Two Fun Dishes, a delicious dessert and some extraordinary rolls.

We made a great meal last night with bone-in pork chops. We took a granny smith apple, sliced it thinly and added some cinnamon and brown sugar and layered it in a pan. We added the pork chops and topped them off with more of the same mixture. We baked it in the oven for a few minutes and it turned out wonderfully. Ginny was hoping for more of a glaze but we didn't want to use a traditional apple pie filling. This was just the right amount of sweetness added. The pork chops were tender and juicy and we didn't have to add any seasonings. Sides were potato pearls and snap beans.

Tonight, we used some left overs from the wedding. We had some smoked meat my dad prepared for the reception. We froze the meat and defrosted it today. We heated the meat in a skillet, added some BBQ sauce and stuffed it inside some Hawaiian Rolls. We used some Gris Gris Greens from VooDoo BBQ (also from the reception) as our side. So good. If you have never tried Hawaiian Rolls or Gris Gris Greens---you need to.

The dessert was a mini crisp. We took some fresh strawberries and chopped them. In a previous attempt, we have used blueberries, raspberries and blackberries; they were still really good. We added some craisins, lime juice and some sugar. In a separate bowl, we combined some flour, rolled oats (we ran out of oats this time so used some Life Cereal), brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg then cut in some butter to create the topping. We put the berry mixture in a small ramekin and topped it with the crisp mixture. Put it in the oven at 350 for 40 minutes. A tip, fill the ramekin with the berry mixture to the top because the berries will cook down.

Sorry I don't have an pictures of the above but we do have a picture of the fantastic cinnamon rolls Ginny made. It was her first attempt at them and they may have risen a bit too long. We can give you the recipe if anyone wants it; they really are delicious.

We added cream cheese frosting (my favorite) after we divided the rolls. We figured out, rapid rise yeast doesn't need to sit on the hot oven for very long...oops! Learning as we go.

Our new home

We have been working hard to make our house our home. We are renting a quaint older house right across the street from Southeastern and we love it. It's got it's little tricks and antics that make for an interesting stay. But with our few personal touches, we have made it ours.

We have been so fortunate to find some great steals like our ottoman.

We got the ottoman from our new favorite store, Kirklands for at least 80% off. We saw it a couple of weeks before the wedding but it was a little out of price range even though it was on sale. When we got back, we had a little extra cash so we decided to visit our old friend. We went over to check it out, not knowing if it was still on sale or not. It was but for the same amount. We asked the attendant if more could be discounted because it was in poor shape. The angel said that all discounted items would be an additional 15% off. WAHOO! It needed a few touch ups with a wood marker and still isn't in brand new condition but it looks incredible and fits our living room ever so elegantly.

We got this desk from a store I (Tim) has never been to before, Cost Plus World Market for a steal as well.

(Please excuse the ghetto placed mattress...we do not live in a crack house!)

We have been waiting for it for about a week and just got it today. It came mostly assembled and I put the legs on it and the hutch just sits on top. It will help out so much with organizing all of our paperwork.

With Ginny writing a thesis and trying to maintain a budget with our new relationship, we need all the help we can get.

I posted earlier about our chair covers for our dining room table. This little "hutch" is in our dining room and we assembled it. It came in two pieces from Target and we also got it for a steal. And for those of you who attended one of our receptions, that little white ball on top is recycled from our centerpieces.

Ouizer gave us this adorable ceramic jar and we decided to be a little creative and painted it with blackboard paint.

It took a few coats but it's a great addition to our kitchen to house our utensils.

I also took the idea outside as well. This sign hangs outside our home.

It was very faded and you could no longer see the numbers. I added a couple of coats and threw some chalk on there. Voila!

Lastly, we also just got this compost can. We are not completely green but we are definitely trying to do our part.

We are very happy with our new additions. I'm sure there will be more to come. If anyone has any questions about the deals we got let me know.

New addition

I decided it was time to add my beautiful bride to my blog. Eventually, I might change the URL but I will post when I make that change. So, it's a new look with my new addition. Welcome, Ginny.

Also, as a side note, we went to Albertson's last night to pick up lb. of sausage for biscuits and gravy this morning. First off, we have turned into our parents because we came out with much more than a lb. of sausage. Anyway, I digress. We bought one of those cloth bags to carry out our groceries. We have a few bags already but decided that we were going to start using them at that time but forgot to bring one with us. On our receipt, I noticed that we received a $.05 refund because we used a cloth bag. I'm not sure if it is $.05 per bag but it was still an nice contribution and gesture. Has anyone else seen this with their cloth bag usage?

Circles and stripes, oh my!

Ginny and I were very fortunate to find a used dining table and 4 chairs. The covers for the chairs were a little old so we decided to make them our own

We went to our local Hobby Lobby and found two great fabrics that match each other and our dishes. Our dishes are in the same color palette but different patterns. We are definitely taking a fashion liberty with the patterns but we really like them. It took us a lot of troubleshooting to finally finish recovering the chairs but we got it done.Two of the chairs have the striped pattern and the other two are covered in the circular pattern.

Special Note:: If you decide to take on this adventure for yourself, please take my advice and take the older material off first. We put the material over the old material and the corners were too thick when we tried to reinstall the cover to the chair. We had to detach the corners and do some surgery to get it down to the right level.