Todd and I made the trek (90 miles) up to Charlotte today after church and lunch. I had a gift card to Kate Spade that I wanted to try and use. A lot of people are “over Kate Spade,” but I’m a preppy girl and I love her bright colors and classic lines. Her paper goods are adorable and I’m always anxious to see what she designs each year.

Todd gave me this adorable green bag as my wedding gift and filled it with a couple of outfits to wear on our honeymoon in Maui.

Poor Todd. He told me after I opened it that he had a whole lotta trouble finding this bag. He called Kate Spade stores all over the country and checked the website daily until he finally gave up and ordered the black version of the bag and planned on explaining it all to me later and continue to make attempts to locate the green bag. Days before the wedding, he got a call from the Kate Spade store in Charlotte that the green bag had arrived and they would ship it overnight to Todd in Columbia. So here he is with two bags in two different colors. I got the green one and he attempted to return the black one about a month ago. Well, he had waited too long to return it, so they wrote a very nice letter to him and gave us a Kate Spade gift card instead. Lucky me! He probably should have saved the gift card and given it to me for Christmas.

When we showed up at the store today, Todd introduced himself and they all remembered talking to him a few months ago! They were excited to meet us and see the bag on my arm! My husband still goes on and on about the amazing people at Kate Spade stores all over the country and how friendly and customer oriented they are. I think he’s willing to be their spokesperson if they ever ask.

I’ve needed a wallet for a long time now, so I went to use part of my gift card and hopefully find a wallet that I loved today. I picked this one out! Adorable, right?

I made need to remove this image from the blog. It doesn’t go that well with “Blue-Eyed Bride,” does it?

My Green Eggs and Ham baby shower inspiration board is one of four finalists over at Sippy Cups are for Chardonnay. Voting for the boards lasts until Tuesday. Please head over there and vote for me if you get a chance!

Thanks!

I love Will Ferrell’s classic line from Wedding Crashers. Todd and I are always shouting, “Mom! The meatloaf!”

Well I’m making meatloaf. I wanted to wait until the wedding was over to finally try to make meatloaf. It didn’t really help my pre-wedding diet, so I’ve been dreaming about meatloaf for months! The best meatloaf I’ve ever had was at my birthday dinner at the Hudson Hotel in NYC in 2004.

Katie Joel was on Oprah a few months ago promoting her new cookbook (which is on my Amazon.com wishlist). She made meatloaf on the show and I couldn’t wait to try it. Fortunately, I was able to print the recipe off of oprah dot com. It sounds amazing. The only thing I’m worried about is trying to form it into a loaf. I don’t have a loat pan yet and it was one of the few registry items that we didn’t receive. I’m excited to try it.

I’m also going to try this smoked macaroni and cheese with gouda recipe that I got from the Southern Living magazine. Yummy!!!

Here is the Katie Lee Joel meatloaf recipe from her book “The Comfort Table:”

INGREDIENTS
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced (about 3/4 cup)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 medium red pepper, finely diced (about 1 cup)
1 bay leaf
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
2 pounds lean ground beef
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray lightly with oil.

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onions, garlic and bay leaf until the onions are tender, about 3 minutes. Add the red pepper and cook until the red pepper is tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley and thyme and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove pan from the heat and let the onion mixture cool. Discard the bay leaf.

In a large bowl, combine the beef, eggs, bread crumbs, 1/2 cup of ketchup, the Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and the cooled vegetables. Use your hands to mix everything together.

Transfer the mixture to the center of the baking sheet and form into a loaf. Coat the meat loaf with the remaining 1/2 cup ketchup.

Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours (depending on the shape of your loaf), until the meat loaf is firm. Let set for about 5 minutes before slicing.