Homemade Ranch Dressing

I'm taking a break from the bathroom makeover marathon while O puts the new flooring down, to make another batch of my favorite homemade ranch dressing.  I got the urge a few weeks ago to make some--I know what you're thinking,  wayyyy too much effort.  Not really!  Totally worth it AND so much better than the bottled dressing {sorry, Hidden Valley}.

Now, it's in our fridge all.the.time.  I could seriously drink this stuff.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

Recipe adapted from unknown source.

ingredients:

1/2 cup of mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk (I add just a bit more for a thinner dressing; prob 3 tbsp.)

3/4 teaspoon dried dill

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 heaping teaspoon dried chives

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 heaping teaspoon garlic powder

1/4-ish teaspoon salt

Ground pepper to taste--I gave it about 50+ grinds out of the pepper mill

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Mix mayo, sour cream and milk together until smooth.  Whisk in dry seasonings, salt and pepper until combined. Add lemon juice, stir again.  Pour into a container with a lid and refrigerate for an hour or two while the flavors come together.  Serve with everything!  It keeps for about two weeks in the fridge, but it never lasts that long in our house.

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Bathroom Inspiration

We're just getting started on our Mini Master Bath project.  And by "started" I mean O went to HoPo yesterday for paint.  Here's a few things I've been pinnin' as inspiration--I can only hope it turns out the way I'm picturing

1 - 2 - 3

It's such a small space, that I'm going for light, bright and monochromatic gray with silver and mercury glass accents.  I'm worried it may not be exciting enough, but we'll see! 

Budget Master Bath Make-Over: Before

Fact: We have the smallest master bathroom ever.  Another fact: I hate it.  Ok, I don't hate it.  But I don't love it.  It's one of the only rooms I haven't put a lot of attention into.  All thats about to change.

Here's what our master bathroom looked like on move-in day:

{the good} I've tried to make minor improvements here and there over the last two years.  Like replacing the light fixture

{the bad} Painting the vanity a dark espresso color adding new hardware.  Painting the vanity a super dark color just made the room feel *that much* smaller

And {the ugly} attempting to make that gold medicine cabinet a little more attractive by adding some silver rub 'n buff to the frame.  Major Pinterest fail.

Enough is enough.  This bathroom needs a little love, even if we are the only two people who ever see it!  I'm giving myself a $200 budget & a three day weekend for the whole shebang.

O's probably taking bets on how much I'll go over the budget, and how many additional days it'll take for me to wrap this up.  I do love a challenge ;)

Pssst!  Check out the finished bathroom here!

Peanut Butter Pie

We finished celebrating O's birthday this past weekend!  All this kid wants on his birthday every year is a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake.  He knows I'm more than capable of baking him any kind of cake, yet the DQ Ice Cream cake is his thing.  And of course I got the birthday boy what he wanted, I just waited until we had some friends over to help us eat it.  There's no way we could should eat the whole thing ourselves.

I couldn't let his actual birthday go by without something homemade to stick a candle in, so I whipped up one of our favorites.  Peanut Butter Pie.  It's Cindy's recipe and couldn't be easier to make--five ingredients!  I love recipes with as little ingredients as possible.

Peanut Butter Pie

Serves 8

ingredients:

6 oz Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1, 9 oz container of Cool Whip

1 graham cracker or chocolate pie shell

Whip the cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth--add in powdered sugar and peanut butter and mix until creamy.  Scrape sides and bottom of bowl, and add in half of the container of Cool Whip, mixing again until combined.  Pour filling into the pie shell.  I used a pre-made Oreo crust in the interest of saving time.  Feel free to make one from scratch if you're an over achiever.  If you're not a chocolate fan, use a regular graham cracker crust--its just as good!  I digress; pour the filling into the pie shell and top with the remaining Cool Whip.  I added a little hot fudge to the top, but you could easily add chopped peanuts or leave it alone.

That's it.  It's so easy that I might just make another as soon as I polish off the other half of the ice cream cake while waiting for the NSYNC reunion on the VMA's.  PS: Miley, you should stop.  #eww

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Summer Recap

How is it already the middle of August?  Seriously.  Where did summer go?!  Keep a secret?  I'm kinda ready for Fall.  I'm ready for cooler temperatures, football, pumpkin spice everything, Keeneland, and definitely ready for good TV to return.  But this seriously has been a great summer!

We took a day trip to the Woodford Reserve Distillery.  Super cool place--everything smelled like bourbon.  O was in heaven!

We hadn't planned on it, but we put all new flooring in the basement.  Story for another day.

Lots of snuggling with these sweet pups,

A week-long business trip to Chicago, which was amazing!

Fun Friday's walking along the riverfront

And plotting my next house project!

I'm sure I'll be wishing for summer again as soon as there's frost on my windshield at 7am, but I'm ready to see what the next season brings us!

Two Year Houseaversary!

....two months late.  These last few weeks months have been SO busy!  Graduation, out of town guests, an iPhone debacle (ugh), numerous baby showers and cookouts have kept us out of the house most evenings and weekends.  It's so crazy to have O home & for us to be able to spend time together, instead of him being in the basement studying his tail off!

In the midst of all this craziness, we celebrated our houseaversary!  I look around our little house & cannot believe the changes we've made in the last two years.  Of course, I can always find some new project I'd like to start...or finish.

Kitchen: May 2011

Kitchen: May 2013

Living Room: May 2011

Living Room: May 2013

Guest Bath: 2011

Guest Bath: 2013

Guest Room: 2011

Guest Room: 2013

A lot of the other rooms are still a work in progress....I have a love-hate relationship with our bedroom & bathroom, and hope to see some vast improvements before the summer is over.  Which seems pretty unlikely seeing as how I can't find the time to clean the toothpaste out of the sink.  One can hope!

Cupcaking it up.

I have said for YEARS that I'd love to own a bakery. Specifically one that makes only cupcakes. I'll probably never do it but, that won't stop me from baking up a storm right in my own little kitchen.  I was a cupcake-making-machine this past weekend! I love to eat cupcakes bake--and making them for others allows me to have the best of both worlds.  The eating & the baking.

I made a few dozen for my sweet friend, Rebecca's Gender Reveal Party. She ordered these cute cupcake toppers from Etsy--we had a great time guessing if they were having a Little Miss or Little Mister!

I was also hired to do cupcakes for a birthday party!  They opted for white cake with a lemon cream cheese filling, and cream cheese frosting.  I had to sample one.  You know..to make sure they were safe for consumption.

I added a fondant flower on top a la Georgetown Cupcake with sprinkle of edible glitter to finish them up.  They look almost too good to eat.  Almost.

I was so excited to hear that the party guests liked our custom creation!  I'm hoping to make {and eat!} many more.  Maybe as soon as this weekend?