2015 Year in Review

Brownies (1) Yowza! It’s the last day of 2015. I swear we just went through this new year thing….already a new one?!? Time flies when you’re having fun.

2015 was an amazing year for me, personally and on the blog with my ever evolving journey with Eat Laugh Craft. Grab a cup of coffee and feast your eyes on way too many photos of my year 🙂

Take a look!

I got married to the most wonderful guy in the world! Surrounded by our absolute favorite people in our lives.

{All Photos by: Dani Stephenson} Screenshot_2015-07-29-21-47-19 Screenshot_2015-07-29-21-51-04 Screenshot_2015-07-29-21-52-24 storyboarded-5 (1) storyboarded-27 storyboarded-28 storyboarded-30 (1) storyboarded-31 (1) storyboarded-32 (2) storyboarded-33 storyboarded-41 storyboarded-46 storyboarded-9

And then we went to Italy! First stop: TUSCANY ❤ ❤ ❤

10410225_10204339180071957_6012320863576141899_n 11101009_10204339169231686_5181443385475747438_n 11141759_10206153244182194_1099588835980287913_n 11143381_10206153296303497_3428228368236029999_n 11665515_10204339171111733_3209101327835340940_n 11698448_10204339160871477_1164990507857007789_n 11742822_10206153256102492_7715759317624294175_n

Then we made our way to the Amalfi Coast ❤

1506469_10204339146791125_8146097875845206585_n 10424304_10206153344544703_5234099606959521547_n 10983129_10206153425986739_7837510164768357852_n 11040180_10206153355144968_3721359573634759345_n 11049624_10204339146551119_5984155677089429763_n 11141733_10206153331104367_2069782361731307929_n 11403119_10206153348184794_4853344024000755741_n 11693835_10206153431266871_7716276300598587267_n 11694973_10206153336464501_9148679121578156697_n 11695708_10204339138590920_8373544520509628005_n 11707503_10206153360705107_8220836497542541786_n 11737817_10204339146151109_3340463320479819594_n 11745698_10206153330304347_2480205965935990314_n 11750653_10204339156951379_7310606055072416574_n

That last picture is RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR BEDROOM WINDOW PEOPLE!!! I’ve been wanting to travel to Italy since before I can even remember. And we finally did it and it was SO MUCH BETTER THAN I COULD HAVE EVER DREAMED. Sorry for yelling. It’s just really that amazing. We are already planning our next trip back!

Now for blog awesomeness!

We were on TV! Check out the crafting special we did for our local ABC affiliate station here in Madison, HERE. This was such a cool experience that we got to do. Only little mishap was that the station thought I was from JoAnn Craft and Fabric stores, but in reality they only sponsored us. Good thing I have my sign there (that’s so small no one can read 🙂 )!

We had another busy year on the blog we published 31 posts (got a little derailed with all the DIY stuff for the wedding so we didn’t hit our one post a week goal but 2016 is a new year).

We also had over 100,000 views in 2015!! Here is a breakdown of our top 5 posts:

2015 top 5 Thank you all for helping make our 2015 such a wonderful year! It is such an awesome experience to be able to share my ideas and tips and tricks and actually have people listen! You are all the best, whether this is your first time stopping by or you’ve been reading since the beginning (hi mom and dad).

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe (find yourself a DD or call a cab!) New Years Eve! I have an exciting night of a delicious cheese board and Chianti Classico wine (a special bottle from our honeymoon) planned and to be honest, ~~I might~~ I’ll probably be passed out by 10 pm….. and I’m 26, thanks for asking 🙂

xoxo

669058772380712020613

Gnocchi w/ Browned Butter, Pancetta, & Sage

Well as you are about to see, this is NOT by any means a low fat recipe. But I assure you it is by EVERY means, delicious.

I mean letzzzz get real. Butter, pancetta, sage, are there flavors more comfy cozy for fall? Nope!

I had a lot of leftover sage from a butternut squash soup (maybe coming to the blog later?) recipe that I had made and needed to use it up. Butter and pancetta sounded like the perfect accompanists for it so I threw them all together and came up with this deliciously rich quick dinner.

Even while eating it Jake said, “Oh man, this is delicious. This isn’t very healthy for me is it?”

But sometimes I think we should just enjoy the flavors and not worry about “healthy” vs. “unhealthy”. Which is exactly what we did. Enjoyed it and savored it and savored it some more.

I really love the prepackaged Gnocchi that Cost Plus (World Market) has. It’s cheap, not full of any weird or unpronounceable ingredients and tastes delicious. You can even order it online if you’re not lucky enough to have a store close to you. And I say lucky because I’m convinced that they cannot produce or sell an item I wouldn’t be thrilled to have either in my home, in my stomach or on my body (home decor, food, jewelry/clothes in case you were confused) 🙂

Pancetta and bacon are very similar. Basically the same except for one small step. Both are usually cured pork belly but while pancetta is done after the curing step, bacon is then smoked afterwards. Typically it’s a cold smoke and it’s never heated, which is why both pancetta and bacon need to be cooked before eaten. (Different from prosciutto which has been cured a little differently and for a much longer period of time and can be eaten without being “cooked”). There’s your food lesson for the day!

We have our first snow fall in the forecast for this weekend. I suppose can’t be that bent out of shape about it, we’ve had such a mild fall and it’s almost the end of November. Maybe if we get enough this year, I can finally go snow shoeing as we couldn’t last year!