Finding and storing ideas

I'm not going to talk about Pinterest here because most people know about it and those who know about it probably spend enough time on it to understand that it sucks your life away minute by minute and for those who don't know about it, suffice it to say its worse than facebook for time wasting.

I have to be honest here, Pinterest sometimes stresses me out. I've been taking break from Pinterest (except some pinning) over the past few weeks. BUT, when in pinch to bake or cook something, I will go to my cooking boards for ideas.

That's where I found the recipe for Chocolate Caramel Tart (via MyBakingAddiction). At some point I pinned the recipe and thought it would work well for a special treat for us this past weekend. Of course, I neglected to read that it took at least 6 hours of chilling time so instead of enjoying it Saturday, we enjoyed it Sunday!

What I did: I followed the recipe exactly, except I took the caramel off before it reached 304 degrees - it was getting too dark and I was concerned it would burn. And of course I added salt to the ganache because I love a salty-sweet dessert!

The verdict: a bit time-consuming in that it takes between 6 and 8 hours of chilling time but other than that, not too difficult. But they are tasty, and well worth the waiting time. These are VERY rich, so much so that I would consider cutting them into halves or thirds to serve. Plus the recipe requires no special techniques or instruments save a candy thermometer and the small tart pans. And I had all of the ingredients on hand. Nice.

Quick crust prep (i.e you can see my finger prints!):

The final product:

Cold weekends

I know that probably surprises you, but it was actually cold this past weekend. The lows were in the 30's and the highs were in the 40's and 50's. Add in a really rainy Friday, and this past weekend was meant for in door activities. So we did some...

Painting (the entry - same color as the office and dining room)

Planning (the front yard landscaping)

We looked up plants and fiddled with an online design tool. No real progress but starting to learn more!

And eating

We made a special dinner Saturday since we aren't really big V day celebrators. We had fish baked in parchment paper with herbs, butter and lemon. It was simple, fast, and so tasty. We had a side of roasted broccoli gratin. Roasted broccoli is also so tasty.

A few weeks ago I made some vegetable stock and quickly used it all to make a roasted carrot with cumin and ginger soup. We had that as our simple, warm dinner on Sunday. I'm not a huge fan of carrots but this soup is amazing and doesn't take at all like carrots.

When life gives you apples

I got a crazy idea recently (surprise, surprise), but with my brain going about a thousand different directions these days, I neglected to think through it entirely.

The result: 10 lbs of apples (among other things). When life gives you apples, make a ton of apple pies! I actually made apple and pear pies from this book:

Very tasty and thanks to Bittman, simple.

Check it off the list!

You know that laundry room update we did awhile back? Well one of the projects was a drying rack. Again, the project has been near completion for months until this week! We're on a roll with checking things off our house list!

The project was inspired by images like this:

Country Living

I found a plan and the husband got to work. We made it pretty large because we have our fair share of things that need line drying and we have the space in our laundry room. You can tell by the pictures that it is hung pretty high. I can reach the top easily but hanging it high allows us even more walking space and makes it feel more open in the room when the drying rack is extended.

One more thing marked off the list!!

This was one of two "build-it" projects on our list. Unfortunately the other project is also in the "so close to being finished but not quite" stage. I hope to finish it in the next week or so and will update you with it then!

Mid-day diamond

I came across this post on marriage and thought it was worth sharing. In the post, Kristen, from Rage Against the Minivan, writes about the work of marriage (which speaks to the work associated with any relationship). I like it so I'm sharing it! Enjoy!

Here's a quick excerpt:

"While I think that marital relationships can and should maintain those warm feelings of love in the long-term, I also think that there are some seasons where that love is going to me more above loving behavior and less about loving feelings.  It’s trite but it’s true: love is a verb.  It’s a feeling, too, yes . . . but feelings are temperamental little buggers, and shouldn’t be followed at every whim.  Some seasons are not as conducive to loving feelings, and it’s in those moments that we have to “fake it till we make it” and work at loving behaviors with confidence that the loving feelings will follow."

Guest bedroom projects

In addition to the new side tables, the guest bedroom received a bed face lift. Prior to the updates, the bed was an Ikea bed that sat low to the ground. Lets face it, none of us are getting younger so getting in and out of that thing wasn't working out well for most. See how low it was?

We upgraded to a bed on a normal frame but we were left without a headboard. I did some online perusing and decided on a tufted headboard. The husband and I made the headboard sometime in November but I never got around to covering the buttons (pain in the rear) and actually attaching them to the headboard, that is, until last week! Its nice to have another project completed. (Pictures are not terrific because, unfortunately, we go to work when its dark and get home right before dark.)

I have a few other ideas for the room to spruce it up but so far, these smallish changes have made a huge difference.

Welcome to our new home

Sort of but not exactly. We had some work done to the front yard that makes it look almost like a completely different home. We're both really excited about the way it turned out. Now we need a little landscaping help - anyone have some ideas??

(Please excuse the less than sunny pictures of the house currently - its actually been raining here, a lot!)

Before:

Summer 2010

Summer 2011

January 2012

Now (hello almost new looking home):

February 1 2012

It is hard to see in these pictures but the house looks so much cleaner now. I can't wait to see it in the spring when everything is blooming. We were thinking about putting one tree in the middle but now, we're not so sure. We might do a large bed with bushes of varying heights so that the view of the front of the house is maintained, maybe something like this:

It looks like our next project will be learning a bit about landscape architecture!

New adventures in cooking

One of the best things about living in Houston is the variety of food. Of course I love the Mexican influence but I have really grown to enjoy the wide variety of Asian food as well. I have been lucky to have a Vietnamese coworker who has taken me to many of the Vietnamese restaurants in our area. All of these experiences have really fostered an interest in Asian cooking and for Christmas, the husband got me the perfect cookbook to get us started:

The book is a compilation of recipes and stories and is a really great read. We've definitely had some challenges cooking with different techniques and ingredients but it has been a lot of fun trying various things out of the book.

After reading through a great deal of the book we realized we needed to buy a wok. The husband ordered one and seasoned it when it arrived with almost an entire container of kosher salt.

We used the wok to make a beef and ginger stir-fry and a vegetable stir-fry the other day and it was quite tasty.

The beef and ginger stir fry had 1/2 lb of ginger - whoa.

Vegetable stir fry - cabbage, mushrooms and snow peas.