Helping Animals In Need

Our pets fill our lives with Joy.

They make us laugh.

Life would be sad without them.

They are cute and cuddly and silly.

But there are some in need.

Head over to Kelee at the Katillac Shack to see what you can do to help.
Now go hug your pets.

Here Kittys, Here Kittys, Special treats for you today.

Thanks for your friendship and all you do to bring to my life.

Love to all of you in Blogland too.

~ ~Ahrisha~ ~

Diningroom Redo

Greetings Friends and Welcome to our home.

Please come in and see the changes since you were here last.

As you come in the front door and up the steps you can see in the foyer that my spinning wheel and a basket of yarn and fiber is at the ready for some serious spinning. Planning to make time for that soon.

This is a close up of the wreath at the top of the steps.

I made it a few years ago and still love it.

Beside the spinning wheel is the smaller of my china cabinets.

To the left of it is the entrance to the diningroom.

The above picture is the diningroom last weekend. You know how when you move into a new house there are just some things you have to live with for a while? Well, I have about had it with this wallpaper border. The wallpaper is OK but the border has got to go. To begin with it's green and I am not a green person. Then there is the matter of the stark white edging on the bottom of the border. Remember I told you the border was no nasty that I would not show you pictures of it. Tried scraping it off but could not without ruining the paper below so my next plan of attact was to cover it up.

~ ~AFTER ~ ~Much better!

I have been looking for a new border for months. The biggest problem was that the existing border is 9 1/2" deep so to cover it the new one had to be at least that deep to hide all of it.

Then I got really lucky and found this discontinued border with french script, scrolls and chickens and roosters. I really do love it and wait till you hear this. . .only $2.50 a roll!

This is the french door to the sunroom and to the left an addition was put on at some time to make the diningroom larger by 4 feet, so the roof line is different. The ceiling drops for the addition. The original border did a goofy little jog here and I had to follow it with the new paper also. Interesting, but I think I would have done it differently from the git go.

Oh, and my helper was available for the day so he put his inspectors hat on and went to work.

I turned my back and he was up on top of the china cabinet!

It looks like he approves. How did he get up there?

No kidding. Wish I had seen him made the assent up the ladder.

Notice the ceiling paint above a nasty gray white that did not look good at all with the border.

Don't you know that I had to paint the ceiling now. Can't let that go on but wish I had thought of it BEFORE I put the border up. Would have been so much easier to paint. Experience is the best teacher. Betcha I'll remember that next time.

New ceiling paint, Behr Butter Yellow in Satin Finish. Love satin on a ceiling. See how it reflects the candlelight and the border figures. They will try to talk you out of it at the paint store but you'll be glad you did it. This is my second diningroom with satin finish ceiling and I love it. In fact I love it so much that I'm going to paint the livingroom and hall satin too, just as soon as I can find another border to paste over the one in there.

All done and this is the top of the china cabinet where the kitty was. The rooster now has company.

Last two pictures of the finished room. It's so much lighter and brighter.

Does it look a little French Country maybe? I'm happy.

Thanks for stopping by. I really do appreciate it and I love to hear your comments.

Be sure to visit Susan, Our hostess for Metamorphosis Monday, at her home to visit with everyone who joined in this week for the fun. Thanks Susan.

~ ~Ahrisha~ ~

Do You Have Lots Of Fresh Herbs On Hand?

We had an amazing amount of rain this summer and the herbs in pots that I have around the patio have gone nuts. Here is an easy way to use them for a wonderful side dish.

I melt butter in a small iron pan and add a few sprigs of herbs. Here I have used sage, rosemary and thyme. Just like the 60's song without the parsley but that would have been good too. All the rain washed out my parsley. You can use almost any mix of herbs. Give it a try.

I let the butter & herbs sit for some time before pouring over boiled potatoes. Yummy.

Another recipe to share with you this week is a peach tart I made using Pepperidge Farms frozen puff pastry. Got this idea from another blog and it's so easy to make a yummy dessert in little time. Defrost the dough, roll into shape. Cover with sliced peaches and sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg and bake. While it was cooling I heated up some of my homemade peach preserves mixed with a little brandy and spread it over the tart to make it glisten.

Well, here it's the end of the peach season and the end of summer and I will miss them both.

Please stop by at Michael Lee's for "Foodie Friday" and to see the list of participants in this weeks sharing of food and recipes.

Have a Wonderful Weekend~ ~Ahrisha~ ~

Do You Enjoy Savory Pies?

I have a local favorite to share with you today. Have you ever had a Corn Pie? We like it very much as a vegetarian dinner with another vegetable on the side. Broccoli maybe this time of year.

I love making pies and I know many people are intimidated at the thought of making your own homemade crust. I always make 2 pies at a time. It really doesn't take much longer than just one and while I'm getting everything out, Why not?

As you can see above I do not divide my dough evenly. I always make the piece I am using for the top of the pie smaller, after all it doesn't have to be pushed into the edges of the dish so you don't need as big a piece.

For my dough (Martha's) I wrap each piece and refrigerate for about 1 hour before rolling.

Hard boil 14 eggs for 2 deep dish pies while the dough chills.

This little gadget is a corn cutter.
It's indispensable if you freeze or can a lot of corn.

It makes quick work of cutting the kernels off the ear.

I had about 16 ears of corn.

I run the ear of corn over the cutter blade the first time to remove the kernels. Then you switch the blade and run the ears over the cutter again to remove all the sweet sugars and it creams the corn left on the ear.

All the sweet corn in a bowl with the herbs. I use thyme, parsley, S&P
and a little chopped onion.

Peel the eggs.

Chop the eggs and add them to the corn & herb mixture.

If you are a little scared of pie dough I used to be right there with you.

Then I realized that the dough does not have to look perfect to taste really, really good.

As you can see my pie dough is far from perfect. If it tears just make a patch.

I roughly trim the edges on the bottom crust.

Fill the pie and top with the smaller disk of crust.
I like to fold the top crust in half to move it to the pie so I don't tear it

Then because I can't make a pretty edge I have found that this works for me.

I roll both edges under and kind of press them together. This makes for a nice thick edge for the family members who really like dough. I had some dough left so I cut a few maple leaves for the top.

TA DA! Baked Corn Pie.

I make a thin white sauce with butter, flour and cream as a sauce for the pie.

This is A Pennsylvania Dutch Treat.

Please visit Gollum to see the links to everyone who joined in the fun today.
She calls the event Foodie Friday!

Have a great weekend everyone~ ~Ahrisha~ ~

The Last Of Summer. . .

Tomato's

I put together a simple salad~ ~No Lettuce~ ~

Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes/halved

Onions

Green & Red Peppers
Shredded Cheese

Pecan pieces

Chick Peas

Basil Leaves

Dressed with your favorite dressing

I will miss the flavor of these little sweeties!

A Tip from Ahrisha's Kitchen.

I keep my silverware is a basket on the counter.

For me it's much more practical then

opening a drawer every time I need a piece.

Wishing you a lovely week

~ ~Ahrisha~ ~

Cupcakes Again

Greetings friends~ ~

Had a few ripe bananas on the counter and decided I was in need of cupcakes. Seems to be my favorite thing to bake recently. The picture above is the caramel I made for the frosting. This frosting was seriously great tasting! I did not use the Caramel Buttercream recipe that went with the "Banana Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream" at Martha's site but sort of winged it and made my own uncooked frosting. I just wasn't in the mood for cooking eggs but I did make the caramel.

All I did was whip up some butter and mix in confectioners sugar. Then I added the caramel but I left a few tablespoons in the pot. To get the swirl effect I stipped the decorating tube with the left over caramel. Easy to do, Just make a parchment tube, trim off the tip and insert your metal tip, I think I used a 2B tube. Then scoop up about 2 T. of caramel on a cake decorating knife and slide it into the decorating tube starting at the bottom nearest the tip pull a stripe of caramel the whole way up the tube to the top edge.


Now fill your tube with frosting, twist it shut and pipe. It looks like this, Isn't it pretty? Yummy too.

Then dig right in.

I Highly Recommend these cupcakes!

Here is the link to the cupcakes at Martha's Site.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Be sure to stop on over to Michael Lee to see the list of folks who are cooking this Friday.

~ ~Ahrisha~ ~