Eat Good Food. Drink Good Wine. Enjoy Yourself.

My cousin Andrew and I went to a new bistro last night.

It's much cuter than just about anything else in Manchvegas.

They had live jazz the entire evening, which was loud enough to be audible but quiet enough that you could still carry on a conversation and not have to shout at your dinner companion.

They have, as the name suggests, a wide selection of mojitos.

Try the tangerine mojito - yum!!!

I was pleased to see a lot of fish selections, including maki on the appetizer menu, and also a vegetarian entree that changes nightly. I had the wild mushroom and tomato risotto with crunchy, breaded eggplant and peas. It was delish.

The portions are gigantic but the prices are quite reasonable. Appetizers are definitely sized for sharing.

I highly recommend Mint on Elm Street for a cute, cozy night out. It would make an adorable date place or just for a fun night out with friends.

Say Cheeeeeeese!

My father is nearly impossible to shop for.

My entire lifetime he has returned nearly every gift I can recall anyone ever giving him.

I usually err on the side of caution and choose one of three strategies:

1. Make him a gift - he can't return those;

2. Buy him exactly what he has asked for, with absolutely no variances;
3. Get him a gift card.

Dad is a contradiction: he is, at the same time, minimalist and extremely high maintenance. God love him.

This year for Christmas his entire list was:
"Raising Sand" by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and a wallet.

I should specify his request for a wallet: Dadso wanted a black, leather wallet with little to no stitching and absolutely NO ornamentation. Also, he only wanted it to be able to hold three cards on each side AND it had to have a "little plastic thingy" in the center for his license. He even went so far as to measure his old wallet so that I would be sure to get the dimensions right.

I knew going into this that the wallet would be a chalenge but, what I did not know, was that "Raising Sand" has been atop the best seller list for months, meaning that it is next to impossible to find anywhere. Three towns/malls and about five stores later, I finally found the CD on Christmas Eve.

I think the worst part, for me, is that he gave me these very specific requests only a week and a half before Christmas. Aside from Dadso, I had been finished shopping (and wrapped, I might add) since the day after Thanksgiving. This is, to me, incredibly frustrating. It was beginning to look like I was going to have to choose option #3, when a coworker gave me a great idea!

Vintner's Cellar Winery, a new-ish, local establishment has a program called "Adopt a Batch" whereby you adopt a batch of wine. You get about 30 bottles of whichever particular varietal you desire and then, for only $5.00 each, you can have as many custom wine lables created as you like.

I was lucky enough to get in on someone else's order so that I didn't end up with 30 bottles of chianti but I did get a great, really creative, custom gift that even my dadso loved!

I e-mailed the nice folks at Vintner's Cellar three photos of me and dad when I was just a peanut:

Do you love the '70s couch?

The folks at the store liked the third one, and this is what the finished label looks like:

Aren't we cute?

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is my 27th birthday...and every birthday I can remember, my mother has woken me up with a cupcake (just one candle) and has sung "Happy Birthday" to me.

I love this family tradition and I fully intend to use it when I have children of my own. :)

Haunt your House!

I love Halloween. Period.

I know it isn't terribly Christian of me but I can't help it. I love the decorations and the fun theme party ideas and the treats...I just love it.

I love how Halloween is just as fun when you're an adult as when you're a kid (of course, you do have to skip the trick-or-treating).

Halloween (like some other festivities and holidays) makes me excited to have children. I can't wait to make little treats with them like these Funny Bones.

They're simple to make. You take some of those skinny stick pretzels and place a mini marshmallow on each end. Then you dip the whole thing in melted white chocolate to make them look like bones. How cute is that?

If bones aren't your thing you could make brains instead, and I'm not talking about a bowl of cold spaghetti, either, although that's also a great idea for kids along with peeled grape eyeballs. No, I'm talking cupcakes (when am I not, right?).

Also super easy, you just add a drop of red and a drop of black food coloring to your white frosting to give it that gray-pink color and pipe it on each side of the cupcake in little swirls and squiggles. Just remember to do it in two phases so it looks like the hemispheres of the brain.

If cooking isn't your thing, there are plenty of fun decorating ideas. The best part is that you can find ideas online and then go make them yourself. It's much less expensive to do it that way and you can perfectly match the decor you already have. Some of the cute ideas I found this year are:

custom wine bottle labels (or other bottles, whatever you like)

you could easily make these kid friendly and make medicine bottles or bottles/jars of potions

With just a little more time on your hands you could make this jar of eyeballs. I think hey were just made out of those small, white rubber balls and then someone painted the irises onto them.
Not your style? No worries. There are plenty of other ideas, like:

This great window box. It's just an example to give you some ideas. Last year I filled our window boxes with loose hay and then added twigs and small pumpkins. The fun of do-it-yourself projects like this is that you can make it up as you go along!


My absolute favorite idea this year is this great thing I saw at Grandin Road. It's a broom that's affixed to some little mechanism so that it will give the appearance of floating around your house and sweeping by itself. I think that it would be fun to try and make this a DIY project. If you already have one of those Roomba vacuums, attach a lightweight broom to the top and voila, you have your own broom that will actually clean up after you!
There is a video of this at Grandin Road, you should check it out!

Looking to have a Halloween-themed party and need menu ideas?
Come back tomorrow for my favorites.

Thankful

It is now 5:44am and I'm already at the beach, enjoying all of the beauty that God created.

My friend Nick and I got up at 2:30am this morning so that we could get to the beach in time to watch the sun rise at 4:30am.



It was the most glorious sun rise and a peaceful morning, just the two of us and God and His creation.



I think God must be a painter, don't you? Who else could dream up the entrance of the sun in all its grandeur?



Note to self: more trips to the beach in the middle of the night are necessary. Side effect: I may turn into a "morning person."




-- Post From My iPhone

Gettin' Figgy With It

Courtesy of one of my favorite daily e-mail lists, Daily Candy a scrumptious recipe:

Grilled Prosciutto-Wrapped Figs Stuffed with Spicy Ricotta

Ingredients

¾ c. sheep’s milk ricotta
¼ c. finely grated pecorino
¼ tsp. ground fennel seed
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
2 tbsp. green olives, rinsed and coarsely chopped
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
16 ripe figs, cut in half
8 super-thin slices prosciutto
4 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp. honey
1/8 tsp. cracked black pepper

1. Preheat grill to medium heat.

2. In a bowl, mix ricotta and pecorino with fennel, lemon zest, ginger, and olives. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Smear 16 fig halves with the cheese mixture and place other halves on top (like a little fig sandwich).

4. Wrap each fig with ½ slice of prosciutto, making sure to cover seam to hold sides in place.

5. In a small saucepan, combine vinegar, honey, and black pepper and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

6. Reduce heat to low and cook for three minutes.

7. Grill wrapped figs for about four minutes per side or until prosciutto is nice and crispy.

8. Transfer grilled figs to plate and drizzle with balsamic honey.

9. Slice in half and serve with a simple green salad.