Paper & Pi

I am back and there is a New Paper & Pi store!

2017-08-28T18:11:00.003-04:00

Hello Everyone. It has been a long time. Life just got really busy. My Etsy store has been doing incredible. I have had the most wonderful clients and have been able to make to most beautiful things for them. I am still amazed on the positive reactions I am having towards my products. I am very lucky to have taken a hobby that make me happy and have turned it into a business. I have now decided to open a new large online store away from Etsy. I love Etsy and will keep my Etsy store open but I would like to have a store that I can tie my web page and my blog with it. You can find the new store here. Please tell me what you think. I will be tweaking it for the next months so it can be perfect.

When I have not been working, I have been busy with Addison and all his things. Since it has been forever since I have blogged there are so many new exciting things to share. Addison is officially a senior in high school. Can you believe it? If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen our 8 day college road trip. 14 colleges in 8 days. It was crazy and exhausting. We didn't kill each other and Addison now has a better feeling on what type of college he would like to attend. He has chosen is top 5 and I will let you know what he decides later.

If have also been following my adventures on Instagram you would have notice we have a new addition to our little zoo. We got another French Bulldog last year. Her name is Stella and she is a handful. It is nice to have a puppy in the house. She keeps Addison on his toes and keeps Luna young.

The farm is doing great. We are building a platform for the tipi. The goal is to get it done so we can have a big Thanksgiving down at the farm for the whole family. Please keep your fingers crossed for us achieving this goal. It is going to be a lot of work and we have less than 3 months. We also need to install the new doors, new door hardware, and paint. I know what we are doing Labor Day weekend.

The bees are doing great. We got another hive and now we just trying to learn from both. We have had some ups and downs with them. We had an aggressive hive that we had to requeen. We lost a queen and had a laying worker. We lost half the hive last winter because of a cold snap. We have had small hive beetles problem. But through it all we learning more and more and our loving being beekeepers. We will hopefully have honey next Spring and I can start selling it on my new store. :)

We planted our first garden for the bees this spring. It has been another great learning experience. The herbs, watermelon, a green peppers did great. We had more than enough green peppers and watermelons. I have been handing them out to everyone. Our green beans and sunflowers got eaten by all the deers. And we will not asparagus until next year. We have a plan on what to plant this summer and we our doing research in what we can plant now. JT really needs to work on fencing so the deers will stop eat everything. That will be another thing on his Honey Do long list. Poor JT. I am just happy to go to the farm and play in the dirt. It is really relaxing and have found a love of gardening.

So yes if I wasn't busy enough I have added more and more on the things to do. The great thing is it keeps us busy especially the new puppy. At least I won't have to worry about having too much time on my hands when Addison leaves for college next year. JT is already talking about fencing in some of the farm property for goats. That would be very exciting. I will just replace Addison with farm animals. That sounds perfect to me. :)

Well, thanks for taking your time to catch up. Talk to you soon.

Etsy Coupon Code

2016-11-26T11:54:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I will be offering $2 off on my Etsy store for my readers this holiday season. Use the code SHOPSMALL2016 to receive $2 off at Paperandpi and shop.paperandpi.com.

S'well bottles are the gift this holiday season. So get your own personalized S'well bottle and get $2 off.

Talk to you soon,

Don't call it a comeback I have been here for years!

2016-07-09T15:28:00.001-04:00

Hello! Yes I am finally back. I have not blogged in over a year and it is time to start back up. Paper and Pi has been doing great. The store and life has gotten extremely busy and I did not have enough time to blog. I needed to figure out how to do both and realized all I need to incorporate both. There is no reason I can not talk about what inspires and motivates and still talk about what I am working on.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know how exciting the past year has been. Paper and Pi has more then triple in sales. I was asked to make pinwheels for the Northside Hospital "Walk to Remember". I was also asked to make pinwheels for Macy's 2016 4th July Fireworks.

I have started selling personalized S'well bottles and Yetis. From presents to corporate logos, the personalized S'wells have been very popular.

And I have also started making cute baby onesies. The gentleman onesie is my biggest hit. :)

The store's products have increased and so has its sales. I am overjoyed on how much people are responding to the products I create and our buying and loving them. Paper and Pi has a new store front: store.paperandpi.com and my Etsy store is still available: paperandpi.etsy.com.

I am trying to remember what was the last thing I was blogging about. Yes I am still cooking and still love to cook. Oh I need to share an easy pasta, peas, and pancetta dish that has become my go to dish when I don't have time to cook.

I haven't been baking a lot lately but that is just because it is 95 degrees in Hot-lanta. I have been slacking on the banana bread baking.

Addison is still diving and doing great. He is 16 now! He got a car and is about to get his license. Part of me is relived because I won't have to drive him to practice everyday now. But of course part of me is worried about my baby being out on the road. He is starting is junior year in high school and thinking about his future. As of today, he wants to major in Electrical Engineering and dive for a college.

Hubby is doing great. Working hard, helping me with my business, and building things at the farm. That is the most exciting thing to talk about, THE COCHRAN FARM. Not only have I been extremely busy with my store, we have been busy with the farm. The farm has become an incredible place. My husband's father passed away last January. It was heartbreaking. But after more than 6 strokes and not being able to eat or talk, his passing was a blessing. No one should live like that. Now he is at peace, flirting with the ladies, and eating all the ice cream bon bons he wants.

His father left us the house and the land before he got really sick. We had been going there when he lived there and when he was in a nursing home. After he passed away we wanted to do something great with it. We wanted him to be proud that we still love and are enjoying the place that he held so dear. So we decluttered, cleaned, and made it a second home. We have painted a lot, replaced the doors, bought new curtains, comforters, and furniture. It just needed a woman's touch.

Oh but that is not the best thing. We bought a TIPI. I have always had an image of tipis all over the farm after watching Oprah interview Ralph Lauren. My grandmother was half Native American and I remember my father had a picture of her in her Native American clothing. The tipi turned out beautiful. We set it up before Addison's 16th birthday party and have been enjoying it ever since.

Right now JT is building a platform for it and this will be its permanent location. It will be looking over the field and will have room for chairs.

The Cochran Farm has not just received a tipi, some furniture, and a new paint job. The Cochran Farm has it's first animals. We got HONEYBEES!!! We have always been interested in honeybees. We buy our honey from a local beekeeper. When we usually purchase honey we buy about 6 bottles at one time. We use a lot of honey for tea, baking, etc. We always wanted honeybees and be able to have our own honey. When I saw a video about the Honey Flow, my engineer brain fell in love. Being able to tap honey and not disturb the bees is a brilliant idea. We set everything up and purchased our bees at the beginning of the summer. So far the bees are doing great and love their new home. The are bringing in pollen, reproducing, and making honey. We might not have enough honey to extract this year but we will definitely have more than enough next year.

The Cochran Farm has become our incredible family home where we relax with family and friends. We have had Addison's 15th and 16th birthday parties down there. JT's 39th and 40th birthday parties down there. We have laughed and played. We have learned so much about each other. I have taken many of naps in the hammocks. JT has taught Addison how to cut down trees and build. It has been a place that we are making some incredible memories. It will hopefully be a place where friends and family will come to visit for years, a place our grandkids will enjoy, and Addison's grandchildren will enjoy too.

Well that is enough for now.

Talk to you soon,

Months with Alexa

2015-05-07T14:14:00.001-04:00

We have had Amazon's Echo for months now and I feel like I can finally post an opinion about her. We first had Alexa in the den. The first weeks I would ask her to play music so I could listen to something while I cooked or worked. The problem is Addison complained that it was too loud and bothering him or he would just come in and tell her to stop or play something I did not want to her. He just loves bugging me. We also had to unplug her every time the rabbit was out. All of our cords in the den are in PVC pipe because Stefano loves cords especially speaker cords. He has already chewed thru one laptop cord. So every time Stefano is out Alexa is unplugged and sometimes stays unplugged for days because we forget to plug her back. I started feeling like we were not really using Alexa so I had an idea, lets move her to the bedroom.

I have had Alexa on my night stand for 2 weeks now and I love it. I have found some great relaxation music on Amazon prime. Now while I am falling asleep I am listening to the sounds of rain and crashing waves. This is especially really good when hubby is out of town and I can not sleep because I hear every creak and bump in the house. I have noticed that I am sleeping better and falling asleep faster. I also use Alexa as an alarm clock to wake me up every morning. She has a nice tone that is not harsh and loud that slowly wakes my up. Then I ask her to give me the news report so I can know what is happening in the world that day. Then I ask her to play something up beat to get me moving. Some mornings I just need some "Walking on Sunshine".

So far my nights have been relaxing and my mornings have been better. I am really happy I thought about moving her and she is staying on my bedside table permanently. Oh and last weekend I asked her to play me some Madonna while I folded laundry. She played songs that I had totally forgotten about and laundry was actually bearable. I hate doing laundry. Well actually not washing it. I just hate folding and putting everything back up. Anything that makes laundry bearable gets 5 stars in my book.

I guess I am saying I totally love our Amazon Echo. Now I just have to get the Phillips Hue so she can turn off the lights in our bedroom. I would also love her to lock all the doors so I don't have to get up every night to make sure everything is locked. I know, paranoid much. :) Well I will be working on all of this soon.

Talk to you soon,

New Improved Paper and Pi

2015-04-30T12:31:00.001-04:00

As you can tell, I have updated the blog. I have been in a rut lately and have not been inspired to post anything. We have been very busy traveling, diving, and with school. Now I finally have some extra time and I still don't know what to post. I had a great idea last night. I thought if I cleaned up the blog it would inspire me to write. That usually works when I have to craft something and don't know how I am going to do it. I end up cleaning up the house and viola I have inspiration. Well I still do not know what to share but I am very happy the way the blog looks. Please click around and enjoy. Let me know what you think and what I should change. And please follow me on Instagram and Facebook. I might not blog everyday but I definitely Instagram everyday.

Thank you,

Egg Cups

2015-03-30T19:19:00.000-04:00

Since Easter is around the corner, I have eggs on the brain. It seems like everyone's Instagram feed is full of brightly colored eggs. Eggs being painted on, eggs dyed with vegetables. Addison is too old to dye eggs but I do love to look at everyone's beautiful colorful eggs. But the more eggs is see the more eggs I want to eat. I am not talking about hard boiled eggs. I like my yolks runny. I like to dip my bacon in a sunny side up egg. Or a poached egg on top of a salad. Or a soft cooked egg and dipping your toast in the yolk.

All this egg craving has made me think about egg cups. The Chosen One has got me a little obsessed with egg cups. She has decided to buy different types of vintage ones. I think she is going to have a beautiful collection of them one day.

Her is her beautiful picture of her egg cup. Doesn't that look delicious? We might be best friends but we have different taste. The Chosen One is more elegant and refined.

She would probably love these egg cups:

A Japanese vintage egg cup is perfect for The Chosen One.

This one might be too colorful for her but I think the top is interesting.

I am more quirky and wild. And love these:

My version of Japanese egg cups. LOL!

You can buy them here.

I just love the little chicken feet.

This one is really artistic.

You can buy it here.

I don't know if this one would be easy to eat with but it sure is cute.

You can buy it here.

I believe this is the cutest egg cup and bread holder I have ever seen.

You can buy it here.

I don't know about these. A little too cool for me. I just think they are for the some to match their modern decor style.

Out of all of them I really love the bird on the branch one or the chicken feet. Who knew there were so many different types of egg cups.

Well now I need to make some eggs to satisfy my egg craving.

Talk to you soon,

Pinwheels by Paper and Pi

2015-03-03T20:26:00.001-05:00

I know I know. I was going to start blogging on a regular basis and then I didn't post anything last week. I got so busy with orders, snow, and family stuff but I am back. Yes, it snowed last week. Can you believe it snowed in Georgia? It was beautiful and not as crazy as last year. I am happy that Addison got to see snow again since he is a Georgia baby. We had a snowball fight and relaxed at home for 3 days. Since school was closed, Addison and I watched a lot of movies. I thought it would fun to watch all the Oscar nominated movies since we didn't see any of them, except for "The Lego Movie". I guess that counts. We watched "Whiplash", "Birdman", and "Boyhood". The were all good but "Whiplash" was our favorite. "Whiplash" was amazing! Addison said it was the best movie he had ever seen. He watched it twice in one day. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you watch it. We believe it should have won Best Picture. It had Addison sweating and me yelling at the TV screen.

While I was gone I did continue to cook and craft, I made my favorite pork tenderloin dish. The recipe is from Tyler Florence and you can find it here. The chimichurri sauce is so good. I also
made a yummy roasted tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches (of course). I will share my roasted tomato soup recipe soon.

I purchased the new Baked Occasion cook book and haven't baked one thing out of yet. I should never be too busy that I stop baking. I really need to start baking this week to make up for this travesty. :)

My orders have been actually taking up most of my time. I love it when people purchase my creations. I hear people tell me they like my stuff but one can always wonder if people are just telling you that to be nice. When I receive an order, it really brighten my day and makes me realize I do create beautiful things. This week has been pinwheels, pinwheels, pinwheels. I got an amazing custom order to create pinwheels that could be used for table numbers. What a great idea! I had so much fun making theses especially since the pinwheels were the colors of the rainbow. One can not smile when they are creating with colorful paper. I love the way the turned out.

Since I was in a pinwheel mood, I decided that I need to introduce some more pinwheels to my shop. I try to make different types of pinwheels and think these turned out so cool. Star Pinwheels!

I am thinking they would be great for Memorial Day or 4th of July. But I was also thinking I could do them in different colors like black and gold for a birthday party or graduation.

What do you guys think? I am wondering what other interesting pinwheels I can create. Well time to finish up these orders.

Talk to you soon,

Recipe Cards

2015-02-23T14:06:00.000-05:00

I love sharing recipes with everyone. The recipes I have made that I love and recipes that I have found and changed a little. The ones I love the most are recipes from loved ones that have been passed down from generations. It is great to have all these incredible recipes but how can one organize them. I organize my recipes on Pinterest. I am actually very proud of my Pinterest boards. I have a board for each type of meat, fish or seafood to cook. I also have baking boards broken down to with types of baked goods. Pinterest works well for people who don't mind keep all of their stuff on the web, but what about the people who want recipe cards in the kitchen.

I have decided that all the recipes I post will come with a Paper & Pi recipe card for everyone to print out and cut. Each card can be cut to 4" x 6" dimension. They will be the perfect size to put into a recipe box of your choice. Just click on the picture and download the pdf. I will be slowly updating the recipes on the blog and recipe page.

So where are you going to store your Paper & Pi recipe cards? Well, I found some amazing recipe boxes to hold your recipe cards.

Rife Paper Co. has some of my favorites (of course):

One Canoe 2 Letterpress has a wood recipe box also but I really think the berry box is quite interesting:

I wonder if I could convince hubby to make me a wood recipe box? He loves working with wood and handmade gifts are the best. I will let you all know what he says. If he says Yes, I will have him make two so I can give one away to one of my readers. That would be a cute giveaway.

I hope everyone enjoys the Paper & Pi recipe cards. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Talk to you soon,

How to Make the Perfect Steak

2015-02-20T14:29:00.000-05:00

Wow what a crazy week we are having in Atlanta. School was cancelled Monday and Tuesday just in case the weather turned bad. The only thing it did was rain. It was not cold enough for it to turn into and make the roads dangerous. It did get really icy in the North Georgia cities so I am glad they cancelled school just in case. We all remember last year, when they did not cancel school and children were stuck at school and sleeping on buses. It is better to be safe than sorry. Yesterday was freezing the high was 27 degrees and the low was 13 degrees. Addison said he wished they would have cancelled school yesterday than Monday and Tuesday. I agree. It was too cold to do anything. I don't want to leave the house. LOL!

Since it has been cold I have been cooking up a storm. I love to cook when it is cold. Comfort food is the best. I made steak for the family Wednesday and I took some pictures and a video to show everyone How to Make the Perfect Steak. I hope you enjoy it.

How to Make the Perfect Steak

1. Take your steak out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature.

2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

3. Salt and Pepper your steak.

4. Heat up about 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter in a cast iron pan on HIGH.

5. Wait until the oil and butter are hot and add steak.

While steak is searing carefully spoon brown butter over the steak.

The steak should sear for about 3-4 minutes. Flip the steak when the steak has released from the pan. Never pull off a steak from a pan if it has not released on its own.

6. Spoon the brown butter over the steak while the other side sears. Sear again for about 3-4 minutes.

7. Remove from heat and place in the oven. Check the temperature every 5 minutes. Take steak out when it is 5 degrees below your ideal temperature. 120 degrees for rare. 130 degrees for medium rare. 140 degrees for medium. 150 degrees for medium well. 160 degrees for well.

8. Take the steak out of the oven and out of the pan and let it rest. Let it rest for about 10 minutes.

9. Pat yourself on the back and eat you delicious steak.

Fast and Easy Chicken Gumbo

2015-02-11T18:55:00.002-05:00

I try to cook at least 3 days a week and also make sure there is enough for leftovers the next day. Somedays I enjoy braising meat that can take hours. Other days I just want to make something fast and easy that only takes about an hour. Last night was a fast and easy night. The bad thing is most fast and easy recipe end up without a lot of flavor. Yesterday I wanted a fast chicken recipe so I searched my Pinterest. I found Martha Stewart's recipe for Half-Hour Chicken Gumbo. This recipe was fast and easy because the ingredients are a rotisserie chicken and pre-cooked andouille sausage. I love chicken recipes that call for rotisserie chicken because it cuts the cooking time but still keeps great flavor.

The only problem is I read the comments and people complained that this gumbo was really bland. I did notice that the only spice in this recipe is 1 teaspoon of oregano, which does not make me think of gumbo. I thought why couldn't a take a really great gumbo recipe and use rotisserie chicken and pre-cooked andouille sausage. When we make a Turducken for Christmas we use Chef Paul's Turducken and Stuffing recipe. He is known for his Louisiana cooking. I also had leftover Chef Paul seasoning from our Christmas Turducken. I found Chef Paul's Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo. This recipe has you cooking the chicken and the sausage and takes about 2 hours. It has you coat and fry the chicken in vegetable oil which is one thing I do not like. Yes I hate frying.

Fast and Easy Chicken Gumbo

Ingredients

5 cups chicken stock
4 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 teaspoons Chef Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 red bell peppers (ribs and seeds removed), chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 package (10 ounces) frozen, cut okra
8 ounces smoked (precooked) andouille sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced 1 inch thick
1 rotisserie chicken (about 2 1/2 pounds), skin and bones removed, meat shredded (about 4 cups)

1/4 teaspoon cheyenne pepeer, to taste
2 cups hot cooked white rice

Directions

In a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot, heat chicken stock over medium. Dice the vegetables. Combine the onions, bell peppers and garlic in a bowl and set aside. Combine Poultry Magic and flour in a small bowl.

In medium, heavy skillet heat up vegetable oil. Slowly add seasoned flour. Cook flour whisking constantly until roux is golden brown, about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the skillet from heat and add the vegetables. Stir vegetables with the roux until the roux stops getting dark. Place skillet over medium heat and cook the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender, 10 to 12 minutes.

Add the vegetable mixture to the boiling chicken stock. Sir until the roux is dissolved. Return to a boil, stirring and scraping the pan bottom often. Reduce the heat to low, stir in the okra and sausage. Simmer uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes.

While the gumbo is simmering, pull the rotisserie chicken off the bones and shred it. Stir in shredded chicken into the gumbo. Warm through for about 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and cheyenne pepper.

Serve over rice.

Our Week with Echo

2015-02-10T17:06:00.001-05:00

When I first found out about the Amazon Echo, I wondered if we really needed another electronic device. I watched the videos about it and then realized that this would not just be another voice that answered our stupid question. I realized the more people use it the more people will hack and make new ways to use it. Turning on/off your lights, turning on/off your burglary alarm, locking your doors, reminding you of tasks, making a grocery list.

Well it doesn't do all of that right now but it does make a to do list and a grocery list. If only she could go grocery shopping for me. I hate grocery shopping. Mostly this week we have asked Alexa to play music and I love music playing throughout the house. Addison loves to ask Alexa to play a random song. The funniest time was when he asked her to play "Turn down for what". She did and we had a little dance party in the den. I have asked her to play random oldies so I can educated Addison about music. I have gone to Biz Markie "Just a Friend" to Positive K "I Got a Man" with just the sound of my voice. This also happened because of Amazon Prime music so I must mention that it his important to have Prime if you don't want to buy a bunch of music from Amazon. Prime music also doesn't have every song you can think of but there are also some great playlist on Prime that will have you thinking of songs you haven't thought about for years. Last night Echo played a playlist for dinner a party. She played a little bit of jazz and a little bit of soft rock. I started imagining a dinner party of pasta, wine, great music and friends.

Alexa does not just play music via Amazon Music. You can also connect it with I Heart Radio. I have never used I Heart Radio before but in the past days I have listed to some wonderful streaming music from Beatles to Fleetwood Mac. You can also choose to listen to radio stations from around the world. I remember 10 years ago I would stream a radio station from London. This is where I found Lily Allen and Adele for the first time. I have not streamed radio stations yet but I am excited to use this feature. You can also stream podcast which I am excited about it. I would love to listen to some interesting podcast while I am cooking and crafting.

I feel like I have only been talking about using Echo for music but she has also helped me set a timer for cooking, converted ounces to gallons, and set an alarm to wake us up. We have only had her for a week so I believe we have just scratched the surface. I promise to blog another review after we have had her for month. But if you have Amazon prime and have an extra $100, I say Yes you should get Echo.

New Year's Resolutions

2015-01-29T16:20:00.000-05:00

Hello Again! How is everyone? I am doing great and staying busy. I made a promise to myself that I would start blogging again back in September and then I stopped. So this New Year I made blogging one of my resolutions. I got so busy and put blogging on the back burner but that is really just an excuse. I am never too busy to blog at least 3 days a week. What really happens is a get use to not blogging and start doing everything else but that. I make excuses that the house needs to be cleaned, Addison need help with homework or diving, or I need the finish an order. But I need to remember that blogging keeps me sane, just like cooking and crafting. It gives me a way to share the things I love and that makes me feel great about myself. So 2015 I am going to share again things I create, cook, bake, and love. I hope everyone comes back and I get new readers. And of course I hope everyone enjoys what I have to share. Hey it is cheaper than therapy. :)

Today I would like to share recipe and our 2014 Christmas card.

I made Southernwestern Chicken Soup last night it was so good. I do not have step by step pictures because I decided to blog about this soup this morning but I promise I will start taking step by step pictures again. The Chosen One always tells me she loves my step by step pictures. She actually would tell me to make the recipe again so I could take step by step pictures. LOL!

I get a lot of my inspiration on what to cook from cooking magazines, cooking shows, Pinterest, Instagram, and blogs. One of my favorite blogs right now is the Williams-Sonoma blog. I also follow them on Instagram. I have been getting great recipes from the Williams-Sonoma website for years but when The Chosen One showed me their blog I knew I would love it. I have spent many hours pinning recipes to make in the future.

Four days ago, Williams-Sonoma's Instagram showed a picture of this Chicken-Tortilla Soup and I raced over to the blog to pin the recipe. I thought about it for the next 3 days, purchased the ingredients, and started cooking. I had one problem though. Their recipe was made in a slow cooker. We all know I have a fabulous All Clad slow cooker so this should not be a problem. But my fabulous slow cooker is at the farm which is an hour away. I am not driving to the farm just to pick up the slow cooker so I thought what about my dutch oven. I did some research and found out how to convert slow cooker times to dutch oven times. For the low setting on the slow cooker, you need to divide by 4 to get the dutch oven cooking time. For the high setting on the slow cooker, you need to divide by 2 to get the dutch oven cooking time. Oh the oven should be set to 325 degrees. So the Chicken-Tortilla Soup recipe states cook on the low setting for 5 hours. I cooked it in my dutch oven at 325 degrees for 1.25 hours or 90 minutes.

I did not just change what I cooked the soup in. I did change a few things in this recipe. I browned the chicken before placing tomato, garlic, onion and chiles puree to give the soup some depth of flavor. I also finished the soup on the stovetop instead placing back in the oven to cook the corn. When I added the corn at the end I also added some extra stock to the recipe. I felt like after braising in the oven it needed a little more stock to make it a soup. A lot of the liquid had cooked down. I also served the soup with Jalapeño-Cheddar Corn Bread which is also a Williams-Sonoma recipe. You can find the recipe here. This one of my favorite cornbread to make and with the soup it was amazing. This cornbread is so much better than plain tortillas. Everyone got seconds.

Southwestern Soup

adapated from Willams-Sonoma blog

Serves 6

1 can (15 oz) tomato purée or crushed tomatoes

1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic, smashed

2 jalapeño chiles, seeded and chopped

8 cups chicken stock

2 lb. skinless, bone-in chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat

3 limes

1 tsp. red wine vinegar

1 tsp. ground cumin

3 bay leaves

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 1⁄2 cups (15 oz./470 g) thawed frozen corn kernels

2 small avocados, halved, pitted, peeled and diced

2 Tbs. coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Over a medium high heat add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a dutch oven. Salt and pepper the chicken thighs. When oil is hot add chicken thighs, brown both sides.

In a blender or food processor, combine the tomatoes, onion, garlic, jalapeño chiles to taste and 1 cup of the stock and process until smooth. Pour into a dutch oven with chicken thighs.

Add the the remaining 6 cups of stock, the juice of 1 lime, the vinegar, cumin, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Cover and cook in the oven for 90 minutes. The chicken should be very tender.

Transfer the chicken pieces to a cutting board. Remove the meat from the bones, and discard the bones. Chop or shred the meat. Using a large spoon, skim away the fat from the braising liquid. Return the chicken meat to the dutch oven. Add the corn kernels and the rest of the stock, cook on stovetop over medium heat until corn is tender, about 15 minutes more. Remove and discard the bay leaves.

Ladle the soup into warm shallow bowls. Garnish each bowl with some of the avocados, cilantro, and lime juice.

I hope you guys make the soup and enjoy it.

Now to crafting. Every year I spend weeks brainstorming and creating our Christmas card. Do you guys remember our past 3 years of Christmas cards?

Our 2013 Christmas Card:

Front of card

Addison's Christmas picture

Other side of front flap

Inside: Infograph

Inside

Other Flap

Envelope liner

And our 2012 Christmas Card:

And our 2011 Christmas Card:

Well this year, hubby bought me a Cricut Explore. This has become my favorite crafting machine and has upped my paper crafting game. I luckily have a Cricut Cake, which cuts fondant but I used for paper also, so I knew how to use the basics of this machine. Oh but did they improve it. It did take me some hours to figure out the software and what this machine could do. But when I finally did I was so amazed. I fortunately have Adobe Illustrator so I can use this machine beyond it's potential. Everyday I am learning something new. So our 2014 Christmas card just scratched the surface of this machine. I will share more of what the Cricut Explore can do in future blogs.

Because of my new machine I decided this Christmas card would be all about paper cutting. I found some inspiration on Pinterest and then had to figure out how to execute it. I created a design that was made up of holiday words. I had some difficulty making sure all the words connected together so the card would hold together. After countless hours, many fonts, and attaching words to the correct areas, I finally had a whole card and just need to cut 40 of them. Cutting was a problem at first. I use pretty thick cardstock, from Papertrey Ink, to create my cards. So I had to figure out the correct pressure so everything would cut well even the small intricate pieces. Luckily I have a wonderful husband that helped my weed out all the negative space. He is a pro with tweezers and a exacto knife. I made the words font top a pocket and glued it on top of a card so I could slide in our holiday picture and our year in review. The inside of the card has a sweet holiday message.

Our 2014 Christmas Card:

It came in green

And also red

The pocket on top of the card

Inside of the card

The 2014 Christmas picture

I love the way the card turned out. I have created many some great cards and invitations with this amazing machine. I can not wait to share everything.

Talk to you soon,

The past 6 months

2014-09-25T15:50:00.001-04:00

Paper and Pi is back! I have been so busy this summer that I did not have enough time to blog. I hope everyone that does read my blog has been following my adventures on Instagram.

In April we headed down to Florida for Spring Break. Our first stop was the Kennedy Space Center. JT had not been their since he was a little boy and it was a great experience to share with Addison. Our little nerd does not want to be an astronaut but he does want to be a mechanical engineer.

Our next stop was to spend at least a day at the Indialantic Beach since we were down there. I thought the water was too cold but JT and Addison enjoyed it for a little while.

We were finally over Florida and went where our real destination was KEY WEST! It was amazing and we already debating if we should go every year for Spring Break. We stayed with my best friend Eric, who I have not seen for 10 years. Eric is wedding specialist and while we were there I was able to help him with a wedding. I loved helping him out and wanted to stay and work with him everyday. Eric is amazing! He has to most incredible eye. All his wedding look flawless. I so want to renew my vows and have him plan it. If anyone is engaged and looking for a place to get married, I would say Key West and having Eric plan your wedding is the perfect fit. Check out Eric's website. His work is breathtaking!

See I told you. It is all in the details and Eric sees details like no other. While we were down at Key West we of course went to the Ernest Hemingway house. We had to give Addison some culture while we were down there. :) The Chosen One tried to convince me to steal her a 6 toe cat. There was a really friendly one that almost went home with us.

And of course we want to Dry Tortugas. This was the most amazing experience. It takes over an hour boat trip to get there. The water is crystal blue and Fort Jefferson is astounding.

Key West will always have a place in our heart. If we can, I would love to go every year. Maybe we can retire there one day. :)

May, June, and July, was all about diving. Addison started with a new diving team who practice 2 hours a day 4 days a week. He started 2 weeks before school ended so we had to get adjusted with everyday practices and then summer started which means summer swimming also. Our summer was wonderful but was extremely busy and went by too fast. Addison went to dive camp for a week. Then we ended the summer with hosting the AAU National Dive Meet at GA Tech with our new dive team. It was an exciting, wonderful, exhausting week. Addison placed 8th in the nation for his age group.

Now we know what it takes to run a national meet and we have a a big understanding of diving.

August, Addison has started his first year in high school. Can you believe it? I remember freaking out that he was starting middle school. He is realizing high school is a lot harder and more work but he is doing well and enjoying it. This will also be the first year Addison will get to dive for his high school. We are really excited about it and will promise to let everyone know how he does.

Well, I think that wraps up our life since March. Of course I have been cooking, baking, and crafting away.

I have created more pinwheels for my Etsy store.

I have created some new baby bibs and am finally starting to put them on my Etsy shop for purchase.

I have created this hoop art for Mother's Day.

So I guess you know how busy my 6 months have been. For the past 2 weeks I have been planning JT and Melissa's birthday party. My next blog entry will be all about that. It is going to be an exciting one. The party had everything I love; crafting, baking, cooking, great friends, and a incredible time. You don't want to miss it.

Talk to yo soon,

St. Patrick and Pie

2014-03-20T16:36:00.000-04:00

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day. What did you do? Did you go out and drink green beer? In our household we of course crafted and cooked something delicious.

I made Addison's teachers 4 leaf clover pins so they would have good luck and not get pinched. Hubby helped me because he is excellent at making the covered buttons. This is the last year I will make Addison's teachers pins and school is almost over. It is a little bittersweet.

For dinner, I wanted to do something different. I usually make corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day but I remembered a great Martha Stewart recipe, a Braised Short Rib, Stout, and Potato Potpie. We all know how much I love to braise meat and this recipe calls for braising it in Guinness. I thought this would be a perfect St. Patrick's meal.

This recipe can be made for 8 individual mini pie plates or a 12-inch gratin dish. I decided to make on big pie. I totally want to go shopping for mini pie plates for the next time. Oh what about mini gratin ones? I have totally had my eye on these for a year:

Oh mini Cocottes so everyone could have their own potpie or individual mac n cheese. What about individual cobblers? Wait a minute I was talking about our St Patrick's day meal! I get sidetracked easily when it comes to shopping. :)

Oh I tried to take step by step pictures, but taking pictures of ingredients cooking in a dark Dutch Oven is not very pretty.

Filling:

4 pounds boneless short ribs, cut into 2-inch pieces
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons safflower oil
1 medium yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 bottles (12 ounces) stout, preferably Guinness (3 cups)
2 rosemary sprigs
1 pound cipollini onions, peeled

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Season short ribs with salt and pepper. Dredge short ribs in flour, coating all sides. Transfer to a large plate.

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat. Working in batches, brown short ribs, about 1 minute per side.

Transfer browned meat to a plate.

Add yellow onions and cook until golden, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 2 more minutes.

Return meat to the Dutch oven with onions and garlic. Also add rosemary and Guinness. Bring to a simmer and then cover place in oven. Cook for about 2 1/2 hours.

Remove Dutch oven from oven and cipollini onions. Cook for an additional 30 more minters, the meat should be tender and the onions should be cooked through.

Shred meat. Season with salt and pepper. Put filling in pie plate or individual mini Couettes.

Topping

6 medium russet potatoes (3 1/2 pounds)
Extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Raise the oven to 375. Slice potatoes very thinly. I used my Christmas Food Processor. Have I mentioned how much I love it? Arrange potatoes over meat to form tight concentric circles, working around the edge and overlapping each potato by three-quarters.

Brush the potatoes with oil and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Put pie or pies in oven and bake for about an hour.

Isn't it beautiful? I had so much fun with the potatoes. Addison said it looked like a flower. Here is the recipe with out the pictures.

Filling:

4 pounds boneless short ribs, cut into 2-inch pieces
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons safflower oil
1 medium yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 bottles (12 ounces) stout, preferably Guinness (3 cups)
2 rosemary sprigs
1 pound cipollini onions, peeled

Make the filling: Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Season short ribs with salt and pepper. Dredge short ribs in flour, coating all sides. Transfer to a large plate. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat. Working in batches, brown short ribs, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a large plate using kitchen tongs.

Reduce heat to medium. Add yellow onion to Dutch oven, and cook until golden, about 8 minutes. Add garlic. Cook for 2 minutes. Return meat to Dutch oven. Add stout and rosemary. Bring to a simmer. Cover, and transfer to oven. Bake for 2 1/2 hours.

Remove Dutch oven from oven, and add cipollini onions. Braise until meat is tender and onions are cooked through, about 30 minutes. Shred meat using 2 forks. Season with salt and pepper. Divide filling among eight mini (1-cup) pie plates, or transfer to a 12-inch (8-cup) gratin dish.

Topping

6 medium russet potatoes (3 1/2 pounds)
Extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Make the topping: Raise oven temperature to 375 degrees. Peel potatoes, and very thinly slice each (preferably on a mandoline). Arrange potatoes over meat to form tight concentric circles, working around the edge and overlapping each potato by three-quarters. Brush with oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until topping is golden and filling is bubbling, about 45 minutes for mini potpies (1 hour for large potpie).

And there is our delicious St. Patrick's Potpie. It was amazing. Hubby did not complain because it his 3 favorite things; beer, potatoes, and meat.

I almost forgot to mention The Chosen One had never heard of cipollini onions. I think it is great when I teach her something new since she is a genius and an excellent cook. So Gold medal for me. :)

I have a lot of projects that I need to finish. I can't wait to show them to you all. I have been crafting like a mad woman. Well, I hope the rest of your week and weekend is wonderful.

Talk to you soon,

HAPPY PI DAY - PieCrust

2014-03-14T16:03:00.000-04:00

Happy Pi Day everyone. I hope you guys are having a wonderful Friday. The Chosen One and I are debating on what kind of pies we should make today. She is mentioning a quiché. I am thinking about a pecan pie. Because of all this pie talk I would like to share with you my favorite pie crust recipes.

Apple Pie

Bourbon Pecan Pie

Melissa has an incredible Piecrust Recipe that uses lard and you make it in a stand mixer. It is her Grandmother's recipe. Her Grandmother would use a hand pastry blender but Melissa now uses her Kitchenaid hand mixer. The Chosen One says that a recipe with lard is true down home cooking. :)

This crust is amazing and flaky. I do not always have lard on hand so when I make piecrust on a whim I use an all butter crust that I will share next. But this crust will make you want to have lard in your fridge all the time. I am actually going to go buy lard to make this crust later on today.

Melissa's Grandmother's PieCrust

Pie Crust - makes 2 crusts

2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp fine salt (kosher)
3 Tbl granulated white sugar
1/4 c shortening or lard cold
12 Tbl unsalted butter, cubed and cold
1/4 c to 1/2 c ice water

In a stand mixer bowl, sift together flour, salt, and sugar. Using a flat beater attachment on low speed, begin to add the shortening, little by little spooning out of the measuring cup, work the cold shortening into the dry ingredients. Add the cold cubes of butter, one by one but quickly so the butter doesn't melt. Do not add all at once. When the dough begins to get a little crumbly, slowly add the water (start with 1/4 cup and work up). Work until the mixture become "dough", adding more water if needed.

Gather the dough and form into a ball, cut in two, flatten into two disks, and wrap each disk in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or more as needed. On a floured surface roll out each half of dough into two 10 inch circles for pie crust and pie shell.

This piecrust will not disappoint. I promise people will be raving about your crust.

My favorite all butter pie crust recipe is Martha's Test-Kitchen Piecrust. It is made in a food processor and turns out really buttery and flaky. I always have about a pound of butter in my fridge at all times (yes I know I have a problem), so this crust his easy to do in the spur of the moment. I also got a big beautiful food processor for Christmas (Thanks Hubby) so I am itching to make this crust with my new improved equipment.

The main thing about this piecrust is everything needs to be cold. Martha's says your flour should be cold and butter should be really cold. Before I make this crust I put my flour in the fridge and butter in the freezer for about an hour. So I cut my 2 sticks of butter in small pieces and then place them in the freezer.

Martha's saying is "Make it cold and bake it hot".

I get Martha Stewart Living on my iPad and there was wonderful step by step video on this piecrust. I searched and searched online and could not find it. I hope the recipe is enough for your perfect pie crust. I am more a visual person so I love videos.

Martha's Test- Kitchen Piecrust

Makes enough dough for 1 double-crusted or 2 single-crusted 9-to-10-inch pies

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces, divided
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup ice water

Directions

Lay out three-quarters of the butter pieces on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and freeze until hard, at least 30 minutes. Refrigerate remaining butter.

Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor. Add refrigerated butter, and pulse to combine, about 10 times. Add frozen butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some blueberry-size clumps.

Add ice water, and immediately pulse until water is just incorporated, about 10 times. Squeeze a small amount of dough to make sure it holds together. Pulse a few more times if needed.

Lay out 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Empty half the dough onto each piece. Bring edges of wrap together to gather dough. Press into disks.

Roll out disks, still wrapped in plastic, to 1/2-inch-thick rounds (8 inches in diameter). Refrigerate at least 45 minutes and up to 2 days. Dough can be frozen up to 1 month.

I did find a pie crust video from Everyday Food that is close to this recipe. I hope it helps.

Well, I hope I have inspired you to make a pie today. I hope you try one of these wonderful crusts and let me know what you decide to put in them.

Talk to you later,

Shoyu Ramen

2014-03-11T17:30:00.002-04:00

I was reading my Bon Appétit magazine last month and came across a recipe for Shoyu Ramen. I love ramen but usually just have it at asian restaurants. I did eat a lot of ramen in college but I don't consider the $1 packages real ramen.

I sent the recipe to The Chosen One and we debated on making it. The problem is the recipe takes 3 days to make Shoyu Ramen. We wondered if we were really up for that task.

Well, all of sudden one day The Chosen One said she was going to the asian market to get the ingredients and was going to make it. I knew that meant I had to make it also. She could not show me up and I love cooking with her even though she is miles away.

That Friday night was date night so hubby and I decided we would go see a movie. I wanted to stop by the asian market before the movie to get all my ingredients. Well, we went to the Buford Highway Farmers Market because it has a great asian selection. The problem was we did not know what all the ingredients were and where to find them. It took us over 2 hours to find everything but we had a blast looking for it and now will never have a problem looking for Japanese ingredients again. We left that market feeling very proud and enjoyed a movie together.

Supplies from the Asian Market

I would like to share with you Bon Appétit's Shoyu Ramen recipe. I tried to take step by step pictures. But I kept forgetting to take them since it was a 3 day process.

DAY ONE:

KOMBU DASHI AND TARE

2 pieces dried kombu
½ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp. dry sake
1 Tbsp. mirin

For the dashi, combine kombu and 4 quarts cold water in a large bowl. Cover and let sit at room temperature at least 8 hours and up to 12 hours. For the tare, combine soy sauce, sake, and mirin in a small bowl; cover and chill.

Dried kombu soaking in water

DAY TWO:

PORK AND STOCK

1½ lb. boneless pork shoulder
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 lb. chicken necks, backs, and/or wings
1 lb. pork spareribs
2 bunches scallions, chopped
2 carrots, peeled, cut into pieces
1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
1 1” piece ginger, peeled, sliced
¼ cup bonito flakes

One day ahead: Season pork shoulder with salt and pepper. Roll up and tie with kitchen twine at 2” intervals. (This helps keep the meat intact while cooking and makes for round, compact slices.)

Pork shoulder tied with kitchen twine

Heat oil in a large heavy pot (at least 8 quarts) over medium-high heat Cook pork shoulder, turning, until brown all over, 10–12 minutes.

Pork should ready to be browned

Add chicken, spareribs, scallions, carrots, garlic, ginger, and bonito flakes. Remove kombu from dashi; discard. Add as much kombu dashi as will fit in pot once liquid is boiling (reserve remaining dashi). Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, skimming the surface occasionally and adding remaining dashi as liquid reduces, until pork shoulder is tender and stock has reduced to about 2 quarts, 2½–3 hours.

Scallions, carrots, garlic, and ginger

Chicken, spareribs, scallions, carrots, garlic,

ginger, bonito flakes, and kombu dashi simmering

Remove pork shoulder from stock and let cool.

Pork shoulder cooling

Wrap tightly in plastic and chill until ready to use. (Chilling pork will make meat easier to slice.) Strain stock through a fine-mesh sieve into another large pot or a large bowl or container; discard solids (including ribs and chicken). Cover and chill.

DAY THREE:

RAMEN AND GARNISHES

3 large eggs
6 5-oz. packages fresh thin and wavy ramen noodles (or six 3-oz. packages dried)
½ cup menma (fermented bamboo shoots)
6 scallions, thinly sliced
3 toasted nori sheets, torn in half
Chili oil, toasted sesame oil, and shichimi togarashi (for serving)

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Carefully add eggs one at a time and boil gently for 7 minutes. (Egg yolks should be shiny yellow and almost jammy; egg white should be just set.) Drain eggs and transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop cooking; let cool. Peel; set aside.

Remove string and thinly slice pork; cover and set aside.

When ready to serve, bring stock to a simmer; it should be very hot.

Bringing the stock to a simmer

At the same time, cook noodles in a large pot of boiling water according to package directions until al dente; drain (no need to salt the water, as ramen noodles contain more salt than pasta).

Cooking the noodles

Just before serving, divide noodles among 6 deep bowls. Top with sliced pork, placing it off to one side. Add tare to hot stock and ladle over pork to warm through (stock should come up just to the level of the noodles).

Place a small pile of menma next to pork. Halve eggs and place next to menma. Place a small pile of sliced scallions next to egg. Tuck half a sheet of nori between side of bowl and noodles so it’s just poking out.

Serve ramen with chili oil, sesame oil, and shichimi togarashi.

Beautiful Shoyu Ramen!!!

We all thought it was delicious. The Chosen One thought it was no worth 3 days of cooking. It inspired me to find other ramen recipes to find out which one is the best. Addison is still talking about Ramen. He told me I should make Ramen once a week. I think Addison is crazy but I do not mind cooking it once a month.

I think you guys should try it and tell me what you think. And please share any ramen recipes that you have.

Talk to you soon,

Throwback Thursday

2014-03-06T19:11:00.000-05:00

So I was reading through old posts and I found this 2 year old post . I find it hilarious because I was sad that Addison was going to Jekyll Island for a week with his class. This week Addison is at Walt Disney World with his orchestra class. He is in a different state without me!!! I said in the 2 year old post that he was growing up too fast and will one day go to Disney without me.

He's growing up so fast. This is the start of sleep away camp when

he's gone for a month. And going to Washington DC

or Disney World with out me. I guess I have to realize

if he's going to compete in diving and swimming
there will be out of state meets. So this is the
beginning of his independence. I think I better start working
g on having another baby. :) Maybe a girl this time so she
will really never leave me. Wait!!! Slap me please, I am not
ready to have another screaming new born baby.
And definitely not ready to be pregnant again. UGH!!

LOL!!! I was right! I wonder what I will be saying in 2 years. Will he be in Washington DC with his high school class? Well, I have 4 more years with him so they better go by slow. :)

While my baby is away, I have just been cleaning and reorganizing the house. Everyone is like go out, have fun, go wild. I think everyone is forgetting that I am 40 now and fun for me is a great movie and an awesome dinner party.

I am just going to plan a dinner party for Saturday and go see the movie Pompeii. That's crazy enough for me.

I would like to mention my Favorite Things this week that make me smile while little man is having a blast.

1. JCrew Jewelry

Deco Arrowhead Necklace

Hubby got this for me for Valentine's Day and I can't wait to wear it. I just need to figure out what to wear with it.

They also have a matching bracelet.

Deco Arrowhead Cuff

I wonder how good I have to be to get this also. :)

2. Anthropologie Maxi Dress

Tamsin Maxi Dress

We all know I am a sucker for a great maxi.

3. Anthropologie Tops

Amaranth Tunic

Talula Popover

Splatter Sky Buttondown

Can you tell I am ready for Spring? It is cold and rainy here in Atlanta. At least we have not been having crazy snow like last month. I was starting to feel like we lived up North for a second.

Well, JT is going to pick up sushi and we are going to watch TV. My life is so exciting. :)

Talk to you soon,

Camp Addison

2014-03-03T17:04:00.002-05:00

Sorry everyone. I have been so busy crafting for special little one's 1st birthday party that I have not had time to blog. I also celebrated my 40th birthday in January. These two months have been extremely busy. I am not complaining about being busy but I am ready for some relaxing time in the next weeks.

Since I am in the birthday mood, I thought I would tell you about Addison's birthday party we had at the farm in October. I can't believe I did not tell you sooner. Where does the time go?

Addison decdied last minute to have some friends go down to the cabin last minute and camp out over the weekend for his birthday. Well, the crafter in me wanted to make it a special event even though he did not give me any notice. So I create some camp inspired paper decorations for the occasion. I made 2 banners, popcorn boxes, labels for the water bottles, labels for the smores and trail mix bags, and cupcakes toppers.

Addison invited 6 boys and I needed to decide how to entertain them and keep them feed. If they were anything like Addison I knew they would need games and a lot of food.

We decided Saturday when everyone got there, we would set up tents, and then have them go geocaching. The night before JT and I placed little prizes in 6 ammunition boxes around the property.

We gave the boys each a piece of paper with the coordinates, a GPS and had them look for the boxes. This was great because it also gave us time cook dinner and set up the campfire. The boys didn't find all the boxes but I think they had fun looking for them. Well, until they had to find one in the field of briers. City kids are so weak. :)

After geocaching, we ate dinner and started a bonfire. We all roasted marshmallows and made smores. I will say one thing about The Hubby, he knows how to make a huge fire. It is the Eagle Scout in him.

After dinner and dessert we let the boys settle in for the night. Hubby and I had planned to wait until the boys fell asleep and light fireworks around. Addison and Mason came up to cabin right before we went down so they were able to join us in scaring the boys.

We snuck down to the tent. Lit the fireworks and the boys came out of the tent screaming. It was hilarious. Then we let them light some sparklers and we had a little light show.

The next morning the kids played while we cooked breakfast, we relaxed and then set up the firing range.

We let the boys shoot zombie targets to prepare them for a zombie apocalypse. :)

Everyone had a great time. Even Emmy Lou and Luna. Addison said it was the best birthday party he ever had. Not to bad for last minute planning.

I enjoyed making everything for Addison. I am already thinking of other themes I can make. I will share Vitoria's 1st birthday party soon. It was an animal and bunting theme.

Talk to you soon,

I am back and ready for an incredible New Year

2014-01-08T15:56:00.001-05:00

It has been too long and I am really upset with myself. I blog to share with you the things that I am passionate about. What makes me laugh, what amazes me, what I believe is beautiful and inspiring. Blogging also centers me. It helps me get out all the negativity so I can just be me, happy and positive. It helps me tap into my creative soul and being creative has always centered me. I have been tired, stressed, and unhappy for the past 3 months. I am not saying it is all because of not blogging. It mostly is because I was surrounding myself with some negative and toxic people and environment. But I have learned my lesson and I am aware of who I place in my world and what makes me happy. I am very firm believer in do what you love and for some reason I forgot about that. I actually forgot about my needs which is never a good thing. I was basically trying to help my husband out, which manifested into helping others out that did not deserve my help, which manifested into me losing myself and I was not the positive, strong, happy person that I have grown to love. But don't worry everyone I am back. I am back loving the world, seeing beauty in the smallest things, and wanting to share my love with the world.

I hate to say it the past 3 months I have not done a lot of cooking, baking, and crafting. I told you are was in a dark hole. But now I have started back again and I promise I will share what I love doing with you.

I did not stop cooking all together. I of course whipped out the big guns for Christmas so I would like to share that with you today. For Christmas I made a fabulous Porchetta, which was amazing. What is a Porchetta? It is a pork loin wrapped in a pork belly. I remember about a month ago reading my Bon Appétit magazine and finding a recipe for a Porchetta. I mentioned it to The Chosen One and told her it sounded delicious. I forgot about the Porchetta for a couple of weeks and then when I was thinking about a Christmas menu the Porchetta appeared in my mind. I believe it was waiting to make a grand entrance for Christmas. Oh and it was so grand and worth the wait. I did have a problem finding pork belly but now I know 3 places that carry it. It was not time consuming to put together, unlike the Turducken that we do every year that takes us 3 days to prepare. It did not call for a lot of ingredients and roasting it was short and easy. Oh and it was so good. The pork loin ended up so juicy because of the pork belly. And the pork belly was bacon on steroids. The pork belly's skin was so crispy. Oh that crackle, it was elevated pork rings. I have heard that pig skin prepared the right way can be amazing. Now I know and I will never forget.

If you would like to make the Bon Appétit Porchetta, here is the recipe.

INGREDIENTS

1 5–6-pound piece fresh pork belly, skin on
1 (trimmed) 2-3-pound boneless, center-cut pork loin
3 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons minced fresh sage
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
3 garlic cloves, minced
Kosher salt
1/2 orange, seeded, thinly sliced

PREPARATION

Put belly skin side down; arrange loin in center. Roll belly around loin so the short ends of the belly meet. If any of the belly or loin overhangs, trim meat. Unroll; set loin aside.

Toast fennel seeds and red pepper flakes in a small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Tip spices into a bowl; let cool. Finely grind spices in a spice mill and transfer to a small bowl, along with the sage, rosemary, and garlic; set fennel mixture aside.

Assemble porchetta according to steps below:

1. Set belly skin side down. Using a knife, score the belly flesh in a checkerboard pattern 1/3" deep so roast will cook evenly.

2. Flip belly skin side up. Using a paring knife, poke dozens of 1/8"-deep holes through skin all over belly. Don't be gentle! Keep poking.

3. Using the jagged edge of a meat mallet, pound skin all over for 3 minutes to tenderize, which will help make skin crispy when roasted.

4. Turn belly and generously salt both it and loin; rub both with fennel mixture. Arrange loin down middle of belly. Top with orange slices.

5. Roll belly around loin; tie crosswise with kitchen twine at 1/2" intervals. Trim twine. Transfer roast to a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet.

Refrigerate roast, uncovered, for 1-2 days to allow skin to air-dry; pat occasionally with paper towels.

Let porchetta sit at room temperature for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 500°. Season porchetta with salt. Roast on rack in baking sheet, turning once, for 40 minutes. Reduce heat to 300° and continue roasting, rotating the pan and turning porchetta occasionally, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of meat registers 145°, 1 1/2-2 hours more. If skin is not yet deep brown and crisp, increase heat to 500° and roast for 10 minutes more. Let rest for 30 minutes. Using a serrated knife, slice into 1/2" rounds.

If you do make it, please tell me what you think. I would love to hear others opinions.

Ok now to crafting. I have to share our 2013 Christmas Card. We all know I hand make our family Christmas Card every year. It has been such a crazy tradition I have friends and family members wondering what it is going to look like every year and anticipating its arrival.

Here is our 2012 Christmas Card:

Here is our 2011 Christmas Card:

I decided I really like the infograph I did in 2012 and wanted to take it up a notch. I also liked the tri-fold I did in 2011 but wanted it bigger. I am also really into felt.

Our 2013 Christmas Card:

Front of card

Addison's Christmas picture

Other side of front flap

Inside: Infograph

Inside

Other Flap

Envelope liner

Sealed with wax

What do you think? I love the way the front flap shows a portion of the flap below, just the snow and trees. It is also embossed it with snow flakes for texture. You open it up and you get a surprise, a woodland theme. Oh and did you notice the snow, trees, and deer are cut out in felt?

The infograph is a Christmas theme that tells everyone something about each person and animal. I love how the presents show all of Addison's diving awards. In the middle a sweet saying from our family. The envelopes were green with a shiny gold, red, green, and white chevron envelope liners. And the envelopes were sealed with a letter "C" wax stamp. I just love it! I am all about the details and honey this one had some incredible details. This is the reason why I love paper and why I love sharing the things I create with it. I believe cards and notes should not just be sent around the holidays. They should be sent whenever you want to make someone smile and remind them they are loved.

Well, this post it making me hungry and need to get ready for diving. Sorry again for being away so long. I will be back soon to share more wonderful things.

Talk to you soon,

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

2013-12-26T12:33:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone is having an incredible holiday season with family and friends filled with laughter and joy.

Paper and Pi will start again after the New Year. Sorry for being away for so long. December was a very busy but exciting month. I am looking forward for an incredible 2014. I have a feeling it's going to be the best year yet.

Remember you can always follow me on Instagram to see what I have been up to.

Talk to you soon,

Apple Picking

2013-11-06T13:42:00.000-05:00

Here is the apple picking post I promised a month ago. Sorry about that. October was crazy busy. We became extremely busy at work. The waste water plant is almost complete. JT's father is not doing so well. Please keep him in your prayers. Addison had a birthday and then Halloween. I will post about Addison's cool birthday party at the farm later. Of course, I had to put my crafty touch on it. I will just say Camp Addison was perfection in any 13/14 years old boy.

Back to our apple picking adventure. A group of us drove up to Mercier Orchard in North Georgia. It is about an 1 1/2 hours from Atlanta. The apple trees there aren't huge but the apples are delicious. They have a lot of different varieties to pick from. They also have a great shop that you can purchase anything like honey, apple butter, apple wine, and apple cider. I always purchase apple cider and apple butter when we visit. We also did a wine tasting and purchased some really tasty peach wine. We all of course got fried apple hand pies. The have the best ones there. Actually thinking about them right now makes me want to jump in the car and drive all the way up there just for a hand pie. Not to self: must perfect fried apple hand pies. :)

That day was a little too hot for Autumn and apple picking but we all had a really good time.

Addison is at the age that he won't let me take pictures of him. I got a couple of good ones but in most of them his hand was covering his face or his eyes are closed. Have I mentioned that I love him being a teenager? I did not taking pictures of my son just so I can have the memories would be so difficult. :)

Before we went apple picking, I started a pot of chili in the slow cooker. I also made homemade vanilla ice cream and pie dough. I also made this cute apple pins for the women that were going.

I had a plan that we would eat dinner when we got back and then make apple pies with the apples we picked. But after we ate dinner, peeled the apples, cooked the apples, and watched Star Trek 2, we were exhausted. I did end up making the apple pie the next day. But, unfortuantly Jennifer and Jonathan did not get to have any of the apple goodness. Jennifer and Jonathan, I owe you a pie.

I would like the share the pie dough recipe and the apple pie recipe that I used. I think both are perfect and easy.

Williams-Sonoma's Basic Pie Dough

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbs. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
3 Tbs. very cold water

Directions:

To make the dough by hand, in a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar and salt. Using a pastry cutter or 2 knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the water and mix with a fork just until the dough pulls together.

To make the dough in a stand mixer, fit the mixer with the flat beater, and stir together the flour, sugar and salt in the mixer bowl. Add the butter and toss with a fork to coat with the flour mixture. Mix on medium-low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with the butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the water and mix on low speed just until the dough pulls together.

Transfer the dough to a work surface, pat into a ball and flatten into a disk. (Although many dough recipes call for chilling the dough at this point, this dough should be rolled out immediately for the best results.) Lightly flour the work surface, then flatten the disk with 6 to 8 gentle taps of the rolling pin. Lift the dough and give it a quarter turn. Lightly dust the top of the dough or the rolling pin with flour as needed, then roll out into a round at least 12 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick. Makes enough dough for one 9-inch single-crust pie or one 10-inch galette.

To make a double-crust pie: Double the recipe, cut the dough in half and pat each half into a round, flat disk. Roll out one disk into a 12-inch round as directed and line the pan or dish. Press any scraps trimmed from the first round into the bottom of the second disk. Roll out the second dough disk into a round at least 12 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick and refrigerate until ready to use.

Williams-Sonoma's Apple Pie

Ingredients:

2 Pie Dough
2 lb. Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch
thick
2 lb. Pink Lady apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
4 tsp. cornstarch
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 egg white, beaten with 1 tsp. water
2 tsp. granulated sugar

Directions:

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out half of the dough into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Fold the dough in half and then into quarters and transfer it to a 9-inch deep-dish pie dish. Unfold and gently press the dough into the bottom and sides of the dish. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

On a large sheet of lightly floured parchment paper, roll out the remaining dough disk into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick.

Meanwhile, make the filling: In a large Dutch oven, stir together the apples, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cornstarch. Set over medium heat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are just tender but not mushy, about 20 minutes. Uncover and cook until the liquid has thickened and become glossy, 5 to 7 minutes more. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

Position a rack in the lower third of an oven, place a baking sheet on the rack and preheat the oven to 400°F.

Transfer the apple filling to the pie shell, scatter the butter pieces on top, and gently add the top crust top over the pie. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish and press the top and bottom crusts together to seal. Brush the entire top crust with egg wash and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.

Place the pie dish on the preheated baking sheet. Bake until the crust is crisp and golden brown, about 1 hour, covering the edges with aluminum foil if they become too dark. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 1 1/2 hours before serving. Serves 8

The only problem is Addison never waits for the pie to cool, but it still is delicious. I hope I have inspired you to bake some pies. Especially since it is pie baking season. I might have to making some delicious tonight. Maybe a crumble? We will see.

Talk to you soon,

Crafting Autumn

2013-10-04T21:22:00.000-04:00

How is everyone enjoying the change of the season? Here in Georgia, we have had up and down temperatures. It has been in the high 70s which is good enough for short boots but still not cool enough for tall boots. But this week it is getting warmer. This weekend it is going to be in the high 80s! The high 80s!!! Just when I was rotating my closet and brining out the good stuff. :(

I am not going to let these high temperatures get me down. We are going apple picking this weekend. I plan to dress as Autumn as I can without sweating. I plan to bake apple pie and make apple butter. I plan on drinking apple cider and serve chili. Oh and go on a wonderful hike up in North Georgia which I am praying the temperatures will be cooler.

I promise to share pictures next week of our ~~Summer~~ Autumn Apple Picking Adventure. I hope everyone is wearing Autumn colors. We will see how that goes. :)

September and October hav inspired me to craft. I have started making coffee coozie to celebrate my obsession with coffee, espresso and Pumpkin Spice Latte. I am thinking of making ones for Autumn, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Here are the Autumn Ones:

Aren't they cute? You can purchase them at my Etsy store here.

I have also started crafting Halloween decoration for the house. I, of course, had that have some Halloween Bunting.

Now I am thinking a Halloween wreath and some other spooky decorations. I will be crafting like crazy. October, November, and December are my craftiest months. I already feel like I am falling behind. I do not even know what our Christmas card is going to look like this year. And am I even going to make and send out Thanksgiving cards this year? Maybe I can just send something Thanksgiving inspired to family and friends instead of a card. Oh decisions.

I am also crafting invitations and decorations for 3 baby showers. I am not complaining I love to be busy.

Well, I better go and start planning. I need to make the pie dough so it will be ready after apple picking. I also need to make vanilla ice cream to go with the Apple Pie. Everyone is going to be starving after everything. It is going to be a great weekend.

Talk to you soon,

French Meatloaf

2013-09-19T14:16:00.000-04:00

Today, I would like to share my favorite meatloaf recipe. It was featured in Gourmet magaazine in 2009 but I don't remember how I came across it. I actually think the recipe was in ELLE magazine over a year ago. If it was just in Gourmet that means I made it 3 years ago and I am still thinking about it. And I have to make it ASAP!

The hubby loves meatloaf but he likes the American version, a loaf of ground beef with bacon on top and a ketchup crust. I don't mind that meatloaf but the french meatloaf has so many different taste and textures. I promise it is incredible. It ends up being a cross between meatloaf and pâté. I know some will say GROSS when they hear pâté but I am sorry but pâté is good. Oh and this recipe has 3 types of meat, chicken livers, pork, and veal. Yes, I said chicken livers and it does not have ground beef. But HEY be adventurous and make this meatloaf. NOW! You will not be disappointed.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROMULO YANES

Gourmet Magazine's French Meatloaf

RECIPE BY KAY CHUN

INGREDIENTS

1 cup fine fresh bread crumbs (preferably from a rustic loaf)
1/2 cup whole milk
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 lb chicken livers, separated into lobes, trimmed, and rinsed
3/4 lb ground pork
3/4 lb ground veal
1/4 cup chopped prunes
1/4 cup shelled pistachios (optional)
2 teaspoons thyme leaves
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

ACCOMPANIMENT:
Dijon mustard

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 475ºF with rack in middle.
Soak bread crumbs in milk in a small bowl.
Cook onion, garlic, and 1/4 tsp each of salt and pepper in oil in a small skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Cool slightly.
Purée livers in a blender, then transfer to a large bowl. Add pork, veal, prunes, pistachios (if using), thyme, eggs, bread-crumb mixture, onion mixture, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper and gently mix with your hands until just combined.
Transfer meatloaf mixture to an 8 1/2- by 4 1/2-inch glass loaf pan (see cooks’ note, below) and bake, covered with foil, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 165ºF, 50 to 55 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes. Cover top of meatloaf with parsley before slicing.

COOKS’ NOTE: You can use a metal loaf pan, but the meatloaf will take about 15 minutes longer to cook.

Now I have to make this for dinner tonight because just thinking about it makes me remember how good it is. All I want is French Meatloaf right now! I guess I need to get to the grocery store to pick up all the ingredients. I am thinking of serving it with The Chosen One's Creamed Spinach. Maybe I can try to take step by step pictures and share her recipe with you guys tomorrow. We will see.

Talk to you soon,

Autumn Wardrobe and Anthropologie

2013-09-06T16:02:00.001-04:00

Autumn is almost here and we all know it is my favorite season. Alamanac.com states the Autumn Equinox starts September 22, 2013 at 4:44 P.M EDT. That is just around the corner so you know what that means. SHOPPING!!!!

I love Autumn because of the clothes. Long sleeve shirts and blouses, long skirts, hats, boots and sweaters. It's cool enough for great clothes but not too cold that you have to cover yourself up and all your incredible clothes with a jacket. I can already picture it, jeans tucked into fabulous boots!

I have mentioned before how much I love Anthropologie. I decided to post some of my Autumn favorites so you can start adding to your Autumn wardrobe as soon as possible.

Here are my two favorite buttondowns right now:

They are just beautiful. I am loving the embroidery. And they seem to be thin enough that you could wear them now (since it is in the high 80s in Atlanta still).

Look at these fabulous tunics:

I love tunics because you can wear them with jeans or leggings but they cover up what I want to be covered. These are really cute and I feel like you can dress them up or down. I think I am going to be wearing a lot of tunics this Autumn.

Now let's talk skirts:

Loving these graphic skirts. I am thinking I need to bottom one now and my husband needs to take me out in it. I love the top skirt because you could wear with sandals or a pair of boots.

I am fortunate to live in Atlanta so it doesn't get that cold here. We can get away with wearing a cardigan or sweater through Autumn and half of winter. My staple during Autumn is usually a short sleeved shirt, a cardigan, a pair of jeans, and my favorite Frye boots.

These cardigans would be a perfect addition to my wardrobe:

They are truly beautiful!

Ok I am done with online window shopping for now. I hope I got you excited about Autumn.

Talk to you soon,

Orange Cranberry Muffins

2013-08-28T14:50:00.001-04:00

Now since summer is over, how is everyone? We are great and finally getting into the swing of things. Addison is loving being back in school and really likes his new teachers. His before school and after school clubs have started this week so he has been getting adjusted to waking up early and staying at school late but still getting is homework done. Diving does not start until next week so then we will see if he can juggle it all. Diving practice is late this year so he will have to be really focused on his schoolwork. I believe he will be fine. He loves being busy. He hates being bored and complains when he is. He definitely will not be bored this year. I am so happy to see him grow into a multi-talented young boy.

Speaking of him being busy. Addison and his Guncle Daniel just signed up for a 5 mile run. I know they are crazy. So Addison will also need to train for this because Addison hasn't run in awhile. I am so excited that Fall is here and Daniel and Addison are back to running together. I love the relationship they have and hope they run together for the next 20 years.

Well, I have been promising my Cranberry-Orange Muffin Recipe for awhile. I finally have time to type and share it. This is not Addison's favorite muffin recipe. The Banana Muffin is his favorite, of course. But, this might be mine because I love the sweet taste of the orange but the bitter taste of the cranraisans. Oh and you can use real cranberries, JT just couldn't find any this summer when I started making these muffins. I am thinking cranberries are only around in the holiday season. I thought he would at least find frozen ones but he looked at 2 stores and came up empty handed.

Cranberry-Orange Muffins

adapted from Williams-Sonoma Baking Book

Ingredients:

3/4 cup cranraisins
1/2 triple sec or any orange liqueur
Grated zest of 1 orange

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg, room temperature
4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
1/2 cup strained fresh orange juice, room temperature

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix cranraisins, triple sec, and orange zest together. Let the mixture, so the cranraisins can plump, about an hour or overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat an oven to 375°F. Grease a muffin pan with butter or nonstick cooking spray.
In a bowl, stir together the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the egg, melted butter, milk and orange juice until blended. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture. Fold in the cranraisin mixture into the batter until combined. Do not overmix. Spoon batter into muffin pan about 3/4 full.

Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the center of a muffin to see if it comes out clean. Transfer muffin pan to a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Then remove muffins from pan and transfer muffins to wire rack. Serve warm or room temperature. Makes about 12 muffins.

*Make sure your egg, milk and orange juice are room temperature. If not they will cause the melted butter to clump when everything is combined.

Blueberry Muffins and Cranberry Muffins

And that is my Cranberry Orange Muffin Recipe. I hope you enjoy. I still have not perfected the Blueberry Muffin but I am working on it. I promise to share the recipe when I do.

Talk to you soon,