Chocolate covered cranberries

Super easy. But use semi sweet if you live in a humid climate, my Milk Chocolate didn't set overnight.

                       

xo A

ps. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Lemon Pepper Shrimp Orzo

So I'm an awesome cook.

I tried out this guy and love it, so easy. Maybe a little to much lemon with the shrimp, and not enough with the pasta. I've never cooked with orzo before but I'm really excited to find more recipes with it.

Ingredients:

• 2 C cooked orzo
• 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice, divided
• 2 tbsp fresh curly parsley, chopped
• ½ tsp salt
  
  
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1½ pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:

1. Stir together orzo, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, parsley, salt, ½ tsp black pepper. Keep warm
2. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add half of shrimp and saute for about 2 minutes or until shrimp is almost done. Remove shrimp to a plate. Add remaining shrimp and saute for 2 minutes and remove shrimp to plate. (I did mine all at the same time).
3. Add remaining tablespoon butter to skillet. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until garlic starts to brown. Stir constantly to prevent scorching. Add shrimp, remaining lemon juice, and remaining black pepper. Stir until shrimp is coated. Cook for another minute or until shrimp is done.
4. Serve shrimp over orzo.

                       

I added too much lemon to the shrimp and should have done 1 1/2 lemons in the pasta and 1/2 in the shrimp. It was awesome. Awesome. Or I just haven't cooked in awhile and just used to eating salads and sandwiches....

xo A

Ahhh

Today I ran through the pouring down rain and 2" of standing water with groceries shoes and keys in my hand. Dropped a bag and dumped the ham and Brussels sprouts into a gigantic puddle. Threw those on the floor only to turn on the car and the "trunk ajar" light flashed. Was thoroughly soaked to the bone only to drive through 6 inches of water to exit the parking lot with windshield wipers that need to be replaced because I've had for 6 months through all the heat.

6 months!!!! Yesterday was my 6 month anniversary at work!  Time flies when it's over 75 degrees everyday.

Saw Catching Fire tonight. Spectacular. The costumes amazing. I cried twice. And jumped more times then I care to admit. Go see it. Or read the book. You won't be disappointed.

xo A

Treadmills

I have a lot of really good ideas.

You know that cave man and the wheel commercial? I've come really close calling a few times. One of my best was a gas stove with an electric oven. I love how fast you can boil water with a gas stove, but it freaks me out that you're baking a cake in a fire. I didn't patent my idea soon enough because it's actually a real thing. And it's expensive.

My most recent and on going idea contains dancing and treadmills. How many times when you're running on the treadmill does your favorite song come on and you just want to shimmy a bit? Or belt out a few lyrics? Almost every song that comes on, otherwise, why in the world are you listening to it?

Hear me out. Treadmill dance karaoke.

I'm not sold on the name but the idea is solid. Think how much more of a workout you'd get? You can't sing aloud or dance in the gym (or it makes people really uncomfortable). Problem solved. I've been mulling this idea over for quite some time. My only problem is, I'm not really sure where to go from here. Perhaps I'll just start dancing on the treadmill and hope I don't fall off.

If you haven't seen this, it's awesome.

However. This is what I imagine to happen. (skip to .30 seconds)

xo A

It's goin' down, I'm yellin' timberrr

Amy came to visit me this weekend!! Saturday was pretty overcast but a beautiful day still.

       

       

       

       

Saturday night we went on a murder mystery dinner train with some friends for Winnie's birthday!!

       

       

       

       

                                       

       

Had soooo much fun this weekend! So great to catch up - excited for the coming weekends for more visitors :)

xo A

Knobs

It's amazing what something as small as cabinet knobs can do for the kitchen. In Florida, almost all kitchens I looked at were white. White cabinets. White drawer pulls. White knobs. White appliances. White floors. White walls.
Too much white.

So obviously I added some color with different decorations...

Still not good enough.
I've been looking on Pintrest for awhile to find ideas of what I could do besides paint. And it came to me. Get rid of those nasty white knobs. They're cheap right? and you don't need that many (that is a small misconception, they're a little pricey especially when you need 19. 19!! who would have thought?)

I honestly think it looks a million times better. Literally one million times better. And say what you want, this wasn't the best "investment" - it's not like I'm going to take them off and put the white ones back on when I move, unless the next place needs Satin Nickel to spice it up.  But they make ME feel better. (and now I can change the two in the bathroom that have brown hair dye on them, it's a win-win)

I also learned that the reason cabinet pulls come with 2 different sizes of screws, for the drawers of course. And to think, all this time I thought somewhere people just had really thick cabinet doors....

xo A

Continue at your own risk...

So you know when you look up things on google you always get images? And sometimes you have to flip through them real quick because they're disgusting? I'm adding bug bites, to that list.

Ever notice how when you're sick you'll spend any amount of money to make you feel better? Kleenex for $5 because it comes with an actual aloe plant...

Well I recently got into a bit of a situation with noseeums. Said just like it sounds. Sand flies. Lots of other names. My legs are COVERED. So painful it was hard to sleep. I went to walgreens and spent $30 on anything and everything I could think of.

This was Sunday afternoon

                                                 

This is Tuesday night.

        

I was reading up on them, and said the pain intensifies if they're close together. I've got an outline of the Big Dipper in 12 bites on my ankle alone. And that's just the left leg.

        

Am I asking you to feel sorry for me? No. It was my fault for wearing shorts and sandals past dark in the grass. I'm only posting awful pictures of my legs (embarrassing) to show you how an oatmeal bath can change your life. Please instantly think of wonderful yummy cinnamon breakfast foods. 

It's actually nothing like that. But about 1% of me was hoping this powder packet would lead to a bathtub full of hot oats. While it was none of those things, it did drastically reduce how much my legs itched for about 12 hours.

                                           

I mean it was either that, or the 900 degree water I was soaking in that killed all the nerves in my body and could no longer feel it. Either way it's a win.

xo A

Beach 5K

The beginning of September Elyse talked me into buying a Groupon for this beach obstacle course 5K (I might have had a few glasses of wine) but I had 2 months to "train" and figured I'd be fine. I'm not the worlds greatest runner but I forgot how much of a love/hate relationship I have with it. Hate the process of actually going to the gym and putting on the clothes but once I'm done I love the feeling of, I don't know, whoever that feeling is after you work out and are sore the next morning. Plus it's been helping me sleep better.

       

       

Don't look for me, this was 2 heats before ours.

       

After. Considerably sandy-er

                                             

                                   

       

Army crawl under the tarp, under the wall, through the water....and a lot of other obstacles

                                                

Finish line wall, cargo net and crawl under barbed wire. Probably where the huge bruise on my leg came from...

                                                

xo A

Weekly WIP Report

This week is full of grown up things. Gross.


So here's the WIP report:

Benefits fair with all sorts of packets and flyers and a brand new chapstick. CHECK

Re-Enroll benefits for 2014. CHECK

Move 401K from Lands' End into an IRA and start contributing (in 5-6 days once it's all moved and set up) (I'm not eligible for Chico's plan for a year). CHECK

Figure out my HSA and start contributing (along with what Chico's puts in). CHECK

Call my dealer about new tires.


Productive week. Let's hope I'm as ambitious in this 5K tomorrow....
xo A

This week

This week has been exhausting.

I have a slight candle problem.

     

I found out that the new Chex Mix has thinner brown rye chips than before. And they're AWESOME!

Flo Rida is not better now that I live in Florida. People do not wear sweatpants, OR boots with the fur here.

One of my work boyfriends parked next to me this week. I didn't realize this, but ducks started advancing on me as I got out of my car so I started talking to them (like a normal person) to shoo them away.

"Uhh you ok?"

- oh er, yup, just trying to get the ducks away from me

"They probably think you have food"

- why would have food?! Does it look like I have food?!

"I think because other people feed the ducks...."

-ohhhh

You know what I want? A service so that when you go to the dentist you can have someone go with you to hold your hand.

-Alyssa, that's called a boyfriend

Oh you brought your Walkman to listen to music while I drill? Great idea.

I reluctantly got a cavity filled today. I had my iPod on the whole time, and no hand to hold on to. But I made it through alive. Now my mouth is throbbing and it's time for bed. But first I must clarify, work boyfriend. This was a term introduced to me here. A strictly work boyfriend. AKA cute guy because there don't happen to be too many.

xo A

Take steps

Sunday afternoon I participated in a walk at Lakes Park for Take Steps for Chrons and Ulcerative Colitis.  We were all a part of Team Jac-Attack. Next year I'm bringing glitter and we're making shirts :)

                                               

Ok now do something funny.

-alllllright nope.

                                                 

                                                 

       

                       

love love

A

Taste of the Town

No, this isn't another zombie post.

...I'll let that sink in.

Ok so this weekend at jetBlue Park, where the Red Sox have Spring Training, was the Taste of Fort Myers AKA Taste of the Town.

You bought tickets and then went to food vendors (different restaurants in town) and they had a menu of items for 2-5 tickets each. I bought a ton of tickets because I was really hungry. They had tents to sit under and eat, a stage with a band, lots of kids activities and different beer vendors. We were here strictly for food.

 

Market 92 - Coriander Encrusted Mahi Mahi

Bahama Breeze - Key West Fish Tacos

Bahama Breeze - Jumbo Lump Crab Stack *Nasa's

Ted's Montana Grill - Bison Slider

1st Street Deli - Crab Cake sandwich ( I took the bread off, it was too much)

Kona Flavored Shaved Ice

Everything was awesome! I also tried a bite of some ribs that were good too.

Too many pictures in one post. I'll continue Sunday tomorrow....

xo A

I hate Mondays.

I feel like today everyone was out to get me. If it wasn't one thing it was 7 other things. People complaining first thing Monday morning about Google, it's not going away, we're not getting Outlook back, give it up. Idiots leaving their carts in the parking lot at Target. People trying to cut me off when there's an accident ahead, we could see the road flares a ways back, should have gotten over then, lady. And now I've wasted 3 CDs trying to burn a new one but there is a corrupt file or something (or you're all thinking, Alyssa get an iPod you lamewad)(I have one thank you very much, this is just so much easierrrrrrrr)(Nick is thinking "please don't call me because I have no idea how to fix it)

Done complaining.

So I come home to this plethora of mail, partly because I thought it was all junk mail and never opened it this weekend. Welp. Turns out it actually is all junk mail and apparently when the warranty is up on your car, a lot of people care about it. 

       

Great. One more thing to add to my list of grown up things to do this week.

I'm going to go pout in bed now.

xo A

I'm just sittin' out here watchin' airplanes...

So this Saturday the Page Field airport held an Aviation Day where you could go to the airport and check out all the planes and do helicopter rides and eat food and a mini carnival and some demonstrations. Well it is also encouraged to bring your child and dog, and a stroller (child optional) to this event. I felt I needed a child to fit in (don't worry, not happening) ( I'll just buy a stroller to carry all my stuff around).

The plane on display is below, a twin engine bomber...that's all I got, I don't really know much about planes, so hear goes.

A lot of the planes there were personal use, or flight instructors trying to sell you lessons. I think some people I drive scary, I shouldn't be flying a plane..

This little sea plane was for sale (sale pending) and iiiiiiii want it, or at least ride in one. Soooo cool, reminds me of Speed 2

Ok so above and below planes... Below helicopter is mosquito control for Lee county. I heard the above is the same thing. Please note if above plane were flying around Fort Myers at low altitudes, people would care. I also heard it was used in oil spills like on the ocean, and would dispense a chemical meant to break up the oil, far more believable. Either way a pretty neat plane.

This dude was giving rides, along with a helicopter, but it seemed like they were swarming my apartment all morning (Obviously they weren't).

Afterwards I met up with some friends at a sports bar to watch Iowa State get their butts kicked. We actually missed the one touchdown they got because I was trying to get in a fight with some Florida fans that were going nutso playing Georgia, and was watching that game instead. Maybe next year Iowa State...

xo A