Art Car Preview

Last Saturday, Discovery Green hosted the Art Car Parade Preview and Ikea had a foam party for kids. I sadly didn't get pictures of Baby J playing in the foam because he HATED it! I mean the kid freaked out about it, wouldn't go near the stuff. He did have fun running all over the park though, he had never seen soo many kids running around at one time. Here are some pictures of the awesome art cars:

I actually never saw this Watermelon slice but he lives in my neighborhood and was driving it around all weekend.

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

I like to eat salads with lots of ingredients. I love the way you can really build up the flavors and make very simple or very complex. Over the last few years I have been adding fruit but never really thought about strawberries. I saw pictures of beautiful green salads with bursts of red strawberries and just knew I had to try it right away. At my last farmers market trip I picked up a carton of strawberries with this in mind. I have ate this three days in a row! I loove it, a lot!

3 large strawberries
sliced half an avocado
cubed sprinkle of goat cheese
handful of baby spinach

Dressing
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons dark brown sugar, optional*

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup olive oil

Toss a few tablespoons of the dressing with the salad mix and desired salad ingredients, top with goat cheese and serve immediately.

If not using dressing right away, cover and refrigerate, whisking or shaking again before use.Handful Baby SpinachBeat the vinegar in a bowl with the optional sugar, garlic, salt and pepper until sugar and salt dissolves. Then beat in the oil by droplets, whisking constantly. (Or place all the ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake to combine.) Taste and adjust the seasonings.

French Onion Soup

I know this will sound crazy but I don't really love onions all that much but I have been dieing to have this soup! I do not even know where my obseission came for it but I just knew I had to have it! I purchased this ober cute mini cast iron with a lid cassarole dish from Michales for just $2.00! When I got it I knew what I was going to make it in. I used a couple of recipes and here is what I came up with. I absoulitly LOVED it!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups sliced onions
• 4 (10.5 ounce) cans beef broth
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry (optional)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 slices French bread
• 4 slices provolone cheese
• 2 slices Swiss cheese, diced
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Melt butter with olive oil in an 8 quart stock pot on medium heat. Add onions and continually stir until tender and translucent. Do not brown the onions.
2. Add beef broth, sherry and thyme. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Heat the oven broiler.
4. Ladle soup into oven safe serving bowls and place one slice of bread on top of each (bread may be broken into pieces if you prefer). Layer each slice of bread with a slice of provolone, 1/2 slice diced Swiss and 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese. Place bowls on cookie sheet and broil in the preheated oven until cheese bubbles and browns slightly

Painted Upholstery - Finished!

Here she is! I absolutely adore it! I will write another post about the finishing process but I promised I would have pictures up tonight so here it is.

Since Kristy linked my blog I have had sooo many new people stop by and I just wanted to say thanks so much! Please leave a comment if you have any questions.

xoxo,
Mrs. J

Homemade HotDogs Buns

I saw this post over at So Tasty, So Yummy and we I didn't have any hot dog buns on hand and really didn't want to go to the store plus I had all the ingredients to make on hand. They didn't come out quite right, didn't rise enough I guess. They were a fail but I would try again. I think my yeast is not stored properly? Also I used Wheat Flour because I don't care for the white starchy taste of white bread.

Homemade Hot Dog Buns1 tablespoon sugar
2 ¼ teaspoons yeast
¼ cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 – 2 cups flour
1 - 2 cups wheat flour
1 egg

In the bowl of your stand mixer, dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Sprinkle the yeast over the top and let sit for 10 minutes. Add the milk, oil, salt and 3 cups of flour to the yeast mixture. Beat with the dough hook until combined.

Add flour, 1 large spoonful at a time, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Knead 5-7 minutes, until you have a smooth, elastic dough. Put the dough into an oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover and let rise until doubled, about one hour.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface. Divide into 9 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Roll the balls into cylinders, 4 ½ -inches in length and flatten slightly. Place each bun on a lined baking sheet with the sides just barely touching. Cover with a light towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Just before baking, lightly brush the tops of the buns with the egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water.) Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer the buns from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yields 9 buns

xoxo,
Mrs. J

Painted Upholstery - Part 1

Kristy from Hyphen Interiors wrote a post about painted upholstery. I stumbled apon it late one night while I was blog surfin' as soon as I saw the post I knew I was going to do one. In fact I already had an ugly pink wing back chair sittting on my front porch. A neighbor had sat it on the curb for heavy trash pick up and I asked her if I could have and if there was anything wrong other than the worn out fabric, my orginial thought was reupholster it. My neighbor also told me she had gotten rid of another chair the exact same condition and color the week before. I was so sad I could have had two of them! Luckily I spotted another neighbor who grabbed the previous chair, my plan is to show said neighbor how great this project turned out and beg for the chair because it's just sitting on her front porch as well, finger crossed!!

I followed Kristy tutorial exactly how she wrote it! I must say she started something here now I want to paint everything!! It hasn't rained in Houston in threee long months and the week I decide to start it finally rains, so I only got the first step done and here it is what do you think? My next post will show how amazing it looks finished!



Here it is after the second coat of latix paint. It's still kinda wet which is why it's so dark.



This is with the legs painted white.

Sorry I have not had any time to edit my pictures so these are straight from the camera. Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo,
Mrs. J

If you are looking for..

An AMAZING photographer, please check out MacKenzie Lynn Photography. She is actually a close friend of mine and I asked her take pictures for Baby J's First Birthday. We met at Discovery Green the day after the NCAA Tournament was hosted. When we got to the park it was pretty rough looking, trash was every, stages were still up from the free concerts, but luckily Miss V took great care of us!! I used these pictures as props for his birthday party, if you would like to take a look head over to MacKenzie Lynn Photography Baby C is 1!

xoxo,
Mrs. J

I realllly want one of these!

What is is this you might ask? This awesome digital cutting machine is called Silhouette, and IHeart Organizing is giving one away. She has a lot of rules about entering the giveaway and I did every single step,even took the time to write this blog about how badly I want one. Just look at all the awesome projects I can do with this! Please go check out IHeart Organizing and tell her I sent you!

So many great projects that I could do! If I don't win one maybe Mr. J will catch this post ;) Thanks for stopping bye.

xoxo,
Mrs. J