Tasty Thursday.

Happy Fall Everyone!!! Hard to believe the holiday season is quickly approaching and the lazy days of summer are behind us. Nothing says fall to me like some good old fashioned comfort food so I decided to make some mac n cheese for dinner this evening. I am usually a blue box kind of girl but tonight I felt in a gourmet kind of mood. It came out great and even the Mr. came back for seconds.

I included the recipe below if the mood should happen to strike you as well. If you have a great comfort food go to recipe I would love to hear about it so don't be shy and drop me a line. Remember sharing is caring.

Mac N Cheese (not from a box)

This recipe feed my family of three with enough for left overs, adjust accordingly.

Step 1 (gather these goodies):

-  Coarse salt

-  1/2 pound macaroni

-  3 large eggs

-  12 ounces of evaporated milk

-  1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

-  1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

-  1 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar

-  1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese

-  1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan

Step 2:

Preheat oven to 475. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the macaroni for 6 minutes. It will be a bit undercooked but don't worry. Drain macaroni and set aside.

Step 3:

In a large mixing bowl whisk together eggs and evaporated milk. Once combined add in 1/2 tsp. salt, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and cheeses. Mix well and add macaroni. Mix together then transfer to an 8 inch baking dish. Gently spread macaroni mixture so it is evenly spread.

Step 4:

Bake in the oven for 12 minutes or until sauce is bubbling. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Step 5:

DIG IN!!!

Cup full of flowers.

I was feeling in a bit of a funk today, mostly because the things on my to do list did not involve anything that I felt like to doing. On my second trip to Starbucks (yes you read that correctly) I decided to get some flowers and see if that would help brighten my day. 

This is the first flower arrangement I have ever put together and I definitely feel I need a bit more practice. I love using things other than vases on the rare occasion that I bring flowers home and this little tea cup from Anthropologie was just the right size. I see more flower buying in my future because these served their purpose and made me smile. 

What little things help to brighten your day?

Planting Project.

After picking up the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens I felt inspired to take on a small backyard clean up over the next few weeks to see if I could turn it into an area that we all look forward to spending time in. Currently I avoid it at all costs since it has become a storage area for surfboards, wetsuits and all the other equipment that we have accumulated since our daughter began surfing this summer.

I do have a few challenges to overcome:

1.We are busy, like most people, so maintaining a somewhat nice outdoor area falls very low on the to do

   list.

2.We have the worlds messiest dogs. Don't get me wrong I love them to death but well behaved they are

   not.

3. We are renters with a small town home backyard in Southern California which translates to not much

    room and very little we can change, therefore we do not want to spend a lot of money on a space that    

    we will eventually have to leave.

My solution is to try a container garden to add some life as well as a general clean up and organization of the entire area. Today felt like a good day to begin and I was feeling inspired so I headed to our local nursery, magazine in hand, with the goal of picking up some hardy yet pretty plants that hopefully my two beasts would not turn into their evening salad. Thirty minutes later, after a short detour through the fruit trees and gorgeous Japanese maples, I left with 3 plants, some potting soil and a medium sized terracotta container.

I will be posting weekly updates on our backyard clean up as well as adding a new container every week. Stay tuned and if you have any planting tips, container gardening ideas, or general advice on how to keep your dogs from eating your plants please share!!!

The plants from top to bottom are: Soft Rush, Coleus Kong Rose and Island Brocade Sedge