Baked Potato Soup

I love potatoes!  I like them plain, mashed, baked, souped and saladed.  Seriously, if you make them, I will eat them.  My favorite is mashed potatoes, but this soup is a very close second.  I found a version of this recipe in Southern Living before Mitch and I got married, and it was one of the first things I cooked for him after we tied the knot.  It has evolved into a staple in our household; we eat it no matter what time of year, and it makes wonderful leftovers.

Baked Potato Soup

6 large russet potatoes

1 large onion, chopped

3 14 oz. cans chicken broth

1/4 C butter

2 1/2 t salt

1 1/4 t pepper

1 C half and half

2 C shredded cheddar cheese

3 T chopped chives (I often use dried chives from my spice rack)

6 bacon slices, crumbled

Peel potatoes and cut into cubes.  Combine the first six ingredients in a dutch oven or soup pot. Cover and cook on medium high heat until the potatoes are really tender, approximately 30 minutes.  Mash mixture until the soup is thickened.  Stir in the cream, 1 cup cheese, half of the bacon and chives.  Top with the remaining bacon and cheese.

You can also do this in a crockpot.  The only variation is that you cook it on high for four hours or on low for eight.  I did this a lot when I was working.  Happy Eating!

Charlottesville Visit

We had an amazing trip to Charlottesville last weekend!  While the weather did not cooperate on Friday and Saturday, it made up for it on Sunday.  It was a wonderful weekend of fellowship with two of our favorite couples, and Mitch and I both felt so refreshed after spending time with them.  We never expected to find such incredible friends during our time in Charlottesville, but the Lord blessed us with lifelong friends in the Smiths and the Michaliks.

I do not exaggerate when I say that our weekend was structured around food!  Charlottesville has wonderful restaurants, and we miss them so much!  We had every meal planned out, and Peyton and Emmaline were so sweet to accommodate our every whim...right down to the pregnancy move of grabbing a Dairy Queen blizzard on the way to the airport.  P&E (as I commonly refer to them) were wonderful hosts, and we stayed up until all hours just chatting.  They are the dearest friends, and as Mitch said when we were getting on the plane..."the weekend was just one long conversation."  

Now onto the pictures and the delicious restaurants.  Friday we ate at our favorite lunch spot, Feast.  It is located in a local market that has tons of local cheeses, produce, bread and dips.  Besides the food, the best part about going is all of the samples they have around the store.  So while you are waiting on your food, you can sample anything from candy to cheese.  My personal favorite sandwich is the grilled cheese with Virginia ham, and I top it off with the most divine salted caramel you will ever have.  After lunch, while I went to visit my former co-workers, Mitch tagged along with Peyton to the law school.  Below are a couple of pictures he took while he was there.

Friday night, we met up with Joe and Katherine and went to Mas for dinner.  It is a wonderful tapas restaurant in the Belmont neighborhood.  They have bacon wrapped dates that are by far the best thing on the menu, and we always order multiple plates.

Saturday, we had a lazy morning and made it to Bodo's Bagels at around 11:00 for our morning breakfast.  I LOVE bagels, and Bodo's will rival anything I have had up here in the big city.  My personal favorite is the everything bagel with butter; my mouth is watering just thinking about it!  After our late breakfast, we headed downtown to do a little shopping at a couple of the local stores; my personal fav is O'Suzannah.  And we bought our first children's book for the little naval orange that is growing in me. :)  After our shopping, we were ready to eat again, so we headed out to our old stomping grounds in Crozet to grab pizza.  Crozet Pizza is infamous in the area, and we were so lucky to live less than five minutes away.  After we stuffed ourselves with pizza, we headed to Veritas Vineyard where most of the group had a wine tasting.  It was just a wonderful afternoon of hanging out in such a beautiful place!  Finally, for dinner on Saturday night we decided to forgo our favorite restaurant in C'ville for a lower key place.  It was a tough decision, but in the end, it had been a long day and we just wanted to relax.  So we went to Mono Loco, which is a great Latin restaurant right off of the downtown mall.  We followed up dinner with a quick jaunt to The Flat creperie for a butter, sugar and cinnamon dessert.  Whew, that was a long day, but it was everything we wanted!

Sunday, we got up early and went to the early service at Trinity.  Oh how we love that church!  After church, we grabbed brunch at our favorite spot, La Taza.  It is also in the Belmont neighborhood, and it was every bit as delicious as we wanted it to be.  After brunch, we packed up our things and headed to campus for a relaxing walk before we went to the airport.  UVA has a beautiful campus and it was the perfect spring day to take a walk.  After our walk, we made a stop off at Barnes & Noble and at Dairy Queen on our way to the airport.  We thankfully got home without a hiccup and enjoyed rehashing the weekend on the plane.  It truly was a fabulous time, and exactly what the doctor ordered for this New York City couple.

Union Square

Union Square is one of my favorite places in New York.  It is only three subway stops away from my house and has so much to offer!  It has a lovely park and farmers market, but I would be lying if I said that was my main draw.  It also has great shopping and food!  The surrounding blocks have almost all of the stores that I like to frequent: H&M, Anthropologie, Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, LOFT, and DSW.  Not to mention these fabulous home and/or craft stores: ABC Carpet and Home, Fishs Eddy, and Paper Presentation.  And finally two great places to eat: Grey Dog Coffee and Pipa.  Grey Dog is usually packed and a little pricey, but the food is delicious and it is a great place to grab lunch.  Pipa is in the ABC Home building and is a fabulous tapas place.  It has beautiful chandeliers hanging all over the restaurant (you can see it from our girls weekend here) and it is such a fun place to go for an evening out on the town.  And do yourself a favor and order the sangria; it is delightful!

If you come in from out of town; I would say this is a must see area.  And I would be more than happy to be your tour guide! :)

Mitch and I are headed to Charlottesville tomorrow night for a long weekend, and we could not be more excited!  We are looking forward to a weekend of friends, fellowship and food!  I will post all of the happenings next week!

**Picture from islandwoo.com.

Spring Salad Dressing

Do you have a favorite salad dressing?  This is definitely mine; it tastes absolutely amazing!  It reminds me of spring and summer, which I need right now as we had a little snow on the ground during this first week of SPRING!!!  Go to your local supermarket and buy this delicious dressing; it will dance in your mouth.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it, so I think I will go make myself a spinach, strawberry and pecan salad for part of my lunch.  Seriously, go out and buy Briannas Blush Wine Vinaigrette; you won't regret it!

On the note of food, this baby has my appetite in full gear.  After I ate dinner last night, I found my stomach still felt empty.  How is that possible when you eat a meat and two sides?

Coffee Shops

I just love them!  They are always so warm and cozy and inviting.  I have not always loved coffee, but I have loved coffee shops since early college.  Ann, my roommate during college, introduced me to Chai Mai Chai Tea, now Big Train Chai Tea , during our sophomore year.  I fell in love with it and luckily every coffee shop in Auburn had this wonderful treat.  Chai tea was the extent of my coffee shop experience until my fifth year at Auburn when I started waking up really early to finish my accounting research projects and one of my roommates had a coffee maker.  After that, I became an avid coffee drinker and now have it pretty much every morning.  But my love of coffee shops does not come from the coffee itself, while very tasty, but from that fact that I would often meet friends there to catch up on life.  I have the fondest memories of my coffee dates with friends and will always love coffee shops because of that.  When I enter a coffee shop, I feel like I have left the hussle and bussle of life and have entered a quiet, comforting haven.  


Mitch and I have found a wonderful place about three blocks from our house to grab coffee and a pastry.  We go there at least once a week and usually more.  They have the most amazing almond croissants you will ever have!  And they make delightful desserts as well.  If you are ever in Williamsburg and are looking for a cup of coffee or pastry, you must make your way to Margo Patisserie Cafe.  It is amazing!  And if you come to visit, I promise to take you there!  Also, during one of my  many walks about the neighborhood, I noticed this coffee shop off the beaten path with no name, just a blue bottle on the window.  I was intrigued, but not enough to go in....until I heard about it one of my favorite blogs, Today's Letters.  My interest grew, and today I went for the first time.  They slow drip every cup of coffee, so don't go if you are in a hurry, but it was a wonderful cup of joe!  Seriously, the coffee is superb, and I will definitely be taking Mitch back there, but I think Margo's will remain my location of choice to meet friends.


Does anyone else love coffee shops as much as I do?

I hope ya'll have a wonderful weekend, and I am going to run because the lovely Sarah Godwin is on her way to see us and there is much to be done around the house!  


**The picture above is our favorite coffee place in Crozet.

Sweet Smell

Do you have a favorite scent that you just love and cannot get enough of?  For me that is Volcano from Aspen Bay's Capri Blue line.  I first discovered this wonderful candle at Anthropologie last year, and as I read the label a little bit closer, I realized that it was made at none other than Aspen Bay in Starkville, MS!  Aspen Bay has loads of candles since that is what they do best, but they also have a wonderful gift shop....so if you are ever in Starkville, pop into Aspen Bay for some great gifts.  You can go to either websites to purchase the candle, and I promise you won't regret it!  I have also been known to gift one or two.......
picture from Anthropologie

A Few of My Favorite Things in Brooklyn (Part I)

A lot of people have been curious about our apartment and neighborhood in Brooklyn, so here are a few of my favorite things inside and outside of our apartment in Williamsburg.  (Note, I promise to post pictures of our transformed apartment, but I am too much of a perfectionist to do that before I have everything the way I want it....so it will probably be a few more weeks)

A few of my favorite things:

Because we could not get to our everyday dishes for quite sometime, we used our fine china cups and saucers for several weeks.  It was fun to be in the middle of boxes and complete disarray and drinking my much needed morning coffee out of our fine china that I love so much. 

Have you ever used this soap before?  It smells so wonderful!  I knew my friends Emmaline and Katherine used it, so when I saw it in every store we went into up here, I decided that I would try it out.  Now, I will never go back.  It is worth the extra couple of dollars to have the fragrance of geranium and lemon verbena everytime I wash my hands or wash the dishes.  And since there is no such thing as a dishwasher up here, I need something to encourage me to wash dishes!  If you have never had the pleasure of smelling the sweet aroma of Mrs. Meyers Clean Day Geranium soap (my favorite), I would encourage you to go to your local Target and get it quickly.  No thank you's are needed; just consider it a gift from me to you. :)

I literally stood on our bed so that you could get a good picture of just how big and useful this $2.99 Ikea bag is.  I have used this bag for EVERYTHING!  I have quickly learned that when grocery shopping, it is better to have everything in one big bag that I can carry on my shoulder versus four little bags that I carry with my hands.  And it is better to carry your clothes to the laundry mat four blocks away in the Ikea bag versus carrying them in the laundry basket that will make your out of shape arm muscles hurt the next day.  I mean seriously, it carries so much and then when I get home and don't want it cluttering up our room, I just fold it down and put it away in a drawer or box or cooler or whatever is sitting around at the time.  By far the best deal I have seen since we came to the city!

Le Barricou is probably my favorite restaurant in Williamsburg.  As we discover new places, it may slide out of first place, but I doubt it will ever fall too far.  It is a wonderful French restaurant about a ten minute walk from our house.  Mitch has been going there for a while throughout his various stints in Williamsburg, but my first taste was  last summer when I came up to visit him during his internship.  It is everything you want in a restaurant: quaint, nicely decorated, helpful wait staff, reasonable prices (for New York) and delicious food!  We love their brunch on the weekends; they give you these delicious croissants that make me feel like I am back in Paris.  And we love their dinner; pretty much we love it anytime of day.  If you are in the area, I highly recommend you make it here; you won't regret it!

Last and certainly not least, MY MOM!  Sorry Mom for the blurry picture, I had to take it off of Facebook.  She came up a week after we moved in to help us get settled, and she was a lifesaver.  She came ready to help, and help is what we needed.  Boxes were everywhere and she had a mission to unpack as many as we possibly could.  She was great because all I needed to do was give her a project and she would take the reigns and go!  She lined kitchen cabinets, she organized kitchen cabinets, she helped us decorate the living room, she helped us pick out our rugs and she spent about two hours at Target helping me buy everything under the sun.  She was a trooper and sweetly dealt with my indecisiveness.  Do you ever wonder how mom's seem to know everything?  She threw out so many nuggets of knowledge that never would have even crossed my mind.  Thanks Mom for being so wonderful and for helping us out when we needed someone to come in and just do!

Mitch has some favorite things that he wants to talk about, so be looking for that this weekend.  And his tend to be more outside of the house, so you will get to see a little bit of our neighborhood!