Beefy!

A few weeks ago, J. was gifted a $25 gift certificate to the Meat House. We picked up 4 burgers (bacon & cheddar and bleu cheese & pepper) and some sausage. The bacon & cheddar were by far our favorite! J. wondered why we couldn't do it ourselves, so we picked up beef, hickory smoked bacon, and cheddar cheese and tried it ourselves. The results --- delicious! Every bit as good as the Meat House. J. was so proud of himself and I wasn't ashamed to eat two of them!

They look a little dark in the last image, but they weren't burnt! 

Oops

Oops! I am a terrible blogger, sorry! 

Last weekend I made a pot of chicken stock so this weekend I picked up a few things and threw together a delicious chicken noodle soup! Simple, but so good.

I will try to be better about posting. Honestly, I haven't done a lot of crafting lately.. or cooking either. The fall will bring back some creativity! 

Florida III

I can't believe that my vacation is almost over!

I leave here tomorrow. Another week would have been nice!

But.. I have to get back to work; I'm missing my munchkins.

Florida's Grayton Beach is beautiful. White sand.. pretty water. *sigh*

Florida II

Another lovely day in Florida! 

Life is good.

Sweet tea & sunshine!

Wish you were here!

Florida

I arrived in sunny Florida late on Monday night! 

It was really hot yesterday.. so not used to it yet. 

This little guy was visiting on the window yesterday. Isn't he cute?

Soap!

Can you guess what J. and I are making this evening?

I've posted this before back in July (this post) too. We absolutely LOVE this stuff. 

J. grating! 

Recipe from Being Creative.

Valentine

J. and I typically don't do anything on Valentine's Day, so I was so surprised when I got home last Thursday night after babysitting after work to a ProFlowers box at our door. Inside were some beautiful lilies and iris' from my dad! He's the best!

Mercury

I love working with double pointed needles, so when I stumbled upon this pattern on Ravelry, I jumped at the chance to knit. I had the perfect yarn picked out, too! It's a very simple pattern, basic stuff!

I know I've mentioned that my wrist has been a giant bummer for nearly a year. I was able to do a few small cloths around Christmas, but not much more.  I'm happy that this project has been pain free, without using IcyHot, so hopefully I'll be able to finish the second fingerless mitten in the next day or so.

After the Holidays

As much as I love Christmas, I'm so glad that it's over! Lots of cleanup, packaging that needs to be stored away, J's birthday is TODAY, a cake to bake, a few gifts to wrap.. mother-in-law coming to visit next weekend.. much to do!

Christmas flowers from my parents, Candle holder from a dear penpal

I've enjoyed my vacation for the last week. Working only half days has been good for me, spending time at home, snuggling with my cats, working on projects, relaxing. Tomorrow is another half day, Tuesday work is closed, and then back at it on Wednesday.

Merry Christmas

Stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Recipe for Christmas...

All Year Long

Take a heap of child-like wonder

that opens up our eyes

To the unexpected gifts in life

Each day a sweet surprise.

Mix in fond appreciation

for the people whom we know,

Like festive Christmas candles

each one has a special glow.

Add some giggles and some laughter,

a dash of Christmas food,

(amazing how a piece of pie

improves our attitude!)

Stir it all with human kindness

Wrap it up in love and peace,

decorate with optimism, and

Our joy will never cease.

If we use this healthy recipe

we know we will remember,

to be in the Christmas spirit

even when it's not December.

Merry Christmas!

it is snowing!

Holiday Cheer

Sometimes it's easy to feel under-appreciated when working with children and their families. We're all rushed, can't bother to chat, or just too tired to talk so when I'm trying to tell how a child's day went I can feel ignored. The past three days have been so cheerful at work. Everyone is wishing Happy Holidays and smiling and looking forward to vacation. It makes me happy. I received some lovely little gifts this week. 

Makeup remover & mascara, 2 DD cards, a Christmas letter, snack mix (garlicky and delicious! I've received this snack mix as a gift every Christmas for the past 6 years from her and her older sister. I LOVE IT)

Candies, 2 Target gift cards, nail polish (wrapped with "you sparkle!", popcorn ("you make my mind pop!", Burt's Bees lotion ("Happy New Year! Hope it's a smooth start!")

Chocolate covered pretzels, gingerbread man soap, mug with Kisses, pinot noir, etched glass votive candle

Carter's Christmas Letter (without misspellings)

Darlene,

Merry Christmas Darlene! I hope you get some good presents

 (arrow points to a guitar) and a good family.

From Carter

PS Merry Christmas!!

A cheap meal

Sometimes I get excited when I can put something inexpensive together. This recipe has no name, other than "food" but J. loved this when I made it a couple of weeks ago so I made it again for him yesterday. 

1 box Ziti (with lines!)

1 large tomato sauce

1 large diced tomatoes

1 bag Banquet sausage crumbles (found at the Dollar Tree for $1)

Handful of shredded mozzarella

I cooked the ziti and heated the sausage in a pan and then added the sauce and tomatoes to heat through.

In my dish, I layered sauce, ziti, sauce, salt & pepper, ziti, and the remaining sauce. Top with cheese. 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. 

Nothing fancy but it makes a lot!

Saying Goodbye..

Not a lot to say, but J and I just returned from Rhode Island. His grandfather passed last Friday, so we had three days of services to attend. I'm not experienced in viewings, funerals and services so it was very hard for me to be a part of.. it was also J's first funeral so it was an emotional and exhausting three day for the both of us.  He was a kind, sweet man and I will very much miss him. 

A few things..

I've been a busy bee lately. With summer camp over (sigh of relief) and the kids back in school, I have a little more time to breathe and work on some things. Christmas is coming up, and with my wrist still sore I'll be doing less knitting and more projects. Anywhoo, here's a few things I've done recently.

 Grapefruit and vinegar cleaner. 

I've got 5 more grapefruits and a big bottle of vinegar to add before this sits and I bottle it into spray bottles!

 Banana bread. 

Honestly I've never made a banana bread I didn't like!

Creamed corn casserole. 

Eh.

It wasn't bad at all, but it's not something we'll eat on a regular basis. 

Good recipe for cleaning out canned corn I guess.

Progress

Thanks to this:

I was able to make this:

!

It really felt so nice to have knitting needles in my hands again! The IcyHot really helps. There is still a dull ache while I'm working, but I'm able to work through it. With Christmas coming up in less than 4 months, I've got a lot of work to do. These round cloths are my favorite!

Sorry the pictures aren't that great. DH is away for an extra long weekend and took the camera with him :)

So Fresh, So Clean!

Can you tell what I made today?
 

Laundry soap! It cost me $14.21 at Hannaford for everything but the crystals, which I already had.

If this works, I will never buy liquid detergent again :)

I made a couple small changes, but the original "recipe" is from being creative! She used 2 tubs of Oxi Clean and I only used one. I added the fabric crystals which she did not. I'm excited to try this. I've had it pinned on Pinterest for quite some time now!

It smells WONDERFUL!

Happy Birthday

I turned 31 on Thursday! 

Pretty flowers sent from my parents.

And a sweet teaspoon from my friend Karin.

New Orleans

I still haven't knit anything new since the last time I posted anything. I've been having a weird pain in my right wrist as well, which bothers me when I'm not even using it for anything (lovely). ANYWAY! I went to visit my parents in Florida. I left 4/13 and returned 4/20. I had the best time. We went on a 3-day trip to New Orleans!

Crawfish salad. Mom's is shrimp!

These funny little bubble dogs are all over the place. They are made to look like Mardi Gras beads. I should have stopped to read the little sign, but I didn't, so I had to Google what they were all about. "Last year, LA/SPCA took in more than 7,000 unwanted, abused, or neglected animals, and found homes for over 1,600 of them. So when you see one of the bright Paws on Parade bead dog sculptures around town, the organization hopes that maybe you’ll smile, and think about ways you could help." from Mardi Gras Bead Dogs.

I had the best time in New Orleans! I'm still totally exhausted (not looking forward to work tomorrow), but it was well worth it :)

So much for knitting..

I still haven't been able to knit. I don't know what's wrong with me, but that craft fair is getting closer and I still don't have enough to participate. Instead of forcing myself to knit, I pulled out the Crock Pot last night and finished up this morning.

Made a whole box of linguine. Divided it up in 2 dishes.. 3/4 in a big one, 1/4 in a small one.

"Cream Cheese Chicken" from my favorite slow cooker cookbook. Looks disgusting, but is super tangy and delicious!

I found this stir-fry recipe on the back of a Kikkoman seasoning mix. I used stew beef instead of chicken.

Nom!

Mystery meal

I know you all know how much I love to knit/craft, but my heart is often in the kitchen. I love to bake, especially. Although I had Thursday off from work due to the snow we received, DH unfortunately had to brave the elements and go to work (3-11pm). Because most of his work is done outside I thought it would be nice of me to make sure he had something yummy when he came home.

Our cupboards (and fridge) were pretty bare, but I managed to whip up a little something delicious. I call it Mystery Meal because I really didn't know how well it would turn out.

I'm happy to say that we both really liked it! Here's what I did:

• preheat oven to 375
• boiled 3/4 package of Wacky Mac (cooked, drained, set aside)
• buttered a dish
• whisked 3 eggs in a bowl, mixed in Italian seasoning and s&p
• added it to the Mac, pour into dish
• cover pasta with a large can of tomato/pasta sauce.. any kind will do.. I used a 4 cheese one I think
• top with cheese (the more the better, IMO)
• 20 minutes until cheese melts a bit and sauce bubbles

I'm sure it would taste just fine without the eggs, but I wanted to give it a little more density. I'm sure DH would have liked some meat or something in there. Or a sauce with meat?

And then, because I'm that nice and had just one egg left, I made him some chocolate chip cookies :)