I love my little town.

I said to my husband this morning, "It's days like yesterday that I really love where we live."  He agreed.

Yesterday was the 15th annual Greening Up the Mountains festival.  From downtownsylva.org: "This annual spring festival, named for the way the “spring green” creeps up the mountainsides, began as a celebration of Earth Day and has now evolved into a celebration of our local economy, sustainability, and traditional heritage crafts."

Sadly, in my 6 years here, this was my first year partaking in the celebration.   We started with the Greening Up the Mountains 5k where we got these awesome shirts:

We then headed over to the festival where we entered a raffle to win a 55 gallon rain barrel...and WON!  I'm so excited.  The trash can rain barrel we made just didn't hack it.  In fact, last weekend it busted up the side so we were in dire need of a new one.  I'll post pictures later when we have it set up.  In the meantime, here are some other pictures from the GUtM festival:

I wasn't quite sure what to think of this rack(?).  And they had several.  I giggled a little bit.

 Lunch was YUMMY!  Indian fry bread topped with lots of yummy stuff.

Doing my part to save the planet.  Are you doing yours?

We couldn't leave without getting some kettle corn.  :)

This used to be the county courthouse until a new building was built several years ago.  They recently did a major renovation and now it's the public library.  It's amazing in there.  Especially compared to where the library used to be housed.

I had to get a picture of this beast.  His name is Jake.  His brother Elwood was at home.  He's the biggest pitbull I've ever seen.  

That night we went out to Soul Infusion aka "The Tea House", hung out with friends, ate good food, listened to some jam bands, and sampled some great brews out of Tuckaseegee Brewing Co-op's kayakerator.



Here's to good times and great friends.

The Ho-Hum Lunch

Lately I've gotten kind of tired of the same ol' stuff I bring to work for lunch everyday.  Sandwiches = boring.  Leftovers = blah.  But really, I just don't feel like I'm getting the nutrition I need.  Nor am I creative enough to do it on my own.  Thank goodness for Pinterest.  ;oD  I know, I know. "Here she goes about Pinterest again.  *sigh*"

But seriously, I get some wonderful ideas and find great new (to me) websites on this site.  One of which is this one:

Source: easylunchboxes.smugmug.com via Nicole on Pinterest

It seems like it started as a site for lunch ideas and then grew to where they're now selling lunchboxes.  I don't know.  What I care about is the variety of lunches.  And yes, obviously some (most?) of these are geared towards kids, but I think they can be great ideas for adult lunches too.  What I plan on doing is going through them starting with the first one.  The first one has cherry tomatoes...I don't particularly care for tomatoes (on their own) but I figure I need the great things tomatoes can give me that Fruit Roll-Ups cannot.  I don't buy Fruit Roll-Ups but I'm sure you understand the point I'm trying to make.  I also need to use up the rest of my grilled tofu, so I'll be packing that instead of the chicken strips.

Anyway, enough of that.  I just thought I'd share this site with my wonderful readers.  :)

Have a good lunch break!

Recipes April 15-21

Time sure does fly when you're having fun!  And when you're older and work full-time...they don't tell you that when you're growing up.

1.  Spinach farfalle with peas & diced ham - I'm in love with peas right now.  So yummy!

 

Source: theeccentriccook.blogspot.com via Nicole on Pinterest

2.  Baked buffalo chicken pasta - Okay, so this is not going to be a healthy one, but I'm craving the buffalo wing flavor right now.

Source: howsweeteats.com via Nicole on Pinterest

3.  Bananas foster banana bread - Trying to look for new ways to use my too ripe bananas.  This recipe uses a rum glaze--how can you go wrong with that?? 

Source: browneyedbaker.com via Nicole on Pinterest

Recipe Results

Why hello there!  I apparently forgot to post recipes and recipe results last week...so hold onto your britches, we've got a lot to get through today!

1.  Best Punch Ever - 4/5...it was pretty good but I guess the pina colada mix curdles somehow.  Still tastes good, just looks funky.

2.  Coconut & Lime Cupcakes - 4/5...gluten-free and my husband would not have been able to tell had I not informed him.  I forgot to add the lime zest into the batter; perhaps they would've been tastier.

3.  David Lebovitz's Tomato-Basil Pizza - 5/5...YUM!  But I love pizza...it's hard to go wrong.

4.  Dirty Rice with Andouille Sausage - 5/5...lovely spiciness!

5.  Crockpot Carnitas - 4/5...I wish I knew what authentic carnitas are like.  This seemed more like barbeque pork I was putting into a tortilla.

6.  Eggs Bendict - 2/5...I do not recommend this recipe.  The hollandaise was gross.  This was my first time poaching eggs & I failed miserably.  I've poached eggs two or three times since then & I'm getting better.  This is my new favorite way to cook eggs.

*I haven't yet talked about these next recipes, so I'm including their pictures/links with the review.*

7.  Chewy No-Bake Nutter Butter Bars - 1/5...I don't know if it was the recipe or if I did something wrong, but these were inedible.  Tossed 'em in the trash.

Source: picky-palate.com via Nicole on Pinterest

8.  Smoked Tofu & Egg Fried Rice - 5/5...had this last night...yum!  Used grilled tofu (pre-prepared) instead of smoked.

Source: fussfreecooking.com via Nicole on Pinterest

9.  Easy Sunday Lemon Pasta - 5/5...super easy & light.  I added tuna to mine because I love the spaghetti & tuna combination.  My stomach's growling...

Source: joythebaker.com via Nicole on Pinterest

 

Until next time...

Easter Weekend

Whoa nelly!  I don't know about you, but I had a jam-packed weekend and enjoyed every minute of it.

One of the things I got to do was get into a bee suit & put a bee hive together.  Fun!  My aunt has a hive in South Carolina and she decided to put one up here in North Carolina.

In all my beekeeper glory

Me on the left, my aunt on the right

Taking the food out of the bee container

 I also got to meet my new 1st cousin once removed (my cousin's son).  Look at how cute!!

 Happy Easter everyone!

Recipes April 1-7

First off, happy birthday to my nephew born around 1:00 this morning!  Second, happy birthday to my brother in law--not born around 1:00 this morning.  And third, happy April Fool's Day!

Here are the recipes I'll be undertaking this week.  And actually, I've already made the punch, the cupcakes are cooling right now, the carnitas have 20 more minutes to go, & I made the eggs benedict this morning.  Man I love not having to work on a thesis. Think I might finish my book today too.

1.  "Best" Punch Ever

Source: nobiggie.net via Nicole on Pinterest

2.  Coconut & Lime Cupcakes

Source: laurafriendly.com via Nicole on Pinterest

3.  David Lebovitz's Tomato-Basil Pizza

Source: davidlebovitz.com via Nicole on Pinterest

4.  Dirty rice with andouille sausage

Source: abigmouthful.com via Nicole on Pinterest

5.  Crockpot Carnitas

Source: amberdawnlo.blogspot.com via Nicole on Pinterest

6.  Eggs Benedict

Source: marthastewart.com via Nicole on Pinterest

Recipe Results

Hello there!  I realized this week how similar, yet different my tastes are from my husband's.  I always ask him what he thinks of whatever recipe I've made at the time and 9 times out of 10 it's not what I'm thinking.  Case in point:

1.  Stuffed shells.  4 out of 5  It was good and fairly simple to make, but I didn't enjoy it as much as my husband did.  In fact, I actually preferred the cooked shells just by themselves...without sauce.  Oh well.

Another case in point:

2.  Creamy avocado pasta.  5 out of 5  I thoroughly enjoyed this one and it was super easy as well.  My husband, however, wasn't as impressed as I was.  Nothing wrong with that, I just think it's funny.

3.  Oatmeal smoothies.  2 out of 5  I felt good about what I was putting in my body but the oatmeal left a strange grainy feeling in my mouth that I really didn't care for.  And just fyi: I didn't use yogurt, I used strawberries instead of raspberries, and I used some random juice I had in the fridge instead of coconut water.