New Year's Eve

Oh my, how the year has flown by... I'm so ready to start fresh and have been cleaning like crazy to get ready for a clean start to 2015!

We've also been working on a little fun project today. I know V~Day is still a month away, but our tree may not last that long. We want to enjoy it as long as possible, so we decided to decorate it today!

I'll be posting a tutorial on how to make the flowers later this week!

Have a safe and fun New Year's Eve all!!

~ WINTER CLEANING ~

There's something about taking the Christmas tree down and getting all the lights put away that makes me want to do a major deep cleaning of the house.  So, I've been incredibly busy lately.  The other day we took our tree down.   We also rented a rug doctor, steamed cleaned the rugs, and played rug switcheroo.  You all know we adopted a black lab/golden retriever mix back in October.  River is the sweetest girl, but puppies have accidents and a deep cleaning of the rugs was definitely needed now that she's fully potty trained. {Can I get a whoop whoop?!}

I also did a major cleaning of the girls bedrooms.  Anyone with kids can attest to how much extra stuff comes into the house around the holidays, and some purging of old toys and clothes was desperately needed.  I also moved the snow mobile that I made for Ella's birthday party into her bedroom where she can enjoy it.

Here are a few photos of all the hard work I've been doing.

Lily Claire's room got a new rug.  She loves laying on it and playing with her barbies.

Good luck to all the other "winter cleaners" out there!

Post Christmas Planning

Hi there!  Hope you all had a great Christmas.  Ours was pretty great.  My kids got spoiled rotten.

I got new cowboy boots, Apple TV and a Life Planner.  I have big plans to be more organized in 2015. Have you seen these Life Planners by Erin Condren?  If you haven't, you must check them out!  They are personalized and so cute!  They actually  make planning fun!

I've had a lot of people asking me when I plan to get back to my Dinner Delivery service.  Since we've gotten through the majority of the holidays, I thought I would update you on a few things.  Just before Christmas we found out that my dad has to have heart surgery next week.  He'll be in the hospital for a few days. Since I want to be available to help out where I can with him, I'm going to wait until January 12th to start back up.  I can't wait to get back to cooking for my clients!  I have some great new recipes that I'm really excited to try out!

I'm working on posting my menu for January 12th so be sure to click over to the Dinner Delivery tab!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Christmas Pot Roast

Hey there!  So glad you could stop by today and check out my recipe for Roast Beast, I mean Pot Roast.  I have a little confession to make about this dish.  I'm not the most confident person when it comes to red meat.  I'm always worried I'll over or under cook it.  My husband likes it very well done and I'm more of a medium rare person.  Pot roast happens to be a dish that everyone can find a happy medium.  Since it's slow cooked and braised for hours it is tender and fall apart and doesn't mind being cooked forever.  It's basically an extremely forgiving dish.  It's also a breeze to put together and man, oh man will you house smell like heaven.  Plus, if you're looking for the perfect Christmas Eve or day meal, look no further.  This is it!

Start with a 3-4lb chuck pot roast.

/Chop up your carrots, potatoes, onions and garlic.

Liberally salt and pepper your roast.

Open up a good bottle of wine.  Pour a glass for the cook.

Pre-heat your dutch oven on high for about 5 minutes.  Add a little vegetable oil and the pot roast. Brown on all sides.

Add a cup of red wine and two cups of beef stock.  Then tuck the vegetables all around the roast and sprinkle with a sprig of rosemary and a some fresh thyme. Bake at 350 degrees for 2 1/2 - 3 hours.

My lighting is terrible.  My fluorescent bulb in the kitchen went out. 

Allow the roast to rest on a cutting board for 20 minutes or so before cutting off the string and slicing it.  Keep the veggies in the hot pot and spoon them around the roast before serving.  Don't forget to top with a little, or a lot, of that delicious gravy.

Ingredients:

1 3-4lb chuck roast

6 carrots sliced

4 large red potatoes cut into chunks

1 onion roughly chopped

2 cloves of minced garlic

1 stem of fresh rosemary

fresh thyme

1 cup of dry red wine

2 cups of beef stock

salt and pepper

vegetable oil

2 tbs corn starch

Directions:

While you are chopping your vegetables and seasoning your roast, be sure to pre-heat your dutch oven over high heat.  Do not add the oil until right before you are ready to add the roast.  Once the dutch oven is super hot, add the oil and the seasoned roast. Brown on all sides.  Add the red wine and the stock.  Add the vegetables and the herbs.  Cover and place in a 350 degree oven.  Bake for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  Remove roast from pot and allow to cool for 20 minutes before slicing.  Mix corn starch with a little water or extra broth, then stir in to the pot of vegetables.  It will thicken slightly.  Once you have allowed the meat to rest, spoon the vegetables around it on a platter and top with a few ladles of the sauce before serving.

Enjoy!

Zuppa Toscano

I have to confess that one of my favorite places to go for a quick lunch is the Olive Garden.  The soup, salad and bread sticks deal they have there is pretty much my fave.  In fact I think it's the only thing I order there... Anyway, when I cam across a "copy cat" recipe for their Zuppa Toscano I was really excited to make it.  And wow was it good!  Plus it's so much easier to make than I would have thought! I tweaked the recipe a bit, but I love how it turned out and I can't wait to make it again soon!

Just brown your sausage.

Slice the potatoes and onions.

Add them to the pot with the sausage.

Add a couple cartons of stock and let simmer until the potatoes are cooked.

Toss in your kale, add the cream and remove from heat.

Serve up in a big soup bowl and dig in!

Ingredients:
1 lb Chicken Italian Sausage, casings removed (you could use pork, but the chicken is lower in fat)
2 large russet potatoes sliced
1 small onion diced
2 cloves of garlic minced
4 cups of kale roughly chopped
2 cartons of chicken broth
1 cup of water
1 cup of heavy cream
1 tsp of red pepper flake
olive oil

Directions:
Heat a large heavy bottom soup pot, such as a dutch oven, over high heat for several minutes.  Add a few tbs of olive oil and the sausage.  Cook until brown, you may need to reduce heat to med-high so the sausage doesn't burn.  Add the diced onion, the garlic, the red pepper flakes and the sliced russet potatoes, Pour in the chicken broth and the water.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  When the potatoes are cooked through, about 25 minutes, add the kale.  As soon as the kale is wilted add the heavy cream and remove from the heat.  Serve immediately with a good loaf of french bread or some bread sticks.  Enjoy!

Homemade Holiday Bark

This homemade holiday bark is a breeze to whip up and is the absolute perfect gift for a co-worker, neighbor, teacher... yourself...  It tastes as good as it looks, too!

All three of my chocolate bark recipes start the same way.  You'll need two 12oz bags of chocolate chips for each one.

I made three different kinds, but there are so many toppings that would be delicious.

Ingredients for Peppermint White Chocolate Bark:

Two 12oz bags of white chocolate chips

6 candy canes with the wrappers removed

1 large sheet of parchment paper

Ingredients for Chocolate Peppermint Marshmallow Bark:

Two 12oz bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips (or whichever type of chocolate you prefer) 

6 candy canes with wrappers removed 

1 cup of small marshmallows

1 large sheet of parchment paper

Ingredients for Chocolate Turtle Bark:

Two 12oz bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup of cashews

1 cup of small marshmallows

1/2 a bag of carmels removed from their wrappers

1/2 tsp of sea salt

1 large sheet of parchment paper

Directions:

Each of these bark recipes start out the same way.  Using a microwave safe bowl melt the chocolate chips in the microwave.  You'll want to check them every 15 seconds and stir them until they are completely melted.  Once melted pour the chocolate onto a large piece of parchment paper and spread evenly using an off set spatula.  Top the bark with the toppings for each one.  For the Turtle Bark follow the same directions for melting the carmel.  Top the bark with the melted carmel and sea salt.  You'll need to let the bark set up on the counter for a few hours, or if you want to put it in the fridge, place your parchment paper on top of a cookie sheet first, then make your bark and place in the fridge.  You can slice your bark with a knife if you want, but I like the rustic look of just breaking it into big chunks. 

do you want to build a snowman?

I love Pinterest. I can't remember where I saw this idea, but I'm sure I got it from there.  Anyhow, it turned out to be the perfect party favor for Ella's birthday yesterday.  I have many photos to show you from the party, but I am still editing them, and working on sorting through and finding my favorites. So, I thought I would share this quick idea with you, friends.

I found those cute little bags at the Dollar Tree.  There were 18 in a pack, so I bought 2 packs.  I figured if there were extras the girls could share them with friends later in the week.

I hope you give this snowman a try!  He would be a fun activity for kids that need to be entertained over the holiday break, as well.

Winter Wonderland

Thank's for stopping by today!  If today is your first time visiting my blog, I'm honored to have you stop by, and if you are a regular, I am so excited to finally reveal my Holiday House Tour!

If you haven't checked out the homes on Jennifer Rizzo's Holiday House walk, be sure to stop by there first and appreciate the creativity and beauty of the season!  It's truly an inspiring tour!

Like most of the kids out there, mine have been caught up in the Frozen whirlwind.  From shirts, pj's and singing dolls to naming our kittens Anna and Elsa, my kids are pretty much obsessed.  So this year, I went with a Frozen themed Christmas, and decked my halls with tons of snow flakes!

  Since it is winter and the perfect time of year for snow and snowmen and all things icy and cold...

As you can see my style is pretty casual and comfortable.  I like to curl up on the sofa and binge watch Revenge and Blacklist after the kiddos are asleep.

Each year my girls pick out a new ornament for the tree.  We stick with the traditional white lights, but the ornament colors are a free for all.  We added some paper chains this year to tie in with the wintery white snowflakes.

I love how no two flakes are alike.  It was a lot of fun cutting each one out with my good friend Shalimar.

I strung cotton balls on white thread and tied them to a branch I found in the back yard.  I'd like to say this was an easy project but the truth is it took a while.

You really don't want to know about the incident with the ceiling fan and my three year old daughter... Let's just say I had to re-string about half of those cotton balls and there may have been tears involved. And wine...

My Ella Bella's third birthday party is this weekend. I didn't want to have to live with a ton of "kid party stuff"  all over my house, and since snow was our theme and it happened to tie in with her desire to have an Olaf party, I got pretty lucky this year.  I also found the snow decor to be pretty friendly on the wallet.  All of the snowflakes, paper chains and the snow branch mobile cost less then $10.  I hope you enjoyed some of the pictures of our Frozen Tundra {also known as our house}.  Don't forget to stop by later in the week for the "Snow Branch" Tutorial!  And remember to check out the amazing homes over on Jennifer Rizzo's blog!