by princesshotflash

Purging

Why didn’t know it would be so hard? It was slow at the beginning, looking closely at everything, thinking hard what is pile it should go in–keep, toss, donate and of course, I had fourth one–who can I give it to.

And why is it so hard to give away free stuff.

I’m exhausted. I have 3 piles in my living room right now–toss, donate and going to the storage (meaning keep). I gave up on the fourth one (sort of). I hope all of you are proud of me for it. Please note my keep pile is much smaller than my donate pile.

my donate
my keep

Sometimes It’s Sad

But this morning I did tackled something hard. I cleaned out Oat’s travel kit. It was on a top shelf of a closet. I finally clean up that shelf. Then there it was, sitting on the floor next to my bed. It sat there for a couple of days, waiting to be clean up.

I was really sad. It kind of the end of my travels with him. We still had many place to see. I know everyone will miss goofy costumes. Here’s one of the favorites. I photoshopped the peg leg and parrot for him. He was so happy.

FB_IMG_1525087029808

Sometimes There’s a Reason

It’s not all painfully, I found a great book I had picked up from one of my company’s many purges. Obon, a Japanese summer festival that celebrate your ancestors. There’s dancing, taiko drumming, people dressed in kimonos, crafts and lot of great food.

20180531_152441

this goes to my fourth pile–to my cousin’s girls

Sometimes There’s a Goal

20180604_163721

I’m to soon reach it. Friday is pictures, Wednesday it gets listed and Sunday is a Open House. I hope to be one giant step closer to start my new life in Hawaii.

by princesshotflash

Getting Ready for the BIG MOVE

Been busy freshening up my house to put it up for sale. Painting, clean and purging seems to never end. I just can’t wait to finish.

Thought I’d share what has been happen.

Painting

This is the bathroom which I was doing before or after work. The cats were very interested that I was spending so much time in the bathroom. There was a lot of playing going on as I painted.

20180329_072601

Ollie wanted to help me paint the upstairs bathroom

New Appliances

Got new dishwasher after 3 years of living with a broken one. I know my kitchen looks like a wreck but it gets worst before it gets better.

20180323_184152

Nice to have a dish washer after the long break

And I got a new water heater. My realtor suggested it since the other major appliances are older. No sexy pictures of the water heater. Sorry.

Outside

Finally painted the shingles on the breezeway and the garage door and house washed the front and back of the house. That some good stuff that house wash.

 

I also had the my handyman fix up the back door and the French door. These pictures were pre-house wash.

Emptiness

All the rooms are getting empty. It is kind of sad. Had the 1800GotJunk guys come to my house to get rid of the all the heavy stuff I couldn’t do by myself.

20180526_142137

Beside Ollie and the ladder that’s all I got in my living room

Got myself a storage unit to move all my boxes so the how doesn’t look like a hoarder lives there. The unit is good test if I to see if I one Ubox is enough for me. I’ll get a picture when I bring more boxes the next time.

Well, there still a lot to do but making a lot of progress. I hope my realtor thinks it good enough to put on the market. More pictures to come.

by princesshotflash

Recipe Testing: Quiche for Kate

Kate came over to the house to help me paint in my quest to get my house ready for sale. In return, I made her lunch of caramelized onion and broccoli quiche.

This was a fast and dirty quiche. Started late (as usually). Frozen crust, shredded swiss and gruyere from Trader Joe’s, little bit shredded havarti, broccoli caramelized onions and shallots, . I blended my two favorite quiche recipes to come up with Kate’s quiche.

Add the caramelized onions/shallots to the par-baked crust, broccoli on top, then cheese. Finally add the custard to the filling. Custard has milk with dash of heavy cream, eggs, pepper and masala wine. Then finally top with some grated parmesan. Baked for a 1/2 hour @ 375° or till crust golden brown and slightly brown on top. I think it could have use a little more time. Just a little loose but the taste was good. Maybe it was the havarti, hmmm. Love caramelized onion, you can add more for a more onion-y flavor. It makes everything taste yummy. And the broccoli had a slight bit to it not too mushy.

Quiche for Kate

I combined my two favorite quiche recipes to make this one–Smitten Kitchen’s Leek and Mushroom Quiche and One Perfect Bite’s Zucchini and Caramelized Onion Tart. Both great recipes but as usual, I didn’t have all the ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

Frozen pie crust (I used TJ’s)

Preheat your oven to 400º Place your crust in your pie pan and crimp edges (if needed). Put it back into the refrigerator to rest.  Let it rest for at least 20 minutes. Take out the crust, prick the the crust with a fork. Add parchment paper and pie weights (I use a lentils) to the pie. Put the crust in for 15–20 minutes. Edges looks slightly brown. Take the parchment paper and pie weights off and put the pie back in the oven for 2–3 minutes. Cool slightly. Turn down the oven to 375º.

Caramelized onions
2 t olive oil
1 small onion and 1 shallot, sliced thin
salt

Add olive oil to hot pan on medium low.  Add the onions/shallots and salt to taste to the pan. Stir the onion/shallots every once in while (keep an eye out that it doesn’t burn). Slowly onions/shallots will soften and turn brown. Take it out of the pan and cool slightly
1 1/2 c of chopped broccoli, chopped small to fit in pie crust
1/2 c shredded cheese (I used Swiss/Gruyere mix from TJ and some havarti that I had)
1 1/4 c whole milk
1/4 c of heavy cream
3 eggs
splash of masala wine
pepper
grated Parmesan cheese

 

Mix together milk, heavy cream, eggs, masala wine, and pepper (to taste). Layer the onions to the crust, starting with onions, then broccoli ending with cheese. Pour in the milk/egg mixture to the crust. Add grated Parmesan (to taste) to the top. Bake quiche for 25–30 minutes or till top is browned and doesn’t jiggle.

Hope you like it. Enjoy!

by princesshotflash

Team Cheery Oats

That’s TEAM Cheery Oats to be exact.

I decided to participate NJ Sharing network 5k Celebration of Life on Sunday, June 3 in New Providence, NJ. I’m getting a team together and that’s where Team Cheery Oats comes in.

I wanted a name to play off of his name and I thought of cereal (oatmeal) and with friends from work we came up with a cereal name for our team. “Cheery” is kind of fitting for him as the customers told me how they remembered his smile and how he would greeting them with a hello.

Working on a t-shirt design for out team. I googled cereal boxes and found this as my inspiration.

Screen Shot 2018-03-15 at 11.16.23 AM

Here’s what I got so far. Still fussing with it.

Screen Shot 2018-03-15 at 2.20.54 PM

Please join our team and to walk and raise money for NJ Sharing network. Our team goal is a $1000. And you get a Team Cheery Oats shirt. Here’s the link to the team page: http://njsn.convio.net/site/TR/Events/20185k?team_id=1820&pg=team&fr_id=1091

If you can’t join us on June 3rd, please think of donating to our team to reach our goal. Here’s a link my page where you can make a donation: http://njsn.convio.net/site/TR/Events/20185k?px=1013597&pg=personal&fr_id=1091

Thank you all for the support throughout this year. It’s been tough but the support helped me take one day.  I hope to see you on June 3.

 

by princesshotflash

Distraction from the purge

UPDATE: I found the link for the scones. Here it is: https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/buttermilk-cheese-scones

Purging, sorting, dumping. Sigh! Purging, sorting, dumping. Putting your house on the market is a lot of work.

I need some distraction and I’ve been baking for the crew at work. Made scones–Gruyere and Swiss and dried cranberry served with some homemade mandarin marmalade.

20180213_193033.jpg

It was very hard to resist right out of the oven

Ugh!! I can’t find the recipe I use for this scones? And I want to make it again. Oh well. . .

I wanted to share a recipe and I decided to share one of my favorite quiche recipe–smittenkitchen.com Leek and Mushroom Quiche that I change with what I have in my kitchen. I posted in my old blog Rainbow Swiss chard and Comte Cheese version.

485832_4297446190944_348540035_n

Not the best picture, doesn’t do the quiche justice

Enjoy!