Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!! A big THANK YOU to our MILITARY who have sacrificed their lives for our FREEDOM. GOD BLESS!

A good read....

I heard about this book and became curious. I wanted to know what Osama's first wife and his son went through. I learned a lot by reading this book. And I think Jean Sasson says it just right to those who might oppose this book...... "As a person of enormous curiosity, my life experiences have taught me that discord often erupts from a lack of knowledge and education. To discourage future dark moments, I believe we must nourish the minds of our young with learning that creates understanding between ethnic and religious groups".

One of the most shocking parts I read was about all the Poppy plants in Afghanistan "His goal was to send as many hard drugs to the United States as possible so that America's money would flow to Afghanistan while America's youth will be ruined by becoming addicted to the drug heroin".

I'm glad to be an American!!! I just couldn't imagine growing up in that sort of culture.

Army Wives

Now that LOST has ended I needed another TV show to occupy my free time. haha I had thought about Army Wives. I wanted to watch it years ago but never got into it. Last weekend, our friend, Eddie talked about it. His wife, Crystal had mentioned to me before how good it was. I couldn't wait any longer. I didn't really want to buy the DVD's not knowing if I would like it. I couldn't find anyone that owned the 1st season so I searched on craigslist and found someone who had season 1 for $10. I picked up the DVD's yesterday after Kristen's yard sale. :) Kristen and I watched the first disc! OMG!! We were both hooked after the 1st episode. :)

Fireflies...

Fireflies (lightening bugs) make me smile! I saw some on the way home last night. They give me good memories. My siblings, dad and me would run out side right as it was getting dark and catch as many fireflies that we could. We put them in a mason jar (my dad had made some slits in the lid for the bugs to breathe) until we had a bunch. Then we would sit in the family room with the lights off and watch the lightening bugs light up the room. Once, we were done we would sit the jar on the side porch railing, take off the lid and watch them fly out. :)

Roasted Red Potatoes

I bought some red potatoes the other day at the store. I'd been wanting to make roasted potatoes but I'd never made them before. I asked Kristen the other day for her recipe.

She told me:

Cut them in half or quarters, depending on how big they are and boil them – I usually put rosemary in the pot with the water just for flavor. Then drain them and put them in a 9x13 pan or casserole dish. I drizzle olive oil, butter and more rosemary on top, stir them a bit gently, and then bake until they’re roasted and sizzling.

I did it a little differently. I washed 5 large red potatoes. Cut them in little pieces and put them on a cookie sheet. I drizzled extra virgin olive oil over the potatoes and added some pepper and parsley. I let them bake for a bit on 350 degrees. When I checked on them to stir them they were sizzling. YEY! I cooked up 5 slices of bacon, cut it up and then sprinkled the bacon over the potatoes. I also sprinkled some parm cheese on top. They were good!! I'll def be making them again. :)

LOST: THE END

Kristen, Dave, and Eddie came over last night to join us for the LOST Season Finale. I can't believe it's over. I'm still having mixed feelings on the end. I like it but I'm still confused. I think I might watch the last episode again. I kinda feel like watching from the very beginning again too. :)

I picked up an Entertainment Weekly Magazine that was a special LOST edition and had it sitting out for everyone to look through.

The white paper, I got weeks ago from IKEA for a project was used for LOST. Kristen and I kept some empty boxes and we wrapped them (well Kristen wrapped them cuz I HATE wrapping with a passion, I just cut the paper). Kristen printed the labels and I put them on the boxes. We had cereal, rice, cookies and crackers. I think they look cute!!

Kristen made cupcakes!! MMMMMM!!! The cupcakes were chocolate with vanilla icing with a little bit of cinnamon. The airplanes, Kristen made out of white chocolate with an airplane mold. They were cool! And of course she put little palm trees on each cupcake. Thanks Kristen! :)

Kristen and Dave printed pictures of the cast members. I cut them out and put them on little stands and had them sitting on the table for some more 'props'. :)

A few years ago I got Nate a Hurley figurine. We set it up and had it! :) I'm not really sure what to do with the props now. haha I don't want to just throw them away. Maybe I'll put them in a box b/c you never know. There just might be a LOST movie one day? :)

LOST is almost at the end....

I'm a huge LOST Fanatic!!! Sunday night is the LOST series finale. Can't wait to see how this show is going to end....... (stay tuned).....

SAWYER! :)

Basic Quiche

A few weeks ago my little sister, Ashley made some quiches. I got the recipe from her and decided to make 2 quiches to have for breakfast for the next few days.

Basic Quiche Recipe

By: Ashley

1 9in. pie crust
1 tbs. olive oil
2 med. onions, chopped
3/4 cup of half & half
salt & pepper
1 cup chopped parsley
4 eggs
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
8 oz. grated cheese (2 cups)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place crust in pan and put on a baking sheet. Heat oil in skillet, add onions & 1/2 tsp. of salts & pepper and cook for 5-7 minutes. Stir in the parsley. Whisk eggs, half & half, nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp. of salt. Stir in onion mixture and cheese. Pour into crust. Brush edges with egg white or cover edges with foil to prevent burning. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

You can stir in frozen spinach before baking, if you'd like to. Or, you can brown up some sausage and then add it to the mixture. If you add sausage, you can fill 2 pie shells and make 2 quiches.

For my quiches I did it a little differently....

2 9-inch pie crusts

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion

1 green pepper

6 eggs

3 tbsp parsley flakes

salt and pepper

1/8 tsp nutmeg

Milk (I used a little more than 3/4 cup)

1 tsp unsalted butter (melted)

pkg of cheese

sausage (cooked)

bacon (cooked)

I pretty much followed Ashley's process. I brushed the crust with some egg wash and baked the quiches on 350 degrees for about 35 min.

Serve alone or with a dollop of sour cream! YUM!! :)

Angel Food Cake

For dessert tonight I made an Angel Food Cake. Talk about a MESS!!!! I followed the directions according to the box. I baked the cake in an bundt cake pan. After a few minutes in the oven I smelled something burning. The cake kinda exploded in the oven and was seeping all over the place. UGH!!! I put a cookie sheet under it to prevent more spills. When I took it out of the oven it was a complete mess all over the edges. The box said to use a knife to go around the edges breaking the cake away from the pan and placing it onto a glass dish to cool. I had to cut away the excess mess around the edges. I was FINALLY able to get the cake out of the pan.

I cut up and washed some fresh strawberries, and melted some chocolate chips. I cut a chunk of cake and then layered with Redi-whip, strawberries and chocolate. It was very good, but I don't think the mess is worth it.

Come here birdie....

I went over and visited my dad for a few hours yesterday. I took my camera along so I could capture some pictures of his blue birds. They are so pretty!! We checked the box and so far there are no eggs. But the nest looks to be almost complete so we're thinking any day now there will be eggs. :)

After taking several photos we chatted a bit in the house. My dad is such a great story teller. He took a trip down memory lane about his old 'mechanic days'. He told me a ton of stories about when he would help repo cars for friends or taking cars back from people that promised to pay him but did not. One story he told me about a car that he repo'd was as if he was in a dukes of hazzard episode. He said he got in the car, started it up but couldn't get it to go anywhere. The guys who had the car heard my dad start it up and ran out probably thinking my dad was stealing their car. My dad said to me that he couldn't get the car to go forward or back and there was a light pole that way laying right next to the car. My dad said he put the car in high gear and finally got it to go and high tailed it out of there, with the guys grabbing onto the car and getting mud all over them from my dad driving thru the yard. haha He said the guys got in another car and followed him as he went down back roads in Manassas, VA. To this day he can't even remember where those roads are but he lost those guys and got the car. It's nice to have these little chats with him and I believe he likes telling his little stories. I love my dad! :)

Semper Fred 5k 2010

Today, along with 8,000 other people (from 47 states) we had the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon and the Semper Fred 5k. I did the Semper Fred 5k, and I was very happy with my time!

2010- 54:51

2009- 1:12:53

My goals were to beat last years time and to finish before the first half marathoner finished and I did! WHEW!!! :)

The winner!
Jess running! GO JESS!!

I'm sore but it's worth it!! :)

Opening Ceremonies

Jess and I went to the Marine Corps Half Marathon/ Semper Fred 5k opening ceremony. Jessica won a trophy called an Oscar Mic for her involvement with the Half Marathon. Oscar Mic is a military term for 'on the move', and after 9 marathons I would say Jess is on the move.

Here's Jessica with her Oscar Mic and Rick (stage left) and Mark (stage right).

After the speeches, they cut the ribbon!

Blueberry Cheesecake

Tortilla Stack

I was reading my family circle magazine the other day and came across an interesting recipe for Tortilla Stack. The recipe was submitted by a subscriber. I decided to make it for dinner today.

You can pretty much put whatever you'd like in your tortilla stack.

Here's what I used:

Chicken shortcuts

Mexican Rice

Black Beans

Canned Corn

Cheese

Pepper

Tortillas

You can add green pepper and onion. And if you don't want to use chicken you can use steak.

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. I wrapped the tortillas in foil and warmed them up in the oven for a few minutes.

I then heated up the chicken. I heated the black beans and the Mexican Rice. To a small bowl, I added a can of corn (drained) and some pepper. Then I added the black beans (drained) rice, cheese, and chicken to the bowl and mixed.

I put a tortilla shell on the bottom of my springform pan. Add some of the mix, tortilla shell and repeat until you're satisfied with the layers. I did 3 layers.

Bake for about 10 min on 350 degrees. :)

Trimming....

Linda, came over yesterday and cleaned up the front flower beds. She trimmed the bushes that were just massive. Now hopefully, I can keep them nicely trimmed. :)

Strawberry Pie

Linda brought us a bunch of strawberries yesterday. I love Strawberries!!! :)

I wanted to make something with them. So, I thought about making a strawberry pie. I googled recipes and came across an easy one. (I did tweek it a little) I checked my pantry and had all of the items. Yey!!

Ingredients

· 1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked (or use a graham cracker crust)

· 1 quart fresh strawberries

· 1 cup white sugar

· 3 tablespoons cornstarch

· 3/4 cup water

· 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (optional)

I had 2 packets of Jello no bake pie crust. I mixed both packages with some sugar and melted butter. Then pressed down into my pie dish.

Whisk the cornstarch and water together. (You could use gingerale or lemon lime soda instead of water).

I added a few drops of red food coloring to make it more strawberry like. :)

On medium heat, mix berries and sugar to a boil. (recipe says to mash berries but I did not)

Sugar will melt. See it melting? :)

Once your berries have come to a boil, reduce the heat and gradually add your cornstarch mix. Let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Sauce will become thick.

See it getting thick? :)

Add berries to your pie crust. Then cover and refrigerate for a few hours.

MMMM! :)

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream. Next time, I make this I will add A LOT more berries.

I also made 2 chocolate covered strawberries, just because! :)

Successful Monday

Today's weather.....Sunshine, some breeze and in the 60's. Perfect weather!! I got up early this morning (9am, which is early for me since I like sleeping in till noon). Nate's mom, Linda was coming over and putting up some shelves in the bathrooms. I decided to go outside and do some weeding. I weeded around the tree in my front yard and then I tackled around the other tree in the flower bed at the end of the driveway. Linda showed up and then she helped me with the rest of the weeds. Linda said she loved pulling weeds b/c it was a stress reliever for her. I find pulling weeds to be stressful b/c there is just so much. I feel like they grow right before my eyes.

My little gnome, smiling b/c all those nasty weeds are gone around him. :)

My little Magnolia tree is still doing good. It has a lot of nice new leaves. Linda was excited to see it doing so well. YEY!! :) I told Linda, that I was thinking about getting rid of the big bushes in front of the house. I told her that I hated them. She said that since they are so big that the roots are probably under the house by now and it will be a real pain digging them out. She told me she has a real nice saw and she would come over later this week and trim them all down nice and even and get it cleaned up. YEY!! Then once all that's done I'll get some new mulch and lay it down in the beds. :) Then at least the front yard will be looking nice for the summer. My daisies are coming up too. I hate have to clean them up in the fall but they really do look beautiful. :)

Linda brought over 2 wooden bird houses and we hung those up. We put one in the front tree and the other we put in the backyard on the fence. I love them. They remind me of my dad b/c he loves hanging up wooden bird houses. Can't wait to see if some birds make a nest in them.

We put one shelf in the guest bathroom above the toilet. I think it looks great.

We put the other one in the master bathroom above the toilet as well. I've already put my hair dryer on the one little shelf and I put my make-up in one of the little drawers. :)

HAPPY 60TH DAD!!

May 10th, 1950 my dad was born.......

Happy 60th and many many more!! :)

Birthday Breakfast for my dad....

My dad turns 60 tomorrow!! Today, we had a little get together for him. We made breakfast at 2pm. Breakfast is good at any time of the day! :)

We made: Quiche, Cinnamon Rolls, Bacon, Tator Tots, Waffles, Pancakes, fruit and of course cupcakes!! My dads favorite....Yellow Cake with chocolate icing! (He really loves them with a piece of candy corn on top but we don't have any candy corn at this time of year...LOL)

Waffles making a mess on the waffle maker! ( I got this Cuisinart waffle maker from my grocery store, Bloom. At the time they were doing a promotion for every $10 you spend you got a sticker and with your stickers you collected a certain amount for Cuisinart items. Pretty cool promotion. In the past, they've done this with nice kitchen knives and nice cooking pots).

I hadn't used my waffle maker till today. So, now it's broken in. :)

We had strawberries and bananas. Every single one was eaten. LOL

My plate!! Yummy!! :)

Cupcakes!!

My dad eating cupcake #5!!! haha :) Oh my dad told me he didn't want any of his pictures on the internets, but he doesn't know about my blog.