Kitchen Week Finale: Giveaway!

Today is the grand finale of Kitchen Week. And, as promised, there will be a giveaway!

I love to bake eat cookies. However, chocolate chip was getting a teensy bit boring this past winter. So I switched it up one day by substituting 1/2 the chocolate chips with an equivalent number of peanut butter chips. The result?? Delish! Then recently Griffin asked for Oatmeal Raisin, which is not my favorite. How could I make it more tasty? I substituted almond flavoring for the vanilla. And the cookie was beyond amazing! Have you ever tried it?

What I like to do is mix up the batter, put enough on one cookie sheet for our treat, and then freeze the rest of the cookie balls. I can pull frozen cookie dough from the freezer anytime (including in the morning before school to pack in lunchboxes).

I use the larger tray for the cookies I am baking. The smaller tray slides right into our freezer to store the cookie dough. I don't cover it or do anything special, and have never had any problems with freezer burn. We usually eat the cookies fairly quickly (within a week or two). The cooling racks are essential for when the cookies come out of the oven.

 

This is the scoop that I use. It is the mid-range size from Pampered Chef.

Which brings us to the best tool of all. This mini spatula, also from Pampered Chef, is the object of our giveaway. It works perfectly for peeling your cookies off the sheet as well as for serving up the perfect-sized brownie (or lemon bar).

Lansing-area Pampered Chef consultant, and my friend, Ellen Block is giving away one mini-spatula to a lucky reader of Cosy Carolina. Just leave a comment below telling us your favorite cookie! Be sure to leave an email address so we can contact you if you are chosen. The results of the drawing will be posted next Friday so you have until then to submit your entry. Good luck!

Kitchen Week: Clearing the Counters

"When we learn to accept the whole of our experience--the fact that situations simply will not run to plan at times, but have their own will--we begin to dance with life." Shefali Tsabary, PhD

Right now I am reading a book called The Conscious Parent that teaches us to "sit with" our emotions rather than distract ourselves from what we are feeling. Once we are able to embrace all of our feelings, the feelings no longer overwhelm us. 

I believe that clutter is one of the ways that we distract ourselves from what we are really feeling. By covering every surface with stuff we either have a mess that we then need to clean up or we beat ourselves up for not being perfectly organized. Of course, neither is really all that important in the grand scheme of our lives. But it takes our attention off whatever is really going on.

Cluttered countertops become an outward sign of the clutter in our minds. We can't make a decision about where to put the special commemorative cup that doesn't fit in with the rest of our dishes so it sits awkwardly on the counter. We can't figure out when we'll fit going to the post office to mail that package into our busy schedules so it sits, day after day, on the counter. Then we try to cook dinner or wipe the counters down after a meal, and we have to move those things. Again & again. A constant reminder that we didn't do whatever it was we were supposed to do. Failure. What a serious bummer, no??

Becoming Minimalist suggests radically clearing your kitchen counters to gain peace, and I think they make a good point. 

Clover Lane

Check out the kitchen above. This woman has six children! Ranging in age from nine months to a freshman in college home for the summer, this is one busy house! Yet Sarah maintains this level of organization and in turn exudes calmness straight through my computer screen every day. I can only imagine how great it would be to actually live there.

Currently in our kitchen we have a great many things on our counters, and it looks constantly messy. I'll give this "absolute zero" a whirl and let you know how it comes out. Now I'm off to the post office to mail that darn package finally!

Kitchen Week and Why I'm Not a Great Cook

It's supposed to be Kitchen Week and yet all day I have been thinking about iconic women, polka dots & ruffles, kindness & bravery. 

And now instead of starting dinner I'm typing away about who-knows-what. Certainly not anything kitchen-related. So while Google searches out an easy tilapia recipe and the microwave defrosts my fish, I'll fill you all in on what's new and maybe share something that enlightens someone somewhere...

First, Kate Spade. Several bloggers that I follow are hosting a style soiree interpreting Kate Spade's whimsical style. 

At the beginning of the week I interpreted Kate Spade style in dark tones. Purple polka-dot socks, black velvet ballet slippers, and grey chinos with...

...a ruffly purple & white striped blouse, big turquoise bib necklace, and camel-colored cardi.
 

This morning dawned a bright & sunny 75 degrees. And this warrior woman was waking up practically in my hometown. I just had to live out loud.

I interpreted Kate Spade-style as a pair of white fluffy peep-toe high heels...

beneath a purple floral dress, orange & white striped blazer, and big white bib necklace. Note the topknot. 

Colorful? Check. Whimsical?? Check, check. Bela, my tiny fashion adviser, did not approve of this combo, but in the end I had to be me. 

Unrelated, I ordered these magical running shoes for Bela from Nordstrom online. They were a great price AND you can get 14% cash back via ebates right now {Full disclosure if you sign up for ebates through me, I will get a small referral fee}. I thought posing them with the box of cereal would help you see how adorably tiny they are... but they look huge here.
 

Griffin and his classmates performed on stage this week.Is there anything better than 4th graders singing & dancing?

A Mother's Day gift of olde, that I turned into a Kate Spade-inspired DIY using rainbow-striped wrapping paper as a background. Don't you just love that one of the six reasons Griffin loves me is that I make his dinner?!

So, in the end, I hope that I have given you a better idea of what constitutes Kate Spade style. More importantly, though, I hope I inspired you to be as crazy bold as you feel like being in your dress and decor. It's your life and you only get one. Make it fun.

Kitchen Week

Did everyone have a lovely Mother's Day? I so hope you did...and if you didn't then please imagine I am giving you the most gigantic hug to make it all alright...

Anyhoo, as I mentioned in my Saturday post, the ladies of my family (including the little ladies--ages 3, 6, & 7) shoppppped on Saturday. I finally got to visit Anthropologie in person where Bela & Grandma bought me a sweet blue-green bubble necklace and I bought some summer tops. Bela and her cousin (actually the daughter of my cousin. So second-cousins? Cousins-once-removed? I'm not sure...) were really precious to watch as they shared a dressing room at Justice and made identical Build-a-Bears. 

Yesterday I still had to pick up dirty laundry that didn't make it to (or anywhere near) the hamper, break up sibling squabbles, and repeatedly remind them to brush their teeth. But it was all good because it's all part of the job title, I suppose. AND I got a nap. That helps a TON with my mood. 

A Real Hoot Cookie Jar / Crossed Spoons Plate Stand / Poppy Ring Brownie Dish /
Half-Dozen Egg Crate

Anyhoo, I have decided that this is Kitchen Week here on Cosy Carolina. Now for the most part, my kitchen is simply a place for pretty dishes and clear counters. To say I am not a gourmet is an understatement. There's a good reason this is not a foodie blog... When 5 o'clock rolls around, I tend to freak inwardly about what's for dinner.I mean, really, are there three more frightening words in the English language?! 

Which is probably why I have become Phil's little sous chef as well as the more-than-occasional dessert preparer of our house. The other night, however, he was out and I was on my own. Not wanting to be reliant on a man for everything, I made the most simple yet delicious meal of my life! It was so easy that I am sharing it with you all. 

Dinner in less than 20 minutes.
No Recipe. No Planning. Just GOOOD.

I threw some chicken breasts under the broiler for about 10 minutes, then literally tossed them in BBQ sauce when done (Tupperware bowl with lid and shake, shake, shake). While they were in the oven, I chopped up a cucumber and tossed it with grape tomatoes sliced in half to make a fake Lebanese salad. I also fried up some frozen hash browns on the stovetop. Voila!

Check back all week for more kitchen inspiration (mostly the non-recipe kind) and my very first giveaway!

Ciao! Or Chow! For now...