Aqua Decor, Clean Kitchen & Peach Cherry Bourbon Chicken

I recently went through and d-cluttered my tiny kitchen, and bought a pineapple, and I thought it looked so nice I would share it here on my blog. It's funny, because if anyone asks me what my favorite color is, I will say yellow, because I like what it represents, yet in reality, I am always drawn to the cool color aqua.

In this particular picture, I had gotten up early, made my breakfast and was enjoying the cool breeze floating in through the window on my left. A nice treat during this very hot Oregon summer.

Mugs & Bowl: Fiesta Ware // Bird Butter Dish: World Market // Utensil Pitcher: Home Goods

After d-cluttering, I was feeling rather homemaker-ish so I decided to take a crack at cooking something different than the usual. Earlier this summer I tried making the Pioneer Woman's Peach Whiskey Chicken. Well, as per usual, Joel and I didn't follow the recipe to a tee, and it just didn't turn out quite right. So on this day, I though I would try it again, but instead I just used the idea of the sauce and did my own thing.

Here's what I did: We bought frozen chicken drumsticks, and baked them in our slow cooker for a few hours on high heat. Once they were cooked, I threw them on our indoor grill to crisp them up a bit.

For the sauce I just mixed together: honey bbq sauce, honey, peach preserves, and Cherry Reserve Bourbon (Sorry, this girl doesn't measure when she experiments). Just mix it and taste until it tastes how you like. Then I brushed the glaze on the chicken, and done! It was soo good!

I try to be Martha Stewart-y, but I just don't quite make the cut. This is a bag mix salad. Probably fancier than I would make myself, however. I believe it was called the "Summer Salad". I always add onions though!

Well, at least my husband liked it! I will probably be making it again!
What's your favorite chicken or salad recipe?
Happy Tuesday!

Birthday Celebration 2

And the birthday celebrations continued onto the day before my birthday...

Since my birthday was on a Monday this year, My Husband totally spoiled me on Sunday. He made me breakfast in bed. My favorite: biscuits and gravy complete with bacon, fresh fruit and coffee.

He had to go to a football meeting, but I had to write lesson plans, so he made sure to leave me with mimosas to help me relax while I got work done. It was very relaxing! I got a lot of work done for school and dance team and I had a pleasant time doing it. I felt very productive when I had finished.

The surprises continued when Joel got home and told me to be ready to go to dinner in a couple hours. When it came time to go he started stressing out about getting there on time, and he wouldn't tell me where we were going. I kept trying to get him to tell me but he kept it a secret! The surprise was he was taking me to one of my favorite stores, World Market, to pick out a present! 

The store was closing earlier than Joel originally thought (that's why he was stressed) so I didn't have a ton of time to look, but Joel helped me narrow things down quickly. We picked out some string lights for the backyard that we don't currently have, haha. We're hoping to move soon somewhere with even the tiniest of back yards. We cannot go another summer with no outdoor space! We don't even have a little patio or anything right now & we're going stir crazy!

      

These lights had me browsing through my yard pinterest board, day dreaming of a backyard oasis :)

We also picked out a bottle of fancy champagne. We don't really know anything about it, we just picked it because the bottle was pretty ;)

We decided to go to Outback for dinner. I had a blackberry peach mojito and the grilled Mahi. We also had our first "bloomin' onion"...definitely not my favorite appetizer,  but my mojito and dinner were delicious!

We sat outside in the covered patio and we had it all to ourselves for most of our meal. It was really nice and relaxing.

Me, basking in my birthday glory, day dreaming about dining on my own back patio this summer.

Hoping we can make it happen!

I have the best husband in the world!

Happy Thursday ;)