carolinadreamz

Recipe: chinese xo sauce I sometimes forget that I’m Chinese. It sounds crazy, but it is true. I don’t look in the mirror often (this you can probably tell if you have ever encountered me in real life), there aren’t many pictures of me since I’m usually the one behind the camera, and I live [...]

Hey there! Have you seen all the closet posts from earlier this week? You MUST check out those links! I’m truly inspired!

I took the dog out this morning (without a coat!) and couldn’t help but notice all of the buds on the trees and plants!! Uhh, am I wrong or is it still February? It has been the mildest winter for us, and I although I thought for sure we’d get a nasty dose of not-so-fast by now, so far so good.

It’s been so nice lately, I can’t help but get excited about spring. Normally that would be just cruel, but this year, it seems more acceptable. ;)

I love adding fresh flowers where I can in the house, but it’s usually in the kitchen, where we can enjoy them best. I have a couple places I love to keep flowers in there, no matter what time of the year. They just make me HAPPY.

I’ve shopped a few places over the years, and our local florist has an incredible selection, but they are not cheap. I always end up going back to Trader Joes – their prices can’t be beat! They make it easy to add some fresh around here.

For years I wasn’t great at arranging flowers, but over time I’ve figured out tricks that work. I started with a simple bouquet for only $4:

My first step is always to use the floral “food” they put in with the flowers. Although I’ve heard if you just crush up regular aspirin -- it inhibits the growth of bacteria and keeps them pretty longer.

I can usually keep flowers for about two weeks, and even then they are still looking OK, they just kind of start falling apart.

And 90 percent of the time, I’m a all one flower kind of girl – I think an arrangement of one type and color makes a BIG impact.

I used to just take them out of the package and plop them in:

But really, they don’t look too happy that way. ;)

So I start snipping (I hear cutting them at an angle under water is best) until they are the height I want. And I separate each stem so I can put each one individually:

I like to cut the ones in the middle a bit taller than those on the sides, so they make a nice mound of flowers. :)

I also pull off most leaves, at least those that will be under the water:

I heard once that it helps the water from getting mucky and it works well for me.

A few minutes of cutting and fluffing, and you’ve got a perfectly lovely little arrangement:

But this time, I had some green mums I was going to use elsewhere, and decided they would look pretty perfect combined with the purple (say that three times fast):

Now it’s even MORE lovely!

Obviously I changed out the vase to my white Target pitcher. (You can see how I started with a different DIY pitcher here and how that one eventually failed here.)

The $13 Target version has held up great:

I also picked up some forsythia at TJ’s, which I’ve never tried. I wanted a tall skinny vase for that one and remembered a cheapy one I’ve had in my stash:

I think it came with Valentine’s flowers (thanks dear!) and I’ve always loved the lines of it. It just needed some updating.

I primed it once, and then used my gold Valspar spray paint from Lowes to give it a little makeover:

I think the design is just the coolest!

I’m not sure how long it will take the buds to open, but you can already see the yellow peeking out a bit:

I’m hoping in a couple weeks it will look something like this:

(source)

Have you ever tried forcing forsythia?

When it’s in the budget, a few flowers go a long way to making me and our space happier. ;)

It also helps when I clean off the MASSIVE PILE on the island too:

Just sayin’. And that’s totally free. Gah.

Another little trick I sometimes use is to put a plastic grocery bag down in the vase if the flowers are too short. It gives them something to “stand” on and makes them even fluffier. :) And I love me some fluffy flowers.

Do you treat you and your house to flowers every so often? Do you have a favorite?Any floral arranging tips? Do tell!!

And now let us all send good vibes to Mother Nature so she continues to be oh-so-kind. ;)

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Last Thursday, I was in a pretty amazing state of procrastination. You know those moments when you’ll choose to do anything other than the task at hand? Things like cleaning toilets, sorting socks or attempting some crazy craft you found on Pinterest even though you’re lacking 85% of the required materials. I was having one of those moments.

After organizing my pantry, brushing my dog’s teeth, chasing dust bunnies around my office and having a lengthy conversation with said dog regarding the Frito odor emanating from his feet, I decided to do something useful – make a loaf of English Muffin Bread.

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I hadn’t meant to disappear on you, and what’s worse, I have a terrible excuse: I took a nap. In the same week that I conquered my cooking Mount Everest — a lasagna I’d only dreamed about for the better part of six years, one that still took me many tries in the kitchen to get right and more than a week just to write — I was going back and forth with my publisher over the page designs for my cookbook, and (no doubt) giving some poor book designer some gray hairs. One day, I’ll remind my editor about that time I said that I didn’t care how the book looked, “just make it pretty!” and she’ll snort coffee out her nose. It will probably be a while. Nevertheless, the day after I posted the lasagna recipe, we finally found something that made everyone happy and now they’re designing the remaining hundreds of pages and that night, I think I slept a million hours. I did the same thing the next night and on the third night, when I yawned at 9 p.m. and said I was thinking about calling it a night my husband — who is the one who typically has a bottomless capacity for sleep and I’m the one who pops up at 7:30 even when it’s my turn to sleep in — looked at me like I had two heads. I… just had a lot of catching up to do.

We’re also officially in the part of the year I affectionately call The Dregs of Winter. It’s not spring yet, in fact, it will at least a months before anything tasty or green things emerges from the earth and another month after that before it will be good enough to eat. It’s not actually snowy and pretty enough out there to bliss out in a New York Winter Wonderland; in fact, it’s just cold and a little dull. Typically, the way I get through the blahs of winter is not to sleep through them but to begin plotting an escape. I start pining for someplace tropical, please, where the deep blue ocean meets the bright blue sky at a horizon so far away, it’s almost unfathomable to this city dweller, whose current vista is little more than the building across the street. And so I think about it, think long and hard about it, a book open on my lap, my fingers wrapped around a frosty, fruity cocktail with an umbrella and then I fly home a few days later, my usual ghost-like complexion faintly less so and my brain cleared of thoughts that don’t include “Is it time to reapply?” and “Are we too old to go on the water slide that leads to a swim-up bar?” You know, weighty matters.

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Time is that valuable commodity that we all seem to want more of.  So why are we wasting time trying to fill out this ridiculous captcha word verification that Blogger has now installed?   So many bloggers are posting about it or commenting about it on posts.  And here is my little rant as well.  I even posted about this well over a year ago. Captcha is supposed to prove you aren't a bot or spammer. Unfortunately it is stopping a lot of bloggers who aren't bots or spammers from leaving comments on posts. Why?  you might ask ... because it uses up valuable time.  You invariably have to refresh the thing a few times before you think you get the word right and even then it isn't always right.  How can you tell if it is an r then an n or an m as the letters are so close together and of course they are twisted in all directions. If you are so worried about bots and spammers why don't you just put the moderation option into effect.  My goodness some of you have word verification and moderation.  Twice the time and twice the effort. I have favourite blogs that I love to visit, but if that captcha thing comes up I leave without commenting.  I'm sorry but I just don't have the time to go through that ridiculous procedure. Through a bit of research I found out you can't turn off word verification if you are using Blogger in Draft.  You first have to uncheck that box and go back to the old Blogger format.  Then go into the settings for comments and turn it off.  Once you have done that you can go back and check that little box again to go back to Blogger in Draft. I have also found that spammers will not usually spam the most recent post but will go back a few posts and leave their nasty links.  If you choose moderation you can choose it for always or sometimes.   You get choose how old the post will be and moderation kicks in.  I think I have mine set to 3 days.  And guess what, if one spam comment gets through, it really isn't that big a deal.  You can just go to the comment section and in one little click you can delete it. So if your blog is using word verification or captcha won't you please consider turning it off. You might find you get more comments that way. And you will save your visitors a lot of time. It is Word for Wednesday and the word today is time.

TweetPlanning a time to get together with my girlfriends is always difficult. If one of us is available only on Tuesdays, someone else is available only on Thursdays. It’s a pain in the butt to... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Shaunna’s Big Fiddle

Karen’s fur covered chair

Jules’ Chesterfield Sofa

Gabrielle’s painted piano

Lauren’s Hanging Driftwood

Ashley’s Nest Painting

Nicole’s Rug

Marian’s Drapes

Angela’s nekkid lady

Emily’s Book Page Wall

My Sailfish {come on, you know I had to include myself}

Edie’s…EVERYTHING

Every room could use a statement or signature piece.  Could your space benefit from an eye-catching main attraction?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

I think you know my husband Doug best from the pictures of the work he’s doing for the house renovation, but what you haven’t heard is that he is a Registered Investment Advisor. He listens to financial news for fun.

In our family, and in our marriage, we have different roles for how we deal with our money. I focus more on saving money and making intentional purchases. Doug’s role is that he works to invest and increase what we earn. We work together so that we will manage our money well.

For years he has pictured that being an independent advisor helping clients to better invest their money would be his dream job. We’re going to do it. This past year Doug turned down other job offers since he had a better idea in mind, and once that idea took hold, that was it.

We started an investment company called Pier.

Pier provides investment management with an emphasis on producing income streams. It’s for people who want to live off their investments during retirement (without withdrawing principle) and people want passive income from investments.

If you have old 401(k) accounts from past employers or IRAs that are underperforming, Doug can help you with that.

He’s quite talented at managing investments, but you know I’m biased.

Check out the new site just so you can look at what we’ve been working on behind the scenes all this time. (If you think this might help you, you should definitely look into it.)

See the comments for this post: Our New Company: Pier © SmallNotebook.org (all rights reserved)

Both bathrooms in this 1970’s house have officially been updated.  Yippee!!  I can’t wait to show you this one.  It really looks fabulous and we all worked hard to get it to this point.  My mom, dad, and I all stripped wallpaper.  I added the beadboard wallpaper, painted it, and my dad painted, as well as put in the vanity, countertop, faucet and light fixture.  He is still a handy guy!  My brother-in-law, Bruce, came over and helped install the glass shower doors.  I really think they are going to enjoy these shower doors.  The stripes on these Kohler sliders will help hide soap spots and the bottom tray is angled down for maximum water drainage, so mom doesn’t think these will pose more problems for cleaning.

Let me remind you where we started.  This bathroom had not been updated since the mid-80’s, at least.  It was a sad, sad state of affairs in this small bathroom and it was in dire need of being brought into the 21’st century. Good bye ugly dated pink wallpaper.  You will not be missed!

I’m breaking it down so you can see the dramatic and astonishing AFTER’s!  Are you ready?  Oh yeah, I know you are!

Before, we had a dated 1970’s/80’s decor going on in here.  It was functional, but not very pretty.  I do have to tell you that my parents are completely form over function people.  Exactly the opposite of me.  I cannot live with UGLY.  Just can’t do it!  But, I know my sweet mama is very happy to have a pretty new bathroom.  She will be so proud to show it off.

With just this shot alone, you can see the dramatic difference!  We are so proud of how it turned out.  The addition of the beadboard wallpaper is such a great way to add architectural interest at such a low cost.  One roll of my $25 Graham Brown beadboard wallpaper transformed this space!

The homemade vanity is gone, gone, gone and we sure don’t miss it!  We found a beautiful 36” vanity from Lowes that just fits in this niche and with a stand alone furniture feel, it looks great.  Thanks to Lowes, we were able to purchase the vanity, countertop/sink, and faucet for our project.  We couldn’t have done it without them and I know that this part would not have happened if not for my good fortune with being a Lowes Creative Ideas blogger.

Here’s our beautiful new vanity.  This one is by Estate and features doors and 2 drawers on either side.   The mirror came from Old Time Pottery for $39 and it works perfectly with our new vanity.

Before, we had a shower curtain in the shower area.

Now, we have these beautiful Kohler sliding glass doors.  You can see the stripes will help hide soap spots and the tray at the bottom slants down to the tub to help drain water out.  These are nice doors!  My sister decided to buy these for them for Christmas, so that is how they came to be during this project too.  It made sense to go ahead and do it all while we were in project mode.

My mom already had this wicker shelf, so we just reused it for now.  I’d love to get a nicer shelf in here later, but we looked around at a few stores and didn’t find anything, so that can come later. A few accessories on top add some fun.

The countertop from Lowes was sold separately from the vanity, so we chose this color, a pretty brownish fleck that is solid surface with an integrated sink.  This top cost was $165 and well worth it.  This was part of the $500 giftcard that I received from Lowes to do this project.  The faucet is by Moen and we found it on clearance when we were shopping for $75, in brushed chrome.

This little bird may not stay here, cause I’m sure he will drive my dad crazy and be in the way, so we may have to perch him somewhere less obvious, but isn’t he cute?  We found him at Marshalls in the garden area.

Close up of the Moen faucet.

Looking into the shower area.  We got a couple of new rugs that look great with our colors.  The rug by the shower came from Old Time Pottery and the striped rug is from Target.

Here’s the light fixture I picked up from Cherokee Closeouts for only $33. It’s just what we needed without breaking the bank.

Another look at the solid surface countertop.  It’s a beautiful piece!

Shelf with accessories and new hand towel, which came from Marshalls.

We found that pretty faux orchid at Kirklands and the little covered dish will be filled with cotton balls, also from Marshalls. The candle was passed along from my sister.

We loved the color of this orchid and it made a nice splash of color in here.

Pretty striped rug from Target.

Starfish print from Homegoods.  We had fun shopping around and pulling this space together.

Looking into the shower room.

We found this pretty floral print for only $20 at Kirklands.  It had some nice colors and looks great in here. Note the little silver inner liner too which picks up the brushed chrome on the towel bar.   We painted my mom’s old laundry hamper the same color as the walls. Paint color in this space is Quietude, by Sherwin Williams. It’s not quite as blue as this pic shows, more of a soft blue/green.

Here’s the track up close on the shower doors.  You can see it doesn’t have ridges, which should release water easily and hopefully these doors will not be a chore to keep clean.

They did a great job with installing the doors and they were in in no time.  They did have to add a small piece of wood up top, which will be painted to match the walls and they used a masonry bit to drill into the tile on the sides and bottom of the shower.

We think it looks fantastic and stylish.  I think they are really enjoying the doors already.

There you have it!

A beautiful, stylish and functional new and improved bathroom suite.  My parents are really happy with it and I’m so excited that I could give them such a gift.  Blogging certainly has perks and I am so grateful for all of them!  Hopefully, when I get my own house, more of these perks will come along and I’ll be able to update and renovate more.  It sure is fun to watch a space being transformed and beautified before my eyes.  That’s the most fun thing to me!  Making a space gorgeous.

I hope you enjoyed the process of watching this happen.  It took awhile, but we are so glad it’s finished.  Now, we are moving on to the master bedroom.   We have to paint the walls, hang up the drapery panels that mom and Lauren made a few weeks ago, and get the new bedding and rug in place.  Coming soon!

Thanks so much for stopping by, so glad you did and I hope you got some inspiration on how you can update an old and dated space.  We did it without breaking the bank and it was nice to get some perks to help too.

Note: This project was sponsored by Lowes.  They provided a $500 giftcard for me to spend on a bathroom project.  We were already planning to do this bathroom space, so it really came in handy to replace the old vanity, countertop and faucet.  Thanks to Lowes Creative Ideas!  You can find them on Facebook.  Lowes Creative Ideas also has a blog that you can follow, they will be featuring blogger projects and lots of inspiration for updating your spaces too.

Please visit my fine sponsors for those special finds for your home: *Hadley Pottery: Handmade blue & white pottery *Willow House: Distinctive gifts & home decor accessories *Miss Lucy's Monograms: Personalized gift ideas *HomeTalk: A site devoted to everything you want to know about the home! Check them out. *Ruby Lane:Unique items for the home *Southern Hospitality shop:Buy my favorite beadboard wallpaper directly from my shop! *Fabricadabra:Beautiful organic pillows and linens *European Vintage:European vintage treasures *Cutting Edge Stencils:Beautiful stencils to create feature walls and more in your home. *Janery:A celebration of fabric.

Do you remember the bench I put together from bits and pieces of 3 beds 2 cribs and a chair?

I cut the pointy piece off and used the larger piece for the front leg.

I had to cut the bottom of this bed off in order to raise up the footboard.

I took the end piece (pointy one).

Plus the leg piece I cut off to make these:

The tall pieces on the left and the right are the end result of those other pieces.

The smaller pieces are from some porch spindles I cut off.

You’ll have to use your imagination of how pretty these would look on a mantel or in a pretty vignette with some other décor.  That’s not what this blog is.    But you already knew that, right?  No pretty pictures and fancy décor shots from me.   I’ve been busy with other things  and haven’t had time to stage my pieces.

To get the color, I painted them black and then did a wash with the turquoise I used on the bench.

I love how my workbench is going to become a collage of my latest projects!

gail

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So apparently I have this rice thing going on lately. I’ve even had a whole extensive rice tutorial on tap for months now to supplement replace this old, old, old post from the first few weeks of our blog because I guess rice and I are BFFs right now. But who has time to post extensive rice tutorials when there are things like Red Chile Rice to be made? To be eaten? To be fantasized about? Because this rice and Zapp‘s Salt & Vinegar potato chips consume about 85% of my waking thoughts right now.

Sometimes I feel like I’m in recipe overload. I have a million cookbooks that I haven’t cooked my way through, I get cooking magazines that don’t get read for months and months, and then there’s the blogosphere and Pinterest and Allrecipes. However…ever since we started Our Best Bites, I’ve had a little bloggy crush on The Homesick Texan. I love, love, love her recipes and, since moving to Louisiana, there have been so many times when I’ve been homesick for really, really good Mexican food. Of course, it’s not just about the Mexican food–my head is screwed on straight enough to not be truly homesick for beans or rice or taco stands–but it’s about the memories, the flavors that shaped who I am in the kitchen, how I cook, what I love.

One of those defining moments was when I kind of made the shift from red rice to green rice, usually made with tomatillos and limes and cilantro. Up until fairly recently, that’s been my preference for a long time. But one night, I was just wanting good ol’ red rice, so I pulled out my copy of Lisa’s cookbook and made her red chile rice. And oh, my gosh. It was heaven. Simple ingredients, easy recipe, and unbelievably delicious–it truly had the power to convert me back to red rice. At least at home.

You’ll need some crushed tomatoes (I could only find large cans, so you’ll probably have some left over), 1/4 of a medium yellow onion (I used 1/2 of a small yellow onion here), 2 cloves of garlic, 1 canned chipotle chile (I seeded mine because I’m a baby), 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, a pinch of cloves (I left it out this time because I have a spice organization crisis brewing and I didn’t have it in my to find my cloves), 1 tablespoon of lime juice (I love my lime…I may have added a touch more), 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1 cup uncooked long-grain rice, 2 cups chicken broth (moderate to high elevations should use an additional 1/4 cup), and salt to taste (do you like my parenthetical commentary to every ingredient?)

Measure out your crushed tomatoes. The recipe calls for straining them, but I found I both needed and wanted the liquid, and I’m at a very low elevation.

Place the tomatoes in the jar of your blender. Add the onion and garlic (don’t both chopping either one), cumin, cloves and lime juice. If you’re brave, pop a whole chipotle pepper in there. However, since I am a wuss prone to heartburn and because I have little kids, I snapped on a pair of latex gloves, sliced the pepper in half, and ran it under some water to rinse away the seeds (most of the heat is contained in the seeds).

I tossed the seeded pepper into the blender, then I added a small spoonful or two of the adobo sauce from the chilies. That’s my little compromise.

Blend the mixture until smooth and set aside.

In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet with a lid, heat the tablespoon of oil over medium heat. When hot, add the rice and saute for about 30 seconds.

Add the tomato puree and prepare yourself for the most delicious thing you’ve ever smelled. Cook for one more minute.

Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cover tightly and cook for 20 minutes or until tender. When the rice is done, remove from heat and allow it to stand, covered, for an additional 10 minutes. Stir to incorporate the sauce and serve.

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I have become completely overpowered by the force that is salted caramel. I simply can’t get enough of it, no matter how it’s presented to me. Ice cream? Pass me a spoon. Popcorn, Pretzel & Peanut Bars? Hand me at least three, please. Brownies? You may as well just give me the entire pan. Growing up I was never one to swoon over caramel sauce. Maybe because I had never had great caramel sauce – mostly just the jarred or bottled sundae toppings – it always seemed sickeningly sweet to me. However, this whole salted caramel craze has me doing a completely 180. Throw in a healthy dose of coarse sea salt like fleur de sel to cut that sweetness and give sauces and baked goods an entirely new dimension? I am ALL.IN.

In this particular instance, I adapted my all-time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and added a layer of salted caramel sauce in the middle, and then sprinkled the top with more sea salt, just for good measure. A great deal of thanks to Maria over at Two Peas and Their Pod for creating such an amazing concoction. She really is the cookie queen!

These beauties are chewy, gooey, sweet, salty, and chocolate chip-y. What more could you ask for?

One year ago: White Chocolate-Coconut Brownies Two years ago: Oven-Fried Onion Rings with Dipping Sauce Five years ago: Maple-Hazelnut Oatmeal

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Yield: 16 cookie bars

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Bake Time: 30 minutes

2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature 1 cup light brown sugar ½ cup granulated sugar 1 egg 1 egg yolk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 cups chocolate chips 10 ounces caramel candy squares, unwrapped 3 tablespoons heavy cream Fleur de sel (or other sea salt), for sprinkling over caramel and bars

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square pan; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

3. Using an electric mixer, mix together the melted butter and sugars on medium speed until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low, just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. In a medium microwave-safe bowl, combine the caramels and heavy cream. Microwave on high until the caramels are melted, stirring every 20 seconds. This will take about 2 minutes.

5. Press half of the cookie dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. Pour the hot caramel over the dough cookie dough and spread into an even layer, leaving some empty space around the edges. Sprinkle the caramel with the sea salt. Drop the remaining cookie dough in spoonfuls over the caramel and gently spread the dough with a spatula until the caramel is covered. Sprinkle the bars with additional sea salt.

6. Bake the cookie bars for 30 minutes, or until the top of the bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Cool the bars on a wire rack to room temperature, then refrigerate for about 30 minutes to allow the caramel layer to set. Cut into squares and serve. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.

(Recipe adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod)

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Extra-large shrimp, simply sauteed with garlic and lemon.

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