Recipe for Dinner

Haven't had anything to post about this week but I do have a new favorite dish and I'll give you the recipe!

The chicken recipe can be found here:  Quick Chicken Piccata

It's delicious and very easy.

I serve it with my mom's recipe of baked carrots.

Baked Carrots

1/2 Cup sugar

1/3 Cup butter

1 package baby carrots

1 tsp. salt

1/3 tsp. cinnamon

1/3 Cup boiling water

Place carrots in a greased casserole.  Cream the butter, sugar, salt, and cinnamon.  Add water and blend well.  Pour over carrots.  Cover with foil and bake for 1-1/2 hours at 350 degrees.

To top off the meal serve with a green salad and rice or new potatoes.  It's delicious.   Enjoy the HOT weekend!

Recipe Friday - Apple Cake

This recipe is delicious!  I made it for D$'s parents birthday last weekend.  Try it for your dad's this Father's Day!  This is my grandmother, Nanny's recipe.

Country Apple Cake

2 large eggs
1-1/4 cups vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 Cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Cup chopped walnuts
3 Cups chopped, peeled apples

Heat oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly grease a 13x9x2 baking pan, bundt pan, or 2 loaf pans.

In a large bowl beat eggs, oil, and vanilla until well blended.  Beat in flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.  Batter will be very thick when completely mixed.  Stir in nuts and apples.  Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.

Bake about 35 minutes (took mine about 40) or until toothpick comes out clean.  Serve warm or cold.  Sprinkle confectioners sugar or cool whip or vanilla ice cream.

I served mine with caramel ice cream and it was delish!  Has a really good flavor!  Very easy and quick recipe and it tastes oh so good.  Hope everyone enjoys their Father's Day!

Praise! New Slipcovers!

Before:

From day 1, I have hated these beasts.  I tucked and tucked every day, they were hard and stiff, just all around horrid.

After:

Thanks to my good friend Kerra!  She had one on her sofa and I thought it looked and felt great.  So I ordered some myself from JCPenny.com.  Not only do they look sleeker, they are SO soft, and 2 separate pieces, so not as much tuck, tucking!  The old beasts are on the credenza in this pic.  If anyone wants them let me know! (not that anyone would after my complaints!)

Organizing and great deals.

I think I have a problem.  Everything HAS to have a place.  Yesterday morning I got the bee in my bonnet to organize the laundry room and underneath all the kitchen cabinets.  Keep in mind, I organize the laundry room like once a month.  It is my MAIN storage area for extra kitchen things I don't have room for, laundry supplies, my pool bags and towels, paper towels, toilet paper, etc.  It's such a small room and A LOT of stuff is in there.  Plus it is oddly shaped so if I put stuff in there I have to angle myself to put the wash in.  Anywho.  So I went to Target and bought 2 plastic drawer things, 1 to go in between the washer and one to fit in the odd space (but not cover the air vent! so it has rollers)

I went to the Dollar Tree (one of my very favorite stores) and bought all this.

3 red stackable baskets (for candle storage and 1 for my food storage container lids)

2 blue baskets with handles (for cleaning supplies)

4 clear containers with white tops (for my nail polish, kitchen napkins, and I think I have 1 left over)

4 large white containers (for cleaning supplies, storage in laundry room, storage for extra toiletries in linen closet)

all for $14.70

Seriously, why go anywhere else to get these things!? They are so cheap!  And they have drawer organizers too, which is very helpful in a desk or kitchen.

This is in between the washer and dryer, have dryer sheets, stain stick, etc in top drawer and powder room/nice kitchen hand towels in the bottom 2 drawers.

It looks kinda messy, but it is nice to have something to stack things on!  First drawer, random bags for dry cleaning, toting things places, etc. Second drawer, ribbon, bows, gift tags.  Third drawer, beach towels.  Fourth drawer, gift bags.

Yes, I have to stand on the washer or dryer to get to any of this..  But I have to put this stuff somewhere!!

Great deals.  I really have been wanting some Martini Glasses.  So Sunday afternoon D$ brought me to Pier 1.  I got 8 of these stemless Martini glasses for $2 a piece.  These little white serving bowls were like a buck!!  SO I got all of this for:

 like $22!

They had a lot of glassware and serving pieces on MAJOR sale.

Go get you some!

I also realized I could serve dessert in these glasses too, I think it would be pretty!

Diet Coke Cake.

This is almost a re-post.  Thanks to my good friend Lauren who wrote the Recipe-Friday post last Friday!  I just have to say, I've made yellow cupcakes with Sprite Zero and chocolate icing.  Yellow cake with chocolate icing is Drew's favorite.  I also made Devil's food cake (with 50% less sugar, made with Splenda) and diet coke.  This one was my favorite.  It was so moist and delish!  I topped it with cool whip and kept it in the fridge at my friend Jessica's suggestion.  Then for our girls supper club Wednesday night I made triple chocolate fudge cake with diet coke and cool whip.  It seemed to be a hit!  There were only 2 pieces left over!  If you haven't tried it already, I HIGHLY recommend it.  Saves so many calories and there is NO difference in taste!  All you have to do is make it like the back of the box but leave out the eggs, oil, and water and replace them with a diet canned beverage!

Saturday morning I am making my Italian grandmother's (Nanny) Apple cake for D$'s parents birthday.  I even cut out a stencil that says HAPPY BIRTHDAY for me to use when I sprinkle my powdered sugar on.  I'm out of control.  I'm sure it is delicious and maybe next Friday I will share that recipe and a pic or 2! Have a fabulous weekend!

Numbers

I found these cute numbers at this store called Wrapsody in Patton Creek.  I got these for $2 a piece.  Obviously, it is our house number.  I can't decide how I want to incorporate them.  Hang them over a door? Try and make a wreath and hang them from that for the front door?  I don't know, does anyone have any suggestions?

Also, found this cute hand towel and paid way too much for it...

Good work reaps rewards.

Sweet D$ was nice enough to stay 2.5 hours after a huge church service on Sunday.  Unfortunately, I could only wait on him for an hour (I had a migraine and felt HORRIBLE).  When he was done he told me he had some presents for me.  I was like what?  I thought in my head, I've been waiting on you for forever and you stopped and got something? haha.  Well I walked outside and he had these beauties.

Pretty azaleas and ferns.  Not sure how to care for them, so anyone who knows, please inform me!!  I put the azaleas in a pot and watered them all, but that is it.  Our front porch is starting to look like I am a crazy plant lady, luckily not a crazy cat lady.  I'd like to move some to the back porch with the cute new table and chairs, but I don't know what can be in the sun constantly.  Any help would be much appreciated!!

Organization.

Recently I have been in a nesting phase minus the pregnant thing.  I have organized every room, every closet, every under the counter space, ETC.  I'm posting some pictures to show up I organize, mostly by category.

This is the pantry.

I organized the cans with cans, all the baking mixes, etc.  I put the things I use daily in arms reach.  I put the things I don't use very often in the back or up top.

These are great.  I picked them up at Target yesterday. I put all of our zone and south beach and granola bars in 1 box, instead of having 6 boxes strung all over the pantry.  I also have misc. snack foods in the bottom one.

Fridge.  Drinks up top; dairy on next shelf, like yogurt, butter, etc. ; drinks; and meat on the bottom shelf.

Condiments on first 2 shelves on the door; salad dressing and marinades; then things I don't use often on the bottom!

The time it takes to organize is SO worth it.  Yesterday I spent an hour on the pantry, fridge, and the cleaning supplies under the kitchen sink.  I recommend organizing every couple of months.  That way, there is NO way it can get completely out of control and you can also weed things out due to expiration dates.  Hope this will inspire someone to get organized!

Recipe Friday - Guest Post!

Sarah has been begging me to tell her the recipe for this cake and still doesn’t quite get how it works. But it seriously is as simple as a boxed cake mix and one 12 oz can of a diet soda.  That’s it!

The famous Diet Coke cake is a well-loved recipe for dieters. Almost any diet soda will work. Lemon lime or cream sodas work great for yellow and white cakes. Cola, cherry cola and root beer are excellent for chocolate cakes! These cakes come out exceptionally moist and sticky, but delicious!

Directions

·  Obtain your cake mix and diet soda. Use a traditional cake mix that requires eggs, oil, etc. on the box - pudding cake mixes, brownie mixes, and angel food mixes generally do not work. Choose a 'light' colored soda for white and yellow cake, and a 'dark' soda for chocolate or devil's food cake.

·  Combine the box of cake mix with the can of diet soda in a medium mixing bowl. If desired, add sprinkles or miniature chocolate candies to make confetti cake - yum! You can color a light colored cake with a bit of colored sugar or food coloring as well. Mix well to make your cake batter.

 (* the batter will be runny and clumpy, use a fork to break up the clumps as best as possible )

· You may now follow the baking directions on the box - this will make two layers, or twenty-four cupcakes.

Otherwise, use the following baking guidelines:
24 cupcakes: 18-21 minutes at 350 degrees
2 9-inch layers: 28-31 minutes at 350 degrees
2 8-inch layers: 33-36 minutes at 350 degrees
1 13x9 pan: 32-35 minutes at 350 degrees

Make sure to switch the positions of the pans in the oven, halfway through baking!

·  Allow to cool in pans for about a half hour before you frost or try to eat your cake. You can enjoy this cake as is - it's far more moist than normal cake. Topping ideas: fat-free whipped topping, strawberry or fruit preserves, honey, marshmallow fluff

I haven’t taken many pictures of my “creations” however, here’s a half-eatened final project, and my try at mixing batters!

Any questions – email me at calvela@gmail.com.

Once you give this recipe a shot, you’ll never go back to using eggs, and oil. 

Don’t be scared folks. It’s simple, quick, and absolutely, fantastically, delicious!

Sarah, thanks for having me guest blog and be able to share this simple, sweet treat!

New Pretties.

World Market has a lot of cute stuff right now.  When I went to look for out door tables, I got a little bit of EVERYTHING else instead of a table.  Like these lovely place mats.  I love the pattern and the colors are perfect.  They easily lay flat as well.  They were $3.99 a piece.

When my parents were here this past weekend we went to our "favorite."  The old Ethan Allan store on 31, "Interiors and Antiques."  I believe that is what it is called.  I found these awesome vases.  I was looking for some sort of contraption to put my dried bridal bouquet in.   These vases were less than $10 a piece!  I was shocked.  They are thick glass too.  So right now I have my bridesmaids bouquet from Kerra's wedding in one.

And my bouquet.  Unfortunately, it was not dried hanging up, it was laying flat.  My mom couldn't do it because there was an emergency trip my family had to take the day after our wedding.  But, my favorite way to dry flowers is so easy!  Use a wire hanger and some clothes pins.  Take the bouquet or flowers and clip the stems to the hanger and hang them somewhere out of the way to dry, like the garage or laundry room.

Here is my bouquet on top of our china cabinet.

And I finally found a table to go with the cute chairs.  I found it at Ross for $29.99!! It was the cheapest I found, exactly what I was looking for, and the wood matches perfectly.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday, over halfway through the week!

BEAUTIFUL wedding.

I was very privileged to be a part of a wonderful friend's wedding this past weekend.  All of the events were beautiful and so much fun.  I loved spending time with great friends I don't get to see very often and having my parents in town.  Everything was perfect, here are some pictures.

Beautiful centerpieces at the Bridesmaids Brunch.

Myself with the blushing bride!

Wedding day after hair and makeup.

FABULOUS bridesmaids bouquets.

With monogrammed ribbon!

Happy, Newlywed Couple!

Thanks to the hubs always coming to support me at all the weddings!

So happy for you Kerra and Chris! I wish you nothing but the best in all the years to come! =)