making EVERYTHING prettier

so my family can't keep the fridge clean to save their sweet little lives. i can't tell you how often i've had to clean up syrup or something else that spilled in there ... especially when NO ONE spilled it and that's why they didn't tell anyone about it. magic, i tell ya!

i saw an idea on pinterest. and i totally copied it. ready? ready? use contact paper on the shelves. it cleans up well. AND if it's too hard to get off, take the contact paper off and put another sheet on. cheap, easy, and fast!! i took everything out of the fridge - cleaned all the shelves, bottom of the fridge, drawers, etc. ... i thought it was clean ;) nope. not so much. but NOW? well, take a look for yourself:

 this is the inside of the fridge as you open the door and look straight in. 

 the door of the fridge (i even cut out some contact paper for the inside of the clear buckets on the inside of the door)

and a close-up

i really looked and looked for a non-girly pink contact paper, but i couldn't find one. i know that i could have used vinyl, but ... i figured this was a good compromise for mr. wonderful - foofie enough for me and "non-foofie" enough for him. lol. i am SO excited!! tomorrow, i'm doing the freezer. if it turns out lovely, maybe i'll share that with you. if i'm brave, i will think of taking a before picture of that. :)

best dinner ever ...

so i tried a new recipe tonight - always scary, right? this one was ab-solute-ly a major hit!! everyone liked it - a few of us even had *gasp* seconds!! you must try this. super fast, super easy, and super delish. here goes ...

Baked Buttermilk Chicken

1/4 cup butter

4 boneless chicken breasts

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 1/2 cups buttermilk, divided

3/4 cup flour

1 can cream of mushroom soup

hot steamed rice

melt butter in a 13x9 baking dish in a 425 degree oven. sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper (you can use the chicken breasts whole, but i cut the chicken into smaller pieces - it went further than a whole chicken breast would). dip chicken in 1/2 cup buttermilk and dredge in flour. arrange chicken in 13x9 baking dish. 

bake at 425 for 10 minutes. turn chicken and bake for 10 more minutes. while the chicken is baking the 2nd time, start water boiling for rice and then mix remaining buttermilk (1 cup) with 1 can of cream of mushroom soup - mix well. make the rice as directed. when the 2nd 10 minutes is up, pour soup/buttermilk mixture over chicken and bake for 10 more minutes - covering with aluminum foil to prevent any excessive burning. 

notes

* my sweetheart likes a kick, so i added some crushed red pepper to both the flour mixture that the chicken was dredged in as well as the buttermilk/soup mixture. it worked out very well!

* i served steamed green beans on the side - i mixed mine with the gravy & chicken & rice. not bad at all, if i do say so myself

ENJOY!!