smiles

Yeah, THAT!

| Melia Alexander

Welcome to Mix-It-Up Monday!

It’s about time for Niece 2 to start school again, which means it’s shopping time! No surprise that what we find exciting are two completely different things.

I lurrvvv school supplies! Always seems that there aren’t enough pens, paper, Sharpies, highlighters, post-it notes, or index cards – necessary staples in my writer’s toolbox. Can you tell I’m a plotter? 🙂

Niece 2, on the other hand, loves shopping for clothes. (Well, duh!) And this graphic tee sums up my thought perfectly!20140909_175652Do you have a kiddo in your life? Which part of back-to-school shopping do you like best?

Have an awesome week!

~Melia

 

Cheese Niblets

| Melia Alexander

Welcome to Food and Wine Wednesday!

With summer quickly coming to a close, so too, does our warm weather and the outdoor concerts that play throughout our part of the world. These concerts have become a bit of a tradition for Mr. A and me, and a great way to inject some mid-week fun into our lives. (Cuz there are never enough of those, right?)

One of the dilemmas we’ve had was figuring out what to eat. (Oh, how I love having a First World problem!) Warm afternoon…cool drinks..light food. Wasn’t this the perfect plate to share?

20150805_183124(1)Pretty. Delicious. And definitely something we’ll have again. And we might not bother to wait until next summer, either. (We’re such rebels! 😉 )

What’s your favorite cheese and fruit pairing? Please share!

Happy eating,
Melia

Beets Me

| Melia Alexander

Welcome to Food and Wine Wednesday!

A wonderful friend and I got together for lunch the other day at a place I had no idea served lunch. I had been there for some wine with another friend, but the food-thing somehow escaped me. Imagine that! 😀

Anyhoo, amongst the yummy offerings that day was this gem:

20150807_121703

A golden beet salad with hazelnuts and Chevre. I loved the crunchiness of the hazelnuts mixed in with the perfect texture of the beets, the punchy flavor of the goat cheese, and the spicy arugula…Ohmigosh was it good! Almost as good as the conversation and reconnecting with a dear friend.

I’ll definitely head back. Maybe next time, I’ll have food and wine!

What food surprises have you encountered recently?

Happy eating,
Melia

Nudge

| Melia Alexander

Mr. A and I made were out one evening, enjoying some outdoor music, great food, and great company. Somewhere in the conversation, the setting sun hit just right, and I got to whip out my handy-dandy phone to take a shot of this: 20150729_183651Makes me smile. And, frankly, shouldn’t most of what we do in life make us smile?

Happy Photo Friday!

~Melia

 

Musings of a Foodie Wannabe

| Melia Alexander

Welcome to Food and Wine Wednesday!

Yes, the days are getting a bit longer and the weather warmer. It’s usually at this time of the year that I’m downright jumping up and down waiting for summer to get here. Why? It’s all about the food, babe! Fresh summer fruit and veggies. Grilled meats. Outdoor dining. Need I say more?

Yeah, okay, maybe I need a life, but then again, I’m a Foodie Wannabe, so food’s become pretty important to me these days. 🙂 Especially when I really stop and think about the flavor of a tomato now versus what it’ll be in five or six months. Don’t know about you, but I think there’s a HUGE difference.

Of course, we’re lucky to live in a part of the world with fabulous farmers’ markets, so the freshness is always a short drive away. Check out these pics from last year:

Gorgeous, huh? I can barely wait until our local farmer’s market opens up again!

Well, for however long the newly awakened foodie-wannabe in me lasts, I’m soaking it up. Life, it’s said, starts with food. And, wow, I can’t think of a better place to be than the good ole Pacific Northwest when it comes to good eats!

Do you like to cook? What’s your favorite time of (cooking) year?

Happy eating,
Melia

Writerly Retreat

| Melia Alexander

One of the beauties of having such generous writerly friends is the chance to visit their wonderful get-aways. Or, in this case, writer-pal Delilah Marvelle‘s GORGEOUS home!

Set on eighty lush forest-y acres, Delilah and Mr. Marvelle are busy renovating the existing house on the property. Aaannd…I’ll have my own room in it! For when I come visit. Which will be often. Thanks, Delilah! 😉

Welcome to the Marvelle’s!
My very own room!
And the view outside my room!
Loving the invitation to explore the grounds!

I’m so looking forward to the peace and quiet, to the calming beauty, and the chance for La Muse to crank out some amazing pages.

Aren’t I lucky? I think so! 🙂

Happy travels,
Melia

Foodie Wannabe

| Melia Alexander

Welcome to Food and Wine Wednesday!

I blame it all on author-pal Tawna Fenske. She started me on this food kick ever since I spent the night at her place while we filmed four videos for our book launch last December. If you missed them, you can find the videos on her blog. (Because she’s so on top of everything!)

Anyhoo, if you were to ask my family, they’d tell you under no uncertain terms that chicken was on sale at our local grocery store this past week. How would they know? Take a wild guess what we’ve been eating most of the week? And, hey, at less than $1 a pound, how could I not buy the equivalent of what would feed a small army? 🙂

Course, that also means coming up with creative ways to prepare it so that it’d get past their lips and down the hatch. Tonight, I admit, I was stymied. After a week of chicken soup, roasted chicken, and chicken sauteed in butter, lemon, and parsley, it was time for something different. Something that would allow me to disguise that, for the fifth time in a week, we were having…chicken.

And then it happened. You know what I’m talking about. That moment when I’m going through the day, minding my own business, taking care of whatever recent crisis arises out of The Male Observation Lab, and then, KA-BOOM! Somewhere out of the ether comes the idea that’s been niggling in the back of the brain: what the heck am I gonna do about dinner tonight? The answer hit me like a lightening bolt out of a clear blue Pacific Northwest sky: Chicken Marengo.

Now, if you want the original recipe, you can find it here. I used it as a spring board…’cause I’m such a rebel that way! My variations included baking the chicken ahead of time (to make week day meal prep easier), using the chicken pieces instead of chicken cutlets (what the hell is a cutlet, anyway?), and using drippings from the baked chicken instead of beef broth. The results, if I do say so myself, were pretty awesome!

But since I can’t offer you a taste, or even a whiff, here are some pics:

Has cooking inspiration struck you in a similar way? How’d it turn out? Please share!

Happy eating, all!

~Melia

 

From SF with Love

| Melia Alexander

Well, hello there. Been awhile, I know! Gotta admit it’s good to be back, now that I’m done with this latest round of edits for the next book in my Glenwood Falls series…for now. 🙂

So. This Take me Back Thursday comes courtesy of a spur-of-the-moment trip Mr. A and I took to San Francisco several years ago. We had the most awesomest of times as we explored this super-fun city!

a005_5 (2)I love the memories that come flooding back to me! The trolley cars…fabulous food…Fisherman’s Wharf….

And sharing all of these with someone so very special? That was the bestest part of all! Share one of your favorite travel memories with a special someone. C’mon! You know you want to!

Happy-almost-Friday,
Melia