Summer Salad Swap

An extra Friday in a month means an extra recipe! I'm excited to be part of a "salad swap" with Kelly of Eat Yourself Skinny. We decided this would be a perfect for summer. I'll be on her blog today.

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Hi, I'm Kelly. Ok so I must admit, I LOVE a good salad.  Especially during these hot summer months when you want something light, filling yet {lets be honest} bikini friendly.  So when Heather contacted me to do a fun salad swap, I literally jumped at the chance!  Head on over to my little bloggy to check out her fabulous recipe!

I wanted to create a hearty salad that had a mix of fresh fruit, crisp veggies and lots of protein!  I hate scrimping on salads, I mean let's be serious people...salads typically aren't very filling.  This one however will leave you feeling fat and happy. In a good way.

I love this because you can prepare the marinade in the morning allowing the chicken to absorb all the flavors throughout the day, then just pop the chicken in the broiler when you get home and throw your salad together for a tasty dinner! Easy peasy, no? And don't even get me started on the delicious summer dressing I drizzled over top.  The mixture of freshly squeezed orange juice, olive oil, white wine vinegar and shallots just makes my heart swoon.

Here are your ingredients:

Recipe adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves 

4 cups salad greens

1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced

2 medium oranges, peeled and sectioned

Sliced almonds, toasted

For the marinade:

2 tsp. orange zest

1/3 cup orange juice

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp honey

1 1/2 tsp. dried thyme (or savory)

For the dressing:

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

2 Tbsp orange juice

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 tsp. shallots, finely chopped

Salt and pepper, to taste

Combine ingredients for the marinade and pour over chicken in a resealable plastic bag.  Allow chicken to marinate for 6 to 8 hours in the fridge, turning bag occasionally.  

Line a broiler pan with foil and place chicken on the pan, discarding the marinade.  Season with a bit of salt and pepper and broil 5 to 6 inches away from heat for 15 minutes, turning once.  Chicken should no longer be pink and juices will run clear.

While chicken is broiling, mix together the ingredients for the dressing in a screw top jar and shake well (or whisk together in a bowl).  Divide greens among 4 plates (or 2 for larger portions) and top with chopped peppers and orange sections.  Slice chicken crosswise and arrange over greens and drizzle with dressing.  Feel free to garnish with sliced almonds, if desired.  Enjoy!

Thanks again Heather for doing this super fun salad swap with me!

If you haven't already, head on over to my blog and check out her delicious salad recipe, I know you'll just love it!

~Kelly

The Joys of Lemon Balm

Hello All! Gin, plant guru, here to share one of my new favorites with you...

This past month I have been settling into my little farm house in the country, and each day I find surprises in my yard and home, some more pleasant than others. Last week I caught a snake in my bathroom (non-pleasant), and also found a huge bush of lemon balm planted under my living room window (extremely pleasant).

Last summer I decided to start a little herb pot on my apartment balcony and bought lemon balm to try. I was intrigued by the strong but sweet smell of lemon that came from the leaves. Not only did it produce multiple leaves, but did wonderful in a pot AND survived the heat! It was beyond easy to take care of, and when planted in the yard, pops up every spring on its own. Never hearing of lemon balm or seeing it before, I did a little research and found a plethora of information on this delightful little herb.

Here are some lemon balm facts:

1. Lemon balm is a hardy perennial herb (meaning it will come back next year) that is drought tolerant and does well in the yard or in a planter.

2. Lemon balm is a natural mosquito repellant…fabulous!

3.  Lemon balm is part of the mint family, and can be used in cooking, drinks and home remedies.

4. The essential oils found in the leaves have caffeic and ferulic acid which contain antioxidants. The oils can also help soothe upset stomach as well as calm nerves.

The smell of the tiny leaves alone is a good reason to plant this herb, but I discovered so many things to use it in! 

Lemon Balm Iced Tea

10 Cups of boiling water

5-6 bags of black tea (I find that this tea is stronger than others, so I use less bags)

3 tablespoons of honey (This is by no means a measurement of sweetness if you are used to “southern sweet tea”…I like a subtle hint if it!)

10-12 leaves of lemon balm

Place all ingredients in pitcher and let steep for about 7 minutes. Pour over ice and garnish with a few leaves of lemon balm.

Lemon Balm Gin & Tonic

2 oz. gin

5 oz. tonic water

3 leaves of lemon balm (torn in half to release oil)

1 lime wedge

Pour ingredients of ice and stir well.  Tasty and smells like summertime!

Hot Lemon Balm Tea

4-5 lemon balm leaves

1 cup boiling water

1/2 teaspoon of honey if desired

Let steep for about 5 minutes.

Also try lemon balm in these:

·         Add to any sugar cookie dough recipe to add color and subtle lemon flavor

·         Bake with fish or roast chicken

·         Rub leaves on picnic table to keep pesky flies away

·          Add to salads, marinades, and salad dressings for a bright, fresh flavor

·         Steep leaves in water overnight, add to spray bottle for a refreshing after- shower spray

The uses for this herb are endless not to mention beneficial… who can resist the sweet smell of lemon?  I have found so much joy in this herb I knew so little about, and I hope you do to! 

~Gin

This is Heather popping in to the post. Gin's new Etsy shop has launched! Remember her awesome post about succulents and the adorable pots she used? You can find pots in this fashion at Gin'O Ceramics. Be sure to check it out!

Chai Latte Milk Shake

 

This was one of those last minute, desperate recipes that comes together out of sheer need for something sweet and cold and the lack of desire to leave the house for an overpriced drink.

I cheated on the tea because we had chai bags already in the house. Which, by the way, we love. (I'm totally betraying my heritage by going the quick route to chai, but frankly I'm ok with that.)

This shake tasted absolutely D-I-V-I-N-E on a warm June afternoon, and we sucked them down in a mere 30 seconds.

Chai Latte Shake Recipe

1. Slice the top layer of a vanilla bean and scoop the seeds into a pot.

 2. Add 2 cups of milk and bring to a slow boil. 

3. Once boiling, remove from heat and add three chai tea bags. Remove pan from heat and allow the tea bags to steep in the milk for several minutes.

2.  Measure one and a half cups of of the tea and let it cool to room temp. (I sped this up by letting it chill in the freezer for about 5 minutes.)

3. Add tea, 2 cups of ice and 4 scoops of vanilla ice cream to the blender. Blend until smooth.

*Makes two shakes.

Don't you just love vanilla beans? I've only cooked with them a few times but feel like such a foodie when I do. Remember my vanilla bean pots de creme? They were probably my favorite dessert of all time, starring the almighty bean. What are some of your favorite vanilla treats?

DIY: Summer Picnic Placemats

Hello to all the lovely readers of The Lovely Cupboard! It's your crafty contributor, Mareth, here again to share a fun and easy summer project with you.

The bright floral patterns and slick finish of oil cloth always remind me of outdoor dining and cool beverages on warm evenings. What better project for this fabric than a set of summer picnic placemats?!

These placemats are easy as pie and only require a handful of supplies:
   -oil cloth
   -bias tape binding
   -ribbon 
   -sewing machine.

1. Start by cutting 2 pieces of oil cloth approximately 16" wide and 12.5" tall for the inside and outside pieces.
2. Cut a 5" x 7" piece to make your cutlery pocket.
3. Fold in each side of the pocket piece by 1/2" and add a top stitch around all sides.
4. Next, stitch your pocket piece to the inside mat piece.

5. Now you're ready to add your binding. To make this process even easier, use a glue stick to glue the inside and outside pieces of your mat together, wrong sides facing. This will keep the pieces secure while you prep and sew the binding.

6. Tuck your inside and outside mat pieces into the fold of the bias tape. Use hair clips to hold the binding in place before you sew. You can also use pins but they can be tough to insert into oil cloth and can also leave holes.

Check out this tutorial for help in making nice mitered corners for your mats.

7. As a finishing step, sew a piece of ribbon to one of the short sides of your mat so that you can tie it up in a roll for easy packing.

Now pack up your new placemats, some tasty snacks, a bottle of summer wine and hit the park!

       ~Mareth {Lime Riot}

***This is Heather popping in to the post. Doesn't that just make you want to find a park right now?? Head over to the Facebook page to see the stencil giveaway winner!***

Home Spa Part 2 & Stencil Giveaway

Today is part two of my DIY home spa series. As much as I wish summer sun gave me a gorgeous glow and nothing else, that's just not the case. I tend to tan unevenly, especially on my face. While some leave the pool looking sun kissed, I end up with blotchy dark spots that usually have to be spackled with concealer.

I found the recipe here, and this mask made promises to help reduce uneven skin tone and brighten your complexion. Since it called for ingredients that I already had in my fridge, I gave it a try. I'm not gonna' lie; it was a runny mess. Do not apply while standing on Persian carpets, or for that matter, even a rug from Target. I wanted to take a funny shot with it on my face, but it dripped so much that I stayed in the bathroom for the 15 minutes. I think next time (yes, I will be using this again) I'll just apply it before a shower. 

One plus was that this mask didn't tingle like the basking soda mask I posted several months ago, but it also didn't have the immediate results. I know yogurt and lemon are natural whitening agents that need more than one application to work, as do most skin care products whether natural or synthetic. My plan is to do this mask every other day for a week and see what happens.

Now for a dramatic change of topic.  My latest sponsor is hosting a giveaway that any DIYer will love...

One of you will be winning $50 to use at Cutting Edge Stencils!

1. Leave a comment about where or what you want to stencil.

2. "Like" The Lovely Cupboard Facebook page or follow me on Twitter.

I'll randomly pick a winner on Friday and announce it on my Facebook page. If your name is chosen,  we'll work out the details via email to get your $50 gift certificate. Good luck!

If you're into homemade beauty treatments, check these out:

Home Spa Part 1: Lemon Bar Sugar Scrub

DIY Facial Mask with 2 Ingredients

Spicy Crab Cakes

Oh, crab cakes. Anytime I see them on a menu, ordering becomes so much easier. Even though it's still a little scary ordering seafood in a land locked state (Exactly how many hours did it take for this salmon to reach Missouri??), I throw caution to the wind with these golden, crispy delights. 

Looking back now, I didn't realize how fortunate we were living in Texas. Seafood, even though caught from the Gulf, was so much fresher and readily available. We vacationed in New Orleans several times in my childhood, and I grew to love the Cajun approach to spicing up seafood... etouffe, gumbo, and spicy crawfish boils. In my opinion, it's seafood at its best.

This is not a gourmet recipe by any means. Just a little Cajun hot sauce quick fix to make my  crab cakes have a spciy kick. I used Paula Dean's recipe as a guide but adapted it a bit.

 Spicy Crab Cakes Recipe:
Ingredients:
   -1 pound lump crab meat
   -2/3 c crushed crackers
   -3 green onions (chop white and green portion)
   -1/2 cup finely chopped celery
   -1/4 c mayonnaise
   -1 egg
   -3 tbls Cajun hot sauce
   -1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
   -1 tsp spicy mustard
   -juice of 1/2 lemon
   -1 tsp sea salt
1. Mix together the ingredients above until dry and wet ingredients are combined.
2. Form into patties (makes about 8 small or 6 large). Dust with flour.
3. Heat olive or grapeseed oil in frying pan on medium heat.
4. When oil is hot, place 3-4 crab cakes at a time in the pan. Fry for 4-5 minutes on each side. They should be golden brown when finished.

Sauce:
Mix together 1 cup mayo, 3 tablespoons hot sauce, and 1 tsp garlic salt.

We had our crab cakes with a mixed salad and lemon spinach couscous. This was my favorite thing I ate all week.

I want to get adventurous and learn about Cajun cooking, but it seems a little intimidating. I need to start with something easy...maybe I'll chuck it all and see if Cafe Dumonde will just deliver beignets.

 What kind of cuisine makes you nervous to cook?

Introducing Cutting Edge Stencils

Get ready to be inspired for a new paint project. My newest sponsor, Cutting Edge Stencils, offers a huge array of stencils in all styles. Their website has the most beautiful rooms featuring gorgeous walls. Never stenciled before? Their website even offers tips and instructions to help you through your first project.

1. Zagora All Over Stencil

2. Nadya Damask Stencil

3. Birch Forest All Over Stencil

4. Nagoya Craft Sized Stencil (for pillows and furniture)

Stenciling costs a fraction of the price of wallpaper, and it's much easier to replace down the road if you have a change of heart. Another perk of stenciling is that you can create a custom look that works with your color scheme as opposed to finding wallpaper in exactly the color and style you need.

You might remember my DIY stencil project. Making my own stencil took a lot of time, guess work, and added hours to my project. Honestly, I would not try it again knowing that such gorgeous and inexpensive stencils exist. (If only I had know about this a year ago...)

Stenciling pillows??? Yes please! I can't wait to try it.

So today I have a little surprise for you- Cutting Edge Stencils is offering a 10% discount for all Lovely Cupboard readers. Just enter the code "LC10" when you order. Also, stay tuned for a stencil giveaway for one reader next week!

Home Spa: Lemon Bar Scrub

Have you ever read the back of some of the beauty products hanging out in your cabinet? Most of mine have multiple ingredients that I can't even pronounce much less know where they come from. As an organic food junkie, I recently started to feel like I'm neglecting a huge aspect of natural products: what I put on my skin.  

Oh sure, I buy J.R. Watkins "natural" hand soap from Target, but that's really more for the gorgeous packaging and scent. I don't even want to think about what's really in the mascara that I swipe on my eye lashes multiple times a week. Until I know what to do about that, at least I can feel good about this scrub.

Today is the first in a series of DIY home spa recipes I'll be sharing this month. This lemon bar sugar scrub, like the others that will follow, is a beauty treatment you can make at home with ordinary ingredients found in your kitchen cupboard or market. 

This scrub smells just heavenly, and it turns out things found in nature do a great job of exfoliating dead skin and adding a little life to your cuticles. Big plus? I can even pronounce all the ingredients.

I'm planning a post soon on all the reasons why I love grapeseed oil so much. It has practically replaced olive oil in my kitchen and is a perfect match for this scrub because it is such a light oil. Coconut oil is actually used in a lot of natural skin care lines. You can find both at any health food store.

Lemon Bar Sugar Scrub Recipe

You will need to make one brown sugar batch and one cane sugar batch using the same formula. Later you will layer these in the jars.

1. Mix 1/3 cup of coconut oil 1/3 grapeseed oil. Heat for 10 seconds in the microwave. This will break down the coconut oil so you can mix it with the grapeseed oil. Allow this to cool for a couple minutes.

2. Mix one and a half cups of cane sugar with the oil.

3. Add the juice and zest of one lemon and stir. Repeat this process with the brown sugar.

4. Spoon  brown sugar batch at the bottom of the container to look like the "crust" and the cane sugar batch to look like the "lemon filling".

To Use:

1. Run you hands under the faucet.

2. Scoop out a teaspoon and scrub hands gently for about 30 seconds.

3. Lather well with soap and rinse to remove the scrub.

The cute little jars came from Michaels. They were only $3 each. I gave one jar to my best friend as part of her birthday gift and put the other over my kitchen sink. It feels good to know that I'm using at least one homemade, natural product. (Ignoring the  mascara for now...) Plus, this is a lot cheaper than any scrub I'd find on the shelves at Sephora.

I'll have another DIY spa recipe this time next week to share. Have one of your own? I'd love to hear it in the comments section.

Frozen Banana Pops

Since I'm home for lunch most days this summer, I find myself just wanting a little bite of something sweet.  I love any kind of ice cream treat, but goodness knows I don't need a full blown dessert for lunch everyday. That's the beauty of these little freezer pops; you can just have a couple at a time as needed. (Yes, sometimes it is needed.) 

These treats are gluten free and overall pretty healthy. Potassium from the bananas, antioxidants from the dark chocolate, and essential oils from the nuts.  I'm going to go ahead and say that eating these is practically like taking vitamins, right? They taste so rich, however, that they feel like a splurge.  

I used a mixture of dark and milk chocolate, chopped pecans, and dried coconut. This coconut is incredible. It is not that artificially sweetened, sticky, chewy stuff that most of us grew up cooking with. It's an organic shredded and unsweetened coconut and is so light and flaky. After you've tried this, you'll never buy that other junk again. (Unless you're making homemade Almond Joys-I think sticky, sweet, chewy coconut is a requirement for those.)

 

Frozen Banana Pop Prep:

1. Melt equal parts milk and dark chocolate in a double boiler on low heat. 

2. Once melted, cut bananas and dip in chocolate using toothpicks. Roll in nuts or coconut and lay on wax paper.

3. Freeze for 2-3 hours before eating.

4.  Since they are pretty hard when they come out of the freezer,  I let them thaw just a few minutes before eating.

These can last in an airtight container in your freezer for a month before the bananas start losing their sweetness.

I had so much melted chocolate and coconut left that I frantically searched for, grabbed, and dipped the only other fruit I had in the house. (There was a shriveled kiwi that had evaded me in the bottom of the fruit bowl, and don't think I didn't consider dunking that poor little guy in some chocolate.)  I have never added coconut to chocolate dipped strawberries before and was pleasantly surprised. It adds another element to a classic combo and gives it a little more texture. Plus, don't they looks so fancy and pretty?

 

In other news, I am trying so hard to savor every moment of summer this year.  I wish time would just slow down. Even though I'm not teaching, I am working a full work week.  It's work that I would do even if I wasn't being paid. I don't think I've shared this on the blog, but I do interior design on the side. So far,  I've worked by word of mouth because I can only take so many clients during a busy school year.  In the summer I can handle more and stay pretty busy.

I absolutely adore this work.  It flows well with blogging because I find design inspiration everywhere in blog land. Plus it's a little difficult to switch gears during the school year and and allow for creativity after spending nine hours a day doing something so completely different. The process of creating and cooking flows seamlessly with designing spaces where people live, cook, and eat.

This fall I'm officially launching the business locally in my town. I'm just starting the branding process,  trying to collect pictures from past projects to build my portfolio, and get a website ready.  All of this takes time. Lots and lots of time. To do lists in a creative field are not as easy to check off as I thought they'd be.

Plus, some exciting blog related things are ahead too. (I know I've been saying a redesign is coming, but it really is coming soon this time!)

All this business has a tendency to make time fly. As much as I love what I'm doing and have craved these couple months to get the work done, I don't want June and July to be blur when I look back on them. I want to build memories with family and friends that have nothing to do with an agenda or to do list and lots to do with good food, fine drinks, and late night conversations. 

Is it possible to have both a highly productive and relaxing summer?

Father's Day Gift Round Up

Hey friends! It's Tan from over at Squirrelly Minds! I was here last month talking about brunch ideas to treat mom on her special day. This month I'm talking father's day. Yes father's day. Can you believe it's already here? Maybe you're the lucky kinda kid who has a dad (or other special father figure) that's super easy to buy for. He loves books, CD's, cologne, you name it. But if you're anything like me, you dad is the hardest person to think of that perfect gift. Whenever I ask my dad what he'd like his response is always the same: "Nothing. I have everything I need." Here are 4 ideas of what to get the dad who has everything he needs:

My brother and I did this for my dad once and it was a huge hit. We purchased different beers from all over the world, put them into a basket and voila, at home beer tasting. For about a month my dad always had a new beer to look forward to each evening. You could also theme it - choose beer of only one variety or use only local beers from microbreweries. If alcohol isn't an option, you could instead do coffee or tea. Either way, this gift will remind your dad of his adoring kids, every time he takes a sip.

$20 - $150 (Prices Vary)

It's safe to say a good chunk of men enjoy standing in front of the grill cooking up some meats on a summer day. Using the same grilling tools every summer (or in my father's case, year round) causes wear and soon enough they need to be replaced. Why not get your dad a new set with its own nifty case?

$112.82 at William Sonoma / $62.50 at Amazon / $69 at Home Depot

Wholeness

I watched Jane Fonda on OWN the other day...She told her story and shared the lessons she's learned in 74 years. I sat on the couch for an hour totally captivated. She said something that not only resonated with me, it continues to play in my mind over and over, "We are not meant to be perfect.  We are meant to be whole."

I just need to make that my mantra and marinate in it for a while. Whatever your faith or belief system, you can't deny the weight and truth of that simple line. Perfection is unattainable, but wholeness seems like something to hope for.

The Ugly Cycle
I know so many of us deal with the struggle to do everything or to be everything to everyone. I think women deal with this more than men do, though I'm not really sure why. We take on so much, expect ourselves to handle it seamlessly, and then feel like failures when we can't. In my case, I either get discouraged (and self-medicate with a pint of Ben & Jerry's) or feel this drive to do things that are completely unrealistic, setting goals that I know I can't live up to. You can't climb Everest when you barely make it down the block.

Satisfaction
I need to be fine with just making it "down the block". I will never _____ as well as _______. And that's ok. (Fill in the blank. I could fill it in several times over.) I may not have _______, but that's ok. Again, take your pick. We all have these areas that rob us of our mental energy. Satisfaction is not something that our culture breeds. Everything pushes us for more. Be more, do more, buy more. I'll admit, I even had to take a brief hiatus from Pinterest. (I think Pinterest should come with a warning: If at any time you feel inadequate, stop pinning and see your doctor immediately. 

Weeknight Dinner: White Cheddar Gnocchi with Kale

 

 

Nothing says comfort to a Southern girl like a pot of dumplings...except maybe mac-n-cheese. In this dish, I tried to combine the comfort food appeal of both. Gnocchis are the Italian equivalent of dumplings (or as any Texas grandma would say, "dumplins"). Pronounce "no-keys",  they are made from potatoes. These little guys are wonderful in soups, and in traditional Italian cuisine are served like pasta with sauce. Perfect for a weeknight dinner, they take under 5 minutes to cook.

Maple Glazed Cast Iron Cinnamon Buns

Hello, it’s Heather Hands from The Flourishing Foodie. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the chance to share this recipe with you. Soft, tender, sweet, melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon buns. Guaranteed, once you place these buns in the oven, the smell of cinnamon, sugar, and yeast, will have you mesmerized, counting down the seconds until you can sink your teeth into one of these sweet tender morsels.

I have a little confession. It was actually my husband (Mr. H) who taught me how to make
cinnamon buns. Before I met him, embarrassingly, the closest I ever came to making one was adding extra cream cheese icing to my Cinnabon at the mall. When I was feeling a little self-indulgent, I would saunter over to the mall, sit down and devour the whole thing shamelessly. I’m excited to say that I can now make my own, and the best part, they taste even better.

 Trying to one up Mr. H, I thought it would be fun to try and bake them in a cast iron skillet, adding a little twist to an already amazing dessert. I found a great recipe a couple of months back, tweaked a few things, reducing the amount of flour, and created my own maple sugar glaze. I added a few flakes of salt to the icing, which complements the sweetness nicely. The brown butter gives the buns a sweet nutty flavor. I used the leftover butter to brush the pan, and when the cinnamon sugar pools on the bottom, it transforms into a magical sticky sugary glaze on the bottom of the buns.