I'm still around

For any one in the world wide web who has missed me (besides my hubby), I have not forgotten about this blog. I have just been super busy buying a home a making it livable.

I have baked since my last post but I have been a slacker and did not take any pictures :(

Anyway, I wanted to share some shots of the house. I have
some before and after. The house is starting to feel like home :)

Living Room Before:


Living Room After:




Entryway Before:


Entry Way After:

Kitchen Before:


Kitchen After:


Front Bedroom Before:

Front Bedroom After:


Second Bedroom Before:


Second Bedroom After:


The main color of the house is a white-gray called Quietude, it is in the living area, hallway, master bedroom, part of the kitchen and part of the first bedroom.

The kitchen wall paper was peeled off and painted over in a pretty aqua color that I love and was unsure the hubby would agree with.

The guest bath and front bedroom have a green I had to do much coaxing to get . The second bedroom is two shades of purple that I am really excited about. The master bath has not been touched yet (it is a project I will work on next year).

I love owning a house and making it all mine ours.

-Cathleen

Fun with Fondue & Friends

The hubby and I had a friend come into town and I felt like trying something new and use my fondue pot. So I searched the internet and came up with a three course meal. We loved the meal so much we decided to have two other close friends come over for the same dinner about two weeks after the first. I took some pictures as I was creating it, but I didn't take any photos of the dessert part of the meal :(. I will get some pictures the next time we make this meal (we all ready have plans to make this meal for my in-laws). Enjoy the photos.
























































I can't wait to eat it again :)

-Cathleen

PW Blackberry Cobbler

I was headed to my in-laws for dinner and thought maybe I should bake something to bring. I had been looking at my Pioneer Woman Cookbook and was dying to make one of her recipes and I thought Blackberry Cobbler would be yummy and easy. I was right ;)

I got every thing together.


Mixed up the Cobbler.

Washed the Blackberries.


Put everything together. (Sprinkling sugar on top)


Then baked to a little golden brown (well, maybe a little more golden brown than I would have liked. Darn oven that cooks too fast!!!)


It turned out yummy if I may say so myself. I even ate another itty-bitty piece when I got home :)

More to come later...

-Cathleen

Peanut Butter Brownie

So I was craving something sweet and didn't have much on hand. I looked on the internet for a brownie recipe with the stuff I had at home. So to AllRecipies I went and decided on a recipe (to be completely honest I don't know which one I used but it wasn't the best but it didn't stop me from eating a whole row when I finished baking it). I wanted to jazz the recipe up, so I consulted my Martha Stewart Cookie book, used the peanut butter part of her Peanut Butter Swirl Brownie recipe and had a great time baking. I love some of these photos and wanted to share them with the world so....Enjoy! :)






More to come later...

-Cathleen

To Bake List

While I haven't been able to bake anything recently, I have been keeping up with recipies online that I would love to bake and so I am developing a list of must bake items. Here they are (in no particular order):

• Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake posted on The Farm Chicks here
• Pillow Cookies posted on Bakerella here
• Chocolate Raspberry Truffles posted on Bake at 350 here
• Cream Cheese Pie posted on Glorious Treats here
• Zucchini Spice Cupcakes posted on Bake at 350 here
• Lemonade Pie posted on TidyMom here
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies posted on Mel's Sweet Treats here
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles posted on vanilla & lace here
• Macaroon Pops posted on Bakerella here

Also for graduation I got to buy myself a few presents and I chose to purchase these:


I want to cook everything in these books! The firsts on my list include:

• Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls, Patsy's Blackberry Cobbler*, Chocolate Sheet Cake & Mocha Brownies
• The Farm Chicks Cinnamon Rolls, Cherry Breakfast Swirl, Dark Chocolate Butter Cake, Cherry Crumble Pie & Peppermint Patties

*I will be making this tonight to bring to my in-laws for a family dinner with a visiting aunt, uncle and cousins :)

More to come later...

-Cathleen-

Let's get organized

I love saving glass jars. I have a large collection beacuse I know I will use them for something, some day. Well, my small apartment countertop is littered with them (note the photo below) and this is very precious counter top space . Plus, the hubbs is getting tired of seeing all the jars and he doesn't even know about the jars in two separte cabinets (well I'm sure now he does).


Back to the topic at hand. I decided to organize my pantry and use a few jars to store food instead of keeping them in their original bags enclosed in a ziploc bag to keep fresh. So here they are not quite finished (I would like to spray paint the lids in fun colors).



I love them!

More to come later....

-Cathleen-

I'm back!

Well I thought that after I finished with my classes and started my residency I would have tons of time to bake and post, alas I was wrong . I feel that I am busier during the week, especially Thursdays when I have dinner with the family. So much so that I haven't baked anything to bring in over a month :(

Well I did feel like baking something awhile ago and just never got around to posting it so here it is.

I decided to try my hand at making a cobbler. Why, you may ask. Well because I had a can of cherries in the pantry begging to be used so I scoured the internet for a recipe using them with ingredients I had on hand and cobbler seemed to be the best choice.

So I gathered the ingredients.

Placed the butter in the baking dish to melt in the preheated oven.

Combined the dry ingredients.

Added the milk.
Got the cherries out.

Then layered the mixture over the butter, with the cherries added on top of that being careful not to mix them in the pan as I put the ingredients together.

Baked it up in the oven.

The cobbler ended up in the happy home of my tummy after dinner. It was yummy and I even shared with my hubby :)

More to come later (hopefully soon)

-Cathleen-