It's FINALLY Fall Y'all! Recipes, weather and football!

I was absolutely delighted to wear a sweatshirt on my drive to campus this morning. This was the weather we had in Mississippi this morning:

I could not be more thrilled!!! I am really glad it looks like it will be cooling off some this week. It doesn't feel right making pumpkin baked goods and drinking cider when its 85 degrees out!

Speaking of pumpkin...since we are having an 11:00 game this weekend, I am making muffins for the tailgate before the game. I wanted to share this recipe with y'all early this week in case you want to make some too! Starbucks makes some pretty amazing pumpkin cream cheese muffins, and now you can make them at home!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

1 cup of canned pumpkin

1 cup plus 2 tbsp of sugar

1/2 cup of packed brown sugar

4 egg whites (3 in one cup, 1 in the other)

1/2 cup milk

1 cup of canola oil (I've used vegetable-works fine too)

2 cups of flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp salt

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin pans (or use paper cups with Pam) and set aside.

Mix pumpkin, brown sugar, 3 egg whites, milk, and oil. Next stir in flour, pie spice, and salt. Set aside.

In second bowl, mix cream cheese, last egg white and 2 tbsp of sugar. Use a beater.

Spoon some pumpkin batter into each muffin tin, then add some cream cheese mixture, and spoon a little more pumpkin mixture on top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until toothpick in center comes out clean.

Enjoy as they are or add something extra to them! I like to put some chai frosting on top, which I make by adding some chai concentrate (I use Tazo brand, other brands would work also I'm sure) to cream cheese frosting and sprinkle some candied pecans or pumpkin seeds on top. So good!

I had a pretty dang good weekend! Friday night Mary Catherine, Kevin, and I went up to Tupelo for the Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean concert. We ate a great (but very quick!) supper at The Grill in Tupelo and walked over to the arena. We had so much fun! Both of them were really great live!

Here we are at the Bankcorp South Arena waiting for the show to start!

Saturday started bright and early for tailgating for the Mississippi State vs. Georgia game.

Kevin and Andrew playing corn hole. Hadn't seen Andrew in forever! Glad to see him!

Matt with a bulldog!

Casey, Jesse, and Kevin cooking ribs!

Jesse had spent hours making these ribs for the tailgate. They were so so good!

Caitlin and Dan finally made it to a game! Caitlin has been busy writing/defending her thesis and Dan just came back from deployment so we were really glad to have them join us for a game before the head to Oklahoma. Definitely going to miss them a ton!

Caitlin and I in the stadium!

The East side of the stadium wore white and the West side of the stadium wore maroon. Go State!

The group waiting on the game to start. Liza had to work so she wasn't there :( It wasn't the same without her!

The game was an incredible game to watch. The score was 7-6 State for most of the game. Finally the game picked up and the MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS BEAT GEORGIA 24-12!!!

Hey GEORGIA! We just beat the HELL OUTTA YOU! Maroon! White! Fight Fight Fight! Mississippi State!!! Damn right!!

We all celebrated out at the tailgate for hours after the game. Caitlin and I took a picture with the huge cowbell!!

And of course, my FLORIDA GATORS also won vs. Kentucky this weekend. Go Gators!!

Job Search/Interview First Impressions

I know lots of us are on the job hunt these days, and today's job fair gave me the idea to share some of my job search tips with y'all (and I'd love to hear yours as well!).

First, whether it's a job fair or an interview, dress to impress. Your outfit is the first impression potential employers will have of you. Today, I wore a black shirt dress, black pumps, a strand of pearls, and my pearl earrings.

Another professional look could be a suit skirt, dress, or pants with a colorful shell and a blazer.

Keep jewelry to a minimum and choose classic pieces.

I carried my Longchamp tote for a splash of color, and I carried my resumes and business cards in a portfolio like this:

You don't have to have a portfolio with your school's logo on it; a clean folder (no crazy designs) works perfectly fine. Make sure to have a pen with you and a place to put all the goodies they will give you (booths at job fairs often hand out water bottles, huggies, pens, etc.)

Make sure your resume is organized and updated with no misspelled words. Your resume is your representation on 1-2 pages. And lastly-the best first impression is a smile and a confident handshake. You deserve the job now show them why! :)

Rocky Top!

I had such a great weekend in Knoxville! I drove up from Starkville on Friday afternoon, did a little shopping Friday night, and hung out with Jim. Saturday we headed to the stadium for the Gators vs. Vols game! Now y'all know I'm a HUGE Gators fan, so of course I wore orange and blue!

Here's my outfit...bathroom shot, classy haha but Jim didn't have a full-length mirror

I don't know about all that Vol orange...but I do know his outfit was epic and cracked me up. I guess I won't disown him for the Vols colors.

Rocky Top!

Jim in the stadium

Go Gators!

Love these glasses!

I also got to meet Grace from Preppy Southern Princess ! She was just too cute and sweet!

We took a picture with my phone...it's a little blurry but I figured I'd put it up anyways! So glad I got to meet her!

While I'm not a huge fan of long car trips, this one wasn't too bad. About 6 hours and the views around Chattanooga were amazing. I'll be headed back to Knoxville sometime in November and maybe I'll get to cheer on the Vols next time. I do like UT but I had to be loyal to my Gators!

Unfortunately, my MS State Bulldogs lost in Baton Rouge :( We got to catch part of that game after the UT-UF game. Hopefully this weekend we can show Georgia who the real Bulldogs are! Haha.

Busy week ahead as usual...school school school.

Happy Monday!

Viva Knoxvegas

I'm leaving shortly to go here:

Rocky Top!

I'm excited to see this fella and cheer on my Gators!

Go Gators!!!!!!

Also wish my Mississippi State Bulldogs luck this weekend in Baton Rouge!!

Beat the LSU Tigers!!

Go MS State Dawgs!!!!!!

Pictures to come! Have a good weekend y'all!

I love this song!!

Kenny Chesney   More CMT Music   More CMT Music Videos

Kenny Chesney - "Coastal - Invitation Only ": "Coastal"

Tailgating Recipes!

I thought I'd share some of my favorite tailgating recipes with y'all. I have lots in my recipe book, so if you like them/want more let me know!

Sausage Balls (from Mary Catherine!)

1 lb sausage (Jimmy Dean sage works best)

2 cups finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese

2 cups Bisquick

Mix by hand, roll into balls and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes

Brownie-Cookies

Really easy and really delicious! Make brownie mix like you normally would (I use chocolate brownie mix from a box). Spoon mix into paper-lined cupcake pan about halfway full. Then add a piece (either a whole square or half a square) of frozen chocolate chip cookie dough. Bake at whatever temperature and time the brown recipe calls for. SO GOOD!

Another good idea for tailgating I'm going to steal from MC:

Making Crystal Light lemonade or any other type of Crystal Light drink and adding vodka- serve using one of the drink dispensers.

This was a great idea for a tailgate and also low calorie! I think I'll have some of this next game!

I'd love to know some of y'alls tailgating recipes!

Go Dawgs and Gators!

True Maroon Game! State vs. Auburn

Last Thursday night Mississippi State played Auburn in Starkville! We had a great time tailgating all day (when we probably should have been working, but oh well haha). The game was on ESPN so we made some signs:

True Maroon group shot!

Here we are with our tailgate sign and our game signs. The bottom of the tailgate sign says: bottoMSUp !

Ladies before heading into the game. Liza was packin some beverages haha

At the Dawg Walk waiting on the team to get off the bus

Our seats were amazing!

This fella dressed up like a giant cowbell!

Our dressed mascot

Matt in his camo cook apron...in the stadium

Dan Mullen on the big screen

Bully!

Go State!

I'll have some good tailgating recipes up later this week!

In other good news, my Gators won on Saturday! Rough first half but they dominated the second half! Thank God for Demps!! GO GATORS!

Happy Monday!

Go Dawgs! Beat Auburn!

Tonight, Mississippi State Bulldogs are hosting Auburn Tigers...War Eagles...I'm not really sure haha. I'm actually kind of curious as to why they are both the Tigers/War Eagles...any Auburn girls out there want to share? Anyways, I'll be tailgating and cheering on the Bulldogs! SEC football analysts say it should be a good close game. I'm thrilled to celebrate our True Maroongame at Davis Wade! GO DAWGS!!

Maroon! White! Fight Fight Fight! Mississippi State! Damn Right!

As promised, I have tons of pictures from this weekend for y'all! We had such a great time tailgating! Friday was spent getting ready for the tailgate. I had planned on working half a day, but I woke up at 9:30 (wanted to be on campus by 8 haha)...but tailgating prep won haha. Matt, Liza, George (who came up from Mobile), and I ate lunch at Grumpy's (love getting catfish on Fridays!) and then made last minute Walmart and liquor store trips. Then I came back to the house and baked lots of cookies and red velvet cupcakes for the tailgate! About 4 we all headed over to the Junction to wait for 5 when we can set the tents up!

Sunset on the stadium! State is so pretty!

After we set the tents up Kevin and Matt broke out the grill and cooked up some burgers Mary Catherine made. They were SO GOOD! (MC make these again! Haha! :) ). We all sat around the tailgate and ate and played corn hole. We packed up pretty early so we could all be rested up for Saturday's festivities!

Saturday started at 7:15 am when I got up to get ready! We headed to Shipley's donuts then to Matt's apartment to meet up with Liza and headed to the Junction!

Here's Bully with all our cowbells. I love this picture because the stadium is in the background!

Here I am with Bully in front of the stadium. We took pictures with him early before it got too crowded.

State girls love Bully :)

All our cowbells lined up for action and periodic ringing throughout the day!

Action shot of the day of Matt and Kevin playing corn hole. Kevin made the corn hole boards and bags! He did such a great job and we all had a ton of fun playing!

Matt and Liza getting ready to grill!

Ladies at our tailgating spot with the stadium! What great weather we had and a great tailgating spot!

Here's the group! Left to right Kevin, MC, Matt, Liza, me, and George. It was the white out game!

Since we were set up next to the MAFES store I had to get some ice cream :)

Here is me and my roommate Randall!

Cheering on the team at the Dawg Walk! (my camera or phone or something is in my pocket haha).

Before I move on I have to mention the spread we had going on. Kevin made steak skewers which were delicious, I made marinated chicken, Matt and Liza made burgers, Matt made a Death Roll (cheese stuffed sausage covered in bacon seasoned with Shag Nasty), and we had tons of chips and desserts.

Game time was at 6 so we headed into the game around 5.

One of my favorite pictures of us!

Go State!

Kevin and MC!

My cowbell with the stadium!

Me and George!

White out!

Saturday was a great day! State beat Memphis and my Florida Gators beat Miami of Ohio (despite their issues with snapping the ball but we won't talk about that haha). Thursday night State plays Auburn in Starkville so more pictures of that game for sure! Go Dawgs!