Wordless Wednesday

Michael went deer and bear hunting over the weekend.  Apparently it was beautiful and covered in snow:

Hunk of Meat Monday: Pork Chops

Michael LOVES pork chops. 

My favorite defrosting method - putting the meat in a bowl of cold water.  It defrosts them quickly and that helps since I never remember to take the meat out of the freezer a couple days before (it takes a few days to defrost in our fridge). 

Here they are!

Four chops for two people - we took them for lunch the next day (and I forgot to eat lunch - it happens when I work through lunch and recess, my stomach doesn't realize it until the kids leave)

I made a spice rub with garlic powder, pepper, oregano, and some salt.  But, you can use anything you like!  Cinnamon and brown sugar sounds really good right now.

A rub is so easy - you literally just rub it on, turn the hunk of meat over and rub it on the other side.

Get the pan hot, and put the pork on.  Let it cook for a few minutes.

Turn it over and brown the other side.

At this point you can put it in the oven to cook it the rest of the way, but I didn't want to heat up the house - today I do, but I cooked these a few weeks ago.  I just put the lid on and added some water (so it wouldn't burn on the bottom). 

I like to use a meat thermometer to check to see if it is done, but i think I need a new one because this has to be wrong.  I over cooked it, so if you use a thermometer make sure it works! 

Here are the pork chops served with fried zuchini and roasted potatoes.

Enjoy!  What are hunk of meat did you enjoy this evening?

- linking up to Hunk of Meat Monday over at Beyer Beware -

Office Tour

Welcome to our office:

aka "The Man Cave"

Here it is - the only room in our house that was not painted three different colors when we bought it and it is the only room that we painted a color.  Michael picked out the color and I LOVE it!

Michael would call this the crown jewel to this room - the safe. 

It took us a while to accumulate the artwork for this room.  The top piece I bought at Ross a while back (there is a glare on it for some reason - sorry), the two tin looking piece Michael bought at Cabela's, and the framed ducks and geese were his dad's garage sale finds.  I painted the frames black. 

The clock was a house warming gift from Michael's cousin.  The wooden duck was another one of his dad's garage sale finds (he found it the day after I bought one at the Salvation Army).  The other two ducks were from Ross - I bought them when we lived at the duplex for the mantel.  I love the look of ducks on a mantel (but they look just perfect on top of this safe too).

Everything above was found at garage sales (all different sales) by Michael's dad.  He goes to garage sales pretty much every weekend and would always buy Michael ugly stuff so I told him to look for things for the office and he did very well!  I painted the frames black and the flying ducks were some kind of ugly metal - I painted those black too. 

The desk area - desk is from Wal Mart, framed photos of Michael hunting above it.

The bookcases.  Full of books, pictures, and all sorts of other things.

Some duck calls and a goose call.

One of my favorite pieces in the room.  A mallard drake sitting on a flag.  Michael "won" this at an NRA dinner last year for me.  By won I mean he won the bidding for it but ended up paying like $150 for it.

Another sign I got at Ross.

He also loves classic muscle cars - a chevelle.

Here is the wooden duck I found at the Salvation Army one day.  I was so excited to find it and it and its sibling look great in the room.

A basket for storing things - his childhood teddy bear and other random stuff are in there.  A photo album of our junior prom and another car.

WWII encyclopedia set . . . it was Michael's grandpa's and I just had to have it when he died.  Michael's grandpa was in General Patten's army and my grandpa was liberated by general Patten's army - I didn't know that until after he died. Small world.

My co-worker says that I am very tolerant for letting Michale have these magazines - i think they bring some color to the bookcase.  There is Michael in his senior picture - I think he has gotten handsomer (more handsome?).

Another basket (LOVE this basket - look at that amazing texture) for hiding things.

And some camo fan blades to top the room off.  NEVER EVER thought I would allow camo fan blades in our house but I really love them!

So, there is was - our office! 

Do you have a themed room in your house?  How do you keep your office tidy?

Wordless Wednesday - hunting

This weekend the boyfriend wanted to go hunting and nobody else wanted to go, so he *gasp* invited me to come along.  Michael has never EVER invited me to go hunting with him and I never thought he would, so of course I went.  It helped that it was an absolutely beautiful day (not ideal for goose hunting, but still just beautiful).  My job was to walk with him and be quiet (that was REALLY hard) and I got some great pictures along the way. 

Halloween Mantel

I saw this idea in Country Living last year and I fell in LOVE. 

Source: manolohome.com via Sarah on Pinterest

I wanted to do it to our front door but I never got around to doing it.  So, I was planning on doing it this year.  Paula found some bats on sale at Joanne's and bought them for me so I didn't have to make them. Then I saw this . . .

Source: kimmccrary.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

when I joined pintrest two weeks ago and again I fell in LOVE!  Stacey made it for me (I helped a little) and it was just too beautiful to put on the door.  I didn't want anyone to ruin it - or touch it.  It was so pretty that I wanted to look at it all the time. 

As you saw from the Family Room tour, we have a beautiful fireplace.  It pretty much stays the same all year, but I decided to "dress" it for Halloween.  Here is our naked mantel: 

I put up the amazing wreath - tutorial is here.  Just to warn you it takes like 4 hours with two people - so, be prepared.

And got the bats . . . Here is the template for making bats if you would like it. 

Here they are . . .

Fold one wing towards the body.

Fold the other wing in too.

See how it looks like it is flying now?

Put some duct tape on the back

And put it on the wall (or the fireplace in my case).

I started the bats at the bottom - I wanted it to look like they were coming out of the fireplace.

I tried to duct tape the bats on the felt wreath but that doesn't work.  So, I hot glued a safety pin on the back of two bats.

Just put a dab of hot glue on the back of your bat.

And put the safety pin in the hot glue.

Let dry and attach to the wreath. 

I knew I wanted the bats to go up toward the wreath and stop at the top edge, so I made a rough path.

Then I just had to fill it in with more bats.

When bats fly they fly in a line, then it becomes and group, then they all kind of disappear.  It is pretty amazing to watch them!  I wanted the bat path to look kind of real.  So, I put them in a line, then a group, then fizzled them out to a line then they disappeared. 

I LOVE it!!

What do you think?  Are you going to decorate for Halloween?