Happy Friday everyone!

Head on over to The Wedding Chicks fabulous blog to see Rick and Stacey’s wedding featured!  It’s an honor to be featured on their site as it’s always full of great wedding inspiration.  You should make it a daily stop on your blogging journey!

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Happy Thursday everyone!  I’m thankful this week is going by kind of slow, I have a lot to get done before our fun anniversary trip this weekend!  Part of my Christmas/2nd Anniversary/Valentine’s Day gift (yes, I gave Ryan permission a long time ago to roll them all into one holiday) is a weekend getaway to Chicago!!  So that’s on the top of my list for what I’m loving this week:

Our hotel is right next to the Chicago Theater, sadly nothing is really playing while we’re there.  But we’ll be sure to get our own pictures of this famous landmark!  I always have a hard time deciding whether to bring my pro camera if I don’t have an official “shoot”, but I might just have to drag it along.  We’re big fans of the Food Network show “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” so we’ve cased out a couple Chicago places on their list to hit up.  I’m excited about trying the Lair of the Minotaur burger at Kuma’s Corner! (go check out the “food” section of their website to see what’s on this crazy burger!)  Let me know if there’s any other “must-do” or “must-eats” while we’re there!

A rather large victory I had the other week, was finding a travel coffee mug that insulated my coffee but was also microwaveable!  Maybe I’m a little slow, but all I ever saw were the ones made from aluminum and you can’t put that in the microwave to reheat it a bit.  So when I passed by this at Bed, Bath and Beyond I knew I had finally found my perfect coffee cup!  Pink at that!  It’s a Copco brand coffee cup and was only like $8. 

Another one of my recent “finds” that the whole world had discovered before me, was Pandora Radio.  Holy dang this has made my life of editing so much more enjoyable!!  No more boring playlists, just exciting music that changes everyday!  I’ve found a bunch of new artists that I didn’t know existed – it’s nice to break out of the rut of whoever is on the Top 20.  I think you can email your “stations” to people, so if anyone wants to hear one of my stations just let me know!  After using up my 40 hours in 2 weeks (you can only listen to 40 hours for free per month) I went ahead and paid the $36 yearly fee to have unlimited music, no commercials, etc.  I think it was a wise investment.

Another Christmas gift from Ryan was a new addition to the Wii Fit we already had.  He got me the Wii Fit Plus and it’s so much fun!  It’s got a lot of crazy new games where you burn calories without even realizing it.  You have to check your dignity at the door because you look pretty ridiculous doing these.  The funniest to me is this game where you are a chicken (they literally put your “Mii” in a chicken suit), then you have to flap your “wings” and land on certain spots and eventually make it to a boat in the middle of the ocean.  Hilarious.  A quick screen shot below:

Hope you guys are having a great week!  Stay warm for me while we freeze in Chicago!

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So I heard the groundhog saw his shadow and we’ve got some more cold weather coming?  Well, I’ve got just the thing to cure you from the cold weather blues!  If any of you have ever been to Pensacola and had dinner at McGuire’s Irish Pub, you may have already had this amazing soup.  I spent $35 on the cookbook JUST so I could have this ONE recipe!  But it needed a ham bone and I didn’t get ahold of one of those until Christmas which is when I made it.  But apparently Honey Baked Ham gets ham bones you can buy, but they go fast so you’ve gotta call and be prepared to rush over there!  (I still haven’t gotten one from them, but I want some more soup NOW so I’ve been calling everyday!)

I had a feeling this soup would be amazing, so I was a dork and documented my cooking journey.  Ready to enjoy?

Senate Bean Soup

1 lb. dried navy beans*                                                  1/2 cup chopped onions

4 quarts water                                                                2 stalks celery, roughly chopped, including leaves

1 bay leaf                                                                         2 large carrots, peeled and sliced

3 whole cloves                                                                 1 1/2 teaspoon salt

16 turns freshly ground black pepper                        One large ham bone, preferably with bits of meat on it

*You have to soak the beans overnight, so don’t just run out and buy all these ingredients and plan on soup for dinner tonight!  It’s worth it I promise!

1.  The day before, rinse the beans and place them in a large bowl.  Add the water and allow the beans to soak, covered, overnight.

2.  The next day, make a cheesecloth pouch containing the bay leaf and cloves.  Drain the beans and place them in a large stockpot with the ham bone.  Add cold water to cover plus an extra 2 inches, and bring to a boil over high heat.

3.  Add the spice pouch, onions, celery, carrots, salt and pepper.  Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender and the meat is falling off the bone, about 3 hours.  Add hot water if the level gets too low.

Finished product!   

4.  Remove the spice pouch and the bone.  Shred the meat from the bone and add it to the soup before serving.

I probably should have taken a nice picture of a garnished bowl of soup, but what can I say?  I’m not a food photographer.  But you get the idea right?

If you guys like the recipes I can also post mine for guacamole!  It’s a good one!  Let me know if you try the soup, you won’t be disappointed!    Happy Groundhog’s Day!

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Whoa….that’s all I have to say.  These 6 couples had so much support in this contest, you guys are LOVED!  Thanks so much for all who took the time to vote.  Ready to know who the winner is?

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….the winner of the fabulous reception decor package with LMNOPeas of Heather Ivy Designs?

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…and the fabulous Guestbook from ME?

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Jessica and Dave!!!

Congrats you guys!

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Wow, I’m so thrilled at the voting turnout for this little contest!  There are now 662 votes and you still have until tomorrow at midnight to get yours in!  I’ll show you a pie chart with how the results are shaping up (no names included though, gotta keep it a mystery!)  There’s a couple people still in the running, but that first place couple sure found a lot of support!  I don’t even KNOW that many people!    So make sure you place your vote, click HERE to be taken to the post with the voting.  Happy Monday!

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