fun with pumpkins

It's Halloween; the pumpkins are carved and the seeds are baked! Two were carved from craft pumpkins, so we plan to the keep them. The third is a real pumpkin that we had to have to make our annual seeds.

Here is a shot of our front porch ready of All Hallow's Eve. Unfortunately you cannot see all the gourds and oak & maple leaves on the hay bails.



I thought I would toss in a little picture of the Halloween doormat we bought from the Crate & Barrel outlet. I love it!



Here are the pictures of this year's addition to our keepsake pumpkin patch:



This is the real pumpkin.


Below is the picture of the pumpkin seeds we baked. Here is my recipe:

1 - Thoroughly rinse all pumpkin off seeds. Lay them on a dishtowel for 5 minutes to dry.
2 - Line jelly roll pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
3 - Spread pumpkins out on pan and sprinkle with sea salt, paprika, cayenne pepper and cumin.
4 - Bake at 300 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Yum!!

chicken with chobani

I have decided to make dinner in the crock-pot at least once a week. This week’s recipe is similar to one that I found online. However, since we never have sour cream in the house (mostly because I am not a huge fan), I substituted the sour cream for plain Chobani Greek Yogurt. You would not believe how well Chobani works as a replacement for cream ingredients. Last week I used it in mashed potatoes and it made them SO creamy.

Slow-Cooker Salsa Chicken

* 1-2 lbs frozen, boneless, skinless chicken breasts
* 1 packet low-sodium taco seasoning
* 8-oz salsa (whatever flavor/brand you prefer)
* 8-oz Greek yogurt

Place chicken in crock-pot, sprinkle taco seasoning and top with salsa. Cook on low 6-8 hours.
Use two forks to shred chicken; mix all chicken and crock-pot liquid with yogurt. Serve over rice, wrapped in a tortilla, on a burger bun or over a bed of mixed greens. You can also add your own twist with a can of beans, frozen or drained can corn and/or cilantro.

Blogger Tips:
Click here to get a coupon for Chobani yogurt.

watercolor wonder

The watercolors have been hung! It took a couple days longer than expected, but, with a bit of patience, we got through it. Only one of them was re-matted and 3-4 of them have "new" frames.... and by new, I mean they were from my finds earlier in the week. All of the frames were originally gold and I spray painted them black. To add a little character I lightly distressed them to show some of the gold underneath. Unfortunately, on a couple of the frames the paint came off with barely any touch from the sandpaper and are showing more gold than I would like. I am thinking about repainting and trying those two again. We will see....














Luckily, D was an Art History major and worked for a few years at the Art Museum in preservation and restoration... so, in addition to his own mat cutter, he truly knows how to properly mat and frame any piece of art.

Blogger Tips:
* We have spray painted many items over the last several years and have found that Krylon spray paint from Ace goes on the smoothest, with the least drip. It's also the easiest on your trigger finger.
* Never, ever use cardboard in any type of photo or art frame as it causes the art/photo to fade.

This is a wide shot of the wall with the watercolors. The large cabinet in the corner is our game cabinet from Bucks County Furniture. We had it built to our specs to hold all our new and old board games. It is nearly full. Below the art is a cedar chest I bought at at consignment shop for $15. I have been meaning to refinish it. The small box was my grandfather's old tool box and the globe came from D's grandfather (via his dad). There is also a National Geographic from 1947 and the vintage suitcase was a quite find for $2 from a random thrift store in SW WI.

sunday in the kitchen

There might be no worse task in the kitchen than peeling potatoes, except for peeling apples. For this reason I have never made applesauce as an adult. I remember being a kid and churning through an old-school food mill to make homemade applesauce. I thought I hit the jackpot while making baked apples twice last week. I realized that, when cooked with skin on, cortland apples peeled like banana.

So I went to the grocery store to buy some cortlands and make applesauce. However, I could not pass up the reduced produce I had seen. It was a pack of 8 various apples for only $.89! I bought two packages and picked the best ones for the applesauce. After cooking the peeled apples in the microwave for about 5 minutes, they were perfectly soft. I used my pastry cutter to mash them up (I could not find my potato masher) and was so pleased with the flavor. With no sugar or anything added, they were some of the best applesauce I have ever had!


We had also decided to make our own meatballs and marinara. A first for the meatballs! We make our sauce, but becuase of the meat we needed something thicker than our usual recipe. I started with our base recipe for marinara adding tomato paste and dropping the sugar.

Meatballs

* 1 lb ground round
* 1/2 lb Italian sausage
* 2 eggs
* 1 cup bread crumbs
* 1 Tbsp. chopped parsley
* 2 Tbsp. Parmesan
* pinch of salt
* 1/8 tsp. pepper

Thoroughly mix all ingredients (I use my hands). Form meatballs flat as expand when cooking. Heat skillet with oil and brown meatballs on both sides. Place into sauce and simmer for 1 hour.


Marinara Sauce (for meat dishes)

* vegetable oil
* ½ tsp red pepper flakes
* 2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
* 1 small onion, chopped
* 5 cans (14.5-oz) San Marzano Italian Peeled Tomatoes
* 2 cans (14.5-oz) Tomato Paste
* 1 Tbsp. basil
* 1/4 cup sugar (optional)
* salt (about 2 Tbsp)
* black pepper (about ½ tsp)

Cover bottom of large pot with vegetable oil and heat oil. Add red pepper flakes. Saute garlic and onion until soft. Pulse peeled tomatoes in food processor until tomatoes are broken down into small chunks (do not blend tomato paste). Add tomatoes and paste to sauteed vegetables. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to boil; simmer about 20 minutes, or longer if simmering with meat.

Chef notes:
* This sauce makes the equivalent to 3-4 jars of store bought sauce.
* Be sure to use the San Marzano Tomatoes, just any ole peeled tomatoes won't do. My Local Costco has a 100-oz can of the San Marzano for under $4.
* Only use vegetable oil; do not use olive oil because it becomes too bitter.

estate sale + man tools

This morning Dave and I headed out to an Estate Sale about 15 minute north of us. Being that it was "out in the country" and Sunday morning, I had hoped to be in the top 15 on the list to enter. Boy were we wrong. The sale started at 10:00am and we arrived at 8:45. I was shocked to see us as numbers 31 & 32 on the list. We headed off for breakfast and returned an hour later. It was about 10:30 when we finally got in and I was in love. There were so many great colonial antiques - chairs, boxes, books, tables, etc. The owner of the Estate Sale Company had even said she had never seen antiquities like this before. I had to agree. Much of it was true colonial America. Items from early-mid 19th century, built in Massachusetts, Vermont, etc. There was even a diary series from 1852-1854. They were incredible, as they should be for $1500.

Unfortunately, all my heart's desires were too steep for my wallet. However, D found two things he couldn't live without for only $20: a 200-ft extension cord and chain saw - perfect for Halloween! I also walked away with a $2 glue gun and 20 glue sticks. Not sure what I will use it for, but I know I have wished I had one in recent months.

Later today we are going to try out some meatball recipes....

one down... too many to go

I completed the first project of my finds from this week (yay!). It is the $3 wood step stool I found at the estate sale, and I tell you, it was much more work that I had anticipated. After trying to strip off and sand 3 layers of paint, I wondered if any of them were lead paints. Oh well, too late now I suppose.

Before
With my 50 cent worth of Oops Paints.

During
There were three paint layers, the bottom layer was a kelly green oil-based, followed by white (primer perhaps?) and then barn red.


After
I decided to distress the piece since it had its own natural rustic look already. Plus, I knew that no matter how hard I tried, I would never get a perfect coat of paint with the mess of previous paint layers.

comfort food kind of day

For our anniversary a few weeks ago, I decided to make Dave a big dinner of things I never make...including a meatloaf for the main course. Frankly, I was never a fan of meatloaf because I didn’t like mom’s growing up. As it turns out, she didn’t like it either. She told me she only made it because it was my grandma’s recipe, and what my dad asked for.

So, while scouring the internet for a recipe I came across Paula Deen’s. Well, how I can go wrong with Paula! But, because I don’t like green peppers, I decided to sauté them with half the onions to cut down on the heavy flavor, and add a little sweet to the meat.

Dave was so impressed that he declared “every Thursday should be meatloaf night!” While I thought that was a bit excessive, today was the perfect, cold, rainy, fall day for some hearty comfort food. Hope he is not disappointed to see there is no bourbon pecan pie.

Here is the recipe with my revisions:

Old-fashioned Meat Loaf

* 1 pound ground beef
* 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1/2 cup chopped onion
* 1/2 cup chopped bell pepper (I like to sauté with ½ the onions)
* 1 egg, lightly beaten
* 8 ounces canned diced tomatoes with juice
* 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

Topping:
* 1/3 cup ketchup
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar
* 1 tablespoon prepared mustard

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Mix all meatloaf ingredients well and place in a baking dish (I use a meatloaf pan). Shape into a loaf.
Mix ingredients for topping and spread on loaf. Bake for 1 hour.

Meatloaf, Mashed Taters & Baked Apples

great success!

I headed out this morning to hit an estate sale, a couple consignment shops and a few charity stores (Goodwill, etc). I was thrilled with my finds at the estate sale, which included three gorgeous frames, a small wooden stool and few misc. decorating pieces.

One of the frames had filthy dirty glass and the other two had no glass. I plan to use some glass from old frames I had and my one-cent finds from yesterday.

The stool is just what I had been looking for, but the paint was pretty awful. I could see it in a blue-grey in my living room and was looking forward to getting started. I headed over to the nearby Home Depot to see what kind of 'Oops' paints they had. I was so excited to have spotted the color I was after. When I asked the paint lady the price, she said to just take since it was only half-full. Hooray! Then I went to Home Depot near home and found another similar color for 50 cents. Boy, I am on a roll! I think I need to play the lottery...

all about the deals

In my never ending search for deals, I have a few to share. Just click on the retailer's name for coupon.

Michael’s 45% off single item thru 10/31.

The Container Store 20% off everything thru 11/1.

Victoria’s Secret Free Panty when you join Pink Nation.

on a mission

Today I finally made a decision; I am going to focus on getting all our decorating done. I am bound and determined to finally put treatments on the windows, art on the walls and furniture out of the basement. After two years, I would say it is long overdue.

In an effort to begin to accomplish my big dreams I headed out shopping. We have been collecting water colors from our various travels and it’s about time they get a spot on the wall. So off I went to find a variety of inexpensive photo frames. First to Marshalls/Homegoods where I had hoped to hit the mother lode. Unfortunately I only found one suitable item. At $2 I thought it was a steal. Then I went to Michael’s next door where I found 10x13” and 11x14” frames for $.01. No that is not a typo, they were one penny… so I bought 8. The cashier told me when they go that low they are due to be thrown out. That’s right, thrown away!!

After a failure at a few other stores like Kohl’s and TjMaxx (luckily they are all in the same strip) I headed to the Family Sharing in G-ton , where I found some more great frames. Color and condition were not relevant as I plan to paint them all black.

I have yet to figure out if D is excited about my finds, but he seems excited to get these up. We will see how that goes, but here is the before shot of our project.

interwebs be warned

So, after toying for months about whether or not to create a blog, I finally took the plunge. I know I know, I am only 2 years too late for that bandwagon, but I just have so much share...whether someone wants to listen or not is another story.

I am excited about sharing my remodeling/decorating highs and woes, delicious foods I eat in and out, and general ramblings I may make.