It's the Life

Easter Dinner

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Weekend! 

This year for Easter Dinner, I decided to try and cook Lamb. I went with the Lamb Chop. They were fantastic. Not a meat I would want to eat all the time, but it was a nice holiday treat.

 

I put olive oil, rosemary, thyme, garlic & salt in a food processor and made a marinade. I covered both sides of the lamb chops in the mixture, covered them with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge. I did this at about 10am, then took them out of the fridge to come to room temp about 25 minutes before we were going to eat. Then I just grilled them. Delicious! 

 

How beautiful are the colors on these freshly washed potatoes? I saw these baby sweet & red potatoes and wanted to use them in a single dish. I cut up a few russet potatoes to add to the mix as well.

 

I cut the baby reds into halves and then cut the other two into about the same sizes. I boiled them in salted water until they were just starting to get tender. Then I dried them out on a towel until they were cool and completely dry. Once dried I drizzled olive oil on top and baked at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. Once they were done I buttered them. Since I bought fresh herbs for the meat, I figured I'd use them here as well. I added rosemary & thyme. My child ate about 1/4 of this bowl! The mix of the three potato textures and flavors was nice.

 

Baby Carrots were boiled and drained. Then I added them back to the pan with some butter and parsley, I let them cook in the butter for a few minutes. So Good.

 

The asparagus I just trimmed the ends, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. Baked in the oven at 450 for about 10 minutes. They are still a bit crunchy, I like that.

My husband is a big fan of the deviled egg. I don't mind them, but I wouldn't have thought to make them if he wasn't such a big fan. I tried to "fancy" them up a bit this time. I used mayo like normal but I used 1/2 regular mustard and 1/2 dijon. I also diced, very fine, some shallot and added a tiny bit of vinegar. Paprika on top, of course. They turned out pretty good.

 

I'm sad to have to take down my sequin eggs and glittery basket. I love them so much. I might leave them out for a while, I'll just call them "spring" decor. 

 

Easter Post for Grandma

My mom had other Grandmother-ly duties in California this weekend, so she wasn't here for the Easter Egg Hunt. We miss her when she's away and we know she's missing us too. This post is for her, so she can still be a part of our day, even when she's away. Happy Easter Grandma!

We made him find his easter basket before he could collect eggs. (Notice the time on the microwave...9:31 am...I love my sleeping-in child!)

 
 

I always end up tossing so much candy after easter (and halloween), he gets tired of it really fast. This was my solution to too much sugar & lots of waste. Besides, look at that face over a dollar! (He got $5 total, totally worth it)

 

 

Chocolate Egg filled with Mini Eggs. Yum.

 

Hamming it up for the camera...

 

Opening the gift that Grandma left for him.

 

Spoiled.

 

We love you Grandma! Now it's time to come home!

Gift Idea: Sugar Cookie Kit

 

My friend, Rachel, over at A Little Cuppa Tea and her awesome mother, Laura, gave out Sugar Cookie Kits during Christmas.  What a fantastic idea!

They even provided the cookie dough and frosting! Check out Rachel's blog for her recipes!

See those brown dots on the dough?  That's flavor people, lots and lots of flavor! We used both the Superhero cutters for Jefferson, and the snowflake cutters for me. 

 

How awesome are those Superhero cutters? I think I might find a gingersnap recipe we could use them for as well. We had to get really creative in order to frost them so you can still see the faces. I think a ginersnap would be perfect, because you don't need frosting. 

We used a very clean paint brush with some corn syrup to fill in the lines on Hulk.

Then we pressed black sanding sugar into the sticky gaps.

Not too bad...I did say we had to get creative!

For his hair and the rest of the cookies, I added some half and half (you could use milk) to the frosting to thin it out a bit. We used paint brushes to apply the frosting in the different areas. Don't you love that green hair? 

Jefferson want's it to be made clear that his FACE should be GREEN, and his hair should be black. (Yeah, yeah six year old...just eat your awesome cookie)

Since I didn't have to make the cookie dough or the frosting, I wasn't tired of the cookies by the time it came to frosting them. So we moved on to the snowflakes.

 

You will notice that the cookie kit was made just for me. I do love the blue & red combination. I'm not sure if they know, but my favorite thing besides a good sugar cookie, is a sugar cookie with cinnamon balls. I LOVE those cinnamon balls on a cookie. Tastes so good.

Ladies, this was an awesome idea for a gift! Not only was it packaged beautifully and the items inside are fun and tasty, but it allowed me to spend time with my boy, making memories, without the prep work. 

Thank you! 

Christmas 2011

Templeman Christmas 2011

 

 

The Boys Christmas Decorations:

 

I hope you are all having a wonderful Holiday Season!

Holiday Wrap

I am a big believer in good packaging. I am a product marketer's dream. I've purchased many things simply because I loved the bottle or container it was in. Like buying a few bottles of coke when I could get a 24 pack of cans for the same price...

 

In the same spirit, I like to decorate my holiday gifts. For one, they look like a continuation of the Christmas tree decorations, but they also add to the gift giving fun.

It's really easy to add a few extra touches to your gifts. I made a tutorial of how I did mine, but use your imagination and do something that says "this gift is from (your name)"!

Most of these things I just had at my house. 

I started by adding a small glitter dot sticker to the fabric brad.

Then I inserted the metal tabs of the brad into two of the holes of a slightly larger button.

Now fold the brad tabs down to secure them all together.

So cute! That might be cute in a little girls hair.

My gift tag is just a 1.5x3 inch piece of white paper.  I stitched a line down one side with my sewing machine and then used a glue dot to attach the buttons. You could stop here and just use this for a gift tag. Especially for a smaller gift.

Next I added a couple glue dots to my 3x3.5 inch paper.

Secure the snowflake a little off center.

Use another glue dot to add your tag to the snowflake. These snowflakes came in a pack of 8 for $3 at the craft store. I think the fabric brads were the most expensive item I used, but I love them.

Hole punch the top corner and your tag is done! 

Now we do the raffia ribbon. You can use any kind of ribbon, but I have a thing for the raffia. Make a simple knot and leave some strings to attach the bow.

To make a bow with this thin raffia, you just take a long strip and fold it back and forth until you get two loops on each side.

Set the folds of raffia on the knot you already tied on the gift. Take the strings from the knot and tie the raffia folds to the package.

Isn't that cute?  This is why I love the raffia for gifts. Now all you have to do is use the long strands to tie on your gift tag.

I liked the gift plenty with just the gift tag, but I wanted to add one last thing. When I did the cake table for my nephew's first birthday, I had sewn a bunch of circles together to make the birthday sign. I thought I would do something like that again. Using a glue strip not only made sure the stitches won't come apart, but now I can glue it to the package.

I think adding the stitches makes it more "from Andrea". 

I just love it. I made sure to wrap a gift to myself so I can keep one!

To: Andrea    From: Yourself

If you live in Utah and you are interested in decorating your gifts, you should go to a Roberts craft store. They are, sadly, going out of business and everything in their stores is 40% off.

Happy Holidays!  

Christmas Ornaments

This summer I was able to get a new pre-lit Christmas tree for 90% off! It has all white lights, so I decided I would put this one in my front room.  The tree in my family room is all gingerbread and candy, so I wanted this tree to be completely different. 

 

I have a bunch of snowflake ornaments from my wedding reception.  I thought they would be a good start. I used to have a really small tree in my old house that I would put these on, but there weren't enough to make a nice looking regular sized tree.

I've been walking around the holiday section at a bunch of stores trying to decide what look I wanted for this tree. I was having a hard time deciding until I saw these babies!

How I love them. I think I might go get a few more so they can be clustered together in a few different places. 

 

Next I saw these. I fell in love with that deer.  This is not a style I would ever guess I would want for my tree, but I couldn't stop going back and checking out that deer. He's fluffy on the underbelly and legs, he's wood chips on his back covered in white glittery paint.

I don't have very many ornaments on this tree, but it will be fun to continually collect things for it through the years.  

Coca Cola Christmas

 

I saw these at the grochery store this weekend.

 

I love the carton packaging, I love the shape of the bottles. I had to have them.  If you know someone who likes coca-cola items, this would be an inexpensive gift they would love.

Candy Cane Love: Chocolate Snack Cake

This is possibly my favorite chocolate cake recipes. It's an unusual recipe, it doesn't even have eggs in it, but it is delicious. 

I haven't ever put frosting on this cake.  It doesn't need it.  I usually put whipping cream and toffee chips, but since it's candy cane season, I thought I'd go with ice cream and candy cane pieces.

 

So good!

Click here for other Candy Cane Love

Candy Cane Love: White Chocolate Covered Almonds

If you asked me if I like candy canes, I would probably say no. I don't ever just eat a candy cane, or anything else peppermint. But if you asked me if I like candy cane ice cream...well, then I would say "this half gallon is all for me, right?" One of my favorite things about this time of year is candy cane ice cream.  

A few weeks ago, my friend Rachel, shared with me a store bought candy covered almond.  It was good, it was crunch-y, cream-y, candy cane-y and delicious.  She told me  how much she paid for a small bag of them...and then I said, "we can make these".  So we did. And this is how:

First you need some peppermint candy canes. To my surprise, it is much easier to find cherry flavored than peppermint.  I wouldn't recommend cherry for this recipe.

You need raw almonds.  

And you need white chocolate.

Start by cutting or shaving your chocolate.  A serrated knife works best. (ha-ha Tara, serrated knife...good times).

If you just put a big hunk of chocolate in the microwave or double broiler, you will end up with some of the chocolate starting to burn, while you still have a big chunk un-melted. This allows the chocolate to melt evenly.

Next, you smash up a candy cane. I put mine in a zippy bag and smash with a big spoon.

I wish I had some vanilla ice cream on hand...

Another thing about the chocolate.  You need to put about 3/4 of the chocolate in either a double broiler or you can do what I did and put it in a bowl, microwave for 15 mins (CORRECTION: 15 seconds!), stir, microwave for 15 mins seconds, stir.  (If I was doing a big batch I would use a double broiler.  This was a small batch since I wasn't really sure if it would turn out well.)

Once your chocolate starts to melt stir it all until it's smooth. Now you add the remaining 1/4 of your chocolate to the melted chocolate and stir.  This "tempers" the chocolate. It helps it not burn or get lumpy while you dip.

Now that you have tempered your chocolate, go ahead and add your candy cane dust.  I saved a little bit of mine to sprinkle on top at the end, but you don't have to do that. Stir the candy cane into the chocolate.

Add your almonds.

Stir and stir until they are all coated.

I dumped the bowl onto my cookie cooling rack that I had placed on top of a cookie sheet. This allowed the chocolate to drip down instead of puddle.  I used a spoon to help spread them out.  I wanted them to be individual almonds, not a big cluster. Once they are all spread out, you can sprinkle your left over dust on top.

You can let them dry on the counter like this for a bit, but if you have your son and the neighbor boys doing their best to contain themselves before digging in, you can put them in the freezer for a few minutes and they will harden up real fast.

Give the kids a few to hold them off while you get a couple last photos...and then try to taste one yourself before they are gone!

These would make a great thank-you or small holiday gift. Put them in a clear baggie, tied with a ribbon.  I have a few other candy cane treats in mind this year. I will keep a list of them as they post in my recipe section under "Candy Cane Love". 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We are having my family over for the holiday today.  I have been slowly collecting placemats, chasers, glasses etc for a nice table setting. I think it turned out even more beautiful than I had it in my head!

 

Everything is from Pier 1.  I really love that place. Jefferson designed the name cards.  He picked out a turkey that looks really worried. 

 

I hope you all have a wonder day.