It’s funny how sometimes even after the most amazing experiences, nothing beats the excitement of coming home, lying in your awesome ass bed and relishing in the glory of everything familiar again.  Home sweet home.
Even better, we came home to an exploding garden! Everything literally tripled in size while we were gone — the beans, the tomatoes, my wildflowers. We instilled life back into this little yard, it’s now filled with ladybugs, butterflies, bees ...

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Our European honeymoon has been a great success — Wells and I have bounced around Europe: Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne, Munich, Basel, Gimmelwald, Milan and Florence.  We’re finally winding down towards the end of our trip and finishing it off with the Amalfi Coast and Rome.  Just because I’m half-way around the world, you didn’t think I’d be able to stay away too long did you?  Good thing I have beautifully talented friends to cover for ...

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I have some pretty exciting news to share with everyone.  I recently started to contribute as a food writer and photographer at a great site here in Dallas called Crave DFW.  At Crave DFW “we Crave music, we Crave art, we Crave a great meal.” Lucky me has been given the assignment of featuring brunch recipes from the top chefs here in the city of Dallas and sharing a little about their restaurant and themselves.  ...

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In the spirit of Easter I’m featuring a great lamb recipe over at Artizone.  We used Martha Stewart’s recipe for inspiration for both the lamb and the couscous.  I love the bright green color and flavors for this dish, it just screams “ALAS! Spring is here!!”
We only have about a week left before Wells and I embark on our Epic European Adventure 2011 and my excitement is in full force.  However, I somehow let Wells ...

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I was daddy’s little girl growing up.  I was his constant shadow — anything he did, I’d do, anywhere he went I’d follow.  He’d tell me stories of his past, about that far away place I knew so little about.  “I was only 17 when I went away to work on the farms…we’d have little to eat…there’d be snakes in the bed…” I’d listen to his tales with fear imagining giant cobras lurking beneath his ...

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One of the many reasons why I fell in love with Collin was for his Superman abilities.  Whenever my computer crashed, BAM it’s fixed.  Whenever I couldn’t move that stupid heavy box, POOF he lifts it with one hand.  Even that one time when my heel got stuck in the crack of the sidewalk and my face was about to meet the pavement of death, like magic he not only pulls me back but frees ...

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Growing up, my relationship with my mother was far from harmonious.  We seemed to clash about everything: anything from curfew, clothes to taking summer school, piano – and oh yes, food.  From a young age I’d remember my mother telling me “You cannot eat candy or potato chips, they are bad for you and make you fat.”  So what would I do?  That’s right.  Eat candy and potato chips behind her back.
She was always nervous ...

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A few months an excerpt from the Wallstreet Journal caught my eye: “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior” which was written about Amy Chua, a Chinese-American mother/lawyer/author about her controversial parenting guide titled “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”.
While the general population took great offense to what her book had to say, in many ways I completely related to her experiences and even further, the excerpts lead me to a moment of clarity about the constant ...

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As many of you know, Collin and I will be embarking on a 3 week adventure through Europe at the end of April.  Instead of having a large extravagant wedding, we opted to spend most of our wedding budget on a trip for ourselves.  Yeah what can I say, we’re SELFISH.  But ever since I was a wee tot, traveling to Europe has been a dream of mine – the beautiful castles atop rolling hills ...

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There are many things to love about winter: extra blankets on the bed, sweatshirts, fuzzy slippers and boots, scarves and mittens, oh my!  There are also many things to despise about winter: shorter days, dry skin, the blistering cold, and oh yes, getting sick.  Being prone to respiratory infections, I always panic when I feel the symptoms coming on.  Stuffy nose, tender and swollen throat, head congestion—I’ll rush to chug packets of Emergen-C and chug ...

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Okay eggheads, it’s the last chapter of the egg series — thus far we’ve learned to hard boil, soft cook, and poach an egg. Don’t worry, I’ve saved the best for last: fried eggs and scrambled eggs. Can I get an AMEN? Nothing beats a perfectly fried egg with crispy edges cooked to a nice golden brown with a little pocket of buttery yolky goodness in the center. For you egg lovers, egg heaven is ...

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