Home design - Living room

We bought our current house in Spring 2009. It's the first time we own a house here in the states. Since we have bought it I'm trying to add my own character to every space in it.

Starting from today I will be sharing with you some of the things I have done to my house. I still have a lot to do, so it's gonna be a good chance to also show you some of the new designs I'm making.

The first thing we did when we moved in was repainting. I started with the living room and the kitchen. I then finished the whole first level. I'm still working on the second level; I have the baby's room and my bedroom left.

The wall in this picture is the TV wall in the living room. I recently bought those two shelves from Lowes and put some old pictures for the girls on them. As you see the room color is green (like pistachios color). I tried to add some colorful accents like those orange and red vases to give that warm feeling.

Now tell me how do you like this part in my living room. I will be posting more pictures for my home designs soon, so stay tuned :) I will love to hear your opinions!

Getting a cold and "flowers" in hot summer!!!!

I'm not feeling well today! I'm having a cold. I find it weird because it's extremely hot these days. But I guess the air conditioner is behind my sickness. It's hard to have a cold in summer, and it's even harder when you're pregnant. I only can take Tylenol, nothing else to help me feel better.

Yesterday I was not feeling well too, so my husband took the girls to the swimming class. On the way back home my older daughter asked her dad to get me flowers. It was so nice. It seems like kids are copying everything you do, even those small things you're not paying attention to. She used to see her dad getting me flowers in different occasions and now she wanted to do the same. I was proud of her.

When you have great husband and kids what else could you ask for?

I'm not fat... I'm growing a baby!!!

When you are pregnant, it can be sometimes depressing to watch your weight go up, up, and up!! I've gained 20 pounds so far and I still have 17 weeks to go which makes me wonder how much more weight I will put on by the time I deliver my baby! I know dieting is never an option when you are expecting and so instead I'm trying to eat healthy as I can because it's really hard sometimes with all those food cravings.

I'm using an application to track my pregnancy week by week on my iPhone. It's called: What to expect. It's really cool, and I really love it. It gives really good information about what to expect when you're expecting. I was checking it yesterday when I read this about the worries I should have now about the weight gain. It asked me to repeat this sentence which I just wanted to repeat all the time: "I'm not fat, I'm growing a baby".
I'm not fat, I'm growing a baby :)

17 weeks to go...

I'm back! I know it has been a while since my last post, and I guess I just didn't feel like blogging. I even started writing this post few days ago and I never finished it!! I'm even not posting new recipes, I know!! But this summer I'm not in the mood for cooking or baking! Maybe the last dessert I made was the apple tart! But I will try to come back with some good recipes for summer soon, inshallah.

By the way, I'm pregnant! Yes, I'm 23 weeks pregnant. May be this is why I'm not that productive these days. I'm sleepy all the time. I barely can work on my research or at home. I'm excited though, we are all excited especially the girls. They can't wait to have the baby :)

Regardless of all the side effects of pregnancy, I love being pregnant and try always to enjoy every minute. I try to ignore all the weight I'm gaining, all the acne I'm having around, and every unexpected unwanted symptom I'm experiencing now and just enjoy the little precious baby inside who is playing soccer all the time :)

I guess that's it for now. I hope it will not be too long before I come back.

Take care!

Apple tart

Today I'm posting a recipe for the apple tart I baked last Saturday. I wanted to post this recipe few days ago but I was just not in the mood. I have been feeling up and down recently! Mood swing is not fun at all.

Back to the tart, it was really yummy! The sweet pastry crust gives the crust a rich cookie like flavor. You can by the way use this crust to make any fruit dessert.

For the pastry crust:

3 cups purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter

2 large egg, lightly beaten

For the apple filling:

5 big apples

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Powder Sugar for browning the top of the tart.

Directions:

The pastry crust:

Note: I usually do this part one day before and refrigerate the pre-baked tart in the fridge.

• Mix flour and salt and set aside.
  
• Beat the butter with your mixer until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
  
• Gradually add the beaten egg, and beat until incorporated.
  
• Add the flour mixture all at once and mix just until it forms a dough (you can use your hands to form it).
• Cover the dough with plastic wrap
  
  , and refrigerate for 20 minutes or until firm.
• On a floured surface, roll out the sweet pastry to the tart pan size (12 in).
• Lay in pan, lightly press pastry into bottom and up sides of pan.
  
• Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes to chill the butter and to rest.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Line unbaked pastry shell with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Fill tart pan with beans, making sure the beans are distributed over the entire surface.
  
• Bake crust for 20 to 25 minutes until crust is dry and lightly golden brown.
  
• Remove beans and cool crust before filling.

The apple filling:

• Peel, core, and slice the apples.
• In a large skillet melt the butter and stir in the sugar, and the cinnamon.
  
• Add the apples and saute over moderate heat, stirring occasionally until the apples are soft.
  
• Gently mash the apples with the spoon and stir the mixture until most of the liquid has evaporated. Remove from heat and let cool.
• Spoon the applesauce mixture into the cooled pre-baked tart shell.
  
• Cover the edges of tart with foil and bake it a preheated 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes or until the apples are nicely browned and soft.
  
• Remove from oven and sprinkle the tart with confectioners' sugar, and broil it under a preheated broiler until the edges of the apples are golden brown and crisp.
  
• Serve the tart warm or at room temperature with softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Hummus War!!!

I was watching tv when this came up:

"Lebanese score in hummus war with Israel. Lebanese chefs prepared a massive plate of hummus weighing over two tons Saturday that broke a world record organizers said was previously held by Israel — a bid to reaffirm proprietorship over the popular Middle Eastern dip. Lebanese businessmen accuse Israel of stealing a host of traditional Middle Eastern dishes, particularly hummus, and marketing them worldwide as Israeli."

Honestly, I thought this the silliest thing ever. I was wondering if this is the only thing that Israel has stolen from Arabs. Maybe this is the only war we can win!! I find this ridiculous. It would have been better to cook all that food, which will most likely go to waste before being eaten, and give it to needy and poor people in Arab countries!!

Coffee cake

I baked this cake last Saturday. We had some friends over and since my Saturdays are always crazy busy, I wanted to bake something that is easy and fast. And so this cake came to my mind. I always order it whenever we're at a coffee shop. I find it irresistible :) Later in this post, you will find the recipe I used for my coffee cake. I hope you try it and enjoy as much as we did!

It's Monday, typical Monday! Woke up early, fixed breakfast, packed lunch, and then said goodbye to Sinan and Lina. I then fixed my morning Nescafe, checked my email, Facebook, blog list, and news before updating my to-do-list for today.

Every Monday, I have the cleaner over. I finally found a good cleaner. I'm so happy because having a big house is not always a plus especially when there is no one to help you cleaning it. I'm one of those nut people who like to see the house clean and neat all the times, but with this big house and all the responsibilities I have, I really needed a cleaner to keep up with this.

It's raining today. I believe it was raining when I last posted too. It's Spring, and Spring is the most rainy season here. I have no problem with the rain as long as it's warm. And it's warm, actually it was really hot yesterday. In such hot days I thank Allah all the time for having a central AC at home, I can't survive without it!

Now check the recipe below. Thank you all for reading :)

Coffee Cake Topping:

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (I used Hershey's kisses)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

Coffee Cake:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup heavy cream or milk

Coffee Cake Topping:

In a small bowl stir together the sugar, chopped nuts, chocolate chips, ground cinnamon and flour. Set aside.

Coffee Cake:

Butter and flour (or spray with a non stick vegetable/flour spray) a 9-inch round pan.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a bowl, beat the butter using electric mixer (or a hand mixer) until softened. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and keep beating, and then add the heavy cream. Mix until combined.

Spoon half of the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula. Sprinkle about half of the nut topping on top of the batter. Cover with the remaining batter and then sprinkle with the remaining nut topping.

Bake for about 40 - 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let rest for about 10 minutes before releasing of the pan.

Serve warm or at room temperature.