Good Eats Challenge Week 1

(Be forewarned. This is not about home design and is long so if you're up for it, read on!)

Food is a big deal in our house. We love to eat it, talk about it, watch it being cooked and plan for it. It is something Daniel and I do together and enjoy together always. I'm lucky enough to have a husband who works from home so we usually eat breakfast, lunch and dinner together and plan most meals together as well. Needless to say we have a lot of food rituals. The biggest one for us is Wine and Cheese Tuesdays. We've been doing this for almost four years now and it is my favorite night of the week.

Here's what you do.
Step 1: Buy wine and cheese you like (or haven't ever had before)
Step 2: Consume said wine and cheese on a night of your choosing.

Simple right? That is why it is so wonderful. There is no cooking, no fuss, and very little clean up which leaves the entire night for us to focus on each other. We have never missed a wine and cheese in four years (except when far apart and even then we often have parallel wine and cheese while chatting) that is how important this night is to us.

Why Tuesdays you ask? Well, when I was teaching we had meetings Wednesday mornings which meant a late start for school so I could sleep in just that little bit more to avoid going to work hung over. It has been great for our relationship and our lives. We've learned to eat many strange and wonderful cheeses and drink new and exotic wines that we might never have tried before.

Since I rarely work (more on that later) days of the week aren't super important to me but Daniel still enjoys is Fridays (even if he ends up working all weekend). Somehow though we've never really done anything special with this night. Well that's going to change! We are both HUGE fans of Good Eats and every time a new Alton Brown cookbook comes out I know what I will be getting for my next birthday/Christmas/anniversary present. It seemed only natural that we do something around this so we've created the Good Eats Challenge. It's a little more complex than Wine and Cheese so stay with me folks.

Step 1: Watch an episode of Good Eats
Step 2: Cook food made on said episode
Step 3: Bask in the glory that is good food

Not to hard right? Some of the recipes are a little more demanding than others but we thought we'd give it the old college try.

Our method: Start with the first Good Eats cookbook and work our way through each episode.

Episode 1: Steak your Claim (YouTube Video for you)

That's me reading the recipe to Daniel. He likes to play paparazzi but I always get him back

Isn't he just cute!

Back to the cooking! Obviously this one is about steak. Namely Rib Eye steak. Now we don't eat much meat in this house (mostly because I can't cook it very well) but we both know a good steak and delicious! (sorry non meat eaters out there but I can't lie) 

Here's the Recipe (taken from the Food Network)

I like this recipe because it is super simple. Start with a Rib Eye steak salt, pepper, and oil 

We used Grape seed oil because it has a really high smoke point

The interesting thing (to me anyway) about this recipe is the use of the oven. First you put the cast iron skillet in the oven and crank it up to 500. When it comes to temp. then you put it on high heat on the stove and put the steak on. (and I advise you to open a window or door or two because there will be some smoke. Though not much if you use the right oil)

Then you sear it for 30 sec on each side and put it back in the oven for 2 minutes on each side for medium rare. You can not ruin a steak this way. I might have cooked mine a little longer next time (I'm more of a Medium side of Medium Rare but that's just me) but they were perfect. 

The best thing about the recipe is not even in the show (but it's in the book!) and that's the Cognac Pan Sauce. Super simple and delicious! 

1/4 cognac tossed in the hot pan (take it off the heat first and leave it off). Cook 30 sec whisking all the good bits into the cognac. 

Then add 1 ounce crumbled blue cheese and whisk another 30 seconds.

Then add 2 tbsp butter and whisk until it thickens up a bit (something like another 30 seconds)

Pour into ramekins and serve along side to dip in. 

Absolutely amazing! I can't wait until next week: Mashed Potatoes! Yum!

Hope you enjoyed the departure from Home decor. If not, there is definitely more where that came from! 

So Happy to Get Away...

Just giving you all a heads up that I am off on vacation until the 26th. I have a few posts lined up for you while I'm gone but I apologize in advance for not responding to comments until our return. We are off to the Dominican Republic for our second honeymoon so I will be back tanned and armed with some amazing sunny decorating ideas (and hopefully a few surprises). Can't wait to share it all with you when I return! Until then, enjoy the posts I've got planned and good luck with all your projects!

-Cheers!

Stylin'

After waiting a whole week (give or take a day) I finally was able to finish styling the front porch. I didn't want to go out and get anything new for it until I got a feel for what I already had and how it all fit in so no money was spent on this styling (well, I did buy plants for the hanging baskets but that is it).

You probably remember from here my final reveal of the stenciled floor but I'll do a quick before and after for you anyway.

Hideous Before

Sophisticated After

**swoon** A million times better! There are still some tweaks to be made as I grow my decorating arsenal but I like how put together it feels out there. I'm not entirely sold on my round table for that corner and I don't know if I like having the "coffee table" (It's a shelf from IKEA) there either but they are what I had on hand. As I find fun things thrifting I'm sure the whole place will change (I'm already looking forward to doing a Christmas display!) but for now I think it will be the perfect place to have a nice glass of wine and hang out on these long summer nights.


&Here @ Savvy Southern Style

It isn't really summer until...

You go to the beach.

from Tumblr

For the Southern California girl in me beaches=summer and it hasn't started until you've spent one whole day at the beach. As a kid it was all about playing in the ocean and pretending we were exploring exotic locations and finding creatures of the deep. As an adult beaches are about pure relaxation. A good book and the sun are all I need and this is what I am craving right now! Luckily next week is our anniversary which means our second honeymoon! Yay! (Daniel loved our honeymoon to the Turks and Caicos islands in the Caribbean so much last year he decided he wanted to do one every year. Sure honey!) That means this time next week i'll be lounging beach side in the Dominican Republic. When you only get one trip a year you've got to make the best of it right?

What makes summer for you? Do you have specific plans you do every year? Let's chat!

Showing it off!

I don't know about you, but I have a TON of jewelry I never wear. Mostly because it is gaudy or not my style but still is beautiful in its own way. I had an elderly friend who gave me quite a bit of costume jewelry and I love it because it reminds me of her (even if I would never wear it). So I've been on the lookout for a way to showcase my jewelry and not let it hide in a box somewhere.

I've seen lots of fun shadow box designs (like this one from Martha) and was hoping to find boxes for cheep somewhere (seriously, why are frames so expensive???)

Lucky for me I was wandering through my local Goodwill and found the perfect thing! Its a shadow box that opens up so you can add things to it after it is hung (Micheals calls it a "Keepsake Float Frame"). Not only that but after I found the one at the thrift store I walked into Micheals and found the exact same one in a different size (on sale!). (I know I should have gotten a picture of them before I put it all together but I forgot)

Here they are hung up

You can see the one on the bottom has some dings but that is probably why it was on sale in the first place. Oddly enough the thrift store one was cleaner and cheaper but oh well.

To put them together I bought some pretty gold tipped pins and arranged my pretties as I saw fit. Hanging them to the wall was a bit of a challenge because you want them to be secure so I ended up hanging them and then adding command strips to the corners for extra stability.

You could probably bracket them to the wall also but I am not sure where they will end up in the long run so I didn't want to put more holes in the wall than necessary.

This is my favorite feature

Everything is neatly behind glass but you can still get to all the jewelry without taking it off the wall! In the long run I may refinish them and put some decorative fabric for backing but I like them as is right now so we will see how the room evolves.What I really love about having it all displayed is that I wear everything so much more. I've never been great at accessorizing so keeping them where I can see everything has really helped me out. And I love that my broaches are out on display finally!

Starting new with everything this could be a pretty pricey project (new these frames cost something like 30-40$ each) but you could always get cheap Ikea shadow boxes and remove the glass so you can get to your jewels.  I may do that as my collection increases but who knows. I would probably advise against putting your really expensive jewelry in there since they are pretty easy to steal (I keep my nice stuff in a different place) but if you are not worried go right ahead!

Welcoming Pennant

I've been wanting to make a pennant banner for ages and I thought it would be the perfect thing for the blank space to the left of the front door.

Since it is summer and the weather has been warm I decided to make the pennant bright and welcoming. I kept to what fabric I had on hand (leftovers from quilts I have made) and chose a range of blues, greens, yellows and pinks. Then I did some googling (the English teacher in me loves that googling is now an accepted and understood verb but I digress). There are millions of patterns, plans and places to buy a pennant pattern but the over all idea is really simple.

Hardware:

• Pinking shears
• Cutting mat
• Rotary cutter
• Quilting ruler
• Sewing machine
• Pins (if you are a novice or pickier than me)

Software:

• Pretty fabric
• Paper to cut your pattern from
• Felt (for letters)
• Coordinating thread
• Bias tape (or ribbon)

Step 1: Decide on the shape of your pennant triangle.

Step 2: Cut out triangles from fabric (I did a front and back but you don't have to if you know you aren't going to see both sides) This is made a lot easier if you have a rotary cutter, cutting mat and quilting ruler but you could always pin your pattern too.

Step 3: Arrange the triangles to your liking (this is way harder than it looks but maybe it's just me)

Optional Step 4: Cut out and place your message (you can see I reversed these steps but it doesn't really matter). I wanted mine to say welcome so I picked a pretty yellow felt, printed out some letters and cut them out.

Step 5: Sew triangles together. Now depending on what style you are going for you can do this right side in and flip them out for a more finished seam or you can do them right side out and pink the edges (using pinking shears to keep the fabric from fraying). I liked the more casual look of the pinked edges so I went with that. This would also be the time to sew on your message if you have one.

Step 6: Sew pennants on to your coordinating bias strip. In hindsight I would have used a double fold instead of a single fold but oh well. You might want to pin your pennants on the bias first to get your spacing even but I am beginning to feel like pinning is to sewers as taping is to painters. You only need it when you are new or for the really tricky bits.

Step 7: Stand back and enjoy your amazingness.

You can see the finished pinked edges a little better here

They won't be staying here long but I love how bright and happy they look. Just what my newly remade front porch needs!

New Header!

Check it out! isn't it lovely. I'll give you the skinny on what's what.

Top Left-Right

• Daniel hanging my lovely new light in the bed room; Blown glass hatstands; Bathroom cabinet and new shower curtain; Dining room

Bottom Left-Right

• Norman hiding in the pillows; The newly stenciled front porch; The front stairs; Me in DC and the botanical gardens; My welcoming mantle (you'll see that on Monday)

After reading this tutorial from Clover Lane about place mats (a totally adorable idea! I'm definitely doing this for my small friends) I used her included links to use Picasa to make the collage. Super easy and free! yay!