Saturday, February 28, 2009

Friday, February 27, 2009

My Kindle Is In The House!!!

Of course, yesterday, while chopping and dicing away in the kitchen, my doorbell rang. I dried my hands, picked up Stella and opened the door. There stood my mailman with my Kindle in his hands!! And wouldn't you know that I didn't even have the time to open the box!! I finally had to put it in the other room so that I wouldn't be tempted to toss dinner plans to the wind and play with it.

Today it's supposed to be below zero with 30 below zero windchills. I have nothing planned until 6:00PM. Guess what I'll be doing??? :)

Mission Accomplished!

I went to the grocery store THREE times yesterday. An initial gathering, then a stop at another store to get what the first one didn't carry and then a third visit to pick up what I forgot the first time around. As it was, I didn't get into the kitchen until around 2:00PM. I made the apple pie bars first and then methodically worked my way through the prep for the rest of the meal. I served the appetizers at 7:30 and looking back, it was an ambitious menu but I got everything, including the dishes done before my guests arrived. (just barely!)
The lettuce wraps were great, however, if (and that's a big if) I ever make them again, it's all I'll be making! They're lots of work. Everyone loved them, especially Clancy :)

P. F. Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps Recipe #15865
This recipe is from Todd Wilbur and Top Secret Recipes
25 min 10 min pre
SERVES 2 -3
3 tablespoons oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup water chestnut
2/3 cup mushroom
3 tablespoons chopped onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
4-5 leaves iceberg lettuce
Special Sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon hot mustard
2 teaspoons water
1-2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste
Stir Fry Sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl.
Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil.
Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve.
Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well.
Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.
Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan.
Saute chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done.
Remove chicken from the pan and cool.
Keep oil in the pan, keep hot.
As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas.
Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.
When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are.
With the pan still on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil.
Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan.
Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce"cups".
Top with"Special Sauce".

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Chinese

I've invited Jane, Marty, Clancy and Bridget over tonight for Chinese. I'm making P.F. Chang's chicken lettuce wraps (Clancy's request), sweet & sour pork (Bridget's favorite), stir fried fresh green beans with teriyaki sauce (Jane loves stir fried green beans), steamed rice and apple pie bars for dessert. Yeah, I know, apple pie bars don't seem to go but I have a hankering for them and I know Marty will like them. Plus, they'll be easy to send home with him to take to work tomorrow. He likes that :)

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Mom's Out, Stella's In!!


And yes, she does have her own blanket that coordinates with the decor of my bedroom ;)

Dingo Driven??


Stella wakes me up every morning between 5:45 and 6:00AM. There's absolutely no reason for either of us to be up this early but evidently, she doesn't know that. And it's not because she desperately needs to go outside. She bugs me until I get out of bed and then lays by the stairs and watches me start my morning. She may or may not ring her bells to go outside, she really takes her time on that one. I cook my breakfast and when it's done, if she hasn't gone out yet, I make her go. Then, I sit at the table and leisurely eat breakfast and read the paper. She gets a Dingo and as soon as she's done with it, she goes back to bed and sleeps for at least another hour.
If I try to crawl back in bed with her, she bugs me until I get out. Now, c'mon, I have a king size bed and I only use about a third of it! She weighs 11 pounds so she doesn't need more than 2/3 of a king sized bed. And she's gotten so independent, that if I haven't gone to bed early enough in the evening to suit her, she trots off and goes to bed alone, where I'll find her all snuggled in when go to bed.
I wonder if I cut out the Dingo in the mornings if she'd sleep in later? Or maybe there's really something to the fact that she has Jim's eyes... he was an early riser too. And independent... and loved treats.......makes you go, "hmmmmmm......"

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Yippppeeee!!

My Kindle has shipped and it's due to be here Monday :) I'm so excited! I was browsing the book selection last night and already have two that I plan to buy. I'm so thrilled that I will no longer have to wait for books to come out in paperback form before I can buy them at a reasonable price. I noticed that the price is the same at the Kindle store regardless of whether the book is out in paperback or not :)

Up & At 'Em!!

Stella and I were up and at McDonald's drive through window at 7:00AM this morning. We brought breakfast out to the boys and stayed with them until it was time to drop them off at school because their Mom had an early dentist appointment. They only had one fight and there were no tears shed so all and all, it was a good morning!!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Happy To Me!!

When she was small, one of my girls used to say this instead of Happy Birthday to me. She was little and it was cute. For the life of me, I can't remember which one it was though, they were both so cute :) At any rate, I preordered myself a KINDLE and it's not even my birthday. It's just a Happy to me kind of day :)


P.S. I'd be ashamed if anyone knew how long it took me to figure out how to post a clickable link :) Html is like a foreign language to me.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Shrimp Fettucine Alfredo


It was a snowy, blustery day and I didn't have anything planned other than a ton of laundry. I read a new book and although I don't usually cook much for just me, I continued to spoil myself and made this wonderful dish for dinner :) Shrimp, cream, butter, garlic and noodles, who wouldn't love it?

The Incredible Edible Egg



I love eggs and usually have them in some form or another every morning. Thankfully, I don't absorb fats and my cholesterol has never been an issue. Plus, I desperately need the protein. And they're easy to make and easy to digest. I also love eggs benedict but don't normally take the time to make them for just me. This morning, I decided I was going to treat myself so I was sitting at the dining room table, reading the paper and eating homemade eggs benedict at 6:20AM. Sounds like a sad glimpse into my life but actually I was feeling pretty darn good about myself :)

And that leads me to a joke Jim liked to tell...
Q: What are the two things a married man never gets at home?
A: A blow job and eggs benedict


And yes, I did on occasion make him eggs benedict :) About the BJ? I plead the fifth :)

As It Turned Out...


There were only eight of us at Allison's card class Wednesday night. I had a fabulous time and told her she could have classes here any time she wanted... as long as only seven other people come besides she and I. It was a different crowd from the week before so I made another Brownie Turtle Trifle and it was again, a big hit :)
I also love the cards I made. However, I have a problem with handmade cards. I love to make them, admire them and have them, I just can't make myself actually give them away. So, I have a drawerful of beautiful handmade cards and I still go out and buy cards for whatever occasion arises. Pathetic, huh?


Wednesday, February 18, 2009

"Mom, Can I have a Card Class At Your House?"

"Sure." I said, "I can seat nine at the table."

Fast forward a week. "How many people did you invite to your class?" "Twenty-eight"

Said class is tonight, I have no clue where she's going to put the guests and am thinking maybe Stella and I will go to my Mom's and let her handle it. One of my regrets so far is the cleaning lady is coming this morning, it's snowy out so my kitchen floor will get tracked on, I'm sure there'll be snips of paper all over after the class and yes, they are using glitter. Arggghhhhh!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

I Hate Insurance Companies!!

After many faxes and telephone conversations between myself, my P.A., her nurse and my insurance company, my increased dose of Lunesta has been approved! Thank you Lori and Joanie for not giving up! I big *heart* you guys!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Taco Fest

I fried and filled 36 taco shells at Allison's yesterday. Jameson and Gage ate softshells so theirs didn't count. Allison, Sam and I ate 6 altogether. There were 10 tacos left when I did the dishes. That means that Karter and Babs ate 20 tacos between the two of them!! I love cooking for guys that can eat :)

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Awwwww, Ain't He Sweet?




Karter brought me this card this morning :) It brought tears to my eyes. When I called Allison to tell her about it, she had no idea that he'd been shopping. While he was here, he chipped all the ice off my front porch. He's a keeper, that one :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I spent the better part of the morning yesterday rolling, cutting out and baking sugar cookies. Allison brought me lunch and soon afterwards I was on to making frosting and decorating all these cookies. I had just finished cleaning up my kitchen when my BFF, Jane stopped after work for a well deserved drink. These are her very favorite cookies so I was happy to have a nice, big tray full to send home with her :) The rest are going out to Allison's tomorrow when I make a taco dinner for our Valentine celebration with the boys.
And yes, I agree, it looks like someone has too much time on their hands... namely, me!

Friday, February 13, 2009

What Do You Know??

I must be on my way :)
Yesterday, I got up, made breakfast, did my dishes, got cleaned up and dropped Stella off at the groomer's. I then stopped at Subway and picked up a sandwich for Allison for lunch, delivered it to the nursing home, took Dad a Valentine box of candy to give to Mom on Saturday, stopped and visited Grandma, went grocery shopping, stopped at K-Mart and then met Joe for lunch. I picked Stella up on my way home, sat in front of the TV for about a half hour and then got busy in the kitchen. I made a batch of spaghetti sauce and put it on the back burner to simmer for the afternoon while I stirred up a batch of M&M cookies. I baked 7-1/2 dozen cookies, took a plate over to my neighbors and packed the rest up (except for the 6 I ate) and put them in the freezer. I laid on the couch and watched Dr. Phil and by the time I did my dishes and got the kitchen all cleaned up, it was time for supper. I had spaghetti and also had enough sauce left to fill 3- 16ounce containers for my freezer. Every once in awhile I get hungry for spaghetti and I just don't like the boughten sauces. This will be just the ticket. I'll have enough for two meals out of each container :)


After supper, while doing the dishes, I stirred up a batch of roll out sugar cookies and today, I will bake and frost them. I have heart shaped and lip shaped cookie cutters for Valentine's Day :) Best of all, I was done in time to watch Survivor and Grey's :) Yep, I must be on my way back :)

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

We've Been Spared!

We only got a few inches of snow overnight and the roads, while slippery still look manageable from my dining room window. That doesn't mean I'm going to venture out quite yet though :) I may make a run to the grocery store later this afternoon after the sanding trucks have had a chance to go through. Judging by the number of school closings and other cancellations, a lot of communities around us didn't fare as well.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Lovely, Just Lovely!

It's been in the thirties the last few days and although we still have huge piles of snow all over, it's been more pleasant to go out and do errands.
Today, it's been raining since about 3:00PM and they are predicting 6-8 inches of snow by morning. Just what we need, the rain to freeze and a nice pile of snow on top of it. Bet the body shops are salivating. I hate ND winters! And yes, I AM planning a long Caribbean cruise for next winter!

The Morning After


Poor Stella was up way past her bedtime Saturday night. She could hardly keep her eyes open on Sunday morning.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

OOPS!

I'm having the girls over for green chili enchiladas and margaritas tonight to celebrate Deb and Jen's February birthdays. Nancy has another event to attend so she sent these beautiful tulips for the center of my table. (How sweet!) I thought it'd be fun to share a picture of the flowers but as you can see, the picture mostly accentuates the fact that my tablecloth badly needs ironing. And I'm not going to do it. So, there! I had to do everything else in increments, laying down in between so ironing is out. I hope the Brownie Turtle Trifle I made for dessert makes up for it.

Friday, February 6, 2009

BoBo

This is Stella's favorite toy. BoBo. If I tell her to go find BoBo, she'll go and get it from anywhere in the house. She always remembers where she left him last. She loves BoBo. Sadly, she's destroyed two of them and I can no longer find them in town.
This morning I got an e-mail from dog.com and decided to look at their catalog. Lo and Behold, I found BoBo!! Not only did I find him, I found him on clearance for $4.99!! I ordered five of them so Stella should be well supplied with Bobos for quite some time :)

WHY?

Do the shampoo companies make shampoo and conditioners in 33.8 oz bottles and NOT automatically put pumps on them. And if they don't put pumps on them, why don't they sell them where they sell the shampoos and conditioners? I drove all over on Tuesday looking for pumps to replace the lame tops they did put on them. I finally found ONE and the gal there told me she has a hard time keeping them in stock. So, I ended up online and ordered the Redken ones. They were $2.50 each and I had to pay $5.25 to have them shipped. All of a sudden the "deal" I got on the big size bottles of product isn't looking like such a bargain anymore.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Slowly Healing

I'm still taking it pretty easy and trying to gain weight. I weighed 121# this morning so I've got a way to go.

I seem to be able to do things every other day and take the days in between to rest up. Today I have two doctors appointments, I'm meeting Gage and Allison for lunch, I have to pick up a prescription and stop at the beauty supply store. God knows I need all the beauty they can supply ;)