Happy St Patrick's Day: An Easy Green Treat {Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies} and a cute little Leprechaun.

We were looking for a new chocolate chip cookie recipe and I love them soft. I always check allrecipes.com because of the reviews. I found this one with simple ingredients and tried it out. I simply added about 5 drops of green food coloring for a St Patricks Day treat that was fun for the kids and did it "cookie bar" style by throwing it into a 9x13 pan because I was short on time. They turned out perfect and oh so yummy and soft! They were a hit with everyone- 5 stars in my book!

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies from Allrecipes.com

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine flour, soda and salt. In another bowl combine sugars, softened butter, shortening, and vanilla. Beat in egg. Gradually add flour mix, add chips. Bake 8-10 minutes or add to greased 9x13 pan and bake 20 min.

AND...... just for fun, here are a few pics of our little cutie.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, don't forget to wear green!

Decorator's Trick: Hall Mirror {Quick Fix and No Cost!}

I learned a new trick recently just from browsing pretty pictures of small spaces on Apartment Therapy. I noticed several homes had mirrors at the end of a hall. Why had I never thought of this? What an easy way to make a very small space feel bigger. I use mirrors all the time, I especially love to put them across from a window to "double" the open feeling or on the sides of windows to "expand" them, but the thought had never occurred to me to put them at the end of a hall.

Here, you will observe picture A:

this is probably the hardest working area of the home. This hall holds the doorways to the kids rooms, hooks for their backpacks and coats, the kids bathroom which also becomes the guest bathroom when we have guests, the laundry and utility closet, and this hall begins just beyond the kitchen- the fridge, more specifically, the other hardest working space in our home.

That's A LOT of functions for one tiny space. Often it feels cramped and the second I have to open a laundry door and haul over some laundry baskets, I start to feel clausterphobic. YUCK. Enter my new hall mirror knowledge....

By simply moving some picture frames around and "shopping" my living room for a mirror, this space now feels SO much bigger.

Ahhhhh. I can breathe a little easier now. So. Much. Better.

Have you learned any new decorating tricks lately? Have a great week!

Green Dyed Hard Eggs {Using stuff you already have in your pantry}

This week at the elementary school is Dr Suess Reading Week so for today the PTO wanted Green Eggs for all the kids because, you know: "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr Seuss. 

It's too early to get the Easter stuff out and I didn't want to spend any money on egg kits at the store which is the only way I've ever dyed eggs. So I tried this method and now I'm blogging about it so that I remember that it works! And it's easy to do even if you need to do several dozen at once.

I started by bringing 2 dozen eggs covered with water to a boil, then letting them sit, covered, for 20 minutes. Then I put them in a bowl of ice water until they were cool. I then took the same pot of water and brought it to a boil again adding about 4 tablespoons of vinegar (I just eyeballed it) and about 20 drops of green food dye. After it was brought to a boil I took it off the heat and I put the eggs back in the pot to sit for 5 minutes. My directions said they just needed to sit in the dye for 5 minutes so I checked them but wondered if they sat for another 5 minutes if they would turn a deeper green. So they sat another 5 minutes but when I pulled them out I don't think they were any darker, so I think 5 minutes is sufficient. Then I just put them back in their crates, ready for school. Easy peasy.

"...I will eat them here and there.

Say! I will eat them ANYWHERE!

I do so like

green eggs and ham!

Thank you!

Thank you, 

Sam-I-am!"

Blessings.