crafts + recipes + existential dread
Since the bouquet Drew gave me for Valentine’s Day (the right-most photo here) was starting to look a little sad, I decided to split it up into a few mini-arrangements and spread them throughout the house. I do this a lot, but it never fails to amaze me how many different looks you can get from one bunch of flowers!
When we got the Sunday paper this week, we were checking out the bars advertised in the Namco flyer and the more we think about it, the more we think we’ll probably try to focus on a nice-sized wall unit/hutch and maybe just a small actual bar. I don’t know how often we’d really be sitting at the bar itself, but it would be nice to have something just for looks. I’ve also been thinking about how to decorate down there, and being that Drew is a big film buff, it would be cool to frame some posters of his favorite movies (I was inspired by Lisanne, who for her husband’s birthday, got all the materials to have his Star Wars movie posters framed). It would be awesome if I could find some rare movie posters, but reproductions of some of the classics would work just fine. Drew is so not a sports guy, so there is no way sports memorbilia makes sense. I think film is totally the way to go.
Since we’re not going anywhere in the near future now that we’ve decided to not relist our house, we are seriously considering finishing off our basement. It will actually be a relatively painless job because we have Superior Walls and the way it’s all constructed, basically we just have to put the drywall up, which makes that part easy. Drew went to Lowe’s and started pricing everything and looked at the materials to put up a dropped ceiling, as well. While we were discussing this project he mentioned how glad he was that when we first moved in, he took the time to run the phone, DirecTV, and Cat5e cables up right away to wherever we thought we may, at some point, need them.
But that’s not the exciting part. And really, the exciting part is just a maybe, but I would be super excited if it does work out. Drew’s mom has a piano. (See where this is going?) There is a chance we might be getting this piano, provided we have it moved. Let me tell you — if it all works out, we are going to have one sweet game room in the basement: bar, pool table (or air hockey table — I’m kind of pulling for air hockey because I think it would get played more), and piano. Everyone will want to come over and hang out at our house!
The the question becomes… do I allow Drew to teach me piano? He tried to teach me how to play guitar, and that didn’t pan out so well, LOL. At any rate, nothing is certain yet. But we shall see!
Looking for a delicious, but healthy alternative to chicken parmesan? Give this chicken and eggplant casserole a shot. I adapted the recipe from one in The South Beach Cookbook. It offers lots of Italian flavor, and also lots of veggies! Actually, it’s very similar to a dish I often order at Four Brothers Restaurant. It’s perfect for a chilly afternoon when you just want to sit back in your home theater chairs (well, or more likey curl up on your couch) and watch a marathon of all the “Godfather” movies.
Chicken & Eggplant Casserole
1 boneless chicken breast (2 breast halves), chopped into .5-inch pieces
seasoned breadcrumbs
olive oil
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup diced onions (I cheated and used frozen)
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
1 eggplant
garlic powder
Parmesan cheese
non-stick cooking spray
mozzarella cheese
Slice eggplant into 12 rounds and arrange on non-stick baking sheet. Spray with non-stick spray, sprinkle with garlic powder, and broil for 2 min. or until golden. Turn rounds over, spray with non-stick spray and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Broil addition 1-2 minutes and set aside. Meanwhile, coat chicken pieces with breadcrumbs and saute in olive oil until cooked through. Add can of diced tomatoes (including liquid), mushrooms, onions, green peppers, and Italian seasoning. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 min.
Arrange 6 slices of eggplant on the bottom of an 8×8 baking dish. (I chose a small Italian eggplant, so I had a few more slices. Also, since it was only me eating this last night I made myself a small dish and then made one to freeze)
Top with half of chicken mixture. Layer the other 6 slices of eggplant and the rest of the chicken mixture. Top with mozzarella cheese. Bake for 30 minutes at 350-degrees until heated through and cheese is bubbly. (To heat frozen casserole, cook for 50 minutes at 375-degrees.)
Continue reading Chicken & Eggplant Casserole
This is my first time participating in Works For Me Wednesday, and it’s a “backwards” edition. That is, instead of me giving you a tip, I’m going to ask a question and hopefully you, dear readers, can offer some advice. And what perfect timing because I have a huge problem with arts & crafts storage. Over the past few months, Jake has really gotten into arts & crafts which thrills me! I’ve also started accumulating a lot of supplies — egg cartons, pipe cleaners, foam stickers, paper, markers, glitter glue, small craft kits, you name it. My current storage solution is… well, less than ideal. Crayons and coloring books are in the cupboard under the fish tank (this way Noah can easily get at them too), and everything else that should be out of Noah’s reach basically gets thrown into a tote bag that I put in the laundry closet. This worked OK for a while, but now the tote bag is just a huge mess of stuff and in order to find anything, the entire bag needs to be dumped out:
Any storage ideas? The hard part is separating out the stuff that I don’t want my two-year-old’s hands on. I’d prefer to use what I already have (though you probably guessed that!), and I have plenty of baskets, plastic “shoebox” containers, etc. But I am open to any and all suggestions!
You can’t copyright an idea, right? Right! Well, this is one idea that I love. I was browsing through the Wine Enthusiast catlog online and came across this clever wreath made entirely of wine corks (save for the bow, of course). A couple months ago I finally started saving all of my corks (oh, to think of how many I’d thrown away!) in anticipation of some kind of craft project. I was thinking more along the lines of a trivet or (literal) corkboard, but this… oh, this is the one. I imagine that by the end of the summer I should have accumulated enough corks to make my own version. Of course, if you don’t drink wine it’s much cheaper to just buy the one they have for sale! But Drew and I do drink a lot of wine, so I’ll just continue saving up my corks. I think what will make the wreath even cooler will be the fact that I’ll be able to look at each cork and remember special events when we had special bottles. Just thought I’d share!
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my blog and I think this year I’m going to attempt to include a lot more crafts and recipes and ideas, rather than just my typical blather. My recipe blog is pretty stagnant (I knew that would happen!) because it’s just a pain to manage three different blogs. So I’ll be including more recipes here this year. Also, I know a lot of you like to craft, but most of us don’t have a lot of time, so I’m going to try to post ideas for quick crafts (I’m thinking 30-minutes or less). This cute teapot centerpiece took me all of 5 minutes to make, and it was cheap, too! For the instructions, continue on.
Continue reading Quick Craft: Teapot Centerpiece
Funny how after three realtors you pick up on their tricks and realize they all must study from the same book. Our contract with C21 is up on Monday. Our realtor, with whom I haven’t spoken in nearly a month, just called to let me know someone wants to see the house today at 4. The previous two realtors also had these sudden, urgent, eleventh-hour showings. So I said fine, send them over, but they shouldn’t expect the house to be in pristine condition. “Oh no, no, of course not. They have small children, too.” Then she asked about renewing the contract. I politely but sternly explained that yes, Drew and I had talked about it and no, we are not interested in renewing. They can pick up the sign and lock box at their earliest convenience.
Honestly…
Four days until we’re pulling out the Century 21 sign in front of our house, that is. Our contract is up on the 31st and we’re so ticked that the sign is coming up, we’re laying it down in front of our house, and calling the office to tell someone to pick it up. We haven’t heard from our agent since right around Thanksgiving. I think the last contact we had was after the showing to those people who wanted to be able to put an inground pool in. She left a message saying they weren’t interested. We didn’t even get a Christmas card from the agency which is totally weird because every other realtor we’ve dealt with in the past always sent one, just to keep up good relations. Apparently this agency doesn’t care too much about that. Oh well. Looks like we won’t need worry about researching any companies like Movers New York or anything, LOL! I know the real estate market sucks, but really… when agents don’t put forth any amount of effort how can they expect to sell anything?
I’m thinking this might be a trend I go with for the new year. I kinda like the idea of Friday bullets — easy way to organize my thoughts as I wrap up the week.