With the usual parade chocolate truffles and conversation hearts behind us, you can still brighten the one you love’s morning with a cheeky breakfast treat!  After all, nothing spells L-O-V-E like a C-H-E-E-S-Y, gooey, melty, warm sandwich!

{image via Cooking with My Kid}

Croque Madame in a Hole, for 2

Ingredients:

1+ T. butter
4 slices of bread of your choice {I prefer to go traditional with sourdough, but honey whole wheat is delightful too!}
4 slices of Gruyère or Swiss cheese
4 slices of thick-sliced smoked ham {like …

I am so excited to be a contributor to EAD Living.  Now that the holiday rush has passed us by, I combat with winter blues with lots of projects and cooking, all of which I am dying to share with you!  So, to introduce myself-

I’m Samma (also known by my full name, Samma Faye, after both my grandmothers).   Pictured with me is my new rescue golden retriever, Buddy (also known by his full name, Buddy Bear).  I’m a relatively newlywed.  My husband …

For the last 7 years, I flew from coast to coast with frequency. I lived in Los Angeles. My family lived in Virginia Beach.  I got on a plane and a few hours later like magic I was at my destination. I never bothered to consider nor appreciate the vast country that lies in-between. When I decided to return to Virginia, I knew that I wanted to drive cross-country. Driving cross country has been on my bucket list for quite …

{Food, Beverage, & Entertainment Edition}

While I’m a major Christmas Freak, Fall is by far my favorite season.  Unfortunately, we get so little of it down here in Texas that I tend to get all wrapped up in tinsel and holly and eggnog before I’ve truly taken the opportunity to stop and smell the cinnamon sticks and crunchy fallen leaves.

Happily, I think I might have just created the optimal “Get the Most Out of Fall” itinerary!  Here’s the skinny on how …

Saturday was Oliver Pancake’s first birthday {Happy birthday, my snuggly ball of fur!}.

I think Charles Schulz had it right. Happiness IS a warm puppy.

And life with Oliver Pancake is happy.

The way he licks my tears away when I’m having a craptastic day because he knows that puppy kisses are the best form of medicine. How he can destroy my favorite sweatshirt and then look at me like I’m the crazy one. When he rolls over on command and then jumps …

I obviously love to bake. I’m pretty steadily mastering the art of making delicious-tasting desserts, but have been incredibly slow on the uptake with paying proper attention to delicious-looking food as well.

On a whim, I signed up for the Wilton Cake Decorating Class last month. The Wilton curriculum is a series of 4 4-week courses, and I just completed the first, called Discover Cake Decorating. It’s held at my local Michael’s craft store, and I leave there every Monday night …

Our very own ABCD has created the most perfect holiday cards that I just had to share with ya’ll (heads up, they are not kid friendly)!

Amy says:

A few weeks ago, I started working on our personal holiday cards. I tried sayings like “Season’s Greetings” “Happy New Year” and “May your season be bright.” Nothing seemed right. I decided to wrap things up on the computer and go clear my head with a good workout. Right before I closed our holiday …

Let’s say, hypothetically speaking of course (cough, cough), that you were a complete idiot and lost your engagement ring.

Thankfully the insurance gods smiled down at you and accepted your claim. Now you have a pocket full of money and a shit ton of options as to what to do with it.

Would you…

A. Create an exact replica of your lost ring? Why?

In case you need some last minute Halloween costume ideas for those raging parties this weekend, allow me to display years worth of somewhat clever and always hilarious outfits. Let’s step into the Halloween time machine for a second, shall we?

#1 1999. Our freshman year of college. I believe my best friend and I are ‘Julia Goolia Spice’ and ‘Hannah Banana Spice’. We are possibly related to the Spice Girls in some way, but mostly we fell prey to they …

When I packed up for college – headed to North Carolina from Austin, Texas – I was looking forward to lots of things.  One of them (lame enough) was seasons!  Changing leaves and snowfall were foreign concepts to me, and I was thrilled to sport my meager winter wardrobe for months at a time, as opposed to three days out of the year.  Actually, “Boys in Sweaters” ranked pretty high up on the “Pros Column” when selecting Wake Forest University …