family feature: barbara's brisket

next up on my family feature list is my lovely mother-in-law barbara draffin! since i married into a true southern family, i knew i had better step up my cooking game and learn some good southern dishes. brisket is on the menu everywhere in tennessee or the south in general and barbara's brisket recipe is a wonderful dish. after being snowed in all weekend here at home, you already know cooking and baking was at the top of my list. on saturday evening we all decided to make dinner and go see a movie since we hadn't left the house since thursday. 

the dinner menu consisted of barbara's brisket, potatoes, pineapple casserole, and salad. we had a great dinner and movie, not to mention a wonderful weekend snowed in at home. it was a much needed weekend for me to relax since traveling so much lately. 

here is barbara's brisket recipe:

ingredients:

-4 to 5 lb beef brisket 

-1/2 cup of ketchup

-1/2 cup of chopped onion

-1 1/2 teaspoon of liquid smoke (found in the condiment section)

-1/4 teaspoon of pepper

-1 1/2 teaspoon of salt (for rubbing the brisket)

-1/4 cup of vinegar

-1 tablespoon of worcestershire sauce

-1 bay leaf

details:

-first, start by rubbing the meat with salt

-combine other ingredients and pour over the meat

-wrap all of this in tin foil

-place in a baking dish or pan

-bake at 325 for 4 hours until tender

-cut in thin diagonal slices, across grain at slanting angles. 

you will love this recipe and i hope you all enjoy it :) see you soon! thanks for stopping by.

below is a picture of my mother-in-law barbara :)

our home: navy bedroom

happy monday! i am finally able to get back to my regular posting as i have been non-stop traveling for work. i just got back from atlanta and now i am heading off to dallas today for the week. 

i have been wanting to share our navy bedroom with you and i was finally able to spend time working on my blog a little bit this past weekend. when, reed and i moved into our home i knew i wanted a navy room somewhere in the house i just couldn't decide where. after purchasing a lot of white details for our bedroom, i thought the navy and white would be a perfect mix. our goal this summer is to make our own bed frame/headboard and paint it white to pop against our hardwood floors. i am excited about that project!

our navy bedroom is filled with some of our favorite pictures together. our honeymoon, when we first met, our wedding, and our engagement pictures to name a few. we also enjoy our furniture in this room because each of these pieces has a story. 

we purchased the vintage dresser and side table at our first estate sale in memphis. it was our first big purchase together when we were engaged. i absolutely love the look of these pieces, especially the marble look on top. our white night stands were from reeds apartment that we painted white in an earlier post on the blog (that was a fun project).

the bed frame/headboard was mine from my first apartment in nashville when i moved south. the dark brown ottoman that we have in our room was my first birthday present from reed when we were dating. it is one of my favorite gifts from him. he knows my obsession with paper and gift wrapping and he filled the ottoman with my own gift wrapping station filled with paper and supplies. it was so exciting! ha

lastly, paw's cute little bed was purchased at another estate sale in memphis. i instantly fell in love with it and my mother in law made a polka dot cushion to go on top. yes, paw has his own bed at the edge of ours. yes, i have a problem haha! 

thank you for visiting today and i hope you have a wonderful monday! i can't wait to share another part of our house with you soon!

recipe: peanut butter energy balls

this is a little healthier snack than the carmel chocolate squares i posted earlier in the week ha!

reed says weekly," i think you should maybe make some of those peanut butter things." i think thats a hint that he likes them. i have been making these for awhile now and just recently started making them a lot for a healthier snack during the week. these are great for a quick pick me or for a quick breakfast. they are so easy to whip up and make very quickly. i made this recipe up on my own; therefore, you can really add anything to it and they will be delicious.

here is my recipe:

ingredients:

-2 to 3 cups of peanut butter (add more or less depending on how many you would like to make)

-1 cup of oats

-1 tablespoon of flax seed

-1/2 cup of dark chocolate or milk chocolate chips

-3 graham crackers 

details:

-start with a medium size bowl and add your peanut butter, oats, flax seed, and chocolate chips

-fold your ingredients in your bowl 

-after those are mixed, form into small sized balls

-this recipe will make 12-15 or you can make them larger if desired

-next, place your graham crackers in a plastic baggie and use a rolling pin to crush them into small pieces

-lastly, take each one and coat it with graham crackers

-after those are coated, place them in the fridge for 30 minutes until firm

enjoy :)

again, they are very easy and quick to make. this is perfect for someone on the go and needing a quick and healthy snack.

i hope you all have a great week!

family feature: aunt amy's carmel chocolate squares

happy new year! what a wonderful year it was!! 2015 was filled with wonderful memories that i will cherish for a lifetime. i am setting a lot of goals for myself for 2016 and yes it does involve eating less and better, however; my family has way too many great recipes not to share and what a great way to start off the year with a family recipe.

gee my first post of 2016, and what does it involve? sweets!! haha no, not a new salad recipe but my aunt amy's carmel brownies!

for Christmas, one of the gifts my mother gave me was a recipe book filled with recipes from all of my family members. i have new recipes from all different generations. this was one of my favorite gifts! i cherish family memories and this was the perfect gift for me. i wanted to start this year with a family feature and i chose one of my many wonderful aunt's (Amy). 

i know i didn't make these as good as my aunt Amy does but i did my best. 

here is the recipe!

ingredients:

-1 box of german chocolate cake mix 

-1/3 cup of evaporated milk (you will use this twice is in this recipe)

-1/3 cup of evaporated milk 

-1/2 cup of margarine

-14 oz bag of carmels (i used carmel chips and this is the reason for the darker carmel color, for a lighter color use actual carmels)

-12 oz package of chocolate chips

details:

-cook your carmels and milk on the stovetop on low heat 

-stir until melted, and then set these aside

-mix your cake mix, milk, and margarine 

-stir this until it forms a ball
-set a small amount of batter to the side to use this later for the top

-use your hands to press this mixture into a greased pan

-bake this at 350 for 6-7 minutes 

-remove this from the over and pour your chocolate chips over the batter

-next,pour your carmel mixture over the chocolate chips
-lastly, use the extra batter to form small balls and place this on top of the carmel 

-return to the over to bake for 15 minutes 

-let these cool and then cut for serving

delish!! 

i made these for reed's grandparents yesterday and they loved them! i hope you all enjoy them as well. 

the time off over the new year holiday was a wonderful time of catching up around the house and getting our Christmas decorations taken down. i have been under the weather since last Wednesday but luckily i was able to rest a lot as well. reed and i went on a few date nights and enjoyed several movies. we had a great weekend together! i hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

thank you to all of my family members for participating in my family feature addition to my blog and for sending my mother your recipes :) 

here is a picture of my aunt Amy!

 :)

family: Christmas 2015

what a wonderful Christmas season we had! i loved every minute of this past week with our family. we did a lot of traveling on the road but it was worth every minute spent with our loved ones. i wanted to share a few pictures of our time in memphis and indiana with you. i have one hundred pictures or so but just wanted to post a few :)

between our two families we have numerous family traditions. it is so fun to see how both sides of our family have created these traditions over the years. reed and i both cherish our Christmas memories with our family, it is very important to us. our first Christmas together as husband and wife was truly amazing, just as i expected it would be.

i hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas weekend and i hope you have family traditions as well that will carry on over the years and last a lifetime. 

this week we are in clean up mode and trying to get our house back to normal. this will be an all week thing, i can feel it ha!

enjoy the pictures above and see you later this week!

craft: Christmas stovetop potpourri

orange, cranberries, rosemary

my house smells so good because of the pictures above!! this was my first time trying stovetop potpourri and i am in love! this was so easy and simple to make (as you can see above) and this is the perfect smell for your house for the holidays! i want to research and make up my own recipes that i can use the entire year. 

ingredients:

-4 cups of water

-1 cup of cranberries

-1 orange sliced

-2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
-3 cinnamon sticks
-2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

details:
-mix all of your ingredients in a pot and bring this to a boil
-allow this to simmer uncovered as long as you would like 
-i put my burner on low and let this simmer for 3-4 hours
-once you turn the heat off you can let it sit for a day or two to enjoy the wonderful smells!
-this can last up to several days, you can simply add water and stir to make it last
-you can also use this in a crock pot as well

you will love the smell of your home and this is such a great aroma to walk into when you have guests coming over for the holidays.

i hope you enjoy your new potpourri recipe and hope you are enjoying the Christmas week,i know i sure am.