Favorite Recipes - Mini Chicken and Waffles

One of my favorite (and easy!) recipes to bring to a party is mini chicken and waffles. It's always a big hit with guests and super easy to make! I got the idea from this site, which I found through Pinterest. I like to keep things simple so I changed the steps a bit...

You'll need:

Frozen mini waffles (I use egos from HT)

Chicken nuggets (I pick up from Chick-fila)

Honey or Maple Syrup

Toothpicks

Herbs for garnish/savory flavor (I used thyme in the picture below)

Heat mini waffles, then place on a platter and top with chicken and secure with toothpick.

Next, drizzle with honey and sprinkle with herb to garnish. 

Done and done!

I usually cover with tin foil and keep in the oven at a low temperature until ready to take to a party or serve. Such an easy and fun idea - perfect for girls nights and parties throughout the year!

Summer Goal: Canning Heirloom Tomatoes

My paternal grandmother, Pearl, always canned tomatoes, peaches, pickles, and lots of other amazing goodies that she shared with her children, grandchildren and close family friends. I was handed down her canning pot and have been wanting to can some tomatoes for myself for years but never got around to it until a few months back in August. 

Dad picked up the heirloom tomatoes and peaches at the farmer's market in Charlotte while I got the mason jars, canning book and other canning items at Target, which had all sorts of canning goodies to help me in my canning goals!

I blanched the tomatoes then added lemon juice and salt to the jars before sealing in the canning jar. For comparison, this entire basket was filled with tomatoes and I only ended up with 7 jars of tomatoes! This was partially because it was late in the season and some of the tomatoes weren't usable. 

This is an activity that I thought would take a couple of hours and ended up taking the entire afternoon. While it did take a long time, I'm so glad I did this and will absolutely can more tomatoes next year! I've really enjoyed using these tomatoes to make homemade tomato basil soup and marinara sauce that tastes so fresh and just like summer. 

Muggsy is ready for Christmas!

Muggsy made his Christmas card debut this year in a cute red gingham bow tie and will continue to be the dapper dog he is throughout the holiday season with his new bow tie! 

 

I ordered his new bow tie from an Etsy shop called Barking in the Rain, which has the cutest collars for pups! 

 I happened to be working from home on the afternoon that his new collar was delivered and opened up the delivery box to find the beautifully wrapped new collar with a note from the Etsy shop owner. 

The collar is solid red and the bow tie is red and green with a little sparkly gold thread throughout. 

The bow tie comes off so I can easily order new bow ties from the site and switch them out each season while continuing to use the same collar. 

All and all, I am so excited for this new collar and can't wait for Muggsy to wear it over the next few weeks! 

Christmas Card - 2014

As I mentioned in the Christmas Cards - 2013 post, our 2014 card of course had to include Muggsy!

We were planning to have some first anniversary with Melissa after our anniversary trip to California so it was perfect timing to include Muggsy when he was only 12 weeks old and about 11 pounds in our family session. Our photos turned out perfectly and Muggsy was absolutely adorable. I hope to do a whole post on this shoot since there were so many cute photos I'd like to remember.

We decided to go with Tiny Print's Sugar Vine design in red this year. I loved this design and how the red balanced out the amount of navy and green in our photos. 

This year, we kept it simple on the back with no photos. We still upgraded to kraft envelopes and used a custom address stamp that I ordered earlier this year instead of purchasing matching return addresses. 

Overall, I'm so pleased with the way our cards turned out - I hope to continue the Christmas card trend into 2015! :)

Favorite Recipes - Fall Harvest Salad

I had to make dishes for two friendsgiving dinners in the same day a few weeks ago so I needed something that would be easy to prepare ahead of time and require little work once at the parties. I started thinking about my options and decided to make salads and homemade dressing. 

One of my absolute favorite salads was one I used to get from Panera and only available in the fall - the harvest salad was absolutely amazing with mixed greens, pears, dried cherries, gorgonzola cheese, chicken and cherry balsamic salad dressing.

I googled recipes looking for this amazing salad recipe and found a copycat version of my favorite salad, here. I followed the directions loosely, making a few tweaks to the dressing (cooking the garlic, shallots and balsamic to mix the flavors more) and didn't add chicken since there would be a huge thanksgiving spread at each event. 

Tip: layer the toppings in the salad so everyone will get a taste of everything throughout the salad! 

Final product

I would definitely make this salad again! It was so delicious and everyone loved it! I just wish Panera still had it so I could order it every fall. :)

Christmas Cards - 2013

Since we just sent out our 2014 Christtmas cards yesterday, I thought I'd share our 2013 Christmas card design today. I'll share our 2014 card after its recipients get it sometime next week. 

We of course used some of our wedding photos for our Christmas card since it was only a few months after our August 2013 wedding.

Wedding Photos are all Melissa Joy Photography

Tiny prints has been our go-to site for creating cards - I love all of their options and styles of cards they offer each year. I decided on the "Our First Noel" design in "Blaze" for our first official Christmas card together and T approved as well! :)

Wedding Photos are all Melissa Joy Photography

We had so many favorite photos so I also chose to use some of our wedding photos for the back of the card. I upgraded to some fun silver envelopes and ordered matching return address labels too.

I'm so excited to share our 2014 card - Muggsy makes his debut and he is adorable!