Carpet, Dress Up, and One of the BEST Summer Recipes

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone!  We are going to my sister and BIL's house on Sunday for my BIL's birthday party.  But, we have no plans for Memorial Day as of yet.  We'll probably just grill and hang out.  : )

This past week, we installed new carpet in our stairway with my parents' help.  Emma loved having Grandpa and Grandma over for the afternoon!

 

 

 

 

Grandpa (my dad)giving us a hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emma entertained us by playing dress up. 

Remember this tutu from her adoption announcement?

 

 

 

Jason and my mom.

Jason looks so industrious in this photo.  ; )

Hey, check out that wild and crazy pillow.  It goes with the wildcrazyfunkyfun color scheme for the basement. 

I had a neutral, serene color scheme planned for the basement but I just could not make it work in my mind's eye.  You see,  one half of the main room will be a playroom and I was not sure about using a classic and serene color scheme/design scheme with a room that will be half filled with toys 99.99999% of the time.  And, it's just not really possible to put all of the toys "away" into bins or baskets in that room because the room will house Emma's play kitchen, her Bounce and Spin Zebra, etc. and those toys are too large to "put away".

So, the basics of the room will be neutral...neutral walls and couch color, brown/black leather chair, stained pine furniture...but, all of the accessories will be very bold.  There will be touches of black and I will enlarge and frame a few of our photos of the weekend market in Antigua.  The colors of the marketplace are the inspiration for the room. 

 

Emma definitely loves to dress up!!  Here she is in Papa's shoes. 

If you are playing dress up and if you can't find just the right hat...

Make your own!  Maybe even with a tambourine...  : )

Hmmmm...I wonder why the house is always messy???  Hee Hee  : D

"But MOMMY...I can't sit in the book basket unless I toss EVERY SINGLE book out FIRST!!!  DUH!!" 

LOL!  : D  That's my precious baby girl!

Okay, now for a recipe...

I think that I have posted this recipe to my blog each and every summer.  It is delicious and I have served it to company many times.

This would be perfect for Memorial Day.

Steak with Baby Lettuce Salad, Grilled Mushrooms, Blue Cheese and Garlic Bread Croutons

This recipe serves 4 people or two people with lots of salad leftover.

Ingredients:

* Steaks (2 - 4, the cut of your choice)

* 1 bag of Dole spring mix or baby lettuce (fresh spinach works too)

* 1/2 pound of button mushrooms

* 2 - 4 slices of garlic buttered Texas Toast (I just use the frozen kind)

* Crumbled blue cheese (you could use feta cheese or chunks of romano cheese in a pinch...but the salad is the tastiest with blue cheese, I think)

* Balsamic vinegar

* Extra virgin olive oil

* 1 clove of minced garlic

* Cracked black pepper

* Dash of ground mustard

Instructions:

Whisk the dressing:  1 part vinegar to 2 parts oil.  Add pepper to taste, garlic and ground mustard.  Refrigerate until ready to use.  Season the steaks with salt and pepper or with steak seasoning.  Skewer the mushrooms.  Grill the steaks and the mushrooms and when the steak and mushrooms are almost done, add the bread to the grill and grill on both sides.  Remove all of the food from the grill and set aside to rest.  Re whisk the dressing.  Toss the lettuce and blue cheese in a large salad bowl.  Cut each slice of garlic bread into about 6 pieces and add to the salad bowl.  Remove the mushrooms from the skewers and add to the salad (I leave them whole...and they should still be warm but not hot).  Add the dressing to the salad bowl (just enough to coat) and toss.  Serve the salad with the steaks.  You can either serve the steaks on the side or you can slice the steak and add it to the salad.

God bless,