Red Snapper in White Wine Garlic Butter w/ Zucchini, Squash, and Carrot Pasta with Roasted Petite Potatoes

NEW recipe on new Culinary Elegance blog!  http://culinaryelegance.blogspot.com/

Red Snapper in White Wine Garlic Butter w/ Zucchini, Squash, and Carrot Pasta with Roasted Petite Potatoes

Sophia and Friends. :-)

 Little Friends!  Sophia with Tristan and Alexander after services

 Look at that smile!  Makes you melt like butter!  Oh, and don't worry I was right behind her to catch her so she wouldn't fall.  We've got it all covered.  ;-)

Sophia has gotten into purses these days.  She loves carrying around Aunt Carolyn's purse...AKA...my purse.

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(Above:  Culinary Elegance's gluten free Beef Stroganoff with Pan Seared Garlic Butter Asparagus, and a Brown Rice Biscuit with Avocado Puree....whole wheat for gluten tolerant s could be subbed in,)

Family Time! ...and friends

I joked with my sis in law about how I'm always spending time with Sophia and posting pics as a proud Aunt, and that it had been awhile since I'd posted a pic of Sophia with her parents.  I was able to take the fab pic.  I am happy with its turnout for a candid pic.
Below:  Sophia and I usually take a short walk to the waterfall every week, and this week Mr. Welsh and his son also visited it as well.  Sophia told them to smile though ironically if you notice in the pic she is in above, she is not smiling.  :-)

Piano and YOU -tube. ;-)!

Getting back into the game.  Plans have changed a little, and I will be resuming piano lessons in January with an award winning teacher here locally.  I have started a YouTube channel that I plan to update.  Last year, I updated practice sessions on the blog, this year, I'll only do updates on the YouTube channel when I have a song all ready to perform.  I'm no where where I want to be with the piano, but I'm hoping for increase in growth focusing heavily on that talent.  Above is a rough recording I did last May when piano lessons were coming to an end for that semester.  We'll see where the "yellow brick road" leads!  :-)  Feel free to follow my you-tube easy listening piano channel.  (It will be easy listening once I'm accomplished, anyway!) 

Reupholstering my Office Chair

Office chairs can be expensive to replace, and my chair definitely was well worn.  Instead of ordering a brand new chair, I wanted to try to save money for the work by reupholstering my own office chair.  It was a fun project, but it's a lot of hard work, and once one has committed to this, you have to see it through.  There's no going back.  :-)  Here are some pics of how worn my chair was.  Being that I sit at the front desk, I didn't think that was representing well.

...so the first thing that I did was go to Hobby Lobby and bought a cute little feminine hammer.  Yes, I asked one the clerks if they had girly hammers, and they did!  It's covered in flowers....and the beauty of it is that it also converts into three screw drivers.  It's a hammer and flat head and Phillips head screwdriver in one.  The handle unscrews and turns into the screw drivers!  So girly!

Then I selected the fabric for the chair.  Being that the chair belongs to work, I had to be considerate of what fabric that I chose to represent well, and to match the decor that is in the office.  The chair belongs to work, so it's not mine to do with as I please.  I chose a deep red and gold to match the scenery already at the front desk.

When I got back to the office and began working on the chair, I was surprised to find that my chair was put together poorly by the company that we had originally bought it from.  Instead of screws, they had cheated and simply put heavy duty staples in it to hold it all together.  What!  I know!  I was able to use a regular, as shown below, staple remover to simply pull the staples out.

Thanks to my everyday staple remover, I was able to remove all of the staples that were holding the plastic and the fabric to the wood.  Once removed, I used the old fabric as a type of pattern to cut out the new fabric.  If you are adding new padding in, you can also use it as a guide to cut that out as well.  I didn't have fabric shears on me, so I had to use my office scissors.  I will say that those things are definitely not made to cut fabric.  I think I would have done better with a knife, but it got done.

As a temporary guide to hold the fabric in place, I used masking tape.

....starting on the back of the chair.....I decided to complete it first. 

The time had come to nail in the upholstery nails.  I wanted to put the chair back together right.  Instead of the cheap staples.....the real thing that is suppose to be used to reupholster.

...so I nailed in well over half of the nails around the chair, but it took me over an hour to do so b/c of strength, or maybe I should say a lack of strength.  Cory S. offered to help me hammer the nails in b/c it was taking me several hits per nail to drive it in, but since he's a student and was on the job I told him I'd be fine, so another 20 minutes went by with my girly hammering...and that was when handy man Dan walked by and offered to help.  I gladly accepted the manly help this time.  Three strikes and you're out, after all.  :-)  Wow, he finished the rest of nailing in about 10 minutes.  He would only hit the nail twice and it would be in.  I was thinking, I should have just gotten "man power" from the start.  Could have saved time, and lots of noisy hammering in the office!

Voila!  My office chair's new look!  Costed around $30 for everything including upholstery fabric, hammer, and upholstery nails, etc.  That's a lot cheaper than a new office chair of this type that costs $200-$300 new.  Conner B. is going to come and secure the bottom plastic on with a professional tool when he gets the chance putting on that last touch.  In the meantime, this is how it looks now.  It's very functional, more comfy.....happy with it!

Update with Conner fastening on the plastic piece properly with the screw gun.

Being a Little Random

 A random post.  So a few months back a friend and I had an art night.  I took painting as a fine arts credit back when I was in college, but I always used the mediums of acrylic, oil, pastel, oil pastels, and graphite as mediums.  I never used water colors, so using you tube, we found water color tutorials, and tried it out.  It could be way better, was happy with it enough to matte and frame it.  I may give it to my niece.  However, I don't see any real talent of service developing from this, so this will probably be my first and last water color painting.  One thing that I'm trying to focus on is doing things that are of service to others and not just selfish things.  I don't see any real talent that pops with this in my life story book!  Others can serve in this much better.

 Total randomness, I found these slippers at Ross!  It's a shoe persons dream!  You can wear your cute slippers and clean with them too!  Productivity and a nice workout as well.  You are the human mop!  ;-)

Angel Eyes--A fun song to sight read Labor Day weekend.

Just a Few Carolyn Candid Shots from Labor Day Picnic 2016 :-)

Just a few pictures that I managed to shoot at the HQ Labor Day Picnic, candidly.

ABOVE:  Here comes the bride!  Jordanya who will be marrying Abraham later this month, no Abraham is no where on this pic if you're wondering :-).  We'll have to work on that smile before her wedding.  LOL!  Love this gal!  She photobombed her own pic.  Only she could be so clever.  :-)

BELOW:  Some of the lovely Freshman gals airing up helium into balloons for the kids enjoyment at the picnic.

Shameless Plug!!!  Tonya B. and I obtained permission from my brother who was heading up the picnic to bounce in the kids bounce house before the kids arrived.  It was fun, but honestly a little scary as an adult.  Tonya came out with a scraped knee, and I body slammed into the "wall" and came out all done in.  My niece watched us from the outside and would not get in both before and after she saw us.  We have scared her from bounce houses for life probably.  Ooops!  LOL!  Some things are best left to kids I suppose.  :-)

 ABOVE three pics:  Jeremiah using his time wisely at the picnic, Sophia sun bathing on the bench, Aunt Carolyn with Sophia

BELOW:  Talking to three of the winners of the pie contest.  Mrs. Rouzer, Ms. Davison, and Alexander!  I was lame and didn't enter anything, but it is probably good.  I can get competitive with food.  LOL!  My brother was in this pic far left, but the sun hit his face in a awkward angle, so I cropped him out to "save face."  :-)  Not that this is going to change anyone lives knowing this, but you know....a shout out anyway.  :-)

VIDEO of Sophia at the fish pond outside the field house.  T'was a lovely picnic!

Catching up with Latter Summer Pics: Family, Friends, and the Culinary Arts!

 Practicing for this semesters musical, "Widows Might" is going to classically rock because I have the opportunity to spend time with two of my favorite gals, Katie and Skye.  Lovely girls.  It is coincidence, but it seems that I've been at least around them in some form or fashion in every musical.  If their parents let me, I'd gladly adopt them as nieces.  ;-)!  Thankful for another opportunity to be a part of a cultured musical!

I have been not so great in keeping up with photos, but here is a blog post of some photos compiled that were taken over the summer with family, friends, and the culinary arts!

Below:  Gal pal time with Deepika at Habaneros restaurant and then a fun movie night watching a car racing movie.  :-)

Some Aunt Niece time

Spending a little time with Jack and his mom Kristen while on a walk with Sophia.

Lighting was terrible, but a fun dinner with the Terrell's and my family

Alexander and his dad visited the waterfall on campus the same time Sophia and I were there.

Talking to grandma on the phone.

Riding in Dad and Moms car with Aunt Carolyn in the backseat with me.  :-)  Only a few more days when I'll be officially two years old and can ride in the car seat facing forward.  Hooray!

Below:  A nice evening and dinner at Paseo Grill thanks to Mrs. A. Burks with Paulette and Mrs. L. Harrison.  I have to say the food is super expensive but worth every penny.  Just for myself the bill was around $70 just for my food including, drink, main entree, and dessert, but we knew it was a higher end restaurant and it was delicious!  Not normally willing to spend that much on a meal out, but hey, it was a fun time!  Riding in Mrs. Burks' husband's muscle car totally was fun being that I'm fascinated by sports car driving, not that we raced, but it was fun to ride in one.  :-)

Below:  What to do when there is no Bible Study....have Sherry B. over for dinner!  Lovely young lady!

Below:  What to do when you still have a lifelong friend, Melissa B., in town after PYC...have her and her teens over for dinner and a movie.  Savannah had some fun PYC stories to share which was such a fun bonus!

A few pics from Joel's going away party.  This is the only people shot that I took, the rest are all of the culinary fun that I had on his behalf.  Hopefully he enjoyed which is what it was all about.  We all miss this boy, but happy for his new life adventure!

Total fun to make a piano out of chocolate.  I used a mold that molded each part separately, and then  put it together each piece at a time with melted chocolate piece by piece.  It wasn't so bad, and turned out okay, but next time I will know how to perfect it better.  Joel doesn't play the piano, I just thought it would be a neat special thing to try to do.

Melting the legs on was the toughest part, but the word toughest isn't really the right word that I'm looking for...at a blank for the right word.  :-)

Below:  Homemade Bailey's Cheesecake using homemade Bailey's that turned out yummy and so much cheaper than buying it.

Below:  Two homemade bourbon peach pies....peaches were in season.  I have to be honest and say I put way too much sugar in them.  I have been using Stevia for so long that I have forgotten proportion wise how much sugar to put in.  It was alright, but could have been way less sweet!  I didn't really use a recipe, but I think I used about 6 or 7 peaches, flour, corn starch, sugar, homemade vanilla extract, pecans, a hint of squeezed lemon juice, a pinch of cinnamon, all spice, and of course bourbon!  ......just used flour, oil, and water for the crusts.

and one homemade apple cider cake that always seems to be well liked by tasters.  It has a unique flavor.  This one is my secret recipe, but similar recipes are online.  ;-)!

Below:  I wanted to bring a little "savoriness" into the dessert going away party, so I attempted to make a savory cake for those who would not just like their taste buds having all sweets.  The reason for the savory cake was to keep the theme dessert.  :-)  Here is how it was made if you're interested.

Made two whole wheat bread cakes in two round cake pans...used staple ingredients you would use to make a cake, you know whole flour, oil, water, eggs, baking powder...etc....but left out sweetener agents and vanilla etc......

 Once bread cakes were made I cut off any risen bumps on the center, and then "iced it" on the side and in the middle like you would a regular cake.  I melted cream cheese and sour cream mixed together as the "frosting." 

 I then added smoked turkey sandwich meat and pureed some chicken mixed with mayo on top of the turkey.

Then I added some green onions

 ...and then cilantro

..then turkey bacon

 ...and some dill pickles

iced the top layer, garnished it, and......

Voila!...a savory cake!  It's basically a glorified sandwich.  :-)!

How to make the Bailey's cheesecake if you are interested.....

 Made the crust from crushed chocolate graham crackers with tons of melted butter.  Put in freezer for about 10 minutes after I packed the butter crumb crust in the bottom of spring form pan, then removed from freezer and....

Put cheesecake filling over it.  I made the cheesecake filling like you make any cheesecake filling....cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, sugar, eggs, butter, homemade vanilla extract, homemade baileys of course since it was a Bailey's cheesecake after all....baked cake on top oven rack with a water pan on bottom oven rack underneath it to keep cake moist from cracking for about 50 minutes.  I alternated the temperature as it baked.

How to make the homemade Baileys for the cheesecake and for a nice homemade version of the drink.  I had saved the bottles from store bought kind and the bottles came in handy for the homemade remake!

 All you do is blend all of the ingredients together in a blender.  Use a stronger Irish Whiskey.  American whiskey will change the taste and won’t be the same.
Ingredients
1 cup heavy whipping cream
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1- 2/3 cup Irish whiskey
1 teaspoon coffee
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
1- 1/2  teaspoon vanilla

...and that pretty much sums up the fun positiveness of latter summer this year and there is a fun culinary recipe post for fun!  :-)