Something is Rotten…

In my fridge!

 

I’m positive Fletch purposefully struck a pose for me.

I have nothing else to post about (except a polar bear with no arms or legs) so I’m going to show you what we had for dinner tonight and link to the recipes.  I haven’t had a chance to properly look through those old recipes from the estate sale yet, but I will definitely share the ones I try and are keepers.

I’ve been wanting to try this chicken recipe for awhile now.  Unfortunately, when I opened my package of chicken thighs to prepare them, THEY STUNK!  They were ruined!  GAH.  How freakin’ gross.

So instead of what I had planned, we had the below recipe with a large can of chicken breast meat and some snow peas along with the rest of the ingredients.  The other one will have to wait until I get to the grocery store for some fresh chicken.  Grrrr.  I hate it when a dinner plan falls apart at the last second.

Well, I forgot to take a picture of it!  Things are just not going well for posting today.

We had Chinese Fried Rice.  Find the recipe HERE.  I used brown rice (baked) and less oil for the health factor.

And instant Peach Iced Tea.

With REAL sugar…gasp!

She Bear & Recipe

I finished her last night.  I love the colors, don’t you?  The striped yarn is ILTY and the pink is cotton ILTC.  I’m getting better the more I do.  I’m starting yet another one today…a polar bear.  I’m addicted to making them.

I’ve been told by Professionals that I have an “addictive personality.”  Really?  When can I come see you again, doctor?  Tomorrow?  Can I come the next day too?  I like coming here.  I want to see you every day.  Hee-hee.  Not really.  I just made all that up because I’ve had too much coffee today.  I’m, um, addicted to caffeine.  Hmm…

Am I making sense at all?

I feel like I’m not.

Oh well…it’s not the first time!

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We had this last night for dinner.

Here’s how I made this:

 

BRUSCHETTA

1 loaf of French Bread

Butter or Margarine (Or Olive Oil)

Chopped & Seeded Roma Tomatoes (8-10)

Fresh Pearl-Size Mozzarella Balls (8-oz packed in water)

4-5 Chopped Green Onions

1 Tbsp dried Basil

3 Cloves Garlic Chopped

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Salt & Pepper

(Use whatever amounts you like of each ingredient.  These are the amounts I used for 1/2 a loaf of bread or about 8-10 slices.)

 

Drain Mozzarella balls (I said balls!) and place in a medium bowl.  Add the rest of ingredients and mix well.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.  Slice bread and place on a large baking sheet.  Spread with butter, margarine, or olive oil. Broil bread until browned and remove from oven.  Spoon tomato mixture on top of hot, toasted bread.  Serve immediately.  (This is also good with torn fresh basil leaves, parmesan, cilantro, avocado…use whatever ingredients you like!)  Some people like balsamic vinegar sprinkled over it too!  It’s good!  If you have any topping ingredients left over, use them in scrambled eggs.  It’s wonderful!  I’M HUNGRY, aren’t you?

About those Mozzarella Balls…

(Hee, I said balls again!)

I got these at Whole Foods.  They came in this tub and were packed in water.  There was some packed in brine, so be sure and read the container.  I don’t know what the ones in brine taste like or how they’d work with this.  I guess they’d be okay, but there is a difference.  If you’ve never had fresh Mozzarella balls, they are really mild and don’t have much taste (in my opinion).  You can use any type of cheese you want, I suppose.  I’ve probably just offended a cheese snob somewhere.  That is, if I didn’t all ready offend EVERYONE with my stupid BALLS joke.  Ha-ha-ha.  Oh, relax! 

Balls, Balls, Balls!

Bye!

Bears & A Treasure Trove

This is a little bear I made copying Kate’s cute bear project (both of ours shown below).

I thought we both bought the same color of Bernat Mosaic, but I like her colors better (hers has the aqua color in it).  One is “psychodelic” and the other is “calypso”.  At last I think that’s right.  Not sure which is which though.  I love all the colors that this yarn comes in, but it breaks easily.  Mine broke off many times when I was sewing the bear together.  If you’re just using it for crocheting, it’s fine, but if you put any tension on it at all, it will break off.  Be warned!

I have all ready started another one using a different color scheme and yarns.  It’s fun to make.  I used the free pattern HERE.  I find it easier to follow than the Bear in a Jif pattern on the Lion Brand site.  Plus, it makes a smaller bear, which I like.

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Now lookie here!

My BFF, Boon Pappy, went to an estate sale last weekend, and he got something very cool for just FIVE BUCKS:

It just looks like an old piece of crap, doesn’t it?  But look what’s inside:

It’s a huge collection of hand-written and clipped recipes!  The lady he bought this from said her husband worked at an old hotel in Dallas years ago, and many of the recipes came from there.  I just love looking through stuff like this.  I just did a quick dig through them when I first got it home, and look how old some of these newspaper clippings are…

This one is nearly 50 years old!

Very cool, eh?

$5.00!

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And finally,

Miss Sammi would like to say hello.

Her face makes me laugh.

4th of July Dress

I just made a really long entry here and LOST IT!  GAH!  I’m trying again.  It’s never as good the second time you try.  DAMMIT.

This ended up being a 4th of July dress totally by accident.  I was just making it red and white, but I ran out of the white yarn and couldn’t find a match for it at Hobby Lobby, so I just decided to do the bottom in blue and trim it in white.  I found a little star pattern to go on the chest.  I screwed it up though, and will have to redo it so that it’s not so wonky.  It’s a hodge-podge of patterns and yarns.  The pattern is basically the Baby Girl Sleeper pattern that you can find for free on Ravelry.  I just adjusted and tweaked it a little.

This is the Captain and I this morning at the H & R Block getting our taxes done.  He was looking all serious and trying to be professional.  I was bored and was taking pictures and sticking my tongue out.  Ha-ha-ha!  He said he has that look on his face because he had no idea what I was doing.  The CPA lady was sitting right in front of us.  Are we done yet?  Can we go now?

How about NOW?

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What’s that you say?

More vacation pictures?

Well, okay…

 

Here is the cute little house that Kate and I stayed in all to ourselves.  It was so fun sitting on that screened-in porch in the mornings drinking coffee in our jammies!  The weather was just perfect.

This is the little entrance trail to the beach.

Here I am in my yellow bikini getting a tan.

I can’t believe Kate cut my head out of this picture.

WHAT???

Okay, okay…that’s not me.

My bikini was RED.  LOL.

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Ollie-Wally is so happy his momma is home.

His leg is doing just great.

I think that’s all behind us now.

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Y’all go get those taxes done!

And come back tomorrow for yet another…

TAH-DAH!

Florida FUN!

Gorgeous Water

My finger made an appearance in A LOT of pictures.

DUH.

Do you recognize the Garden Bell and her hat?

She was always running off ahead of me.

And SHE was sick!

Here she is way off in the distance on the pier.

I spy something RED!

What did you say lady?

You want to come up here with me?

Go see my picture with this handsome guy on KATE’s BLOG.

A little innocent flirting never hurt anybody.

A piece of KEY LIME PIE every single day…

Never hurt anybody either.

Nom-nom-nom…

The shrimp cocktail we shared wasn’t bad either!

We had GREAT food for lunch & dinner every day.

We went yarn shopping & crocheted together.

We shopped till we dropped and bought dresses & shoes…

We swam in the pool…

Drank tea & coffee on the screened-in porch every morning…

We just had a great time.

Of course, I didn’t want to leave when the time came.

But it’s nice to be home & see my doggies.

Oh, and the Captain too!

Talk to you more later.  I need a nap.  I also have a crochet Ta-Dah to show you, which I made before I left for Florida.

So y’all come back tomorrow.

Bye!

Back Soon

I'll be back near the end of March.

Y'all take care now, ya hear?

Spellbound

I was spellbound by all the pretty flowers at Whole Foods Market yesterday.

I smelled them all.

I wanted them all.

But all I got was this stupid salad…which was DELICIOUS though.  I got a basket full of other grocery items too, but no flowers.  Now I wish I had at least one bunch to admire and sniff all weekend.

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I NEED:

1.  A good book that I can’t put down.

2.  To go to the dentist. (Total Horror/Ain’t Happenin’)

3.  Smaller jeans (yay!)

4.  To clean my closet.

5.  A puppy.  (Hee-hee…not really!)

6.  A haircut.

7.  A long walk.

8.  A hot, freshly-baked brownie with ice cream and hot fudge.

9.  Chopped pecans to go on #8.

10.  Energy (But a long nap first!)

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See ya later, Girlfriends!

Ollie has been in the car with us several times now when we’ve gone through the drive-through at Starbucks. He has taken quite a liking to the foam on top of my lattes. In the picture above, I was trying to get a picture of him stealing some. I was having major operator error and COULD NOT get a picture of it.

I even accidentally got a few seconds of video.  All I managed to get was myself cussing.  Ha-ha.  If you start this video over, right at the very start you'll see a close-up flash of Ollie's tongue.

I was not driving while I was trying to do all this.  The Captain was driving.

This is just a random picture.  Nothing in it is significant.  I was trying to do something "artistic" with the rain on the window and the water tower on our way home yesterday.  Obviously, it didn't work.  LOL

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A rack of chicken legs on the grill.

Picture courtesy of The Captain.

He tries to do his part to entertain you.

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Ollie will be a free dog tomorrow.  No more pen.  He's doing great!

See ya!

Monday Blahs

Good Cause Afghan

Free Pattern HERE

I’m not making the afghan.  I just wanted to try the square pattern.

I’ve got nothing else today.

There’s just nothing happening.

Have a good Monday!

Veggie Stir-Fry Dinner

We had the best stir-fry made at home that we’ve ever had last night…

I tried Alton Brown’s Baked Brown Rice Recipe to use in it.  I absolutely hate making rice on top of the stove.  It almost never comes out perfectly, but this way it did.  You can find the recipe and method HERE.  This is the way I’m going to do my brown rice from now on.

Here is the stir-fry recipe:

Brown Rice Veggie Stir-Fry

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp water

1/2 small onion, sliced

1 cup shredded cabbage

1 bag frozen stir-fry veggies

Handful Sugar Snap Peas

1/3 cup chopped Roma tomatoes

1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice

1/2-1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

Heat first three ingredients in a wok or large frying pan.  Add onion, cabbage, and bag of stir-fry veggies.  Cook and stir 4-5 minutes.  Add sugar snap peas, tomatoes, and brown rice.  Cook and stir 2-3 minutes more until heated through.  Serve.  Makes about 3 large servings.

Then…

Because we all know Chinese food doesn’t keep you full for long, I made us both a Pineapple-Banana Smoothie at about 8:00 last night.  I forgot to take a picture of them, but here’s the recipe.  We also like these with frozen peaches instead of pineapple, but the pineapple is our favorite.

Pineapple-Banana Smoothies

1/2 of a 16-oz bag frozen Pineapple Chunks

1 ripe banana (not frozen)

2 cups of Soy Milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 packets of Truvia (no-sugar sweetener)

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into two glasses and serve.  (Makes 2 servings)