My Wall

I stare at the wall in my craft room for hours on end.  When I work from home I sit at the desk in that room and I was sick of looking at the plane old walls...so I just started one afternoon putting stuff on the wall.

  

A self portrait my brother did of himself and threw away..I took it out of the trash and kept it.

Picture of me and the chica's on our cruise and a framed collage of alice in wonderland mini playing cards I got in Oxford

Scores from 'who is your match' that we did in high school...my number one match is none other than my husband!

A water color of a frog tyler did for me for Christmas one year

A cigarette tin that was my  Grampy Grimes'

A picture of my Nana Grimes as a teenager and some keys from Grampy Davis' house

Pirate Lego Party

Kieran said he wanted a Pirate Lego birthday party...so that was what he had!  Instead of giving gifts to my fave little kiddos I volunteer to help out with their parties when it comes to decorations, favors, and cakes.  This way their every busy parents dont have to stress about that part and I get to have fun planning and plotting. 

While a Pirate Lego party seems easy...it wasn't so much.  I pretty much had to create all the paper stuff from scratch...but that makes it fun.   I also got lucky as I happened to be in Carlsbad two weeks before the party and got into Lego Land for 1 hour to shop!  I went crazy looking for stuff and thanks to my pal Jamie P. who went the weekend before I knew I could score some cool bags with Pirate Lego people on them.  I also scored lots of other fun stuff.

Making the cake was pretty easy as it was just a square.  The lego figureine was my first attempt at working with cereal treats and covering them in fondant.  It was surprisngly really easy.  I even tried to get the birthday boy to bite the head off, but that was a no go.

Room Re-Do Results

When I want to do something, that pretty  much means I'm going to do it RIGHT AWAY.  I have zero patience so when I get something in my head there is little to no time before I start working on.  

After I found the inspiration pics in my previous post I went to work.  I went to Home Depot that night and grabbed a handful of paint colors I liked.  When I got home I stuck them on the wall next to the window.  I waited until the next morning when the natural light was shinning through the room and picked my color.  That day after work I went back to Home Depot and grabbed the necessary supplies.  

By 11pm that night the room was all painted and by Friday afternoon the mirror and shadow boxes hung to finish everything up.  I ended up spending $50 on paint and supplies because everything else I had on hand. What a difference paint makes in a room!

It is super bright, but I dig it.

You want to what?

So as my travels have subsided for a while I am obsessing over the house.  What I want done (lights in all the rooms, hardwood floors in the bedrooms, french-doors in the dinning room that opens OUT) and what will actually happen are two very different things.  I figure that if there are a few quick and easy things I can do myself on a low cost Doezy will leave me alone about it.  Unfortunately when I told him I wanted to do some re-decorating in the guest bedroom he said "you want to what?".  He knew when he met me that I like to change things often so this really shouldn't come as a surprise. 

Here are some inspirations of what I'm thinking:

The room is tiny so can't have too much furniture.  We already have a perfectly good black cast iron look alike bed frame from Ikea  that I plan to use with a matching mirror.  Also I have both black and white bedding that can be used in the room so that is another item I wont have to buy. 

Truffle/Olive Oil and Lemon Cupcakes with Rosemary Whipped Cream

You didn't think that I would make 5 recipes and not have any be a baked good did you??  Obvoiusly I had to have some sort of cake or cupcake because I love to make them!  Plus I got a whipper for Christmas so incorporated a whipped cream of some sort was a must.

I looked around the internet for savory cupcakes to get my brain moving in the right direction.  I ended up only making half a batch because I' the ony person home and there is a blizzard outside, so I doubt that anyone would be trying them with me. 

Cupcakes
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Sugar
little less than 2/3Cup Olive Oil
Add to bring total oil to 2/3 CupTruffle Oil
3/3 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 Eggs
lemon zest for taste

First I made the cupcake batter, which was relatively easy.  I sifted all of the dry ingredients together in a big bowl.  I added all of the wet ingredients and stirred until all mixed.  Lastly I added the lemon zest and combined. 

I pored the batter into the cupcake tins in the pan.  I used my big cupcake pan so as not to have tiny cupcakes.

Lastly, I drizzled a little more truffle oil on the top...just for taste....I couldn't resist.

I stuck these babies in the oven for 20-25 minutes on 375.


While they were baking I got started on the whipped cream. 

I put 1 Cup of whole cream in a pan on medium heat.  Added 3 TBSP each of rosemary and powdered sugar.  I didn't have fresh rosemary so I needed to use dried.  I probably would've thrown in two or three whole sprigs if I had fresh.  I brought this to a quick boil and then removed it from the heat.  I tried to infuse as much rosemary taste as possible into the mix.  I then put in the refrigerator because it needs to be nice and cold to make into whipped cream. 

I took the muffins out of the oven and they looked very dense, but yummy.  I let them cool to room temperature (which was cold, b/c the heat is off downstairs during the day).

I put the cream mixture through a strainer so the bits of rosemary wouldn't get caught in the nozzle.  I pored the concoction into the whip creamer and voila!

They tasted really yummy.  At first you got the olive/truffle taste and then a blast of lemon.  The whipped cream certainly had a rosemary flavor to it that added to the yumminess swirling around in my mouth. 

Now I have 5 other cupcakes and plenty of whipped cream just sitting here!   Damn you blizzard.

Popcorn with Truffe Oil & Parmesan Cheese

One of my favorite restaurants is Blanca in Solana Beach, CA.  For a swanky atmosphere, delicious drinks, and tasteful appetizers this places Happy Hour can't be beat.  One of their offerings that I favor is the Popcorn with truffle salt and Parmesan.  I love popcorn so the addition of truffle oil to a great snack is fantastic. 

So tonight, I did my own take on this delicious appie.

I bought midnight black popcorn at Homegoods for pretty cheap and measured out 1/3 of a cup.

Next I measured out 1/8 of a cup of truffle oil/olive oil.  I didn't want to use all truffle oil because I just couldn't bare to part with that much for one snack, so I did about 1/16 truffle oil and 1/16 olive oil.

That went into a big pot set on high and I dropped in two popcorn kernels.  When the two kernels popped I knew that the oil was ready.

It only took a few minutes for the popcorn to start popping in the pan.  I was at least smart enough to put the cover on so all the kernels didn't pop right out of the pot. While the popcorn was in the pan I grated about 1/4 a cup of Parmesan cheese. 

When the popcorn was finished popping, I put it in a bowl, added some salt and pepper, then the cheese and tossed it around.

 

The popcorn was yummy, but the taste of the truffles was not easy to find.  I think using the dark popcorn masked the truffle flavor a bit.   All in all it was a good snack.



Truffle Oil Pizza

I was craving something crunchy and cheesy for dinner tonight so I decided on making myself a pizza.  I have a little pizza about once per week and they are super yummy.  However, it was even yummier this time because I used truffle oil!  

First, I cut in half whole wheat pita bread. I usually use pita or lavash for my pizzas. Then drizzled it with some truffle oil..yum!

I went into he fridge and grabbed cheeses that I thought would work well with the oil. I ended up using Parmesan, Romano, Feta, and Brie. I found at Trader Joe's mini single serving brie all in their own containers. Obviously I had to have them because they are MINI! Once assembled I sprinkled it with a little dill, salt, and lots of pepper.

I popped her in the oven for about 10 minutes on 350 and voila!

The warm cheeses and the truffle oil all went really well together. Another good supper featuring my new BFF truffle oil!