Guest Blog: Rach and her Perfect Recipe Book

I'm so excited to reveal our first guest blogger! Rach has a knack for organizing and you'll see more from her along the way. Enjoy her Perfect Recipe book and ideas!

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The Perfect Recipe Book…and so much more…

True story…my husband T and I had been married about two weeks when I decided I wanted to have my first dinner party. I was beyond excited…Set the date, invited the guests, cleaned the house, picked out a menu…wait a minute, a menu? I was 22, and didn’t have a clue in the kitchen. Being the young, naïve newlywed that I was, I thought all recipes were created equal and I was about to learn a big lesson. For some strange reason I decided that a corn casserole would be a wonderful addition to our dinner that night. Let’s just say…it wasn’t! Easily one of the worst things I have ever eaten…and that’s a stretch. Maybe I should say the worst thing I have ever tasted. It was not edible. At all. Ick!

After that I stayed out of the kitchen for the most part. Well, maybe it was after the dinner party we had when I served lasagna. It was not too bad, but a one of our guests found a ladybug in her lasagna. Not good. So it was after the ladybug incident that I stayed out of the kitchen. Then we moved, had a baby, had another baby, another move, and before I knew it I was a SAHM on a little budget with four mouths to feed. Every morning, noon and night. I need recipes. Good ones. Fast. I turned to everyone one I knew that had more experience in the kitchen than I did. My favorite aunt gave me a subscription to Southern Living. So I cooked, copied recipes, cut them out, and stuffed them into every nook in the kitchen. They were everywhere. It was time to do something.

I was able to scrape together about eight dollars. I bought a 3-ring binder, a pack of 5 dividers (with pockets), a pack of sheet protectors and I came up with a book that 7 years later I live by. It’s my bible. I love it. I want to marry it. It gets me through the days, weeks, and months. Can you feel my love for it? It has pockets in the front and in the back. It holds all of my recipes, and any other ideas and thoughts that I love. I cut and stuff on a weekly basis and everything goes into this notebook. It’s a must have for any and everyone. It’s a combination of all of my favorite magazines and idea books without a bunch of fluff. Everything in it I love, I know I love, and my family loves. It makes my life easy!

The front inside pocket is filled with house and decorating ideas.

The back pocket is filled with gardening ideas. 

And the middle is filled with recipes tried and true that my family loves. It’s divided into five sections: appetizers/salads, vegetables/vegetarian, chicken/fish, meats, and sweets/breakfast.

I keep plenty of extra page protectors in the binder for days when I cut things out of magazines. It works great…nothing needs a hole punch, I can just slide them right in and the page protectors do just that when things get messy in the kitchen. I could have used this book and long time ago, but I am thankful it came into my life when it did!

Rach

Paint colors

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Yard Sale Saturday

What a beautiful weekend!!! The weather has been insane here and yesterday was the perfect day. Started out with a big cup of coffee and then my neighbor and I hit some neighborhood yard sales.  We had WAY too much fun!  We could have come home with much more good loot but we kept it reasonable. One was an estate sale that had some really great things and we wanted much more than we actually left with! She bought some great jewelry and some beautiful old plates that are to die for.  Here’s what I made it out with:

Two small silver platters: $.50 each.  J  Thought I could use them in my bathroom to catch all the jewelry that usually piles up.

This pretty little bench was $15 and is old as the hills. It’s going to get some paint and new fabric and it will be prec! Makeover will be posted this week.

$3 for this old school retro vase! I put it in our kitchen the second I got home because I loved it so much. I swear my grandmother had this exact same vase, which makes me smile every time I look at it!  

Two glass hurricanes, $1 each. Um, I'm sorry but I priced these out at several other stores and just couldn't pull the trigger on $20-$30 each. Thank the heavens above because I basically stole these.

Total purchase: $21.

Amount of joy and satisfaction achieved: Priceless!

Katie


         I'm linking up to this linky party today: Cottage Instincts

 

CSA

Well fellow blog followers, we've been super busy and super slackers this week. We'll make up for it later this week when I reveal my chandelier spruce up, which by the way looks fantastic and just needs a few last minute touches!

In the meantime, I wanted to write about our new food journey with a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). We signed up for a crop share hosted by D & A farm and each Wednesday we pick up a box of veggies straight from the farm. It's kind of exciting to see what's going to be in the box! Last week when I opened the box and found two HUGE, GORGEOUS heads of lettuce, I knew I was in love. 
Some things I have ZERO clue what to do with... i.e.: turnips. Who actually eats turnips? How in the world do you cut them? What in the world do you do with them? How can I get my 2 year old son to eat a turnip? After much research online, I found a recipe that included the turnips and sweet potatoes in last week’s batch and shockingly enough, we actually LIKED turnips! I know. Equally surprised. Did my child eat them? No. But at least we ventured out of our cooking comfort zone and tried something new and different.

Here’s what’s in the box this week: Lettuce, boc choy, arugula, radish, winter squash and collards.  Lovey hu?!


I'm looking for ideas on how to cook with any of this! The squash and lettuce I can do, but the radishes, collards and boc choy I’m clueless. Send me your favorite recipe using any of these things or just some ideas on how to cook them! Thanks!Katie

Boooo!!!

I mean, really???  How cute are these ghost candles?!  What a great gift (Thank you Patti!).  They are from Pottery Barn. "Ghost Candles" item #4069852

 

I put them in the kitchen for some Halloween fun .... now the only thing I keep asking myself is, should I EVER light them?  They are too fun to ruin with a flame.  
Decorator's tip: always place your decor items in threes.  Look in catalogs and you will see most items are placed in threes.  Four is too many! 
I love Halloween. :)