DIY frenzy. Post #1.

I have been in a DIY sort of frenzy since I recently discovered and became obsessed with Pinterest. This first little project I am going to share with you I did not get off of Pinterest but my super creative husband came up with! It is perfect wall art for a kid's bedroom or if you are just a couple of big kids like us you will probably enjoy it as well!

Step #1: We bought a box of 96 crayola crayons and set them up in the order we wanted them to go. Then you just hot glue them to a piece of canvas!


Step #2. This is the fun part! We used a hairdryer to melt the crayons which was kind of messy so make sure you have a towel under the canvas. If we were to do this again I think we would use a heat gun to avoid splattering wax everywhere.


Step 3: FIND THE PERFECT PLACE FOR YOUR NEW CREATION!

whimsical, lovely and FREE dress!

Who doesn't love an amazing, jaw dropping dress? Who doesn't love an amazing, jaw dropping FREE dress!? Head on over to The Drifter and the Gypsy to win this amazingly whimsical dress by Shabby Apple.

Tip of the Day...

Lets be honest. We are going to have to change this to tip of the week because clearly I am not yet an experienced enough homemaker to be posting tips for every day of the week. Baby steps right?

Let me start out by introducing you to yet another one of my obsession. CANDLES! I love, love, love candles. And I love for my house to smell like yummy baked goods all the time without actually having to bake. The problem with wanting my house to smell yummy all the time is I have a piggy for a pet. While the rumors of pigs being... well pigs if false (they are actually rather clean animals) he does have a bladder that allows him to go pee pee for a solid three minutes at a time which fills his potty cage up rather quickly. So if you don't change his cage EVERY day it can start to smell a little funky in here. So I pretty much burn my candles every moment that I am at home.

Much to my dismay this morning I realized that I had just about burned every last candle in my house to the point of no return. So for someone like me who is obsessed with yummy smelling things this was quite a crisis in my life. So I had to get a little creative and this is where the tip of the day week comes in.

There is no real name for it just a few home remedies that everyone has in their cabinets. Cinnamon, sugar and water. Yes that's all there is too it. Those three common things boiled on the lowest temperature on your stove top and your home slowly starts to smell even better my yummiest smelling candles.




The only problem with this is ... you will be craving cinnamon buns ALL day.

And best hubby award goes to...

It never fails. It doesn't matter how grumpy, or out of sorts I get my husband wins best hubby award every time. Yesterday I was being a complete meany pants and what does he do? Comes home with these ...



See, isn't he the cutest!? ;)

Tip of the Day...

We all know I love to cook. I love to eat. I love to cook and eat things that have a lot of cheese in them. One of my favorite things to make and eat is broccoli cheddar soup but I always make a HUGE mess whenever I make it and cleaning is not one of my favorite task. Along with that mess comes more dishes than I really want to wash. Especially the pot I cooked the soup in. The soup always leaves a layer of flower and cheese that gets stuck to the bottom of the pot. I felt like I could soak and wash that pot over and over and there is still that weird white residue leftover until I discovered Bar Keepers Friend sitting in the back of my cleaning cabinet. Hello my life has suddenly become easier! This stuff is incredible. It makes your pots and pans spotless and so stinkin shiny. It gets off everything from cheese, burned eggs to rust! Its so easy. Just sprinkle the white magic powder, let it sit for two or three minutes, take a wet rag and just wash it all away!
Seriously ladies, go do yourself a favor, save the elbow grease for the bathroom and go buy a can of this stuff!

Another Food Post...

Day two of back in blogger action and I must say that I am loving it!

Recently I have been on the hunt for fresh, new vegetarian recipes to spice up our dinner nights. This is the perfect, yummy, light kind of meal that I love!

Spinach and Artichoke Quiche with fresh corn on the cob.

I found the recipe for the quiche here but I tweaked it quite a bit.

I used:

• 2 garlic cloves, grated
• 6 ounces fresh spinach (although I wish I have doubled it)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 8 ounces canned artichoke hearts, drained (Wish I had used 6 and bought jarred, not canned...really does make a difference)
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3 eggs
  
• 1 1/2 cups half and half
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup FRESH, grated yourself Parmesan cheese (I know its more expensive but trust me the difference is HUGE! Buy a block, grate it yourself and freeze it so it won't go bad and it will last quite some time.)
• 1 deep dish pie shell

Step 1:
Sautee your tablespoon of butter and fresh grated garlic for several minutes. Then add in your fresh spinach a handful at a time, sautee it down then add more



Step 2:
Dice up your artichoke hearts and stir them into the spinach with your spices then pour into a separate bowl.




Step 3:
Add your eggs, half and half and two cheese and stir it all together



Step 4:
Pour into your pie crust and bake at 375 for 45 minuets to an hour



Step 5: Don't forget desert!

I just used a chocolate chip cookie mix, baked them and as soon as they came out of the oven i had pre-chopped Reese cups (My Favorite cookie and favorite candy!) and placed on in the center of each cookie. YUM!

Back in Action...

Wow, has it really been 6 months since my last post?? After a very long summer hiatus I guess you could say I am back and it feels so good! Never let me leave the blogger world for that long again! I have rekindled my love for the world of social media and I am ready to take this head on.
Since my last post in March not too many exciting things have happened so it won't take long to update you all.

#1 exciting thing ... I GRADUATED!!! After four long years I received my degree in Advertising and Public Relations. And as you can see in the picture below I am more than ex tactic about that.

#2 exciting thing ... I QUIT MY JOB! Yes the long days of "Thank you for calling J.Crew how can I help you?" are over. I never want to answer another phone again.


#3 exciting thing... I work full time as my own boss for the amazing photography business my hubs and I created. It's fantastic. I also babysit a precious little girl during the day.

(You can follow our work here http://www.facebook.com/AdamMullinsPhotography and here http://twitter.com/#!/AMullinsPhotos... that would make me very happy).

Lovin that Summer Breeze...

Right now I am sitting on my front porch. My husband and my pig are running around the front yard. The charcoal is burning on the grill waiting for Talapia and peppers and onions to sizzle on top while the potatoes are cooking in the oven (which is taking ridiculously long if you ask me). The night will consist of eating good food, playing outside in this amazing weather, watching Bones and learning how to work our new Nikon D7000 that the UPS truck just delivered. In my opinion there is nothing better.





On another note, From a Cottage in the Woods will be having
a guest blogger later in the week ... drum roll please!!!!!! It will be non other than my love Adam Mullins! It will be a tutorial on how to shoot silhouette pictures like the one below. So whether you are a aspiring photographer, beginner or expert tune in and then share what you learned by posting the pictures you took!

Lovin that spring time breeze ...

A little R&R...

Going to the beach with my BFFFFFFFFFFFs for the last few days of spring break. Be back in a few days!


xoxo,
Your beach bum

The ultimate comfort food...

When you think comfort food what comes to your mind? Probably not broccoli. Well friends I'm about to change your life and the way you view the world of broccoli. Prepare yourself for a heavenly experience.


Homemade broccoli cheddar soup.



I know this beautiful head of broccoli does not look like comfort food... but just wait.
Cut off the head of the broccoli and discard the stems.


The recipe didn't call for but I also took a handful of crimini mushrooms, chopped them up to add to the pot. I think mushrooms should be added to everything. Mushroom icecream anyone?

I usually add a bag of thinly sliced carrots but I did not have any of those so I just chopped up a couple handfuls of baby carrots. Add a chopped up onion along with your broccoli and mushrooms and sautee in 2 table spoons of butter until the veggies are really tender. This is the part the recipe does not tell you to do. If you skip this step it takes at least an hour for the veggies to get tender and there will be a distinct broccoli carrot taste that will overtake the other spices and cheese.




Wisk together 1/4 cup of flower with 2 tablespoons of butter and then add 2 cups of half and half. The recipe calls for 2 cups of chicken stock but I use vegetable stock so that its vegetarian. Taste just as good. continue whisking through all of that then let it simmer for 20 min. Add in your tender veggies and let it simmer for a few more min to make sure the strong veggie taste has been cooked out. Pour batches of this into a blender and mix. I usually do not mix all of it so that there are couple of big pieces of broccoli in the soup. Once it has been mixed put back in the pot and add your cheese!



The recipe calls for two cups of graded sharp cheddar cheese but I usually add more because I like it to be really cheesy. Add 1/4 tsp. nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.


Cut a french baguette into slices, not slicing all the way through and add the most amazing spread from Joy the Baker in between the slices, wrap in ten foil and place in your oven until it smells amazing! It is 3 tablespoons of butter, 3 tablespoons chopped parsley, 1 clove of garlic, 1 tablespoon of olive oil (I use garlic olive oil. AMAZING!) and 3 tablespoons FRESH (very important if the caps didn't give the hint well enough) grated Parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Mash all of this together with a fork and spread in your bread. It is heavenly. One of the best things I have ever put in my mouth.


Here comes the fun part!




I promise you, this will be one of the most amazing things you will ever place in your mouth. Even if you don't like broccoli...


*If I am making this for more than two people I usually double the recipe. I even tripled it one time and that fed five people.
View the entire recipe here.

Weekend Cooking...

Are you surprised that I could not go two whole post without bringing it back to food? Well here we are. A post full of yummy food that will have you in your kitchen before you can even finish reading this.

Saturday was spent with a good friend who appreciates food and good quality ingredients like I do. So we spent the day cooking and eating and cooking a eating and brewing pots of coffee, gabbing like old ladies and watching movies. Sunday I felt a few pounds heavier but it was worth it.


Good ol' Mac&Cheese with a twist from Pioneer Women.



As much as this unfamiliar mac&cheese ingredient scares you do not leave it out! This is what makes this recipe FABULOUS!



The recipe called for cheddar cheese but I also grated up fresh Munster cheese and fresh Parmesan cheese and oh my, I recommend you do the same.



Pioneer Women calls this "tempering". An egg was to be added to the hot cheese mixture but to keep the egg from cooking I added a small amount of the mixture into the egg and whisked until it was cool. I was then able to add the egg mixture into the the hot cheese and milk mixture.



mmm look at all that cheese... you know you want some ; )


**The recipe did not call for it but I also added bread crumbs under one of the layers of cheese on the the top and I highly recommend it.



Now after all of those carbs lets add a little more along with a cup of coffee

Take your favorite coffee creamer, heat it in your microwave for 30 seconds or so then whip it up and pour it onto of your coffee for a lil something special... and it will make you feel like an awesome barista.
**Take your favorite muffin mix, add in a little (or alot) shaved chocolate and sliced almonds, bake and enjoy with an amazing cup of coffee.

Rich Blood...

"Window" shopping online is becoming one of my favorite past times. It's such a rush filling your shopping cart with beautiful things thinking, "Oh I'll wear this all the time!" Or "This will look great in my kitchen!" only to get to check out and realize," Wait I can't actually purchase these things." and my heart comes to a crashing halt. Oh well, I suppose I'll stick to shopping at Target for now :)




Anthropology. I die.



How sweet and cute would these look served on my sun porch. I die.

All things pretty and romantic...

Meet another love of my life... Photography. Wow, not a food blog? Yea, I'm surprised too.



The beauty on the right has an awesome blog as well. Check it out here, Shot of Strange






Check out mine and my hubby's photography business at www.adammullinsphotography.com. Don't be fooled by the name. I am half owner of the business as well.

If I could cook until I die...

I would be a happy person. Of course there are many other things I want out of this life. To travel and possibly live overseas for a few years, make a change and impact people caught in the sex industry, be a foster parent/adopt at least one child from every continent, do a couture photo shoot along with about a million other things. But in the middle of all the crazy things I hope to accomplish I still want to find time to come home and cook at the end of the day... and play with my piggy, Charlie Bean.


More to come on this glorious mound of dough and sugar...

Fish tacos are alot better than they sound...

There tends to be a bad connotation surrounding fish tacos. I could get into that but it is not really necessary so I will leave that for you to consider while I introduce you to how fabulous fish tacos actually are.

I have recently discovered that meat grosses me out. I have been on the line about for several years now but after traveling to Thailand in December I have chosen a side. I do not necessarily consider myself a vegetarian but as a friend once put it, I suppose I am a "polite" vegetarian. While at home or out to eat I choose not to partake in the eating of animals but if that is what I am served at ones home it would be rude to decline... with the exception of pork. I will always decline pork. Fish is one thing I do still eat. So I guess you could say there have been a lot of experimental dinners in my home the past couple of months. Figuring out what to substitute meat for and learning to cook vegetarian dishes. This is where the fish taco comes in. Obviously I was not going to cook hamburger for my tacos so the obvious meat of choice was fish!

Step One



The pack of taco shells that I purchased did not come with taco seasoning so I learned how to made my own. It turned out rather fabulous.


1 tbsp. chili powder 2 tsp. onion powder 1 tsp. each ground cumin, garlic powder, paprika, powdered oregano and sugar 1/2 tsp. salt
*Mix together. Equals 1/4 ounce package of commercial seasoning mix

Step Two

I used Talapia but your choice of fish will work just fine. I started off by baking the fish then moving them to a pan to saute them with the taco seasoning and a little bit of garlic olive oil.


Step 3

Add in your favorite taco toppings and consume!

In this moment...

Cinnamon scone and non-fat vanilla latte. I am happy...