Home is...

Hello, welcome back. It's been a while since I've posted but don't worry we're keeping busy. We did some stuff around the yard, chopping down trees, yanking out rose bushes, pressure washing the driveway, oh and digging up and fixing the leech field. I won't bore you anymore with that stuff, let's get rid of some more blue paint. Take a look at the ceiling where Jeffery swatched white paint for laughs.  There we go, an appropriate ceiling color for the modern family. Primer on the walls ready to accept the boldest paint choice in the house so far. Spot Calvin and Henry being super helpful throughout this post. Calvin says, "Wow that's really red." This paint color is Valspar "In the Red." Well no turning back now.  You might be thinking, "But Em, there's still blue paint on that wall, it's not even covered with primer." Yes you're rig...

I asked Jeffery what he's most looking forward to eating after this challenge. "Greasy food." The third week of the challenge I was really, really craving Chick-fil-a, this week I didn't really have any cravings, and I honestly still don't really have any cravings. We did end up saving money even though I like to buy fancy groceries. For us it was more that we wanted to challenge ourselves rather than we wanted to save money. After a week of eating out again, because I haven't been feeling like myself lately, I can say that I really don't enjoy restaurant eating as much as I used to. It's become more of a convenience thing to me, rather than an actual pleasure. Anyway, here's what we ate. We started out the week with a fried chicken recipe Jeffery wanted to try. My huge new wooden cutting board fell off the kitchen counter and onto the glass that was sitting in front of it, sending pieces of glass flying everywhere, so the chicken ended up ...

This week we started off with Calvin's birthday. He requested tacos so I made shredded chicken tacos. We didn't get a picture of that, but Jeffery did grab a picture of what Calvin had decided on for his birthday cake. He loved baking cupcakes with me. Monday we did steak and potatoes again, this time I did baked potatoes. The topping on the steak this time was a mushroom butter. I love asparagus and I got some for a good deal at Costco. This plate is a mess because halfway through my steak I realized I'd forgotten to take a picture. Tuesday night I wasn't hungry for dinner and so Jeffery made himself something and had me take a picture for the blog. This is orange chicken, he cooked up the veggies separately, the orange sauce and chicken pieces came from Costco as well.  But let me tell you about our orange chicken story. We went into Costco during lunchtime so we were pretty hungry, and we aren't eating out so we didn't grab food befor...

Welcome back to 30 Days of Home Cooking, the show where I spend hours of my life, planning, prepping, and cooking meals, only for Jeffery to gobble it up in 10 minutes.  I actually thoroughly enjoy cooking, it's become my hobby. Jeffery says I could have made just as good of food in the old kitchen, but I disagree, cooking was more of a chore before. I don't have to walk all the way to the pantry for my spices now, my mixer is on a lift, the trash pulls out nicely for easy food disposal, it's wonderful, as is the food so without further ado, here's what we ate for week two. Day one of week two we decided that we'd do our late anniversary dinner for lunch instead of dinner. We took a trip to Costco afterwards and while there we picked up some USDA Prime New York Strip Steaks for relatively cheap, so that's what I made tonight. My father can attest to the quality of this meal. The plate starts with a scoop of whipped potatoes that I seasoned with salt, ...

Recipe Goat Cheese Smothered Steak Steak might be my favorite food. It’s a little bit sweet, satisfying to chew, and filling. My favorite cut is probably a New York Strip, which is what I’ve used here. You can use whatever cut you like for this, as this recipe is mostly about the toppings. The Steak I generously seasoned these steaks with salt and pepper and let them sit at room temperature for an hour before I put them on the grill. Then seared both sides on high and reduced the heat to medium to finish them to a medium rare. (125 degrees internal temperature) These were very thick cut steaks, probably 2 ½ inches I seared each side for 4 minutes a piece and then they only needed another 5 minutes or so to finish up. The Goat Cheese Butter Equal parts salted butter and goat cheese (both left out to soften) whip them together with a fork until nice and smooth. Then add pepper, dried parsley, and a couple drops of lemon juice to taste and whip it together again. St...

Hello, hello, and welcome back! This is part 3 of the kitchen remodel series. If you read last post you got a good idea of our vision for this space, now let's watch it come together. Jeffery says my blog is a great way to sum up a lot of hours into a 15 minute read. He's right. The past few weeks we haven't spent much time together. As soon as he gets home from work he's in the kitchen. I keep the boys out of the way and help periodically. We only really see each other when he decides to throw in the towel and go to bed. And now, a photo montage of the drywall going up. We were almost done with drywall when the cabinets were delivered. I'm back to parking in the driveway for the time being. They are stunning. We opened boxes, checked for damage, and grinned about how beautiful they are. Jeffery brought a decorator end into the kitchen to see it inside. We were pretty excited.  Jeffery mudded and sanded and...