Update on the Five New Recipes...

Out of the five recipes I chose to try this past week, the last three:  Pumpkin Coffee Cake, Mexican Lasagna, and Sloppy Joes were "keepers".  

I have a neighbor who had surgery and I wanted to take something over to her to be of help  so I baked up a batch of the Pumpkin Coffee Cake and divided it into two separate baking dishes.  One for our neighbor and one for us.  Since I had not made it before, I thought I'd better try it myself in the event it was not as tasty as I had hoped.  Good news!  It was very tasty.

The Mexican Lasagna was quite scrumptious also.  With a husband who is a picky eater you never know how a new recipe is going to go over, but to my amazement he said this is really good, not too spicey.  Let's have it again.  Wow, you have no idea how unique and unexpected this answer was.

Then a couple of  nights later I tried the Sloppy Joe recipe.  Every now and again I like a good sloppy joe meal, but my other half is usually not so excited.  He did, however, eat the meal with NO faces:) and ate leftovers the next day.  This will be added to my files for future use.

Thank yous to:

"One More Moore" for the Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Cookie recipe:  http://morganmoore.typepad.com/one_more_moore/2009/04/when-its-too-hot-to-bake-we-nobake.html

"Pretty Good Food.com" for the Pumpkin Coffee Cake recipe. 

http://www.diaryofarecipecollector.com/mexican-lasagna.html for the Mexican Lasagna recipe; and

http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/07/the-best-sloppy-joes/ for the Sloppy Joe recipe.

This was quite the success with 4 out of 5 mouth-watering recipes tried and enjoyed.  Now, what new meals shall I try this week?

Refinishing the kitchen cabinets

On our initial visit to look at our future home, I began to see this house through the eyes of Chip and Joanna Gaines. Mentally, I wrote down the things I would like to do to make this house our home. The first thing was to repaint the kitchen cabinets. I thought my husband can do this because he has done this before to one of our other homes. What I didn't take into consideration was he hates to paint and that he works 70 hours at week. However, he did agree.

My knight in shining armor took on this task before we moved in with high hopes he could finish the project in just a matter of a couple of weeks. Then came a back injury that halted pretty much everything.  He is healing slowly but surely and the refinishing will begin again soon:)

The oak cabinets before the repainting began.  You may say, I like cabinets.  What's wrong with them?  Nothing unless you want to update your kitchen and make it look larger.  An alley kitchen can only look so large so repainting the cabinets is one way to visibly make the area seem larger and I love the looks of white cabinets.

The cabinets are coming along just great.  A sincere "thank you" to my dear husband who has done a marvelous job and updating our cabinets and has put in A LOT of hard work and hours.  Just a couple more doors and this side of the kitchen will be done.

Counter tops and a back splash are next on the list for this handy kitchen.  So excited to be in this house.

Leave a comment on your thoughts for a great looking kitchen!

Irresistible

Irresistible by berry1975 featuring a peony bouquet

Givenchy heels & pumps
$1,240 - lanecrawford.com

GEDEBE python handbag
thelabelmonster.com

Diane James peony bouquet
bloomingdales.com

Five new recipes to be tried this week--

This week I will be making some new recipes and one old favorite. It seems like I get stuck in a rut of preparing the same few recipes over and over again while I pin more and more recipes to my Pinterest boards. Flavor is the key so I'm going to test some new recipes and share with you the verdict on each.

Five recipes to be tried this week:

Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Cookies
Provençal Stuffed Tomatoes
Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Mexican Lasagna
Sloppy Joes

Saturday I had to find a recipe for cookies to bake for a friend. I wanted to try Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Cookies, but with the recipe I had the cookies never set.   I looked and found a recipe on Pinterest, and with a little bit of of fear, I tried it. YEAH!  It worked. I've missed these cookies. They will be a hit and a keeper!

Today a side dish was needed so I attempted Provençal Stuffed Tomatoes. My husband loves baked tomatoes so with high hopes I prepared these to accompany honey glazed salmon. However, there was a strong lingering flavor that was predominate that was not good. Not for sure if it was the recipe or the flavored bread crumbs I used, but whatever the cause, this one was voted down.

Tomorrow evening a Mexican Lasagna will be on the menu. I love Mexican dishes so can't wait to try it. Stay tuned to hear if this dish is filled with yummy flavor and gets added to the "saved" file.

Check your style!

Check your style! by berry1975 featuring a nail polish

Maria Grazia Severi black cocktail dress
yoox.com

Charlotte Russe leopard purse
charlotterusse.com

Limedrop nail polish
$15 - thegrandsocial.com.au

Yves Saint Laurent beauty product
yslbeautyus.com

Home decor
stickyj.com

Enchiladas Sour Cream Style

A favorite recipe of our family for over 40 years that I received through my momma from a cousin.  I know it is not polite to say "Yum!" when eating, but I do each time I take a mouth-

watering bite of these enchiladas.

Therefore, I wanted to share this special recipe with you all.  Over the years many recipes

with the same name have appeared, but I still go back to the original.

1     can of cream of mushroom soup

1     pint of sour cream (16 oz)

1     can of slightly drained diced green chilies (small can)

Mix together the above.  Spread small amount in the bottom of a baking dish.  

Brown 1 pound of hamburger and half of an onion, chopped.  Drain excess oil.  Stir in grated cheese of your choice (1 cup).  Roll meat mixture up in flour tortillas.  Place filled tortillas in baking dish. Pour remaining sour cream sauce  over top of enchiladas.  Sprinkle 1/2 cup of grated cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  Now enjoy!

3rd Journal Entry- Our New House

DIY project number 1.  Recover the seat cushions on our newly acquired dining room chairs.  While repositioning our living room, we came up with an idea to see if two of the dining room chairs would go on each side of an end table to create an additional seating area.  One thought led to another.  The lamps we had been using in our bedroom now found a new home one on the end table and one of the sofa table in the living room.  They matched in color and style perfectly.Then my husband said "Do you think the iron wall plaque would to above this grouping?"  hmm
  I said, "Yes, I think it will.  Let's try it."  Another item previously used in our bedroom has now been moved to the living room.  The cool thing about using a central color scheme throughout your home is that you can change things from room to room and use in a totally different way and it still match.  Love it!  The iron piece tied in so well with the other pieces making this  grouping ideal. The one thing that HAD to be done to complete this look was to reupholster the chair cushions.  The old material simply would not do.  So off to America's favorite craft store, Hobby Lobby.   Diligently, we looked over the isles of material.  Then I  saw a pattern I really liked.  The colors complimented the colors in our living room and our dining room adjoins it so would work fabulous there too.

Neither one of us had ever attempted to recover anything before, but had been told by several friends it was doable and we decided to take on this task head-on with the help of "YouTube".

See below the chair before recovering, then the look with the new material, and lastly the grouping.

Ta da!  The finished product.  Credit goes to my husband who took this project on solely by himself and did an outstanding job!  Very pleased at the outcome and his newly acquired talent:)

Summer Denim -- Polyvore

Summer Denim by berry1975 featuring a denim jacket

Victoria s Secret denim shirt
victoriassecret.com

Wildfox v neck t shirt
$94 - spoiledbrat.co.uk

Gap denim jacket
gap.com

Balmain mini skirt
$605 - net-a-porter.com

Flat shoes
$13 - newlook.com

Beach bag
$13 - newlook.com

Kate spade jewelry
lordandtaylor.com

Tech accessory
$13 - claires.co.uk

River Island sunglasses
riverisland.com

Kiss My Face sun care
backcountry.com

My Addiction -- Polyvore. I'd like to share some of my creations.

Sweet and Soft Mint and White by berry1975 featuring mint ballet flats

Dot shirt
$39 - collectif.co.uk

Elastic waist skirt
maykool.com

Wallis mint ballet flat
wallisfashion.com

Green shoulder bag
romwe.com

Isaac Mizrahi mint green eyeshadow
isaacmizrahi.com

Estée Lauder estee lauder eye liner
macys.com

The Konjac Sponge Co exfoliating facial cleanser
amazon.com

What's New Gifts from GiftTree
gifttree.com

2nd  Entry:  Welcome to our new home!  

You'd think this is our first home and we are newly weds the way we are plunging into making this house our home.  That's exciting at least to us.  Decorating each room has been a labor of love.  On move in day I had made a plan for each room with an idea of how I wanted the furniture placed,   Each room was set up and our ton of boxes lined up in the garage for unpacking.  In our minds, we had the look we wanted a more streamlined arrangement of furniture (a better way to say unclutter). Not every piece of furniture is being used, at least to date, some remain wrapped in shrink wrap to keep it clean from all the dust that can layer your keepsakes in the garage.  Room by room, we gathered the new with the old decorations, new mirror, wreath, painting... and with well-thought out ideas arranged them on our newly painted walls. Curtains were hung and area rugs positioned more than one time until we said "Yes, that's it!"

First tip we chose to follow was to carry out a predominant color theme that would flow from room to room which ties your home together.  It may be just an accent pillow, bud vase on a side table, or painted furniture.  Some say to use colors in threes.  The colors we have chosen are apple green, brown and white (or similar shades of those colors). Pictures to follow soon.  So stayed tune.

The beginning

This will be a journal of our much-awaited move to our new home as empty nesters.  As usual, when you make a move from one home (apartment, condo...) to another, you are faced with decisions.  The decision you have to make first is "Can I use this in our new home?"  "Should I give it away or throw it away OR keep it to use."  My husband, always the encourager, states "I'll give you $100.00 if you'll just throw it away.  I have to admit my first inclination is to keep everything and may leave it packed away in our ever-increasing boxed-up garage.  However, I might say during the last few moves I have been throwing more and more away or giving away those once treasured items.

A couple of weeks before the anticipated move my daughter asked me if I had started packing.  Excitedly, I answered her "YES!"  The boxes were stacked fairly high, labeled as to which room the box belonged in and what items were inside each box.  To say the least, I was just a little proud of myself.  Moving time came quicker than I packed for.  All my good deeds were slipping away to frantic long days of packing what seemed like endless items.

The plan was to place the furniture in the rooms and the boxes would go in the garage lined up according to room placement.  This is a good plan I might say.  So after a looong day of moving our home would be in place and our items would be findable in the garage, just a few steps away, in labeled boxes.  This did, in fact, give us peace of mind.  The packed and labeled boxes are dwindling in the warm garage and our closets and cabinets are becoming more and more filled.