Falling Apart

I mentioned earlier this year that I was grinding my teeth. At my last dentist appointment my hygienist seemed really concerned about how much I was grinding and that I was grinding my enamel off. They talked to me about getting a mouth guard. A $300 mouth guard. I debated about it for several months and called the dentist to see how much insurance might cover for a mouth guard. $0. Ouch. My mother said multiple times that whatever I could do to keep my teeth healthy and ensure longevity would be money well spent. Memories of my grandmother's false teeth kept running through my mind. I don't want my teeth to fall apart along with getting crows-feet and grey hair.  I made the fitting/mold appointment last month and let them rape swipe my credit card for $300. On Monday I had a second appointment to get fitted again and to take my mouth guard home. The appointment took way longer than I would have liked. The dentist put some kind of mold-fitting in my mouth that smelled like a nail salon. It was awful! The smell was so strong I wanted to choke. After several, "How does this feel?" and adjustments I was able to leave with my new, sexy mouth guard. Some of you may have seen my Instagram shot of the beauty earlier this week.

I don't know why but I was picturing something that looked more like invisalign.

The guard is uncomfortable and awkward and it makes my speech a little slurred but I'm only supposed to wear it to bed. As strange as it felt putting it on, I slept like a baby the first night. I'm not sure how it works exactly but it really relaxes my lower jaw and my bottom teeth don't get anywhere near my top teeth. Last night didn't work out so well. I kept waking up because I was biting my tongue. I'll just have to get used to the dumb thing. I don't know how long I need to wear it; months, years? I can call the dentist if I have any questions but right now I just hope I won't lose anymore teeth length.

Pinterest Pledge {recipe}

This weekend I made chicken enchiladas.

I think this may have been one of my first, if not the first, recipe pins I ever pinned. I followed the directions exactly and the one step that took the longest was shredding the chicken and cheese. I bought a rotisserie chicken from Kroger and shredded the breasts and thighs to get the 2 cups I needed. I also used really large flour tortillas and cut them in half because that's what I had already (left over from the queso quesadillas--last months Pinterest recipe). Other than the time to shred the meat and cheese it was a quick and simple recipe. I ended up using more chicken and cheese than the recipe suggested because I ran out by the time I needed to fill my last tortilla. Here's a picture just before I put them in the oven.

I did need to broil the dish a few minutes longer than suggested but here's how they looked after cooking.

The flavors of this dish were fine but the sauce made the tortillas soggy on the bottom. They had the consistency of noodle dumplings which I hate. I was really disappointed. And everything was super salty. Store bought rotisserie chicken is notoriously salty and so is cheese so I'm not sure why I was surprised. I even wanted to call Jeff and tell him to pick up some dinner for himself on the way home. Instead...Jeff ate half the pan. He really, really liked it. The sauce did appear to thicken after an hour out of the oven but the directions did not mention letting "it sit" for a while. Will I try this again? Maybe in a couple months. Jeff would probably be happy if I made it again next week. I tried to tell my folks about the disappointing recipe the other night and when I said Pinterest my dad asked what that was. "Is it some kind of meat?" 

Plight of a Picky Eater

The palate of a child is pretty limited. Chicken fingers, cheese, bread, peanut butter, mashed potatoes, and any kind of sweet (ice cream, fruit, candy) are the only things almost any child will eat without complaint. They are notorious picky eaters. Apparently I am still a picky eater even though my food preferences have increased significantly from my childhood. Most of you know my "will not eat" list but here's a refresher...

• mayonnaise: this includes aioli, remoulade, tarter sauce, honey mustard, and I'm cautious with Hollandaise. I'm cautious with all sauces.
• sour cream--with the exception of cheese sauces
• cream cheese--with the exception of cream cheese icing, yum!
• ketchup
• dressing--any salad and Thanksgiving variety
• raw celery
• raw cauliflower
• blue cheese

For health reasons I've also eliminated most fried foods and dark chocolate from my diet. The list is probably longer but when you consider how many dishes are made with mayonnaise (chicken salad) or sour cream it is limiting enough as is. I do like things that some people are not fond of...

• anchovies
• avocados
• oysters
• artichokes
• hummus
• jalapenos

Anyway, I went to Cheddar's last night with my folks in Warner Robins. I ordered the grilled fish tacos with no corn slaw (remember, slaw is mayonnaise based) with corn and a garden salad, no dressing, as my two sides. Here is the menu item I ordered.

When our food arrived there was some nasty slop slathered all over my fish AND a ramekin of extra slop on the plate as well. I asked mom to taste it and she said it probably had mayonnaise in it. I asked our waitress and she said it was a spicy tarter sauce. This was clearly not mentioned on the menu. I sent it back and asked for plain fish in the tortillas. My mom offered me some of her baked potato. I smiled and told her to look at her potato and tell me what was on it. Sour cream. No thanks. My dad offered me some of his french fries. No fried food; no thanks. The wait really wasn't that long but the whole thing just seemed silly to me. If I was more open to eating disgusting foods, i.e. tarter sauce or even the corn slaw, everything would have been fine. My fish tacos, sans-slop, finally arrived and I adorned them with lettuce from my salad and some of my corn. They were fantastic. Despite the things that I will and will not eat I do love food. I will, however, not even try something if I have prior knowledge or suspicion that it contains mayonnaise. My sister tricked me once into eating chocolate cake made with mayonnaise. It was delicious but I didn't have a second slice. Part of it is a mental thing and part of it is the fact that mayonnaise is really fattening. But the biggest issue is that it's disgusting.

Pinterest Pledge {craft}

This month's craft was holiday oriented. I wanted to make some ornaments for the tree. These cost next to nothing. I don't love them but it was fun to make them because Jeff and I worked on them together. Here's how the original idea looked on Pinterest.

We didn't decorate ours but we did make ours double-sided. I stopped by Lowe's the week before Thanksgiving and grabbed several green and brown paint sample cards. 

Jeff then used some oily, rusty tool to draw the trees at perfect angles. I cut them out and then just eye-balled the green trunks. I don't know if you can tell but the red ribbon has blue painter's tape holding it together. Jeff LOVES blue painter's tape/blue masking tape. He uses it for everything. It's even holding up the front bumper on his truck after he hit a deer. No joke. That's how I know if it's his truck when I'm driving around town--look for the blue tape.

And here's the final product. They're longer and skinnier than I would like but I had to work with the free samples I could get. 

The only thing I had to pay for was the red ribbon and I'm sure I'll have plenty of uses for it in the future. I may even do another Pinterest ornament craft this weekend! 

Living Room Furniture Update

It just occurred to me that I have not posted about the status of the living room furniture search. The search has ended. We did not purchase a sectional. The cheapest one that I could find, that I actually liked, was over two thousand dollars. Ouch. I had a long list of requirements for this new couch/sectional...

1. The back cushions had to be removable.
2. It had to be long enough for me to lay down.
3. The seat had to be short enough that my feet would touch the floor. You might think I simply mean the height of the couch. I also mean the depth of the couch. On some couches when my back is against the back cushions my legs dangle off the end of the seat cushion. This leads to discomfort and poor circulation.
4. The fabric had to be easy to clean. My preference was leather but a few minutes of shopping knocked that idea off the list. Leather, in order for it to not make you sweat or be super cold in the winter, needs to be good quality, true leather. Quality leather is expensive. I could have bought any number of 'pleather' options but steered clear of those.
5. Which leads me to my next requirement: Affordable.
6. Not be dark chocolate/espresso brown. I had a very dark brown couch for many years that I loved but this time I wanted something a little lighter. I know grey is the couleur de nombreuses années (This is French for "color of many years", my play on color of the day--couleur du jour) but I'm not a huge fan of grey in the living room. Plus, I have plenty of grey in Sandi's room.
7. The legs had to be substantial; none of this mid-century modern spindly legs business for me.
8. Minimal space between the bottom of the couch and the floor. I didn't want enough room for my dogs to play under the couch.
9. No more foot long rolled arms! Think about it, that's two feet of un-sittable space.

So, did my new couch meet all the requirements? Not exactly. Here's a picture.

I realize my criteria was very specific and I did make some changes (ex: leather, not an option). The couch above is not the color we ordered. I loved the color in the picture. I even picked the exact same fabric swatch out of about 100 brown/tan choices. But it just isn't the best option for dogs who sometimes get muddy feet. And I hate to seem like one of those people who buy furniture for their dogs but I'm really not. With this couch Remy is going to lose his 'spot' on the top cushion (he likes to sit there and watch what's going on in the kitchen, i.e. wait for food to drop on the floor). I want nice furniture but not at the expense of cuddle time with my dogs. Instead we ordered a slightly darker brown fabric and our new couch is now being constructed. I am nervous about the selection because it was just a swatch of fabric but the cushion covers can be dry-cleaned and even scotch guarded. But the price is the #1 reason why I decided on this couch over the 100 or more that I saw. It's super comfortable, my feet don't dangle, the cushions are removable and the arms (yes, I  know they are rolled arms) are only about 6 inches. Here's a little comparison of what I ran into. This lovely plaid couch was on clearance at a different store.

The fabric is way too light, I know, but it has a bit of beauty and sophistication that I'm missing in my life. It was also very comfortable. This 'clearance' couch was over $1400. I got my couch on sale for $779. I also bought a leather recliner.

I was dead set AGAINST getting a recliner but this chair is so, so comfortable. I had my eye on another one by the same brand that I posted about before. This one is a prettier color and it is $500 less than the other chair. It's one of the top leather brands and again, the price was unbeatable. I don't love the arms so much but Jeff really seemed to like them. We got a couch and a chair for a little more than one 'clearance' couch. We'll pick up both pieces once the couch is ready. Wait, there's more...I purchased the blue velvet fabric I wanted at 60% off during Cyber Monday. 

I'll have to wait and save some money before I can get the swivel chair reupholstered but I do love the fabric. I know it's hard to see how pretty it is in this picture, but trust me, it's luxurious. It's also heavy duty, high performance, upholstery velvet. I'll need a new rug and pillows, maybe a blanket as well, to complete the look but that will be later. This post is twice as long as it needs to be. 

Pinterest Pledge {recipe AND craft}

I had a busy weekend. Whitney and I went to see Catching Fire on Friday and it was awesome--it was very close to the book. On Saturday I traveled to Atlanta to stay with my friend Consuela who I have not seen in over a year. We had fun running errands, watching a movie, and generally just catching up. On Sunday I completed the easiest Pinterest "craft" I'll probably ever do and last night I baked some white chocolate chip cranberry cookies. My craft is a little sad but honestly I will use it every week. I did not follow the directions because I figured this would be a great opportunity to try washi tape. I bought some zig-zag tape at Hobby Lobby and then found a star pattern I liked better at Joann's (for more money and half the amount of tape--not a deal but I liked it more). Here's the original Pinterest picture.

She used a really cute, and very appropriate bobby pin paper and applied mod podge. I was pretty sure I would not be able to find paper that specific so I just bought some patterned tape. My CVS bottle went from plain, to zig-zag, to starry. 

Again, not the prettiest thing I've ever made but it was easy, fairly cheap, and it's functional. I usually have bobby pins scattered all over the house and now I have an easy to find way to keep them in one secure place. On to the cookies. 

I made one batch Thursday night and it wasn't great. They tasted great but the cookies were a little tough. I like a soft-baked cookie and since this recipe actually had that in the title I had to give it a try.

Then I made them again last night (picture not available) following the directions exactly this time and they turned out much better. I had to adjust the temperature on my oven a bit and put the cookies in for 2-3 minutes longer than suggested but they are soft and the bottoms didn't burn at all. I'm really glad I tried this one. This cookie recipe is very, very easy and I think I'll use the dough (minus the chips and cranberries) as the base for just about any cookie combination I might want. I'm eager to try a couple holiday crafts for my December pledge but I haven't picked out my recipes yet. I'm looking forward to the Thanksgiving break; family, friends, food, and no Black Friday shopping!

Pinterest Pledge {recipe--sort of}

I made another Pinterest recipe attempt this weekend. It didn't go very well. Mainly because I did my own thing and only used a small portion of the recipe; mainly the marinade and the cheese sauce. It's called queso smothered chicken.

There's a Tex Mex restaurant, El Chaparro, in Greensboro that Jeff and I really like. Well, actually there's just one dish in particular that we like--the rest of their food is on par with most Mexican restaurants. We love the quesa loca which is a very large tortilla with skirt steak and a cheese sauce on the inside and smothered in the same cheese sauce on top but with bits of chicken and shrimp mixed in. It is delicious and it's a $10 meal we can easily split. So, I didn't make the orzo part (even though I idiotically bought the ingredients for it except the orzo) and bought some Mahatma Spanish rice instead. I hate the rice at Mexican restaurants but I thought I would give this brand a try. Didn't like it either. We marinated the skirt steak for about 8 hours in the Lawrys recommended flavor, I pan cooked the steak, cut it up and then put some steak strips in a tortilla back on the skillet. This was really just to brown the tortilla. I then poured some of the queso mixture inside and then all over the tortilla. I actually added a little heavy cream to the queso mixture to make it thinner and richer. 

I cut a small portion for my plate and left the rest for Jeff.

Needless to say it did not taste like quesa loca and the meal was a lot of work in my opinion. Jeff seemed to like it just fine. He doesn't care for skirt steak so I took this as a good thing. I may try the recipe again as it actually reads but Jeff and I are not fans of chicken breasts. The orzo might be tasty though. Anyway, I think I'll try another recipe this month since I steered way off course on this one. 

Holiday Spirit

My mom, sister, and I went to see the Rockettes this Saturday at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. We stopped for lunch before the show at Copelands off Cumberland Blvd. They specialize in Louisiana cuisine. Everything was exceptionally delicious. We had an appetizer and shared several tapas items. Michanne and I also split this beauty.

Many of you already saw it on Instagram but I need to go into further detail; it warrants it. It's a white chocolate strawberry cheesecake creole style. Creole style does not mean it has spicy seasoning. It's got a kind of whipped, mousse texture and is not baked like the traditional New York style cheesecake. It was crazy good. The Cobb Centre was just around the corner so we had plenty of time to park and visit the restroom before finding our balcony seats. Mom got us really great seats. 

We took a few pictures before the show because we knew photography would be prohibited. 

The show was really fantastic. They did ten numbers and there was lots of dancing (high kicks in just about every number) and singing, lovely costumes and props. My favorite numbers included the opening number with the dancers dressed up like reindeer; their rendition of The Nutcracker; and the toy soldier routine. Here's a great video of the toy soldier number. 

If you didn't have the holiday spirit before going to see the show then you would certainly have it after. I would have to say that my dad and Jeff would rather run a marathon than sit through that show so it's a good thing they did not attend. Many years ago I went to New York with some high school friends and we saw the Rockettes rehearsing. It wasn't on stage but rather in their studio. It was a really fun experience. My grandmother has always been a huge fan of dancing (including the Rockettes) and Christmas so this show was a nice way for us to remember her. Christmas time is almost here and I'm getting excited!

Pinterest Pledge {recipe}

I made omelette fuffins last night. I found the recipe on Pinterest and it's a phase 1 recipe for the South Beach diet. I'm not doing a diet but I was looking for a way to get some protein in the morning in a hurry so I gave this recipe a whirl.

I'm tired of hard boiled eggs plus I want something a little warm now that it's getting cooler outside. I changed a few things (as always) but nothing major. Instead of green onions I chopped up a green pepper.

I wasn't sure that 18 eggs would be necessary but we had them (and 6 more, I couldn't believe it) so I cracked all 18.

We even had some shredded cheese already. I glanced at the recipe last week and didn't even realize cheese was included.

I did follow the directions exactly and used a 1/3 cup measure to put the egg mixture in the muffin cups. The recipe said it makes 24 fuffins but I only got 18 out of the deal. 

They came out perfectly and an added bonus is that Jeff was amazed and he really liked them. I let him have one last night to be the official taste-tester. I had one this morning and it was pretty dang good. Southwestern omelettes are my favorite so I might need to chop up a tomato or add some salsa to make it even better. Adding sausage was a Jeff request and that sounds delicious too. It was also a super easy and quick breakfast so my problem is solved. I still have another recipe to try and a craft to do to meet my November goal. 

Searching For Living Room Furniture

So...Remy peed on our couch. It was a total accident and he's never done it before. However it was kind of the last straw for Jeff and me about our hideous couch. All the pictures I have of the couch involve the dogs but you can piece together what it looks like.

This is Sandi on the electric blanket

Here's Remy trying to sneak between Austin and Cody to get the tennis ball that Cody is playing with.

And here's Remy again sitting in his spot on top of this couch. From this view he can watch Jeff and me cooking dinner and spot any food items that drop on the floor. There are at least 4 blankets draped on that sucker in this picture. The couch was a hand-me-down and it has certainly served it's purpose over the years. Other than that, it's impossible to clean, it's too large for our living space, and it's ugly. I've been dying to decorate with every fiber of my being but it's not our house and it's hard to do anything permanent when you might have to move. Many, many months ago I bought a settee and two swivel chairs on Craigslist for $60; total. I don't have a picture because those items are shoved in the storage unit. I really only wanted the settee to reupholster and sell but the seller only wanted an additional $20 for the two chairs so I said yes. We also have a second-hand recliner that my parents were nice enough to let us have but it is also large and doesn't go with anything. So, here's what I envision. I'd love a camel-colored leather sectional that looks similar to this...

This one is from Restoration Hardware and costs about 6K which is waaaay beyond our budget. I would also like to get one of my $10 swivel chairs reupholstered to look something like this...

I would love it to be in luxurious navy, velvet fabric. Jeff and I both agreed, or so I thought, that we did not want a used couch. This ruled out Craigslist. I wouldn't mind a used dresser or dining room table but not a couch.  I tried to describe what I envision to Jeff but something got crossed even though I sent him the same leather sectional picture above. Over the past week he has been sending me Craigslist links, even though Craigslist was supposed to be a non-consideration. Now that you have an idea of what I'm looking for, let me share what my husband has been sending me... 

This is actually one of the nicer ones. Not my taste at all, and again, not the direction I want to go. My lovely mother went shopping with me yesterday and I didn't find anything that fit all my wants. I did find some contenders. 

This one is not leather and it's not a sectional but it's a nice brown tweed, twill blend. The color is a little darker than I'd like but it's not dark, chocolate brown. It's a bargain basement item for a little over $800.

I was not going to consider a recliner at all but this beauty was calling my name. It's the color leather I want, it's a respected brand, and it is the MOST comfortable chair I have ever sat in, ever. It's also just over $1300. Ouch! I also spotted this leather sectional and my heart fell just a little. 

It fits all my criteria but I'm not crazy about the nail heads on the arms. And it's orange. Really orange. This picture doesn't bring out the orange but it's as orange as can be. It's also over 6K and was marked down from 13K! If you click on the picture it should enlarge and you can see the price tag on the right. Even if I could order it in another color there's no way we can afford it. The only thing is now that Jeff and I have both agreed that we want a new couch I'm so eager to see our new, pretty things in the room. And I know you're thinking leather and dogs don't mix but I've been reading about it and it's not the big deal that everyone makes it out to be. I'm considering the brown couch and leather recliner still but I'd have to get a better deal on that recliner. The search continues and I'm hopeful. I got some sticker shock yesterday so I'll need to keep an open mind while out and about.