38 Mouth-watering crab recipes? I’m in!

I’m pretty sure we all have food on the brain right now. Thanksgiving does that to you…my head is full of a very long to-do list, interspersed with approximately 7 million recipes. It’s all good though. I love Thanksgiving for this very reason. This is officially the beginning of the season when you cook (and eat!) all those things you only have once or twice a year. It’s the only time of year I make a certain drink, and the only time of year I make candy. Well, to add to the already burgeoning list of recipes floating around in my head and on my shopping list, I stumbled over this Coastal Living article entitled ’38 Mouth-Watering Crab Recipes’. Nuff said. Let’s see…there aren’t quite 38 days between now and Christmas, but let’s see how many of the 38 we can squeeze in here. My absolute favorite, Shrimp-and-crab Nachos, will definitely be on my menu probably more than once this holiday season. If you are indecisive, like me, just don’t decide between them…try them all! Here you go!

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/shrimp-and-crab-nachos

http://www.coastalliving.com/food/kitchen-assistant/twenty-crab-recipes/view-all

http://myfavoritebeachhouse.com

 

Funny, I was just thinking about this…

Well, we are finally home from beautiful Puerto Vallarta, Mexico after a 2 month blissful respite from the chaos of our usual lives. Home is wonderful, of course, and we are glad to be back to it, but since the newness hasn’t worn off quite yet, I find myself comparing our regular lives to our recent lives in another country. One of the things I was just considering (I swear!) was Americans love affair with paper towels. I tried desperately to leave a brand new un-opened roll of paper towels that we didn’t end up using in a rental car in Mexico, but the young man checking the car in kept giving it back to me. And he was just about to clean the car! Couldn’t he use a roll of paper towels, for Heaven’s Sake? No. And he thought I was a nut for suggesting it. He had his buckets and towels. What would he need with paper he could only use once? How ironic that I should run across this Elle Decor article today about this very thing. I confess that I have been known to rely pretty heavily on towels of the paper variety. That’s ‘paper toweling’ if you’re Martha Stewart. I have promised myself that I am going to wean myself of this crutch, both for the sake of my pocketbook and also in a continuing effort to waste less. Here’s my alternative: good, quality kitchen towels that last and are absorbent. That’s code for linen, folks. You can’t know until you use linen kitchen towels how wonderful they are. Softer with each washing, durable, absorbent…they just get better with age. Unlike regular terry kitchen towels which I seem to be able to wear out in a month…no matter how much I spend on them. Trust me on this…one set of linen towels in your kitchen will make a believer out of you. Put this on your Christmas list…at the top!

http://myfavoritebeachhouse.com/Kitchen/Beach-Kitchen-Linens/linen-towels

http://www.elledecor.com/life-culture/fun-at-home/a7988/how-to-use-paper-towels/

http://myfavoritebeachhouse.com

 

You NEED a trip to the spa…

I’m not even gonna say much about this except that you NEED to look at it…  Life is fast. Life is stressful. Life is tiring sometimes. You occasionally need a break. You need a trip to somewhere calm. And wonderful. And quiet. How great if that place is YOUR bathroom! Make it happen. For you and for someone you love this Christmas, even. Wrap yourself in the simple luxury of our waffle towels and bathrobe. Pull the pure white shower curtain closed and relax. Really relax. Take a look. You’ll see what I mean…

http://myfavoritebeachhouse.com/Bed-And-Bath/Beach-Bath/stone-washed-waffle-towels

http://myfavoritebeachhouse.com/Bed-And-Bath/Beach-Bath

How do you say ‘where is the bathroom, please?’…

Loved the great blog post this morning from Tremendous Times about her current adventures in South America: ‘Traveling to a Place Where You Don’t Speak the Language’. I’ve got to investigate The Flight Deal, which is where Theresa Christine got such a deal on airfare that she struck off for Brazil. Anyway, the gist of the article is tips on how to get by when you absolutely don’t speak a word of the language wherever it is that you happen to be traveling to. A few key phrases that you should probably know are included, and some other tidbits. Let me add my own list of language musts, just for your consideration. Number 1:  ALWAYS know how to say ‘where is the bathroom, please?’ in the language of the country you are in. Critical. Number 2: Try to speak in their language, no matter how much you butcher what you are trying to say. Just as we respect it when someone attempts to speak our own language, so will those in your host country appreciate your efforts, no matter how dumb you think you sound. Number 3: Cab drivers are always a wealth of information, and in any city where there is a tourist presence, they usually speak at least a little English. Now, off I go to check out what kinds of deals I can get on The Flight Deal. Bon Voyage!

http://tremendoustimes.com/2015/11/09/traveling-to-a-place-where-you-dont-speak-the-language/

http://www.theflightdeal.com

Omg…how have I never heard of this before?? How about 80.00 round trip New York to Dallas? Or 176.00 rt Los Angeles to Miami?? Worth a look, peeps!

Presentation isn’t everything, Martha…is it?

We have been in beautiful Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for the last couple of months. Life is vastly different here than what we are used to. Wonderful, but different. Grocery shopping doesn’t mean a trip by car to Walmart or Kroger but rather a walk to a local market where all manner of fresh produce, crusty bread (in paper bags, homemade by some enterprising expat), and colorful spices in huge, glass jars are all on display, vying for your attention. One thing that is quite rare around here is a yellow lemon. If you ask for one at the grocery store, they look at you like you have two heads and point you to the ‘limons’…limes, in English…quite green, not yellow and abundantly available in either regular or small size (Key limes). Now don’t get me wrong, limes are great. I use them a lot for a lot of different things. But, and here comes a confession, I enjoy a Lemon Drop martini on occasion at cocktail hour and I’m afraid you just can’t make a Lemon Drop without a yellow lemon. Well, you can imagine my delight recently at the market when what did my wondering eyes behold but a bin full of…yes, you guessed it…yellow lemons! They didn’t look so great…actually they looked a little puny. But beggars can’t be choosers…I selected 3 of the less puny looking ones and happily went on my way, visions of a proper Lemon Drop dancing in my head. Well, to make a long story short, I did have my Lemon Drop for happy hour that day and in true celebratory fashion, I pulled out a lovely, blue rimmed, hand blown, Mexican martini glass to enjoy it in. Now I don’t know if that Lemon Drop would have been less enjoyable in a crude water glass, and I don’t know if it tasted any better because it was in that pretty martini glass…but I do know that I enjoyed the glass. I enjoyed looking at the pretty glass and my cocktail hour seemed a bit more civilized having invited the pretty glassware. We need that in our lives now days, I think. What with the stress, and the ugliness that we see and hear every day, home should bring us some beauty. Moral? Break out the good stuff. Don’t keep the pretty glasses for that once a year or once every 10 years dinner party that you keep meaning to throw. Use the pretty glasses. Enjoy them. Here’s to using the good stuff…salud!

http://myfavoritebeachhouse.com/Kitchen/Beach-Barware/Octopus-Pewter-Stem-Cocktail-Glass-Set-of-2

http://myfavoritebeachhouse.com/Kitchen

How to relax and fall asleep…for those who aren’t at the beach yet.

Sometimes life just seems to conspire against getting a good night’s sleep. We are stressed, we are worried about something or everything, we had a bad day at work…plus one million other possible things that make sleep impossible. So in the interest of public health, I’m sharing this short article posted by Popsugar.com via Facebook. Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of Dr. Weil, but I will try to be open minded as this seems like a simple fix that would be worth a try. I’m not sure if it works, because thankfully I am at the beach right now and just being here makes some of life’s stresses go away so that I sleep, but I’ll need it when I get home. So I’ll let you know how it goes! Sweet dreams!

http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/How-Fall-Asleep-Right-Away-36597887

http://myfavoritebeachhouse.com

OUR LINEN BEDDING IS FINALLY HERE!!!

It is really hard for me to type this while jumping up and down and squealing, but I did it! Yay me!!  Final touches are still being added, but bottom line: we FINALLY have our linen bedding in the store! For those of you unfamiliar with this incredible indulgence, linen bedding is just that, an incredible indulgence. Interesting article about linen for your bed can be found here: http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/linen-bedding-the-best-choice. Linen is extremely durable, keeps you cool in summer, is lint free and wicks moisture away from your body. Thought of often as a summer fabric, quality linen is comfortable in any climate and in any season, which means linen sheets are quite cozy in winter as well as cool in summer. Washing only makes linen softer and more wonderful. Until now, linen bedding has been unaffordable for most folks, unless you feel that 1,000.00 for a set of sheets is reasonable. Well, we are here to change all that. I like to think of our linens as ‘heirloom linens for the rest of us’. Made by hand to order (some in my home state of Texas, USA, and some in Portugal) of the finest linen, every item in our bedding line is heirloom quality, made just for you…something you can hand down to your children. The secret to getting wonderful, decadent, heirloom linens at a price YOU can afford is to come see us…you just MUST come see this!

http://myfavoritebeachhouse.com/Bed-And-Bath/beach-bedding

http://myfavoritebeachhouse.com