Food, Yummy Yummy!!

As part of the 6th 2014 Blogger Challenge, we're writing about Food! Yay! I love cooking, trying new recipes, and finding new fun, food finds! 

This past Friday, I asked Bjorn if he wanted to make an impromptu trip to Jungle Jim's just for fun. If you don't live in Cincinnati, or have never been to Jungle Jim's, it's this awesome international grocery store, where you can find any kind of food under the sun! They have great fresh fish and seafood, awesome produce, and so many fun new things to try from around the world! You could literally spend hours in this place! Sometimes we just walk around and look at all the cool stuff!

Fresh clams from the seafood section

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Hot Sauce Isle

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International Produce Section

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We haven't been to Jungle Jim's since my birthday, and I really had a hankering for some roasted shrimp! We always get the best seafood at Jungle Jim's! Bjorn agreed that it would be fun, so we decided to venture out. I'm so glad we did! It made for a super fun night. I added it to my happy list for the week!

We ended up going to Jungle Jim's with a small list of things that I definitely wanted to get and a few things for dinner that night. And of course as always, we found some other yummies while we were there! There are always things that we can find there that we can't get other places: Asian candies, shrimp chips, German chocolate, curry pastes, and specialty sodas. It's a rare treat to get these things, so this was definitely a special treat for me and Bjorn. 

Here is a list of items that we picked up from Jungle Jim's. 

1. Easy Peel Tiger Shrimp (1-1/2 pounds)

Bjorn and I love to cook and eat shrimp, well, any kind of seafood really. We recently found this great recipe from Ina Garten through Bjorn's mom. It's roasted shrimp with homemade cocktail sauce, and it is divine! There is a link to the recipe below. We had some smaller shrimp, so we only cooked them for about 20 minutes. Sometimes, we've found, when you cook the shrimp too long, the shells are to hard to peel off the shrimp. It's like they get stuck.

Ina Garten's Roasted Shrimp Recipe

2. 4 artichokes

Bjorn and I also love to cook and eat artichokes! They are seriously one of my favs! I had never eaten artichokes like this until I had them at Bjorn's house when I was in high school. They are heaven! Sometimes we dip the meat of the leaves and the hearts in olive oil with salt and pepper. Sometimes we dip them in butter and salt and pepper. Friday we did both. Quite a few of my friends have asked me for my recipe because they don't know how to prep the artichokes. They seriously look super intimidating at first, but I promise you, they are not hard to prep! I think I'll make a post about it in the near future!

3. Green olives and kalamata olives

Bjorn and I love to eat olives, bread, cheese, salami, and cucumber soup for dinner on busy nights. We don't do this too much anymore because I'm supposed to stay away from olives, stinky cheese, and lunch meat for my headaches. However, this is seriously one of my all time favorite dinners! Open a bottle of wine and throw in a movie, and you have the perfect date night :)

4. Bocconcinni (little marinated mozzarella balls)



5. Shrimp Chips

One of my students brought me some of these a few years ago to try. They are so good! I bought some because I hadn't had them in forever! They're in one of the Asian snack aisles. They have a subtle shrimp taste.

6. Asian fruit chewy candy

My students always bring me these chewy fruit candies too called Hi-Chews. They come in flavors like mago, green apple, strawberry, cherry, and blueberry. They were on sale for 99 cents per pack, so we bought a few. They are very soft and chewy, not like Starburst, and they're not too sweet. Bjorn really like them!

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7. Massaman Curry paste

Bjorn and I have a great Thai place down the street from us (Mekong Thai). He loves their Massaman curry, but it's not always practical to eat out from there all the time. Takeout can be expensive! So, we decided to find some curry pastes to make this week;s dinners easy. We found one where you add some coconut milk and its done. I think we'll add chicken, pineapple, veggies, and rice, and we'll be good to go! We also got a curry paste with kefir lime. We'll see how that one tastes too!

8. Coconut and Mango Pepper Sauce

We saw this interesting sauce to use over meat or veggies for cooking and picked it up for another easy dinner. It's called Tropical Pepper Company Mango Coconut Grilling Sauce. We thought about using this one for some pork chops.

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9. Moxie Soda (for Bjorn...bleck!) Too sweet for me!

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We got a few other things too, but I'm going to save those for Tried It Tuesday! Can't wait to share how I liked them with you!

Even if you don't have a place like Jungle Jim's around, I find that there are always Asian, Hispanic, and Indian markets where I live and different cities where I travel too. Don't be intimidated by them! Go in and try something new and different! If you live in the Cincinnati area, Cam Asian Supermarket is fabulous too! Trying new things makes me so happy!

Have you tried any new foods lately?


Love and happiness <3 Holly

Tried It Tuesday!

Hallo! ¡Hola! Konichiwa! Aloha! Ni hao! Ciao! Hello!

It's Tuesday and time for another installment of "Tried it Tuesday"! Here are some things that I've been loving this week! And one thing I'm not really sure how much I love, but I'm going to give it another go 'round! We'll see how it goes :)

Book

I'm reading one of the book club books that my students' are reading in 5th grade for their civil rights unit. It's a little challenging for a few of them, so I'm trying to stay ahead. I'm actually almost finished, since I love the book! That way I will definitely not fall behind them! I think I'll finish tonight!

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine is a historical fiction novel set in 1958. It follows the life of Marlee, a shy twelve year old girl and her family during the time of segregation. It happens the year right after the Little Rock Nine had been integrated into a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. At the close of that school year, in the summer of 1958, Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, petitioned the Supreme Court to push back integration in public schools. This books takes place during this time. 

In the book, Marlee meets a new girl, Liz, at her junior high who is caught "passing" for a white student. After Marlee is caught and leaves school, Marlee and Liz want to remain friends, but in order to do so, they have a dangerous road ahead of them. 

Fabulous writing and imagery. Great story!

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Movie

I had never seen the movie One True Thing (1998). Renee Zellweger and Meryl Streep star in this movie. Meryl plays Renee's mother who ends up being diagnosed with cancer. Renee's character ends up moving home to take care of her ailing mother, while her father, a college professor, has trouble coping with her illness. I love this movie. It is a great story of family and their relationships and how they change during a trying time in their lives. It is just a heartwarming story. I got sucked into this movie on Saturday morning and couldn't stop watching!

Music

I heard this song while watching Grey's Anatomy last week, and I'm totally in love with it! You should check it out!! 

"All Through the Night," by Sleeping At Night

Make-up

I recently purchased a new Milani matte lipstick in Sangria from CVS with a $3.50 off coupon. It cost next to nothing! I love the deep red color of this one! It makes me think of a fruity glass of Sangria made with Pinot Noir. I also love the formula of Milani's lipsticks. There are smooth, rich, and creamy, not drying.

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Tasha @ Shoes and Sunsets wearing Milani's Color Statement Lipstick in Sangria.

I recently found Tasha's blog and love it!

I also purchased Wet n Wild Color Icon Collection Shimmer in Golddigger color 303. They were on sale for 99 cents, so I thought it could be something fun to try out. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. They are glitter, cream shadows, so they don't have fallout. This is a good thing. However, I knew it wasn't going to stay put on my eyelids very well. I tend to have oily eyelids, so I always use primer before I put anything one. I also didn't love the look of this glitter without eye shadow underneath. 

I did put some brown-toned eye shadow on first. Then I patted this glitter cream shadow on top. The eye shadow I put on first was matte, so I assumed this would stick to it. The glitter stuck to one eye, but didn't stick to the other and creased horribly! I did love the look of it though! I am trying it again; I'm not giving up yet! I had a few people compliment me on it, even though it was a hot mess after about an hour. We'll see if it works out next time!

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Nail Polish

Over the weekend I painted my nails with Revlon Nail Polish in Flirt. I don't know what happened! The day after I painted them, they started chipping! I've never had bad luck with Revlon nail polish before! I guess I'll just paint them again with a different color! But this purple/lavender color was so pretty!

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Food

This has been a looong week! Bjorn and I have made some really easy recipes that we just know "off the top of our heads" without having to go out and search for recipes. Here are a few "oldies but goodies" that we haven't made in awhile, but we like.

Frisch's Big Boy Pizza (Amazing)

Click here for the recipe on my Pinterest board Great Food...Tried it...Loved it!!

Sweet Potato Quesadillas (So good and vegetarian!)

We don't use vegan cheese. We just use Quesadilla cheese or Monterey Jack.

App

One sweet reader left me a comment on my post about the #lovelifeproject that I found on Jenny's blog Wonderfully Complex. You can read that post here. It's basically a way to help you remember that it's the little things in life that can bring you happiness. A reader let me know about some Apps that allow you to take a picture and organize them by day to remind you of these happy moments in your life. That way you can look back at them and reminisce! So far I found two that I thought looked interesting:

Project 365 (free!)

Collect--Everyday Photo Diary &  Project 365 Journal with Polaroid Prints (free)

Have you tried anything new this week?


Love and happiness <3 Holly

Guilty Pleasures

This "warmer" weather has been totally giving me a little more pep in my step. It's been making me feel a little happier, especially thinking about getting some more sun! I definitely think I need a little more Vitamin D in my life!

I thought I'd write a little post on some of those crazy things that we deem "guilty pleasures" that we all get sucked into or give into every now and then, but we secretly (or in my case, not so secretly) love! With this cold weather, I have been cozing up on my couch watching some crazy television that I usually don't watch because it's been so darn cold outside. I've had a few crazy marathons on TV that is full of drama (and that my husband hates btw), but I haven't felt one ounce guilty about it!

I'm considering these guilty pleasures because I don't typically indulge in drama-filled tv and rich, calorie-filled food, but everything in moderation won't hurt every once and awhile, right?!? I say, it's good for the soul :)

Here are some guilty pleasures that I've been indulging in during this cold, wintry craziness:

Television Shows

Real Housewives of NYC

I don't know if you've ever gotten sucked into any of the Real Housewives shows, but I just never have...that is until this last season of the Real Housewives of NYC. Maybe it's just that sometimes I like to watch TV that doesn't require extra brain exertion when I'm shot from the day! 

Any who, this show has been free On Demand, so I've been watching it. I really like two of the women on the show named Heather and Carole. Heather has a company called Yummie and makes this really awesome shapewear and body wear. I also love Carole's story. Her husband passed away from cancer, and she also lost her best friends, John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy when John's plane crashed while he was flying it. I am really interested in real people's stories, and I really love these two women! That's probably the only reason I watch!

Heather

Carole

#Rich Kids of Beverly Hills

This show is seriously ridiculous. It follows the lives of these twenty-somethings living in Beverly Hills with crazy amounts of money. Most of them come from old money. This show is like an up-to-date Clueless. I just find it amazing to watch how these people spend their lives and find nothing wrong with dropping 20 grand on a party for one night. It's just strange where some people's priorities lie. Well, I got sucked into this show and can't stop watching. I find it interesting to see where their lives have taken them and how different or similar they are to their parents and how they all interact together. (I seriously would have loved to be a sociologist in another life!)

Here's an interview with the cast telling everyone what they hope the take-away from the show is...okay!!! And then there's a clip from the actual show and what you actually watch during and episode.

Thicker than Water

Okay, I don't know if this is a guilty pleasure, but I'm counting it as one because I had an all- out marathon with this show too! Have you ever seen this show? I also watched it On Demand. This show is about Ben and Jewel Tankard. It follows them and their blended family through the ups and down of family life. They are a southern, strongly religious family, and they like the "finer things in life" (according to the show's website). From watching the show, you'll get what that means. They have a huge house, expensive cars, etc., etc. I really enjoy Ben and following the kids and their relationships throughout the first season.

Music

Here are a few songs that I've been into blasting in my car and singing along to lately!

Miley Cyrus, "We Can't Stop"

With The Roots

Rick Astley, "Never Gonna Give You Up"

Ludacris ft. Nikki Minaj, "My Chick Bad"

Sappy Teen Fiction

I love teen fiction for it's quick reads and it's sappy love stories. Here are a few I've been liking lately.

All books from www.amazon.com

Butter

I love butter. I have no problem cooking with butter every once and awhile. Moderation = key. Julia Child has an awesome recipe for Braised Cucumbers that I love as a side dish, and it uses butter! It is soooo good! Here's the recipe link at Epicurious. I buy seedless, English cucumbers and don't peel them. I like the taste of the skin on these. It isn't slimy or waxy. 

Braised cucumbers and celery that Bjorn and I made--

one of our faves! (Minus the mint)

Amaretto

I really like amaretto--don't say anything about this one, Rachael! One of my favorite ways to have amaretto is on top of ice cream! Not every day, of course, but I wish! It's sooo delicious!!

I buy whatever kind of vanilla ice cream is on sale, amaretto, and almond cookie thins. The cookie thins below are similar to the ones they sell at Kroger. I can't remember the brand! Scoop some ice cream, add a tad bit of amaretto, and crush some cookies on top. So yummy!

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Anyone have any guilty pleasures that they've been indulging in lately to get through these winter blues?

Love and happiness <3 Holly