Fall in Photos

No words today, just a few photos of Fall in my neighborhood.  I hope Fall is just as pretty where you are.





Stop back on Friday for an exciting giveaway!

Tasty Tuesdays: My Favorite Mac & Cheese

Welcome to Tasty Tuesdays!

The Mac & Cheese at The Green Well is probably my favorite meal in town.  I've been ordering it for several years and have a hard time even considering ordering something different when I'm there.  I even mentioned The Green Well Mac & Cheese in this post.

I've searched online for the recipe before and never had any luck.  I decided to look again and found it right away!  And it was posted almost two years ago.  That's two years of me missing out on making this amazing dish at home.  Click right here for the recipe.  As excited as I was to find the recipe online, the exact measurements and directions were incomplete.  For the most part, I think I figured it out. 

Ingredients: 

- Canola oil & olive oil

- 3 slices bacon, cooked & chopped

- 1 cup cooked chicken, shredded

-1 cup snow peas cut in half

- 1 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced 

- 3/4 cup whole cherry tomatoes

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- Pinch of salt, pepper, basil and thyme

- 1-1/2 cup heavy cream

- 1/2 cup swiss cheese, shredded

- 3/4 cup sharp white cheddar, shredded

- 2 tablespoons cream cheese

- 1/2 cup goat cheese

- 1/2 large onion, caramelized

- 8 oz cavatappi pasta, cooked

{ I left out truffle oil and ham, both are included in The Green Well's recipe }

1.  The key to preparing this recipe to to cook several of the ingredients first.  Cook the chicken, bacon, and pasta before you start making the recipe.  Also caramelize the onion ahead of time.  You could even do that a day or two in advance.  I think a leftover chicken or a rotisserie chicken would work really well.

2.  Heat a large saute pan over high heat and add 2 tablespoons of canola oil and 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Add bacon, chicken, snow peas, mushrooms, tomatoes, and garlic to pan and saute until garlic caramelizes.

3.  Add cream and all four cheeses and stir.  Add caramelized onions.  Continue to cook over medium-high heat until sauce is bubbly and thickens.  Add pasta and stir until coated.

4.  Serve and enjoy!  Recipe makes four servings.

I'm pretty excited to be able to enjoy my favorite restaurant meal at home!

What did you cook this week?

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Kitchen Favorites Link Party: 12.2.11

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Hi guys.  Happy Friday!  Are you ready for the weekend?  I know I am!

I'm going to host a link party called "Kitchen Favorites".  I thought it would be fun to see what people like to use in the kitchen.  You could link up a post about your favorite ingredients, favorite pantry staples, favorite baking tools, favorite kitchen appliances, favorite cookbooks, or a combination of anything that's a favorite for you in your kitchen!

The party will be on Friday, December 2nd.   Just in time for the Holiday season.  I'm sure we all do more cooking around the holidays, so maybe you will find a new favorite or a gift idea for your favorite cook!

See you three weeks from today for the party!

Designer Diaries: New Elementary School

I'm back with another installment in my Designer Diary Series.  This time it's to share a little bit about an elementary school I designed that is currently nearing completion.

In the early stages of the design process, I sometimes start with just a palette board.  I make up several paint palettes along with inspiration photos for the client to look over.  It's a nice way of getting them to chose a direction for their building, without overwhelming them with lots of design decisions all at once.


Here is the board they choose:

 { I've cropped off the titleblock @ the bottom of the board, that's why it looks a little funny }


At the next design meeting I came back with options for the finishes.  This is what they choose:

The image below shows a small portion of the school.  This is the floor pattern they chose for the corridors:

And here is a photo of the flooring being installed:

I know the quality of these photos isn't the best - this job is out of state so I haven't been able to visit the site to take photos.


The flooring is linoleum by Forbo.  Linoleum gets a bad rap because most people refer to sheet vinyl as linoleum.  Huge, huge difference - not at all the same thing!  Real linoleum has been around long before sheet vinyl and is manufactured of natural ingredients (linseed oil, resins, natural pigments, and jute backing).  Linoleum is definitely making a comeback and is once again popular.  This building will be LEED certified, so linoleum was the perfect choice for many reasons.  I've also specified Armstrong linoleum - both are great manufacturers.


This is the floor pattern they selected for the cafeteria:

Tile behind the drinking fountains:

I know, I'm sure this isn't exciting to you, but I just love seeing anything that I designed!  I wish I had more photos of the building to share.  So far, this is all I have!

These are a few of the fabrics I used on furniture throughout the building.  The top one is from Arc Com and the middle and bottom one are both from Momentum.  All three are Crypton - a high performance upholstery.

I just love this one:

And this one too:

This is a very small portion of the complete design.  Most people think that interior design is chosing colors and selecting patterns.  In reality, it is just a VERY small portion of the process.

Hope you have a wonderful Thursday!

Tasty Tuesdays: Easy Pumpkin Bread

Welcome to Tasty Tuesdays!

I made this super easy pumpkin bread over the weekend.  What is it about fall that brings on the pumpkin cravings?  I could care less about it any other time of year, but October and November are all about pumpkin!

{ Recipe adapted from one I found here on Allrecipes }

Ingredients:
- 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

- 4 eggs

- 1 cup vegetable oil

- 2/3 cup water

- 1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

- 1 cups white sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

- 2 teaspoons baking soda

- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

For Glaze:

- 2 cups confectioners sugar

- milk or water

- 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two 7x9 bread loaf pans

2.  In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water, sugars, and vanilla until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

3.  Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of bread comes out clean.

4.  Let bread cool in pans for 15 -20 minutes.  When pans are cool enough to handle, turn out bread and let finish cooling on wire racks.

5.  For glaze:  Put 2 cups of confectioners sugar in mixing bowl.  Slowly add milk or water while stirring until glaze is the consistency of pancake batter.  Add vanilla and stir until combined.

6.  Place wax paper under cooling racks and drizzle glaze over bread.

What did you cook this week?

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I May Become Additcted to Sewing Baby Quilts...

I made this baby quilt for my cousin who is expecting her first baby next month.  I had so much fun making this and I am really happy with how it turned out.  I am seriously thinking about starting another one even though I don't need another baby gift at the moment!

You may have seen the pattern for this quilt out in blogland.  It was designed by Vanessa Christenson of  V and Co. and was featured on Moda Bake Shop. 

My cousin isn't finding out what she is having, so I tried to make this pretty gender neutral - which is much easier said than done!  It's so hard to find fabrics that work for both a boy or a girl.  It looks a little more "boyish" than I wanted, but hopefully if it's a little girl she won't mind!

This wasn't hard to make - just took a little time.

I had heard good things about spray basting and decided to give the 505 spray a try after reading great reviews online.  I LOVED it.  So much easier than pinning together all the layers.  And especially great for free motion quilting becasue you don't need to keep taking out the pins to quilt.

Do you quilters get nervous when you put your finished quilts in the wash machine?  I think I was praying the whole time it was in there that it would come out OK!  It did, thank goodness!  I love the puckered look the quilt has after if comes out of the wash machine.

My free motion quilting could use a little practice!

Here is the back:

Do you recognize the Amy Butler fabric?  I've used it on so many projects.  It's a favorite, for sure.

Hopefully my cousin and the baby like it as much as I do!

Tasty Tuesdays: Beer Cheese Dip

Welcome to Tasty Tuesdays!

Thanks again to all of you who stopped over from Bloggers Blog of Note - I'm so glad you are here!  Tasty Tuesdays is weekly recipe link party I host.  Feel free to link up your recipes or just check out all the great ones linked up!

I have a super easy and really delicious appetizer for you today:  Beer Cheese Dip.  Now if that doesn't sound perfect for Fall, I don't know what does!

This recipe was published in the October 2011 issue of Grand Rapids Magazine and is from Chef Justin Golinski of Founders Brewing Co.  I adapted it slightly, just changing a few quantities.

I didn't have any Founders beer so I used a pale ale from Bell's.

This recipe is so easy - it only takes a few minutes to put it all together

Ingredients:

- 1 pound cream cheese, softened

- 1 cup smoked Gouda, shredded

- 6 oz of beer, your choice.  The original recipe calls for an IPA

- 1 cup baby spinach, rough chopped

- 1/2 medium-sized red bell pepper, diced

- 1 clove garlic, minced

- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

- 1 teaspoon Italian seasonings

Preheat oven to 325.  Combine and mix all of the ingredients thoroughly in a medium sized mixing bowl.  Transfer to baking dish.  Bake 35-40 minutes.  Stir once, halfway through cooking time.  If desired, set under broiled for a minute to brown top of dip.  Serves with tortilla chips, pita chips, or toast point.

See, I told you it was easy!

What did you cook this week?

Party Rules:

1.  Add a link in your post back to this post.

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2.  Add the Tasty Tuesday button to your post.  You will find the button on my sidebar.

Thanks!