This is what we feasted on tonight. Sometimes I crave some good spicy food! I should have made it spicier but was afraid the daughter wouldn't eat it and DH would get ill. I went a little crazy with the Garlic earlier in the week and am a bit gun-shy now.
Tonight's included celery, shrimp, tomato soup, vegetable broth, green chilies, black beans, Tabasco sauce, shredded grilled chicken, smoky Andouille Sausage, chopped bacon, and minced garlic.
It was scrumptious but I wanted more- more celery, more Tabasco sauce, more garlic, more sausage.... Just means I get to play with the big bowlful we have as leftovers. Fun, fun!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Musical Monday: U2 (still)
Still spinnin' the U2 CDs in my car and stuffing my Winamp playlist with tunes from those Dublin Lads. I've had a couple breaks over the week. Listened to the Cure a little bit over the weekend and played the George Winston (on piano) and Meryl Streep recording of The Velveteen Rabbit while the Marshmallow Girl and I were stuck in traffic.
It was a busy day. Shopping for lighting equipment to shoot my Aunt's quilts took up much of the time, and I am out of cash in my photo equipment budget for now but it looks like we will be able to showcase her work nicely. When finally home, I diced about 3 heads of Garlic. Some of it went onto our buttered salt + pepper sirloins for dinner but most of it is being doused with Olive Oil and stuck in the fridge for later.
Sorry for such a short blog tonight but I'm pooped. Feeling like a cat cuddle session is in order, then to bed with me!
It was a busy day. Shopping for lighting equipment to shoot my Aunt's quilts took up much of the time, and I am out of cash in my photo equipment budget for now but it looks like we will be able to showcase her work nicely. When finally home, I diced about 3 heads of Garlic. Some of it went onto our buttered salt + pepper sirloins for dinner but most of it is being doused with Olive Oil and stuck in the fridge for later.
Sorry for such a short blog tonight but I'm pooped. Feeling like a cat cuddle session is in order, then to bed with me!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Wardrobe Weekend! 002: What Works?
So, I'm one of those people who usually wears what ever they want regardless of what other people think they should wear. Yet can't help but wonder from time to time what "works" for my age, marital status, body type, etc... It would be a dream come true to have "What Not To Wear" kick my butt into gear and give some much needed words of wardrobe wisdom, but I can't hold my breath on that one. I would start poking through magazines, but haven't the foggiest idea where to begin. One should probably figure out which mag is the best fit first. Are there fashion consultants for hire out there? There's got to be, there's consultants for just about everything it seems. The fees are probably insane though. Guess a Google search might be a good start. Don't know if I'd actually ever have the chance to do something like this but it sure would be nice. I really am sick of still wearing so many of the same clothes. Lots of my current wardrobe just doesn't seem to fit who I am any more. Yet many of the things I can't seem to bear to part with. Then when I finally do let some items go I find myself digging through my drawers and sliding the hangars around, looking for them and realize "oh, that's gone now" and get a little sad. But, if I don't get rid of these OLD (and sometimes not so old) things that are never worn there is no way in heck going to be room for NEW things! Fashion is vicious I tell you!
Time to do some researching....
Time to do some researching....
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Trashed Tail
Wooter, our cat who is turning 6 years old this August, went through a rough time with her tail. Shown here is the end result of one of her mutilation sessions. She would take her tail in her mouth, chomp down on it, then drag it through her teeth. The tail would split open and bleed all over the place. It usually ended up on the washer and dryer which made for easy clean up but a shock to see in the morning! So we had this happen three times. When Wooter would do a bad mutilation like this we would take her in to the vet and they would shave the tail and get it all cleaned out but luckily we were able to avoid antibiotics. Eventually since we couldn't pinpoint what was causing her to do this we opted to have her tail docked. Now we're not sure if that was the answer. It might be problems with her anal glands causing her the upset in her tail (or what's left of it) and her hindquarters. Until she can speak English to us, we won't really know though so we just pray that we are doing right for her and press on.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Musical Monday: U2
As I'm writing, eight CDs of songs are on random play from a band that I've liked since third grade. My introduction to U2 was at Saint Catherine's Elementary School in Laguna Beach, CA. If I recall correctly the scenario was that once a week the teacher would allow a student to bring in music to play in the afternoon during art time. The Joshua Tree was brought in and I fell in love. I thought the guitar work was mesmerizing and the emotion behind the voice captivated me. Later I could appreciate the lyrical content more and would often sing along to their CDs as warm up before high school choir concerts. Over the years the band has also earned my respect. This band has been around for as long as I've been alive and they have stayed together and they still put out quality albums. Sorry to be cliche, but that just totally rocks! This shows me that they work hard and they must truly be like a band of brothers by now, as close to family as a bunch of people can get. While I may not always see eye to eye with Bono on his political views the fast that he gets off his butt and works to better the world is admirable in my opinion. Too many rock stars in this world dwindle their money away on empty excess. I think if you've got the extra money it is completely foolish to keep it to yourself.
I truly love this band. I don't have all their major releases, just eight CDs actually. I'd very much like to add Achtung Baby and Zooropa to my personal disc library especially. No Line On The Horizon is sounding really good too. I've been streaming it off last.fm and want to get that CD too. I don't know what else to say. Normally one would pick a favorite song or album but so many of U2's works are so intense and call to me in different ways that it's nearly impossible for me to pick out any right now. Perhaps for a future entry my favorites will be spotlighted. Too much good music, too little time!
I truly love this band. I don't have all their major releases, just eight CDs actually. I'd very much like to add Achtung Baby and Zooropa to my personal disc library especially. No Line On The Horizon is sounding really good too. I've been streaming it off last.fm and want to get that CD too. I don't know what else to say. Normally one would pick a favorite song or album but so many of U2's works are so intense and call to me in different ways that it's nearly impossible for me to pick out any right now. Perhaps for a future entry my favorites will be spotlighted. Too much good music, too little time!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Wardrobe Weekend!
Here is a peek at what's to come with my Wardrobe Weekend...
That is a view into our disorganized walk in closet. I don't buy new clothes very often. Many of the outfits in there are as old as my High School days! I like my clothes to be comfortable bit also like for them to look nice. I thought I had a better shot of the black velvet dress previously mentioned but I guess it's still on my camera's memory stick. I want to show it to you soon!
On the shelf up there are some of my shoes.
I also have two of those over the door shoe bags. My shoes are mostly black. Probably because I generally prefer black and black goes with so many other colors nicely. It doesn't look quite right against brown or navy in my opinion, unless under certain circumstances.
In other news, it was quite an exciting day! We had a visitor come to hang out by our fence for a while.
It was pitching an attitude so J kept watch outside while I corralled the daughter inside, called animal control, and researched who it could be. I was relieved to learn that the 'little' guy wasn't really a threat to us but we are now on official watch due to the fact that this neighborhood is Bunny Buffet and there is a very large open space behind our housing area and between the Air Force Base. When the Animal Control officer was putting the visitor into a bucket it slipped out of the holding stick and J had to run to grab our show shovel and restrain the serpent! M + I were watching from the window and were quite impressed by the whole thing. I admit, I wish I could have helped with the snake wrangling too, but explaining things to M and keeping her safe really was more important to me.
The other interesting thing this evening was dinner. I made Pad Thai with Tofu in addition to saute'd chicken breast and Spicy Peanut Sauce. This all took me four hours to make! It was fun, true, but dang it has me worn out! There was lots more chopping and mixing involved than I'm used to not to mention the billions of bowls and dishes now in the sink. It's been a while since I made a meal from scratch like that. Even though it was hard work for me I think deep down everyone appreciated it. We don't have to worry about tons of preservatives or artificial ingredients that the pre-packaged foods often come with, the ingredients were fresher, and we have enough left over for lunch tomorrow! The only thing which went wrong was that I only had one can of coconut milk. I thought the can of Cream of Coconut would be able to be diluted but I opened it and emptied it into the blender for mixing and realized it didn't smell quite right. Better safe than sorry! So, the recipe wasn't done exactly as planned but it was still very good! Definitely will be a repeat on a day when I know there's several hours to play in the kitchen!
That is a view into our disorganized walk in closet. I don't buy new clothes very often. Many of the outfits in there are as old as my High School days! I like my clothes to be comfortable bit also like for them to look nice. I thought I had a better shot of the black velvet dress previously mentioned but I guess it's still on my camera's memory stick. I want to show it to you soon! On the shelf up there are some of my shoes.
I also have two of those over the door shoe bags. My shoes are mostly black. Probably because I generally prefer black and black goes with so many other colors nicely. It doesn't look quite right against brown or navy in my opinion, unless under certain circumstances. In other news, it was quite an exciting day! We had a visitor come to hang out by our fence for a while.
It was pitching an attitude so J kept watch outside while I corralled the daughter inside, called animal control, and researched who it could be. I was relieved to learn that the 'little' guy wasn't really a threat to us but we are now on official watch due to the fact that this neighborhood is Bunny Buffet and there is a very large open space behind our housing area and between the Air Force Base. When the Animal Control officer was putting the visitor into a bucket it slipped out of the holding stick and J had to run to grab our show shovel and restrain the serpent! M + I were watching from the window and were quite impressed by the whole thing. I admit, I wish I could have helped with the snake wrangling too, but explaining things to M and keeping her safe really was more important to me.The other interesting thing this evening was dinner. I made Pad Thai with Tofu in addition to saute'd chicken breast and Spicy Peanut Sauce. This all took me four hours to make! It was fun, true, but dang it has me worn out! There was lots more chopping and mixing involved than I'm used to not to mention the billions of bowls and dishes now in the sink. It's been a while since I made a meal from scratch like that. Even though it was hard work for me I think deep down everyone appreciated it. We don't have to worry about tons of preservatives or artificial ingredients that the pre-packaged foods often come with, the ingredients were fresher, and we have enough left over for lunch tomorrow! The only thing which went wrong was that I only had one can of coconut milk. I thought the can of Cream of Coconut would be able to be diluted but I opened it and emptied it into the blender for mixing and realized it didn't smell quite right. Better safe than sorry! So, the recipe wasn't done exactly as planned but it was still very good! Definitely will be a repeat on a day when I know there's several hours to play in the kitchen!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Foody Friday
This morning presented quite a quandary. All the food storage places in this house were starting to look a bit bare and lately 'burned out' is an understatement for how I feel about meal planning. I was not looking forward to the grocery trip because the fear of it being a huge one was rather daunting. I caught one of my cousins on AIM and asked her for suggestions which took me over to MyRecipes.com and soon after entering the site, the drooling began. I now have our meals planned out and shopped for to cover the entire weekend! The site has healthy, relatively quick + easy to prepare meals ideas in addition to nicely done videos and a couple neat feature spots. I like the Dinner Countdown Kitchen Timer. I can see this coming in handy for the perpetual procrastinators out there.
Tonight we had beef pot roast with baked red potatoes and mixed vegetable medley. Not shabby. Basic comfort style food. The husband was taken by surprise when all of a sudden I announced what the meal was and that is was ready when ever he wanted. That is one thing that will keep the Slow Cooker always nestled close in my heart. It's ability to do nearly all the work for me and have it ready when the family is!
I had planned on doing this meal yesterday but had gotten behind on the dishes and the crockery for the slow cooker needed scrubbing. So yesterday we had DiGiorno oven pizzas. We tried the Cheese Stuffed Crust Limited Edition with the taste of Garlic in Bacon, Sausage + Pepperoni and also the new Crispy Flatbread Pizza in Tuscan Style Chicken. The Cheese Stuffed Crust was a bigger hit. The garlic smelled really scrumptious while cooking.
Tomorrow I'm planning on Chicken Breast Medallions in Satay sauce with Pad Thai with Tofu and peas on the side. The Spice Hunter company has this great Thai Seasoning blend and on the jar label is a recipe for basic satay sauce. It's been a hit from the first time I made it. There is some apprehension present regarding the Pad Thai though. Rice noodles and I don't seem to get on very well. They don't like to get soft for me. I am going to try something different with preparing them to see if that helps. Shitake Mushrooms also evaded me at the grocery store so they shall have to be hunted down tomorrow. Asian food is one of my favorite cuisines so it's always pleasing when there's a meal I can make at home with success in that style.
On Sunday's dinner menu is Honey + Spice Glazed Pork with Garlic + Chive Mashed Potatoes and Buttered Asparagus spears. This recipe is a new one for us but reading about the honey, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves blending together got me drooling and we already have all of those in our house! So wish me luck on that. It looks easy enough so hopefully it will be a new item to add to our meal options.
One of my good friends, Lisa, of windwardskies.com photography sent a post to twitter about the holy trinity of desserts. The sleuths at CakeSpy.com came up with confectionery paradise in their Cookie Cake Pie. It is what it is: a pie crust with a layer of cookie then a frosted cake layer on top of that. The possibilities of flavor combination on this good little devil are seemingly endless and I'm getting a toothache just thinking about it! After I brushed my teeth just out of respect the rest of the site was perused and oh! what wonderful sweetness abounded! Not only were the text descriptions of the various desserts and snacks mouth watering but the food photography was wonderful too. And the cute, whimsical hand done artwork on the rest of the site layout left me pining as well.
I've hit the culinary gold mine today because there's one more neat food thing I have to share with you. At the end of this month I will have the pleasure of house sitting for one of my friends who happens to be a suburban homesteader! As payment I may help myself to anything in her organically grown herb + vegetable garden and there is the promise of fresh eggs from her hens once they start laying!
See you at my Wardrobe Weekend post!
Tonight we had beef pot roast with baked red potatoes and mixed vegetable medley. Not shabby. Basic comfort style food. The husband was taken by surprise when all of a sudden I announced what the meal was and that is was ready when ever he wanted. That is one thing that will keep the Slow Cooker always nestled close in my heart. It's ability to do nearly all the work for me and have it ready when the family is!
I had planned on doing this meal yesterday but had gotten behind on the dishes and the crockery for the slow cooker needed scrubbing. So yesterday we had DiGiorno oven pizzas. We tried the Cheese Stuffed Crust Limited Edition with the taste of Garlic in Bacon, Sausage + Pepperoni and also the new Crispy Flatbread Pizza in Tuscan Style Chicken. The Cheese Stuffed Crust was a bigger hit. The garlic smelled really scrumptious while cooking.
Tomorrow I'm planning on Chicken Breast Medallions in Satay sauce with Pad Thai with Tofu and peas on the side. The Spice Hunter company has this great Thai Seasoning blend and on the jar label is a recipe for basic satay sauce. It's been a hit from the first time I made it. There is some apprehension present regarding the Pad Thai though. Rice noodles and I don't seem to get on very well. They don't like to get soft for me. I am going to try something different with preparing them to see if that helps. Shitake Mushrooms also evaded me at the grocery store so they shall have to be hunted down tomorrow. Asian food is one of my favorite cuisines so it's always pleasing when there's a meal I can make at home with success in that style.
On Sunday's dinner menu is Honey + Spice Glazed Pork with Garlic + Chive Mashed Potatoes and Buttered Asparagus spears. This recipe is a new one for us but reading about the honey, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves blending together got me drooling and we already have all of those in our house! So wish me luck on that. It looks easy enough so hopefully it will be a new item to add to our meal options.
One of my good friends, Lisa, of windwardskies.com photography sent a post to twitter about the holy trinity of desserts. The sleuths at CakeSpy.com came up with confectionery paradise in their Cookie Cake Pie. It is what it is: a pie crust with a layer of cookie then a frosted cake layer on top of that. The possibilities of flavor combination on this good little devil are seemingly endless and I'm getting a toothache just thinking about it! After I brushed my teeth just out of respect the rest of the site was perused and oh! what wonderful sweetness abounded! Not only were the text descriptions of the various desserts and snacks mouth watering but the food photography was wonderful too. And the cute, whimsical hand done artwork on the rest of the site layout left me pining as well.
I've hit the culinary gold mine today because there's one more neat food thing I have to share with you. At the end of this month I will have the pleasure of house sitting for one of my friends who happens to be a suburban homesteader! As payment I may help myself to anything in her organically grown herb + vegetable garden and there is the promise of fresh eggs from her hens once they start laying!
See you at my Wardrobe Weekend post!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Musical Monday
Hmm... Do I see a new tradition brewing here?
I just thought it would be fun for today to chat about music. It is always something that has been a part of me. I remember in preschool going out to my parents courtyard with the 'little' tape deck and singing ALL of the Annie musical at the top of my voice. I'd make up songs while I was playing. In school I played the piano, recorder, violin, saxophone, and electric bass over the years and have further developed my voice with high school and as an adult in Church choirs. I especially loved singing in church choirs because "singing is praying twice"!
Musical influence was present in my family. My uncle Mike plays the Banjo, my other brothers play guitar and electric bass from time to time and for my late brother David- if it had strings he could make the most beautiful tunes come out of it! His favorites were guitar family instruments like the electric guitar, ukulele, mandolin and lute. He also played Violin for a time.
Music keeps me going. These days it's singing along to CDs in the car with my girl, singing what ever pops in my my head during chores, or playing Rock Band (as bass or vocals) on the PS3. I know that no matter what sort of mood I'm in a can make it better or worse with some tunes, which is a mixed blessing!
Hopefully I will touch on this again next week. I would like to talk about one of my favorite bands, U2.
I might have to skip Wordless Wednesday again. I'm going to a sleep study center to have an evaluation. I hope the daytime will be mellow enough that I can squeeze in the post for you but knowing me the packing will be procrastinated. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to write again soon!
I just thought it would be fun for today to chat about music. It is always something that has been a part of me. I remember in preschool going out to my parents courtyard with the 'little' tape deck and singing ALL of the Annie musical at the top of my voice. I'd make up songs while I was playing. In school I played the piano, recorder, violin, saxophone, and electric bass over the years and have further developed my voice with high school and as an adult in Church choirs. I especially loved singing in church choirs because "singing is praying twice"!
Musical influence was present in my family. My uncle Mike plays the Banjo, my other brothers play guitar and electric bass from time to time and for my late brother David- if it had strings he could make the most beautiful tunes come out of it! His favorites were guitar family instruments like the electric guitar, ukulele, mandolin and lute. He also played Violin for a time.
Music keeps me going. These days it's singing along to CDs in the car with my girl, singing what ever pops in my my head during chores, or playing Rock Band (as bass or vocals) on the PS3. I know that no matter what sort of mood I'm in a can make it better or worse with some tunes, which is a mixed blessing!
Hopefully I will touch on this again next week. I would like to talk about one of my favorite bands, U2.
I might have to skip Wordless Wednesday again. I'm going to a sleep study center to have an evaluation. I hope the daytime will be mellow enough that I can squeeze in the post for you but knowing me the packing will be procrastinated. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to write again soon!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Thinking Out Loud....
I have my Wordless Wednesday.
Lorry has her Wardrobe Wednesday.
I want to do both.
But how can I have a wordless Wednesday if I am sitting here gushing about some article of clothing?
Well, I say to myself, what about a Wardrobe Weekend? Brilliant!
Wednesdays shall remain wordless and now I have at least two days to put together the pictures and text for my clothing chatter.
I could have done a Threaded Thursday, but that will collide with my eventual plans for a Thoughtful Thursday. I have Christina to thank for the inspiration on that one.
Now I know that these themed blogs do not have to adhere to alliteration. But you see, that just makes it so much easier for a Swiss cheese brain like me to remember what it is I'm planning to do and when. Eventually I do hope to be a daily blogger and I have some themes for every day of the week jotted down, metaphorically speaking, in a text document.
Sleeping has not been of good quality for quite some time now so next week I'm heading over to have a sleep study done. It's an over night stay at a hospital type place and they stick wires and machines onto me to see what the heck is causing me to feel unrested. We suspect Sleep Apnea of some sort. My Dad has it. Mom said I snored when I was a baby even. I think baby snores are cute, but never realized snores are linked to problematic things. So, hopefully there will be some good answers gleaned from my night as a guinea pig. I hope I can bring my own pillow and one of my blankets. And that I don't have to sleep in an ikky hospital gown! I will be getting an informational mailing in a couple days will all the details.
The bookworm really bit me recently. Do worms actually have teeth? I really don't know! But, I must say, I've been going through the books at what is an amazing rate for me! I picked up "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon and admittedly, had a bit of a sludge through the first half of the book but then it got much better and I was hooked! So I picked up "Dragonfly In Amber", the second book in the series when my husband was restocking on his series that he's working on and I also got "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer. Got through DIA at a nice pace and thought it might be nice to finish my other new book before i continued with the Outlander series. This afternoon I was blinking in astonishment at the park because I'd finished Twilight in two days! I am glad I read it, it was a nice change of writing style from Outlander, but now I'm biting my nails in anticipation because I really want to know what is going to happen next!
That's why there was no Wordless Wednesday yesterday. I was so engrossed with my now traditional "Feed and Read" that I didn't realize there were no postings until I was half asleep in bed! The Feed and Read is: I feed the cats then read near by while they are eating their dinner. I hang out until they are all done eating, and then some. Nothing beats a good book in one hand and a cuddly cat in the other!
I'm looking forward to the Wardrobe weekend. Did lots of unpacking recently and discovered the clothing learned how to procreate in the moving boxes! I truly think that's what happened. I swear I didn't have that much clothing before!
Time for me to head out, will write soon, promise! =D
Lorry has her Wardrobe Wednesday.
I want to do both.
But how can I have a wordless Wednesday if I am sitting here gushing about some article of clothing?
Well, I say to myself, what about a Wardrobe Weekend? Brilliant!
Wednesdays shall remain wordless and now I have at least two days to put together the pictures and text for my clothing chatter.
I could have done a Threaded Thursday, but that will collide with my eventual plans for a Thoughtful Thursday. I have Christina to thank for the inspiration on that one.
Now I know that these themed blogs do not have to adhere to alliteration. But you see, that just makes it so much easier for a Swiss cheese brain like me to remember what it is I'm planning to do and when. Eventually I do hope to be a daily blogger and I have some themes for every day of the week jotted down, metaphorically speaking, in a text document.
Sleeping has not been of good quality for quite some time now so next week I'm heading over to have a sleep study done. It's an over night stay at a hospital type place and they stick wires and machines onto me to see what the heck is causing me to feel unrested. We suspect Sleep Apnea of some sort. My Dad has it. Mom said I snored when I was a baby even. I think baby snores are cute, but never realized snores are linked to problematic things. So, hopefully there will be some good answers gleaned from my night as a guinea pig. I hope I can bring my own pillow and one of my blankets. And that I don't have to sleep in an ikky hospital gown! I will be getting an informational mailing in a couple days will all the details.
The bookworm really bit me recently. Do worms actually have teeth? I really don't know! But, I must say, I've been going through the books at what is an amazing rate for me! I picked up "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon and admittedly, had a bit of a sludge through the first half of the book but then it got much better and I was hooked! So I picked up "Dragonfly In Amber", the second book in the series when my husband was restocking on his series that he's working on and I also got "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer. Got through DIA at a nice pace and thought it might be nice to finish my other new book before i continued with the Outlander series. This afternoon I was blinking in astonishment at the park because I'd finished Twilight in two days! I am glad I read it, it was a nice change of writing style from Outlander, but now I'm biting my nails in anticipation because I really want to know what is going to happen next!
That's why there was no Wordless Wednesday yesterday. I was so engrossed with my now traditional "Feed and Read" that I didn't realize there were no postings until I was half asleep in bed! The Feed and Read is: I feed the cats then read near by while they are eating their dinner. I hang out until they are all done eating, and then some. Nothing beats a good book in one hand and a cuddly cat in the other!
I'm looking forward to the Wardrobe weekend. Did lots of unpacking recently and discovered the clothing learned how to procreate in the moving boxes! I truly think that's what happened. I swear I didn't have that much clothing before!
Time for me to head out, will write soon, promise! =D
Monday, June 1, 2009
Mosey Along...
Just putting this up here as a reminder to myself. It might end up being a good thing, it might end up being a bad thing, but it seems like a good idea at this moment in time.
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