Ryan Foster 3/25/15 Ryan Foster 3/25/15

It's Spring. Curb Appeal Matters Again!

When I first started my home search, one of the top three selling points on my list was curb appeal. Does the house look like every other one of the block? Does the front yard have landscaping potential? When you park in front of the house, do you get a good vibe? I nearly drove my very patient realtor insane. Thank goodness he has daughters my age. I’m sure it helped. As our search wore on however, curb appeal crept lower and lower down my list. It was hard enough to find listings in my desired area, in the price range, with enough space and so on and so forth. How could we possibly be bothered with curb appeal?!

So in the end I settled on my lovely 1920’s colonial that sits on a block surrounded by other nearly identical houses. Go figure. Two windows on the front, or one big one. Walkway on the left or walkway on the right. Brown shutters or darker brown shutters. Boring, boring, boring. So in an effort to make my house stand out from all the rest, I’m on a mission to increase my curb appeal in the easiest, most cost effective ways. The snow has finally melted, time to get it popping!

Pasta Sauce 101

I first started cooking in undergrad, with a self-mandated, weekly grocery budget of forty dollars. Yup. Forty whole dollars. And like any other college student, my staple meal was what else? Spaghetti. Spaghetti made with jars upon jars of processed pasta sauce. Looking back on my years of spaghetti consumption, I realize that it didn’t have to be that way.

Homemade sauce is not only easy and customizable, but also much better for us than the canned stuff. A handful of simple ingredients always trumps stumbling over scary, unrecognizable ones on the back of a Preggo can. Although I can't deny that until pretty recently, I have enjoyed those cans of Preggo. No shade. But we grow!

The Drama of Hardwood Floors

When I first bought my house it came with some interesting cosmetic finishes. Granted, the house was built in the early 1900's, so it’s pretty old. But to me, early 1900's reads as historic charm and a classic colonial vibe. But nope. The previous owners made a ton of questionable updates, from yellow and black bathroom tile, to a faux stone surround on the otherwise beautiful, working fireplace, to an awkward tile patterned linoleum kitchen floor. I was appalled. But of course, my inner home stylist saw the home’s potential.

One of the most overwhelming elements of the home was the original wood flooring throughout the majority of the first level. I was amazed that the original floors were in such good condition- but in my opinion, their honey blonde color was unlivable.

Perfect Roast Chicken

Perfecting one essential recipe was arguably my tipping point between “girl who cooks” and domestic goddess. And it’s arguably one of the easiest recipes to master, so we can all be goddesses at our own houses! A cute little roasted chicken is not only delicious, but also insanely simple to make, and makes a really impressive centerpiece. Until you carve it, of course.

After several trials, (and more than several errors), I've come to two fail proof conclusions. All that’s really important when roasting the perfect chicken is hardware and oven temperature. A shallow roasting pan and an oven heated to a dazzling 425 degrees always renders the perfect result to me.