Cooking Frenzy

I have totally been occupied lately, with all things but especially cooking. We had the holidays and I always strive to cook traditonal foods and then add a little something extra to the mix (you know the same meal two days in a row even if made by different families is the same -read BORING).

I had to make/bring dessert to my sister in law's house. I did an Ice Cream cake. Before you all shudder and think what? It is super easy, no make that Uber easy. It is a cheater recipe but so devine and the kiddies LOVE it.

2 boxes of Ice Cream sandwiches

2 containers of Cool Whip

1 Foil Pan (lasagna pan)

Place a layer of ice cream sandwiches on bottom of pan, spread container of cool whip over the ice cream sandwiches. Repeat (ice cream sandwiches and cool whip). Cover and freeze. Take out when ready to serve. Cut like ice cream cake. You can decorate the top if you wish. Enjoy!

The next day I went a little more gourmet. I used the Barefoot Contessa's recipe for Butternut Squash Risotto. Can you say DELICIOUS? It was the most devine dish I have ever had and my little one loved it. I will have to make that one again VERY SOON.

I have also been making my children dinners and filling my cookie jar as intended. I also made my famous (at least in these parts) egg salad for the holidays this past weekend. It was all gone (2 dozen eggs!) and I was so looking forward to that for my lunch today.

The Door- Before/After

The finished door (yay)

So I had this lovely door that I had been working on. It looks fabulous, HOWEVER, I have to redo the WHOLE DOOR.You see, the painter did not prime the door and I have scrapes on it, so a few weeks ago I decide to tackle the bottom of the door. Bigger task than I thought, turns out the door was once stain the dark brown and it came out from my paint removal.

The room the weekend we closed (amazing that is one year ago this weekend)

The room after the wallpaper was removed and painted (amazing how the white paneling brightened the room)

No problem the door is a lovely golden honey. Not my final choice but okay. I primed it and then painted three coats on it. It looks fabulous. Only it looks like a brighter white against the dark white on the upper half of the door (yeah, you know where this is going). NOW I MUST paint the other half of the door. Not so bad, this time I will take it off the hinge and do it on the table outside or in the garage.

Ahh the wonderful door completely STRIPPED

The other part of the full redo of the door is this, when I peeled the painters tape of the door trim so came the paint. So now my trim is ghetto white and dark brown (from where the tape was pulled off - again a product of not being properly primed).

My wonderful moulding (after)

Here is my dilemma. Do I remove all of the trim and just do new moulding around the door or do I attempt to tape off the trim witht he possibility of the tape doing the same to my paneling painted white and hence making me re-paint a whole wall? As you can see I am heavily leaning towards the moulding/trim removal. What do you think?

Promises

I promise to post my pictures tomorrow.

I know I have been MIA. It's been crazy getting back in the groove. I lost my job but have to take 2 classes to complete my degree (which I am doing now). Sort of unexpected and a pain to get in order but it is on it's way to being fixed. I am okay now. Just adjusting to the change.

The Steelmaster cabinet looks FaBuLoUs. I love it and I need to go out and buy ink to print my labels for the drawers. I am so PSYCHED that I have it painted and stuff in it.

I love it.

I will be seeing you, or rather you will be seeing me soon.....

Ok, my Before and After

I have been working on a few projects.

1. I finished a chair for Maya's room

Here's the before (even with the legos)

Here's the after (with said legos)

I think the chair needs to be painted black (hubby and I are currently debating it - it will be black I assure you).

Still working on the door, one more coat of paint but that was hard but totally worth it.

AND even bigger news, I got myself a Steelmaster cabinet, 33 DRAWERS!!!!! I am presently painting that too. I got an injury from that one. Holding the spray paint can nozzle made my finger numb and it's been two days! No feeling in the tip of my finger, just weird sensation.

Last year when my friend Kimmy found one on the side of the road and then used it to store all her crafty items and supplies I thought to myself, "I have one of those in dad's office and it really isn't being used. I need to have it." So one day while visiting the office I asked dad if I could have the cabinet and of course he said yes.

So last week when I went into the city I asked hubby to load it into my truck. Yippee. Hubby was not to thrilled to have this cabinet as he thinks it will be more "junk" rather than "ORGANIZATION" but it is here and it is here to stay.

I have partially painted it, remember my finger? Here's a sneak peek..

Yes, there are 33 drawers to paint as well. What color do you think they will be? Antique white? Black? Blue? Hmmm, I guess you will have to wait for that one. I tried to upload the door pictures but something went wrong. I will post those when I finish the 2nd coat of the door.

Until then, Good night.

P.S. I did make a fabulous quiche this evening. Tomorrow will have to be Taco Thursday.

I Love to Cook

Then why is it that I don't do it everyday?

I started off with a great big bang last week,making meals and I mean good meals every night. Then I have a super busy weekend and get thrown off track. I want to cook so what happened?

Last week I did the Back to School Feast I had heard about from NieNie and I thought it was such a good idea I wanted to do the same for my children. SO I made this big meal on Monday night, being that school started on Tuesday the 8th. We sat down as a family and it was awesome. I gave it a theme, "Back to Basics" because I want us to go back to basics. BUt that is for another post. I digress.

I am so happy that I made this meal and meals all week but then this week I come to a crashing halt! What happened?

So, I will get back in gear and I will try to at least post a meal or two each week (A new meal - I promise not to make the same meals every week). In our house my kids like certain things, like last year Sam decided he wanted Taco Tuesday. Even that evolved to include Nachos, burritos and taco salad (for me) but the basis is Taco meat.

Last week we even made personal pizzas (so yummy).

So, today I am thinking Quiche, I think.

Have a great day!

I Got One

Ladies, I finally have a before and after, actually I have TWO!

Involves Paint, stripping (not of clothing you silly girls), fabric, staples and more.....

Gotta upload the pictures and finish some painting but I am getting there.....

Love the teasers....

MWAH- Zizette

Day of Reflection

I am a New Yorker. I always have been. Even in times of living in several parts of the country I have always been drawn to NY. I cannot explain it but something about New York draws me in. I cannot say that I have been to every little site and crevice of NY but I love it. Today is a day of reflection for me. It was 8 years ago that I was pregnant with our first child, planning to move to Florida (see I like to go other places but always come back), in fact we had just come back from Florida the night before. I was driving across the George Washington Bridge that fateful morning. I lived right across the Hudson River and from the balconies of my building you could see the whole City Skyline.

I saw the burning building, I was driving around the helix going onto West Side Highway heading to work when the second plane hit. I was on the phone with my dad and told him, "Dad this is clearly terrorism. I have to get back home." Luckily for me, they closed all traffic downtown and were redirecting traffic through Harlem. I asked the Policeman if I could go back over the bridge since I was pregnant and wanted to back home. He said yes and after I went over the bridge they closed it.

I got home and told the people working in my building what happened, they had no idea. I sat glued to my TV, called my dad again (my cell phone had died) and told him to go back home. I called my husband who was working out in NJ and he knew what was going on. His work was still a go since he was at Honeywell at the time and they were having a big executives meeting that day. They continued to work since there was no where for all of them to go.

It was unbelievable to watch what happened. Calls from all over making sure we were safe, family was accounted for, friends were ok and just general checking in to make sure. Some did not make it, some saw things unimaginable, some were lucky to have missed a bus, meeting or just been some place other than there.

The days that followed brought all sorts of emotions. In the end, well there is no end. I sit here today watching the tribute on TV. I cry for those lost, those remaining without their loved ones and those that continue to fight on for our freedom. I may not agree with everything that happens but I am proud to be an american and proud and grateful for those who protect me.

Life went on from that day as it always will (however it was forever changed).

Cookie Jar Delights

Greatly inspired by my friend Kimmy I have decided that I am going to provide a jar of cookies on my counter for the family from now on. First, I had to find a cookie jar, then I had to make a fabulous cookie (even though I have been told my chocolate chip cookies are FaBuLoUs) and I had to fill my cookie jar. I never had a cookie jar before. I knew I wanted a clear jar so the cookies could be seen.

Off I went on my search for the cookie jar. First stop was Pier 1. I like the store as they have eclectic items and things that fulfill a need for me on occasion. I went there because my husband got a gift for his birthday and he felt the gift was more for me than him (a Mojito set) so he told me to go get something for myself. I looked and looked and found nothing. On the phone with a friend I said I would call her back after I did another go round the store.

Lo and behold there on a bottom shelf is MY COOKIE JAR.

I LOOOOOOVVVEEE it! It is exactly what I wanted and more. I have been playing around with chalkboard paint. Even to the pint of making some glasses and they have them there. But the cookie jar is absolutely awesome. It is almost empty and tomorrow I will bake some more so my kiddies will have a treat when they come home.

Yummy! What is your favorite cookie?

Guilty Pleasures

As I sit here on my second day of not working and my children off to school I am thinking, "what do I do now?" I have no clue. In my mind I have tons of things that I want to do, yet medium motivation to do so. I want to try a few projects, get my Etsy store off the ground and make a few more things, organize the kid's rooms so they can actually sit at their desks for homework, cook fabulous meals (which I am off to a good start, I have made dinner two days in a row - and I do mean cook not something semi pre-packaged) and I baked cookies for my new cookie jar.

I also have to get to work on my Tricky Tray event which I think I will try to get that stuff going now so I have less work later when I go back into the school next week for my Student Teaching. I have class tonight so I want to have some sort of dinner ready for the kids before I drop them at a friend's house. I want to buy some fabric to recover my children's chairs and spray paint a formica bookshelf from my old room (I hope it will work in Sam's room).

I will hopefully get those projects posted up for the before and afters.

In all of this my fabulous friend Simone from The Bottom of the Ironing Basket sent me this fabulous award/acknowledgement. Love ya Simone (and you will too).

Have a fabulous day and hopefully mine will be super productive!

Rite of Passage

Yesterday my two munchkins came into my room with a plan. They wanted to sell Lemonade, water and cookies. Ugh. The last thing I wanted to do was sit outside and sell lemonade BUT I am a good mommy and said, "okay but we need to go to the store." They discussed with me their plan and how they wanted to charge $1.oo and I told them they couldn't do that because no one is going to buy lemonade for a dollar and we settled on .50 cents.

Later on in the afternoon I took them to buy lemonade and cookies. They were very excited. We came home and set everything up at the end of the driveway. A friend came over to help and purchase some goods.

They had a great turn out. They made $10.00. They decided to charge $1.00 for a cup of lemonade and a cookie. People would drive quickly up the street and then come back and buy something. They were so happy. In turn that made mommy happy.

It occurred to me as they were doing it, this was a rite of passage for them. The whole foray into childhood of selling lemonade out of their driveway. So cool.

Getting ready for business

Some friends came over to help

PS I know my 100th post is next but I have been so pre-occupied lately that I am still thinking of that post so it may be my 107th post (seven is my favorite number - unless of course I get it together today since I have lots I want to share from the past few days).

When Life Gives You Lemons

Make Lemonade!

I love Lemons and I love yellow

I so want a lemonade/drink dispenser like this one

Yellow roses have long been a favorite of mine.

I have always loved the look daffodils

In writing this post I thought about the things that stink right now for me and somehow I became happy. First came the thought that I was going to pull myself out of this rut I have been in and thought about the saying, "When life gives you lemons make lemonade." So I started to search for lemons and then I thought about how much I love the color yellow. It is so bright, how could you not start to cheer up? And I started to cheer up and feel better. So happy, I think I need to go out and get me some yellow flowers to brighten up my living space and continue to cheer me up.

I had a happy day and will try to do so.

PS I tried to find more photos but Blogger stopped me, I guess they were too big. ;)