Tales from the Scales Check-In

Last week I was sleeping in, still worn out from the trip to St. Louis and the Police concert(but it was a good worn out) I know better than to weigh in late in the day, so I didn't weigh in at all. Thursday at Weight Watchers I was down .6 from the the previous week. Not much of a loss, but still any loss is good in my book.

This morning when I weighed, I got a little gift...2.5 pounds down! Making for a total of 3 pounds and I'm really happy about that! Starting Friday, I bumped my exercise up to a four mile Walk Away the Pounds every other day and have started drinking a lot more water. Seems to be working!

Don't think me unkind..words are hard to find...

OK...I could never do justice to the spectacular-ness that was the POLICE concert! I will tell you that it was amazing, incredible, and exactly everything that you would imagine a Police concert should be and then some! Most all the hits were played...including the fantastic ROXXAAANNNEEE!, Can't Stand Losing You, Da Do, Do Do, Syncronicty II (now I must sing..."another suburban family morning...") to name a few. Man! It was so cool just to be there! And it was not unlike a giant sing along much of the night. Awesome!! Shea and I had a GREAT time and I know we'll not easily be forgetting it!If you want to know what it was like, hop in your Police cruiser and head on over to my brother Shea's blog where you can find the complete rundown of this most excellent night! He does a much better job of recreating it than I ever could!

In just a few hours Shea and I will be off to see the POLICE in concert. SO excited! My FAVORITE POLICE VIDEO wouldn't uplaod, but this is one of my favorite POLICE tunes for your viewing & listening pleasure...

Randomness For Rhonda

We've recently landscaped a teeny bit and this guy now guards my house. That stick behind him hopes to grow up to be a Redbud tree some day.

Sewing for Dummies

Spent Mon. & Tues. getting sewing lessons. I think it shows in my two latests efforts! My mother used to sew all the time. She's made clothing, costumes(I'll try to find a picture) bunnies, bears, and countless dolls! She also has nice, smooth sewing Singer that has just enough bells and whistles to be helpful without being confusing.Being able to sit down and have her show me what to do and give me shortcuts and ideas of when it's not totally necessary to follow the pattern, was so helpful. I'll be able to begin my next project with much more confidence. Thanks Mom!

My patterns this week were Simplicity 4282 (pictured). I made apron "F" which is a plain half apron with a giant panel of three pockets. The pattern shows eyelet all around, but I didn't want it. I had enough of eyelet on the Victory Apron! Anyhow, this was the easiest, least frustrating pattern yet. I knocked it out in a couple of hours and with Mom's help made a strip of bias from a coordinating fabric. Very Cute!

The next one was MUCH more difficult. Took all day to complete, but it's so adorable I can't stand it! :) Not bragging, mind you...just a bit in awe that I made it! Of course, were it not for Mom's help, it be in a heap in the trash right now. This one is surrounded by bias tape. When I bought the bias tape, I didn't realize there was a wider version available. This is the skinny stuff and I stabbed myself numerous times just trying to pin it on, never mind trying to sew with a thousand pins in my lap! This pattern is McCall's number 3979 "American Hostess" which has several vintage style aprons.

Strawberry Cake

This week's recipe is Strawberry cake.

1 pkg. White Cake Mix
3/4 Cups Wesson Oil
4 Eggs
1/2 cup Strawberries
1 pkg. Strawberry jello
Mix and bake cake ingredients at 350 for 35-40 minutes.

Icing:
1 Box Powdered Sugar
1/2 Cup Strawberries
1 Stick Butter
Mix and ice cake.

A word to the wise... This icing is supposed to be more of a glaze, I think. DO NOT make the mistake I did of thinking "it looks too runny" and dump in more and more powdered sugar until it becomes more the consistency of "real" cake icing. Mine was SO sugary it'd make your eyeballs roll back in your head! Still, we managed to scrape most of the icing off the top and it was quite tasty! I will be making this again, but sticking to the recipe. Lesson Learned!

Tales from the Scales Tuesday

I am so relieved that this week we were asked to focus on the non-numbers. The numbers weren't kind to me this week. However, I must remind myself that it took me a while to pack on the pounds...they ain't coming off in a week! :D

Though the scales weren't my friend this week, overall, I'm happy with what I've accomplished thus far. I exercise most every day and instead of killing myself with workouts that are too intense, I'm "Walking Away" the pounds using the Leslie Sansone DVDs. I highly recommend them! They are fairly easy to keep up with and I can't believe I'm going to say this...they're kinda fun! The exercise has me sleeping better and I've lost five inches in addition to my overall weight loss of 21 pounds (lately it's 21, then 23, back to 21, then to 22, etc. etc.). I've given up drinking regular sodas for the most part...this is down from 5-6 glasses PER DAY and I drink more water than I ever have. I've gone down one size in clothing! Yippeee!! Love that!

I want Ham to Eat! AND I'll wear my Victory Apron to eating the Ham.

Can't mention ham without doing a Brian Regan imitation...even IF no one can hear me.

Anyhow, This is another one of those slap in the forehead things. Why did I never do this before? Just used a 2.5 lb. pre-cooked & sliced Smithfield ham. Turned out delicious...I'm still eating this ham two days later! The package gave the directions to add a little water to the baking dish before cooking, I added a little cola instead.

EASY MUSTARD GLAZE
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 TBS. pineapple juice
1/2 tsp. dry mustard

Combine sugar, fruit juice and dry mustard. Spoon over ham 2 or 3 times during the last 30 minutes of baking time.
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I decided to continue sewing, even after the giant waistband fiasco. This time I chose an apron pattern with a smaller waistband, thinking smaller is easier(ha!). I also decided to add a ruffle, eyelet, and an eyelet trimmed pocket(which I had no pattern for...mine were either too small or too big). It was TOO MUCH! TOO MUCH! Too many things that I didn't know how to do going on at once! I have never BEEN so frustrated! I took the seam ripper to this one about six times, no kidding! But I have to admit, when I don't focus on all the mistakes, it's pretty darn cute.

I wanted to participate in Tie One On. It's an online show and tell from crafter Angry Chicken. Each month or so she tosses out a theme you create an apron that in some way fits the theme. Past themes have included Pink Lemonade and Apron! the Musical. I think it's a wonderfully creative, fun idea and participating just might keep me motivated to continue sewing. When I read that this month's theme was pockets, I immediately thought of embroidery. Later, I was checking out vintage apron patterns on ebay and came across one for a Victory apron from the 40's. Voilà! There's my idea! I knew I had embroidered a set of Victory Tea Towels ....and the Fourth is right around the corner. I'd do my own Victory Apron! SO I had a good idea, even if the execution wasn't perfect.

Since I only have to submit a photo for Tie One On, and all my mistakes aren't evident in the photo....I'm going to go ahead and do it! I'll post a link to the June gallery in case you want to see what others do with the pocket theme. Here's my Victory Apron...

Barenaked Ladies - One Week (The Bathroom Sessions)

This weeks RANDOMNESS FOR RHONDA... My favorite band, Barenaked Ladies! Hope you enjoy it! Rhonda, feel better!

Scored Potatoes and a Weird Giant Waistband

First things first. I cooked this week! Tried a new recipe called Scored Potatoes. Quite Tasty and easy enough that I was able to cook them successfully! This one is going in the cookbook. And I'm going to use it as my first Tales from the Scales recipe swap!

Scored Potatoes
4 large baking potatoes
2 tbs. melted butter, divided
1/8 tsp. paprika
1 tbs. minced fresh parsley
salt & pepper to taste

Cut potatoes in half lengthwise. Slice each half widthwise six time, but not all the way through. Fan potatoes slightly. Place in a shallow baking dish. Brush with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Sprinkle with paprika, parsley, salt and pepper.

Bake uncovered at 350º for 50 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Drizzle with remaining butter.

My changes: The recipe said bake for 50min., but I only cooked one potato and it took a little over an hour until it was done enough for me. I don't have fresh parsley laying around the house so I rounded up all the shakers of green things from the pantry and settled on oregano instead and it was fine. And for the heck of it, I went a bit crazy on the scoring...more like ten times!

I figure these are pretty WW friendly since they aren't loaded down with butter. One half of a potato is a serving and I figured that right around two points with the amount of butter I used (1 tbs. total).
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For those of you who are keeping up with my sewing.... Yesterday I tried a half apron. Good grief! It was SO hard. Well, parts of it were SO hard and it doesn't look the way I hoped it would. Yes, I want everything to be done right and look perfect and I get really cheesed off and frustrated when it doesn't and I'll spend hours stewing over things I did wrong rather than being pleased with what I did right. Shea knows 'zactly what I'm talking about.

Anyway, the apron I attempted to sew is the one on the upper right corner all cute with red cherries and gingham. I used fabric off the dollar table at WalMart, which may have contributed to some of my frustrations. But I don't want to buy a bunch of expensive fabric when I'm just learning! Getting the pocket made and put on nearly drove me insane and MY apron ended up having this giant flippy-flappy-flopping waistband. You have no idea how badly I wanted to rip it off and fix it, but I'm trying to remember that I'm learning.

Tales from the Scales Tuesday

I came a cross the Tales from the Scales weight loss challenge this week and thought it might be one more thing to help keep me on track. However, I didn't start the challenge six weeks ago like everyone else, but decided to jump in anyway. I did start WW (again) eight weeks ago. I was doing good, no, great actually. But as I've already mentioned this week, I got a bit off track. For two weeks I have done nothing remotely Weight-Watchery! In fact from Thursday of last week till Sunday of this week, I ate everything not nailed down...and it was GOOOD! The giant cheese logs at Pattis, the junk food at home, regular Cokes, REAL full fat ice cream, a delicious chicken & rice dish at the Real Hacienda, just to name a few of my indulgences.

Here's the bad news...after two weeks off program, I gained weight. Here's the good news...I only gained .4 pounds! .4! Not EVEN a whole pound! And I have to admit...it was totally worth it! But I realize, of course, that those little numbers DO creep up until they are bigger numbers and it is time to reign it in. Now, normally I weigh in on Thursdays at WW, so for the challenge, I may post on Thursdays after weigh-in and just link back to it on Tuesdays for the other challenge gals. But wanted to post today since it's my first week to be in on the challenge. I have read a few of their entries this morning, and it nice to hear how other people deal with the whole weight loss/gain game. I am pleased (with myself) to report that yesterday I managed to write everything down, drink water and exercise! I felt great all day, so I plan to do it again today and tomorrow and so on and so forth, etc., etc.

On another note, I am trying out a recipe today! Imagine! It's the reason I started this blog in the first place! Had a plan & a goal so that I wouldn't ramble aimlessly, and I still managed to end up rambling aimlessly anyway!! :) Anyhow, the recipe I'm thinking of is an easy potato one, so check back again later and I'll tell you how it went!

Someone Give Me a Pat on the Back...

For controlling myself today! I tend to get a little wacky when I go browsing on Amazon.com. I never really know what I'll end up with. Sometimes it's crazy books about crime fighting cats that talk, sometimes old musicals, sometimes (like last week) it's books about aprons...yes they make those...and sometimes it's music.

Today its was this and this and this.
BUT I did NOT buy any of the three! I decided I've been way to free & easy with the credit card lately and then I went to balance my checkbook and decided that couldn't take the strain either. SO, I will wait. At least until after the POLICE condert and then I will even try to wait until I can go to a decent book/music store and pay cash. If we only had a Barnes and Noble in town!

Exhausted from the fun and off the WW Wagon again!

After two whole days of fun and adventure, I'm worn out! Thursday I tagged along with my friends Kelly, Stacy and Stacey to Holiday World. We had a really great time! SO much fun. However, I have learned that I may be too old for riding Roller Coasters. As much fun as it was, it nearly beat me to death! Especially this one, the Voyage, which was terrifying besides being a rough ride! Take a ride here!

Friday I set off for a trip to Patti's at Grand Rivers with pals Sheila and Cara. The only thing I did that was harmful to my health there was overeat! AND OVEREAT I DID! We had mozeralla sticks that would more appropriately be named GIANT CRUNCHY LOGS of FRIED CHEESE, there was delicious flower pot bread slathered in strawberry butter, I ordered a KY Hot Brown that was covered in homemade potato chips followed by something very near Derby Pie. OH, but it was good! After our hearty meal, we wandered around some shops there in Grand Rivers and headed for home...but of course we stopped for ice cream on the way. Was another good day....wish I would have taken some pictures of both days to post. shoot.

SO I was rolling right along on WW. And then for some reason, I just sorta stopped. Stopped writing things down, stopped drinking water and stared drinking regular cokes, stopped exercising and started gaining weight! Imagine that! Eat more and stop exercising and the weight comes back? That's just not fair ;)

I don't know why I stopped...I could come up with a thousand excuses, but they'd be just that, excuses. I guess it's time to get back on though. Maybe someone who reads this can call me on it. Shame me into "doing right!" I've said it a thousand times, WW works for me, WHEN I FOLLOW THE PROGRAM.

I did find a weight loss challenge called "Tales from the Scales" that I'm going to try and join. Maybe that'll help. I need the accountability factor! And I need to lose those dadgum 40 pounds!!! The challenge actually started in May, but it looks like they'll allow you to jump in at anytime...and the weigh-ins are posted on Tuesday, so I guess that gives me a Tuesday topic.

Randomness for Rhonda

My friend Rhonda is one of the people that I know reads this drivel...or is it dribble...in my case it could be either. SO in order to keep her (and yes, myself) entertained, I present "Randomness for Rhonda!" I will post SOMETHING totally random once a week. Not sure what day I'll do it AND I don't know what the post will be. Randomness, get it? ....maybe a picture I've taken or pulled off the web, maybe a website or if I can ever get all techie like Shea I can post you tube videos and music.

Without further ado, here's this week's Randomness for you Rhonda.

From around the house...anthro pear S&P...aren't they cute?

SLOW going with the cookbook

Yesterday I had lunch with Mom and Debbie Newman(my brother-in-law's mom). I asked Debbie for her Poppy Seed chicken recipe and Mom mentioned to her that I was making a cookbook. Debbie laughed and said "YOU'RE doing a cookbook...and you don't even cook?" I thought it was funny and of course, true. Anyway, told her I was collecting and compiling recipes more so than "writing" a cookbook. And that cookbook is taking a bit longer than I anticipated. Much of that is due to my recent bout of ADHD. I've been jumping from project to project and running here and there a lot lately. Have done no cooking to speak of lately and I hate to lose that momentum, so next week I will be trying out a recipe and posting the results. As for the cookbook, I've had to start paying to finish it, so I'll be submitting it, finished or not, around the 8th of July.

Some fun now

TA DA! I actually managed to sew an apron. This is the result of my first try. Now when I say my first try, I mean my first try at sewing an apron. My actual first try at sewing was back in middle school home ec. class. I made a pair of shorts from a peach chintzy-type fabric. The result was about what you'd expect from your average eighth grade doofus. Wacky-off seams, twisted elastic and they unraveled after the first washing. Did I mention they were peach chintz? eeeww.

My second sewing attempt came years later when Mark got me a sewing machine for Christmas. Maybe five/six years ago. I tried pajama bottoms. They turned out much like the eighth grade shorts. Then I got creative, laminated some vintage magazine adds and made myself a purse. That was actually pretty cute, but the grommets I used for holding the ball chain handles pulled apart and the purse was no longer usable. I may try that again sometime. I also hemmed two ends of some cute retro-housewife fabric to make a half curtain.

That gets me to this week. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I'm on a vintage apron kick as of late and I thought aprons would be an OK place to once again try and learn to sew. Pillows or placemats would have been easier, but that's boring. Aprons have no buttonholes, no zippers...no extra parts to confuse me...and they're pretty! So I began with a basic chef's apron. Not too bad, but I won't show close up pictures where the seams & trim are obviously wobbly and one pocket is higher than the other. I realize these are my first tries, but I tend to be a bit on the perfectionist side and I want stuff to be right. But I guess what I need to remember (whether it be sewing, cooking or anything) is that when learning something new it's not going to be perfect and even when I know what I'm doing, it won't always be perfect.If I can learn that lesson, it'll be good for me. Ok, enough of that. On to aprons number two and three.
Number two is actually pretty nice. It's a bit fancier; I used "girly" fabric and even tried out a RUFFLE!!!Number three is another chefs apron. This time I thought I'd try grosgrain ribbon for the ties. Won't do that again, I thought it'd be easy to work with, but I had a hard time with it. The fabric on this one is soooo cute. It reminds me of a Shag print.
This is the pattern I used for the chef's aprons
I used this for the pink ruffly apron.
I have lots more fun apron patterns and plenty of cheap fabric to play with, so I plan to keep going till I get good at it!

...another hobby...

I forgot to mention this hobby in my last post. I really enjoy doing embroidery and have been at it off and on for about three years now. Nothing terribly elaborate or complicated. My favorite thing to embroider are dish towels, although I have a table runner, a pillow case and a couple tablecloths waiting to be embroidered. My favorite subject for embroidery are anthropomorphic dishes, fruits, veggies and whatnot. Call me a nutjob, but there's something about a smiling face on a dancing stalk of celery that just makes me giddy! I think once I get the sewing thing down, it might be nice to incorporate the two somehow. Here's a look at some of my towels.
.
I made this set of anthro dishes DOW towels for Trish as a Christmas gift.


Made a set of Chef DOW towels for Mom for Mother's Day a while back.


These were just for fun!

Newest Obsessions

I've had a few hobbies...

There are the "collecting things" hobbies...I collect PEZ, I've collected ENID COLLINS and other vintage purses. Currently, only Enid wooden box purses interest me...I can't afford the flashy lucite ones, so I don't bother. Vintage tablecloths are one of my favorite things. When I was a little girl and through my teens I collected miniature cups and saucers from different states. And then there was that embarrassing period in the 90's when I went hog wild over beenie babies.

Then we have the "doing things" hobbies. Painting. Mostly on clothing...made lots of $$$ doing that one. Selling vintage clothing on ebay was also a paying hobby and fun...good excuse to hit up the thrift stores on a weekly basis. Let's see I tole painted for while (right before the shirt thing). I make jewelry and do some scrapbooking (neither recently, however).

And of course, more recently, the cooking thing. Which probably shouldn't be considered a hobby, should it? But my most MOST recent obsession has become aprons. Weird, I know. I don't know where I get it... Anyway, I've picked up a few vintage aprons at flea market/antique malls and the more I get, the more I want! And now to add yet another hobby, I've decided to learn to sew. And I'm learning by sewing aprons of course! I have no fewer than FIVE apron patterns and a walmart bag full of fabric and I really don't know what I'm doing. Like cooking, I have to call Mom half way through a project (all one of 'em) and ask for help over the phone! ANd like any good hobbyist, I've found websites related to aprons, flickr galleries on aprons and have even ordered two books on the subject. Is ordering books on Amazon a hobby? Cause I do that A LOT!

Chicken Crescent

My good friend Pam sent me this recipe. It is exactly the kind of recipe I need, easy with few ingredients. ...and it is SO yummy. Not sure what to serve with it,however. Don't know what happened to the picture...but while yummy, it's ugly food, so we may be better off without the photo! Now, I didn't want to make eight of these puppies so I used the leftover crescents and made some Veggie Dogs in a Blanket for Mark. I know many of you wonder if I ever cook for him...I have to admit, he does fend for himself most of the time but this time I did at least roll up some veggie dogs in a crescent roll and he was very appreciative. I should make the effort more often...

Pam's Crescent Chicken
1 can crescent rolls
1 can chunk chicken breasts
1 large can cream of chicken soup
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Unroll the crescent rolls into 8 rectangles. Drain the chicken. Put small amount of chicken onto one rectangle, roll it up and place in baking dish. Continue until all are in pan. Pour soup over this and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake at 350, uncovered, for about 25-30 minutes.

Easy and Cheesy

Shea came down on Saturday and did a final upgrade on the old mac. So I decided to make some lunch for us and I thought I would try out this recipe. It's nice to have meat eaters around who'll help me eat what I cook! I've never made lasagna in my life, but this was very easy! Uses jarred pasta sauce and dry noodles...and it was tasty too. I found the original on allrecipe, but changed some ingredients around a bit to my taste...So, I guess this one I really can call "my" recipe!

And no you don't have to cook the noodles. Evidently being sealed under the aluminum foil and under all that sauce helps them to cook. Mine turned out really wavy and lumpy(didn't affect the taste at all).

THE LAZY, WAVY LASAGNA
1 pound lean ground beef
1 (32 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
16 ounces cottage cheese
16 ounces ricotta cheese
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
uncooked lasagna noodles

In a large skillet over medium heat brown the ground beef & sausage. Drain the grease. Add spaghetti sauce and simmer for 5 minutes.

Mix together the cottage and ricotta cheeses, 2 cups of the mozzarella cheese, eggs, half of the grated Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, salt and ground black pepper.

To assemble, layer in a 9X13" pan:
about 1 cup of meat sauce on the bottom of the pan then layer:
noodles
cheese mixture
sauce
(do this twice)


The amount you'll layer will end on your taste, but the bottom layer of meat sauce will take a little more than the rest. I ended up with WAY more cheese mixture left over than was necessary, so you might want to really pile on the cheese
you like it cheesy! Top with noodles, remaining sauce mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

Cover with aluminum foil. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F(175 degrees C) oven for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve it with crusty garlic bread.

WW Update

I "officially" started back to WW on May 5th. Meetings, weigh-ins, and all. I had done the WW program on my own since Jan., but once we stopped our Biggest Loser competition at work, I kinda slacked off and gained back 7 of the 20 pounds I had lost. Before that number started to go any higher, I thought I should just go back, pay the 12 bucks a week and do the program.

The first week I lost 5.4 pounds, which is the most I've ever lost in a week on WW. I was pretty happy about it.

The second week was the weekend I ate like a pig for three days and ended up gaining two or three pounds in two days and had to spend the rest of the week trying to work that off. I did, but there was no loss when I weighed in last Thursday.

Today, at weigh in I had lost another 4.6 pounds! Woo Hoo! Something silly that I like about going to the meetings is that everyone applauds you and they give you a gold star for 5, 10, etc. Silly, but it works for me. Anyway, I tried to stick to the program more carefully this week and only used about 10 of my "bonus weekly points". I also did "Walk away the Pounds" six days this week week.

So that brings my total loss since 5/3 to 10 pounds! And if I add that to what I had lost since January that's a total of 23 pounds. So I'm feeling pretty good. Hopefully I will be able to post at least a 2 pound loss this time next week!

Easy Oven Baked BBQ Chicken

My folks came down for lunch today and we had this delicious barbecue chicken(and a few sides). I was very pleased with the ease in making it and the tastiness of the finished product!  For dessert: Purity half and half lowfat/sugar free ice cream in chocolate dipped cones. Good Stuff!

Easy Oven Baked Barbecue Chicken
Ingredients:
I only had three pieces of chicken on hand and this made more than enough sauce, so I'm guessing this amount of sauce would work for up to six breast fillets.
1/2 cup spicy barbecue sauce (I used Corky's Smoking Hot)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup ketchup
onion to taste (I didn't have an onion and don't like onion, so I just used a couple shakes of onion flakes)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400º

Place 4-6 chicken breasts in a shallow baking dish(line w/foil for easier clean up).

Combine barbecue sauce, honey, ketchup and onion and pour over chicken. Cover with foil and bake for 30min. Uncover and return to oven for an additional 30-45min. or until done.

Cookbook in the Works...So Send in Those Recipes!

I am putting together a cookbook! I've sent out emails and will be sending out letters to beg for recipes from you. I'll beg again now. Puuuhlease send me fun, easy, and delicious recipes to add to my cookbook...currently titled "Kellie Cooks!"

I found an online site called heritagecookbooks.com that will print as few as four cookbooks for around only 15 bucks a pop! I thought this would be just what I needed to kick my cooking back into gear and I really and truly want recipes, photos and food related stories from my family and friends to fill up the cookbook! If you are one of those friends and family who are reading this blog nonsense for the first time, you might want to read my first blog entry "...here we go" to get an idea of what in the world I'm doing here.

Now, get busy sending me those recipes! :)

Peanut Butter Goo Bars

Although I'm not much of a cook, I usually do pretty good when it comes to baking and making goodies. That's why I was sooooo mad at myself when I went to make these WONDERFUL bars to send to Jackie & Scott. I made them once before and they turned out incredibly, if not dangerously, delicious. This time, the middle of the bars were a gooey mess! Apparantly I did not cook them long enough and I didn't even think to check the inside for done-ness! I followed the recipe to a "T" and did everything that I did the first time around. But I do tend to get impatient and try to hurry things up, so undercooking was most likely my problem.

I am posting the recipe because I KNOW these things are yummy...just double check to make sure the cakey-brownish part is DONE before you proceed with the icing. I did manage to salvage the outer edges, so was not a total loss.

On the WW front...I was bad this weekend. Bad. It was Shea's birthday and Mother's Day and yet I'm the one who partied (w/food) like it was 1999! Gained two pounds! ack!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
1c. butter or margarine, softened
1c. sugar
1c. brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2/3 c. creamy PB
1tsp. vanilla
2c. flour
2c. rolled oats
1 bag milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Blend in eggs, PB, and vainilla. Add flour slowly, beating well after each addition. Add oatmeal. Mix well, mixture will be thick.

Back in lightly greased 13x9" pan for 20-25min. (or in my case, until done). Don't leave too long or bars become hard as they cool.

Remove from oven and sprinkle w/one bag milk chocolate chips. When chips have melted, spread evenly over cake. Let cake stand for about 20min. and spread frosting over cake.

Frosting
1c. creamy peanut butter
1c. powdered sugar
little milk (about 10 tsp)

Mix sugar and PB togher then add mil a spoonful at a time. Frosting should be thick but spread-able. Gently spread over warm cake, covering chocolate.

**Spreading the frosting is a little tricky. Sandra(this is her recipe) says to lay the frosting down the middle of the cake and spread outward w/two spoons. I layed little blobs of frosting down and tried to spread those out. Hers are much prettier than mine, but when done correctly, these things are incredible if you like chocolate/peanut butter combos.

We Had a Field Day

Spent the entire day at the city park. It was field day and due to the construction going on at school, we had to have field day somewhere else. Mrs. Holley, Mrs. Morgan and I spent the day doing an Art project. We laid out newsprint and let the kids do a Jackson Pollack/splatter painting kinda thing. They loved it and we had a good time. Wish I'd have taken some pictures! Anyhow now that I'm home I am SOOOOO tired! Cara and I had been at the park since 7a.m. this morning. Thankfully we had beautiful weather all day(although now it is getting dark, cloudy and thundering). Sometimes I get down on my job and then we have a day like today when we spend the whole day playing and I realize that I have it pretty good!

I started back on Weight Watchers. Last night was the first week weigh in and I am tickled to say that I lost 5.4 pounds in the midst of Teacher Appreciation Week and all the home-cooked food and goodies that go with it. Go Me! I believe WW works, you just have to do it. I have somewhere between 35-40 pounds that I'd like to lose and I don't think I can do it without doing the WW program. I've sent this website to all my Biggest Loser buddies at work, but I'll share it here too. http://www.hungry-girl.com LOTS of new low points foods and lots of look alike but low points recipes are listed. There's an oreo pie recipe on there that I'm itching to try.

Lock In at school tonight. I think I better go take a nap or I ain't gonna make it!

Chicken Noodle Casserole

I tried a new recipe today...Yay for Personal Days! It's called Zesty Chicken-Noodle Casserole. And well I gotta be honest, my end product was not Zesty. BUT that is my fault. I didn't have all the recommended ingredients on hand and I tried to half the recipe and the combination of those two things, just didn't work out. It wasn't bad, just not "zesty". I didn't have the chilies or any onions(or onion powder to sub with). I tried using a dash of hot sauce(a dash isn't enough) and some Lawry's in their place. I also had a slight problem with the...is called a rue? or a roux? sounds like "roo". I scorched it a little and I think that was because of my trying to half it. I'm guessing the end product is supposed to be much creamier than what mine turned out. Also, I used whole wheat pasta rather than regular to shave off points, but I think next time I might try it with regular noodles. The recommended serving size is 4 (which would be a large portion) with it being 9points per serving. I will be trying this again when I have everything I need. I'm going to post the recipe on this one because I think if done correctly, it is probably a tasty and healthy dish.

Zesty Chicken-Noodle Casserole

6 oz. wide noodles
1 tbs olive oil
4 tsp all purpose flour
2c fat free milk
1 tbs grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups cooked chicken breast
1 red onion, chopped
2 tbs chopped canned green chilies
1 tbs dijon mustard
4 tsp. seasoned dry bread crumbs

1. cook the noodles according to package; drain. Preheat oven to 375degrees; spray a 2quart casserole with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In medium nonstick saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil. Sprinkle w/the flour, cook, whisking constantly for 2min. Whisk in milk and cheese; cook, whisking constantly until thickened(2-3min.). Remove from heat. Stir in noodles, chicken, onion, chilies, and mustard. Transfer to casserole; sprinkle w/bread crumbs. Bake until brown and bubbling, 20-25min.

duh dun duh dun duh dun duh dun duh dun....BATMAN!

Is this cool or what? It's just called Batman w/ Cape and is one of those PEZ I have been wishing for forever! Now I have one in my possession...SWEET! It came out in the mid 70's and is not an easy (or cheap) to find PEZ. Mark bought this for me when he went to the big 4H flea market last weekend! Thanks Mark! Love You!

Where the magic happens...

No, not Disney World. TA DA...my kitchen! Thanks to Shea for upgrading the Mac...the old girl is running fine now AND with my lightning fast DSL I can finally post pictures! I do so love my new lightning fast DSL! Thanks Shea for hooking me up!Tomorrow I am taking a PERSONAL DAY! WooHoo. I think I'll try and tackle chicken yet again. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Spaghetti and Meatloafballs

Made spaghetti and meatballs Saturday and they was tasty!

Take the "Little Meat Loaves" recipe in an earlier blog and instead of mini meat loaves, form the mixture into meat balls (made about 40 small meatballs) and bake as directed.

A jar or two of Spaghetti sauce depending on how saucy you like it. Bring the sauce to a boil, add the meatballs and then let them simmer for 30-45min.

I think this recipe might have made such good meatballs because of the Italian sausage...gives it a little extra something.

Probably won't be doing much, if any, cooking this week. I've got to stay after school three of five days this week and I spent the ENTIRE day there today...a Sunday at that! So I imagine it'll be sadwiches and cereal or gasp-fast food for supper this week.

Poultry for the Glum

NO cooking this week. Too busy at work. How many more days till Summer Vacation?

The Gallery of Regrettable Food. I stumbled on the book while browsing Amazon for books about 1950's lifestyles or I could have been looking for retro cookbooks, I don't remember. Anyway, I ended up buying a whole mess of books including, Retro Housewife(cute for the illustrations, but not a lot of substance), Googie Redux(awesome pics, haven't read much yet), Bless You're Heart Tramp(vert funny Southern gal) and The Gallery of Regrettable Food. This has got to be the most hilarious book I've come across in a while! I have nearly laughed myself silly over the last three nights reading it. It's the kind of book you could easily sit down and read in an hour or two, but I've purposely made myself read just a little at a time, so that I could make it last a bit longer. The book features lots of pictures of really odd and inedible looking food from1950's cookbooks. Such as a black and white picture of something that looks like it MIGHT be chicken wings sitting in a bowl of runny mashed potatoes...the heading for this particular section of the book is "Poultry for the Glum". The pictures are entertaining, in a weird sort of way, on their own, but add Lileks commentary and it's downright hysterical...Irreverant, gross, smart alek, and awful in an Avenue Q/Idiocrasy kind of way, but laugh out loud funny.

I know you aren't all going to run out and buy the book, but you might want to check out the author's website www.lileks.com You can find an earlier version of the Gallery of Regrettable Food in his "Institute of Official Cheer" section. And there's lots more to see in the institute section, my favorite ...Meet the Dayalets. Creepy yet hysterical. He also has a section on there somewhere of motel postcards from the 40's and 50's that are really cool. It's a fun website to visit if you have some time to kill. As for me, I'm going to go have some ice cream, park on the couch and read about disembodied 50's housewives and the scary food they cooked.

Remember, that's www.lileks.com

Now don't be sad...cause two out of three ain't bad...

I decided after the Island Chicken Nightmare that the best thing for me to do was to jump right back into it and immediately try another recipe before I decided to give up completely. I've done a decent job on everything else I've tried...unintentionally "blackended" fried chicken not included.

I decided to get acquainted with meatloaf. The kind you eat, not the creepy overweight no-talent singer. I've never really been a fan of meatloaf and I think it has to do with the way it looks more than anything(not unlike the "other" Meatloaf). It's funny looking, there are little bits of this and that on the inside and the color is a little strange. Kinda like my grandma's ham loaf. It TASTES really good, but I don't want to look at it. It all looks a little too SPAMish if you ask me.

Despite my weird visual hang ups, for some reason this is another of those things I'd been wanting to try. It's one of those comfort food dishes that everyone just seems to know how to throw together and I thought I should too. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com a while back and saved it because the reviews were all good. People who claimed to hate meatloaf or their husbands/children hated it liked this version. And I liked that it made six small loaves which I can freeze if I need to, rather than one big loaf...half of which would get tossed. I just realized that while any moron could have figured out that you can make the big meatloaf smaller, apparently I needed a recipe to figure it out. Good Grief!

This was an easy recipe to follow and the best part was that it tasted pretty darn good. Now, it still looks weird, but the taste overrides the visuals. I get grossed out fairly easily and I didn't really enjoy the mixing of the meatloaf ingredients by hand. But it was less nasty than messing with raw chicken. OK, before I begin to ramble on endlessly, here's the final analysis:
This recipe was easy to follow.
The meatloaf has a really good flavor and I like the firm texture.
It was actually better on day two.
I will most likely make it again.
I AM posting the recipe for this one!

LITTLE MEAT LOAVES

INGREDIENTS

2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup crushed buttery round crackers
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dried Italian-style seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound ground sausage
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, cracker crumbs, milk, cheese, onion, Worcestershire sauce, Italian-style seasoning, garlic salt, ground beef and ground sausage. Mix this together well and form into individual loaves. Place the loaves in a 9x13 inch baking dish.

3. In a separate small bowl, combine the ketchup, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Mix this together well and spoon some of this sauce over each loaf. Garnish each loaf with some Parmesan cheese and seasoning to taste.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 to 60 minutes.

My changes: I used Italian Sausage and I didn't have fresh onions so I used some dried chopped onion and cut the amount of them WAY down. Instead of cooking them in a baking dish, I put them on wire racks over a cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil so that the grease would drip off . Also I halved the amount of sauce/glaze/whatever it is, thinking i wouldn't really like it. Next time I'll make the entire amount called for...it is very tasty and the meatloaves could swim in it and I'd be happy.

Island Chicken Nightmare

The recipe that I tried tonight was simply called Island Chicken. The full color photograph shows a lovely chicken breast, browned to perfection with grill marks and a sprinkling of exotic looking spices atop a pinapple/brown sugar glaze. Aside lay pinapple rings, also adorned with grill marks and above mentioned spices; they sit next to a bed of fluffy brown rice. It looks so good, you want to lick the photograph.

...and, I have had dishes called "carribean chicken" and remember eating something similar on one of our cruises and it was very tasty. I had been wanting to try this recipe since I bought the cookbook (Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade Cooking Light) and I just had a feeling that this was going to be good.

I fired up the George Forman, grilled the chicken and follwed the recipe. And it tasted terrible. Not just terrible, but Weird-Terrible. Like something was off but I couldn't quite put my finger on it so I kept on eating it trying to figure out what it was until I finally came to the conclusion "This is Just Nasty" and tossed the whole dish. I KNOW it wasn't anything I did wrong, because I didn't really have to do anything but grill the chicken and stir the sauce which consisted of pinapple juice, a tbs. of brown sugar and some jerk seasoning. The sauce was actually the best thing about the dish and it wasn't good. The recipe suggested to serve the dish alongside brown rice. BLAND rice is more like it. I tried it with chicken and I tried mixing some of the sauce with it...didn't help. It was terrible all the way around!

I believe the culprit to be the carribean jerk seasoning that was used in the recipe. Something in that mix is off--weird. The stuff was on every part of the dish. The chicken, the pineapple, and in the sauce. It has to be what made it so bad. And bad it was. I grilled up some of the pineapple pre-chicken so that Mark could have grilled pineapple and rice. He took one bite and said "What's wrong with this pineapple?" I'm not going to bother posting the recipe. First recipe I've tried from that cookbook. May be the last. I'm really dissappointed.

Something I discovered while cooking this dish... The GF, while it may be the best kitchen appliance ever, is not particularly suited for grilling GIANT chicken breasts. I bought a bag o' chicken breasts at Kroger and they are HUGE. Normally I get the tenders and cook 2-3 at a time. They grill up quick and easy and are always perfectly juicy. The giant ones tend to end up a little dry if you leave them on the GF till they're good n' well done and I do because, as my friend Cara says, " I Don't want no samonella!". Anyway, I'm not sure what to do with the giant chicken breasts. Bake? Broil? Any suggestions? After this disastrous experiment, I'm thinking I might as well try frying chicken again. Couldn't turn out any worse tasting than tonight's Island Chicken Nightmare.

OH, I ALMOST FORGOT. King Arthur---FANTASTIC! I knew it would come to me.

Nuthin' Doin'

Not much cookin going on. I HAVE been watching a lot of movies lately. It's the whole no cable thing, I guess. That and I like watching movies. Most of them have been out a while, but I'm just getting around to watching them OR I just felt like watching them again. A few I actually watched at the theater. No rhyme nor reason to the order, just listing them as I remember them and as I tend to ramble on and on and on, I'll keep my two cents short...four words or less.

Music and Lyrics -- Opening video worth admission
Meet the Robinsons -- animated goodness, GO WATCH
Idiocrasy -- Hysterically funny but awful
Happy Feet --- Mildly annoying; don't bother
Chicken Little -- goofy, silly, I laughed
Premonition -- Confusing AND slightly boring
Capote -- Rent this movie
Wild Hogs -- Wildly Entertaining and funny
Casino Royale -- FIRST enjoyable Bond flick. WOW! ( I know, five words, but the WOW is necessary)
Daltry Calhoun -- Unexpectedly GOOD Knoxville movie
The DaVinci Code -- Overrated with creepy monks
Disney's The Three Musketeer's -- always entertaining
The Incredibles -- ditto above
Rumor Has it -- Enjoyable despite Kevin Kostner
Fun with Dick and Jane -- Like'd, didn't love it.
Little Miss Sunshine -- Hysterical Ending

The movie that I was most surprised by was Daltry Calhoun. I'm not a fan of Johnny Knoxville. Don't know that I've watched any of his (what four?) movies. This was sitting in the cheapy aisle at Movie Gallery. I'd never heard of it, but it looked like it might be something different, so I grabbed it. It was, like I said, unexpectedly good. Worth the 3 bucks to rent for sure! I know I am forgetting a couple more movies. There was something really really great that I rented around the time that I watched Little Miss Sunshine, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was. I remember Shea and I talking about it. It was one of those movies I knew I wouldn't like, but I ended up loving it. It'll come to me later I guess.

I'm cooking "ISLAND CHICKEN" later tonight. Tune in again for the rundown.

Beefy Deliciousness

Being a complete kitchen moron, I began this blog way back in December, thinking that I would try one recipe a week, document it through photo and blog and hopefully learn to cook like a big girl. So it hasn't quite worked out the way I had hoped. I'm definately not at the Rachel Ray or Paula Deen stage in my cooking, I'm not even on the level with the syndicated Mr. Food from Channel 14. BUT compared to where I started, I have improved. I cooked the majority of Christmas dinner for pete's sake and not one person ran screaming from the table, so that's gotta count for something. I have strayed from my original plan, but I guess that's OK too. I don't plan on giving up the idea of finally learning to cook, I just don't know that I can/want to do it on a weekly basis. And you can forget the fancy and gourmet dishes for quite some time. I've got to get down the basics. I still haven't mastered the art of fried chicken(or fried anything for that matter), mashed potatoes or mac and cheese(though I have come close on that one). But through this little experiment I have begun to give a little more thought to what I eat and how it's prepared and have discovered that I kinda dig this cooking thing. My cookbook collection has grown by leaps and bounds...I find myself reading them for fun and then today I asked my lunch buddies "so, what makes good meatloaf? crackers, breadcrumbs, or oats?". The fact that those words came out of my mouth is truly astonishing. The very idea that I would ponder what makes meatloaf tastier when I don't even really like it to begin with means that I have turned a corner. A corner to where exactly, I don't know. But a corner has been turned. So keep checking in for my culinary adventures, though boring they may be, some day I'll be able to cook all fancy-like and you can say you knew me when I was still a member of the Ellie May Clampet cooking club!

I whipped up a yummy slab of beefy goodness tonight. It was super easy and oh-so-satisfying. If you don't get the FREE cooking magazine from kraft foods, you should. Go to the kraftfoods.com link at right and sign up for "food and family" by following the links on the website. This recipe comes from that magazine and it turned out soooo good. Better than I thought. During the browning of the ground beef and onions, I had a flashback to my college days when bro' Shea and I made the most nasty concotion to ever be concocted. We were using one of those sandwich pocket thingies and tried to do a taco filling. Trust me, it was nastiness defined. Anyhow, once I got over the flashbacks, I trudged ahead and created this tasty sandwich roll.

Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-Ups

1 lb. lean ground beef
4 slices OSCAR MAYER Bacon, chopped
1/2 cup chopped onions (about 1 small)
1/2 lb. (8 oz.) VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 pkg. (13.8 oz.) refrigerated pizza crust

PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Cook ground beef, bacon and onions in large skillet on medium-high heat until ground beef is evenly browned, stirring occasionally. Drain; return meat mixture to skillet. Add VELVEETA; cook until completely melted, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; set aside.
UNROLL pizza dough onto baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Press into 15x8-inch rectangle. Top evenly with meat mixture. Roll up dough, starting at one of the long sides. Rearrange, if necessary, so roll is seam-side down on baking sheet.
BAKE 20 to 25 min. or until golden brown. Cut diagonally into six slices to serve.

A few other things: As you know, I sprikle Lawry's on everything and I added some grill mates seasoning for hamburger. Used smaller portion of chopped dried onions rather than fresh(didn't have fresh). Sprinkled a touch of parmesean cheese on top of the roll pre-baking. I use Oscar Myer precooked bacon(less WW points than regular bacon) next time I will microwave and crumble it up before adding to the beef...I like my bacon Crunchy.

In case you're curious...the nutrition info at the website shows a portion being 10WW points. I used Laura's lean ground beef, less than called for amount of velveeta and I think I can get seven servings rather than 6, so that puts mine at about 7 points per serving by my calculations. Well worth it.

CDs in my car CD changer...

In case you're wondering.

1. Sting--Dream of the Blue Turtles
2. Jersey Boys Broadway Soundtrack
3. Barenaked Ladies--Rock Spectacle
4. 13 Going on 30 Soundtrack
5. CD of random 70's & 80's tunes I pulled from Bryan's iTunes
6. Harry Connick Jr. -- Come by Me

Bonus points if you can guess which one has been in the changer since we got the Jeep back before Christmas...it's also the CD I sing along to the loudest and most obnoxiously! Garantee that one of these six will probably still be in there in three more months. I get stuck on something and it takes a while for me to want move on to something new.

What's Cooking? Corn Chowder with Bacon!

I cooked! This turned out quite yummy I thought and other than being all thumbs at the chopping and dicing and whatnot, it was pretty simple to make.

Corn and Bacon Chowder

2 slices turkey bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 tbs. + 2 tsp. water
1 onion, chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 med. potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 cups whole kernel corn
1/4 cups half and half

1. In a medium nonstick saucepan over medium high heat, cook the bacon in 2tbs. of water until crisp. Transfer to a paper towel and discard the liquid. (I used pre cooked oscar myer bacon and I left the liquid in the pan, there wasn't that much)

2. Add the onion, bell pepper and 2 tsp. of water to the saucepan; saute until soft, about 5 min. Add the broth and potatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until the potatoes are almost tender, about 15 min. Stir in the corn; simmer 5 min. longer. Remove from heat; cool slightly.

3. Transfer two cups of the soup to a food processor or blender. Puree. Pour back into the saucepan; stir in the half & half and heat to serving temp. Serve, topped w/the bacon pieces.

Makes 4 servings -- I got more like 5 1/2; but the WW cookbook says if you divide the soup into fourths, each serving is four points.

I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I know a novice like myself should probably stick to the recipe the first time but I'm not big on onions OR peppers and I was feeling brave. So I used 1/2 instead of a whole onion and not quite a half of a red bell pepper instead of yellow (thought it'd be prettier). I diced them both as small as I possibly could and added the onions to my food chopper to get them even smaller. I think it worked out pretty well...I don't mind the small peppers and the soup doesn't have an onion-y flavor at all. Of course someone who LIKES onions might have found it bland. I used Green Giant Sweet and Super Sweet whole kernel corn from a can. The recipe doesn't call for salt or pepper, but I added both. It's better after it has set for a while...I actually liked it MUCH more on the second day. The crumbly bacon on top makes it even better.

**11/15/07 Update: Made this for the second time. Used regular bacon and regular chicken broth. Microwaved the bacon at the last minute for topping instead of cooking it first thing. I also let the mixture that went into the blender puree longer this time. Even tastier than the first go round!

Oh, my nola---Jackie didn't go-la (but Shea and I had a great time!)

Jackie---you probably don't want to read this post. It's a made up pack of lies anyway. The concert wasn't that good. Harry was dull and the band out of tune. You didn't miss much. Love You!

Tuesday March 12 goes down on my list of great days. Shea and I went to TPAC’s Andrew Jackson Theater to see the one and only Harry Connick Jr.

As you all know I am a HUGE fan of Harry. HUGE. Have been ever since I saw him playing piano and crooning on a VH1 special back in what I think was around 1987. I think this because Harry was performing numbers from his album 20, which he named for his age at the time and since Harry and I are the same age, I’m guessing I first saw that HCJ special in ’87. Mark and I were living in our tiny one bed room apartment  and Mark was working at McDonald’s. We didn’t have money to do anything so on weekend afternoons I’d watch VH1 while Mark was at work. (Mark is not much of a music fan---I don’t know what went wrong with him, but he just doesn’t enjoy music the way I do). Anyhow, that was when VH1 still played music and current music was still worth listening to (for the most part). I think I must have went out and bought the cassette tape the next week and have been a fan ever since.

Back to the concert…this is the Oh My Nola tour, named for his recent album and the show was spectacular! HCJ’s talent is a gift from God...and it is so obvious when you see the man perform live. Maybe it’s just me but when I watch him play piano, I can almost see the music coming up from his feet and firing through his fingers—he plays from his soul, if that makes any sense at all. It is truly a joy to watch and listen to.

And he’s funny…we were cracking up more than once. He told a goofy story & cracked some jokes. You could tell he was enjoying himself as much as we were. At one point in the show he invited the folks in the balcony seats to come up and sit in some unfilled seats in the front of the theater. I wanted to run up there at full speed, but I didn’t figure Shea would join in (which he confirmed later that he would not) so I stayed put and enjoyed the show every bit as much from our seats!

The big band was cooking and my favorite band member, Lucien Barbarin played some solo trombone and sang a little Basin Street Blues. Many, if not all of the songs at the performance were New Orleans related in some way or another. It was a good mix of up-tempo and slower songs w/just the right amount of instrumentals. Don’t get me wrong, HCJ kills when he performs the big band & crooner numbers(When Harry Met Sally comes to mind), but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the jazzy/blues thing he does on Oh My Nola and it was awesome live!

My favorite song of the night was probably Let Them Talk, a slower bluesy number. Harry played the organ instead of the piano on this one and it was crazy-good. He opened with Come by Me, another favorite tune of mine. I loved Workin’ in the Coal Mine and Jambalaya was a fun number as was the Zulu King song that he has performed at every concert I’ve been to as the closing/pre-encore song. Heck, I can’t think of a moment that was not fantastic!!

I fell off the WW Wagon

Sheesh I am a lazy blogger. It's been a month since my last post. Oh well I guess my life is just so busy and exciting that I haven't had the time... ha ha ha ha ha ha. I know you are all rolling on the floor by now. Yep, I'm just lazy (and I still have crappy dial up.)

OK, I didn't really fall off the WW Wagon. JUMPED off would be more accurate. I was rolling along doing very well I thought. And then I sorta stopped. No real reason, just once our BL competition ended at work I guess I took a license to eat everything not nailed down and to stop exercising. This has gone on for the better part of a week now.

I figure the best way to get over it is to just air it out here in this public forum for the world -- or at most five people -- to read. So now you know. I have figured out that WW only works for me when I track. The minute I stop writing down what I eat, I might as well give it up. It's like I didn't even eat that half of a pizza if I don't write it down. And if I didn't eat a half a pizza it certainly won't hurt if I drink 3 or 4 regular Cokes!!! Good Grief! NO self control.

But now that I have come clean, it'll be easier to start back. So, ya'll are my witnesses...tomorrow I start exercising, get back on WW and TRACKING every bite!

I had really hoped to get to my goal weight before my birthday. I'm 41 pounds from there (considering this post week didn't push me FARTHER away). That's a lot of poundage in just five months.

But I'm going to try...with everyone else in the family doing it, I can't stop now. Mom, Dad and Shea and even Jackie who's a stick anyway are all losing wieght and sticking to it. Heck, Shea exercises his butt off, so the least I can do is a 45min. dvd every day and take ten seconds to write down what I eat! OK, I'm sufficiently fired up now!!

...and since it's been a while...

Brian Regan was funny. Pee in your pants and laugh like Ernie from Sesame Street funny.

TEN DAYS to Harry Connick Jr. CAN'T WAIT can't wait can't wait.

The other thing I can't wait for is for Jackie and Scott to come home. I miss them terribly!

I COOKED RECENTLY! Try this for some "it so good you'll smack yo' mama" chicken. 30min. marinade (I think it's Lawry's or McCormick) in the Chipotle and Lime variety. Marinade for 30 or more min. Slap on the grill (or for the grill challenged such as myself, on the George Foreman). I had it with homemade baked tortilla chips and salsa. Mmmm Mmmmm Good.

THEY MAKE 100 CALORIE HOSTESS CUPCAKES....OH YEAH.

and he...he himself...the Grinch carved the Roast Beast

at least I think that 's the line. I've only read it a zillion times, you'd think I'd know it by now!

MY roast beef turned out very well. Very Well, indeed. Now some of you will say that the cooking method used for the roast beef is not all that different from my shake-n-baking and George Foremaning; in that I've said it isn't "real" cooking. And it probably isn't, but here's what I've learned so far in this little adventure. If it tastes good in the end, the method doesn't really matter all that much. The point is I am trying something I didn't think I could do and for the most part, it's working out! For me, cooking a roast by ANY method is a big deal. Like frying chicken, I somehow made it to my late 30's without ever cooking a roast!

Being the only carnivore in my house is tricky. I have to cook everything in small amounts lest I eat it for the next month. So I was relatively excited when I happened upon a one pound roast at Kroger last month. I froze it and finally, today mustered (sp?) up the courage to cook the thing. Here's the method...

Buy a Roasting Bag w/seasoning packet from Kroger (Kroger brand)
Place Roast in Bag
Add 1/4 cup of water to the seasoning mix and pour over the roast
Tie up bag, punch a few holes and cook for approximately 1hr. 15min.

Now I did scrub, cut up some red potatoes and tossed those in the bag along with some carrot chips. So I did do a bit of work! It was so easy that I had pretty low expectations of how it was going to taste. To be honest, part of that was due to the above mentioned ease of cooking. The other reason for my reservation was the NON ease of trying to thaw the thing out and have it start cooking during microwave thawing...freaking out and trying to cut off the already cooked portions...even easy isn't easy when you're me! If anyone has mastered the art of microwave defrosting, please share your secret! So anyway, I didn't have the highest of expectations for the meal. Boy was I wrong! It was really tasty! The seasoning and I guess it was the fat from the roast mixed together to make a yummy gravy that gave the whole thing a really good flavor. My only gripe was with the potatoes...I cut them too small...should have quartered or halved them 'cause they came out a bit mushy. Mushy, but delicious nonetheless. So that's my roast beef story! I'll be eating leftovers for a while, so I probably won't try anything else new this week.

I have pictures of several of my recent experiments, but my crappy computer/dial up interet won't even give me the option of loading them in blogger and I'm to tired to keep trying to fight with it, so I'll post those at a later (probably much later) date.

G'night ya'll!

Pork Chops and Applesauce...and...Your unce, tice, fee times a mady

Well there was no Applesauce, but porchops were had. My first time doing anything to a pork chop besides shakd-n-baking it! Hold on...I have bought those precooked smoked pork chops and thrown them on the George Foreman. But again, I don't think that counts as "real" cooking, though tasty they be.

Porchop number 1 was pan fried in water as sandwich fixins. Very tasty. Mom did this last weekend and those were some darn good sandwiches so I thought I'd give it a try. Of course I didn't have the same spices she did, but it still worked. Sprinkled them with some Lawrys (my current seasoning of choice, I put it on everything), used enough olive oil spray to get the skillet shiny. Browned both sides and then added about 1/4 cup of water(twice), put the lid on and let them finish up "frying" until the water cooked out. I used a skinny little 2oz. pork chop and it still was fairly juicy/tender AND it was a WW friendly 2 points. Slap it on a wheat bun and I had a 4 point sandwich!

That was so good, I thought I'd try it again sans bun and Lawry's. This time I rubbed it down with some Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning, but cooked it the same way -- in Olive Oil Spray and H20. To go with it I seasoned up some whole wheat pasta in tomato sauce w/the same spice as well as some garlic toast. It was yummy! AND that whole mean amounted to a measly 6 points!

Tonight I'm going to attempt to cook a POT ROAST! Can you believe it? I feel like a big girl now.

I guess I'm feeling chatty today due to the fact that I've had two days mostly alone in the house due to our recent small-but-effective-in-creatng snow-days-snow. There aint nothing like a snow day...I don't care who you are! I even wake up an hour earlier than normal anticipating the announcement on TV...seeing Hopkins County rolling across the screen gets a big WOO HOO out of me every time! Then I go back to bed for a while and wake up knowing the entire day is mine to do with whatever I please. It's funny, you'd think the weekend would feel that way, but it never does. Maybe because I'm not totally alone...Mark's home on the weekend and we usually go somewhere or have some kind of *something* that has to be done, like cleaning out the garage or some other such junk. But a snow day is all mine...and It's GREAT! So Thursday I spent the day doing a couple of things...it went like this...
Make breakfast around 9:30/10:00
Watch and ep of 24
Do a little laundry.
Watch another ep of 24
Make bed, straighten up, more laundry folding, cleaning out the bill basket, you know junk that always needs to be done that you never do...
Make some lunch(this was pork chop #2, the garlic/herb one)
Watch another ep of 24
Watch yet another ep of 24 because I HAVE TO KNOW what happens next
Fiddle around the house, more laundry
24 again...OK I'm starting to get a bit embarrassed so I'll stop...

So basically that's how I spent my first snow day...watching 24 and doing small amounts of picking up around the house.

Well Kids, got news for you...day 2 wasn't much different! I did spend a good chunk of the morning with HCJ...put in the new cd Oh My Nola and cooked breakfast, then just sat there at the bar and listened for a while and watched the birds & other goings on outside my window. "Life is good"...I said to myself. I did more housecleaning while replaying the new cd...this time the yucky stuff...the floors, dusting, bathrooms, etc. I had a clean house and all the laundry finished by 12:00---good thing 'cause our washing machine died on the last load. We'll be going washing machine shopping this weekend! Back to the clean house, which meant only one thing, MORE 24! I think I watched two or three episodes during the day...I finally had to turn it off...I don't want to give anything away, but a person can only take so many torture scenes before she gives up. Had I been able to, I would have told those guys what they wanted to know just to make it stop! Whew. Intense stuff, that 24. Last night Mom and Dad stopped by for a while and then SHEA called about the TICKETS. THE TICKETS TO HCJ. Yee Haw! He was able to get online and get tickets a day early...got us some seats in the orchestra section so they should be sweet! This new CD is so fantastic that I can hardly wait see/hear it performed live. So once I came off that high I decided I was ready for more 24...watched one more episode...still too heavy and so I switched to the Best of Eddie Murphy SNL dvd and laughed like a lunatic until I was too tired to watch any more. I knew the buckwheat sketch would be on there (Mark & I usually never agree on what's funny but I MADE him watch Buckwheat's greatest hits and he even laughed at Buckwheats rendition of Betty Davis Eyes) I was also counting on James Brown..."Too Hot in the Hot Tub!" for a good laugh, which it delivered, but had COMPLETELY forgotten about Little Richard Simmons! Oh good grief...funny funny funny! Was good to go to bed laughing! So that's how I spent my Snow Days. Productive? Somewhat. Indulgent? Completely!