Cedar Chest - Before and After

I have had this Cedar Chest for ever.  It has some damage on the bottom and is scuffed up.  While I am waiting to decide where to put it.  It tends to move around the house.  I have covered it with some left over fabric.  I like having it up here by the front of the house.  It is a great place to sit, take off your shoes, drop the mail, your purse, whatever.

Nothing fancy on the cover.  Just left over fabric tucked around and tacked.  If I like it, I will decide on a permanent fabric.  Best part, it was free.  My chest, and left over fabric.

Try something new in your decorating.  You can always change it back around.

Quick Fast Breakfast -- Oatmeal Lately

The other night I was watching Cooks Country on PBS, and they did a segment on oatmeal.

I was never much of an oatmeal person until the Hubs was eating it. He had eaten it as a child.

What I like about it, is the blandness of it.  Like a white rice, but healthy.

I used the good Quaker Old Fashioned Quick 1 Minute Oats. 
Quick fast and good.

Served with some frozen strawberries, and dark chocolate chips.

The Hubs?  He ate his with the chocolate and strawberries, and milk and honey.

Best thing about it?  HUGE serving for your 1 serving.  That is not even a whole serving.  On the run?  Put it in a paper/cup or any cup and out the door you go.

Enchillada Eggs and Huevos Rancheros

 

Let me start by saying.  I can't cook.  I have the best fed garbage disposal and trash can in town.  I don't cook -- I prepare. 

 

However, there are a few things I make that are great, and I am working on it daily.  Oh, and let's face it you have to eat. 

 

Here are two of my favorites.

 

This one I call an "Accidental Mess".  I was making an in the pan quiche that went wrong and that is how this came about.

 

Simply put, it is eggs, corn tortillas, green chili or salsa, avacado and cheese if you want.

 

Serving for 2:

Cut up 2 corn tortillas and put in pan with a little butter for like 2 minutes or less until soft.

Push the corn tortillas to the side of the pan.

Add 3 eggs that have been beaten and scramble, as they get cooked stir into the tortillas and mix up.

Want cheese?  Put some on top and serve.

Want salas?  Add on top.

 

Best accidental mess ever.

Make it your own.  Make it for breakfast. lunch, or dinner.

Fast Huevos.  I live in the Southwest, where people ask Red or Green when you order your Enchiladas.  But if you don't, have easy access to chili, have no fear, Trader Joe's makes a respectable Enchilada Sauce. You can find it on the salas isle at Trader Joes.

Take a couple of corn tortillas and lightly soften ina warm pan, just put in pan and flip until soft.
Add some scrambled eggs, and top with some warm "Enchilada Sauce".
Add cheese, melt in microwave just barely, and serve.  Left over potatoes too.  Or beans, or rice.

Again, breakfast, lunch, dinner.  One jar of sauce will do roughly 2 Enchiladas, lightly covered.
Yum. 

What are you preparing?

House Beautiful - Inspiration

Thank you House Beautiful for your amazing Inspiration.

 

My dining room needs an update.  this inspires me.  I love the shades, on the windows, the white of the chairs, and the rustic of the table.  Now, how can I use this as inspiration in a dining room I have, and incorporate things from my own home?  Stay tuned.

 

Again, thank you House Beautiful.  I love a black door.  Maybe one day I will get around to repainting mine.

The room below is amazing inspiration, (don't know whose it is?), but I am loving the drapes.  Do you let yours puddle/pool on the floor?  I need new drapes and I can't decide.  Oh, and the table and those chairs.  Seriously love it all need I say more. 

Inspired.

Inspiration Needed -- HELP!

I need some inspiration. HELP.  I can't get a single project done.  On the upside, I am getting caught up on tv I didn't watch the first time around.  Right now, weeding through Brothers and Sisters.

 

I am a repeat offender.  I love stacked art.  This is a stack in an alcove before our wine room.

 

Finally leveled the wine refrigerators.    Still a major work in progress.

Yes, this happens in my house.  Clutter.  This secretary is currently closed in the wine room.  Just a junk catcher.  I need a new desk, maybe I should borrow it from the wine room, and free up that space.  The wine room area looks cluttered anyway. 

Feeling like a hoarder.  I need to declutter.  I need to scale down.  Oh, and yes, those are golf clubs in a wine room.  Hmmmmmm.

Don't judge.

Outdoor Kitchen -- Dreaming In Progress

Warning!! Ugly Pics Ahead!!

 

Ok, so we are outdoor kitchen and porch dreaming at this point.

 

This is our window from the house that faces outdoors -- tinted.

 

This is the other window old and not tinted.  I think I might add some tint.  Might even add a fake bar to mimic the windows on the other side.  This room is bright and hot in the summer time. Tint might help.  Tint might be expensive.  Not willing to do the expensive part.  Budget, not a bad word, I promise.

Then the Hubs wants this ugly sink to go under the windows -- there is a full faucet hookup behind that wall. Yep, that would mean cutting into the wall.  Yikes.  Always sounds like a good idea, until about 15 minutes in then it becomes a project.

You were warned, ugly photos.  Not glamorous.

So, if I tint the windows to match the others.  Then put a frost on the bottom to hide the sink from the inside.  Would it work?  I don't know if I can get past the ugly restaurant style sink.  Don't know if I want to waste any money on this project. 

Thoughts?

Tortilla Soup - Make it Your Own

Tortilla soup.  I love it.  But, I don't always feel like cooking it.  I have been known to buy the Progresso brand, and Campbells, and the other day I bought Whole Foods 365 Tortilla Soup.  I have to admit it had been sitting in my cabinet for at least a month.

 

Then, I saw the Pioneer Woman make a Tortilla Soup, and I thought oh, ya.  I was home alone, and it was just what I needed.

 

I did do like the Pioneer Woman, and cut up some corn tortillas, and put them in the soup, and boil it a bit.  Then served some baked in my own oven, corn tortillas on the side, and cut up some avacado.

 

I can't cook.  But, I can doctor up a can of soup. 

 

Treat yourself.  Make any soup you open or make your own.