progress is as progess does...

and i'm moving along.

making time to do things that need to be done. even though time is slim to none.

the wallpaper border in the master bedroom is off. i finished taking it down yesterday evening. looked at the clock after i put my daughter to bed and figured, "what the hey...why not now?" and at 9.30 p.m. it was DONE.

now on to the tough part of the job: rubbing off the residual wallpaper glue.

i've googled a few home-made solutions that claim to do the trick. my mom is coming down to visit for a few days...i'm thinking of enlisting her help.

made barefoot contessa's peach raspberry shortcakes early last week.

not bad at all. having a really tough time with fruit. because of the early and consistent hot weather here (hot meaning a daily temperature of 80-mid 90 degrees), the fruit is ripening early...and rapidly. and, not holding up well. because of that, i'm not into my fruit desserts like i usually am this time of year. such a shame.

BUT, grilled salmon sandwiches are on tap for tomorrow night's dinner.

i'm a little "grill challenged", so this is guaranteed to be an interesting adventure for me. (interesting here defined as "resulting in a possible catastrophic outcome").

of course, my main focus right now is my photography class. it's been intense, right out of the gate. the homework assignments are definitely a challenge...they take longer...involve a lot of thought. hopefully, i'll be able to post the results of some of the photos from my first assignment. which aren't pretty. except they're mostly of my daughter, and i feel that my daughter IS pretty, so to say they're not would be putting her down. i should say that, technically, i'm not thrilled with them, but i'm pretty much starting from scratch again, relearning a few things...so, the outcome isn't what i want. but, it's what needs to happen to get to where i want.

make sense? hmmm. i'm sounding confused, which isn't good for first thing in the morning.

i'll leave you with a recent layout:

you can also view it here.

will be back with more updates. hopefully, i won't be drowning in a sea of wallpaper glue and lovely glue removal solution made by yours truly.

there are about 20 other things i should be doing right now...

oh well.

what's a little procrastination and a later bedtime every now and...every DAY. ;P

barefoot in the kitchen is still going strong.

i recently made ina's croque monsieur. (if you're a book junkie, you can also find this in her Barefoot in Paris cookbook).

think of it as grilled cheese, inside out. hmmm, except there's technically cheese inside, too. so, it's like and inside AND outside grilled cheese. (no, it's not burned. just nicely browned in the pan. seriously!).



okay, so where am i going with this? patience, my friend. (yes, you'll have to tolerate the dark pictures taken with my phone at hand. again...witching hour does not lend itself to a safe camera environment).

the efforts to put this together were minimal. the taste was extraordinary.

one of my friends was over that evening and can vouch. she can also take credit for handling the 5 pm crazies that my kids dish out...totally helps speed up dinner production. =)

on a whim, i also served up ina's jalepeno cheddar cornbread. WOW.

amazing. i've always relied on my super-special, hyper-secret cornbread recipe. tried and true. *ahem*. um, you know, the one found on the back of the quaker yellow cornmeal canister. ;-) yeah, that one. which i love...a little on the sweet side of cornbread, which is great. contrasts nicely with spicy mexican, if you're up for that sort of thing (and we are huge mexican cuisine fans here...well, minus the kids on that one). this recipe was right up there, though. it is made in a 9x13 pan. why the emphasis? because you will have a lot left over if you're making this for only a couple of people. and, even if you refrigerate it, you only have a few days to use up the leftovers. so, just make a mental note.

other stuff. oh, quick layout i did of james's storytime favorites. thank goodness i had this picture. i may have been scratching my head for awhile trying to think of what they actually were at 18 months as he's well into his 2's.

details of the layout and materials used can be found on my post here.

things on the scrapbooking front my take a slow down. this week was a big one as i started a new photography class, taught by wendy schultz. i'm really psyched about it. on the flip side, my free time (what's that again?) is going to be spent on the assignments and tutorials. which are sizeable. a wee bit longer than the ones from karen russell's class. i'm nervous. it's a big endeavor for me. i also don't have a clue what i'm doing (always a good feeling). i'm branching out into new territory, trying things on shaky legs because they're unfamiliar. but, it's what i have to do to be better...

slight confession: i may still use some of the extra time i find in a day to - oh, i don't know - rip down the awesome pink paisley wallpaper border in my bedroom. (i'm too embarrased to show a picture of my room because of the pink hideousness...and, well, frankly my room is a mess at the moment).

NO I DID NOT PUT IT UP THERE.

the former owners did. along with the pink carpeting in the same room.

seriously, what guy is OK with this? i'm thinking that the wife wore the pants in that relationship, BIG TIME. or he just didn't give a...well, you know.

(and if i've offended anyone out there...my apologies...but, pink bedrooms are not my thing...unless i'm all of a sudden a tween again).

anyway, i've managed to spend 4 years (that's right) ignoring it. i'm sure it would've been less if i actually had one ounce of decorating prowness. it's taken me awhile to settle on a style, color scheme, etc. but, i think i've reached it...

in time for me to start another photography class. =)

quick layout for the 6/13 sunday sketch.

just a quick note today. it's been a whirlwind weekend.
but, i was able to participate in SC's sunday sketch.


here's my take:

i used EK's photo label punch to make a little spot for writing the date of the picture:
here i used a stamp to make the clouds. one cloud i used as a mask and painted in what i cut out...the other a straight stamp cut out.

some more stitching. boy, there was a lot of stitching...


I just wish I could get the layout itself to look a bit brighter. The white cardstock looks grey. Granted, sunshine would probably have helped...but, with in and out thunderstorms...clouds and such...it wasn't happening.

Maybe I can tinker with it more another day...OR maybe I could somehow aquire mad-photoshopping skills...hmmm...

ace of {risotto} cakes.

not really.

okay. towards the end of the cooking process, i was getting the hang of things.

but, why rush to the end when i can fill you in at the beginning?

making ina's chive risotto cakes was an interesting endeavor. interesting in that: 1. it involved hot oil and a hot cooktop, 2. my kids were more clingy than normal that day, each clutching one of my legs near said hot oil and cooktop, and 3. both kids decided that normal dinner time was not OK, but needed to be earlier because starvation was apparently imminent.

such is the state of my home at 5 p.m....EVERY DAY.

battling these somewhat daunting elements, i still made the risotto cakes and am proud to report that a. i didn't burn down the kitchen {despite filling the first floor of my house with smoke}, b. neither me or my kids were burned in the cooking process. yay. and, c. the risotto cakes weren't a *total* disaster. there were some minor issues, so let's address those.

prep was a piece of cake. i did all of that in the morning before taking my daughter to school. cooked the rice, grated the cheese, minced the chives and threw all of these ingredients {plus a few others} in a bowl. sealed the top with plastic wrap and placed the bowl in the frig so everything could get nice and cold, as the instructions advised.

fast-forward to 5 p.m. it's the witching-hour. kids are antsy. unusually hungry...this doesn't set in until closer to 6 p.m. see, keeping track of all these things helps me mentally gear myself up for what i need to do and the state in which i get it done - am i relaxed? {which makes my concentration and general flow of things} much easier? am i hyped and pressed for time? {this is killer and makes me rush a bit more than i would like}.

i was hyped.

so, i add the oil to the pan. hmmm..really? only 3 tablespoons of oil for all these risotto cakes? okay, ina.

no, not okay.

if you're making this recipe, note that this recipe makes a lot of risotto cakes...and because of that, more oil is needed. i felt that 3 tablespoons didn't cover the batch. i had to add more oil...and cooking spray...because i hate using large quantities of oil in cooking. and the rice really absorbs the oil until you get a nice, crusty, brown outside to the cake.

initially, i started with small risotto cakes, as the recipe instructs. as i found myself pressed for time {with antsy kids at hand}, i started to cheat, making the cakes bigger. not good. the bigger the cakes are, the longer the cook time...and the harder they are to flip and the easier they fall apart. so, definitely keep the risotto cakes small.


see how they're falling apart? {at this point i was annoyed with the process and myself...because the cakes in this photo were still small...i hadn't even made them big at this point...and they were still not staying together despite the length of time the mixture spent chilling in the frig).


the picture above makes me happy. because it's at the point where i got my groove in the risotto cake-making-process. the first batch i chalked up to a rookie's luck. sort of like the universal theory behind the first batch of pancakes that come out of the pan...you can tell it's the first batch...they're thinner, lighter...different. the second batch is where you really get down to cooking...and get better results. i think that's what happened here. my cakes were definitely smaller. they weren't thin and not too thick. yeah, i definitely got into a groove here.

i'd like to say that my cakes were this beautiful:


they looked more like this:


and, for the most part, i'm OK with that. i never made risotto cakes before and i'm hardly a seasoned cook in this area. i'll take it.

the kids seemed OK with the concept of cheesy rice cakes {i figured chive risotto cakes would be code for "i don't know what this is but it's mommy-speak for something i won't like anyway"} - which isn't a complete fabrication if you look at the recipe and what basically goes into a risotto cake.

my son ate about 3/4 of his and then declared he didn't like it. {a routine meal-time statement when trying something new}.

my daughter ate a few bites, then was put off by the little green chives {saying it was a "seasoning" apparently didn't reassure her it was edible}.

{and to boost my overall kitchen confidence, i made neiman marcus cookies with white chocolate chips the next day - my own little concoction}:

next up on barefoot in the kitchen: delicious jalapeno cheddar cornbread and croque monsieur sandwiches.

p.s. photos courtesy of my phone. at the end of the day, i get a little nervous with whipping out my camera with all the action i have going on in the kitchen...

my natural.

sometimes it kills me how fast these {almost} five years has gone by with her.

we stayed local over the holiday weekend - no major plans. a neighbor gave us her daughter's princess bike - she had grown out of it. we lucked out and she happened to think of us before she junked it. {it's in gorgeous condition, too}. little girl was over the moon when our neighbor walked up the driveway with it a couple of weekends back. all we had to do was put the training wheels back on...

jim took her out on sunday for a little test run. apparently, she had been making mental notes. he showed her once, ran down the instructions with her {we're still going over the safety rules verbatum}, and - well - that's all there was too it. like she had been riding a bike for eons...









and, boy, was she sure proud of her accomplishment.



now she's into negotiating how many times we're going to go around the block so she can practice. i'm trying to scale it down a little on the hotter days we're experiencing right now.

hopefully be back soon with barefoot in the kitchen updates and some layouts. the wacky weather has me dodging clouds today - not the best for photographing them a la natural light.