The Taste of the Town

Last night my husband and I hit the Taste of the Town event for the first time.  It took place at the Marriott on the Waterway here in our town.  For a $25.00 entry fee you can walk around, from booth to booth, sampling delightful tastes from the various participating local restaurants. You can also enjoy a variety of drinks from area wineries and breweries.  Sounds like fun to me!  So right after school we headed to the Marriott eager to see if this event was all that we hoped it would be.  I can tell you now, we were not disappointed!

A view of the Waterway 

The first booth we hit was Landry's who had a crew making and frying fresh crab cakes. You can see a tray of them sitting on the table below. We had to stand in a long line to get our taste but it was well worth it. So much that I got back in line and had another!

Pardon my hubby's blurry phone picture but I had to get a snapshot of this little yummy to remind myself to research a recipe for crab cakes later.  It was also the last picture taken because we were too busy trying to get to all the vendors and taste every bit of food.  After about three hours of grazing we called it a night.  Although everything was good, the crab cake remained my favorite.  So Last night I did a quick search for a good crab cake recipe in hopes of whipping some of my own up this weekend for the whole family.

  Picture from Food Network

My search led me to Paula Deen's recipe which looked simple enough.  After reading through numerous reviews of the recipe I decided to take give the original a little tweaking.  Below is the revised version that I am going to give a try tomorrow. 

Ingredients:

• 1 pound crabmeat
• 1 sleeve of Ritz crackers, crushed

• 1/4 cup minced yellow onion
• 1/4 cup minced red bell peper 
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 egg, beaten 
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. dry mustard
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning
• 1/4 tsp. Emeril's Original Essence
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• Dash cayenne pepper
• Panko breadcrumbs, for dusting
• 1/2 cup peanut oil
• A dab of butter, for sautéing vegetables

Directions
Sautee onion and red pepper in butter until soft.  Let cool.

In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients, except breadcrumbs and peanut oil.  Place the mixture in the refrigerator for an hour and a half.  Remove from refrigerator and shape cooled mixture into 4- 6 patties and dust with breadcrumbs.  Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, carefully place crab cakes, in batches, in pan and fry until browned, about 4 to 5 minutes.  Carefully flip crab cakes and fry on other side until golden brown, about 4 minutes.  Serve warm with your favorite sauce.  Yummm...can't wait to make them!  Hope mine look half as pretty as Paula's pictured below!

Picture from Food Network

Hanging the Oil Tapestry...Finally!

My husband bought me this hand painted oil tapestry at our local Junior League Nutcracker Market, not last year but the year before. Yes, since Christmas 2008 it has not been hanging in the place it was intented for, but rather in a random spot in our bedroom. Why, you may ask? Well, getting it hung in the place I envisioned it proved to be more than what I bargained for.

The wall along our curved staircase has been bare since we moved in and when I found this reasonably priced oil tapestry I thought immediately of how pretty it might look hanging there. So my husband bought it for me as an early Christmas gift and we brought it home and got ready to hang it.  We quickly realized an extension ladder would be needed and since ours was being borrowed by friends at the time we decided to do it after the holidays. So I hung it in our bedroom "temporarily"  where it has remained until today, more than a year later.  Better later than never, that's our motto!

Getting the tapestry to its final destination was no easy task. First, my husband had to find the stud close to the middle of the staircase wall.  Then, we had to decide how high to hang the tapestry.  After trying to use a tape measure and picture what it would look like at different heights we finally decided to get the ladder, lean it about in the middle of the wall and go from there. So we did and then it was time to get to the job of hanging.  Did I mention I was the lucky one who got to climb up the ladder or that I'm afraid of heights?  

Well, it's true and despite my initial refusal, I managed to overcome my fear and got the job done when we realized it would be safer for my husband to stand on the stairs and stabilize the ladder just in case it started sliding. My knees were shaking the entire time but I did it. I love how it looks, and believe me if I didn't I would make myself because I won't be climbing twenty feet on a ladder anytime soon!

         

Kitchen Valances

Yesterday I began the task of hanging the valances sewn from a McCall's pattern sometime ago.  As you can see from the picture below my kitchen eating area was less than cozy.  Long ago, I had tab curtains hanging in my kitchen but wanted a more tailored look so I took them down and my kitchen has remained as pictured since.

This is what the valances looked like before they were hung.  I needed to run an iron over them to get the wrinkles out from being stored away for too long. 

To get a custom made look I had to attach the valances to plywood boards, which I purchased from Home Depot and had covered with material using a staple gun.

This was the tricky part of this project.  I first pinned the valances to the boards, making and spacing pleats evenly apart.  Below is what an attached valance looked like.

The pleats needed ironing to stay put.  You'll notice the top of the board looks unfinished, but that's alright since it will not be seen. 

Then it was time to attach the valances to the wall. I used corner braces again purchased at Home Depot.

I measured and drilled the braces in the middle of the boards and on the ends of each.

Getting the valances attached to the boards on the wall was a little bit of a challenge, however, with help from my husband, my measuring tape and a level the job got done!

Looking better already!

The pleats are still not lying completely flat so I will probably steam them later this week.

But for now, I'm happy.  Next on my list is to make cafe curtains to hang below the valances!

Goodbye Again

Brit is back in College Station.  Meg rode along with her yesterday while my mom and I followed.   Two cars full of stuff she insisted she needed at her apartment.  The one good thing about driving to College Station is that it's only about an hour and a half from where we live.  After unloading the cars and helping her organize a few things we all went to dinner and then it was time to say goodbye.   Goodbye is so hard, which I'm sure is why my husband opted to stay home with our senior dog Maddie.  It was more bittersweet than usual since she will be staying in College Station until she graduates next December.  I will miss her... 

So Brit leaving means Milo is gone as well.  He became my lap dog over the holidays.  This is him sitting on my lap while I watched the movie "Julie and Julia" on a chilly, December morning before anyone else was up.  We were early morning buddies over the holidays.  I'll miss him too but I know how much he keeps Brit company when she's away from home.

She's only been gone a day and I already find myself reminiscing about the time she was here with all of us. It's hard to believe that Meg will be going off to college next fall as well. Where did the time go? At least we have memories and pictures to capture these precious moments in time. The girls have always been close but I've had the joy of watching them go from "just sisters" to truly best friends. Their time together this past month has been really special.

One night during the Christmas holiday they stayed up late and made gingerbread cookies together. How sweet is that? We were already asleep but woke to a bunch of these adorable guys and surprisingly no mess in the kitchen! Brit's boyfriend snapped the picture above of them in the middle of the gingerbread making. Thanks Adam!