Happy Holidays!

From my family to yours, I hope that you have a holiday that is truly merry and bright!


xoxo,
M

Deep breath. We can make it!


It's Wednesday y'all, only 2 more days until the weekend!

During the after-Thanksgiving sales I splurged and bought myself a new DSLR. I got a Cannon Rebel Ti1 at Sam's Club for a killer deal. So far I love it! New camera accessories are definitely on my Christmas list now!

I'm really excited to use my camera this weekend when Chris and I celebrate his 29th birthday this weekend with two special meals, presents, and lots of football! I think I am going to go all out and make him a cake.

And just to close out the post with a picture, here is my favorite picture from my new camera!



Giveaway winner!

I loved reading your holiday traditions for the CNS giveaway!  Thanks to random generator a winner was chosen!  Maggie from Freckled Citizen is the big winner!

Maggie, you'll have to report back about what you choose from CSN!

Happy Wednesday y'all!


Humble Pie

*** DON'T FORGET! Enter my $55 CSN GIVEAWAY .  Winner will be announced on Friday!

Culinary school is filled with big personalities. 

I think that most chefs have an ego.  My theory is that to succeed as a chef, you must have an ego; you have to know that you, and you alone, are going to create something delicious. You take basic supplies and transform them into deliciousness-- it's almost miraculous.

And when you put 20 students with large egos into a room there are bound to be personality clashes.  Luckily, they are few and far between. 


However, some unintentionally hilarious moments have occurred. One of my favorite "big personalities" is this guy, we'll call him J.  J is mid-twenties transfer student who is a total know it all. He spouts on and on and ON and OOOONNNNN about things that are completely pointless and the majority of the time he has no idea what he is really talking about.

Last week in baking and pastry class this awesome interaction occurred between J and another classmate:

P: "Taylor, have you ever had humble pie?"
J: "Oh yeah. mmmmh. It's great."



HUMBLE PIE Y'ALL! He actually tried to pretend like he knew all about humble pie as if it was a real thing!


Hey, at least he's not my boss!




And tonight is your last chance to enter my CSN GIVEAWAY .  Start in your Christmas shopping my love bugs! Do me a little happy and enter!

the little things

*** DON'T FORGET! Enter my $55 CSN GIVEAWAY .  Winner will be announced on Friday!



I've been working my tush off at school-- tons of homework, papers and projects galore, and just the daily grind of classes.  So I like to treat myself every once and a while to a relaxing afternoon. Here are my big plans:


Glee



Fresh brewed coffee


Bubble bath


Glass of Chardonnay




What do you do to unwind after a long day?

Holiday Giveaway!

Thanksgiving is in 2 weeks my loves and Christmas is only 7 weeks away! Time is flying! I spent some time this weekend poking around doing some pre-shopping for my list.  I found some great goodies, but they are secrets for now! Have you spent any time looking yet?

To help your holiday budget I am offering a $55 giveaway from CSN. They have something for everyone on your list! Ottoman coffee table for the home decorator on your list, toys for the little munchkins, power tools for the handy man on your list, and everything in between.

To enter the contest simply leave a comment with your favorite holiday meal or tradition!

The contest will end on Thursday at midnight EST and I'll declare the winner on Friday!

Exciting news!

Next week I'm having a sweet CSN give away!

p.s. I did it! I actually woke up bright and early at 5 am after a 45 minute nap.  I aced my paper and did well on all 3 tests I took this week! I'm exhausted now so I'm going to take a long afternoon nap before starting some winter cleaning!

The inevitable

The all-nighter: I knew it would happen at some point in my culinary school career.  And it's happening right now as I type. Some how my usually good time management skills flew out the window in the last week leaving me with hours of unplanned homework on a school night.  I have a paper due tomorrow and an incredibly dry and long online training to complete.


I'm not going to just skip my homework so here I am at 3:23 am finally finishing my work. 

So here's the real problem. I'm done. Proof read, prepared, and done.  But I have to be up at 5 am.  Do I go to sleep for an hour and a half power nap or do I just stick it out?

I'll admit it... I have the will power of a kitten when I have to drag myself out of bed.  I've done this before during my undergrad career where I would just "take a little" nap before getting up early.  It hardly ever worked. But, I'm older, wiser, and more driven now.  Right?

Shit, here goes nothing.  Cross your fingers I wake up in time to turn in my papers.

I'll update you with either my great success or my epic failure in the morning. No pressure.

Fall Feeling

I think it's finally here! I've been waiting for so long!
IT'S FINALLY FALL! 

The weather is perfect: a crisp 56 degree, sunny, and clear.  I can't wait to pull on a pair of boots, jeans, and a sweater and enjoy the Halloween weekend.

We'll be making Halloween shaped treats, handing out candy, and watching a spooky Halloween movie marathon!



And the weather came at the perfect time.  This week I made a fall wreath for our front door. And y'all, the only supplies were 3 hot glue sticks and a roll of discounted ribbon! That's a grand total cost of ONE DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENTS!




I hope you all have wonderful weekends filled with lots of treats!

I Love the Mountains



I love the mountains



I love the rolling hills

 

I love the flowers
I love the daffodils
I love the fireside when all the lights are low


Boom dee ah dah Boom dee ah dah Boom dee ah dah Boom dee ah dah
Boom dee ah dah Boom dee ah dah Boom dee ah dah Boom dee ah dah
Chris and I went camping this weekend in Pisgah National Forest.  
The leaves are turning and they are putting on a spectacular show!



The colors span from bright green to yellow to burning orange to the deepest copper.




We also came across several little creatures out in the woods:

a slithering snake (that I almost squashed)



a very hungry caterpillar who tried to eat our graham crackers


and ladybugs galore!






To really see the difference in the leaves check out this picture from the same area that I took only a month ago:

September 2010

October 2010




Free Puppies!

The last week of so my blog email inbox has been receiving a lot more spam than normal.


I have gotten two emails saying:

fromcreeper
togoodbyedallashelloworld{at}gmail.com
dateWed, Oct 20, 2010 at 6:39 AM
subjectfree puppies for adoption




Hello, i have a beautiful puppy for free adoption............. 
 
And 5 emails saying:
Hello, i am albert by name and i have some money i want to receive from my father, and he ask me to get a chase account or a royal bank of canada account, so that he can transfer a sum of $5,000 into the account asap, kindly get back to me if you can help me, and %20 will be taking away by you.....looking forward to read from you soonest. 
 
 
 
The puppies I could maybe fall for. But the money exchange? Please.
WHO FALLS FOR THIS?

And, y'all who's selling my email address? Is it you? Sad face friends, sad face indeed.

Culinary School Uniform

Johnson & Wales has a strict dress policy.  If you aren't perfectly pressed or have a stain the Chef has the right to send you out of class for the day (and it does happen!).

Everyday I have to wear a clean and freshly pressed chef's coat. My "neck-kerchief" is dark blue meaning that I am a first year culinary student.


I always have a thermometer, sharpie, and pen in my pocket.

My hair is pulled back into a hat.

And my very hideous shoes that need to be shined.

The uniform is super comfy; almost like wearing jammies.  But it definitely isn't the most figure flattering outfit!  On the weekends when I put on jeans, do my hair, and put on some makeup I feel as if I've totally forgotten what I look like!

I don't have class tomorrow and I am so excited to spend a 3 day weekend out of uniform!

New York New York!

Remember back in August when I was all like moan moan moan I don't know what I want for my birthday? Yea. That was lame.

Well, my birthday came and went and was FABULOUS! For the night of my birthday, September 24th, sweet Christian took me out for a sushi extravaganza and we just played all weekend long. I would have taken pictures but I didn't get my birthday present from my mom until last week: it was the camera I wanted! (actually it was birthday money and I bought the camera but it's all the same)

It came Friday afternoon which was perfect because Chris surprised me Saturday morning with my birthday surprise:

A WEEKEND TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY!

We woke up at the crack of dawn, headed to the airport, and I had no idea where we were going until AFTER we got through security!

We had an amazing time. And I wish I had taken 1000 more photos.  I always have a hard time balancing between recording a vacation and just living it to the fullest. We definitely did live it up!

We ate massive amounts of dim sum in Chinatown on Saturday and Sunday. 



Drank delicious beers


Had life changing ruben sandwiches from Katz Deli


And munched on C's favorite food-- falafel!


Saw a car and a man fully covered in sweaters. It was creepy!



Met up with one of my best friends, Melanie, and went to comic con for a little people watching






It was yet another birthday weekend that I will not forget! Here's to 25!