16 Mar 2016

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Corned Beef and Cabbage is a great meal to have not only on St. Patrick’s Day, but any day. The meat is so flavorful and the vegetables take on the same delicious flavor. For years, I boiled the meat, then added the vegetables. When I discovered roasting the meat, everything changed. When I serve this to my family, they eat every morsel.

Ingredients

3 lbs Corned Beef
1 lb. Carrots, peeled and cut in cubes
2 lb. Potatoes, peeled and cut in cubes
1 Head Cabbage, cut in wedges
1 Bottle Beer

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 300º. Lay the meat in a large roasting pan, fat side up. Take the spice package that comes with the meat and rub it all over the top. Add the beer and water until the liquid is ¼ inch in the pan. If you prefer, just add water. Or just the beer – your choice. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 3 hours. After 3 hours, take off the aluminum foil and bake for an additional 2 hours. When the meat is done, take it out of the pan and set aside.

Peel the potatoes and the carrots. Cut them into chunks. Cut the cabbage into wedges. Set aside.

Skim some of the fat from the baking pan and discard. Put the baking pan on top of the stove and bring the liquid to boiling. You can pour the liquid into a large pot if you prefer and bring the liquid to a boil.

Add the carrots and potatoes and slow boil until they are tender. Add the cabbage and continue cooking for an additional 15 minutes.

Trim off any fat from the meat before slicing. Slice the meat on a diagonal and serve with the vegetables. Drizzle with liquid from the baking pan.

16 Mar 2016

Bathroom Project – Continued

by Eva M | posted in: Cooking | 0

Well the bathroom is 90% finished. In the last post, I showed you that the floor was installed and I love it. After that we looked at the medicine cabinet and decided that it had to go. Take a look.

I did love having all this space in the medicine cabinet, and the 3 mirrors, but this is definitely a 70’s throwback. It really didn’t fit in at all with the new plans. So, down it came and we replaced it with a gorgeous new one.

Isn’t this amazing!!! I was walking through my local HomeGoods and found this mirror. They had a huge selection of mirrors, but this one was the only one with a raised frame. All the others had frames that looked like picture frames. Although they’re nice, this one was a standout. I found it on a stand in the middle of some other things, not even with the other mirrors.

Now for the shower curtain. As you can see, it’s a little unusual. I did try some standard shower curtains, but they seemed to look boring to me and I wanted something that would catch your eye as soon as you looked into the bathroom. Of course, I wasn’t able to find what I had thought of, so I did have to sew these.

So, what I ended up doing was getting a set of burlap panels and a set of lace panels and sewing them together. The burlap ones have large rings on the top so they slide easily through the shower bar so you can just push the entire curtain aside when you want to use the shower. I sewed the lace pair on the top to hide the curtain rod. Then, I put burlap ties in the middle. They are so different and unique, I love them.

As far as the window goes, it is small and I didn’t want to cover it up. I wanted as much natural light to come in the room as possible. Before, I had a dark window covering on the window and it was really dark in the room. My grandkids would go in there to check to see if their pajamas really did glow in the dark. Now, thats a dark room.

So I ended up just with a simple lace valance and some succulents. It is perfect.

The accessories were next. I wanted these rustic and simple. The piece of wood is actually a serving tray that I found at Pier1 and the lotion and soap dispensers I picked up at Target. I made the signs on each of them from supplies that I picked up at the craft store. So simple, but beautiful.

So, there is is. Color coordinated towels and all. I still have to replace the knobs on the vanity, which I will pick up this week. I love projects like this that come together fast and easy. I had an idea of what I wanted and was able to find, or make everything to make the bathroom look exactly as I pictured it. And best of all, it only took 2 weeks to complete.

28 Feb 2016

Chicken Cacciatori

by Eva M | posted in: Cooking, Meat | 0

This is delicious. There are lots of recipes on the internet for this dish, but this is the way my Mother used to make this dish. The vegetables and olives give it a fantastic flavor. You will not be disappointed!!

Ingredients

8-10 Chicken Thighs

1/2 Cup Flour

2 TBSP Olive Oil

3/4 Cup White Wine

2 Carrots, chopped

2 Stalks Celery, chopped

1 Medium Onion, chopped

1 Large Red Pepper, Chopped

1- 6/75 oz Jar Green Olives, Pitted and Chopped (1 Cup)

2 TBSP Olive Juice

1- 28 oz can Crushed Tomatoes

3/4 Cup Chicken Broth

2 Garlic Cloves, minced

1 1/2 tsp Dried Oregano

2 tsp Dried Basil Flakes

Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions

Trim and skin the chicken thighs, then dredge them in flour. Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven. Brown the chicken thighs on both sides. Set aside.

Add the celery, carrot, onion, garlic and red pepper to the olive oil and saute until just getting soft.

Add the olives, broth, wine, tomatoes, basil, oregano and olive juice.

Season with Salt and Pepper. Slow simmer for 5 minutes. Add the chicken back to the pot and simmer for 1 hour.

Sprinkle with grating cheese. Serve alone or over pasta.

28 Feb 2016

Bathroom Project

by Eva M | posted in: Cooking | 0

We started renovating the bathroom today. It’s not going to get a complete makeover, just the floor, toilet and all the accessories. The walls have tile from floor to ceiling, which we aren’t touching. The tub is a spa tub that is not going anywhere, and the vanity is in perfect shape that we are only changing the hardware. (We’ll see about the vanity, paint is not out of the realm of possibility)

We moved into this house 6 1/2 years ago and I love it. It’s a typical ranch, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, kitchen, living room, dining room. We changed the floor plan a bit to suit our family, and it is great. The master bedroom and the spare bedroom are decent size, but the third one is small. We use it as an office. The biggest part of this house is the living space. The dining room, living room and kitchen intertwine to make one large comfortable space.

When we were house hunting, my husband and I looked at quite a few houses, in lots of different neighborhoods. It was amazing how many houses we saw that were run down, out dated and just not cared for. Our wish list wasn’t big. A 3 bedroom ranch, at least 1/2 acre of land, good area, but most of all, we didn’t want to re-do the entire house. The most important thing was that the house didn’t need any major renovations. As you can imagine, when we found this house, we knew it was the house for us.

This house was so appealing because it was perfect. There was nothing that had to be done. It was truly move-in ready, or so we thought. The first thing we did was replace the flooring in the dining room. We made the dining room into what was originally the living room. It had white carpet, which quickly turned into a disaster. There is nothing compatible between a white carpet and two dogs and six grand kids. So, as you an imagine, it was quickly replaced with gorgeous slate tile. We also took down a stone wall with mirrors from the largest wall in the dining room that looked like it could have be in an Italian restaurant. That was an enormous job, but it had to be done. The 2 bedrooms were also re-done. They were girls bedrooms, now one is an office and the other one is a guest bedroom.

So, now it’s time for the bathroom. Soon after we moved in, some of the tiles around the toilet cracked. Last year, so many tiles had broken that I had to keep a very large rug over the floor at all times. We had no idea what it was since the bathroom is on the slab of the house.

My thoughts were going wild thinking of all the possibilities. Burst pipes, cracked foundation, rodents, I pictured each horrible scenario in my mind as well as the enormous cost for repair. The day had finally come when the floor would be unveiled. The first couple of tiles came up and all I saw was concrete. This was not what I pictured. As we took up more and more tiles, we found that the tiles were put down on top of the original tiles that were put in the house in 1975 by the builder.

What we found is that the toilet was leaking and the water was going between both sets of tiles. It had loosened the white tiles from the blue ones which is why the tiles were coming up and cracking.

We took up both sets of tile and removed the toilet. Everything was cleaned up and left it for 2 days to see if there is any other water. Thankfully, there wasn’t. The seal around the toilet looked like it had been there for an eternity. Bullet dodged on this one.

This is the original tile that was in the bathroom. I never really cared for it. I always thought that the floor needed to be darker.

These are the old blue tiles that we found beneath the white ones.

This is a better picture of the old blue tiles. These tiles were put into houses by the builders in the 70’s.

Wow, what a difference. I damp mopped this floor to get up the rest of the dust. I already like the darker color.

I picked out a great tile. It has the look of wood and is 6×24 instead of the usual 12×12 or 12×18.

The tile and toilet will be installed this week, so now I have to decide on the vanity. It is a custom size for this room, so I don’t want to replace it. I was thinking about painting the bottom of it a country green or blue, and leaving the top white. The walls are going to stay the same. I love the tile and the look of the bathroom with all the tile work. I want to incorporate real wood accents into the room. Wood drawer knobs and cabinet pulls and towel bars.

As soon as the tile is in, I will update you.

March 5

Ok, the tile and the toilet have both been installed. The tile is absolutely stunning. I am so glad we picked this one.

I picked a grout that was very similar in color to the tile. I wanted it to look as close to a wood floor as possible and didn’t want lighter or darker lines around each tile.

Now that I see this tile with the walls and vanity, I have decided not to paint the vanity. I’m going to leave it white. I’ve been looking and looking for a shower curtain without any luck, so I’m thinking that I will have to sew the one I have in my mind. It shouldn’t be very difficult, I want it to be a combination of burlap and lace.

The knobs on the vanity will be replaced (not sure with what) and I will get some tan and white accessories to go on top. I checked out the selection at Bed Bath & Beyond, and they have plenty to choose from.

10 Feb 2016

Broccoli Stromboli

by Eva M | posted in: Cooking, Starters | 0

I made this variation of my typical meat and cheese Stromboli because we had some vegetarians for dinner. I got rave reviews.

Ingredients

1 Pizza Dough

2 Lbs Broccoli Florets

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

3 Cloves Garlic

1 Egg

Cooking Spray

Instructions

Drop the broccoli florets in salted boiling water for 3 minutes. Immediately plunge in ice bath. In the same pot, add the olive oil and the garlic. Cook the garlic in the oil for 3-5 minutes on medium heat. Add the broccoli to the oil and stir, completely coating every piece of broccoli. Add salt to taste.

Roll out the pizza dough until it is rectangular in shape. You can do this with a rolling pin, or with your hands. If you are using your hands, stretch it in the direction that you want. Working with the dough is very forgiving, if it breaks, just pinch it back together. Put the cooked broccoli on the dough, leaving about 1/2 inch to 1 inch on all sides.

Roll the dough from the long side, pushing the broccoli in place as you go. If you have an extra amount of dough at the end, you can cut it off and discard it, or you can roll it thin and place it on top so you have a little more dough on the Stromboli.

Bake the Stromboli in a 400º oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.