Viva Espana!

Eric and I have finally figured out our vacation! We are going back to Spain. We honeymooned there in August 2009 and have been wanting to go back since we left.  This time though we are going on a bit of a road trip. We are flying into Madrid. Staying in the city and visiting the surrounding areas for a week then  hopping into our rental car to drive to the coast. We'll hit Valencia then up the coast to Barcelona. We don't have any specific plans so if we decided to stay in certain places longer we can. I am so excited. I can't wait to check out the architecture of Madrid. To see Las Meninas, and Gurenica.  I gave Eric a huge print of Guernica when we got together. (He was born in Spain so I thought it was fitting.) Not the destructive war part mind you just Picasso and the painting.) 

I am so excited I wish we could leave tomorrow. Also my Brother-in-Law maybe coming along for the road trip part with a friend. It would be great to have him along. He's never been to Europe so it would be his first trip. I think Spain is an amazing country to make a first journey too.

Turkey Day

So because of some holiday changes. (My Dad and Brother are spending Thanksgiving in Detroit.) I am getting my very first chance to have our families over and cook Thanksgiving dinner. Well Eric's family and my Mom. I am so excited. I even Martha'd it up and made an invitation even though everyone who is coming already knows. I couldn't resist. Recipes have been checked and thought over. My Real Simple holiday issue is dog eared but I have a list of everything I want to make. 
The most important hurdle I am jumping is a turkey. I have never made one before. I have roasted plenty of chickens though. I found a recipe on Epicurious though that I tried out this week with a roasted chicken. It came out pretty good. the recipe is also from Tom Colicchio. How could it be bad. Here's the recipe for the curious.

 

It's a little bit different then the usual turkeys I've had for Thanksgiving but I think our families will like the change. Eric's dad is always playing around with new ideas and recipes for thanksgiving. He's a great cook.

Our menu for the holiday is fairly simple but with a few tweaks. This is Eric and I's first thanksgiving  so I wanted to bring some of the favorite foods from our parent's thanksgivings to our own with a few changes. Eric's Mom's sweet potato souffle is amazing and my Mom makes terrific pumpkin pies. 

I'm making some roasted vegetables, a broccoli casserole, cheesecake, raspberry gelato or chocolate I'm not sure yet. 

I can't wait for this Thanksgiving and to have our family together and give our mother's a break in the kitchen. I just hope I don't make a dry turkey. :)

Designer Fail

So sometimes we all get caught up in the excitement of something and then realize. Hey wait I don't want this or this won't work. Well that's what happened to us. We desperately needed a new sofa. I was not moving this past may with our old college sofa. Hell or high water I was getting rid of that thing.  So before we moved Eric and I headed up to the Pottery Barn outlet and found a sofa by West Elm for super cheap, a regularly 1,000 +/- sofa for $400.00. We both sat on it, thought it was fine. (It was a bit short, but we thought oh we can deal.) Well enter 7 months later. WE HATE THIS SOFA. It is just to small for us. Only one of us could get comfortable on the sofa at one time. :/ So I have been on the hunt for a new sofa, something we both could fit on, live on, compute on and just relax on. Yesterday as we were browsing around our local furniture stores. I was thinking I'll just order one through work we ended up going into West Elm again. This time we walked out with something more manageable. A sectional sofa we can both relax on. I am so excited about it. I've never wanted to go home and watch tv so much.

So lesson learned. Really think about the length of your sofa if you have a husband over 6' tall. Just because it's a fantastic deal doesn't mean it will work for you. Lastly don't get starry eyed because you desperately want a new sofa. These are all things I thought about before we bought our first sofa but I ignored because I was so excited to get something new and should have waited and bought what we wanted and needed.

Our new sofa looks something like this. :)

Music

I feel sometimes like I am in a movie. I am constantly in my own soundtrack or at least it feels like it. I listen to SiriusXM, Pandora or itunes at work, at home I blue tooth my ipod or computer to our stereo to blast out tunes, or on the rare occasion I'm in my car I've got Sirius rocking there too. Regardless I listen to music all the time. Which means I also love going to live shows when I can. Last night Eric and I went to see Mumford and Sons. OMG It was fantastic. They sounded so great live, played new stuff and seemed surprised that a bunch of Georgians could sing along to everything they had written. It was fantastic. The opening bands were great too. Cadillac Sky and King Charles really set a great tone. I had never heard of either of them but they were so good I might have to run out and get their cds too. I am hoarse from cheering and singing, my feet or sore from standing for 4+ hours. It was totally worth it.

I love Fall in the City

It seems like there is always something going on. The past few weekends everytime I step out my door there is something cool to experience. Just this month alone we've had a Pride Festival, Aids Walk, Breast Cancer Walk, and this past weekend was Taste of Atlanta.  Eric and I have been walking a lot lately so we've ended up in the middle of all the events.  It feels so great to be around everyone. It's such a good happy atmosphere. Now that it's almost Halloween I wonder what this weekend will hold.
I know on Thursday at the Botanical Gardens there is a pumpkin carving contest. I really want to go. Pumpkins, gardens and cheap but tasty beer sounds like my kind of place.  It seems like there is always something going on I am really happy I live here and can enjoy it.

Family fun

Eric's Dad is a very big baseball fan. So when he asked if we wanted to go to a Braves playoff game we said sure! We got our foam tomahawks out and cheered for the Braves. Alas they lost. I did have a good time watching the game and it's always good to see family. I don't get to see Eric's parents or sister often enough. Hopefully the Braves will do better next year and we can cheer them on to a winning game.

Busy Fall

Fall has been very hectic for me. Work wise, after hours, all the time. It seems like there is always something interesting that must be done. I figured I need to get back to blogging though so I'll start on a fresh new footing. This past weekend was amazing. It was also quite food orientated. Friday night I took Eric out on a date to Ecco. This very elegant and modern restaurant in our neighborhood. It was delicious. I will definitely be back.
This weekend also was Taste of Atlanta.It was also right in our back yard. So we had to check it out.

It was a lot of fun and a good way to get an interesting breakfast on a Sunday morning. Around 70 different restaurants from Atlanta come to give bites of what they have to offer. Needless to say We found some new restaurants that we will have to check out.  Some of my favorite highlights was a Banana and nutella Crepe from the Crepe Revolution. (Isn't that  great name.) and a suckling pig taco with pineapple salsa. Absolutely fantastic.
Lastly to burn some of those calories off we decided to walk around town. Later via Google I learned we walked 5 miles. All in all it was a fantastic and food filled weekend.