Happy Valentine's Day!

Recipes to try...

I made one of these and my roommate made the other for dinner last night. They are DELICIOUS! Try them out if you get a chance.

From

Turkey Meat Loaf

And from

Tripe Chocolate-Cookie Trifle Pie

Quote of the Day

"Go sell crazy somewhere else, we're all stocked up here."

- Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson), As Good As It Gets

That's about how life is over here at the moment...

Easy Valentines Ideas!

Easy Decorating

Super-easy chandelier decor = curling ribbon. Red and three different shades of pink make this drab old light fixture a lot more fun (and it's great with other colors for birthdays too!)

Imagine what it would look like if I had this chandelier...


Easy Valentines Dessert

Pink and red cupcakes. Thank you Pillsbury for your red velvet and strawberry cake mixes. I whipped these up and made a few batches of cream cheese frosting and topped the strawberry ones with sprinkles.



Valentines Punch


Ok, this is actually Sprite with cranberry juice ice cubes. The "Valentines" part is that the ice cubes are heart shaped.


You can get these little trays - 3 for $1 - in the dollar section at Target! They always have tons of random, cute little things for the upcoming holidays.

I started filling these up and freezing them a few days before the party to make sure I had enough.

Now wouldn't you like to drink this!

Lovely!

That's what the weather has been!

I spent the past two afternoons enjoying 70ish weather on quilts in my front yard. Friends and roommates came out and the people walking by stopped to say hello. We read, studied, laughed and amazingly (though not surprisingly) started getting bitten by mosquitoes. And we got a little bit of sun. Pretty good for February!

Thankfully I have a few fun, old quilts that I've collected, but if you're in need of one check out these pretty Picnic Blankets!

Helpful Hints...

Just call me Heloise!

Here are a few things I though of while baking yesterday...

Hint: My mom (the Home-Ec teacher) taught me this one and it has come in handy more than once:

When measuring out peanut butter or shortening - use water-displacement!

I.E: if you need a cup of PB then fill a measuring cup with 1 cup of water


Then add the PB (making sure it is under the water line) until the water reaches the 2 cup mark.


You can use this with any solid/oil based substance and it sure beats packing and scraping peanut butter out of a measuring cup!

Hint: If you spray a measuring cup with PAM before measuring out molasses or syrup it will slide right out!

Hint: We all love Williams-Sonoma, but here are a few other kitchen shops that I've found online and LOVE! They all have a great selection and good prices.

Sur la Table

Fantes Kitchen Wares Shop

Fishs Eddy

Chef Tools


Happy Cooking!

Sick!

This is what the past few days have looked like...

The common cold has found me again.

Deconstruction...

...of the floral arrangement.

So here is what I did with the flowers I brought home the other night.

The daises were placed in the kitchen window (in my favorite jar).

They're so bright they don't even look real in this picture!

The snapdragons were put on the mantle to replace the lilies that actually lasted two weeks!


Here is the full picture of our fireplace (please disregard the lovely green tile surrounding it).


And I made a quick arrangement to grace the buffet in the dining room.


It was nice to add some color to all the white.