I love me some guacamole and when I am in Mexico on vacation guacamole is a MUST!!  We’ve gone two whole days on vacation without guacamole and that is just way too long if you ask me.  So off to the grocery store we went, picked up food for the week and a ton of guac ingredients.  The fun this about guac is you can make it in SO many different ways.  My recipe differs from my friend Rebecca’s recipe, but they are both super yummy!

As we ate our guacamole last night there was a very beautiful sunset.  Check it out…

Sunset in Ixtapa, Mexico | Life's Tidbits

Ingredients:

2 Avocados
1 Lime juiced
2 Cloves of garlic
1/4 Cup of red onion
1 Tomato (small)
1/3 Jalapeno (or less to taste)
Salt (to taste)

Recipe - Guacamole Ingredients | Lifes's Tidbits

Making guacamole is incredibly easy and pretty quick as well.  Just make sure your avocados are ripe or mashing them becomes a huge issue.

Mash the avocados.

Recipe - Guacamole | Lifes's Tidbits

Then add in minced jalapeno and garlic as well as the lime juice and some salt – stir.

Recipe - Guacamole Ingredients | Lifes's Tidbits

Add chopped onion, tomato and a little extra salt – mix well.

Recipe - Guacamole in Mexico | Lifes's Tidbits

Refrigerate for at least 20-30 minutes to let the flavors develop.  Serve with tortilla chips, quesadillas or whatever else you prefer.  We ate ours on the porch last night with some tortilla chips.

Recipe - Guacamole in Mexico | Lifes's Tidbits

Happy Cooking!

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One of my favorite things about my husband is he always says “babe we are a team”, which is his way of telling me we will get through whatever it is going on big or small together.  I think the team mentality is part of what makes our relationship so strong.  We referred to ourselves, long before we got engaged, as Team Bowen.

We would joke about wearing matching sweatsuits to brunch the morning after our wedding.  The plan was to get bride and groom embroidered on the sweatpants.  On the jackets we would have Team Bowen version 3.0.

Although it was always a joke, in the end we followed through with our plan and had sweatsuits made.  And let me just say I LOVE(D) THEM and so did our friends and family!!!

Photo Credit: My Dad :)

I bought my sweatsuit from Victoria’s Secret and then got his from Amazon.  VS is constantly running specials so I strongly suggest waiting for a sale like I did.

My husband was kind enough to run this very important wedding errand.  He took the sweatsuits to a local chain and worked with the associate to correctly place the wording.  He also successfully chose the purple colored string for my sweatsuit that was almost the same as our wedding color purple.  Serious props to my husband, because he made the perfect choices for the embroidery without my help!

I remembered to pull out the sweatsuits the day of the wedding and asked our photographer to capture a few professional shots.

Photo Credit: Korie Lynn Photography

Photo Credit: Korie Lynn Photography

If you are wondering about the 3.0 reference it comes from us both being tech geeks.  Think of the stages in our relationship like a software release. Dating version 1.0, engaged version 2.0 and married is our latest release.  I suggested to a friend who’s getting married this summer to do Established in YYYY instead of the “versions” for her sweatsuits.

It was nice to have something special to wear the day after our BIG day! I even wore the outfit on the plane ride to Italy for our honeymoon. :)

What do you plan on wearing the day after your wedding?

Happy Planning!

Don’t forget to leave your tidbit by commenting below :)

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One of my favorite party planning blogs is Hostess with the Mostess.  I recently browsing for fun party ideas and cam across this super fun blog for Guinness Stout Brownie Pretzel Bars.  I thought these were perfect for our Super Bowl party (and my husband’s beer themed birthday).  The recipe is by Esther Kang of Batch from Scratch.

Ingredients:

4 oz Bittersweet Chocolate
8 oz Butter
1 Egg
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Cocoa
1 1/4 cup Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Guinness
8 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
3.5 oz Butterscotch
2.5 oz White Chocolate Chips
1.4 oz Heavy Cream

Place the bittersweet chocolate & butter in a bowl.

Melt in microwave or double boiler.

Using a mixer beat egg, sugar and brown sugar for 3 minutes.

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl cocoa, flour, salt.  Add the melted chocolate to egg mixture then mix in dry ingredients.  Last add vanilla and beer mixing until incorporated.  Pour into a 9×13 pan.

Sprinkle semi-sweet chocolate on top of the batter.  Then pop it in the over at 350 for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

To make the butterscotch ganache combine butterscotch, white chocolate and heavy cream in a small bowl.  Microwave in 30 second increments, stir until melted and smooth.  I heated mine for a little over a minute, however make sure not to over heat them or it will go ALL over you microwave and you will loose a lot of the ganache (can you tell this happened to me?? Hahaha). Spread the ganache over the cooked brownie.  Refrigerate until firm.  Then cut into small bites and serve.

The blog suggests topping with 1/3 cup Crushed Pretzels and Flakey Sea Salt  (maldon salt works well).  I should have put the pretzels on while the ganache was still a little warm because I couldn’t get the pretzels to stay on the brownie bits after they were totally cooled.

Here are the YUMMY Guinness Brownie Bits …

The brownies were a big hit and perfect for both the super bowl and birthday parties.

Happy Cooking & Party Planning!

Don’t forget to leave your tidbit by commenting below :)

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The husband and I go to this fantastic Indian place in Adams Morgan.  One time we really wanted Indian, but didn’t feel like venturing out of the house.  Enter the beautiful world of online recipes. I combined a few different recipes and came up with the following Chicken Tikka Masala recipe which is inspired by our favorite meal at the Indian restaurant.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into bite sized pieces)

Marinade-

1 cup yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (or more, to taste)
2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh ginger (minced)
2 teaspoons salt (or less, to taste)

Sauce-

1 tablespoon butter
1/2 medium onion (chopped)
2 garlic clove (minced)
1/2 jalapeño pepper (finely chopped)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 tsp of coriander
2 tsp garam masala
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream (or I like to substitute fat free condenced milk)

In a large bowl mix yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, cinnamon, black pepper, cayenne pepper, ginger, and salt. Add chicken bits and mix well, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.


Lightly oil and pre-heat the grill pan to high heat. Put chicken onto the grill and cook until juices run clear. Discard the extra marinade.

In a large skillet melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and jalapeño peppers and sauté for 3 minutes.

Add spices and mix well. Stir in tomato sauce and heavy cream  (or condensed milk). Bring to a boil while stirring reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

Add grilled chicken to the sauce and simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve on top of white rice.

You can also serve this meal with naan bread, which can be find at any Indian Restaurant or sometimes places like Harris Teeter or Whole Foods carry it.

Happy Cooking!

Don’t forget to leave your tidbit by commenting below :)

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As I wrapped up the layout and picture choices for our wedding album with the photographer this week I realized it has been a while since I blogged about wedding stuff.

Wedding blogs turned me onto all sorts of fun little items which make for adorable details at a wedding … or a bridal shower, baby shower or any kind of party really.  One of my biggest must haves for my wedding was purple barbor shop paper straws.

I Googled purple paper straws for weeks and … NOTHING.  I could find gray, pink, red, blue and other colors, but no puprle.  Then I got my Dad to look online.  As always he worked his magic and WALAH …

Check ‘em out:

Photo Credit – ThePartyFairy 2012

They are totally affordable at $21 for 150 straws. I purchased 150 straws with a guest attendance of ~100 people (PLANNING TIP).  The straws were well received by the guests and people were asking for the “fun straws” in whatever drink they were ordering. YAY!

Here’s a couple of my favorite pictures of barbor shop straws:

Photo Credit: Korie Lynn Photography (left) & Guest Picture (right)

Photo Credit: Guest Photo

And for my absolute favorite purple straw picture …

Photo Credit: Sara without an H

Oh my I love that picture!  I’m dying to buy more straws maybe in pink or yellow, but first I need to find a party to help plan and/or host.  Anyone hosting a baby shower or have a bridal shower coming up?  This little detail would be fabulous!

Happy Planning!

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