Ready or not christmas is here!!

Ready or not Christmas time is here, and in my case I am definitely not ready. I just got my tree up on Monday and first thing in the morning I am going to do all of my Christmas shopping. I have a few things but I am defiantly way behind. I am not sure if its just my procrastination ways or what but Christmas has defiantly sneaked up on me this year :)

I feel like yesterday we just had Thanksgiving dinner, but now we are T-minus 9 days away from the big day. Little girls and boys will be trying their best to get to sleep to see what Santa has left for them, or trying to stay up all night so they can see the big man himself.

But anyways, I finally got my tree up and decorated. My best motto is "better late than never"!! Here are a few pics:

And of course you cannot decorate a tree without having some good christmas goodies so I baked a batch of made from scratch Ginger Star Cookies. The recipe came from my Food Network Magazine and they were pretty good; however; the stuff that it called for cost a rediculous amount of money so I probably will never bake them again. Here are a few pics of the cookies:

Until the next time!!

Much Love,

Ashley B :)

Good Food, Great Friends, Fabulous Times!

In my last blog I told you guys that I am trying to Eat and try new things. So Friday night I decided that I would try out a few new recipes to get a head start on my new years resolution. Jesse was grilling steak and I decided that I was going to try to make a homemade Outback Blooming Onion, and a Shrimp and Grits recipe.

Now I am defiantly not the cooking type, but I have to say it is one of my favorite things to do. I love to try new and unique recipes. I am not one for the down home southern cooking, like beans, okra, greens, turnips, and things that most southern women like my grandmother love cooking. I don't like fruits or most vegetables, so it is kind of hard to find things that I can cook that I will actually enjoy.

So on to my menu for the night...I started off with the Blooming Onion. The sauce I made was spot on and surprisingly really simple to make. The onion was not as good as outbacks but it was still very good to be made in my own kitchen.

I could not find any Vidalia Onions so I had to go with the small sweet onions, therefore I had to cut my onions into petals instead of a blossoming onion. The batter was really simple a few beers, some corn starch, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper. and then you just dipped it in some flour, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and some garlic powder.

It turned out really well, but on the downside it made a horrendous mess in my kitchen and I had to clean out my deep fryer when I was finished.

Then I went on to my side dishes. I had Macaroni and Cheese. Kraft came out with the new bags that you make in like 10 minutes and it tastes just like you spent three hours preparing and baking it. Its fabulous!!

Then I started on my Shrimp and Grits recipe. It was super easy and tasted amazing. You make the grits which takes all of five minutes. Put some grated Parmesan Cheese and salt and pepper and stir. Then in a pan you put unsalted butter shrimp minced garlic, a dash of cayenne pepper, and salt and cook until the shrimp is pink. When it is finished you put the grits in a bowl and top with the shrimp and sauce that the shrimp makes. It is sooo easy and it tasted WONDERFUL if you like shrimp and grits. It could even be a meal in itself. Jesse loved the shrimp but didn't like the grits, but he doesn't like grits that much anyways.

It was a fabulous meal and we had Michael and Dawn over and played the wii and Then Brian and Emily came over and we put in Just Dance and danced the night away. It was such a good time. We ended the evening watching the new Tom Cruise movie Knight and Day and if you haven't seen it yet it is such a good date night movie.

Until the next time!

Much Love,

Ashley B :)

Eat, Pray, Love.

Last week I watched the most inspiring movie I have ever watched to my own knowledge. If you haven't seen it yet and you are a female you must watch this movie. I give it Three thumbs up, LOL!!  The title is Eat, Pray, Love.

Julia Roberts plays the part of Liz Gilbert and while she is going through a terrible, nasty divorce, she up and decides to embark on a journey for a complete year. To marvel at something, and change the way she is. She starts out in Italy to eat the good food, moves to India and commits herself to an ashram, and moves on to end the year in Bali. I don't want to go into to much detail because I don't want to give too much away but watching this movie I was so inspired.

I only wish that I could take a year off and live in Italy for some time, I would personally trade in India and maybe go to Jerusalem to find god and inspiration, and I would love to end my year in Bali as well!

However; It is almost financially impossible for anyone to embark on the journey that she did, but last night I was laying in bed and thinking about what my next Blog was going to be about and I come upon a revelation. So my first revelation was, you do not have to move out of the country to do these things. You can do it in your own home, and my second revelation was that, this is exactly what I am going to do for my new years resolution. Like Liz, I want to Marvel at something. I however, do not want to change myself but make myself better. For me, and for everyone that surrounds me.

Starting in January and going through December I am going to Eat like I never have before. I am going to try new things everywhere I go and try to find myself in my own kitchen by cooking things that interest me and my taste buds. Now anyone who knows me, knows that this is going to be an interesting challenge because I defiantly have trouble when it comes to using the stove and my kitchen. But this is 2010 and with the internet you can get your hands on just about any recipe that you like and I am going to take the time to perfect each one that I find interesting :)

I am also going to pray harder than I ever have before, and get back in the habit of going to church regularly. I have so much to be thankful for and God has truly blessed me with much more than I deserve. I have found that as time goes on God can sometimes be put on the back burner and I get lazy and church becomes more of an every now and again rather than an every week, and I want to change that in the next year.

And lastly I want to Love my Husband, Family, and Friends like I never have before. We all take everyone we love for granted when in true reality, anyone of us can be gone at any given time. We all should live with no regrets!!

I am really bad about letting small petty things get at me and its not worth it because in the end the small things NEVER matter and you end up regretting them!

I have to say I am so excited about my new revelations and I don't think I can wait until New Years, I just might have to give it an early start, starting now!!

Until the next time!!

Much Love,

Ashley B :)

Bonfire Goodtimes :)

Pretty much all my life I have lived in Small Town Friendly, Rutherford, North Carolina. When I was younger I used to think I cannot wait to get out of this town. There is nothing to do, no where to go, and nothing really that great to eat!

So on came my senior year of high school and I got accepted to a college in Charlotte. At the time I thought  this is my chance. My one way out. I am getting out of here and never coming back.

I lived in Charlotte for almost two years. Now, I am not going to say I hated it, because I loved all the great food around, I loved being able to go to the mall which was only 15 minutes down the road, and I loved having a Starbucks in walking distance. It was my heaven, only I was missing one or two things. All of my family and real friends lived back home, and there was no guys to be found in Charlotte that had the same values, and morals like where I came from.

So I moved back home. I was highly depressed for a little bit, but one day I got up and said this is where I am at and this is what I have to deal with. So I called the only person that I knew that still lived here and told him I was back in town and we needed to hang out ASAP. He told me he was having a bonfire and I should come down. I remember getting there and thinking...this is really heaven. It was calm, the stars were beautiful and it was a really really good time. I can remember saying to myself, there is something to do in this town :)

So a few weeks ago we had a bonfire at our house and looking at all these pictures made me think of that first night when I experienced my first bonfire, and how I felt and how I would have never imagined in a million years that that first bonfire would let me reconnect with my now Husband :)

Me and Bella

Justin and Jeff

The fire :)

Everyone doing their thing

The guys

The Girls

Me

Justin acting crazy

and again

our own lil wayne LOL

Buddy Mike and Dawn

Brother and Sister can't ya tell!!

Justin in normal mode

me and my love

Justin and Jeff a little later!!

Ashley and Jeff

Justin holding bella...and she loved every min of it!

The life of the party :)

So a quick thank you to Ashley Collie for taking and sharing these wonderful photos for me to post.

Bonfires have always been and will always be a Goodtime!!

Until the next time,

Ashley B :)