Rainbow

When we got married, we got a TON of kitchen items. Bowls, plates, serving platters, little gadgets. There are some things still in the packaging... that's how much we got. One of the things we have a lot of are wooden spoons. We have them in all shapes and sizes and we use them all the time. But you know, those wooden spoons are great, but they're boring. I had some paint and some time, so I decided to make a little rainbow. It was only after that that I found a very similar project on Pinterest. 

All I did was tape off the spoons, using scotch tape (it was most accessible). After that, I sanded a few of the spoons with a shinier finish and then painted away. The spoons soaked up the paint, so I did two or three coats before deciding that they were colorful enough. I haven't done this yet, but my next planned step is to buy some food-safe finish for them to keep the color from chipping. I think that a nice, shiny finish on them will look great and probably protect the wood! 

It only took about 20 minutes to get out my supplies, tape them off and paint, so it's totally doable. Plus, how cheap are wooden spoons! This would be a really fun gift for a kitchen shower :) 

French Onion Soup

Mmm... take a look at that! It's not the best picture (the lighting in our kitchen is pretty bad) but it still looks so good to me. French Onion Soup is one of my favorites, most likely for the cheese and bread, but I love the flavors also. Anyway, my mom shared this recipe with me when I got married, so I thought I'd make it for the first time.

So first, I cut up four large onions. No big deal, except that with onions, it always looks like a big deal. I didn't get my heart broken, I just chopped up onions for soup. Next time, I'll remember to have Carson do this.

Since I didn't want to wipe my eyes with my hands, I put them onto my arm for some relief. Didn't factor in how it would look.

Anyway, I was over it by the time I woke up the next morning.
And thankfully almost over it enough while cooking the onions.

In fact, when the soup was done and I topped it with bread and cheese, my eyes felt just fine.


And a short time later, I feasted my eyes on this and completely forgot about how I felt before. Yum.

Double Cheese French Onion Soup
Courtesy of my mother
Serves eight

You'll need:
4 large onions, thinly sliced and separated into rings
1/4 cup (half a stick) butter, melted
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 10 3/4oz can chicken broth
1 10 3/4oz can beef broth
2 cups water
1/4 cup white cooking wine
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 inch sliced French bread, toasted
8 slices of mozzarella cheese
grated Parmesan cheese

How to:
- Saute onion until tender
- Blend in flour, stirring until smooth
- Gradually add broths, water and cooking wine
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes
- Add pepper
-  Place 8 ovenproof serving bowls on a baking sheet (note: my bowls said microwave safe and nothing about the oven but they did just fine)
- Ladle soup into bowls, place bread on top and mozzarella on top of that, sprinkle with Parmesan.
- Broil 6 inches from heat until cheese melts.

Enjoy right away!

Yum.

I thought I'd post some recent recipe successes, if for no other reason than to encourage you to follow suit :)

On our snowday, we tried something that we've never done before: homemade snow cones. Well, sort of. We had coke in the fridge already, then Carson gathered a bowl of snow from outside, shoved it into glasses and poured coke over it. 

"When life gives you snow, make coke floats..." 

 Another thing I tried recently and was SO proud of was cooking a whole chicken in the crockpot. A friend said it was easy, so I bought the chicken and basically rinsed it, threw it in the crockpot, put random spices  (paprika, thyme, savory, sage) and garlic on top and cooked it for 6 hours. Though I was skeptical, the chicken was really good! It smelled amazing and I was proud.
Ps- probably mentioned it before, but if you're looking for a crockpot, get this one... it has buttons instead of a little knob, so as soon as it's cooked for the specified time, it stops cooking and goes to "warm". It's great if you end up coming home a little later than planned.

We enjoyed our chicken with garlic mashed potatoes. It lasted for many meals!

The last thing I made is the best: Caramel Popcorn! 

I wasn't sure it was going to work, but it did and it was amazing. 

I used this recipe and followed it exactly, except used half the amount of butter. It says to bake for an hour, mixing it every 15 minutes, but I think I baked mine for about 45 and it was perfect. 

Also, it says 5 quarts of popped popcorn. I don't know how much that is, but I popped three bags of microwave popcorn and it was just fine with that amount. This is a recipe I hope you try. I'll be making it again soon! (possibly adding peanuts or cashews... yum).

Around the House

I don't have much to say (a lie. I always have a lot to say) other than to show you what we've been up to lately. 

A few weeks ago, I made peanut butter cookies. I enjoy most cookies before they're cooked (dough) but peanut butter cookies and the oatmeal cookies my mom makes are the two exceptions. I had all the ingredients for peanut butter cookies, so I set to work filling up the cookie jar. 

Unfortunately, since I like them, the cookie jar is once again empty. Oh well. 

Carson returned to work at Super Supplements. His boss called and offered him a full-time position. Yes, please! I made a sign for his first day. 

 I also thought I should make a note of how we watch movies around here. On the macbook, propped up by other dvds, with computer speakers. This movie, by the way, was the updated version of "Charade" (with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn). This one was called "The Truth about Charlie" and it just wasn't that great. We have Charade and I think it's much better! 

With ice cream, of course. Carson keeps getting my favorite (mint chocolate chip) so we keep eating ice cream... it's a problem I don't mind all that much :) 

Here's another something I made: an owl pincushion. The drawback is that it sort of looks like an owl voodoo doll. I don't know that they have those but I feel bad stabbing this poor creature in the back. He has been rather handy though. I don't miss having to stick pins in the couch when I'm trying to sew.

I just love squash and zucchini cooked together. Something about it just seems so summery. I think it's the colors and the fact that growing up we had a million squash from Granddaddy's garden each summer. 

Since I'm showing you "life", here's some Reilly Building pictures and updates. 

This is our list of rules for the apartment building. Some people took the liberty of calling others out on certain misdemeanors. I, for instance, have a drug and alcohol issue... clearly. Some of the names are personal jokes (Rachel has a fish and was called out on the "pets" rule and Keith may or may not be loud late at night).

That rule list is posted on the whiteboard that's in the foyer of the building. I think it's supposed to be for helpful notes. There are a few, but there are mostly pictures and funny notes. Stephanie recently made this one of the Reilly women (yes, we have new people)... and Izzy made an addition. 

The biggest Reilly family news has been that two of our members, John and Rachel, got engaged last week! We're all THRILLED for this event, to take place this winter over break. They will continue to be our neighbors - she'll move down the hall to his apartment, which happens to be right next to ours!

When Life Gives You Peaches... Make Pie

On Saturday, Carson and I went up to Green Bluff with Molly and Jerrad. 

It was the last weekend of the Peach Festival, and while that may conjure up images of people dancing around holding sweet summer fruit, all it meant for us was filling boxes with fruit for pies.

We hit one farm for peaches and another for pumpkin donuts. We get these every year and they are the BEST!

Afterward, we set the men to work peeling peaches (note the frustration on their faces... for some reason the only peeler I own is a carrot peeler and it wasn't up to the task) and then set to work baking! We made two pies (we used the recipe from the Joy of Cooking cookbook) and a cobbler. So good!

S'more Pie (Recipe)

While we were in Pennsylvania, I made a S'more Pie.

I know... nothing about that looks like a good idea. There is nothing that is remotely redeemable in this pie. Nothing healthy, nothing good for you. In fact, the only way to make this 'okay' would be to only see pictures or cut yourself a very tiny piece. 

Nevertheless, I will dutifully share. Because even though it's bad for you, it tastes so, so good! Especially with milk.

S'More Pie (recipe found on pinterest)
2 packages chocolate chip cookie dough (the break and bake cookie kind)
2 cups marshmallow fluff (I just guessed because I didn't want to clean marshmallow out of a measuring cup)
3 Hershey's chocolate bars
I know. 
Roll out one package of cookie dough and press it in your pie pan. This will be the crust
Scoop about 3/4 of the marshmallow fluff jar into the cookie crust.
Break the chocolate bar up and put the pieces on top of the marshmallow fluff.
Roll the other package of cookie dough out to fit the top of the pie and press the edges together.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. [Mine was still quite mushy at this point, so I kept it in there for maybe more like 30 and then froze it before cutting to set so there wouldn't be so much mush :) Also, mine turned out really ugly... the marshmallow tried to break out of the pie crust. This could be solved by monitoring the amount you put in there.]
Enjoy. But please, please, please go for a run afterward!

the details

Maybe you're getting tired of looking at house pictures, or maybe you're thrilled to see more. Either way, here are some freshly uploaded ones for you to feast your eyes upon! We'll just pretend you've come to visit the Bays and we're showing you around. It's really the next best thing. Lucky you :)

Our front door. The door and the front of the house are finally painted! The sides are getting worked on this week. 

Our fridge. It's pretty small, but then again, we don't need that much stuff in there! I love adding pictures of friends and family. On the bottom half is a picture that Ella, our three year old neighbor, colored for us. She's precious, by the way.

Our message board. One of two, as a matter of fact. We got one from a garage sale pre-marriage, and this was a wedding gift. Great for reminding ourselves of things to do. And the kind friend that gave this to us found pictures from our wedding week!

I love this jar. Nick, an old friend of Carson's, made it for us as a wedding gift. He put a copper plate on the bottom with his name and our names. Such a neat gift to have. I almost can't believe we're using it for spoons and cooking utensils, but then again, this way we get to see it everyday!

The ceramic Croc cell phone holder. It's sitting proudly on our kitchen windowsill. This particular item was not welcomed by me, but Carson spotted it at a garage sale for 25 cents and had to buy it. I'm working on loving this.

These tiny vases were a gift from Danita. I really like the mix of happy colors. When I took this picture, they were on a windowsill but today, they got moved to the kitchen table.

I rarely use cookie cutters, so now that I have some, I'm going to have to find a good recipe for cut-out cookies! I filled this small ceramic mixing bowl with all the cutters we got as, you guessed it, wedding gifts!

We have this neat wooden bowl, and I couldn't find a place to put it, since we have all functional, not any decorative, spaces. So I rolled up all the kitchen towels we have and now it's pretty and functional!

This last picture isn't of the kitchen, but I forgot to include the bookcase on my earlier posts. This is but a small part of our book collection... the others are boxed up or in SC.