• Appetizer,  Food,  Healthy,  Spicy,  Vegetables

    Homemade Salsa

    Holy August Batman! Is anyone else’s garden exploding? Mine is! Every day I am bringing in more tomatoes, squash, peppers, herbs… I mean don’t get me wrong, I love having fresh vegetables and herbs right outside my door, but good lord. There could be a small farm stand at the end of my driveway and I could STILL have too much. Makes for a happy coworkers and lots of ideas for a food blogger 😉 All kidding aside I really do enjoy having a garden. It keeps me busy and I love knowing where my food comes from. Clearly anyone who knows me, knows that I am all about eating…

  • Food,  Fun,  Healthy,  Spicy,  Sweet

    Cayenne Peanut Brittle

    It’s Monday again. How did this happen? Wasn’t it just Friday… Our weekends fly by way too fast and I know everyone ALWAYS says this. But, man, it’s true! There is never enough time in the weekend to get done what you want to get done or not get done 😉 Nothing terribly exciting is happening in my life at the moment. Lot’s of little things to keep me busy. Are you doing anything special on Valentine’s Day with your sweetie? I am normally not one to do the whole “Valentine’s Day” thing, but Patrick has gone all out this year for me. Which was unexpected and kind of great…

  • Cooking Light,  Fish,  Food,  Fun,  Meat,  Seafood,  Spicy,  Vegetables

    Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in NYC

    Are you ready for this post my fellow foodies? I was invited to attend the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party presented by Southern Living, Cooking Light, MyRecipes and RealSimple. It took place in NYC on June 8th & 9th in Madison Square Park. It was the 11th annual block party and it was so much fun! There were cooking classes, live performances, vendor tents with tools and foods, live demonstrations of cooking and cocktail ideas, and best of all BBQ all day long! I honestly had never heard of this event before, but I am so glad I have now. It is only about 2 hours from where I live…

  • Cooking Light,  Food,  Fun,  Healthy,  Soup,  Spicy,  Vegetables

    Black Bean Soup with Poblano Corn Pudding

    So I had to give my ring up…. 🙁 Before you get too upset, it is because I needed it re-sized, but I still didn’t want to give it up haha It is amazing how quickly I got used to that pretty thing being on my ring finger  🙂 I have also determined that where I work is not conducive to my super sparkly ring. These florescent lights do nothing for me. Do you think that is a viable reason to quit? haha Because I kind of do 😉 It has officially been a week since Patrick and I got engaged. Can you tell that I am still excited? Haha…

  • Cooking Light,  Food,  Spicy

    Pad Thai

    Happy Friday!! Ok first off….really snow?? There is 2″ of snow where I work and guess how much I got at our house? ummmm about 13″ and the same at my parents place. They are out of town for 2 weeks, so Patrick and I have 2 driveways to clean that have 13″ of snow on them and there is less than 2″ on the ground 20 miles away…really mother nature? Really. Second off… I have a question for all of you out there that are married/engaged… Did people ask you when the wedding was like less than 12 hours after you got engaged? Patrick and I have now been…

  • Food,  Fun,  Healthy,  Spicy,  Vegetables

    WDD – Healthy Four Bean Chili

    Hello all!! I have been lucky enough to take part in Carolyn’s Diabetes awareness post and I couldn’t be happier to help raise some awareness. Please check out his post from Carolyn over at All Day I Dream About Food. If you do not know Carolyn, now is the time! She makes the most amazing things and all of them are low carb. I don’t know how she does it, but she is an inspiration! She is also a hosting KitchenAid giveaway (blue in honour of diabetes awareness), go on over and check it out! One of the reasons that I really wanted to get involved with this post to…

  • Appetizer,  Food,  Healthy,  Meat,  Spicy,  Vegetables

    Baked Jalapeño Poppers

    Waking up to these cool mornings makes me happy. Walking to my car in the morning to head to work with the brisk air hitting my cheeks and taking a deep breath in of the crisp scent of Fall. Can you tell I love Fall? It reminds me of family, gathering with friends, riding on hayrides, apple cider doughnuts, tons of delicious food and {dare I say it} Christmas planning! There is just something about this time of year that makes me happy, to my bones just happy. Whether it is cuddling up with a book and reading in front of the fire or working on a cross-stitch while watching…

  • Healthy,  Snacks,  Spicy

    Maple Pecan Popcorn

    Happy Thursday Friends! Is anyone else glad that it is almost the end of the week? I sure am! Seems like the weekends go by so fast and the weeks just go slow, so I am always happy when the weekend is almost here. Plus that means that Patrick and I get to work on the house some more. I am so glad that we decided to do the majority of it ourselves. I know it takes a lot of time and sweat to do it, but it is SO rewarding when you see things getting done. It is super exciting to see! So most of you who follow me…

  • Food,  Healthy,  Soup,  Spicy,  Vegetables

    Spicy Roasted Tomato Soup

    Who loves summer? Who loves tomatoes in the summer? ::raises hand:: Tomatoes from the garden have to be one of the most delicious things. I don’t think it gets much better. Today I am stealing someone’s recipe. Well, maybe not stealing, but using and enjoying immensely. Steph over at Steph’s Bite by Bite made this amazing Roasted Tomato Basil Soup, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to try it. Not only am I a HUGE tomato fan fanatic, but I also have to stick to rather soft food at the moment. I knew this would be a winner. I changed up the recipe just a…

  • Appetizer,  Food,  Healthy,  Spicy,  Vegetables

    Pot Stickers a la Patrick

    Good Wednesday morning to you all! I woke up to some pretty intense thunderstorm this morning, which was amazing. I love waking up to thunderstorms. I have no idea why. I used to hate storms, was absolutely terrified of them. No joke. Like crawl into my Mom & Dad’s bed when I was 7 scared. Now? Love them. I couldn’t dream of a better way to get some shut eye. The pitter patter of the rain outside my window almost makes me feel calm now. But then I had to get up and go to work. Talk about a buzz kill! My teeth seem to be doing a bit better…

  • Food,  Healthy,  Pasta,  Spicy

    Spicy Malaysian Noodles

    Hi everyone! This marks the last day of our beloved Foodbuzz. I am not sure how I feel about not having all your smiling faces pop up on my Foodbuzz inbox everyday. I have done by best to try and follow as many of you as possible in any way that I can. Please feel free to do the same so that we can keep in touch. I most definitely want to keep in touch with as many of you as I can. I don’t always have a ton of time to see your posts as they come up on Twitter or Facebook because I have a full time job,…

  • Fish,  Food,  Healthy,  Spicy

    Corn Crab Cakes

    Do you have a go to meal whenever you go out to a certain restaurant? I don’t mean like going to the SAME restaurant, but let’s say you go to a burger joint…is there always one burger you kind of look for? Or an Italian place where you always look for a certain kind of pasta? This is me when I go to a seafood place… “Do they have crab cakes?” This is like my go to thing that I just have to have every time I set foot in a place that makes crab cakes. To tell you the truth, crab cakes were one of my first seafood experiences.…