I wish I could tell you that I'm an organizational diva. I'm not. In fact, the office repainting project I'm undertaking is giving me hives. I love a beautiful room and design in all its myriad forms but, in reality, I'm kind of a toss it there and hope for the best kind of girl. Sad but true.
It's especially sad because I have lots of lovely things that are underutilized simply because I can't find them when I need them. Jewelry and shoes are two of my favorite things and also two of my biggest problems to sort/display. My friend Tonya made a gorgeous jewelry organizer out of an old press type drawer but she's a craft genius and I'm… not. Besides which, the 105º-plus temperatures have made me rather disinclined to do anything much that would require leaving the miracle of air conditioning.
So here's my compromise: I found magnets shaped like aluminum pushpins in the office supplies section at Walmart. I stuck them to my trusty ÄTRAN medicine cabinet and then hung my pretties up.
Not too shabby for a minute or two of sorting. My kind of DIY project!
Some of my favorite local restaurants have added sweet potato fries to their menus recently, so I was pretty happy to hear about Ore-Ida Sweet Potato Fries, since my kitchen is a no-fry zone. We've always had good results with their Steam n' Mash and assorted french fries, so I set out for Sam's to buy a ginormous bag of them to try out. Here's a look at my shopping trip:
Back home, my mission was to concoct a recipe for a dip to go with the sweet potato fries. Now, I'm not a dip hater but I must admit that I did not grow up with stuff to dip into other stuff. Salsa, guacamole, hummus… yeah. But dips, cheese balls, spreads? Not so much. Bob's mom and aunts always telling me about the delicious dips they make and I am completely baffled… I never think about dips unless we're having a party. Must be a regional thing. Or an only child thing. Anyway, I was on a mission to create a dip. Bear in mind that my children are even more dip-phobic, eschewing the ketchup and ranch dressing that most of their peers lap up.
Here's another family secret: summertime makes me hot, tired and cranky and I loathe cooking. I want to do a reverse hibernation routine and sleep until the heat goes away. It's been over 100º for a while now, so I've been making a lot of sandwiches and seeing what I can use up in the fridge. Since I picked up that lovely pork shoulder, however, I realized I needed to actually cook something. Sigh. I'm not much of a by-the-book girl (really?!) and tend to fudge recipes together haphazardly with a dash of inspiration, whatever's in the pantry and a healthy dose of hope. I usually do a Southern-style BBQ with this cut of meat, which would be good with sweet potato fries but I kind of wanted to veer away from the obvious so I decided to go South American. Or, rather, my version of South American, which has largely been shaped by Andrew Zimmern, Perez Prado LPs and flipping through my mom's foodie magazines. I hear it all starts with a rub. Our garden is parched so I'm going to go with what's in the pantry, spice-wise:
Okay, mixed all that up and smeared it all over the pork shoulder, which I then tossed into the slow cooker on a bed of two sweet onions, chopped. Time for the sauce component. Hmm, what do I have that needs to be used up?
Excellent! It's gonna be Argentinean pulled pork. Not sure if such a thing exists in nature but I think it will be delicious, especially with some sweet potato fries. Nom nom nom. Power turned up to high, should take five hours or so. Already smells good. I am now very, very hungry.
On to dip concoction. South America. Carmen Miranda. Fruit! Let's do something with mangos, like a south-of-the-border chutney. Here's what I have on hand:
I am throwing all of this together in the Ninja and blending it smooth. If I substituted tequila for vinegar and lime for garlic, it would be a pretty delicious margarita but, no, this is clearly going to be a sauce. Right? Well, maybe once I bring it to a boil on the stove and reduce it. It's kind of a sweet/savory glaze, like a smooth chutney.
I wanted to make another dip since that one was so sweet, so I cobbled together another "what if…" recipe using the edamame I bought at Sam's. I suspect you could also use peas for this. I apologize because I totally managed to erase the photos of my ingredients and prep on this one. Suffice it to say that there was a lot of pea green puree. I had a wedge of very nice Wisconsin blue cheese, some greek yogurt and smoked paprika which I added to about three cups of cooked edamame. It ended up being very chunky and delicious, although it would have been even more yummy if I had bought the right kind of bacon instead of maple-flavored, which I decided would not fit any kind of South American menu. Whoops.
Here's a photo of the Ore-Ida Sweet Potato Fries in their frozen state, waiting for the oven to preheat. In less than half an hour, these things are going to be crunchy and even more golden orange. Mmm.
I added some Heinz Ketchup to the mango chutney to make it more palatable to the kiddos. Oddly, it made it taste kind of like worcestershire sauce. Would you like to see some artsy photos of our dip selection?
Behold! The star of the show and the condiments! I really dig this color palette.
The big bummer was that my pork was not nearly ready by suppertime. This is a constant problem for me with the slow cooker, I always sorely miscalculate cooking times. Whoops. So this is what the kids got for dinner:
And here's Roo, sampling a fry. Thumbs up, although she didn't like either dip. Oh, well.
Luckily, we had some leftover ribs in the freezer which I microwaved in a flash, so Bob and I didn't have to resort to chicken nuggets. I also made some slaw. (Too much celery seed. Argh!)
Honestly, the Ore-Ida Sweet Potato Fries were the highlight of the meal for me. They were crispy on the outside but mushy on the inside and not too sweet. My mango sauce was a bit too sweet as a dip, I think I'll add some shoyu to the leftover and use it to marinate some fish or shrimp. The edamame blue cheese dip, however, was awesome. It was good on the fries but I actually prefer them au naturel, with a sprinkle of sea salt. Tomorrow, I think I'm going to make some burritos with them and the pokey pork, perhaps some corn niblets and black beans…
What kind of menu would you include Ore-Ida Sweet Potato Fries in? Dip or no dip? Sweet or unsweet? Let me know!
In accordance to the FTC Guidelines and WOMMA Code of Ethics, I am disclosing that this project has been compensated as part of an #OreIdaFries shopper insights study for Heinz with #collectivebias. All opinions are, as usual, strictly my own.
My husband is an artist and we have tons of colorful paintings and sculpture displayed throughout our home… not to mention the omnipresent scattered kids' toys that add a riot of color to any given space. We try to keep our decor neutral so it doesn't clash with everything else in our lives. As a result, our walls are plain, stark, boring gallery white. I was happy to undertake the challenge to "Break the Color Rules" by repainting one room in my house.
First I visited Glidden.com to see my paint color options. Unsurprisingly, they are vast! I really like the Glidden Color Palette tool, which lets you visualize what a color will look like in a room with a click of the mouse. You can "drop" colors onto walls or moulding. In fact, you can even click to make the color swatch fill your entire computer screen so you can use your monitor as a giant paint swatch! Awesome.
Another excellent website feature is the paint calculator. You add in your measurements and it tells you how much paint you need to buy. Handy for the math-phobic like me. The website will generate a printable shopping list for you, too. Technology is a beautiful thing.
In the end, I decided I wanted to see the colors in person, so I headed to Walmart to buy some of the new Glidden Testers. These 2 oz. bottles of paint feature an easy-to-use brush attached to the resealable cap. Each bottle covers 2 square feet, so you should be able to get a decent idea of what the color will look like on your wall– no holding up a tiny paper swatch and squinting at your room, trying to visualize your results! Even better, they are stocked in a pretty huge variety of colors so you can pick a bunch and test them out. See my ThisMoment story below to fully experience my shopping trip!
My mission was to "Break the Color Rules" so I wanted to choose bright hues that I would ordinarily shy away from. Since I've decided to paint my home office, I also totally disregarded my husband's art school-honed sense of color theory. I just picked shades I was drawn to, the way you would shop for shoes or a handbag. It was exhilarating! I highly recommend scoping out some colors the next time you're shopping at Walmart. Obviously, I couldn't control myself. I was supposed to pick out three colors for my room and I ended up with six. But what a lovely half dozen!
From top to bottom: Bittersweet Chocolate, Black Tulip, Spanish Olive, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Blooming Fuschia and Vibrant Day Lily.
My husband HATES the pink. Ha!
The Glidden Testers are also about the same size as bottles of acrylic paints at the hobby store, so if you're a DIY aficionado, you might want to pick some up for crafting– house paint typically has excellent coverage and the rainbow of colors available is impressive. Hey, you know what? There's a coupon link on my sidebar that will give you $2 off per bottle, bringing the price down to less than a dollar in my store. Stock up, mini-Marthas!
The paper swatches are pretty accurate; they look about the same on my wall as on the cards
Aren't you dying to see what I come up with? Me, too! There are plenty of other Social Fabric community members embarking on their own painterly makeovers, some with the same "Break the Color Rules" mission as mine and still other brave souls are actually letting their readers vote on their color schemes! Yikes! You can check out everyone's progress on the Glidden Testers website or search the hashtag #GliddenTesters on Twitter.
In accordance to the FTC Guidelines and WOMMA Code of Ethics, I am disclosing that this project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Glidden Testers/Paint#collectivebias. All opinions are, as usual, strictly my own.
Summertime is not my favorite, possibly because I am the sweatiest woman alive. This is not a good thing when I am actually expected to look presentable. My makeup skills are already sketchy but add in humidity and heat and you get something akin to Heath Ledger's Joker look in Batman. Not so pretty.
Then I heard about Tarte's summer offerings, which include quite a few waterproof options thanks to a proprietary blend of natural plant waxes. Their main component is Amazonian Clay, which is kind of nature's superstar since it reduces dryness and flakiness, removes surface oil and oil from inside and around clogged pores, improves skin's clarity, elasticity and texture and also removes dead skin layers, resulting in a general smoothing of the surface skin. And, of course, they won't smear all over your sweaty face.
I tried the Amazonian Clay Creamy Liner Pencil in brown, black and plum– they're the squiggly lines shown on the top row. The pigment is intense and the line lasts for a long time, so you could do crazy cat's eyes. The middle row is tarte Amazonian Clay Waterproof Cream Shadow in (l-r) moss, beach bronze, seashell pink, slate and shimmering plum. These come with pretty stinking nice brushes that make it easy for even the heaviest-handed makeup novice to use. Yes, even me! The last row is emphasEYES Amazonian clay waterproof liner in green, bronze, black, brown and plum. These come with a very nice double-ended brush that you can use to make a thin or thick line but are slightly trickier to use.
The color is rich and lasts all day, going on smooth and staying smooth without a primer. Even in sticky summer weather. Here's the evidence, my makeup after a particularly humid Final Friday gallery jaunt that earned me many blisters. The makeup is intact!
As further proof, here's the morning after. No, I didn't wash my makeup off before going to bed, mom…
In accordance to the FTC Guidelines and WOMMA Code of Ethics, I am disclosing that I received the items shown above to facilitate this review. All opinions are, as usual, strictly my own.
