C & D Salsa of Death

This salsa is HOT HOT HOT.... so keep the milk and bread on hand.

2 cans diced tomatoes
3-6 Jalapeño peppers, chopped finely
2 Habanera peppers, chopped finely
Half Cup loosely packed fresh Cilantro (if in a quick salsa mood can sub dried cilantro 1 Tablespoon)
1 tsp. Cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp. salt
4 tsp. pepper
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tbsp. onion powder

Blend together in blender until finely processed, serve.

To tone it down a bit and not lose the flavor, drop to a half a Habernero pepper, deseeded. with two jalapenos.

Mint Pesto Lamb Steaks

Lemon Marinade

1/4 cup Olive oil

zest of one lemon

juice of 1 lemon

Salt- Fresh ground sea salt to taste

Dash of fresh ground pepper

1 small clove of garlic chopped

Dash of your Favorite steak or chop seasoning

Combine all ingreedients in a small bowl mix

Place 2 Lamb steaks (around 1.5 LBS) in large freezer bag and add marinate and let marinade for 4 to 6 hours.

Mint Pesto

1/8 Cup Toasted pine nuts

1/2 plus 1/8 cup Olive oil

 1/4 Cup Parm cheese

1 Teaspooon salt

2 small cloves chopped garlic

1 Teaspoon red wine vinegar

2 dashes italian seasoning

Freash ground pepper to taste

Touch of freash squezed lemon juice to taste

Toast Pine Nuts until golden brown.

Take mint off stems

Place all ingredients in blender and blend till Smooth.

Take your lamb out of the fridge 30 min before cooking and let rest at room temp.

Place a little olive oil and garlic in a sautee pan and heat oil on medium heat. Once oil is heated place your lamb steaks in frying pan. Cook for five min on one side before flipping steaks and cook for another 3 min on other for a med temp on your Lamb. Time may need to be adjusted depending on how thick your lamb steaks are. We served this with garlic Parmesan asparagus and baked corn on the cob.

$5 at Goodwill to Wedding Fabulous

I was recently on a search for a new file cabinet at Goodwill and stumbled on this beauty.

For $5 I had to snatch it up.  The bottom opens up and is secured with magnets.  It came with several of the white tipped pins and I knew I could find a fabulous use for a shadow box!

This birdcage cardbox has been sitting in our living room since our wedding.  I have kept every single card we received from our engagement, my bridal shower, bachelorette weekend and the wedding.  Every card and random memento has lived here for almost two years.  It was high time for a change!

Que the thought lightbulb

 After playing with a couple variations, this is what I decided to display.   I love how it turned out!  I may add a few more things.  What do you think? I don't want it to be too crowded.

 For now it lives next to our sand frame but I think once we move I will hang it up, our rental house is so old and I don't trust the walls to hang heavier items.

I am also thinking about doing this with the cards:

source: Pinterest

One Year Anniversary Cake Smash

I am a huge fan of traditions, both old and creating our own.  September was our 1 year wedding Anniversary, so it was time to come up with something fun for our 1st Anniversary and something to carry on for years to come. 

I absolutely LOVED our wedding cake, CakeAlicious Design Studio is a dear family friend of Corey's and very talented!  Thanks to our top layer being on the larger side we had more than enough to eat a couple slices on our wedding anniversary and have enough leftover for 5 other people!

Like most brides I had spent a good amount of money and time on getting my makeup done for our wedding so I threatened Corey's life if he smashed cake on my face.  (Thank you Tzeira for the below photo).

 

So why not have fun with it on our anniversary?  Enter my fabulous new idea!  A One Year Anniversary Cake Smash! Babies do it on their 1-year Birthday, so why not?

 

  

Crystal Reins Photography captured it perfectly!   She is amazing and we will definitely be using her for years and life events to come (our wedding photos were taken by a photographer who is now out of business).

 

 

 The Cake Smash was a blast, but obviously not something we can carry on for years to come.  So we also decided to start taking a photo at the same spot as our favorite Engament photo every year, holding the last years photo.  (Thanks to my sister for the gorgeous frame!)  Eventually it will look like a neato-freato (yes, new word) wormhole (as apposed to a creepy one). It was inspired by this Pinterest Pin.

Do you have an Anniversary Tradition or a planned one?

Thanks for reading! Joanna