Orange and Gray

I'm a huge fan of this color combo right now.

Via Design To Inspire

Green.

Via Design to Inspire

It's hard enough to make a small space feel big... I can't imagine using smaller scale furniture to fill a giant room. What a challenge! I love this shorter sofa table flanked with two decorative side chairs against the sofa. Combo'd with those mirrors, this room has the perfect balance of symmetry, style, and combination of textures/colors.

Via Design To Inspire

I heard a very interesting segment on DIY farming and building your own greenhouse on NPR yesterday... got me thinking...

Wouldn't it be amazing to have a green house like this? Reminds me on the one my grandma had at their house in Kauffman, TX. Except it functioned mainly as an outdoor dining space. Would this greenhouse be amazing with a giant farmhouse table and benches down the center?

Via Design To Inspire

Again.. love all the indoor green. One of my first investments when we buy a house will be large house plants. They just make the space feel like an open, airy veranda... even in the hot texas heat.

Modern Country

I just had to repost a few of these images from Philadelphia Home Magazine via Design*Sponge. The color combo is just perfect. I love everything from the (painted) exposed brick wall to the chocolate painted built-ins. This really is the perfect mix of clean lines and simplistic composition.. but still composed of antique and vintage-y feeling parts.

Crispy Potato Chip-Crusted Tilapia

Crispy Potato Chip-Crusted Tilapia

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 Cup Tomato, Chopped

1 Cup leeks, thinly sliced, well-washed

1/2 Cup Green Bell Peppers, chopped

1 T Minced Garlic

1 T. Olive Oil

4 Tilapia Filets

1/2 Cup bread crumbs

1/2 Cup grated parmesan

1/2 Cup Crushed Potato Chips (Original Lays work well)

1/2 tsp. smoked Paprika

1/2 tsp. Cayenne Pepper

2 T. Melted Butter

1 T. Sliced Green Onion

Lemon Wedges

Directions

Combine the tomatoes, leeks, bell peppers and garlic with a drizzle of olive oil. ingredients and spread on a lined baking sheet. Arrange the fish on top. Season with salt and pepper.

Combine the cayanne, paprika, potato chips, parm and bread crumbs. Toss with melted butter. Divide evenly over the fish. Bake in a 450-degree oven for 15-minutes. Sprinkle with scallions and serve with a lemon wedge.

Peach Cobbler

Common sense tells me I need to be taking advantage of these locally-grown summer beauties. I think I'll try to make a trip to the farmers market this weekend. Maybe make some yummy cobbler :)

Image Via Little Brown Pen

I pulled this recipe from Cuisine at Home years ago. It has lots of yummy flavors but is still very classic and rustic. Jeanette and I first made it in summer of 2006 right around fourth of July... It's just divine topped with Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream.

Peach Cobbler

Ingredients

Filling

8 cup Peaches

1 cup Sugar

2 T Cornstarch

1 t. Lemon Juice

Pinch of Salt

Crust

1 Cup flour

3/4 Sugar

1/2 Cup sweetened coconut

1/2 Cup Pecans, chopped coarsely

1/2 t. Baking powder

1/4 t. Salt

1/2 Cup (One Stick) butter, cold, cubed

1 Egg, beaten

Directions

Toss the peaches together with all the ingredients in the filling: sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and a pinch of salt.

For the topping, combine the flour, sugar, coconut, pecans, baking powder, salt and butter and moosh together with a pastry cutter or with two knives. Mixture will begin to look like peas and sand (similar to making an apple pie crust)

Next add one beaten egg-- mix until it's well incorporated.

Add the peaches to a 2qt baking dish then top with blobs of the topping mixture. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until top is golden brown and peaches are bubbly. (I find it best to place the baking dish on a cookie sheet to catch fruity sugary bubbly overflow.) Let the cobble cool for about an hour allowing the filling to thicken and the temperature to come down from it's lethally hot level.

Top with, my favorite, Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream if desired. Or Homemade whipped cream -- always a solid choice.