Castle on the Third Floor

The kitchen was pretty well put together when we moved in and by extension of the dining room it was an easy choice to paint the walls the same color.

Before (sorry for the crappy photo):

After:

The only real complaint I have about this kitchen is the lack of space… of course it probably wouldn’t hurt me to pare down some cooking utensils.  It also keeps me from stocking up on food I won’t ever eat

The plans moving forward are:

• 2 or 3 bar stools
• cabinet organization
• stainless steel sink (porcelain, really???)

The dining room was the room I was the most excited about getting painted… the problem was that I had 7 or 8 colors that I thought would look great in the room but I couldn’t choose.  Fortunately Better Homes & Gardens came to the rescue with a page of “neutral ideas” and i went from a maybe navy or dark green to a sage green.  two cans of paint and an extension pole later and i had my work cut out for me.

Before:

After:

I am SUPER in love with the green.  Again, I’m glad we took Kit’s advice and painted the ceiling white beforehand.  I made a snap decision to put the stars in the dining room instead of in the entry way, once the green was on the walls I realized that this room needs brass accents and so the stars found a home.  I also pulled a shelf that I have basically been repurposing since I bought it 5 years ago for my bedroom.  It is acting as a bar until we save up to buy one.

Moving forward the plans are:

• Curtains
• Bar/Console
• Some type of rug
• A television for over the fireplace
• Wall art for over the buffet
• Brass light switch and socket plates
• Armchair
• 2 or 4 more dining chairs (table has a leaf that isn’t currently attached)

Ghetto Gospel / 2PAC ft. Elton John

One of my favorite co-workers, Niki, is leaving this week and she has been fowarding emails to me that she feels might help me in my future without her.  She also sent me an email that I had sent her the day before I left for my wedding/honeymoon because she wanted to remind me to keep emailing her even after she left:

NIKI!!!!! SUCCESS!!!

Aiden has been doing what his friends call “The Woman Diet” where he eats fruit for breakfast, chicken breast and lettuce for lunch, hard boiled eggs for a snack, and chicken and veggies for dinner.

So I told him I was going to do “The High School Girl” diet which consists of eating nothing and throwing up a lot… not to be confused with “The Hollywood Diet” which adds snorting cocaine into the mix.

Obviously my diet worked pretty well because I’m down … (Drum roll please)

3 pounds!

It’s a wedding week miracle!  See you when I get back.

And don’t go getting any ideas, my diet isn’t FDA approved yet.

Kids, drugs are bad m’kay.

Here 4 One / Blazing Squad

We had a Pot Luck Sign up at my work the other day and it was to celebrate/mourn the end of the summer holidays and one of our co-workers moving on to bigger and better things.  I quickly scanned the side dish section and noticed that NO ONE HAD SIGNED UP FOR ANYTHING.  My eye twitched… my moment had finally arrived.

I have been waiting to make “Funeral Potatoes” since the first time I tried them at a work function almost 5 years ago.  It was clearly some type of hashbrown cheesey, gooey, strange and delicious substance that is then topped with corn flakes.  After that it seemed that every time I went to a Utah Pot Luck someone brought funeral potatoes, each time tasting slightly different which made it clear that this was the kind of recipe that each housewife put their own stamp upon.  I needed to be allowed into the secret society of Funeral Potatoes… without needing to attend a funeral or go to church.

My moment indeed had arrived with that one problem being pushed to the back corners of my mind as I quickly jotted down the name of this morbidly named dish.  Unfortunately I do not have the required number of children to acquire such a recipe, I’m not related to anyone who is, and further… I just don’t travel in that circle that brings dishes into the ward house and can pop over to LaNayleena’s house and ask for her recipe.  I was quite disappointed to find that America’s Test Kitchen has never attempted to perfect the Funeral Potato Recipe… so it was time to do what I do best: find a bunch of recipes online and mash them together.

One of the recipes called for Cream of Mushroom soup… DENIED, this is not lean cuisine!  And that goes for you, lady-who-thinks-onions-belong-in-this-dish, NO VEGGIES.  There was also a suggestion for a half cup of melted butter.  Look, I’m trying to give my man more cushion for the pushin’ but we aren’t taking it that far.  DENIED.

I assembled my approved ingredients and then had to face head on that I have always been bothered by the whole cornflakes thing.  I just stare at the wonderful dish and cannot wrap my mind around the person who thought that would be a good idea.  Cornflakes are a different kind of breakfast entirely… denied? Except the dish looks naked without something on top.  Enter potato chips.  Yes.  That is EXACTLY how to get more fat in this dish without a half cup of butter.

And so my recipe goes something like this:

• 30-32 oz bag of Frozen Hashbrowns (if you have to question shredded or cubed WE AREN’T FRIENDS)
• 2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 2 Cups Sour Cream (I used light, to give my arteries a small break)
• 1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup (Herbed if you are pretending this is healthy)
• 1 Cup Potato Chips, crushed

Mix all the ingredients in a stand mixer (… or by hand if you are too poor or lame to own one) and then bake in the oven for 30-40 minute at 350 degrees.

Like A Prayer / Madonna

I’ll be honest that my main concern about living with Aiden were the chores.  I have been on my own for long enough that I have basically adopted a routine that involves going through all the “chores” in one week.  I knew that we would need to talk about dividing up the chores and doing equal amounts of work – but the problem was that there were too many things that I wanted done my own neurotic way and was therefore unwilling to give up.

But I was beyond shocked when I noticed that Aiden made a huge effort from day one to do things (and this is his incredibly polite terminology here): the way I’m used to doing things.  He cleans up the kitchen after we’re done eating because he knows I can’t go to bed with a messy kitchen.  He doesn’t put knives in the dishwasher AND he doesn’t put them in the sink.  When he does the laundry he uses cold water.  He helps me make the bed AND helps me make sure the sheet hangs over the sides evenly.  I try to let him help and he never fails to surprise me because I never thought that anyone would care to do things the crazy way I want them done.

Like the crazy way I fold.

Look… what is the point of folding things if you can’t stack them neatly in a drawer.  And the key to being able to do that is making them a uniform size and shape, right?  And well, unless you want to sit there all day you need to use something to help you get everything just right.  I mean… I’m not the only one who folds their clothes using a clipboard… am I?

The other day I got home from work and I had put off the folding two nights in a row because we had been preoccupied with other things.  When I got to the living room Aiden was walking out holding neat piles of shirts looking incredibly proud of himself.  I am ashamed to say that I was a little shocked and asked, “How did you do that?”

He smiled and responded, “From watching you.”

I mean… that’s love isn’t it?  Watching my crazy and copying it rather than making fun of it?  I will never understand what wonderful wonderful things I did to deserve him.