Thanks, Julia, I Needed That

Raise your hand if you’ve been a Debbie Downer this week.

No?  Just me?

Well then…can I tell you a teensy, weensy, leetle seecret?

I am a pessimist.

I also:

*…believe the grass is greener on the other side

*…compare myself to others

*…use the words “always” and “never” all the time

*…see the glass half empty

*…say “Awe, #$%@!” when I drop something

*…say “Awe, #$%@!” for everything else.

Yes.  It’s true.

I see the glass half empty and YET if anyone tries to fill it up for me, I say, “No-no-no!  I was gonna do that myself!”

But every once in a while, I reach a point when I am out of answers and WOW does it feel good to drink in the wisdom and words of others.

So I’ll ask the question again: Any Debbie Downers in the room?

Then maybe these words will refresh your glass like they did mine….

Happy Friday and weekend, everybody!

I feel it’s gonna be a good one.

The Brodiño

Shhhh.

Proceed quietly, please.

Musn’t disturb Brody while he’s in his brodiño.

What is a “brodiño,” you ask?

It’s a word I made up that means “cat blanket cave.”

One day I was humming a old Mexican tune while Brody was in his encasement and the word just popped out of my mouth.

(Around our house, cat-related [non] words are added to our vocabulary on a regular basis.)

We have found that Brody LOVES being under cover.  He’ll tunnel his way into the folds of his favorite mangy blanket and stay there for hours at a time.

While in his brodiño, Brody likes to purr and knead and ponder the meaning of life.

Pretty soon though, it will be too warm for a cat blanket cave.

Honestly, I am more than ready to rid our den of this eyesore of a blank—

“Ok, that’s enough!  You’ve lingered too long.  Go find your own brodiño and leave me in peace!”

Oops.

Sorry Brody.

Well, you heard him.

Scram. 

What are some words in your family’s cat vocabulary?

Dear Momma

Dear Momma,

Thank you for teaching me that fresh cucumber slices refresh the skin.

And thank you for everything else that makes you my Momma:

Like sewing our Easter dresses when we were young.

And making homemade bread and apricot-pineapple jam.

For growing tomatoes and sunflowers.

For your eagerness to laugh.

For your industriousness.

Thank you for blueberry muffin breakfasts on the front porch.

For feeding the hummingbirds.

For your gentle direction.

For your company and conversation.

We love you so much, Momma.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Fish Tacos on the Grill

Is it just me or can you never have too many quick and healthy dinner ideas in your pocket?

A favorite of mine is fish tacos topped with pineapple-mango salsa.

I just love how all of the different flavors blend together in this dish.  Who’d have thunk that fish would taste so good inside a corn tortilla?

Pair with a lightly dressed slaw, and you’ve got dinner on the table in 20 minutes or less. (Unless you plan on catching and cleaning the fish yourself.)

Fish Tacos with Pineapple Mango Salsa

Let’s start with the salsa so that the flavors have time to marry.

(You could also make this a day in advance.)

For the salsa, you will need:

*1 cup cilantro, rinsed and roughly chopped

*1 medium tomato, diced

*1 cup fresh pineapple, diced

*1 large jalapeno, small-diced

*1 large mango, peeled, seeded and diced

*1/4 cup red onion, small-diced

*1 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and set aside.  Makes approximately 4 cups.

Now for the tacos!

For the tacos, you will need:

*4  3-ounce Tilapia (or Cod or Swai) filets

*8-10 corn tortillas (depending on how many people you are serving; Dave and I eat about 2-3 each.)

*1 lime

*Olive oil

*Salt, cumin and chili powder

First, prep the grill if that’s how you choose to cook the fish.  (Otherwise, preheat oven to 415 F.)

Grab a long piece of foil and on half of it, arrange four Tilapia filets.

Season both sides of the fish with a brush of olive oil mayo, a dash of cumin and chili powder, a pinch of salt and a squirt of lime juice.

Now fold the other side of the foil over the fish, fold up the edges and seal tightly.

Next, brush tortillas on both sides with olive oil.

Place foil packet on the hot grill (about 450 degrees), cover grill and cook for 10 minutes.

Carefully remove packet from heat and set aside.  Do not open the package just yet, however.

Allow the fish to “rest” while you heat the tortillas.

Heat tortillas for 30 seconds on each side or until they are soft and pliable.  Transfer to a plate and cover with damp paper towels to maintain pliability.

Open foil packet, and flake fish using a fork.

Divide fish among the tortillas, top with salsa and serve immediately.

Happy grilling, everyone!

When Only A Sweet Sara’s Cookie Will Do

Today is a very important day in our household because today Dave starts his new job!

As a way to celebrate, I wanted to surprise my husband with cookies on his first day.

And I knew just the ones I wanted…….

A couple months ago, I was browsing the ol’ Facebook when these outrageously cool cookies caught my eye:

(When your husband is a Batman freak, you tend to keep an eye out for Batman stuff.)

Turns out, the confections were made just down the street from my office at a home baking establishment called:

Intrigued by Sara’s knack with the Batman, I began browsing her photo gallery…

(Does anyone else suddenly have a hankering for cookies and cupcakes?)

What really struck me about Sara’s cookies was the level of excellence they were made with.

Even I, a stubborn do-it-yourselfer, knew I didn’t have the patience or skill to try to create my own version.  In fact, it would be a shame for me not to place an order!

In doing so, I discovered that Sara really is sweet.    She started the business a couple of years ago out of her home and tries to use local ingredients such as eggs and honey whenever possible.

Sweet Sara herself!

She was even gracious enough to share a couple decorating tips with me!

Tip #1: The trick is in the tools

Using the right tools makes all the difference when making intricate designs.

A few of these tools include:

*A spray bottle provides just the right amount of control when adding water to icing.

*Tips of all sizes are a must if you want controlled and detailed lines.

*White sanding sugar is a clean slate for mixing your own colors.

*Scrapbook paper is a great inspiration for color combinations and patterns. (not shown)

Tip #2: Custom-color your own sanding sugar

Red or yellow sanding sugar is easy to find…but aqua or lime?  Not so much.

Save time and money by purchasing white sanding sugar and coloring gel (both at Hobby Lobby) and mixing your own custom color.

You will need:

*1 cup white sanding sugar

*A few drops of food coloring gel (NOT the liquid food coloring)

*1/4 teaspoon cornstarch

*Ziploc baggie

Step 1: Pour sugar into the bag and add your coloring.

Step 2: Seal the bag and, leaving enough air in the bag for the sugar to move around, shake the bag.

Step 3: At this point the sugar will be damp.  Therefore….

Step 4: Add a small amount of cornstarch.

Step 5: Give the sugar another good shake.  Rub in any beads of the color gel that remain.

Step 6: Pour sugar on a parchment or wax paper-lined plate and allow to dry for about 15 minutes.

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Thank you Sweet Sara’s for your beautiful creations!  I can’t wait to see Dave’s face when he gets his Batmans.  Batmen.  Whatever.

Share the love!  Support a local business!

Live in the Abilene area?  Order a batch of cookies or cupcakes by contacting Sara on her Facebook page.

Not in the Abilene area?  Unfortunately, home baking laws do not allow Sara to ship her creations. However, investigate to see if there are any excellent home bakers in your area!

My Favorite Room In Our House

Half the fun of nearly everything, you know, is thinking about it beforehand, or afterward.

-Howard R. Garis

What is your most favorite room in your house?

There are so many to choose from: the kitchen (were you get to eat!), the bedroom (where you get to sleep!), the bathroom–(nevermind!).

For me, it’s our study.

I love everything about this little space: its coziness, its built-in bookshelves, its funky walls, its own separate entrance.  (Strangely, our house has two front doors.)

Most of all, I love how creative I feel in this room.

In fact, it’s my dream of dreams to set up shop and blog full-time here.

Of course…I will need a dream desk on which to work.

A dream desk like this one:

And since our study is a perfect place for enjoying a nice cup of tea, I imagine my work day will include a tea time.

Of course…I can’t finish a whole pot of Earl Grey by myself, so do please come over for a cuppa from time to time!

Oh dear.

Sorry about that.

Currently, our study is home to the cat tree.

Can you see me now?

Sigh!

On days when I need an extra dose of faith that dreams do come true, I recall the 9-year-old version of myself who dreamed of one day owning a house with a study.

So thank you, unknown person who built our house, for setting aside a wee space for thought and stillness.

Now…if only I had a fat, comfy chair to think and be still in.

Poof!

There!  Perfect.

I tend to get impatient when I think about the life I want to have, but as the quote says above, half the fun of nearly anything is thinking about it beforehand and afterwards.

Perhaps in doing so we will prolong the enjoyment of the good things we want in life? 

So until our study can be my full-time creation station banana-fana-fo-fation, I will continue to drift away in delicious reverie…

What are your dreams?

I’d love to hear them!

Irresistible Gazpacho

Vegetables.

They’re so purty.

And yet it’s so tricky getting enough of them into our diet.

Thankfully, there’s gazpacho:

Have you ever eaten a really delicious salsa and thought, “Man! This salsa is so good I could drink it!”?

I think the person who invented gazpacho felt the same because this summery soup is essentially a bunch of fresh vegetables finely chopped and mixed together.

On a personal note…

While photographing this dish, I couldn’t stop nibbling and nibbling and nibbling on it!

Before I knew it, the bowl was empty!

Maybe getting enough veggies into our diets isn’t so hard after all….

(This recipe was adapted from the Barefoot Contessa’s version.)

Let’s start off by chopping up some fresh veggies:

*3 large cloves of garlic, finely minced

*1 large stalk of celery, diced

*1 big handful parsley, rinsed

*1 medium red onion, chopped

*1 large red bell pepper, diced

*1 hothouse cucumber, seeded and diced (this type of cucumber has a soft, ribbed surface and is usually shrink-wrapped)

*4 medium tomatoes, diced (any tomato will do–just pick ones that actually smell like tomatoes instead of plastic)  

Once chopped, process all the veggies EXCEPT the garlic in small batches in a food processor.  Transfer to a large bowl.

Grab a 28-ounce can of whole, peeled tomatoes (I prefer San Marzanos) and puree them in the food processor:

Stir the processed veggies and tomatoes and the garlic together.

Pour in 1/4 cup vinegar.  (I used an even mixture of red wine and white vinegars.)

Add 1/4 cup olive oil.

Stir in 1/2 Tablespoon kosher salt.

And a teaspoon of pepper.

Give the soup a good mix and store in a non-reactive container such as a glass or ceramic bowl.

Since the soup gets better the longer it sits, enjoy it all week with your lunchtime sandwich or as a snack.

But you are also more than welcome to serve yourself up a bowl right away.

Oops!!  Did I really just finish off another bowl?

Happy vegging!

That Time I Killed Something and Ate It

It’s been a crazy week so let’s end it on a crazy note, k?

So, have you ever killed something and ate it?

(Wow.  What a rhetorical question considering that here in Texas almost everybody has freezers stocked with animals they’ve killed and are planning to eat.)

Though I could never butcher a chicken or a cow, there was this one time…

Back in September, while visiting our lovely friends in Maine, we purchased some lobsters from one character of a man at a roadside stand. 

(I mean he was a CHARACTER!  Just like Popeye incarnate.)

However, the excitement of having only paid $20 for three lobsters melted away the minute I opened the bag and peeked in at the wriggling creatures.

“Uhh…I don’t think I can do this.”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!”

Not an attractive expression, but then again, not an attractive task.

(BTW, have I ever told you that my nose does weird things in certain lighting?  Well, it does.)

Anyway, I started the water, muttered a quick prayer over the crustaceans, and…well…carried on with dinner.

“OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GAAAAAaawwwwwwD!!!!!”

“I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SOoooorrrrrRRY!!!!”

Once the last of the lobsters were in, I slammed the lid on the pot and shed a few tears.

However, just twenty minutes later…

…my tears dried and my smile returned.  After all, the little lobsters were now in lobster heaven and dinner was ready!

So with that, we ate them.

(Steaming lobster any time soon?  Cook them according to these instructions.)

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This post was brought to you by my favorite Far Side cartoon:

What the Cats Have Been Up To….

The cats have been asking why I haven’t posted about them in a while.

They’ve also been requesting a lunchtime meal and more tuna-flavored snacks.

I think I’ll just address the former for now.

Here’s what the critters have been up to these days….

An afternoon discussion about how much they like to bask in the sun.

Brody discovers that he might just prefer rolling in cat mint over basking in the sun.

A morning squirrel-watching underway.

Alas, there never seems to be enough room on a window sill.

And never too much sleep to catch up on.

And when Brody isn’t snoozing…

…he’s charming his parents.

Me, too?  Me, too?  I can charm, too!

Happy Tuesday!

Tackling the Small Stuff

I don’t know what’s more difficult:

a. Tackling the big, expensive projects like replacing flooring and windows, OR

b. Tackling the small, touch-up projects.

When it comes to screwing on switch plates or painting trim, I tend to think: “Oh, I can finish that anytime.”

Unfortunately, two years have come and gone, and “anytime” just hasn’t happened yet.

As Dave and I head into our third year of home-ownership (August 1st is our house-iversary!), I feel like all those little loose ends will never get tied up if I don’t act NOW.

Therefore, I’m instituting a master plan to tackle the small stuff which I’m calling:

THE MARCH TO AUGUST

Hopefully, with the help of my master plan, I will have completed all of this by August*:

That’s roughly twelve weeks and 30 projects.

Therefore, I need a very detailed master plan so that I don’t waste time wondering where to start.

Wish me luck!

HAVE A LONG TO-DO LIST…but don’t know where to start?

Developing a detailed plan is half the battle and will help keep you focused and on task.

A detailed plan should include:

1. A photo list of projects needing to be completed.
   (Ugly pictures are motivational!)

2. A specific list of materials needed to complete each project.
   (5 yards of fabric, 1-inch angled paintbrush, etc.)

3. A list of any preliminary steps.
   (Measure door frames, sand rough surfaces, etc.)

4. A time frame for each project including prep time.
   (We’re talking minutes and hours: 1 hour to paint trim, 10 hours to reupholster large chair, etc.)

5. A calendar on which to schedule each project.
   (Click here if you need a pretty calendar to help get you in the mood.)
   

Here’s to tackling to small stuff!

What’s on your list?

(For perspective on loving our homes despite all the small stuff, check out my friend Rita’s post!)

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*Photo Key

1. Replace doors and install knobs

2. Repair broken (or missing) electrical outlets

3. Caulk and seal around window A.C. units

4. Install A.C. vents

5. Hire electrician to repair staircase lighting

6. Install lighting unit in study

7. Install supplemental shelving in study bookcases

8. Hang curtains in the living room

9. Reupholster green chair #1

10. Reupholster green chair #2

11. Reupholster ottoman #1

12. Reupholster blue chair

13. Swap out dresser in den for a sideboard

14. Finish painting trim & install towel rack in downstairs bathroom

15. Touch up ceiling paint in bathroom and kitchen

16. Rehang doors that don’t shut properly

17. Repair & reupholster ottoman #2

18. Wash & paint and design on living room rug

19. Swap out red rug in den for painted rug

20. Put photos in frames

21. Touch up paint in window seals that were scuffed from window replacement

22. Install switch plates in kitchen and bedroom

23. Touch up around new kitchen lighting units

24. Sand & paint interior of kitchen cabinets

25. Paint & install heating grate in kitchen (it’s currently being held in place by weights)

26. Touch up exteriors of kitchen cabinets.

27. Install towel rack/cubby in master bathroom

28.  Install new lighting & vent in master bathroom