Dinner with Alice: Part Two

Source.

I'm sorry but how could you not want to live there?!

Hey guys!

I hope the weekend was deeeeelightful!

Mine was. It was full of sleeping, relaxing and spending

some much needed one on one time with Jacob.

Sometimes you just need to reconnect, ya know??

I also finished up my first Dinner with Alice segment!

Friday night we stayed in and I tried my hand at making 

traditional Chicken Souvlaki with tzatziki and Greek salad.

Let me just tell you, it was a HUGE success.

Not only is Greece a beautiful place to visit, live, look at,

but the food has such beautiful flavors!

Check out what I did!

Thanks, Kalyn's Kitchen!

I found my recipe for Chicken Souvlaki over at Kalyn's Kitchen after searching for a recipe I liked for hours. 

Her tutorial is really easy to follow and the accompanying pictures are really useful when trying to figure out if your doing it right!

Here are some of my pictures:

Chicken marinading in olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, garlic and salt and pepper. Man I could eat this right now!

Yogurt, dillweed, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and cucumber all waiting to get mixed together! Grating the cucumber was really easy and squeezing all of the liquid out was fun! It smelled so good, too.

(I got this recipe from a friend, if you'd like it send me a message! It's super easy and the best recipe I found!)

Tzatiki blended together! And all this time, the chicken is marinading together in the fridge, man it was so easy!

Feta and peppers and onions, oh my!

I've made salads like this before but never thought of their origins!

I love a nice crisp summer salad like this.

I didn't completely follow the recipe but I got the idea.

While sending this recipe to a friend earlier today, I thought it would be a cool mix up if you subbed mozzarella for feta and added basil to change the flavors!

(And the chicken is still marinading!)

Once I had everything ready,

I pulled out the chicken and started sticking it on skewers.

It was oily but smelled oh so amazing.

Ta-da! I only used two chicken breasts because there are only two people I feed (myself and my Jacob). But I am kicking myself for not making more!

Photo op in my fave apron! Big, goofy grin and all!

Ok back to the chicken.

The recipe called to grill the chicken but I don't have a grill and I didn't want to pan fry it either...

So my brilliant boyfriend told me to do this!

We placed the chicken straight onto the oven rack and put a cookie sheet underneath to catch all the fat. It worked great!

Final product:

Mmm-Hmm.

You bet we picked at that salad all night too!

I think I still have some...

...excuse me while I sneak away to eat the rest before

Jacob discovers it!

I hope you try this out, it was fast, easy, healthy and delicious!

I really enjoyed understanding Greek cuisine and I think I'll try making more Greek inspired foods in the future!

I'll keep you posted on Dinner with Alice #2!

Any cuisines you'd like me to explore??

Wild World.

Thank Goodness it's Friday everyone!

We made it!!

Lets start with the song on my mind today:

While I'm working on my second installment of Dinner with Alice, I thought I'd share some things that are making me happy this fine Friday!

Enjoy!

Watching this video makes me laugh because I love Madagascar and I'm excited the third movie is coming out!

 

Now who doesn't want to be here in Bali today? Maybe this picture won't make you happy because you are not there....if that is the case I apologize :) We can dream can't we?!

This is a cupcake from Sugar Bakery and Sweet Shop here in Connecticut. They have recently won Cupcake Wars on the Food Network and I've seen their truck around New Haven a lot recently. So on Tuesday, I went and pick up four...

...and they were probably the most amazing cupcakes I have EVER EATEN. One of those would make me a very happy girl today.

This adorable puppy makes me so happy today too!

The last thing (well probably not last but the last I will mention today) that makes me happy is that we bought tickets to The Governors Ball later this month AND we bought tickets to a 20's themed Jazz Festival next weekend. 

Some good things coming up!

Then we move to Toronto!

Wow...that's a lot in one month....

Have a great Friday and share with me what makes YOU happy!

Dinner With Alice: Greece Part 1

1.

Ah, Greece! What beautiful blue waters, crisp white walls and warm sunshine!

What brings us to Greece today?

My new monthly segment!

Dinner with Alice.

A few weeks back, while having Indian food with my good friend, Alice, I started wondering what made Indian food the way that it is.

Saucy and bright colors, spicy and savory.

Then came my idea to look into the reasons and origins of the cuisine in my favorite kinds of foods!

To kick off my first Dinner with Alice posts, 

we're going to take a look at Greek cuisine! 

2.

Wanna know why I think food is so great?

All the different influences!!

Greek food is no exception.

With each different country clash throughout history,

which is my more positive way of saying invasion,

came a different cultural cuisine kick!

The Romans, Venetians, Balkins, Turks, Slavs, English...they all had

influence on Greek flavors.

3.

But Greek style had to develop somewhere, right??

Due to the climate, Greek farmers grew mostly fruits, nuts, 

grains, legumes, veggies and oils.

Vineyards cover a lot of the hilly, rocky terrane leaving

no good grazing grounds for cattle.

Instead, Greek recipes call for a lot of poultry, lamb 

and goat, with seafood and fish.  

It's interesting to me to see what flavors and ingredients comes from

what is available to the people.

Greek is a great way to kick off Dinner with Alice!

Here are some cool facts to close this post:

1. Greek honey was made mostly from fruit and citrus nectars.

2. Most of their spices include: mint, oregano, garlic, onion, dill and bay leaves.

3. Greek recipes follow the Mediterranean Triad: grains, grapes and olives.

4.

5.

What are your favorite things about Greek food?

Stay tuned next week for Dinner with Alice Part 2,

where I try out making authentic Greek recipes!

{Info: 1. 2.}

DIY: Old books and Roses

I made this wreath for my mom for Mother's Day

and I finally finished it and sent it away

so now I get to post about it!

I saw the idea on a blog a long, long time ago

(so long actually, that I forget which blog I saw it on...

...so I apologize!)

But when I thought about making one for my

lovely mother,

I found this awesome tutorial and followed it.

Here are some pictures of how mine turned out!

My mom loved it and I've been thinking about making more!

Family Ties

Aaaaaand I'm back!

As I've mentioned, family was in town the past few days 

and I honestly feel like I've been gone for years...

So on that note, lets recap a wonderful weekend!

(This is my attempt to keep my weekend going for just a few seconds longer!)

Coconut Latte.

PeelsNYC. Best. Brunch, Ever.

Jacob in 50 years.

My fave ever.

I love food. 

Gobblecado.

Subway.

Taproom # 307

Fried pickles and wings. <3

Oh New York. You're so beautiful.

Beer Tasting!

Coaster. 

Water rides WHILE it's raining...true Oregonians! 

Wheel.

My greatest fear.

We did so much this past weekend!

I'm pretty sure we ate our weight in fried food

and beer BUT it was such a great time!

And a huge milestone for me!

I rode my FIRST EVER roller coaster!

My whole like I told people I was scared of them

when secretly I'd never actually ridden one!

So we went to Lake Compounce and I rode this:

Okay, I swear it was scarier then it looks here.

It's the oldest coaster on the East Coast...or something!

It had a 115 foot drop that almost 

made my heart stop.

I had my eyes closed the entire time.

Screamed a lot.

And clung to Jake's arm like

white on rice!

It was an excellent weekend and it was a much needed

vacation from life.

Now it's time to focus on the future!

Job hunting!

Apartment searching!

Toronto!

Here we come!

Go Your Own Way

Life has been a lot of catching up 

the past two days.

With family visiting, I kind of let go of pretty

much everything.

:)

I'm doing some work writing right now

for an internship interview I have tomorrow

with a Toronto based company 

(fingers crossed!)

and this song came on Pandora:

It just made me feel like turning the music up,

grabbin my hair brush

and dancing around the room...

...which is not totally what I did!

I just wanted to share some of the songs stuck in my head with

you fine people while I'm working on getting stuff done

so we can catch up!

Now go!

Be productive!

Weekend Update: Fear Factor!

Oh boy!

How sleepy am I right now??

Jacob's dad and step mom have been in town and it's been go, go, GO since Thursday! We've done so much, too!

I'm working on editing my photos and getting all my posts in order,

but I wanted to check in and let you know that there will be a post here in the near future!

Missing Oregon!

Happy Sunday!