Mini Party

Tonight I will be celebrating one my friend's birthdays with a happy hour at La Tasca with a ridiculous amount of sangria. In honor of these festivities let's have a mini-party right here right now!

Also kids, don't forget to comment, email, or tweet me your recipes for Friday Foodday!

Mini-Party

The bfs best sangria mix: CHEAP red wine and sparkling lemonade. That's it! No floating seeds or piece of fruit getting stuck in your teeth. No sticky fingers or waiting for the fruit to soak up the liquid. Just amazing sangria. Try it, you'll thank me later.



Next is the tapas; not my favorite, in fact I hate tapas because I don't like sharing food and I don't like teeny plates of food. Give me a big ol' plate of anything any day. But 63 tiny plates of one piece of something. Skip it. BUT if I were to make my own tapas here's what I would do:
The Spanish Omelet

• 6-7 medium potatoes, peeled
• 1 whole yellow onion
• 5-6 large eggs
• 2-3 cups of olive oil for pan frying
• Salt to taste
• Lots of bacon (lots is the correct kitchen term if you were wondering)
  

If I wasn't feeling large and in charge this week, I would show up in this:

Modcloth, Artificer Dress, $65


Jessica Simpson, Jessica pumps, $69

Etsy.com, Decadent Delinquent Earrings, $15

Happy Thursday everybody! See you for Friday Foodday!

I went there.

This post is dedicated to those who are battling lady parts drama this week. I know that is brutally honest, but there it is, I put it out there. We all deal with it, might as well talk about it and how it relates to fashion.

So, here's to you {insert name here} working hard at your desk while your uterus feels like the dough being twisted in the window of the Auntie Anne's at the mall. Here's to you {insert name here} at the office party while your ovaries feel like they are slowly being backed over by a UPS truck. Here's to you {insert name here} for blow drying your hair even when you feel like a hot air balloon filled with bricks.

Today's post is how to hide the irritability, bloating, PMSing, cramps, etc and still look darn cute. Good luck this week ladies. Stay strong.



I find the key to looking professional while camo-ing the blimp that is your stomach during this week is a nice dress or billowy blouse. Shall we?

Banana Republic, 3/4 sleeve faux-wrap dress, $39.99

Old Navy, Cropped Toggle Cape, $34.50

The Limited, Bow Front Top, $49.90

Target, Easy Care Neck Tie Woven Dress, $24.99

I find this also helps if all else fails:

The Tie Front Blouse

Hope everyone had a great Food Friday! I continued mine into Sunday when I cooked some bacon wrapped pork chops for the bf and I. YUM.

Also a special shout out to my friend Sarah who has a big birthday today!!! Here's what I got her for her birthday:

A portrait of her pups, Kitty!

I also hope everyone enjoyed the sunshine and the long weekend. It is kind of fall now right? Well one of my favorite blouses for fall is the tie neck blouse. It's very sassy secretary meets six figure CEO. I also like its versatility because- as you should know- if I'm buying a piece its gotta work at least 2 or 3 ways. This blouse can work with pants, skirts, or under a v-neck sweater.

Speigel, Sleeveless Silk Charmeuse Tie Neck Blouse, $59

Ann Taylor Loft, Self-Tie Button Down, $44.50

Newport News, Sash-tied blouse, $14.99

Anne Klein, Floral Tie Blouse, $79

Look for prints or solids in these types of blouses, and always silk. Yes I know, not machine washable, but it looks so much more luxurious.

Friday Foodday

Great news team!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's Friday Foodday!

So on Fridays I will post delicious recipes that are easy to make and don't involve ridiculous ingredients- because who really has crushed cumin powder lying around? Right. So please feel free to send your favorite recipes to me via comment, email or tweet and I will put them up for Friday's post!

I tried this one out on the bf last night. It got good reviews, I used a little too much pasta (is there such a thing??) and could have been more liberal with the salsa:

Cheesy Chicken and Salsa Skillet
2 cups multi-grain penne pasta, uncooked

1 lb. Boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1-1/4 cups TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa

1 cup Frozen corn, thawed

1 large Green pepper, cut into short thin strips

1 cup KRAFT Mexican Style 2% Milk Finely Shredded Four Cheese

COOK pasta as directed on package.

MEANWHILE, heat large nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook and stir 2 min. Stir in salsa, corn and peppers. Bring to boil. Simmer on medium-low heat 10 min. or until chicken is done, stirring occasionally.

DRAIN pasta. Add to chicken mixture; mix lightly. Top with cheese. Remove from heat; cover. Let stand 1 min. or until cheese is melted.

This recipe is from my fabulous coworker, Autumn!
Autumn's Crispy Stuffed Honey Mustard Chicken

You Need:

Skinless, boneless Chicken Breasts (3, halved to make 6 chunks)

Reduced fat swiss cheese (3 deli sized slices, halved)

Panko bread crumbs (1 cup)

Honey mustard thin pretzels (1 cup, crushed)

Flour (1/2 cup)

2 eggs (beaten)

Kosher salt (to taste)

Fresh cracked black pepper (to taste)

Parmesan cheese ((1/4 cup)

Dip:

1/4 cup dijon mustard and 3 tablespoons of clover honey

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and in a medium bowl, mix Panko bread crumbs, crushed pretzels, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese to create breading coat.

2. Butterfly each chicken breast half (do not cut all the way through) and place a half slice of swiss cheese between the folds and close

3. Dip each stuffed chicken breast half in flour and cover completely but be sure to shake off excess flour

4. Dip floured chicken breast into beaten egg and shake to remove excess egg.

5. Dip the breast in the previously mixed breading coat of Panko, pretzels, etc. Roll around until completely covered.

6. Place each breast in a small 8x8 dish (bottom of pan drizzled with olive oil) and bake for approx. 25 minutes.

7. Serve alongside homemade honey mustard dip. A honey beer would taste great with this!

This yummy treat is courtesy of my longtime friend, Annie via Smitten Kitchen!
Peach Shortcake

Cut into 24 2 x 2 1/2-ish squares. You can halve this and bake it in a 8 x 8 pan instead.

1 cup (7 ounces or 200 grams) white sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking powder
2 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (12 5/8 ounces or 359 grams) cups all-purpose flour (or you can measure 3 cups and remove 2 tablespoons flour)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces or 227 grams) cold unsalted butter
1 large egg
2 peaches, pitted and thinly sliced (between 1/8 and 1/4-inch thick)

Brown your butter: Melt butter in a small/medium saucepan over medium-low heat. It will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty. Stir frequently, scraping up any bits from the bottom as you do. Keep your eyes on it; it burns very quickly after it browns and the very second that you turn around to do something else. Set it in the freezer until solid (about 30 minutes).

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Butter a 9×13 inch pan, or spray it with a nonstick spray. In a medium bowl, stir together sugar, baking powder, flour, salt and spices with a whisk. Use a pastry blender, fork or your fingertips, blend the solidified brown butter and egg into the flour mixture. It will be crumbly. Pat 3/4 of the crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan, pressing firmly. Tile peach slices over crumb base in a single layer. Scatter remaining crumbs evenly over peaches and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until top is slightly brown and you can see a little color around the edges. Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.

The last recipe comes from my favorite cooking blog: Stephanie Cooks. Here is her yummy Bacon Wrapped BBQ Chicken

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
4 slices of center cut bacon
1/2 cup of barbecue sauce
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Black pepper

Directions:
1- Lay the bacon in a skillet and cook over medium heat for approximately 3 minutes, just until it begins to cook and gain some color. Be sure it doesn't begin to curl up, you want it to stay flat. Remove the bacon and set aside.
2- Season each breast with garlic and onion powder. Add some black pepper to each breast.
3- Starting at one end of the breast, wrap the bacon around tightly. Use the other piece of bacon to continue wrapping the breast. Repeat for the second breast.
4- Turn the oven on to broil. Set the chicken under the broiler for 3 minutes. Flip the chicken and allow it to broil another 2 minutes.
5- Remove it from the oven and turn the heat down to 400. Slather both sides in BBQ sauce. Return to the oven- cook until chicken is cooked through.


Thanks for the submissions guys! Have a great long weekend, I'll be back Tuesday!