TO DO

On our list of things left to recover, we only have two  BUT one is huge.

This chair is exactly the same as the chair we recovered in pink. We bought them at separate times, differently places and they came in completely different fabrics but they are exactly the same. What we love best about these chairs is that they rock and swivel.

Here is the first chair that is already recovered.

Ok now you might need to shield your eyes or get your sunglasses. For those that haven't had the good fortune of seeing this couch in person, it's not quite as crazy as it looks. Ok it is but we love it. We bought it from a guy whose Aunt had this couch custom made. She didn't sit on it and neither did he. Well, we do and it's old and isn't going to make it, if we don't recover it. It is called "Auntie's couch" our children refer to it as that and they tell their friends, "your not allowed to jump on Auntie's couch". People probably think, we are borrowing it. Well here she is....

Sometime, you come across a piece that's so perfectly perfect, you just let it be. This chair is from my Grandma and she took very good care of it. The fabric is in perfect condition and it goes in my crazy home and it makes me happy.

I am going to listing a few of my favourite eco friendly products next. Stay tuned!

QUICK AND EASY DINNER

I am always trying to find healthy, quick and easy dinners. I made this recipe tonight and it's great, my kids actually ate meat and liked it! My daughter thought it reminded her of Chicken Soup as I served it with plan pasta on the side (no sauce). I made some changes to accommodate what I had at home and those changes are listed at the bottom.

Cheesy Chicken Meatballs


1 lb ground chicken
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup roasted garlic light cream cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 TBSP red pepper flakes
1 TSP Italian seasoning
1 TBSP garlic powder
1 1/2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 TSP salt
1 TSP ground black pepper


Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, stray with cooking spray.


Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl; mix well. Form mixture into 20 meatballs; place on prepared pan.


Bake in centre of preheated oven until juices run clear, 17-18 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the centre should read at least 165 degrees F.


Here is the link to print your own recipe. 


http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cheesy-Chicken-Meatballs/Detail.aspx


Here are the changes, I made. I doubled the recipe and kept the 4 eggs however 3 would have been fine. I just added more bread crumbs but still kept it quite wet. I  used regular cream cheese and warmed it slightly in the microwave so it was easy to combine and subbed in greek seasoning for Italian, leaving the pepper flakes out. I added maybe 3 TBSP more cheese and left out the oil. DO spray your foil, they stick. Ground chicken is always moist and I didn't roll these into perfect little balls. I shaped them slightly and plopped them on the pan.

OUR INSPIRATION

As I was posting the pictures of the chairs, I was trying to figure out how we decided recovering furniture was something we should try. Over the past few days as I was cleaning the house and it came to me. The first is a trunk that I have had since, I was my daughters age. It had patterned paper on it so we put fabric on it and ta-da, updated toy trunk.

Not really that impressive but that's how it started. Here is what followed. My Grandma gave me two wooden boxes. Great heavy solid wood toy box or trunk style boxes. We decided to recover one for my daughters room and one for my son.

JETSON STYLE CHAIR

Well this chair is the sun in my pocket. I have to admit, I put up a fight to recover this. It might have been the work that I knew was involved but I think it was the pink. Pink can be a sickness. It wasn't has hard as it looks other than the cushion, it was responsible for a few lost hairs. Well here she is.....

SUNROOM ROCKER

This chair has been incomplete for a while. Our biggest decision is whether we should put the arms back on. I like it without the arms but my husband wants the arms. I like that you can sit down on it from the front or the sides. At first we were going to sell it but I couldn't bring myself to do it. While the fabric isn't my style, I love it. I think if I ever had a sunroom this would be the perfect chair - it's cheery. We do have a lot of chairs but for now, it sits and waits for our decision - arms or no arms, sell or keep? Want to weight in?

RETRO CHAIR MAKE OVER

This is a rock'n chair, I love it. My husband decided to close in the arms on the chair so it doesn't look exactly like the original. This was a pain to sew! The arms just about did us in, there was quite a bit of frustration on both our parts. I would spew things like, "I only sew straight lines", "I never said, I recovered furniture in our vows", and "who's idea was this anyway". We made it through and it was worth it.

Original

RECOVERING FURNITURE JOURNEY

Besides cakes, the other thing my husband and I tag team is recovering furniture. I love retro/vintage furniture, the crazier the pattern the more excited I get. If I could get my hands on retro fabric by the meter, my house would be insane however they don't make it like they use to and apparently there isn't a market for the sometimes loud and to some, tacky look. Anyway below is the first chair we recovered. I did love this fabric, infact I own a humongous couch in this fabric. The problem was it was worn out and needed some love and if you can't have turquoise, you buy PINK! What a good husband I have.

MAY LONG WEEKEND RECIPES

As promised here are two of my favourite dip recipes. The first one is a bit more indulgent and the other is healthier but so good if no one was looking, I'd lick the bowl.

Hearts of Palm Dip (Say what? You'll find them near canned artichokes)


1 (15oz)  Can Hearts of Palm
1 Cup     Mozzarella, shredded
1/2 Cup  Parmesan Cheese
1 Cup     Green onions, chopped
1/4 Cup  Sour Cream
3/4 Cup  Mayo (I always use light but if you want to indulge, go ahead, I promise not to look)


Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease pie plate. Drain and chop hearts of palm. In a medium bowl mix everything together. Spread into a pie plate. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes, or until light brown and bubbly. 


Recipe from http://allrecipes.com/


I have microwaved this when short on time, but the oven is nice.




White Bean Dip with Pine Nuts


I will prepare you for the cost of Pine Nuts so you don't faint in line or gasp loudly drawing unneeded attention to yourself. I bought about 1/2 cup the other day and they cost me $5.00 CND. They are truly worth it! Another Choice almonds, pistachios.....

2 TBSP pine nuts
2 TSP   fresh basil, chopped
1 TSP   fresh oregano, chopped
1 Cup   Great Northern Beans ( I often sub in Navy beans, a little easier to find)
2 cloves garlic
1 TSP   lime juice
1 roma tomato, roughly chopped
sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste
1 TBSP olive oil

Place the pine nuts, basil and oregano into a food processor. Cover, and pulse 2 or 3 times to finely grind the nuts. Add beans and garlic; process until smooth, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Pour in the lime juice, tomato, salt and pepper, and pulse 2-3 times until mixture is smooth and spreadable. With the food processor running, drizzle the oil into the dip. If mixture becomes too thick, add a TBSP of water at a time until the dip is the right consistency.

Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight to blend the flavours before serving.

http://allrecipes.com/

I did not add the tomato, it didn't appeal to me. I added more water to substitute for the liquid lost. I also added lemon sea salt and toasted pine nuts in the dip and sprinkled them on top of the dip.

I hope you all enjoy the recipes and like them as much as me! If you love them, you can print your own copy from allrecipes.

LITTLE WOODEN PEOPLE

If you are interested in purchasing the cute little wooden people on the wedding cake, I have added the link to the store. They are so wonderful, even if your not an exceptional artist, it's fun to do with the kids. Use pencil crayons, paint or both.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/65385131/three-wood-families-ready-to-paint

Tomorrow, I will post a couple of my favourite dip recipes to help you prepare for any May Long weekend entertaining you have planned.

ROSE CAKE

I wanted this cake! I wanted a pretty cake, a girly cake, a cake that was pink, pink, pink and I got it. Two bags of icing sugar later, this was the cake my husband made me for my Birthday.

Want this yummy goodness for your Birthday? Well, here is the link, go and make the magic happen.

http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/2011/02/rose-cake-tutorial.html

NEW IN LEAF'N LILY

These are a few new things added to Leaf'n Lily.

HELLO KITTY CAKE POPS AND MICKEY MOUSE CAKE POPS

Well, if you haven't heard of Cake Pops then you're in for a treat! They have to be the cutest things ever and quite easy. For my daughter's birthday we made Hello Kitty Cake Pops and for my son we made Mickey Mouse Cake Pops – well kind of a cake pop.

Now if you are going to try and make the Hello Kitty Cake Pops then my tip is to use a paint brush and food colouring as the edible markers we purchased did not work on the chocolate. If you are inspired, here is a link to make some cute treats yourself.

http://www.bakerella.com/category/pops-bites/cake-pops/

MONKEY CAKE AND WEDDING CAKE

This is another cake for my son and it was inspired by Paul Frank. It was a big and scrumptious cake.

My brother was married a few years ago with a stunning backyard wedding. It was on the small side and catered. They decided against a cake because they weren't big on sweets. Well, with me in the family, I wasn't driving across two provinces to a wedding with no cake! HA! So we offered to make them one and wouldn't you know it, they were thrilled. It was a Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt Cake. We had made this cake a couple times before but not this big or for so many people. This cake is a bit of work. It has chocolate ganache, icing, layers of cake and nuts around the edges........is it worth it..........OF COURSE! To add a touch of charm, my very talented husband painted the little wooden people in the likeness of the couple for the top!

SALE

Leaf'n Lily Jewellery is having a 10% off sale now until June 1. Check it out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/LeafnLily?ref=ss_profile

Thomas the Tank Engine Cake Two

This cake was totally awesome. It went off without a hiccup. The best part of the cake was the little train actually moved. My husband totally outdid himself on this one.

NASCAR CAKE AND CINDERELLA CARRIAGE CAKE

My Dad loves car racing and he has been working hard the past few years to get through his bucket list. On his bucket list was to drive a Nascar and he has managed to check that off. When he was up for his Birthday, my husband couldn't resist the challenge of making a Nascar Cake to honour his bucket list accomplishment!

While I think the Nascar cake is cool, the Cinderella Carriage cake is my favourite. It's every little girls dream cake and if he's not careful, I might request another one for my Birthday. Our biggest challenge with this cake was weather. It was June and HOT. All the fondant wanted to do was slide off the cake. It was matter of working and refrigerating and working and refrigerating but we got it done. Of course the burnt sugar wheels are another story.