cup pork sausage (it’s what I had on hand but you can use any meat product you like)

Here’s what I did:

Pour the milk, flour, salt & pepper and heavy cream into a large pot and cook on medium for about 20 minutes. You don’t want it to boil, you want it to cook slowly and thicken in the process. The time will depend on your stove; just make sure to keep stirring it with a whisk to eliminate any flour lumps! When it’s ready it will easily coat the back of a spoon.

Cook the sausage on the stove until brown. Once the biscuits are cooked cut them in half and place them on a plate, spoon some sausage on top of each biscuit. Smother with the gravy. Grab a fork and dig in! Doesn’t this look great?! I also cooked up eggs for us and put those underneath the gravy.

For Saturday night I cooked one of our favorite dishes, shrimp and grits! I used a recipe I found online and per usual modified it to my liking!

Here’s what I used:

1 lb fresh gulf shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 cups grits (cook according to directions)

2 tsp kosher salt

1 lemon, juiced

1/2 cup andouille sausage, sliced

4 slices of bacon, chopped and cooked until crispy

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 white onion, chopped

3 garlic gloves, minced

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup flour

1 cup chicken broth

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 cup cheddar cheese

Here’s what I did!

Cook the grits according to the package. Keep warm on the stove, right before serving add in the cheddar cheese and mix well.

Place the shrimp in a bowl and marinate with the lemon juice, garlic and a few sprinkles of salt and pepper.

Brown the bacon and set aside in a small dish. Brown the andouille sausage in the same pan, remove and set aside in another small dish.  Into that same dish add the chopped bell pepper and onion, cook for 15 minutes on medium heat. Add the shrimp, chicken broth, worcestershire and salt to the pot. Stir well and cook for 5 minutes.  Add the sausage and bacon, stir well.

In a separate dish combine the butter and flour to form a roux. A roux is essentially a thickening agent that will make your shrimp sauce creamy. Once the butter is melted pour in your flour and mix very well. The roux should be a dark yellow color. Pour into the pot with your shrimp, sausage and bacon.  Cook on medium heat for another 15-20 minutes. Serve over your cheddar grits and enjoy! This one came our really, really good. The andouille sausage is critical to this dish, I remember attempting to make this once in Virginia and I couldn’t find it anywhere, if you have a hard time I would try a specialty butcher shop! You can also ask your local grocery store, some of them will special order meats for you, all you have to do is ask!

After enjoying our delicious meal Mr Tan Lines and I played a few rounds of Life, because who doesn't love board games?! Mr Tan Lines had actually never played before and really enjoyed it!

We also started watching Orange is the New Black, and obviously we are now huge fans and obsessing over it! We were having some issues with our Netflix but finally got it working again this weekend, so naturally we started watching some brand new shows. We also got into Pretty Little Liars which is way better then I anticipated. I read the first book a few weeks ago because it was available for free via iBooks. I really enjoyed it but was sad to see that so far there are 13 books in the series! I enjoyed the book but wasn’t committed enough to purchase the 12 that followed. So far the first season is off to a great start and followed the first book pretty accurately!

Sunday morning we woke up early in hopes to beat the rain and got a great run in at a river front park downtown! It’s such a beautiful place to run with the river views!

Sunday afternoon was spent pretty lazily, Mr Tan Lines napped and I decided to watch a scary movie on Netflix, I decided on Dark Skies which starred Kerri Russell and Kadan Rockett. I was expecting this movie to be a lot scarier, it was produced by the same people who did Paranormal Activity, Insidious and Sinister. If you’ll recall Insidious and Sinister were on my top 10 favorite scary movie list! Perhaps it’s the topic but I just don’t find aliens all that scary, yes spoiler alert it’s about aliens! The “greys” as the film refers to them have latched onto the Barret family and begin leaving clues that they have been watching them, so strange things start to happen. Finally they go to an alien expert and he tells them that eventually the greys are going to abduct one of their kids for good. The film had a few moments that made me jump but I would not recommend this as a scary movie night go-to.

Finally, Sunday night I decided to use some of the left over food I had and made my very first attempt at gumbo! I went for a shredded chicken and andouille sausage version and it turned out delicious! I found a recipe online but didn’t feel it had enough flavor so I ended up adding in my own!

Here’s what I used:

2 1/2 cups sliced andouille sausage

1 chicken breast, boiled and hand shredded

7 cups of light chicken broth (I used the same water I boiled my chicken in)

1 can petite diced tomatoes, no salt added

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 white onion, chopped

1 small green bell pepper, chopped

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp butter

Dry mustard, a few dashes

Coriander, a few dashes

1/2 tsp cumin

2 servings of cooked jasmine rice, I use the Trader Joe’s brand

Here’s what I did!

In a dutch oven (or heavy bottom pan) pour the olive oil and butter, mix until butter is melted, add in the flour to make a roux. Mix well with a whisk to avoid lumps and bring up to a medium boil. Add in the chicken, sausage, onions, bell pepper, dry mustard, coriander, salt, pepper and cumin. Cook on medium heat for 2 hours. Add in the can of diced tomato, cook for an additional 30  minutes. Serve over the rice and enjoy!! For my first attempt we both agreed that it was highly successful, it was a delicious dish! My only problem is that it wasn’t the deep red color you usually see in gumbo, however the majority of the recipes I found didn’t call for tomatoes or anything else that would attribute to the red color, I added those in because I thought the dish needed a little more tang. I plan to do some more research and figure out where I can improve the recipe! Stay tuned!

And last but certainly not least…it’s BACHELOR MONDAY!! I am so excited one of my favorite tv shows is back! Tonight we begin the journey with Farmer Chris aka Chris Soules to find love! He was one of my favorites from Andi’s season so I am excited to watch him! He was such a sweetheart and I really hope this works for him! I made a turkey lasagna last night that is currently sitting in the freezer, I can’t wait to get home, thaw then pop that thing in the oven! Yay for tonight!

Hi 2015.

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful New Years! I am so excited to see what 2015 has to offer! As the New Year starts I thought I’d start with a fresh, new look for my blog :)

Mr Tan Lines and I headed to downtown Columbia where we met Gamecox and Timney for dinner! We enjoyed a delicious spinach dip, bacon wrapped filet mignon and banana fosters cheesecake! I know…I can say that it tasted as good as it sounds; it was so delicious! After dinner Timney and I headed out to a restaurant/bar a few blocks away where we danced and enjoyed some drinks!

Mr Tan Lines and I were home at exactly 11:53pm...just in time to watch the ball drop! Watching the ball drop is my absolute favorite moment from NYE and I was so happy we made it home in time! We then watched the concert afterwards and I actually really enjoyed it! I have to admit that I became a small One Direction fan Wednesday night, their performances were awesome!

I tried using hot rollers for the first time and let’s just say it was a valiant effort but did not go as planned! I purchased a $25 set from WalMart and was really disappointed with the end results! The curls fell within minutes even though I followed the instructions; I ended up using my curling iron to do them myself. I plan on researching a better brand and trying it out in the near future!

Yesterday I started to take down the Christmas decorations which was bitter sweet. I love having the house full of lights and garland; but it’s also nice to get the house back to normal and ready for summer! Yes, I said it, ready for summer! Once the New Year starts my brain immediately starts the countdown to boat season and summertime!

After removing the decorations we watched 1 of 3 great football games! The day started watching our dear Tigers battle it out with Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl. It was one heck of game but sadly we lost in OT due to a missed field goal. It was a hard fought season and we are looking forward to see how the changes made this season will improve our play in the fall! Win or lose, we love our tigers! WAR EAGLE!

Afterwards we happily watched as Oregon beat out Florida State, perhaps we’re still a little bitter from last year’s loss in the National Championship game but either way, BAI FSU. We then watched the beginning of the Alabama vs. Ohio State game; we didn’t have the energy to stay up and watch the ending but were happy to see that Ohio State was triumphant! I don’t know if there’s anything better then having my husband wake me up at 5:12am saying “Drea, Alabama lost!!!” it was a great way to start off our Friday and the weekend!!

I hope you all have a great weekend! Cheers!