making memories...and donuts!!!

 Sometimes it happens...I have a coupon and I need to buy one small item in order to use the coupon...so I bought french donut mix from World Market when I needed a couple bucks added to my bill so I could get $20 off my curtains...you just add water and roll it out. 

We used mini cookie cutters in the shape of a flower and heart because it was cute and safe for my almost four year old to help!

we added cinnamon sugar on top

and a little honey on the side

you can kind of see the shapes...

my helper relaxing in his new living room

very little mess, but a LOT of fun!

I'm linking up with Smiling Sally for Blue Monday
a little blue bowl of honey and a lot of blue accents in our new living room...
and
The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays...enjoying some lazy summer nights!

Tablescape Thursday...home sweet home

My dishes are finally all unpacked. I sorted through napkins and linens the other day and the lighting was pretty good...I still need to buy a tripod. I was using my brother's months ago, but he needed it back. 

A sweet friend of mine who has traveled to Romania on summer mission trips for the past ten years gave me this beautiful tablecloth she received from a store vendor in Romania a couple years ago. She would take clothes and undergarments for the woman and in return, she gave my friend Romanian cut glass, beautiful hand crafted dolls and linens. My sweet friend gave me a beautiful red vase and bowl one year also.

I think it's linen, but it has been starched rather stiff, so I was trying to let it settle before I took an iron to it. It is stunning and she said her table was not big enough for it. She has eaten many a meal at our house, so she said she knew I would put it to good use. It came with 8 matching place mats, but I will use those on another day.

Our dining room.
The real star of tonight's table is this Romanian Linen and Lace tablecloth...a beautiful gift from a sweet friend of mine!

I used Blue Willow dinner plates and Blue Danube luncheon plates.

Some of my grandmother's silver, wedding napkins and grocery store glasses...my eclectic mix

I bought the centerpiece bowl a couple years ago on clearance...made in Italy...from Home Goods. I had it there already, so I didn't change it. We ate pork chile verde tacos with corn and black bean salad.

I'm linking up with Susan from Between Naps on the Porch for 

Tablescape Thursday

my favorite salsa recipe to date...

Roasted Serrano and Poblano Salsa

Summer to me starts when I make ice cream and salsa, not together of course! So I am sharing a salsa recipe.

This is by far my favorite salsa experiment. I don't love hot and spicy, but I do like flavorful and it seemed like last year's crop of jalapenos from my dad just kept getting hotter and hotter, so I was giving away jars and jars of salsa and not enjoying much of it.

 I don't think I have ever cooked with Serrano peppers and this recipe definitely changed my mind about them. My uncle lives in the country about an hour away from our new house and came by the other day and left me some goods from his garden...a bag full of tomatoes, some well over ripe, a bag full of peppers and a huge  eggplant. So I worked in my new kitchen and came up with this.

It is so good! A gentle heat on the back of your tongue...just enough for me to enjoy it and not be running for a glass of water!

Recipe

3 poblano peppers

5 serrano peppers

2 onions

2-3 whole garlic cloves (I didn't have any, but you could definitely use it)

10-12 small medium tomatoes

1 can of diced tomatoes (2 cans of water)

olive oil

salt

pepper

parsley

In a large dutch oven, add a couple tablespoons of EVOO. Add all the fresh peppers, tomatoes, and onions. (Wait on the garlic or it will burn.) Let cook and brown, then add canned tomatoes with juice and two cans of water. Now add garlic and seasonings and let come to a boil and simmer til everything is cooked. Add more salt to taste. Put hot mixture in a food processor and pulse til you get the consistency you like. This made four medium sized jars. 

Enjoy!

I'm linking up (finally!!!)

with the following blog parties!

full plate thursday

foodie friday

Our home sweet home...

I get this question a lot...but you just renovated your kitchen, why are you moving??? (And I did enjoy it for almost 2 years!)
Sometimes when you are a parent, you learn quickly that it is NOT all about you. I have two little people and a husband who I also share a home with and our old home just wasn't working for us anymore. We bought the old house 3 years ago when our oldest wasn't even walking...he barely crawled, so he was rather compliant:) 

In the last year, we have had issue after issue and it became apparent that something had to give. So we decided to put our house on the market...the amazing thing is we never did. We sold our house to our neighbors! We lived in a conservation district and I emailed my neighbor if he knew anyone interested in buying it. He emailed me back, asked for my realtor's  information and later that week I would find out that his son and dil wanted it (they lived with him) and the week after that, they bought it! We found our new home the day we were waiting for them to come back with a reply to our counter offer. They gave us the price we wanted. We made an offer on our new house and had the option periods differ by 3 days, so we'd have a couple days in case we had to deal with something. 

It was a God thing by all standards. Even my realtor, who is a fellow believer said there is no other way to explain it, but God wanted y'all out of that house and in this one!!! 

So back to the, it's not all about you theory...my sweet big boy stopped sleeping through the night about 9 months ago. He was afraid or uneasy about going in his room...he'd ask Daddy to sleep with him or come in our bed...needless to say we were weary and frustrated. My little boy is super active. He was an early walker, runner, crawler, and got into everything and was getting sick quite often. Our old house needed a lot of 'stuff' that we didn't want to invest in right now and really couldn't afford to. It had a small back yard with full sun, and in 105 degrees, that just wasn't working for us...

So our newer house was built in 1966 when walls were better insulated:) and it is brick...that alone cuts the heat and the energy bill in half! 

It's a family home with four real bedrooms that my sweet almost 4 year old adores...proof??? He put himself in his bed the second night we stayed here and slept til 7am!!! Can I get an AMEN???

our dining room

We also have a yard!!! with trees!!! and shade!!! and green grass!!! If you've been in Texas lately, the green grass is a little unusual!

the island

I do love my kitchen here. It has a cook's layout with a HUGE island for prep and seating! I look forward to planning out tablescapes and muffin tin meals in the near future, but I need to buy a new tripod and I can't find my usb cord:) so I took some pictures with my iphone, but they are so grainy, and picasa isn't working with me right now...so I'll try to upload, but if not, I will take some real pictures tomorrow in the light! It's a work in progress and as you can see I still have stacks of pictures to hang! I'll keep posting as I keep doing! I hope I find my usb cord tomorrow!

my sweet boys!