New Things Monday

Want a yummy treat? Reese's Peanut Butter ice cream cups are awesome!! My brother got a box of these and told me to try one. I told him I would make it my 'New Things Monday' today and he laughed. :) Anyways I liked it and found it to be the perfect snack I was looking for after lunch.
I found this cute blog where I got this picture. There are other cute pictures on there too. :)

Stuffed Tomatoes

I found a very good recipe in the Newspaper the other day by Alision Ladman and I clipped it out and decided I would make it. Of course, I didn't follow the recipe exactly and added different things. For lunch today I made them and they were a hit!

First you need to slice of the top of your tomatoes.

Then hollow them out...

Then make your filling, scoop into tomatoes and top with cheese. Let them bake for about 15 to 20 min.

Delicious.....

Nate loved them. He actually said "I never thought I'd ever eat a tomato like this". He's not a tomato fan until now. :D YEY

Here is the recipe:

tomatoes (I had 5)

sausage

3 tbs butter (unsalted)

W sauce

bacon bits

small diced onion

diced celery

minced garlic

parsley flakes

bread crumbs

black pepper

santa fe rice

shredded mozzarella cheese

Tomato sauce

I first cooked the sausage with the 3tbs butter and W sauce. Once cooked then add minced garlic, diced celery, onion, and bacon bits. Then add some black pepper and parsley. Cook your rice. I used the 90 second Santa Fe Rice packet. Drain the sausage mixture and add to a large bowl. Add the rice to the bowl with bread crumbs, black pepper and some cheese. I tried it and liked it then I had Nate try it and he said "how about some tomato sauce", so I added some hunts tomato sauce to it and mixed it in. Spoon the mix into your hollowed out tomatoes. Sprinkle some cheese on top and bake it. Next time I make it I'm going to add in some Italian seasoning blend. I think it will make it even better. Oh yeah.....I had enough mix leftover so I put it in a freezer bag and it's ready for next time. :)

Pineapple Upside Down Cake....FAIL

I found out the other day that Nate's favorite cake is Pineapple Upside down cake. So, I wanted to make a test cake for him. I'm sad to report that mine was a fail. :(

It looks good but it wasn't cooked through all the way. I even used my cake tester and it came out perfect but yet it wasn't done. I used a bundt pan and the cake was in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour. I tasted the parts of the cake where the batter was done and it really wasn't that tasty. I will find another recipe and try again. I'm not going to post this recipe b/c it doesn't need to be made again. haha

Shower Organization

These last few days have been crazy. On Tuesday, we had a 5.8 earthquake here on the east coast. I was outside walking with a friend from work and we didn't feel anything. We are probably the only 2 people that didn't feel it. LOL The next couple of days we had several aftershocks. Early Thursday, morning at 1:07am I felt the 4.5 aftershock and it was pretty scary. I'm glad I didn't feel the earthquake. On Thursday, afternoon we had a very violent thunderstorm. It literally looked like a tornado came through downtown but luckily there wasn't one. On Friday, I got stung by a wasp and my arm is itchy, hot and swollen. :( Saturday and early Sunday morning we got some of the outer ban of Hurricane Irene. Luckily, we didn't get any damage at our house and all of our friends and families are safe. The storm could have been a lot worse. I know Ashley and Kristen loss power yesterday and are still without power right now. So, it seems Richmond got hit harder that we did.

Ok sooooooo moving on.....When boredom sets in then it's time to get to that never ending project list. One of the things on that list was shower organization.

I always use those $2.00 plastic shower liners but realized it's really a waste. After a few months they easily tear. I'm not going to name names but there are only 2 people who use this shower and I'm not that one who tore it. :) Anyways, it's time to be greener and save some money so I decided to buy a fabric liner and figured I could just wash it every other month or so.

I got this fabric liner. I got cream to match the curtain which has browns and creams in it. (looks white in the picture, but I promise it's cream)

Now my next project was to finally put up our soap dispensers and clean up the clutter in the shower. Dan (Nate's bro) got these dispensers and as soon as I saw them I just knew I needed them. I told Kristen about them and she fell in love with them too and got them. I received my dispensers as birthday gifts from Melissa and one from Linda. Each holder has 3 dispensers attached to it. So 3 for me and 3 for Nate.

Clutter mess. All of Nate's bottles were on bottom scattered about.

YEY!! Look how nice they look.

I'm so happy that it's up. :D The only things on the bottom now are Shaving gel (which I might just put back on top and the tile spray. :)

New Things Monday

Have your tried Skinny Cow? I love their ice cream sammiches. I saw a commercial for candy and I knew I needed to try it. Less fat and calories than regular candy bars which is a plus. I tried the Heavenly Crisp and the Dreamy Clusters. The crisps tastes just like a Kit Kat bar and the clusters taste just like 100 grand candy bar. Very good! I love them both. :)

Flying Circus Hot Air Balloon Festival

My sister, Ashley and I went to the Flying Circus Hot Air Balloon Festival yesterday.

Cute sign at the entrance. (Ashley's pic) The hot air balloons didn't take off until 6pm. We got there around 5:30ish. So, we had time to walk around and look around. There was a fenced off area with tons of old planes. Some were just sitting on the ground and others were flying around above us. It was cute. I love the sound of planes going around in the air.
For a fee you could ride in the planes. We didn't. I also saw on the website that you could ride in the hot air balloon for $400. (yikes) But I'm sure it's worth it. I love hot air balloons.

Here is an old plane just modeling for pictures.

Another plane. We ended up taking a $1.00 hay ride with this cute little old man. He would stop off at different points during the tour and tell us some history of the Flying Circus or to talk about nature etc. He took us around on the hay ride where you couldn't walk to so for a $1 it was worth it. He took us up close to some of the hot air balloons as they were being raised. Those of us in the wagon were a little scared b/c we weren't sure if the balloons would fall over on us. LOL The old man also took us into a wooden section. He told us to watch for deer. We entered into a clear area that actually had a deer crossing sign and then off on the left were actually deer. STATUES!! But we all cracked up. This old man had a great personality. haha :D

Here's some of the balloons up in the air. And a bi plane flying around. (Ashley's pic)

Soooo pretty!! (Ashley's pic)

Awesome! (Ashley's pic)
(Ashley's pic)

This was one of my favorite ones! We got up really close to this one.

And it's in the air! (Ashley's pic)

This is my favorite shot. I took this one! So proud of myself. :) I still wished my big canon lens worked on my nice camera. It would have been the better camera to use for this event. So many ppl had big lenses and awesome cameras. I was a little jealous.

Love this sticker! :D
Picture of a hot air balloon basket! :) Would make a cool desktop background.

We enjoyed some Hawaiian shaved icees. I got GRAPE and Ashley got Lemon lime. :D I took a picture of our shadows. Thought it looked cute. haha After our sister day we had dinner at Pancho Villa. Ashley spent the night and this morning I woke up to pancakes and some sliced strawberries that Ashley made. MMMMMMMM :)

Homemade Chicken Fried Rice

2 packages garden veggie whole grain rice (90 seconds microwavable rice)

1 package frozen stir fry veggie mix

minced garlic

ginger

light soy sauce

w sauce

onion powder

black pepper

water

4 eggs

2 to 3 chicken breasts (cooked and cut up into small pieces)

Cook your chicken. Let rest for 10 min or so then cut up. (or make your chicken a day ahead and cut up so it's ready to go) In a frying pan scramble 4 eggs, then set aside. Add pam spray to your skillet and cook up the frozen veggies. While the veggies are cooking, cook your microwaveable rice. Add some water, w sauce, light soy sauce, minced garlic, ginger, onion powder and black pepper. Add your cooked rice, mix up and then add your chicken and scrambled eggs. Cook on medium, adding water when needed to keep from drying out. Then enjoy! My husband enjoyed this very much. He told me he never needs to order Chinese again since I'm doing an awesome job making our own. :)

New Things Monday

Today, I'm talking about Wegmans Fruit Flats. It's a fruit roll-up or fruit leather. Whatever you want to call it. I got the strawberry and the grape since I love those the best. I was very disappointed in the strawberry one. It was really bland. No real taste to it at all. I won't be getting that one again. I tried the grape one today and I really like it. It tastes good. It's a quick and no mess snack. :)

Handmade T-shirt Quilt

A few years ago, Kristen made Nate a t-shirt quilt for his birthday using all his old t-shirts from Stafford High School. It's so comfy to snuggle up in. Kristen promised Ashley and me that she would teach us how to make one.

Here is a picture of Nate's t-shirt quilt!

First off, you need a big area to work in. A lot of table space is key. Kristen rented out a room at a church right near her house. It was the perfect little room to get stuff done in. Good idea K! :)

Some of your fabric will need to be ironed so make sure you have an iron and ironing board.

I brought along Nate's t-shirt quilt to use as a guide to lay my pieces as they were measured and cut out.

Once you get your strips done you can go ahead and cut out your shirts. It's good to use shirts that are worn out, or no longer fit. I used a bunch of old station shirts. Either the shirts are too big for me, have old logo or are just old. I also used some headphone tees I had.

I didn't have enough regular shirts so I cut some of the logos from the corners of shirts to use piece together into one large square. :)

Always remember when sewing to sew pretty side to pretty side. :) I ended up having some issues with the way I measured but Ashley and Kristen helped me fix it where only we know the imperfections. :)

You need fleece and quilt batting. The batting goes inside your quilt and the fleece is your back.

Add your quilt face down onto the fleece and pin down.

Then sew along the edge of the quilt.....

Ashley is helping me out here. She's really fast on the sewing machine and she just whipped along finishing the sewing. You have to make sure you leave a medium size opening at one end so you'll be able to turn it inside out. :)

Once you turn it inside out.......

Ashley's VCU Quilt:

Kristen's JMU Quilt for Dave:

All 3 finished Quilts:

It took us from 9am until about 12am. haha But it was worth it. It feels good to start a project and end it all in the same day. It was an awesome day. Thanks Kristen and Ashley! :)

New Things Monday

Have you tried Wendy's Natural-Cut Fries with Sea Salt? I don't typically eat at Wendy's but one day I stopped in with some radio peeps to grab a quick lunch and tried the new fries for the first time. They were good. Then the other day after the Taylor Swift concert, Kristen and I grabbed a quick dinner from Wendy's. The fries were really HOT and I really liked them. Def like them hot better then warm. I would get again if I'm ever craving Wendy's. :)

Birthday 2011 Fun

Yesterday, was a fun-filled day on the Rappahannock River. To celebrate Sharon's and my birthday we got some friends and family together to all take a River Brunch Cruise.

Welcome aboard. (some pics are taken from Kristen's flickr)

Here is the boat parked at the Fredericksburg City Dock.

Paddle Wheel :)

Chatham Bridge with a train sitting on tracks.

There was a live band playing 90's cover songs. I thought they sounded nice.

Sharon's niece and nephew. Soooo cute and very well behaved. :)

River view from boat

One of the guys steering the boat. Sharon's niece and nephew went up and they let them steer the boat and also blow the horn. So cute! :)

We had a buffet brunch. On the buffet was salad, dressing, rolls, fruit (with pineapple, passion fruit, peaches and papaya) carrot cake, Macaroni salad, Green beans, carrots, mashed potatoes, quiche (sausage, egg and cheese) and then some roast beef.

Gene (Nate's dad) getting ready to eat. :)

Kristen made cupcakes!! They were so awesome and tasted so good. They are perfect for a summer birthday. :) They were orange and yellow inside. I think rainbow cake mix inside would be cute too. These def put a smile on everyone's face. :)

Group shot.....Kristen, Joe, Nate and his parents are missing from shot.

A blue heron. :)
The pillars inside the boat were covered with rope. LOVE!

And a picture of Nate and me. :D We had a terrific time and one that will always be memorable.