Blooming Onion Sourdough Loaf

I cannot take credit for this delicious treat. I found it at The Changeable Table It looked easy enough for me to try.

The Hubs and I enjoy a solid appetizer. In fact, pre-pregnancy, we would have one night a week where we ate only appetizers for dinner. I called it "College Dinner Night." It was awesome.

On Sundays, it's tough for either one of us to peal ourselves off the couch long enough to make a full meal, so this served as our football snacky.

You'll need:
A large loaf of Sourdough bread (unsliced)
1lb Monterey Jack Cheese (sliced thinly)
1/2 c melted butter
1/2 c chopped green onions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Start by cutting the bread. This is slightly tricky because you are cutting both ways (being sure not to slice all the way through!!), horizontally and vertically. Sourdough is pretty tough, so a little smushing shouldn't leave permanent damage.

Then slice your cheese. Thinly, both length-wise and width-wise.

Chop your green onions

Add them to your melted butter

Drizzle over your bread being sure get the melted fatty goodness in the cracks

Add cheese to every single opening

Wrap in tinfoil

Place on a baking pan and put her in the oven for 15 minutes

Take it out, uncover, put back in for another 10-15mins (I added a little olive oil at this point to give the top some extra crispiness)

nom nom nom

hope you likey.

<3 dani

Flashabck -- Halloween's Past...

 Flashback...
Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Fall and Halloween...More?...Oh Yeah!

Halloween Bottles and a new front porch!!

The Hubs got the afternoon off unexpectedly and because I was so super excited, we made a trip to the Farmer's Market to pumpkin pick! One for me, one for the Hubs and one for the Pup. Transporting the cornstalk in my Mitsubishi was hilarious, but when I want something, I force it to happen! ;-) Here's our new front porch.

Earlier in the day, I stopped by Organize and Decorate Everything  and saw these stinkin' awesome Halloween poison bottles. I had.to.try. They would go so perfectly in the kitchen/dining area a.k.a zoned spooky area. And the best part about this project...totally free - weee!

I dug into my pile of bottles (which the Hubs says I hoard, but it's just one little shelf in our kitchen, I swear!). I came up with a few good ones and filled them with a little food coloring and water. It took a few tries to get the color right. My first looked similar to a bottle of...well...let's just say the yellow was a little much.

See, I keep the bottles for moments like this (honey!). Back to work! I've got the potions brewed and poison bottled, now I just need some labels. Oops, forget the lids (mostly on purpose). Craft paint to the rescue. Yup, I definitely painted the lids after I filled the bottles. Hey, I'll admit to my laziness. I want things done now, not ten minutes from now!

Okay, back to the labels. Leanne at OaDE suggested searching "Halloween Labels" for plenty of options and boy was she right. Seriously, just Google it. Tons of options. I allowed myself five whole minutes to make a final decision and printed! Any longer and I don't think I would have completed this project today. I pasted  the images into a Word.doc and resized them to fit my bottles.

I wiped the paper with used coffee grounds to create a little aging. Originally, I wanted to dip them in tea, but I thought it through and, yeah, that would take waaaaay too long. This way, the paper was pliable and still dry enough to adhere to the glass. I spritzed the paper with Elmer's Adhesive Spray and slapped it on. Perfect.

My center piece went from this:

To this:

Which do you like better?

Huge shout out to Organize and Decorate Everything for fueling my fire!

<3 dani

Fall Mantle

This year's fall mantle looks rather similar to last year's mantle. That's mostly because my brain is in pregnant mode and my creativity has been spent on the nursery. Nonetheless, I think it looks beautiful and it was inexpensive.

Most of the decor I had from years past, but I picked up a few things at Michael's with my 20% off coupon. Including the candles and flowers. The books were gifts from my sister-in-law. PS -- old books look great with any decor. Try it. I use the books my sis gave me in just about every room in the house. Obsessed!

Here are the dollar store pumpkins and garland I snagged last year. I should have bought all the pumpkins when I had the chance. I went back this year to get some for my momma and of course they didn't have them. We'll never see these cute little pumpkins again.

And the beautiful flower bundles i bought for 80% off.

There you have it. Simple, cheap, and purdy.

<3 dani

Fall is in the air (and my mouth...)

I've been trying my best to stay away from coffee shops during my pregnancy and this time of year it's especially difficult. I drink decaf coffee every morning and the placebo effect seems to be working, but recently the smell of cinnamon and pumpkin coffee nearly send me into caffeine withdrawal / shock. So much so that I had to create my own version of a Fall Coffee Drink.

Here's what I used (any variation will work, I'm sure)

Strong Coffee (1/2 coffee ground to 6 cups water)
Pumpkin Puree

Pumpkin Spice Creamer

Vanilla

First, I started my coffee. Then I put about 2 tbsp of creamer in my mug, along with a 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Put that in the microwave for about 30 secs to warm it up. Then, mix in about 1 tbsp pumpkin puree and wait for your coffee to finish...

and here's what I ended up with (I'm drinking it as I type and it's delcious).

Enjoy 

<3 dani

New Cover for a New Tushy

I'm lucky enough to have great friends that are hooking me UP with baby gear.

When I got my lovely changing table I had to do two very easy things. First, spray paint it white. Next, find a cover for the pad. Easy right? Totally.

Except pad covers are crazy expensive...at least in my frugal opinion.

So instead of buying these, I found some inexpensive fabric and made my own. I hope this tutorial does justice to the simplicity of this project.

You'll need:

1 yd fabric
pins
scissors
sewing machine
a changing pad to cover ;-)

First I laid out my yard of fabric over my pad (inside out of course).

Then I wrapped it up and pinned it down.

I literally pinned it into the pad so the pattern didn't get off-center on me. I'm all about symmetry. I'll take these pins out once I get my sewing edges pinned up nicely. Above shows the pins down the middle. Below shows the pins along the edges. 

The corners were a tad difficult, but I just pretended I was wrapping a present and bam, got it. Make sure to pin right up next to pad here because this is the part that you'll actually sew.

I trimmed off any excessive fabric to prevent bunching. 

I left the back open like a pillow sham.

Once you've got the two ends pinned snuggly, you can take out the pins on the rest of the pad. You'll have to take the fabric off using the flap you left on the bottom. It gets tricky here, but take it sloooow and steady.

Once it's off, the rest is easy. Just sew a line on either pinned end and done. Flip it so the inside is now in and finagle it back on the pad.

Nice, right?

As for the rest of the changing table fix-in's. The top baskets are from Michael's. 40% + 15% (love the teacher discount) off totaling $15. The bottom baskets were a buck each at the Dollar Store.

The rest of the nursery will be revealed soon!

<3 dani

big shout-out to my friend Tyler who subtly reminded me how much I love blogging my crafty-ness. 

Baby Ryne's Room

In the midst of losing a job, gaining a job, crashing a computer and trying to get ready for baby number one, maintaining the blog has definitely taken a backseat. As I approach the last trimester, prepping Ryne's room has become top priority. I can tell you all about it now because am at home trying to rid myself of this nasty cold/flu/death virus. Here's a little glimpse of what is shaping up to be our son's room.

We decided [read: I decided] that an overly themey nursery was silly. No Winnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse sheets for us. So now, the only real theme we have is based off of these paintings I made.

(sorry for the poopy photos, my computer is still broken, so cell phone stuff will have to suffice)

I saw an etsy shop a while ago that had painted puppy canvases and thought they would be adorable in the baby's room. I really wanted each one of the family dogs (i.e. my mom's, my bro-in-laws, ours) represented and instead of asking someone to paint them at $100 a pop, I tried to create them myself. It wasn't easy and like any other art project I tackle, I'm not completely convinced I love them. But there they hang.

There's more to come because we have so much more to do!

<3 dani

Excuses Excuses and Some Painted Doors

It's been a bit since my last update, but this time my excuse isn't laziness. This time it's legit. The Hubs and I are finally pregnant!!

Here 'it' is at 9wks, but we are now 3months!! 

Also, I'm pretty sure I see a thumbs up.

But along with that I've been incredibly, beyond belief, sick. So sick that I finally ended up in the ER, eeeww. Turns out my appendix was getting real grumpy about losing space. After emergency surgery and a week off work, I'm starting to feel normal again.

Now that I'm further along and don't feel like dying all day everyday, I can start playing again. And to top it off, schools out for summer too!!

My first project after returning from my extended trip to Hell was something small; I painted some doors!

I have three doors that lead to the backyard: a french door (yes that's singular), a slider and a half paneled/half glass. They're all white, which is pretty dull. I painted the front door a deep red last year and had plenty left over to paint at least a couple of these white doors in the back.

Check it.

before

After, with white trim

Before

After, with trim touch-up too.

With the exception of being stung by a bee, it went smoothly. Happy to be back in blogland. 

Yay!

<3 dani

Composting 101

I can't claim that I'm a horticultural genius, nor do I have a green thumb. In fact, all of the house plants I've ever had (including a bamboo) have died on me. But last year I started a compost bin and was actually successful.

Composting is a great way to reduce the amount of waste you and your family create and to put your veggie scraps to great use in your garden.

(Warning: Scientific Speak Ahead!) Energy from the sun, carbon dioxide from the air, and nutrients from water and soil make plants grow. When they die and decompose through a complex process involving microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria, insects, mites and worms, nutrients go back into the soil, and carbon dioxide back into the air. The humus remaining from this decay process provides soil with organic matter that can hold water and nutrients in the soil, making it easier to till.

On to the bin...

When I made my original bucket, I used an extra bin I had around. Turns out it wasn't the most durable plastic bin, so after a rough Michigan winter she needs to be replaced.

You'll need:

18 Gallon Bucket w/ a lid
Drill & Drill bit
and some veggie scraps to get it started

In order for your scraps to compost, you have to have circulating air. Start by drilling holes in your lid.

It doesn't matter what size holes you drill, but makes sure you drill a lot of them.

Top, bottom and sides too.

And here she is. I might need some more air holes on the sides, but for now this will do.

I added my veggie scraps and about five cups of the original compost to help start the composting process.

Remember, you can put nearly anything into your compost bucket: leaves, weeds, fruit and vegetable peels, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags, newspaper and grass clippings all work well. Anything you put into your composter should be chopped fairly small so it will break down quicker in the small space. Fruit and vegetable trimmings can be chopped small with a knife, or run through a blender or food processor to break them down. Chop leaves by running a lawn mower over them a few times. Crush eggshells finely so they will break down faster.

Be cautious not to put any meat products or animal droppings. Both may contain toxins that could contaminate or harm whatever you put your finished compost on.

Each day you should turn your compost. This won't be tough to remember considering you'll probably be dumping scraps in there. I keep a trowel next to mine and every time I dump something in, I give it a turn.

If your compost is beginning to smell or it isn't heating up, check this site Home Composting. It's my go-to site when my bin has issues.

I'll post soon on where I keep my scraps before they make it to the outdoor bin.

<3 dani


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