Tasty Tuesday : Mini Taco Salad

So last week before our trip I was scrounging around trying to use up anything in the fridge that would spoil. I am not a chef by any means but I am trying to get more creative in our little kitchen. I just thought this would be a cute way to serve mini taco salads with tostinos scoops!

 I have all these cute little serving dishes makes for a cute presentation lol :)

 Isn't that adorable?

 And delicious !

PS can you tell me which tomato is store bought and which is home grown? ;)

Tasty Tuesday: Nervous Nellies

 Ate at a delicious restaurant in Fort Myers Beach called Nervous Nellies

Yum... Frenchy's dip with slaw and fries with french onion soup!

100th Post Celebration!!!!!!! :D

So I missed blogging yesterday because truthfully I just wasn't feeling it. I was going to post pictures from our camping trip but I think I will save that for next week. Too many pictures to choose from.

Anyway I figured since this is officially my 100th post I would Celebrate and count my blessings! To celebrate I ordered 12 assorted french macaroons off of etsy... they arrived yesterday and went out Wednesday night and got a couple or more grateful deads.

I honestly never thought I would make it this far in blogging I just hoped I would. I can tell you that blogging has given me a purpose and has made me want to try to make every day special. That's a good thing right?

Blogging has even helped my relationship. My boyfriend and I have been together for almost 6 years now and I will tell you that after sooo long you lose that spark that makes you want to do new things. You kind of get stuck in a rut because you are "comfortable". Life becomes mundane and boring. Blogging has reminded me that doing new things and planning fun activities for us brings us closer together. Justin has been smiling so much lately and it makes me all giggly deep down inside to know that I helped create that.

When it comes to life in general I am pretty happy. I can pay my bills and I have some extra cash to start a savings account. The shop is one purchase away of hitting 500 sales.... that is a blessing.

Next week I will be going to frankfort Monday through Friday for a camp which I am nervous because of things like our dog and finding a vehicle to drive. My car is still kaput. I am keeping my fingers crossed that in 2 weeks my dad will have my car put back together and it will run. I have been without a car for about 3 months or so. It's been a different kind of life for me without a car. The other good thing is I will make enough money from this camp to try to get a new computer. In 2 weeks I should be able to get one! Excited about that!

The one major thing I am thankful for is my little sister! She has done a lot to help my business grow. In fact I pretty much feel like she is my partner in crime with all of it. It's nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of and to ask opinions. She has been with me in all of it. I am sooo thankful to have been blessed with her in my life. :)

Side note... There are always minor hiccups in between all the good things that have happened lately but I think it's important to remember that part of being happy with your life is learning to let go of the problems life is going to bring you. The quicker I did that the better life seemed to roll.

So those are my blessings.... what are you thankful for? What are your blessings?

Have a great weekend!!! See you Monday friends!!

Adventures in Louisville Part One

This weekend was just wonderful! I have no reason to complain because I enjoyed every second. I must have needed an escape even if it was just a little over an hour away. The one thing I was a little disheartened by was leaving my pup to hang out with Justin's mom all weekend but she took really good care of him. I just had to throw this picture in... I love him sooo much but it was just to hot to be hauling him around with us.

I took a lot of pictures this weekend but I actually took a lot less than I usually do. I focused more on taking pictures that captured the moment rather than just taking a bunch and hoping for the best. I took so few pictures that Justin actually questioned me about it and that is unusual. I never feel like he pays attention to the crazy things I do but I guess he does. 

 So this week I will be devoting each day to my favorite pictures from this weekend. So stay tuned for all my little adventures which were surprisingly right in my very own back yard. First up was a awesome little cafe in Louisville called Lynn's Paradise! I had been here once before but it has now become a favorite!

 The whole cafe is an eclectic mix of vintage and art. The decor is so mismatched that it just somehow works. It reminds me a lot of what my apartment looks like except I wish I could make it look this good!

 All the chairs were vintage and covered in all different textured patterned fabric and vinyl. Do you see the upside down lamps hanging from the ceiling towards the right of the picture? How about the manikin legs? It was a lot like my favorite old eye spy books! I couldn't stop looking and I wish I had taken more pictures.

 I thought I got a picture of the lamp at our table but I guess I didn't.... anyway the lamp shade was covered in old ties. 

 Yes that is a giant decorated tree in the middle of the restaurant. LOVE IT!

 There was also all kinds of fun things to play with at our table. Definitely my kind of thing being a big kid at heart in all. Crayons, plastic animals, trivia cards, and even one of those find it toys. 

 Justin always gets a burger but I guess the cool thing about it is that I have never seen so many different kinds of burgers. Where ever we go to eat it seems they have their own twist on a burger!

 I got the fried green tomato blt with the macaroni casserole. I absolutely love blts and macaroni.... this was soo good and filled me up!

 Notice anything different about my hair lately?

 The other cool thing is that there are all of these really cool cement statures to take pictures by!

This is what I wore for the concert. It was extremely hot that day so I wanted to keep it cool but as you can see I just love my little mustard yellow cardigan it always adds the pop I need to my outfit. Can you tell I ate a little too much? lol

So if your ever in or near Louisville I highly suggest checking out Lynn's Paradise. It's even famous for a bobby flay throw down. 

Tomorrow I will show you the neatest little thrift shop call the Knitty Gritty that is literally down the road from Lynn's and you can see some of my thrifty finds from there!

My Misadventures in Cooking

 I have never had the patience for cooking and I really don't know why because when it comes to creating something in my studio I am very patient. One of my favorite movies is Julia and Julia because of the fact that the girl who does every recipe in Julia Childs book screws up too. I wish I had the patience to take the time to try and cook every meal from scratch but I just don't. 

I do have to say that I am trying to learn to be patient or maybe having more knowledge about cooking in general would help. So I am going to show you a cooking tutorial that I tried off pinterest but failed because I didn't happen to read the directions carefully.

I tried to make cherry almond cupcakes today.

So I think it all began when I started getting excited about the ingredients because I was making it from scratch. The red juice of maraschino cherry, the smell of the almond extract and vanilla. It seem to be just a perfect combo for my tastes. 

 And then I made my mistake and started to mix everything together at once.

 Then I noticed the butter was chunky in the batter because I didn't let it soften.

 The batter was so liquid that I worried if it would soak the cupcake liners.

but I went ahead and let them bake and moved on to the made from scratch frosting.

 And it turned out great!

 I went back to the oven to find this... :(

 I went ahead and tried to make it work . It was alright just the thought of them not tasting right threw me off a bit.

 And the mess...

and this is what happens when put the icing on before the cupcake is cooled... mistake but it looks cool in this picture ;) right?

Question: 

What's one thing you had to teach yourself while cooking? Have you ever cooked something and felt like you wasted money because you messed it up?

Tasty Tuesdays: Eclairs

One of my favorite dessert recipes that my grandma use to make us! I love it because you don't need any complicated ingredients for such a delectable treat! The first time my grandma showed me how to make this she told me it was all about timing and making sure ingredients were exact. It has taken me 3 tries to get these just right! So let me show you what I did and help keep you from making the mistakes I did. :)

This first picture is not mine... lol but I wanted a nice picture as an intro! Eclairs can come in a variety of shapes depending on how patient you are.

 Start by Pre-heating your oven to 450 degrees... 

You will need the following...

1 stick butter

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1 tsp salt

4 eggs

chocolate frosting

1 box instant pudding

and milk for the instant pudding :)

 To start you melt 1 stick of butter completely with one cup water. Must be melted completely and stirred well.

 While waiting on that I went ahead and mixed the pudding which only requires milk and minute or two of stirring. I set that in the fridge.

 This is where timing is everything. Once the butter water is mixed and boiling you will reduce heat to low. Then add flour, salt and begin to stir vigorously until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a lump in the middle. This can be tricky and you want to make sure you use fresh flour... mistake 1. It will leave you wondering if your doing it right but I promise just keep going because you are!

Next you remove that from the heat and adding one egg at a time completely beat the egg into that mixture. It will look like the picture above slimy and sticking to everything. Once all four eggs are completely beat into the mixture you can scoop out whatever size you want onto a greased cookie sheet.

I like mine big and messy so I made 6 large out of the batter. Here is a peek of them in the oven... my lens fogged up a little.

 These bake 15 mins and then you reduce the heat to 325 degrees baking them for 20 more minutes. you want them to be golden... maybe slightly brown. Oh and don't open the oven too much it will keep them from fluffing up... mistake 2.

 Then if your not in a hurry like I was you let those cool and when they cool you cut them in half and remove the spongy like inside so that the puffs become hollow. You then fill the puffs with the instant mix pudding and dab some rich chocolate frosting on top!

And Walllllaaa you have this yumtastic, wonderful, messy sweet treat!!! 

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!! :)

Wish Wednesday

If I was to wish something you promise you won't tell....

ok...

.... I wish people didn't think that you could tell them how to do something they haven't even tried
.... I wish my studio was clean
.... I wish I had a pup
.... I wish my grandma was still at her house taking care of us
.... I wish my car was fixed
.... I wish that life would make sense
.... but it doesn't


:( wa wa boo boo... wishes... only wishes ;)


Then I got on pinterest and typed in wish... and look what I found
http://pinterest.com/search/?q=wish

SOOO MANY MANY MANY WISHES!


Here are some pictures from recently that will make it all better :)

 My lovely sisters came over to watch Kentucky's NCAA Championship. My older sister made an awesomely good pasta salad with cheese chunks, artichokes, summer sausage... olive and all kinds of goodness! She also brought DAIQUIRIS!

NUM NUM IT MADE ME HAPPY!

Tasty Tuesday: Chicken Salad Sandwich

My grandma was the best cook ever she is really the one who formed my taste buds as a kid. She would always have breakfast lunch and dinner with perfect portions of everything you needed or wanted in a meal. We loved being at her house because we knew she was going to feed us with good fresh home cooked meals. I have been thinking about her sooo much lately. 

She is in a nursing home now and hardly remembers things we use to do. If you remind her she gets a terrible sad look on her face. It is one of the hardest things to deal with besides death because your losing a person slowly. 

So because of her I know or at least remember some of the good things she made us and it is because of her that I know what makes up a real meal. So I thought I would share with you one of the meals that remind me of her. 

Chicken Salad Sandwiches 

Not much of a meal but a great lunch or traveling meal. My grandma would have these ready if she knew all the family were going to be around and hungry. When we went on camping trips this was one of her meals for us :)

So to start here are the ingredients you will need...

1. chicken breast (2). I used frozen, baked for 40 minutes with half of a lemons juice and covered in foil. When it was done I shredded it it into small pieces.
2. Celery. I diced it into small chunks about 2 stalks or one cup
3. 2 boiled eggs. I removed the shell and yolk and diced into small pieces.
4. 1 cup Miracle Whip
5. 1/2 lemon
6. croissants or whole grain bread is really good!

Now for the easy part put all your prepared ingredients in a bowl and mix!

I squeezed half of a lemons juice into a small bowl, removed the seed and added it to the mixture. This really adds a zing to your salad... I like a lot of zing!

Time for the croissants... I bought these ready made at kroger and sliced them in half.

Wallaaa a yummy lunch or picnic sandwich! I wish I had some more left. The buttery crossiant really just made me melt!

Hope you enjoyed this tasty post... Do you add anything else to your chicken salad? Whats a favorite recipe of yours?

missing my gram :(