Teatopia

Smoothie King

Our smoothies at the Smoothie King in the Coax Mall, Seoul

Lately I have been on a smoothie kick. My sister worls at Smoothie King, so we go pretty often and she makes us different things. When we were in Korea, we visited the only Smoothie King location outside of the U.S. and I tasted this awesome banana smoothie that isn't on the menu here. I picked up a brochure of the menu in Korea and when I shpowed my sister, she was able to make it. Yummy. :-)

I think rather than calling my blog Teatopia, I should be the beverage queen-- I love teas, cofffees, smoothies, eggnog, cider, and any other beverage you can think of.

The Culprit

This poodle may look cute and cuddly, but don't let his innocent looks fool you. This little guy rolled in poop outside and decided he'd come in and roll on everything in the house, including a basket of clean laundry. The very back part of our yard is wooded and he was messing around back there for about 15 minutes before he came back inside. It didn't take me long to notice the smell, but it was too late. I guess I need to check him when he comes back in from now on. He made quite a stink, literally! Oh well, he got his just desserts. He HATES baths. *evil grin*

Wedding Day

I was going through our wedding proofs and deciding which ones to order for Christmas gifts for Mom, Grandma, etc. Some of you may not know what I look like (my recent pics have been pretty blurry), so I thought I'd show you one from the happiest day of my life (August 3, 2002) .

Black Friday Finds

James got up quite early yesterday and he sure snagged some great deals. We've never done the early rising thing on a major shopping day, but it really payed off. Here's what he got:

- An internal dual format double layer 16x DVD writer $39.99
- 54 mbs wireless internet kit (which I'm using now on my new laptop) $19.99
- 40 blank DVD+r $2.99
- USB 2.0 256 MB thumb drive $9.99

I don't have the patience to battle the crowds, but I'm sure glad James does!

The Day After the Feast . . .

Today we decorated our house for Christmas. Above is the tree we almost bought, but we ended up with a much bigger one! Please excuse the blurriness of both pictures. I will post later about the fabulous deals my early-rising hubby scored this morning. For now, we're off to a bonfire!

Thanksgiving

Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving:

Our turkey-- it was baked upside down! hehe

Sweet Potato Souffle and Cornbread Stuffing

Cheesy Squash Casserole

Green Beans cooked with ham stock and cheddar-garlic biscuits

Jello Salad and Cranberry Sauce

Wrigley, our poodle, and Cooey, my family's dog, seaching for food

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, Thanksgiving preparations are on their way. Last night I baked cheese puffs (they are so good-- they have a litle kick!), and ooey gooey pumpkin butter cake. The rest of the menu? I still need to prepare squash casserole, sweet potato souffle, green beans cooked with ham broth, and cheddar garlic biscuits. Mom is doing the turkey, dressing, and baking a pound cake. Grandma is making jello salad. BTW, my grandma is doing much better (remember her knee replacement?) She had an excellent check-up yesterday.

Well, off to cook and enjoy that wonderful new gas log fireplace that we never used for fear of having to clean it. We are so silly.

Happy Thanksgiving all. I will, of course, be posting some foodie pics later, but for now, here are the cheese puffs I made. The ooey gooey butter cake isn't complete to photograph w/o it's fresh whipped cream topping. :-)

Gas Logs

Yippppeeeeee!

Yes, I know, we're lazy sell-outs, but we are happy, lazy sell-outs. Today, after a couple weeks of waiting to get someone out here, we finally have our gas logs installed. :-) I'll post pictures tomorrow when it isn't too hot to turn it on. (Yep it's the end of Novemeber and it feels like it's September).

Bun Bo Xao

The other night I put together some Vietnamese Noodle bowls. They turned out well and tasted pretty authentic. I posted this recipe a while back, but this time we made it with chicken, marinated in ginger, garlic, water, sugar, salt, vegetable oil, and soy sauce.

Happy Monday

I got almost no sleep last night, and it's Monday, whuch usually adds up to a bad day, but it wasn't because I had such a fab weekend. Here are some of the highlights:

Friday night: Dinner at Chili Thai and "The Polar Express"-- dinner and a movie, always a killer combo!

Saturday: Eggnog pancakes for breakfast, Tea with Mom at a great tea room for lunch, Christmas shopping with my hubby, and dinner at Atlanta Bread Co. We watched "The Emporer's New Groove" from Netflix.

Sunday: Christmas shopping (some decorations for us and gifts for others), a fabulous dinner at a local brew pub and then some great chocolate cake at home.

Oh, and I'm sure this short week is helping my mood. Here's to a two day work week, baby!

The Cannon Brewpub

Tonight James and I had dinner at a local pub where they make a variety of beers. We split a veggie pizza with cheese, broccoli, artichokes, mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes. We also shared a beer sampler which was kind of fun and different because I've never drank a whole beer before. I'm just not a beer person. I liked a couple of them, especially one that had a coffee aftertaste.

Breakfast

This morning I made eggnog pancakes from a mix I bought at Williams-Sonoma. I'm going to have to stock up on this stuff because I could definitely eat this year round. They taste creamy just like the real stuff and the nutmeg taste is very bold. Yum!

The Polar Express

Tonight we went to see "The Polar Express" with my family. Every Christmas my family goes to see whatever holiday movie comes out. I was especially excited to see this one because this was one of my favorite Christmas books as a child. I loved the vivid illustrations and the movie was just as beautiful. It's a moving story and it brought back memories of believing in Santa Clause as a child. I remember how sad I was to find out there was no Santa. This movie made me want to believe again. I definitely recommend this movie. It'll definitely get you in the holiday spirit!

Traditions

Last night we went to one of our favorite, yearly holiday tradions. Our local grocery store, Publix, hosts a holiday food tasting night every year. The main purpose is to advertise various dishes for Thanksgiving, such as frozen casseroles and turkey. But they also have samples of holiday ice creams (egg nog and peppermint) as well as egg nog and spiced apple cider. I look forward to this every year because I obviously love to eat and because I love my Christmas traditions. There is something comforting about traditions.

A True Temptation

I am loving these new True Temptations candles at Bath and Body Works. There are some unusual scents in this new line and I really want this buttered mashed potatoes candle for Christmas. I also love the mint chocolate chip ice cream scent. Yum!

Thanksgiving: Supper vs. Dinner

Down here in the south, people tend to have Thanksgiving "supper," which means eating a lot earlier. My family likes to eat later because you can spend the day cooking rather than having to wake up at 6:00 am and also because you get to look forward to the meal the whole day!

This year my mom and I are cooking it all by ourselves. This is a first. My grandma isn't on her feet completely yet from the knee replacement she had and so mom and I are on our own. I'm excited because I've never really cooked Thanksgiving before. Sure, I've brought a dish or 2, but this will be great. I'm planning the menu already!

Christmas Shopping

Today we are Christmas shopping just outside of Atlanta. I'll post more about it later, but for now, here's the yummy Massaman Curry I had for lunch.

The rest: I promised to post more later. We went to Starbucks and I had an egg nog latte and we also went and had tea at Tea Fusions. We shopped at Williams-Sonoma and I bought some yummy egg nog waffle/pancake mix too.

Christmas Made In The South

This afternoon I went to a craft fair with my mom and look what she bought me. The sign says "Tea Time" and stupid me cut off the Christmas teapot in the snowman's (or snowwoman's) hand.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Icing

I made these delicious cupcakes today. It's another great recipe from Rachael Ray. The recipe says to top them with crystalized ginger, but I grated a little fresh nutmeg for the top of mine. You could also do powdered sugar or sprinkles. Click below for the recipe. 1 box prepared gingerbread mix, prepared to package directions for cake 8 ounces cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1 orange, zested 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 1/2 cups powdered confectioners' sugar Shaved crystalized ginger, for garnish Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Divide prepared cake mix into nonstick muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes. The batter will make 8 to 10 muffins, depending on the size of your tin. Turn muffins out of tins to cool. Beat cream cheese, pumpkin, nutmeg, orange zest and vanilla with hand mixer at medium speed. Beat in sugar until frosting is fluffy. Frost cupcakes and top with crystalized ginger.

Happy Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day. I hope everyone is enjoying their day off. I know I am. I am about to go to a nice Thai lunch with my mom and then I'm coming home to make gingerbread cupcakes with pumpkiny cream cheese icing. I will definitely be posting puctures and the recipe later.

Thank you to all those who have fought and died fighting for our country. I don't know any vets personally, but thank you. BTW, one of my students asked me if I was a veteran. I'm only 23, so it was pretty cute. I should've told him I fought in 'Nam. :-)

Additional Notes: If I count people who maybe haven't fought in wars, but have bravely served our country, then I do know a few. :-) Very cool.

Ghost Night

I love Wednesdays because we have ghost night. After this season of Nip/Tuck ended, we had no shows to look forward to until we discovered the ghost night series on SciFi, a channel I had never really watched. There are 3 main shows we like: Ghost Hunters where these guys investigate reported hauntings, Proof Positive where 1 out of 3 supernatural events is proven to be true, and Scare Tactics where people set up other people to scare the crap out of them. I always look forward to Wednesdays.

And since I don't have work tomorrow, I can stay up late to watch Iron Chef! :-) Poor James, however, has to go to bed because he takes the GRE tomorrow for his master's program. Good luck, hun!

New/Used Laptop

I really have been wanting a laptop, but really haven't had the budget to buy one (if I buy one, I'll buy a really good one). Luckily, I just inherited this one from my sister. It's certainly not new, but its perfect for my purposes, which include typing lesson plans and such at cafes. I've always wanted to sit there with my mocha or tea and type on my laptop. I feel like Carrie from Sex and the City.

Orchid

While I was grocery shopping today, I stumbled upon this pretty, purple orchid. It was on sale and I just had to have it. Orchids are so beautiful. They're probably my favorite flower.

Confirmed

Well, it's official. We just purchased our tickets to visit James's family for the holidays (or rather, just after). We leave the 26th of December and return the 30th. We didn't want to travel home from D.C. during New Years because of terrorism. Silly? Yeah, maybe, but you probably weren't living in D.C. when the plane crashed into the Pentagon and you probably didn't have to face armed guards on the streets of Georgetown. I miss my home, but sometimes I sure am glad to be gone. Better to be safe than sorry, right?

The Seafood Market

I'm not much for seafood (or much meat in general), but I had a great meal last night at The Market-- a small, gourmet seafood restaurant that barely anyone here seems to know about. My friend Rebecca, who was one of the friends we went with, is a frequent customer and her New Orleans palate is really quite picky when it comes to seafood. The food was amazing. We started off with peel and eat shrimp with spicey cocktail sauce. Yum! For the entree, I had crab cakes, sauteed okra with garlic, and garlic new potatoes. James had fantastic tilapia stuffed with a shrimp, crab, and cheese stuffing. For dessert, we took home two pieces of bread pudding with a bourbon sauce. I know from watching the Food Network that the sauce was a southern Italian sauce because it was pretty much equal parts of butter and bourbon with probably some cornstarch to thicken it. I probably could've gotten drunk off that sauce. hehe.

Fall . . . finally!

Now that's what I'm talking about . . . it actually feels like fall today. There are leaves blowing around from cool, gusty winds. Ok, so it's nothing like it would be if I still lived in Maryland, but it's a start. Is it time to break in my fireplace for this year? Well, probably not, but I'm certainly trying to will it to get colder so that time will come! :-)

Almost Friday

I am feeling a little down today, even though I shouldn't be. It's a number of things really. The politics of the education system are irritating me. I worked an hour later than usualy doing paper work-- legal crap mostly. I'm also having those feelings again of dissatisfaction with where I live. I don't want to leave my family, but I don't really like Georgia (I'm sure you're thinking here we go again.) For one thing, it's this weather. I want to wear a fuzzy sweater. I could have worn shorts almost ever day for the last 2 months and not have been cold. I want to use my gas fireplace! :-) I want snuggly weather.

I'm so glad it's almost the weekend. We're going to this seafood restaurant tomorrow with two friends from my work and I'm excited. We've been wanting to go forever and they are supposed to have the freshest, best seafood around. They are pricey ($30 a piece), so this is sort of a special thing. I'm also looking forward to tonight because we are going out to dinner (too tired to cook) and we just received a DVd from Netflix. I'm sure there is hot tea in the near future too-- always relaxing. Last night we drank a whole pot of Golden Monkey. It's exquisette, there is no other way to put it.

Hope everyone has a good evening. :-)

Heat Therapy

Since mostly girls read my blog (sorry if you're a guy and you are reading this), I wanted to share . . . I've been using these heat therapy pads by Platex for over a year and now I can't live without them. The back of the pad has adhesive and they stick to your panties on your abdomen. They are air-activated and they stay warm all day!

At home, I sometimes like to use an electric heating pad for cramps, but when you're at work or wherever, you can still have that luxury. They are really thin and no one can tell you're wearing one. They don't make your pants tighter or anything. If you haven't tried these and you get horrible cramps like I do, this is definitely for you. Thank you Playtex for helping me survive the day. :-)

Hump Day

Congrats to President Bush on another term! I just heard the news. Although there are many hard feelings surrounding this entire election, I am relieved that America has spoken and made its choice. I was worried it would drag out once again. I can now sleep at night. :-) I hope this term goes better than last term but I am relieved that we don't have an ardent liberal running our country. I am by no means an ardent Republican. I am not against voting Democrat in some circumstances, but Kerry is too out there for me.

Enough about politics. I promised myself I would stay away from politics on my blog.

This week is dragging by. I am so tired and I have cramps and I can't wait for the weekend. We don't even have plans (except for ordering that new two-layer pizza we saw on tv-- have to find out which place has it). I may just crash. I have so much grading to do. Argh. Gotta go. I have a meeting.

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

This is just for fun. I love coffee and I love peppermint-- so this works well for me. :-)

You Are a Peppermint Cappuccino You're fun, outgoing, and you love to try anything new. However, you tend to have strong opinions on what you like. You are a total girly girly at heart - and prefer your coffee with good conversation. You're the type that seems complex to outsiders, but in reality, you are easy to please What Kind Of Coffee Are You? Take This Quiz :-) Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.

Fall? Yeah Right!

Growing up in the north, we always had nice, cool weather by this time, but down here in the south it's still shorts weather. In fact, it's going up to 85 tomorrow! Not sure you heard me right? Yeah, I almost couldn't believe it myself.

So much for comforting hot tea. This is iced tea weather!

Making Work Bearable

I often have meetings during planning, but when I don't, this is my ideal break: grading papers (I'm supposed to be productive during planning), Rachael Ray on the tv, and a caramel Frappuccino on my desk.