The other day I was reading a post that caught my attention. A new homeowner was thinking yellow walls with black stenciling as the design element. My first thought was don't do it especially if your thinking black. If your thoughts are bringing something creative into the space then opt for a picture. You can easily change the picture. Otherwise you might be living with your creation for a long time.
Instead, create a look you can live with no matter how your life changes. If yellow is the color chosen on the walls and you want to create something dramatic to make a statement then try your hand at a line drawing using bold black strokes. For example it can represent the female form or keep it neutral with maybe one or two patterns. Your artwork can be framed in black or for an elegant touch use a matte before you place it in the frame. If bold is what your after, then paint it on a big canvas and hang it up. Better to try a style of art that's in, then a design that will take a while to paint out.
Creating a look with a color pallet of yellow and black can be tricky to balance. If you go with too much black then your room may come off looking startling or worse depressing. If you go with the yellow wall then keeping it closer to a pale yellow will give the room a softer balance. And if you want to incorporate another color into the mix try toning it down with maybe a white or possibly a soft green or blue. Besides you don't want all your first house warming gifts to be honey to go with your bumblebee room.
Remember whatever your design element happens to be you are the one going to be living with it for years to come. So, give it some thought before you jump in and end up surprising yourself and not in a good way.
Are you a tired of not being able to dine out because of the high cost of eating at a restaurant? Is chicken the only meat you can afford to make these days and it just doesn't seem enough? Your troubles are over. I have the best chicken recipe. It does not take long to make and the best part its absolutely divine. Everybody that tries it says it is better than eating at an restaurant. I call it "Teresa's Italian Chicken."
Cook Time: 30 minutes Level: Easy
Ingredients
* A package of organic free range chicken breasts
* 1/2 cup of olive oil
* 4 teaspoons of real butter
* 2 tablespoons of Italian seasoning
* 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon of onion powder
* 1 large can of diced tomatoes
* 2 jars of marinated artichoke hearts
* 1 jar of wild organic capers
* Parmesan cheese in grated form for sprinkled topping
* 1 small lemon
Directions
Toss the chicken in a bowl and add the italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder until chicken is completely coated. Heat 1/2 inch of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place chicken in oil and brown chicken evenly. About 5 minutes on each side or until chicken appears to be fully cooked. Next add the diced tomatoes, artichokes, and capers. Make sure you do not drain liquids in the jar except a little from tomatoes and a little from capers. Cut a small lemon, remove seeds and add lemon juice to the chicken. Let this simmer for 15 minutes and then add butter. Now simmer another 5 minutes with heat turned down to a medium to low heat. Remove from heat and serve on top of angel hair pasta. Sprinkle parmesan topping to your taste.
Products
The best chicken to use is the organic free range chicken breasts, but you can use regular chicken breast if you prefer. I usually get a package with three to four chicken breasts. The extra virgin olive oil can be what you like, but I use Carapelli brand for sauteing and baking. Most of the seasonings I prefer are made by McCormick. You can use a less expensive one for the garlic and onion powder, but try and get a good quality Italian seasoning. As for the diced tomatoes, Hunts tends to be reasonably priced. Marinated artichoke hearts tend to be pricey, so if Progresso is out of your price range then get Reese. Organic foods sometimes have less salt then regular foods in jars that is why I choose organic capers. They are the Mediterranean Organic. Parmesean cheese usually is okay as a generic brand, but I love Kraft. Everything is a little better with butter, so make sure you use the real thing. No substitutes.
End Note
I hope you enjoy this recipe for many meals to come.
One of the many things I do around the holidays is make yummy cookies. I started passing cookies out one year as Christmas gifts because I forgot a couple of people on my Christmas list. The first batch of cookies I made that year made such an impression that now everyone insist I make them every year. I even get requests for them outside the holiday season.
It all started because my husband was flipping channels on the television and I happen to walk through the room. I told him to go back a channel to The Food Network as Giada De Laurentiis, one of my favorite chefs from Everyday Italian, was on. In order to keep my husband from changing the channel I used my feminine wiles -- I promised to make him his favorite cookies if he would let me watch the show. Christmas was just around the corner and she was making holiday biscotti. I whipped into the kitchen between commercials to check and see if I had all the ingredients.
I was out of baking powder, had no unsalted butter, and had no white chocolate that her recipe required. Amidst all the running back and forth my husband asked if I had checked to see if we had all the ingredients for his oatmeal raisin cookies. I smiled sweetly and told him no, but that I had a great idea. I would make a version of the biscotti except I would only bake it once so he could call it a cookie. He was okay with that. Excited, I went to the kitchen and started on the cookies.
You've got to understand that I am Italian and I love biscotti. I was raised in a home where my mother's cooking was like eating in a five star restaurant. She had a very small kitchen she called her "Love Kitchen" because she made everything with love and you had to love her to be in it while she was cooking. If my mother ran out of an ingredient she just substituted. She always made the most fabulous recipes. I guess I inherited this quality from her because I find myself doing the same thing. If you're wondering how fabulous my recipes are turning out, let's just say my mother would have been proud.
The cookies were mixed and baked in less than thirty minutes. My husband rushed into the kitchen and gobbled up the first batch I had prepared. It was a joy to know I could whip up such a great cookie in less than 30 minutes.
I have to call this my semi-homemade cookie because it was made with two packages of Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough. I mixed 2 packages of OceanSpray Craisins, and one package of organic pistachios. First I let the dough soften at room temperature then added the craisins with a tablespoon of Adams Extract Vanilla I chopped up the pistachios and added them. Rolling the dough in the palm of my hand I created approximately three dozen cookies. The cookies baked in an oven temperature of 350 for exactly 15 minutes each time. It was the perfect bite of sweet chewiness and crunchiness combined. I named my cookie creation "Joy."
Updated: 12/03/2010 to correct temperature of 325 to 350 at 15 minutes. Cook times may vary.
Instead, create a look you can live with no matter how your life changes. If yellow is the color chosen on the walls and you want to create something dramatic to make a statement then try your hand at a line drawing using bold black strokes. For example it can represent the female form or keep it neutral with maybe one or two patterns. Your artwork can be framed in black or for an elegant touch use a matte before you place it in the frame. If bold is what your after, then paint it on a big canvas and hang it up. Better to try a style of art that's in, then a design that will take a while to paint out.
