Click here to read about the latest installment of the ABC Dinner Club. Anyone have suggestions for Kansas City Restaurants that start with “L”?
Feb 26, 2013
Is it spring yet?
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I really should not complain, we have had such mild winters the past couple of years. However, getting the season’s entire allotment of snow in 6 days is a little much.
I will admit that I like one good snow event a year, when you are forced to stay home all day and make bread, soup and of course brownies! I also love to take a few pictures of the very dramatic snow.
But now I am SOOOOOO over it! Bring on spring!
Linking to Savvy Southern Style.
Feb 23, 2013
A sneak peek
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I am having such a great day today working on one of the many projects for our basement makeover. It involves this lonely corner in the basement,
A newspaper pattern and 2″ foam.
A little measuring and some cutting.
Sewing, sewing and more sewing.
And this gorgeous material I bought last weekend.
Can you guess what project I am working on?
Feb 20, 2013
Basement Makeover – Step 2
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We are making progress!!! I last left you with this:
We (by that I mean the Mr, aka DA) added an additional electrical box and moved the boxes lower down the wall. Additionally, we (by that I mean DA and friend Paul) repaired the drywall where the entertainment cabinet was and put a primer on the new drywall.
Then we (by that I mean DA and myself) got up close and personal with all the trim in the basement by doing the “cutting in” work. No masking tape for us, just an angled brush, paint bucket and a wet cloth for tidying up the trim when our hands were not so steady.
It took us about 10 hours of work each over the course of a week but by Saturday afternoon we had completed all the painting. YEAH!!
Our next task is to order the carpet which I have been trying to do for a week. Do you know how many shades of taupe carpeting there are in this world? I am now on my second round of samples trying to pick one I like. The room has been measured so they are just waiting on me to make my final selection.
Step 3 of the makeover involves the use of my sewing machine but I will save those details for a later time.
Feb 18, 2013
Chicken and Noodles with Jalapeno Cheddar Scones
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Today was cloudy, cold, and windy with intermittent rain. To top it off, the forecast is calling for a winter storm in the next couple of days. My solution to this depressing weather? Soup, of course! Although technically a soup, I don’t really think of this recipe as a soup at all because it is so thick it can almost be eaten with a fork. Several years ago I had a neighbor who made a very similar chicken and noodles recipe and served it over a bowl of mashed potatoes. Sounds pretty wonderful to me, but I am already pushing the weight watcher limits here with these chewy egg noodles.
The recipe starts with the same vegetable saute I talked about here.
Add some garlic, chicken broth and diced chicken.
Once the broth comes to a boil, add a bag of these wonderful egg noodles.
When my mom made Chicken and Noodles she always made her egg noodles from scratch. I seriously can not tell the difference between these and the noodles my mom use to make. They are sooooo good.
After about 20 minutes of simmering, the noodles will be nice and tender and ready to heap into a big bowl. While I was waiting, I whipped up a batch of Jenny Steffens Hobick’s Cheddar Jalepeno Scones, a perfect complement to the chicken and noodles. I first made these scones when I attended a workshop with Jenny Steffens Hobick and I have made them several times since then. Here are the recipes.
Chicken and Noodles
1 cup each of diced carrots, celery and onion
1 T Olive Oil
1T minced garlic
3 Quarts chicken broth
2 cups diced chicken (personally I find this totally optional but the Mr requires it)
24 oz package Reames frozen egg noodles
Heat the oil in a large pot and saute the carrots, celery and onions until soft. Add the minced garlic and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Add the chicken and egg noodles and simmer for about 20 minutes until the noodles are tender.
Cheddar Jalapeno Scones
2 cups flour
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 t cheddar cheese
1 1/2 T minced jalapenos
1 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 cup whipping cream (in a pinch, milk works just fine)
2 eggs
In a mixer, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cheddar cheese and jalapenos using the paddle attachment. Dice the cold butter and add to the dry ingredients, mixing on low until the butter is the size of peas. In a separate bowl mix the cream and eggs. Add slowly to the ingredients with the mixer on low. Blend only until moistened then turn off the mixer.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape into a disk. Cut into 8 wedges and place each piece onto a parchment covered baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-17 minutes.
Stay warm friends!
Feb 12, 2013
Binge Watching
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So who knows what I am talking about here? The Mr and I were discussing the next TV series we were going to watch in a marathon session when he mentioned that he had actually heard a term coined just for this scenario. ‘Binge Watching’ is the devouring of an entire season of a tv show in a short amount of time.
Anyone else love to do this as much as I? It started for us around 2007 when we decided to see what all the fuss was about regarding the series “24′. Roughly three months later we had watched 6 seasons…..that is 144 hours of tv watching! DON”T JUDGE!!! I can remember our children making comments about what slugs we were! When season 7 and season 8 aired, I had to force myself not to watch it, but instead, wait so I could have another marathon session when the season was over.
I love to watch tv this way, which I think says something about my personality, and maybe not in a good way. I am impatient and want quick results. I do not want to wait for another week to see what happens next. I want to know NOW!! Yep, that’s me.
Since that first sinfully good session, Dave and I have watched the following series, some completely and some just to catch up for a few seasons we missed.
Dave even went a little retro and watched some old series. I watched a couple of episodes of Mission Impossible (which I loved when I was a kid) but it was downright painful to watch now. The acting, sets and especially the technology were just comical.
Of all the series we have watched, I think my favorite has been Friday Night Lights. It was one of the most recent watches so I might just be on a Tim Riggins high! Anyone out there love to watch TV this way? Anyone have any recommendations for our next marathon session?
Feb 8, 2013
Basement Makeover – Step 1
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We have officially started the basement makeover project this past weekend by knocking down our built-in entertainment center. The cabinet seemed like such a great idea fourteen years ago when we finished our basement. Who knew that TV’s would totally change their shape and size?
Here is the before picture…….
This is what it looks like today……
I guess I really am getting new carpet considering I now have a big chunk of the current carpet missing from the middle of the room. I am so excited to finally get this project started after talking about it for several months.
Besides painting, new carpet and a new tv, I am going to refinish a couple of tables and hang pendant lights over the bar. Here is a mood board showing a few things I am thinking about.
Can you guess what my new favorite color is????
Feb 6, 2013
R & R was featured on Savy Southern Style!!!
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I was very honored yesterday to be featured on the awesome blog, Savvy Southern Style as part of their Wow us Wednesday features. You can see that post here.
Kim of Savvy Southern Style is a fellow Empty Nester who spends her time decorating and completing projects in her home. She recently shared this detailed tutorial on painting kitchen cabinets. I love, love, love the color of these cabinets.
And check out this TV cabinet in her sunroom. I can’t take my eyes off of this gorgeous piece of furniture.
Go visit Savvy Southern Style to be WOW’d yourself!
Thank you for the feature Kim, you made my day!
Jan 29, 2013
Easy Black Bean Soup
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I have another soup recipe for you……I told you I love soup! I could seriously eat it every day this time of year. This is hands down the easiest soup I make. This morning I threw all the ingredients in the crock pot and by lunch the Mr and I were enjoying a hot bowl of goodness on this rainy, gloomy day.
Black Bean Soup
2 (15 oz) cans black beans with liquid
½ cup prepared Salsa( I use Pace Picante Sauce)
1 T chili powder (I use Williams Chili Seasoning)
1 (14 ½ oz) can chicken broth
Place all ingedients in a small crockpot; partly mash beans with potato masher or back of a spoon. Cook on low for 4 hours. Makes 4 servings, one cup each. Garnish with one or more of the following; cheese, sour cream, green onions, cilantro or crushed tortilla chips.
Enjoy!
Jan 24, 2013
Monogrammed Pillow
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Since I made the poinsettia pillow for Christmas, I have been wanting to make another pillow out of the tea stained muslin I purchased for that project. I really like the texture of this fabric and it I found it very easy to work with. I have had my eye on a monogrammed pillow for a while and decided now was the perfect time to try it.
The hardest part of the project was selecting the font I wanted to use for the monogram. I went through all the fonts I have loaded on my pc (several times) and finally narrowed the choice to one of these.
I really had a hard time deciding. By the way, a great source for free fonts is one of my absolutely favorite blogs, Kevin and Amanda. Amanda bakes incredible sweet treats and is definitely my photography inspiration. Her travel pictures are awesome. Amanda has many free fonts that are available for downloading and I find myself continually selecting one of her fonts for my projects. In fact, my final choice for the monogram pillow was the ‘Hey Gorgeous’ font. I use that one all the time, including in my grocery, menu and planner templates.
To make the template, I started by printing out the ‘G’ in the Hey Gorgeous font using the biggest size that would fit on a piece of paper.
Unfortunately that still was not big enough for the space I wanted to fill on the pillow. Plan B then was to get out some craft paper and free hand the letter. I am certainly not very artistic but got a semi-close approximation of what I wanted. I used this template to cut out the letter on the white felt I had leftover from the poinsettia pillow.
Since I was making an 18 inch pillow cover, I cut out 1-18 inch square of the muslin and 2-18×11.5 inch pieces of fabric. Notice I did not cut extra for the seams. Cutting the fabric the same size as the insert pillow will ensure the pillow is firm and plump when inserted into the cover.
I then pinned the felt ‘G’ to the muslin, then basted it in place.
There are several ways you can adhere the monogram to the pillow including the use of fusible interfacing, fabric glue or even applique. I have always like the combination of felt and a blanket stitch so that is what I decided to do. It has been several years since I used a blanket stitch so I did a quick look-up for a tutorial on you tube and found several to choose from. Once I had the hang of it I sewed the letter to the pillow front.
To assemble the pillow cover I created a hem on the two smaller pieces of fabric by ironing down 1/4 inch and then another 1/4 inch on one of the 18″ sides and then top stitching. These two become the back of the pillow.
I then laid the pillow front with the right side facing up and laid the two smaller pieces on top with the right side facing down, overlapping the two hems.
I pinned around the edges and then sewed a 1/4 inch seam around the entire pillow cover. I clipped the corners, turned it right side out and inserted my pillow.
I probably spent about an hour and 1/2 in total making this pillow and that included searching for the font. Since I had the felt and muslin left over from my poinsettia pillow and reused a pillow I already had for the inside, I only spent 37 cents on some white embroidery thread to complete this project. Pretty thrifty don’t you think?
