blogoversary 1

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Hi Friends! It seems like just yesterday I was wrestling with the idea of starting a blog but oh so nervous about it being so public. One late July day (yes, this birthday’s belated; I’ll get it right next year) I took the plunge and posted my first post. I can’t quite believe it, but I’ve been blogging on my house talks for over a year now!

Between the house projects, kitchen adventures, and photography, it’s been the creative outlet I’ve longed for! I thank all of my friends and family for their support and am so happy to have new followers everyday! It’s been great to share my goals, house projects, recipes, and travels. I’ve really opened up, too – like documenting my personal goals and taking a friend’s suggestion to add my house talks to my Facebook feed. It’s funny what a “nervous nelly” I am about that stuff. Being completely more open is new territory for me but pushing boundaries has been really rewarding.

Plus, this is a great excuse to eat a cupcake! (diet starts tomorrow.) My cupcake is from Sprinkles, this amazing cupcake spot in Dallas.

They have a couple of different locations in the states, too! So, many of you can check this wonderful place out for yourself! Red Velvet is my favorite, but they have many different options to choose from, including doggie cupcakes, too! They all look SO yummy!

Besides the sweet treat for the blogoversary, I’m taking all of my blog spots from this past year and putting them into a book from Lulu.com. my house talks – volume 1. It’s a nice nod to my earlier days of writing everything down and cutting/pasting ideas to notebooks. Now, each year I’ll have a hard cover book to look forward to. Lulu.com also would be a great way to organize kids art! What a fantastic way to preserve their artwork and de-clutter your own home!

Otherwise, I’m just REALLY pleased I started this blog and over-the-moon others enjoy it, too! Happy belated birthday to my house talks!

Lastly, I want to thank my editor for his fine grammatical skills and low fees. He got half of the cupcake for his efforts.

bread bowl chili

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I’m really ready for fall! Football has started, Starbucks has their Pumpkin Spice Latte, and Dallas has had a couple mornings in the 60’s! So, it’s officially time to bring out the chili!

Chili is one of my favorites fall recipes! It’s a great meal to make in a big batch so you can enjoy it all week long. I wanted to share one of my mother’s classic recipes (I believe she got it from a Kraft recipe book, but I couldn’t tell you which one. I’m sorry.) with my own personal twist!

Recipe

Chili

  • 1 lb ground beef (I use venison)
  • 1/2 c chopped onion
  • 16 oz can kidney beans, undrained
  • 16 oz can tomatoes, undrained
  • 16 oz can tomato sauce
  • 1 Tbsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Bread Bowls

  • 1 cup warm water
  • 1 package yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 cup bread flour
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

First, I used the instructions from my BBQ pizza post to make the dough. Make sure to allot for 2 hours-plus (before serving), in order to allow the dough to rise, bake the bread bowls, and chili.

P.S. I know making dough sounds primitive, and to me sometimes scary, but everytime I make it, I get reminded of how easy it really is! Don’t get discouraged! It’s easy and fun!

For the chili, I started by browning the meat; drain.

Add onion to meat and cook until tender.

Stir in the remaining ingredients, except the cheese. This is where you can get creative. I add cumin, cayenne pepper, etc depending on my spice level that day! Have fun with it!

Cover; simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Now, back to the bread bowls. I used 4 corning ware 7 oz dishes, but any small (oven-safe) bowl will suffice. Spray each dish with non-stick cooking spray and mold the dough around the dish. The dough will make about 4 0r 5 bowls.

Place the bowls on a cookie sheet and bake until light brown, approximately 10-15 mins.

They should pop easily out of the bowl!

Add chili with or without cheese and enjoy!! I love me some bread with my chili and cheese, and these bread bowls are so easy and make for an adorable presentation if you’re hosting. Enjoy and Happy Fall!!

minnesota wedding

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Our last stop on the Midwest adventure was another wedding in Minnesota! Jenni (the bride) is a professional event planner in the Twin Cities, so I was oh-so excited to see what her own wedding would entail. Needless to say, she did not disappoint; there was visual eye-candy all over the ceremony and reception… and this girl remembered her camera! So what if it doesn’t fit in my clutch, it’s coming! Now, I get to share all the goodness with all of you!
We checked into the hotel and were greeted with a sweet gift bag filled with goodies from both the bride and groom’s home states. Lucky for me, Jenni was adding another Wisconsinite into our family, and the bag came with my all-time favorite beer, Spotted Cow! It’s only sold in Wisconsin, so this was a pleasant surprise. There was a bunch of other goodies from both states, which were devoured on our trip home!

The ceremony didn’t start until later in the afternoon on Saturday, so we spent the morning swimming with our nieces and nephews and just enjoying a little time to breathe. Sigh. We headed out with the whole family and when the ceremony started, all eyes were on the bride and groom!

The ceremony was beautiful and Jenni took a page from my own wedding with her programs. It reminded me of my own wedding and made me happy that someone else enjoys the details. The subtle details throughout the church were perfect for the space, too! Molly and I really enjoyed the yellow poufs.

After the ceremony we headed outside to wish the newlywed couple off, with bubbles!

After the ceremony, it was off to the reception which was held in an old stable. Perfect for mason jars… which I was obsessed with. Add in gray and yellow striped straws – and I was in heaven. This probably makes me crazy, but I’m okay with that. Drooling over paper straws – it could be worse. We actually got to take them home, too! The husband and I got two, so all I need now are the straws! Ha!

We enjoyed our drinks outside, while the nieces and nephews found the photo booth. We didn’t know at the time, but these were props for the photo booth; we had fun with them outside! They were returned promptly after the photo shoot. He he. 

When it was time to find our seats, we were treated with escort cards propped up by wine corks! So cute. Each table corresponded to some place the couple had traveled and a little story of their adventure.

We got to leave the party with pictures from the photo booth and cake pops made with Packers or Vikings colors! Jenni doesn’t like cake, so she opted for an ice cream bar for everyone. Seriously, this girl didn’t miss a thing!

Don’t worry, I didn’t spend the whole time just taking pictures of objects! I had fun dancing and taking pictures of the whole crew, too.

I’m thinking I may ask Jenni to plan my next big event! She did such a fabulous job!

Congratulations Jenni & Adam! Cheers.

leinenkugel’s

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The husband and I stopped in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, which was right on our drive from Wausau to Minneapolis. Chippewa Falls is home to the third largest craft brewery, Leinenkugel’s, so it was a must to stop and see what they had to offer!

We had a 15 minute wait for the next tour, which worked out perfect. We checked out The Leine’s Lodge, which got us really excited for the tasting after the tour.

The Leinenkugel’s tour is about 45 minutes – 1 hour, featuring the brew house and all the goodness that goes into a Leine’s Lager. Our tour guide was a sweet girl from Withee, WI, a small town that supplies all the honey for Leinenkugel’s beers! Honeyweiss & Sunset Wheat are two of my personal favorites that get a dose of honey! Yes, I bought a bottle of that proprietary honey to bring home to Texas!

During the tour I did learn about Jacob Leinenkugel’s yeast. He brought it all the way from Germany to Chippewa Falls, which is still the same strand used today to make many of the Leinenkugel’s lagers. The yeast used is a bottom-fermenting yeast, one of the two types of yeast used in brewing. Bottom-fermenting yeast works well at low temperatures and ferments more sugars, leaving a crisp, clean taste and then settles to the bottom of the tank. In contrast to the lager is the ale, which is a top-fermenting yeast and works better with warmer temperatures. Interesting? I thought so. Both beers taste great to me!

After our tour, we were invited inside to sample 5 different Leinekugel’s creations. They also had a menu of “leine’s mixers”, which mixed beers together to make for some interesting combinations, like honey bear or pink lemonade!

It was a fabulous break from driving, and a really relaxing tour. Plus, how can you go wrong with free beer?!

I bought two “taster” glasses; I think they’ll be perfect for a Bloody Mary chaser someday! For anyone that isn’t from Wisconsin, a small chaser of beer is ALWAYS part of your Bloody Mary order. I think this tradition should be extended into all states. On Wisconsin!

on the mend

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Hi Friends. Yes, I’m alive!

Two weeks ago…actually almost three now, the husband and I drove all the way from Minnesota to Dallas in a day. We were so proud of ourselves and oh so excited to sleep in our own bed!

My plan for that Monday (which we took off for travel) was to sleep in and surprise my office. I would work a half day. But my body had different plans. I decided to get pink-eye. Yep, pink eye. I went to an ophthalmologist and he was filled with wonderful news.

  • Not bacterial, viral.
  • Seriously contagious.
  • No medication to treat. Only palliative measures.
  • Your other eye will be infected soon.
  • Wait it out. At home. You can’t work for a week-and-a-half.

This doesn’t sound bad, but when you can’t see, AND your eyes hurt, itch, and are constantly draining, it isn’t fun. Plus, fighting fevers and chills. Not fun.

As I was quarantined to my room, I realized a couple of things about myself: I don’t have that “high pain tolerance” that I, like many, have claimed to have. It’s just that I haven’t had much physical pain in my life. Honestly, I hate being sick, I hate pain, and no, I don’t tolerate it well. I guessed my will to live is pretty weak. This made me realize, I should get the epidural when having children. Oh, and I hate the smell of lysol.

Did I mention after fielding the blow about my viral pink-eye, and not being about to work all week, I came down with the biggest pus-filled tonsils I’ve ever seen.  Yep, add strep to my week! Awesome.

Luckily, I’m back on my feet and worked this whole week… unfortunately, catching up with work meant my blog hasn’t received much of my love or attention. I missed it dearly and have so many posts to share. I hope to be back this week to my M-W-F routine.

Now, go wash your hands and don’t touch anything! I don’t want any of you to get pink-eye or strep! :)

Happy Weekend Friends!

Side Note: Yep, that’s penis in our pasta. Thank you Sarah & Adam for making the trek all the way to Italy and back with these little wonders. They are hilarious and thoughtful friends! It has nothing to do with the post material, yes, but posts aren’t fun without pictures, and this post needed a laugh or two!  He he. 

pup cups

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I have two boys in my house. Technically, three. But two are furry and love pup cups! Especially in the summer! I wanted to share this icy treat with other pet lovers in hopes it will make your dogs as happy as mine.

Recipe

  • 32 oz vanilla yogurt
  • 1 banana
  • 2 tbsp peanut butter
  • 2 tbsp honey

Blend all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until consistency is smooth.

Place mixture in containers. I bought my Beaba Multiportion Baby Food Freezer Trays containers from Williams-Sonoma, but I believe you can get them elsewhere. They are silicon container trays that have seven 2 oz cups, perfect for this project. I use two containers for this recipe.

Prior to getting the trays, I would use paper cups (Dixie cups), but it was a bigger mess for both the dogs and myself. My lab would shred the paper all over the house or yard and the pug would eat the paper. I found these great baby food containers to be the best. After mixing all the ingredients, spoon the contents into each cup.

Then, just freeze overnight.  Trust me, your pup will thank you!

These little containers make it easy to pop out the frosty treats and hand it to your pups. I suppose a silicon ice cube tray would work too, but I liked having a cover! As you can see, we enjoy our treats outside.

Happy Wednesday to my furry and human friends!


papoose lake

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I’m back! Back from my midwest adventures, and yes, I’ll be sharing with you some of my goodness from that trip throughout this week and next! My apologies on the late post – I got back late, late Sunday and have been dealing with pink-eye ever since. I’m just thankful it happened now, opposed to midway through our trip! I would not have been able to get such fun pictures with just one working eye! ha!

The husband and I headed up north for back-to-back wedding weekends, which left us with a week between for our own exploration. We decided to spend some of our vacation at my generous aunt and uncle’s cabin in Manitowish Waters. A beautiful destination in northern Wisconsin, which I highly recommend for a little R&R. They gave us full reign of their cabin and water toys… I’m glad they don’t know my driving record. Just kidding.

We enjoyed every moment of our time up north, and I just couldn’t get enough of the interior design of this cabin. My Aunt Diane has a great eye for design, so I was excited to share some of her cabin style (and my uncle’s) with you! It has the true cabin feel: rustic, but modern with wood throughout, picturesque windows, and even an antler chandelier. Perfection.

The living room has a beautiful stone fireplace, which is used often during those cool Wisconsin nights. I love the old wooden TV that offsets the newer accessories.

Up a fight of stairs and you’re in the loft that sleeps four comfortably.

Here’s the aerial view from the loft.

Downstairs in the basement, my uncle has been working on this amazing sliding barn door that’s all the rage. He used reclaimed barn wood, planed the boards, and it looks absolutely wonderful! Obviously, he still needs to install the track but it looks amazing already! I can’t wait to get back to see it complete!

Besides the interior of the home, there are beautiful views from the dock, too! If you look closely, you can see Boston retrieving one of his many tennis balls during our stay.

We also took the pontoon out, even though I’m always leary of screwing something up … but it went really smooth. Mainly, we just spent time relaxing, while our boys swam.

Don’t worry, we actually left the cabin too, by heading into town for some bare essentials and dinner at Smokey’s, a fine restaurant where we ate WAY too much but had a great time!

The next morning I woke to the husband making breakfast in this beautiful kitchen! There’s nothing sexier than a man that can cook!

Again, I realize I’ve said this before, but truly there is nothing better than Wisconsin in the summer! I hope you all can go at least once! Enjoy the view, clear water, and great food!

Thank you again to my aunt and uncle for allowing our family to enjoy your beautiful space! I hope that someday we, too, have the luxury of paying it forward to one of our nieces or nephews. That would mean we would have to save up for a cabin first, but you get the idea.

Lastly, here’s our attempt at a family picture. I think it’s us. Perfect.

midwest vacation

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The husband and I have taken the week off to spend with family and have a mini-vacation of our own! I was going to not change my format this week and blog on my regular schedule: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday … But I’ve decided to take a blog-cation, too! I’ll be back next Monday with travel excitement and a kitchen update! I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

happy birthday

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My birthday was last tuesday. I turned the big three-one and can’t quite grasp where those years have gone!? All-in-all, I’ve been blessed and have little to complain about. My life has been getting a little better with each passing year. Plus, the beauty of growing up is, you don’t have to make a big to-do about your birthday OR you can! That’s the fun! And you can buy yourself your own gift! Even better!

The husband and I are putting 100.00/wk starting this month, plus any money we get for our birthdays (His birthday is in August, too) toward bikes! Not top-of-the-line bikes, just some good used ones. We’ve been looking at Craigslist, and I can’t wait to finally pull the trigger!

Nonetheless, we still had to do something on my birthday, right? Of course, my wonderful office got me a cake and a Visa gift card! The husband got me two cookies from my favorite bakery in Dallas, Magnolia’s, and I decided to walk through West Elm for my after work treat! I just wanted to see the goodness and get some inspiration for the rooms we still need to fill! Afterwards, we headed to dinner at Royal Thai, our favorite Thai restaurant in the city!!

Honestly, this was a great way to start a new year. Nothing crazy! Nothing fancy. Just good conversation and great food. Plus, we’re heading north for a week to see both of our families! I’m considering this a birthday present, too!

If this is any indication of how 31 will be, I am super excited!

 

water, with sparkles? sure.

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I’ll admit it. I’ve been addicted for way too long to Diet Coke! I would have one during lunch at work, then that turned into two during work, then one after work, then… well, you get it – it was getting bad! Plus, with all the uncertainty behind artificial sweeteners, I wanted to stop for good. I wanted to make it a treat, not a necessity. Here’s my nemesis.

I was talking with friends about my habit and wanting to stop… They asked if it was a caffeine or carbonation habit, and I hadn’t thought about it like that. Caffeine or Carbonation? I was pretty sure I wasn’t affected by caffeine… So, maybe carbonation?

They immediately referenced sparkling water, and I was intrigued. I’ve seen those fancy green San Pellegrino and Perrier bottles before but didn’t have much desire to try them until now. I went to the market and was so excited… All that water goodness! What a fun new world to explore!
It worked like a charm! This little glass during lunch or with dinner is such a refreshing, guilt-free treat! It’s been working for a couple of weeks now, and I really don’t have a desire for Diet Coke anymore!
Plus, that statement of “caffeine doesn’t affect me” couldn’t be further from the truth! I haven’t slept this well in years!!

So, if anyone out there is trying to kick their own soda habit, try sparkling water (I add a lime to mine) and see if that does the trick! Or does anyone out there like any particular flavor(s)? I would love suggestions!

Thanks J&A for the realization and thank you Central Market for the selection!

Watch out coffee, you might be next!