Summer Mantel

When the 4th of July festivities ended I was feeling the need to do a little something different. I'm a decorate before the holiday type person and then pretty close to the end of the actual holiday it "tear it down" time :) I know some are the opposite but I am an impatient anticipator so I like to sit in the holiday glory for a while before it occurs.

Anyways, I was feeling the need for something transitional from American to September so I went it a very fun summery look.

 As I typically do, I shopped my house and found Maxwell's old fan that my mom had refurbish for him. I thought it fit perfectly for the feel of our hot summer days....which are still here in October! I also remembered my Aidies Hideaway flower garland that I won at the Queen Bee Craft Night. It was the perfect thing to base my color inspiration from. I decided to pick turquoise, lime green, orange and yellow as my colors.

I then made the pinwheels from craft paper and paper straws I had around the house. I glued all the pieces down so they don't really spin but I thought they looked great for a summer fun mantel!

Memorial Day/4th of July Mantel

I love seasonal decorating! Whatever the holiday or season, the decor in our house will be changing. I don't really have any standard big pieces because of this. For each holiday, I usually create something and then shop around our house for things that would work well.

So starting in May, I decided to decorate our house in an Americana style. With Memorial Day leading into the 4th of July, it bridged the 2.5 months together.

So for the Memorial Day decor, I kept

Our New "Fireplace"

One thing that I was sad about our new house was that it did not have a fireplace. I have great memories as a child of fires in the fireplace and getting warmed by it. But in San Diego, the need for a fire in the fireplace doesn't happen often so some houses just don't have them. I was also bummed because I've always wanted a mantel to decorate and if we didn't have a fireplace I couldn't do that.

So after we moved in and started making plans for furniture, Maxwell said that we could build a fo-fireplace. We have a friend and one of Maxwell's co-workers who is a carpenter and we asked him if he could build it for us. He was very excited because he doesn't get to do creative work like this very often!

The search was on to find something we liked. We finally found a design we thought could work and using tape so we could get our measurements, we taped the design onto the wall. Our living room had a tape mantel in it for about 3 weeks and it was fun to see what was going to come!

Work began in mid-Novemeber and Mark was super fast at getting it built. Maxwell was sending me pictures daily of the progress and I was so excited!!

Max and Mark brought it home one day after work and installed it right to the wall. It can be removed if we ever move or want/need to move it!

After it was installed, I used black chalkboard paint to paint the inside. I haven't written anything on the board but it's there if I want to use it in that way. We hope to find some kind of stone or tile to inlay, but nothing has stolen our hearts so for now, it is complete and I'm loving having another place to decorate!

This finished product, decorated for Christmas!

I'm so excited about sharing my mantel with you and plan to show you some of my seasonal mantel's soon :)

Too many good Bible Studies....Not Enough TIME!!!

Today, I heard of another new Bible study and my text to my husband was, "To many Bible studies I want to do, not enough time!!" There is SOOOOOO much

Chili Recipe

I know there are a ton of Chili recipes out there but this one is mine and is our favorite and the best part? It's super easy! During the fall you can add a small can of pumpkin and it adds a rich and creamy texture to the chili. I know it sounds a bit strange but it tastes good.

Samantha's Chili 3 small can's diced tomatoes 2-3 can's of beans, rinced (I use a mixture of kidney, black and pinto beans) 1.5 pounds ground beef 1 small can of tomato sauce 2 Tablespoons of my Taco Seasoning

1. Brown the ground beef adding a little salt and pepper in a large pot. (I use an enameled cast-iron dutch oven for most of my soups and stews.) Drain.
2. Return pot to the stove and add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and reduce to low for about 1 hour to allow the flavors to blend together. Taste to see if you need some more salt or seasoning.
3. Serve with your favorite condiments.

Enjoy!

Ratatouille Recipe

Ratatouille is a traditional peasant meal from France and the name comes from a word that means to toss. This recipe is soooooo good and worth the time it takes! It does take some time to make, about 3.5 hours total. It's a perfect weekend side dish and is great when you have fresh vegetable from your garden or farmers market! You can most certainly make this throughout the year since we can find zucchini and squash year round but the fresh veggie's just make it even better! I really hope you enjoy it!

Ratatouille Recipe

Sauce

1-2 small red, yellow or orange bell pepper

3 Tablespoons olive oil

4 cloves garlic

1/2 medium sized onion, diced

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 sprig fresh Italian parsley

1 spring fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

1. Preheat oven to 400 degress. Cut bell pepper in half removing the seeds, ribs and core and lay face down on a foil lined baking dish. Add 4 peeled cloves of garlic and drizzle everything with olive oil. Roast this mixture for about 20-30 minutes until the peppers are soft and the skin is easily removed and make sure the garlic doesn't burn-golden brown is the goal.
2. Once peppers are finished roasting, remove and allow to cool until you can handle working with them. Then peel and finely chop peppers and garlic. Set aside.
3. In a saute pan or sauce pan, heated over medium heat, cook the onion until it is slightly caramelized, soft but not too brown. Add in canned tomatoes, diced peppers, garlic, fresh thyme, parsley and bay leaf.
4. Simmer on low, uncovered for about 30 minutes until the sauce is very thick and very little liquid remains. Season with salt to taste and remove herb sprigs.

Balsamic Drizzle

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves

salt and pepper to taste.

Combine all ingredients and set aside.

Ratatouille

1-2 medium zucchini, thinly sliced

1-2 medium yellow squash, thinly sliced

4-5 Roma or smaller sized tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 small or Japanese eggplant, thinly sliced (optional, I've done it with it and without it)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Evenly spread the sauce on the bottom of a 8 x 12 baking dish.
2. Arrange slices of zucchini, eggplant, yellow squash and tomatoes in a pattern, repeating. Now this is where you can get creative: you can make one strip down and another strip going the other direction, you can make a spiral pattern like I did, etc. The whole point is to make it look pretty :). 
3. Once the pan is filled, Drizzle the balsamic mixture over the vegetables. Cover with foil and back until vegetables are tender, about 1 1/2 hours.
4. Uncover and bake for 30 more minutes.

Serve this warm and you'll want a large serving, trust me. My mouth is watering just typing this! 

Serving options: We recently put the cooked Ratatouille on a nice white roll, topped it with some provolone and made it into a sandwich....it's super good!!! This is a great option to use as leftovers or lunch the next day.

Enjoy!

October 2015 Meal Plan

Hello everyone! Happy first of October! Today is Meal Plan Monthly day over here! It is still super hot (in the 90's) here in Southern California and I'm kinda tired of it! So some of the meals are full blow summery type meals and others have the fall flair because I'm just ready! If you want to know more about how I meal plan, please visit the Meal Planning section to the right. I've written out my method in hopes that it can be of some help! I hope this helps you with your meal plans for the month and I'd love to hear what you are having for dinner this