Lemon Meringue Pie

I have to start out by saying, meringue is awesome. It is my new favorite thing to make. I got to bust out the Kitchaid mixer for the first time Saturday night, when I got the urge to make a pie. I had never made lemon meringue pie, but there's a first time for everything. I followed the recipe for the filling that's on the Lemon Jello Pudding box, and then the meringue recipe on the thing of creme of tartar. I had origionally printed a recipe to make it from scratch, but it included buying about 8 things I didn't have. This turned out just as well as far as I am concerned.

I want this room...

I am in love with this room. If I could afford to redo my bedroom, I would use these colors.

My meatloaf was a success!

So I decided to experiment with meatloaf this week. I had made meatloaf balls before, which I normally use in other things; but I had never made an actually loaf before. I consulted the girls on The Nest, to find out their meatloaf recipes, and combined some of their ideas to create my own. It turned out fabulous! Jeff loved it. I served it with rosemary red potatoes and steamed asparagus. I'm hungry again just thinking about it. Here is the recipe I finally created via everyone elses.

Loaf:

1lb 80/20 ground beef

3/4 lb of ground turkey

2/3 cup milk

about 1 cup crushed corn flakes

1 egg

1 tbsp hot sauce

1 tbsp crushed garlic

1 tbsp bbq sauce

salt/pepper/thyme

Sauce:

3/4 cup ketchup

1 big squirt of dijon mustard

3 tbsp brown sugar

Combine loaf ingredients in a mixing bowl, mix well. Form into a loaf and stick in a rectangular baking dish (got to use my LaCreusant dish for the first time!). Bake in over at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Then take out, spread sauce evenly over loaf. Turn oven up to 400 degrees and bake another 25 minutes.

I got my lamp!

So I finally got my arch lamp for my dining room! It isn't the exact one I was going to buy, but it was about $200.00 less money and looks just as good. Jeff found it at Ikea the other day, and I had passed over it online figuring it was too small to go over our table. We did replace the shade it came with though, because it was too large and not our style. Here is the lamp over our table and a close up of the shade.

This Week: In My Kitchen....

This is the menu for this week, thus far.

Tonight: Slow cooker spaghetti with sausage, mushrooms, italian squash, broccoli, and kale. This will be served over whole wheat pasta.

Wednesday: Meat loaf (which I may cook ahead tonight), steamed asparagus, and roasted cheesey potatoes.

Thursday: Hot dogs, compliments of our George Forman Grill. Baked beans, roasted broccoli, and possibly pasta salad.

Friday- Fish tacos/fish sticks. I have fish, and I have taco makings. Don't know if I will combine them yet.

Saturday- Slow cooker bbq chicken sliders, with steamed asparagus.

Valentines Day Weekend

Valentines day has not been an eventful holiday for Jeff and I for a number of years. I don't really like candy, and it's overrated and crowded as far as I am concerned. BUT, the subject of stopping to recognize your signifigent other and your relationship was brought up to me last week and it did make me think: "I wish Jeff would do something nice for me, even if it isn't on Valentines Day. Just something out of the blue."
I brought this to his attention last week, and he did end up doing something really sweet. I woke up Sunday morning to find flowers all over the apartment. He left roses everywhere, and another arrangement of wild flowers on our vanity. He said it's so "there are flowers everywhere I go in the apartment." It was very thoughtful of him. He even made sure to buy matching vases in assorted sizes. It made me giggle.
Other than this, we went to lunch on Saturday and he took me shopping. I am in desperate need of concentrating on my wardrobe again. He has more clothes than I do! I have been putting all my money into decorating, and not into clothes. I ended up with four shirts, a pair of gold ballet flats, and a pea soup colored pea coat that I am in LOVE with! I almost bought it about 3 months ago, but they didn't have my size. The only one they had was too big and not worth $60.00 to be too big. I found it on clearance for $15.00 in my size! It doesn't seem cold enough to wear it anymore, but who cares!?

Revamped my fabric panels

So last thursday night, Jeff had to work late so I was all by myself. After a failed attempt to try Thai food and a bad redbox rental choice, there was only one thing left to do: find something to paint. I have ruled out the lamp shades, because I see those not turning out as I plan. Since I found a painting I liked better than the fabric panels for above the bed, I decided to try and paint on the fabric panels. I had rehung them on another wall, so I figured I didn't have anything to lose.
I was trying to figure out some way to tie in the contemperary nature print of our bedspred with the city theme I seem to have going on throughout the entire apartment. I decided painting a central park-ish scene would do well with that. This is the result:


I was very pleased with how they turned out. I did not end up using the dark brown one, as I wouldn't have been able to carry the black paint over to it. So this concludes my fabric panel dilemma.

Weekend review...

So I had a three day weekend because I was sick on Friday. Actually, I'm still not feeling well; but here I am anyways. I did manage to get quite a bit done around our apartment though. I completed two of my throw pillows, hung the fabric wall panels, and cleared out some more of the boxes. It was an eventful weekend.



Here is my throw pillows I completed :



This one is for the living room. I am also going to create a pillow for London, New York, and San Francisco. These match the different paintings I have in my living room and dining room.




This one is for the bedroom. I may continue the bird/foliage theme throughout the other two throw pillows that will go on the bed, or I may leave them blank. I was also contemplating doing something on the lamp shades, but I would like to establish what lamps I am going to keep in there first. This is a recreation of a Pottery Barn pillow that was $35.00 just for the pillow cover. I made this for about $5.95.

Here it is on my bed.


Also, notice the fabric wall panels above the bed. Here is a close up of them:



I am not sure how I feel about these as of yet. I was hoping for them to be more prominent in the room. I may hang something else above the bed and put these on another wall. I also need curtains and different lamps in the bedroom. It will all pull together in time though.

I did pull together a fantastic dinner last night though. It felt like it was in the super bowl food spirit, even though we don't have cable yet and don't watch foot ball. I tried out the slow cooker recipe with the chicken and the bbq sauce. I left out the worchestershire sauce, but it was great none the less. I served the chicken, shredded, on top of toasted small hamburger buns with roasted broccoli and potato salad. Delish...

Rough night...

I am so tired this morning. Lilly and Jeff kept me up all night, between him being sick and her being her. She woke me up multiple times for no reason what-so-ever, and then finally went potty at ass-o-clock in the morning. I was bitter about having to stand outside in the cold that late at night, but thankful she finally went potty. It's been almost 4 days!

So I made progress in my unpacking mission last night. I have all but one box cleared out of the living room. The bedroom is tonight/tomorrow's goal. I also sucessfully cooked something for dinner last night! I busted out my new crockpot and slow cooked some spaghetti sauce with sausage and veggies. Tasted great, needed to be a bit thicker though. Tonight I am trying out the George Forman grill for some hot dogs, orzo pasta salad, and baked beans.

Hopefully I will have more pictures up of my progress in the apartment in a day or two. Here is a picture I took of Lilly taking over the couch last night. She is just so damned cute.

Crock Pot Recipes

Crock Pot Recipes I want to try....

Teriyaki chicken
4 boneless skinless breasts
1 cup teriyaki sauce
1 can pineapple chunks (plus juice)
1 tsp ground ginger
Heat on low 4-6 hrs.
I serve it over rice or in soft tacos. Yum!

Pork Sliders
INGREDIENTS
1 slow-cooker liner (we used Reynolds)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp each paprika and dried minced onion
1 1/2 tsp salt-free chili powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp allspice (optional)
4 lb bone-in pork shoulder roast
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup sliced scallions
24 small dinner rolls, split
Accompaniments: hot pepper sauce, coleslaw
PREPARATION
1. Line a 4-qt or larger slow-cooker with liner. Mix 1 Tbsp of the brown sugar, the paprika, minced onion, chili powder, salt, garlic powder and allspice. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp into bottom of slow-cooker. Rub remaining mixture over pork. Add vinegar and remaining brown sugar to slow-cooker; stir to mix. Add pork.2. Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours until pork is fork-tender. Remove pork to cutting board and pull into shreds. Return to slow-cooker; add scallions and toss to coat. 3. Put about 1/4 cup onto each bun bottom. Top with bun tops.

Slow Cooker Chicken BBQ

Ingredients
6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce
1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Directions
Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the barbeque sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.
Cover, and cook 3 to 4 hours on High or 6 to 8 hours on Low.


Throw in a roast with 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup, and a package of onion soup mix. When it has about an hour left, throw in a cut up onion, some carrots, and chopped potatoes (I use the canned sliced potatoes). Then whala! Delicious dinner!


12 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
4 cups toasted (or stale) bread cubes (I used Pamela's Amazing Wheat Free bread)
2 cups shredded cheese (I used a 4 cheese Mexican blend)
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
8 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk (I used fat free cow's, any would work just fine)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

The Directions.Use a 6 quart slow cooker. This makes a lot! Cook bacon to desired crispyness, and toast the bread. Set these aside. Spray the inside of your slow cooker with cooking spray, and set that aside, too.In a large mixing bowl, combine the shredded cheese, mushrooms, eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. Put the bread cubes into the bottom of your sprayed slow cooker, and pour the egg mixture evenly over the entire thing. Place bacon pieces on top.Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or until eggs have set, or on high for about 3-4 hours. When the eggs have completely set, and your casserole has begun to brown on top and pull away from the sides, take the lid off the cooker and let the steam and moisture evaporate for about 15 minutes before serving.


Crock Pot Chicken with black beans and cream cheese
4-5 bonelesschicken breasts
1 (151/2 ounce) can blackbeans
1 (15 ounce) can corn
1 (15 ounce) jar salsa,any kind
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1. Take 4-5 frozen, yes, frozen, boneless chickenbreasts put into crock pot.
2. Add 1 can of black beans, drained, 1 jar of salsa,1 can of corn drained.
3. Keep in crock pot on high for about 4-5 hours oruntil chicken is cooked.
4. Add 1 package of cream cheese (just throw it ontop!) and let sit for about 1/2 hour.
Crockpot Blog:
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Moving In...

So moving in was more work than I was anticipating. I thought I would have everything done on Saturday, which didn't happen. Then Sunday, I was determined to have everything done. Nope. Now I'm just getting what I can done each day before and after work. The only thing that is mostly done is the dining room. I still need my lamp from CB2, which I don't have the money to spend on it as of right now. I definately need over head lighting though, it's a bit dark during meals in there.

The kitchen doesn't have nearly enough space I have decided. I don't know what I was expecting in an apartment though. Origionally I thought I would have a box up extra stuff to save for my next kitchen, but so far that hasn't been an issue. It looks like I don't have anywhere to keep my tupperware, but that's it.

Our bedroom is a mess still. There are still bags of stuff/clothes not put away. Hopefully I can tackle those today. I still need to hang the fabric panels over the bed, and actually make the bed up with our new bedding. Ugh... so much to do.

So I tried to make dinner last night for the first time. I had romanticised our first real meal there, having it turn out perfect and making the entire apartment smell great. It was SO far from this. I kept finding things I didn't have while trying to prepare food I had never made before. I bought boneless chicken legs instead of breasts, because they were on sale, and they are NOT the same thing. I was trying to make stuffed chicken breasts/legs with artichokes, spinach, and mozzerella cheese. I still swear it wasn't cooked all the way through, but Jeff claims it was. During the coarse of the meal, I found out I didn't buy garlic powder, sugar, pot holders (that was a big one), a meat mallet, tooth picks, sponges, or bleach cleaning solution.

The oven and the George Forman Grill smelled funny the first time using them. I'm sure this will go away, but it was still yucky. My grilled yellow squash turned out too oily, and I didn't have the proper pot to cook my orzo in. I was so upset by the time I served dinner that I didn't want it anymore. It didn't taste good either. I might have been biased by that time though.

So I'm skipping out of work a bit early today to go buy several things that I don't have, and some new food for Lilly. She seems to be adjusting "ok." Not great. She isn't barking or destroying anything, knock on wood, but she just is hardly eating and drinking. She is starting to last night and today, but she hasn't gone potty more than once since we moved in on Saturday night. This isn't as fun as I was aticipating. At least not yet.