The Purple Potato Project

In an attempt to broaden my blog topics, I'm taking a note from the food bloggers I know and sharing a recipe I made this week. Here goes nothing! 

After the excitement from our party died down, I finally went grocery shopping for normal food. Feeling lazy & hungry, I decided to make stuffed peppers. 

Here's what you'll need:  

You can use whatever veggies you'd like, but I opted for broccoli and baby zucchini because, well, baby zucchini are so much cuter than regular size. 

I started by pre-heating the oven to 350 degrees and cooking my quinoa in the microwave according to the instructions on the box. Next, I cleaned out the peppers and chopped up the broccoli & zucchini into bit sized pieces. I put everything in a bowl and added some goat cheese to blend it all together. 

After you have your filling ready, stuff the peppers. They should look something like this: 

I was feeling adventurous, so I also whipped up some potatoes to go with my peppers. I got a small bag of mini potatoes (again, cute factor matters to me), washed them, cut them into quarters, placed them on a cookie sheet, and seasoned simply with olive oil, salt, and pepper. 

I placed everything in the oven and took the peppers out after about 25 minutes. I let the potatoes cook for an extra 10 minutes on their own. When everything came out of the oven nice & hot, it looked like this:

My apologies for the blurry-ness of this potato photo - I was apparently very excited when they looked so pretty. I mean, really, purple potatoes are just awesome. 

To finish off the dish, I added a little bit more goat cheese. Because when you think about it, more goat cheese is always the answer. 

Kicking off December Right

This weekend, the girls of 3A hosted our very first Christmas party. We called it '3A Presents: A Classy Christmas" with all of our food & drinks falling in line with theme. Our apartment was covered in Christmas lights & candles with a little Charlie Brown Christmas tree to top things off.  

We had a spread of homemade appetizers and desserts that I assisted with, but it was largely executed by my wonderful roommates. I did, however, whip up some peppermint bark. It's easy & delicious and always a winner at parties. 

All you need is chocolate of your choice - I used white chocolate - and candy canes. Crush up the candy canes into bite sized pieces and put them aside. 

Next, melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl for 15-20 seconds at a time, stirring often. Once the chocolate is melted, pour it into a cookie sheet covered in wax and sprinkle the candy cane pieces over the chocolate, mixing them together. Finally, spread the chocolate evenly and put it in the fridge for about 45 minutes. After it has hardened, just break the bark into pieces and you're done!

If you'd like to see some amazing food pictures & more yummy recipes, check out my roommate's blogs - Tess @ Food for Your Heart  and Aravinda @ Linguini & Colette. 

Now, it wouldn't be a holiday party (for me) without a themed nail tutorial. I opted for a design I saw on Pinterest, but put my own twist on it. 

I used Butter London's British Racing Green, O.P.I.'s Designer...De Better! and Milani's Gold to achieve this look. All of these polishes were in my Holiday Favorites post & they're proving to be amazing so far. 

I started out by painting all of my nails with two even coats of British Racing Green leaving my ring finger on each hand bare. Once the green polish dried, I painted my ring fingers with Designer...de Better! using two thin coats. Finally, I topped of my ring fingers with Milani's Gold, being careful to place the glitter quite strategically, emphasizing the center of my nail. 

I originally hadn't planned on using a base under the glitter polish, but quickly discovered that the silver/rose gold base coat made the glitter stand out even more as the gold glitter floats in clear polish. These nails are perfect for the holiday season and are so much fun to wear! I have a feeling I'll be painting them like this again for Christmas in just a few weeks. 

Overall - a wonderful party and I couldn't think of a better way to kick off December! 

My beautiful roommates - Tess & Aravinda :)