This week was a week for learning and acceptance. Learning and accepting that I cannot make up a recipe without some kind of guide, especially when dealing with sardines. Let me explain about the sardines first.

Okay, so I don’t know if you know, but sardines are really, really good for you. They have a lot of Omega-3 fatty acids in them and, since they’re small, they don’t have the same mercury levels as other fish. They’re also really cheap and very filling. All of this made them sound really appealing to me, so I tried them once on toast. They were okay, but, see, sardines are packaged whole, and their bones are edible. While I was eating my sardine-toast, I pulled one of the little filets off and saw a tiny spine lying there. That kind of freaked me out and made me feel weird, so I decided not to do sardine-toast again.



This time I decided to do something like tuna melts or crab cakes, but with the sardines. Here’s the thing: I have never made either and I didn’t look up a recipe for reference. This is the recipe I made up on the spot…

Sardine Melts
2 tins sardines in olive oil
2 tbsp bread crumbs (I used Italian style)
Sandwich thins
Cheese

Open the tins and reserve the oil from both in a little bowl. Empty sardines into a large bowl and pour bread crumbs over them. Mix everything together. Then form into patties (I used a big spoon first then just resorted to my hands). Pour the reserved oil into a pan and heat over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, carefully place the patties down and fry on one side. Flip and fry the other side. Put the completed patties on the sandwich thins and immediately top with cheese so it melts.








Hot sardine oil... + Sardine patties... = Sardine patty melts...kind of...


As I’m sure you can guess, there were lots of things that went wrong here, despite my good and healthy intentions. My two fur-babies started complaining that they were hungry after I had started the oil, so it got too hot while I was busy trying to get puppies to sit for their food. The patties I made were too small for the sandwich thins, so I had to double and triple them up. The two, little curs I had just fed stole one of the completed sandwiches later when I accidentally left them unattended on the coffee table. Later on, after telling Jennifer at work about this new dish, I realized I probably should have mixed in some eggs as a binder. Finally, and this is a little gross, my burps tasted like sardines for hours after I ate.

Like I said, a week for learning and acceptance. I can only hope that you might have better luck with this if you give it a try.

PS: Next week will be exciting, as I will have {guinea pigs} houseguests. I also have a new immersion blender thanks to Mike’s grandma, Bess, who sent it to me for my birthday. I can’t wait to see what I make!

So everyone has seen the glass painted with colored modge podge, and I found the perfect vase at Target on clearance for $3.48.....perfect...if I screw it up. :) Luckily this technique is amazingly awesome and easy, and I finally got around to trying it, except I couldn't decide what color to paint my vase.

I kept flip-flopping between red, yellow and orange. Think. Think. Think. Eureka! I'll paint my vase with all three of those colors!


So I started off with my modge podge and 3 drops of yellow.

Then after a bit, I added a drop of red....then another drop of red, until I had to add more modge podge and then I added 3 drops of red and finished off my vase.


I love the effect. My father-in-law said the finished product looked like Carnival Glass, and I had my mother-in-law confirm that was a good thing because I'd never heard of carnival glass. She assured me that it was. :)


I hope you guys have a wonderful day and enjoy yourselves! Don't forget about the money I'm giving away....be sure to enter a comment in hopes of a chance for it! Free Money Here!

I was going to do a post about more basement stuff today, but I want to share/show y'all this first. :)

With all of the goings-on with the weekend and getting ready for it, the boys have not had a lot of Mom and Dad  time. After H went to bed Sunday night, Dev, Steve and I headed downstairs with some munchy madness, but before I get to that. I want to share some pictures that my father-in-law, Harry, took of the boys over the weekend. Harry is the mastermind behind Spruce Studios and is located in the Reading, PA area for any of you gals that need a photographer.


 So here's the real show......

Super Simple Nachos

Grocery Stuff:
1 lbs ground beef
1 onion
1 green pepper
1/2 cup salsa
1 can refried beans
2 tbs. taco seasoning, or 1 full packet of fajita seasoning
1 cup cheese, shredded (mexican blend, cheddar, colby jack, you pick)

How to combine:
Brown up the beef with the pepper and onion, drain and rinse. Return to the pan. Turn the heat to Medium or Medium-Low.
Add the salsa, beans and taco seasoning. Mix carefully and thoroughly. Here's where you can set it on low until you need it.
When its time to serve, add the cheese and mix thoroughly. Serve warm with tortilla chips.

Here's how we put this yummy recipe to use!

The lemon dip from Dana's post on Saturday is just hanging off of the picture. De.LiSh!

We thoroughly enjoyed the nacho dip and lemon fruit dip, but unfortunately someone didn't make it though the movie. I would love to know how young children fall asleep in such peculiar positions.

I hope you guys will try this recipe as its so easy and quick and it doesn't hurt that its fun for the little guys to eat. :)

Have a wonderful day and enjoy!

{Mr. Movie Guy Voice}In a galaxy far far away. In a time long long ago....

Ok so back around Easter, my grandfather showed me some leaded glass windows that he had saved from my Great-Great-Grandmother's farmhouse. I was in {love} with this from that moment. So I told him I would love to have them and refinish them. He told me I could have them for $50. I tried to cajole him into $0, but my grandfather is a very shrewd and astute person and {knew} that he could get far more for these beauts than $50, but I was family. :) So I gladly paid him $50. They came home with us along with another chair, and then sat for the next 3 months in my garage.

Very sad.

Then Stephen declared a week before his birthday party that he wanted the basement transformed, and well, I was not going to let this transformation happen without my windows. Out comes the paint scraper.



I did not want to remove all of the paint, just the loose stuff, because I wanted to retain the time worn and painted over patina that windows of this age would have received. I am guessing that these windows are around 90 years old, mayhap even older, but like I said I'm guessing.

So after scrapping the big stuff off, I applied some zinsser's penetrating primer tinted gray and it did a FaB.u.LoUs. job.

The basement was a work.zone. Lots of stuff going on all at once.

Then two coats of Valspar signature series satin Quite Red (hey look, it wasn't a creature after all, just a chip brush covered in this wonderful color, because I was too lazy to feel like cleaning my good brushes) :)

And VOILA! Per.Fec.Tion! Wait....almost. They're a little high. Hrm.......what to do?

It was suggested that I cut my baseboard to let the windows hang at a more natural height, but I have instead decided to go with another option.

So on to the SURPRISE!

Did you notice something different about the blog? No, not the look. Its a bit more popular than it has been. Readership and followers have been slowly increasing over these last few months. Never did I think that when I started this blog at the end of February that by the end of July I'd have 200 followers. Not that I didn't want followers, but I feel so humbled that so many of  you found my blog worthy of following. Words cannot accurately express my gratitude and joy at this occasion. So I am going to be giving one of you lucky readers something.

Here's the skinny

Rather than cutting my baseboard to accommodate the windows, I'm going to leave them where they be and I want to add a sign above the door, sandwiched between the windows. Dana suggested to me naming the guest room in the style of a bed and breakfast. BB's always have such fun nice, whimsical names, and I thought this was a wonderful idea! So here's where y'all come in. 

I would like you all to come up with a name for my guest room. Almost anything goes except for profanity and outlandish innuendo. I'd like something that leaves people saying,"Why didn't I think of that?" {because I didn't....my wonderful readers did ;-)}

What's in it for you

A $20 gift certificate to Target, Lowes or Home Depot, winner's choice.
And a piece of your creativity hanging out in my house. I have big plans for this sign, so lets get those thinking caps on and name that room!



P.S. I wanted to add a little history about these windows. I already mentioned that they were Grandma Fisher's, my Great-great-grandmother, farmhouse windows. What you probably didn't know was that her farm is still, very much, in operation. Its a dairy farm, and when I was small, and 3 generations of our family all lived along a mile-long stretch of route 15, I would drink milk straight from the bucket after it had been pasteurized. When cows eat onion grass their milk smells like onions, but it still tastes like milk. :) The farm is named Burnley, and is located along route 15 near Louisa, VA.

Last week Stephen set a brutal pace for getting the basement done and in shape for this past weekend, even though I've been after him for months to help me get the basement organized and straightened up for the parties that end up down there. This last weekend was special however, because this week Steve will be celebrating his 30th birthday. Hence the mad dash to get the basement party worthy.

Now the basement if far from finished but when you see the basement before and afters and then pics of the party then you'll understand why its such a huge improvement.

I'm going to do several posts about the basement transformation because  there were just so many projects that I can't lump them all into one.


So here are the before pics of the basement. Yes, we did just  throw stuff down there when we moved, and it has been very messy in the past. Out of sight, out of mind type deal. :)

This is the very first piece of real furniture that Stephen and I ever bought together, and I have grown to hate it. The red suede does not match hardly anything, and I've been eying up new sectionals. :)

Hmmm, random furniture that we have no idea where to put. Oh and the carpet padding for the exercise room....well that's gone :)

That patio table did not function well as a bar. Just sayin'.

Here's what the space looks like now! What a vast improvement! We still hate the patio set, but its a useful, albeit ugly addition to the function of the room. :)

Not all of of the DVDs have been moved into their new home. These were just the ones that were still packed up.  Oh yea and its unfinished.....we're going to paint it, but we definitely decided on a paint color today. :)

A close-up of the bridging shelf. I only bought one of these things this weekend. All the rest we had. Look there were the Dollar Store Hurricanes filled with Cigar Band Spheres I made a while ago!

Our first tiling job. I think we did a pretty good job.

What the bar looks like the day after. yea...we still need to do some cleaning :)

There are my Quite Red windows! Tomorrow's post is about them!

The basement bath, which I will only be showing this for now, because I made that picture up top....Look for a post later on it. :)

So apparently, I did not take very many pictures of the rest of the basement and I'm already sitting, so you'll have to make do with these party pictures. :) It was an 80's theme.
Here's the invite:

I found a cool tutorial on how to create an 80's effect here.

Steve's mom rockin' the big hair!

LoV.iNg the footwear!

 So that was our week and how we spent Saturday night and part of Sunday morning. It was a blast, but thank goodness the week is over, because I could use some time to catch up on some sleep! Like I said earlier though, its not done, but boy has the space come a long way!

Have a wonderful day and enjoy!