Garlic Vinaigrette

Ok, so one thing about me & cooking is that I don't like to measure and will just eyeball everything and go by taste so all measurements are subject to be edited to your own particular tastes!

I love garlic and so does Tim (we were Italians in another life) so this dressing sounded awesome. I got the idea from a Rachel Ray show and I was too lazy to look up the recipe so I came up with my own (that according to my guess is probably pretty close).

I peeled all of the cloves from a bulb of garlic and put them into a pan on low heat with about 3 tbsp of olive oil and let them cook until they were throughly browned on all sides. I then transferred them to the blender and pulverized them before adding in about 1/4c olive oil and about 1/8c red wine vinegar. I thought it needed something else so I added in about 5-6 tbsp apple cider vinegar as well. To be honest I have no idea really what the difference is but figured there had to be one.

It was excellent and we ate all of it. I was even tempted to lick my bowl...I didn't but I really wanted to.

Brainstorming...Kitchen Book Trough

I saw a book trough similar to this one at my friend's parent's house and determined that I HAD to have one of my own.

So I've written up the plans for what I want and am just waiting for my dad to have some availability to help me build one of my own. If I could get this project completed it would free up a cabinet in my kitchen and believe me, that is some prime real estate!

Meatless Mondays: Week One

For week one I decided to use a recipe from Rachel Ray for Calzone Rolls. It seemed it would be quick and easy so why not.

I decided to bring out my own inner chef (um, right) and make a few tweaks. One of them being removing the salami as it is a Meatless Monday, duh. The next genius move I made was to trade out Kaiser rolls for French Hamburger Buns. Apparently those have nice little holes in the bottom when then are cut in half. I picked out some bread from the top and covered the hole so everything wouldn't spill out.

I then sautéed a chopped onion and half a bag of spinach and mixed them with about 5 leaves of chopped basil, a quarter cup of shredded mozzarella and about 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan with a small container of ricotta cheese. I spooned all of that mixture into the bottom of 4 rolls and placed a slice of tomato and some additional shredded mozzarella on top. Never did I think about putting salt and pepper into the mixture but I def should have, apparently ricotta does not have a very strong flavor as I thought it would.

I put the rolls into a casserole dish and baked them for about 20 minutes until the cheese on top was melted and served them with some spaghetti sauce.

Not my best showing and I'm not really sure I will every be attempting these again. Here is a picture from Rachel's site, I forgot to take a picture of mine (another fail) although mine were much more colorful and looked as though they would have an amazing taste to them. Never judge a book by its cover right!

Meatless Mondays

So in order to save some money and to get a little healthier I suggested to Tim that we start doing "Meatless Mondays." He begrudgingly has acquiesced to my request and I started planning.

We've been working on changing our eating habits ever since Tim was diagnosed with colon cancer. Our diets that once consisted of frozen pizzas, chicken nuggets, Spaghetti Os (ok, that was me) and Easy Mac have been deleted. We rarely (if ever) get processed food anymore, Tim's oncologist told us to stick to the perimeter of the grocery store in order to avoid processed foods. We still have to get into the center aisles for some juices, sauces and even sometimes (ok, frequently) cookies & ice cream but for the most part have incorporated fresh fruits, vegetables and meats that we used to rarely ever use.

We also learned that there is a possibility of a link between red meat and colon cancer. That was quite the wake up call, between tacos, meatloaf and burgers plus roast beef sandwiches and the like we were eating red meat for an average of 4-5 meals a week. That is way more than the recommended 18oz per week. As with everything balance is key so we have already cut way back on that and are currently working on cutting back our consumption of meat in general.

I also figured out that we could save $30-$40 a month just buy avoiding buying meat for one day a week. Sold! I think we are going to start next Monday so I'll fill you in on how it goes.

Change of Pace

Ok so major kudos go out to all that have the time, energy and money to be able to do home improvement projects on a regular basis. I am both amazed and jealous of their abilities and resources.

Due to budget and time constraints I'm going to have to change the pace on the blog a bit and include a few random other pieces, such as recipes I'm cooking. Otherwise this is just going to be dead in the water for quite awhile.

Hopefully I can get back to the decorating/home improvement soon enough and I'm sure there will be a few smaller projects in the interim as well (for some reason I've been getting the urge to use a saw lately). Anyways stick with me and hopefully the new additions will make everything even sweeter.

Organization Station

I'm constantly looking for a new way to keep Tim & I on the same page as far as what we have to do each week, what dinner will be and what he needs to contribute to assist with keeping the house. I'm also crazy OCD (apparently I developed that as a coping mechanism for my ADHD, spectacular!) so I have lists EVERYWHERE. I saw the organizer below at one of the blogs I follow but genius as I am I didn't write down what blog that was, so if anyone runs across this somewhere & knows where it came from please let me know so I can give credit where its due!

There were a couple of changes I needed to make:

1. We work on a weekly basis so a monthly calendar does nothing for us.
2. Our To-Do list is always long & continually growing (we both procrastinate) so that needed to be extended. I actually separated it into 2 columns so we each have our own responsibilities.
3. I wanted that title box to be personalized for us. (OCD comes back to haunt everyone)

Here a more generic version, feel free to copy & use as it fits your life! I'll put it as large as I can on here because I have no clue how to upload a file that is able to be downloaded (although if someone shares that knowledge I'll be happy to do that as well!). You can also leave a comment with your email address and I'll shoot it over to you that way!

Finally....A Gallery

I'm sure that if you've been following my blog then you've seen me post about having a gallery wall. I have a slight obsession with them as you can see here: Hallway...well because its easy and here: Movin' on Up. Well I finally made one and not in either place I previously mentioned.

The wall beside my sink in our master bathroom always bugs me, I stare at it a good bit as I'm getting ready and it is visible from my side of the bed at night. For some reason I have a fear of blank walls but I also like art to mean something (whether its a feeling it evokes from me or is something personal). I finally just decided to suck it up and get a gallery wall going.

First I gathered some random frames from my house, my parent's house and Hobby Lobby's half-off sale. To be honest I had no idea what I was going to put in any of them just knew that I wanted to get a few different sizes and shapes up there and bought a can of Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint. I've used this stuff previously and love it because of the coverage it gives me. Two coats and I'm done! Plus it dries really fast which means that people with short attention spans such as myself are satisfied.

If there was glass that couldn't be removed I just taped over it, btw the oval was a slight pain.

I covered the driveway with newspaper and got to spraying. Two quick coats and these babies were ready to be hung within an hour (note: this picture was after coat #1)

Next I went inside and measured my space and roughly taped it out on the floor.

I played around and got the frames arranged in a general pattern that I liked before I decided to just roll with it and start hanging them up.

Next I started from the bottom and worked my way towards the top arranging & rearranging as I went using what I had previously laid out as a guide.

Notice that its a little different and became even more different after I rummaged through my house to find pieces and artifacts to fill each frame.

Ta-Da! The end result. I'm pretty happy with it if I do say so myself. I know it could use a little finessing but for a first-timer I think I did a decent job!

Here are some individual shots of each frame in the order they were hung:

This picture is from our wedding although I wanted the main focus to be our hands so I put a soft focus filter on it and made the rest of the image around it fuzzy.

I believe these roses were worn by one of our grandparents although to be perfectly honest I have absolutely no clue. I found them in all of our wedding stuff perfectly preserved after and have saved them for the right display piece. I just added some brown kraft paper and it was good to go.

I actually made this with the premise based upon a co-workers tattoo (roman numerals of her favorite bible verse). These are the roman numerals of our wedding date with the bible verses that were read during the ceremony written out in the background.

This was actually crocheted by my great-grandmother (Gigi) and I've had it in a conspicuous spot where I can see it each day since she passed away. I love that its now framed (with the brown kraft paper again) and is still visible to me every time I pass by.

 This was another of of wedding pictures but of Tim. I wanted the focus to be on his boutonniere so I did the soft-focus effect again and got this.

My mom actually crocheted this belltower from her college campus and I found it in a drawer. I loved the colors and the stitches are super-tiny which was also impressive to me.

Ok I confess this is a random piece of artwork I found somewhere on the internet awhile ago and I plan to replace it but don't know what I will replace it with just yet.

My premise was to feature a picture of each of us separately from the wedding as well as a couple so here is my solo shot with the soft-focus on my bouquet.

No gallery wall would be complete without a shot of the pup. She is so beautiful and pensive!

Another one of my dad's old drawings, he was pretty good!

Ok granted you can't see this really but it was a beautifully addressed invitation and the first we received as a married couple. It was def a framer!

I'm not an advocate of stealing but in my younger and dumber years I did take these from a hotel I stayed in while I was in Rome. I still think they are beautiful and they always remind me of one of the best trips I've ever been on.