Recipe for the perfect 4th of July weekend!

Adorable patriotic bathing suit:

Southern Caviar...mmmmm:Sweetwater 420...my beer of choice:

Flag cookies!And of course, no celebration would be complete without fireworks!My weekend will consist of pool time today, our family's annual 4th of July party tomorrow, and the lake on Sunday! Have a great 4th!

Love.

This dress was MADE for me. Why can't they have it in my size?! :( I'm just hoping that it's restocked soon! You can't beat this price, that's for sure.

Mod Cloth Grass is Greener Dress - $49

New Recipes!

Since I am currently a stay-at-home-wife (hopefully not for too much longer!), I have PLENTY of time to cook new recipes for my husband and myself. I am cooking almost every single day, so I'm trying to mix it up a little bit.

Monday night, Michael slow-cooked BBQ ribs in our crock pot all day. They were so delicious; the meat practically fell right off the bone. For an appetizer, I made fresh mango salsa! I got the recipe from Good Things Catered, one of my favorite recipe blogs. I forgot to take a picture, so I've borrowed the one from her blog:

Mango Salsa (image from Good Things Catered):

This recipe was so easy...you can find the exact details on her blog, but it's basically two fresh mangoes, half of a red bell pepper, half of a red onion, a jalapeno pepper, and lime juice. Dice everything and mix it together...Michael loved it!

Last night, I made Three Cheese Manicotti! It was so yummy and I am not even that huge on red sauce. Actually, I hardly like red sauce at all. But this is so light on the sauce (and heavy on the cheese)! I found the basic recipe on All Recipes (amazing site), but I adjusted it a little. I changed the order, cook times, and I added spinach. Here is my recipe:

Three Cheese Manicotti:

• 1 package manicotti shells
• 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 2 cups ricotta cheese (my favorite!)
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 T. minced fresh garlic
• 1 egg
• 2 T. dried basil
• 1 package frozen spinach
• 1 jar pasta sauce

1. Pre-heat over to 350 degrees. Soak manicotti shells in salted, warm (not boiling!) water for 15 minutes.

2. In a bowl, mix together 3 cups mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup Parm cheese, garlic, egg, basil, and spinach. Stuff manicotti shells with cheese mixture.

3. Coat the bottom of a lightly greased baking dish with half of the jar of pasta sauce. Place the stuffed manicotti shells on top of the sauce. Cover shells with remaining sauce and remaining mozzarella cheese.

4. Bake for 20 minutes; sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese, and continue baking for 10 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Here is a picture of our dinner...Michael loved this one too. I think it would have been a little too boring without the spinach. We had plenty of leftovers for lunch today:

Tonight, I'm cooking Balsamic-Glazed Salmon Fillets, green beans sauteed with pine nuts, and baked potatoes. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Front Porch: Before and After

Our front porch is one of our favorite places in our house. It's so perfect for relaxing, reading, or having a glass of wine! We live in a really cool area, so there is a lot of people-watching also :) Since, we just are renting, there is only so much we wanted to do to our house. We did a few things though that completely change the curb appeal of our house.

Before:

After:
We added some pretty wrought-iron porch furniture, as well as a wreath (Restoration Hardware outlet!), and a doormat. I also hung some beautiful ferns and planted some colorful begonias in the flower bed.

Another view of the front:

One last view:

It's starting to get a little too hot out there, but we still enjoy it in the evenings. Michael has even planted a little vegetable garden on the side. We absolutely love our front porch!

Wedding in Pensacola!

My friend Kaitlin got married over the weekend in Pensacola, Florida...it was so beautiful! Michael stayed home, so I went with my friend Tara, which was so much fun! Their wedding reception was at the beautiful Pensacola Country Club, which directly overlooked the water. The food was delicious and the flowers were beautiful...we had a blast!

Tara and I outside at the reception:

Pretty flowers:

The gorgeous cake:

Tara and I again:

The beautiful bride and I:Me, Julie, and Tara:

I had so much fun spending the weekend with my college girlfriends...I'm sad it's over!

Yummy Dinners

Michael and I do a LOT of cooking now that we're married. We both love cooking and it's definitely cheaper than going out to dinner. We have had so much fun trying new recipes every night!

Tuesday was our "1 month" anniversary...cheesy, yes. But we wanted to eat the top layer of our wedding cake at 1 month rather than 1 year, because 1 year just sketches me out. Anyways, we cooked a big dinner Tuesday night, drank champagne, ate wedding cake, and watched our DVD from our wedding. It was so nice!

Michael cooked pan-seared steaks and I made couscous with fresh tomatoes, garlic, feta cheese and parsley. We also steamed some broccoli, but that wasn't quite as exciting:

Last night was Michael's mom's birthday, so we had his whole family over for our first dinner party! I cooked all day long...it was so fun! I cooked stuffed mushrooms for our appetizer, which is always a hit. For the main course, we had fresh salad, chicken piccata, mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, and biscuit poppers. I made a Key Lime pie for dessert! I think everyone liked the meal...I hope they did at least, since I cooked everything from scratch!

Dinner on the table!

And I just had to include a picture of Bailey!

We have so much leftovers! Have a great day!

Honeymoon Recap!

I completely forgot to post pictures from our honeymoon, which was absolutely AMAZING! We spent a week at the Royal Plantation Ochos Rios in Jamaica. The Royal Plantation is a small boutique hotel, but also all-inclusive, so we were completely pampered all week. It was the perfect honeymoon!

The resort was really small, but very upscale. Every meal was at least 3 courses and dinner was usually 7 courses...I think I gained 5 lbs in one week! Our suite was amazing and huge. Our balcony was right over the ocean, so we had an amazing view.

Michael and I on our flight early Sunday morning:

We were greeted with champagne while we waited for our hotel transfer:
Lunch at the beach cafe...the coconut shrimp was AMAZING!

View from the beach cafe:

Our beautiful suite:

First day on the beach. The beach was amazing! We had beach butler service, which was perfect. They started everyday by serving Mangosas and fresh fruit...we had so many drinks on the beach!

Miami Vice...delicious!

Champagne before dinner:

Dinner at La Terrace, the more casual of the 2 dinner restaurants:

Our yummy dessert:

We went zip-lining through the canopy one day...it was so much fun. I highly recommend it!

An action shot of me zip-lining:
Picture in our room (with a timer):

Red vino!

View from La Terrace:

Dinner at Le Papillion, the upscale French restaurant:

Beach on the last day...notice the Lilly bathing suit :)

Michael enjoying the beach:Dinner on the last night...so sad:

Room service breakfast the last morning:

I would HIGHLY recommend the Royal Plantation for anyone looking for a quiet, relaxing honeymoon. We had so many extras included, like snorkeling, glass-bottom boat tour, kayaking, high tea in the afternoons, turn-down service...I could go on and on. Michael and I had such a good time just relaxing, reading, laying on the beach, and eating yummy food. I want to go back!