Mother's Day 2015

It was probably the best one so far. The first Mother's Day we celebrated with a 10 day old so if we didn't have pictures to prove it, we wouldn't remember it. Last year we celebrated by swimsuit shopping which is as delightful as it sounds (rookie mistake). 

Andrew kept asking me what I wanted to do this year and I finally decided on a day of "doing what I want to do when I want to do it." Which is only possible to a certain extent when you have a two year old. 

So the day consisted of church, a Dave's hot and juicy with bacon, a Mad Men marathon, a walk, a sea salt and dark chocolate bar, dinner at Outback with friends, and ice cream in bed at 10:30 while watching Shark Tank. 

Isn't that all a mother really wants? 

It was delightful until I woke up puffy from all the water retention that happens when you spend 24 hrs eating trash and watching TV. But I wouldn't trade it for the world!!

I also decided my gift to myself would be sleeping in on a Monday and I daresay I out gifted everyone. Jamesy and I are still in PJ's. He is playing with Buzz and Woody and I am trying to get things organized for the big graduation week/weekend ahead! 

Yes, that's right... Andrew is graduating this Saturday and we couldn't be more excited, relieved, anxious, exhausted, or filled with awe and wonder that this seminary journey is coming to an end. Which is basically how you feel when you have a newborn. And with that, this post has come full circle! 

I always complain that I never had good pics with my boy so Andrew captured this one last night. And I've gotta say its a money shot. I can't get enough of those sloppy wet kisses!!!

Andrew Weekend

We spent Monday-Thursday acting like it was Friday night so by the time the weekend actually rolled around we were plum tired. 

I had been wanting to take some time to have an Andrew weekend where he got to pick everything we did and I would cook him anything he wanted or take him anywhere he wanted to go. I just thought it would be fun to celebrate what a great husband and soon to be dad he is. And let's face it... every weekend is Charlotte weekend and the boy deserves a break once in a while.

Late Friday afternoon we decided this would be a good weekend to do it since he didn't have to work Saturday so we headed to the grocery store to get all the things to fulfill his requests. He chose Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese (say that 5 times fast) for Friday and steak, twice baked potatoes, Caesar salad and homemade brownies for Saturday. Man food.

We came home and I got to cooking and he got to sanding a piece of furniture that we had been putting off painting for a good six weeks. He got a coat of primer on it and we sat down to eat and I honestly can't remember what happened after that. I guess we went to bed.

Andrew got up ridiculously early Saturday and I slept until 9. We had coffee and he finished a big research paper. We continued working on the piece of furniture and confirmed the fact that I can't paint anything in less than 9000 very thin coats of paint. And it's still not finished.

He decided he wanted leftover Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese for lunch and to go to City Park. So we did. When we got there, there were about 2 billion other people there because someone decided to get married and someone else decided to have a barbecue competition. 

We spent 15 minutes finding a parking spot and 10 walking around before we decided it was windy and cold and not close enough for me to get to a bathroom easily. So we went back home.

We hung out and painted and got going on cooking dinner. Andrew decided he wanted to rent Skyfall so after we enjoyed our steaks (which by the way were cooked by Andrew and by far the best he has ever grilled) we sat down to watch the movie and have brownies.  

And since we are approximately 83 years old in our hearts, around 8:30 we decided it was getting late and we'd better go to bed and finish the movie the next day. 

Sunday was pretty normal. We went to church, ate more leftover BCM&C (he loves the stuff) and I grocery shopped while Andrew helped a friend move. I also got to stop by the hospital and visit with my friend Stasia who just had a baby girl! 

We cleaned up the apartment in mad dash like always and hosted Lifegroup. Then we finished Skyfall and went to bed early. Again.

And that is the story of how Andrew chose to spend his special weekend!

And how I gained three pounds.  

34 Weeks and a Giveaway!

Well technically 34.5714.

Also known as 34 weeks and 4 days.

And believe me, every. day. counts. 

This has been a pretty fun week. Andrew is on spring break and even though we are both working this week, everything feels a little more relaxed.

Monday night we went to dinner at Dat Dog. It was delicious. What pregnant woman doesn't love an enormous Guiness dog with chilli, cheese, ketchup, mustard, and onion? Oh, with a side of cheddar, bacon, ranch fries please. 

We went with our friends Leah and Adrian who also have fun blogs. (Leah is hosting an awesome giveaway right now, scroll to the bottom to check it out!) They are practically professional runners but they still eat crazy hot dogs which I think is awesome. I somehow didn't get a pic of Adrian... sorry Adrian!

Tuesday I had my first New Orleans snowball with my OTHER friend named Leah. It was green apple flavored and it was heaven. I told Andrew he needed to work an extra $40 into the budget because I would be requiring a snowball every day until James comes. 

Also, we are house sitting for a family on campus who have a real live, stand-alone home, with central AC and a jacuzzi tub and a king sized bed. So basically I feel like we are on our honeymoon again except we have to go to work everyday and feed the dog. Miss Laura even left a tray for breakfast in bed! I love it and I don't want it to be over. 

Lastly, our friends Matt and Leigh Anna from Georgia are here with their beautiful baby girl. Matt is taking a workshop on campus so Leigh Anna and I are getting to spend time hanging out with James' future wife, Maddie Claire. 

Week 34 of pregnancy has been really good to me so far. I'm sleeping really well and loving peanut butter banana protein shakes among all other food known to man. Seems like that is all I can talk about these days.

See that real jacuzzi tub in the background? Pretty awesome! Have a great day before Friday!

Also...

The first Leah I mentioned, the running one, is hosting her first ever giveaway on her blog!! She is giving away an Endorphin Warrior bracelet. These are awesome bracelets that can be worn while working out and have motivating and inspirational phrases on them. I totally want the conquer one to get my mind set for getting back in shape after James comes!! 

Go enter to win HERE!!!

Friday Five

I haven't even blogged this week but I'm still here and life is still moving forward. I thought I would do a little Friday five recap of this week and since I am a little behind on updating, I'm going to start with last weekend.

{Mama coming to NOLA} Last weekend my mama and her best friend, Miss Ann, came for a long weekend in New Orleans. We had a great time going to the doctor, shopping, relaxing, and eating. We got all the baby stuff washed and ate an amazing brunch at Elizabeth's. We had praline bacon as an appetizer which was basically bacon covered in a butter/brown sugar glaze. I had the bananas foster french toast as my meal. It was scrumdidiliumptious. 

{Parenthood} Andrew and I have really been into the show Parenthood and have basically blown through all four seasons in about 3 or 4 weeks. I know it sounds silly but I think it has been a good conversation starter for us on parenting dilemmas we might never talk about. I'll pause the show and be like, "If that were James what would we do?" I know it's impossible to know but it's kind of good chatting about it. We will be wrapping up season 4 tonight. I haven't handled everything going on with Kristina this season very well, and I'm pretty glad we will finish it before I'm 39 million weeks pregnant and a basket case. That might be too much.

{City Park} Andrew surprised me on Tuesday afternoon by telling me to get in the car because we were going to walk around City Park. I was SO excited to spend a beautiful spring afternoon with him on a Tuesday, which happens to be my least favorite day. It was great even though I had to go to the bathroom 3 times in 30 minutes. 

{The Bachelor} All I gotta say is, I'm glad it's over. I'm part of the .0002% of the world who is not swooning over Sean. I kind of suspect he is not all he is cracked up to be. I know the only other person in this galaxy who agrees is my sister-in-law.. but we are cool with that. 

{Date night} This hasn't technically happened yet but it is happening come 4:30 this afternoon. Some of our sweetest friends gave us a gift card that is good for two awesome New Orleans restaurants. One is Juan's Flying Burrito... a fave of ours. The other is a really neat looking pizza place called Slice Pizzeria. Not sure what we will pick but I'm pretty sure it will go something like this: 

I'll want to try Slice because I have something in my DNA that makes me want to try new things even if the alternative is something that I know I love. 

Andrew will want to go to Juan's because he has something in his DNA that makes him want to always stick with what he knows he loves and not risk disappointment by trying new things. (And he is recently into spicy everything.) 

We will end up at one of the two and just enjoy the fact that we don't have to cook, clean, or pay. And since we went at 4:30 we beat the crowd and can be in bed by 7, finish Parenthood, and be asleep by 8:30. It will be a glorious Friday night and everyone will come out a winner. 

I realize 99% of this post was about percentages (weird), food, and T.V. but that's life right now! 

Have a GREAT weekend!

Linking up with these cool blogs:

Can we talk about King Cake?

Of course we can... this is my blog. 

Y'all.

If you don't know what King Cake is, let me start by telling you it is the most delicious thing you can imagine.

More delicious than the delicious thing you imagined when I said that. 

Its like a cinnamon roll and a coffee cake and a donut got married and had a baby with icing on top. And yes, that is entirely possible both biologically and legally when it comes to food. 

I had no less than 8 pieces last week. The first 5 came from two different King Cakes that were bestowed upon me and the last 3 were from the one I finally purchased for myself. 

And that last one, it was the best. It didn't even come from a high falutin, old New Orleans bakery. It came from a donut shop in "da hood" where I currently reside. I'm pretty sure it was deep fried. 

And I'm OK with that. 

And so was my family with whom I reluctantly shared it.

And that is why I don't have a picture to show you. 

But here's one from the internet in case you wanted an example.

via

And here is what Wikipedia has to say about King Cake in case you are clueless about why I rambled out an entire post on the subject. 

I encourage you to enlighten yourself beyond the Wikipedia offerings and get a piece into your mouth as soon as possible. 

Although that could be difficult for you if you don't live in or near New Orleans, in which case you will have to live vicariously through me. 

Don't fret. I'll eat enough for the both of us.

Recipe, Rain, Research

And the Pioneer Woman does it again. 

We've been eating these this week and they are delish.

I took about 9000 shortcuts on this recipe and it was still pretty majorly great. 

via

I did not grate my own cheese. I did not cut up my own pineapple. I did not put a skewer through my pineapple. I did not pre-toast my tortillias. I did not use fresh jalapenos. 

And they were still the bomb. Try em!

In other news, the weather in this part of the country has gotten downright depressing. I can fully embrace a few cold and rainy days. I like to snuggle up with hot chocolate and be sleepy just as much as the next guy but after about three of those days I have reached my limit and currently we are pushing two weeks. 

It took me exactly one hour to get to the grocery store Monday because apparently when it rains people get into their cars and lose their minds. There was no danger involved in my taking this picture because I was going exactly 0 miles per hour... for a very long time.

We attended our first prenatal class last night. It was technically the second class but we missed the first one and are making it up in March. I was by far the least pregnant person there and the one taking the most notes. Five pages. Zeal is one of my best qualities. It was information overload and I am glad I have all of my notes to go back and do some research of my own on all the options for delivery. I am an information junkie and I want to know everything about everything that MIGHT happen to my body and baby. 

At the moment I feel like things tend to get a little over-medicated but I'm not ready to make any bold statements about that here on the blog. On the flip side, I am extremely grateful to be living in an age where we can know exactly what is going on with babies in delivery and have so many options for their health and safety. Amen? 

Best of Pinterest Recipes

I noticed recently that my food board on Pinterest, lovingly entitled Food Glorious Food (Oliver!, anyone?), is by far the most pinned board I have. We are talking 193 pins. A full 92 pins more than the second place holder, my Home Sweet Home board. Go figure. 

I counted it up and so far I have actually tried 33 of the 193 pins. Almost exclusively entrees, appetizers, and side dishes. Rarely desserts. I have no idea why. Lord knows I have a sweet tooth. 

I also have no idea if this is normal. Do people actually put Pinterest ideas into practice? Am I going overboard? Underboard? Does it even matter? 

Probably not. 

Either way, I made a list of some of mine and Andrew's favorite recipes found on Pinterest. Of the 33 I've tried, about 8 have really stuck out. Those aren't great odds. Maybe I'm pinning the wrong things? Or maybe I'm not a great cook?

Or maybe I am asking too many questions? 

So here they are. In no order, our  top 8 Pinterest recipes... so far. 

Baked Potato Rounds

These were made exclusively to please my man and they did the trick. But really, who doesn't love potatoes, bacon, and cheese? (Other than Autumn, Kyle, and my stepmom Nancy.. they don't like cheese).

via

No Bean Chilli

Again, exclusively to meet Andrew's anti-bean requirements. But it was for realz good.

via

Easy Chicken and Dumplings

I've devoted a whole post to this one. 

via

Ham and Swiss Sliders 

Gracious merciful heavenly buttery cheesiness.

via

Sour Cream Chicken

Y'all, I make this over and over and over. Sometimes I mix sour cream and mayo and add Parmesan cheese. Easy peasy weeknight cheesy.

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Chicken Divan

Another frequent flyer in my weeknight repertoire. Great for leftovers too!

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Crockpot Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

Tomato soup might be my favorite food on earth. Also, I don't like the taste of crock pots very much. I know that's blasphemy, forgive me. But this soup is to die for and can be done on the stove as easily as the crock pot so I take that route. Of the probably 5 or so tomato soup recipes I have tried, this is my fave. 

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Santa Fe Chicken Salad

I probably made a batch of this for lunches 7 times last year. I actually made myself stop so that I wouldn't burn out. However, it is definitely time to bring it back!

via

So tell me, do you put Pinterest to practice in real life? If so, how does it usually turn out? Am I a total weirdo? 

Wait... don't answer that. 

And if you want to see more of my pins come follow me. And I'll follow you. And we will be a family. Amen.

Happy Days are Here Again!

So, I have had a big resurgence of fun in my life in New Orleans as my morning sickness has slowly but surely begun to subside. However, I have been AWFUL at documenting it. I have practically taken zero pictures over the past couple weeks which have basically been the best we have had here in the Big Easy.

Just to catch up so as not to forget any of the memories we are making during this exciting season of our lives, I am going to make a list.

1. Two weekends ago my sister-in-law Heather and her friend Amanda came for the weekend. We had a great time exploring the entire city. We spent a great day down in the business district and French Quarter that included a stop at Anthroplogie which made me extremely happy! I am loving their Christmas ornaments right now!

Anthropologie

2. We ate at a little restaurant on Jackson Square called Rivers Edge. It was sort of blah… definitely not the best New Orleans seafood by any stretch. However, dinner was redeemed with beignets and hot chocolate at Café Du Monde followed by a really interesting haunted history tour in the Quarter. What a sordid past (and present) this city has!

3. We had our 16 week doctor appointment and it was totally uneventful and great!

 4. The seminary held a holiday market where folks set up booths and sold handmade items. My favorite by far was the free sample of wassail in the Lifeway store (not from a booth nor handmade, whoops!). And Andrew won a raffle. Two handmade bars of soap… cool!

5. Two of my sweet seminary friends invited me to run in the Color Run with them this past Saturday and boy am I glad I did! It was ridiculously fun and so weird! I loved it. Thanks Stasia and Leah!!

6. One of my BFF’s from college and her husband came to NOLA for a babymoon this weekend and we had the pleasure of hosting them Saturday night. Autumn is 28 weeks preggo with a sweet baby girl named Snow. We ate at a FANTASTIC restaurant called Olivier’s down in the Quarter. All four of us completely cleaned our plates… I mean completely. That’s how good it was. The best part might have been finding a parking spot on the street right by the restaurant. This never happens to us!

7. We have been attending a church called Edgewater Baptist and yesterday we had a fantastic service followed by what might have been the best church potluck I have ever attended. And my husband is in ministry so I have been to my fair share. And we are Baptist. This is saying a lot. I completely skipped the meat and went for about 5 different casseroles and a bowl of bread pudding that I don’t currently have the vocabulary to describe. It was DIVINE.

As we gear up for Thanksgiving, I think it is apparent that one thing that I am truly thankful for this year in the return of my appetite. Praise the Lord it’s just in time for my mother-in-law's sweet potatoes!!

Linking up today for YOLO Monday! 

Easy Chicken and Dumplings

Ya'll. I haven't posted a recipe in quite a while. Heck, I haven't had a recipe to post in quite a while. Unless basic instructions for pouring a bowl of Raisin Bran count. 

But lately, I have been getting back in the kitchen and last night we had a meal that was too good and too easy NOT to post. 

It was a really shortcutish, mostly boxed and canned, version of chicken and dumplings and I really had very low expectations that it would be good, much less something  I would share with anyone.

I mean chicken and dumplings is one of those things that is usually only good when someones grandma uses a century old biscuit recipe and a 19 hour stock making process. Or when it comes from Cracker Barrel. 

I don't claim to be a chicken and dumplings expert, but these seemingly rudimentary ingredients made for a fast, bang-up meal on a cold winters night (of 63 degrees because we live in South Louisiana remember?).

I didn't take pictures because, duh, it wasn't supposed to be that good. But here is the picture from where the recipe was originally posted, MyRecipes.com. However, this is my tweaked version based on some recommendations I read in the reviews and our preferences. 

MyRecipes.com

Easy Chicken and Dumplings

32 oz reduced sodium chicken broth

2 cans cream of chicken soup (we used low fat kind)

2 tsp Better Than Bouillon reduced sodium chicken base (or reg chicken bouillon)

3-4 (or more) carrots sliced into coin sized pieces

1 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled off the bone 

1-2 tsp. dried thyme

pepper ( lots!)

1 can Pillsbury grands jumbo buttermilk biscuits 

Mix every thing except the biscuits in a stock pot and bring it to a boil.

While you are waiting on it to boil, flatten each biscuit with your hands and use a pizza cutter to cut them into dumpling sized pieces (or you can  just tear them with your hands). Once everything in the pot is boiling, start dropping the dumplings into the pot a few at a time. They will puff up and it will get crowded, don't worry. Just stir it every few times your put dumplings in to make sure they are not sticking together. Once they are all in, give it a good stir and reduce it to a simmer. Cover and let simmer about 15-20 minutes. Stir a few times throughout. While they simmer, the dumplings will shrink back down and everything will thicken a little more. Taste it for flavor... I ended up adding more pepper and thyme at the end. 

I'm linking up today with Kelly's Korner, probably one of my favorite bloggers on the planet. She is just the sweetest cutest wife and mother EVER. Of course I don't know her in real life but I secretly wish we were friends! 

Craving the Familiar: A Pimento Cheese Story

     About a week ago I was really craving something familiar. Iwouldn’t say I was homesick exactly, just a little wistful. I was enjoying all the things New Orleans had to offer that were different from my home-grounds but still feeling that tiny tug in my heart for normal.

     My thoughts turned to food, as they often do, and I remembered that my favorite restaurant in Athens, GA posts recipes of some of their popular dishes on their website, generous right?

     Those who know me well know I am referring to Marti’s at Midday. Y’all. There is an over abundance of great dining options in Athens but Marti’s always and forever will be my favorite. In fact, I love it so much I had them cater my wedding and have never regretted that decision.

     On a given weekday you will find people lined up out the door for homemade pita chips, to-die-for chicken salad, soups of all kinds,knock-your-socks-off mint sweet tea, and my personal fave… pimento cheese; the quintessential southern lunch food.

So you know where this is going….

I made some.

 Something I had never done before. 

And am so glad I did. 

Matter of fact, you should too.

In a thought, perfect taste of familiar.

Click here or on any picture to check out this recipe and plenty of others by Marti’s at Midday.

Hello Monday, Hello New Orleans

I really don’t know where to start. I thought I would have been blogging every chance I had last week but each time I thought about starting, I got overwhelmed. There is just so much to say. Just so much. I’ll save the details for my mom and try to hit the high points from our first full week living in New Orleans.

It definitely takes a village to move the Donaldson’s. This post wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t start with big thank you to: Mr. Olen and Mrs. Penny, Chris, Staci and Lauren, Kyle and Katie, Daddy and Nancy, Don and Mama, Scott and Sarah, Chris and Megan, Kris, Andrew, and Stasia. Whew. Without you all, we would still be trying to figure out how to fit the vacuum cleaner into the trailer in Valdosta. 

Hello old house.

But for real, Andrew and I never could have gotten out of our Valdosta house and into our New Orleans apartment without this generous, hard-working group of friends and family. Thanks, from the bottom of our boxes.

The first four days in New Orleans were a haze for me. I think the urgency to stop living out of a suitcase coupled with working full time and moving the previous week put me in an extended state of deliriousness. I can’t really describe it. Lots got done. The kitchen is miraculously organized (for now) and I must have experienced some level of creativity to get things arranged in a pretty way, but I don’t really remember. 

Hello newly organized cabinets.

I do know however, that we have the kindest neighbors we could ever hope for. They are the ones listed in my thank yous as Megan and Chris. They live across the hall and when they saw we were moving in, they jumped to action by helping us unload, bringing us a case of water, and giving us an impromptu tour of their (precious!) apartment so we could understand how it was all supposed to fit. On top of that, they had us over for dinner Tuesday night. They have already meant so much to us and it is only the first week. Not to mention they are fellow Georgia folks AND Megan also has a blog! 

Hello Megan, my neighbor.

I think I more or less awakened by Thursday. By then, things had gotten settled enough around the apartment and our cable was finally showing the color red so everyone on T.V. stopped looking like aliens. I could relax. We had breakfast for dinner with Scott and Sarah at their (equally precious!) apartment. It included a fantasy like cinnamon-roll-French-toast casserole (Pinterest find) that was for the record books. Maybe I’ll post it one day.

Hello bridge over the Mississippi.

The weekend felt like the week since we are not employed, but it was fun nonetheless. Andrew might have gotten hired for a job delivering furniture for a hotel liquidator but that is a post unto itself. I got a free quart of paint from Ace Hardware. We ate too much fried seafood at Deanies. We sat by Lake Pontchartrain and watched the sun set. And we went to our first NOLA church service at Mosaic.

Hello Lake Pontchartrain.

To sum up this already summed up account; I really like living here. It may be a little premature to say but I think I love living here. I actually think I love it more than I wanted to. I wanted to love it just enough to enjoy myself but not so much that I didn’t want to go back to Georgia. I’m starting to feel differently. Maybe this is what contentment feels like? I’ll keep you posted.

Linking up with #YOLO Mondays, Hello Monday, and Bits of Splendor

Go to still being [Molly] for a chance to win an amazing pair of cowboy boots!!!!!!!