Patio Makeover - More Than Halfway There

Don't worry, the shutters aren't hung yet.  This is just a quick post.  I mentioned before I had a two days off to make it a four day weekend for me to work on and finish this project.  Things we're going smoothly until it all of the sudden came to a screeching halt.  My mother-in-law fell ill and had to be admitted to the hospital.  She's stable and will probably be there a couple days more. Not sure when we'll get to finish this project but I'm sure it won't be too far off but this is what I have so far.  In the meantime, spend precious time with your mothers and make sure to let them know how much you love them!

Click here to see the 1st Part of my Patio Makeover.

Sneak Peek - Patio Makeover

A sneak peek to how I hope my patio turns out.

 picture taken from Dishfunctional Designs blog

This will be our 3rd year living at Spottswood Place.  Ever since the first year, I've been wanting to do something with our patio to make it more pleasant and charming.  When we lived in Germany back in the late 80's, I envied all the homes that were odorned with plants and flowers galore similar to this top picture.  As I sit in my patio at Spottswood Place, all I see is a blank canvas.  No color, no depth, no nothing.  Last year I even drew up some ideas about how I could paint the walls and get some potted flowers and even thought about adding an awning just to make it look better.  A few weeks ago I somehow bumped into this picture on Pinterest and my first thoughts were, "That's it!!  that's exactly how I want it to look".   It  even kinda resembles my patio wall and window.

This is our blank canvas.  This is our patio in it's current dull, boring state.  

I was fortunate to get some advice from the Annie Sloan Facebook page and she suggested I buy the Red Primer to paint some of the bricks to make it look old and distressed like in the top picture.  My hubby has bought the wood to make the shutters.  I will paint them Annie Sloan's "Arles" (yellow).  I'm anxious about what kind of plants to buy, I just don't want to kill them and I want them to last all Summer long, any suggestions?  This project should be completed by the end of next weekend hoping the weather stays decent plus I will have a four day weekend so I should have plenty of time to work on this project. I'm so excited :)

I'm cooking up some Carnitas and fixins' for my Cinco de Mayo feast today.  What are your plans? Whatever they may be, may you savor every moment!  Have a great one :)

Quick and Easy Eggplant Parmesan

1 medium size eggplant

Olive oil

1 jar favorite spaghetti or marinara sauce

1 tsp. garlic powder or favorite Italian seasonings

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup flour

16 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded or sliced

1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese, shredded

Fresh parsley

1 2qt. casserole dish OR 3 individual ceramic dishes

Heat around 2 tbsps. oil in pan

Place flour in shallow dish, sprinkle with the garlic powder or Italian seasoning, salt and pepper and combine

Cut the ends of the eggplant

Cut into six slices

Dredge the eggplant slices into the flour mixture.  By this time the oil should be hot

Brown each side for about 7-10 minutes until golden brown

I added a touch of olive oil into the bottom of the ceramic dishes

Add enough sauce over the olive oil and to cover the bottom of the dish

Add a slice of eggplant, mozzarella and sprinkle some parmesan cheese.  Repeat one more time

I had enough to make three individual ceramic dishes

Dress with a sprig fresh Parmesan and serve

How yummy does this look?? 

I love Eggplant Parmesan.  It's one of my favorite dishes to order at any Italian restaurant we go to.  It took me about an hour to put this whole dish together and bake it.  I had planned to serve this over spaghetti but I completely forgot.  My favorite Italian restaurant here in town does it and it's so delicioso!  

Did you have a good weekend?  It seems to have gone by really fast for me but I savored every moment and pray you did too!

Corn and Poblano Lasagna

Original recipe by Marcel Valladolid from www.foodnetwork.com

4 tbsps. unsalted butter, divided
3 cloves garlic, minced and divided
2 ears of corn (or 2 cups frozen and thawed)
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp fresh thyme
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
4 poblano chiles
1 large zucchini
12 no-boil lasagna strips
2 cups shredded Oaxaca cheese, or mozzarella

Place the fresh corn cobs over a clean kitchen cloth so that the kernels don't bounce all over the place. Cut the kernels off the corn.  Set aside.

Melt tbsps. of butter in a large heavy pan.  Saute 2/3 the minced garlic for 1 minute.

Add the corn to the garlic, saute for 5 minutes.

Stir in the cream

and fresh thyme.  Simmer for 5 minutes, remove from heat and let cool slightly.

While the corn mixture is cooling, I charred the poblano chilis then transferred them to a gallon size baggie to steam and soften.

Transfer the cooled sauce into a blender and puree until smooth.

Remove the softened chilis from the plastic bag.  After I removed the skin from the outside of the chilis, I cut open the chili, cut off the stem and removed the veins and seeds.

Cut the chilis into long slices

Cut the zucchini into thin slices and same length as the chilis. 

Melt 2 tbsps. butter in skillet, add the sliced onions and saute until they're translucent but not carmelized.

Add the sliced chilis and zucchinis, saute until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add salt and pepper and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.  From left to right, I placed the lasagna noodles, corn sauce mixture, cooked vegies, and the mozzarella cheese.  Makes it easier to put together.

Start by adding enough sauce to cover the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan.

Add the noodles next to fill the bottom

Next add 1/3 of the vegie mixture, spread out evenly

Top with the cheese.

Repeat two more times spreading the sauce over the noodles first.

Cover with foil and bake for 50 minutes.

Remove foil, turn on the broiler.  Broil until brown and bubbly (watch closely and never walk away while broiling)

Let stand for about 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

If you're lactose intolerant, this dish is not for you (this contains butter, heavy cream and mozzarella cheese).  I couldn't wait to taste the corn sauce.  It definitely tasted corny, haha, corny, get it?  Seriously, though I could taste the corn and it just so happened to be sweet because I know I didn't add sugar.  It was good but seemed like something was missing.  Probably the heat that I usually like with Mexican dishes.  If you don't like chili heat, you don't have to worry about Poblanos, they have no heat.  Hubby and my MIL seemed to have enjoyed it and even asked for seconds.  I'm taking some for lunch tomorrow and I'm a firm believer that sometimes all a dish needs to make it taste better is to let it set for another 24 hours so that all the flavors "marry".  I'm really looking forward to lunch tomorrow :)

I had a busy weekend, worked the Football Spring Game yesterday, where I work.  That wore me out but I was still able prepare the sauce and vegies for this dish only because I knew I was going to be busy again today.  Mainly because I watched my beautiful grand-daughter for a couple of hours.  It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time together.  Her smile melts my heart.

And that's why I can say, I savored the weekend and relished every moment.

Welcome to our Nest - Family Tree

Welcome to our Nest!

Our family tree is finally complete

A few closeups to share.  Top: My mother-in-law.  Middle: my mother.  Bottom: My sister and her hubby

The picture in the middle of the tree trunk is a pic of my hubby and I back when we were engaged, a week away from our own wedding.

Our son and his kids are in the top right picture.  Near the top on the left is our daughter.

One of my favorite pictures on the wall of my husband, his brother and parents.  My hubby's the cute blondie on the grass.

Here's the other one of my hubby, wasn't he adorable?

This is one of my two brothers.  He's mentally challenged and he's celebrating his birthday with some balloons in this picture.

so this is what you see when you first walk into our home, our family tree

Have a blessed week and remember to savor every moment!

Click here and see how I started painting the tree.