My Best Friend's Wedding

This weekend we made a trip to Eureka Springs for my friend Amy's wedding. We love Eureka, we actually got married there too. We stayed at the Crescent Hotel and it was a great trip. The hotel itself is so charming and has lots of history, they even say it's haunted. Luckily, I didn't run into any ghosts while I was there.

Amy has been a good friend of mine for a long time and I was lucky to be her Matron of Honor (I hate that word...MATRON, sounds so blah!). We were able to spend some quality couple time and we snuck in some girl time at the spa. We had such a great time getting ready for the ceremony and sipping champagne after our mani/pedis and lunch with the boys.

A big congratulations to one of the best friends a girl could have! Thank you again for making me part of your special day.

Warm Up From the Inside Out

I made this Orange Scented Carrot Soup for lunch on this blustery day. This is the first day I can ever remember school being canceled because it's just too darn cold. I am on a diet due to the large amounts of holiday eats and drinks I took part in. Cold weather makes me want to hibernate and cook, those things aren't very conducive to the diet! I just started on Monday, so this day off could have been a disaster. I remembered seeing Melissa d'Arabian's new show on Food Network and she made this soup. This isn't something I would just see the recipe for and decide to make, but it looked so easy and yummy I thought I would try it today. The best part is I had all the ingredients on hand so I didn't have to venture out in the cold. I tweaked the recipe a bit to my taste. I would recommend using only half the oregano, but that's just me; oregano isn't my favorite but it works really well in this. I ended up squeezing some of the juice from the orange into the soup at the end and I added about a T of Splenda. Please don't leave out the sour cream, it gives it great body and makes it taste really rich. I actually added about 1/4 c. right into the soup pot and blended it in instead of just stirring it into my bowl. If you have an immersion blender then that makes this recipe even easier, if not just use your regular blender. So, if you are hunkering for a rich, warm meal but are watching what you are eating then I think this will fit the bill.