|| One Pot Moroccan Chicken + Chickpeas and Pistachio Cous Cous with Goat Cheese ||

via half baked harvest 

I've been in a cooking rut for the past few months - seriously, who wants to cook a huge meal when you're exhausted from working all day?? Poor little Joe is left to fend for himself a few nights a week and I usually will just eat whatever I can scavange for myself in the fridge. Anyway, I've decided to get back to my old self and start cooking fabulous meals a few times a week (and eat leftovers the other nights) and to try new recipes that we have never tried. 

Last night, I cooked Moroccan food and HOLY. CRAP. I can't even explain to you how delicious this was - and it took exactly 30 minutes to make from start to finish. I've never had Moroccan food before so I can't really vouch for it's authenticity, but the flavors were out of this world. I'm not really digging chicken these days…or much meat at all for that matter - so I just loaded up on the chickpeas and veggies and it was perfectly filling. It was so, so easy to make and it will definitely be having again soon. 

Please make this soon. Promise you will be just as obsessed as we are! 

|| One Pot Moroccan Chicken + Chickpeas and Pistachio Cous Cous with Goat Cheese ||

Recipe from Half Baked Harvest

Ingredients

1 pound skinless chicken (I used a mix of thighs and breasts), cut into bite size pieces (or swap in 2 more cup cooked chickpeas or your favorite veggies)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon cumin

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon coriander

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more to your liking

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

2 cloves garlic, minced or grated

1 red pepper, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

3 tablespoon tomato paste

1 chipotle chile in adobo, minced

2 cups chicken broth (or veggie broth)

2 cups cooked chickpeas (rinsed and drained if using canned)

1 lemon, zest + juice

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, plus more for serving

Couscous

3-4 cups cooked couscous

1/4 cup chopped pistachios

6 medjool dates, sliced (optional)  || we used Craisins and they were so good! ||

2-4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Instructions

1. In a small bowl toss together the smoked paprika, cumin, cinnamon, coriander, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper.
2. Heat a large high sided skillet over medium-high heat. Add some olive oil to coat the bottom of the skillet and once hot add the chicken and half of the seasoning mixture to the skillet. Brown the chicken all over until cooked through, about 6 minutes. Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside.
3. To the same skillet add a little more olive oil to pan and swirl to coat. Add the onion, ginger, garlic, red pepper and carrots to the skillet, sauté 4-6 minutes. Add the remaining spice mixture and sauté another 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the chicken back to the skillet. Stir in the tomato paste, chipotle chile, chicken broth, and chickpeas. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat, and simmer 5-10 minutes or until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat. Stir in the cilantro and lemon zest + juice. Taste and season with salt if needed.
4. To serve, divide the couscous among bowls or plates and sprinkle the couscous with the chopped pistachios and dates (if using). Top each plate of couscous with the chickpea mixture. Sprinkle on the crumbled goat cheese and garnish with chopped pistachios and cilantro. EAT.

Enjoy!! 

My not so pretty picture of my Moroccan veggie bowl

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Sorry for abandoning the blog! I've been a busy busy girl with my new found calligraphy hobby - keep up with me on Instagram at @mollyfo ! :)

mollyMAKES Calligraphy

UPDATE: I can't believe how far I've come since starting this little calligraphy business. I am working on new, updated samples and will post them ASAP! Thanks so much for all of your support!

I've been dying to dive into the art of calligraphy for years now. I have always appreciated hand lettering and fonts, and thought that calligraphy was so absolutely beautiful. I have been practicing nonstop for about two weeks now, and have loved it so much. It's been so fun to be able to come home from my job using numbers all day and be creative.

I've had some interest from people about possibly using my new calligraphy skills for addressing invitations and offering custom work, so I whipped up some different styles this weekend for people to choose from. I haven't been doing this very long, so I'm sure these styles will change in the future, but there are plenty to choose from for now! There is everything from formal flourished script, to casual modern lowercase calligraphy.

Please, please leave a comment or e-mail me (link is to the right of this post) if you are interested in some calligraphy! Thank you also much for all of your love and support! :)

The names of the styles are a mixture of street names in Charleston, and the streets Joe and I grew up on. The names and addresses I used are just totally random ones I thought of when I was writing these out…there are some typos in there, but oh well!

|| Tradd ||

I absolutely love the contrast of mixing different fonts. This is a more casual style using lowercase letters in the script, and would be perfect for a more laid back event.

|| Marshall ||

Marshall is another style using mixed fonts, but is a little more formal than the Tradd style. A flourished  and traditional script is mixed with a more modern all uppercase print. This is a beautiful way to put all of the focus on the names.

|| Pinckney ||

These two examples show the Pinckney style - a very modern take on classic calligraphy. 

|| Almond ||

The Almond style is a very classic and traditional Copperplate style of calligraphy and is the perfect style for an elegant wedding or event.

|| Gadsden ||

If I had to choose a favorite, Gadsden might possibly be it.  I love the combination of a classic script written on a diagonal to make it more modern. Any of the other styles could definitely be done on a diagonal, too!

|| Lagare ||

This is another great classic style. It's simple, a little more modern than the Almond style, but just as elegant.

|| Wentworth ||

The Wentworth is the most formal of the styles and would make quite the statement on your invitations or envelopes. Perfect for a fancy wedding or party!

I am still working away at perfecting my craft, but would love to offer more things in the future. Stay tuned for updates!

coral, gold + black

My sweet friend, Morgan, in South Carolina asked me to help re-design her salon. I absolutely love designing for others, so I was extremely excited! She wants this space to be glamorous and girly because it's the only space she has that she can get away with that. Anyone else with husbands can totally understand that!

It was already gorgeous to begin with - she has such great taste! LOVE that coral wall and the sunburst mirror! I found a few inspiration images on Pinterest and decided that a color scheme of coral, black, gold, and a little hint of mint would be absolutely perfect. Girly but not overly done - didn't want it to be Barbie pink!

{via O'Malley Photographers}

{via Caitlin Wilson on The Everygirl}

I really love how this board turned out! I knew it would be really important to her that this re-design be affordable, so I used a mixture of things she already had, and inexpensive accessories.

Some favorites: 

 {1} isn't she lovely print - Isn't this so perfect for a salon? Love this so, so much!

{2} Janey pillow from CB2 - This was my starting off point for the whole space. I haven't been able to get this pillow out of my mind since seeing it on Dina from Honey + Fitz's instgram, and have been dying to use it somewhere. How perfect would it be on the bench in Morgan's salon? I would buy one for myself, but I'm afraid Joe might divorce me if I bring one more pillow into this apartment.

{3} Target Threshold white and gold round accent table - The new Spring 2014 line from Threshold at Target had me doing some major swooning. Great pieces with great prices! This little table (or any of the similar ones they carry) would be perfect by Morgan's bench.

{4} Elizabeth Mayville's "Top Knot 24" print - I can't even tell you how much I've been obsessing over this series by Elizabeth Mayville. This print in particular reminds me of gorgeous Morgan and would be so perfect in her salon!

{5) white dipped baskets - She already had baskets on a shelf that served as great storage, so I thought that this would be an easy (and cheap!) way to update them. Love how these look!







Please contact me if you want any design help or maybe an inspiration board to give you the kick start you need! I'd love to help!

Craigslist: my BFF

Craigslist has been a huge part of my life for the past few years. That sounds so weird, doesn't it? We have found two apartments there, I got my job in White Plains and my job here from posts on it, sold my car on it, and I have bought and sold countless pieces of furniture. It's my jam.

Next thing you know, I'll be looking for friends on Craigslist.

Just kidding.

My most amazing find EVER was this gorgeous gold bamboo coffee table. The first term I always search for in the furniture section is always "bamboo" and after weeks and weeks of having no luck, I saw this beauty in a for sale post. You really have to have a vision for what you are looking for, because this gorgeous thing was pictured in the most God awful place. The pictures looked disgusting but I was determined to make that table mine. I dragged poor, sweet Joe to a town about 30 minutes away from us at the time, and met an older woman who said the table once belonged to her mother. I handed her $50 and drove away a happy girl.  It is so stinking heavy, and Joe thinks it is the ugliest thing in the world - but I am so in love. 

These are really old pictures, but are the best ones I have of the table.

I was randomly looking around on 1stdibs.com - one of my favorite places to dream and window shop - when I stumbled upon this listing for MY SAME COFFEE TABLE! FOR $1200! 

Anyway, that just goes to show that there really are some gems on Craigslist if you have the time and patience to keep looking! You have to be open minded and not quick to judge the horribly ugly pictures and bad spelling that people post on there. I've read some really, really helpful blog posts on searching for things on Craigslist, but the most helpful things were these lists of keywords to search for: 

{from the amazing Jenny at MFAMB -  please read her post, it's so hilarious and explains more about these search terms}

{this is another great search term list from LiveLoveDIY, and another awesome post with tips}

You can go to those two posts for more details, but here are my personal tips that have really helped me find the good stuff:

• If you are looking for something in particular, do a quick search maybe once a day or a few times a week. Even when I'm not actually looking for a certain item, I will usually search some of the terms above a couple of times a week. People post this stuff all during the week, so you have to search often if you want to snag the good stuff!

• Once you find your special item, be smart about how you contact the seller and where you agree to meet them. I have an email address that I use that does not include my name that I basically only use to communicate with these people, and will only call or text if I absolutely have to. If I'm meeting a man to buy furniture, I always make Joe come along with me so they can't try anything fishy! Just use your brain and be careful!

• You may find a beat up dresser that is in the style you were hoping to find - keep an open mind and remember that you can always paint the piece and add new hardware. If you find something with great bones, go for it! 

• Always negotiate! Sellers are usually very willing to go down on their price, so I always lowball and have them meet me in the middle. I love, love, love finding a good deal! 

Happy Craigslisting!!

scenes around the loft

I haven't gotten around to taking good pictures of our apartment, but I thought I'd share a few iPhone pictures until I have time to take better ones! This place is teeny tiny - bigger than our last apartment, but still small - so it's been quite the challenge trying to fit all of our stuff in here and deciding how to situate it all. I gravitate towards more traditional style homes with separate rooms, so it's been hard for me to decide how to decorate our big kitchen/dining room/office/living room.

Our bedroom has seen a lot of change in the past couple of months, and I absolutely love how it's turned out. This is the first time we've actually had a finished (well, semi-finished) bedroom and it's so nice to be able to relax in there instead of just shutting the door and ignoring it. 

Oh, the joys of industrial loft living…how do you like that poorly placed fire alarm??

This is my cute little wake up call on the weekends!

My desk has been getting a lot of use lately! Between working on this blog and doing some major goal planning with my Lara Casey Powersheets, I've been a busy girl!

We have so enjoyed our new Target Threshold bar cart. We seriously need to restock all of the alcohol that we drank over the holidays, but we are getting there! Love this little corner of the loft! We had a whole box of our personalized cocktail napkins leftover from our wedding, so I pulled those out and added them to the cart. 

This little vignette makes me smile every single day. The picture in the back is my maternal grandparents when they were young, and the one in the front is my maternal grandmother (Mema!) as a little girl with her mother, Molly (who I was named after!), and her sister Janie. These pictures are so special to me and I love the frames I found at Target and HomeGoods for them. 

We spent months and months with no couch after figuring out our old couch wouldn't fit down our hallway when we were moving in. My mom and I borrowed a huge cargo van from my work and drove down to the Ikea in Paramus, NJ to get this beauty. It was quite the adventure, but I absolutely LOVE this thing! I was weary to get a couch from Ikea, but after reading a million reviews online, we decided to go for it. I'll do a full post on this soon, but we love it so much. (and so does Charlie!)

These are obviously old, but I loved our pretty Christmas tree against the brick wall with the snow in the background outside! So cozy!

The second picture makes me laugh SO hard. I spend a good 30 minutes trying to get Charlie to pose in front of the Christmas tree while I tested out my photography skills (which are still seriously lacking), and he was so over it. Poor guy!

I would add pictures from this weekend, but we did nothing at all. I spent most of the weekend in my PJ's and today is football day with friends! Hope y'all had a great weekend!

5 on Friday

SO excited to link up with April, Christina, Natasha, and Darci today for 5 on Friday!

{1} 21 DAY MORNING DETOX

I've heard about this from multiple people, so I decided I was going to try it out to see what all of the fuss was about. I've never been a breakfast eater, (I know, I know…trying to be better about that) so the thought of drinking hot lemon water right when I woke up made me gag. Today was my 7th morning, and I can't even tell you how wonderful the results already are! My skin has been awful due to the freezing temperatures and dry air here, and it has done wonders for that. My skin has always been super sensitive, so I decided to try this instead of slathering all kinds of chemicals on my face. Not only is my skin so much better, I also feel like it has helped my digestive system! Who knows, it may all be a placebo effect, but I'm hooked! Read this post on Little Green Dot and try it for yourself!

{2} CRUNCHY THAI SALAD

I found this recipe on Pinterest last week and I made it yesterday. Holy crap. SO good! I didn't take a picture of mine because it wasn't anywhere close to being as pretty as this picture, but it was delicious. We had it with copycat (healthy) PF Changs chicken lettuce wraps. Can't wait to make this salad again to take to work for lunches. 

{from Style Me Pretty Living}

Ingredients

• THE SALAD:
• 3 1/2 cups Napa cabbage, shredded
• 1 cup purple cabbage, shredded
• 1 cup carrots, shredded
• 1 cup prepared broccoli slaw
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 English cucumber, cut in half and thinly sliced
• 1 cup cooked and shelled Edamame
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 scallions thinly sliced
• FOR THE DRESSING:
• 1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter
• 4 tbsp rice vinegar
• 4 tbsp fresh lime juice (approx. 2 limes)
• 6 tbsp canola oil
• 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 4 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 2 inch pieces of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 4 tbsp fresh cilantro leaves

Instructions

1. FOR THE SALAD:
2. Combine the slaws and place them on a platter
3. Start layering the rest of your veggies for a pretty presentation.
4. FOR THE DRESSING:
5. Combine all ingredients, with the exception of cilantro, in a blender and blend until smooth.
6. Add the cilantro and pulse a few times until combined.
7. Pour over your prepared salad, or serve on the side.

{3} TIME & TIDE PHOTOGRAPHS FROM PRAIA PIQUINA BY CHRISTIAN CHAIZE

This is definitely one of my most favorite purchases from last year. I am absolutely obsessed with the beach photography of Gray Malin, but can't exactly afford any of his beautiful photos. This book caught my eye because of the similar style, so I got it for our coffee table. I look at it all the time! Go get you one!

{4} NUDE NAILS

I am one of those people that can't stand for their nails to not be painted. I hardly ever choose nude colors, but I've been so obsessed with them lately. My new favorite is OPI Bubble Bath -- the perfect creamy pink for my skin tone. I'm kind of over the accent nail trend, but decided that I needed a little glitter this week! 

{5} HOUSE OF HARLOW

Sorry for all of the weird hand pictures! ;)

This is my new addiction. I can't get enough of Nicole Ritchie's jewelry line! The sunburst pieces are my favorite and I'm thinking I need this necklace, next! Isn't it all so pretty?

Hope y'all have a wonderful weekend! We have a hot movie date planned for tomorrow and I'm hoping to do absolutely nothing the rest of the time!

life lately and our weekend

Ugh. Is tomorrow Monday already?? Weekends go by way too fast. We were hermits this weekend, and that's just the way I like it. When did I become an old lady who loves nothing more than to stay in her pajamas all day?? It's been so cold outside that all I want to do is curl up on the couch and hibernate until Spring comes along. All of the Polar Vortex Facebook and Instagram posts from everyone down south made me giggle…that is our life EVERY DAY (and I am definitely tired of it)! 

We had a wonderful Christmas - Joe's parents flew in from Kansas City and his brother flew in from Cincinnati. I had to work most of the week, but it was so nice having them here to share the holidays with! This was our first time hosting for Christmas, so I was obviously excited to get to use all of my pretty china and crystal that have been sitting in boxes for 3 years. 

I made a table runner out of gold polka dotted burlap I found at JoAnn's Fabric (with a 50% off coupon!) and it was so easy - I got about 2.5 yards and cut it right down the middle length wise and

 TA DA, a runner was made! 

The most delicious and easy Christmas appetizer - cream cheese cut in half diagonally and pepper jelly on top. YUM!

Charlie helped Uncle Pat pick out some Christmas tunes.

We celebrated New Year's Eve with some sweet friends at their apartment, then at a bar down the street from us. Somehow we have no pictures of us, but how cute is their new teeny tiny puppy, Pierce? Love him! I somehow left my purse with my phone in it at the bar (don't ask) and couldn't get it back until they opened again two days later. You don't realize how much you use your phone until you lose it for 2 days! Made me realize I need a major social media detox. ;)

Since then, we've been hard at work at Crossfit and the Y and have been obsessed with NutriBullet green smoothies and clean eating. More on that soon! 

Friday was kind of a rough day, so my sweet Joe treated me to a night out at my favorite place in Albany - Wolff's Biergarten. I should've been born German. I love me some wheat beer and schnitzel. How crazy is that plate of food?? Under that gigantic piece of schnitzel was an entire plate of spaetzle covered in gravy and some delicious sauerkraut. Holy heart attack. Thank God that Joe can always finish my plate, I could barely eat half of it!

Christmas decorations finally came down and I'm so glad to have the simplicity back!

And what's a weekend without a trip to Target??

Hope y'all had a wonderful weekend!

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