Livin' The Life 9/26/2013

It's here!!!! The most wonderful time of the year only starts once DD 

(that's Dunkin' Donuts for the uninitiated) busts out the pumpkin coffee.

 Please tell me I'm not the only one who remembers Martin/Sheneneh.

Come on, my 90's friends!  Come. On.

Bacon & Egg Grilled Breakfast Sandwich

Well.  For a second there, this was going to be an embarrassing blog post.

You see, I rarely make anything involving croissants.  It's a shame, I know.  But I got down to photographing this tasty bacon and egg breakfast sandwich for you...and wouldn't you know it that these pictures looked remarkably similar to the pictures in my last croissant sandwich blog post.  Hmmmm...interesting.  What to do?  I ask this because in between me taking photographs and reviewing them, I happened to inhale this sandwich.  Whoops.

I started scrolling back through the photos I had taken right after the sandwich was made.  Thankfully, I found pictures of the sandwich styled a few different ways.  Finally.  My photo OCD has saved the day!

I have heard that some food bloggers take between 40 and 50 photos per blog post.  I don't know how they show such restraint.  I must take at least 75 photos each time.  It's a process, but I love finding those few photos that make me want to eat that dish again and again.

Anyhow, since I think this whole event is sort of hilarious (in a "I've been awake since an ungodly hour and I've only had one pumpkin coffee" kind of way), I still decided to put the "photo faux-pas" in this post down below!

Bubble Up Pizza

Can we discuss how I've never heard of bubble up pizza before?  Where was I?  I can tell you where I wasn't.  I wasn't scarfing down this deliciousness.  That's what I wasn't doing.

Since football season is back in full swing, I could totally envision myself making this for friends who come over to watch the big game.  That is, if my friends would actually come to my apartment to watch the game.  Hint: they won't.  Why?  I happen to be living large in the land of the early 2000's and I am still hanging on to my 27" box television.  No HD in sight.  You may think that this troubles me.  It doesn't.  In fact, I still love my box television.  As long as it works I'm never getting rid of it  However, it does eliminate me as a host for the big game.  So I guess I'll have to make this wonderful pizza and take it to someone else's place for a good time.

This recipe came to me via Julie over at Little Bit of Everything.  I initially considered creating a spectacular fall (aka pumpkin) recipe for this month's Secret Recipe Club,  but when I came across this pizza I just knew that it was "the one".  And how could I resist anything which involves those refrigerated biscuits?  I ate those things countless times as a kid so of course I couldn't pass up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make pizza out of them.

Boozy Watermelon Mint Agua Fresca

I debated for a while as to whether or not I should post this recipe.  You see, I had this grand plan of creating a watermelon mojito and knocking my own socks off with it.  I muddled that watermelon like nobody's business.  I ripped that mint apart with a vengeance.  I poured that rum like a boss.  And then came the part where I topped the whole thing off with ginger ale.

Hmmm...I may have forgotten to purchase ginger ale at the grocery store.

OK, time to MacGyver this thing up.  (If you don't know who MacGyver is, then I'm sorry.  Also, we cannot be friends.)  A girlfriend of mine loves to order vodka waters whenever we go out.  In my time of need, I rustled up a pitcher of water and poured it into my glass.

It was actually pretty good! I was shocked.  I really didn't expect it to be as tasty as it was.  This watermelon and mint is once again a winning combo for me.  Mixed together with sugar, water, rum, and lemon juice, this drink is definitely a quick boozy situation to savor in the last days of summer.

Nashville Trip 2013

Remember that time I went to Nashville?

I've been really lucky to take a few side trips in 2013 and Nashville, TN was one of the places that I've wanted to visit for the past year or so.  When my friend Sandra said she wanted to go there as well, we decided to just do it.

Here are the highlights of our time there:

• We stayed at the cutest Marriott hotel ever, Union Station.  It's a train station that was converted into a boutique hotel.
• According to our taxi driver, at the time it was built in 1900, it was Nashville's tallest building and considered to be a skyscraper.  Clearly it is no longer considered a skyscraper but it is gorgeous inside!

Watermelon & Mint Salad

The title of this post is way less interesting than originally intended.  You see, I picked up a few items at the grocery store the other day and this stash just so happened to include watermelon and an avocado.  The thought never entered my mind to combine them together.  I'm typically a salted-avocado slice kind of gal.  However, I then saw this post which combines watermelon and avocado into a salad! Since I already had most of the ingredients at hand I figured I'd throw this together to see what it was all about.

Let's segway to that moment when I slice open my avocado and there's a black ring throughout the entire fruit... You know that avocado got the stink side-eye.  But I pulled up my big girl pants and decided to simply leave the avocado out of this equation.  Problem solved in three seconds flat.  The recipe is pretty free-form, so I grabbed the ingredients I did have and got to work.