The Nightstand Incident

On the IPOD "Mrs. Robinson (Remastered)" by: The Lemonheads incident

On Sunday I decided I was going to be super productive and repaint our nightstands! You might ask, "Amanda, are you good at home improvement projects?" Well to answer your question, I've got great ideas and I'm really good at watching home improvement shows... But unfortunately I don't like to follow directions!

So I went to the store and bought every brand of spray paint they had, a tarp, sand paper, and even some clear coat for that "professional look". Then I stopped by my mom's house and got the electric sander ( I know, power tools...what was I thinking.) Mike ran to do a couple of errands and because I'm extremely impatient I started without him... I laid out the tarp on our patio, moved the nightstand outside, ended up forgoing the electric sander and just used the sand paper to rough up the surface .

I changed into painting attire, took my shoes off, and even left my phone inside so that I wouldn't be distracted... Everything was going great until I realized that the tarp looked oddly brown all over...I guess I'm not as good as I thought I was with a can of spray paint! The bad part wasn't that the tarp was brown, the bad part was that there was a solid 1/2 inch of brown paint on the bottom of my feet. And even worse than that when I opened the door to try and find a way to beam myself to the bathroom to wash my feet off I heard knocking (ok it was more like banging) at the front door.

At that minute I realized that I had locked Mike out and more than likely since I didn't have my phone and was outside for at least 45 minutes, he wasn't real happy... So I wrapped my feet up with paper towels and scooted myself across the living room to the front door. When I opened the door "Hi" was definitely not the first word he said... I quickly said sorry and then scooted my way to the bathroom. For the next 30 minutes or so I scrubbed my feet, until they almost fell off. Spray paint is pretty resilient!

After all of that the nightstand did turn out pretty decent...I think I will wait a couple of days before I paint the second one!

Yesterday was a rough cook day for me...

Seafood Bouillabaisse
Taco Bar
Turkey Meatballs
Chicken Lomein
Pan Seared Filets
Chicken Enchiladas
Chili con Carne
3 different kinds of grilled chicken (Greek, Fajita, and Jalapeno)
Beef and Vegetable Stew
Zucchini Parmesan Bake
Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprout Medley
Corn and Black Bean Pico de Gallo
Cucumber Salad
Country Green Beans
Fruit Salad
Key Lime Pie
Crudites

My friend Stacy asked me for a recipe for Shakshouka. This is my favorite one, I actually ended up making it for dinner last night... so good!

Shaksouka (Eggs in Purgatory)

1 tsp. olive oil
1 med. onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. tumeric
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 T of Siracha (you can use more or less of this depending on heat desired, I would not double this if making a larger batch)
1/2 cup of vegetable broth
2-4 eggs depending on how much sauce you like

Heat olive oil in saute pan over medium high heat. Add onion and cook until soft. Add garlic and peppers and cook about 3 minutes more. Add crushed tomatoes, spices, and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and simmer very low, uncovered for about an hour. Now some people break the eggs into the sauce and simmer in the sauce for about 8 minutes for poached eggs. Im not a big fan of that, I like to cook my eggs "over-medium" in a seperate skillet and then serve them on top of the hot sauce. Your choice!

Ok I really have to get ready for work...

xoxo chef a