Multiple Winnings?

My friend (well, I have never met her in person, but I think we would get along fab) Caroline from Multiple Blessings is celebrating her Blogiversary this week! Check out her blog for ways to win fabulous merchandise that she designed herself and can find in major retailers, gift shops and more near you.

How do I know someone so famous? Well, that's how I roll.

Happy Blogiversary, Caroline! I cannot wait to see your new collection! To enter the contest, click here.

Random

For those of you that have read my blog since the beginning (all 3 of you), you might remember when I had my "sculptures" made of Pudge and Carter.

Well, yesterday Pudge had an untimely death....at either his own paws or Carter's. It's a toss-up. It could have been either one.

In other news, I am more of a "cook out of a box" kind of girl, and I had to share one of my favorite muffins - Betty Crocker Cinnamon Struesel. Your significant other (and you) will love.

Since you are all going on my decorating journey with me, I had to share my new print from Pier 1. (Sorry it still has the tag on it. I am just keeping it real. And it was on sale. And I have had it for over a week and still have not hung it. And I have no idea where I am going to put it.)

Carter's new hiding spot. That would be amidst my winter clothes in my closet.

And check out my niece Olivia's my recent professional pics. I think she might be Ralph Lauren's next baby model!

And, Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mother-in-Law! We appreciate all you do for us! (Which is a ton!!!)

Gotta love a Gadget

In an amazing twist of irony, (the ironic part being I don't really cook) I have a small obsession with kitchen gadgets. (As mentioned, I know I am odd.)

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:

I honestly thought I had every kitchen gadget known to man.

On Tuesday, I went to a cooking demonstration at the new Southside Sage Culinary Studio. While I was there, I checked out the new wares. Um, loved them. I came home with a melon baller (how did I not have that????), a hard boiled egg cooker and some port wine jam. (Oh, and bonus, if you attend her Tuesday night OK Foodies show, you get 10% off anything in the store!)

Catherine took me with her throughout the store and explained to me what some of the items did and there are so many fun things that I didn't know even existed...like a spiral slicer. Catherine explained it as a pencil sharpener for food.

This one I especially loved - a curler! Look at the beautiful "flowers" you could make with your food. (Can you imagine how impressed your friends would be???)

I own a little onion keeper and I love it. So I had no idea there were food savers specifically designed for all of your fruits and veggies.

Seriously, have you ever seen anything cuter than a chef's hat for your meat bones? Miniatures - hello! (Truth be told, I have seen these on a wedding on Platinum Weddings. Sadly, I am a smite bit addicted to the WE channel.)

Okay, so let me know what other food gadgets I am missing for my "collection." As mentioned in the book First, Break All the Rules, one of the top reasons people quit a job is because they don't have all of the materials needed for them to do their work. I just want to be sure that doesn't happen to me . : ) Right.

Destination....

So, we finally made a decision! I appreciate all of your comments, too! I love getting vacation ideas. Our next vacation will be to....drum roll:

Boston! Okay, in Boston's defense, I am sure it is a lovely place. My last trip there was July 2002. I am sure it would have been great if there had been air conditioning where we stayed. But there wasn't. And it was 95 degrees. It just didn't leave me with a great vibe. I am sure it isn't the city's fault. (I did love Maine, however, which we visited on that trip. Though, now that I think about it, it was air conditioned.)

I am most looking forward to Cape Cod:
Martha's Vineyard:

And Rhode Island:

I wonder if I will see anyone famous. (Many vacations have been spent wondering who I will run into that is famous. Yeah, no one so far.)

Too bad I have to wait until this fall....Southwest's specials only included travel after Labor Day. In the meantime, maybe I will cash in on that "trip on a tankful" that Tommy was offering.

So, if you guys have been to Rhode Island, Connecticut or Massachusetts, fill me in on your favorites!

I need a vaca...

So I haven't left the state of Oklahoma since November and I am itching to go somewhere. What I really want to do is go on a Mediterranean cruise, but damn the airline industry with their exorbitant fares from Tulsa to Barcelona. Seriously, I cannot justify paying two times more for my plane tickets than I am for my cruise. Sigh.

With Southwest's fabulous airfare specials through tomorrow it looks like we are in for a trip within the contiguous United States. (Somehow I think this will be better than Tommy's idea of a trip on a tankful.)

I have narrowed it down to the following. I need your help. Have you guys been to any of these places before? Would you go back? What was your favorite thing to do? Give me your thoughts!

• Austin
• Albuquerque/Santa Fe
• Boston - but I am thinking more Maine/Rhode Island. I went to Boston once, and don't kill me, but I didn't really think it was that great.
• Los Angeles
• Philadelphia
• San Diego

Radio Show

Last night Tommy, my sister and I went to dinner at Sage's new location. Every Tuesday night they host a radio show with a local chef and serve the meal to the crowd. Last night's guest was Teri Fermo of Bohemia. You would probably recognize her from the Cherry Street Farmer's Market. She always has the gourmet pizzas. (I can almost hear the collective ah!)

The studio is absolutely fabulous and very state of the art. No matter where you sat you got a bird's eye view of the action from the video screens. (Those are roasted purple potatoes....who knew potatoes were purple?)

The menu was entirely made of local ingredients.

Grilled chicken breast from Downing Family Farm
Dusted with kosher salt from The Spice Market
Topped with mushrooms from Mushroom Planet
Seared in Brown Butter from Wagon Creek Creamery

On Roasted Purple Potatoes from Three Springs Farm
With Grilled Bush Baby Zucchini from Pork & Greens

Dessert was to die for! (Well, maybe not die....then you wouldn't get to eat it.)

Raspberries from Buzzin’ Berry Patch
Baked into Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding
Made with Bread from Bodean
Served with Godiva Chocolate Liqueur Hard Sauce
Made with Red Bird Ranch’s Eggs

And, I must say, it was very educational! We had a great time. Oh, and each course was paired with wine. My kind of drink! They were all from the local Summerside Vineyards. I had the Riesling and a Sweet Syrah (right up my alley).

I also took lots of pics inside of the cool gadgets (and bought a few, too!) I will post those later this week. Bon appetit!

Flower Recipe

My favorite flower color combination, especially in the summer, is hot pink, yellow, orange and purple. (Scroll below - isn't it fab???)

Today I had an opportunity to create a floral arrangement and I wanted to take some pictures and do a little recipe card for you guys to recreate. These flowers all came from Walmart Neighborhood Market (with the exception of the hostas...those came from my sister's garden - Thanks, Al)! The grand total for this arrangement was $25 (well, $27 with tax). I had the vase and ribbon on hand.

This "recipe" calls for:

- 2 dozen hosta leaves
- 1 dozen hot pink roses
- 5 yellow mini callas
- 3 orange asiatic lillies
- 10 stems of purple statice

The visual of all the "recipe" items:

First, line your vase with hostas. (I prefer a rectange vase. I think they work so much better than round.)

Next, add the orange lillies. I put them in two corners and then added one in the center of the vase.

I then added my favorite flowers - mini callas. I left one out to add in the center of the vase once it became more full.

My next step was to add the hot pink roses. I added them throughout the container to fill in.

After that, I went through the container and looked for "holes" and added in some of the purple. See how it is coming together?

It still needed a little something, so I went through and added some of the extra hostas.

And I always think a container needs something to finish it off, so a knotted ribbon completed the design.

Just a little note, don't feel like you have to use EVERY flower. I had tons of the purple statice left over. Not that it is that pretty, but I put it in a little vase so as to not waste it and will keep it around for a little pop of color.

Book Club

I love to read. I will get on a kick and read about 18 books at once and then not pick one up for another six months. Well, now that I have close to an hour round trip commute a day, I am obsessed with books on tape (well, CD). The Tulsa Library has a pretty good selection and I order them online to be sent to my closest library.


Also, I am the type of person that if I start a book, I finish it. Not so much a book on CD, the voices can drive me nuts! And with no monetary investment I take back those ones I am not feeling.


Here are my faves that I have "read" over the past 8 weeks:

I am loving this book. It started out a little slow for me, but I find myself driving around my block a couple of extras times just to get another chapter in. I am on my last CD and just dying!!!

This was the first book I got when I began my little Book on CD idea. Not my favorite of the bunch, but I still really liked it. It is kind of a murder mystery/love story.

I love, love, love Meg Cabot as an author. And I love the voice of the girl she has who reads her books. My second book was Queen of Babble in the big city. The character in the book is so likeable that I had to get the follow up book, Queen of Babble gets Hitched, in kindle form!

Read this one the legit way. Loved it!

Big Boned is the follow up book to Size 12 Is not Fat and Size 14 Isn't Fat Either. Really cute book. Another murder mystery/love story!

I have listened to a few more, but these are my faves. I will take any recommendations, please! I am looking for light, summer beach reads. Nothing heavy. I don't want to be that crazy girl crying in her car.

You can always count on me for dessert

Tonight Tommy and I had a little cookout at our house and I had to share one of my favorite summer desserts. This requires no prep time or ingredients and you cannot beat the price - $5. However, you may have a tough time finding it at your local grocery store because it is so amazing it is always sold out.

My secret is Edwards' Key Lime Pie. Seriously, fab.

You must try. It is available in the frozen pie section and if they are out another brand will not, I repeat, will not substitute. So, just move on (or buy the singles) and try again next time. This is my first time since the beginning of summer to find it in the store. A little hint, take it out of the freezer about an hour before serving and put it into the fridge the consistencywill be like cheesecake.

(Aunt Angie, this post is for you! I couldn't leave you hanging another night! : )

A Cupcake Update

Since I refused to take pictures of the heavenly cupcakes at Sam's I went and bought some just for you guys. It was really a chore.

I absolutely HATED having these in my house.

That is totally a joke. I loved having these in my house.

And because this is my blog and I can digress, I had to share the most adorable donuts that we got from our our KFOR/KAUT sales rep from OK Country Donuts. Now, keep in mind the call letters are KFOR, not KBOR as shown (there was a little issue with the message on the phone to the shop), but you get the idea. Cuteness!

Swagger Wagon

Seriously, I have to give Sienna props. They have made the minivan less dorky. And I kind of want to be friends with this couple. Check out all the videos here.

Sip & Sea

You guys know I love to throw a party! My sister-in-law Kristen is letting Iris (my favorite party friend -see her shower here and our joint bday party for our husband's here) and I throw her a Sip & Sea (Get it? It's a nautical theme. I wish I was that creative but I am inspired by this party that was featured on Celebrations at Home.)

So far the only detail I have worked out is the invitation. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent.)

Any cute ideas for us?

Hidden Treasures

If this post is lame, please blame Kelsey. She made me write this.

For lunch Friday, I had Sam’s Club pizza. At Sam’s Club. Is that so wrong? I mean, surely I am not the only one who goes 5 miles out of my way to eat lunch in the Food Court at Sam’s, right? :::crickets chirping::: I mean my sister met me there and all. It is not like I ate there alone again.

So I didn’t take a picture (see the full review from the Tulsa Food Blog – proof that I am not the only one who eats at Sam’s), but look how good this pizza looks:


I got all this and a drink for $2.69. Tell me, where else can you get lunch for $2.69? Nowhere. That’s where.

So, after lunch, I told my sister we needed to stroll the aisles and see what we could nab for dessert. You know, the free samples? Well, we hit the freaking dessert JACKPOT, people! They were giving away Cheesecake Factory cheesecake AND the most amazing frozen cupcakes. Well, they were thawed, obviously, for the tasting.

My options were, chocolate, vanilla and red velvet. I clearly had some big decisions. So, I did what any sane person scraping by for dessert would do, battled it out with my sister and made her share so that we could sample more than one. (For some reason the sampler didn’t seem to want to give us an extra so that we could try the cupcake trifecta. Rude.)

(Note, these are not the actual cupcakes. I was too into eating mine to take a picture...and wouldn't that be kind of weird to whip out your camera at Sam's? Photo courtesy of Spoiled Little LA Girls.)

Each cupcake (at least the vanilla and red velvet) was really moist, delicious and had the most beautiful icing on it! The swirl was beautiful and in the vanilla, you could even see the vanilla beans in the frosting, along with white chocolate chips. The red velvet had a heavenly cream cheese topping that was to die for. I didn’t get the calorie count, but it was zero since this was a free sample, but the price was UH-MAZING – 30 for $9.98. Score. Though, I actually didn’t score any…I didn’t want to bring them all to work and not share. Awkward.

I sent Kelsey to Sam’s to try them herself (well, she happened to be going anyway) and she did a little dirty work for me. The cupcakes are called iCakes and from digging online they appear to be manufactured by the Cheesecake Factory. So, there you have it. That is why they taste good even after sitting in the freezer. Oh, and doing even more research (the things I do for you guys), these are apparently the cupcakes they sell at Starbucks now.

Okay, so now, fill me in on your favorite dining spot that you would DIE if anyone ever caught you there. Or just share your favorite hidden food treasure. I won’t judge if you go anonymous. XOXO - Katie

And the winner is...

Thanks to all of you guys who entered my contest for Delivering Happiness! The winner determined by Random.org:

True Random Number Generator

Min: 1
Max: 16
Result:
11
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Is Jessica! Her answer was:

I would love to own a bakery! I just haven't figured out how I'd keep myself from sampling everything first.

Please email me at katie at tulsadetails dot com to claim your prize by next Wednesday. Thanks everyone for entering!

Just a reminder

My contest for Delivering Happiness ends tomorrow at 11:59 p.m. Let's just say you have a good chance of winning! Click here to enter!

These look easy enough

You know I love a craft project that is easy (and not time consuming). I came across two really fun ones today I had to share. The first one I found on the Rubber Punkin via Tip Junkie.

The picture below is from the Pottery Barn catalog:

This one was done with an $8 TJ Maxx platter and a can of chalkboard spray paint. You can visit the Rubber Punkin for full details.

Today on Imperfectly beautiful, she had an awesome tutorial on how to make these Martha Stewart poms:

Out of tissue paper!

Look how cute!

Now to find the time!