happy thanksgiving! "friendsgiving" and 80s night photos!

Happy Thanksgiving! We celebrated in Florence with a "friendsgiving" last night since we'll all be traveling tonight and going to different places. I'm definitely not blessed with culinary skills (maybe it's just being lazy about cooking, ha) so I helped with groceries...and that's about it. Oh, I helped eat it too. Does that count?

Sam and Mollie made the most delicious turkey:

We also had mashed potatoes (my favorite side dish), carrot souffle, green bean casserole, and apple pie.

There was also a store-bought cake that I jokingly told everyone I made from scratch. One of the guys believed me. The rest knew me too well. ;)

On Tuesday we hosted an 80s Rock party at one of the bars in Florence. It was a lot of fun to dress up and listen to the music.

I straightened Rory's massive curly hair! Cam drew on fake (and pretty funny) tattoos. The boys were wearing crazy printed leggings, a lot of denim, and wigs. So great.

Tonight I'm off to Prague for the weekend. There's been a lot of weekend trips lately. I'm excited because I haven't been to the Czech Republic yet and I've heard Prague is a beautiful city.

Hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving with family and friends!

xo-ally

recipes for memorial day weekend

I can't believe it is almost Memorial Day. 2012 is just flying by! I'm going up to the lake for a friend's bachelorette party this weekend, and since I'm leaving soon I don't have time to cook something (but that's just an excuse for not being much of a mastered chef). If you are going to some barbecues or other parties this weekend, here are some tasty recipes I found 'round the web that would be easy to whip up!

These Lemon Bars from Smitten Kitchen look amazing. I've been getting into lemon lately! Normally, if I had to choose between chocolate and lemon, it would be no question that chocolate would win. Now lemon is coming into the picture more...anyways, I think these sound great!

Smitten Kitchen also made apple pie cookies. What a creative idea! Another great dessert for barbecue-style or buffet-style parties. Or to keep at home and not share because they'd be so good. I wouldn't tell anyone. ;)

This grilled pineapple from Skinnytaste sounds delightful. I love pineapple even by itself because it's so sweet. This recipe adds honey, cinnamon, and lime juice to the pinapple to make it extra sweet! Bonus: Only 51 calories.

Finally! A non-dessert on this list! This grilled corn guacamole from The Pioneer Woman sounds delicious. It is a unique way to switch up regular guacamole. This would be a hit at any party this weekend!

Well, I'm writing this in the morning before breakfast. And now I feel like eating guacamole and lemon bars instead of eggs. Great.

xo