rollo delicioso

Okay, first off-- pardon my brutalization of the Italian language, but imagine this said with a mix of a Southern twang and near Mama Mia accent.  Funny, right?  I'm still giggling saying it out loud.  Rollo Delicioso!! Bringa mea mora!  I adora!

Okay.. enough of that, and on to the point of this post: I like to consider myself a decent cook and so far my work hasn't sent anyone to the hospital with food poisoning, so that's a good sign.  However, the array of things I can successfully cook is quite limited.  I can make some of the basics, but I've been wanting to expand my skills a bit.  I know I'll never be the type of cook like my grandmother was and I regret not taking advantage of our time together to learn how to make some of her showstoppers.   I loved Sunday dinners with her and even though I didn't always eat my veggies, I know her cooking brought our family closer. She was an amazing cook and made it seem so effortless.

For me, it won't be effortless or without it's share of failures but I am going to issue a challenge to myself (and anyone who wants to join me) to try and make something from scratch at least a few times a month.  I would be more stringent with the requirements, but yeah... life happens and sometimes a little wiggle room can be a good thing.

The Man and I both love Italian food, and I can rock out to some spaghetti and lasagna.. but I wanted to step it up and try a recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (you know, the red checkerboard one.. love it!).

It was for lasagna rolls.  I figured it was worth a try and simple enough I might could handle it on a work night.  The recipe called for ground turkey, but the Man loves his red meat so we substituted ground chuck instead.  Here was my starting point:

Lasagna noodles (I used about 8 so I could choose the pretty ones)
8 ounces ground chuck (browned with olive oil and "Italian seasoning")
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup milk
1 beaten egg
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 jar spaghetti sauce
Parmesan cheese

I started off by browning the meat with the finely chopped onion and cooking the noodles.  While that was going, I mixed the egg, cheese, milk and some seasonings.  Then I laid out the noodles on wax paper:

Spread the filling out on each one:

Rolled them up into a spiral and held my breath as I transferred it over to a Pam-sprayed 8x8 Pyrex dish:

Cover each with a heavy dose of pasta sauce and sprinkled the tops with Parmesan and some more

of our favorite "Italian seasoning":

And cook for about 30-45 minutes at 375 degrees and voila:

The Man loved it, and we've made it a few times in the past few weeks.

Hooray for another easy, but good dish to add to my limited repertoire.

crayfish cupcakes?

I mentioned in an earlier post that the Man's birthday wish list was pretty simple: crayfish & red velvet.  An odd pairing, sure.  But he loves it.  So, it has become a recent tradition to celebrate his day with some of his favorite dishes: a Cajun crayfish boil and red velvet cake.

Now, I'm no fan of crustaceans-- so I typically feast on the amazing seasoned potatoes, corn and whatever chicken concoction we bring for the picky eaters.  However, from what I can gather, the Man's family knows how to throw down when it comes to Cajun style cooking.  This year, they went no holds barred with 20 pounds of Louisiana crayfish and 10 pounds of shrimp that was shipped in a cooler from the great Cajun state. According to the Man, it was amaaazing.

The Man made quick work of his share, and we couldn't resist a birthday picture. 

It cracked us up at the time and I still giggle when I think of the care that was taken to properly place those three birthday candles and capture the moment before it all toppled into a flaming stinky mess.

When it came to the actual cake, I baked a batch of red velvet cupcakes and tried my hand at a little icing art, hence the title of this post.

As an aside, I tried out a new jumbo icing tip for the background frosting and love love love it!

Last year, I attempted to sculpt a crayfish out of fondant for his layer cake, and failed miserably.  This year, I stuck to piping, sugar pearls and sheer luck.

They didn't turn out perfectly but the idea is there.  If nothing else, it amused the Man when he realized he was getting crayfish cupcakes too!

We had a great time and I'm glad the Man had a good birthday.  Now if only I knew what to do with the other 10 pounds of crayfish in my freezer...

a new look

I've been longing for fall weather for a while, and we recieved our first reprieve this week with our first day below 90 in ages.  I don't want to jump the gun because I know in the South we could easily be feeling Summer heat until December.  I'm still going to relish the few almost-coolish breezes and hope for sweater weather. :)

I was also inspired to update my blog a bit and will hopefully post a bit more over the next few weeks.  I have a ton of projects I need to finish and even more pictures I've yet to post.

cabinets: organized!

After a slight delay (something to do with the Man, the lawnmower, and our severe lack of cable connection)

here is where we stand with our kitchen cabinets:

No, I don't have doors.  But I do have a home for most of our kitchen stuff.

We were able to seriously conserve space thanks to some thrift store/yard sale finds.. and LOTS of purging!

Meet our pantry.  It can't compare to some spaces, but it has Milano cookies so I can't complain.

Also note nosey kitten #1 on the far left of the shot.

Not to be outshone, it's hard to miss nosey kitten #2. Loki couldn't let Inari steal the spotlight again. 

This was right before he attempted to squeeze in between the packed shelves.

I still have to find homes throughout the house for all my baking accouterments, cake plates, and serving dishes.  I'd also like to establish a place for stock up foods.. but all will come in time.  I should probably focus on getting those blasted doors finished first.

static cling

Today is the Man's birthday and in order to surprise him, I did a little early morning celebrating in the form of a cheesy homemade banner:

And blowing up 28 balloons and scattering them all over the floor. 

It wasn't much, but sometimes in our home-- it's the simple things that amuse us the most. 

This evening was a perfect example of that.

Meet Loki-- my 7 year old orange tabby (who is just slightly spoiled rotten):

Loki, meet balloon:

Then inspiration struck.

Static electricity + over sized tabby cat  + balloons =

I was highly entertained.  He's normally a fussy cat, but he just purred while the Man and I cracked up.

He was probably just plotting his revenge. 

Oh well, at least the Man had a happy birthday filled with all the things he loves the most:

video games, hi-def movies, cupcakes, crayfish (more on that later) and mildly annoying the cats.

I'd say it was a good day.

flour & sugar-- found!

In my last post I was talking about pantry envy. Since we clearly don’t have a pantry, and are now down about 8 feet (or two massive upper cabinets) of storage, I’ve been trying to put my pantry envy to good use—organization inspiration!

Are you ready for chaos? I am so embarrased by this... but I figured through sharing it will motivate me to get a good "After" picture to prove my tidy gene still exists.

Try not to judge me-- the before:

Right now everything that once was in our kitchen is scattered all over the house.

Microwave, Tupperware, and spices (along with the kitchen table) in the living room

Assorted foods, pots, and pans also living in the corner of our living room

Moving over to our third bedroom you find baking supplies and glassware

And also in the 3rd bedroom closet—my long lost flour and sugar

Hmm..maybe some organization is in order. I’m trying to figure out the best way to divvy all this up among our 7 usable cabinets (along with any other inventive storage solutions I can think of for all the things that don’t fit in my little cabs).

One way to help with organization is little kitchen bins and baskets like this:

They are pretty inexpensive compared to some storage solutions.. but we're on a tight budget. 

I've seen these before at yardsales and when out thrifting.  I usually pick them up when I see them and over time I've amassed a bit of a collection.  I wanted a few specifics (like a spice rack) so I stopped by a few of my favorite thrifting spots.  I found some great pieces and all for around $1 each. 

Here what we have to work with so far:

I still haven't raided all my closets for baskets, and I'm hoping to find a few cute pieces to mix in for fun. 

Now back to priming trim, painting the rest of the cabinet doors, and the rest of my Sunday chores.  Hopefully before too long we'll have clean, organized cabinets --

and no more random food stuffs in the living room!

pantry raid!

I amuse myself sometimes :)

As we get closer to having usable kitchen cabinets, I've been researching and brainstorming how to organize all of our kitchen goodies. In the process, I've been battling a little green monster-- who just seems to grow with every new pantry I see.  I love a pantry-- the idea of so much storage.. *sigh* and these organized spaces make my little semi-OCD heart go aflutter.

I a bit of a  basket case and Dana's pantry over at House*Tweaking has me drooling..

I love her baskets and bins!  They are one of the my favorite ways to "pretty up" storage and make for easy to use organization. I love the mix of natural baskets with metal wire.. a good idea for my mix and match space.

Then I ran across Sarah's over at Thrifty Decor Chick.  I love how she used taller containers on their sides to stack in a not so tall space... so smart!

I also love how she labeled her shelves by category, such a good idea to help keep things neat and tidy!

And then there was the pantry that seems to have been *everywhere* in blogland.  Shelly over at House of Smith's did an amazing job on her pantry makeover and really captured a lot of great ideas into one space.

Love, love, love her labels!  Apparently I'm not the only one-- as I've seen her mentioned in a number of other blogs and she's been filling tons of orders.  Vinyl seems to be the latest trend and I haven't tried it yet.  I'm anxious to as the idea of using vinyl seems so appealing to me.  She used it on her container labels as well as the quatrefoil design on the wall. 

 Also, who doesn't love cute glass jars, pretty baskets, and cute bins and boxes.

 

Speaking of cute bins and containers, Chris over at Just A Girl recently finished reworking her laundry room cabinets.  It's not a pantry, but my kitchen is a kitchen+laundry nook.. so that's close enough.

She spray painted a mixture of Dollar Store bins in a pretty bright blue for a cohesive look. 

Why haven't I thought of that? I'm always so concerned with finding things that match and this is a great way to dress up that perfect size bargain find.

Plus her ribbon labels are adorable! It's all so bright and happy.

 

Another non-pantry that's surely worthy of envy...John and Sherry's kitchen cabinets.

 It's just one of the many lovelies over at the Youngster's kitchen.  They did a "Tackle it Together" series a while back that focused on kitchen cabinets at YoungHouseLove.

And tackle they did.  Look how clean.. and neat!

As if I wasn't enamored enough as it is.  I love, love, love these shelf labels.  The fact that they were just scrapbooking notions is genius to me.

If you haven't noticed lately, I've also developed a bit of a thing for glass jars.  I have a grouping similar to this (I used the smallest one recently to hold strawberry spoon cake.)  The Dad also gifted a cluster of cuties with black metal lids for my birthday.  I'll be using them to hold flour, sugar and the like... as soon as I can find my flour and sugar... I think they're in the closet of the guest bedroom.  Maybe?

Obviously, I have a lot of re-organizing ahead of me, along with a lot more work on even getting the kitchen closer to a finished product.  In the meantime, I'm still on the hunt for great kitchen storage ideas... pantry or not.

I think I'll always be on the hunt for great storage ideas...

there's just something about an organized space that makes this nerdy bird sing.