Love and Roses

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day! I had a nice long holiday. It started on Friday with the delivery of these lovely blooms,

Brad is such a sweetheart and knows that I love daisies!

What kind of flowers are your favorites to receive?

With love and a virtual box of chocolates for each of you,
Hattie

I heart chocolate

I don’t think you could call me a food snob, as I would happily eat mac and cheese from the blue box once a week for the rest of my life, but I am a bit of a brownie snob. I refuse to use brownie mix. For one thing, the mix is pretty expensive for the amount of brownies you get out of it. Also, mix brownies never have the right texture. But the biggest reason to never use a mix, is that it is so easy to make amazing brownies from scratch.

This is my favorite brownie recipe, handed down from my mom. I think these were the first things I learned to cook on my own. This recipe makes brownies that are rich, dense, and have that perfect texture that mixes cake-like and fudge-like into something awesome. You can go ahead and put in the nuts, but may I suggest a substitution? My family always adds half a cup of baking chips instead. You can use regular semi-sweet morsels, peanut butter chips, mint chips, raspberry chips, etc. They really make these brownies into something decadent and perfect as a treat for your valentine!

- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup nuts or baking chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8 inch square baking dish. In a bowl, beat oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until well mixed. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt and mix well. Fold in nuts or chips and pour into pan. Bake for 22-25 minutes

Happy Baking!
 
<3
Hattie

Beach Dreaming

Hello, snow day number 6! I know you are used to me complaining about snow, but this morning I’m going to take the more hopeful approach of dreaming about warm sand, sparkling water, and gorgeous coastal décor. To dream your own beachy dreams, head over to A Beach Cottage, where Sarah is giving away subscriptions to Coastal Living magazine to three lucky readers.


Good luck!

<3
Hattie

Ohhh, and for fun (and to keep me warm!) let me know your favorite beach town. I might just need to plan a trip!

Sew long snowmen!

It’s time for a DIY Day mini furniture remodel to take this little cabinet from snowy ...

to sunny!

It’s not that I have anything against snowmen. At Christmas time I find myself falling hard for their adorable sweetness, but when I crammed delicately put away all my decorations this year, there was simply no extra room for this mini cabinet. I decided it was the perfect size to hold my thread and a few other sewing machine accessories, but the snowmen motif wouldn’t cut it for something that’s going to sit out all year. Plus, with all the winter weather we’ve been having, I may be feeling just a tad passive aggressive towards snow.

Here's how the transformation happened:

Step One – snow removal. I used a sanding block to rough up the paint as much as possible. Do you ever have conversations with the previous owners of thrifty finds? Mine went: mutter, grumble, mutter, “What possessed you to use so many layers of textured paint!” mutter, grumble, mutter. Needless to say, I threw any ideas of a perfectly clean surface out the window and decided that paint and mod podge would cover a multitude of indiscretions.

Step Two- paint! The body of the cabinet took three coats of Folk Art French blue acrylic paint. I just gave the drawers a little dash of paint around the edges since I planned to cover them with scrapbook paper.

Step Three – mod to the podge. I applied a thin layer of mod podge to both the drawer fronts and the backs of the scrapbook paper, then smoothed the paper onto the drawers.

Step Four – load the washer. Or anything else that takes 15 minutes. The key to perfect mod podge is waiting between coats.

Step Five – more glue and waiting. Apply a thin layer of mod podge over the top of the scrapbook papered drawers. Wait 15 minutes.

Step Six – rough it up. I used my sanding block to rough up the edges of the drawers and show off a little of the blue paint. I put one last layer of mod podge over the top to finish things off.

Step Seven – super cute with knobs on. I put the original knobs back on the drawers. But I think this anthropologie hotness...

... would look even better.

Step Eight – admire your handy work. I love it! If I convince myself to spend 12 bucks on designer knobs, I’ll probably paint the feet orange to match. I do kind of love the red though, who doesn’t love red shoes?

I’m excited to have brought a tiny bit of summer sun into the house, even if it’s only in the form of a little sewing cabinet. Take that snowmen!

What are you doing to warm up your winter blues? Do tell!

Ooooh, and do you think the Anthro knobs are worth it - or would you stick with the originals?

<3
Hattie

Lemon Chicken

Since Brad and I spent the weekend snowed in with a rapidly dwindling pantry, I decided to try a new chicken recipe I clipped from a magazine awhile ago – mostly because I happened to have all of the ingredients on hand. It turned out to be quite yummy!



Lemon Chicken
- 2 – 6 Chicken breasts
- Olive Oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- Lemon juice

Use a mallet or rolling pin to pound chicken to ½ inch thickness. Note: do not pound fingers as this will result in shrieking, followed by mad one foot hopping, while clamping mouth shut to avoid unpleasant language – not that I would know from personal experience or anything.

Mix cumin, salt, and pepper in a small plate or bowl. Place grill pan over medium high heat and spray with Pam. Coat chicken in olive oil and rub with spice mix. Cook for about 4 minutes per side. Remove from heat and let chicken rest for 5 minutes.

Shhhhhh! The chicken is resting!

Drizzle with lemon juice and serve.

I really liked the flavor of this chicken. The lemon, olive oil and cumin worked well together to create a light and almost summery flavor. I used the leftovers to make very delicious chicken salad. That said, it didn’t pack as much heat as I expected, so I think I’ll up the cumin next time.

Any other cumin lovers out there?

<3
Hattie

Like it, Love it, Make it

Well, this is not exactly how I wanted to share this project with you…but it’s time sensitive, to I’m going to go ahead and give you what I’ve got.

See, I had a ton of fun making a Valentine's card template, but I don’t have a finished product to show you. We are out of colored printer ink and cardstock and it’s snowing (again) and I’m going on day four of the sickness of doom. But, it would be really lame to wait until I'm better and the roads are cleared when there might not be enough time left to make and mail the cards before the big day.

Here is a screen shot of the template, which you can download here.

It’s an all in one card/envelope combo. All you need to do is download the template, change the lower message if you wish, print on cardstock, cut along the lines, and fold. Easy Peasy!

Here’s a close up of the message. I used Scrapblog.com to make this part of the card.

On Valentine’s Day, I think it’s really easy to get caught up in the romantic love aspect of the day and end up feeling like our relationships somehow fall short of an unattainable ideal. Because of this, I like to give cards that remind us of where love comes from in the first place. Personally, I need this reminder everyday! As I sit next to my husband, and we are both hacking, snotty, flu-riddled messes, it’s comforting to know that God thinks we are his beautiful creation and loves us even when we are covered in germs. It’s because of his love, that I’m able to look at my husband and still think he is the best-looking man on the planet, even in the midst of the sickness of doom!

I hope you like the card, and send one to someone special. Also, think about sending one to someone who wouldn’t expect to receive a card this Valentine’s Day. It doesn’t take that much to turn someone’s day around!

<3
Hattie

groundhog - shmoundhog

Do you ever write letters in your head? I often do this while driving: Attention blue Civic, your car came equipped with a turn signal – just wanted to let ya know! Today, I wrote four imaginary letters.

#1

Dear Punxsutawney Phil,

I do not believe in you. I know you think we have 6 more weeks of winter ahead, but you are a groundhog. What do you know?

#2
Dear cold/flu/sickness of doom,

Who let you into my house? My nose was perfectly happy not dripping. You are an unwelcome intruder and should vacate the premises immediately.

#3
Dear snow,

I’m breaking up with you. We’ve had a good run, but my poor wimpy arms are still sore from shoveling you. Really, you are just too controlling. I do thank you for the three days off from work, but I’m still leaving you.

#4

Dear spring,

I love you! As you know, I’ve broken up with that loser snow guy. I am anxiously awaiting your arrival – I’ve even picked out a cute outfit for our first date!

Did you write any imaginary letters today?

<3
Hattie