Coley’s Favorite Things: A holiday gift guide for the coolest people you know.

Ok, it’s true. I’m not Fraulein Maria from The Sound of Music, even though sometimes, I secretly wish I was.

And for the record (SPOILER ALERT!) I’m also not Oprah.

But I have favorite things toooooooo!

Julie’s Detox(ish) Kale Salad

What’s not to love about a  holiday completely dedicated to eating?

It’s the best! Thanksgiving makes me feel some type of  way.

But I don’t always love the way I feel after a weekend spent gorging on too much sugar, butter, carbs and wine. It feels so good in the moment – and I’m all about living in the moment – but sometimes it leaves us feeling less than our best when its all over.

Grandma’s Apple Pie

“When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it’s not, mmmmmmm, boy.” –  Jack Handey, Saturday Night Live.

I am a pie person. Let it be known.

I come from a family of pie people, and hopefully one day I’ll get to go to pie heaven. 

Waffles with Maple Brown Butter

Baby, it’s cold outside.

Entirely too cold for my liking.

I’m a warm weather kinda gal, and if you visit this blog frequently you probably already know that. Temperatures have been dancing around the freezing mark for the past few days and I think that is just too cold for November… Or, well, ever!

But unusually cold weather makes for a good excuse to cozy up at home and make a nice big batch of warm, crispy waffles.

Mmmm… Waffles. As if you need an excuse. 

Salsa Verde

I’m super pumped to be sharing this post for SO many reasons. But the biggest one might be that OUR KITCHEN IS ALMOST FINISHED!!

I’m waiting until it’s all said and done to post photos of the whole shebang, you know, for a BIG REVEAL. I’m going to do it up right, with before and after pics and all that jazz.

It’s exciting. I’m excited. Are you excited?! You should be.

All Of The Food In New Orleans

This past weekend we took a little trip down to one of my favorite cities and ate ALL of the food. Literally, all of it.

New Orleans is like the geographical incarnation of Too Full for School. I’ve been uncomfortably full for the past 4 days straight, and its been glorious.

Crispy Chick Peas with Olive Oils from Spain (Sponsored Post)

The popularity of the Mediterranean Diet has exploded in recent years, and for good reason. People living along the Mediterranean Sea have known for a long time that a diet high in unsaturated fats, vegetables, and fish is loaded with a slew of health benefits.

Jerk Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

“You are what you eat.”

This saying always got on my nerves.

If it were true, then I would be a walking talking tomato, with slices of pizza for arms, a scoop of ice cream for a head and cookies for feet.

But nope, I’m 100% human. And for the record, while I do love a good cannibal joke, I’m proud to say I’ve never eaten another human.

Kitchen Update

There it is, folks. This is what my kitchen currently looks like in real time. Which goes without saying that, no, after 2 months of construction it’s still not finished.

It might be helpful if you knew what the kitchen looked like before we began the renovation. Take a peek at the audition video I made for Food Network Star last October and you can get a pretty good feel for what I was working with.

Spicy Pumpkin Soup with Corn and Crab Relish

HEY! IT’S FALL.

Have you heard?

If you haven’t, then it’s safe to assume you’ve been living under a rock.

It always happens like this. I wake up one day, and summer is gone. Like, totally, completely gone. A distant memory. Almost as if it never existed in the first place.