Vegas Vacation

Viva Las Vegas...Viva Las Vegas...I kid you not there was an Elvis impersonator at the Las Vegas sign letting people take pictures with him but he only takes $10 tips. Ha!

My family and I had a very non-traditional Thanksgiving again this year (last year we went to Dauphin Island).



We spent 4-days and 3-nights in Vegas, baby! The first two nights we stayed at the Bellagio and the third night at Mandalay Bay, which both places took a lot of my money. It's all good...they were comp rooms any way, so it was like I really paid for my free vacation if that helps out my rationalization. Oh well! It's all about entertainment anyways. I think the only thing I won was my bet on Georgia to win the Tech game. Glad I could count on my Dawgs to win me some money!



PS. There always has to be some food involved in my posts/vacations always! Aren't these sliders so cute? For some reason I take pictures of every slider I get even though they all look the same. They are just so darn cute. Good finger foods for parties!

Gobble, Gobble, y'all!

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm in Vegas this year, so hopefully I won't lose too much money!

There are so many things I'm thankful for this year:

1. Getting back to my artistic roots by taking up figure drawing classes and creating several paintings for friends and family: Sea Shells

2. Spending time with friends and family in Destin, Kansas City, DC, Athens, and Minneapolis

3. Working hard for the money and the awards! A website for the GPS, RoadNut, won a SEED Award and is featured on Cool Homepages

4. Listening to the music. I got to see BB King, Stevie Wonder, Journey, The Whigs, Ben Harper, Paolo Nutini and Amos Lee.

5. Experiencing new restaurants in Atlanta for Girl's Supper Club. My favorite: Watershed

I can't wait for the 2009 holidays. This year has gone by way too fast! Hopefully I can catch up!

AIGA: Ink and Drink

Last week, I participated in AIGA's Ink and Drink at the Atlanta Printmakers Studio. During the event, we screenprinted our very own holiday cards while we drank! It was my first time screenprinting and I had such a great time! It was so easy and so much fun that I'm definitely going back there. I didn't even get one drop of ink on my nice clothes. I'm not gonna post pics of my cards because you'll just have to wait and see when you get yours in the mail!



Screenprinting my first color onto my card!



The second step after you screenprint is to flood the ink.



Looking at what I have created!

Am's Red Wine Beef Stew

My BFF for life, Anne Marie, made this dish last year while J. Wo and I visited and I couldn't help but get the receipe from her for another comfort dinner this week.

2lbs Stew Beef

1 1/2 cups Red Wine

1 1/2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup

1 pkg. dry Lipton's Onion Soup Mix

1 pkg fresh mushrooms

Splash of Worcestershire

Pinch of Salt & Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on high for 4-6 hours.

I ate mine over rice but mashed potatoes are good too!

Hey, Ma! Can we get some meatloaf?!

Such the ultimate comfort food for me on these cold rainy days: meatloaf with mashed potatoes. You can never go wrong no matter what recipe you use. I was gonna go with a Paula Deen recipe that probably called for 14 ingredients, but found this recipe on the back of a Lipton Onion Soup Mix box. Super Easy!


1 envelope Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Onion Soup Mix
2 lbs. ground beef
3/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs*
2 eggs
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup ketchup

1.	Preheat oven to 350°. Combine all ingredients in large bowl.
2.	Shape into loaf in 13 x 9-inch baking or roasting pan.
3.	Bake uncovered 1 hour or until done. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Calories 320, Calories From Fat 70, Total Fat 8g, Saturated Fat 3g, Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 125mg, Sodium 590mg, Total Carbohydrate 12g, Dietary Fiber 1g, Sugars 3g, Protein 28g, Vitamin A 4%, Vitamin C 4%, Calcium 4%, Iron 20%

For my mashed potatoes, I always just make it up as I go and just keep tasting until it's just right! But here is a mashed potato recipe from gourmet.com that I want to try some day because it looks so delish!

It's Saturday in Athens...

I've been so busy lately that I haven't even gotten a chance to give a shout out to my Dawgs! No matter how awful we are this season, I always have a great time going to watch them play and hanging out with old friends.