martha moments: aunt janice's shrimp

delicious. that's all i gotta say.
aunt janice is a wonderful cook and it makes me smile to think about her every time i make this.

try it. 

aunt janice's shrimp

*note: this makes a LOT of shrimp, so you may want to cut the recipe in half.

**another note:  is EXCELLENT served over linguine with crusty french bread to "sop" with.  :-)

Ingredients:

5 lbs unpeeled shrimp

1 ½ cup butter

8 oz. bottle Italian salad dressing

1/2 c. lemon juice

1/2 c. white wine (dry chardonnay is good)

¼ cup olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic, minced (I put more)

1 tsp. hot sauce (or more if you want spicier)

1 T. Worcestershire

3 T. ground black pepper

½ tsp. red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 350. Wash shrimp and drain well. Melt butter in 3 qt. casserole dish.

Add dressing, lemon juice, olive oil, wine, garlic, hot sauce, pepper, red pepper flakes and Worcestershire sauce.

Stir.  Add shrimp.

Bake covered 35-45 minutes until shrimp are pink.  (You may need to open the oven and stir occasionally).

...and that gives you, oh, close to an hour while they're cooking to find something to do with the rest of that bottle of wine you just opened.....  

the vacation coma

sorry it's been so long since the last post! i have been out of town since the 28th of april and am slowing coming out of the vacation coma--you know, that fuzzy lapse of time between getting home and actually being productive again?  yeah, that's where i'm at.

my brother's wedding was 100%, positively, absolutely beautiful.  they were married on the beach in destin, florida.  the sky, the water and the sand all seemed to be the same hazy color and the clouds were just blowing like crazy above, like they were chasing each other. it was a simple, sweet ceremony and my heart is full knowing that they are happy and in love.

afterwards, everyone came back to our beach rental and we had a laid back reception in the back yard around the pool.  unfortunately, zack's "friend" who was supposed to come and cook for everyone bailed 2 days before the wedding, so my mom and i whipped up an awesome meal for 30 people just.like.that.  event planner extraordinaires.  

zack wanted aunt janice's shrimp as an appetizer.

a baked spaghetti so big and so heavy that my dad had to get it out of the oven!

...along with the biggest salad i think i've ever made--complete with au naturel decor we got off one of the palms outside.

i forgot to take a pic of the shrek punch, probably because it was gone so quickly, but i'll post a recipe for that, too.  it makes the prettiest, brightest green color (hence the name) and was so pretty with pineapple slices for garnish.  (and was especially good if you had some out of the pitcher that we spiked.....)

luckily, the house we stayed in had really cool serving pieces using as decoration around the tops of their cabinets so we were able to be resourceful and use all of their tropical, colorful bowls and platters for what we needed. likewise, we hauled out the artificial plants and palms and the furniture from inside to outside to use.  

we used the glass breakfast table and a grass hula skirt as the table skirt for the cake table.

and here's the sofa table from inside that we used to put the wedding favors and signing plate on. (you're listening to the cd right now, by the way.)  it was an awesome combination of the songs they used in the wedding, along with some of their personal favorites.  they were a hit!  some to note:

ashton walked into "heavenly day" by patty griffin.  it is a MUST download if you don't already have it. i told her that if that song had been out when i got married, it is most definitely what i would have used myself.  but it wasn't out then.  neither was digital photography.  moving on.

they walked out to....wait for it......the chorus of "good hearted woman" by waylon jennings.  you know the one..."she's a good hearted woman in love with a good timin' man..."  it was SO them.

after all the excitement, we were pooped and decided to stay the next week in Destin because it is just so darn nice down there.  we spent our time doing a whole lot of nothing and it was perfect. fun times with a fun family.  

thank goodness i brought my tripod! 
from l to r:  my hubs, me, my mom, my dad, my new sister in law and my brother

i even read these books:

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

i'm not sure how i even picked this one out at barnes and noble...it was just sitting out of place on a shelf and the cover intrigued me, so i bought it.  it was a hauntingly beautiful read and very well written.  i've always said that a good book/movie is one that you are still thinking about days and weeks later.  this is one of those.

The Shack by William Young

i think i'm the only person in the free world who hadn't yet read this one, and i can't honestly say i even "read" it because we rented it on audio cd at a cracker barrel in alabama and listened to it the whole way down and the whole way back.  if i had to describe it in one word:  deep.  but i got it.  i'd like to re-read it, with my eyes and not my ears, and see what more i could get from it.  i thought it was a beautiful book, but found myself questioning a lot of the way the author personified the Trinity and how he perceived revelation.  but i won't get into that.

so, that brings us back to the real world.  vacation coma almost over, allergies back in full swing and the huge stack of mail FINALLY sorted through.

up next--several projects---finishing up the kitchen remodel (which i promise to post pics of just as soon as it's done) and starting zack & ashton's nursery.  just wait till you see it.  can't wait to have it all done!

my other love

my camera is my second love. i think i love photography even more than i love decorating. it's a verrry tight race, though!

my brother and his fiancee asked if i would take their engagement pictures last weekend and i was honored to do it. here's a glimpse into some of the many we took up at my family's farm. it was a gorgeous sunday evening and the colors of the sunset were perfect.

and i've got money bet on it that my new little niece is going to be absolutely gorgeous. with these two as parents, how can she not?

martha moments: cake in a mug

okay, so this may beat the diet coke cupcakes, y'all.

and it only makes one a time, so you're not stuck being tempted with the remaining dozen plus cupcakes you have sitting on the kitchen counter. 

it's too easy.

you'll need:

1 microwavable coffee mug

1/3 cup cake mix, you choose the flavor

3 T. water

Combine cake mix and water in a mug (no need to spray with cooking spray).

Microwave for 1 minute. 

that's it. seriously!

I made the white cake mix one today for a snack and according to my calculations, it was 75 calories, and .75g fat.  

...and 100% worth all 60 seconds it took to make it!

notes:

• store the rest of the cake mix in a sealed container or ziploc bag.

• for a spongier, less dense cake, mix angel food cake mix and the regular cake mix in a ziploc bag and use 1/3 cup of that mixture instead of straight up cake mix. 

• have to have chocolate on top? drizzle with Hershey's chocolate syrup
  
  

things from my bff, goodwill

as you know, i'm thisclose to my fav store, goodwill.  (remember how i did the super genius comparison to social groups? )

yeah, well, my bff didn't disappoint me on my last round there, either.

here, a, um, lovely floral print that cost all of a quarter.

and after some chalkboard paint...

it's going in my friend lindsay's cutie patootie house!


and more treasure..an old bill sorter, a cute wooden pedestal bowl, silver candlesticks, a vase and a lantern


 loved those vintage silver candlesticks....aged just right, so i didn't do anything to them. they just found a new place on my mantle.  the little lantern got a candle and is added to my back porch and the cute little glass vase is perfect for holding skewer sticks for s'mores by the fire pit!

the little wooden pedestal became a perfect orange stand.  and that little owl beside it? oh yeah, 10 cents plus a few sprays of turquoise paint.  whooooo thinks he's cute?

and the wooden bill sorter became a sorting station for coupons, stamps and bills:

the only thing i did with this cool, vintage maryland tray was ship it off to my friend, jenn, up in her new state of maryland!  (you should get it TODAY, jenn!)  :-)

and last, but certainly not least, is a little chair that i couldn't pass up for $5.  it looked pretty ratty before i spray painted it and used up the remnants of my bird fabric.  unfortunately, i forgot to take a before photo of it, but i'll paint you mental picture.  very beat up, chestnut brown with a peach colored chair pad.  yeah, not cute.  but it sure is now!

oh, goodwill, i love you so.  it's getting pretty serious, will you accept half of my necklace?

the farmhouse sink that just wouldn't fit

alas, i bought a farmhouse sink. a realllly nice one. and then we got the down low from a contractor.  basically it would make the storage space below non-existent and wouldn't shorten the cabinet doors below to near midge-sized, so we have decided to pass. when we decide to custom build a home in the future, we'll incorporate one into that kitchen, but I'm not willing to just let this take up precious garage space until then.

(file photo from Kohler)

so here's my craigslist posting for it--and yes, to the out-of-towners, we'll ship!  it was a non-returnable purchase so we can't take it back and get a refund. so here's your chance to own a lovely, white, still-in-the-box Kohler fireclay farmhouse sink.

it's lovely, it really is.

http://greenville.craigslist.org/hsh/1665516184.html

martha moments: bikini-friendly, diet coke cupcakes

cupcakes are among my 5 top favorite foods. ask my husband. he'll ask what i want for dinner some nights and my reply?  cupcakes. when we go to nyc, one of the tippy top things on my list is to go here.  sugary bliss.

i love cupcakes for many reasons...first off, because they're small.  and i like small, cute things. secondly, because you can make so many different kinds and can decorate them so many ways. third, they're beyond comforting and bring back memories of birthdays and skating rink parties.  and lastly, because they taste like heaven in a crimped paper wrapper.

in an effort to be healthier, i made cupcakes today using a new method that cuts out the eggs and the oil.  they are really easy to make (2 ingredients!) and invoke much, much less guilt.  :-)

you'll need:

first, pick a box of cake mix. any cake mix. for today, i used yellow.

second, add 1 can of diet soda, whatever flavor you want.  i used diet ginger ale today.

a general rule of thumb is to mix dark sodas with dark cake mixes and light sodas with light cake mixes.

to make:

combine the mix and soda.

(i feel so weird saying "soda," as we 

southerners call anything carbonated "coke...") 

it will look all weird and foamy, but it'll settle down.

pour into cupcake paper lined muffin tin and bake according to the directions on the back

of the cake mix box.

yum!

other variations i'm going to try:

yellow cake>>>diet orange crush

chocolate cake>>>diet cherry coke or diet cherry vanilla dr. pepper

yellow cake>>>diet cream soda

devil's food cake>>>diet cherry coke

strawberry cake mix...diet cream soda

now of course, the icing is another story.  i just topped mine with a little whipped cream on top and it looks perfect!  now time to cuddle up on the couch and watch new moon again!

i hope all of you have had a great weekend!  i got some good finds at the thrift stores yesterday that i'll have to share with you later this week. :-)

the {not so} little cabin in the woods

a couple of weekends ago, we spent a long weekend up in the mountains of sevierville, tennessee with some good friends of ours. it was nice to sleep late, not answer cell phones, temporarily ditch our diets and just escape for a little while.

the cabin was so beautiful.  it was out in the middle of nowhere and overlooking ranges upon ranges of snow-covered mountains.

it had 3 master bedrooms, so none of us had to draw straws, which is always nice!

and it had this.



that's right, a two-story stacked riverstone fireplace with a back-lit antique stained glass window.  is it not gorgeous?

and it had a big ole steamy hot tub outside, which we got to enjoy while it was snowing...

and even though it had a roof over it, with the snow whirling about, we had to walk back (uphill, backwards, barefooted!) in the snow to get back in the cabin. 

oh, i almost forgot!  it also had this.





oh yeah, it's a very special husband up bright and early at, ahem,1 p.m. in his cowboy button up shirt, flannel jammy pants and his boots.  one leg in, one leg out, just sitting and solving all of the problems of the world. isn't he just darlin?

and i'll leave you with one last photo that i managed to snap with my phone on the way home.

tell us what you really think, department of transportation! 

too funny.

martha moments: chocolate eclair pie

last week, it was another birthday for the hubs!  he and i have both been working so hard lately that we decided to go way low-key and have dinner with his family at the local pizza joint.  he's not a huge dessert person, but he always orders eclairs if they are ever a choice.

so, instead of the normal birthday cake, i made him a chocolate eclair pie. it's so, so good!  i just stuck candles in the top and voila! instant birthday and one happy birthday boy!

happy birthday to my sweet hubby, who just gets better and better with age.  not that he reads this blog or anything, but if he should happen to stalk in one day, i love you, babe!

chocolate eclair pie


You'll need:
1 box of graham crackers
3 cups cold milk
2 packs/boxes of instant vanilla pudding mix
8 oz. container of whipped cream, thawed
1 can/container of chocolate frosting

to make:

In a 13x9 casserole dish, take 1 of the 3 packs of graham crackers that come in the box and layer them in a single, flat layer.

Mix milk, pudding and whipped cream well. 

Put half of pudding mixture on top of the graham crackers. 

Top with the 2nd pack of graham crackers.

Top with remaining pudding mixture, then finish with the last pack of grahams.

Spread the chocolate frosting over the top.

Cover and chill for at least 4 hours.

caught in a trap

photo courtesy of  Lowe's Creative Ideas

have you seen this awesome DIY project in the new Lowe's Creative Ideas?

it's lil' ole' mouse traps! made into memo holders! how genius! i love it so much that not only am i going to end every freakin' sentence in this post with exclamation marks, but i'm also going to make some this weekend!

seriously, these could be used to hold grocery lists, coupons, business cards, paint chips, the list goes on and on. 

mama, you are going to love making these for all your little school children, aren't you?  i can already see your wheels turning.


click here see the how-to.

!!!!!!