Thursday, November 26, 2015

Decorating with Pillows


As I've mentioned in an earlier post, things have been quite busy (and sometimes stressful!) since August because we were moving to our new home (which we did last October).

To celebrate our move, we thought of getting new sofa seats for the living room! (Nah, we really needed new ones)

Initially, I wanted a sofa that is cream or off-white in color (somewhere around that color palette) but then having two toddlers at home, ummm, it's probably not a good idea!  (Kids and anything that is white?  I don't think so, haha!)

So we got this charcoal-gray colored sofa set (which came with throw pillows already) and were lucky to have found a rug to go with it!  Best part of it, everything on this picture (except the accent chair) was on SALE! (Woohoo!  Don't you just love that 4-letter word?!)


After having the sofa set for a week (and STARING at it) I told hubby that I want. . . no,NEED some color!  Our living room just looked so sad (haha!) . . and gray (well, the seats ARE gray, haha!)

What is nice with gray is since it is a neutral color, it isn't hard to match it with any color.  I was thinking of coral, a summery kind of yellow or light blue but since we have a red entryway bench, we decided to stick with this color.


There are so many ways to introduce color in a living room.  You can do it through wall decors, table top accents, floor lamps, etc.  Since I DO NOT have an innate sense of creativity for interior design, I thought of doing the simplest thing I can do!  So for our living room's instant makeover (and to get that pop of color I was looking for), I just bought new throw pillows! 

BUT before I did that, I went online to get some tips on how to mix and match pillows.  I read some very useful tips from this site (Houzz) and went with . . . you guessed it right . . . the simplest one! Haha!  So I went to get a patterned pillow and mixed it with a solid one.  



These pillows didn't come from one store.  I was able to get this look after going to three stores!  Who said mixing pillows was easy?!  Haha!  It is . . . IF you have a natural knack for design!   

Thanks to these pillows, I am definitely happier with how things turned out.


BEFORE





AFTER 




And what is so nice with throw pillows is you can change them easily to go with season like Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. or just because you feel like changing it, haha!

For the coming Holidays, I just changed one pillow and we are now ready for Christmas!



Our new home is still a work in progress but we are slowly making this house our home. =)  

And it is definitely one of the things we are thankful for this year.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Must Try Recipe: Baked Honey Garlic Wings

I love chicken wings!  But I only love them when they are fried, haha!  

Oh and my favorite part of the wing is the Drumette!  It is that part which they use for chicken lollipops (another favorite food of mine).

I saw a pack of beautiful Chicken Drumettes (yes, I find beauty even in uncooked food, haha!) when we were doing the groceries so I got one and didn't really know what to do with it.  Actually, I have a favorite wings recipe (Restaurant Style Buffalo Wings) which I blogged before here.  It is my go-to recipe and the only Chicken Wings recipe I've ever tried, haha!  I think it's about time to explore other recipes.

Since we have a bottle of honey (which we rarely use) in the pantry, I want a sauce that has honey in it.  I remembered the sauces that BonChon (a Korean Fried Chicken place) has for their wings.  One has Garlic and another has Honey.  I thought Honey and Garlic together sounds like a good thing for these wings!  But instead of frying them, I want to try baking them . . . for a change.  Plus it's healthier!

There are a lot of recipes online so I just picked two recipes (from these blogs: Spend with Pennies and The Endless Meal) and got something from each of these recipes.  I'm more than happy to tell you that this recipe was a success!  It actually exceeded my expectations.  Haha!  

I looove the sauce!  And I love how the wings, though baked, tasted like they were fried!  Thanks to the 4 tbsp of melted butter that was used to coat them before putting them in the oven, haha!  (Did I mention the word "healthier" earlier?  Well, I think t's still healthier than deep frying them, right? Haha!)

I hope you try this recipe so you can enjoy this messy finger licking goodness!



Ingredients:

Part I
1 lb of chicken wings
Salt or Seasoned Salt
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Pepper

Part II
1/3 cup of All Purpose Flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Garlic powder
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 tsp Paprika
Pepper

4 tbsp of melted butter

Sauce:
1/3 cup of honey
1-2 tbsp of soy sauce
3 big cloves of garlic
1 tbsp of ginger
1/2 tbsp of olive oil or vegetable oil

*Feel free to adjust the measurement of the sauce to suit your taste =)


Directions:

1. For Part I, season the wings with (I just eyeballed the ingredients) salt, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper and let it sit on the ref for at least two hours.

2. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.

3. Pat dry the chicken pieces.  In a big bowl, combine everything in Part II (except the melted butter). Toss the chicken to coat well in the flour mixture.  (I put the chicken and the flour mixture together in a ziploc bag and just shake it).  Remove the excess flour from the chicken.  Then, coat the pieces with melted butter.

4.  Place your wings on a baking tray (line your baking tray with parchment paper or a silicone mat) and bake it for 40 mins (one side) and then turn them around and bake it for 15 minutes or until cooked.


5. Put all the ingredients for the sauce in a pan and boil it (in medium high heat) for 3-4 minutes until the sauce gets reduced to a thick consistency.  Drizzle over the chicken, toss and shake the pieces around . . . 




until each piece gets a taste of that yummy honey garlic sauce!



Dig in! =)


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