Looking for a New Years Resolution?

If you haven't chosen a resolution for 2014 you still have a few hours left to decide.

Around Thanksgiving I started working on a long list of resolutions that will last me the whole year (and then some) but after reading this article in HBJ, "living life a little more like Dr. C Jackson Grayson" sounds like a pretty good resolution to me. What an inspired life!

Choose to live larger (or smaller) in the new year - whatever you choose I hope you have safe and happy new year!

Full article, published by Houston Business Journal: http://goo.gl/p6YhBU 

Cupcakes, cocktails, feathers and furs!

It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! 

When we weren't indulging (responsibly!) in Sprinkles Cupcakes, Silmritas, and lite bites from Eddie V's Alex and I were having a great time playing dressing up (thanks Tootsies!) at the Houston Tidbits Holiday Party.

Here are a few of my favorite shots of the night:

Alex (right) and I at Tootsies

- is it terrible that we couldn't stop making 'winter is coming' jokes even though we really loved these shawls? (*ahem* big time Game of Thrones nerds *cough*)

Alex having way too much fun

So fab! Found this feathered beaut on the sale rack, and she'd be all mine if she weren't $4,000 :(

So Festive! Houston Tidbits Holiday Party

Unfortunately even though we arrived 15 minutes after the doors opened we were too late for swag bags, but the resulting sugar high of not one, but two trips (each) to the Sprinkles table helped to dull our curiosity regarding their contents. 

Thanks to Tootsie's and Houston Tidbits for hosting a wonderful event!

Pin #1 : Chinese Chicken Stir Fry

On Pinterest my 'Yum! Things to eat' pinboard boasts more than 200 yummy recipe pins.

How many of those recipes have I actually tried?

A handful, but if I'm being honest, the number is probably still in the single digits.

So Tuesday night, with the guilt of ordering pizza for dinner last night still fresh, and in an effort to avoid several rounds of the seemingly inevitable dinner-time battle of: 'well, what do you want?' I went to my pin board for pinspiration. And pinspiration I got!

Inspired, but still not feeling entirely ambitious, I opted for this easy one-pot meal: Chinese Chicken Stir Fry recipe (copied below directly from The Cookin' Chicks blog).

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 stalks of celery, chopped
3 skinned carrots
1/2 white onion, diced
Handful of Sugar Snap Peas
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp lemon juice
Dash of salt and pepper
Red Pepper Flakes

Directions:Chop up all veggies, except for the peas. Cut up chicken breasts and lightly season with salt and pepper. Set aside. Heat a skillet on medium high and add about 1 tbsp olive oil. Add in veggies and saute for about 3 minutes. Add chicken, soy sauce, lemon juice, and a few shakes of red pepper flakes. Cook for about 15 minutes, or until chicken is completely cooked through. Enjoy! 

First off, this recipe scored extra points for taking less than 30 minutes start to finish.  Even better, I had almost all of these ingredients on hand.  The Cookin' Chicks original post doesn't mention how many servings this will make, but from what I yielded I'd say it serves 4-6, depending on what sides you're serving (and how hungry your guests are).

Despite my boyfriends protests ("Those are grits!") I served this with couscous which provided a nice balance.  I used my go-to (Near East brand couscous in a box) because it tastes delicious and takes less than 10 minutes to prep, cook and plate.

I love that this recipe is loaded with fresh, whole foods, uses no oil and has a great light-but-hearty balance that's perfect for summer meals. I will definitely be making this one again, with little-to-no modifications.

30 minutes - start...

...to finish!

All Press Is Good Press, Right?

For fast food mogul Burger King, the answer is a resounding 'YES!'

All press is good press- w/the recent hack @burgerking grew its followers from 83k to 110k in less than an hour goo.gl/jnQJl

— Sarah Grimmer (@Sarah_Grimmer) February 21, 2013

Show Us Some Love // Vote with Your Pint (A 2nd Cup Event)

I had so much fun at Okra Charity Bar last Friday for A 2nd Cup's 'Show Us Some Love // Vote with Your Pint' event.

A 2nd Cup's Marketing Director, Michelle Coffey is also a fellow Originite and dear friend. Along with friends and coworkers, I spent the evening sipping wine, sampling the electic menu (milk and cookies, home-cured jerky, a strange but wonderful panini...) and dropping tickets in the 2nd Cup bucket.

With each menu item purchased Okra bartenders disperse single tickets, allowing patrons to 'vote' for one of four carefully selected charities.  At the end of the month the tickets are tallied and the winning charity will receive Okra's proceeds (over cost) the following month.

Casting my vote!

Okra Charity Bar

Finger's are crossed that we made enough of an impact to push A 2nd Cup into February's winners circle!

The best idea I had all week...

I took myself (and my Joyce Meyer's book) out to dinner at J.Alexander's last night - yummy glass of Joseph Carr Cabernet Sauvignon, chicken pasta soup and prime rib cooked to a perfect medium rare - amazing.

I highly recommend that you take yourself out to dinner at the soonest opportunity, and if you can manage to do it right smack in the middle of an extra stressful week - bonus points.

Les Miserables at the Hobby Center

Heading out to the theater

Saturday night Amanda and I went to our second show of the Hobby Center's Broadway Across America 2012-13 season: Les Miserables. This time around we made sure to purchase our souvenir cups to take in to the theater.  As you can see, they look a little bit like sippy-cups for grown-ups.  

Bringing a glass of wine into the show? Worth all 300 additional pennies.

On the terrace before the show

Amanda actually ended up with an extra set of tickets for this show so we got to attend a Saturday performance (our season tickets are for Sunday evenings) which was a nice change of pace.  

I had never seen Les Mis before and I really enjoyed it, the actors and sets were phenomenal and I was surprised how many songs I was familiar with. 

Photo-op with the cast, post-show

Standard shot in the main entryway :)

We had a great time and are looking forward to the next show, Catch Me if You Can, but we have quite the wait, it won't be here in Houston until February 2013.  Perhaps we'll need to squeeze in Peter Pan in the meantime...