Artichoke-Parmesan dip

Being such an amateur in the cooking area I will always prepare the easiest recipes. Yesterday I said that I'm turning into a better cook, and I am, in fact, I'll share this recipe I finally master.

I made this is one last night... Scrumptious!

THE ARTICHOKE-PARMESAN DIP

1 Can of artichoke hearts (drained and chopped).

1 Cup of grated Parmesan cheese.

3/4 Cup of mayonnaise. 

1 Garlic clove (minced).

Mix well all the ingredients in a 1quart casserole dish. Then bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Arrange pita bread wedges or garlic bread on a platter.

That's it, an easy and quick recipe perfect to share with friends.  

Thanks Katie for sharing this recipe with me.

Cooking with melodies

I love to listen to music while cooking. That's probably the best way I get good results from my food. Only a few months ago, before we moved to our new house, I was actually a terrible cook, but I feel that lately I have been improving.


I'm daring to prepare new things a little more, and the foods I cook more often are reaching a better taste. Not that I master cooking yet, but I'm getting there. Anyways, I owe this accomplishment mostly to practice and to my  "cooking playlist".

The soundtrack for meat lasagna or garlic chicken breast definitively helps you cook better.
   

Soon I'll be posting some recipes, so keep visiting!

Another post about flowers

Wild flowers are underrated. Today, when Ramon and I went for a morning walk I picked some wild flowers on the road. Is incredible the variety of teeny tiny flowers you can find. I picked one of each I found and made a bouquet of wildflowers for Ella's small flower vase, perfect for these type of flowers. I will make her a bouquet everyday for her bedroom nightstand.

Ella will love these flowers when she returns from school.

Reading time

It seems that lately the closest I've got to reading is the children's books I read with Ella every night. But how about those books that I used to read before, those long novels or narratives with no pictures on. The books I have opted to buy recently are the ones with 80% images and 20% literature because it takes less time to read these fellas.

What's happening? I guess there is not much time to read lately. I remember I used to go through books quickly taking most of my night-times to read them so I could start the new one that mom had already introduced me showing me the cover and giving me a brief summary. 

Looks like there was more time to read while I was in college.

The power of flowers

This morning my lovely husband surprised me with flowers. Beautiful yellow mums, which I thought they were daisies, I really can't tell the difference. It was such an unexpected and lovely gesture, and the flowers were so beautiful that I couldn't stop taking pictures, so I made a video. I hope he'll check out today's post so he could see another thank you for him. 

These gorgeous yellow flowers brighten up the living room making it look sunny and shiny and happy. We love to have plants or flowers in the house, especially Ella and I. Is a little bit of nature inside our home. 

Our presentation card

How many times we find ourselves writing our phone number and address for a friend who is going to visit for the firs time. It happens very often, especially when you have moved recently. That's why I thought it was a good idea to create a personal version of the business card.
Everyone who owns a business needs a presentation card with the business address, fax and phone numbers. Why not have a family card with your phone numbers and address. So every time you make a new friend or need to give your information to somebody simply hand them out your family card. 

Add a photo of your family and have the information in the back of the card.

TIP: Besides address and phone numbers you can also add your personal or family blog and Facebook page too. You can create your card using your personal logo.
Create yours and hand them out to your neighbors or new friends. 

Show and tell

Today was another show and tell day at school for our daughter, Ella. Coming from the Dominican Republic I didn't know exactly what it was. Basically what she does is to bring an object from home to school and talk about it. 

The jack in the box sock monkey. Because is cool to be surprised.

One of her first show and tell items was her xylophone. She played Twinkle twinkle little star.

 We like to bring things that could be interesting and cool for the rest of the children. We need to keep the audience paying attention! We usually try to pick objects that appeal to the senses, allowing her to perform in front of her classmates, like for example, her small xylophone. When she played Twinkle, Twinkle little Star her teacher said that everybody was paying attention and applauded at the end. We felt so proud we had to share it!!!!

Goodbye branches

Today we are posting a little later than usual, but we couldn't wait till Friday to let you know that we finally trimmed the tree limbs that were over the house. Some of them were even a safety hazard like the ones of the tree leaning towards the house right over Ella's room. Now we feel safer, the house is much brighter since we are getting more sunlight and it looks nicer too.

There was a crew of about 6 to 7 people working on this. Some of them were trimming, loading a truck, others holding the branches with ropes and cleaning the leaves they left behind. It was a new experience for these new homeowners. Oh! Sorry for the rushed pictures friends. 

Now we can see the sky.

Routine login

The Internet, our XXI century slavery? Well I don't know if it enslaves us but between social networks, blogs, emails and many other sites we keep ourselves busy for many hours of the day and in front of our computers.  

We are actually a little old fashioned and we really don't use many technologies that are common nowadays, like texting or tweeting. Of course we do have our everyday login sites, mostly we use these tools to keep in contact with our loved ones that aren't close and for work. And of course, our blog to share our life experiences with others.

We all have heard about Internet addiction as a real health problem. I'm sure that most of us are not addicts but is really important to disconnect ourselves from our dear laptops for a while, go out and take a stroll through the park.

Doodles on your body

This is what happens when your kid doesn't feel like playing with toys? Well, you just have to improvise! 
I'm sure all of you drew on your toes, chin, hands and belly when you were kids. "La boquita" (which is how we called the mouth upside down) was a really funny one. 

I wanted to share this with Ella and show her how many characters we could create. There's the french chef, the family of five, the running lady in a towel, la boquita and the thing. And all of them talk, walk or move in a funny way. 


Another fun activity to do with your family. Oh!  And Ramon got some doodles on his belly too!

Quicker than I thought

On Monday I showed my dissatisfaction with our living room since it was missing places to sit. We are having people over for the next few days and we wanted them to feel comfortable.  But then... yesterday we took a trip to Ikea. We looked for chairs that were good looking, comfortable and most important affordable, and we found them. 

We found these two discount chairs. There's nothing wrong with them, they were displayed in the showrooms so they sell them as used furniture. We didn't mind, it was a good price, they look good and they were already assembled.    

You might think I'm crazy but I like all the patterns mixed in the living room and there's like a nature theme going on. We love how it looks!

How much would you pay?

I never thought that finding a chair was such a hard thing to do. We need more seating in the living room since all we have is the sofa. We really would like to buy two affordable and comfortable chairs with nice bright colors. We have found several nice ones here and there but the adjective they are missing is AFFORDABLE, at least for our budget. We don't want to overspend money in chairs. 

Solution? We don't know yet, let see what happens. Do you have any suggestions dear readers?

Dry clean only?!!

I got a very nice used winter coat from a thrift store, it's made of three materials: suede, polyester and acrylic. The care instructions in the tag tell you to only dry clean it by a leather professional, but I really didn't want to spend all that money in dry cleaning (yes...I'm that cheap). Plus they use chemicals that are harmful for the environment. 

I've been searching on the Internet and the material that should not get wet is suede. Suede is a type of leather with a fuzzy surface. Now, I spent a while considering taking it to a dry cleaner but didn't make up my mind, winter is getting close, the weather is getting colder even here in Florida. I wasn't going to wear it dirty ether, especially coming from a thrift store. I was also afraid to wash it myself, but at the end I dared to do it! I knew I could fail or I could succeed. 

I washed it in the machine with cold water, used baby shampoo and hung it to dry. I think it still looks good.

Outdoor family time

In order to complete Monday's post about doing things together with your child, I will be sharing the fun afternoon Ella and I had yesterday.

We began our outdoor time finding the hidden treasure (which was only a box I hid in the backyard, no big deal) but yet really fun for her. We went outside with props and toys and played many improvised games (made up by ourselves). We collected some leaves and seeds. We made bubbles and took many pictures of nature but the best thing of all... Ella took her own pictures too.

IDEA: Give your child the camera, let him choose and take pictures by himself, that way you can see what is interesting for them. 

It was a great day and great family time.

Do it together

Doing different activities together is one of the things that makes a family be happy and healthy. Like most kids, one of our daughter's favorite thing to do is paint and color. But she enjoys it the most when Ramon or I join her. 

Got my hands dirty painting with the little one. 

TIP: Display the things you do together, whether is a craft or piece of art, anything you and your child create. I display the drawings we make on her bedroom door. She is proud of the things she makes by herself but we also feel she is proud of the things we have done together.