The Help

Happy Monday everyone! Yeah, Mondays mean I have 5 long days of work ahead of me, but Mondays also usually mark the end of a successful weekend. This Monday sure did. I've been dying to go see The Help since I just read and loved the book this summer.

 

If you haven't read it yet, do it! I loved it and couldn't put the book down.  Plus, Emma Stone is on fire right now. Every movie she's in seems to be awesome. (Another movie I just saw was Crazy, Stupid, Love which I would also recommend. I mean, just being able to watch Ryan Gosling shirtless makes paying to see the movie worth it). This Friday, my friend Carly came with me to finally see the movie. It was so good! I mean, I won't lie, it's a bit of a chick flick. But it was a really good one! Anyone who knows me knows that I am always down to watch (or buy) a chick flick, so it was a perfect match for me. Sooo basically to sum up this short blog, go read the book and then go see the movie. Hope everyone else had a good weekend too! Four more days til the Labor Day (aka a three day weekend)!

America's Next Top Chef

So guess who's picked up cooking? Me! Well, I guess if you can call following a recipe cooking, then I'm on my way to becoming a gourmet chef. This year, we've started a great dinner routine where we each pick one night of the week to cook dinner. I was never a huge cook before, but when cooking for others you have to be prepared to impress. And let me tell you, each of our meals has been amazinggg. We've had all sorts of different cuisines, everything from Mexican to Greek to Italian and more. It's a really great way for us all to become better cooks (our husbands can thank us later), not to mention a great way for us to spend time together. We've even gone all out and had a few dinner parties since we've been living in our new place. Last night I invited some people to join us, and cooked something I had never even heard of before. It's kind of a tortellini soup? I mean, how can you go wrong with tortellinis, right? It was really easy, only needed 5 ingredients and was delicious! Anywho, I thought it'd be something worth blogging about, so here's the simple recipe (I found it on www.myrecipes.com) that I followed:

Asiago Tortellini

 

Ingredients:

1 (9-ounce) package fresh three-cheese tortellini

1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium vegetable broth

2 tomatoes, chopped

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1/2 cup (2 ounces) shaved fresh Asiago cheese

Preparation:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain.

2. While pasta cooks, combine broth and tomato in a medium saucepan; bring it to a boil. Remove from heat; stir in basil. Cover and let broth mixture stand until pasta is done. Add drained pasta to broth mixture. Ladle soup into shallow bowls; sprinkle each serving with cheese. 

And that's it! You've got a great meal that people will love, and you don't have to buy tons of ingredients or spend hours slaving in the kitchen. I made a salad to go with it, and had some garlic bread for us to munch on while it was cooking (took about 15-20 min). It was a very successful dinner, if I do say so myself!

 

 

Designated Drivers!

So yes, I have kind of failed at this blog. It's been about two weeks since my last post, and I promise I'll try and get better (since so many people are reading this, I know). Last night, something happened that was definitely blog-worthy. Our softball team had our first win! And it was a pretty great win, if I do say so myself (15-6 baby). Softball has been a pretty big part of the majority of my life. I played for eight years growing up, and had my dad for my coach for most of that time. My dad gave me the opportunity to experience a lot of different positions. Clearly for the first few years, I had a sweet spot in right field. You know, where most of the balls get hit. As I got a little better, I got to play other positions too. I distinctly remember the first time I ever caught a pop fly. I was playing third base (bumped up to the in field, heck yes), and ran right to my dad after I realized I had caught the ball. I didn't even care that I was carrying the ball off the field and stopping the entire game. It's one of my most memorable (and kind of embarassing) softball memories. One position that I never got to play was first base. I always begged my dad to let me, but he always let the taller girls play that position. Well, I sure got the chance to prove him wrong. Our freshman year of college, Kristi and I got invited to play intramural softball. We were on a co-ed team with some amazing guy and gal players, and I finally got my chance to prove myself at first base. Out of all of the years I had played softball, this year definitely proved to be the most fun and led to some incredible friendships.

 

That year, we won the championship game and walked away with the title of coming in first for our league. It was an amazing season, and I did not expect to have another memorable softball experience. Well, I was lucky enough to be proved wrong.

 

 Although we only just had our first win, this season with the Designated Drivers has already given me such great memories in the short time we've been playing together. I have been so lucky to become a part of this great group of friends. I've been fortunate to have amazing friends from both high school and college, and I had no idea that I would continue making amazing friends after graduating. Well I'll say it for the second time in this blog, I was lucky enough to be proved wrong. Designated Drivers, thank you all so much for making Santa Barbara go from just the place I went to college, to becoming home. I love you all, and I can't wait to win some more games, have some more barbeques, play some more beer pong at Neighborhood, watch Justine and Boz get married (soo excited!) and most importantly, make some amazing memories.

Wine and Cheese Night

Soo I'm a little behind on this post. What can I say? I'm still a newbie in this blog world. Last weekend seemed to fly by. On Sunday, we went to our third Bikram yoga class. I'll save that for another blog, but basically this class has been kicking my butt. Especially this particular class, seeing as it followed a weekend. Usually after a yoga class, we'll spend the remainder of the night sitting in front of the tv until we crawl into bed at an impressively early hour. But with this class, not so much. After showering (Bikram gets you prettyy gross, sexy I know), we hit Trader Joes for what we had planned to be food shopping. Anyone over 21 should know that it's kind of hard to get through the store without stopping by the wine section (two-buck chuck was pretty much the drink of our senior year). I had grabbed a bottle earlier in the week, so we decided to turn that one bottle into a fabulous wine night by adding some cheese, crackers, fruit, salami, some amazing Trader Joe's bread rolls and what the heck, another bottle of wine:

Our garlic bread creations were pretty amazing if I do say so myself. Just add the cheese of your choice (parmesan, fontina, bree, dublin, you name it, we tried it) and maybe some garlic salt/powder and you get some bomb garlic rolls. If there's one thing we know how to do right, it's a good old wine and cheese night. I couldn't have asked for a better way to end a great weekend.