Simple

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to be in the kitchen. I collect cookbooks, even if I don't use them. I never know when that random recipe will be necessary for that perfect event. I love to bake things, but even more, I love to bake things that look hard but are really so simple! It's my favorite. Not so that I can show off my sly baking skills, but so that I can let others know that baking and cooking doesn't always need to be hard. Things can taste great even with the most simple recipes used.

We had some friends and family over this past weekend for food and games. It was a blast. I made some truffles from a recipe of one of Heather's friends. They turned out great!

The recipe is as follows:

1 pkg. double stuff oreo cookies (not generic)
1 pkg. softened 8 oz. cream cheese
2 pkgs. white chocolate chips
Some milk or dark chocolate chips
Toothpicks

Crush the oreos and mix together with cream cheese. Roll into small balls and freeze on a cookie sheet for at least an hour or until solid. Place a toothpick in each frozen ball. Melt the white chocolate chips and dip frozen balls into the white chocolate chips and cover completely. Place back on cookie sheet in freezer or leave on counter until white chocolate is set. Remove toothpick. Melt chocolate chips and place in a baggie. Cut a small hole in the corner of the baggie and drizzle melted chocolate onto truffles, covering the holes the toothpicks made. Eat anytime.

They are so easy and good! You may want to enjoy these with a glass of milk as they are rich and very similar to dipping oreos in milk. They are made from oreos after all!

Here are pictures of our kitchen. The before and afters are drastically different! We still have some trim work and touch up painting to do, but the bulk of it is done! Also, the finish on the dishwasher (yeah, we have a dishwasher now!) is supposed to be stainless steel and it comes with this protective plastic layer on it. We like the blue plastic on it, so we are leaving it alone! There is plenty of room for preparing all types of foods at the same time by multiple people, and it is a large space for gathering. Come and stop in anytime!





This is looking towards the kitchen while standing in the living room. We have since torn down the two walls and made the space one large area, a living room, dining room, and kitchen.



One view of the kitchen. The countertops were always so dirty, even right after I cleaned them that I was hesitant to do much cooking! The cupboards were attached to the walls directly, and not in the current method. They had fronts and sides, the back of the cupboard was the wall. Mold was our permanent guest in the upper cabinets, so we taped them closed and didn't use them at all!



Another view of our lovely original kitchen. We were going to keep the window coverings, and they would actually go with the color we have put in our new kitchen, but they got thrown away instead. The countertops were not level, the sink was one big sink instead of divided, and the back wall was the hideous yellow tile!



These pictures were taken as we were walking through the house and it wasn't quite ours yet, so the fridge was gone when we moved in. We threw out the cabinet between the stove and fridge, and left the stove where it was. It was a new stove, so when we remodeled, we sold it easily.



This is the doorway to the master bedroom. Yes, it is right off the kitchen, and the only bathroom in the house is through the master bedroom as well. Different layout than desired, but we made it work okay.



I hope this is not too dark, but it shows our kitchen without that wall in between the dining room and kitchen. It also shows the entire room, and the following pictures show close-ups.



We made up several mock-ups of what our kitchen could look like, and this was the layout we liked best. The cooktop is gas, our favorite to cook with, and there is a bar for our barstools we already owned. The pendant lights actually inspired the color of the room. I was wanting a bright, warm room, and had chosen a yellow color. When we went to pick out lighting, these orange pendants were what I fell in love with, so we changed the color of the kitchen to an orange yellow. We love it!



This is a view of the door to the master bedroom. We didn't change it, but framed the refridgerator on one side and framed the wall oven/microwave combo on the other side. Feels like a small hallway instead of being part of the kitchen.



Our new sink and window wall. Not a lot to say other than that I love it. We are still working on getting window coverings. Our neighbors are only 10 feet away.



A close-up of the sink and window wall. We replaced the old windows as they were tilted and we could not open them. It made for a very deep window sill, which holds my plants perfectly. Now it helps me remember to water them more often! As I noted above, I love cookbooks. This wall has a shelf the provides me with ample amount of space to store my beloved cookbooks. The ones shown are not all of them, I know there are more boxes to unpack, just can't find them yet!



A close-up of the baking area and fridge. We have used this corner well, and know that it will come in handy.



A better view of the open rooms. You can see the blue on the front of the dishwasher here as well. There are two of the cutest people in the world posing for the camera! My sister Heather and her daughter Bella live with us now, so they might be frequent guests in many of our home 'after' photos. It's so much better to see people in the space than it empty anyway! Bella loves her walker and has taken to running in it after the person she desires most at that time. Heather is standing there looking pretty.

A funny side note about Bella and her walker. The other day, Heather and I were tidying up the house and Corey wanted to take a nap on the couch in the living room (Not shown in any of these photos.). Heather put Bella in her walker, and she was in the room with us, and then I saw her walk towards the second living room and heard her talking (babbling) to someone. I went to check on her and she was just talking and talking to Corey, who was trying to sleep on the couch. She couldn't figure out why he was so quiet and not responding. We put her in her playpen in the other living room, and she was a lot quieter, allowing Corey to get some sleep.