{life} bid day 2012

Senior Brunch!

Riding to the Westcott Fountain in style, obviously!

Seniorrrrs!

These are the years we will always remember. <3

Seniors in green - new babies in blue.

In love with them already!

BEAUTIES!

Most of the seniors.

My rush crush came HOME! :)

My pledge class is so small now!

The best of the best.

A little fur baby made it to bid day too! 

Leetle & I!

Phi Mu, forever.

{life} recruitment 2012

It has been a crazy week. There have been lots of practicing, lots of laughs, and a few senior cry-fests (already!!) We are so proud of our newest pledge class. They are all so calm and excited for recruitment to begin. My rush group is absolutely adorable. I have complete faith in them to bring home some a-maaaz-ing women. I don't have toooo much time to write a full post on pre-recruitment week but here are some pictures :)

My pledge class on our bid-day!!! Three years ago exactly. How time fliiies (and how much we have changed!)

My fabulous rush group from last year! Not sure why I am the only one wearing yellow? lol

My pledge class the first day of recruitment last year.

My pledge class the second day of recruitment last year.

Finally, my pledge class a few days later on bid day.

So many people have graduated! It is going to be such a small picture this year.

I'm not going to lie... I was kind of dreading going into pre-recruitment and recruitment week this year. Maybe because I've done it twice already, who knows? My best friend and the rest of the recruitment team have done a fabulous job so far though. I am thoroughly excited to bring home the most beautiful, well-rounded women going through this year! There are 1500 women coming through my house tomorrow and the next day. BRING IT ON! 

Best of luck to any Panhellenic women reading my blog!

{life} HI Y'ALL!

I've missed reading everyone's posts so much!!! 

I'm not sure how "back" I really am yet... Any of you who have been in a sorority knows the madness of pre-recruitment and recruitment weeks! Also. I just had to drop off my boyfriend at the airport. 

Not. Fun. At. All. 

Here is a picture from this week!

At the sketchiest bar in Tallahassee - mainly locals and very entertaining.

And just for fun, here is a picture from December 2006 - the first night we met.
Things have changed just a little bit. ;)

I can't wait to catch up on all of your posts!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week.

{blog love} giveaway winner

Hi y'all! I'm sooo excited to announce the winner of my giveaway!!

Congrats Heather. :) I know you'll love it!!!

Email me so I can get your monogram and design preference!

{life} taking a little break!

Don't be alarmed! I promise I will be back. I am going to write a post to publish on Sunday with the winner of my giveaway and a post to publish on Tuesday for Tuesday Ten! My boyfriend lives in NYC and is coming to visit me for a week sooo needless to say I will not be blogging! I know that y'all understand. :)

BF & I in the Keys during my spring break. :)

Oh... by the way, after that is SPIRIT WEEK. The week after that is Recruitment.

Good luck to all Panhellenic women during recruitment this year!

eeeek.

I will try my hardest to post and read your blogs during the next three weeks...

But I'm not promising anything!

It is about to get a little crazy around here.

Part of my lovely pledge class during last year's recruitment.
This is our last recruitment. We're the old ones now. Ah!

Don't fret though, I have some fun recipes to share with y'all today!

I'm a planner. AKA I already have a few things planned out that I am going to feed Seth while he is here. I never, ever get to cook for him since he lives so far away. I hate it! I have to suffer through hearing about his dinners every night. The kid eats tuna fish. Straight out of a can. And Chipotle. LOTS of Chipotle. The other night he was excited because he bought chicken from the grocery store. When I asked him how he was going to cook it he said "On the stove?" No sides. Just chicken.

He clearly needs me around. :-P

Soooo without further adieu, here are a few more ideas for recipes!

I probably will not be making individual blog posts and taking photos of these dishes.

BF thinks my blog is adorable buuuut I can already feel the judgmental stare when I hike on over to the window with our plates to take some pictures. No thank you. I'll just let the pros handle this one.

Steak with a Creamy Whiskey Mushroom Sauce - Recipe by Steamy Kitchen.
I'm going to serve these steaks with my Caramelized Onion Garlic Mashed Potatoes. 

Penne a la Betsy - Recipe by The Pioneer Woman
Serving this alone. Butter counts as a side right?

Sweet Potato Fries with a burger on the side. ;) - Recipe by Cookie and Kate.

To make up for the butter and the cream and the carbs and the meat, I am also going to make some low-fat, low-carb turkey and veggie stuffed peppers. Found the recipe on Food.com. No picture for this one. Just imagine it. It is going to be FABULOUS.

That is all that I have come up with so far but I'm super excited that Publix has a lot of the ingredients I need on sale this week. It's like they knew of my planning schemes. :) 

I will miss y'all and will try my best to catch up with your blogs as soon as I have time again!

Keep up with me on Twitter and don't forget to enter my giveaway!

It closes tomorrow at 11:59 PM.

{recipe} puffy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Here's what you'll need...

Yes, that Riesling poured in a monogrammed bedazzled wine glass is absolutely essential to baking these.

Just keeeding!

I know you can see that clock.

It was only 4:25 PM when this all went down.

I mean, when you have just scrubbed an entire apartment clean all by yourself, it is totally normal to want to pour yourself a glass of wine, blare some Honey Bee Pandora Radio (with a little Barefoot Blue Jean Night mixed in), and make some magical, puffy, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

Am I right, or am I right?

Getting ready for my new roomies to move in! It looks so empty. :(

I found this recipe on one of my absolute FAVORITE blogs, How Sweet It Is. Jessica is hilarious. Way funnier than me. If you need some comedic relief you really need to head on over to her blog.

I was going to make some pumpkin nutella swirl bread. I told myself to be practical though. Who wants to eat pumpkin bread in the middle of summer?! (Okay... I do, I do!) BUT. I knew I was going to have to pawn these off on people so I didn't eat all of them on my own. 

Who could turn down puffy. peanut butter. chocolate chip. cookies. ?!? Not you, I bet.

Amazing cookie dough ball.
I wanted to eat the cookies just from this ball.
I refrained. Barely.

RECIPE TIME!

Complete recipe credit to How Sweet It Is

All photos are my own!

I was able to make 24 cookies, but if you have bigger cookie sheets then it may differ for you!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 8 tablespoons of salted butter, melted and cooled
• 6 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter, melted and cooled (I used reduced-fat. That means they are healthy... right?!)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used some mini chocolate chips and some jumbo chocolate chips. Apparently my grocery store doesn't sell NORMAL chocolate chips. I'm really loving the jumbo chocolate chips in these cookies though. INSTANT deliciousness as soon as you bite in.)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Add butter and peanut butter to a microwave safe bowl, and heat in 30 second increments until melted. Let cool completely.

***Recommendations before you pre-heat your oven! Get the peanut butter & butter melted and take the eggs out of your refrigerator. Go about your business (aka, pour yourself a glass of wine) and then come back and preheat the oven once butter mixture is cooled and eggs are at room temperature. It takes longer than you would think.***

• Mix the flour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, mix the cooled butter/peanut butter and sugars until they are combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until mixed. Gradually add flour and mix until dough forms – it will look crumbly at first, but it will come together. I even used my hands to bring it all together. If necessary, add 1-2 teaspoons of milk, but I did not need this. Fold in chocolate chips.
• Shape the dough into a ball the size of a golfball. Place on a baking sheet two inches apart and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown. The centers should be soft and puffy. Do not over bake. 

*** I had to bake my cookies for 14 minutes. You don't want to overbake, but mine were still doughy looking at 12 minutes.***

Right when they went in the oven.

At 12 minutes - still kind of doughy looking.

Right after I pulled them out of the oven.

• Let cool completely then dig in!

Puffy, chewy, peanut buttery, chocolaty deliciousness

Who wants some cookies?

See that jumbo chocolate melt? Perfection.

Enjoy your cookies!

And wine. :)

PS. You would look so adorable baking these in the apron I'm giving away!

Don't forget to enter! The giveaway closes this Saturday at 11:59 PM!

{life} what I'm loving wednesday

Linking up with the lovely Jamie once again this week!

I'm loving that I am done with speech class for-ev-er. Um, well... I still need to take my final exam tomorrow buuuut NO MORE SPEECHES for a grade by this girl ever again. Whew. I survived.

I'm loving that I will finally be picking up this guy from the airport on FRIDAY!

He kinda makes me happy. :)

I'm loving the cookies I baked yesterday while drinking vino out of my monogrammed wine glass.

There. I said it. I blared some Honey Bee Pandora while doing it too.

No shame here!

I'm loving that I will be reunited with my best friends next week!

I'm loving these Pinterest finds.

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What are you loving today??

Link up with Jamie and let us know! :)

PS. Don't forget to enter my giveaway! It closes on August 6th!