Cherry pie

I'm enjoying making pies since....well, since last Thanksgiving actually! 

I've made 2 or 3 apple pies, a pecan pie, chocolate pie, couple of pumpkin pies and this time was the turn of a cherry pie. 

I must confess that even tho I make my own pie crust from scratch from a trusted and easy recipe, for this cherry pie I went with a can for the filling. 

It was good, proof is that the only survivor of this adventure was the empty pan. 

Still, I will love to try to make the filling from scratch as well one day. 

Any recommendations for good recipes?

Palmolive soft touch review

I was the lucky duck that qualified for a Palmolive Soft touch liquid dish soap giveaway through Influenster. 

This is my first review through this program, so I was very excited to be selected and the excitement sure grew when I found this pretty box in my mail box!

  

 The inside was even more exciting as I received not one, but TWO bottles of dish soap and lots of coupons!

  

 I had to rush to the sink and try the soap! I guess it's a good thing that dirty dishes never cease to exist in my house.

  

The first thing a girl do near anything soap-like? Sniff, of course! 

So I opened the bottles and take a good whiff.......ahhhhh! 

I decided to wash my dishes with the pink one, the small is divine! 

I must confess that I'm a little of a cheapo when it comes to household cleaners, so when I need them I usually go for a the cheapest store brand just to realize that it makes a lot of bubbles but it's not so effective in cleaning, it leaves dirt behind or worse, a film on my dishes, or doesn't smell that great after all. 

So I pledge to get a better brand when I use up the bottle, but then I found myself back to the store, comparing prices and choosing the cheap stuff again :( 

With the Palmolive, I was very impressed! While it clearly bubbles up in the water, it's not excessive. It takes out dirt and stains from my dishes quickly and effectively and it is really gentle on my hands. 

I'm telling you, the pink bottle smells good enough to want to bathe in it!!!

I've learned my lesson and truly believe that you get what you pay for, so as soon as I'm done with this bottle, the Palmolive soft touch will go on my next grocery list also thanks to the coupons!

Should I be a good girl and share or just keep everything for myself??? LOL

Sick again!

No matter what I do, it seems that I can't catch a break. 

I go to sleep Friday night looking forward to the long weekend, just to wake up in the morning all swollen and stuffy!!! Another cold! 

Enough is enough already! All my weekend plans fell through, I decided to stop everything and take care of this cold once and for all! 

 One thing that makes me feel better when I have a cold is so drink hot beverages, specially tea and chamomile with a teaspoon of honey......aaahhhh! It's good when I need to go to sleep and I feel either too stuffy or my nose won't stop running.....instant bliss! 

 But during the day I feel restless and I can't stop thinking of things to do, the kids need this and that......what is a mom to do?? 

One thing that I found soothing is eating a good bowl of green or red curry at my favorite Thai restaurant. BUT.....I'm cheap and going to the restaurant every time I have a cold at this pace is really not doable, plus today the restaurant was closed!!! 

So I scoured the local grocery store and found the ingredient to make my own curry!! 

It's pretty easy actually! All you need is this:

  

Coconut milk, green or red curry paste and my secret ingredient, tabasco. 

Lately I seem to prefer green curry, but it's really a phase, I like them both. 

The tabasco, I like it as it gives it a spicy kick and trust me, if you have a cold you want something like this: hot, creamy and spicy.....clears your sinuses right up! 

I have to thank my friend Eva for introducing me to Thai food that by the way is gluten free and way healthier that any other food out there. 

Also, thanks to my friend Aggie that directed me to the appropriate aisle of the grocery store so I could do curry in my own kitchen. 

What I usually do is during the weekend I boil a can of coconut milk, stir in 2 tablespoons of the curry paste, a little bit of tabasco and voila', the curry is made. 

Then throw in whatever left overs I have, usually veggies, pieces of chicken or shrimp, boil some rice and pour it over. 

 But I also tried it over left over spaghetti noodles today and once I sprinkled a spoon of the sauce over my blend boiled tilapia and it was delicious! 

Well, I guess you got the gist, I love this stuff everywhere and wanted to share XO

Christmas cheers!

Look at my blog getting so neglected!! It's been a fun but busy week, I'm so glad I got to slow down and take a breath for the weekend! 

So, how are you folks doing? Decorating the house for the holidays? We certainly did, want to see? 

This is our Christmas tree! The same as every year! 

What's new this year is that I also decorated the kitchen. The table runner I bought it in Italy several years ago.....imagine my surprise when I went to the Dollar Store and found some seat cushions with the same motif: red poinsettias on an off white background! 

We put lights on the porch....well,kinda! that star never was used before as the power cord is so short so this year we wanted to use it so badly that we got creative! 

Anyway, I really like the idea of solar powered lights anyway, so I got some LED outside lights......they look like candy canes!!! 

How are you decorating?? Show it off!

More cupcakes in the house!

Do you know by know that I have a cupcake fetish, right??? 

And if you didn't, well, where have you been???? 

I've showed you how I decorated my full kitchen with cupcake curtains and table decor over the spring break (READ ABOUT IT HERE). 

Well, I found the cutest little towels to complement the look in hillsidebakery shop. 

 

Don't they look just......SWEET???? 

But what I like about Lisa's work is the care for details and the wonderful resistant stitching. 

Already thinking about the next set for the bathroom......

Kitchen curtains!!

Finally here! I worked on my kitchen a little every day during spring break and finally I have it all decorated!

The curtains are made in 3 panels with a valance made out of cupcake fabric matching the pillow covers I got from Sewnfromtheheart a while back and the entire window is covered in black light and sheer knit fabric

Why black, you ask? Well, let's just say that since I don't have a private fence on the back of my house, I caught the neighbor kid picking through the kitchen windows, specially when my kids are doing homework which is appalling and distracting.

The sheer knit material allow us to still see outside, but keep the unwanted lookers out of sight.....(see what I did here??)

We still get plenty of light in the kitchen, plus they offer a wonderful shade in the hot summers. And If I need more light, I made little pulls for them in matching cupcake fabric.

On the other side of the windows I have the back door and I thought this wonderful needle point made especially for me from My1SweetAngel was perfect to decorate it, don't you think?

Now all that was left was to decorate the table, but I didn't have enough material to make a table cloth :/
So, I got thinking and I said to myself: why don't leave the table naked and just decorated it with a table runner?? I think it looks very modern and family was happy about the change.

Still, I have few little fabric scraps and I wonder: what to do, what to do? Experimenting of course! (Up for grabs by the way!)

Quesadilla love!

On the note of the quesadillas from the last post.....I scored this beauty this past week end!

My neighbor from across the street did some spring cleaning too and was donating this machine and is now looking pretty smokin' hot sitting on my kitchen counter......Guess what I had for dinner this past week end??? lol

Messing around in the kitchen

I know you were hoping to see my brand new cupcake kitchen curtains, but they are not all done yet! Soon tho!

In the meanwhile, I'm having ab last trying out new recipes from Pinterest.
I'm not very good at cooking, I must admit that I'm still learning and experimenting.
Sometimes, the experiments turn out all right, like these self frosted nutella cupcakes

Some other times, I ended up with a burned mess while trying to make brittle in the microwave

And sometimes, even tho I'm very skeptical of my abilities, I end up with something awesome, like this no kneading bread

Then, I start creating my own version of tried recipes like my stuffed pasta shells

or chicken quesadilla

Made you hungry yet??

Cupcake pillow covers are here

Do you remember last time that I showed you my kitchen?? I was showing off my cupcake table cloth made by Sewn From The Heart (you can read all about it HERE)

Well, Alicia kept her promise and sent me the pillow covers I requested! You can see in the picture above the kids enjoying them.

She wasn't able to make me curtains, but she sent me matching fabric for me to make them on my own. Watch out for my next post......

Kitchen in the new house!

I always promised to show you pictures of the new house I moved in, but it's been almost a year and never did it.....how bad of me!!!
I did show you pictures of the stove area in a previous post.
On the opposite side of the room tho, I have our dining tables and chairs and I recently got me a spanking new table cloth that I want to show off.

Do you see the cupcakes I see??? lol

Courtesy of Sewn From The Heart from the latest trade event!

Now, if only I could convince her to make me matching curtains and pillow covers for the chairs......eheheh

New Stove

About 5 months ago I moved in this new rental and I know I've been majoring slacking in showing pictures of it. Truth is, I'm still not 100% satisfied of how we're settled at the moment, I'm still moving furniture around to find the perfect "feel" for each room.
Of one thing I wasn't completely happy was the age of the appliances in the kitchen: I think it's safe to say that they are vintage lol But it's wasn't a deal breaker as long as they worked fine, but few months a go the stove started giving me grief. The oven worked on high temperature only, basically burning most of the dinners and the top of the stove worked sporadically, leaving me basically to microwave most of the food. I was getting upset 'cause I really love to bake.
Here is the "vintage" stove:

The landlord, learning about my cooking trouble, immediately rectified the situation with this new beauty directly from Sears

What? Are you asking where did I get those cute cupcake potholders?
They are my newest purchase from Marie, My1SweetAngel

Aren't those gorgeous or what??? But don't touch, those are mine! They match perfectly with the arpon I got for my craft show (read HERE)
Go find your own at My1SweetAngel!

Monday cupcake Find

Thank you Kayla from The Eclectic Element, to point me out this week cupcake find!

This Monday I'm going to introduce Carolyn's kitchen and her cupcake aprons!


Cupcake apron, $42 by Carolyn's kitchen



This is the Mama's size, but is also available in daughter's size for $32 and I adore the matching gloves!!!

What do you think? I think they're gorgeous and I hope you enjoyed looking at Carolyn site as much as I did!

Do you have a cupcake to share with me??? XO