Thursday Eye Candy: Celerie Style

Lately I have been smitten with Miss Celerie Kimble's Designs.

I received her book "To Your Taste" last year for Christmas and I have been flippig through it all weekend for inspiration.

Her work is gorgeous. A mix of traditional, modern, and electic. I absolutely love it.

I love elements of all these pictures. Her taste is right on point!

Roasted Eggplant Dip

I feel I have been eating pretty unhealthy lately, so I wanted an appetizer that was tasty and healthy and this fit the bill. This recipe is compliments of my girl Ina's very first cookbook and actually probably one of my favorite cookbooks she has done. This recipe is super healthy and so easy to make. It even tastes great the next day if you want to make it ahead. I served this as an app for a dinner party with hummus, kalamata olives, and pita chips- the perfect Mediterranean platter!




Roasted Eggplant Dip

Ingredients
1 medium eggplant
2 red bell peppers, seeded
1 red onion, peeled
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the eggplant, bell pepper, and onion into 1-inch cubes. Toss them in a large bowl with the garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread them on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, until the vegetables are lightly browned and soft, tossing once during cooking.

Cool slightly.

Place the vegetables in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, add the tomato paste, and pulse 3 or 4 times to blend. Taste for salt and pepper.

Obsessions-Beach Style

So far we are having the best time on vacay. Although my liver and belly are taking a hard hit with all the delish food and drinks. I thought I would share a few things I am loving this week.

PANTENE BEAUTIFUL LENGTHS RESTORE SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER
I bought this because it was in bottles that were easy to transport and lets face it my hair is in bad shape from the sun, color, and heat tools I use. This shampoo and conditioner is supposed to help with breakage of long hair. I also ended up getting the deep conditioner which is amaze. The products smell great and really left my hair smooth and shiny even at the humid beach. I think for the price Pantene makes a really great line of hair products.

NEUTROGINA PINK GRAPEFRUIT FOAMING FACE WASH
Again I choose this because it was in a bottle that was easy to pack and it won the Allure award for best face wash. I love this face wash. It has small beads in it to exfoliate and it smells amazing. It foams up really well and gets all your make-up off. My sister loved it too. This might become my new favorite face wash.

FRENZY SAUVIGNON BLANC
My mom first tried this wine out in Las Vegas and loved it. She found it here at Total Wine and we all loved it. It is super light and the perfect glass of wine after a long day in the sun! It retails for around $10

CABO WABO ANEJO TEQUILA
I am sipping this as I type this post. It is such a smooth tequila. Matt and I both think it has a slight mint flavor at the end which we really like. It is kind of expensive about $60 a bottle but trust me it is worth it. Good tequila is made to sipped and enjoyed:)

THE VIEW FROM OUR BALCONY
The view is just gorgeous. Holden Beach is such a beautiful beach and our house is awesome. I love having cocktails with my family every night enjoying this amazing view! I am going to be sad when this week is over!

The whole family on our balcony

Me and Sterling

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend!

It's Vacay Time!

I am so excited because tomorrow morning we are leaving for our week long family vacay. Every year my parents rent a house for a week and we all go and have so much fun. I miss living in the same city as my brother and sister so I always love seeing them! We lay out, swim, and drink and eat way too much. I am hoping to sneak in a date night with Matt since we will have so many babysitters around:) We are headed to Holden Beach this year if anyone has restaurant suggestions!

I am almost done with Sarah's Key and I picked up Heaven is For Real to read while I am sunbathing. I watched an interview this week with the family on Dateline and it seems like such an amazing and inspiring story.

I am super excited to wear my new Tolani Cover-up. It is very similar to this one Jessica Alba is wearing.

While we are at the beach we usually go out for one big family dinner and then each couple gets assigned a night to cook dinner. Let me tell you its gets kind of competitive. This year Matt and I are thinking about doing fish tacos, half fried and half grilled. We have cooked grilled fish tacos alot but never fried ones, so send any suggestions or recipes my way!

Another Beach Trip tradition is my hubby always makes Pirate Punch. A crazy concoction of rum, champagne, lime juice and a few other things. Let me tell you they are pretty dangerous because you can't taste the liquor! This is us enjoying them last year.

We also always try to get a family picture. This is me and my boys last year. Crazy how much Sterling has grown!

I am looking forward to a fabulous and relaxing week! Have a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend!

I Don't Mean to Brag But.....

How adorable are these pictures of my little man?? I try not to bore you all too much with pictures of my gorgeous babe but I had to share these. Over Mother's Day my parents surprised me and had my wedding photographer (George Lainis with CatchLight Studios) come and take some pictures of Sterling. I have not had any professional pictures done since he was 2 weeks old, so I was super excited to have these done. My little man is quite the camera flirt.

White Pizza Dip

On Saturday night I had my sister and her hubby and another couple over for dinner and we served this pizza dip as the appetizer. It was even better than I expected. It said to serve with bread but we decided to serve ours with bread and Fritos. Everyone definitely preferred it with the Fritos. I think the bread was too heavy for the dip. I think it would also be good with Tositos. This dip is off the charts amazing. I am a pizza freak, love it in any way or form, so I was scarfing this dip down. The mix of cheeses and pepperoni blend together perfectly and it really does taste like pizza. I highly recommend you make this for your next party!

Here is our dip with a huge hole compliments of my inpatient and eager husband. By the end of the night he had pretty much demolished half the dip by himself!




White Pizza Dip

1 envelope Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Savory Herb with Garlic Soup Mix
1 container (16 oz.) sour cream
1 cup (8 oz.) ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup (1 oz.) chopped pepperoni
1 loaf Italian or French bread, sliced

Preheat oven to 350°. In shallow 1-quart casserole, combine Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Savory Herb with Garlic Soup Mix, sour cream, ricotta cheese, 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese. Bake uncovered 30 minutes or until heated through. Serve with bread.

**We used the mini pepperonis and found this was much easier since you don't have to chop them.**


Print Recipe HERE

Obsessions

BEACH DECOR
Since we live at the beach I tend not to like my house to be too beachy. But lately I have been drawn to some small natural beachy accents. I am really smitten with the mirror and fish chandelier.

CUPCAKE PROCESSCO
If you love the Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay you have to try their Processco. My good friend Erin just told me about it and I immediately went to the store and bought some. It was $11.99 a bottle and delightful. The perfect amount of bubbles and not too sweet.

NATURE'S VALLEY GRAHAM SQUARES
After Jill blogged about these I knew I had to try them. They are so tasty and at only 90 calories the perfect snack. Best part is my little man loves them too. I can't decide which flavor I like better, the dark chocolate and peanut butter are equally fabulous!

SNAKESKIN LAMP
How insane is this lamp? I absolutely love it and want it for my den! I also think it could be super fierce in a nursery.

Matthew Studios

DVF WOOL MINI DRESS
I know I already listed my top 5 fall fashions but I think I need to add this dress to my list. It seems simple, but to me that is the perfection of it. You could dress it up with a great necklace and heels or wear flats for a daytime look. I love the rich purple color. Jewel tones are my favorite color palette for this fall.