Oh Lily...

Lately...

Summer is definitely upon us here in South Florida! I've noticed less traffic on the roads, more humidity in the air and the smell of our neighbors grills fired up in the evenings...The only thing missing is the daily afternoon rain showers - which our grass desperately needs! When it's so beautiful outside and you work five minutes from the beach, it's torture to sit behind a desk and stare at a computer screen all day!

Luckily, Andy and I have a bunch of fun trips planned for this summer and a lot of great things to look forward to. Two of our friends are getting married - one in Charleston, SC and the other here in West Palm. We are taking our annual trip up to Jonesport, ME with Andy's family - which is always a highlight of the summer. How can you beat catching your own lobsters and picking your own blueberries to make homemade blueberry pie?? Here are some pictures of our last trip to Maine:

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing Memorial Day weekend. I know I will be soaking up every second in the sun that I can get!

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

Andy and I finally got around to doing some yard work in our backyard this past weekend! We ripped out a lot of overgrown plants and cut back some trees. I will post a picture of our whole backyard soon, but in the meantime, here is a shot of my garden - which is still in the works!

Chicken & Goat Cheese Quesadilla Recipe From Women's Health Magazine

 

I made this last night for dinner and it was quick and delicious! My friend, Jaime, showed me the recipe from her Women's Health Magazine, and being the goat cheese-lover that I am, I had to try it. 

Ingredients     

• 1 1/2 oz goat cheese, softened to room temperature
• 2 tbsp shredded monterey jack cheese
• 1/2 tsp virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped vidalia onion
• 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup diced cooked skinless white-meat chicken
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
• 4 six-inch corn tortillas
• Nonstick cooking spray, preferably olive oil

Directions

1.

Combine cheeses in a small bowl. Set aside.

2.

Heat olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium-low heat. Add onion and saute for 2 minutes. Add corn and pepper; saute for 1 minute. Add chicken and saute for 1 minute. Remove from heat, then stir in cilantro.

3.

Divide cheese mixture and spread over 2 tortillas. Layer each tortilla with half the chicken mixture and top with remaining tortillas.

4.

Spray a large frying pan or griddle with cooking spray. Warm quesadillas over medium heat for 5 to 6 minutes, flipping halfway.

Orlando Getaway

This past weekend we went on a great mini-vacation to Orlando with Andy's family. The trip felt like it was much longer than two days - probably because we crammed so much into the time we were there! We went to two parks - Universal and Islands of Adventure, spent time by the pool at our beautiful hotel, the Royal Pacific, and ate at Emeril's restaurant in CityWalk.

This picture is in front of the new Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster in Universal. We loved that you got to select which song you wanted to listen to during the ride. I rocked out to a little Black Eyed Peas "Pump It." (LOL) The craziest part about the roller coaster was the beginning when you are lifted straight up in the air 17 stories high and then you zoom down into that first loop at 65 mph! Talk about an adrenaline rush!

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure was really cool to see even though I am pretty anti-Harry Potter. :) The weather was absolutely perfect the entire time we were there!

On Saturday night before dinner, we spent some time relaxing in the pool. We were able to watch the Kentucky Derby at the tiki bar and also saw the torch lighting ceremony that the hotel puts on complete with fire throwers and hula dancers.

Later that night, we had a fabulous dinner at Emeril's in CityWalk. I was very impressed with the food and recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Orlando! I wanted to try one of their signature New Orleans dishes and decided on the andouille-crusted redfish. It was delicious! I forgot to snap a picture of mine, but here is one that I found online...

We had such a great weekend!

My Best Friend's Cupcakes

My best friend, Cara, who lives in Denver, has a blog called Cara's Cupcakes where she shares all of the amazing goodies that she makes. I am always so impressed with her baking skills! If you ever need a cute idea for a holiday party, look no further - she has all of the important occasions covered.

I can't wait to try some of her recipes out - Andy has his heart set on me making her spaghetti and meatball pie!

Recipe: Spicy Sausage and Broccoli Caprese Pizza

Homemade pizza is probably one of my favorite dinners, and once you master the basic technique, they are so simple to make! You can pick whatever toppings you like, whether they be caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, goat cheese, sausage, fresh mozzarella or sliced pears, the possibilities are endless. I prefer to buy the raw dough from either a local pizzeria (just call and ask for them to sell you an uncooked, rolled out pizza dough) or the bakery at Publix (these you have to roll out yourself). This is the perfect dinner to make with your husband or boyfriend too! Here is what you need to get started:

pictured: pizza dough, extra virgin olive oil, hot sausage, fresh mozzarella, locatelli cheese, steam-in-the-bag broccoli

not pictured: fresh basil, red pepper flakes, roma tomatoes, flour

Preheat your oven the 450 degrees. Flour your workspace and then add the dough on top...

In the meantime, brown your sausage - or have your husband do it :)

Back to the dough - use your fingers to kneed the dough and press outwards while spinning it in circles. Once your dough is shaped the way you want, place it on the pan that you are going to cook it on...

Drizzle a small amount of olive oil over the dough and spread with your fingers. Now your dough is ready for its toppings! For the Spicy Sausage and Broccoli Caprese Pizza, you will need to add sliced roma tomatoes, sliced fresh mozzarella, steamed broccoli, crumbled hot sausage (pre-cooked), fresh basil, red pepper flakes and locatelli cheese. It will look something like this...

Once you're at this step, I add a little extra olive oil over the top and on the crust so it will get nice and brown.

You can never have too much help in the kitchen!

Bake your pizza for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and the crust is golden brown. You may need to put it under the broiler for a minute to get this way...

Use a pizza wheel to cut the pizza into eight slices. Now it's time to dig in! I promise you...this is amazing!!!

Weekend Recap

To start this post off, I want to say that there are events that happen in your life that really put things into perspective. Today, I am grateful for a lot of things, but most of all, for my family.

Overall, Andy and I had a really fun weekend.

We did a little of this:

And played with these guys:

We enjoyed Sunday brunch here:

I picked up this at the mall:

Then we headed over here:

And to top off the weekend, we watched this:

Despite all its bad reviews, I thought this movie was pretty entertaining!

I hope this week goes by fast because I am so excited for our girls night out on Friday to see Something Borrowed! It's the movie version of one of my favorite chick-lit books by Emily Giffin and I have been waiting for it to come out for over a year! CAN'T WAIT!!