Sunday, June 28, 2020

A Spicy 4th of July

Do you have big plans for Independence Day?
Hubby and I plan on staying home
where it's nice and safe.
I'm looking forward to having a nice
quiet 3 day weekend and
sitting on the deck reading a good book.
Hubby will be grilling up some burgers on
the grill and I will be making some
Homemade Restaurant Style Salsa.
This salsa recipe comes together quickly.
No slicing, dicing or chopping by hand.
Make it mild
or spicy, which we prefer.
This salsa is so much better tasting
than store bought salsa.
Hands down the best I have ever made.
It is the BOMB.
Do people still say that or am I dating myself?
Anyhoo, if you love salsa you have to make this recipe.
The secret to this salsa tasting so great is using
Fire Roasted Tomatoes.

HOMEMADE RESTAURANT STYLE SALSA

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 jalapeno seeds and ribs removed, chopped 
10 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies (I use Rotel original)
14.5 ounce can crushed fire roasted tomatoes
pinch of sugar, optional, it helps balance the acidity of the tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried cilantro
juice from 1/2 of a lime, or more to taste
2 - 4 tablespoons white vinegar, start with 2 and add more to taste

Instructions

Add the peeled onion, garlic and jalapeno to the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times
to chop until desired consistency.

Drain off the liquid from the can of diced tomatoes with green chilies and discard the liquid.
Add the tomatoes and chilies from the can to the food processor, pulse until the salsa reaches
your desired consistency.

Pour the salsa mixture into a large bowl.
Add the can of crushed fire roasted tomatoes with the juices from the can into the bowl of
the salsa mixture. Stir to combine.

Add the remaining salsa ingredients and stir to combine.

Taste salsa with a tortilla chip and adjust the lime juice, vinegar, salt, or sugar as needed.

*This recipe makes a medium-spicy salsa.

**For a mild salsa, omit the jalapeno and substitute a can of regular diced tomatoes without green chilies.

***For a spicy salsa, add the whole jalapeno with seeds.

Recipe adapted from: kristineskitchenblog.com

Whether you plan on having a mild or spicy
4th of July, we hope that you
enjoy your day and have
a safe holiday.

Until Next Time,
Veronica

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Crystal Ball Gazing

Hello there.
How is your part of the world looking?
Our's is starting to look up.
We still can't get out and do much,
as for being in public places, but
we are able to get outside and enjoy
our beautiful weather.

I have a new obsession.
I know, I know.
How can she possibly have another obsession?
It's true though.
It's called lensball photography.
It's basically taking pictures
through a crystal ball.

Since our weather was so beautiful
this weekend I thought I would get outside
and play with my new obsession
and try to snap a few pictures.

Welcome to our little part of the world.
How cool is that!?
So I starting walking around our yard
scoping out cool images to snap.
Our spring this year was a little cool so our peonies
didn't produce as many buds this year but I was
able to capture a few images.

Our clematis.
I believe that this is a jasmine bush.
Not really sure because it was here
when we moved into our home.



These next 2 images are of our hanging basket of geraniums.

One of our potentilla bushes.
I hope you enjoyed gazing into our crystal ball.
That's it for this week.
Stay safe.
Until Next Time,
Veronica

Sunday, June 7, 2020

How to Transform a Dresser

Last week I showed my latest dresser transformation.

BEFORE

AFTER
This week is all about how I transformed this dresser
and what products I used.

This is not a sponsored posts. I wasn't compensated
for any of the products that I used. All of my
opinions are my own and unbiased. Some of the
products that I mention are ones that I have used
numerous times and some are new to me that I
was impressed with the quality and ease of use
and thought that they deserved being mentioned.

Before I start, I want to mention that I didn't
take many pictures during the transformation
process. I tend to get caught up in the moment
trying to figure things out
and forget about taking pictures. Hopefully,
you will be able to follow along anyway.

So, lets get started on this transformation.
Once I started working on this dresser I realized that the sides
were just a piece of 1/4" wood veneer 
and the top piece
was pressed board with a layer of  wood veneer over it.
All of the veneer was removed from the dresser.
The sides and top piece were completely removed and
Hubby and I created new ones with
pieces of solid birch wood.
After removing the damaged veneer from the
drawer fronts I discovered a big chunk of the
wood was missing from the 2nd drawer.
Dang it!
I couldn't just sand the drawer fronts and
be done with them.
I filled in the hole with wood filler, let dry,
and sanded it smooth.
New wood veneer needed to be applied
to each drawer so that they would all
have the same wood grain finish.
I knew that I wanted to stain this dresser and not paint it.
I had to order new wood veneer for the drawer fronts.
Each drawer was sanded and cleaned and ready
to apply the new wood veneer.
When the new veneer arrived for the draw fronts
I was surprised that it came
in a box rolled up. I was expecting it to be a flat sheet.
This is the wood veneer that I used for the drawer fronts.
If you're not familiar with what wood veneer is,
it is paper thin cuts of natural wood
that is applied with glue and can be
stained or painted.
I had never used wood veneer before and was a
little intimidated by it. I pulled it out and unrolled it
and laid a sheet of plywood on top of it for a few
days to try and flatten it out. I really didn't have to
worry about flatting it out. This veneer was so
incredibly easy to cut and apply.
It adhered so smoothly without any cracking or bubbling.
Using a utility knife I cut out each drawer front and applied.
Super, super easy to apply. I was very impressed with this veneer.

Here is a close up of the drawers with the new veneer applied and stained.
You can't even tell that there is wood veneer on this dresser.
To create the new sides
Hubby used (2)  
2' x 4' x 1/4" sheets of birch plywood
and roughly cut out the leg opening.
The sides were then adhered using wood glue and set to dry overnight.
Once dried and secured I was able to sand the leg opening
smooth to match the leg shape.
The top of the dresser was created using a piece of
3/4" 2' x 4' piece of birch plywood. I wanted the top
of the dresser to be a 2 inch thickness. In order to have
a 2 inch thick top Hubby built it up using scrap wood.
To finish the edges of the top to look like a solid piece
of wood I used this veneer edge banding.
Can you tell it's not a 2" thick piece of wood?

The final step was to apply the veneer edge banding around the front of the dresser.
Using the same edge banding, I applied it then trimmed it down to size using
a utility knife.
Once all the veneer had been applied, I lightly sanded the entire
dresser down and applied the stain. I combined 2 different
stain colors to achieve the look I was going for.
I first applied 2 coats of Minwax Special Walnut.
The color was a little too red for me so I then
applied 2 coats of  Minwax Weathered Oak.
By applying the weathered oak it knocked down
the red tone to a nice warm brown color.
Exactly what I was aiming for.
Minwax Special Walnut and Weathered Oak.

To protect all of our hard work,
I applied 3 coats of water based Minwax Polycrylic
in Clear Satin to the entire dresser.
Hubby drilled new holes and added the new
handles (which I ordered off Amazon)
and just like that, we were done.

By investing a little bit of sweat equity
we now have a beautiful new dresser.
How appropriate is my sign that I made 2 years ago?
That's it for now.
Until Next Time,
Stay safe.
Veronica