My Sweet Hubby

When Justin got home from work yesterday, he had these:

Isn't he the sweetest?! I think I got rid of my vases when we moved from Tifton. This is a crystal candle holder that works just fine, though. I think the flowers are dyed with coloring because the blue ones have turned the water blue.

I asked Justin what he had done and he smiled and said, "you'll never know." I'm wondering if I should be worried.

The Massage

Justin got me a gift certificate for a massage for my birthday and I redeemed it yesterday. Ahhh...

The certificate was for a one hour massage at The Buckhead Massage Company. It had been nearly five years since I'd had a massage and oh, wow, did I forget how wonderful it was. I wish I could afford to do that daily.

I checked in and was very quickly introduced to the masseuse who would be working with me. I changed clothes, slipped underneath the blankets, and waited for a minute. I should mention that this was my first massage by a male. I was told when I made the appointment that I would be seeing a male. I thought about waiting for an appointment with a female, but decided to just go with it. I'm glad I did. When I've been massaged in the past, I have discovered that I really enjoy deep tissue massage. This sounds weird, but if I'm not a little sore the next day, then I don't feel the massage was deep enough. Parts of my back and shoulders are sore today. Yay! I have a lot of tension in my shoulders and back and Jaimyn really worked hard in these areas.

It's amazing how fast that hour sped by! I swear massage parlors move the clocks ahead because it seemed like I had only been in the room for ten minutes when he said, "You're done." I was so lazy after that and didn't want to do anything that might "ruin" how I felt after the massage.

Hint, hint...I would love to go back.

Tuna Salad

I made tuna salad sandwiches for supper last night. I searched online for a recipe and decided to make "New Wife Tuna Salad" from Allrecipes.com. I'm very curious about the origin of that title.

I changed the servings from 12 to 6 since I wasn't feeding a crowd. The modified recipe is below:

New Wife Tuna Salad
3 boiled eggs, chopped
2- 6 oz. cand of tuna, drained (I used 1 12 oz. can of StarKist Solid White Albacore Tuna in water)
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/4 c. chopped sweet onion
1/2 c. mayo (I used Smart Balance Mayonnaise)
1 1/2 tsp. honey mustard
1 Tbsp. dill pickle relish (I used sweet relish).
1/4 tsp. celery seed
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. seasoned salt

Place the eggs, tuna, celery, and onion in a large bowl (I lightly stirred these items, but the recipe doesn't say to do that.). Stir together the mayo, honey mustard, relish, and seasonings in a small bowl. Pour over the items in the large bowl and gently stir to coat. Serve immediately at room temperature or refrigerate.

I refrigerated it for a couple of hours before dinner time. We made sandwiches and had some steak fries from the freezer. I baked them instead of frying them, so the whole meal was kind of light. Later in the evening, Justin and I finished the remaineder of the tuna salad with club crackers. I think the extra hours in the fridge gave the flavors time to really mesh. It was delicious immediately after it was made and when we ate supper, but it was even better a few hours after supper.

I think this recipe is definitely a keeper.

The Babes Get Haircuts

Pete and Annabelle have been professionally groomed since they were puppies and seem to enjoy it. They get spunky after a good haircut. It's almost like they know they look good. They got their final haircuts from their longtime groomer, Barb, the morning they traveled to Atlanta. She seemed to love them and I know they loved her.

Since then, Justin and I have searched high and low for a groomer in Atlanta. They are more expensive up here! We emailed, called, and visited some shops, but ultimately decided to use Petsmart Grooming. The price was about what some of the other shops we called were charging, but the convenience of last minute appointments was nice. They also groom on Saturdays, which is fantastic for us. I also like that they have windows so you can watch them shave and trim the dogs, so you know they're probably not mistreating them (at least during the haircut). Annabelle spotted us during her haircut, but didn't act-up or anything. We were so pleased.

Their appointments were Saturday. They've been spending a lot of time outside and Annabelle really smelled. Their hair was also getting pretty long. I don't have any before shots, but Justin and I are pleased with the results. When we dropped them off, we were told that it could take three to four hours. I hated the idea of them being in kennels for long periods of time, but I sucked it up. I was so pleased when we received a phone call after two hours that the babies were ready!

They looked so good and smelled even better! They were so happy to see us, too! I couldn't get a good picture, but you can get the idea from these:

We had them trim Pete's ears shorter than usual since she's so short and they get in her food and water. She looks like a puppy again.
After we got home, both dogs got out of the carrier and darted around the house for a few minutes. Pete got back in the carrier and just sat there. She loves the carrier (or container as my mother calls it).

Painting the Hallway: Update

I mentioned on Tuesday that I painted the hallway. These are the updated photos showing the final product. I'm very pleased with the result and all of the comments from those who have seen it in person have been very positive.



Removing the painter's tape really does make a difference. I spent about an hour doing touch up work on the walls, moulding, and ceiling. I said yesterday that I'm going to add "find the person responsible for the black paint in my house" to my list of things to accomplish before I die. I think I might beat them with a roll of painter's tape. Apparently, that person has never heard of the concept or is really bad when it comes to masking ceilings and moulding. I painted over all the black paint that remained when I removed the tape and now the hallway looks really good.

Now we need to focus on accessories for the hallway. I'm mainly talking about wall prints. I have always had this fear of commitment when it comes to hanging things on walls. I think it's a disease.

Painting the Hallway

Last November when we painted the living room, we decided to wait and paint the adjoining hallway at another time. Today was that time. For some reason unknown to me, one of the previous owners of this house painted several rooms in the house with black paint. This paint wasn't just any black paint either. It was matte black paint, which made the walls look like a chalk board and act like a chalk board anytime something touched one of the walls. I hated it. It also made this particular hallway look so tiny.

Before:

After the first coat of primer:

After the second coat of primer:

After the paint:

Doesn't this color look so much better?

I still need to remove the tape and check for areas that need to be touched up. I'm crossing my fingers that I won't need to do much touch up painting on the walls. I know the moulding will need lots of work because whoever painted the walls black didn't do a very good job and got black paint all over the moulding. I'll try to post photos of the finished product soon.

Kitchen Window

Late Friday afternoon, we decided to install the remaining window in the kitchen. This window was ordered to be installed in the sunroom, but we decided to install it in the kitchen instead. This was the smallest window we have installed and it was as easy as the others.

Before:

During the test fit, Justin measures for shims before we remove the new window to permanently install it.

After:

Our little assistants:

Sunroom Windows

We replaced the picture window and the two windows on either side of it in the sunroom yesterday. We planned to begin around 10:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m., but an unexpected Lowe's trip that turned into an unexpected Home Depot trip pushed our starting time to noon. We worked for 5 or 6 hours and took a break for a few hours. Justin wanted to complete the moulding on these windows, so at 9:00 p.m., we headed back to the sunroom to completely finish. It only took about an hour and then we cleaned the room and called it a night.

We picked up eight windows last Friday and have installed seven. I'll be so glad when we get that eighth window installed and can take a break.

The obligatory before photo:

The picture window has been replaced. One side window has been removed and one is still original.
All three windows have been replaced and Justin is caulking the outside.
Yay! We are finished with these three windows!

Dinner Club

Justin and a couple of friends started a weekly dinner club a couple of years ago. They take turns preparing a meal each week and I decided I would take a turn this week. I decided to prepare crab cake sandwiches with homemade remoulade sauce and twice baked potatoes. I also served cream cheese pie for dessert.

I was fairly pleased with the results. My biggest complaint was the crab cakes kind of fell apart. This could be because I used some real crabmeat and some krabmeat (the stuff made from fish that kind of resembles actual crab meat). I really wanted to use all crabmeat, but that would have cost $60 or $70 and I really didn't want to spend that much on just crabmeat. I used Martha Stewart's crab cake recipe. She would probably spit on me if she knew I didn't use real crabmeat.

I prepared the remoulade sauce and cream cheese pie last night so all I had to do this afternoon was prepare the crab cakes and potatoes. This was my first time making twice baked potatoes and I was pleased with the results. It was pretty easy, but took a while because I had to bake the potatoes.


My recipes are below. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal. I will admit that it did taste pretty good. I served the crab cakes with wheat buns, lettuce, and lemon slices.

Martha Stewart's Maryland Crab Cakes
1 lb. small-size crabmeat (special or claw) **I used 8 oz. of special crabmeat.
1 lb. large-size crabmeat (jumbo lump or backfin) **I used 24 oz. of krabmeat.
1/2 c. light mayo
1/2 c. chopped parsley
1/4 c. lemon juice **I used bottled lemon juice.
1 lg. egg
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. Old Bay Seasoning
salt and pepper
1 c. Saltine crumbs
4 Tbsp. melted butter

Preheat broiler with rack 4" from heat and line baking sheet with aluminum foil. Pick through the real crabmeat to remove any shells or cartilage.

Stir together mayo, parsley, lemon juice, egg, mustard, Old Bay Seasoning, salt, and pepper. Add crumbs and small-size crabmeat and mix well. Add larger crabmeat and gently fold until combined. Divide evenly into 8 cakes. You can place the cakes on parchment paper and refrigerate until you are ready to cook them.

Place cakes on baking sheet and drizzle with melted butter. Broil until golden brown and warmed throughout, 12-15 minutes. You can move them to a lower rack if they begin browning too quickly. I broiled them for about 7-8 minutes and then moved them to a lower rack so I could finish cooking the potatoes. Some parts of the crab cakes were beginning to turn very dark brown. I lowered the oven temperature to 350 degrees and cooked the cakes with the potatoes for about 15 minutes more.

This is also my first time broiling something. The broiler scares me because I'm so afraid I'll burn the food.

Emeril Lagasse's Remoulade Sauce
1/4 c. lemon juice
3/4 c. vegetable oil **I used canola oil.
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped green onions
1/4 c. chopped celery
2 Tbsp. chopped garlic **I used the stuff in a jar.
2 Tbsp. prepared horseradish
3 Tbsp. Creole whole-grain mustard
3 Tbsp. yellow mustard
3 Tbsp. ketchup
3 Tbsp. chopped parsley leaves
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp. black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process for 30 seconds. Will keep for several days in an airtight container in the fridge.

I was kind of surprised this wasn't incredibly spicy.

Ultimate Twice Baked Potatoes
4 lg. baking potatoes **I used Russet potatoes.
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. milk **I used half & half.
4 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese, divided **I used pre-shredded casserole cheese (mixture of several cheeses).
8 green onions, sliced, divided

I didn't follow the linked recipe's potato baking instructions. Mine are below:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash potatoes and dry. Poke several holes in each potato to prevent steam from building up and rub each potato with olive oil. Place potatoes directly on oven rack and bake for 1 hr. and 15 minutes. Remove potatoes from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Slice each potato in half and remove the potato "meat", leaving about a 1/4" for skin stability. Mix all the ingredients saving 1/2 of the cheese and 1/2 of the onions. Mix well. Spoon the mixture into the empty potato skins. Top with the remaining cheese and onions.

Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

The recipe called for bacon, but I decided to omit it. I think they turned out fine without it, but I'm sure many people would enjoy the bacon.

Cream Cheese Pie

(This recipe is from the Mimi's Cafe Cookbook. Mimi's Marketplace Cafe was a restaurant in Nashville, GA that closed earlier this year. This recipe is a favorite at bridal showers in Nashville).

1 9" graham cracker pie crust
1 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 c. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla

Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add other ingredients and mix well. Pour into pie crust and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

I love this pie. It is slightly tangy, but still has that cream cheese flavor. Mmmm...

Den Windows

We got the den windows installed yesterday. The windows in the den consist of one large picture window and one regular operable window. I was dreading this picture window because we have never installed a picture window before. We were both very surprised how easily this window was installed. The worst part was lifting it because it weighed so much.

Before:

When we were removing the moulding, we discovered it had previously been painted avacado green. In the seventies, perhaps?

An outside before close-up:

Another outside before:

We were both surprised to find that the trim moulding was the only thing holding in the old picture window. Justin removed the three interior moulding pieces and sliced through the caulk on the exterior side of the window. I pushed on the outside of the window a few times and then went inside to "catch" the window with Justin. It was super easy. Please ignore the tall grass in the yard.

The new picture window in place. We had to get help lifting it because it weighs a ton (not really, but it weighs a lot).

Both windows are installed!

The new windows have a slight tint to them which I really like. I also like that the new picture window has fewer dividers. It looks more open to me and seems to match the window beside it better.

I was walking through the den last night and this is how I found Pete. She looks so comfortable. She loves tennis balls and keeps several within paws reach.

We're glad we got a picture window installed and know that it's not terribly difficult. We have one more picture window to install. It is in the sunroom and is flanked by two regular operable windows. There is also another small window in there, but it should be fairly simple. We picked up eight windows on Friday and have installed four of them. Woo hoo! Justin promised we would take a window installing break after we get these remaining four windows installed.

Happy Birthday, Carrie!

Today is my sister's thirty-second birthday. I hope it's a great one!

Happy Birthday, Carrie! We love you.