Crock Pot Roast Beef with a Kick

Keeping to my promise of 2013, I made another new meal that I've never made before. It was pretty simple but it was SO good and the best part is that it lasted us several days and there was virtually no mess. I found this Crock Pot recipe on Pinterest for Balsamic Roast Beef. It looked tasty and hearty and with the exception of the beef and red pepper flakes, I had everything else on hand.

I absolutely LOVE my Crock Pot and use it quite often. It's the best to be able to just throw everything in there in the morning and let it work it's magic throughout the day. Plus, your house starts to smell incredible by mid-afternoon. This particular recipe did not disappoint and it was crazy easy.

For the marinade, you'll need garlic, red pepper flakes, beef broth, honey, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.

One of my most favorite inventions. The people at Reynolds have my heart. For a girl who loves to cook but hates doing dishes, it's Reynolds to the rescue! I already raved about my love for their non-stick foil in my pork chop post. These slow cooker liners are genius! Love, love love.

Next, just mix all ingredients together, pour over meat, cover and let it cook, while you can go about your day, happily thinking that the only dishes you'll have to do for dinner consist of putting a mixing cup and plates into the dishwasher. 

After about 6-7 hours, you'll open the Crock Pot lid to reveal this bad boy. Shred it up with a fork, serve it over some rice or egg noodles (or whatever you fancy, don't let me tell you what to do), and you've got yourself one mouth-watering dinner that should last you a few days. 

The recipe says to use chuck or round roast, but I used a top blade pot roast and it was delish! I cooked mine for about 6 1/2 hours and got a nice, tender, medium roast. Make sure to save the juice from the Crock Pot in a container so you can use it to keep the meat moist when you re-heat it. 

Project A.D.D.

Happy Sunday, friends. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I had a sick husband and it was rainy, so we took it easy. Fortunately, the rain is gone and Penny has a play date today with another friend's dog, so the poor girl can finally get some energy out. I have a few projects to work on today. My friend's baby shower is down in Tampa next weekend and I was asked to do the decorations for them. Her and her husband got married in Vegas, so the baby shower is Vegas-themed. I must say, coming up with Vegas-themed decorations that were still baby-friendly was quite the challenge however, there's nothing like a good challenge to get the creative juices flowing! I'm actually loving what I came up with. Good thing Mike has a unnecessary amount of poker cards and chips. Combine those with diapers, baby socks and a good sprinkling of blue and silver glitter and voila! Vegas, baby style. I'll post pics next week. Since the shower is Saturday, I don't want to post them until the mom-to-be has seen them :) I started working on them this past week, so I just have a few smaller things to do.

Speaking of baby shower decorations, this will be my third shower I'm creating the decorations for. Last year, I worked on everything for my friend April's shower and for my sister-in-law, Michelle. Obviously, I have fun working on these things so I decided to start selling custom orders on Etsy. So far, I only posted the owl centerpieces that I made for Michelle's shower and 2 days later, I had my first custom order! Figured I might as well try to make some extra money doing something fun. The link to my item is here. I'll be posting more soon, but wanted to start off with one thing and see how it worked out.

I actually have a lineup of projects that I want to work on. In our new place, I actually have space - an entire cabinet, to be exact - to store all my craft items. Previously, I kept everything together in plastic bins in the closet or under the bed. I didn't realize how much stuff I actually had when I was unloading everything... I need to pace myself, though. I seriously feel like I get project A.D.D since there are so many things I want to do at once! The other day, I had to drop some stuff off at our local Goodwill, so I stepped inside to take a peek around. I absolutely love our Goodwill here. A friend tipped me off that this was a really good one, and she was right. It's just under a year old and has some really great steals. I've been to some thrift stores before that seem like giant warehouses storing piles of crap. Not this one, my friends. I was lingering in the book section for about 45 minutes when I came across a few vintage finds. I was suddenly inspired to take on several projects...

I found an old, French cookbook from the 60s which I'm incorporating into decorations into my kitchen. The other thing is a paperback "how-to" book from 1952. I thought it was funny and being that Mike is a general contractor, I thought of a project I can do with the pages of this book and hang it in the den over his drafting table.

I also came across these old Reader's Digest books. They're all first edition and though they're not in 100% shape, I still think it gives it a cool, rustic look. I put these on our mantle as decoration and I love the way they look. The best part about all these books is that they were a STEAL! The paperback was $1.50 and the hardcovers were $2.50 each.

This last project is something that I may have to make my priority for princess. We have 2 of these floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room by the front door, and Penny has selected this one as her spot. She likes to sit here and stare out the window. She has a dog bed that we keep up in the bedroom and she needs a little bed for the window so she can keep an eye on the neighborhood for us. I want something that's not going to slide all over the floor like a regular dog bed, plus I want it to look more like a piece of furniture and be attractive since it is in the living room. 

Other than that, I also want to paint our bookshelf in the den. It's light wood but everything we have is dark wood. I'm thinking of painting it black so the books will stand out more. I also want to paint my jewelry box. It's a boring, old box that I've had for years. I'm thinking of painting it a bright color so it pops on the dark wood dresser.

As I promised in my New Year's resolution post, I'll be posting these projects on here so you can check them out. In the meantime, I'm off to run some errands before taking my hyper psycho to the park. Have a fabulous week! 

Stout-Glazed Pork Chops

New Year's resolution #1 - check! I made something new last night and damn, was it good! I actually made this one up so I'm quite proud of it. I had some pork chops on hand, along with a fridge full of really good beer that we've accumulated over the last month. Neither of us are big stout drinkers however, I thought it would add a nice richness and act as a perfect glaze for pork chops. So, I winged it and used what I had on hand and it was delish! Mike loved it and made me write it down to make again. I made the recipe for two however, I doubled what I used so here is the recipe based on 4 servings. Enjoy!

Stout-Glazed Pork Chops

- 4 boneless pork chops, about 1 inch thick

- 8 to 10 ounces of stout beer (I used Magic Hat Heart of Darkness)

- 1 1/2 Tablespoons of brown sugar

- 1 small sweet onion, sliced

- 2 Tablespoons of olive oil

- 1 Tablespoon of unsalted butter

- Salt and pepper to taste

- Garlic powder, paprika and thyme, to taste

Heat olive oil and butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat.

Season chops with salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika and thyme.

Add to skillet and brown on both sides - about 3 minutes per side.

Remove from heat and transfer to a plate. Add onions to the pan and saute for about 3-4 minutes, until lightly browned and softened.

Remove onions and transfer to the same plate as the chops. Cover with foil to keep warm. 

Add beer to the pan (don't be scared if it steams up! It's supposed to do that.).

Whisk in brown sugar and let the mixture thicken up for 4-5 minutes, stirring several times to scrape up all the yummy bits on the bottom of the pan.

Add chops and onions back into the pan. Cover and cook in the beer sauce for 3-4 minutes per side, turning once. 

While waiting, drink rest of beer. Don't let it go to waste!

Remove chops and serve immediately. Top with onions and beer sauce from the pan.

I made a simple roasted veggie dish to go along with this. Something just seems so comforting about pork chops along with hearty potatoes and carrots. It's really easy - I just chop up carrots, onions and potatoes (sometimes I use red but Kroger had a killer sale on Russett potatoes and they were great!). Toss with some extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, pepper, paprika, thyme, rosemary and chopped garlic. Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 35-40 minutes. Simple and easy. Even better (since I hate doing dishes), I toss them all together in a large Ziploc bag and use Reynold's Non-Stick foil to line the baking sheet (a genius idea by Reynolds. NOTHING sticks to that baking sheet.). 

Enjoy! Let me know if you make this and how it turns out! 

New Year's Resolutions

Happy 2013! A few days late, but better late than never, right? We've been moving everything out from our Tampa house and back up to our new place in Atlanta for the last few days. It was a LOT of work, but we did it and we're settling in nicely here.

By the way, notice anything different? New look for a new year!

2012 was a crazy year for us. Lots of ups and downs, but it also gave me a chance to think about how I can change things for 2013. I decided that this year, I'm going to focus on ME. I know that sounds selfish, but that's not at all what I mean. 13 has always been my lucky number. I was born on October 13, so I guess it just always stuck with me, so 2013 can't fail me! I look back on 2012 and realize that I made some promises to myself that I never kept. Nothing major, but still. I spent so much time focusing on other things and didn't really focus on things that made myself happy. I've always had the bad habit of not being able to say "no" to people and sometimes, I end up getting overwhelmed and forgetting about myself and my life. A friend of mine posted on facebook that her big resolution is that it's OK to say "no" when she truly can't take everything on and it gets to the point where she's getting to stressed. I totally agree. I've also had a habit of always giving in to others' opinions when they say "You should do this...you should do that," instead of doing what I really want, I listen to others. Of course, I'm always welcome to opinions and suggestions and sometimes, they might make more sense than my original decision. However, this time I'm going to think it through and decide what's best for me instead of just jumping in and saying "OK."

I also want to make resolutions that seem realistic. In the past, I've done things like "travel to a new country" and "learn a foreign language." Of course, those are definitely attainable, but not always easy when life gets in the way. So, here are my resolutions for 2013 (in no particular order):

1. Make at least 1-2 new meals a week. Something I haven't made before. I love to cook and I have several cookbooks that I've barely put a dent in. I also have nice, big counter space in my new kitchen - something I was highly lacking in our old place and also in our house in Tampa (which was Mike, the non-cook's bachelor pad before I moved in), along with easy access to most of my favorite kitchen appliances that used to get stuck in the back of the cabinets for the sake of space.

2. Spend more times working on craft projects. I absolutely love to do anything creative. Growing up, I was never the athletic or scientific girl - I was artsy. I think that's where my love of cooking and baking comes in too since I'm technically creating something when I cook. When I was younger and wasn't able to sleep at night, I would get up and paint and it would relax me. I've done a few projects for the house and I'm insanely obsessed with Pinterest (follow me here!). I have some really cool ideas that I want to work on. Plus, I feel a big sense of pride when I see an accomplished product displayed in my house. Not to mention, it makes me happy and washes the stress away.

3. Focus more on photography. I know this was my goal for last year and I started off strong, but as other things got in the way, I let this fall behind. I'm not going to make any goals of taking one new picture a day (though, I'd love that but again, I need to be realistic), but I'm definitely going to be giving my camera some more use.

4. Increase my knowledge in Adobe programs. In my last job in Tampa, I had a little exposure to programs such as Adobe InDesign, Dreamweaver and Illustrator and I already had a slight knowledge of Photoshop. I bought a Google Offer not too long ago that gives me year-long access to online courses and training for all these programs. I'm actually pretty excited to start working on these.

5. Take on a new venture. Nothing huge, but something I've been thinking a lot about. But, more on this to come later... :)

So there you have it. I have a few smaller promises that I made to myself, but these are the ones I'm focusing on for now. I think they're reasonable, right? And to stick with this, I'll document my projects on here so you can see what I'm up to and see how things are coming along. And who knows - maybe I'll take up French along the way ;)

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

We're 5 days away from Christmas and 12 days away from the start of a brand new year. 2012 has been interesting. We made a big decision to uproot our lives from Tampa and move to Atlanta, my sister graduated from the University of Florida, we celebrated our one year wedding anniversary, two very near and dear friends of mine had babies and Mike and I became an aunt and uncle to our beautiful little nephew, Tyler. We took some fun vacations and met some new friends here in our new city. Though there were many good times, there were also some tough ones. However, we survived and it can only go up from here! We will be celebrating Christmas with family and friends starting tomorrow and are looking forward to seeing everyone and enjoying some time off. We also moved in to a new townhouse this weekend, which we really like. We'll be starting 2013 off with a fresh start and will hopefully have some exciting things to report ahead!

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful new year! Penny would like to send her holiday wishes as well and asked me to attach this pic. See you all in 2013!

Meet Tyler!

Introducing Tyler Dean Robinson. He was born on December 1st to Mike's sister, Michelle, and her husband, Mike (yes, lots of Mikes!). He's so adorable! We just love this little guy to pieces :)

A very proud Uncle Mike.

And a very happy Aunt Brie.

Check out that kid's hair!

Sleepy head!

Crackin' a smile:)

The many faces of Tyler:

                     Curious...                                         Happy!                                       Tough Guy!

Taking in all the Fall colors while I can!

Exciting news in the Gorecki family...we have a new nephew! Tyler Dean Robinson was born on 12-1-12. We got a call from Mike's sister, Michelle, at 4:30 a.m. and so we packed up and made our way down to Tampa for a few days. He's so absolutely adorable and we just can't get enough of him! I have some pictures that I'm putting together that I'll post soon. He's already such a little ham for the camera. I just love him :)

In the meantime, here are the other half of my pics from Stone Mountain Park on Thanksgiving. I'm going to miss these gorgeous red, orange and yellow leaves everywhere! I can't believe it's December and I might have to actually brace myself for snow in another month...

Always posing for the camera.

Goofballs :)

Where's Penny?

I love this one! The leaves almost looked fluorescent. I thought the purple, green and orange were so cool.