Happy Halloween and the "Sexy _____"

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Tonight we are going to a neighborhood block party to hang out and have a few adult beverages before all the kiddos go do their trick-or-treat thing. I have the candy all ready and as long as my husband doesn't eat all of it before tonight, we should be all set! We usually don't have very many trick-or-treaters but I'm still holding out for a big crowd! Handing out candy to trick-or-treaters is one of my favorite past-times.

In other news... have you ever asked yourself "Why does every female need to dress as the sexy ____ on Halloween?" When did Rainbow Bright, Carebears, and Nuns become "sexy"?? I have always taken a slightly different approach to Halloween and for the most part have always been as less sexy as possible. While all the other girls are out in 50 degree weather wearing next to nothing with the highest of high heels on, I've always been warm and comfortable. It's really a win-win in my mind.

Let me elaborate...

Clearly this started at a young age. There is really nothing less sexy than a clothes hanger shaped around your head and wearing your best friend's (who happened to be a boy) shoes. I have to give my mom credit for putting this costume together... I'm pretty sure I won the costume contest at church that year. Score one for Pippi!

Moving into college I was a butterfly and ladybug for the first 2 years. Each of those costumes consisted of wearing whatever I wanted to with wings and a headband. Not too bad. But the best costume by far was when my roommates and I dressed up our Junior year as Snood characters. (If you don't know what Snood is, it was a very addictive computer game popular when I was in college). My mom's creativity must have rubbed off on me because I made all these costumes by hand. I wish I had a better picture of all of us but this old scanned Party Pics is all I've got.

Post-College/Pre-Brett my friend and decided to dress up as Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World to go to a party down in Charleston. I have to say these costumes are pretty spot-on. This was also the party where we spotted the "Sexy Carebears". We certainly stuck out like sore thumbs but I think everyone appreciated our creativity.

Since Brett and I have been together we have actually only attended 1 Halloween party together where we decided to dress as characters from our favorite tv show, Survivor. Grubby clothes, signature Survivor "buffs" and a fishing pole. Done.

So in closing, I'm not going to necessarily judge you for dressing sexy for Halloween... if you've got it, flaunt it. However, can we just please keep the integrity and innocence intact of those childhood characters? If you are going to dress as a Carebear, I fully expect a full on bear costume. :) 

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!

Tasty Tuesday: Sweet Potato Madness!

When we were heading back from Myrtle Beach a few weekends ago, we stopped along the road and picked up a bag of sweet potatoes from some nice guys on the side of the road. I told Brett to try and get a small bag and low and behold we get a huge bag. So, I've been trying to find some good sweet potato recipes to use these up before they go bad. Here are the ones I've tried thus far.

We still have a few more left so send me any of your favorite sweet potato recipes for us to try!

 

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

 

 Ingredients:

• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons chopped pecans

Scrub and pierce sweet potatoes. Bake at 375° for 1-1/4 hours or until tender. When cool enough to handle, cut a thin slice off the top of each potato and discard. Scoop out the pulp, leaving thin shells. (my shells were donzo after baking them so I just threw them out and made the rest in small baking dishes)

In a small bowl, mash the pulp with cream cheese. Stir in brown sugar and cinnamon. Spoon into potato shells. Sprinkle with pecans. Place on a baking sheet.

Bake, uncovered, at 375° for 15-20 minutes or until heated through. Yield: 2 servings.

Overall I thought these were really good. I especially loved the individual portions. However, I typically like my sweet potatoes SWEET so I might add a little more brown sugar or maybe even a tad of regular sugar next time.

Sweet Potato Pie



Ingredients:

• 2 (1-1/2 lbs) sweet potatoes
• 2 tbsp light butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup 1% milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp ground pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

Boil sweet potato whole in skin for 50 to 55 minutes, or until soft. Run cold water over the sweet potato, and remove the skin. Blend potatoes in a blender and pulse for about one minute to remove all fibers.

 

Place sweet potatoes in a bowl. Add butter, and mix well. Using an electric mixer, mix in sugar, milk, eggs, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust.

 

Bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Serve with cool whip and enjoy!

This recipe is so good! Tastes just like pumpkin pie and is a lot better for you! Highly recommend!

 

Sweet Potato French Fries



Ingredients:

• Sweet Potatoes
• Corn Starch
• Olive Oil

Cut potatoes into stripes (not too small but not to big either). Let soak in water for an hour (we skipped this step which may be why they didn't turn out perfectly). Preheat Oven to 425. Put corn starch (about a tablespoon or two) into a bag and shake in potatoes to get them all coated. Lay out evenly on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil (enough to coat). Then using your hands, toss so that everything is evenly coated. Bake for 15-30 minutes. Just keep watching them and tossing them until they are at your desired crispiness.

Ours didn't turn out perfectly but even the blogger who I got the recipe from said it takes a few tries to perfect it so we may try again soon!

Now, we also made several dipping sauces to try out with the fries (one was included in the above recipe and the other 2 I got from my friend Lauren):

Honey Mustard 1/4 cup low-fat mayo (can also use fat-free or olive oil based)

1/4 cup dijon mustard (whole grain dijon is good too)

2 tablespoons honey

  

Siracha Mayo*

Mix together 1/2 cup of mayonnaise with 1 teaspoon of Sriracha sauce and 1/4 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper. (I sometimes don’t add the pepper and will add salt and lime)

 *If you can get over the fact that you are basically eating straight mayo, this one was my favorite!

 

Chipotle ketchup:

1 cup ketchup

2 to 3 tablespoons pureed canned chipotle in adobo (depending on how spicy you prefer it)

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Prayers for the 2-1

It was a sad day in Gamecock Country on Saturday when our player Marcus Lattimore went down due to a devastating blow to his right leg. As many people have said, this is so much more than football and a game. I don't know Lattimore personally, never met him, never spoken to him but he has been a true leader to our team and shown incredible courage and character over the course of his time at USC. Nobody deserves an injury like he has experienced, but especially not him.

I wasn't inside the stadium when it happened but I was out tailgating and the entire mood shifted when he went down. But It really is an incredible thing seeing how the Carolina community (and rival teams) have come together to support him and pray for him. He will definitely go down in history as one of the most loved Gamecock football players of all time.



This is the banner that you can sign at the Horseshoe.



You can mail letters of encouragement here:

Marcus Lattimore

c/o USC Athletics Department

Rice Athletic Center

1304 Heyward Street

Columbia, SC 29208

There is also a special service on the Horseshoe today (Monday) at 5:00 where you can come out, hear a few people speak on Lattimore's behalf (including the student body president and Coach Spurrier) and also sign a huge banner they will be sending to him to have while he recovers. Because not only does Marcus need our prayers and support for a full recovery... it is also his 21st birthday today!

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY and Prayers for a quick recovery to Marcus! I am no NFL fan but I can't wait to watch you on Sundays in the near future!

So much respect shown on the field by both teams. It was really incredible to watch.

The Friday Five: 10/26/12

Five things I am loving about this Friday:

1. Baby Giraffes: Unless you have been living under a rock (or perhaps don't live in Greenville or surrounding areas), you know about the Greenville Zoo's latest edition, Kiko, the baby giraffe born Monday night. A million people watched the birth on the online webcam so Greenville has become quite smitten with this new little addition. I of course got all my coworkers invested as well so today we are going to take a little field trip to the Riverbanks Zoo and feed a few giraffes of our own.

Baby Kiko and Momma Autumn

2. Date Night: Tonight Brett and I are taking full advantage of a free Friday and going to Solstice for dinner. If you have never been before I highly recommend it. Definitely one of my favorites in Columbia.

3. Sore no more: I can finally walk about without a severe limp so now I can finally decide when to go back and take another Pure Barre class.

4. Sweet Potato Pie: Is it ok to brag about how great of a baker you are? No? Too bad - I made a killer sweet potato pie the other night and may have to sneak a slice (or two) when I get home today... no judgements please. (I plan to share the recipe next week!)

5. Weekend Activities: We have a lot going on this weekend; noon game tomorrow, wedding shower, Brett heading to the lake, and a Halloween party with all our friends and their kiddos! A lot of fun and a lot to be thankful for!

Hope everyone has a great Friday and weekend as well!

GO COCKS!!!

No, it's not a bar with drinks.

When I told all my friends about Pure Barre opening up they immediately asked "like a juice bar?" No, not like a juice bar - like a ballet barre people!



A Pure Barre studio opened in Greenville right after I moved and was thrilled when the phenomenon finally made its way to Columbia! For those of you not familiar with it, the technique is to use small isometric movements of the body to create long, lean muscle with a lot of these exercises using a ballet barre. You can read more about their technique here.

I danced ballet my entire life from a little girl, through high school, some college and even a few sporadic classes here and there since college. Since I grew up in a ballet studio, I have always hated working out in a gym. Seriously, it is so foreign and awkward to me I just can't deal. So I was beyond excited to try out this new style of workout classes. I immediately emailed my girlfriends to try and find a brave soul to try this out with me and then scheduled my first class.

Last night was that first class and today I.Can't.Move. Like, can't roll over in the bed, can't brush my teeth my body hurts so bad. Needless to say it was an amazing workout! I kind of had it in my head that since I did ballet for so many years I would breeze through. Oh man was I wrong. I actually thought to myself during the first set if I would even be able to make it through the whole hour. But I prevailed and it felt great! It showed me how incredibly out of shape I was but also reminded me how great it feels to work out and actually be sore for a change.My friend and I are both going to get a package and try one class a week for awhile until we get used to the workouts so hopefully we can keep at it.

They have studios all across the country and quite a few in SC so I definitely encourage you to try it out! I only hope your first class is as rough as mine was (and if it isn't, please don't destroy my ego in telling me).

Weekend Recap

Friday after work we headed down to Myrtle Beach to meet up with Brett's dad, brother and sister-in-law for one of their cousin's weddings. The wedding was Saturday afternoon at 3:00 which at first we were a little bummed about since the game came on at 3:30. But after following the first quarter of the game online, we quickly realized it was a blessing we didn't have to watch that ugly game and just enjoyed ourselves at the wedding.


The reception was at a house in North Myrtle Beach. Absolutely gorgeous location!

 

All the little details of the wedding were gorgeous as well.

Sunday we woke up bright and early and grabbed a bite to eat with Brett's dad then headed on home. Most of the day Sunday was spent laying around the house and catching up on Netflix movies but we did venture out long enough to pick up our pup from the kennel and get a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch the church we have been visiting (Trenhold Road UMC) does every year. I didn't get any pictures of it but if you are in the area go check it out! 

Hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend!

Let us wear jeans!

In my previous life in advertising our dress code was "client appropriate" as in, wear whatever you want to wear to work unless you are seeing clients, then dress to their usual dress code. So my week would start off by wearing a nice pair of jeans, heels, a cute top and by the end of the week it was ratty jeans, flip flops and a tshirt (yes, sometimes the old sorority function shirts came out). In my new life in the corporate world there is a strict no jeans policy... except for the few times a year we have a jeans day - like today!

So this begs the question, "Why can't we wear jeans to work?" Most of my time is spent sitting in a cubicle working at my computer so why do I have to dress up every day to do that? I understand the "client/meeting appropriate" and if you have a big meeting/presentation/client visit then yes, by all means you need to look your best but for the other 90% of the time, why not wear what you want and be comfortable?

Let's face it, jeans aren't just for the Marlboro Man and construction workers anymore. These days women dress up jeans more and more (and probably spend more money on them than dress pants). So why not wear them to work?

I enter in my evidence:

Nothing is dressier than a pair of these trouser jeans.


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You can even do a cute pair of skinny jeans and dress it up with a fun blouse and cardigan.

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This look would be a great look paired with a black blazer.

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Love this look for winter!


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And of course Princess Kate can do no wrong! She knows how to dress up a pair of jeans!

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I rest my case.