Apartment Blog

Throughout my childhood I can remember my father in the kitchen (yes, my dad did a majority of the cooking in our household) making a fantastic Thanksgiving feast. He always hated anyone being in the kitchen because they would be ‘in his way.’ So a new tradition that I have started the last few Thanksgivings is to create some type of dish at my apartment and bring it over for Thanksgiving dinner.  That way I am still contributing to the amazing meal and helping without ‘being in the way!’

I found this fantastic recipe in a Taste of Home Thanksgiving magazine last year and decided that it needs to be a reoccurring dish from now on. It’s absolutely, positively delicious! Not to mention super easy. That’s my kind of side dish!

Corn ‘n’ Bean Bake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 package (16 ounces) of frozen cut green beans
• 1 can (15.25 ounces) of whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 can (10.75 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted (can also substitute for cream of broccoli or cream of chicken)
• 1 cup (4 ounces) of shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• ½ cup of crushed butter-flavored crackers (about 12 crackers-can also be substituted for variety crackers depending on the complement flavoring you desire)

Directions:

• 1. Preheat oven to350 degrees.
• 2. In a large bowl, combine the beans, corn, soup and ½ cup of cheese. Spoon into a greased 2-qt. baking dish. Top with remainder of cheese and crushed crackers.
• 3. Bake for 35 minutes or until heated through.

Hopefully you’ll find this dish to be as easy and delicious as I did. Who knows? Maybe you’ll start a new tradition in your family! Happy Thanksgiving!

I remember as a child when I asked my mother for my friend to come over, she would always state “Sure, as long as the house is cleaned up.” That exact moment would produce a frenzy of activity around the house, me racing against time to pick up everything so my mother would say yes. Ahhhh…. Those were the days. Now that I’m an adult, I don’t to have to deal with that when my friends come over. I want my apartment to already be kept up, so when a friend calls and says he/she is coming by I don’t have to worry.

Here are five foolproof ways I make sure this is accomplished for my apartment:

1. Make your bed as soon as you get up. As soon as I get out of bed, I make the bed. I feel like my room is extremely messy if the bed is. After all, the bed is usually the focal point of the bedroom; people tend to notice if that’s neat versus your vanity being kept up.

2. Unload your clean dishes from the dishwasher in the morning and make it a rule that if somebody uses a dish they are to load it into the dishwasher. If you don’t let dishes pile up, you won’t have a mess after dinner. And when the dishwasher is full, you can run it.

3. Clean up all spills immediately. That means on counter tops, on the stove, and on the floor when you are cooking. This will eliminate the hard scrubbing from food deposits sticking to the surfaces.

4. Make it a habit to take your shoes off at the front door when you come home. I have a shoe rack by the door for myself and guests to put their shoes. Doing this will keep dirt from being tracked in onto your floors or carpet, which will help them look beautiful longer! Remember, you want that security deposit back! J

5. Another thing people will notice when they come to your house is clutter. Make sure you have a spot for everything. When mail comes into the apartment, go through it immediately and throw away unnecessary items. Then, place your bills or other ‘keep’ items in their spot to go through when needed.

While I miss the good ole’ days from my youth, I certainly do not miss the frenzy of activity before a friend comes over. After all, it looks kinda bad when he/she shows up and I’m all sweaty & out of breath! J Hopefully these tips will help you whenever you are in the situation of needing a clean house on the fly.

Remember in January, we wrote an article ‘5 Reasons to Get Fit in 2009′? The whole premise of that article was to give you five reasons why working out at your apartment community fitness center provides you with great benefits. Well, we’ve gone a step further to break down how doing other activities in your apartment community can really add up for shedding calories this year!

These numbers are for a 150 lb person and based on a work-out for 30 minutes.

**information collected from HealthStatus.com

Outdoor cooking is pretty big during the summer time. I know I love the smell of the charcoal burning. It’s the embodiment of summer in my mind. So if you’re planning on grilling up some yummy burgers, I wanted to suggest a few condiment combinations that might really spice up your meal.

1.  You can go the classic route with cheddar and barbeque sauce. For a hardy burger, add a little bacon.
2. Go for a tropical taste with a fun, fruity salsa. My favorite is from Harry & David’s, Raspberry Chardonnay Salsa.
3. A delicious Mediterranean combination would be feta cheese and olives.
4. Want to go the healthy route? You can do turkey burgers topped with lettuce, pickles and green peppers. And add some salad dressing like Caesar or blue cheese.
5. And who could forget the onions! Grill the onions with a little bit of Cajun or Southwest spices for a blazin’ burger.

If you’ve got some great topper suggestions, let us know! Sharing recipe ideas for burger combinations works out for everyone!

Happy Cinco De Mayo!! I’m not really sure what the plans are for this evening, however, I’m certain one thing is for sure….dessert! While searching for recipes online, I found this one particularly intriguing. I thought to myself, how can you have Mexican brownies??? Well, here is a very easy recipe to add to your Mexican fiesta tonight!!

Directions

Prepare your favorite boxed or homemade brownies, adding 3/4 teaspoon ground chipotle Chile pepper and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon to the batter (for a batch that fits a 9-by-13-inch pan).

Cook as stated on the box or based on your homemade recipe.

Top each Mexican brownie with a scoop of dulce de leche ice cream and sprinkle with cinnamon.

It’s just a little touch of something different to conclude your Mexican dinner. Serve warm to your family and friends!

Source: Recipe from FootNetwork.com and Photograph by Tina Rupp

 While looking for what to cook for St. Patrick’s Day I stumbled upon this wonderful recipe. I am definitely planning on making this for my household on Tuesday. Take a look…

What You Need

Mini Pretzel Twists
White Chocolate
Candy Melts
Green Chocolate Candy Melts
Candy Sprinkles & Colored Sugar
Microwave Safe Bowl
Fork or Skewer
Wax Paper

What You Do

Using a microwave, melt the chocolate in two separate bowls, stopping every 30 seconds to stir the chocolate.

Using a fork or skewer to hold each pretzel, dip it into the melted chocolate. Lay the pretzels on wax paper. While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle with candy sprinkles or colored sugar. Allow to dry at least 15 minutes before removing the pretzels from the wax paper.

Store in a sealed container in a cool place. Do not refrigerate or freeze because it could cause the appearance of the chocolate to change colors.