M-O-V-I-N-G-

Sweet Husband and I are getting ready to move into a house we are renting!!!  We are so excited!!  We also get our dog on Sunday - also incredibly exciting!!!!  

Here are some not so exciting things about moving: 

1.  Packing

2.  Peeling off the decorative stickers that you put on your wall - I feel like I have done intensive surgery to get them off! They are wonderful but I will never get the intricate patterns again =)

3.  Getting boxes packed and not being able to move around your apartment due to the excessive amount of stuff we have  =(

Things I love about moving: 

1.  We are getting our very own WASHER AND DRYER!!!  No more shared laundry machines! This also means no more surprise articles of clothing ending up in my laundry.  It seems many folks don't double check that the washer/dryer is completely empty.

2.  Bigger place to live

3.  We get our Lil Monster Jake =)

The best part about moving 

1. Having the support of friends and family to help us move all of our stuff - even our piano =)

I will update pics soon - I won't be doing a lot of cooking as the majority of my pots and pans are packed as well as my magical apron  =) 

Sweet Daffodils to Sit On

So today I took on my first painting project for a free awesome find!  I found these wood folding chairs outside by the dumpster in Cougar Village.  

That is right - by the dumpster.  

Now lets just kick off our stilettos and get serious - Drop your fear of checking out your neighbors junk.  If you have a fear of picking up awesome things next to...or sometimes inside....a dumpster you are really missing out!  I wasn't sure what to think the first time Sweet Husband pulled out a huge pillar from a dumpster filled with demolition stuff.  This thing was huge, white, and filled with nails.  But my heart skipped a beat after I saw it all cleaned up and painted the most luscious red.  It now stands in our living room forever reminding me of how someone's trash is truly your treasure  =)  

OK so on to these lovely chairs!  I found them by the dumpster and they have been our porch chairs for about a year but I never painted them.  A few weeks ago I was in Aledo, IL, Sweet Husband's hometown, and saw similar chairs painted yellow.  

That was it - I went to Home Depot and hunted down the perfect yellow:  

Dazzling Daffodil.  

This is the Before shot.  One of the chairs was worn down to the wood.  The other chair (on the right) had paint and some lacquer still in tact.  I used some sand paper to lightly rough up the wood/lacquer and also to remove flaking paint.  

Now here is a key product that you need when painting on wood that has lacquer on it (you can also use this for many other surfaces!)  You need:  Glidden Gripper Primer. This primer helps the new paint stick to the wood/lacquer.  If I didn't use this primer the paint would not have 'stuck' well to the chair.  This primer is amazing and I highly recommend it!!!

 

Next Step:  Start Painting!!!!!

Next Step:  Take a break and take a pic of how hard you are working!!!

It took me about a half hour to prime and then a half hour to paint each chair.  

And then they were D-O-N-E

Lovely porch chairs for Sweet Husband and I

Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ladies, hold on to your horses.  These cookies will knock your stilettos off! These are yummy, thin cookies that are crunchy on the edge and gooey in the middle.  

Sweet Husband loved these cookies and I am certain that you and your Sweet Honey will too!!!

First things first - you are going to want a mixer, unless you prefer a great arm work out.  I don't have a mixer so I creamed butter with my own hands/arms.  I also don't have a cooling rack - I have a great solution for this later on...

The best way to cream butter without a mixer is to let the stick of butter get to room temp, cut the butter into squares and then use a wood spoon to chop at it and make it all one hunk.  (The word Hunk might make you think of your Handsome Hunk....don't get distracted....back to the cookies)  =)  

After you get the butter into a nice big hunk (focus) of butter you add in the sugar (brown and white).  At this point I switched over to using my Pampered Chef 4-pronged ground beef thingy (I tried to find it on-line for you at Pampered Chef but I couldn't find it)  This meat thingy also works well for making homemade guac - it's great for crushing avacados!  So you just squish all this around until it looks like this.....

Yummy!!!  WARNING:  This butter/sugar/brown sugar mix is incredibly delish!!!  And yes, I ate every bit that just happened to get on my finger  =)  

It pays to be a messy cook!

At this point you have mixed in the flour, malted milk, and chocolate chips.  I used the chocolate malted milk but I am sure you can use regular as well.  

This is a before and after of the cookies.  2 Main things you should know - 

1.  Make sure these cookies have a lot of room.  They spread out and get really thin.  2.  Let the cookies cool but not too much....they get really crispy on the edges and are difficult to remove without breaking.  I suggest you re-spray your baking pan/sheet between each batch of cookies and also let them cool just enough so they are not too gooey to get off the pan but also not too crisp that they just break.  

OK so actually there are 3 things - 

3.  You MUST watch these cookies like a hawk!  There are only a few seconds between burnt and yummy - set a timer and keep an eye on them!

Speaking of cooling - I don't have a cooling rack. So instead I used a fan and my cookies - aim the fan and you get instantly cool cookies...and a cool pan!  

Hello beautiful!!!!!!

That is one thin, yummy, ooey, gooey, full of goodness cookie!!!

What's Cookin Good Lookin

Here is the dinner menu for this week:  

Bowtie Lasagna

Mexican "Flatbread" Pizza

Beef with Snow Peas

Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies  (This is just a dessert, not a dinner - but it would be lovely as dinner!)

Chicken Spaghetti 

Some other recipes I would love to try out:  

Via Cappuccino Muffins

Sweet Cinnamon Scones 

It's Tea Time

Summer is here and nothing compliments summer better than family, friends, BBQ and tall pitchers of iced tea. My new favorite is Blueberry Tea.  It is a light tea but is bursting with flavor!  What are some of your favorite teas for summer?

Want to try some new recipes for iced tea - check out these Iced Tea Recipes