Reupholstery Project

Hello and Happy Monday! It is Monday, isn't it? I always lose track this time of year. With football season in our sights and school starting up in a few days, I'm rushing around to get things done. The players report for training camp tomorrow and Coach is up to his eyeballs in everything football, so my to-do list just got a lot longer!

The Gridiron Gang did manage to squeak out one more relaxing Summer weekend before the football frenzy begins. We spent Saturday visiting with family in Dallas...playing laser tag, bowling and enjoying a nice dinner. Sunday we boiled up a bunch of shrimp, laughed at the length of our list of things we should be getting done, and played in the pool all day. Ahhhhhh, the calm before the storm.

Anyway, as mentioned in a previous post, I've been working on a reupholstery project. My husband and I inherited a beautiful, formal dining room set from his parents. I've been told it might have been a wedding gift to them from their parents, but I haven't been able to confirm that yet. Anyway, Coach and I have had the dining set for years and it's needed to be reupholstered for quite some time. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get around to doing it. If I had known how easy it was going to be, I would have done it ages ago!

All I needed was 3 yards of fabric to cover the eight chairs, a screwdriver, scissors, and a staple gun. Man, I love my staple gun! My Daddy gave it to me a few years ago and I use it ALL THE TIME. Anyway, here's a little glimpse of my before and after project....EASY PEASY!

Before - Chair with original covering

Removed seat by unscrewing from base

Measured and cut fabric

Centered fabric, stretched to remove any slack and stapled

Screwed seat back onto base

Finished!

Dining room is complete and ready to be decked out for Fall!

Hope you all have a GREAT week!

Blueberries and the Perfert Summer Smoothie

Happy Friday! I hope you all are enjoying your summer and staying cool. This crazy heat is no joke...112 degrees here in lovely East Texas yesterday. Remind me not to complain when there's snow on the ground.

Coach is back to the football grind, so the Knuckleheads and I have been trying to entertain ourselves and enjoy our last couple of weeks before school starts.  A hot as it's been, we've been trying to find indoor activities as much as possible. However, a few days ago I got an email from our favorite little blueberry farm, saying that the picking season was coming to an end. That was all we needed to encourage us to brave the heat and spend a morning picking blueberries. It was as hot as the hinges of the devil's door and we were the only ones crazy enough to be out there, but I'm so glad we went! We picked a pile of the sweetest blueberries I've ever tasted. We gave ourselves blueberry tummyaches eating so many right off the trees as we picked!

We've been having fresh berries on our cereal and oatmeal every morning. We've made blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, blueberry syrup and fruit salad with loads of blueberries...and we still had plenty to freeze for later. We kinda love blueberries.

Of all the ways to use the berries, my favorite is a simple smoothie. They are so easy to throw together and you can knock out several servings of fruit and dairy in one glass. Here's how I make mine....

Start with 1 cup of 1% milk, add 1 teaspoon of honey, 1 banana, 4 strawberries, a few peach slices and a small handful of blueberries. Then...

Add a big handful of baby spinach. No really, it's awesome! You can't taste the spinach at all and it's so good for you. My kids love love love these smoothies!

Just give them a whirl and I bet you'll love them too!

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL WONDERFUL weekend!

Linking up over at

Sunflowers!

My little vegetable garden is a dried up mess. With the triple digit heat and lack of rain, it didn't stand a chance this year. I'm sad about it. However, our sunflowers have never been more beautiful!

I'm in the middle of tackling a big reupholstery project that I'll share later this week. For now, here are a few sunflower pics to enjoy.

Happy Tuesday!

Chocolate Chip Kahlua Pecan Cookies

Have mercy! These are some good cookies! I'm forever fiddling with my chocolate chip cookie recipe and this time I hit the jackpot. What I've learned from all my experimenting, is that I like to use a little extra salt to take the edge off all that sweet stuff and I like using Kahlua instead of vanilla. The Kahlua gives the cookies a more decadent flavor, but it's not overpowering. I use real butter and undercook them just a bit to yield a more gooey cookie. One last thing to note, the nuts are called "puh kahns", not "pee cans". A pee can is something oldtimers used to keep under their beds so they didn't have to go to the outhouse at night. ;-) Hope you enjoy the cookies!

Chocolate Chip Kahlua Pecan Cookies

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt (I used a little more than 1/2 tsp)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon Kahlua
2 eggs

2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Chocolate Chips

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)


Heat oven to 375°F.

Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and Kahlua until creamy. Add eggs; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans, if desired. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly; place on wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.



Don't give up on me yet!

I've been away for awhile, but I'm back. No really, I am! I know you've heard it all before, but this time I mean it...well maybe...we'll see.

We just got back from another trip to the beach. Big fun! Now we're back in East Texas, where it is currently hotter than sin. We've been busy trying to find some creative ways to enjoy the rest of our summer without having a heat stroke.

That's just wrong!

Anyway, this is just my pitiful attempt to jump back into the blog. Hopefully it can only get more interesting from here!

Picking up where we are now...

I know, it's almost 90 degrees outside and I still have up snow pics. I'm terrible at this blog thing. I have no other excuse other than I'm busy and I'm lazy. That's a bad combination and leaves little time for entertaining the masses with rivoting stories about meatballs, kids and melted crayon art projects.

There, no more snow pics!

Lately we've been swamped with school stuff, football stuff, scout stuff, baseball stuff, choir stuff, photography stuff, hanging out on the beach stuff and a few other things. Like I said, I've been busy. Today, I'm busy with trying to kill a woodpecker stuff. 

There's this stupid woodpecker that has taken up residency in our favorite Willow tree and he is really making a mess of it. I'll post some pics later...you will not believe how bad it is! Anyway, I tried to be nice. I tried reasoning with him, even offered him a nice new spot in the neighbors tree. I tried the no harm approach. I hung one of those silly plastic owls with demonic eyes from one of the branches and that worked for all of 3 hours and 27 minutes. I tried screaming at him and throwing things. To date, I have hit him with a garden spade, numerous pool toys, several sticks and a house shoe. He just laughs at me and continues to wreck havoc on my tree. Today, he meets the bb gun and if that doesn't work...I'll spare you the gory details!

Anyway, I do have lots of fun beach pics to share, and I've even managed to whip up a few new recipes and crafts. I'll be back later, right now I've got a woodpecker to deal with.

Snow Pics!

The snow was fun for a few hours, but now we're ready for Spring!

 Snowboarding on the hill in our backyard.

View from the kitchen window this morning.

Sledding on the hill at our football practice field.

Miss Priss has had enough. She's a beach girl like her mama!

Coach suiting up for some fun in the snow.

Ready to hibernate until it's flipflop weather again!

Sweet and Spicy Mini Meatball Sliders

Hello! I hope none of you have been holding your breath waiting on that Meatball Slider recipe. I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to get around to posting it. Football recruiting has taken over our lives (as it does every January), and has left us little time for anything else. This is our final recruiting weekend and National Signing Day is next Wednesday...Can I get an AMEN?! I'm really looking forward to getting back to normal, at least to our normal level of crazy.

Without further adieu...

Sweet and Spicy Mini Meatball Sliders

The first thing you need to do is make some meatballs. As crazy as it sounds, the most important thing to know about making meatballs is to not use too much meat in your mixture. Using too much meat makes hard, dense meatballs. I use 1 pound of ground beef, combined with a cup of crushed Saltine crackers (you can use bread crumbs if you prefer), 1 egg, 1 cup finely diced onions, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, salt, pepper and Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning to taste. Gentle mix all your ingredients and form into golf ball sized balls.

Brown meatballs in a small amount of oil, over medium high heat.

While meatballs are cooking make the sauce.

Combine 1 cup of ketchup, 1/3 cup creole or spicy brown mustard, 1 cup brown sugar, Tony's creole seasoning to taste, and a few dashes of hot sauce (I prefer Crystal). You can easily adjust ingredients to your own tastes. Once ingredients are combined, set aside until meatballs are browned.

Once meatballs are browned, add 1 can of Ro-tel tomatoes (including juice) to the meatballs. Cook a couple of minutes until the tomatoes start to break down a bit, then add the sauce to the skillet.

Cook an additional 5 minutes until sauce becomes thick and starts to carmelize.

Spoon 2 meatballs into each roll. I use Hawaiian sweet rolls from my bakery, but any roll will do. Top with remaining sauce and shredded pepperjack cheese.

Broil for a few minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.

This recipe is super easy, economical and a real crowd pleaser. It can also easily be changed to suit your taste. You can use any kind of ground meat (beef, pork, turkey) and your favorite cheese. My version has quite a kick to it, but you can make it less spicy by using mild Ro-tel and omitting the hot sauce. 

Whip some up for the Super Bowl...They're YUMMY!

A Nice Suprise

My Broccoli and Cheese Soup was featured on

Thanks for the mention, Amanda!

Tonight I'm working on

Sweet and Spicy Mini Meatball Sliders

I'll be back later with the recipe and pics. I hope everyone had a lovely Wednesday!

Broccoli & Cheese Soup

I hope you all had a Safe and Happy Holiday Season! The Gridiron Gang had a WONDERFUL Christmas and a RELAXING New Year...just the way we wanted it! 

I'm easing back into the blog with a quick and simple recipe that's just perfect for a nice hot lunch on those cold January days that lie ahead. This is my go to meal this time of year when I'm in a hurry, but still want something warm and satisfing to eat. Now all you foodies out there, don't scoff because I use Velveeta. I've tried other "real" cheeses and Velveeta really is the best choice for this recipe. Besides, I'm a Southern girl and using processed cheese products is in our genes!

Give it a try, I really think you'll dig it.

Broccoli And Cheese Soup

1 can of chicken broth

2 cups broccoli, chopped (fresh or frozen)

1/2 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup heavy whipping cream

8oz Velveeta cheese, cubed

salt & pepper

In a medium size sauce pan, add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add broccoli, onion and garlic, and gently boil for about 5 minutes until vegetables are tender. Reduce heat and pour in whipping cream and add velveeta. Stir until cheese is melted and the soup is thickened to desired consistancy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spoon into cup and top with croutons* or serve over rice.

*You can easily make your own homemade croutons, but I love these so much that I keep a bag in my pantry at all times.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

~GG