I Do BBQ

Saturday afternoon was the perfect weather for Meghan & James' "I Do BBQ" couples shower. Having worked with Meghan for years now, I am always in awe of how crafty she is! She can sew crazy intricate costumes and outfits, create beautiful sweet treats, and apparently throw a very lovely country themed BBQ! 

There was a s'mores bar for folks to roast marshmallows and create their own dessert. Yum!! Also, my lemonade and sweet tea vodka drink in the background: perfectly country!

The only picture I managed to get of the couple opening gifts. Even Meghan's dress fit the theme of the party!!

The mosquitos eventually ran folks inside when the sun went down. They shouldn't have to worry about that during their February ceremony!

Katie's Chocolate Club: November

I couldn't help but do a repeat this month! I tried Kate Weiser chocolates back in March but a lot of the bon bons arrived melted. Now that the heat has died down a touch in the south, I went online and built my own box of flavors. It is a very cool feature on their website where you can visually see each chocolate and fill a box with your desired flavors. Fun!

No melting this go round!

Another colorful chocolatier who uses splattering and painting along with airbrushing to achieve cool patterns and designs.

ROW #1

Passion Fruit: white chocolate ganache with passion fruit

Sweet Potato: milk chocolate caramel ganache with sweet potato puree and cognac

Salted Caramel: smooth salty caramel in a dark chocolate shell

Mango Habanero: dark chocolate habanero ganache with mango pate de fruit

Orange Butterscotch: dulcey caramel ganache with orange, butterscotch

Apple Sage: green apple pate de fruit with sage infused ganache

Cherry Almond: cherry pate de fruit with dulcey almond praline

ROW #2

Dark Chocolate Caramel: caramel made with 85% dark chocolate

Caramelized Pineapple: dulcey caramel ganache with pineapple puree

Pistachio: pistachio gianduja enrobed in dark chocolate

Hazelnut Latte: dark chocolate coffee ganache with hazelnut praline

Port: dark chocolate ganache infused with port

Banana Dulcey: dulcey blonde chocolate infused with ripe bananas

Pretzel Praline: milk chocolate, pretzel butter praline

ROW #3

Buttery Popcorn: white sweet corn ganache with fleur de sel

Peanut Brittle: peanut butter gianduja with peanut brittle crunch

Fresh Mint: white chocolate ganache steeped with fresh mint leaves

Truffle Honey: milk chocolate ganache with truffle infused honey

Toasted Coconut: white chocolate ganache with toasted coconut

85%: extra dark chocolate ganache

Buttery Popcorn: white sweet corn ganache with fleur de sel

ROW #4

Pretzel Praline: milk chocolate, pretzel butter praline

Ninja Turtle: smooth, buttery caramel with toasted pecans

Red Wine & Berries: dark chocolate cabernet ganache with freeze dried berries

Yuzu: dark chocolate ganache infused with Japanese lime

Almond Caramel: salted caramel combined with homemade almond butter

Key Lime Pie: white chocolate graham cracker ganache with key lime pate de fruit

Pumpkin Spice: white chocolate pumpkin spice ganache

ROW #5

Raspberry: dark chocolate ganache with raspberry pate de fruit

Apple Sage: green apple pate de fruit with sage infused ganache

Orange Butterscotch: dulcey caramel ganache with orange, butterscotch

Lavender Apricot: lavender infused dark chocolate ganache with apricot pate de fruit

Salted Caramel: smooth salty caramel in a dark chocolate shell

Grapefruit Cashew: grapefruit pate de fruit with cashew praline

Strawberry Basil: strawberry pate de fruit with white chocolate ganache and sweet basil

There were a handful of seasonal options that were not available the first time I ordered these lovelies. Apple Sage, being one of the limited editions, was very good: kind of warm and fall tasting. The Pretzel Praline shocked me because it tasted like fingernail polish remover?! Could just be my taste buds but I was not digging it. I was definitely digging the Sweet Potato and the Caramelized Pineapple! 

If I ever make it to Dallas I want to swing by her shop! I'll put it on the bucket list :)

*all names/descriptions were copied directly from the guides provided with the collection.

Girl's Weekend 2015

Girl's Weekend 2015 was another successful shopping filled girl fest! 

We hit up nearly every Goodwill we passed from Charlottesville to Williamsburg. We consumed quite a bit of sweets. We saw a lady nearly choke on her breakfast before a stranger helped her clear her throat. We discussed jeggings a lot. We were flabbergasted by a girl who walked into a interstate rest stop bathroom bare footed. We tried on a lot of ponchos and bought a few. We planned the Thanksgiving menu. And most importantly, we laughed a lot.

I brought some Kate Weiser chocolate bars that I purchased with my November Chocolate Club. Mom, Judy and Nita poked fun at me the whole time I was taking pictures. They were not appreciating the importance of lighting and placement! 

We stopped in a cute little cupcake shop in Richmond. Lots of lemon and peanut butter happening here. Not pictured are the dog treats we bought there as well. Lacie and Lucky are loved :)

Saturday was an unseasonably warm and rainy day but it did not keep us, or anyone else, away from the outlet mall. Umbrellas in hand, we systematically made our way around the stores. There was excellent people watching to be had!

The traditional photo taken by Uncle Dale of the woman with their loot!! 

Until next year...

Walmart: Ugh

I hate going to Walmart. In Virginia, in Louisiana, anywhere. I hate it. They're usually dirty, the employees are generally not friendly, and I feel like I am supporting a giant corporation that puts on the front of being great (low prices, convenience), but in actuality really sucks (poor benefits for employees, low quality items). Unfortunately I let my desire for those low prices get the best of me the other night when I decided to stop in and grab a few things. I consciously chose not to drive further away from the house to go to Target knowing that opting for Walmart would save me time. Time, the ultimate form of currency.

I had not even gotten out of my car when the regret started sinking in. Perhaps the store I went to is not in the best part of town and therefore the patrons are of a certain caliber. Perhaps my standards for humans are higher than the average demographic of this neighborhood. Perhaps I just don't like people and therefore find being surrounded by them less than pleasant. Whatever the case may be, I saw not one, but two instances of people putting their used shopping cart directly behind the car parked beside them. Meaning they loaded their items into their car then pushed their cart to a location where the owner of the vehicle beside them would now need to move the cart yet again in order to leave the parking lot. I suppose my days at Kroger made me more sensitive to buggy practices. It is rude and lazy to put your cart anywhere other than in a return corral or back inside the store. Rude and lazy. It is plain disrespectful to put your used cart in the way of another vehicle. What the hell is wrong with people?! 

Once inside there were employees loitering everywhere. Just hanging out chatting away. Oh, no, don't move when you see my trying to turn down the isle that you are blocking. I'm only trying to buy things from this establishment that pays your check for standing around being in my way. Maybe I was hyper sensitive to every obstacle in the store because I have it in my mind that I don't like being there, or maybe I happened to be shopping during social hour. I don't know. 

I attempted to procure the items on my list as quickly as possible and make a speedy exit. While waiting in line (what Walmart have you ever gone into that has an adequate number of checkout lanes open?!) I noticed a tomato sitting in a box of Snickers bars. Like the shopping cart situation, people discard whatever they don't want or need anymore at the closest convenient spot without regard for anyone else. Someone will find that tomato and, depending on how quickly this occurs, will either have to throw it away if it is no longer in a sellable state, or march it back over to the produce section and put it back with the rest of the tomatoes. If you change your mind about an item there are two acceptable options: put it back where you got it (preferable) or give it to the cashier with the simple explanation of "I don't need this". Done. 

As I type this up I know that Walmart is not the only place that these annoying things happen. All stores have these problems and more. It isn't the store's fault, it is the human's fault. People are selfish and rarely think about consequences to their actions, no matter how insignificant they may seem. My faith in people was ever so slightly restored when my outing was coming to a conclusion. I had unloaded everything into my car and was walking the shopping cart back to the closest corral when a gentleman heard me behind him, stopped and asked if my cart was a good one? I said yes and he offered to take it on into the store with him. While at the core this was a selfish act: he wanted a cart that didn't have any wiggles or obnoxious noises so he saw an opportunity and seized it, however, he did save me a few extra steps and engaged in a small bit of social interaction. 

My goal is to still avoid Walmart as much as possible.

Rainy Halloween

Due to the impending rain, Halloween, well, trick-or-treating, was moved to Friday for all of the local kiddies. This made getting home after a run to Old Navy and Michaels after work very interesting! Lottttts of people out on St. Charles. Any who... I am not one to dress up. I just don't care about it. Some co-workers went for a group theme though, Beanie Babies. They even had Joel participating.

You've got: a teal owl, a zebra, a pink unicorn, a tiger and a flying squirrel!

On real Halloween I avoided the madness of downtown and hung out with Sara as she house and dog sat in Lakeview. She made us some delicious chili and cornbread with a lovely fall beverage made of whiskey, soda, apples, and an apple, ginger simple syrup. Everything was so tasty! That girl can cook! I contributed the makings for s'mores which proved to be yummy but incredible messy!

We watched a few Halloween episodes of Roseanne before switching to The Addams Family which I had never seen. Spooktacular!!

It was a very rainy weekend all around but relaxing!