Thanksgiving the First

Every year it seems I end up celebrating Thanksgiving several times before the main event.  Today I'm getting my first Thanksgiving dinner of the season at a Friendsgiving party.  Last year I brought my flop, the Turkey Cake, but this year I'm going for my new standby, Mini Meatloaf Bites.  Not exactly traditional Thanksgiving, but frankly, I'm all for breaking the rules.  As long as someone else remembers to bring a turkey.

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! 

Friday Find

Happy Friday everyone!  It's getting to be that time of year where everything is on sale.  Old Navy currently has 50% off of all of their coats in stores (and up to 50% off online).  Just wanted to share a few of my favorites:

Wool-blend faux fur collar

Leopard Peter Pan Collar Wool-blend

Leopard Quilted Vest

Have a great weekend everyone!

Easy Rosemary Baked Potatoes

So for some reason I never buy or cook real potatoes.  Since moving into my first apartment, I can count on one hand how many times I've actually purchased potatoes from the grocery store, as well as the number of times I've accidentally let them go bad.  Even though we never had boxed potatoes growing up (unless we were on vacation in the woods), they always seem to end up in my cabinets.

Until this week.

I was mentally planning dinner for me and the boyfriend, and thought to myself, "You know what would go well with this?  Roasted potatoes.



I'm not sure why I've banished real potatoes from my existence since it turns out they're super quick and easy to make.  Welcome back, potatoes.  Welcome back.

Easy Rosemary Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:
1 bag of Mini Dutch Gold Potatoes (as found at Trader Joes, other kinds of potato would work fine)
2 tsp olive oil
Healthy amount of salt and pepper
3 whole garlic cloves
Rosemary sprigs

Preheat oven to 450.  Line a baking sheet, preferably one with raised edges, with tin foil (this is just to ease clean-up, it isn't necessary).

Wash potatoes and chop into evenly sized pieces.  Lay potatoes on baking sheet.  Drizzle olive oil over the top and sprinkle on salt and pepper.  Using your hands, mix the potatoes, salt, pepper, and olive oil together so that potatoes are well coated.  Spread potatoes out on pan.  Add garlic cloves and sprigs of rosemary on top.

Put in the oven and bake for 25 minutes, stirring once to turn over potatoes.  Potatoes are done when they are soft when poked with a fork.  Serve immediately.  

How-To Hair: Day Old Waves

Last weekend I was trying to get ready in a hurry and had to do something with my day old hair.  I wanted to look nice but still fun and casual.  These waves took about 5 minutes to create and turned into some fun dreadlocks the next morning, so double win.

(kind of weird picture due to the fact that my face was reacting to some spider bites - yay!)

Products: Dry Shampoo (I've tried a lot of brands, and Suave works best for me) and hairspray

Tools: 1-2 inch curling iron, fine tooth comb

Step one: This is a day-old look, so start by spraying the crap out of your hair with dry shampoo.  I like to let mine sit and dry while I put on makeup.  Once the dry shampoo has dried, brush out your hair.  This should take away any greasies you may have as well as add some volume.  

Step two: Pin back your bangs (or front section of hair) using two bobby pins crossed over one another.  If you'd like a little more height to your poof, tease your bangs a little first.  I then teased the hair around  my poof to add a little volume.

Step three: Spray hair with a healthy amount of hairspray.  Don't brush it through since this look is supposed to be a little messy.  Holding your curling iron vertically, wrap one inch sections once around the barrel, hold for 5-10 seconds and release.  Make sure to vary the direction you curl around the barrel as well as which part of your hair is curled (i.e., top, middle, bottom).  Don't curl your ends.  Add curls until you achieve the look you want.  

Good luck curling! 

Get out and vote!

I wouldn't consider myself a particularly political person, I don't normally push my opinions in public forums, so I'm not going to do that here.  But please, please, get out there and vote today!  Hopefully by the time this is actually posted I'll be wearing my "I voted!" sticker with pride.

(Edit: apparently they aren't giving out stickers this year in Chicago.  How will people know to congratulate me on fulfilling my civic duty?!)

And now, a series of amusing America-related photos from back in the day.  Warning: I haven't always had red hair...

My grandma decorates her yard with many, many flags for the 4th of July each summer.  That outfit I was rocking, yikes!

For the 2008 election, we made political candidate cookies.  Here, see Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton.  I believe we used a snowman cookie cutter for Hilary, hence those hips.  

An amazing blanket my sister made for my brother to celebrate that he was no longer an ex-pat.  Just a regular Pat.  

Ensemble: Embellished & Velvet

I bought a pair of velvet jeans last week, and oh my, they're my new favorite!  I love them so much that I may have gone out and bought a second pair this weekend.  They're oh so comfortable and soft, and they make any outfit feel a bit more special.  

Sorry for the weirdish pic, this was the only one I took where you could see the actual color of the jeans.  Burgundy, yum!

Top - Macy's / Jeans - Target / Boots - Enzo Angiolini / Watch - NY&Co

A Weekend of Food

So the weekend of eating and running was extremely successful.  I somehow have managed to eat every meal out thus far.  This includes Japanese Barbecue (similar to Korean Barbecue but minus the kimchi) which was delicious and ended with make your own s'mores - double yum!

I also ran the Hot Chocolate 5K today, which ended with a whole lot of chocolate.  It was by far the easiest run of my life, possibly because I ran with my sister and we just giggled the whole time.  I think it shows that you're running at the correct pace if you still have enough energy for doing silly runs (a la monte python) when you see boyfriend waving at you from the sidelines.  

Hope everyone else had a fantastic weekend!