Consider This

Such good reminders and most so easy as I sit dreading going back into the real world tomorrow! Cheers to the holiday season!

Black Friday Mexican Style

My Thanksgiving company stayed around the day after. We went to the infamous Arthur Bryants for lunch, which I actually did not think was that great and then did some wine tasting at Amigoni Urban Winery. If you haven't been there yet, you must go! Great little place.  For dinner, I had planned ahead and made Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas and Slow Cooker Refried Beans.  I was very pleased with how both had turned out. 

For years I have made the same old Enchilada recipe with cream cheese and chicken filling. It was time to change it up. Naturally I had pinned several enchilada recipes over the years and had several to chose from.  Instead of using a rotisserie chicken as the recipe suggests I actually cooked a pound and a half of chicken in the crock-pot with 2 cans of diced tomatoes and green chilies.  After it cooled I shredded the chicken which made it easy to fill in the tortillas.

This recipe made two pans and they are easy to freeze.

I'll just go ahead and admit I love refried beans and it was so easy to cook them in the crock-pot. They also filled the house with an amazing smell, really! It was so cheap and easy and I have several containers frozen. I don't think I'll ever buy a can of refried beans again!

Enjoy!

I'm SO Proud

You were our coach. 

Sad day, not only did the Cyclones lose their last football game but it was the last of the Coach Paul Rhoads era. Talk about somebody with total class and brought passion to the Cyclones. 

Some of my favorites

Life isn't always all about winning. It's about building character and moving forward and that is what Paul Rhoads brought to Iowa State. I can only hope ISU can find somebody just as passionate.  Sad to see him go!

Let me leave you with this video of memories. Grab your tissues. Goosebumps.

Orange You Special

Some of my company for Thanksgiving weekend brought a real treat which I would have never thought of.

Caramel Brownies/sprinkled with Sea Salt/Blood Orange Olive Oil drizzled over top.

You're welcome! 

I will be making this the next time I have company over!

So good!

Thanksgiving

I hosted my first Thanksgiving this year. Being that it was a whole 3 days since having surgery on my arm and a treatment I opted for Thanksgiving Brunch at my house and doing dinner out. I had so much fun with the little details. 

The menu consisted of:

Baked Denver Omelet 

Hashbrown Potatoes and Vegetables

Sweet Almond Cherry Bread

Pumpkin Muffins

Autumn Fruit Salad

Various kinds of Greek Yogurt

and last but not least- Blood Mary's!

We had reservations at Gram and Dun on the Plaza for a Thanksgiving dinner and to view the Plaza Lighting Ceremony but a day of cold cold heavy rains left us rethinking our plans and we opted for a dinner in the suburbs at The Grille at Park Place which was actually delish! I would go there again.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. xoxo

Feel Good Friday

Ham and Cheese Cups

I tried this Ham & Cheese Egg Cups recipe recently and absolutely loved it! I changed out the full egg for egg whites to make it a little healthier. It's quick and easy prep and makes a delicious breakfast or lunch.

Brought To You By The Letter F

Michaels has these huge monogram letters for $2.69 a piece I think. I can't tell you exactly because I sprayed painted over the price tag. Add on a 25% off coupon and you have yourself a deal. Spray paint it gold and slap it on the front door and you have yourself a fun decoration!

Turtles

I had a big to-do list today of things I am prepping for Thanksgiving. I have loved every minute of getting things ready to go. I love entertaining, even though my house is oh so small. I had seen an idea on Pinterest on making Turtles using Rolo Candy, pretzels and pecans. I thought they might be fun to put out in a bowl for a snack Thanksgiving afternoon. I did a taste test and they are delish. So easy!

As I said so easy. Line pretzels up on a baking sheet and top with a Rolo candy.

The worse part is taking the wrappers off the Rolos.

Bake at 350 for 4-5 minutes. Pull out and immediately top with the pecan. I then put the sheet in the fridge to harden the candies. 

Enjoy!

Feel Good Friday

Hello Fresh

If you spend anytime on the Internet I am sure you have seen ads for Hello Fresh. Groupon and Living Social often offer deals for them so recently when I had a 20% Groupon coupon I purchased the Hello Fresh Deal for $29. For $29, I got delivered fresh to my door, on ice, 3 meals for 2.  Each meal comes in a cute little box securely wrapped with all the ingredients you need to prepare. I had this delivered last week as I was watching my buddy, Andrew while his parents were out of town. I thought this would be perfect for meals. I am so embarrassed to say I have only cooked 1 of the meals in a week. I have not been home for a meal since last Thursday! Life.please.slow.down. The meal I cooked last Thursday, Pork Tenderloins with Tarragon Sauce, Brussel sprouts and potatoes was amazing, so tasty and so easy. I definitely recommend from just that one meal. I'll be holding down the fort a little bit more in the next few days so plan to cook the next two meals. Stay tuned.....

Stitch Kit Class

My friend Robert and I recently took a Pillow Stitch Kit Class at West Elm in KC with Tammy Smith Designs. Tammy is awesome. I have some of her tea towels and have given some of her art as gifts.  I was surprised how easy stitching was but still my eye hand coordination is not the greatest- easily distracted and not always on point. Robert was awesome at it. He didn't even really need the lesson! Taking the class reminded me of my love for crafts and wanting to do more of them so I decided it was once again time to restart Corks and Crafts with some friends! Looking forward to our first crafts night in January. Want to join us?

Royally Annoyed

Several weeks ago the Royals took the Crown! We were a city united, celebrating with much affair and very peacefully. And then this TV commercial appeared. (I actually couldn't find it online but found a Facebook page talking about it)

And I am ROYALLY annoyed. Ned Yost, Royals GM,  talking about his favorite guns. In a world where we desperately need some gun control and mental health services to get a handle on gun violence, you have one of the prized figures of KC on a TV commercial talking about the goodness of guns.  What an image to leave in the minds of the young who all know what a big deal he is...... 

Wordless Wednesday

Wouldn't this be the best Christmas tree??

Feel Good Friday

Church Pew Update

After much debate and google shopping I have finally FOUND the pillows to cover my front porch church pew! Nordstrom Rack and Pier One, thank you! And I may have gotten a Halloween one on clearance for next Fall!

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!

Throwback Thursday

to that time when I took Riesy to a Royals game, the World Championship Royals! Is she a lucky dog or what?

Volunteer of the Year

I think one of the most important things that parents can teach their children is how to give back in the community and the importance of volunteering. After all, what is a community without those two things? Over the life of the MGA Triple Crown Run, I have been able to meet so many families and volunteers who have helped us achieve race day success. My friend Kristine has been a tireless volunteer, leading race day operations for the past three years.  In doing so, she has gotten her workplace involved and her co-workers have gotten their families involved which has been fantastic.  One of those special families is the Mersman Family.  Their daughter has a knack for volunteering which is so so special. Not only does she volunteer for the MGA Triple Crown Run every year but also for the Irish Festival in KC.  It seems every year, no matter how early we have to be up for the run or how busy or frazzled we may be, Kate is there bouncing around with a smile on her face, greeting everybody who comes and making them feel welcome. That my friends is priceless.

Over the weekend Kate was honored with the Volunteer of the Year Award for the MGA. We were able to keep it a surprise and I was thrilled for her. When you are a teenager and you are getting a Volunteer of the Year Award, you are going places! Congrats Kate!

By the way, the MGA Triple Crown Run is 99% run on volunteers. If you want to volunteer please comment or shoot me a message.

Wordless Wednesday

I love cooking with Apples in the Fall! What are some of your favorite apple recipes?

Boot/Shoe Holder

I have very little space in my front door for shoes, especially in the winter when people come in with snowy shoes. I had seen this idea on Pinterest and just decided to change it up and use wine corks. So easy!

I purchased this tray at our new Container Store for $9.99 I think plus 20% off when I signed up to receive their emails!

Then I got out my glue gun and my box of wine corks and went to town. It took less than a 1/2 hour. And now sits neatly behind my chair and next to the front door to capture snowy boots or muddy shoes!

Dining Room Table Makeover

I've been wanting to paint my dining room table for a long time.  I finally bit the bullet. My hairdresser has all kinds of DIY projects and one of hers I have admired is her red painted table. I asked her all about how she painted it and got some tips. It was off to Nuts and Bolts and Michaels X37 and Ranchmart I went to find paint and supplies.

You see my dad did not want to move my table to the garage for me to paint. He said it would be heavy and hard to get through the doorway. Secretly, I know it was because he did not want me to paint it. I had you pinned, Dad!! :) My mom's friends were down in October to take me to a chemo treatment and offered to get it into the garage and I said I was just gonna paint it in the dining room. I think they thought I was crazy. So, I did! The first coat was Rustoleum Chalked paint in white to coat the table.   After that was dry I went over it with Martha Stewart Gold Craft Paint. A big bottle can be purchased at Michaels with a coupon for cheap.  I brushed on the gold and then rubbed it with a towel to get an antique look.  This process went fairly well except for the base.

Little Miss decided to pee on my drop cloth as you may notice from the picture.....

Then it was on to the chairs. Oh the chairs. I would kind of like to dismantle them at this point and give them to my Dad for firewood. What a pain in the a**. My hairdresser recommended spraying the chairs so I selected Krylon Colonial Ivory spray paint.  Not only did I spray the chairs, but my favorite flip flops and several pairs of  beloved yoga paints, the garage floor. Good lord. What an ordeal. Then we ran out of spray paint. Who knew it would take about 1 1/2 cans for each chair (x6).  I had gone to 4 Michaels in the city and Colonial Ivory was nowhere to be found. I was about to bite the bullet and spend $800 on the chairs I am dreaming of at World Market at this point. Since I would never set foot in a Hobby Lobby, due to their lack of support for the female parts and choice making, I kept driving til I found a Michaels that had Colonial Ivory in stock!

Spray painting the chairs was by far the hardest and at times the paint would come out of the can in a very odd fashion and it would make the chairs seem like they had popcorn ceiling texture on them. I am not sure why that happened. I hope to not have to keep the chairs for long and to be able to afford the ones at World Market someday.

Dreaming of these!

Finished product!

I do love how it has all come together and how it has changed the look of my dining space.

Thankful Tuesday

I have such amazing friends! In September my friend Tara and her husband hosted an Octoberfest Party where they purchased steins from thrift stores all across the city and had people pick a stein to fill with beer for a donation. They made over $250 which they are donating to the MGA Triple Crown Run. Amazing!