Home is where your Story Starts!

Well its official, we've joined the club . .  .the Home Owners Club that is! At of 1pm this afternoon when all the papers were signed and the keys were placed in our hands we jumped into a new chapter of life.

We have been looking at places for a while. Nothing too serious but just to keep our options open and see what was out there. Then in the beginning of the summer we saw a few homes we liked but all our offers were denied. And then we found our perfect storm. There were a few open town homes in the community we live in now and we took a look at most of them. None of them were worth the cost considering all the work needed. I'm talking trashed and smelling like animals! Then we looked at the end unit that was never listed in the MLS and thought it was an upgrade defiantly (more 80's than 60's & 70's like the one we currently rent.) We kept looking at more and more homes but nothing lined up with what we were looking for. We thought about the end unit and asked out agent to show us again and found they had dropped the price. We made an offer and after a little negation we got it for what we wanted! Voila our Perfect Storm as the hubby likes to say!

Now on to the good stuff - the To DO list! We've got quite the list going. Ill be sure to do a before and after post. But for now its time for BED! We got the keys this afternoon and already we've got blinds up and i cleaned the kitchen and 2 bathrooms - I've earned some quality REM!

Applications are now being accepted for anyone interested in being out first out of town guest!

Apple Heaven

There is nothing like fall in New York. The crisp air. The smells of leaves, harvest and chimneys. *Sigh* I can close my eyes and the memories of my childhood come rushing back in an instant. This is my favorite time of year . . .well this and Christmas.  While I firmly believe moving to Florida was the best decision ever there are about 10 days a year that I miss the good 'ol North East.

The Mr spent a few days in my old neck of the woods last week and when he called and asked what I wanted him to bring me back, I practically yelled APPLES! NEW YORK APPLES! For some reason you just cant find quality apples down here. I come from the land of pick your own and the stands on the side of the road sell apples and corn not peanuts and gator jerky! Needless to say he went to the wonderful Wegmans and picked me up apples and by apples I mean a TON OF APPLES!

Due to the crazy of life I finally put all those apples to good use after sitting in the fridge for 4 days. Here we are 2 apple pies and an apple crisp later and I am sure to get my apple craving fulfilled.

The apple pie is my own recipe. I eye ball the ingredients and am convinced that I have yet to make the same pie twice or else I'd post the recipe. Being from a family of 7, when we went apple picking there were a lot of apples and a lot of baking. I always made the pie and others made crisp, sauce, or another apple based dessert. I always got complements on my pie but then I married the Hubs whose Grandma created and perfected the art of Apple Pie. While mine comes no where close to her Delicious plate of goodness it makes for a tasty treat morning noon or night. ( * side-note* Oh and don't you love the fall table setting? I've become quite obsessed with table cloths, place settings and napkins! The flowers are courtesy of my wonderful Love in celebration of our 11 months of marriage . . . wow can you believe we are only three weeks away from the 1 year mark! - Well that will be a post all its own!)

Anyhoo back to apples . . . Being that my only responsibility was the Pie with out a mother or sister close by I had to expand my baking horizon and find an additional use for so many apples. I am a fan of allrecpies.com and tried this recipe. I enjoyed it with a nice cup of tea, only thing missing is Family but I guess we all cant have our pie and eat it too huh?

Stay tuned  . . . tomorrow brings BIG NEW BLOG!

Guest Post - Table for Four

Not Your Momma’s Carrot Cake

Hey!  I’m Nicole from Table For Four and I’m so excited to be featured on Amie’s fabulous food blog!  I am NOT a cook.  I have a few good recipes that I repeat over, and over and… over.  But Amie asked for some guest bloggers and I couldn’t resist. 

I named this recipe “Not Your Momma’s Carrot Cake” because it’s not like anything you’ve had before… it’s not a “traditional” carrot cake.  It’s not like the carrot cake your momma makes… because it’s the carrot cake my husband’s momma makes!  It’s my mother-in-law, Rosana’s famous carrot cake. 

This cake is seriously good.  It’s light and airy with a chocolate frosting that wont leave you feeling like a fatty.  In fact, we eat it as a breakfast cake mostly.   Yes, I just used the words “breakfast” and “cake” in the same sentence… are you hooked yet?

Here’s what you’ll need:

For cake:

Flour- 3 cups

Sugar- 2 cups

Vegetable Oil- >1 cup

Baking Powder- 1 Tbs

Baby Carrots- 8 oz (half bag)

3 Eggs

Preheat oven to 375.  In a large mixing bowl, add flour, sugar and baking powder.  In a blender, place eggs and oil and blend.  Then add carrots little by little and continue blending for about 2 more minutes or until all is smooth and creamy. 

Add carrot mixture to dry ingredients and stir.  If it becomes too thick and hard to stir, add a splash of milk to help thin it a bit. 

Once it’s all smooth and creamy, add mixture to the baking dish and bake for 25 minutes or until golden. 

Now for the frosting… try not to drool ok?

You’ll need:

Milk (the fattiest the tastiest… just sayin’)- 3 Tbs

Butter- 1 Tbs

Chocolate Chips- ¾ bag  (of 12 oz bag)

Add all ingredients to a microwave safe bowl and nuke it for 1-½ minutes, stopping half way to stir.  

When cake comes out of the oven, immediately spread chocolate frosting.  Don’t wait for it to cool, because the idea is to have the frosting melt into the cake a bit. 

Wait for it to cool.  Serve and enjoy!  Mmmmm.

Come on now, you guys didn’t actually think I was going to make a recipe.  Let’s face it… I’m not domestic!  I have to give a huge thank you to my mother-in-law who has taught me all I know in the kitchen.  (Sorry, Mom!)  She was really nervous, but the cake came out great!

Try it… I’m sure you’ll LOVE it and maybe one day it’ll be your recipe too.  Then your kids will say, it’s “My Momma’s Carrot Cake!” 

MIA

I know I know I've been MIA for much longer than intended! This no computer thing is a real drag! I do have some new and exciting news to share but I will wait a while before spilling the beans and no I AM NOT PREGNANT! (but we are one step closer to heading down that road!)

Being that my blogging and cooking have taken a back seat for a while I've reached out to a few of my blogging buddies to get their recipes and see whats cooking in their kitchen. The first to take me up on the offer is Nicole from Table for Four - Shes a friend I met soon after moving to Florida at the church that really got me connected to an awesome group of friends. Unfortunately soon after my arrival she along with her husband moved to SC. There she had two adorable sons and just recently loved back down to Florida, only a few hours away. We keep in touch thru blogging,  facebook and road trips! Shes a great mom, wife, friend and woman of God who we could all learn alot from so please check out her blog . .  .and FOLLOW! All us bloggers love followers and shes got some great stories to share.