Glazed Bacon Wrapped Green-beans

Thanksgiving 2014:

The most delicious Thanksgiving ever!

This year, I found a few new recipes to use 

and I will say, they were all winners mainly because 

they were all from scratch, everyone participated

in helping this year and they were all delicious!

Here's what our menu consisted of:

Brined and Herb Roasted Turkey

Country Mashed Potatoes with Turkey Gravy

Homemade Herbed Dressing (Stuffing)

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Glazed Bacon Wrapped Green-beans

Buttermilk Biscuits

and

Cinnamon Cranberry Sauce

If I had to pick just one favorite, it would be the

Bacon wrapped green-beans.

 I cannot wait to make these again because

they are so pretty, fairly easy to make and so delicious!

Hopefully next year, we'll be using our own beans.

As usual, I made some modifications to the original recipe.

Glazed Bacon Wrapped Green-beans 

*10 slices of pre-cooked smoked bacon (I used Costco brand)

1.5 pounds of fresh French green-beans 

Glaze:

4 tablespoons of butter

1 teaspoon sea salt (table salt is fine)

1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder

4 tablespoons of brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons maple syrup

fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

*Using the pre-cooked bacon omitted a step of pre-cooking raw bacon.

It's a great time saver especially when you are cooking so many other things.

You can increase the number of servings accordingly. Glaze can be doubled, as well.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Wash and trim your green beans (just cut the ends off)

2. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.

3. Have a large bowl with ice water waiting to put the beans in after they blanch.

4. Blanch green-beans by cooking them in the water for 3-4 minutes

5. Quickly remove and drain (use tongs) from heat and put them into the ice water

to stop them from cooking. They will still be crisp.

6. In a small saucepan, melt butter then add the remainder of ingredients.

Stir until sugar is dissolved and mixture is hot.

7.  Lay your bacon out and place about 8-10 green-beans (in a bundle) in the center 

and roll tightly making sure not to break the bacon and placing the seam down.

Place on baking sheet with sides (jelly roll pan works great).

8. Drizzle a spoonful of sugar glaze onto each bundle.

9. Roast beans for 20-25 minutes.

Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

**These can easily be assembled ahead of time by preparing

the green-beans and wrapping them with bacon. Place in refrigerator

until ready to glaze and bake.

These are so delicious with the smoky sweet

flavor of the bacon and glaze and they 

look like a million bucks!

I wish I knew how to clip around the recipe so you could print

it easily. Can anyone give me some pointers?

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with

your family. We sure did!

Paperwhites

I have always had the desire to grow Paperwhites.

I love their high fragrance and I love their dainty 

white flowers on stems of glorious green.

 photo via Better Homes and Gardens BHG link for growing tips

I picked up my first batch of bulbs at

Home Depot, I believe, and started them with 

rocks I picked up out of the road.

{Hey, I used what I had on hand!}

I then bought a couple more bags from Walmart and

started those for gifts. Yes, I bought a bag of stones for these.

I started them in whatever I could find.

From my large hurricane

to mason and jelly jars

to a red transferware bowl.

I then set them in the best lit location which is 

the laundry room window. It's a South facing window so 

it gets fabulous light all day.

I read that once the flowers bloom, if you keep them 

out of direct sun, they will last longer.

Well, till then, they will reside in that sunny window

with my Lavender. 

They're growing!

I found my first little bumpy stem this morning

so I know it won't be too long before we see

and smell some action. 

This year is somewhat of an experiment

and so far, so good.

I have plans for doing a show next year around this time

so if all goes well, I'll have some started to sell.

I'll come up with some pretty, rustic and unique

wrapping for them in the meantime.

I think I'll practice that on my gift giving

this year and see who likes what.

Have you ever grown paperwhites for gifts?

I'd love to hear your ideas!

Baby, It's Cold!

Winter is here!

We are in the lower 20's but our

home is warm and toasty and for that,

I am so grateful.

photo via Pinterest

I will be adding to our Etsy today. I have lots to photograph

and put up. 

Hope you are keeping warm!

Home Sweet Home

I'm gonna let you in on a little secret:

We cheated on our house.

But only for an hour or so.

This property enticed us with its acreage, a pond, 

and two houses.

We were mesmerized with everything about it.

The location, the layout of the property, the pecan orchard

and the potential of what we could do there.

Being in the county, you're pretty much unlimited.

It was lust at first sight.

We studied it on google earth, drove by it,

got excited about it and planned out how 

our lives would be living there.

I knew where the chickens were going to live, 

where we would pasture our cows,

where the garden would be planted and

 where we would hold Barn sales.

And the pond situation was even figured out:

A crack in the overflow pipe.

Oh, it was perfect.

Except one thing:

The house.

Another complete renovation.

The house is a 1970's two story brick

set on a concrete foundation.

The second house is smaller which would have been

a great shoppe for me

but, it too is on a concrete foundation,

thus NO PORCHES!

I still took pictures and we 

looked at it all with clear glasses

{meaning realistically}.

Too.Much.Work.

After we got home and looked at what 

we have  and have accomplished in our

home, we decided that we love it way too 

much to sell it and move on

to another big project.

We truly love our home and 

 created the perfect place for us.

We will stay firmly planted and continue to

make it our piece of heaven.

With the interior getting closer to completion

{there's still lots to do-trust me},

we will start working on the outside

yards and getting our fruit trees planted,

my potager designed

and build a small poulailler.

Once the upper level of our property is done, 

the Mr. can play with the woods and do

some clearing and maybe find a spot for a

little fishing hole.

So, it won't be too long before I do a 

Home Tour video {since I figured out how to

take video on my camera}.

Thank you for being here and listening to my

ramblings. I love sharing our story with you.

My next posting will

be full of surprises.

See you then!

Barn Wood Seat

Brrr! We started our first day of November

very chilly and I LOVE it!

I woke up to 35* this morning and promptly

got the fireplace lit. 

I love this weather!

~ ~

As you know, we are huge advocates of using 

someone else's throw-away's, 

re-cycling, up-cycling and making 

something new with something old. 

Some day I will go through our home and 

take pictures and give the history of

all the things that we have used to make our house, 

our home, with cast-offs.

Today I'm going to share our newest project:

A new window seat with 200 year old barn wood.

I purchased this barn wood when it was attached 

to an apron and legs.

It served as our formal dining table in our rental

 but since we only have one

dining room in our current home, 

we didn't have a need for another table.

We both agreed we did not want to sell it.

Since the top was the only element of the table that was old,

we decided to dismantle it, salvaging all parts, to use for another project.

The lore of this wood goes as:

 It was taken from an old barn in Massachusetts

by a friends father. He then railroaded it to 

California where her husband

constructed several Farmhouse tables to sell.

I had to have one.

Who would have guessed this wood would 

almost make it back to where it came from...

just a wee bit more South. 

I have always wanted a window seat in the (this) kitchen and

my Mr. wanted to put a couple of cozy chairs in there.

I didn't quite want the kitchen to feel like a keeping room

so I never said 'okay'.

After finishing the flooring and base, it came time

to bring it up again.

He didn't say anything, walked away, 

came back from the basement with our barn wood.

Fabulous!

I will have some pillows made for some coziness

but it is perfect and exactly what I wanted. 

I love the saw marks in it and the rustic feel

it gives my French kitchen.

We talk about maybe selling after we are done with the house

and buying a house with land.

If that ever happens, I hope the new owners know how 

much love we put into making this house a home. 

But then again, we will probably 

change our minds about that too.