Oh, hi!

Oh, hi! It's me, Sophie. Remember how I said how I was excited to buy a house? Yeah, well, that shiny new-ness has worn off. When this is all said and closed, remind me not to buy and sell real estate for a long time, OK?

Let's just say this: it hasn't been a walk in the park negotiating with the sellers. We finally found out yesterday that our final negotiations were accepted. They can now initiate repairs to the house (electrical panel, HVAC ducts, new roof), while we wait for a closing day. Fingers crossed, we'll close by mid to late April.

A few photos, shall we?

A highly anticipated barbecue joint in our neighborhood, Pig & Pint, finally opened last week! The guys who started it have won barbecue contests around the country (including Memphis in May), so everyone was excited to try their competition style meat. We've been a few times and we've enjoyed it. I can't wait to try the boudin burger next.

First up, pork belly corn dogs. 

 Nothing like a good pulled pork sandwich.

 My favorite menu items (not pictured) are the tacos. I got the sampler, which included smoked chicken, brisket, and pulled pork tacos. Tasty!

The other day I got to go over to MG's house and we always like to poke fun at her dog Daphne and her photographic qualities (or lack there of). Look at her looking at the camera!

 Speaking of animals, this weekend was perfect cat-on-the-back-deck weather. She loves being outside in the sun!

 Mild weather makes me think of the beach and shrimp, so we had ourselves a "shrimp boil" this weekend. Can't wait to have the real, fresh thing at the beach.

A Little Announcement

A part of me is even nervous to talk about this, since we haven't signed on the dotted line, but, we bought a house!

It's been a crazy ride of a week, but we should be closing in the early part of April. We could not be more excited. I had to chuckle when Paul said last night, "I have a feeling your blog is going to go from what you ate to what you painted." It's probably true, considering there's over 2,200 square feet in this new house to paint. All. of. it. 

Fingers crossed for our home inspection this week - it's the only thing that's really standing in the way of our closing date!

Update

The blood orange loaf cake turned out great! It was labor intensive, but it was a lot of fun to put together.

 We've had a busy couple of weeks, but the weather is finally getting a little warmer, so we've had to take advantage. Last weekend we decided to go walk the multi-purpose trails down to the Overlook. Such a nice day!

Next week we actually have highs in the 70s!

Pinterest Inspiration: Citrus

Ashley's Pinterest post inspired me to write about something that I've currently been trending with on Pinterest lately: citrus. Since Christmas, we've come to find out that my lactose intolerance has ramped it up a few notches, so the past few weeks I've found myself looking for every alternative to dairy.

When it comes to sweet things with dairy - ice cream, etc., luckily more citrus and fruit flavored things are dairy-free. It's also the time of year that blood oranges, one of my favorite fruits, pop up.

Here's a few citrus recipes I can't wait to try:

Blood Orange Loaf Cake 

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Lemon Rosemary Cake

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We've also had a few mild days recently and I can't help but think of spring days outside drinking this:

Frozen Coconut Limeade

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I'm already dreaming about spring, gardening, and time outside. What about you?

NOLA

It's been a great week or two, but I've also been sick with a cold/bronchitis stuff, so I've fallen behind!

We've had a movie filming here the past few weeks about James Brown and I was lucky enough to get them to film on campus, so it was fun to be a part of the movie filming. The actors have been great to the city, with concerts at local restaurants/bars and Dan Akroyd even signing his vodka at a local spirits shop in town!

 Last weekend, since it was a long holiday one for us, we took a trip to New Orleans to celebrate Paul's birthday that had been on the 13th.

NOLA is one of the last close Southern big cities that we hadn't gone to together, so it was fun to show each other our favorite places.

I had to take him to Maspero's in the French Quarter. So good!

 View from our hotel room. A little scary being 30 stories up!

Walking around the French Quarter, we found these street performers across from Jackson Square. By the time they started their performance, there were easily 1,000 people standing around!

 The next morning we took a peek at the river before our cooking class.

 The New Orleans School of Cooking is one of my favorite things in New Orleans. (Past story here) It's demonstration style and the "chef" tells you stories and the history of NOLA food while they cook. Probably the highlight of the trip! We had gumbo, jambalaya, bread pudding, and pralines.

 Later that day, we took the street car down St. Charles and stopped into District Donuts Sliders and Brews. Coffee was great and their donuts were interested. We tried chocolate glazed, cookies and cream, and maple bacon. Bacon one was by far my favorite.

 That night, we went down to Freret Street to check it out. The guys that helped revive the street and started a bar down their called Cure (which is nationally recognized) helped our friends here at Brent's create Apothecary. We met them while they were here and they loved our neighborhood because it reminded them of Freret and where they wanted it to go. So, we had to make a trip down there. We heard rave reviews about Company Burger and decided to try it out.

This place was phenomenal. I'm not a big beef burger person, but OH man was it good. They have a condiment bar with 8 handmade mayos to try from. I had the garlic mayo, which was great.

They also offer Cathead Vodka as their house (a friend of our's vodka that's made right outside of Jackson), so we had to try their drinks. Really great place.

 We also went to the sculpture garden at City Park. Such a pretty day to be at the park!

As you can see, we had a great time. (Look at that beard!)

 On the way home, we went through Baton Rouge so we could go to World Market and Trader Joe's. We say this exit sign on the way back. That's a new one...

 Have a great week!

Bye Bye, Christmas

Christmas has come and gone, which makes me a little sad. I've had a good time at home and I miss it when I'm at work. 

 But, we had a great time over the holidays, including Christmas Day lunch with my family.

 Here's one of my favorite Christmas presents from Paul - a coffee mug from one of my new favorite potters, Sam Clark. His full time job is being the potter that makes all of the items for Mustard Seed and helps run their studio.

 During my holiday break, I scored some great thrift store finds right after Christmas. Everyone is unloading all of their unwanted things, and it's a perfect time to swoop in!

I found this plant stand at one of our favorite junk shops, Odds and Ends. Miss Evelyn, who owns the place, drives a hard bargain. Lucky for me, her daughter was working the day after Christmas. When a lot of the things I picked up didn't have tags, I probably got a much better deal than if her mom had been there! This plant stand was only $10 and I found a set of 15 soup spoons for my mom for only 25 cents each!

 I have to admit, I spent a fair amount of time doing nothing, which KT enjoyed.

 I also found some time to try some new recipes I've had pinned on Pinterest forever. This one is Crunch Cashew Thai Quinoa Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing. It was pretty good. My "resolution" of sorts for this year is to be much more intentional about meal planning, having things like quinoa and chicken already cooked for easy meals, and not immediately throwing up my hands and going out to eat. I bought this visual meal planner from Anthropologie (I had been eyeing it for a while) and it's been helpful for me to visually see the week.

 The Christmas tree came down this weekend, but the mantle has been refreshed with beautiful milk glass that I found on my thrift store excursion. I totaled it up and I think I spent $20 on all the milk glass. Not too shabby. Mom had found some eucalyptus over the holidays to decorate their door with, so I got to deconstruct one of the sprigs. I'm really happy with it.

Christmas + Soltice

I can't believe there's only a few days until Christmas. Especially with this unseasonably warm weather, it just feels a little weird!

Probably one of my favorite Christmas gifts (Well, I thought it was a Christmas gift and then Paul says it's just a happy) so far are my new-to-me soup spoons. I found them on Etsy and have loved having them to eat with for soups and chili.

 We've gone to some fantastic Christmas parties over the last few weeks, including dinner at Walker's. Paul got the filet and I got the Redfish Anna. So good! The paper slips on the right are "Arden-ism" or sayings that our friend Arden says all the time. We had fun going around the table saying them out loud. 

 I was over at MG's the other day and I told Daphne that I wanted a picture of her. This is all I could get. What a weirdo!

 Speaking of weirdos, our cat loves the outdoors. So, I decided to go ahead and buy her a cat harness and leash (yes, there is such a thing). She's finally getting used to it.

 I'm really happy with how our front door turned out this year. This is the first year I've had my own door that was really worth decorating. 

 Every year, my family always gets together with the Woolverton's for Solstice. This year, we had it at our house! 

 (Can you tell I'm playing with my new iPhone fisheye lens?)

MG and Ryan made creme brûlée. It was so good.

 Chris, in addition to our dessert, drove into the foot long Rice Krispy Treat Paul and I gave him for Christmas...

Merry Christmas!