Adventures at Habitat for Humanity

Mom and I went to our local Habitat for Humanity store and found some great furniture. If you don't mind sifting through some rather.. interesting stuff and you love a good project then Habitat may be just what you are looking for. Mom talked them down in price on a few items. She said to always check the price tag because it has the date; if an item has been out for a while, it is usually easier to get a better price. Check out some of our purchases!

Super cute chair for a little girl, $10

needs cleaning and spray paint, but is sturdy and has new fabric

Small bench, $15

Cushion needs to be redone, wood is in good condition and well built

Really long and low wooden bench, $15

Great shape, well made - Mom bought it before it had been tagged 

Two chairs, $20 each

Mom plans on painting the wood and recovering the cushions

Wooden magazine and book holder, $10

Good condition, Mom will probably repaint

1950s plant holder, $10

I bought this for something other than plants (maybe candles?) - it was just too cool to pass up! I will definitely be repainting it. It is put together with wooden screws and comes entirely apart.

My new dresser(?), $60

It is 6 ft long and a ton of fun. The veneer is cracked off, as you can see in the pictures below, so Mom talked them down from $75. I may put it in my future family room, or maybe the dining room as a sideboard. Of course, the first step is to acquire those rooms. 

Three drawers are behind the rolling slide piece on the left

The missing veneer can be repaired. I did not notice the missing veneer immediately, but if I do decide to have it repaired I know a man who can get a piece of veneer, stain it to match, and then place it on the furniture surface. I will keep you updated on my decision! Have you found anything cool at Habitat or someplace similar?

J's Pizza

While I do most of the cooking, J is pretty good about stepping up when I am clearly bored with the task. His go to dish is homemade pizza and it is absolutely delicious. Over the years, I have made some alterations to his original recipe to make it healthier but he is still leader of the pizza parade. Sometimes we get a bit elaborate and use the left over dough and tomato puree to make bread sticks with a marinara dipping sauce. Looking at everything that I have typed, it may seem like this is a lot of work but I promise it really is not. Most of the time will be you waiting while your delicious meal cooks in the oven.

Pizza Dough Ingredients (makes enough for 14.5" pizza stone and approx. 10 bread sticks):
1 cup water
2 Tbs olive oil
2/3 cup milk
2 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
4 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp yeast
Cornmeal

Pizza Dough Recipe:
1. Add ingredients (water through yeast) in the order listed into a bread machine and use dough function
2. Scatter cornmeal on your stone or cookie sheet to keep the pizza from sticking
3. When bread machine is done, take about 2/3 of the dough and spread it on your stone or cookie sheet
4. Reserve the rest of the dough for bread sticks




Pizza Ingredients (feel free to add your own toppings!):
1/2 28 oz can of tomato sauce or puree (I use Cento Tomato Puree because the only ingredient is ripe tomatoes)
Spices: salt, pepper, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, dried basil, dried oregano
Grated mozzarella cheese
1 diced green bell pepper
1 diced yellow onion
Pepperoni (optional, can also use cooked/crumbled/drained italian sausage)
Banana peppers (optional, J says canned mushrooms are great but I say ew)

I love my french canisters - bridal shower gift, courtesy of Melinda 

Pizza Instructions:
1. Pour tomato puree into a mixing bowl and add the spices to your liking
2. Cover prepared pizza dough with sauce, leaving about half an inch or so for the crust

3. Bake at 350 until the dough is cooked but not yet brown
4. Remove pizza from oven and be careful not to burn yourself (experience)
5. Add cheese, to your liking, and then pepperoni
6. Layer the vegetable toppings
7. Put pizza back in oven for another 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted, vegetables are crisping and the crust is a bit brown

And now for your side dish of homemade bread sticks and marinara dipping sauce 

Bread Sticks Ingredients:
1/3 of dough
Cornmeal
2 Tbs butter
Garlic Powder

Bread Sticks Recipe:
1. Spread cornmeal on your stone or cookie sheet
2. Spread out remaining dough on top of the cornmeal in a rectangular/oval shape
3. Scatter cornmeal on top of dough
4. Add little pats of butter across the dough so it will melt while cooking
5. Add garlic powder on top of the dough, to taste (we use a lot because we love garlic)
6. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown

Marinara Dipping Sauce Ingredients:
1/2 28 oz can of tomato puree (or whatever you have left over from your pizza)
Splash of red wine (optional)
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 Tbs olive oil
Crushed red pepper
Spices: black pepper, dried basil, dried oregano

Marinara Dipping Sauce Instructions:
1. Heat olive oil in a pan
2. Add garlic and cook until soft
3. Add crushed red pepper, to taste, cook for about 1 minute
4. Add tomato puree and wine, cook for 5-10 minutes (can vary time based on schedule)
5. Add spices and cook for 3 minutes


Congratulations! You made it through the forever long monologue of pizza with the Rosmarins! If you are in need of a pizza stone, you should definitely check out the Emile Henry Pizza Stone. It is dishwasher safe, you don't have to preheat the stone, and it can be used in both the oven and on the grill! The black version was given to me as a wedding gift and I love it. I love it so much, I told Melinda she needed one. She found hers at the Williams Sonoma outlet, but if you are not as fortunate to live as close to an outlet as she does you should definitely order it from Amazon for the free two day shipping (Amazon Prime!). Also, the final pizza picture is not the same pizza you see in the other pictures; we had an incident. Somehow J flipped the stone with the dough and sauce vertically onto the oven door. We decided to make our bread sticks while waiting on a new batch of dough so we could try again.

And Briana Has Moved Again

In the last life update, I had moved to Vegas and had one place setting of china in the apartment. Things have definitely changed, however. J and I have moved back to my hometown in Florida. J has started a company with a friend from MIT and has another project with my father. I have also recently became involved in a startup and I am so excited about it. More info to come :)

We are loving living less than 3 minutes from my two older sisters and my parents. My brother only lives about 12 minutes away. One of my sisters had a baby back in March, so you can imagine how much fun I am having. J has turned out to be quite the baby hog, which is pretty impressive considering that my family is already full of baby hogs.

J and Jillian Paige

We moved just in time to catch Melinda on her Florida vacation! Melinda and I had not seen each other since my wedding and we were definitely in need of some cousin time. She helped me pick out a rug for the front door (Florida sand is an ever present annoyance) and a pretty trashcan for the bathroom. Actually, she picked both out with very little help from me AND the trashcan was priced at a huge discount! Apparently, I do not look through the shelves as thoroughly as I should because I had not even seen it when I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond the previous week. I was actually so frustrated during that trip that I decided I would not buy anything until Melinda came to visit. She is such a great cousin :)

Melinda and Jillian

J loves working for himself and I love being in my favorite state. We are quite happy with the huge change. We are currently living in one of the cute apartments my parents own. While it is much smaller than our previous place in Vegas, I am making it work (we have a storage unit). While I don't love sleeping right next to a mobile garment rack full of my dresses, I do appreciate that I can vacuum the entire place with only one outlet - it is great not having to move the vacuum plug around! Small victories, right? I am looking forward to blogging about the apartment, and hopefully there is a house hunt in our future.

 

Now that the wedding and moving/packing/unpacking for two cross country moves chaos is over, I will be dedicating more time to Posh Purpose. Also, can you believe Melinda has been married for one year (and a day)! It does not seem like a whole year has passed!

Friends & Family at Restoration Hardware

I love Restoration Hardware furniture even though the prices are a bit high. However, the quality is great - I don't have to worry about J falling into a sprawled position on my couch. And the RH style fits well with both new and old pieces.

RH has a Friends and Family discount multiple times a year, including right now! The 20% discount combined with the year round flat rate shipping really puts RH furniture into a more reasonable price range. But no worries if you don't place an order by July 8 - I will post the next Friends and Family event. Keep an eye out around November!