goals

I think I am stuck in a blog rut.  I just tell y'all what's going on in my life, which is fun because then those of you who I don't speak with a lot can see what I'm up to, and then I can preserve my memories somewhat.  BUT, there are so many other good blogs out there which I read and the writers talk about their thoughts more than their actions, and I really kind of like that.  My New Years resolution, (which I haven't kept thus far) is to blog at least 2x a week.  I think because I usually blog about things I do...and if I don't really do anything of interest, I feel like I have nothing to talk about.  I'm going to *try* to talk more about my feelings, emotions, musings, etc more, in addition to fun activities in my life.  Personal goal, lets see how this goes.

I have a new position on my team at work, which started yesterday!! Before, I was calling people who sent in questions on the website and just answering them.  Now they have me calling to existing customers, trying to get them to upgrade to the more high dollar accounts.  So far, I really like it!  It is something different, which is always great, but it also gives me an opportunity to work on sales skills and show what I am capable of.  Challenge accepted!

I'm currently on a renovation kick (also a "trying to be an adult").  DIY EVERYTHING! Except I don't really know how to start.  I want to redo the whole house....but don't know how to get going.   I need to start watching HGTV and DIY Network more.  Another goal - magically learn construction, painting, interior design, and gardening.  I just want to be one of those people that is picks up decrepit furniture at a yucky garage sale or the flea market and can somehow turn it into the key element in the house.

That's all for now.... sleepy at the end of the day, and the ol' brain is already starting to power off.  Y'all try to hold me to my resolution to blog more and delve into my thoughts.  xx M.

Good Eats

I have a lot of recipes for y'all today!  My weekend was filled with chores galore, so to prevent the weekend from being a total bust, I just ate a lot.

Firstly, I had a wine and cheese night, alllll to myself.  I was feeling really lazy and didn't feel like cooking so I stopped by Whole Foods, picked up some cheese and smoked Nova, then went home and popped open a bottle!  With the cheese and salmon, I had some fig jam Mother gave me for Christmas, as well as some delicious spiced pecans Jane gave me for Christmas!!

I had two horses to ride on Saturday, so I needed to eat a good breakfast before I went out to the barn.  I didn't want to get cranky, so I made one of my favorite breakfast meals (lets be real though... I love all breakfasts)!  I poached 2 eggs, made some hollandaise, and then used up the rest of my smoked Nova in a makeshift eggs Benedict!

Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict

For lunch, I made a hearty chicken salad!  Kyle doesn't like traditional chicken salad, but I've been craving it, so I trolled around Pinterest until I found a substitution that might work.  Chicken, sausage, green beans sweet potatoes, dill, mayo & more - SO GOOD!  It wasn't pretty so I didn't take a picture, but the link is below.

Hearty Chicken Salad

I also made us a delicious dessert that was a faux creme brulee, lemon vanilla custard thing.  It was awesome, so easy, and pretty healthy!!

Lemon Vanilla Custard

Finally, we made one of my favorite recipes that is a little labor/time intensive, but so savory/fatty/sweet - sweet potato gnocchi, with a sage brown butter sauce!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Dog Dreams

I had the cutest dream last night that I felt like sharing.

It all started because I watched "Kings of Pastry" on Netflix last night, which is a documentary about French Pastry Chefs trying to become a "Meilleure Ouvrier de France (MOF)," which is an award for skilled workers, and this particular one was for pastry and candy making.  It was pretty interesting, a lot in French, and was about sweets, so it was right up my alley.

Moving along, so Sienna sleeps with us at night, usually right in between us, being the princess that she is - she gets the best part of the bed.  She was right up near my head last night (sharing the pillow and everything) - a mini-me diva-pants for sure.  My dream last night was that Sienna was in the competition for the MOF, and was in the thick of it, furiously creating beautiful little bon-bons and chocolates as far as the eye could see, all so gorgeous and perfect.  In real life though - Sienna was snoring like nobody's business.  She can snore SO LOUDLY, especially when her head is a little inclined like it was on the pillow.  Anyway, in my sleepy stupor, I was trying to move Sienna around to stop the ridiculous noise, but I was also freaking out that I was making her lose the competition and she wasn't going to be awarded the MOF.  I'm sorry Sienna - I cost you the medal of honor and the fancy collar that the MOF's get to wear.

January 2 - Anniversary

Quick recap from this weekend - I had the most fun Saturday!!!

Mother and I met Grandfather in Southern Pines, to show him Mother's new condo that is being renovated, and then we all went to lunch in Pinehurst!  We ate at a great little restaurant that none of us had been to before, Elliott's on Linden, which was very bright and open.  We ate early, so we almost had the whole place to ourselves, and so we sat, ate, talked, watched all the bikers and joggers go by - it was so pleasant!!  Afterwards we wandered through their store, which was connected to the nicest art gallery!  So many dog/horse/fox paintings, as well as gorgeous horse sculptures and equine silver jewelry.  It was nice to get out of Raleigh for the day, visit with my fam, and enjoy a gorgeous day.  I was hoping the shell of my jacket from the Country Saddler would be ready to try on - but no!  It is ready this weekend to try on the shell and choose the liner - can't wait!!

On Saturday night, Kyle and I went on a double date with Loren and Hunter and had THE BEST time!  Seriously, I wish I could do it every day.  We spent 2 hours at The Wine Feed, which is co-owned by the fiance of a girl who used to work at iContact.  Phil and Phil both went to App and started The Wine Feed a couple of years ago, and they recently opened a new storefront that is a major upgrade!! They went from a little basement to a great space on Glenwood South - The Wine Feed - Check them out!   But both of the Phil's were there and talked to all of us while we each had a flight of wine, and then we shared a bottle.  It was SO much fun, super chill, and I barely realized 2 hours had passed.

From The Wine Feed, we all went down to Calavera for an empanada dinner.  I LOVE Calavera, but don't eat there often, even though it is such a treat because the food and drinks are great, for a good price as well.  Seriously though - their spicy pineapple margarita is the best margarita I've ever had, and potentially will ever drink.  By the time we got our food I don't really remember what everyone was talking about, but the conversation was engaging, and the company was outstanding.

***

Quick note on my New Year's Day - Kyle and I had a fancy moment yesterday where we enjoyed the leftover duck pate from the beef wellingtons with crackers, wine, and watched the documentary Somm on Netflix.  It was like heaven!

***

I realized on my way to work today that it is January 2nd - almost two years ago to the hour, I was sadly boarding a plane to France, already missing my family, and wondering what the future had in store for me.  As they say, the rest is history.  I'm sad about this anniversary, as I will be for May 19, and July 24 because I feel that now the first year has gone by my time and memories from France are only going to get more and more distant as it becomes my five, ten, fifteen year anniversary for those dates that were meaningful to me in my eight month adventure.  I'm sad when I think I will never get those experiences back.  I'm lucky to have such wonderful friends to talk about that time with, and we can make new memories in different locations, but what we all had in Montpellier is finished.  I just think about how sad I was to leave North Carolina two years ago, and how now I'd give anything to do it all over again. I don't regret a single thing during those eight months - I am proud that I lived with the "pourquoi pas" (why not) mentality while I was there because I did so much, grew so much, explored so much, and learned so much.  So much is different now, and it just makes it that much harder to think about what a great time I had in Francey.  Dear France, I miss you, but I'm coming for you - see you in eight more months.

Christmas 2013

Lordy, this was the busiest Christmas I've ever had!! I have done Christmas almost every day for a whole week - here's the breakdown!

1) Friend Christmas Party!
Last Friday Kyle and I had a bunch of our friends over for some spiked apple cider, snacks, and holiday fun - complication: Kyle got the flu on Friday :( so I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get everything done.  But it was a good time!  I felt like Susie Homemaker because I made the cider, as well as buffalo dip, hot pimento cheese dip, guacamole, and mango salsa.  Kyle had fun despite being sick because his friends brought over their "DJ box" - I forget what the actual terminology is for the music thingy.

2) Paramount Show Stables Christmas party & High School Reunion
On Saturday I went and rode little Leo who was wild (but fun) and I survived.  That night Mother and I went to the barn Christmas party which was great because I was able to catch up with all my friends becasue I really never get to see anyone from the barn because I always ride at like 7:00 at night after I get off of work.

After that, Alyssa and I went to my 5 year high school reunion (weird right?).  I was REALLY dreading it because I do not look back on Broughton in a positive manner (aka I HATE the Broughton type of people) BUT it was not bad and I actually had an alright time.  It was fun seeing what everyone is doing now.  Some people were the same old thing so I just left them to do their usual thing.  Alyssa's sorority sister Grace, and Whitney from high school and I all had fun dancing after we left the reunion, so that was also a highlight of the night.

3) Family Christmas Party
On Sunday, Kyle and I had our immediate families over for a potluck type dinner party and it was TOO MUCH fun.  I had a great time.  I've been wanting to have everyone over for a while to see our house, and also just practice my dinner party skillz.  I made individual beef wellingtons and they turned out SO good, even though I didn't use filet mignon!

4) Christmas Eve
Louise and I took the puppies on a walk out at Lake Johnson which was nice to get out of the house since I didn't have to work on Christmas Eve.  They had a lot of fun!  I thought I took a video of them playing in a creek, but I really am terrible at working with technology, so I only have a less active video  that I took later to show to y'all because I don't know how to press buttons.

Mother made us all the best Christmas Eve dinner, and I think her roast beef was better than ever!!  We killed 2 bottles of Veuve, a huge wedge of brie, and 18 Yorkshire puddings amongst four people - not bad, considering we all ate a full dinner as well.

5) Christmas Day
Christmas was busy again this year, which isn's super ideal because I love to laze around in my jammies and take a lil nap midday, but I did get to see a lot of family which nice.  Kyle and I had breakfast and presents with my dad, and then hung out there until he and Louise left to go to my cousins house in Chapel Hill for lunch.  Kyle and I then and went to my mom's house, where I made her cry with a picture of Cowboy (my goal in life around holidays).  We then went home to get fanicified to go eat Christmas dinner at Gerry & Andy's.  We ate and ate and ate delicious things that Gerry prepared, while celebrating both Cindy's birthday (because she went home to Nashville today) and Christmas.  They are so nice and always make me feel so welcome in their family - I really appreciate it.  Kyle, Matt, and I then made Cindy cry with her birthday/Christmas present which was a hand painted wood barn door with North Carolina and family related words on it.

SO! I've been doing a lot and had a lot to recuperate from because Kyle was really sick for a few days there.  Luckily iContact has been really good and has let us out early every day this week because things have been really slow.

I hope you all had a great Christmas!!!

Introductions

This past weekend Kyle, Sienna, Mother, Louise and I all traveled to Charlotte for some pre-Christmas family time.  Kyle has never met my mother's mother, nor my aunt/uncle/cousins, so it was pretty overdue.

Now, my grandmother has Alzheimers, and was never the nicest grandmother in the world to begin with, so I was a little concerned how she would be meeting Kyle, but both Kyle and her were on their best behavior.  My grandmother was cute, friendly, and welcoming to Kyle, and he was charming, so I was ecstatic with how their first meeting went.

I had big plans for Saturday, but they fell through just a bit... We had brunch with my grandmother, her two wonderful friends Bruce & Reggie, and my aunt, uncle, and one cousin.  It was great, and at a French style bistro, so I had a delicious little macaron dessert at the end, which always puts me in a good mood.

After brunch we went to the Charlotte mall, Southpark.  I'd ordered some wedding bands to try on from my favorite jewelry store, Van Cleef & Arpels, because they have a little booth in the Neiman Marcus there, however the woman I was in communication with dropped the ball and didn't follow up on the delivery of my rings, so they had not yet arrived.  I was very displeased because I'd been excited and was let down.  I already really dislike Neiman Marcus, and this did nothing to improve their image in my eyes.  Instead we went and tried on some bands at Tiffany's which were nice, but I just want something sort of unique, which is not really their forte.  We wandered around the mall some more and Kyle was super sweet.  I love love love stationary (like more than is normal) and I was admiring some adorable holiday cards in Kate Spade, and he sneakily bought them for me and I never noticed!  He carried them around for like ten minutes before giving them to me because I was totally oblivious and didn't notice and he didn't want to carry them anymore.  It was so nice of him! I love love love him tooooo.

3 French Hens

We finished out the day eating dinner with Bruce & Reggie at one of my favorite restaurants in Charlotte, Rooster's!  There was lots of good food, wine, and good conversations.

On Sunday, we began our second round of introductions - Sienna met my grandfather!  It's been long overdue, and I wanted him to see her, because she is colored similarly to one of the dogs he had in the past.
She was her normal wild self, but also sweet and happy, so I'm pretty sure he liked her.  My grandfather recently got a new dog, so we tried to introduce them.  Sienna was fairly well behaved, but Georgia is still working on her training, so they ended up being a little too excitable together to go on a walk.  A big thank you to my grandfather for a great brunch of bloody marys and killer blueberry french toast!

Sienna and the Christmas tree at my grandfather's!

It was a great weekend in Charlotte, and I loved having so much family time close to Christmas.  Plus any time I can spend a whole weekend with Kyle to myself makes me happy!  We are both busy a lot, so it doesn't happen frequently.

Side note - I made a KILLER coconut curry soup on Sunday night.  Kyle said it was one of the best things we've made yet (added bonus - shrimp from right in front of my grandparent's house in Gloucester, that I had frozen from a month or two ago.  Shout out to my auntie Mary for giving us the shrimp!)

Recipe here: Coconut Curry Soup

Christmas in Middleburg

I just had one of the best weekends ever - it's always good when I can check items off my bucket list!!

Mother and I traveled to Middleburg, VA to visit our friend, Rachel, and also visit the town.  Middleburg is the horseman's (or woman's) paradise.  It is big hunt country, and could give Lexington, KY a run for it's money as being the most horse-centered town in the entire United States.  We visited Middleburg six years ago when we bought Dutch, and have dreamed of going back since then.  When we visited before, it was a horsey winter wonderland - everything was covered in snow, there were HUGE fields contained by stone fences, with fox hunting jumps built into them, amazing barns just barely visible from the road, and every store in the town, selling horse related/inspired items.  It was magical.  And then we ended up with Dutch to boot, cutie pie baby horse that he was back then...

Rachel moved to Middleburg three years ago, and we'd been talking about visiting her for a long time, so finally we worked it out!!  I don't think I can go 6 more months without going back, much less three or six years.  Middleburg is just absolute heaven.

Robert Duval's farm (and above)

Anyways, Mother and I got up to Middleburg midday on Friday, after traveling through some of the most gorgeous scenery just to get into town.  We ate a quick lunch and I could not even contain my excitement.  Everything was as I remembered it, but also better.  After lunch we wandered in and out of their many antique, gift, and clothing stores.  I feel like at this point, its needless to say I wanted nearly everything, because so much of it was horsey, but also so classy.  I can't even put into words how great it was just looking at all of the neat stuff that is in the stores, but it is all catered to the people who are attracted to the town.

The Red Fox Inn 

After we shopped for a few hours, it was time to meet Rachel, who was almost done working at The Tack Box for the day.  From her tack shop, she drove us out to her barn to see her new baby horses, both of which shipped in from Germany this fall.  They were fancy and beautiful.  Then, we went to the Salamander Resort for drinks and appetizers.  Sheila Johnson, who started BET Network is a huge horsewoman, as is the rest of her family.  They've owned a beautiful farm in Middleburg for a while now - we saw it the last time we visited, but Sheila recently built a gorgeous upscale resort that just opened in August.  It was *so* nice - fancy drinks, great food, stunning decor (horsey, of course) and on top of all that, Rachel is friends with Sheila's right hand man, who dreamed up the entire resort.  He and his wife were ridiculously nice people.  We drank and caught up for a while, took pictures in front of the Christmas tree, and admired the beautiful gingerbread barn, made by the Salamander chef.  Have I mentioned on top off all the regular beauty, how special it was to be in Middleburg around Christmastime too!!

Teddy!

Beau!

Beau! 

Myself, my mother, and Rachel

The gingerbread house of the barn at the Salamander Resort

Painting of the Middleburg Christmas Parade, in Salamander Resort

A stunning painting in Salamander Resort

Saturday was an early morning, because we had to go save our seats for the Christmas parade at 9 am!  The horse and hound parade was at 11 AM, and then the regular parade was at 2 PM, but thousands of people come into Middleburg from Washington, DC to watch the parade, so we had to claim our spot at the bar early!  It was great fun - we met Rachel's friends, drank Bailey's & coffee, did some serious people watching, walked around some more, watched the parade - it was like upscale tailgating!  My favorite part, which was on my bucket list, was the horse and hound parade.  The Chronicle of the Horse magazine is headquartered in Middleburg, so they cover the Christmas parade every year, and so it became an item on my bucket list.  While that part of the parade is fast, only a minute or two of about 20-30 huntsman, it was perfect.  We had a great spot to watch the huntsman and hounds go by, and it was just as I imagined!

...drool

I just love it!

The Corgi Corps

Ruby & Rachel with the Corgi Corps

Corgis everywhere - Kyle's heaven!

gal time

So many horses in the parade!

More horses!

and more!

Santa doesn't ride on a traditional parade float in Middleburg!

Hey Sheila!

After the parade we went to one of Rachel's friend's houses to warm up and eat some food, while the traffic died down.  We stayed for a few hours before going home, getting in our PJs, pouring some champagne, and turning on Modern Family in the background while we talked about the fun day, and still caught up more.  It's funny how with good friends, you don't always feel like you need to talk a lot, but it takes days to catch up, because more goes on in your lives than you realize.

Jack the cat, with Rachel's wood stove

Snow 

Rachel's perfect little farmhouse, in the snow that began to fall as we tried to leave

Do we have to go home?

Maybe around midnight we rolled into bed, and then got up early to next day to very sadly leave around 7:30 to beat the snow and ice that was traveling up I-95.  It was a perfect trip in every way, except that it was much much too short.