How we sold our house in 10 DAYS!!!!!
I have to say that I cannot believe I’m actually sitting here writing this post about how we sold our house in ONLY 10 DAYS!!!!
Crazy!
Well, on that note, I guess I should probably back up a smidgen, right?
SO! A couple of months ago, we decided to sell our house.
I was really very happy at our home, but then the developer who originally built the homes in our community decided to start building again. I had a side street that pretty much went to no where, so I knew that the possibility of the street actually going “somewhere” one day was a reality.
I just didn’t realize that the somewhere was on the side of my house and the back of my house. I basically was going to have a street on ALL sides of my home. I looked at the plans and I was HORRIFIED to find this out. 🙁
I just couldn’t see how it would be safe for my kids to play amongst all this. I knew I wouldn’t feel good about just letting them run around with all of that going on. So, we made the big decision to put our house on the market.
Then, we went under contract in only 10 DAYS, Y’ALL!
I want to add that I scoured the internet for ideas on how to do this and I feel like I took away some good tips that I REALLY want to share with you!
So, here it is!
I kept the foyer/entry way as clutter free (you might see this word a lot!) as possible.
Usually, you would see book bags, toys, and coats overflowing on the coat rack, but I made sure this did not happen while we were showing.
To be honest, probably one of the first things I did was rent a storage unit. I know you may think to yourself that you can just stick things somewhere, but the problem is ….. it’s not like company is coming for dinner and you can cram those dirty clothes or toys into a closet or another room. The potential buyers are going to be looking in that closet or room you try to cram the dirty clothes and toys into! YIKES! THERE IS NO WHERE TO HIDE!!!!
You really have to get the stuff out of your house all together. I’m not saying put your dirty clothes in a storage unit, but I am saying put anything that you don’t necessarily use every day or might not use for at least the next couple of months in there.
To see more of what I did, I decided to go a little more in depth in this video.
You can check it out here:
I am going to put together a “Part 2” to this video so that you can see what I did with the rest of the house. The concept is not much different, but I do have other rooms like the dreaded KIDS ROOMS that I had to tackle. Not to mention my office, which always looked like a bomb went off in it. 😉
Until next time y’all!
Happy WEEKEND!
XOXO,
Esther
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Chocolate Trifle w/ Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
This is the sweet I made for my sweets today.
This was also not what I had intended to make for them. On Valentine’s Day, we tend to make it more about the kids than ourselves anymore. So, the plan this year was to do steak, potatoes, asparagus, and a great dessert. We thought it would be fun to watch the movie, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. (Did I Say that right? I never do……..)
Little did I know how much that movie would impact my dessert making skills.
I had this great idea to fix these individual chocolate cakes with this great ganache topping with little Wilton sugar flowers on top.
Everything was going great until I got to here:
I was all like, “Oh yeah! I got this! Came up with this on my own. Going to rock this and my family is going to think I’m a rockstar!”
Yeahhhhhhhhhh……. not so good after that. Everything went wrong!
First, this happened………………
Then,
this………………………
Thank goodness I still had this. FYI: I used a boxed cake mix.
I heart boxed cake mixes.
Not a stinkin thing wrong with boxed cake mixes.
Just sayin……….. When people say, “oh my goodness! This is the best cake I have EVER had!”
You simply say, “Awe! Thank you!” And leave it at that. 😉
So, I went with Plan B. Start stuffing wine glasses and make a trifle.
I stuffed with left over cake and fresh raspberries, with some of the raspberry buttercream icing I made earlier for the cakes.
Wanna know how I made the frosting?
This is what I did:
I took two sticks of softened unsalted butter and using a hand mixer, beat for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Then, I slowly added 6 cups of powdered sugar, alternating between 1/8 cup of skim milk in between when the mixture got too dry.
Then,
I added a 1/4 cup of raspberry puree to the frosting, which I made by first…………
taking a pint of fresh raspberries and 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar and pulsing in a blender until it was
smooth. Since I had little left over (approx. 1/4 cup) , I used it again later in assembling the trifle.
It made the BEST tasting Raspberry Buttercream Frosting. I often use fresh berries to flavor and turn icing a pink color instead of using red food dye b/c I have an allergy to it myself. Needless to say, I have never had Red Velvet Cake and I often dream of how it may taste. But alas, I shall never know. Oh well.
Anyway, back to the trifle!
Like I mentioned earlier, after layering in no particular order, the cake, fresh raspberries, and the frosting…….. I added a dollop of raspberry puree and then some more cake and frosting.
Then, I added some more frosting ( I know! Enough already with the frosting!) and berries and finally, the Wilton sugar flowers.
It could have been a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day with the catastrophe that was my cake making skills, but a very wise Pastor once told me, “Never compare your Behind the Scenes to someone else’s Highlight Real”!
So, here I am. Melted cakes and all,
telling you that you can turn a mess into something beautiful and tasty afterall.
I wish y’all a Happy and Sweet Valentine’s Day, from my
HEART
to
YOURS!
XOXO,
Esther
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Lee’s Lemon Cupcakes
So, my oldest turned 11 today……………… 11 , y’all!
It breaks my heart………….. mostly because it means I’m getting old.
However,
It doesn’t break my heart to share the cupcake recipe I made for her birthday.
A little while back, I shared a recipe of a cake that was my cake version of this very cupcake. Confusing? Hopefully not.
We bought some cupcakes that were called “Lemon Bliss” Cupcakes at Sam’s Club. They were instantly a HIT! Problem is, they are a seasonal item and you can’t get them all the time. One of my favorite things is to try to recreate foods that I have tried and put my own twist on them in the process. The cake was awesome and we had it for her birthday last year. You can check that post out here.
This year, we decided to do the actual cupcake version so we made a few adjustments.
With the cake I made, I used whipped cream as the “icing”. This time, I decided to go with buttercream and lemon pudding in the middle and also filled the inside of the cupcake with the pudding like a hostess cupcake.
The result was pure AWESOMENESS! The great thing is this cupcake is not heavy at all! I didn’t say it was’t fattening, just not heavy. So, I guess you might want to be careful since you could probably eat a few without blinking an eye. 😉
Have fun and let me know how your’s turn out!
Recipe: Lee’s Lemon Cupcakes
NOTE: It may be helpful to read entire recipe before starting.
Makes 24 Cupcakes (filled half way) or 20 Cupcakes filled 2/3 way high
Ingredients:
– 1 Boxed Lemon Cake , plus additional items needed for cake such as eggs, oil, water (etc.)
– 1 Box Instant Lemon Pudding, plus 2 cups milk needed for Pudding instructions.
– Lemon Buttercream Frosting (Recipe Follows)
– Cupcake Liners
– 1 Cupcake filler tip
– 1 Tip for Buttercream Frosting
– 2 Large Freezer Ziplock Bags
Lemon Butter Cream Frosting:
– 2 Sticks room temperature softened unsalted butter
– 6 Cups Confectioners Sugar
– 1/2 Cup Milk (I use Skim)
– 1 1/2 Teaspoons Lemon Extract
Directions:
– Line Muffin Pan with liners and mix and bake cupcakes according to cake instructions. Allow to cool completely.
– Meanwhile, make Lemon Pudding according to package instructions and put in fridge for 15 minutes to allow to “set up”.
– Make Buttercream frosting by beating 2 sticks butter with a hand mixer until smooth (about 2 minutes). Slowly add confectioners sugar and alternate between milk and confectioners sugar until all has been used. Add lemon extract and beat until completely smooth and all lumps from sugar are gone.
– Once cupcakes have completely cooled, take a large ziplock bag, snip one corner of bag at an angle and insert large long decorating tip for cupcake filling into bag. Fill bag with Lemon Pudding Filling. Seal bag and set aside.
– Take other large ziplock bag and snip a corner of bag at angle and insert another large decorating tip of your choosing for Butter Cream frosting. Fill bag with Butter Cream Frosting and set aside.
– Take cooled cupcakes and inserting the tip of the Lemon Pudding bag into center of cupcake, gently squeeze bag until you can see the lemon pudding filling come out of top. Finish filling remainder of cupcakes. You should have left over. Do not throw away! We will use at end.
– Take Butter Cream Frosting back and make a swirl around top outer edge of cupcake twice, allowing for a “circle” to remain on center of cupcake. Finish frosting remainder of cupcakes.
– Take remaining lemon pudding filling bag and fill remaining center “circle” on cupcake until pudding is level with butter cream frosting.
– Your done! Enjoy!
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Thanksgiving Stuffing
That’s right, y’all!
Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK!
Do you know what you are going to fix yet?
Did I just give you a mini heart attack?
If I did……..
I’m sorry!
Well, there is one thing that I know I am going to fix and it is good ole Stuffing!
I have a question though.
Do you fix Traditional Stuffing or do you fix Southern Dressing?
Well, I grew up with the Traditional style, while my husband grew up with the Southern Dressing. Though, I am not partial to either because I love both…….
You see, my mom would fix it the Traditional way and my Grandma would fix it the Dressing way.
So, I decided to fix each one and share the recipe!
First up is the Traditional Way. Rustic, large chunky bread and sausage, with celery and onions and LOTS of butter! 😉
I’m breaking the recipes up into two posts, but because I love you so much, I made a video. Make sure to check it out below and give it a “thumbs up” if you like it!
For the full written recipe, check it out below the video!
XOXO,
Esther
Recipe: Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing
Ingredients:
• 8 Cups Cubed Bread (* 9 if omitting the Sausage)
• 16 oz. Sage Sausage (Regular is fine) * I used this to enhance the Sage flavor.
• 3/4 Cup Onion, Finely Chopped
• 1 1/2 Cup Celery, Chopped (with leaves)
• 1 3/4 Sticks Butter
• 1 1/2 Tsp. Dried Sage
• 1 Tsp. Dried Thyme
• 1/2 – 3/4 Cup Vegetable Stock , Unsalted (Use according to how dry you like)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions:
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large skillet , melt butter on medium heat. Add celery and onions and saute’ until just softened.
• Stir in 1/3 of cubed bread and toss for a minute. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and set aside.
• In same skillet, add sausage and cook until completely brown.
• Add cooked sausage to vegetable and bread mixture.
• Add remaining bread and ingredients to bowl and toss until well combined.
• Add salt and pepper to your taste.
• Spray a 9 x 13 casserole dish with non-stick spray and transfer stuffing mixture to pan.
• Bake 30-40 minutes or until mixture is completely warmed through and top is golden brown and crispy.
NOTE: * Tossing mixture in the middle of cooking time, may help keep bread underneath from becoming too moist.
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