Blog - Graceful Order

Baskets for Mom

March 1, 2016 · by Maria · 2 Comments

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SipIndulgence #CollectiveBias

It’s almost Mother’s Day…well, not exactly – but it will be here in no time. I have shared with you how we often host brunch for Mother’s Day and invite some of the moms of the family. I prefer to host an event, early in the day and that way I don’t have to spend the day visiting everyone and I also get the rest of the day to myself.

Every year I do something a little different (except for the menu, which is almost always the same thing) as far as the gifts that I give the moms. Some years I have set a pretty table and I line the table with orchids and each orchid is the gift for the moms. It’s a great idea because the orchids adorn your party and also serve as gifts. This year I wanted to do something a little different so I was going to make baskets for each mom to gift them after the brunch. Then I thought it would be fun to let everyone make their own basket.

Most baskets this time of the year resemble Easter baskets but I was able to find these simple little crates that would also work for Mother’s Day. They were only $3.00 each which was great!

I added a little bag of paper shreds to each crate. That way each person could line their basket before filling it up.

The idea was that everyone can pick one item from all the groupings to add to their basket. One of the items the moms could choose from were coffee mugs. I loved the “mom” one which was perfect for this event. It will probably be the first to go!

Also, inside each mug is a pack of instant coffee.

Naturally, to go with the coffee and the pretty mugs, some indulgent coffee creamer. I chose a few of the NESTLÉ® COFFEE-MATE® Liquid Coffee Creamers. I purchased quite a few flavors but the most popular were the chocolate boutique flavors – Salted Caramel, the Chocolate Toffee Truffle and the Cafe Mocha.

Of course, nothing says pampering for mom like a candle. These were so pretty in the rose gold tone which perfectly matched the tablescape.

I thought it was a fun idea to add a jar full of nail polishes so that everyone could pick their own. It was the area that everyone stood the longest, picking out their shade.

Stationary and pencils. Hello Spring!

Here are a few pictures of everyone making their baskets or the kids making the baskets for the mom.

Every time that I host something like this in my home, my favorite thing to see is all the generations coming together.

Every basket looked a little different and that was the idea!

This little one needed some assistance making the basket, but no help was needed in making his mom feel special. Love that little one!

Like I mentioned, my Mother’s Day brunch menu rarely changes. I served some cookies, a frittata and a salad. I made the frittata that the Barefoot Contessa makes which was inspired by the owner of Loaves & Fishes in the Hamptons. I love all of her recipes but this one is my favorite. I do make some adaptations like the cooking time and the original recipe calls for basil, which the adults tend to love and the boys…not so much, so I omitted that.

Potato Frittata

Ingredients
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
2 cups peeled and 1/2-inch diced boiling potatoes (4 potatoes)
8 extra-large eggs
15 ounces ricotta cheese
3/4 pound Gruyere cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a 10-inch (oven-proof) pan over medium-low heat. Add the potatoes and fry them until cooked through, turning often, about 20 minutes. Melt the remaining 5 tablespoons of butter in a small dish in the microwave.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, then stir in the ricotta, Gruyere, melted butter, salt, pepper. Sprinkle on the flour and baking powder and stir into the egg mixture.

Pour the egg mixture over the potatoes and place the pan in the center of the oven. Bake the frittata for 1 hour, until it is browned and puffed. It will be rounded and firm in the middle and a knife inserted in the frittata should come out clean.

Note: Sometimes I substitute swiss cheese for the gruyere. Nothing quite substitutes the nuttiness of the gruyere, but it will do if you don’t have it available.

Of course my mom said “don’t you dare post that picture of me eating.” Haha. There you go. You still look good mom!

We clearly celebrated Mother’s Day early to be able to present you with this idea, but we enjoyed it so much that we are thinking of replicating it for the actual Mother’s Day brunch.

The variety of creamers that were in my baskets were found in Walmart and you can find a $0.75 coupon HERE. Actually, a lot of the little items that went into the baskets were also picked up at Walmart.

Margarita Cupcakes

February 26, 2016 · by Maria · 3 Comments

How is the home organizing coming along? Need a tiny break?

Today we are doing something a little different. I am taking a break from the wave of new year organizing and making a little mess in the kitchen – just a little. A few weeks ago I was asked to bring something sweet to a little get together with friends and I immediately knew that I wanted to bring cupcakes, but I wanted them to be special. Literally within days of that invitation, I was asked by Wayfair if I wanted to be a part of a fun campaign they were doing called #Cocktail2Cupcake . I said yes and decided to merge my most favorite drink, the margarita with a plain cupcake recipe that I already had.

I love a good margarita and my husband makes the best ones. I rarely order them in restaurants because I know that they usually make them using sour mix and a bunch of artificial stuff. My husband has me spoiled with the real deal – a simple recipe that uses real ingredients.

I took a basic cupcake recipe that I had and I added some lime tequila and grand mariner, which are ingredients in the margaritas that he makes me.

Here is the recipe that I used and it yielded 24 cupcakes.

INGREDIENTS

3 cups of cake flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder

2 1/4 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of room temperature unsalted butter

4 eggs at room temperature

1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice

2 tablespoons of tequila

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 cup of buttermilk

INSTRUCTIONS

1- Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees F. Prepare the muffin pans with the liners.

2- In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3- Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the sugar and the room temp butter for a few minutes. Then add the eggs one at a time. Incorporate the vanilla, lime juice and the tequila. Be warned that at this point the mixture will appear to be too loose.

4- With the mixer on low, start incorporating your dry ingredients into the wet, alternating with the buttermilk. Do not over mix. You just want it to be incorporated. (I mention this because once you add the flour, you can really mess up the outcome of any cupcake by over mixing.)

5- Divide the batter between the lined muffin/cupcake pans and only fill until they are 3/4 full. Bake the cupcakes about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. (Do not over bake, I start checking mine after 19 minutes.)

6- Allow to cool on a wire rack.

The frosting –

2 boxes of confectioners sugar

2 sticks unsalted butter

2 1/2 teaspoons of lime juice

2 tablespoons of Grand Marnier

1 teaspoon of tequila

pinch of salt

1- Blend the sugar and butter until smooth. Add the lime juice, Grand Marnier, tequila, and salt.

2- Pipe the frosting using a star tip onto the cooled cupcakes.

Enjoy! I know that my friends loved them and not only were these delicious but they were beautiful. I added a thin wedge of lime that I tossed in some sugar before placing on the cupcake.

Have an awesome weekend friends. I’m ready for a real margarita!

Easy Brunch to Host In The New Year

February 10, 2016 · by Maria · 6 Comments

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SienteGlade #CollectiveBias

Traditions…they are woven into our holidays and are so much fun to create and continue with our families. Granted, December is a month full of traditions because of the holidays, but in our family, we squeeze one more little gathering in after the New Year. The Spanish start the new year with a bowl of lentils, (don’t ask me what it means because I have no idea) but I love lentils and I love family, so who am I to stop this awesome tradition? The New Year is a great time to reconnect with family and friends and here is an easy brunch to bring everyone together!

Sometime during the month of January (usually later than most), we put away all the Christmas decorations and it’s out with the red and in with my usual muted tones, which I miss after months of jewel tones and glitter everywhere. I actually end up finding glitter all over my home well into February! After I give the house a good cleaning, I will usually light a candle or in this case, use a candle melt. Again, after all the peppermint scented items from Christmas, I long for clean scents. Here I am using one from Glade® called Clean Linen®.

The trick with this brunch is to make it simple. After putting together so many holiday spreads in December, this needs to be really easy – hearty but minimal amount of food. We always accompany the lentils with a Tortilla Espanola (Spanish Omelette). Again, when you think of these two items, they are not exactly a perfect pairing, but it’s just what my Cuban family has done for years and I am just following along. While not the perfect pairing, they are both delicious!

This omelette has lots of potatoes that are cooked in olive oil along with thinly sliced onions, before being incorporated into the egg – yielding a really thick and hearty omelette.

And delicious.

I make the lentils in a large pressure cooker and I add onions, garlic, green pepper, squash, carrots, potatoes, Spanish chorizo and Spanish paprika. I also add the ham bone from the honey baked ham that I serve during Thanksgiving. Every year after Thanksgiving dinner, I freeze the ham bone (that still holds quite a bit of ham) to use for my lentils brunch. This gives the soup a lot more flavor. The pressure cooker makes everything very tender and when the soup is done, I simply shred the ham that is falling off the bone and I add it to the soup, discarding the bone. We make lentil soup during the year, but none is as flavorful as this one.

Here is my mom serving my oldest a plate of lentils. Grandmas are always concerned about their grandkids getting enough to eat. I think that’s a universal sentiment.

We all sit in the dining room and eat and talk and go back for seconds.

Of course, the only thing missing is dessert. I added a little banner to this white cake to highlight what we are celebrating!

Putting together a little party like this is easy, it just takes a little planning. Here are some of the things that I do to ensure a relaxed atmosphere for my guests and even for myself.

1 – Choose a few items that can be served cold or room temperature. While the lentils should be served hot or warm, the Spanish omelette can be served at room temperature. That is one less thing to fuss over. Other food options that do well at room temperature are, homemade granola with yogurt drizzle; also a quiche or a strata usually hold up well on a buffet table.

2- Keep the decorations simple. Sometimes I just leave out the white and silver decorations from holidays and add some fresh flowers to the mix so it doesn’t look Christmas-ey. I love decorating, but the new year feels like a time to simplify.

3 – I purchase a store-bought cake. I think it’s a mistake to try to make everything yourself unless you feel like you have the time and desire to do so. If you are already making the first course and the side, buy the dessert or have someone bring it.

Tip: If your cake is small like mine, just place it on a pretty stand and add some greenery around the base.

4 – Have your dishwasher empty and ready to load. For a small gathering, like this one, I use “real” plates but I always have the dishwasher empty so that I can quickly load them in there. Otherwise, I recommend paper plates. Anything to keep it pretty and easy. If you use paper plates, you will also have more garbage. Make sure to have enough garbage bags under your trash bin so that you can quickly swap them out once full.

5- Stock up on candles and scents for your party and so that you can kick back once everyone has left. Candles and scents can transform your space. I placed a Glade® Wax Melts on the warmer tray and within minutes it was dispersing a clean scent throughout my home. These melts provide up to 16 hours of fragrance.

Here it is all melted.

You know who else melted? Me! Into my pajamas once everyone left. It was fun, it was yummy and I need a nap!

If you need me I will be here, continuing to write the wrong year on my checks.

Have you hosted any get togethers so far this year? Have you attended any?

For more great ideas, you can follow the Siente Glade Social Hub.

You can find a @Glade coupon offer here.

You can follow @Glade on Twitter https://twitter.com/glade

You can also follow @Glade on Facebook here.

Closet Perfection with Xangar

January 29, 2016 · by Maria · Leave a Comment

A few days ago I shared my tips for organizing the master closet but I left out the latest and greatest addition to my closet – Xangar hanger spacers . Every year I go through my wardrobe and I try to get rid of items that I no longer use, at least I thought that’s what I was doing. You see, I was really only making enough space for my items to fit and not be stuffed in the closet, but once I achieved that, I wouldn’t make a final push to get rid of unnecessary items. Although I thought I was ruthless in my approach to streamlining my wardrobe, I was really ignoring a lot of clothes that needed to go but they stayed. They stayed because I loved the item, they used to fit me well, I wished they fit me well, items I paid a lot for but no longer used… they stayed in the closet because they fit in the closet and it’s not like I needed to make space for anything else.

I was introduced to Xangar hanger spacers last year and I thought I would give them a try. I have to admit that I first thought, “won’t they take up additional space in my closet?” and the answer is yes – they took up space but what they gave me in return was greater. Since I knew I was adding the spacers, I went item-by-item and got rid of so much clothing! So much! They were items that I had not worn in years and were just in my closet because there was space for them and no other reason. I donated all those items and I instantly felt so much better about not housing so many unused pieces of clothing.

Perfectly Organized

When I added the Xangar hanger spacers, a pet peeve of mine was fixed and that’s how hangers are never perfectly separated and would sometimes overlap. This would sometimes make me pull out more than one item at a time. I realize that this is not a “real” problem and there are more important things in life (like dark chocolate with hazelnuts) but still, it was annoying and now everything was perfectly spaced. #OrganizationNirvana

BEFORE:

(Picture taken with my cell phone)

AFTER:

I also love how when I pull an item out, it slides out with ease without catching on other items. It is just as easy to put back and the spacer makes it obvious where the item needs to be returned to. Shirts or pants that have a tendency to wrinkle, are no longer crushed between other items of clothing.

Color-code your closet

I have always been a fan of organizing my clothing by color, which is time consuming the first time you do it, but so easy to maintain afterwards. Not to mention, color coding makes your space look instantly more organized. I also created zones with my spacers by using 2 colors, gray and silver. Most of my hangers are thin black plastic hangers and I used the Xangar dark gray color spacers in between them. I use white kid hangers for my pants (so that they don’t stick out) and the silver helps to set that section apart. Of course, you can add more colors and more zones, but two were enough for me.

I chose to leave the area with my coats without the spacers. My jackets take up enough space in between the others to act as natural spacers anyway and let’s face it, I live in Miami and that are of my closet will gather dust before I need a coat.

How the spacers work.

The spacers are made out of a foam (but sturdy) material and are really easy to install. There is no need to remove the rod as they easily slide into place. They are 1/2 in wide and 1 5/16 in deep.

Helps to keep myself accountable for the amount of items in my closet.

My closet was already organized before I added these spacers, but they definitely took things up a few notches and made it look even neater! The spacers made me sort through all my clothing (I even tried on all my pants – God help me) and I was able to limit the items that I kept in my closet, to those that I actually used and wanted. These spacers keep me accountable for the one-in-one-out rule which is a really good thing.

This is definitely one of those “why didn’t I think of that?!” products that are a genius solution and simple to use. If you are looking for a neat, sleek and minimalistic look for your closet, give them a try!

You can find the Xangar hanger spacers on Amazon by clicking here.

You can learn more about Xangar on their website here.

This post was sponsored by Xangar. As always, all the opinions are my own and I only recommend items I use and love to my readers.

Organizing the Master Closet

January 28, 2016 · by Maria · 21 Comments

It’s not the first time that I post about my master closet but I have added some little touches and kept the systems that already worked.

Sort and Donate

This is always how any organization project should begin. There are always a ton of items that I get rid of when I set my mind to it. I try to donate anything that doesn’t fit, doesn’t fit well or I no longer like. It’s even a good idea to go through I items again, even after you think are you are done sorting.

A Place to Sit

I like having a little stool in the closet to sit on while I try on shoes. I used to have a different one before but this one is smaller and works better in this narrow space. I found this one at Target.

Adding a Valet Rod

This clothing valet has been one of the best things about this closet. I use it to set aside my outfit for the next day, when I am sorting clothing or trying on multiple items.

Adjusting shelves

I really take advantage of the adjustable shelves to make them work for me and customized to all the items that I own. That means that some of my shelves are really narrow, like the ones that hold my sandals.

Create a vignette

I don’t have space for a large vignette but I do like leaving a shelf semi-open and housing only a few items. Here I added one of my favorite purses, a bracelet holder and a little plant. The addition of the plant makes a huge different in livening up the space. Also, a vignette breaks up the monotony of shelf-after-shelf with shoes and purses.

Lots of bling, lots of fake. 🙂

Tie rack as a necklace holder

I have quite a few long necklaces that tend to tangle easily, and this tie rack works perfectly to keep them organized and tangle-free.

Placing a dresser inside the closet

I have an IKEA dresser inside my closet and the closet system is built around that dresser. I think it gave the closet a more finished look, while adding a lots more storage for my t-shirts and shorts.

Organize sunglasses and bracelets

Last year I posted about how I organize my sunglasses. This system still works for me. It is great for inexpensive sunglasses that don’t come with a case.

I have two t-bar displays for watches and bracelets in my closet and pictured below is one of them.

On the other side of the dresser, I have a little bowl with my hoop earrings, which is mostly what I wear.

Organize rings

A little ring plate sits on the dresser which is where I place the rings that I wear most often. Can you believe that small holder was a little over 4.00 at Target. Love those clearance items!

The rest of my rings are on this ring display. I purchased 2 of them to hold all my rings. Above my rings is a little shelf that holds all my perfume. I wear perfume everyday whether I am working from home or heading out with the boys. I know some people have a signature scent that they like, but I like changing it up and trying new perfumes.

I know that it’s not easy to take the time to go through all the items in your closet, but it is so worth it. I hope this encourages you to go through your closet and streamline your items. It’s a great feeling to walk into an organized closet every morning!