Meow Miss Pippa!

When I watched all the Royal Wedding stuff unfold..yes I loved Kate, I thought she looked absolutely stunning..but I couldn't get it out of my mind that sister Pippa stole the show in that maid of honor dress! It was so sexy and sophisticated but not in that unnecessary tight cleavage spilling way that people think you need to be sexy. It fit her magnificently and was a show stopper. But...her reception dress...wowza..even the chaffeur dude is checking her assets out.

all I can say is kudos to Kate for being one cool ass bride. Most brides dress their bridesmaids in hideous frocks all matchy matchy so they don't steal the show....good for Kate for wanting her sister to look hot too!

10 Best Brownie Recipes...Recipe #1

I look at tons of baking and cooking blogs. Some I'm loyal to because the recipes are always so good and others I just look at for the pretty food pictures. While perusing some last week, I went to a good handy blog...the blog associated with epicurious.com...the peeps at Bon Appetit magazine.  One blog post caught my eye...their 10 Best Brownie Recipes. I'm a sucker for brownies and have been on a brownie kick..so this was right up my alley. So...here's the first recipe off their top ten list!

Double Chocolate Mocha Brownies...I'm a coffee lover and a chocolate lover..so these were my must try first recipe!

Any good brownie recipe made from scratch usually starts with these two ingredients...butter and chocolate. These double chocolate mocha brownies had a base of unsweetened chocolate

Some sugar and instant espresso powder

The other chocolate in these double chocolate mocha brownies..some semi sweet chips that were tossed with the flour

Put them all in one bowl and mix them together and you get a pretty decadent batter

Into a foil lined pan that was coated with butter..kind of a pain to do but makes for a super easy removal from the pan and no weird brownie chunks stuck in the corners.

Fresh out of the oven...

Freshly cut...

A close up of these...they were soooo good. On a brownie scale...a 9 in my book. Just a nice, not loaded down with too many nuts and other crap, good brownie with a hint of a coffee kick!

Then, I had to get them in my little plastic carrier to tote to work the next day so Mr. Allan and I don't eat them!

Double Chocolate Mocha Brownies
(from http://www.epicurious.com/)
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
5 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon instant-espresso powder or instant-coffee granules
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 15- by 10- by 1-inch baking pan with foil, allowing 2 inches of foil to hang over ends of pan, and grease foil well (except overhang) with 1 tablespoon butter.

Melt remaining 11 tablespoons butter with unsweetened chocolate in a large metal bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove bowl from heat and whisk in sugar, espresso powder, vanilla, and salt (mixture will be grainy), then add eggs 1 at a time, whisking after each addition until batter is smooth.

Toss together flour and chocolate chips in another bowl and add to batter, stirring until just combined.

Spread batter evenly in baking pan and bake in middle of oven until top is firm and edges just begin to pull away from sides of pan, about 20 minutes (do not overbake).

Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then carefully lift brownies from pan by grasping both ends of foil and transfer to rack to cool 10 minutes more. Cut into 32 squares and lift brownies off foil with a spatula.

Enjoy!

Royal Wedding Fever!

I'm kind of glad I didn't bust my butt, set the alarm at 4am, and wake up to watch the live coverage. My butt rolled out of bed at 6:15, mostly because I had hungry cats crawling all over me even though Mr. Allan shut them out of the bedroom. Apparently one of the cats figured out how to work some door knobs. I was pleasantly surprised to turn on the TV while making coffee and feeding cats to see that I really didn't miss anything. I sat curled up on my couch with a cup of coffee and watched, with most of the world I'm sure, as Kate stepped out of the car and we got the first glimpse at her dress...and I must say...I LOVED it! I loved that it's modern, yet classic and elegant, but didn't fall into the fruffy royal dress catergory like so many others!

But what really knocked my socks off...Maid of Honor Pippa's dress..I LOVED LOVED LOVED it!

Wowza...form fitting, modern, and it makes her body look amazing!

and, of course with great fashion comes a bunch of hot messes....the ugliest what we're you thinking and why on earth would you wear this to the Royal Wedding award goes to....

Seriously? It's not like they're ugly girls..they're both pretty with nice shapes..so why they would ever chose these outfits is beyond me!

all photos from http://www.cocoperez.com/.

T.G.I.F.

My favorite day of the week...Friday! I'm hopping on the Fun Fridays bandwagon with Jennie from A Girl in Pearls and A Boy with Toys

Not only am I excited that it's the weekend...I'm loving that there is no Court today and I had an office day! I'm hoping to walk over to the mall during my lunch break and get some much needed office work and office cleaning done today! Mr. Allan arrived home from a week long business trip to Texas...I can't wait to grab some dinner and drinks with the Mr. tonight....and of course it goes without saying that I'll be looking at tons of Royal Wedding stuff!

On Saturday, it's time to start getting the yard ready for spring and summer. The weather has steadily gotten warmer and Mr. Allan is going to power wash and stain the deck. It's quite the task because we have quite the yard and quite a bit of deck. So I wish him the best of luck :)

Saturday night I think we're headed to Newport for some Mexican with friends! Hopefully lots of sangria and margaritas as well!

On Sunday I'm headed out for brunch with my sisters and a friend and then to see a play version of Steel Magnolias..

so many good lines from this movie! I've seen it a million times and can't wait to see how its interpreted into a play..and an afternoon with some ladies isn't too bad of a way to wrap up the weekend!

One to do task for me...clean out my closet...it's a hot mess! I'm dying to pack away some of the winter stuff and whip out some summer stuff!

I should be embarrassed to even post a picture of it!

I'm dying to get the summer stuff out!

Have a great weekend!

Chick Fil A ducklings

 I think this is so ironic and absolutely adorable. A mamma duck made her nest behind the speaker at a Chick Fil A drive thru. The employees of the Chick Fil A gave her food and water and built a fence around her. They kept an eye on her and her eggs hatched earlier this week. Now the drive thru is home to the mamma duck and her ducklings!

View more videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/?__source=embedCode.

The Best Banana Bread Recipe

That's the claim on the this recipe. That's what sucked me in. Once I read it, I knew I needed to try this right away to see if the claim was true or not. I'm glad to report..I think it's pretty damn close!

So, how did I find this recipe? I became obsessed with the idea of brownies a couple weeks ago. To me, they're a perfect treat to bake. You can cut them small, there's a big hit of chocolate, and you're satisfied without eating a 5000 calorie cupcake drenched in frosting. So, I was on a baking kick and perusing the Epicurious blog (the blog from the peeps at Bon Appetit). One post caught my eye...Aunt Holly's Banana Bread. I opened it and the author of the blog claimed it was the absolute best he'd ever had. I love me some banana bread..especially because I can't stand when the bananas in the fruit bowl get one tiny brown spot..so if they get weird, they're popped in the freezer for later use. Unfortunately...or maybe fortunately for my work peeps...my freezer had way too many nanners! So..this recipe was up to get tested!

One thing I loved...a nice batter without a lot of ingredients. I feel like most banana bread recipes have buttermilk, lots of oil etc...this one had none of it!

Fresh out of the oven...this smelled sooooooo good!

Since Mr. Allan was away on business on this particular day...the bread got sliced up for the work people...

The original recipe suggest some chocolate chips or maybe some nuts..I had both on hand...so a handful of chocolate chips and some leftover walnuts made their way in!

So...here we go...the Best Banana Bread..also known as Aunt Holly's Banana Bread!

Aunt Holly's Banana Bread

(from epicurious.com)

3 to 4 ripe bananas
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar*
1 1/2 cups flour*
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
Chocolate chips (as many as you want!)




Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl mash bananas with a fork. Add in all ingredients but eggs and chocolate chips. Stir well. Add in beaten egg. Add in chocolate chips and nuts if desired.

Bake for 50-55 minutes.

* I took some advice from some reviews that were on epicurious. One was to cut down on the sugar. Some described it as too much and the sugar masked the banana taste. I used 1/2 cup of sugar.

* I also used a mix of whole wheat and white flour. I used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour. I didn't go all the way whole wheat, because whole wheat flour has a little bit of a mealy texture and I was unsure how it'd affect the bread.

I brought the tray of banana bread to work..I set it out near our coffeemaker at 8:45 and it was gone by 9:15. Rave reviews! In fact...I'm saving 2 pieces for Mr. Allan to have when he comes home from a business trip...but they're calling my name right now!!! We'll see if they make it! This was moist, delicious and definitely a keeper!

Enjoy!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

It's Wednesday...yeah for Hump Day..the weekend can't come soon enough...I sound like a broken record every Wednesday but Wednesday gets me so excited that Friday is only two days away! But..it's also time for What I'm Loving Wednesdays with http://www.littledaisymay.blogspot.com/!

So what am I loving this Wednesday....

I've held off but I've got Royal Wedding Fever! Maybe because Prince William is somewhat around my age, or maybe it's because I love the story of the commoner girl nabbing the Prince and becoming Her Royal Highness! I'm dying to see her dress..hoping it's not this old lady frilly deal and can't wait to hear the details. I'm not sure I'll be able to haul my butt out of bed at 4am..thank god for TIVO!

I'm also loving that 16 and Pregnant is back on MTV...I didn't get to into Teen Mom 2 (if you're saying..wow, this chick watches really bad TV..you're absolutely right!) 16 and Pregnant is my guilty pleasure and I love to TIVO it on Tuesday nights and watch it on Wednesdays!

Although it might not seem like it...I do not watch 17 hours of television a day. I just selectively watch really bad tv and can do it in about an hour thanks to Tivo! When the bad tv watching is over...one of my favorite things to do is curl up with my Kindle. I bought it on a whim after Christmas and have been having a love affair with it ever since...so much that it was Mr. Allan's Valentine's Day gift (insert your awww here).

But..what I'm really loving..is when Mr. Allan is home..we turn off the tv, go into the bedroom ...(get your mind out of the gutter)...and just relax and read. It sounds cheesy, but just turning off the tv, putting our cellphones aside, unwinding and reading is my new favorite thing to do and I wish we did it waaaayyyyy more often!

I also love that the weather is FINALLY warming up around here! Mr. Allan spent some time raking and cleaning up the yard (my job is to make it pretty!). Daffodils are everywhere and I love it! Nothing says spring like a nice bright yellow daffodil

and lastly...I have a huge hodge podge of loves this week...but I'm loving fresh Ginger! I bought some to make this Ginger Apple Torte..click HERE for the recipe and post.

Ginger's a little weird looking but I love the smell once I start to peel it. Besides using it for the recipe, I used fresh ginger, a little bit of olive oil, and some soy sauce for a marinade on both pork chops and chicken and it was amazing!

Hope you have a great Wednesday!