BEST. PIZZA. EVER.

I'm no food blogger, but I have to share this pizza with you. I've been making it for about 5 or 6 years and it is AMAZING!

Wolfgang Puck was on Martha Stewart once and made this Vegetarian Pizza with Mushrooms and Pesto. You all know how much I love mushrooms, so I had to adapt the recipe some. Plus, I added Chicken, why not?

First the Pizza Dough:

I use this recipe, it is wonderful, try it! 

Next I cooked the veggies in some olive oil, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, and red pepper flakes. On this night the veggies included:

Red Onion

Zucchini

Yellow Squash

Broccoli

Red, Yellow, and Orange Bell Peppers

Artichoke Hearts

Sun Dried Tomatoes

Asparagus (maybe, can't remember...I pull out whatever veggies I have in the fridge, chop them up and cook 'em.)

While the veggies were cooking I made the pesto, super easy!
1 Package of Basil (about 20 leaves)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
3 cloves of garlic
Red Pepper flakes
1/4 cup Olive Oil
All put together in the food processor and blended until it looks like pesto!

Now that everything is prepped, it is time to assemble...

TIP: Put a little cornmeal on your pizza peel before you put your dough down and it will slide right off the peel onto the pizza stone when you put it in the oven.

1. Pesto on pizza dough...

2. Chicken on pesto...
3. This is the best part LOTS and LOTS of veggies on chicken...
4. Top it off with some feta.

Then put it in the oven on a preheated pizza stone for 10-12 minutes at 500 degrees.  This is what you come up with!

My mouth is watering... Maybe this is what I will have for dinner tonight. YUM.

Enjoy!
E

Friends in town!

It has been a busy past couple of weeks! I can't believe it is Mid March. How did that happen? I think it might be called keeping busy!

At the end of February a dear friend of mine Sara came to town for a convention and it was so great to spend time with her and catch up!  It had been far too long since we had seen each other.

We did what any good Nashville tourist does, we at BBQ at Rippy's, bought boots at Boot Country (buy 1, get 2 free), and had a fantastic night out downtown on Broadway!

We made our rounds to all the popular bars on Broadway, but I was really impressed with one stop in particular, Bootleggers Inn. We had such a great time here. It wasn't packed (I am sure that will change once people realize how great this place is), staff was great, music was good, and the vibe was awesome. (I am not saying this just because I know the owners, the whole group felt that way!) The one thing that would improve the place...hooks in the restroom stalls. Other than that I give Bootleggers two thumbs up.

The penguinattack.com Penguin found a home

Moonshine @ Bootleggers

Another friend of Sara's and mine, Monica, made it out that evening too! It was fun to get a picture of the thee of us Nebraska DDDs together in Nashville!

I LOVE it when friends come to town to visit!

E

UPDATE: Houndstooth Hallway

I've gotten a couple questions about the subtlety of my Houndstooth Hallway.  

Is it too subtle?  

Are you thinking of doing something to make it pop more?

Do you think you need to re-do it?

The quick answers are no, no, and no. It is perfect for the space! 

Let me explain, because it is white on white it is really subtle, and there are times that you don't even notice it, but that is fine. My downstairs is "Palm Leaf" green, "Almost Charcoal" dark gray and "polished silver" light gray, these colors are pretty bold and another bold color would have made my head spin, I think. 

The pattern is where the "boldness" comes in. It is pretty big and graphic. 

Here are a couple pictures I took today at lunch. With the green and the dark gray the white on white houndstooth works perfect! 

E

p.s. if you like those penguins on the wall check out Penguin Attack! 

100th Post

It really should not have taken me this long to get to my 100th post!

Life seems to have gotten in the way of blogging, imagine that.

I've thought a little about what my 100th post should be about. Should it be something BIG? If it needs to be something BIG... I am going to have to wait, because there is nothing too big and exciting going on right now.

So, I thought I would make this post about some of my favorite things! My Friends!

A great night downtown!

Lacey in Nashville @ Roberts

Maggie @ Shrimp and Grits

We are a little blue but still cute!

4th of July a couple years ago, just a super cute pic!

Don't hate me! This is called efficient dress shopping!

Tanner and I getting ready for NYE neighborhood style!

Kickball Crew!

Neighbors!

Neighbors!

Kickball Crew!

If you put crazy pictures on my phone...you get put on my blog ;)!

Nebraska Crew

Crazy Neighbors 

1. I must be slacking on taking pictures, because I don't have recent pictures of many of you!
2. I know some of these are old, I just love them.
3. Don't hate me!

Love you all!

E

A little Obsession

Ok, I am going to admit it...I am a little obsessed!

With what you may ask...

This stuff! San Pellegrino Grapefruit!!! I like the Lemon just fine, and I LOVE the Orange, but Grapefruit is outstanding.

I hope you are having a lovely spring day, and if you see grapefruit San Pellegrino in the store, give it a try.

E

Houndstooth Hallway

You all know how much I LOVE to do projects in my house. Well the latest project that I've done and not shared with you is my houndstooth hallway.

(I know that I live in SEC territory so this question is bound to come up, Nope, I am NOT an Alabama fan. ;) )

There was one weekend this fall that I didn't have something going on. Nebraska must have had a bye week, because I would not have attempted this with only one day to work on it.

I had been debating for a long time about what to do with my stairway.  I thought it would be really really cool to put reclaimed barn wood paneling on the wall. Then I thought of the sheer size of the wall, and the amount of sanding I would have to do and tossed that idea right out the window.  So, my next thought was paint.  And a pattern. Some how I landed on houndstooth.

Before

The next big decision was what color to paint the walls.
Two different shades of bright blue?
How about a cream and camel color?
Or two shades of slate blue?
Grey? (Like there isn't enough of that in my house already)
What about doing the same color with different sheens...
White?
What color white? (There are about 1,000,000)

In the end I tried to find a white that was different from the white that was on the walls before (it was far too yellow, and clashed with the baseboards) and complemented the baseboards.

Once those decisions were made it was time to get to work.

I had Casey help me with a template, he was able to make one out of scraps from work.  Then I painted the wall with the white that I got in the egg shell sheen. Once that was dry and ready for me to tape off I whipped out my template and got to work.

There was a lot of leveling, taping, re taping, headaches, ibuprofen, beer, frustration, and work!

*side note: These pictures don't do the wall justice.

The first level and square "tooth".

This is the template that my bro made for me.

I taped around this template, I also made one out of wrapping paper that would be easily bendable for corners and the tight areas. 

8 down 35 to go

Since this is a graphic pattern that builds on itself, you can't just trace the pattern for every "tooth". (I know that this is going to be so confusing, this is about the time Advil was needed.) 

Every other "tooth" is going to be painted with high gloss, you only need to outline the "tooth" that is going to be painted with high gloss. The next "tooth"(the one that is not being painted) should be the exact same size as the pattern. 

Every other tooth is going to be bigger in the taping process, but they all come out the same size in the end. I found it helpful to mark the "teeth" that were not going to be painted with some painters tape. It helped me keep track of where I was. 

It makes a lot more sense when you are doing it! PROMISE!

about 1/2 way done

all taped off

Once the patter was completely taped off, there was some detail work to be done.  Since I can't tear tape in the straightest of lines, there was overlap that needed to be cut out with an exacto knife.  

This is about the time that I lost it and was about to rip it all down.  

Thankfully Casey was there to help with the detail work. It isn't too much different from what he does with his paintings he made quick work of it. He went around to every intersecting point and made sure the points were pointy, instead of squared off. 

Then it was time to paint! This was the quickest and easiest part of the whole process. Because I had already painted a quality base coat, and that base coat was the same color, just a different sheen, there was no need for multiple coats! 

I got to see the fruit of my labor that night! By the time I finished painting everything, and sat down for a beer, the paint was dry enough to take the tape off. 

This is how it turned out! (Again the pictures don't do it justice.)

Looking down

Looking Down

Looking Up

The darker "teeth" are high gloss, the lighter, eggshell.

Looking back on this process, I will say that it was a lot of work for subtle. Don't get me wrong I LOVE it and wouldn't changed it because it is perfect for this spot in my house. However, if I were to do it again, in a different house, I would make sure that it is more of a focal point. That much work needs to be shown off!

E

So, I have not posted in a while!

I feel like I have failed you! I've not posted in such a long time...

Things have been crazy, but crazy good!

Since my last post on, my brother's birthday, things have been amazing. Here are some of the top events of the past 6 months!

• Over 200 people showed up to the first Nashville Huskers watch party of the season! It was AMAZING!

• I went back to Nebraska for the Alumni Club leadership conference, and got to see my mom! 

• I saw my Huskers play in person for the first time in a couple years.
• I was asked to be the Maid of Honor in my best friend's wedding!

• Mom came to Nashville for a visit!
• I was a guest speaker for a marketing class at TSU.
• Nebraska survived their frist season in the Big Ten, and made it to the Capital One bow.
• Casey and I went back to Colorado for Christmas. 

• Dad was told he was no longer needed at Group Publishing, Inc. Bittersweet. He is now on to bigger and better things! Go Dad!
• NAMA (Nashville AMA) has been keeping me on my toes! Amazing speakers, wonderful opportunities,  enthusiastic students!

(It seems like my fall was full of Nebraska red, doesn't it?!)


I don't know if you can really sum up the past 6 months in 10 bullet points and a couple pictures. I really am going to make an effort to blog more! Right now I am inclined to blame Pinterest for my lack of blogging over the past 6 months. ;)

E