Birthday celebration

It's only been a month since my birthday and I just now saw that this was still a draft and never posted. So here you go...
I'll start by saying I'm not a party person, I think of myself a fairly reserved, so for my big 3-0 birthday I had a nice evening with two of the most important people in my life and the most important fur baby in my life, ha.

Enjoying one of my favorite beverages

Sitting around this gorgeous fire pit, I got a steal on it at Garden Ridge, the pit and stand together $40! It may have been on sale because of the painting but I find that makes it more unique, the butterflies are a nice touch in my opinion.

The next day the hubs took me shopping and out to lunch at one of my favorite places, Cheesecake Factory. If you have never been be prepared to spend some time reading the menu, they have everything you could imagine. This salads is one of my usuals that I order, it's the mexican salad on the skinnylicous menu.

Did more shopping that I needed to, but hey, it was my big 3-0 birthday afterall.

The big present ware these fab oakleys! I had a great pair that I loved and was hoping they still made them but apparently not and this is what I went with, and they are pretty darn great. These are going to get a lot of wear this summer that's for sure! These were to replace the old faves that some animal, that shall remain nameless, decided when no one was around to take them off the dining table and tear them to bits with his teeth, ahem... Guido Bianchi!

All and all I had a pretty fabulous birthday to the Casey standards, all thanks to two beautiful people, my husband and my bestie!

Operation restoration-Subaru 1985 Brat

So I decided that with this new Iphone 5S that I just got that I would have a nice photo shoot out in the garage with one of my husband's toys. You probably know from other posts that my husband loves his Subarus and of course that's what he would choose for his project car.

He did some serious searching for this baby, she's a 1985 Subaru Brat, and she's miraculous!

I love the Brat, possibly for it's starring role in the show "My Name is Earl" or for the awesome seats in the back, it could also be because it's part car part truck and very strong for being such a tiny little thing.

Guido loves her too, he likes to sit up in the front  for now but when she's fully restored he'll be riding in the back.

My husband is slowly working on the Brat right now mainly because it's his busy time of the year for traveling and the weather is freezing. Once the weather warms up we'll be peeling away the plasti-dip and cleaning her up and working on restoring her back to her 1985 glory.

Yes I said we, I will help and learn some things like how to change a tire, brake pads, oil stuff like that but what I'm excited for is the painting and the exterior part...let's get real I am a girl and my main appreciation of cars is that they look pretty and they go fast, what more do you want.

She is in pieces right now, remember that when you look at these pictures.

Before something can be restored you typically have to strip it down to it's basic structure and work it back up from there.

This baby is from 1985, you can imagine the things that have been done to her in the past 29 years.

It's going to take a lot of work and elbow grease but it's going to be worth it.

It's cool that it's an old car, that is very rare in the area where we live.

I'm excited to get this plasti-dip stripped off and get started on the cleaning, since that's the biggest part I get to help with of course.

My husband does love teaching me things so I'll let him go through a few pieces of information, but I'm telling you there is only so much my brain can retain about cars.

The important thing I know is that this car is going to be gorgeous when she's fully restored, I've already had dreams about riding down a winding country road sitting in the back of the car with Guido next to me...while hubs is driving of course.

Stay tuned...

Weekend wrap up

Okay...it's catch up time! These pics are from 2 weeks ago actually, I know they've been sitting in my drafts for awhile I just haven't got around to writing anything and clicking that little publish button.

We had a nice blast of warm air roll in for a Saturday and we took full advantage, you can see Guido enjoying the sunshine on the deck.

We headed to the park for a nice walk around the pond, you can still see the ice has not melted but the sun was shining and the wind was not too bad.

Later on Saturday night we headed out to Pompilios, to celebrate my hub's birthday and our upcoming anniversary. Pompilios is a little wonder tucked away in Newport, Ky and usually it's fantastic but that night was not a good night for them. The weather had warmed up for the first time in a long time so it drew out people go dining and Pompilios was one of the hot spots, they had a two hour wait and they do not except reservations, they should work on that it may improve operations. We waited and waited and finally got a table, I think that the kitchen was a little rushed that night because I'm usually very happy with my meal at Pompilios but not this time, the pancetta in my pasta was very thick and I'm not sure if it was under or over cooked or re-cooked but it was big, chunky, and terribly chewy, I was very disappointed.

Sunday the temperature dropped back down and reminded us that it was still winter for awhile longer, we cuddled up inside and lit some candles. The weather was not pretty at all so we stuck around the house for most of the day, but I did somehow talk the hub's into grilling me a burger!

He got a new grill, I guess you could call it his birthday present. The grill was awesome and the burgers turned out perfect and hit the spot on a cold and nasty day.

Later on...out of boredom I decided to give meringue cookies a try, I've always heard they were so difficult to make.

The meringue cookies are not difficult to make, quite easy actually, but they take forever to cook. They bake at a low temperature for 45 minutes and then you turn the oven off and let them sit in there and cool for at least one hour, but be aware that letting them cool too long you will end up with meringue cookies that crumble in to a million little bitty pieces.

I would definitely make them again, possibly for the upcoming St. Patrick's day with green sprinkles, hmmmmm that's an idea.

Cookies and beer!

So we have established that I love to cook and I got one of those awesome Kitchen Aid stand mixers as a Christmas present...so here was the first recipe, chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I wanted to make a lighter version than normal of course, that's how I roll. 

The recipe calls for:

-1 and 1/2 cups of white wheat flour

-1 cup of sugar (used splenda baking mix because I was low on sugar)

-1 cup of brown sugar

- 2 eggs (used 1/2 cup of egg whites because I was low on eggs)

-1 tsp of baking soda

-1 tsp of salt

-1 cup of butter or oil (or in my case applesauce)

-chocolate chips (however many you like)

-3 cups of old fashioned oats

-1 tsp of vanilla

The first step was measuring the dry ingredients and mixing those up in a bowl then you mix the apple sauce and sugars together in the mixer until well blended and slightly fluffy.Once the wet ingredients are all mixed add the dry in gradually mixing on a low speed. The second to last ingredient you add will be the oats, it calls for 3 cups but that may seem like a bit too much, you should use at least 2 and 1/2 cups though. The very last ingredient are you chocolate chips and those you should mix in with a spoon or spatula because the mixer will break up the chips. 

The mixer worked fabulously! Oatmeal cookies are one of my favorites but are no fun making by hand because the dough is very thick and hard to stir, the mixer held up nicely and plowed right through the thick dough. 

Pop rounded spoonfuls on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 mins

Since we whipped these up on a Sunday afternoon we thought we enjoy a nice amber beer with them. Fat Tire New Belgium Ale is one of our favorites, it was a rare find in Ohio up until about a year ago. This is a fairly light amber so if you are not normally and amber fan go ahead and give this one a try, the flavor is a bit malty but not to dry and it pairs nicely with just about everything from chocolate ship oatmeal cookies to a greasy burger and fries. 

We had so much fun whipping up these cookies, I'm excited for the next recipe to try with the mixer. I am thinking I need to do a pizza or some kind of bread...hmmm keep your eyes peeled for more!

Christmas Baking

This weekend was all about Christmas again, of course it was since it's the last weekend before Christmas. 

We did some Christmas baking and some decorating since a lot of the decorations were already 40% off this weekend!

First on my list was sugar cookies, since I'm still a newly wed I actually did not have a rolling pin or any holiday cookie cutters so to make due we just decided to make sugar cookies with Christmas sprinkles and they turned out awesome! Next year I plan to have the rolling pin and cutters so I can have a full on cookie decorating party!

My sugar cookie recipe was a very simple one:

-2 and 3/4 cup of white wheat flour, I use the King Arthur one

-1 tsp baking soda

-1/2 tsp baking powder

-1 cup of butter softened

-1 and 1/2 cups of white sugar

-1 egg

-1 tsp vanilla, I used 2 tsp of Madagascar vanilla bean bourbon instead 

Mix all the wet ingredients and then slowly incorporate the dry, it will seem a little dry and in pieces, once everything is incorporated use your hands to squish it all together in one giant ball. Pinch off little 1 inch balls and roll them around in your hand then pop them on un-greased cookie sheets and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 8-10 mins. 

Let them cool on the baking sheet for two mins before removing to the wire rack to cool the rest of the way. Spread with some white icing and top with a variety of holiday sprinkles and there you have awesome holiday sugar cookies, and p.s. no one can tell they are whole wheat.

Next up we decorated our Christmas stockings! I was limited with my puff paint choices at the store we stopped at so don't judge the neon colors.

These red stockings are $2.99 at meijers we grabbed up enough for our little family and then got to decorating.

They turned out pretty darn good for the limited supplies, thanks to the creativity of my awesome husband.

Next up I made a batch of rice krispie treats, these are one of my favorite desserts. I'm not sure why I love them so much, I am guessing they are more nostalgic for me than anything. Rice krispie treats were one of the first things I ever learned to cook, being that it's super easy. 

All you need is 40 large marshmallows, 3 tbsp of butter, 6 cups of rice krispies, I added red and green m&ms to be festive. Take all 40 marshmallows and 3 tbsp of butter and put them in a microwave safe bowl, heat it up for 1 min and 30 seconds then give it a stir and heat again for another 1 minute and 30 seconds. Once the marshmallow mixture is ready add the 6 cups of krispies and stir them up until they are all covered in marshmallowy goooo then dump it in a 9 x 13 greased baking dish and top them however you wish or leave them how they are. Let these cool for at least 15 mins before attempting to cut and eat them but usually they need an hour or two to cool completely for cutting and serving. 

Only two more days left, I for one can't wait to spend my Christmas morning with my big cup of mocha latte curled up in my PJ's with my hubs and our pup!

Black Friday, nah I'd rather...

So it's the day after Thanksgiving, when a lot of people are waking up early and heading out to snag super deals on their shopping lists. I prefer to sleep in and wake up nice and slow on my day off from work and school, it's nice to sit on the couch catch up on social media with a cup of coffee, or in my case tea.
Well this Black Friday we decided we would turn it into Decorate Friday! We pulled out the holiday decor and popped open a bottle of Skinnygirl Margarita, my fave!

No margarita glasses this time since I was planning to be dancing around the house with my drink in hand to the lovely sounds of Michael Buble's Christmas album, don't want the drink spilling out as I twirl around.

Since it's just the two of us and our little fur baby we don't do a big tree, we have a nice little 3 footer that fits perfectly in the bay window. (FYI since this was done we have also added some red ornaments and a new tree skirt, follow freckledfair365 on instagram for pics)

Blue is our favorite color so it's only fitting that our tree be silver and blue, I like having a tree that is in the same color scheme. I know it's fun to have the hodge podge tree covered in a million different ornaments you've collected over your lifetime but there is something pretty about a tree with just a few colors that go together so nicely!

We did run out to Pier 1 Imports, luckily they were not very crowded on this lovely Decorate Friday. We picked up a pretty wreath to put on our new front door along with some lovely sparkly cranberry looking garland to wrap around the light post.

We had so much fun decorating at our new house and again I promise I will get pics up of the new place soon. I don't want to post until everything is just perfect and I'm still adding finishing touches all around the place so soon, just be patient, and Happy Holidays!