World Market recently invited me to one of their stores to pick out some fun new items to help refresh our backyard. I couldn't pass up the opportunity since we have  a large pool patio area that could definitely use a little help.

I brought my husband and my son with me to World Market, and we browsed around the store looking at all the gorgeous Outdoor Furniture, Outdoor Dining pieces and Outdoor Entertaining items. We found so much stuff we would love, but since there was a budget, we could only take home a few  of our favorite items.

After we did our outdoor kitchen last summer, both my husband and I had planned on making an outdoor shower on the other end of the patio this summer. I loved the idea of an outdoor shower for washing off before jumping in the pool  or hot tub. It's so convenient.

Heres where we planned to put the shower, on this brick paver area near the water hose. Our dog Coco is so hot,  I think he wants a shower o cool off in too! 

And guess what I found at World Market, an outdoor shower! I knew it would be the perfect addition to our pool and patio area, and would fit perfect on the paver area of our patio. 

The shower is pretty simple, it just hooks up to an ordinary garden hose, but that doesn't necessarily mean cold water. The water lines that supply this hose run through our garage's attic, which gets so hot in the Florida heat. This means about 5 minutes of hot water, which is plenty of time for a quick pre-rinse. You can also supply the shower with a long black hose, which if left in the sun will give you some nice warm water too. 

The shower was pretty easy to put together. With the help of my husband, and a glass of wine, we were able to get it together in about 15 minutes. I really love the soap dish feature of this shower. I got some great soaps, a puff-puff, and a cute towel hook and some colorful towels too. I added the little turtle for decoration that I had stuck placed in the closet after we moved last year. 

The shower head is a rainfall type shower too. I love it. It's really cute and functional. 

I used a hose splitter and a small 6 foot hose to hook it up to my water that I got from the local home improvement store. It was super simple. 

I even had enough left over for a few colorful lanterns for our patio table. 

World Market has also teamed up with Southwest Airlines for World Market’s Great Summer Getaway Sweepstakes. There are four weekly grand prize winners that will win a trip for 4 to anywhere Southwest Airlines flies, plus hotel accommodations, and a $500 World Market gift card. Pretty cool, right? Just follow the link above to enter the sweepstakes! 

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What I really like to do is to make simple semi-homemade cocktials that have all the wonderful flavors of a homemade cocktail, but can be made in a snap. These super simple strawberry daiquiris are made in a snap with Barcidi’s new Light Strawberry Daiquiri mix, a few frozen strawberries and a handful of ice. That’s it – it’s too easy.

To make these daiquiris look extra special, I add a sprig of mint from my herb garden and a slice of lime. If your friends complain they’re not alcoholic enough, just add some of Bacardi’s 151 rum as a float on top.

Light Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri

Yield: 2 Daiquiris

Prep Time: 3 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup Bacardi Light Strawberry Daiquiri Mix
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup ice
mint leaves for garnish
lime slices for garnish

Directions:

Add Bacardi strawberry Daiquiri mix, frozen strawberries and ice to blender. Bend on high until ice is crushed and mixture is smooth.

Garnish with a sprig of mint and a slice of lime.

When it comes to at-home entertaining, we want to have our cocktail and drink it too. With BACARDI Classic Cocktails Light, you don’t need to choose between serving great cocktails or socializing with friends. Enjoy the best of everything – the convenience of ready-to-serve cocktails and the confidence of natural ingredients mixed with the world’s most awarded spirit. BACARDI Classic Cocktails Light allow you to serve the best, naturally!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of BACARDI. The opinions and text are all mine. Sweepstakes Rules.

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Since it’s been getting so warm, I’ve been shying away from hot coffee, and opting for cool refreshing morning drinks like this fun caramel macchiato frozen coffee. It’s just ice and International Delight Iced Coffee blended in my blender, and then topped with whipped cream. It’s so easy and perfect for any time of day. You could eve n add some coffee liqueur for an amazing afternoon cocktail by the pool.

International Delight has come up with a fun and interactive way to share and connect with fellow ID fans with their “What’s Your ID?” web page. All you have to do is login with your Facebook account, choose your favorite ID Flavor, and it “pins” your favorite flavor to the map!

When you visit What’s Your ID? you be able to enter to win lots of awesome prizes like:

• Grand Prize: Magical Trip to Orlando! : Includes airfare for 4 to Orlando, Rental Car, 6 night stay at an Orlando Hotel, 7 Day Magic Your Way Ticket with Park Hopper and Water Park Fun & More, $1,000 Spending Money
• $500 Gift Card(10 prizes/1 per week awarded)
• International Delight® coffee creamerfor a year (fulfilled in 52 coupons)(50 prizes/5 per week awarded)
• Baking Kit (50 prizes/5 per week awarded)
• Kitchen-Aid Mixer, Iced Coffee Apron,Free International Delight® coffee creamer coupons
• Coffee Bar Kit (100 prizes/10 per week awarded) Keurig Coffee Maker* and K-Cups, Cinnabon Cinnamon, Free International Delight® coffee creamer coupons, International Delight Travel Mug
• $25 Gift Card (150 prizes)
• $50 Gift Card (150 prizes)
• $100 Gift Card (150 prizes)
• $15 Cold Stone® Gift Card (50 prizes)
• •International Delight® Coffee Mug (450 prizes)
• International Delight® Iced Coffee Tumbler (450 prizes)
• International Delight® Re-Usable Grocery
• (450 prizes) One 24 count case of International
• Delight® Single Serve coffee creamers (450 prizes)
• International Delight® Iced Coffee SillyStraws (400 prizes)
• International Delight® Iced Coffee Beach Towel (400 prizes)

Wow, that’s alot of prizes!!!

For some fun recipe inspiration, I put together this flavor inspiration board on Pinterest. I found lots of sweet recipe inspiration, as well as a a few house things and even a cute outfit!

What’s Your ID? International Delight is looking for their most passionate flavor fans. Put your ID on the map to enter to win a Magical Trip, play games and discover more unexpected delight. Share your ID flavor at http://whatsyourid.com.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.

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Every now and then I like to combine 2 of my favorite comfort foods into one glorious concoction. I’ve done chocolate chip brownies before, chicken Parmesan pizza, and now a sloppy joe pizza. This is one amazing pizza. I started by making a homemade pizza crust lightly seasoned with onion and garlic. I let it rise one in a bowl, and then transfer it to a deep dish pan for the second rise. And don’t worry, if you’ve never made pizza crust before, a pan crust is the easiest one to start with because there’s no rolling or stretching of the dough involved like in regular hand-tossed style pizza crusts.

Now after the crust has rose for the second time, I just press the dough to the edge of the pan, if it’s not already there, and then place it in the oven for a short pre-bake. This ensures the crust is nice and crisp on the outside, and soft and chewy on the inside.

For the sloppy joe filling, we’re not using any canned sauce. This is a homemade sloppy joe filling filled with veggies and Italian seasonings. Then I smother it in mozzarella and provolone. It’s a perfect pairing.

After baking, I just garnish with some fresh green onions and a little Italian parsley. You can also use some fresh basil if you have it on hand. I also love brush the crust with melted butter after baking, it’s the perfect finishing touch.

I’m so happy to be partnering with my favorite sugar, DIXIE CRYSTALS. It’s the only sugar I use in my kitchen, and the only one mom and grandma used too.

You can find my recipe for deep dish sloppy joe pizza over at THE DIXIE CRYSTALS BLOG.

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My son only has one day left of school. I can’t believe how fast the year has flown by. Today he’ll be attending Kindergarten graduation with the older kids (he’s only Pre-K this year). He’s so excited. He picked out his clothes today at Target – his first tie and dressy shirt with slacks. I hope he’ll keep it on for longer than 5 minutes so I can get a picture.

Since there’s only one day left of school, I decided to make something warm and comforting yesterday afternoon. So I took all the stale bread, chopped it up and made this apple butter filled bread pudding.

If you like apple butter on toast, you’ll go crazy for this bread pudding. It’s so decadent. I garnished it with lots of whipped cream, walnuts and caramel sauce. I made it in a skillet, so that it can easily be made on the grill too, but you can also make it in a casserole dish in the oven.

Check out these other posts also made with Musselman’s apple butter:

• Brandi’s Apple Butter BBQ Sauce Smothered Grilled Chicken
• Paula’s Smoked Ribs with Sweet Carolina BBQ Sauce
• Susan’ Mini White Chocolate and Apple Tarts

Apple Butter Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

8 cups cubed stale bread
2 eggs
1 cup cream
1 cup Musselman's old-fashioned apple butter
1 cup chopped walnuts, for garnish
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for garnish
Caramel Sauce for garnish

Directions:

Heat oven to 350° (or grill). Add bread, eggs, cream and apple butter to a large bowl. Mix well. Spray a large cast iron skillet with non-stick cooking spray. Pour in bread pudding.

Bake for 30 - 40 minutes, or until bread pudding is set. Garnish with whipped cream or ice cream, walnuts and caramel sauce.

This post sponsored by Musselman’s apple butter. All opinions 100% mine.

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One of my favorite finds when we were at Disney a few weekends ago was Licor 43. I can’t believe I’ve never tried it before, it’s amazing. It’s a Spanish liqueur made from different citrus flavors, vanilla and other herbs. 43 different flavors to be exact. This is no new product either, legend has it that Licor 43 dates back to 200 B.C., to Roman times. Supposedly after the Romans conquered the city of Quart Hadas, they discovered a liqueur made from citrus and aromatics. They passed the recipe down from generation to generation. In 1924 Diego Zamora purchased the recipe, along with a distillery in Cartagena, Murcia, Spain and starting producing Licor 43.

For the past week or so, we’ve been experimenting with it, adding it to Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper and different juices. This liqueur makes almost everything taste amazing. But yesterday, I was playing around with it, trying to combine two of my favorites, a mojito and rum and pineapple along with this liqueur, and this is what I came up with, the perfect tropical summer cocktail, a 43 pineapple mojito.

I purposefully left the sugar out of this cocktail because of the sweetness of Licor 43.

43 Pineapple Mojito

Ingredients:

1 oz gold or dark Rum, we used a dark, Cayman Reef
1 oz Licor 43, Curenta y Tres
1 1/2 oz pineapple juice
1 mint leaf, muddled, plus more for garnish
1 slice of lime

1 cup ice

Directions:

Add mint leaf to cocktail shaker and bruise with a spoon. Add ice, rum, Licor 43 and pineapple juice. Shake well and pour into cocktail glass.

Garnish with more mint and a slice of lime.

© Angie for Eclectic Recipes, 2013. | Permalink | Leave a Comment

Pins above are from my Pinterest Board, Hallway Ideas.

I’ve started painting again. This time, the hallway. I was going to tackle my office next, but the hallway was really bothering me. Especially since several people had recently been in our home and commented on the “angry red” hallway. Not that there’s anything wrong with a red hallway, I think it could have been done well with another shade of red, but our hallway was a bright, deep magenta and very yellow beige. It just wasn’t our taste, or any of the tastes of anyone who’s set foot in our house.

This is a photo I took right after we moved in, excuse the laundry basket at the end of the hallway. And see those squares to the left on the upper wall? I’m still not quite sure what those were for, they were a bear to sand off though. Maybe painted frames for pictures?

And here’s what I did this weekend. I painted out all the trim, bottom half of the wall and doors my new favorite white – Sherwin William’s Alabaster. The walls are Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue, which is a lighter blue green.

Now I really want my hall to be special, and I know I can’t do much because it’s such a narrow hallway. My mother and mother-in law both had gallery type hallways for family pictures.

Here’s some ideas that I’ve found on Pinterest. Most of the things I found have to do with some sort of gallery, so I’m thinking now maybe beach family photos? Or a frame collection? Maybe a hall of different mirrors? And should I add a rug? What color? Do you think there’s room for a small table  on the wall with the small wall to the right? And should I change the light fixture?

I really like those white lights below, but our ceiling is definitely too low. And I also love the long shelf on the wall, it’s so organized.

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This past weekend we had our first mini vacation of summer. It was a short trip to Disney right here in Orlando. Food Blog Forum was hosted again by Disney World, and it was a beautiful weekend. We got to Disney early Friday morning, my husband, his younger sister and her husband and my son. We hit the the parks early and road as many roller coasters as possible. For the rides my son couldn’t get one, we left him with my sister-in-law. Having another couple to take care of little ones is essential when there’s roller coasters involved!

Above photo: Julie

Later that evening I attended the welcome reception and got to catch up with dear food blogger friends I hadn’t seen in what seems like forever, plus meet some new bloggers along the way! Early Saturday morning, my family hit the parks, and I dragged myself out of bed and made it to the conference. We spent all day listening to the most inspirational bloggers, David,  Elise, Julie, Lindsay, Todd and Diane and Jaden.

Above photo: from Jenny, and that’s me, Leslie, Paula, Jenny, Rebecca and Tina.

Later that night we road a few more rides before eating at Sanaa at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which I really hope we get to stay in next year. This year we stayed in the Grand Floridian, which is a beautiful big white resort with a cross between a Key West and old Plantation style. The rooms are very old-fashioned, but still super cute. The Animal Kingdom resort lodge surrounds a large area where they keep lots of animals. And as you dine, you can watch the giraffes and other animals roam around. It’s so gorgeous.

They gave us roses at the restaurant, my son photo bombed Sabrina with Perry the Platypus, we took the ferry back over to the resort  and then Julien picked me my favorite flower, a gardenia as we walked back to the room, so he didn’t get in too much trouble that night.

On Sunday, we woke up as early as possible and left for Magic Kingdom to ride as much as we could before. My sister-in-law and her sweetie didn’t have to get back to work until Tuesday morning, so we were able to spend most of the day on Monday together too.

Our last getaway together was to Sugar Mountain to go skiing. It was so much fun, and equally exhausting. And now our next getaway is going to be a next excursion in a Vegas vacation! We’ve been talking about it for years, and I guess we should have went before we had a kid, but better late than never.

We’re leaving the little one with Grandma and flying out to Vegas for a weekend. I can’t wait! From all the beautiful hotels to the shows and those amazing buffets. We plan on eating our way through Vegas, with a little gambling here and there.

I’m actually booking the trip today, and I found the most amazing deal with Southwest Vacations. They have the best deal on Las Vegas Vacations that I’ve found. Right now, when you use the promotional code VEGAS, you can save up to $100 when you book your flight and hotel to Las Vegas with Southwest Airlines Vacations. The more you spend, the more you save: save $50 on a package $500-$100, save $75 on a package $1000-$2000 and save $100 on a package over $2000. You can also customize your vacation package to include car rental, show tickets, attraction passes, tours and more. This deal is only good for trips booked between through May 27, so hurry over to their site here!

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I can’t believe it’s already Memorial Day weekend! My son is counting down the days until summer vacation. He’s hoping for an epic type Phineas and Ferb (a kid’s cartoon) summer, in which him and his Dad build all sorts of crazy things. My husband is already making plans for some type of fort in the backyard. They’re going to have a blast. This weekend though, we’re going to attempt to relax, lounge around, watch movies and of course grill.

A few weeks ago, we were eating some grilled wings by the pool and my husband had some srirachi for his wings, and my son had his little ranch bottle. Then my son said, as he does almost every time we eat, “Would ranch taste good with …. that hot sauce?” (Over the past year or so he’s asked me if ranch tasted good with everything from chocolate ice cream to cheese) This time I thought hmmm, then I stuck my finger in both sauces and tried it. Wow, was it good!

So I knew what I had to do, combine these two amazing sauces with a burger. I made chicken burgers, but I’m sure turkey burgers would have been just as good. I just drizzled each sauce on top of the burger, but if you don’t like things too spicy, start with a small bowl of ranch, and then add a little sriracha at a time until it’s what you like.

Sriracha Ranch Chicken Burgers

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground chicken
1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch Salad dressing and seasoning mix
4 hamburger buns
sliced tomato
lettuce
Hidden Valley Ranch Buttermilk Dressing
Sriracha

Directions:

Combine ground chicken and Ranch dressing mix. Mix well with hands. Form chicken into 4 patties.

Heat grill to medium heat and place burgers on grill. Grill until well done, or internal temperature is 165°.

Place chicken burgers on buns and top with sriracha and Hidden Valley Ranch buttermilk dressing. Add lettuce and tomato and serve!

This post sponsored by Hidden Valley Ranch. All opinions 100% mine.

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In college I use to have this wildy entertaining friend. She had the best stories of anyone I’ve ever met, and I was so drawn to her, wanting to share in her life. Oh, the stories she told, it was almost too good to be true. Unfortunately, those stories were too good to be true. It turned out she liked to make stuff up, alot.

But it didn’t matter. We became great friends, despite her imperfections. You have all different type of friends in your life. She was a seasonal friend, and I’m so grateful to have had her in my life, even though time, work and moving have made us grow apart. I think about her every time I make this pasta salad, a recipe that she taught me years ago.

Since Dreamfields Pasta is hosting their 3rd Annual Pastapalooza Pasta Salad Celebration, I thought it would be a great time to share this recipe. Dreamfields asked a few of us bloggers to create a pasta salad recipe with international flair. Dreamfields Pasta is a delicious all-natural pasta with 5g of fiber, only 5g of digestible carbohydrates per serving and a very low glycemic index. Perfect for us dieters that are attempting low carb diets. This treat isn’t nearly as bad as regular pasta.

Want a chance to win a CASE of Dreamfields pasta?

GIVEAWAY: 1 case of Dreamfields pasta of your choice.

TO ENTER:

1. Visit the DREAMFIELDS website, browse around, find a pasta recipe you would like to make and leave a comment with your favorite.
(bonus entries. You MUST leave a separate comment for each entry to count.)
2. Follow EclecticRecipes on PINTEREST and pin a photo from this post.
3. Follow Dreamfields on PINTEREST.
4. Follow Eclectic Recipes on TWITTER.
5. Follow @HealthyPasta on TWITTER.
6. Like Eclectic Recipes on FACEBOOK.
7. Like Dreamfields on FACEBOOK.

Contest is sponsored by Dreamfields pasta. Contest is open to those 18 years of age of older with a valid US mailing address. Contest runs May 23 – June 28th, 2013 at midnight EST. One winner will be randomly drawn and notified via email. Winner has 48 hours to reply or an alternate winner will be drawn.

Italian Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

1 box Dreamfields Rotini pasta, cooked according to package directions
1/2 cup chopped peperoni
1/3 cup chopped salami
3/4 cup chopped provolone
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
1 cup Italian salad dressing

Directions:

Combine cooked pasta, pepperoni, salami, provolone, cherry tomatoes, Italian parsley, bell pepper and salad dressing in a l arge bowl. Toss well to combine.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Disclaimer: This post sponsored by Dreamfields pasta. All opinions 100% mine. 

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