The Banquet.

We recently had a dinner party at our place. Justin liked to refer to it as a "banquet." Whether it was a banquet, dinner party, or get together, we had lots of good food and wine and even better company.

Justin and Sean planned a delicious menu (with a little assistance from moi):

Tuna tartare with avocado
Figs with goat cheese and almonds

Bacon and corn chowder

Beef tenderloin with a bacon and shallot broth
Fingerling potatoes with creme fraiche and chives
Asparagus
Brazilian cheese bread

Chocolate pots de creme with cherry whipped cream

Here we are with stuffed bellies.

You can read Meagan's recap of the event (and her whole Halloween weekend) here. And since she requested pictures, I aim to please:

Meagan & Jeremy (and baby H)

Sam & Bennett

Me & Justin

Sean (not sure what kind of facial expression this is)

Kevin (clearly winning the award for the best dressed; and no, he doesn't have socks on)

The boys (sans Bennett and Jared)

And last but not least, the girls.

I am saving myself the embarrassment and am not posting pictures on the blog of us playing Wii.

ShopStyle.

If you've never checked out ShopStyle.com, you don't know what you've been missing. ShopStyle compiles clothes and home items from tons of different stores and puts them all in one convenient place to browse. You can sort by item, color, brand, price, etc. I use it mostly for furniture, but it has tons of great stuff. The website is awesome when you are looking for a particular item (e.g., nightstand) because you can just go there rather than having to go to a bunch of different websites.

Tonight, I was looking for floor lamps. I came across a couple I liked:

at costplus world market for under $150.00

at ballard designs for under $100.00

at z gallerie for a pricey $299.99 and 20% off
(probably my favorite one, but of course, the most expensive. I also didn't find this one on ShopStyle; hopefully they will add Z Gallerie soon.)

This next one was too hilarious not to include. My apologies if you have an affinity for massive and expensive (and slightly frightening) horse floor lamps.

at unica home for . . . wait for it . . . $7,196.00
(and no, that is not a typo -- it is in fact over seven thousand dollars). It is 7.5 feet tall and weighs 435 lbs.

Trader Joe's.

I big puffy heart Trader Joe's. The only problem is there is not one in Texas. So we usually load up on stuff while we're in San Diego. We came home from our trip last year with 3 bottles of 2 buck Chuck wine packed in our checked bags. We didn't take the same risk this year and settled for safer, less breakable items instead. Here are the delicious food products we brought home (thank goodness for expanding suitcases):

We also got tea tree shampoo and conditioner and some body lotion. Their body lotion is awesome -- very moisturizing, but not greasy and it's crazy cheap. I wish I could get them to ship a gallon to me (and, while we're at it, a massive container of the shortbread cookies with chocolate filling too).

Maybe if this whole lawyer thing doesn't work out, I can open a Trader Joe's in Houston. It would certainly make my load a lot lighter on my way back from San Diego!

San Diego Recap.

We recently got back from our annual trip to San Diego. As always, it was too short, but it was great to spend time with my brother-in-law and my best friend and her husband.

We got in on a Thursday afternoon and headed straight for In-n-Out after dropping off our bags. Let's be serious, this was one of the most important stops on the trip.

We then cruised to Mission Beach. It was sunny at first, but then quickly got cloudy. I didn't know that happened in San Diego!

After Mission Beach, we headed to old town San Diego. I was amazed by the massive succulents.


On Friday, we met some friends for lunch over by the USS Midway.

Justin had been eying an antique map store in La Jolla, so we went there for him to peruse some maps of Texas. He found 2 that he liked -- now we just have to frame them and find a good spot to hang them in the house. And no trip to La Jolla is complete without stopping by the sea lions.

One poor sea lion had a fishing net around his head. They were doing a news story while we were there about trying to rescue him. If you look closely, you can see the plastic. He is the one laying right in the middle, facing the water. I am happy to report that a few days after we left, they were able to remove the plastic. Here is an update.

The views are absolutely gorgeous:

After running to Trader Joe's (I love that place so much, it is getting its own post), we headed to dinner at the Wine Vault. They have a delicious 3-course prix fixe menu on Friday nights.

We were up and wearing our burnt orange at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday for the big UT/OU game. The group consumed massive amounts of breakfast casserole. The one below, is one of the three we made.

On Sunday, we went to Point Loma. The weather wasn't overly cooperative. At our friends' house, it was sunny outside, but when we got to Point Loma, it was cloudy and chilly. The tank top and shorts weren't such a good idea. But there was great scenery, nonetheless. How cool are those rock formations? (click to see the detail)

We also saw the Point Loma lighthouse.

More gorgeous views:

After Point Loma, we went to Urban Solace for dinner. They serve "fancy" comfort food. It was delicious. Then we wrapped up the evening with some Scattergories.

While the views and weather are always nice in San Diego, the best part of the trip was hanging out with friends and family we don't get to see nearly enough. We had a great trip and are already thinking about our next time out there.

Pumpkin Muffins.

One of the best parts about fall is baking with pumpkin. In about late August (when it is still 100 degrees here), I start thinking about pumpkin delights. I have a couple of go-to recipes: pumpkin bread (recipe to follow) and fall harvest bread (with diced apples), but I tried a new one this past weekend and had to share -- pumpkin cream cheese muffins from Annie's Eats.

They are delicious! I love cream cheese/powdered sugar frosting. And I also love crumb topping. These muffins have the best of both worlds -- cream cheese filling and a crumb topping. Genius!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield: 24 muffins

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

3 cups flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

4 eggs

1 ¼ cups vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups pumpkin puree

For the filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

For the streusel topping:

½ cup sugar

¼ cup and 1 tsp. flour

4 tbsp. butter, cubed

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip until smooth. Form into a log on plastic wrap or foil, making sure that the diameter is small enough to fit into the well of a muffin pan. Wrap the log up tightly and freeze until slightly hardened, 1-2 hours.

To make the muffins, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar and pumpkin puree. Mix until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.

To make the streusel topping, combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Mix together with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well halfway with batter. Remove the cream cheese log from the freezer and slice into 24 equal slices. Place a slice in each muffin well. Divide the remaining muffin batter evenly among the muffin cups, on top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool completely before serving.

[My cream cheese never hardened in the freezer, so instead of slices, I had dollops that I spooned on top of the batter. They turned out fine, so next time I am not even going to worry about trying to freeze the filling. I also added about a teaspoon of vanilla to the batter.]

5 things . . .

5 random things . . .

1. I love the American Cancer Society's Holiday Shopping Card. Details to follow about the goodies we have bought for 20% off. The card certainly doesn't save you money (at least not for me). Rather, it acts more as an enabler.

2. I don't want to have a find a dress for my work's holiday party. I know it is pretty earlier to start thinking about it, but it is always hard to find something that is dressy and cute while still being classy and somewhat conservative. These dresses from Banana Republic are cute, but I think they would be too short.



3. I like this blog: www.elementsofstyleblog.com.

4. I dislike it when people ask you to be open and honest and then get overly defensive when you do. (and no, I am not referring to any close friends, family, or Justin.)

5. I love these recycled bottle glasses from etsy. How great are these?

San Diego Teaser.

I have been a bad blogger recently. Sorry! I haven't had time to go through all of our pictures from our trip to San Diego and do a full recap, but here are some "teaser" pics in the meantime:

Back Home.

Sorry for the lack of posting -- we just got back tonight from our vacation in San Diego. We had a wonderful time visiting friends and family, but are tired and not overly excited about having to go back to work tomorrow. I will be back soon with pictures and highlights from our fabulous vacation!

Etsy.

I love etsy (and frankly, could spend a whole day browsing on the site). I recently bought some necklaces from the seller wiyomu. You have to check out her store. The necklaces I ordered arrived yesterday and are so lovely. These are her pictures of the necklaces, not mine:

(Instead of blue pearls, I went with the ivory.)

Her items would make great gifts and are very reasonably priced. I love that many of the styles are customizable. And the shipping was quick too!

I need help.

I recently received the Boden catalog, and I am pretty sure there was something on almost every page that I can't live without. I've never ordered anything from them before, but may have to take advantage of the 15% off and free shipping both ways.


I am embarrassed to admit that there are even tabs on the bottom too. I was having trouble tearing the pages without ripping something I liked on the opposite side of the page, so I went to the only real estate that was left at the bottom. Now I just have to narrow it down (a lot) . . .

Riley.

We got a new camera that has a special setting just for pets. I am pretty sure Riley knows he should pose when the camera is set in "pet mode."



Speaking of pets, I learned last night on Jeopardy that Calvin Coolidge had a pet raccoon (named Rebecca). Interesting.

Chandelier Input Needed.

I need some advice on which chandelier to go with in the dining room. I think part of my problem is that I am not used to the pearson chandelier, so it still looks different/off to me. What do you think?

Here is the chandelier we originally purchased for the dining room:


Here is the new pearson chandelier:


I know I will need to get rid of the lamps on the buffet because it looks to "shady" with the 3 big drum shades in that room. And that is totally fine, I think the lamps will look perfect in our bedroom (with their original white shades). Maybe something like this below without the big lamps. Sorry for the poor lighting (clicking on the picture makes it a little easier to see).


Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

I heart Pure Design.

I am home from work today because I had to get a sacroiliac joint injection this morning (it is as fun as it sounds). (side vent: Why do they have you get to the hospital at 6:15 a.m, if they don't take you up to pre-op until close to 9:00?)

Any who, being home today has led me to one conclusion: daytime TV is terrible. Even HGTV and Food Network (my go-to channels) didn't have good shows on. Thankfully, I had some shows recorded, and today was a perfect opportunity to lounge around (and nap off the pain and sedation meds) and watch them.

I previously blogged about my obsession with Pure Design here. I was glad to see that a new season started recently. On the episode I watched today, Samantha redid a young couple's living room/kitchen.

How great are the Louis chairs, the ottoman, and the photo wall?


Love the kitchen chandelier and the pillows.


But my favorite part of the room is the trellis wallpaper behind the open shelving. Love it!