Flower Arrangements

I love making flower arrangements with fake dried flowers. They can look tacky, so you have to be careful. This first one is in a southern living distressed white planter. I mixed neutral colors & a few punches of color to match the beach feel in the living room. Hope you like!

This next one is in the dining room & I have some oriental, fancy style decor in that room. I actually had ONE of these hydrangeas left, so put in the pot to add color to this part of the room. I love how the long flower stalks come up & out of the arrangement. Small, simple, but adds a punch of color & goes perfectly with the decor in the room.

This one I have 2 almost exact in the kitchen. One has this large butterfly in it. Normally I would think this butterfly might be gaudy, but there are very sparse decorations all around this area, so it brings a hint of fun, color & spring to my window. Great to look at while doing dishes. (:

This last one the photo didn't come out the best. It's pretty simple, with little color, but the white in the flowers contrasts the beige tile walls. I put turquoise stones in the vase bottom & they match the tiling accents in the room. Perfect!

A few more:

Vegetarian Pasta Dish

This dish I made some items separately (a picky kid doesn't like spinach/mushrooms). The rest of us like it together. It could be made to look fancy if you add some thin asparagus, shaved cheese on top. It's pretty rich, but great for a little indulgence!

INGREDIENTS:
Pasta of your choice, I used Penne, Butter, Salt/Pepper, White truffle oil, chives, parmesan cheese, mushrooms, spinach, chicken broth, half & half

This is the sauce in the pan before being tossed with pasta & vegetables:

Sauce cooking left
& vegetable mixture below

To make this I slice large mushrooms (about 8) thinly. I also cut one small onion. I saute these vegetables in some butter & a little chicken broth. I season with salt & pepper. Take vegetables out, set aside in bowl.

To get this sauce, Melt 1/4 stick of butter in this same pan you cooked the vegetables in. Deglaze the pan with a little chicken broth. Add some white truffle oil, about 1/4 cup. Whisk together & add about 1 cup half & half (could use heavy cream for richer sauce), when blended, add parmesan cheese & melt (about a cup). Then season with pepper & cut chives into sauce, about 1/4 cup of chopped chives. Then toss with pasta & top with shaved parmesan cheese:

In the end as you plate this dish, you could serve with garlic bread & salad. You can toss in as many of the sauteed vegetables as you like. Here's a picture (sorry not the best) of the final product with some salad & garlic bread.

You can make a different variation on this & instead of using truffle oil, you could use marsala wine. Either way, this dish is very tasty. Enjoy

Sausage Ragu Recipe

My husband loves my sausage ragu sauce. Could also be called meat sauce. (: Recipe follows:

Garlic - 2 cloves chopped
Celery 1 stalk - diced
1 carrot stick - peeled & diced small
1/2 Red Pepper - diced small
Onion - 1 small diced
Small can tomato paste
Large can tomatoes (pureed)
Red Wine
Chicken stock
1 lbs. hamburg
4 hot sausages/2 sweet sausages
salt Pepper nutmeg
Parmesan cheese block & romano cheese block
Thyme & fresh basil leaves cut in strips or chopped

*Sorry, sizes are approximate, I never cook exact, but to taste.

After chopping all vegetables, saute in olive oil. Season with a little salt & pepper. Deglaze pan with some chicken stock. Add Sausages (out of casings) & saute. Add hamburg & saute. Season meat with a few dashes of nutmeg & thyme to taste. Add some red wine (about 1/2 cup) & stir in. Simmer 5-10 minutes. Add Tomato paste (after adding paste, fill can 1/2 way with broth to get it all out), then add large can of pureed tomatoes. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Finally, shred parmesan & romano cheese over top & cut basil for color. Put over pasta! Note: Sometimes I add a little hot pepper for some zip!

I like to serve with some thin asparagus, salad & garlic bread. Also great with a glass of red wine! You can put the leftover onions & red pepper from the recipe in the salad. Enjoy~

Christmas Baskets & mason jar gifts

Here are a picture of some os the gift baskets I made for Christmas. I also made mason jar cookies, a Paula Deen recipe. Fun to make & pretty to give! Great for Mother/daughter gifts. The Eggnog bread doesn't look special, but it tasted it! Delicious toasted with a little butter. Mmmm...recipe to follow!

Mason Jar Smores Bars
Cook Time: 15 min
Ingredients:

1 ½ cups teddy bear shaped graham cracker cookies
1 ½ cups miniature marshmallows
1 ½ cups semi sweet chocolate chips
½ cup brown sugar
1 (quart) mason jar

Layer all ingredients in the mason jar and attach an instruction label that reads:

“Preheat oven to 350º F. Prepare a 9” square baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Pour contents of the jar along with ½ cup melted butter into the prepared baking dish and press firmly. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely. Cut into bars.”

Egg Nog Bread:

1 (16 oz.) package pound cake mix
1/4 cup butter, very soft
1 cup eggnog
1/4 cup gingerbread eggnog
You can use 1 1/4 cup of anytype of eggnog, these were just the types I used.
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat all ingredients together at low speed with an electric mixer until blended. Increase speed to medium, and beat 2 minutes. Pour into a lightly greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Bake for about 1 hour (about 25 minutes for mini loaf pans) or until a long wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely.

This recipe is so easy & tastes so "Christmassy!" Double for more loaves! Cut & put on colorful plate to serve or bring to gathering. Mmm!

My kids ~

A picture of the kids when they were younger. This was taken during a trip to the Gettysburg Cemetary. The kids are my stepdaughter, Kelsey; daughter, Brooke; son, Ryan; stepdaughter, Samantha & stepson James (I prefer Jimmy). Seriously, why doesn't anyone use the name Jimmy anymore???

My foster son's graduation. Jeff lived with us from when he was 14 until age 19, isn't he handsome? He's my ex-husband's nephew. Also featured in this photo, my husband, myself, my 2 kids Brooke & Ryan.

Brooke Ashley in a flower garden ~