Just~One~Donna

Good kale recipes can be hard to find.  This simple, yet tasty kale recipe, is perfect for a weeknight dinner and winter is the perfect time of year for kale.  This dark green, healthy vegetable packs lots of vitamins into one serving.  It is easy to prepare and looks attractive on your plate. Simple, Healthy Kale I recently served this simple, healthy kale side dish to balance out the heavy richness of a pot roast dinner. The kale was just the right accompaniment.  This recipe is written for two servings, but you can easily double it. Buy crisp, deep green bunches of kale in the produce section of your grocery store.  If you are in a hurry you can buy the packaged kale, but you will save money buying it by the bunch.  Preparing the kale is quick. Just hold the leaf of the kale by the stem in one hand and pull the leaf portion from the stem with the other.  It will only take a minute or two.  Discard the stems or use them to make a v...

I'm a big online shopper.  I guess you can even say I was an early adopter of online shopping.  When I discovered online shopping it allowed me to improve the efficiency of my shopping technique over the usual approach of browsing from store to store until I found the very best price for whatever it was I was shopping for. The trouble with the brick-and-mortar store search was that shopping took forever. With online shopping, the time I have to spend searching out my deals is reduced exponentially. At least, the time I save  seems  like an exponential improvement to me.  I also appreciate the wider variety of options I can find online and the ease of making pricing comparisons.  Occasionally I score a deal I want to share with all of you.  My new modular bar is one of those deals. My Modular Bar I first saw this modular bar at Pottery Barn .  You may have seen it as well.  It has been prominently displayed in various Pottery Barn cat...

Kitchen renovations can be very intimidating.  Once you've committed to the fact that a renovation is in your future you must decide what you want your result to be.  It's important to get some clarity about this before you start talking to kitchen designers and kitchen contractors.  Without that clarity, am suggesting you want to be clear about the layout, the style, and key elements you'll want in your finished kitchen.  You may become overwhelmed by all the options you have.  It is very helpful to have pictures to show to kitchen designers and contractors as well.  Those pictures will help the professionals to narrow their suggestions to your preferences.  You'll save time and reduce frustration in the process.  I'm not suggesting you will need to have made all your decisions in advance.  You will want to have a very good idea of what you want your new kitchen to look like.  How do you know? Where to Find Inspiration for Your Kitch...

It's absolutely true what is said about the snowball effect of home upgrades.  A little paint here turns into new paint everywhere.  Fix a broken tile here and soon whole floors need changing.  Well, that's what has been happening in my "Just One Donna" home.  Spring brought us a brand new kitchen and that kitchen makes everything else feel old and worn out. Not one to throw it all out with the bath water, so to speak, I have been working hard to find ways to update on a budget.  Freshening up doesn't mean you have to break your budget.   One room of focus has been the dining room which is adjacent to the kitchen.  It's a work in progress, but I've made a few changes to get some momentum going.  First, let's take a look at the before dining room.  You can see it is a very traditional dining room.  I love the traditional feel but wanted to add some more modern accents. Three things have changed.  The first and mos...

Three Steps to Creating a Kitchen Renovation Plan This post is the third in a series detailing my experience with my kitchen renovation.  Previously I wrote about accepting that a renovation is needed and the five questions to answer before starting a kitchen renovation project.  Once I had some clarity about what I wanted my new kitchen to look like, and I had established an overall target budget for the project, I needed to determine how to go from the "idea" to an actually finished kitchen. That meant I needed a "PLAN". 1. Sketch Your Dream Layout The first step of my plan was to complete a drawing of the layout I wanted for my kitchen.  This was easy for me because I didn't want to change very much about my existing layout.  I had lived with, and loved, my existing kitchen layout for many years.  That may be a reason I had resisted a kitchen renovation for so long.  The existing kitchen was working pretty well as it was. Kitchen Layout...