Summer is almost over!

Hello friends! Happy Friday! The weather outside is starting to feel like fall. I’ve been spending time in the garden, trying to weed and “harvest” the remaining tomatoes I have left after the slugs feasted on them. Honestly, this year our garden was disappointing. I still have lots of green tomatoes, not sure if its the weather or what but summer is almost over and some of them are still green! I did try to ripen them(wrap in news paper individually) and what a pain, but so far they’re looking good. I plan to dehydrate them (sun-dried tomatoes). I’ve chopped the herbs (green onions, basil, parsley) and put them in the freezer. They’ll be useful this fall and winter for soups/stews.

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Seattle Street Food Festival!

Hello friends! This past weekend, the Hubs and I went to the Seattle Street Food Festival (it was our first time) and it was such a fun event! Lots of food trucks and people (I think the sunny, great weather helped too). We ended up eating Pad Thai, Corn on the cob, a Shawarma and shared a Horchata and spiced pineapple. For dessert we had mini donuts! We devoured the maple bacon donuts, sooo good!

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Special Day!

Hello Friends! Hope you’re all having a good evening and looking forward to the weekend! Today (8-14-2015) is a special day for us because this is the 10th year that my Hubs and I have known each other. 10 years ago today we “met” online, chatted for an hour (or less) and exchanged emails..and the rest is history! Thankful for Gods blessing for the last 10 years and looking forward to what is in store for us in the coming years! We wanted to have a little celebration and have dinner at John Howie because we really like the place, but the weather was not cooperating today. It’s been raining non stop with lots of thunder and lighting, we hate leaving Riley at home when the weather is this bad. He gets so nervous and scared, there’s no way we’ll enjoy our dinner knowing he’s miserable at home. We decided to take out Chinese food and cupcakes and watch the Seahawks pre season opener game. Nice and cozy time with my loves tonight!

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Recent Hauls!

Hello Friends! Happy Friday:) I wanted to share my “recent” hauls for the last couple of months (some products I got around April) just because! I personally enjoy watching these kind of videos on youtube or blogs to get some ideas from the product reviews which I find very helpful. Most of these I ordered online and were on sale because, just like the majority of people, I like me some good deals!

Semi Annual Sale at Bath and Body works
Semi Annual Sale at Bath and Body works

I went to Bath and Body works for their semi annual sale (last June) because I got a good coupon and wanted to use it.  I rarely use their products now (aside from their candles) because I’m trying to use more “natural” and organic products (slowly trying).  I know my sister (Hello Ate!) wanted me to get her some of these, so these are for her. I bought 2 candles and I regret the Rio Red Guava because it sure gave me a headache after burning it for 3 hours. I hated it, but the hubs likes it.  I will probably throw this one out, but I’ve read somewhere that you can actually return a candle even after burning it and get a new one (exchanged it) but I’m not sure if I want to do that! It’s not their fault if I don’t like the scent of the candle I picked it…smelled great at the store.

Alternative coffee from Amazon
Alternative coffee from Amazon

I’m trying to drink less ‘real’ coffee now (it’s so hard!) so I started drinking Teeccino Herbal coffee. It’s a great alternative to coffee because IMO it taste like coffee without the caffeine. I’ve had this before so I decided to just buy it in bulk on Amazon (I think it was on sale when I got them). My favorite is the French roast dark!

Peanut Butter
Peanut Butter

I got this on Amazon together with the Teeccino coffee, and I love the white chocolate wonderful one! A more natural version of peanut butter than what we’re used to eating at home. They’re all good, so creamy and the prices at amazon were decent too. I’ve checked it at our local grocery store and there’s no way I’m buying them there.

Henri Bendel Bag
Henri Bendel Bag

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Henri Bendel had a summer sale last June, it’s one of my favorite brands because the quality is superb. I like it because you can only buy their products at their stores and online. It’s not “everywhere” unlike Michael Kors or Kate Spade. I feel like every woman on the planet has an MK bag or something. The prices are affordable so long as they are on sale:)

Costco cookbooks
Costco cookbooks

I dropped some donations at our local Value Village last weekend, they gave me a coupon that I can use in the store as a “thank you” for my donations. I checked their books section and found these goodies. I think I paid $6 after my discount. I’m looking forward to trying some recipes in the coming weeks.

Nike
Nike “Free 5.0 TR Fit” training shoes

Nordstrom had their Anniversary sale last month and I decided to get these Nike shoes. They got decent reviews and I’ve been wanting to get a pair of “light” sneakers for a while now. So with the sale I thought I would just get this and return it if I’m not into it.  I’ve used them already and they’re so perfect for me! Super comfortable and light weight. I know I will get a lot of use out of these shoes in the coming months. Happy savings friends!

*For the month of August, I’m joining the #buynothing challenge! This means I’ll only buy the necessary (no starbucks coffee for me or things I’ve mentioned above!). So far so good for me, the first week was easy, I avoided Target and Homegoods (these stores are my weakness!). We’ll see how I will do in the coming 2nd week:)

Fried Chicken!

Hello Everyone! I wanted to share this Fried Chicken recipe from the Pioneer Woman! This episode was shown weeks ago on the Food Network and I thought I could do this because I had all of the ingredients. I “rarely” prepare fried chicken because it’s just messy and I can get it so cheap at our local grocery store (it’s decent too,taste wise!). I still made it anyway, because I wanted to make a mess in my kitchen! Not really! It was good and flavorful but I think the amount of clean up afterward wasn’t worth all of the hassle. I had to cut the recipe in half because unlike Ree (the Pioneer Woman) it was just me and the Hubs.

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Chicken marinating in buttermilk.

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Flour with seasoned salt, paprika,pepper, thyme, and cayenne pepper.

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Fried Chicken, Salad,Gnocchi

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Fried Chicken (recipe: Ree Drummond; The Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients:

2 cut-up fryer chickens in 16 pieces

4 1/4 cups buttermilk

5 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons seasoned salt,such as Lawry’s

2 teaspoons paprika

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

2 teaspoons ground dried thyme

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, plus more for seasoning

1/4 cup milk

Canola or vegetable oil, for frying

Directions:

Thoroughly rinse the chicken, then cover all the pieces with 4 cups buttermilk and soak in the fridge overnight or up to 24 hours. When you’re ready to fry the chicken, remove the bowl from the fridge and let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes, just to take off the chill.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 360 degrees F and mix up the breading. Place the flour, seasoned salt, paprika, pepper,thyme, and cayenne (extra if you like heat) in a very large bowl. Stir together well.

In a small bowl, combine the 1/4 cup buttermilk and the milk. Pour the milk mixture into the flour and, with a fork, gradually mix until there are little lumps throughout. This will adhere to the chicken and make for a crispier breading. If necessary, add a little more flour or milk to the bowl in order to make it slightly lumpy.

Heat 1 1/2 to 2 inches of oil in a deep skillet over medium-high heat until a thermometer reaches 365 degrees F. Lowe the heat slightly, if necessary to keep the oil from getting hotter.

Working in batches, thoroughly coat each chicken piece with the breading, pressing extra breading onto the chicken if necessary. Place the breaded pieces on a plate.

Add the chicken to the oil 4 or 4 pieces at a time. Make sure they aren’t sticking together, then cover the pan and fry for 5 to 7 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure the chicken isn’t getting too brown. Turn the pieces over, cover again, and cook 3 to 5 minutes more. All the while, monitor the temperature of the oil to make sure the chicken doesn’t burn.

Place the chicken on a baking sheet and continue frying the rest of the chicken. When all the chicken has been fried, remove the wings and legs to a plate and keep covered. These should be cooked all the way through by now but always check, if any pink juice or meat is visible. If so, return to the hot oil for another minute or so until fully cooked. Leave the thighs and breasts on the baking sheet.

Bake the thighs and breasts for 15 minutes to finish the cooking process. If any pink juice or meat is visible,the chicken needs to continue cooking in the oven.

Weekend Fun!

Hello everyone! Can you believe it’s already August? Next thing we know Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here! Anyways, I hope you all had a great weekend, the Hubs and I had a low key one because last weekend was busy at the Ocean with the family so we wanted to just have a “lazy” time this weekend. We watched the movie “Antman” (it’s been out for a while) and we really enjoyed it! It was such a fun movie:) We got some tacos after at the local taqueria (I ALWAYS get cabeza tacos). On Sunday, we watched our Church service online and dropped donations off at our local Value Village (it’s similar to Goodwill). We had sushi after because the Hubs just has to have his sushi fix every couple of weeks! I stopped at Walmart after because I’ve seen in my Instagram that they have their fall candle collections already.  Too bad they were all out, but I’m gonna check again next week.

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Tacos!

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Car selfie! It’s about time we gotta do a couple selfie!

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A little #OOTD ha!

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Sushi Time!

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We are OBSESSED with Jamba Juices Pina Colada drink!

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Weekend Naps are the best!

 

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