Today is my day off and my mom suggested I make a sauce for myself using the tomatoes she just picked from her garden. I wanted to make a sauce that was chunkier than my normal tomato sauce and would take less time to cook. This is what I came up with.
click to view picture larger
INGREDIENTS
(keep in mind this is one serving, so if you're cooking for more than one person be sure to multiply everything by the number of people you'e cooking for)
*4 small or two large tomatoes
*2 cloves of garlic
*2 tbs olive oil
*2 tbs butter
*1/8 cup+ low sodium chicken broth
*salt & pepper
*basil
*oregano
Start by cutting the tomatoes into pieces about the size of your thumbnail. For this sauce, you only want the outer chunks of the tomato, because you don't want a ton of mushy pieces and seeds that can come with the center of the tomato. You should have about 1/2-2 cups of tomato chunks when you're done. Add them to a bowl, add a little salt and pepper, mix, and let them marinate while you get the rest of the sauce ready.
For the garlic, you can choose to finely mince the cloves or just dice them up a bit. I love chunky garlic, so I chose the latter.
Turn a saucepan on medium heat and melt the butter and olive oil together. Add the garlic, a little salt and pepper, and basil and oregano all to taste. I used about a tsp of basil and oregano to start. I continuously mixed at this point to avoid burning the garlic.
Once you can start to smell the garlic and spices, add the chicken broth and tomatoes and bring the heat up to high. Bring it to a boil, return to medium heat, and cover. After about five minutes, remove the lid and mix. You'll know it's done when the tomatoes have completely burst and the sauce has turned red. Taste to make sure you're happy with the flavors, and if you are-get ready
If your sauce is looking a little too thick, feel free to add some more chicken broth.
Once your sauce is finished, spoon it over some gnocchi, noodles, chicken, etc. and enjoy!
Stay Stellar,
Paige
When I was in 7th grade my dad married my now-stepmom who is half Mexican and half Native American. I remember being really excited about the possibility of her teaching me authentic recipes from both sides of her family only to find out that the only thing she could really cook was garlic pinto beans. But if you're only going to be good at cooking one thing, you're probably really good at it, right? Right.
When I was at their house one time, she was making the beans for dinner (they're so good that we would just eat them with tortillas and call it a meal) and said she would teach me how. Let me start by saying this recipe is so easy that a monkey could do it. Once you do it once, it's stuck in your head forever, because it's literally THAT easy, which makes the result even more surprising. Let's do this thing!
All you need for this recipe is dry Pinto beans, fresh garlic, salt, and pepper. That's literally it. You can add peppers if you want, but they're just as amazing without.
The first thing you're going to do is soak the beans overnight. Get a bowl, pour the bag of beans in, and cover with water. Depending on how wide the bowl is, you're going to want at least an inch of after over the beans, but I usually just fill the bowl up most of the way to be safe. The beans will soak up some of the water and expand overnight, and if you don't add enough water they'll soak up different amounts and cook unevenly, so when in doubt-add more water.
You can either use a crockpot or a large pot to cook the beans in the next day. I prefer using a crockpot even though my stepmom uses a stove top pot because I don't have to worry about checking the beans as often. You're going to drain and rinse the beans and then place them in your cooking vessel followed by about twice as much water as beans. I was taught to just eyeball it and that once again more water is better than less, so that's what I do.
You're then going to peel and smash anywhere from a half a bulb to a full bulb of garlic depending on how much you like garlic and how big your bag of beans is. I almost always use the whole bulb no matter what, because garlic is one of my favorite kitchen smells and tastes.
Pop the garlic in with the beans and add salt and pepper to taste. I actually normally use garlic salt when making these because I'm a garlic freak, but you can use whichever salt you like best.
And that's really it! If you're using a crockpot, the beans should take about 6-8 hours on low and around 4 hours on high, but if you're using a stove top pot they should only take 2-3 hours. Make sure to keep the temperature on low if you're making them on the stove.
When the beans are done, they should be soft to the bite and have created their own sort of soup, which is why I like adding extra water. Everyone I know loves the soupy water with the beans, but you can use a slotted spoon to serve them if you just want regular beans. I chose to leave the garlic bulbs in because I like the way the bulbs taste when they're cooked, but you can take them out as well.
Like I said, this recipe is so easy a monkey could do it. I really only made this post because every time I make these beans for people they ask for the recipe, so I figured I'd share it with all of you too!
Until next time...
Stay Stellar,
Paige Elise
I'm currently in the process of decorating my room. When I lived in Iowa, I never put much effort into decorating my room, because the first two years were spent in dorms where I would have to move out at the end of the school year, and it didn't seem worth it for me to put in the time and effort to decorate a room I'd only be in for 9-10 months. After that, I lived in an apartment and just never got the motivation to make my space uplifting and inspiring.
Since moving into this new house, I've been debating on whether or not I should put the effort in, because my boyfriend and I are trying to move out within the next year, but I figured I should still get my furniture painted and some decor made so that when we do move into our own place we have less work to do to make it feel like home.
I got lucky in that my boyfriend cares more about our future "office" room than the bedroom, and is giving me creative freedom in decorating our room. We currently have super depressing dark grey walls with furniture primed with grey primer and a black and white comforter on our bed...obviously very inspiring and uplifting. I've always loved rooms filled with bright colors and a mix of cute and tacky decorations, so that's the look I'm going for.
I've been saving pictures for inspiration and wanted to share some of them with all of you. As always, click on the picture for a larger view. Sources are underneath each photo.
I love when vanities have a bunch of decorations surrounding the mirror. I had some hanging up at my apartment in Iowa and it made getting ready more fun.
I definitely won't have a Ouija board anywhere in my room (because I'm not trying to get dead), but I love everything else about this picture.
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I love how they mixed childlike toys with fancy perfume bottles. Definitely going to have to borrow this idea!
(source unknown-if you know the source, please let me know so I can properly credit them)
I love the mix of neon and dark colors in this room.
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I'm always looking for cute ways to store stuff. A brightly painted wall cupboard is now on my list.
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I love that this bed is a mix of princess, grandma, and child.
(original source has been deactivated since I saved the picture)
I need my closet to look like this.
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I actually already use my dresser (and a shelving unit next to it) so store my craft supplies. Right now our tv and some random stuff are on top of it...I like the way this looks much better!
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I can't wait to get started on everything! I'll be posting before and after pictures and project tutorials as I work through everything of course. Are any of you working on any fun projects right now?
Stay Stellar,
Paige Elise
I went to Portland for the first time this past weekend. My main reason for going was to see my aunt and cousin because I haven't seen them in about ten years. I've lived in Oregon for about six months now and wanted to get completely settled in before taking any trips, but it was hard waiting to see them when I knew they were so close. The other reasons my boyfriend and I decided to take a trip to Portland were to see my suitemate from my first year of college (he hadn't met her before), and to explore the city in general.
We left Bend on Friday and got to my friend Christine's house around 12:30. She had lunch waiting for us, so we ate while catching up on things (Bart opted for playing with her housemate's new kitty while we had "girl time") before taking a bus downtown. We went to the Chinese Garden, which is absolutely stunning. These are some of the shots I took while we were there.
After that we went to this awesome ice cream shop called Salt & Straw that specializes in funky flavors. You can tell it was a really popular places, because there was a line out the door and about a 30-45 minute wait even with four people working the line, one person making fresh waffles cones, and one person on the cash register. SO WORTH THE WAIT THOUGH.
I got Honey Balsamic Strawberry with Cracked Pepper, Christine got Freckled Woodblock Chocolate, and Bart got Apricot with Citra Hops. It was a magical experience.
After that we went back to Christine's and hung out some more (while Bart played with Ricky the cat some more) until it was time for us to go to my aunt's house. When we got to my aunt's we obviously were excited to see each other so we caught up in her living room and ate pizza before calling it a day. Also their dog, Libby, is basically my new best friend now and I regret not taking a picture of that majestic creature.
The next morning we went to breakfast at a place called Biscuits before heading to the maker's market in downtown. There were so many cool booths that it was hard not to spend an hour at each one. My favorite was definitely the one with nerd themed prints. We talked to the guy for awhile and definitely plan on buying more prints from him, but bought these two to start (pictures are from his website [outnerdme.com] btw because I couldn't get good pictures of ours without mad glare). I picked out the Big Bang Theory one and Bart picked out the Firefly one.
But if we went to Portland and didn't stop at Voodoo Doughnut, does the trip even count at all?
After that we went downtown, browsed through some shops, and then we went back to their house to relax for a little bit before going to the mall (Elise had a surprise party to go to, but the rest of us went). I replaced my foundation and eyeshadow primer at Sephora and bought a new nude eyeshadow palette because I'm down to 3 neutral shadows that are all almost gone which is how I justified buying the palette in my head. I DON'T FEEL BAD AND I EARNED IT OK
After the mall we went back to the house, watched Big Bang Theory with my aunt, and then went to bed.
On Sunday we went to the Rose Garden, followed by the Japanese Garden before eating lunch at a pub called The Public House and then saying good bye...for now.
Elise can't pass up an opportunity to study...
The pictures from the Japanese Garden didn't turn out as well as the others, but you can still get the idea of how gorgeous it was.
Overall it was an amazing trip and I'm so happy that I got to reconnect with family that I haven't seen in ages and a friend I haven't seen in years while exploring a new city. I can't wait to go back!
Stay Stellar,
Paige Elise
I was one of those weird kids that LOVED carrot cake growing up. But I always picked the raisins out (seriously, who decided that putting raisins in baked goods was a good idea?). It wasn't until my mom's friend graduated from college and had a carrot cake with pecans in it that I had ever thought of the idea, which was apparently just as popular as raisins. My mom can't stand nuts aside from almonds, and definitely doesn't like them in her baked goods, so I came up with a basic carrot cake cupcake that can be kept as is or have raisins, nuts, or whatever else you want added to them. Bear in mind that this recipe only makes 12 cupcakes, so if you need more it's really easy to double, triple, etc.
As always, click on the pictures to view them larger!
HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED
*1 large egg (room temperature)
*1 cup golden brown/medium strength brown sugar (packed)
*1/2 cup of vegetable oil
*3 cups of shredded carrots
*1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
*1 tbsp ground cinnamon
*1/2 tsp baking powder
*1/4 tsp baking soda
(for the frosting-not pictured)
*4oz plain cream cheese (room temperature)
*1/2 stick butter (room temperature)
*1 tbsp ground cinnamon
*1/2 lb powdered sugar
*milk
LET'S DO THIS!
First off, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit and line a cupcake pan with liners.
You're going to whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl.
In another bowl (or a mixer if you have one) beat the egg, oil, and brown sugar together. It should look almost like a gooey caramel.
Once those ingredients are mixed together well, add the carrots in.
After the carrots are incorporated, slowly mix in the dry ingredients. Scrape the sides at this point to make sure all of the ingredients are evenly mixed in.
Next, fill the cupcake liners up evenly.
Bake until you can pull a toothpick/knife out without anything coming off it-it should only take about 15-20 minutes.
When the cupcakes are cool, make the frosting by beating the cream cheese, butter, cinnamon, and a small splash of milk (about 2 tbsps) together. Slowly add the powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency. If you add too much powdered sugar, simply add milk about a tbsp at a time. I knew I wanted the frosting on these to look more rustic, so I added less powdered sugar than I would if I were going to pipe the frosting on.
As soon as these came out of the oven my mom was asking every thirty seconds when she could eat one. The kitchen smelled like a Yankee Candle store in the middle of October, so I don't blame her.
These babies are so moist that I seriously don't understand how they hold together when the cupcake wrappers are taken off.
They got a thumbs up from everyone in the house, so hopefully you'll like them too if you make them!
Until next time...
Stay Stellar,
Paige Elise
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