Sunday, December 30, 2012

Dirty Shirley Temple


When I was growing up I would always get so excited when my parents would let me have a Shirley Temple. It was usually only on special occasions but they would sometimes let me have one and my brother would get a Roy Rogers.  We thought we were hot stuff.

As a nod to my old standby, the Shirley Temple, I added a little kick with vodka.  Just in time if you're looking for a fun drink for New Year's Eve... All you need is to add some vodka (about a jigger full) and then add some grenadine.


Then filler up with some Sprite...


...and add a cherry on top!


Cheers!


Saturday, December 29, 2012

Scenes from the Abode: The End of Christmas

Ya'll, I'm depressed.  We took our Christmas decorations down today.  I usually wait until after New Year's to hang on to every bit of Christmas but our tree was so DEAD that it had to come down.  I think George Washington is depressed too:


So, we snapped a few shots of things around the abode before we took it all down...







Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas...bring on the New Year!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Weeknight Inspiration: Leftover Stuffed Peppers


One of our household staples are turkey tacos.  We have them at least once every two weeks.  We use ground turkey instead of ground beef in our tacos but season them up just the same.  We always have some turkey meat leftover which I freeze for later.  This time I'm using it to make stuffed peppers.  If you didn't have leftover taco meat, you could also just season up some ground turkey or ground beef with cumin, salt, and pepper.  This is an easy meal for a week night or you could make them ahead a day or two and then bake the day you want to eat them.

What You'll Need:
4-5 bell peppers, cut in half length-wise with seeds removed
1/2 pound seasoned meat (turkey or beef)
1 bunch of scallions
1 cup rice, uncooked
1 small can of chopped green chilis
1 1/2 cups grated monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup salsa
1 cup green yogurt, plain
2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

What You'll Do:

Preheat oven to 375.  Cook rice according to package directions.  Shred the cheese.



Meanwhile, heat olive oil in skillet.  Chop the scallions and separate the white onion-y end from the green stalks.


Add the whites of the scallions to the olive oil and heat for 1-2 minutes.  Add the taco meat and heat through.  (If you aren't using leftover meat, make sure you cook the meat until all of the pink is thoroughly browned.)

Add the rice, green chiles and half of the cheese to the meat and onions.

Line a dish with the peppers.  Pour 1/2 cup of water down in the bottom of the dish to help cook peppers and to keep them from burning to the bottom of the dish.


Stuff the peppers with the meat and rice mixture and bake for 30-45 minutes.  Remove from heat and add the rest of the cheese.  Put back in oven to melt cheese for about 5 minutes.

Top with salsa, yogurt and extra scallions.



Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry, Merry!

Happy Holidays to you and yours! 


Holly did our cards this year.  She's super talented - check out her shop!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Sparkle.







A little twinkle for your holidays.  Happy {almost} Christmas!

All images via Pinterest.

Friday, December 21, 2012

New look and an anticipated gift!!!

I've been playing around with the look of my blog.  It actually wasn't intentional but now that it has happened, I'm excited about it.

A little birdie told me that there is a chance that I might get a new camera for Christmas (yippee!).  So, in anticipation of all of the beautiful pictures I want to take and share on my blog, I wanted to figure out how to allow for larger pictures on my blog.  The old template was limiting in how big the pictures could be and it was driving me bonks.  Being the techno-savvy whiz that I am {not}, I clicked a button to see what a new template would look like and couldn't get it to go back to the old look.  So then I couldn't find the artwork for my old blog header so I needed to create a new one.  While I was at it, I decided to go for some new colors.

And here we are.  What do you think?

Now, fingers crossed that Santa brings me that gift I am hoping for!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Orange Pomanders


My friend Taylor had some friends over to do a little holiday crafting.  We made these orange pomanders.  So easy and festive and man do they smell good!  I have my little one on my window sill in the kitchen and it is making everything smell yummy.  All you need are oranges and fresh cloves and a little ribbon and voila!



Christmas Oyster Crackers


My future sister-in-law, Sarah, turned me on to these delicious oyster crackers.  I suppose that you could make them at any time of the year but I'm calling them Christmas Oyster Crackers 'cause, let's be honest, when else am I going to get around to making these?  I also like to give this as a gift to people because it isn't sweet and sometimes at Christmas I feel like there are sweets everywhere so a little savory is appreciated.

These suckers are so, so easy and tasty.

What You'll Need:
1 bag oyster crackers
1 package of ranch dressing mix
garlic powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil

What You'll Do:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees.  Mix spices and oil in a bowl and then add oyster crackers and toss gently to coat.  Spread on a baking sheet and bake for about 10-15 minutes, stirring once if needed.  Store in an airtight container. 

I baggied mine up to take to a few friends.





Wednesday, December 19, 2012

One of my next projects...

In my copious amounts of free time {not} I have about a million projects I want to work on.  I still have a needlepoint project that I need to finish (and it ought to take me for-evah since it is a huge pillow BUT as soon as I finish it, I want to make one (or all three!!) of these Anne Harwell prints-turned-needlepoint-canvases.  How fabulous are they?! 





Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Janet Hill Art

I. just. adore. her work.  I love the whimsy of them mixed in with reality.  I wish I could transform my house into one of the rooms that she paints.  Just stunning.  The prints on Etsy are really affordable...but I want a painting of hers!















 
They all just make me happy.  Visit Janet Hill's shop to see a complete collection of her work.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Mecox Gardens

If you haven't before, you just need to take a look at the Mecox Gardens site.  Antiques and home decor...such cool stuff!!
 









All from Mecox Gardens.
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