A Pinterest Recipe + Liebster Award

    Is anyone else as intrigued as I am when they see a Pinterest recipe claiming to be the most delicious, the best, the easiest, or (enter other seemingly outrageous claims here)?  Pinterest is full of great recipes claiming to be the best and horrible recipes claiming to be better.  It's hard to tell the difference.  Which is one reason why it's so important that pins always remain linked back to their original source (as opposed to a Google image search, Flickr account, etc).  Ok Pinterest rant over. 

    My first attempt at a "bold claim recipe" on Pinterest was one that I chose because I trust the pinner that put it out there.  Ashley of 7th House on the Left shared this recipe on her blog a couple months ago then I started seeing it pop up on Pinterest.  Has anyone seen this pin below making its rounds on boards everywhere?

 

    As your unofficial Pinterest Recipe Reviewer (for today only), I am here to tell you that these cookies rock! I have been searching for a great chocolate chip cookie recipe for years and this one is definitely a keeper.  My one mistake: I only had light brown sugar and the recipe calls for dark.  Normally, I like improvising but in this case I feel like it made a big difference.  Go for dark brown sugar if you have it!  These cookies were just salty enough and just sweet enough to be named a winner in my book!      

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    Speaking of sweet...I woke up to a sweet little honor the other day: I was nominated for a Liebster Award by Jenni of The Beautiful Little Fools.  The Liebster Award is a blog award where bloggers nominate fellow up-and-coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers.  It's so nice to know that someone likes what I'm doing over here on my little corner of the internet!

 THE RULES

1. Link back to the person who nominated you. 

2. List 11 facts about yourself.

3. Answer the 11 questions posted by the person who nominated you.

4. Nominate other blogs with 200 followers or less.

5. Ask 11 new questions for the nominee-blogs to respond to.

I hope you don't mind me skipping the 11 facts about myself.  I listed 26 (one for every letter of the alphabet) the other day, so if you are interested then you can find that here.

My Answers 

1. What is one item in your closet you couldn't live without?

My black leather jacket.  I can't wait until the weather gets a bit cooler so that I can start wearing it again.

2. What is the best cupcake you have ever had?

Salted caramel--but really I'll eat salted caramel anything.

3. What is the story behind your name?

My mom liked it.  My dad chose my middle name which is Natalie.

4. What is the story behind the name of your blog?

My husband named it.  I was looking for a name that meshed my love for the south with my new life here in Boston.  We threw around all kinds of really cheesy things, but once he came up with Boston Sweet Tea Party I knew that it was just right. 

5. What celebrity do you wish was your best friend?

Kerry Washington.  Think she'd spill any Scandal secrets?!

6. What company would you love to be in the advertisements for?

J. Crew- those models pull off casual elegance like nobody's business.

7. In your opinion, what is the perfect outside temperature?

76 degrees.  Warm enough to be comfortable but with the Boston Harbor breezes, it's also cool enough to wear that leather jacket that I mentioned above :)

8. Morning Person or Night Owl?

Kind of neither.  I don't like being awake early and I certainly don't like people talking to me early in the morning.  And saying I'm a night owl would be a huge exaggeration.  My bedtime is like 10pm and I normally fall asleep on the couch before that.

9. What was the last movie you watched?

The Hunger Games. Was I the last person in the world to see this?

10. If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live?

Kevin and I have grand plans to retire early and become snowbirds.  We'd live on the Cape for the summer and live in my old college town of Chapel Hill, NC for the winter.

11. If your life was being turned into a movie who should play you?

I don't know.  Someone who can pull off clumsy well that's for sure.  Zoe Saldana is one of my style icons.  She could make me look way more poised and presentable than I am in real life.  Sure, we'll go with Zoe.

My Nominations

Sweet Smores

 Stamp In My Passport

My Questions

1. What is your biggest fear?
2. Why did you start blogging?
3. What is your favorite holiday?
4. What person in your life makes you laugh the most?
5. Do you prefer the mountains or the beach? 
6. What's your favorite food to order for take-out?
7. What's your dream job?
8. What's your one guilty pleasure?
9. Where is your favorite place that you have ever visited?
10. What is your favorite comfort food?
11. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Are you still writing your blog?