Homemade "Ultimate" Mudslide

I'm not much of a drinker.  I know ~ no fun.  I just have never been a girl who goes out for drinks, or just needs a drink at the end of a hard day, or gets good and liquored up at weddings and typical drinking holidays {New Years Eve, St. Patrick's Day, Fourth of July}.  So many types of alcohol are an "acquired" taste, and I've never felt like forcing myself to keep trying something I don't like again and again until I like it {like beer, for example...blech}.  Plus, drinks are just empty calories, and truth be told I'd much rather get my empty calories in the form of dessert ~ which probably explains why one drink I do like is TGI Friday's Ultimate Mudslide.

Like I said, I'm not a person who needs a drink after a long day ~ which is a good thing, right?  But I have had a somewhat difficult week {which included quitting one of my jobs, and my soon-to-be-former boss takes everything personally and is very moody.  I'm there until the end of the month, and I have a feeling these next few weeks are going to go sloooowwwly and include their fair share of drama}.  So last night, I didn't necessary need a drink, but I wanted one.  And what I wanted was an Ultimate Mudslide from Friday's ~ but I didn't really want to go to Friday's.  Having all the necessary mudslide ingredients on hand, I decided to just make it at home ~ and it. was. yummy!  I used Edy's Slow-Churned ice cream, which has fewer calories and fat than regular ice cream {hey, save calories where you can, right?}, and my measurements are approximate ~ there was a lot of adding a bit of this, and a little more of that, until I was satisfied.  Also, I don't really like the taste of vodka, so I went light on that ~ tweak it to make it your own Ultimate Mudslide!

Homemade Ultimate Mudslide

Ingredients
Vanilla ice cream {1 cup}
Milk {1/3-1/2 cup}
Kahlua coffee liquor {1/4 cup}
Bailey's Irish Cream liquor {1/4 cup}
Vodka {2 Tbsp}
Ice cubes {I used 3}
Chocolate syrup
Whipped cream
Mini chocolate chips

Directions
In a blender or Magic Bullet, combine ice cream, milk, Kahlua, Bailey's, vodka and ice cubes.  Use a spoon to taste and add more liquor or milk as necessary to achieve the taste and consistency you want.  Squeeze chocolate syrup around the inside of a glass {I used a pint glass}, top with whipped cream, and sprinkle with chocolate chips if desired.  Serve with a straw.


As my good friend Glory would say ~ cheers, my dears!

xoxo
Bean

{photo credits: sixthseal.com; caloriecount.com; kahlua.com; liquor.com; dooyoo.co.uk; mygofer.com}

Pilgrim Cupcakes {P.S. ... Adorable!}

How precious are these Pilgrim Cupcakes from Tonya Staab?  They are adorable and festive, as well as being a great project for your little ones!  Wouldn't these treats make the perfect centerpiece for your dessert table on Thanksgiving Day?  And the best part is there's a lot of "semi-homemade" elements here ~ pre-made cookies, candies and icing are on the list, making it easier for you!  {Simplify even more by buying already-made, unfrosted cupcakes instead of making your own!}

Ingredients

• Plain vanilla cupcakes {even better -- in brown paper cupcake liners!}
• White icing
• Cocoa powder
• Chocolate for melting {I find mini-chips melt the easiest, at 30 second intervals}
• Large marshmallows
• Chocolate-coated cookies {like fudge-striped cookies}
• Wilton Sparkle Gel in white, yellow and black

plus

• Large round Wilton tip with a disposable piping bag
• Toothpicks {or narrow skewer}

Begin by making the Pilgrim hat.  Melt the chocolate in the microwave.  Using a pick to dip the marshmallow, coat each marshmallow in melted chocolate.  Place marshmallow carefully on top of an upside down cookie.  Repeat with the other marshmallows and cookies, and refrigerate until set.  Once chocolate has set, gently remove toothpick.  Using the sparkle gels, draw white bands and yellow buckle on the marshmallow and set aside.

Mix a small amount of cocoa powder with plain white icing, gradually adding cocoa until you have a color you are happy with {for your Pilgrim's "face"}.  Assemble frosting tip and bag and fill bag with icing.  Holding your hand steady, keep the tip just above the surface of the cupcake and pipe the "face" on {see middle picture below for how it should look at this point}.  Push down slightly while piping to get frosting to spread a bit and cover more of the cupcake.

Place the marshmallow/cookie hat on top of the icing face and use black sparkle gel to add facial features.

And there you go!  Easy, adorable, and fun!

xoxo
Jillian

{Photo credit:  tonyastaab.com}

25 Days of Christmas Schedule

ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas programming guide has been posted!  Click here to view and print a copy of the schedule.

Like most years, they have a mix of Christmas classics for all ages {The Polar Express, The Grinch, Christmas Vacation, The Santa Clause}, ABC Family originals {Holiday in Handcuffs, 12 Dates of Christmas}, and movies that have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas {a Harry Potter marathon again this year, ABC Family?}.  Many on the 25 Days of Christmas message board are already voicing their displeasure at the non-Christmas movies ~ and I agree, when I think "Happy Holidays", Disney-Pixar's Up is not the first {or second, tenth, or top 1000th} film that comes to mind.  However, there are plenty of traditional films available for viewing throughout the month of December.  Plus, don't most of us own our favorite Christmas movies anyway?  See below for a quick reference guide to when you should set your DVR for your faves...

The Santa Clause
Thursday December 1 7pm/6c
Wednesday December 21 8pm/7c

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Friday December 2 8pm/7c
Friday December 23 8pm/7c

The Polar Express
Monday December 5 8:30pm/7:30c
Tuesday December 20 9pm/8c
Sunday December 25 8pm/7c

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Wednesday December 7 9pm/8c
Monday December 12 9 pm/8c

That's just a sampling of the air times for some of the more popular Christmas movies.  Check the 25 Days of Christmas schedule for a complete list of their holiday programming {including their late-November "countdown" offerings}.  Surprisingly, there is no classic Rudolph listing ~ just an airing of Rudolph and the Island of the Misfit Toys.  Santa Clause 2 also slipped through the cracks, although parts 1 and 3 made the cut.  Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is featured several times in November and December, but there is nary an original Home Alone showing in sight.  Some strange choices by ABC Family, but I suppose the idea is to mix it up each year. 

If you're hoping to catch some traditional Christmas flicks that ABC Family doesn't have down on the schedule, you may be in luck ~ Saturday December 17 and Saturday December 24 are both listed as airing a "Holiday Classics Marathon" all day long.  Here's hoping for a little good old-fashioned, Burl Ives and psuedo-claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer action!


Happy Holiday Viewing!

xoxo
Bean

Yummy & Easy Shrimp and Pasta Dish!

I love a good home-cooked meal ~ and if that meal includes pasta, even better!  One of my very favorite home-cooked meals in the whole wide world is shrimp and linguine {or shrimp scampi}.  There are probably a million versions of this recipe out there, but this one is ours that we have tweaked and modified bit by bit over the years.  We switched from white pasta to whole wheat a few years ago; from fresh broccoli to frozen {it's cheaper and just as, if not more, nutritious since it's flash-frozen at the height of  its' freshness}; and bit by bit I think we've added more garlic as the years have gone by.  There are a lot of approximations with this recipe ~ a lot of eyeballing instead of actually measuring.  I had my husband give me his version for this blog ~ I tend to be a bit more heavy-handed with the spices than he is {more "shakes"}.  See where the recipe takes you and tweak it until it's just perfect for your family ~ of course, I think it's pretty perfect as is!

Shrimp and Linguine

1 lb raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 lb bag of frozen broccoli
1 box whole wheat linguine {we use Nature's Promise brand}
1 glass white wine {pinot grigio - approx 6 ounces}
6 cloves garlic, minced
Approx 1 Tbsp dried basil {8 "shakes" or so}
Approx 2 Tbsp dried oregano {12 "shakes"}
3/4 cup - 1 cup extra virgin olive oil {enough to coat pan plus a bit more}
Salt and pepper
Grated cheese

Place a medium {4 quart} saucepan with about an inch of water and a large {6 quart} saucepan filled 3/4 full with water over medium-high heat to boil.  Place broccoli in a metal colander over medium pan to steam, covered.

Coat both sides of peeled shrimp with salt and pepper.  Place a saute pan with olive oil over medium-low heat.  Once oil is warm {a minute or so}, add minced garlic to pan.  Let garlic simmer for 1-2 minutes, taking care not to let garlic burn {you don't want garlic to brown ~ turn heat down if necessary}.  Add basil and oregano and let simmer for a minute.  Add wine and turn heat up to medium; simmer until the alcohol smell has burned off {3-4 minutes, approximately}.

At this point, the water in large saucepan should be boiling.  Add pasta and cook according to instructions on box.

Turn the heat under saute pan down to low.  Place the shrimp, laying flat and not overlapping one another, in pan.  Allow shrimp to cook on this side until the tails and sides turn pink {approximately 3 minutes, but watch carefully ~ shrimp can overcook very quickly}.  Flip shrimp to other side using tongs and allow to cook for another 2 minutes or so.

Add cooked broccoli to saute pan and turn off flame.  Serve shrimp/broccoli/oil mix over linguine with grated Romano or Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!



xoxo
Bean

{photo credit:  asweetpeachef.com}

Shopping in San Diego!

Earlier this year, my husband and I took a trip out to sunny California to visit my best girl Kaydee and her fiance, and finally see her hometown.  {Kaydee and I met in college in Boston, and I never made it out to the west coast to see her side of the country until 10 years into our friendship!}.  Miss Kaydee hails from La Jolla, outside of San Diego, but earlier this year she was living in the Solana Beach area of San Diego.

During our week-long stay in southern California, we crammed a lot of activities in ~ touristy stuff in the L.A. area; trips to both Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park; horseback riding and an afternoon in Old Town San Diego; and of course a bit of shopping.  Kaydee brought us to a favorite store of hers in the the area called Leaping Lotus.  Located on Cedros Avenue {Solana Beach's Design District}, Leaping Lotus has a bit of everything ~ plenty of unique home decor; clothing; jewelry and hair accessories; holiday decorations; and more, from local, national, and global vendors and artists.  It is an amazingly unique space, and a great place to find the perfect gift!  Or, if you're like me ~ a great place to find stuff for yourself!  {Plus, it was my birthday ~ you are always allowed to buy yourself presents on your birthday}.  :)

The first item I saw that I knew I just had to get was this rustic-looking chalkboard.  In Italian it reads

Cucina

Buon Appetito, Bella Cucina

Buon Cibo, Buon Vino, Buoni Amici

{Translation:  Kitchen; Enjoy Your Meal, Beautiful Kitchen; Good Food, Good Wine, Good Friends}

My husband and I both have Italian roots, and I loved the rustic style of this piece. For some reason the surface of this chalkboard was a bit strange when I got it ~ regular chalk wouldn't work at all, and chalk pens wrote fine but the words and markings would still show up on the board pretty clearly after I'd wiped it clean.  Last week I grabbed a small bottle of chalkboard paint at Michaels {99 cents, and it can transform just about any surface into a chalkboard ~ a great idea, especially when you have kids, is to paint a square of chalkboard paint on the wall in the kitchen, their playroom or their bedroom for family messages or for art-time}.  I painted a few coats over the surface, so hopefully that problem is fixed.

I also bought these small framed cupcake paintings, which are now hanging over my stove.  I am sort of known as the-girl-who-is-always-baking among my family and friends {last year I single-handedly did the baking for Thanksgiving ~ I think I cranked out something like seven or nine desserts}.  Plus, who doesn't love a cupcake?  These pieces were too perfect!

Well, this isn't the greatest picture-of-a-picture, but I wanted to show you this piece I got at Leaping Lotus too.  It's painted directly on the wooden canvas {no frame}, and I hung it next to my vanity table.  Before you get too impressed with the fact that I have a "vanity table" ~ it's in my kitchen, and I put it there because it was that or stand up in the living room putting on makeup every day.  Ah, apartment life :).  Anyway, I loved the pseudo-glam vibe of the chandelier on this piece, which is countered with the perfectly-imperfect nicks and grooves in the wooden base.

So with my four wall-hangings, plus some sparkly hair pins, Chips Ahoy-flavored lip balm {why not?}, and a strand of paper-thin, fragile, glittery butterflies for my butterly-lovin' mama {similar to the ones in the picture Kaydee took, below, except in a strand that hangs from the ceiling}, my shopping trip to Leaping Lotus was complete.

I know I have some California girls who follow this blog ~ whether you live in or visit the San Diego area, I would definitely recommend a trip to Leaping Lotus.  You could probably find a gift for just about every female in your life, and at any price range too.  If nothing else, stop in to admire the hanging butterfly display section {it was upstairs when I was there} ~ so sparkly and pretty, it's guaranteed to put a smile on your face!

xoxo

Bean

Pin Up Fashions for the Modern Girl

Well, hello gorgeous!

I was just searching the internet for cute, fun party dresses {because sometimes you want to search the internet for cute, fun party dresses}, and I came across Pin Up Girl Clothing ~ too much fun!  This site is chock full of retro-style fashions from dresses, skirts and tops to lingerie and hosiery to swimwear, shoes and handbags.  There is a decent range of prices, with most items being moderately priced {comparable to what you'd spend on a similar item at a Macy's, for example}.  The items range from ladylike and subtle to vampy and sexy to kitchy and borderline over-the-top {but fun!}.

Pin Up Girl Clothing offers items in sizes XS - 3X {and 2 - 18}, so there is literally something for just about everyone.  Whether you are a big Mad Men {or Bettie Page} fan, or you'd just like to add some super-girly, vintage-style fashions to your wardrobe, check out Pin Up Girl Clothing!

Anyone else have tips on unique shopping sites?

xoxo
Bean


{photo credits:  pinupgirlclothing.com}

Homemade Chocolate Doughnuts - So Yummy!

Well, isn't that pretty picture?

If you can believe it, these super-yummy beauties come from a mix!  They are baked, not fried, so you can feel better about treating yourself to one of these bad boys than to one of the deep-fried doughnut shop varieties.  And they are EASY!  {So easy ~ by the time the oven was preheated, I'd already whipped up the batter and spooned it into the doughnut pan!}

Stonewall Kitchen, a Williams-Sonoma-esque company based out of Maine, offers chocolate and cinnamon-sugar doughnut mixes, along with seasonal varieties like pumpkin in the fall and blueberry in the winter.  I first discovered Stonewall Kitchen a few years ago on a family trip to Maine.  They have several store locations throughout New England {and one in Maryland}, including a few "outlet" or "warehouse" stores where they sell overstock, irregular, and past-season items for a super-discounted rate.  {Note:  "past season" doesn't mean "expired" ~ right now, for example, they're probably selling perfectly useable and delicious summer flavors such as lemon and blueberry}.  When I spotted these baked-doughnut mixes on our trip in 2010, I knew I had to try them ~ I'd been wanting to make homemade doughnuts for a while.

Stonewall Kitchen marks their products as "all-natural", which I know can be a relative term.  However, when I glanced over the ingredient list on the box, it was surprisingly short and thoroughly pronounceable ~ no "hydromalydexatrosinate" type words here!

The Stonewall Kitchen mix includes two package of dry ingredients ~ one for the doughnuts and one for the frosting. And you don't need to add too much from your pantry either ~ an egg, oil, butter, and buttermilk {I used regular milk and lemon juice instead}.  You'll also need a doughnut pan {which you can buy just about anywhere you'd buy other pans}.

P.S. ~ you know those "irregular" items they sell at the warehouse stores?  Here's an example.  Under the directions, there is a misprint.  They printed "Whisk together egg, melted butter and buttermilk..." instead of "Whisk together egg, oil, and buttermilk".  There's absolutely nothing wrong with the product itself ~ just a simple misprint.  So they slap a sticker on the box and sell it to you for around half off!  Not a bad deal!

Stonewall does have a sale page, but I don't think it contains the "irregular" items like these.  I believe the website sales are more past-season products.  For the best bargains, get yourself to one of their outlet or warehouse store locations if you can {We hit up the Rochester, NH location}.  Their flagship store in York, ME is also beautiful and spacious, containing several rooms of jarred and packaged food and mixes, baking and cooking tools and accessories, candles and soaps, plus a cafe and a space for cooking classes.  They do have sales there as well, although you won't find the 'irregulars' there.  Definitely visit if you can ~ and if not, thank goodness for the internet!

In retrospect, a yellow plate makes a jarring background. :)  Oh well ~ check out those yummies!  Delish, and they've made a great afternoon snack for the hubby all week!

To purchase the chocolate doughnut mix, or to peruse everything Stonewall has to offer {hint: a LOT!}, click here.  I also found a two-pack of the mixes on Amazon that would save you a few bucks ~ click here to check out that deal.

xoxo
Bean

{photo credit:  top picture only, stonewallkitchen.com}