Yay another post for Jenn’s What I Ate Wednesday link party over at Peas and Crayons!

Last night (I guess this series should really be called “What we ate for dinner Tuesday”?), Mike made a variation of his grandfather’s pasta e fagioli recipe. Mike’s isn’t soupy at all, so we normally refer to it as beans and macaroni. In fact, today I had the leftovers for lunch and I ate it with a fork.

Okay so! The ingredients:

Half of a medium sized onion

2 cloves of garlic

1-2 stalks of celery

3 cans of cannellini beans (white kidney beans)

1/2 lb smallish pasta

1/2 can tomato sauce (15 ounce or so can)

Directions:

Put some olive oil in a pot, adding the onion and garlic. Cook until onions are clear and add 2 and a half cans of beans (with juice). As this cooks, stir and smash beans, add half of a can of tomato sauce and salt and pepper to taste. In a separate pot, boil water and add chopped celery until soft. Cook pasta and set aside. Once beans have condensed and are creamy, add remaining beans and juice into the pot, along with the chopped celery. Cook for an additional ten minutes or so. Add pasta to mixture, stir and done!

If you prefer the more traditional soupy route, when you add the celery to the bean mixture, add the water that it was cooked in as well.  Cook the pasta in the same mixture until soft.

We sort of forgot that we had What We Ate Wednesday in the middle of cooking this, so we didn’t take pictures along the way. Sorry about that, but it’s the end result that counts, right? 🙂

West Elm is quickly becoming my favorite store, which is a huge statement considering how I feel about Crate and Barrel. Just lately, I love everything in West Elm. So when I received an
email and a catalog telling me about their new arrivals, I drooled. Twice. Once while at my computer and once while standing at my counter. I’m all about technology and everything and would be the first to tell you that I’d rather look at something online than buy a magazine (ie- all things wedding related) but boy, that catalog was dreamy. So I obviously felt compelled to give you a list of my favorites!

1. Slipcovered Slipper Chair, $349 for chair, $69 for slipcover

I’m generally not one for skirted slipcovers, but for some reason I love this one. It’s a nice mix of traditional and modern. Plus I love that print. A cheaper option would be to buy a much more affordable slipper chair at Target or HomeGoods and just use the West Elm slipcover (if it fits, I have done zero research).

2. Pebble Side Table, $149

I am just intrigued by this thing, part of me likes that it’s asymmetrical and if it wasn’t, I probably would have browsed right past it. It says its for indoor/outdoor use and I do like it, but I’d probably love it outside.

3. Stripe Duvet Cover, $59 for queen

Thick stripes? Check. Gray/white color scheme? Check. This thing is right up my alley.

4. Spring Floral Duvet, $59 for queen

While we’re on the topic of bedding, which just so happens to be one of my favorite topics, I love this set as well. I love a white themed bed and this has just the right amount of color to add interest. Never mind that awesome floral graphic.

5. Metal Squirrel, $29

Because he’s cute, and I love a woodland animal. But at $29?? I’ll wait for him to go on sale…

6. Textured Pure Vases, $29-$39

I’d like to add some more white accessories to the office to keep my little owl company and I love the texture in these.

7.Porcelain Tumblers, $8

I love a nice little find for under $10. The bold patterns on these make them a nice little accent piece for pencils and pens, toothbrushes or as a little vase.

8. Modern Weave Headboard, $379 for queen

This is something that caught my eye in the catalog and if I had $400 hanging around, I’d totally buy it to compliment my future, stenciled, bedroom. Hm this list was too long for a top 5, but too short for a top 10. So I leave you with my top 8! 🙂

Vintage Christmas circa 2005, we look like such lil pups. Hope you all had a Merry one!

Love,

Rebecca, Mike, Macky, Mowie & Darwin (& Sunny via heaven!)

One of the reasons why I started this gig is to clear my head of all of the ideas floating around up there.  Mike compares my thoughts to a hamster running on its little wheel… I just keep going and going.  I lay in bed and I’m thinking “weeeell what if we do printed curtains!” then I’m eating dinner and I’m randomly like “I’ll spray paint that frame!” Everyday I’m obsessed with something in the house, sometimes I have more than one obsession.  Today it was family room curtains and… Christmas trees.

Yes it is mid-December and we don’t have a tree.  I guess I didn’t realize that the blog world starts linking up their Christmas posts in November.  In my head, I penciled in this past weekend for decorating and tree getting.  Then it rained all day Sunday 🙁  I also have a final exam on Thursday which is like a giant elephant on my back.  Once that is over, it will feel like Christmas and like I can enjoy myself.

I am a real tree person.  It’s not even necessarily the smell, it’s just the cats love it and well, it’s all I’ve ever really known.  Cleaning up needles comes with Christmas and anything otherwise seems… unnatural.  But today, more than before, I felt compelled to get a fake tree.  Not just because of the time issues I have, but because of our entryway.

The entryway was a requirement on our house hunting list.  I’ve always wanted a beautiful staircase to wrap with garland.  I also thought it would be pretty awesome to put a ginormous tree here.

One of my concerns with a fake tree is, of course, the cats.  Macky is a terror and will more than likely eat/climb said tree.  We always used a big, solid tree base for our real tree, so that he couldn’t knock it over.  My dad actually took a standard tree stand and poured concrete around it for their cats.  True story.  So my family has pretty much cat-proofed the real tree.  But fake ones? I have no clue.  Mike had the brilliant suggestion that we could use thin twine to tie the tree to the spindles so if Macky at least attempted a jump, the tree would be anchored.  Pretty smart, if I do say so myself, since my suggestion was sticking sandbags on the bottom….

We shopped around a bit tonight and we just don’t know enough about them.  We know we want around a 10 foot tree and many of them are on sale already. What do we look for in a fake tree?  Which do you think is more environmentally friendly, chopping down a biodegradable tree each year or reusing a plastic tree? Humpf.