Haley's Week in Photos

You know how I said last Friday was officially one year until Matt and I got married?  Well, we celebrated by going to our venue and having a pic-nic!  Matt was sweet and came home with some wine, and we had bread and spinach-artichoke dip and pasta salad and sfogliatelle (Italian puff pastries with a sweet ricotta filling).  It was an absolutely perfect day, and it was really nice to get to catch up with each other and have little dream-sessions about our wedding day!

And speaking of weddings, we went to a bridal fair at the South Florida Fairgrounds last weekend.  It wasn't as impressive as I thought it would have been, but we found some good vendors and ideas, so it wasn't a total bust!

The bridal fair was followed by tacos and margaritas at Rocco's Tacos, a really great restaurant and tequila bar down here.  This was St. Patrick's day, so I felt a little guilty for not going all-out Irish for this meal, but I made up for it with dinner...

...which was corned beef, colcannon, and a Magners.  Do you know what colcannon is?  It's smashed potatoes, with bacon and cabbage mixed in, and it is delightful!  I will post the recipe soon, because it's just not fair of me to share.  Also, Magners is a cider from Ireland (although, in Ireland they call it "Bulmers"), and it was basically all that I drank while I studied over there.  It is usually served in a pint glass over ice, but I was too impatient for that!

If we ever eat anything on the couch, Layla supervises very closely, just in case we make a mess that she has to clean up.  She really keeps us in line.

Y'all.  I have discovered red cabbage.  It's not something that we really grew up with, so I never used it, but I needed some for the colcannon, and now I'm wild over it.  Not only is it so incredibly beautiful when you cut it, like some kind of abstract art, but it's pretty tasty, too!

The finished guest room!  It took awhile for us to decide what should art should go where, but I am so happy with the way it has turned out!  You can see my little mirror up over the bed, along with a portrait of an elephant in a suit (thanks, Abbi!), some student artwork that either Mommi or Abbi did eons ago, and a poster of Dinotopia (my favorite book growing up) that Mommi had signed by the illustrator for me!

This artwork, however, has not yet been lucky enough to find a home.  Matt and I are still trying to decide where in our room this will go, so it's doing one of those chic "leaning against the wall" things.

And finally, I will admit that I have a problem, and that problem is rosemary bread.  I know that there are other kinds of breads and herbs that could go together splendidly, but why mess with a good thing?  This is a new recipe that I have tried, to go with a salmon nicoise salad for dinner tonight.  I don't see how we could go wrong!