Las Margaritas

Thursday night was time for BFF Night Out.  This month it was Ashton's turn to pick out the restaurant that we were going to.  She picked Las Margaritas in Wake Forest, NC.  All I can say is we had so much fun.  The restaurant is in a basement location which I thought of as a little weird but let me tell you what it was one of the best times that we have had.  The only bad part was that I forgot to take pictures of the food :(  I got the Pollo Ranchero  it was only $8.99 and super yummy it was a chicken breast with cheese on top and it came with rice, lettuce, sour cream and flour tortillas.  I cut up my chicken and mixed everything together then put it on the tortillas.  YUMMY! Ashton and Dennys got the two taco plate which also looked good.  I got the picture above is right outside the restaurant, check out their website http://lasmargaritaswf.com/  and if you are in the area stop by to try their amazing food.  I have not tried one of their Margaritas yet but I have heard that they are as good as the food.

Enjoy,

Tabitha

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences BUGFEST!

Bugfest is a yearly event held at the Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh.  I had never been, but had heard that its a lot of fun.  This year it happened that I was babysitting on the Saturday that it was held.  So I decided to take the two little boys that I was babysitting.  We had so much fun, the museum and other companies had all kinds of booths set up inside and outside for kids.  There was a bounce house, face painting, and a giant caterpillar to craw through.  For adults there was also a lot of information about different environmental problems and ways to help prevent them.  All the booths were really neat and the boys and I definitely learned a lot.  For the brave adults and kids you could also try different foods made with bugs :/ we did not try any :)

 

 

This booth above had injured animals that they were helping to rehabilitate and release back into the wild.  It was really cool being so close to the little owl in the picture the boys thought it was really cool too.

When we went inside the museum they had even more booths set up where you could hold different bugs.  We held a Madagascar hissing cockroach, and one of the boys held a walking stick.  There was also a tarantula that you could hold we tried but she had to be put away after being held for too long.  you can see a brave soul holding her below.  Did you know that they eat the males after they have babies.  ewwwww.....  There is also a picture of a praying mantis, this years bug of the year was the praying mantis.

 

 

 

 

Here are a few other pictures in the museum, if you live in Raleigh or are visiting you should check out the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.  Even if you have been there before you should go again, this past April the museum opened a new wing, when I go I will post about it :)

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy,

Tabitha

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

My mom has been begging me to make cookies again :)  And a friend of hers and mine made these Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies.  They are my new second favorite chocolate chip cookie, with Toll House still on top :)  These cookies are amazing, I usually do not make chocolate chip cookies with the nuts but I decided to this time and yummy.  I hope you go out and get your self a bag of Ghiradelli Baking Chips soon and try these cookies, I used the Semi-Sweet chips because they are my favorite.  Here is the recipe, you can also find it on the back of the bag of chips or on the Ghirardelli web site.  BTW, check out Ghirardelli's website they have some awesome looking recipes.  The Dark Chocolate Cupcakes look really good, I might have to try them.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 bag (12 oz.) Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts or pecans chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Stir together dry ingredients, set aside.
Beat butter, sugar together med. speed until creamy add vanilla, then eggs one at a time on low.  Gradually add in dry mixture.
Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.

 

Enjoy,

Tabitha

Saturday Morning with my Mom :)

        Every once and a while I go to farmers market with my mom on Saturday mornings.  Today we went to get some of the last tomatoes of the season.  We had so much fun, here are some of the things we enjoyed.  The Raleigh Farmer's Market is located on, 1201 Agriculture St. - Raleigh, North Carolina 27603, and is open Monday thru Saturday 5:00am - 6:00pm and Sundays 8:00am - 6:00pm.

 

 

Annelore's German Bakery was our first stop, they have the best soft pretzels and cheese bread you can find.  It's a must shop at the Farmer's Market.

 

 

Next we took a look around and my mom spotted the tomatoes that she wanted, they were from Tart's Farm, in Dunn, North Carolina.  They also had some yummy looking cucumbers and yellow squash.

 

 

 

 

After we paid for our tomatoes we came across some beautiful peppers at the stand for Walker Farm which is in Franklinville, North Carolina.  These peppers were so pretty I wish I knew some recipes so that I could have bought some.  I really loved how they displayed these, the colors are amazing :)

 

 

Next up we had to have some more peaches, unfortunately we are getting to the end of peach season :(  However, that means we are also close to the start of apple season. YUMMY :)

Our peaches came form Johnson's Farm in Candor, North Carolina.  I can't wait to eat some, we get peaches from this stand at least once a year.  They are always the best of the season.  As I said it is the just becoming the start of apple season so while we did not get any apples today we will be in the near future.  I think we are going to try some from Perry Lowe Orchard's.  They sure do look good.

As we were checking out all of the veggies I saw the flowers, they were so pretty.  I wish I had flower money today. There is always a stand selling fresh flowers when you go to the Farmers market, I have gotten a bunch in the past and they brighten up any room nicely, watch out for the bees though you are outside :)

After we checked out the outdoor vendors we headed to the indoor area to see if they had anything we wanted in there. Sure enough my mom and I have a sweet spot for fruit slices. So we stopped at The Berry Patch to get some.

 

 

 

 

Then we headed over to the Lu Mil Vineyard, they have Muscadine Cider Slushies that are o so good. I am not a wine person but I bet anyone who is would love this stand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few other pictures from the Farmer's Market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. If you have never tried Moravian Cookies you are seriously missing out.

 

 

Last but not least we finished our morning by stopping by the Krispy Kream store on Person St. It is Krispy Kream's 75th birthday this year.  The donuts were soooooooooooo good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy,

Tabitha