What to Do With Those Leftovers!

Picture This: It's Friday evening... you're on your fourth plate of the usual Thanksgiving leftovers yet your refrigerator is still stuffed to the brim and the garbageman doesn't come until Wednesday!

Here's what you do... 

Host a party for Sunday Football and whip up some turkey reubens, potato pancakes & harvest pinwheels! 

Harvest Pinwheels 

Serves 8 - 12

You will need:

• 2 Containers of Pillsbury Crescent Rounds  
• Leftover stuffing (I like to make mine with butternut squash & spicy sausage, mmm)!

Recipe:

 1. Place crescent rounds on ungreased baking sheet

 2. Unravel rounds

3. With your fingers, place the stuffing on top of the dough & roll them up

4. Bake at 350 - 375 degrees for 12 - 15 minutes

  and Voila!

Make sure you dunk these delicious apps in gravy!

Have a Very Happy & Healthy Thanksgiving!

 

How to Decorate for the Holidays (besides the tree)

Tree Stand? Check! and guess what? My love & I found one in like-new condition at a yard sale yesterday for one dollar (neither of us has ever had a tree of our own before)! This sparked 80 million decorating ideas in my brain...

So I made a list (& checked it twice), & now I'm proud to introduce...

5 Easy Ways to Decorate Your Living Room for the Holidays -

and I guarantee, nobody's living space will look as chic as yours!

1. Holiday Art

Shop online for well-made, holiday wrapping paper that fits your style, like these from Kate's Paperie.

 Purchase 2 - 3 blank frames (the size & medium is up to you), fill them with the wrapping paper and hang them on the walls in your living room.

If your walls look too cluttered, I recommend taking down artwork that you have up all year round, and storing it in a closet until you ring in the New Year.

Use the excess wrapping paper for presents under your tree!

2. Candlesticks

Display candlesticks on a mantle or accent table.

Isn't this one great?!

When selecting candles, pull colors & shades from your wall art!

 

3. Picture Frames

 Picture frames like this one from paper-source.com, would look great next to a pair of candlesticks!

4. Pillows & Throws

Make that couch look merry & bright! Add a plaid chenille throw...

Or how about an Afghan, like this one I found on Jacubina's Etsy Shop!

And how cute are these Bow Pillows from Pier 1?!

5. Flowers

You can never go wrong with flowers. Go to a grocery store or flower shop & whip up a centerpiece for your coffee table. Do you have a tendency of killing flowers? No problem! Create them with paper! Like this Amaryllis Kit from Paper-Source.com. Hint, hint- branch away from poinsettia's... amaryllis make beautiful, holiday gifts too.

I really hope you enjoyed this post! I cannot wait to share my Holiday Living Room with you!

Tuesday Blues

Did you know that true wild blueberries are only found in North America?

Lately I have been overdosing on apples pie, butternut squash soup & pumpkin butter. So for my dinner party the other night, I decided to take my blueberries from last summer out of the freezer and whip up a quick n' easy blueberry crisp.

Now just because you didn't freeze your blueberries last summer, doesn't mean you have to miss out. Like almost anything, you can find them in your local markets freezer section.

 

 For my 10" x 10" round baking dish, the recipe requires the following:

Topping:

•  1/2 a cup of all purpose flour. I always use King Arthur
• 1/2 a cup of brown sugar. Make sure you pack the cup!
•  1/2 a cup of quick-cooking rolled oats
• 1 stick of butter. Room temperature. 

Filling:

• 2 tablespoon of corn starch. Don't have any in the pantry? Use 4 tablespoons of flour
•  4 cups of blueberries. Fresh or frozen
•  1/2 a cup of brown sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
 

Start with the filling -

1.  In a mixing bowl, combine the corn starch & brown sugar. Once well blended...
2. Mix in the blueberries &
3. Pour them into your baking dish.
4.  Put the dish in the microwave for approximately 3 minutes, then stir. This will help the cornstarch/sugar mixture to stick to the blueberries. 
5. Set aside... 

Now make the topping - 

1.  Cut the butter into several pieces.
   
2.  In a mixing bowl, combine flour, brown sugar & rolled oats. Once well blended...
3. Add the butter & rub the mixture together with your fingers until it is nice & crumbly. Then...
4. Spread evenly on top of the blueberry filling.  

Pop your crisp in the oven for about 40 minutes OR until the blueberries are bubbling and the top is nice & brown.

Enjoy!

*****

Visit me tomorrow for ART- Investing vs. Aesthetically Pleasing (it's going to be a good one)!

 

Pillow Talk

I have come to realize that sharing a bedroom with a man can be quite challenging. I am not talking about the usual female complaints. In fact - my boyfriend is quite tidy... minus the miscellaneous tools that I often find lying around!

What if you love design... love color... love expressing yourself! What if your bed is that cozy space you go to curl up & read a book on those not-so-nice days... but you just don't think that forcing your loved one to sleep in poppy field reds or a polka dot bed is fair...

(Not that I recommend this particular motif)

Then what is a girl to do? Well, lets do a cheer!

P-I-L-L-O-W-S PILLOWS PILLOWS PILLOWS!!! Like this pretty one from adam & viktoria . 

Quite often, people become overwhelmed by bold colors & it is not necessarily because they dislike the color. It all boils down to whether or not that color is being used properly. So for this particular problem, I will add subtle hints of bright colors.

Here is our bedroom color scheme before:  

TIP: using solid colors as your base will allow you to switch up your pillows whenever you feel like it! You can also use reversible comforters (as seen in image II). 

Now lets add some 'lil hints of color...

Tip: Some great places to purchase beautiful pillows at a reasonable price are Homegoods & Pier 1.

And here come the pillows...

What I Did: 

• Selected books with bold colors to decorate my side of the bed & to compliment the pillows I selected.
  
• Through in a vintage, glass oil lamp because it's cool... and you just never know when the power might go out! 
  

Tip: Purchasing pillow covers is a lot cheaper than purchasing duvet covers!

*****

Stay tuned next Monday to see what kind of art we add above the bed...