"100 Floors" (Not the app)

After 5 & 1/2 years of owning our home, we are finally giving our kitchen floors a face lift!

When we moved in to our simple home, we were blessed to have no renovations right off the bat. The previous owner was an interior decorator so the walls were great neutral colors & the hardwood floors were in good condition. We just signed & started unloading... literally! The only part of the house that started bothering me pretty much immediately was the kitchen floor. As you can tell by my previous posts, I am in the kitchen a lot; therefore, with every spill & slosh I began hating the floor. Have I mentioned yet that is was white, peel-n-stick tiles? Yep, over 300 square feet of white, not so sticky anymore tiles...

After much debate & hours upon hours of Pinterest and Houzz surfing, we decided on brick pavers! Truly, it has always been between hardwood and those beautiful, southern, charming little bricks. I am not a big fan of tile for what ever reason. If we went with the hardwood then we knew we would need to refinish the hardwoods throughout the rest of the house and that really started adding up quickly. 

Below are a few pictures of our remodeling journey...

"The Before"

"Bye-Bye Old & Ugly"

Jason & I scrapped up the "tile" ourselves. It was actually quite nice to take out my aggression on those mocking little white squares. Muahahahaha!! 

"The Call"

Until after 2 hours of our contractor ripping out the floor... we got the call. We had a sub-floor problem. Agghhh! To quote my friend, "There ain't no surprise like a sub-floor surprise!"

"The Demo" 

Yes, this is our sub-floor being cut out... all. three. layers.Ugh, it hurt just to look at this picture. Luckily, they discovered the last layer was still in great condition. 

"Watch for Splinters"

On the bright side, at least we got to walk on that pretty, new sub-floor for 5 days. It really helped me to feel like we got our monies worth.

"Drop the Base"

Permabase that is! The last layer of sound, permanent structure until our floor starts to look like... well, a floor! Hooray! 

  I will post the big reveal later next week when we are back in our home.

Man massage

For my birthday, back in June, my thoughtful hubs gave me a gift certificate to a local spa in town. While rifling through my purse a couple of weeks ago I came across it. Completely unused & glorious! 

For whatever reason, a thought came to me & I immediately called the spa to see what their policy is on how you can use their gift certificates. "How ever you like!" was their response. Awesome! 

Now on very rare occasions, I get bursts of unselfish spontaneity so I have to act quickly before I realize what I have done. :) Before I knew it, I had booked a couples massage for Jason & I for last Saturday morning!

Jason had never had a massage before... ever... in his life. "What??", you say. I know! I was given a massage as a matron of honor gift years ago and have delighted in a facial before so I knew we were about to thoroughly enjoy this. 

Jason was excited about it that morning but nothing compared to my overjoyed jabbering self. He asked a few questions about what to expect & verified that I would choose Mark the masseur and he would have Misty. There was plenty of teasing that he would get the dude until the morning of. I can't resist trying to get one over on that man! 

We arrived at the spa on time & were taken back to the room quickly. We stripped down & slid underneath the sheet on our appointed separate tables. My excitement was almost uncontrollable! As the hour passed, we were pampered, rubbed, kneaded, karate chopped and transported to a jelly like state. It was WONDERFUL!! Jason kept commenting through out "if only I had known sooner" and "how often do you recommend getting a massage". Needless to say, he is hooked! 

I think I can count on getting that perfect little packaged certificate of love for every holiday & occasion until the end of time. Score! 

So with a pound of lotion in our hair and muscles made of noodle soup, we left the spa... grabbed a Starbucks and bite of lunch and poured ourselves onto the sofa for the rest of the afternoon. It was the perfect way to spend our Saturday! 

                                                                       Ahh.....

Hey, hey, we love our CSA!

My husband & I joined a local CSA from an organic, zero waste farm about an hour away from our hometown, White Oak Pastures. Here in Southwest Georgia, our city is surrounded with farms large and small. We love fresh veggies but have always stayed in our comfort zone; beans, corn, mushrooms... you know "the norm". We have been receiving our weekly CSA crate from a few months now and boy, have we had to get creative! Between googling some of the surprises to find out what it actually is & recipes to use them in, thankfully most of our unfamiliar items have not gone to waste. 

Here is a weekly menu from a couple of weeks ago that incorporates at least one delicious organic goodie each! (None of which are the meats...)

Wednesday's pork tenderloin was to die for! I take absolutely no credit for this gem. This bad boy is all Martha's! Here is the link, Sage- and Garlic-Crusted Pork Tenderloin. I shared this recipe the next day with a girl friend of mine and she agreed, two thumbs way up!

Thursday's was a quick "throw it together" kind of meal due to working all day then taking my unmotivated behind to zumba before coming home to cook. Not to complain, but even those of us that love to cook have our days we wish we had that damn magic wand we saw as a child! Bibity-bobity-boo! (Dang it!!) All belly aching aside, it was so worth making this! It was excellent and gone in a flash. I used the pesto recipe that was attached to our CSA's blog, it was divine! Probably the best pesto I have ever had. 

The eggplants were so tender and browned beautifully. I peeled the eggplants, cut them into hearty slices and dredged them though an egg wash then bread crumbs seasoned with italian spices and S&P. I fried them in a little olive oil until golden brown, transferred them to a pyrex, topped them with thick slices of mozzarella cheese then smeared marinara on top. Popped them in a 350 degree oven until the cheese started melting and the sauce was bubbling. That's it! It was just that easy! (I just eyed it & didn't really use any measurements, sorry!) Below are a couple pictures I snapped during the process... 

     (Yes, that is a white eggplant!!) 

                               

                          

Disclaimer: I was too pooped to make the caprise salad... I know, I know, I am worthless :) 

XOXO 

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

Tonight I'm back on the wagon... food wagon that is! Pasta is my comfort food go to. I believe I found this recipe at Publix several years ago and it has stayed at the front of my recipe box since day one. It makes a ton... easily 4 to 6 people especially with side dishes. 

What you'll need:

2 tbs all-purpose flour                     

1 tsp season salt (I addore Lowry's)

1 large ziplock bag

1 lb chicken tenders (cut into bite size pieces)

1 tbs butter

1 tsp minced garlic

1 c fresh mushrooms

8 oz fettucini pasta

1/4 c white wine 

1 c heavy cream

2 tbs grated parmesan cheese

• Cook pasta according to directions on box then drain.
• Place chicken in ziplock bag with flour & seasoned salt, then shake to coat. 
• Pre-heat a large sauté pan on med-high heat and add butter
• Cook chicken & garlic for about 5 mins, then add mushroom and cook additional 4 mins until the mushrooms are tender. 
• Add cream & wine, simmer over low-med heat for 5-7 mins until chicken is throughly cooked. 
• Add pasta & parmesan & toss gently. 
• The only white wine I had tonight was a delicious bottle of buttery chardonay that I couldn't bear to open alone so I subbed chicken stock instead. It still turned out great!  

I threw some fresh broccoli in the hot pasta water after I has added the noodles to the dish as a green side. I'm lazy when it comes to scrubbing pots and pans after cooking so it saved me 1 more pot. 

Enjoy!