A Very Muppet Marriage

Spotted these today on a wonderful blog for cupcake bakers, Cupcakes take the Cake. Muppet WEDDING cupcakes! I am about dying right now. Kermit and Piggy forever <3

Check out more, here. Happy weekend!!

Announcement

Maybe it was good juju that I posted about looking for a job... as it turns out, I just got a new one! And it's pretty awesome, and I still work for Disney on top of it.

Hope to be back in the swing of blogging soon. Thanks for your patience!

Beautiful Prints for your home... alert: Young House Love's sponsoring a giveaway featuring a vendor called Vol. 25. I'm totally in love and you will be too - check out Vol. 25 by clicking here.

Color Scheming

Frustrated by a lack of cohesion with my living room, I've recently turned to a favorite source: Pottery Barn to solve my latest decorating dilemma. I have not been able to decide on any color scheme I truly love! For awhile, it was warm beige, black, white, with pops of red. Snore. I got tired very quickly. I've read that a great place to start for color inspiration is with a rug but I have yet to find a rug I'm truly in love with either (that doesn't cost an arm and a leg). I recently tried to shake things up for Spring in this post but it wasn't quite right.

In pondering this question, I remembered that my bedspread in my bedroom is a print from the 'Barn and I've absolutely loved having it and working with the colors in it. I got to thinking that perhaps I found a print I loved for the living room, I could just use that to guide my color scheme for accessories, pillows, etc.


And that, ladies and jellyspoons, is exactly what I've been up to in the living room. A new color scheme of greys, neutrals, light blues, and small subtle pops of yellow (still adding those). Here's a few befores and the (still in progress) after inspired by Pottery Barn's Sydney Palampore fabric...

BEFORES

AFTER

Mmm Spinach and Artichoke Dip

One of my restaurant faves the past few years has been Spinach & Artichoke Dip. I often get it as a meal instead of an appetizer and it is equally delicious with flatbread, garlic bread, or tortilla chips!


I've been meaning to make my own version for Gus and I to enjoy on the cheap (sans giant restaurant bill). So here it is, deliciously cheesy Spinach and Artichoke Dip for your home table...

Ingredients:
- 3 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and chopped finely (fresh can work too)
- 1 10oz. can of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped finely 
- 3/4 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan 
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
- Dash of salt, pepper, garlic powder, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper

Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 400F. 
- Combine spinach, artichokes, mayo, most of the mozzarella, spices, and half the parmesan cheese until well blended.
- Place dip in greased small glass pan and top with remaining mozzarella and parmesan.
- Bake until cheese turns golden brown and you can see the dip bubbling.
- Serve with chips, croutons, forks.. anything you want! Enjoy!

Author's Note:

Just an FYI to fans who miss my daily posts. I lost my job a few weeks ago and have been interviewing like crazy to find a new one. Since this doesn't leave me much time or resources to blog, I've been writing sporadically.

I hope to be able to post more regularly again soon. Thanks for stopping by as always!

Piccata in a Pinch

The other night, Gus and I were hoping to make Chicken Piccata with our trusty Chicken Piccata sauce from Trader Joe's. We were stopped in our tracks when we realized our open bottle of Piccata sauce was wayyyy too old to eat! Solution number two: Trader Joe's Cacciatore Sauce! We had a brand new bottle we'd been meaning to try.


We pop that open and my happy smile falls.... I smell red peppers! Aaaahhh, there's a few things I really don't like, especially in tomato sauce - and red peppers is definitely one of those things!


So here we are, chicken with onions and pasta cooking away.. and no sauce!


Dun dun dun.. the birth of a new recipe: Piccata in a Pinch! Enjoy this when you're in the mood for a lemony, wine, butter sauce full of deliciousness. Chances are most of this stuff is on hand in your pantry already.. it was in mine thankfully!

Serves 2-3


Ingredients:
- 2 large chicken breasts, diced into medium pieces (cooked- We put ours in the crock pot on high for 2 hours when it was originally frozen)
- 1 lb of your choice of pasta, cooked and drained
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon garlic gloves
- 2 oz. of cream cheese (reduced fat works great)
- 1/2 cup Zesty Italian Dressing
- 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
- 1 cup of white wine
- 2 large pats of butter
- Dash of basil, parley, salt, and pepper


Directions:
- Cook pasta separately while making the chicken with sauce.
- Saute onion and garlic with olive oil over medium heat.
- After a few minutes, add chicken pieces to the mixutre and continue to cook until the chicken browns just a bit.
- In a small bowl, combine italian dressing, lemon juice, cream cheese, wine, butter, and spices. Add this mixture to the saute pan with the chicken.
- Simmer sauce for at least 5 minutes. It should smell awesomely like butter and wine.
- To finish, top pasta with sauce and enjoy! Yum!

The Best Bouquet - a Gift Card Bouquet

For those of you searching for a new twist on the bouquet of flowers gift... I've got a great DIY for you inspired by a gift I received from my friends Melissa and Harper.


Everyone loves getting flowers but they die a week or two later.. Why not give flowers and some amazing gift cards- the gifts that keep feeding your shopping addiction!

For my 23rd birthday, Harper and Melissa surprised me with a bouquet of lovely flowers and several gift cards (for small amounts) peppered in with those plastic note holders that come with bouquets. Here's how to make your own:


Supplies:
- One nicely sized bouquet of beautiful flowers
- 4-5 gift cards that your loved one would love to have, in amounts that work for you (with or without envelopes, your choice)
- 4-5 plastic note holders for flower arrangements


Directions:
- Place gift cards in envelopes or skip envelope step. Attach each to a plastic note holder and stick into bouquet.
- Present to your delighted loved one! Huzzah!


Happy gift giving everyone:)

Weekend Kitchen Nightmares: Rubber Lemon Cake

So I got it in my head that I woud make lemon cake for Gus and be super awesome by using rice four and xantham gum as a replacement for all-purpose flour. I used a tried and true cake recipe and only subbed the flour ingredients.


Yeah.. should have done a little more research into gluten-free baking. What I ended up with is something I've never quite seen before. It is almost a dense, rubber-like consistency that has the appearance of a very deep dish pizza crust. The good news is that it's kind of tasty with buttercream frosting on top (what isn't though?) and Gus likes eating it with a cup of tea.

I'd post the recipe but I doubt any of you want to serve rubber lemon cake to anyone, ever.


For now, I'm sharing just to demonstrate that we all have our kitchen disasters. The last one I had were chocolate chip cookies that spread so much, I had to put them in muffin tins to bake them. 


Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!