Valentine

I know, I know, my fam up in Maryland and PA got 47 feet of snow over the past ten days - Snowpocalypse, SnOMG, etc. and we're shut in with nowhere near that. Don't be a hater.

Here in Atlanta 2 inches of snow is a very big deal for a 4 of the snow plows in the metro area.

It's pretty, though.

And while that in and of itself didn't keep me out of the office, waiting over 30 minutes for a train that never came did it. So there I was, conducting a conference call from my guest room, with door closed to guard against certain barky members of the household revealing my undisclosed location.

The completely unforseen wrinkle? Sweetie's Valentine Day surprise - delivering red velvet cupcakes to my office - went by the wayside. But isn't that the sweetest thing ever?? Our wedding cake was red velvet, and these are the only confection that has come anywhere near equalling the yumminess of our cake.

Let's get a look, shall we?

Look at the loft on that frosting. The rich chocolate of the cupcake and the whimsical crumb/walnut/sparkle topping. A perfect 10.

I love you too, Sweetie.

Short Cuts

Tear. Snip. "Ooooh!" That's me going through a cooking magazine, tearing out what I want to try.

"Oh, crap" - that's me realizing how many to-try recipes have stacked up in my desk drawer. The keepers, after Sweetie and I agree we'd gladly have it again, go in the recipe binder - plastic page protectors and all.

About six months ago I got 3 plastic envelope/folders, labelled them "Entree", "Side", and "Dessert." I grabbed a thick stack of recipes and got busy sorting (with a lot of them ending up in the trash; did I really think I was going to make a 3-page recipe??). Then I decided that in this new year, I wanted to actually MAKE thoe recipes in the folders. Crazy!

So I got started. And at the end of a Disappointing Food weekend - the Black Bean Catfish was OK but way too much work to be just OK, the Citrus Chicken was uninspired - I made a bold move with the recipe pile.

I threw it out.

Didn't look back.

In trying to declutter I've started looking at the library as the Place Where I Keep My Books, and for the most part the internet is the Place Where I Keep My Recipes. If it was published in a magazine, it's on the web somewhere.

So as for other goals... I'm still trying to pretty-up the house on a dime. The common areas of Cutie's house are a pale, muted yellow that I love. I wanted to duplicate that in our downstairs powder room and picked up some Behr "Butter Cookie." Once on the walls, it wasn't the sophisticated, elegant shade on the card. But if you're going for "we don't want to know the gender so we're going with a neutral nursery", it's totally the shade for you.

Since I had only bought a quart (TINY powder room) and I'm way on a budget I had to improvise. I went back to Home Depot and bought a sample of "Cornerstone", a tannish beige, and mixed and mixed AND MIXED it into the remaining yellow paint. Much better.

And I got this little Christmas decoration at Goodwill for $2. Ain't she a beauty? Note the flaking silvery balls and the sort-of silverish (in spots) vine-like attachment. And the gobs of wax in the votive cups. It's not showing up in the picture, but there was silver tinsel on there, too. Eat your heart out, Martha.






I'm thinkin' I overpaid at $2.....

De-crapified and painted black - much better. And of course, much better than paying $12 at the store. I hung some of Sweetie's historical prints that have some age & some wear on them and, actually, it's looking pretty good. Not your traditional powder room decor, but that's OK.

In progress at the moment - no-sew Roman shades. I'm most of the way through and, frankly, I have my doubts. I'll keep you posted.