Hashbrown Bites

While I was working on Pease's Pinwheels, I was simultaneously working on these pretty yummy hasbrown bites. I left out the bacon that the recipe called for 1) because we only have turkey bacon and that isn't nearly as crispy as regular bacon and 2) I definitely thought that it would be more hashbrown-y than eggy (yeah, I'm making up words here...just go with it) so I thought bacon sounded like too much, but next time around I'm definitely adding the bacon!

So the picture taking was sporadic, but in my defense, I was cooking a lot at one time and trying to watch my DVR-ed episode of Grey's from the night before. Priorities, people.

Adding

Mixing

Separating

And baking

They were pretty delicious, but like I said, I think a little crispy bacon might have been the perfect touch they were missing. There's always next time, right?

Pease's Pinwheels

Pease's Pinwheels (you like my alliteration?) were hands down the favorite snack of the pre-wedding brunch! And super easy to make!

1. Roll out 2 packages of crescent rolls so that 2 triangles make one rectangle. Yields 4 rectangles per package. 

2. Brush lightly with mustard. 

3. I used the prepackaged ham (about a package and a half of whatever was on sale that week). Some rectangles had 2 pieces, others had 3...whatever worked!

 4. I totally forgot to take a picture of this step, but generously sprinkle sharp cheddar cheese over each. I used all of the biggest bag I could buy....who would ever not want more cheese?? No one, that's who. 

5. Roll up! Put the rolls in the fridge for 15-20 minutes so it's easier to slice them up. 

5. Slice each roll into 5 pinwheels and lay out on a cookie sheet. 

6. Bake at 375* for 15-20 minutes. It's pretty each to tell when they're done by the crescent rolls being a golden brown and the melty cheese. 

Each crescent roll package yields 20 pinwheels, but I'm glad I doubled the recipe because there wasn't a single one left at the end of the brunch! 

 I let them cool and put them into a tupperware container for the night. My mom heated them up just before Bonnie came so they would be warm and toasty. :) I'm already looking for another reason to make them because they sound delish right about now.

PS-The credit totally goes to Brittany (Pease) Hughes for this recipe!! But seriously, make these sometime soon because they are super easy and a guaranteed crowd pleaser!

Before the Wedding

To avoid rambling, never-ending posts, I'm breaking up Mary's wedding into two parts: The day of and the wedding itself! So first things first, the "before". More recipe posts are on their way, but all of these recipes were put to the test at the "getting ready" brunch. I had to work 8-12 on Saturday morning (womp, womp) but thankfully, Bonnie and my mom came to the rescue and pulled through! The night before I had made extensive "to do" and "to pack" lists for the team and even labeled each container in the fridge. Type A much?

Anyways, my mom heated up, repacked, and sent all of the "pretty" things that were more serving appropriate. She and my dad helped pack up Bonster's car and she was off the meet up with the bridal party at the hair salon. The salon was super awesome and basically let us take over. Bonnie did an awesome job of fancying up the set up!

The food was a hit and the muffins and cookies were about the only things edible that were left!! I guess there's only so much room for sweet stuff, but don't worry, the Mardis clan took care of the leftovers we had. The was best by far was getting to spend time with friends, especially the bride. She was practical, level headed Mary (as expected) and was beyond grateful for the goodies we provided! I could not have pulled this off without lots Bonnie and my mom and the stress of dealing with work and packing up the stuff knowing I couldn't help set up was all worth it when we got to enjoy company together. 

Alexa joined us for the last little bit before we had to pack up. The bridal party left for Mary's house as a quick pit stop before heading over to the church while Bonnie, Alexa, and I made our way to the hotel so we could check in and get ready for the big night. It was so nice to get ready with girl friends again (sigh, I miss the college years of having that luxury even for getting ready for class. Silly, I know.) We made it to the church in plenty of time to see the groom, our groomsmen friends and just hang out for a little bit. Guests started arriving and Bonnie and Alexa stepped up to pass out the programs while I ran around doing little errands for the bride/bridesmaids/family. Next up, the ceremony!

The Road to Mary's Wedding

So I normally do this post before the actual wedding day and I started this post at least 4-5 times last week, but time got away from me and it just never happened. But it is happening now! 

So I've known Mary since high school. I couldn't tell you the day or time that I met Mary (which is a creepy gift that I typically have for specific memories like that), but all I know is that before I knew it, we were apart of FB #2 and apart of each other's lives forever. 

We both went to UGA, but lost touch over the years...different schedules, different friend groups, you get the gist. We had a little reunion in 2010 over Thanksgiving with a group of our high school friends, FB included of course, and were reconnected at long last! That was the first time I met Dan. He and Mary met on October 20th in 2006 at a Halloween Party while she was at Georgia and he was getting his PhD at Tech. Dan got his undergrad at Florida, but other than being 0 for 2 for school choices, Mary thought he was pretty alright.

In early 2011, Dan proposed to Mary while they were traveling in London! We got the overjoyed text from Mary while she was traveling. Before long, FB started getting together to catch up and celebrate Mary's upcoming wedding! Mary wanted plenty of time to plan, lose some weight, (holy COW she looks awesome now!!) and figure out work/living situations for she and her fiance :)

 Over the next year and a half, I got to hear so much more about Mary and Dan's relationship and how much they meant to Mary, but even better, I got to know Dan when we went to Vegas!! He was such a great sport to put up with all of the girly talk and picture taking!

Even though Dan was in Portland, there have been a couple of weekends he's made it in town, St. Patrick's Day was probably my favorite.

I have loved being in Marietta and so close to Mary so she and I could spend some intentional time together as friends. The way our friendship has grown one on one and our FB friendship has meant so so much to me, especially to share honestly as the wedding quickly approached.

Getting to help plan and celebrate Mary's Bachelorette party has been another gem in our friendship/wedding approaching celebrations of course!

And now that the wedding weekend has come (and gone...), I was so glad that I got to celebrate her love with Dan!! Mary's friendship means so much to me and that fact that even if life got in the way for a while, our friendship has grown stronger with the test of time. Dan is the perfect match for her, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Their wedding was so perfectly them, but more on their awesome wedding celebration later!

Technical Glitch

I think there's a short in my cord to charge my Mac so hopefully I'm going to get that looked at tomorrow (fingers crossed!) but I wanted to let you know I'm still around and have a few posts to come very soon!!

-Pease's Pinwheels

-Hashbrown Bites

and of course...-MARY'S WEDDING DAY!! 

Just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about you and I'm super excited about uploading some pictures and posts very very soon!

Easy as Pie (Dip)

My dear, lovely friend Mary is getting married this Saturday (woo hoo!!) and I gladly offered to help do some of the before the ceremony/day of happenings, like I did with Kathleen's wedding (along with an army of help! That was not a job I did solo!). So since Alexa is vegan and staying with Andy's parents this week and Bonnie's claim to fame recipe list starts and stops with funfetti cookies (which she will be contributing the menu too!), and I love to cook--I took on the rest of the menu but they'll be there to help for the set up and clean up so that alone is a huge help!!

A few things you need to know about Mary. Mary loves fall. Everything about it. And Mary loves a good themed celebration. Not to mention she's the bride, so whatever Mary wants, Mary gets. A combination of all of these well known facts about Mary helped drive our menu choices of fall-y brunchy type foods. I'm hoping to document each dish as I make it so I'll just do post recaps one item at a time.

The first one is Apple Pie Dip. Bonnie found this on Pinterest and passed it along to me--we thought what's more fall than apples, especially apple pie, turned into a brunch style serving?! The answer is nothing. I figured the dip could sit in the fridge for a few days so that's why I made this little guy first. It was surprisingly easy! The only time consuming task was peeling the apples, but since the recipe only called for 2 cups of diced apples, I really only had to peel the two apples!

All of the ingredients and supplies

It's amazing how starkly different the two apple colors are!

2 cups diced apples, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon over heat. Bring to a boil. 

While I was waiting for it to boil, I tried on my wedding outfit for approval from my mom and sister...the final outfit is still in the works. I've been told I need to buy new tights....

After you bring the concoction to a boil, you add 1 teaspoon corn starch dissolved into 1 teaspoon of water and bring the dip to a boil again. Set aside and cool! Voila! It can be served warmed or cooled...I think I might pop it in the microwave just because I think all things apple and fall should be warm and toasty. 

Easy as pie (dip)!! I opted not to do the cinnamon sugar tortilla chips the original recipe blog suggested. I mean, why spend more time and effort on that when you can grab a bag of Stacys' cinnamon sugar pita chips?? Exactly, you have no valid argument because those pita chips are delicious. 

I didn't even taste test it...well, I licked the spoon...but otherwise, I didn't taste test it so I hope it's a hit! I'll report back later with the Apple Pie Dip Report Card following the wedding. Fingers crossed it gets an A...if not, a strong B+!

Wild Dunes

This past Friday I woke up earlier than I do for work, school, and even the occasional game day. Why, do you ask? So I could get my toes in the ocean water as soon as possible. Lauren, a friend of Jessica's a UGA through study abroad and I carpooled to meet up with Jessica Schwartz and her friend Christy from high school at Jess's parents beach house just outside of Charleston, South Carolina.

It was close to a 6 hour drive so I was glad to have a friend in the car to help pass the time! We made great time and got up there just in time to unload and grab some lunch at a local tavern called Poe's. Apparently Edgar Allen Poe is from Sullivan's Island, a neighboring island of Isle of Palms (where we were staying)? I started off my weekend vacation as every girl should: with a beer and a burger. After lunch, we ran some errands and headed back to the house to start unwinding. Just so you get an idea of how great our view was...

Lauren went to lay out while Jessica and I took a stroll down the beach when we found this little gem. :)

Christie got in just after we finished our time at the beach and after a little grooming, we set off for downtown Charleston. We had dinner at Cypress and although a little overpriced, it was delicious. Charleston has some great rooftop bars that we enjoyed on Friday night and met up with some of Lauren's friends that were in Law School in Charleston. It was a fun night!

Saturday morning, my inability to sleep in was in full effect and I was up and out the door by 8:30 for a morning run on the beach. It was super windy, but the view made up for it! I came back to the house for some breakfast and was back out the door for another long walk on the beach with Lauren and Jessica. The early afternoon was spent lounging around the house with a short nap, some snacking, and eventually a shower to wash off the layers of sand that had accumulated on my legs from the windy beach walks/run. We loaded back up into the car and headed to Charleston for a little touristy sight seeing. 

We ended our afternoon of touring and shopping at another rooftop bar for a little happy hour refreshment. 

That night, we went to Taco Mamacita--one of Jessica's favorite restaurants (well mine too, but after going there every Wednesday for 6 months, it wasn't as rare of a treat as it was for Jessica.) We gorged ourselves on guac and queso and found ourselves uncomfortably full after dinner. We opted for a chill night in with some football on the TV and an early bedtime. 

Sunday morning Jessica packed up and left soon after we checked out, but Lauren and I decided to hang around for a couple more hours and soak up a a little bit more time enjoying the waves and sunshine. I went for a long, long walk along the shoreline while Lauren laid out. 

We decided it was time to leave around 11:30 and head back to the real world. Another long car ride with good company, and before we knew it, we were back in the Peach State! I was sad to leave the beach, but a weekend away was well worth the long trip in the car! Hopefully it won't be too long before we can make it back!!

PS-Talk about odd man out not being blonde this weekend! #gingerproblems