My Recipe File

I'm spending a little time this post to compile my favorite recipes that I've found and tried on food blogs. Because good food is worth sharing, even if you can't make it over here while it's cooking.

Favorite Breakfast

Egg Florentine Quesdillas

Favorite Salad

Strawberry & Mozzarella Salad

Favorite Soup

Roasted Corn Chowder with Chicken, Lime & Cilantro

Favorite Main Dishes

Panko Crusted Salmon

Italian Meatballs with Basil Pesto Pasta

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Enchiladas

Heather's Quinoa

Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Mediterranean Tuna Salad

Mexican Stuffed Peppers

Favorite Desserts

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake with Cornmeal Crust

White Chocolate Raspberry Tart

French Silk Pie

Anzac Cookies

Peach & Plum Crisp

Cherry Maccaron Tart

Extreme Home Makeover: Bathroom Wallpaper

Ok... so I guess I'm going to start calling all the work we're doing on our house "Extreme Home Makeover" because to us, it's pretty extreme. We are crossing the line of people who didn't know anything about construction, carpentry, and basic knowledge on how to care for a home to people who widening their knowledge base by diving in head first tackling home projects we probably have no business doing without professional supervision.

I've been doing a terrible job documenting the process, because at times I don't want to be reminded of the huge mess we're making. But I definitely need to start! I'm currently spending my Spring Break painting my bedroom. I thought this was going to be a simple and fast project. But of course there are obstacles. I will mention them later when I show you before and after photos.

I'm also thinking ahead to my next project. The bathroom. Our bathroom needs a lot of work. Or maybe I should say, we want to do a lot of work to it. It's functioning, thank goodness, but it is ugly. We will retile it, because apparently the floor is rotting underneath. And instead of painting it, I would like to put up some wallpaper. I was apprehensive about doing this at first because I thought with all the humidity from the shower it would peel right off. But the gentlemen who put up my wallpaper in the dining room, told me if it was done right, it would stay forever. So I've been looking for wallpaper for the last 5 months, trying to find the right one. I've come across some beautiful wallpaper on the web. But not until last week did I find what I was looking for at a reasonable price. I wanted to find something I liked in yellow that was a modern yet fresh with a vintage feel. Below are some wallpaper that I think are beautiful and great, but didn't quite fit the criteria of what I was looking for.

This picture with the yellow wallpaper is from Miss Print and is called Saplings Wallpaper Sunflower Yellow with White. This is what I ended up falling in love with. I'm going to tile up four feet and paper the rest of the walls. So excited for this project to begin. Estimated time to begin is in two weeks!

All wallpaper images are from: http://www.5qm.de/

Tea Party, Don't Be Late

So when my friend Mel asked me to make invitations to her daughters nineth birthday, I happily agreed. Then she proceeded to tell me it would be a tea party. I got pretty pumped. I immediately wanted to make it inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Even though I knew this would be typical considering the movie was coming out and all. I knew it would still be fun for her daughter and definitely fun for me to illustrate.

At the beginning of Lewis Carroll's book, Alice is doing her studies and it quite bored because there are no pictures to admire. That's why I decided to have an invitation like a book with something interesting look at. My vision was to illustrate the forest joining in on the tea party, along with the March Hare who in the book joins the Mad Hatter and the dormouse for tea. This invitation turned out exactly how I wanted it to; I am so happy with it!

mint&honey papergoods custom design/illustration for birthday invitations: $40