La Famille Noir

Hello, Hello

2012-01-28T21:06:00.000-05:00

Guess I better give another update seeing as it's almost been a month since my last one. What have we been doing? Well, if that picture gives you any clue, we are pretty much obsessed with Gnomeo and Juliet and either watch it, quote it, or joke about it at least once a week. Thank you Netflix Instant Streaming! Our time as of late has been filled with getting to know more friends in

Easy Shrimp Etouffee

2012-01-02T19:39:00.000-05:00

It's officially 2012! And what better dinner to make on New Year's Night than Shrimp Etouffee? I've been wanting to make etouffee for quite some time now, but have been putting it off mostly because I didn't know of a good recipe that was also simple, fast, and easy. This recipe is most definitely all of those qualities. I'm amazed how authentic this tastes. I'm hoping in the near

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T22:16:00.000-05:00

Here's the original ball that drops every year in Times Square in New York. Pretty cool. Michael and I had a really fun celebration with some friends from my internship, and others. We played Kinect, drank some Butterbeer (yay for Harry Potter non-alcoholic beverages), ate good party food, and rang in the New Year with silly (but authentically New York) 2012 sunglasses. And Michael and I,

A Merry "Little" Christmas

2011-12-24T16:47:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's taken me so long to post on our happy little blog here. I figured I ought to update everyone on what we've been doing and tell about our "little" Christmas we are having, seeing as we aren't going home to see family this year. But we are a family just the two of us, so it's pretty great! First off, you like our Christmas card? Many of you have probably seen this already,

Creamy Mushroom Fettuccine

2011-12-04T19:41:00.001-05:00

This recipe inspiration came from the awesome Sweet Paul. I look forward to their Recipe Mondays like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. Everything they do is simple and amazing (even when they're doing crafts and design). The style is beautiful. Mushrooms were on sale yesterday, and the weather was a little cool and damp, so I knew it was perfect timing for me to finally pull out

O Christmas Tree!

2011-12-03T20:42:00.001-05:00

Last weekend, Michael and I went out and bought our very first LIVE Christmas tree! I looked up Christmas tree farms on the internet and found a couple just down the road from us in Tallahassee. I grew up with a live Christmas tree every single year and so I've missed having one the past couple years of marriage. When I found out that it would be quite cheap to buy one this year,

Thanksgiving and a Facelift

2011-11-25T18:11:00.001-05:00

Michael and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We went down to spend it with some family on the Edmond side, which is my mother's mother's family. A lot of them I hadn't seen for over a decade, so it was definitely nice to catch up. We ate dinner outside by the beautiful pool, in perfectly comfortable weather. It seems weird to spend Thanksgiving without snow, and it was especially odd

Crispy Butterfinger Cookies

2011-11-15T22:08:00.001-05:00

I love Butterfingers. They have been my absolute favorite candy bar since I can remember. Peanut butter and chocolate were meant to be together. And Butterfingers are the perfect way to combine the two. As Michael and I had a bag of Fun Sizes leftover from Halloween, I decided to experiment with another cookie recipe! I chopped up some Butterfingers. Don't you just want to shove your

Chunky Snickers Cookies

2011-11-05T20:42:00.000-04:00

Michael and I went grocery shopping and just "happened to notice" that all the Halloween candy was 50% off. Okay, maybe we went grocery shopping with the exact plan to purchase said candy on sale. What can I say, we're suckers. And we never buy candy or keep it in the house any other time of the year. So this was a special occasion! I've been reading so many blog posts about what to do with

DIY: Corkboard Jewelry Hanger

2011-11-01T14:01:00.000-04:00

Since moving to Tallahassee, we've been pretty busy and creative here at the Black household. We couldn't bring all our furniture with us, so we've improvised quite a bit to make everything work. This DIY project is a perfect example of what we've been up to. I've recently been trying to get back into the accessorizing world, and my mother bought me a bunch of jewelry for my birthday, but

The Quest for Tallahassee

2011-10-31T20:31:00.000-04:00

I figure since we've been in Tallahassee almost 1 week, that it is about time I share with you the particulars of our journey here! It was filled with many interesting things, and a few realizations about the midwest and other areas of our country. So buckle up! We started our grand journey, or "quest" for Tallahassee early in the morning, two Sundays ago. We were up before the sun even

My Best Friend's Wedding

2011-10-30T22:43:00.000-04:00

Meet the new Camille Berry, and her husband Justin. I love these two. They are a great couple, and so cute and happy together. Originally, I didn't think I'd be able to go to their wedding because we were scheduled to leave for Tallahassee on the exact day of their wedding. But, I talked to my awesome supervisors at Big Bend Hospice, and they let me postpone my arrival for pre-internship

Pre-Birthday Weekend

2011-10-30T21:01:00.000-04:00

A couple weekends back, before Michael and I moved to Tallahassee, we went down to Midway, to have a little stay in our friend Hunter's parent's vacation home there. It was a little pre-birthday celebration for me with friends, seeing as we were going to be moving away right before the actual date of my birthday. The weekend consisted of hot tubbing, sweating out all our impurities in

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

2011-10-14T18:01:00.000-04:00

I got a serious craving for chocolate last night. This craving may or may not have come right after dinner when Michael's dad said, "You know, I haven't had any chocolate all day long!" What can I say, I'm gullible. And a sucker for any excuse to bake. This may be a shock, but I had never before baked pumpkin chocolate chip cookies until last night. This fall classic had just passed me by

Weekend in Logan

2011-10-10T22:54:00.000-04:00

Michael and I visited my mother in Logan this past weekend, considering we technically only have one more of those before we move away to Tallahassee. Michael spent Saturday morning down in Salt Lake working with his dad on the old Jeep. My mother drove down and picked me up early in the morning, then we headed back up to Logan. We, of course, stopped at Target in Centerville, because my mother

Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Cake

2011-10-05T13:34:00.000-04:00

We went up to Midway for our friend Hunter's birthday party this past weekend. His family owns a vacation home there and about 10 of us piled into the place for some fun and celebrations! We didn't really have to "pile" into the place, because it's 3 stories and has lots of room for any gathering anyone would ever want to have there. The place has 7 bathrooms, steam showers, a sauna, hot tub,

Spanakopita and life...is rich (and has layers).

2011-09-30T15:32:00.000-04:00

Guess you're wondering what's going on after that title, eh? Since I'm busy and don't have much time, I'm going to try the short and sweet approach to this blog post instead of endlessly long paragraphs to explain everything. So here's what's been going on in La Famille Noir. Warning: This post may contain "whiny" elements! Bear with me as I detox. Watching nieces a lot because they

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

2011-09-24T17:14:00.000-04:00

Fall is officially here and I couldn't be more happy! I kind of feel like a little kid when the weather starts to get cooler and the leaves start to change. It reminds me of when I was young and we'd be so happy to have a change from all the heat in the summers of Louisiana. Cooler weather meant my brother's birthday (which was yesterday by the way, Happy 25th Michael!), then my birthday in

Four-Ingredient Tomato Sauce

2011-09-19T17:01:00.000-04:00

I have made this recipe 3 times in the past couple of weeks, it's that good. We have a large amount of tomatoes still coming in from the garden and this is a great way to use them up. I've never tasted a homemade tomato sauce that is this good. The fact that it simmers for 4 hours, might have something to do with it! ;) This is a great "base" for recipes that call for tomato sauce. You can

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

2011-09-14T13:49:00.000-04:00

This is one of my best accidental meals. We were planning on basic chicken enchiladas, but seeing as we didn't have flour tortillas, we resorted to corn instead. As we were trying to roll them up, they cracked and split. So, we improvised and decided to layer everything in the baking dish! It turned out so great and so yummy! And because of that little fact, I was unable to take any

Peach Days and a "Peachy" Recipe

2011-09-12T14:17:00.000-04:00

As you can tell, we couldn't help ourselves and visited Brigham City's Peach Days again this year! It's so much fun and full of neat things, that we just had to go this past weekend for all the festivities. We enjoyed having a nice and cool morning in Salt Lake with family and a neighborhood breakfast, then heading on up to the festival. There's always a large car show and we like to check

Chocolate Chip Cookie "Volcano" Cake

2011-09-09T16:34:00.000-04:00

Yes, what you are seeing is real. It's not a figment of your imagination, or mine...anymore. I "borrowed" this idea from Perry's Plate, who "borrowed" it from Martha. And believe me, my life...and all the other lives in the Black family who tried this last night were changed. For the better! From a Martha standpoint, it's referred to as the Chocolate Chip Cookie Icebox Cake, but we

Pesto Pasta Salad

2011-09-06T15:00:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited to share two really wonderful recipes with you today. For a very long time, I have wanted to make my own pesto, but have never gotten around to it, for a couple of reasons. The first would be that every time I plant my own basil, we seem to have a bit of a love-hate relationship! They struggle in pots and then when I plant them in the ground, crazy bugs attack them. So, my

Bananas Foster

2011-09-05T22:38:00.000-04:00

This is the easiest (and yummiest, might I add) recipe for Bananas Foster that you will ever find. This New Orleans classic is usually made with rum, which is then ignited at the end of the cooking process for a little flambe-ing action. It's impressive! But, seeing as we don't drink alcohol, this recipe is without. And I don't think it is missing anything in the way of flavor. I made this

Gold Star

2011-09-04T22:07:00.000-04:00

Short but interesting story. I went to DownEast the other day and found a couple items on sale that I really wanted/needed to buy. One of those items was this skirt. Marked down from $41 to $28.70, then 30% off that. I had a little bit of money left on a gift card, so I used that then paid with my card also. The total came to $7.49, which I thought was pretty small, but I paid and went