Entertaining at The Owlery

Well, I sorta already showed my dining "room" on the SUYL--Kitchens from Kelly's Korner, but I will go ahead and share it again!  A few of those who viewed my pictures commented on my teapot collection, so I will share a bit more about that.  We actually just had a friend from work over with her boyfriend and son.  My kitchen area turned into a disaster:

BUT I think that is a sign that it was a successful meal!  (This picture was taken after they left, and I started cleaning up.)  Some of my favorite things to cook include chicken pot pie with lots of veggies; cobbler; French toast; roast beef; red, white, and black bean chili; and Cadbury chip brown sugar cookies.  For this dinner, I made baked chicken with McClard's seasoning, mashed potatoes from scratch, green beans with thyme, buttery corn, homemade cheddar bay biscuits (like the ones at Red Lobster!), and Nutella cookies with peanut butter.  Enjoy another look around the heart of our home!

This is how our kitchen usually looks.  This is looking into our dining "room" from the kitchen.

 looking into our dining area from the living room

 Our table is an antique Duncan Phyfe dining table!  A couple from Zach's parents' church gave it to us when we got married because they were switching from two residences to one. It needs to be refinished, but it is just beautiful.  It seats six, but we keep one chair in our bedroom for sitting.  I love imagining all of the different meals shared at this table and all of the different people who have sat down at it.  Zach's Momo made the lace tablecloth several years ago and gave it to me for my birthday.  The vase in center was made by Zach's mom who is very into pottery.  All of the birdy items were gifts from my birthday week that Zach's mom organized this year since I was recovering from surgery during that time, and the ironwork napkin holder was a wedding gift (I don't remember from whom.)  The rug, which you really can't see, was purchased with wedding gift money.  And I'm a new seamstress!  Zach got me this sewing machine for Christmas last year!

 the original needlework on the dining chairs

We wish we had the money to restore them to their former glory, but we can't right now.  We are planning to cover them with some fabric to protect the needlework and better match our decor at some point.

 I keep cookbooks, photo albums, yearbooks, photo boxes, picture frames, and scrapbook clutter on this shelf.  It needs to be better organized.  (That is one of my goals for this coming month!)  Our Willow Tree collection that we received from my mama, Grandma Byrd, and aunts on my dad's side are on top of the shelf along with a decanter that has been in my family forever.  The Alice in Wonderland bag was a birthday gift from my friend Katie; I used it in grad school, but now it holds fabric scraps.

 This china cabinet belonged to one of Zach's great aunts and was given to us by his parents to use since they weren't using it.  It holds my teapot collection, including our Alice in Wonderland collection.  (More on that in a second!)  The horse paintings were Zach's uncle's; he passed away before I met Zach.  :(  On top are some plants from my mom, a set of candleholders that were left in our first apartment, and the tiered serving dish that was a wedding gift from some ladies at Zach's parents' church.  Our kitties sleep on the ottoman to the right; we store coupons in the basket.

Oh, and our chandelier can be dimmed, so we have MOOD lighting!  But it makes for very bad lighting for pictures.  *lol*

This is a somewhat better look at my teapots.

 The top row has my Alice in Wonderland teapot (in the center) that Zach got me for Christmas when we were dating.  (It was the only Christmas we celebrated while dating because we got married exactly a year after we met on September 19!)  What is funny is that I got him a voucher for high tea at the Intercontinental on the Plaza when we were going to KC after New Year's (along with the dark blue tea cup you will see on the back of the second shelf--great minds think alike! :).  For my 24th birthday following that Christmas, he gave me several of the Alice pieces (plates and cups) during my birthday week, and his parents gave us the creamer pitcher the next Christmas.  My mama kept getting forgetting what fairy tale was behind our fairy tale...and gave me the Cinderella snow globe for Christmas after we were married.  *lol*  There's also a small white toy tea set I had when I was a little girl; I used it for my Samantha doll.

Left to right:  The rose teacup and saucer came from my best friend Monica (it was her Nan's; Nan passed away last year, and I loved her like a grandma, too); Zach's blue cup from our first Christmas together was mentioned above; this red housewarming teapot is from Brian and Whitney (they were our primary matchmakers); the burgundy and tan teapot that stacks on its cup was a birthday present from my roommate Rose; the Union Jack teapot was one of my souvenirs from my study abroad trip; the book teapot was a birthday gift from my sister-in-law; and the Japanese cup was bought on one of my many LR trips to Whole Foods.

Left to right:  The pastel polka doted teapot and cup was found at a flea market by my SIL; the plate commemorating Prince William and Catherine Middleton's wedding was a gift from my in-laws for my 26th birthday last year (my mother-in-law's best friend Fiona is Scottish and picked it up while she was visiting her family); the purple flowered teapot was a housewarming gift from my friend Katie when Monica and I got our apartment during grad school; and the simple flowered teapot was Zach's when he went away to college.

And there you have it!  Want to come over for a hot cuppa?

P is for POTATOES

Have you ever had purple potatoes?  They really freaked Zach out, and if I am being honest, they freaked me out a bit, too.  ;)  It reminded me of the colored ketchup they used to have, or may have still; you just expect it to taste differently, and when it doesn't, it throws you off.  You would think you would be happy something tasted the way it was supposed to taste--like a potato that happens to be purple--but it's just...weird to eat a purple potato.

I did try to be the adult and insist to Zach, "There's nothing weird about a purple potato; they taste just like the red skinned and golden skinned potatoes."

But then I kept imagining purple mashed potatoes, and...ewww.

Anyway, it was fun to have multi-colored potatoes since they were so pretty together.  I really wish I had taken a picture of a cut purple potato because they are truly purple.  Really purple.  Weirdly purple?  *tehe*

Potatoes have a bad rap for offering far too many bad carbohydrates.  But I don't think potatoes are so bad when you eat them in moderation; we just happen to LOVE our potatoes here in a America.  You know, we have French fries (or freedom fries, if you are silly), baked potatoes, twice-baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, smashed potatoes, potato skins, scalloped potatoes, potatoes au gratin, hash browns, fried potatoes, etc.  In China, fast food items are served with corn, which isn't much better (FYI, it's a grain, not a vegetable), but we would probably consider this option to be better.  BUT potatoes are chock full of vitamin C (we must need LOTS of vitamin C since it's in everything healthy *lol*), potassium, and vitamin B6.  This last vitamin is essential in glucose and lipid (good fats and fat-soluble vitamins) metabolism, and it is needed for the skin and nerves and affects sleep patterns.

I really love roasted potatoes with some olive oil and herbs.  Basically, I scrub the potatoes before drizzling and tossing them in some olive oil (1-2 tablespoons) and sprinkle with my preferred spices (I looooove rosemary, which is what I used here), and bake at 325-350 for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the potatoes or potato slices.  You can peel the potatoes and slice them if you choose; I kept the skins on since most of the vitamins and minerals are in them, and I only halved a few of them because they were larger than the rest.  (These were bite-sized potatoes.)

I highly recommend making your potatoes with rosemary, but I think I am going to start mixing things up next time.  :)

Menu Monday: Spicy Roasted Cauliflower

You win some, you lose some. I've said this before. I'm not quite sure if I would count this recipe for SPICY ROASTED CAULIFLOWER a loss. The spices on the cauliflower were so enjoyable with our chicken and rice, and the spices improved the chou-fleur (French for "cauliflower"--a pet name in French is "petit chou," which I call our cat Hobie who is a big ball of white fur ;).

But the cauliflower itself was not improved upon in itself, if that makes sense. I mean, I don't know anyone who enjoys cauliflower by itself. (If you do, let me know.) It's always aided by something, whether ranch dip if its raw or a host of other ingredients if its not. I will not quite give up on cauliflower yet. I want to try mashed cauliflower eventually (because I have heard raves over this) and maybe some other recipes. The thing is so many people raved about ROASTED CAULIFLOWER, and I was slightly let down. I liked the flavor, but I don't know if I would want to make this recipe again using cauliflower. Maybe another veggie like potatoes. Potatoes fix anything, right? I mean, a lot of the mashed cauliflower recipes call for potatoes, too. And while I LOVE broccoli, the broccoli-smell the cauliflower gave off when I was cutting it (and then when I went to reheat it the next day) turned me off a bit. I still ate quite a bit, and it was still tasty the next day, but the cauliflower was not like the Brussels sprouts--taken from blah to beautiful. Still, the SPICY ROASTED CAULIFLOWER does look mighty pretty--the spices look like I battered and fried them! (I didn't--though that might improve the taste of the cauliflower, too. We do like to fry our veggies in the South! *haha*)

SPICY ROASTED CAULIFLOWER

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

-Here is what a cauliflower looks like whole. They were priced at one rate rather than being priced by pound, so I bought the biggest one I could find! (I had no idea what to look for in a cauliflower, so I thought that bigger might be better--or provide more eating!)

-Begin prepping the chou-fleur by trimming the stem core down (I had to slice it off in pieces as some of the leaves got in the way) and cutting the leaves off. They curve upward and over the vegetable in an attempt to protect it, and some of the leaves get in between the florets, so you have to dig for them. Here is a picture of my knife and hand attempting to cut off some leaves.

- Go in a clockwise fashion around the core to remove all leaves until only the florets and their stems remain. Then start cutting them off and pulling them apart into bite-size pieces. (You can also cut them into pieces, but I found it just as easy to use my hands.) Be sure to cut off and discard any pieces that are turning brown.

-Gently rinse; dry in a salad spinner.

-Place the cauliflower in the bowl and add four Tablespoons of olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon each of chili powder and cumin, and salt and pepper to taste. Be sure to sprinkle the spices around as you are adding them to the bowl as the spices will cling to the florets they land upon; this means if you dump your spices into one spot in the bowl, those floret there will be HEAVILY spiced. (I know--I had a few killer peppered pieces!)

-Toss lightly to coat and pour onto a cookie sheet. Spread them out and bake for 20-25 minutes, flipping the pieces two or three times while roasting.

Well, there you have it! I hope you find this recipe even more enjoyable than I did. :)

Next week, I hope to have tried kale chips. It was on my list, but the Walmart we hit today was sold out, so I will have to try the one down the street. We bought our salad spinner rather recently from T. J. Maxx because I told Zach it would get our veggies much drier...and would mean I could finally try kale chips. It was $8, which is a steal! After all, the one I had found before was $30-ish. (I am too lazy to try to try to wash and dry kale by hand. I've heard it's essential they are rather dry for chips.)

I am really enjoying this whole new-vegetable/fruit-a-week thing. I have been itching to write more, but I don't know what to say. It would be fun to post a recipe everyday featuring either a fruit or vegetable though I wouldn't be able to do new ones seven days a week. I would like to write about more serious topics and other enjoyable ones like movies and books and clothes, but food is inherent to the majority of my moments, so...we shall see what I come up with. ;)