Blue Burgers

Burgers on the grill are always just fine and dandy, but there's a special place in my heart for a burger fried up on a skillet. And last week I had a craving for just that. So, I decided to come up with my own seasoning, based on a hodge podge of different recipes I've tried. Then, as I was gathering ingredients for the seasoning, I remembered that I had leftover blue cheese crumbles in the fridge from a dish I'd made a couple weeks ago. And I decided that this would be the perfect time to try to recreate the "Inside Out Burger" by Blanc Burgers & Bottles which is a local restaurant that has the most divine gourmet burgers.

So, the results of what I'm calling "Blue Burgers" are below, and I must say, they were just as fantastic as expected!

I also made a side of Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes that turned out delicious but not as crispy as I'd expected. Next time I might baste them lightly with some oil and double the seasoning before baking them. But overall I definitely recommend trying them!

Cheesy Spinach Artichoke Dip

There really are no words for this recipe. It's just superb and that's all there is to it. The biggest hit at potlucks/parties/etc. Super easy and terrible for you but that's why it's so great.

**Recipe without pictures available below.

Cheesy Spinach Artichoke Dip

Ingredients:

1/4 Cup Mayo, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan & Romano (use the mixed kind shown in picture, or use 1/4 cup of each separately), 1/4 cup of shredded Mozzarella

1 can (14oz) artichoke hearts (chopped), 8 oz frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained), 1 package (8oz) cream cheese (softened)

1/4 tsp garlic salt, 1/2 tsp dried basil, 1 garlic clove (minced), salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Lightly grease a small baking dish (I used a foil pie pan here as I was taking this to a party and didn't want to use a good dish)

Combine all ingredients EXCEPT Mozzarella in a medium bowl and mix together until well incorporated and creamy. I used my Kitchen Aide mixer but you can mix with a spoon or a hand mixer.

Transfer mixture to the greased baking dish and spread out evenly in the dish. Then sprinkle shredded Mozzarella evenly over the top.

Place dish on center oven rack and bake for ~25 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned. 

You'll know it's done when it's lightly browned and bubbly and your house smells like heaven.

Serve piping HOT with tortilla chips, bread, or my favorite, Wheat Thins. Whatever you like!

Mangia!


Pictureless Recipe

Cheesy Spinach Artichoke Dip

Ingredients:
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup grated Romano
1/4 cup shredded Mozzarella
1 14oz can artichoke hearts, chopped
8 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrentheit
2) Lightly grease a small baking dish
3) Combine all ingredients EXCEPT Mozzarella in a medium bowl and mix together until well incorporated and creamy. I used my Kitchen Aide mixer but you can mix with a spoon or a hand mixer.
4) Transfer mixture to the greased baking dish and spread out evenly in the dish.
5) Sprinkle shredded Mozzarella evenly over the top.
6) Place dish on center oven rack and bake for ~25 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.
7) Serve hot with chips, bread, or crackers.

Bourbon Chicken

Every recipe I find on Pinterest becomes my new favorite. But I never have time to make a recipe twice because I find something new to try every day!

This recipe came from bigoven.com and I followed it almost to T with a couple of exceptions. It was just mouthwatering-ly delicious. Sweet and spicy, the chicken was tender, and I had left overs today for lunch and it was even better the 2nd time around. Very simple recipe! Please don't miss it!

A Smorgasbord Weekend

I feel like so much happened this weekend and I couldn't possibly fit it all into one blog... But I'm gonna.

First of all... a very useful "Did You Know?"

Did you know that almost every box of plastic wrap, foil, parchment paper, wax paper, etc. has little tabs on each end of the container that you push in to hold the roll in place so that it doesn't pop out when you're pulling the wrap/foil/paper off?

















I only just figured this fun little tool out within the last couple of years and I was just floored! I couldn't believe that all these years I never knew and neither did my mom or any of my aunts who I always assumed knew everything. So I figure if none of us knew, then there has to be some very unfortunate people out there who still lack this life changing knowledge! But now you have it and I hope you find it as useful as I have.

Speaking of useful things...

I saw this on Pinterest!

Go to Hobby Lobby or your local crafts store and buy some of this stuff...

With an adhesive backing. Perfect! Cut a strip and attach it to the inside of your medicine cabinet door and voila:

Boppy pin holder! The 2 lonely pins I could locate to take this picture now have a home. All I need to do now is go buy more bobby pins and hope that this is where they end up when I'm not using them.

After I got home from Hobby Lobby and Home Depot (and JoAnn Fabrics, leaving empty handed because I forgot what I went in for), this is what I ended up with:

Pile o' Crafts

I nearly hyperventilated trying to decide which project to start first. I bought my first hot glue gun and I had nothing to hot glue. But I just remembered that I need to make THIS in the next couple of weeks!

Oh my, I could just about explode with excitement. And, dang it, that's what I should have picked up at JoAnn Fabric!

I had breakfast with 2 of my aunt's and my mom on Saturday for my aunt's birthday. Wasn't sure what to get her but I knew she'd enjoy this (and a bottle of wine:). Saw this on Etsy but was simple and cheap to make. Frame: $10 at Hobby Lobby (50% off original price) and the print out I did on my own using the Paint program and a quality color printer! Easy peasy and just cute.

The quote is from the movie "Elf" - a family favorite of ours

Saturday morning was spent raking leaves in the front yard. We never even made it to the back yard. That will be next weekend.

Unfortunately, we picked a very windy day to rake, which wouldn't be so bad if our neighbors had raked their leaves, too. But anyway...11 and 1/2 lawn bags later we called it a day.

It was nice to get out and do some good old fashioned hard labor... OK, maybe hard labor is an exaggeration but I was certainly spent afterwards! Toby, however, just got to do this:

I said I would squeeze the whole weekend into one blog post but I lied. I have 2 recipes I want to share but I'll post them separately as I do believe they deserve their own personal acknowledgment.

Coming up... 
Skillet Steak with Garlic Herb Butter
Cheesy Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Life Changing Salad Dressing

Who knew salad dressing could change your life? Nothing surprises me anymore...

Salad is one of my very favorite dishes, especially in the summer because it's so cold and fresh and you can use plenty of homegrown ingredients! But even when it starts getting cold outside, I can't pass up a good salad. Especially not after discovering the most delectable salad dressing in all the world.

This recipe originated from a co-worker of mine. She has become the salad lady at our potlucks ever since she brought this dressing in. She's made a few different salads that have never failed us, but this is my personal favorite. I tweaked it just a little but it's basically the same. I made this about once a week on average over the summer. And last night I had a craving for it again and just about overdosed on it. I survived.

I usually have these ingredients on hand but there may be a couple of things you don't have right away that you'll need to stock up on if you want to try this. Thankfully, they're all relatively inexpensive and will last a LONG time so that you can make this dressing again and again without having to restock the ingredients very often.

I like to make this for side salad sometimes but most of the time I make a large salad with some kind of meat (usually rotisserie chicken) and eat it for dinner with a side of bread!

This dressing just doesn't really have a name. So we'll just called it "The Best."

A Clean Life

Oh my, did I hit the jackpot on Pinterest this weekend. Any clean freaks out there? I have both hands up. OK, to be honest, I'm not necessarily OCD about cleaning but it does seem to come in waves and last night I was hardcore riding the OCD Clean Freak wave. And it felt goooooooood. When my house is clean and organized, I feel like my life is also clean and organized. If not, I feel completely chaotic. So, that's why running into this post on Pinterest was just plain good for my soul.

My favorite was Number 5: Clean Your Sink Drain (which really includes a tutorial for cleaning your entire sink, not just the drain). The tutorial is of a stainless steel sink which I do not have, but it applies to all types of sinks. A sink is a sink, no matter how stainless, as Dr. Seuss might say.

I should have taken a "before" picture of my sink, but along with being somewhat OCD, I'm also ADD and I don't have room in my brain for remembering such things. So this is my "after" picture and you'll just have to trust me when I say it looks phenomenal! My sink never looked awful, but when you think about how much filth goes into it, it must have been worse than it looked. But after a thorough cleaning, it really has quite the sparkle! And I feel like my whole life is in order now.

We also started our Thankful Tree last week. This is day 1. It has more "leaves" on it now, of course, but isn't it pretty? Just twigs from the backyard, a vase, and salt. Didn't cost a dime. Of course, the salt will most likely take the moisture right out of those twigs but hopefully it lasts a month or two! You could always use white sand instead, but I'm cheap.

Due to a family emergency/event, our Halloween was rather uneventful this year, unfortunately. We weren't able to stay home and hand out Halloween candy so we decided to just put the bowl on the front porch and leave the light on, assuming some punk kid would dump the whole bowl in his bag and move on. But to our surprise and my personal horror (because having that much candy in our house is DANGEROUS), the entire bowl was still there when we got home! I wanted that junk gone so that we wouldn't be tempted by it. But, needless to say, we've been eating candy for breakfast the past few days...

But that bad habit ends TODAY. It's Monday and diets always start on Mondays because, obviously, they can't start on any other day of the week

So, missing the trick-or-treater's was a bummer, but what was more unfortunate was missing the Halloween party at our friends' house on Saturday. We spent good money on our costumes this year and we were quite proud of ourselves and anxious to reveal our characters at the party. We didn't get the chance this year, but maybe next year. And just for the heck of it... here is a sneak peak... or rather a huge peak at our costumes which are really just too good not to share.

Party Time! Excellent!

You are welcome.

Are you there, World? It's me, Thanksgiving.

I love these last few months at the end of the year. There are so many activities going on and everyone is in a generally cheery mood. The air is crisp and so are the leaves. And, of course, all of the best holidays are at the end of the year!

I think my favorite holiday of all is Thanksgiving. Christmas is special, too, but there's something about Thanksgiving. People tend to be so greedy over Christmas time and tend to overlook Thanksgiving altogether, as if it has no significance at all. It truly makes me cringe to hear Christmas music playing over the loudspeaker at Wal-Mart in October. It's as if everyone's forgotten that we're supposed to give thanks for what we have right before we stampede over each other at the mall to get the best price for the new iPad.

Webster defines Thanksgiving Day as "a day appointed for giving thanks for divine goodness." I don't know about you, but this year I want to be fully aware of divine goodness when I witness it and I want to be infinitely thankful for experiencing it. I'm thankful every day for the life I live and, when I'm no longer a part of this earth, I want that to be something people remember me for. I don't want to be remembered for having the best electronics or clothing or house on the block, but instead that I showed gratitude for what I had and who I loved and for who loved me.

With that said, this post is dedicated to some Fall/Thanksgiving favorites! If you're looking for inexpensive yet crafty ways to get in the Fall spirit, check out these fantastic ideas...

• Framed Fall Printable 

Sometimes all you need is a reminder of some Fall favorites to get you in the mood to give thanks! I got the idea of framing a Fall themed print-out from this blog: "My Blessed Life." There are 12 *FREE* Fall "printables" provided here. Use a frame you already have or pick one up at the dollar store for some super inexpensive decor. Set the frame on a sofa table or the mantle of the fire place and surround it with small pumpkins or gourds for an added touch!

 

I printed and framed this one!

•  Homemade Air Freshener

If you're like me, you're not a fan of that fake "holiday" smell that you get from a candle or air freshener. I want the real stuff! This blogger's all-natural air freshener is sure to bring warmth and comfort to your home using items you probably already have in your kitchen or can pick up for next-to-nothing on your next trip to the grocery store.

• The Thankful Tree

I love the sweet idea from this blogger to create a tree dedicated to giving thanks. Gather fallen branches from your yard and put them in a vase. You could even spray paint them a certain color if you wanted. Create "tags" (could make your own or find these at Michael's or Hobby Lobby, I'm sure) and have your children, family members, friends, visitors, etc. write a little note on a tag of something they're thankful for and hang it on a branch. And there you have, The Thankful Tree. I plan to do this immediately! My husband and I will each hang a thankful note on the tree every day in November.

• Paint a Pumpkin 

I may have just been ignorant for the past 26 years but this is the first year I've ever seen anyone paint a pumpkin! What an adorable idea - and, if you have them, a fun craft for the kids! A friend of mine painted some pumpkins, covered them with stockings, and stuck flowers in them as decor for a wedding shower she hosted for her sister-in-law. So adorable!

Pumpkin Vase by Dana Clawson :)

 

 

 

It's not much, but I hope this post inspires you to think creatively this fall and to give the Thanksgiving holiday some well-deserved attention! :) Happy Fall!

Mary's Bar-B-Que Meatballs

This has been a busy week for my kitchen and never ending dishes for my sweet husband who always cleans up after me. This week I've made (and recommend that you try!):

Pad Thai from the blog "Brownies for Dinner"

Honey Lime Shrimp from the blog "The Dough Will Rise Again"

with a side of these potatoes.

Penne Rosa from the blog "Back to Her Roots"

And, for a charity event at my husband's work, Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins from the blog "Sugar Cooking"

 

 But last night was definitely my favorite. This recipe is near and dear to my heart and produces an aroma that reminds me of "home." My mom's infamous BBQ Meatballs. You truly haven't had BBQ meatballs until you've had these. The taste is phenomenal but the smell alone makes me melt. I wish I could just bottle up that scent and spray it around my house like an air freshener. It still smelled amazing when we woke up this morning, which made it even harder than usual to leave the house.

I made these for a special occasion tonight for my sister, Hannah. Ever the free bird, she is moving, yet again, and leaving the rest of us "in the lurch" as her good friend, Paul, would say. In the last 10 years, Hannah has gone from Kansas City (born and raised) to the small college town of Maryville, MO, to Iowa City, IA for graduate school, to the Big Apple (NYC, of course), back to Kansas City for the last few months to grace us with her presence, and now she's on a new mission to "Keep Austin Weird" in Austin, TX. I admire her guts and ambition and live vicariously through her adventures whenever I'm feeling boring. :)

But, back to the meatballs. We're having a going away party for Hannah tonight and these meatballs just insisted on making an appearance. And who was I to argue? Fair warning ahead of time: first of all, this recipe makes a pretty large batch (~80 bite size) so feel free to cut in half if necessary. Second of all, if you're looking for low-calorie meatballs... walk away, you're in the wrong blog. I made the whole batch for the party and took pictures of the process for your viewing pleasure.

Let us begin...

Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza

I love food. It's a curse. I blame my family. I manage to suffer through it. Just as I did at this Build-Your-Own Pizza night we had at my Mom's house:

I suffered through every bite, I tell you. Please, don't pity me. I do what I must.

So, moving on... I love food, like I said, and pizza is definitely not an exception. My favorite is BBQ Chicken Pizza. You can find it at restaurants like Pizza Shoppe or Old Shawnee Pizza (if you live in the KC area). But basically everything is cheaper when made at home. So, that's what we did and it was the best decision we've ever made in our lives, EVER.

Ladies and Gentle-dudes, I give you... BBQ Chicken Pizza

Not-So-Thai Peanut Chicken

My husband and I love Thai food. That is to say, we love the Thai food we've had in America which, I can imagine, hardly counts as authentic Thai. But we love it all the same.

So, that said, there is a dish, originally called "Thai Peanut Chicken" that my mother discovered on www.allrecipes.com several years ago. I believe I was about 18 at the time and only just discovering that vegetables weren't the devil. So, my mom made this dish and, to everyone's shock and amusement, I loved it. I devoured it. 

Over the years, with many opportunities to succeed and fail at cooking, especially after going to college, living on my own, and getting married, I believe I've finally mastered this dish and it is one of my very favorites. I have taken to calling it "Not-So-Thai Peanut Chicken," however. I do not want to humiliate myself by calling it Thai, should I ever happen to make this dish for an actual "Thailander" and they laugh at me and call me "คนโง่" - which is Thai for "fool." 

So, without further ado...

New Kid on the Blog

Hello, World.

I've never been a blogger before, unless you count "xanga" when I was an angsty teenage bitch. I'd like to think I'm none of those things now. :) I'm not sure how to draw an audience to a blog, so I'll just accept the fact that I'll be talking to myself for awhile here.

So, me. I am a happily married wife, currently trying to become a mother. I'm a lover of all things music, food, animals, nature, family, and, as of late, crafts/projects! My husband and I recently became home owners this year and I am just overwhelmed with potential projects. My favorites are turning items that we already own (that I would never have known what to do with until Pinterest) into adorable and useful home decor. Such as an old hutch my dad made for my mom in high school that has circled it's way into my dining room. As cherished as this hutch is, let's face it, it was out of date. So, I asked my dad's permission to spruce it up a bit and he graciously gave me the O.K.

The hutch before updates

The hutch partially complete with a few coats of paint

With new glass knobs!

I also have an old harp chair that was handed down through the family (not even sure where it started). My aunt had painted it years ago but it was just a little outdated. Before owning a home, I would have thought this chair was valueless. But somehow, after buying a house, your creative wheels start turning and suddenly everything has potential! 

The chair before updates

Chair with new paint and a reupholstered seat!

And one more (for now). I bought a sofa table a few years ago, sort of on a whim for no good reason. It was a quality piece at the time, but once I saw the potential for it's ability to be cute and not just useful, it became oh so much more than quality - it became shabby chic! During the move to the new house, my mom accidentally broke one of the glass top pieces, so she kindly offered to buy new glass. :) We took the opportunity to try a different type of glass since we planned on updating the table anyway. The new glass is called "rain" glass. I try to take before and after pictures of all of my re-purposing projects, but my completely useless memory failed me this time. I did take a picture after priming, however. It was originally just the natural wood color and the glass tops were just clear. 

Table after priming

Finished product with new paint and glass!

It's amazing what a little paint and new hardware can do to an older piece. Everything feels brand new and has so much character! And the pride you feel from DIY is quite priceless.

I am a changed woman for I have found the fabulous new art of reduce, reuse, recycle! More to come. :)