It's Savannah Restaurant Week!!

It's one of my favorite times of the year...Savannah Restaurant Week! Its a time where I can enjoy a great meal at a really nice upscale restaurant at a reasonable price. From January 29 until February 7, 2016, participating restaurants are offering 3 course meals (salad/app, entree & dessert) for $30 plus tax. The restaurants will have a pre-set menu that you can choose from; some will even have add-ons for an additional cost. This is the perfect time to grab your girlfriends or your bae and enjoy a great night out without breaking the bank. My advise is to make reservations because this is such a popular time of year in Savannah and the restaurants get really crowded.
Check out http://dining.savannahnow.com/news/2016-01-04/savannah-restaurant-week for information on the participating restaurants and their menus.

It's National Chocolate Cake Day!

Since today is National Chocolate Cake Day, I thought I'd share my grandmother's chocolate cake recipe.

Nana's Chocolate Cake
4 sticks salted butter
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Grease & lightly flour your cake pan. I prefer using a tube pan.
Sift flour, baking powder, salt & cocoa together. Set aside.
Cream butter & sugar in mixer
Add eggs one at a time, alternating it with the flour mixture
Add milk and vanilla
Pour cake mix into pan
Bake for 80 minutes

Hope you enjoy!

New year. New goals. What are you doing differently this time?

With the new year brings new goals. These may be new goals you've been thinking about. So E of these goals may be some from last year. Or the year before that. Or the year before that. The question is...what are you doing to reach your goals this year? Your mind is abuzz with things you want to do, accomplish and experience. How do you go from thoughts and dreams to actions and accomplishments? Here are a few tips you can use to help you with your goals.

1. Write down your goals!
What do you want to do? Get those thoughts from your head and down on a piece of paper. Even God said to write down your vision (Habakkuk 2:2-3) and you know He's not going to steer you wrong. The idea is that when you actually see your goals written out, the more motivated you are to work on them. For each goal, write out the steps you would need to accomplish them. Once you know what you need to do, accomplishing your goals will be a little easier to do. Make sure you post your goal list somewhere you can see it everyday as a reminder.

2. Create a vision board

Vision boards are a fairly new concept and can be a really good tool in helping you accomplish your goals. A vision board can be seen as an animated goal list. You get a poster board, pictures of where you envision yourself (from magazine es or the internet), a little glue and your arts and crafts skills from elementary school. A vision board gives you a picture of you accomplished goal, whatever that may be. If you see yourself at the end result, you will be motivated to work hard to accomplish your goals.

3. Set deadlines!

It's east to have a goal list, but at some point you have to set deadlines to accomplish those goals. This is where most people fall off. They have the list, they see it everyday, they even work on the steps. And because there aren't any deadlines attached to those steps, they get pushed back and pushed back until they are forgotten about. Put deadlines on your goals and hold yourself accountable. Set reminders in your phone (that's why they are called smart phones). Use a day planner or wall calendar. 

4. Have an accountability partner

I love seeing my husband, children and sister-friends succeeding and I know they feel the same about me. We lean on each other for encouragement and when we are lifting each other up, it gives us that extra push to keep going. Whether it be your spouse or your bestie, let them in on your goals. Let them know you are serious about accomplishing your goals and they will be there to encourage you and help you stay on track. They may even have resources to help you. You don't have to do it by yourself. And when you succeed, they will be right there to celebrate with you.

5. Just Do It!!

Nike has the best slogan and it is so simple. Its time to do it. You've talked about it and talked about it. Now its time to cash that check your mouth has been writing. Yes its new. Yes its going to be hard. Yes its taking you out of your comfort zone. But sometimes you have to shake yourself and get moving. Step out on faith and enjoy the ride. These goals will be life changing for you and those around you.

2016 is the year of getting it done. Time out for all of the talking about it; its time to do it. You don't want another year to pass by and you are still saying "well I coulda...". You have to be tired of that by now. This is the year to say "I did it!!".

Hello Haute Chocolate Darlings

This is a blog about living a Haute Chocolate Life. What is a Haute Chocolate Life you ask? Well, let's explore it...

As a black woman approaching mid-life, I have had an awakening. Life became stagnant and routine and God decided to shake it up for me. In all honesty, I was asking for a change, just not in the way I got it. But who am I to tell God how to do things; He has his own plan for my life and my job is to follow Him. In the midst of the shake up, my sister/cousin (I call her that because we are both only children and the closest things to siblings we will ever have) suggested that I write a blog. The idea had crossed my mind a few times before, but I never followed through with it. Since the opportunity presented itself, I decided to jump in.

In this blog, I will cover a variety of topics. In this day and age of the 24 hour news cycle and social media, something is always happening. Some serious, some funny. And I will give you my takes. I'm a newlywed and a parent of a couple of teenagers, one who is getting ready for college. So our household is very interesting right now. I love to cook and eat. I love pouring over cookbooks and recipes I find online and trying them on my family (and they live to tell about it). With the love of cooking and eating, I have to balance it out with the love of my body and my health. I've only been given one body and I have to really take care of it. I live in my beautiful hometown of Savannah, Georgia. There are so many things to experience here and I will share my adventures with you. Just like most people, I have a love affair with Pinterest. I've tried a lot of projects thanks to Pinterest. Some have been successful; some have been failures. But they all got my creative juices flowing.

I'm glad you are here to join me on all of my adventures. Oh what fun we're going to have.

Jajuana