NEW HOUSE ANTICS..

HOUSTON.. WE HAVE A PROBLEM. I think I may be going insane. Maybe I'm not quite to my breaking point, but I'm having a serious issue with our current living arrangements. Our "necessities" are still in our rental house, while all of our decorations, furniture, and everything else in the "cute" category is stowed away at the new house. I. cannot. handle. this! Each day I wake up hating my old house more & more because it's beginning to look more & more dull. I've even boycotted sweeping the floor for the last 3 days, but I plan on giving in soon because Cash has been bringing me randoms that he finds on the floor. Thankfully, he's well behaved & always checks with his Mama before he attempts to put it in his mouth. He'll trot over to me.. put one eyebrow up and open his mouth in this manner..

...and put both hands out in a "I don't know?" gesture like this..

This means "Mama, can I eat this? I don't know??" and the answer is usually NO. A Cheerio or two off of the floor every once in awhile never hurt nobody ;) Speaking of my child, I have to take a moment to brag. I received my first "real" compliment on Cash's behavior the other day from my Grandma. She took him out to the baseball park without me and was blown away that he was so well behaved. She said that any time he would "stray" that she would say "No, no. Come here Cash.." and he would walk right back to her. That a boy! Maybe he DOES listen to me when he's corrected. Now I'll take some time to directly contradict that short story, and let you know about a little episode we had in Michaels' (the store!) the other day. My child STOLE for the first time. Yes, you read this correctly. I went in to Michaels' to search for a couple new project items for the new house, and thought it'd be a brilliant idea to bring Cash in Stroller/Shopping Cart free. On our trip to New Orleans, he discovered the art of "walking and holding our hand" in the mall, so I figured this quick trip would be a piece of cake. I headed directly to the wall of ribbon spools and let him play while I checked out the sale on Grosgrain. Before having a child, I would've scoffed at the Mama letting her 17 month old heathen pull various spools of ribbon off of the wall, but on this particular day I found myself clapping for Cash as he pulled spool after spool off of the wall and stacked the spools neatly according to color. Did I mention he was a baby Genius? Oh.. well now ya know.. He's also a kleptomaniac. Read on.. So I decided I needed nothing in the store, and that it was a pointless trip considering I was on my way to Hobby Lobby anyway.. I grabbed Cash's hand, put up my "basket tote" (the small baskets at the front of the store when you only need a couple of things but it's too much to hold? ummm.. basket tote?) and headed out of the door. When we got outside of the door, I picked Cash up because I didn't want him walking across the parking lot, and as I scooped him in my arms, I felt something hard inside of his shirt. Come to find out, my child had maneuvered his way out of the store with a spool of 2 inch ZEBRA PRINT ribbon hidden inside his shirt, and suspended at his chest by his tightly tucked in shirt. I couldn't decide whether I was more overwhelmed with the fact that he stole it, or confused as to why he chose zebra print.. Although Cash is waaay to young to understand the concept of "Why Stealing is Wrong" I brought it back in, apologized to the cashier, and made Cash give him a high-five. It's only fair.. Anyway, there's a first time for everything, and I guess it's better it happened at 17 months rather than 17 years.. Oooh, then it'd be on like Donkey Kong.

Back to house talk.. Although I'm tired of the old house, I'm falling more & more in L-O-V-E with our new house. We've finally finished painting every room but our bedroom. I'm enlisting the help of my mother on that one, because she's waay more talented & careful than I am. My lefty skills start to get ahold of me sometimes, and I can ruin a project as fast as I started it. We're doing a striped accent wall in our Master Bedroom, so I put it off until she could come help me knock it out. Yesterday I finished Cash's room, the hallway, and the "Man Cave." What is the Man Cave, you might ask? The Man Cave is the room intended only for guys. The Man Cave will have two flat screen TV's; one for the "The Game" and one for "The Game" (one of those games is televised sports & the other is Playstation 3..DUH.) The Man Cave has a serving window through the kitchen, so the closest I can get to this room is whenever I'm handing plates of food for all of the barbaric men beating their chests out of hunger. And yet, somehow, I got suckered into painting the walls AND CEILING of this Man Cave. Never again. I've never painted a ceiling before, but this particular room has unique architectural details, and the ceiling had panels just screaming for paint. I'm happy with the end result of ALL of the rooms, but I'll NEVER paint a ceiling again. Ever. Here's a couple of shots of the paint jobs within the house.. The fabulousness of the Master Bedroom will deserve its own post when it's finished!

 

Before/After Kitchen Counters:

New Kitchen Paint:

 

New Living/Dining Paint:

Cash's Room Paint:

Man Cave Ceiling:

Far from over, but ba-da-ba-ba-ba I'M LOVIN' IT! The dreadful Man Cave ceiling looks nice, but there are a couple of imperfections that need to be touched up after it's dry.  On a shopping note, I have two products I wanted to highlight today that are both pregnancy/baby related. I've tried neither, but plan to try them both. I've seen them in countless magazines, and read the reviews online. The first is a stretch mark cream made by a trusted company called "Mama Mio." Coming in at a whopping $70, it seems a little steep but it promises to rid of 70% of stretch marks, and every customer review seems to stand by this promise. It works on both new, forming and old stretch marks, and is safe to use during pregnancy. Thank ya Jesus (and my mom!) that I only came out with a few tiny, nude colored stretch marks on each hip, so they're not enough to keep me out of a bikini.. but I'd love to even get rid of those! If you have the extra money to throw down, I'd suggest trying this & letting me know how it worked for you! I'll feature your review on this blog..

MAMA MIO STRETCH MARK CREAM

www.mamamio.com

This next product is probably the coolest baby gadget I've ever seen. I'm not one of those first time Mama's who has to buy the newest gadgets.. I grew out of that one by about the 2nd month! However, our dining area in the new house is fairly small, and I've been trying to think of a solution to Cash's bulky highchair. This little contraption by Chicco is THE COOLEST. It's portable, it swivels in a 360 degree angle, holds up to 40 lbs, and best of all it has a 100% SAFETY RATING! I'm dying over the sleekness & the fact that it will eliminate those yucky restaurant highchairs forever. I found mine on Amazon and ordered it right away. LOVEEEE! I wish this would've been around 6 months ago, or at least that I would've known about it!

CHICCO 360 HOOK ON HIGHCHAIR

 

Totally random, but I've started on a new book on my Kindle that I CANNOT wait to dive into. I'm only into the very beginning, and I'm already intrigued. It's called "Heaven is For Real" by Todd Burpo, and it follows the story of a 4 year old boy who emerges from a life-saving surgery with a story about his "Trip To Heaven." He shares intricate details about loved ones who passed long before he was born, and even shares details about Jesus that he had never been taught. I can't wait to read the entire book.. such a remarkable and TRUE story! If you're looking for a good read, I'd highly suggest this one. Did I mention it's only $6.13 on my Kindle? SCORE!

Just call THIS the scatterbrained blog! I just had someone the other day tell me how "well organized and easy to read" my blog was.. Looks like I ruined that compliment. I'm all over the place, but I can't leave ya'll without a recipe! This one's another "date night-er." If you're looking for a chicken recipe that really amps up the "fancy", THIS is your go to entree! It is elegant, DELICIOUS and looks like you've spent hours slaving away in the kitchen.. when it's more like 20 minutes ;) I saw this on Racheal Ray, jotted it down, then put my own twist on it to amp up the flavor (they NEVER use enough seasoning on those cooking shows..or maybe I'm just from the South?) Enjoy!

 

SPINACH & MUSHROOM STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS

NEED:

- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 6 ounces

- Large plastic food storage bags or waxed paper

- 1 package, 10 ounces, frozen chopped spinach

- 2 tablespoons butter

- 12 small mushroom caps, crimini or button

- 2 cloves garlic, cracked

- 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese

- 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano or Romano, a couple of handfuls

- 1/2 cup cream cheese

- Toothpicks

- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

- Tony's Chachere's Creole Seasoning

- Garlic Powder

- Lawry's Seasoned Salt

- S&P

<strikethrough>

SAUCE:

- 2 tablespoons butter

- 2 tablespoons flour

- 1/2 cup white wine

- 1 cup chicken broth strikethrough>

SCRATCH THAT! Thanks Rach, but that looked GROSS to me, so I just warmed up a can of my favorite Spaghetti Sauce, and poured it on top. DELISH!

STEPS:

1.Place breasts in the center of a plastic food storage bag or 2 large sheets of waxed paper. Pound out the chicken from the center of the bag outward using a heavy-bottomed skillet or mallet. Be firm but controlled with your strokes. Season the flattened chicken with Tony's, Garlic Powder, Lawry's & Salt and Pepper.

2. Defrost spinach in the microwave. Transfer spinach to a kitchen towel. Twist towel around spinach and wring it out until very dry. Transfer to a medium-mixing bowl.

3. Place a nonstick skillet over moderate heat. When skillet is hot, add butter, mushrooms and garlic.. Season with salt and pepper, seasoned salt and saute 5 minutes. Transfer mushrooms, garlic and shallot to the food processor. Pulse to grind the mushrooms and transfer to the mixing bowl, adding the processed mushrooms to the spinach. Add ricotta, cream cheese and grated cheese to the bowl. Stir to combine the stuffing. Return your skillet to the stove over medium high heat.

4. Place a mound of stuffing on each breast and wrap and roll breast over the stuffing. Secure breasts with toothpicks. Add 3 tablespoons oil to the pan, 3 turns of the pan. Add breasts to the pan and brown on all sides, cooking chicken 10 to 12 minutes. The meat will cook quickly because it is thin. Remove breasts; Remove toothpicks. Serve breasts whole or, remove from pan, slice on an angle and fan out on dinner plates. Top stuffed chicken breasts or sliced stuffed breasts with generous spoonfuls of MARINARA SAUCE!

And to stick with the "Food Network" trend, here's a Red Velvet Cupcake recipe from Paula's magazine that I ripped out  at a doctor's office waiting room, and saved for my dear life. AHHH-MAZING!

 

RED VELVET CUPCAKES WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

NEED:

- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 1/2 cups sugar

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder

- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

- 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

- 2 large eggs, room temperature

- 2 tablespoons red food coloring

- 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

FROSTING:

- 1 pound cream cheese, softened

- 2 sticks butter, softened

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

* Chopped pecans and fresh raspberries or strawberries, for garnish

CUPCAKE STEPS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers.

 

FROSTING STEPS:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.

2. Garnish with chopped pecans and a fresh raspberry or strawberry.

3. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting. 2. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

 

Sorry so short and uneventful, but my life has been so consumed with the move that I've yet to really have much of an eventful life these last couple of weeks. I'm about to have to meet the nice men of Sears at the new house to deliver our new stove between..you guessed it. 3:00 pm - 6:30 pm. Oh no biggie, just a 3 1/2 hr wait with a 17 month old child, knowing that they'll show up at 6:29 on the dot. Beautiful! Until next time..