Crab & Corn Chowder

While I love Summer and the warm weather and vacations that it brings, I'm ready for my favorite season, Fall! One type of food that I have loved while pregnant this summer has been soups! (Weird I know! I'm well aware that it's been 95 degrees outside; however - I'm not fighting it! I love my soups!) I love the crab and corn chowder from Bonefish, and have been looking for a homemade recipe to try. I came across this recipe a few weeks ago and planned to save it for when it gets a little cooler outside, but I thought to myself, why not try it now? Of the soups I've made in the past, this one was my first chowder and I was extremely impressed!

Ingredients:

• 4-6 potatoes, chopped (2 cups)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups half and half
• 2 tsp Old Bay
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 16 oz frozen sweet corn
• 16 oz lump crab meat

Note: One great thing about making this recipe during summer/early fall is that you can substitute fresh corn on the cob for the bag of frozen corn! :)

Directions:

• Parboil the potatoes - Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the diced potatoes, letting boil for about 5 minutes. Immediately rinse in cold water to cool and set aside until ready to use. 
• Melt butter on the stove top and add chopped onion to saute for approximately 5 minutes.
• Stir in flour and slowly add the chicken broth, whisking.
• Stir in the half and half (tip: to keep the half and half from curdling, let it set on the counter to warm to room temperature, or at least slightly so that it isn't refrigerator cold when added to the chowder).
• Season with salt, pepper, Old Bay, cayenne and thyme.
• Add parboiled potatoes, frozen corn and crab meat. Simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally for 30-45 minutes.
• Serve and add scallions and shredded cheddar cheese if desired for additional garnish! This would also be delicious served with warm bread.

Hope that you enjoy! :)

Purging & De-Cluttering - Saving Only What You Need, Use and Love!

I feel like this topic should become part of a series! This has been something that's been keeping me busy over the past few months when I've had some free time! Especially now, prepping for Bennett's arrival - I've been more motivated than ever to get rid of things that we no longer use, need or love - clothes, shoes, dishes, decor, furniture, etc. It's crazy to think about how much we've accumulated (and held on to) since moving into our house just three short years ago.

The easiest things to purge have been clothes and shoes! I came up with a rule for myself that anything that hasn't been worn in the past year would no longer need to stay! Additionally, clothing that fits but maybe isn't the most comfortable - I did away with as well! No need to keep clothing or shoes that I'm not comfortable wearing. Additionally, after going through all of my clothes and shoes, and getting rid of the more worn pieces, I made a list of items that I plan to keep my eyes open for when upcoming sales take place, so that I'm not purchasing these items at full price (yuck!). Also, it serves as a reminder of all of the things that I don't need to purchase while seeing something that I like in stores or online while shopping.

I always make two piles while sorting through items - a donation pile and a yard sale pile. Usually those items that make it to the yard sale pile are the more expensive items or furniture pieces; however to be honest, lately I've been more in the mood to donate so that I can just get rid of the piles and items that need to go.

Note: Local online yard-saling has been my go-to for the past couple of years when selling larger items. I've been able to sell so much stuff using the online yard sale groups through Facebook, however; lately, I just don't have the free time during the week after work, or on weekends to post items on yard sale sites or to arrange for times to meet with buyers. Time is precious! For the more expensive items that I'd rather not donate, I usually take to my parent's house to store in their huge attic for our family's annual yard sale that's hosted each summer at my grandmother's house in Ocean Pines (and yes, crazy enough - there's a section of the attic dedicated to the annual yard sale that the whole family will fill throughout the year). We recently just had the big yard sale a few weekends ago, and everyone was able to get rid of so much stuff, while making a little bit of money in the process! :) I was definitely happy to see it all go! Usually, at the end of these yard sales, if there are items left - they are donated!

In addition to purging items like clothing and shoes, holiday decor was huge for me to purge this round. I'm all about simplicity and in order to de-clutter, I wanted to get rid of all of the small (and larger) decor items and knick-knacks for each of the holidays that honestly, just take up space and make my furniture and tabletops look more cluttered. (Plus - with a baby arriving soon that will too quickly be into touching and grabbing everything - this is one less thing I'll have to worry about removing and getting rid of when he's mobile and interested in these things). Don't get me wrong - I still kept a few items for each of the holidays that I love and aren't holiday decor overkills (because who doesn't love extra holiday decor to get you in the holiday spirit?) - but I was happy to part with probably 75% of my holiday decor.

Organizing and sorting through my craft supplies was also a huge task that I took on. I love crafting! You can imagine the different items that you can quickly accumulate after tons of different projects over the years (in addition to an already pretty great stockpile of items). Once I sorted through my craft tubs and separated all of the items that I know I'll be able to use in the future, and ones that I no longer felt the need to hang on to, I was able to consolidate all of my craft supplies to one organized bin, while making a pile of all of the items I no longer wanted to keep.

Other items that made their way to my purge list - extra tupperware (really, how many containers are needed?), older picture frames, knick-knacks, dog items that we just don't need or won't use, throw pillows (these I've found that I love to hoard over the years), garage items... the list keeps going and going! While I always say that I'll never be done purging (I honestly feel like I'm doing it constantly... especially lately while wanting make space in our home for all the new additions coming to it) - it feels so good to get rid of so much stuff that we simply just no longer need or find use for.

Time for someone else to enjoy those items! Lets hope that this motivation and energy stays! :)

Creating a Plan for Organization and Cleaning (with a busy schedule)

I have always enjoyed organizing and (as embarrassing enough as it is to admit), cleaning too! I take pride in our home and all of the projects we've done to make it "ours". Being able to sit down and relax, knowing that the house is clean and that I don't have a long To Do list to tend to eventually that night or throughout the week, is a great feeling!

While finding time to organize and clean is already a struggle between my already insanely busy schedule, I know that it will only get more difficult to make time for these things once Bennett arrives in December. While I'm ready to give up my free time for a handsome little boy and all of the duties and time attentive things that come along with taking care of a newborn (and that having an extremely clean home will no longer be one of my goals), I'd still like to think and am hoping that the upkeep and cleanliness of my home won't need to suffer during this new and exciting (even busier) time.

To help myself come up with a better, more effective plan for my busy schedule, I've been jotting down the normal chores and activities that I do weekly around the house, and have been pinning different ideas and checklists for cleaning. While identifying all of the things I'm already doing, it'll give me the chance to better organize/set time frames for those items to help me stay on top of little things that can be done daily here and there while avoiding letting it all build up to have to tackle everything at once, with a very lengthy To Do List (when that small window of "free time" presents itself again from the last). I can easily identify those things that should be done nightly, every other night, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc. (which makes it so easy to pick an item or two from the list to tackle when free time presents itself).

One awesome thing that I'm thankful for that makes juggling all of these duties and responsibilities now easier, and planning for the upcoming even busier time that we are looking forward to, is that thankfully I married a man who is a huge help around the house, and has a clean thumb of his own (so props to you Eric!).

My point for this post is not to make it seem like it'll be an easy job to balance keeping a clean home while adjusting to life with a new baby, or that I'll even want to spend time on these things like I do now (I know it'll be difficult and that I'll want to spend all of my "free" time - if you can call it that - catching up on sleep while not with my little man), this post is encourage myself to easily help me stay on top of the chores around the house and prioritizing tasks that I'm already doing now, to better fit the schedule of a busy, working mom. It's also important to note, that while I enjoy cleaning, I easily become stressed with the house is a mess - so I know that on top of all of the mommy duties that I'll be adjusting to - it will actually be less stressful for me to have a plan/list in place to stay on top of a semi-clean/decent looking home :)

Here a few examples from each of my lists that I've created so far (it's a work in progress!) From these lists, I'm able to sit down on the weekends to look over our schedules and easily come up with a rough plan for the week while ensuring we leave plenty of relax time as well!

Again, hopefully this will keep me motivated and will  better assist me in planning out the small tasks I can tackle when those "free moment" opportunities present themselves [or when your loving spouse is asking what they can help you with during the week] :)

Revamping My Spice Cabinet with Mason Jars!

Clutter and unorganized chaos drives me crazy, and my spice cabinet was driving me insane each time I opened up the little cabinet door by our stove - seeing all of the bottles shoved and strategically fit in there. I've been looking for ways to consolidate all of the different sized bottles and shakers of spices to not only make the cabinet easier on the eyes, but to also aid in organization so that I didn't have an avalanche each time I attempted to pull different spices out, or tried to pull one out from the back of the shelf.

I have been pinning  ideas on Pinterest lately on how to better organize my spice cabinet. Most of them were for larger cabinets or ideas for if I could turn my spice cabinet into a spice drawer (which I loved and can't wait to one day implement in a new kitchen, but our kitchen currently doesn't allow space for a drawer dedicated to just spices), so I was excited when I came across the different mason jar organization techniques for a smaller cabinet. Also, my sister-in-law Sharon has recently been converting all of her spices and refrigerator condiments to mason jars to help with organization, freshness and consistency - who doesn't love that? (And who doesn't love mason jars?) I quickly became sold on the idea and just needed to find time to start converting all of my plastic shakers to mason jars!

Materials Needed:

- Mason Jars

- Labels

- Marker

As you can see from our collection below, we have a ton of different sized shakers for spices. I elected to use different size mason jars so that we could fit everything in their new containers. I used jelly-sized jars, half pint-sized jars and quart-sized jars.

I began by sorting through all of the spices to create labels for each.

Once you wash and dry all of your mason jars, you're ready to start transferring contents from their shakers to the mason jar!

That's it! Here's my after picture - much more organized and better to look at than the various bottles and shakers shoved every which way to fit in the cabinet. I can't believe I fit 30 different spices so neatly on this small shelf. I love it! This project definitely crossed of one of the items on my "things to organize before Bennett arrives" list. :)

Roasted Squash, Peppers & Onions

One of my many favorite things to take from Dad's garden during the summer is yellow squash! There are a ton of summer dish recipes that you can make with squash and other garden vegetables - this happens to be one of my favorites! It's easy, quick and so yummy. Hope you enjoy, and Dad, thanks for the recent batch of fresh squash! :)

Ingredients:

• Yellow Squash
• Large Onion
• Bell Peppers
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Old Bay

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Wash and slice the squash, onion and bell peppers.
3. Toss vegetables in a bowl with olive oil, salt, pepper and Old Bay. (Feel free to use any of your other favorite spices too!)
4. Place in a Pyrex dish and bake for 12 minutes.

That's it! Later this summer once I have the chance to make it for myself, I'll share one of my Dad's favorite squash recipes - Crab Stuffed Squash, It'll be worth the wait!! :)