Lovely Little Weekend Recap

Hello one and all (of the two of you)!

I hope you had a great late July weekend and Monday! Can you believe how quickly this month has passed? In a mere 2 days Adam and I will be celebrating our 3 year anniversary. Talk about time flying by. In a sense I feel like it was just last week that we tied the knot and in another I feel like it was 10 years ago. In a good way, of course :)

I wanted to share some photos I took throughout our weekend and again, I’m giving all of my pictorial documentation credit to Instagram and my iPhone. If it weren’t for those two helpers I might rarely take a picture of our day to day life.

 Friday evening we went to Mellow Mushroom for pizza with my favorite Holli, her hubby-to-be Justin and lovely sister, Anne. By the time our pizza arrived at the table we all became silent ravenous folk. I love spending time with them; I always laugh really hard and come away with a smile. They will be getting married in just under 100 days per their calculation. So exciting!

Saturday I spent with my mom scouting out décor for my sister-in-law’s baby shower. Yay for baby Harvill on the way! We addressed envelopes and walked up and down the aisles of Hobby Lobby. You best give me at least an hour if I walk in there. It’s a dream land I tell ya. Pure crafty discounted bliss.  Tonight I will be cutting burlap and painting J I’ll try to utilize my iPhone again for your viewing pleasure. While I was ogling over fabric swatches, the hubby was playing golf with his boss. Golf by the way is his new found love. Obsession, if you will. He went Saturday and yesterday!

We spent the better part of our evening catching up on Revenge. I know. Don’t get me started. We spent hours watching episode after dramatic episode.  Not sure if I’ve mentioned it but we recently went cable-less. No satellite for us Davis’s so we have succumb to Netflix and Hulu for our nightly television.

Sunday we slept in past church (due to excessive Revenge…shame…for shame!) and decided to utilize the rest of our time by running errands and cleaning house.  I made our current favorite, Roasted Lime Basil Salmon for dinner and we of course finished the rest of Revenge. If you watched the show, including the finale, you know how anxious we are to see the second season. We may have even googled when it premieres because we can't wait. We may have? We totally did.

Also, I did try out the SNBR (Sunday Night Beauty Routine) with success! I soaked my feet in our at home foot bath and painted my nails!

Early on in the evening I made some chocolate covered bananas and strawberries. For some reason, since we went to Disneyland and I had a chocolate covered banana for a snack, I've been hooked! I feel like I'm eating an ice cream treat without the guilt! Yumm.

Tonight Adam's bff Harrison will be in town so I should make sure his room is taken care of.

I hope that you have a lovely Tuesday! 

I’ll talk to you soon

xoxo bd

A Warm Get Together

It is 4 days to halloween and tonight I have a fun fall dinner planned with my family!

Has this month flown by or what?! 

We do very little entertaining but find that the colder it gets, the more we want to have people over.

Last year we held a party with all of our friends and even had some spiked cider; so good!

As we have finally settled into our home we are having my parents and grandfather over for some Shrimp Etoufee, a Davis family favorite!

Today the weather has been gray and cold so I think a warm soup will make the night even better.

Hopefully I can document the night ahead of us and share it with you soon.

Have a lovely evening!

xoxo bd

{Photo Credit: Martha Stewart}

A Day At The Zoo and Some Good Cooking Too

Can you believe it's already Wednesday....and how about this, November! Still shocked, now I'm just ready for the super cold weather to come our way. *70 degrees outside today*
Despite our Spring/Early Summer temperatures the trees are starting to change the beautiful colors of fall. Yesterday Adam, our good friend Allison and I took a trip to the Memphis Zoo to see the newest addition, The Tetons Exhibit. The sidewalks were lined with trees of burnt orange and bright yellow, perfect for pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today:
A few minutes ago we finished dinner which took me about an hour to make. Granted I was roasting a chicken in the oven which is what took up the majority of the time, but still!  There are definitely days when all I shoot for is heating up leftovers and then there are days where I get inspired to make an actual dinner. Having my mom tell me about stretching a whole chicken for around 3 separate meals I knew it would help our budget and my creativity. Score!
Having spent $3.42 on this splendid poultry friend I embarked on roasting it in the oven!
Simple ingredients:  fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, butter, onions, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Instructed to baste with the juices every 10-15 minutes made it so juicy and tender, Adam kept complimenting me so I'll take it!! Just roast for 1 hour at 400 and voila. Side dishes were corn on the cob and homemade creamed spinach. (Wonderful creamed spinach recipe by the way!)

{Before}

{After}

 Have a lovely Wednesday evening.

betsydavis.

{Top Photo: Perfect Bound}

"...the little things are infinitely the most important."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said it quite well and I wholeheartedly agree.

Sunday I finished planting in pots and mason jars from the wedding, my new little pansies. Purple, lavender and white are the colors we chose along with burgandy and bright yellow mums!
I have never been one to have a green thumb, that wonderful gift was given to my mom. She has single handedly turned my parents once straw and red clay back yard into a beautiful garden. If only I were a quarter as talented as she is I might just be able to redo our alley way side yard. Yes, more alley way than yard, it's teeny. I would post pictures of it's current state but I'm afraid that it's more of a disaster area filled with over grown weeds and an unfinished walk way than picture worthy.
Though my flowers which have been newly planted {well, just the pansies} may die by winter they are the little things that will make going onto our porch and walking down the stairs more enjoyable. I'm thrilled that we bought them, we also purchased my very first pair of black and white polka dot gardening gloves and hand shovel. And so, the little things are infinitely the most important.
On to other vessels: the brownie venture went quite well! Remember that one post "Mise en Place" all about making sure everything is measured out before you begin to ensure that everything goes smoothly? See what had happened was, I didn't quite do that. I ended up being short on the butter needed as well as chocolate chips but regardless of those misfortunes the brownies turned out yummy! Rather than using the called for finely chopped unsweetened chocolate I used special dark chocolate chips and a Hershey's bar. Also the recipe called for a 9"x13" pan but I used more of a 12"x6" leading us to a mountain of brownies. To be honest, I find nothing wrong with a mountain of brownies.

So this post didn't have everything I wanted in it, I must be off to the grocery store because our fridge is definitely lacking.  Oh and by the way, fall and Memphis have now become friends. Fall brought it's friends 'crisp air' and cooler temperatures' with him....or her :)

Mise en Place

 

"Mise en place" is a french term meaning "setting in place."

Ever since we moved into our home a little over a month ago I have made it my duty as a wife and also for our sanity to put items away in their own respective homes.
As with my linens and books I cook in the same manner.
Before I begin a meal (attempt would be more like it) I try to make sure I have all ingredients chopped, prepped and measured so everything will go as smoothly as possible. As for today before another attempt at cooking is made, I gather only the most random ingredients left in the fridge and prep. Think....concoct.....what can be made? I decided it was time for soup. Everything but the kitchen sink would go into this pot. Some chicken broth, kale, can of stewed tomatoes, 1 clove of garlic, green onion, yellow onion, ground turkey and some potatoes. I boiled all of those ingredients in hopes that it might just cure this rainy days blues.

All of my utensils have their spots as do the plates and pans but sadly my storage and pantry is pretty lacking. Honestly, we only have 4 cabinets and 4 drawers! Seeing as there's not a space for our food we've found shelving units with canvas boxes to house our kashi bars and canned green beans. After living here for a month and cooking most every night I find that my desire for different ingredients and more spacious storage has grown. I'm thinking of adding shelves above the stove for a pretty way to display mixing bowls and my favorite vintage plates.  Until those handy days are here, I will be inspired by these:

pretty shabby

                              Photo by Michel Arnaud, Good Housekeeping, July 2007. 

House Beautiful

Martha Stewart/Blueprint Magazine

Desire to Inspire

We have a larrrge bowl of granny smith apples on the counter and I do believe before they go bad I will make some sort of dessert out of them now. Pictures to follow tomorrow.
Wish me betty crocker luck, please :)
betsy.davis

{Photos at top of page credited to: Desire to Inspire