32°

And I'm not refering to today's temperature! This is where I hope to be tomorrow night!

32°, A Yogurt Bar, Opens at Trenholm Plaza MidlandsBiz

Jan 20, 2011

COLUMBIA, SC - January 20, 2011 - The coolest frozen yogurt brand to hit the Columbia market, 32°, A Yogurt Bar – has opened at Trenholm Plaza.
32° offers 14 individual flavors of yogurt including fat free, kosher, no sugar added and low sugar selections on a rotating basis. They also specialize in serving the freshest toppings including daily fresh cut fruits, seasonal favorites, and over 40 candy, nut and sauce options.

In addition to their first week in business, a grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled for January 27. From 5-8 p.m. that same day, guests can enjoy an all you can eat cup of self-serve frozen yogurt and toppings with a $5 donation. All proceeds from the grand opening afternoon event will benefit the Nickelodeon Theater.

"We couldn't be happier about the opportunity to give back to the Columbia community and work with the Nickelodeon Theater," says Jeff Pizitz, President of Pizitz Management Group. "Self serve frozen yogurt is a new concept rapidly growing in the United States and we offer a healthy, tasty product in an updated and contemporary environment."

Located next to The Pilates Studio at Trenholm Plaza, the 1,500 square foot store will provide both interior and exterior seating. 32° is privately owned by Pizitz Management Group, LLC, of Birmingham, AL with three South Carolina locations.

To learn more about 32 Degrees and upcoming promotions and events, visit www.facebook.com/32degreesyogurt or Trenholm Plaza's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/trenholmplaza.

Polar Bear Plunge for Cancer!

So who's tired of the cold weather?? It's definitely been a colder than usual winter for us in the South. Every time I want to complain about the dry skin, chills, and heavy jackets, I stop myself and think about my friend, Sarah Jen, who lives in Alaska! Last week, she posted a picture on Facebook of the thermometer reading a temperature of -50 degrees!!!!!

Let me say that again- NEGATIVE 50 DEGREES. I'm colder now by just typing that sentence.

Sarah Jen is participating in a Polar Bear Plunge in a few days to raise money for cancer. She will be jumping in something that looks like this...



Here's her story:

"In just a few days I'm going to be in Seward, Alaska (about 400 miles south of where I live in Denali) and I'm going to be dressed like a beauty queen (our team name is the Denali Divas) and I'm going to jump into Resurrection Bay (a bay off of the Pacific Ocean).

All of this may seem insane, so, why do I want to do something crazy like this??? I like to do some kind of big fundraiser every year and find a way to contribute to a cause and make a difference.

I've lost a grandmother and a step-grandmother to cancer. At the beginning of last year, my 14 year old cousin was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. Soon after, I learned a little boy in my community had cancer and then two coworkers were diagnosed with breast cancer. Next thing I knew 2 more coworkers from last summer were diagnosed. It seemed like cancer was on the rampage!

I felt bad because I don't like to just sit and watch someone fight this disease, but at the same time I can't take their place getting chemo and radiation and all of the other mess that goes with being treated for cancer. I feel like by participating in this jump and raising money for the American Cancer Society, I am doing something helpful and maybe one day no one else will have to get these treatments because cancer will have a cure.

And then of course there probably is a small part of me doing this because I am just crazy!

I've currently raised about $3300 dollars and I'd like to get to my goal of $3500 by Saturday. If you would consider making a donation to help me get there I would appreciate it."

Click HERE to go to Sarah Jen's donation page! To add some shameless cute baby persuasion- here's Sarah Jen with her adorable nephew!

You have 4 days to contribute before she takes the plunge! And remember- "A Lot of Little, Makes a Lot of Lots!" Stay tuned for follow-up pictures of the event!

New Books!

I'm ashamed to say that I only finished reading 3 books all last year! There were just a few distractions that kept me from focusing on reading. I kept buying books...even started reading them....but never finished them for no particular reason. The good news is I already have a collection to read in the coming year! At least the ones I read in 2010 were good ones.

The Help- I blogged about it here. It's still one of the best books I've ever read. The movie version should be interesting!

It Ain't All About the Cooking- Paula Deen's autobiography made me like the Queen of Southern Cuisine even more.

The Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews- as a light southern chick-lit kind of read. It's about a girl in her twenties that moves from DC to a small town in Georgia. I know, sounds way too familiar of a story. But I still liked it.

I asked for a few books for Christmas to get me started this year.

Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Pulitzer Prize winner, Tracy Kidder

Something Borrowed is part of a 2-book series by Emily Griffin and a definitely classified as chick-lit. I read and liked the other book in the series, Something Blue a few years ago, but never got around to reading Something Borrowed. It's a story told by two different friend's perspective. The movie has already been filmed and stars Kate Hudson, Ginnifer Goodwin and John Krasinki. The release date is scheduled for May and I hope to read the book by then!

The Lee Bros Simple Fresh Southern cookbook. Yes, it's a cookbook but the Lee Bros. take time to explain each dish and southern tradition in detail, so I read it like a book first!

I always love any other reading suggestions that you may have!

From the Kitchen: Pork Loin and BBQ

I thought I would share how I made the Pork Loin for New Year's- which the bf then turned the leftovers into delicious barbecue! Both are super easy. Like most everything else in my cooking rotation, it's how my mom does it.

I ended up buying waaaaay too much meat for only 2 people that ended up eating it! Come to think of it, that's EXACTLY the way my mom and grandmother cook....for an army!

I bought 2 small pork loins, (because one didn't look like enough.) But they seemed to get bigger when I took them out of their package. I washed and patted the meat dry. Then seasoned with just about any and everything I had on hand...but mainly Lawry's seasoning, lemon pepper, and freshly ground pepper. I put the meat in a browning bag. (They make all different sizes, and have directions for how long to cook the meat.) Then I cut a few lemons and squeezed the juice all over the meat. I followed the cooking instructions from the browning bag, and a few hours later had deliciously tender pork loin!

To transform it into barbecue- you simply shred the meat into little pieces (it falls apart easily), and then cook with your favorite sauce. Both were delicious! (I don't have pictures of the BBQ. The bf did it when I wasn't around, and he's still getting used to the whole taking-pictures-of-food-for-the-blog thing.)

New Year's Diet? Not me!

Don't get me wrong- I believe whole-heartily in setting New Year's resolutions and goals. But for me, it's just not realistic to start a drastically new diet and/or workout routine in January with the rest of the world. That's not to say I don't NEED to loose weight and get to the gym. Just not this month! (But good luck to those of you that are sticking with your New Year's diet! I'll be right there with you soon enough.)

Reason #1- There are too many leftover holiday cookies and treats that I don't want to waste!

Reason #2- My traditional New Year's meal is not the healthiest....and I had enough collards, black-eyed peas, corn bread, pork loin, and macaroni and cheese to eat for the first week of 2011. And did. I should get extra luck in the new year since I ate the meal so many times!

Reason #3- It's too cold and I really like hot chocolate. And pancakes. With Bacon thank-you-very-much.

Reason #4- The post-holiday slump can give me a case of the winter blah's. And I'm not about to give up comfort food in the midst of that!

Reason #5- My birthday is coming up. It makes more since for me to wait until after my birthday on February 1st.

So I chose to use January to concentrate on the other common New Year's resolution- cleaning out and organizing. In the spirit of a fresh start, I thought I would ride the decluttering and organizing train in 2011. I did a fairly decent job of this in the past year since I moved. But it's amazing how quickly things can accumulate. And I held on to some things, not knowing what I would need/use in my new place. Time to get rid of all of that and lighten my load even more. I want to simplify, simplify, and simplify some more.

I was inspired by Young House Love's self challenge last month to get rid of 100 things before they moved. Even though I feel like I probably did get rid of 100 things last spring, and again after I I finally moved into my place in September, I'm positive there are 100 more things that can go.

My first project was cutting down on the amount of Christmas decorations and organizing them better. I started out with 7 mismatched storage containers/boxes. I had some hand-me down decorations that I haven't used in a few years since I started building my own collection. If I didn't use it this year, or didn't absolutely love it....it's being donated.

I managed to empty 4 of the original storage boxes! I did buy a new container that organizes and protect ornaments. I previously held on to the original boxes, which took up too much space. So I went from 7 storage containers down to 4. Not too shabby! I filled the extra boxes with stuff to donate.

My current total is already 21 items that I'm donating....

Only 79 more items to go! (I'm dreading the closet portion of this project.)

I'd love to hear what your resolutions are and how they're going!

Snow Days!

If there's one thing I thought I was getting rid of when I moved back to SC, it was dealing with a cold, snowy winter! I guess the joke's on me. Because the temperature has been consistently below average this year. And there's already been more snow than they've had in years here.

If you recall- I had enough snow last Feb. to last me quite sometime...so I wasn't jumping for joy at the sight of the snowy SC forecast last week. But who doesn't love a snow day or two? It's free vacation time with absolutely no plans. I can deal with that every now and then!

I spent most of the two days napping in front of this cozy fire....



And playing with these cute dogs....



And taking in the beauty of winter...




Snowy southern days like this, make it seem like time stands still for a little while.

Front Porch Friday

Told ya there would be lots of Ellie pictures! Here is what's going on from my "Front Porch" these days. These are scenes from New Year's Day. (I misplaced my camera chord for a few days....which is why I'm behind on my posting!) This pretty much sums up how we rung in 2011. A lazy morning....


Cooking, eating, magazine reading, snacking and napping!

Meet Ellie!

You KNOW I've wanted a dog for a while. Between renting, travel schedules, and roommates- I haven't had the chance to make the commitment yet. Until now. I've been stalking looking at Pets Inc.'s website for quite a while. And as soon as I got back in town from Christmas, I went to see the pups for myself.

Most of the puppy's they had that day were a bit younger than I really wanted. And they were almost all some sort of black lab mix. Nothing wrong with that, I just wanted something a little different. I took a stroll outside where more dogs were hanging out and came across a 4 month old blond German Shepherd mix all by her lonesome.

She "had me at hello" so adoption papers were signed and we were on our way! She's got enough puppy in her to be playful and fun, but not quite as needy as a 2 month old.

I can't speak highly enough about Pets Inc. and the staff there! I personally could never pay lots of money for a dog when there are so many good ones that need a home! You can definitely expect to see lots of pictures of Ellie in the coming months! I've only had her 3 weeks and she's already grown a lot! Any guesses of how big she'll be?