When we first met, my would be wife and I lived on the East Coast.  We travelled frequently to Myrtle Beach for fun in the sun.  There is a terrific boardwalk there and plenty of stuff to do.  As has always been the case, our adventures circled around food.  There is certainly no shortage of food or restaurants in Myrtle Beach and, in fact, I had what I believe to be the best service in a restaurant EVER at Rossi’s Italian Restaurant… but that’s another story.

One of our very favorite things to take away from the beach, like so many others, is Saltwater Taffy.  Not only does this scream beach trip, but also summer.  As we approach the season and celebrate National Taffy Day, we thought it might be a good time to offer up our favorite saltwater taffy recipe.  Our recipe is, and will remain, soft.  Not all recipes will call for glycerin, but we use it because taffy making without it can result in a big, hard, albeit tasty, lump.

savour… summer sweetness

We hope you are enjoying the look and feel of our newly improved site.  We have been cleaning up some of our older posts over the last week or two to make the look consistent.  Also, quite a few of these posts were written long before so many of you began visiting our site.

This post, The Right Tools: Baking Cookies, was written within our first week blogging, but I feel so strongly about it that I knew it would have to be re-posted to get the attention it deserves.  It is vital information for anyone who loves to bake cookies.  I added one or two things I left out the first go around and updated the photos just a bit.  Enjoy...

We're on a mission to 'take back the weekend'.  It's so hard to balance it all.  Ambition and checklists often take over.  In this life, where the goal is not to enjoy the destination but the journey to it, we sometimes forget to explore the goodness in our own backyard.

This weekend we drove over to one of the gems of Dallas, the Bishop Arts District.  The entire area is just a few blocks total, but they have managed to squeeze in mad taste in a small spot.  Here are some pics from our fieldtrip. Enjoy...

Last night we had our third monthly Nest Chat on twitter.  It was a great deal of fun and loads of links and tips were shared.  I put out a call to Giada DeLaurentiis to join us, but she couldn't make it... I guess.  Maybe we'll catch her the next time.  Speaking of that, our next scheduled chat is on Wednesday, June 20 at 8pE 7pC.  I hope you will join us!

After the jump you will find a summary of the entire chat.  I have pulled out as much of it as possible while still keeping the integrity of the conversation.  Read as much as you wish, but do take some time to check out some of the links that were shared.  For example, I cannot wait to learn more about  Grilled Pears & Drunk Cookie Crumble.  

Learn more about all of the folks who joined us on Twitter.  You can see a full list of all NestChat attendees to here.  If you came, thanks a million. If you didn't, we hope you will next time.  Until then...

Sometimes we pour ourselves into these posts... struggling with the placement of every spoon and dusting away crumbs (unless we want them there)... and then, NOTHING.  No comments, no buzz.  On the other hand, sometimes we toss together a post with little concern for how it will be received.  Instead, we just put out something that we think is important to share and that somebody might find useful.  Often times, these are posts about something we do in our own home that has been successful.  And then, it EXPLODES.  

That is the case with this revisited post.  This is a method we started years ago to keep ourselves on track.  It's so simple that you can't believe it works!  When we put this post out we had only been blogging for a few months, but something changed.  A few sites got ahold of it and it spread like wildfire.  I think it has something to do with people wanting to control their finances, plus the free printable didn't hurt matters.  At any rate, I hope you enjoy the original post Today's Money: Budgeting with Cash Envelopes.

by Andrew Yenne, photos by Sam Henderson

Oh Me!  Oh Mai! It’s May, which means it’s almost summertime. Time to kick back, relax and enjoy the warm days and cool nights.  This month we’re featuring one of 'Mai' favorite summer drinks (and fall and winter and spring, really anytime I want to pretend I’m somewhere tropical).  It’s the drink that launched a national craze, and a decade of kitsch. Of course, we’re talking about the Mai Tai.

Unfortunately, much like the Margarita, this drink has been tampered with so much over the years in chain restaurants and hotel bars that it is almost unrecognizable.  We’re getting back to basics, and the heart of this delicious drink the Trader himself concocted back in the 40’s.  Exotic dark rum from Jamaica, the citrus punch of fresh lime and the exotic flavors of orgeat (a sweet almond syrup) make the Mai Tai exotic, dangerous, and delicious.

savour… a mental vacation

As you know, our site recently got a facelift.  In an effort to bring everything up to speed we are dusting off some old posts and cleaning them up a bit.  Many of them were written before we really knew what we were doing around here.  We've come a LONG way.

This flashback is from one of our very early posts.  I just love this project and still use it in my home everyday.  These hooks are perfect for keeping it all together and still having a place to hang your hat and/or jacket.  Check out the original post at Hooked on Storage: Toilet Flange Hook