April 16, 2012

Thai Beef Salad with Herbs

When you’re deep in an organizing project and you look around the room you just destroyed, it’s best to just STOP. Before you get thoroughly overwhelmed, take a breather and make something good to eat. Don’t examine your stuff!

Just LEAVE.

The act of taking a break and chopping up vegetables, grilling steak outdoors and composing a bunch of colors on a plate will not only give you a nice break from the chaos in the other room, it will give you fuel to power through.

Don’t think of the pile of papers you need to shred. Don’t agonize over how much stuff you’ve accumulated in the past few years. Just eat this delicious salad. It’s spicy, hearty and kinda light!

We spent so much of this weekend going through our unwanted items. Lucky for us, this bright/colorful salad was the light at the end of the tunnel.

Now excuse me while I get back to work sorting all the stuff I need to shred.

my everyday life, Photography

April 14, 2012

My Everyday Life: Week 15

Here’s what this past week looked like:

We had thunder & lightning this week…and some amazing clouds to prove it.

Uncategorized

April 13, 2012

I love lists, Friday!

This series…My Better Half…is so AMAZING.
I love EVERYTHING about this table.
The Road to Healthy Glowing Skin!
I could eat all of these cupcakes. No joke.
Almond Mini Donuts with Cherry Glaze. I’m in lurve.
Joy is a genius with Ten (Super Rad) Blog Post Ideas
This might be my go-to cocktail this summer.
Six Rules for Dining Out. This is super helpful.
To say I’m in love with this look is…an UNDERSTATEMENT.
Joanna nails it with her Table Manners post. Cute illustrations too!
It’s totally rhubarb season. I’ve got my eye on this Rhubarb Raspberry Crostata.
Sounds like my East Coast side of the family 🙂
Have we discussed Nerdy Boyfriend yet?
I could never be a news anchor. I would not be able to keep from laughing.

This week on the Joy the Baker podcast, we go over your 5 fave things homework, answer questions AND give you homework for this week like It’s Nobody’s Blazeness!

Aaaaaaaand I think I might be done with my kitchen organizing project. Just a few more things to go. Here’s this week’s installment!

(that image up there is from my Instagram stream! You can follow me @tracyshutterbean. That temporary tattoo is from tattly. Casey totally thought it was real for a minute. HA!)

recipes, Uncategorized

April 12, 2012

Dry Roasted Edamame w/ Cranberries

I’m a huge snacker. My most favorite snacks are carb based. I’m sure you would have guessed as much. I simply cannot pass up a good cracker situation. It’s even better if there’s cheese up on those crackers. While I’m eating cheese & crackers I almost ALWAYS imagine there being a diet where all you eat is cheese & crackers. Can you imagine? I can. It would be fantastic.

But in real life…snacking can get you in trouble if you’re not careful. What you’re supposed to do is snack to tie you over until you have a legitimate meal. Stay on top of your hunger or else you find yourself like me…almost eating 2 dinners because you didn’t arm yourself at 3pm with something that contains protein & crunch. That’s where these Dry Roasted Edamame & Cranberries enter the picture. When it’s 3pm and you’re craving something salty & sweet, these will do the trick. The edamame are salty and crunchy and the tangy/ tart/sweet cranberries balance things out in a trailmix kinda way. Is it wrong to eat the whole batch? I dunno. I did it and I survived….until dinner.

Uncategorized

April 11, 2012

New Site Design & GIVEAWAY!

Welcome to the new Shutterbean site design!

I did a little Spring cleaning around here with the help of my SPECTACULAR designer/friend Christine Castro-Hughes of Darling Studio Thank you, Christine!

So what’s new around here? A LOT!

There’s a new index! It’s on the right. I’ve settled on some fun categories for your browsing pleasure. Check out my RECIPES section. It’s all shiny & new!

For all of you who wanted to subscribe to Shutterbean by email, you can do so at the bottom right. Just add your email address. YAY!

So with the launch of this new design, I’d like to do a GIVEAWAY!

Since I’m always posting juice recipes, I’d love for YOU to get your juice on! I’m giving away one Omega BMJ330 Juicer & a copy of The Big Book of Juices to get you started.

What do you need to do?

Leave a comment below!

You can enter TWO more times if you:

1. Follow Shutterbean on Facebook!

2. Follow Shutterbean on Twitter!

Just leave a comment telling me that you did so.

A winner will be chosen at random a week from today, Wednesday April 18th.

Good luck and ENJOY the fresh design!

recipes, Uncategorized

April 9, 2012

Black & White Angel Food Cake

When I was a kid I always wanted to help my mom make cakes in the kitchen. She’d give me what I thought were useless jobs like measuring out the flour (I actually like doing that now) and cleaning up the dirty bowls in the sink. Although these are important tasks to complete, I always thought I got the short end of the stick. I wanted MORE. I wanted to crack the eggs, measure out the vanilla, use the beaters and eat off ALL the frosting that smothered them. I desperately wanted to take the cake out of the oven and frost it myself without any adult supervision. I know now that my mom was teaching me valuable lessons of baking all while secretly preventing a major mess in the kitchen (she was tapped into my klutzy nature from an early age).

I still make a mess in the kitchen…

We spent this Easter weekend at my parent’s house and while it was nice to get out of our routine and enjoy a slower pace of life, what I enjoyed most was making this cake by myself in my mom’s kitchen. That’s right. My mom gave me the responsibility of making this Black & White Angel Food Cake she picked out for dessert on Easter Sunday.

Melting the chocolate, sifting the flour and beating the egg whites in the same bowl I remember using as a kid was almost as good as eating the cake itself. That’s right! No supervision needed. I’m a grownup (ahhhhh!).

A fluffy puffy light chocolate cake smothered with a decadent ganache? Uh huh! I’m so glad my mom picked this cake out and had me make it because I most likely wouldn’t have tried it on my own. And man, would I have missed out.