A baby shower!

It was so much fun hosting my sister's baby shower. The little guy is going to be here so soon! We call him "Yoda" since he doesn't have an official name yet. :) My sister's invitations had a baby in a pea pod on it so I decided to stick with that theme. You could say the food theme was chocolate. Chocolate cake and cupcakes, brownies, chewy chocolate chip cookies. Yummm!!!

Re-purposing a cake stand

I love to make desserts and put them in my beautiful glass cake stand. But when I don't have desserts, I wanted to still use the cake stand as a display. I bought this bird at JoAnn's on clearance. I had the next tucked away in a box somewhere and painted wooden knobs an ivory color. Then I put them in my cake stand. How cute!!





What do you have that you could display in your cake stand?

The perfect meal for your special someone!

The sweetness of the honey combined with the earthiness of rosemary and zing of shallots, lemon and garlic will send your taste buds into a whirl with this recipe!

Personally, I think one of the best dates is cooking together. The kitchen is always a great place for conversation, you learn more about each other when you are interacting (instead of watching a movie), etc. And of course then you end up with a yummy meal!

This meal is also a great one to impress the one you love. So simple yet scrumptious!

Ingredients

* 2 tablespoons EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil, divided
* Salt and black pepper
* 4 6-ounce pieces boneless, skinless chicken breast
* 1 large shallot, finely chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 3 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
* 1/2 cup honey
* 1 rounded tablespoon Dijon mustard
* Juice of 1 lemon

Preparation

Heat 1 tablespoon EVOO, a turn of the pan, in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper. When oil smokes, add chicken to the pan and cook 6 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and cover with foil.

Reduce heat under pan to medium and add another tablespoon EVOO, a turn of the pan. Add shallots, garlic and rosemary to pan and cook 2-3 minutes. Add honey, stir in Dijon and lemon juice. Add chicken back to the pan and coat on all sides with the bubbling glaze. Turn off heat.

Serve with some brown or white rice and steamed green beans. Yummo!

All credits for this recipe go to Rachael Ray Show. See the full recipe and picture here!

Enjoy!

Put pizza and burgers together and what do ya get?

PIZZA BURGERS!!

Kids will eat it up, it is affordable, daddy likes it because there's meat and mommy likes it because it is easy! A win win for the family!

Ingredients...



1 lb. ground beef 1/3 c. chopped onion
1 tsp. oregano leaves 8 oz. shredded mozzarella (if I have extra I put more in)
4 oz. can sliced mushrooms, drained
14.5 oz. can of pizza sauce
8 hamburger buns

In a large skillet, brown ground beef & onions then drain. Put beef and onions in a mixing bowl. Add mushrooms & oregano. Heat oven to 400 degrees and refrigerate mixture.



Once oven is pre-heated, take mixture out of refrigerator. Stir cheese into hamburger mixture. Separate sliced buns onto cookie sheet face up. Spoon mixture onto sliced buns and place on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.



TIPS:
Have your dishwasher empty and instead of putting your dirty utensils and pans in the sink, rinse them and put straight into dishwasher.
Cover cookie sheet with foil... then you don't have to wash it. :)

Flowers for my little girl

I am always looking for inexpensive projects for my 2 year old and I to do. Nana gave us these two plans to pot and some soil. She had a blast planting them and the fun continues when we go outside every few days to water the plants. I have plans in the next couple weeks to get some herbs and vegetable plants to pot as well!

Etsy

Etsy is a website devoted to home-made crafts being sold by their makers online. I always have fun window shopping on the site and get ideas for things I want to make myself. You could even put a request of something you want made on Etsy!

I am considering putting a few things that I make on Etsy.

These would be to start...



What do you think? The flowers could be on a gator hair clip, headband or a pin to put on a jacket, blouse, purse, etc.

What do I clean first??

One of my dear friends was visiting and we were talking about babies, cooking, house cleaning and the like. Of course the conversation consisted of how difficult it is to do "everything" while having a toddler and a baby and our attempts (or at least mine cause she is so awesome!) to create routines and stick with them. For me, the master bedroom/bathroom tends to be the last thing touched in my house cleaning because it seems the least important... or is it?

I was challenged years ago by a very respectable woman in our church who said that if anything is clean and orderly in the house, it should be the master bedroom. As women and moms, our bedroom is our retreat. As husband and wife, it is our place of intimacy. But do I use the space that way? Or do I use it to place laundry loads, collect important papers, scattered books, etc. Though I don't spend a ton of time in my bedroom or bathroom, the time that I DO spend needs to be high quality and I need to enjoy the space.

So, my challenge to myself and maybe to you... for the next couple weeks, let's spend fifteen minutes (because we can all find 15 minutes!) a day transforming our master bedroom and bathroom.

Here's our steps:

1. Put items away (laundry, papers, etc.)

2. De-clutter. What do we really need? What clothes can we give away?

3. Dust. This includes the fan!

4. Organize. My jewelry is a hot mess and my shoes could use some help!

5. Re-decorate. Shop the rest of your house for decorations. What can you swap
from room to room or make a new use for?

6. Enjoy!!

Take some before and after pics! :)