Quiche Anyone?

Yesterday I browsing over at down---to---earth and Rhonda Jean posted about home cooking , with a Recipe for ----a tomato and caramelised onion tart. It looked really yummy and easy, so I decided to try it for tonights Dinner. I used Pilsbury Pie Crust and followed the recipe exactly as she had it laid out. It turned out great and was VERY easy to make.

Love a Great Deal!

Today I got a courtesy call from Men's Wearhouse.....seems we had a $50 gift certificate that was about to expire today....Last summer when CDR was first planning to retire we bought him a couple of New Suits there, and since we were spending so much we figured it was worth it to join their rewards program. It was pretty cool that they called as I had totally forgotten about it...So I decided to head out there and see if I could find anything for him. Lucky for us they had a pretty nice clearance going on.....I was able to get him two nice $50 sweaters for FREE!! Doesn't get much better than that!

Then I went to Target and bought a few things for myself.....The other day I got a cute black cotton dress on clearance for $6.24.....I wore it today...it's actually a Liz Lange Maternity Dress....NO......I'm not pregnant!!! But it fits perfectly and doesn't even look 'maternity" on me..they had some other cute maternity stuff real cheap so I decided to go ahead and pick up a few more pieces....I was able to get another dress and cardigan for $6.84 and $8.24.....and a regular top for $3.24....annnnnd a New Coverlet and Shams for our King Size Bed for less than $50! A successful shopping day

Wearing the Black Cotton Liz Lange Dress I bought on clearance the other day, a Brown Knit Jacket that I've had for a while, Black Tights and my new Brown Fringe Boots.

Ambie just HAD to get in on the Photo Session...LOL

Don't Tell My Husband....

..but I actually enjoy baking these days!! LOL....Earlier this month I broke out the OLLLLDDD bread machine (which I had used maybe 10 times in the ten years I've owned it) and have been making bread almost daily ever since...Our favorite so Far is Ricotta Bread....It's a nice thick slightly spongy bread..with a slight hint of the Ricotta flavor.

I started out with the warm milk( I just microwaved it for about 15 seconds)..

Add the Ricotta...yummmm
Here are all the wet ingredients and Salt and Sugar...before adding the Flour and Yeast....

I like to make a little 'well' in the Flour for the Yeast.....

All set and ready for the Bread Machine....
I set it for a Regular Light Loaf....So far I've been making all of my loaves with this setting and seems to be working the best...
I check the dough a few times just to make sure it's all mixing well...and not too wet or too dry...

Three hours later....Voila.....Fresh Warm Bread!

It makes a pretty small loaf...it only calls for 1 1/2 c. flour...I should have doubled the recipe...as we REALLY like this and it's already almost gone now!!

Then later this afternoon I was still in a Baking Mood......I looked for Recipes online...but couldn't find anything that really jumped out at me...or that I had all the ingredients for......

Ok, yeah, I know....I just questioned how another blogger who shall remain nameless could run out of so many things she uses regularly........but......"I" don't claim to be an Uber Organized Housewife with an Uber Organized and Well Stocked Pantry......and........the kind of ingredients "I" am talking about here, weren't your everyday 'staple' ingredients....ok.....so there!!..LOL

soooooooo.. anyways.....I went rummaging in my UNorganized UNwellstocked pantry and found this old box of Lava Cake Mix.....I've had it a while......sheepish grin........I decided today is a good as any day to try it....
The finished product:....they look great...and tasted pretty good....they weren't really "molten" by the time the 15 minute 'cooldown" as directed on the box ...was done. I really want to bake more from scratch too.....but I still have some prepackaged mixes and stuff in my 'Pantry" that I can't bear to waste ..so I guess we'll occasionally be eating fake packaged stuff......

FlashBack Fridays

Tara over at Too Much Information is hosting :

I want to join in the fun, so here's my First FlashBack.....

There I am at the end of the table with my Dad....I'm not sure what this 'event' was...I'm assuming it's either Christmas or Easter at my Memere's...we appear to all be eating Pie....It might even be Christmas Eve. Next to me to the right(my left) is my Aunt Karen(red headband) next to her is my cousin Debbie and then My Cousin Claire in the blue plaid...On the other side of the table is my Cousin Gail in pale yellow, and next to her (sitting to MY right) is my Cousin Pam. I'm not sure how old I am here...I'd say around 2 or maybe 3 years old. My cousin Gail is one year older than me and she looks to be at least 3 or even 4 in this picture...

A Prolific Day As Well....

Three posts in one day...why is it some days it's like pulling teeth to figure out 3 sentences to write and then other days I just can't stop??!! Really, I just wanted to share a few pics I recieved recently...like earlier tonight....

Here I present you with The Recruit, although he's really not a "Recruit" anymore....then again Co-ed isn't really a "Co-ed" anymore, either....Not sure if the
CDR should still be referred to as such? Drama Teen and Genius Boy will ALWAYS be.......

Any way.....here he is:

Serious

Not So Serious

And here is his room....he has the bottom bunk..over there in the bottom left corner...I can tell because I recognize the Blanket...My mom made it for him when he was little.

His shoes all lined up.

A Productive Day

I'm always happy when I feel like I've had a productive day and today was....I had a few errands that I really needed to take care of....I'm such a procrastinator and these were things I really should have done sooner so I'm glad I can finally cross them off my to do list!! First Co-ed and I invited Genius Boy to join us for lunch out. We let him pick even, so we ended up at a Burger Joint called Five Guys... it wasn't bad....

I didn't realize the 'Regular" Cheeseburger was a DOUBLE burger though so I will definitely order the 'little' Burger next time....and the fries....ummm ...we ordered two ....and well...we had a sack full of fries left over...One would have definitely been MORE than enough!!

Afterwards the Co-ed and I had to stop by the DMV to turn in the plates on her now dead Tiger Car....may it rest in peace.....and then to Best Buy to get a new power cord for her computer....and then...well.....since we were out and in the vicinity we HAD to stop at Salvation Army....where we each scored a few cute things.....and finally to the bank to deposit a few checks we've had sitting around.

She found this cute Polka Dot Dress....a Girls size 16 from the Limited II ...it fit her PERFECTLY...I used to be able to do that too, ages and ages ago when I was her size.

and this cute little Bright Yellow Cotton Top.She's moving to Florida soon so she'll get a lot of wear out of it I'm sure....and then we found this really cute Bright Handknit Shruglike Poncho thing..it looked adorable on her...It basically just covers the upper chest and shoulders....we're not sure if it was meant to be worn like that or if it was for a child....it was hanging in the women's section....

I also found a few cute things......A Funky Wool Deer Sweater( appropriate WI wear I'm sure) This Bright Green Plaid Wool Jacket...A Graphic Black and White Skirt , a cute colorful hat( again WI) and an adjustable Red and Blue Belt.

And the Piece de Resistance( have NO idea if that's spelled right).............................................

Vintage Pyrex Dishes....these aren't easy to find...at least not around here.....I did find some Pink ones a while back....these are actually Red...I am very excited about these!! And it's a pretty great set....there's a large platter, six dinner plates, 4 dessert plates and six bowls!

My Outfit Today

Gray and Yellow Striped Top-Old Navy Online-New

Gray ruffled Cardigan-Old Navy-New

Levi Signature Jeans-had forever

Gray and Cream Knee His-Target

Purple Flowered Shoes-Payless I think..a few years old.

And this is what co-ed wore....I think it's pretty cute...it was interesting to see peoples' reactions while we were out and about. Chesapeake is definitely NOT the Fashion Capital...

Forced Family Fun Night......

I had a friend who used to make her Family participate in what she called Forced Family Fun Night.....no one could make other plans....and the usual plan was to do something really fun as a family...makes sense.....
So last night we had our own little FFFN......Forced because the power went out and there was nothing better to do...no TV ...no Internet...house pretty much completely dark. except for a few small candles I could scrounge up...LOL

Anyway Genius Boy thought it might be fun to introduce us to Just THE Best Board Game of ALL Time. His words. It's called Settlers and was actually pretty fun and easy to play. Co-ed had actually played it before so she had a pretty good grasp of the game..I'd never played so it took a little getting used to it...by the second round I had it down. I don't know why we don't do this more often....it was such a nice night. GB even made Enchiladas after the power came back on...Actually he had started them right before it went off and wasn't able to finish them without the power. Co-ed and I had already eaten dinner but once those Enchiladas came out we couldn't resist!!..LOL So we had TWO dinners last night. And here I'm trying to lose weight...oh well....

One Week....

...From today I will be in Wisconsin!! I am excited. Luckily Hubby's business trip was canceled so he WONT be gone my first few days there after all!!! Yippee! Can you tell I'm excited??!! Now I just have to figure out what I'm bringing. Now that they are charging per checked bag at the Air Port , I need to try to condense my trip wardrobe to one large suitcase and whatever I can fit into the two carryons I'm allowed. As usual I'll probably procrastinate and wait till the night before to actually pack.







In other news....today was spent doing a bit of housework and running a few errands....EXCITING , I know!!

Outfit of the Day

I Have One of the Best Friends in the Whole Wide World...

...and I really mean the WHOLE WIDE WORLD. My friend Nanci moved to Qatar a few years ago...I miss her terribly...we got very close during the 5 years or so that we got to know each other here.... we were like family...our families spent nearly every spare waking moment together...we went to Puerto Rico together and had the time of our lives...and now she's soooo far away and life just isn't the same without her here.........so.......

Today I walked down the drive to check the mail....yeah I took a pic of my feet( for a project I'm doing....I'm weird I take pics of weird things...my kids think I'm nuts..I probably am)


I reached into the mailbox and ....what's that......a little package ....how fun!!!It's from Nanci!! Yeah...how fun..she is so great..... BTW you can legibly read my address there, so if anyone else would like to send me stuff , don't hesitate...I LOVE packages...especially surprise ones!(although I must warn you....no matter how many packages you send and how awesome they are....you will never be able to win the BFITWWW title away from her.....it goes soooooo much deeper than packages...but hey, they help!!)I couldn't wait to open it so I ripped that box apart...ok I very carefully used my scissors to slice the tape open.....Here is what I pulled out...Oh and this cute little note....130 degrees!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry...I mean yeah...I hate winter and those below zero Temps in WI are scaring me....but I'm sorry, 75 cents a gallon is soooooo not worth dealing with 130 degree weather!!!!This was in the Pinkish bag..It is supposed to be Candy....I'm assuming some kind of arabic candy???Then I opened the blue bag and this 'stuff' fell out in a bunch of little pieces...wasn't sure WHAT it was supposed to be.....hmmn...I thought maybe it was a piece of unwrapped candy that broke and got crushed...it looked very UNappetizing.....look a little closera little closer....there was one good piece left.have any idea???not sure how well you can read it, it's pretty blurry....but those items up above are : Gold , Frankinsense, and Myrrh That "stuff" is GOLD!!!Their Christmas card...they'd been to Beirut , France , and Niagara Falls last year......wish "I" had their life!!Love You Nanci!