Kitschy horse via RetroPops on Etsy

“A little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika.”
― Dorothy Parker

I’ve been thinking a bit about kitsch lately. You all know how I love having fun with decorating — and I’m currently searching for something fun to add to the house. That little horse is close but not quite what I’m looking for.

How do you feel about kitsch? Is your house overrun, or are you an ultra-minimalist who needs to loosen up? I’m curious…

I was feeling a bit under the weather today, and I was tempted to just keep going and pretend nothing was wrong.

Since it’s Easter, I was obligated to go to church — I actually don’t mind the tradition — but as soon as we were home I got in bed and slept.

Then I woke up, erm, 4 hours later, and I felt guilty.

That’s ridiculous, right? Feeling guilty for being sick? So here I am, owning it.

I can’t fault you if you don’t remember my gallery wall project — it was 76 days ago, after all. (The only reason I know that is that I wrote this 76 posts ago – there are benefits to posting daily!)

Well, I’m happy to report progress! Yay!

Take a look at what we have so far:

I’m gonna need more walls, that is all.

And here’s a little tip I found on Pinterest — use toothpaste to figure out where to place the nail when hanging frames.

Illustrated instructions are at somewhat simple, you should definitely check them out. GENIUS!

This is my comfort food. As much as I love meatloaf and grilled cheese sandwiches, it’s latin food that truly makes me feel at home.

Ropa Vieja  (“Old Clothes” — I’m guessing they mean like tattered rags because the beef is shredded) is similar to beef bourguignon from France, or Austrian/Hungarian Goulash, or American pulled pork. It’s slow-cooked meat and it just fills you up and warms you all over. It just goes to show you that we are more alike than we are different.

This recipe came from my college roommate, L. Thanks so much, girl!

ROPA VIEJA

2 sliced cubanelle or italian peppers
1 cup sliced onion
1 8oz can of tomato sauce
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 tbsp each of olive oil, cider vinegar, minced garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 lb boneless chuck steak
1/3 cup chopped pimento stuffed olives
1/3 cup chopped cilantro

Mix everything (except beef, olive and cilantro) in a pot set on low heat. Top with the beef and turn it over to coat it.
Cover and cook on very low heat for about three hours or so on the stovetop. Stir every once in a while — you know it’s ready when the meat shreds easily. Remove the beef and shred it. Throw out the bay leaf. Add the beef back in and then add the olives and cilantro.

Serve with a side of white rice and a beer to drink.

I’m willing to bet that you have to eat every day, just like I do. So I thought you might appreciate this super easy meal — it’s inspired by a recipe in the latest issue of Everyday Food (my favorite food magazine EVER). I couldn’t find the exact recipe online, but I didn’t follow it exactly anyway because I didn’t have coriander or the exact cut of meat the original required. I semi-winged it and it still came out delicious, so it’s pretty foolproof.

I used a couple of pork tenderloins because we always have them in the freezer, but next time I might try this with chicken. Just make sure the chicken still has the bones in so it will roast nicely.

So, to the dinner!

First, turn on the oven to 425 degrees. Then you wash a bunch of carrots. I don’t like the prebagged “baby” carrots because they’re usually not real baby carrots — they’re just cut into the funny little shapes. Food that is too even and perfect freaks me out a bit. I prefer just buying young carrots and cutting off the tops and bottoms. You give them a good scrub to get rid of the dirt, but you don’t have to peel them so they’re still super easy. Just cut them into thirds or so (it depends on how big your carrots are, of course!)

Toss into your baking dish or roasting pan.

That probably will take you all of 5 minutes.

Then, you wash your fennel, segment the bulbs — again, it depends on how big your veggies are on that day. Use as much fennel as you like. I love it! As you can see I had two bulbs on hand, so that’s what I used. Then toss them into the roasting pan with the carrots. Time elapsed: 3 minutes, tops.

Then you halve a few lemons. I only had two, so I halved a lime as well. Limes don’t roast as nicely as lemons, so if you’re going shopping make sure you pick up some lemons. Then you drizzle some olive oil and salt and pepper over everything and you put it in the oven.

While the veggies start to roast, you take your meat and you season it. As you know, I had pork tenderloin on hand —  I rubbed it with salt and pepper, plus some Lawry’s seasoned salt. The recipe calls for coriander seed, but I didn’t have any, so I used the seasoned salt instead. Maybe you like garlic? You could use that.

Take the veggies out of the oven, and place the seasoned meat on the roasting pan, surrounded by the veggies. Put everything back in the oven, and do whatever it is you need to do while your meat cooks. I gave the kids baths, which took forever. (About 40 minutes, I’m guessing.)

When we came downstairs, dinner was done!

Don’t forget to drizzle the delicious lemon-anise flavored sauce that collecta at the bottom of the pan. It’s what makes the dish! Every person gets a lemon half to rub over everything, and that’s it!

A reminder: This year I’m posting a daily tip to help you (and me) to live well every day. Be sure to subscribe to the Monday email if you’d like to keep up — you’ll receive one email on Monday mornings with a summary of the previous week’s tips and posts.

My apologies if this is incredibly obvious to you, but this little tip has made my life 10,000 times easier. I hate cleaning up pasta and rice water boil over.

To prevent water from boiling over, place a wooden spoon across the top of the pot. Easy, right?

But what happens when you’re making rice and you have to cover the pot? What then?

Well, I cut a bamboo skewer to fit just inside the pan and cover. Voila!

I’m so inspired by this clever idea I found in Southern Living — to cover my kitchen table in chalkboard paint. I already use kitchen cloths as slipcovers.

(What? The kids are messy!)

Our kitchen table is all scratched up, so I’m seriously considering it. I’m imagining the kids practicing their letters as they do their homework. Do you think this is a crazy idea?

Today was the first day were I felt comfortable accepting the unseasonably warm weather. I worked a bit in the garden, and then we ate strawberries with balsamic vinegar. Have you ever had them? Simple food like that are one of the many wonderful things about the warmer weather. All you need are strawberries and balsamic vinegar. That’s it. Some people add some sugar, but I find that berries are sweet enough as they are.

Welcome, Spring.

I almost turned down an offer of free food for a week. Sometimes, I am an idiot.

I was stuck on the “I am a mom, therefore a martyr” mentality that has been my curse lately.

Thankfully, I came to my senses rather quickly.

What The Fresh Diet offered me was a week of food delivered to my front door daily – that is tempting enough, but the kicker is that this is real food, prepared simply with ingredients I could recognize. Here’s something you need to know about me: I like to cook because I can control exactly what goes into my food and what it tastes like. But you also need to know that I’m tired! Planning three meals a day, every day, gets tiresome, and after I make sure my family is fed, sometimes I’m too tired to make sure I eat. So I end up eating as I cook, which leaves me feeling full but unsatisfied. This was a chance to get back to a more civilized way of eating. Yes, I still have to cook for the rest of my family, but knowing that my meals were taken care of was nothing short of fantastic.

I went on the site and signed up – before you choose your meals you tell them if you have any food dislikes. I pretty much eat everything (as long as its real food) so I didn’t need this tool, but it’s there for picky eaters. Then you are presented with your choices for the days you have signed up for and you pick from a variety of entrees. Click, click, click and you’re done. I learned a little something about myself – I eat a lot of carbs. I don’t subscribe to the “carbs are evil” mentality, but when the system gently nudged me to choose a few less carbs I played along to see what it would be like on the lower carb side. It was fine. I mean, I still eat bread at almost every meal – but I missed the carbs less than I thought I would.

As I waited for my meals to arrive, I started to worry about the actual food. What would it look like? What would it taste like? Here’s what was delivered to me on the very first day:

BREAKFAST

Hawaiian Pineapple Stuffed Whole Wheat French Toast with Blueberries and Blueberry Cottage Cheese

LUNCH

Lemon Pepper Grilled Shrimp Salad with Yellow Tomato, Cucumber, Alfalfa Sprouts Baby Lettuce and Citrus Vinaigrette

DINNER

Filet of Chilean Sea Bass with Citrus Chipotle Sauce

APPETIZER

Chicken Skewer with Tequila Lime Glaze

DESSERT

Apricot Cheesecake

Looks great, doesn’t it? Please note that I took all these photos with my iPhone, and that I added nothing to style the photos. I just put them on a plate and took a quick snap before eating. The first day left me very impressed and I couldn’t wait to see what they’d deliver tomorrow. Did I mention that nothing is frozen? Your meals are delivered fresh…ready to heat and eat. That makes a huge difference in the taste. I have to say, my lunch salad was OUT OF THIS WORLD delicious.

I will update you on the rest of my meals soon — but for now, The Fresh Diet has a special offer if you’re interested in trying their meals for yourself:  Receive 3 days free with the purchase of a 31 day plan at $29.99 per day. The promo code is: semommar29.

 This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own, just like they are on every other post on this site. 

Yes, my love affair with flowers continues. Can you tell I have spring fever?

I’ve been bringing flowers home pretty consistently lately, so they’ve finally gone from some frilly luxury that I don’t know what to do with to something I look forward to enjoying. Tulips are my favorite right now — they’re in season and therefore cheap, but they are also long-lasting. I love seeing them s-l-o-w-l-y open up as I go about my day.

Can you believe that I used to put my flowers in the dining room — the least used room in the house? It must be because I never put any thought into it. Maybe I saw it on some TV show. I don’t know. Then I came to my senses and realized that the flowers are no good if I can’t see them (I know this is so ridiculously obvious, but maybe you are like I used to be and don’t see the point in flowers).

Now, my flowers are in a small pot on my miniscule entryway table. That way I see them every time I go up and down the stairs, when we come in and out of the house…and sure, any visitors get to see them too.

The photo frame, sadly, is still looking for a photo to fill it. Baby steps, people. Baby steps…