Dogs...

These wonderful flowers are courtesy of my dogs. Aren't they lovely? Of course, I am a little bias as to their loveliness since I have painstakingly tended them over the passed 2 months.

Here are the culprits:

Chase

and Moose

Moose is the most recent addition and is only a year old right now. He is annoying, destructive and has no sense of personal space (meaning he will plop down right on top of you if it so pleases him), but he is the most tender thing and we love him. He's a doofus, but a loving doofus!

(Close friend, Chancho, over for a visit.)

They love to play and today they decided to play in my flower bed. NOT COOL. They are huge and lumbering beasts, but I can't help but love every clumsy ounce of them.

Even after moments like this!

(Destruction provided by Moose)

Many times people ask Ryan and I what in the world we do with them, why didn't we kicked them to the curb and are we going to get rid of them some day.

My answer, absolutely not.

And here's why.

They are a part of our little family and will be until the day we must sorrowfully say goodbye to our wonderful and loyal friends. But until then, we expect many days of playing in the grass, cleaning up muddy paw prints and sun bathing with these happy pups.

As cheesy as it is, there truly is nothing like the relationship one can have with their pet. I guess it just takes one to know one!

Hopefully these pictures made you smile.

~This one is from all of us here in the Shelley Household~

*Not ours, but he's definitely one of the cutest pups I have ever seen. Look how droopy he is!

Not ours either... thank goodness!

Crafty lass...

I have neglected my blog for much too long... Sad, yes.

I figure its time to share a few of those projects that don't involve any sort of recipe or food stuffs.

Hopefully you enjoy:

Numero Uno:

Awesome repurposed ottoman.

This lovely addition to our family room has been cluttering up our "storage" space for the passed 4 years.

( I forgot to take a before pic., so this is not the actual ottoman, but pretty dang close!)

I have always wanted to give it the face lift its wrinkly facade so desperately deserved. Unfortunately a month or so ago, I found myself dangerously close to taking it out of the garage and putting it well on its way to good will, until...

I met this fabric.

Then I met its sibling in chocolate brown. Even better! Add the two together with a whole lot of staples and a few tears...

Brand new family member. Well, not quite that awesome, but pretty close!

By the way, there is a puppy on the couch, see if you can find it!

BONUS!

Here is a purse made with the extra fabric from the pillows in that same room. Leftovers rock.

oh my salsa....

I hate going to the grocery store... well let me rephrase that. I love it, but I hate that at the end of my visit I have successfully been suckered into leaving my hard earned money behind for mostly stuff that I may need... someday. Over priced, beautiful fruits and veggies and so many meal and baking ideas to be had on every shelf.

Well today, Bountiful Baskets is one of my favorite things. First off, because it keeps me from having to go to the store. Second, I don't have to go to the store! Just kidding. Second, is because they pick all my meals for me. No more grocery lists unless I run out of essentials. This way we save a little green and I'm not a total sucker at the end of the week. Done and done. Works for me, all the way around.

This passed week we purchased whats called the Mexican pack. It comes with all sorts of vegetables to make some spectacular Mexican food. This time it came with a TON of tomatillos. I had never even seen one, let alone cooked one, but let me tell you... I love me some Salsa Verde. Oh my. So my mission with these puppies was to make some kickin' salsa!

I am here to say that the venture was a success! This is a mix and match of a few concoctions I found and a little bit of guessing on my part, but there you have it. The only regret/warning I'll share is regarding spicy peppers (I don't know what kind they are, remember I didn't pick them). I enjoy a little kick to my food, however I now have spicy pepper on my fingers and under my nails... they burn and it pretty much stings to touch or itch ANYTHING! Use gloves... or be smarter than I am!

Alrighty,

Here's what you need:

10-11 fresh tomatillos

1/2 cup cilantro (leaves only)

1 sm. white onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 bell or anaheim pepper (green)

2-3 fresh limes (including as much pulp as you can get out of those suckers)

2 c. chicken broth

1 tbs. vegetable oil

Cut the tomatillos in half and place them face down on a foil covered baking sheet. Broil them on high until the skin starts to brown.

Remove them.

Next you combine everything into a blender (excluding the veggie oil and chicken broth) and you frappe until you have a nice even blend of everything.

In a sauce pan, heat up the oil until it gets to the point where you can drop a bit of the puree in and it sizzles like crazy. Once it gets to this point you dump all the puree mixture in and stir on high heat until it starts to darken and thicken.

The last addition is the broth. Once its added, you let it all simmer for about 5-10 min and then... heaven. Its pretty good. Oh! salt and pepper to taste.

Tonight, turkey tacos with cabbage and homemade salsa goodness!

Yes ma'am!

Heavenly Leftovers...

The other night I found myself starting dinner by looking at a whole bunch of leftovers piled on the top shelf of my fridge. I couldn't justify making a whole new meal when all of these uneaten portions from previous meals made, were lurking. They reminding me that this new meal I was about to make would eventually joint them in their sad plastic demise. I probably walked back and forth at least 3 times until it dawned on me that if threw most of them together, they would make a pretty decent meal!

So here it is, the details of the forgotten turned into the beloved:

What i had in my fridge:

1 baggy of cooked corn

about 10 oz. of turkey breast

a whole bunch of raw carrots

Half an onion

2 and a 1/2 potatoes

and 2 stalks of celery

Stir it all together with seasonings, add a little flower, milk and butter....

Shove all that stuff into a homemade pie crust, bake for 25 min. and voila!

DELICIOUS.... if i do say so myself.

New Flave...

A while ago, I heard someone describe themselves as not much of a cook, but they were one heck of a baker. Before this statement hit me in the face, I had always associated baking and cooking with one another- thats even with spending the passed 5 years in the food industry! To explain this lack of discernment, I blame my fantastic mom. There isn't one thing she's baked or cooked that didn't turn into something absolutely mouth watering! Therefore, if you can cook, you can bake. Well, the reason the statement at the beginning rang a bell with me is I don't feel like much of a cook, I cook because we gotta eat... but baking, baking is an art. All that time to get the taste and texture down to a science, then when it comes out the way it should have... Oh man, nothin' better.

On one of my more recent baking adventures I discovered, or rather, rediscovered zucchini bread. Ryan and I participate in a food co-op and one week we had 5 zucchini in our basket. In my world... theres a million things to do with zucchini, but do you really want 5 zucchinis worth of side dish? I think they sat in my fridge for almost two weeks just staring at me, begging to be turned into something worth while.

One of these days, I couldn't stand their little beady eyes on me anymore, so I got the idea for zucchini bread. I love a good cook book and the same old regular recipe as much as the next person, but I can't seem to leave well enough alone. I HAVE to change something about it to make it my own. I sat and found three recipes I liked and made up a combination for what i hoped would be a keeper. Last week was our food co-op and we got 7 tiny yellow zucchini, again, those little eyes... this is the second batch i whipped up and sure enough, its a keeper! A few miner changes on flour, but the rest came out beautifully, if i do say so myself.

* Side note: My cute nieces and nephew were over during this passed batch of Zucchini bread and they were smitten with this new treat. My nephew, Josh exclaimed "Aunty em, this is better than anything eva." (if you have ever heard me do my nephew Josh's voice, this will make more sense. If you haven't, just imagine pretty dang cute.)

Ain't no thang...

So, blogging. Blogging is foreign to me, yet here I am determined to blog my heart out. This is no easy task, since you see I over think. I am an over thinker and I am doing just so as I type. In fact, this is the fourth time re-writing this very sentence. This "over thinking" is something I want to challenge and fight to the death. I over think because I am horrified of what others opinions may be. Self conscience be damned, I will prevail. Anyway... my goal, if you will, for this new adventure is to be forthright and to share a few ideas of the "oh so fun" baking projects and home decor antics I endeavor in.

As I've though, I am excited to get back into writing. At one point in time, I was a decent slinger of words. However the world of texting has me ending every sentence with ..., a dash or a smily face these days. This first attempt is shaky at best (forthright *wink*) but, I hope to improve as I ripen with experience.