How I Met My House

An Nicole at Our Suburban Cottage is hosting a linky party today - How I met my house.  I love my house, so thought this would be a fun one to chime in on!

Tyler and I decided to buy in Spring 2007.  We had a fabulous real estate agent, and gave our lists of must haves, nice to haves, and no ways, and he immediately began helping us weed through listings.  Between July 2007 and February 2008, we probably looked at over 80 properties in person.  Many were foreclosures and short sales - homes that were completely trashed by the previous owners.  Buckets of paint dumped on carpets, holes smashed into walls...and the utter filth.  We kept finding homes that we thought had great potential, and put in offers.  Six, to be exact, and none worked out.

We fell in love with this home.  It needed a little work inside, but we immediately felt at home.  We put in an offer for $10K below the listing price, thinking that was more than fair, considering comps.  We never got a response, despite near daily calls, and gave up.

We moved on, and put in offers on four other homes, that we either got outbid for, or never heard back about.  Finally, we found this home, and thought it was wonderful.  We were tired of the house hunting game, tired of the waiting game, and offered them $10K OVER their asking price.  At this time, the real estate market in the DC suburbs were still shit, and this was pretty much insane of us, but we decided it was worth it.  

We never heard back from the bank.  A month later, it went into foreclosure.  Tyler and I were exhausted, and finally decided to change areas.  All of these homes were in Loudoun county, and we switched our interests to Prince William county, in Bristow and Gainesville.  Our first trip out to Bristow, we happened upon a new construction neighborhood.  For giggles, we walked into the sales office.  Six hours later, we walked out with a SOLD sign.

I had panic attacks for the next few months during the building process.  Were we making a horrible mistake?  Were we going to be able to afford it?  Would we like our neighbors?  Were we going to hate our commute? But it was getting too late to back out:

The building process was amazing.  It took under 90 days from start to finish.

I was amazed at how much progress they made every time I went out:

And finally, on June 24, 2008, we closed on our new home.  

Its still a huge work in progress getting it decorated and set up.  But I'm madly in love with our house, and our neighbors and community.  Building was the best decision we ever made, and it was completely worth the wait :)

C+C's Mexican Slow Cooked Pork Carnitas

C+C Marriage Factory is not only one of my favorite friends, she is also one of my favorite bloggers for her amazing recipes.  When she posted this recipe for Mexican Slow Cooked Pork Carnitas, I knew I had to make them.

Mexican Slow Cooked Pork Carnitas

Ingredients:

2.5 lb pork shoulder blade roast, lean, all fat removed (I couldn't find a small enough shoulder at my grocery store so I used pork loin instead)

6 cloves garlic, cut into slivers

Cumin

Adobo

Garlic powder

3/4 cup fat free chicken broth

2-4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

2 bay leaves

Directions:

Trim pork and season with salt and pepper. In a medium sauté pan on medium-high heat, brown pork on all sides for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Using a sharp knife, cutting small holes in pork and insert garlic slivers. Season all sides of the pork generously with cumin, adobo and garlic powder.

Pour chicken broth in the crockpot, add bay leaves and chipotle peppers. Place pork in crock pot and cover. At this point, if you are making this the night before, you can put the crockpot bowl in the fridge overnight until ready to cook.

Cook low for 8 hours. After 8 hours, shred pork using two forks and combine well with the juices that accumalated at the bottom. Remove bay leaves and adjust salt and cumin (you will probably need to add more). Let it cook another 15-30 minutes.

Servings: 8

Points: 4 pts

Calories: 176

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then, I made her recipe for Cilantro Lime Rice.  This was amazing, truly just like at Chipotle.

Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
Juice of 1/2 lime
2 cups water
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
4 tsp vegetable oil, divided

Directions:
In a small heavy pot, add rice, water, 1 tsp oil and salt. Boil on high until most of the water evaporates. When the water just skims the top of the rice, reduce to low and cover about 15 minutes. Shut off flame and keep covered an additional 5 minute.

In a medium bowl, combine chopped cilantro, lime juice, rice and remaining oil and toss until completely mixed.

Servings: 4Weight Watchers Points: 4 per serving

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And we decided we wanted some beans, and so we made it easy on ourselves:

This was an amazing dinner...definitely a repeat dinner!  I also loved the carnitas over greens for a salad - yum!

Butterfly Cupcakes

Remember these gorgeous butterfly cupcakes?  I first saw them on Annie's Eats, and was so excited to finally get the perfect opportunity to make them.  Her instructions are fabulous, so I thought I'd show you all how I made them as well.

Butterfly Cupcakes

First, drawn an outline for the wings and the antennaes.

And cut out pieces of wax paper that are the right size for you to pipe the outlines.

Fill a pastry decorating bag with candy melts, and secure.  Do this for both the dark cocoa melts, and the colorful melts for the wings.

Place the bag into a glass to keep it upright, and heat in the microwave according to the directions on the bag.

Once melted, use  the dark cocoa melts to pipe the outline of the wings.

Flood the inside with your colored melts.

Use a toothpick to spread the melts to fill the inside.

The use a new toothpick to swirl the brown into the purple.

Sprinkle a few white non pareils onto the edges of the wings.

Then pipe the antennaes.

Once you have a complete butterfly, set aside and move onto the next.

When they are cooled they will harden.  You can then place them on top of an iced cupcake, and use the dark cocoa melts to pipe on the body.  Voila!

By the way - don't set these out in front of a sunny window for any amount of time - after only five minutes, I ruined all of them, and had to redo them.  NOT fun!

Fresh Garden Vegetable Quiche

When I decided to throw a brunch for Donna's baby shower, I immediately started searching out recipes on Good Things Catered's blog.  I can always count on her for something delicious and crowd-pleasing.  She never disappoints, I found this Fresh Garden Vegetable Quiche, and knew I had to make it.  And it was a huge hit!

The pictures were taken before I added the eggs and actually baked it, but they give you a fairly good idea.  Delicious, vegetable goodness!  This is actually one of the first times I used a recipe and didn't change a single thing. 


Fresh Garden Vegetable Quiche

Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
1/2 onion, diced
1 small red pepper, diced
1/2 lb asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 c. mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp herbs de Provence
5 small turkey sausage patties, cooked and chopped
garlic salt and pepper
1 c. reduced fat shredded cheese
4 large eggs
1/2 c. milk
1/2 recipe pastry dough
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees and butter pie plate or deep quiche pan.
-Roll out pastry dough and line pan, fluting edges with fingers.
-Prick dough with fork and place into oven and bake dough for 15 mins.
-Meanwhile, in large, wide pan, add butter over medium heat.
-Heat until melted and add diced onion and pepper with a dash of salt.
-Cook, stirring occasionally until starting to become tender, about 3 minutes.
-Add mushrooms, asparagus and herbs and stir to combine.
-Cook, stirring occasionally and adding salt and pepper as desired, until vegetables become slightly tender, about 10 minutes.
-When you remove dough from oven, add sausage and shredded cheese to vegetables.
-Toss to combine and place into quiche shell.
-In large bowl, combine eggs, milk, salt and pepper and whisk to combine well.
-Pour egg mixture into quiche shell, stir a bit with fork and place into oven to bake for 30 minutes, or until eggs are cooked through.
-Carefully remove from oven, top with Parmesan and parsley and let cool before serving.

Yes, another baby shower!

Last Saturday I hosted a surprise baby shower for Baby Abigail and her momma, Donna.  It was pretty last minute, but I still tried to make it as special as possible.


There were nine of us, so I set up two round tables in the great room:

You probably recognize the tablecloths from the last shower I threw, but I covered the blue ribbon with pink.

Pink straw placemats are from Bed Bath and Beyond, and the plates are my wedding china - Lenox Butler's Pantry.  I wanted something durable enough for microwave, dishwasher and daily use, but could be equally dressed up for company.  Every day, I love my china a little more :)

The centerpieces are from my wedding.  I love that I am able to recycle so many different "party" details, in so many different ways!

I arranged the flowers myself in floral foam.  Its hard to see, but there are three butterflies on wire floating out of the arrangement.

The silver was wrapped in ivory linen napkins, tied with a lavender bow, and had these adorable feather birds clipped on top - in yellow, pink and purple.

Since this was a brunch at 10am, I used my island as a beverage station, and had the coffee pot ready, along with a few other beverages.

Three types of tea for the tea drinkers.  Which turned out to be...no one.  But I like that I now have options on hand for when we have company :)

Sparkling sodas in pink, purple and yellow..the colors of the day!

And, the food.

Baby pink roses as a centerpiece.  Precious.

My pride and joy...butterfly cupcakes.  When this sentence is clicky, I'll have a tutorial on making these.

Biscuits and whipped butter and marmalade.  You can also see fresh fruit in the upper left, and white chocolate dipped oreos in the upper right.

This was one of my favorite parts - a donut hole tower.  I took a styrafoam cone, covered in in silver wrap, hot glued it to a cake round, then attached the donut holes with toothpicks.

Mini Quiches.

Apple Turnovers.

Fresh Garden Vegetable Quiche - this was a huge hit!  The recipe is here.

Blueberry, and Lemon Poppyseed Muffins.

And, mini banana nut bread loaves.

Mmm, I'm hungry again just looking at these pictures!  The party was lovely, and Donna was surprised, and it was so nice meeting all of her friends.  I'm feeling a bit sad though...I have no upcoming parties!  Anyone in DC with something for me to plan?!

Welcome, Abigail!

Even when I am cursing my commute, I daily say thanks for the amazing neighborhood that I live in.  Not only is our house and community lovely, but I have the BEST neighbors.  The women on either side of me are funny and bright, and I know we're going to be good friends for a very long time.  Donna, to my left, and I have gotten to spend a lot of time together, and I count her now as one of my dearest friends.  On Thursday, she gave birth to her second sweet girl, and Tyler and I got to go visit them in the hospital today.


Can I tell you how much my heart melts seeing my husband holding a tiny bundle of love?

This little girl is absolutely perfect, with red hair, and already a strong personality.  Tyler had to laugh because it seems like whenever I get to hold a baby it starts crying, and Abby actually stopped crying when I first picked her up.  I'm pretty sure it was love at first sight, and I can't wait to see this girl grow up.

Donna, you make beautiful babies, and you are so blessed.  Love all of you, and congratulations!