Tuesday, September 17, 2013

All moved in and some Fried Tacos too!!

I've had some crazy moving-days before in my life but this one will go down in history as the worse one every! For so, so many reasons, but thats an entire other blog post! 
I wanted to share some pictures of my new home, pretend you don't see the boxes and clutter.
I'm making progress, most the rooms are done or coming along. We downsized by over 50% of space, which I love, and we will be empty nesters in under a year now so we needed a smaller home.
 We've been here a couple of weeks now, my only regrets is that I didn't do this 6 years ago when we moved in our other home!! I can't tell you or express enough that the 3 of us living all on one level in under 2,000 square feet is glorious!! We could actually take away a few 100 feet off each side of the house and still be fine. Henry comes in our room more and since he's just down the hall, we cross paths all the time. He's not upstairs and us down, we are all together, which makes me a bit sad that the last 6 yrs we spent in a huge home all lost and not having the closeness we should have. That's my one big regret, so if you are a family thinking you need a big house with more space just remember that the space is nice but the distances from your kids... not so much! Just my two cents worth of info. 
Here is my front entryway!
It's so bright, with huge windows!
As you can see the pups love it too! They've never had an all glass
door before so its a whole new world for them! Especial Bella, because
she's so small she can't see out the windows so this is great for her!!

Our bedroom, I bought new bedding and floor rug from Target,
and I love the new colors! (again ignore the boxes)!!
This is a wood burning fireplace in our bedroom, which will be so cozy this winter! 
We've not had a fireplace in the bedroom before, makes me excited for winter now!
These next 2 pictures are taken from the front door when you
walk into our home. You walk into a living room,
and if you head straight, thru the little doorway you go into the kitchen.
If you turn right you have a hallway to the bedrooms and this
sweet little built-in china cabinet, that I love!
It holds my grandparents china perfectly! 
That's all the pictures I have have for now, more to come once I get
a bit more organized... one day soon hopefully!

As most of you know, I love to cook and if you follow me on Facebook you see all my
cooking creations, the good, the bad and the ugly! I've had a chance to "break-in" my new kitchen
and trying to getting use to no gas stove anymore, and it isn't as bad as I thought, actually not bad at all!  Now the less counter space is a bit more trying as well as no center island but its doable, we get spoiled in these huge kitchens. This house was built in 1947, with all the same character and charm from the 40's, that's what I fell in-love with, but with that comes no counter space. Then I remember that families were raised here and those women made it work, so lord knows I can too!  
Here are a couple of my favorites cooked just last week...
My Gmas's Fried Tacos!!
These are the best!! 
I try to pre-chop everything before I get started so that I don't run out 
of time when it comes to putting them all together! 

One tip my g-ma shared with me is not to by the leanest meat b/c a little fat in taco makes the 
flavor pop, so I buy about 80% lean. Also along with the taco seasoning, add one small can of tomato sauce to the meat and seasoning, yes, tomato sauce will rock a taco like you won't believe, makes it moist and juicy! 
I use to shred all my cheeses b/c I think it taste better and fresher if grated right before 
used on a taco, but if short on time I buy a bag of cheese... it is a lot easier!!
My secret sauce...
Its a local, VERY nontraditional mexican restaurant here in Springfield, but its 
also a local favorite, you'll hate it if you weren't raised on it! They have a sweet sauce that
 you poor over your tacos right before you eat them that is killer!! 
Sorry, you can only get it here in Springfield but you can order it on their website, I think! 
With homemade guacamole on top of the deep fried taco makes it
mouth watering!! I'll always think of my g-ma when making these!!
Well, you can't "break-in" a kitchen without homemade chocolate chip cookies, right!!

Hope you enjoyed todays post and that I didn't make you too hungry! 
Have a great day!!

7 comments:

Donna Spina Lebeduik said...

Beautiful house Nikki! Love the hardwood floors and colors!

Julie Tucker-Wolek said...

Loving your new home!!! Looks wonderful!! Sorry the moving experience was bad though :( And those tacos sound YUMMY!!!!!!

Jodi said...

Your new home looks awesome NIKKI!!! And tacos... are super yummy!!!!

Peggy Sue said...

love the bedding colors, makes the room pop! And, that built in china cabinet is awesome!! We have two floors with our bedroom being the whole top floor. Lil man is downstairs :( but at almost 7 yrs old I sitll have the monitor on so I can hear him! Many nights we have a sleep over since he seems so far away!!lol
congrats again on the move!!(ooh and now I am totally craving tacos!!)

Custom Scrapbook Stuff said...

I love your livingroom paint color!

Nikki said...

Thanks all! The move was a nightmare but all is good now! :)

Unknown said...

Your new house is so pretty!!
Love all the pictures and love your fried tacos!!
They look so yummy!!

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