The best Pizza on earth!

Ok. I can't really say that with authority. But E and I have eaten our fair share of pizza in NWA, and this. is. it.

You are probably thinking " what the HECK are you talkin' about??"

I'm talking about this.

SO TRUE

We discovered The Rail a few months ago - shortly after it opened. Its quirky, fun, the people who work/run the place are amazingly awesome, and the pizza is just. perfect. They even give you honey on the tables for the crust- FREE dessert anyone??

Our booth - appropriately called "table H" ...:) 

SO last night after finding a second dead bird in our back yard (more on that later...so sad) we decided we needed to get out of the house, and have an impromptu date night. Such a good idea! But, when is date night a bad idea?

{Also, the gal that's been our waitress EVERY TIME (I think she spots us and chooses our table- we're that cool) actually remembered us last night even though we hadn't been there in over a month. Also she looks exactly like Gwenyth Paltrow. No kidding.}

THis is the Margherita   olive oil, basil, tomato,WHOLE CLOVES OF ROASTED GARLIC, fresh mozzarella . Perfection.

E enjoying {conquering?} the Wedge salad. We always order this. And it always reminds us of Modern Family. "Are you kidding me??"

 The super fun outdoor patio (sadly E's allergies + about 5 million people prevented us from enjoying it last night)

Beautiful downtown Rogers.  Perfect end to our impromptu date night. There were  even musicians playing in the pavilion. *happy sigh*

ahh, date night's. they're my favorite.

Well, hello there.

Hi.

I have officially abandoned my little blog. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that when I think to myself ' I should blog about this' I am no where near a computer, thus no blogging occurs and those thoughts and ideas..drift away. Another could be that I am easily discouraged with myself, and often think. "whats the point, no one will want to read about this"  But I have decided to give it another go - if only for my own benefit. I love reading back through my blog posts and reading about past days and adventures that I've had, or reading a "rant" and thinking " wow , I'm so silly". It's fantastic perspective. Thus, my presence here. now. Well, here we go again.


I own a house. WOAH. what? It's true! late last month we took the big jump into adulthood and tied ourselves down to a lovely little house in a sweet neighborhood. We can access the city trails from our neighborhood, we have 6 trees ( yay, trees!)  tons of birdies, and a huge back yard for the pups to play in. I should also mention that we are about  a minute and a half away from a sonic. I haven't decided if this is a good thing or a bad. My bank account says bad. I've often thought of getting a part time job there, simply to support my addiction. Darn you Sonic...

Soon (as soon as we hook up our desktop so that i can upload pictures from good ol' Olly) I will update pictures of our little home, and share a bit of what we have done to it so far  (mostly paint -LOTS  of paint) and a few plans..what we will do next (there are MANY things we would like to do) It will be fun, just wait!

Here is a quick glimpse of it via iphone loveliness.


This is actually a little poscard that our bank gave us so that we can send them to loved ones, letting them know that we have moved! How sweet is that? terrible picture though..sorry

Lets move on to  a little before and after


This is the master bedroom pre- Holder home (thats eggplant...the other two walls are an odd camel color..the room was SO dark it was depressing.

and here is an absolutely horrible picture of the color that we painted it.  It's called "Barely jade" you can't tell but its a gorgeous grey/blue  depending on the lighting in the room ( which is so lovely in the evenings )


a glimpse of our BEAUTIFUL new bed ....again...such a terrible picture

the master is one of my fa vorite rooms so far..and i will {hopefully} share more pictures very soon


and here is one of my favorite things in our bedroom. I had this custom made by the lovely, lovely  Sara from A Vintage Poster!  It makes me smile every time i see it.

It is hanging above our bed and it looks perfect there. LOVE!

Just a few more bad quality pics ...

Sunroom: The sunroom is amazing! it is an add-on, right off the kitchen, living room area- complete with gorgeous french doors! This room was a little boys bedroom. the walls were originally a very pale yellow, and very dirty...we painted it a super bright sunshiney- yellow and its such a happy room! sort of looks like a reception is about to happen in there in this pic..hmm)

and before i get too carried away,  I will leave you with probably my favorite part of the house - the back yard! Don't worry, we mowed it recently..

have a lovely day! I will {hopefully} be back soon!

Hey, big tuna!

no... no this tuna

 Last nights menu, as promised, included tuna, roasted potatoes, salad, and cilantro sauce on EVERYTHING! No joke, this is my favorite sauce ever. Sadly, i didn't come up with it - the recipe originates from this lovely blog.  It is one of my absolute FAVORITE food blogs. ever. Their recipes are super original, and always amazing.  Anyway, this sauce made it's first appearance in our not too long after they posted it...and it keeps reappearing! We even worked it into our valentines day dinner this year.  I am convinced that i goes with EVERYTHING.  Maybe not ice cream...then again...hmm


Alright well lets get to it...


Holder Dinner January 4, 2011!


Roasted Yellow Potatoes with Seared Ahi Tuna



Roasted potatoes

this recipe is probably a random mixture of other recipes i've either looked up or made up..but it's super simple, yo!


4-5 Yukon potatoes, cut in 1/4ths
around 1/2 cup EV olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
3-ish tbspn rosemary leaves, roughly chopped
2 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper

all I did was throw the potatoes in a bowl with all that good stuff to make sure its coated really well, and then put it in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes and, voila! roasted potatoes. (by the way, the cilantro sauce is amazing on the potatoes...:) )

Seared Ahi tuna

Now, I have to confess, I did not cook these. My amazing husband did, as he is much more skilled in the tuna searing area.  But I can tell you that we hesitantly bought a bag of individually wrapped FROZEN ahi tuna steaks and they were surprisingly great! These don't even need a "recipe"  really...he just heated some vegitable oil (I would have gone for butter..but we're trying to be healthy...sigh) in our cast iron on medium high, seasoned the steaks with salt and pepper, and seared them for about 1-2 minutes on each side. Then, of course, they were topped with cilantro sauce. My gosh, I'm not kidding when I tell you that it's amazing. Have I mentioned that already? my bad...

Here's an absolutely horrible picture of our dinner yes. I was too lazy to get out the real camera...or clear off the cutting board before I took the picture...you can't tell, but the sauce ended up on the salad as well. I couldn't help it!

Happy Wednesday!

Resolution Revolution

Hello, 2011! It's been awhile ( I think I begin all of my posts this way now..)

this morning, as I was typing out my ideas for dinner in an email to my dear husband, i had a revolution. why don't I keep track of what I make for dinner?  I mean..It usually isn't anything spectacular, but sometimes I do surprise myself.

There are occasions where I actually crack open a cookbook or search for a recipe online..I must admit..but usually, dinner is my own creation, or a collaborative effort between me and the husband.  So often as we are enjoying our creations, we say "we have to try this again!" and then, of course, it never happens. why? because other than those sketchy emails we send back and forth throughout the day, those dinner ideas are lost in space. yes, I just said that.


So. This is the beginning of my new years resolution revolution (it's just fun to type...sorry)  Starting with last nights dinner, which...sadly, wasn't great- but it didn't suck either! yes!!


Holder Dinner January 3, 2011


Mixed green salad with "grilled' Chicken and zucchini  *

- I wasn't SUPER happy with this, just because of the mix of the zucchini in the salad. it was a bit..too different. The zucchini tasted great! but i Think it would have been better on the side, not on the salad. other than that, it was a fairly fun way to eat salad- which we're trying to do most every night now.

• 1 chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
• 1/2 zuchinni, cut longways into matchsticks
• mixed greens, or any type of lettuce (next time i think i'll just try spinach)
• Toasted almonds
• Romano Cheese
• Olive Oil (for dressing)
• parsley garlic butter (2 tbsp butter, handful of finely chopped parsley, 2 cloves garlic, minced)

-melt the butter in the microwave for 15 seconds, or until it's soft. mix in parsley and garlic. add cut up chicken and "marinate" for a few minutes so that the chicken can soak up..all that good stuff

 -to cook the chicken (and zucchini), I used a nonstick grill pan (thanks Mammaw!) really, just for fun... but it worked pretty well I think! 

-Then....add the chicken and zucchini and chicken to the lettuce, top with almonds, Romano cheese, and olive oil.

...that's it!



Parmesean Garlic Grits( fine..polenta) ***

these were AMAZING! Definitely on our "do it again" list.  I had been looking at various grits..polenta recipes throughout the day, and finally decided to just wing it. Its pretty simple, but I was proud of myself.

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 6 tbsp quick grits
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 1/4-ish cup parsley
• 3 tbsp butter

-bring chicken broth to a boil
-quickly stir in grits, and lower heat to med/low-
-add garlic and cover - cook for 5-6 minutes
-add butter -after butter is melted, stir in Parmesan and parsley
-season w/ salt and pepper
- eat!




So what's on the menu tonight? well..so far, Ahi tuna with cilantro lime sauce, roasted yellow potatoes and salad. we'll see how it goes-the sauce will probably end up on the potatoes too....also possibly the salad..


Happy New Year!!


..and Merry (late) Christmas!

[ I was attempting to take a photo for a Christmas card..clearly it didn't work out, but it's still cute ;)]

Finally fall..

Fall is such an amazing, spiritual season - it normally is to me anyway.  Thus far, fall has proven to be a bit moody, but nonetheless beautiful and rejuvenating.   Lately I have been struggling with the art of relaxing, and just ..letting things go- letting things happen as they happen, and taking each trial as a battle to overcome.  I think I will get there..but it's a slow process

 Thats all I have for now- It's about bed time for this bonzo-gal.  Before I go, however, I would like to share a  quick glimpse into my world as of late..lovely fall colors!

hopefully it won't be another month until I am back again!!

Wow. its been a while..again.

It seems as though every other post for the last few months has started similarly..  What can I say? Life is busy? eh.. I suppose. I've been lazy? probably more so.  I think really its just been a long stretch of bloggers block. nothing exciting to share..nothing interesting to say.   But  blogging is such good therapy!  Maybe I will try harder.

This week has been absolutely beautiful- finally out of the 100's - the windows are wide open on this lovely Sunday morning, and the curtains are blowing in the breeze. Perfection.   It feels like fall- finally..fall. 

I am probably jumping the gun a bit, considering next week will be in the lower 90's. I don't care. My pumpkin spice and apple cider candles are out, I've switched out a few of  my more summer-esque decor with a bit of burnt orange and dark greens..and I"m contemplating putting away the shorts and tank tops.  I should probably wait..

We did a bit of painting this weekend..and I must say I am happy with the results.  Quite a while ago, I blogged about the two ugly end tables we purchased at walmart..target..something of that nature- and what in the world could we do with them! well ...earlier this year we did something. we bought a lovely yellow paint with every intention of painting those suckers.   ...5 or 6 months later I am happy ( and a bit embarrassed) to say that we finally got around to that! the weather was right, the wind wasn't too strong, and we  needed to be productive!


Here are a few pics- they look super blurry for some reason..not enough light i guess..?


1st end table by the door with our super awesome vintage lamp (one of my favorite antique store finds!)

Here is the other end table- just a closeup.   Yes. that is a Star Wars record in the background... " The story of Star Wars" to be exact..one of my husbands prized possessions..

I think I am pretty darn happy with the way the color came out.  that doesn't meant it will stay that color forever ;)

on my next post ( you know, in a few months..) I will FINALLY post pictures of our anniversary trip to colorado! yeah. that was in june ;)

here is a preview:

Morning inspiration

Every so often I stumble across a blog that just really lifts my spirits..well, this is one of them!  I have been subscribed to her blog for a while, but her last post was so incredibly Inspiring that i just had to share! It will brighten your day. Promise.

Please visit : http://www.thewayofthehappywoman.com/

have a lovely day!

photo taken by me with my trusty Iphone:)