Saturday, March 15, 2014

Nice time

Having a great weekend!  The youngest is visiting and it has been a long time since she's been here.  We had fun shopping yesterday (I took a vacation day from work).  I tried on mother of the bride dresses and she snapped pictures and sent them to my oldest for approval.  She actually picked the one I liked best too, so I got my dress!  Woo hoo!


Today we saw the movie Non stop with Liam Neeson.  It was pretty good.  I did notice that when he provided his ID it indicated his year of birth was 1961. Sorry he looked older than that.  LOL!  But it was a good movie.  He does well playing those kind of roles.







Sunday, March 9, 2014

Don't worry

You've found the right blog...I just decided to change the look of it a little bit.

Not much new.  We did go out to the local country club with the next door neighbors on Friday night that was a nice evening out. They wanted to thank Steve for watching their dogs when they went away.  I didn't realize that it was so nice there. It also has some swimming pools and 2 tennis courts.  Everyone there was cordial and the food was good.  I don't know about joining it though, as it isn't cheap and we would never use it for golfing.  The only golf I play is miniature golf.  But again it was a nice time and the neighbors are very nice.

Today we went down to a local shop to check out this lady's cast iron but she didn't open until noon and we were there early so we skipped.  I didn't want to go back later on since it was cold and windy out. Yes nearly mid march and the high today was 54 degrees. Ugh.

Did a little cleaning today. Swept the living room from wall to wall. Hubby moved the larger couches for me and whoa...there was so much dog fur under one of them to make another dog with. LOL.  No wonder my allergies have been so bad!  Well the living room at least is very clean now. At least for a few days.


Sunday, March 2, 2014

What's new?

Okay I see that it has been weeks since I posted. So I'll try to catch up with what is new. Let's see.

There have been teasers of Spring when we've had a few days with weather in the 70's but that is just not sticking! Yesterday it was sunny and nice and got up to near 80 degrees. I started to pull some of the dead vegetable stalks from my balcony garden yesterday and still pondering to what extent I'm going to have a garden this year.

Today it started out in the 60's and hubby and I went to run some errands and by the time we got done at around 11 o'clock it was down to 34 degrees and it was raining and windy which got quite cold by the time I was running in to Walgreens to get some milk.

Enough about the weather, which should be in the 70's and staying that way by this point in time in TX! :=)

I enjoyed watching the Olympics and as always am proud that the US did so well. At the same token though, I am glad that some of my regular shows are back again now that the Olympics are over.

Lately I have gained a lot of interest in cast iron and cast iron cooking. My mom gave me a deep skillet years ago when we moved them here because it was too heavy for her to use. I really didn't use it much but I had pulled out the skillet to cook steaks on the stove. I've discovered they turn out great in the cast iron skillet and let the steaks sit out for 30 min before cooking so they are not 'cold' and also sear them first which keeps them juicy. Anyway after that a few days later I made a shrimp dish with it and the shrimp were done to prefection! Not raw but not rubbery either. They were just perfectly cooked and the meal that came out of the cast iron was delicious!

That was it!! I was going to use it more. I found some cast iron facebook groups including a cooking one and discovered there is so much that can be made with them. Since I definitely needed more than on sole skillet, I have gotten some treasures mainly from the local shops but some online. I got a cast iron waffle iron, corn stick, muffin pan, double griddle and 3 other skillets of various sizes. I have been using my cast iron several times a week now instead of just once in a blue moon. Here's a picture of the eggs I made this morning.  They turned out so light and fluffy and once again perfect!


Here is some Parmesan kale chips I made today too which are really yummy! Even hubby said they taste like potato chips :)



Right now I have sausage creole cooking in guess what, yes the cast iron skillet (that was mom's) for dinner.Yum!  So you can tell what my latest craze is.  :-)  Hey it is always nice to be interested in something new...even though this is something that is actually old...some older than when my parents were born.  That makes it all that more interesting to me!

Monday, February 17, 2014

I'll take ths Monday..

I didn't mind today being Monday when I got up because I have the day off! Woo hoo!

I see I haven't written in a long time but there wasn't a whole lot to write about. Quite frankly I was a bit stressed over possibly being laid off for the last several weeks. I was luckily spared though and am very grateful to remain gainfully employed.

Now things are very busy and I've actually had to reverse gears and start working longer hours, which is fine by me. I love overtime! Since the girls are grown and it is really just hubby and me and our furkids, I don't mind working extra hours. So I worked Saturday and yesterday but have today off. It feels like Sunday though so I'll have a hard time tomorrow thinking it is Monday.

We've actually had 3 days in a row reaching 70 degrees out. It is actually in the mid 70's right now and really nice outside. I've been thinking about the balcony gardens this year. Although I do like growing things, I didn't have a lot of success last year. I wish I knew whether I'd be working a ton again. When I have a lot of work, there isn't much time for anything else and I'd rather not have the added responsibility of keeping my garden watered, etc. So...I haven't decided yet. I may just buy a few already started pepper plants and flowers and take it easy this year. After all, I do buy local farmers market or greenling produce/vegetables so I am buying healthier there (not grocery store bought, pesticide ridden, who knows how old food from who knows where). I haven't totally decided yet but the thought of having a light garden makes me feel better.

We took 3 of the dogs to the dog park today and they did well. When we first got there, there were no dogs in the small dog area (although there were some smaller dogs in the large dog area). By the time we left there were at least 6 other dogs in the small dog area. I think we attract them or something. :) We took Tika, Kaci and Ditzy (our 3 smallest).

I did some laundry and cleaning this morning and am content with what I accomplished and here it is only 3:30PM! :)

I feel bad for Merlin and Molly that we didn't take them along to the park so I will be walking them here shortly. Then looking forward to a relaxing evening!

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Nice weekend!

Yesterday morning we took Merlin, Molly and Tika over to the local dog park.  We made the mistake of going over to the large dog area. We no sooner got in there and Steve and already unleashed Merlin.  I was going to wait and see how it was in there first.  A dog near the entrance ran over to us and started sniffing each of the dogs.  Molly barked a little bit but not aggressively. But the dog got to Merlin and Merlin snarled at it.  (It looked to me to be a Pitt bull mix so I was getting nervous!!) 
Well that did it. It snarled back and did not back off.  The two were biting at each other but only for a few moments.  The lady who had the other dog immediately put his lead on and went out to the one gated area and said she was putting her dog on a short time out.  She was only fostering the dog and I don't know how long she has been fostering, but in my opinion, she should have just left the park.

I quickly told Steve we should just go to the small dog area (there were only 2 dogs in there).  The small dog area is only for dogs up to 30 lbs and Merlin is just over that so I decided if anyone would say anything to us, that I'd tell them a larger dog was attacking him in the other area. But no one minded. We headed over there straight away and the rest of the park time went well. They got along okay with the few dogs that were in there.


Then yesterday evening we went to the Animal Shelter's Art for Animals event. It was a nice event to attend but I was a little disappointed that there was no live auction.  Steve did donate a piece of his wood burned art and it sold for $80.


Today was gorgeous!  I think it went up to 75 degrees.  So we took all 5 dogs to the dog park today. We had some fun along the way with Ditzy.

Here's the clip:  http://youtu.be/W7KKL7BYtiw


We headed straight to the smaller dog area as there were already quite a few large dogs in the other area and there wasn't one dog in the small dog area when we got there.  So we had the run of that area to ourselves for quite some time.  Ditzy did play ball.  Eventually some other dogs came in to the area. At one point there was 10 other dogs in there with our gang but everyone got along okay.  A few of the dogs came up to the fence (from the larger dog area) and I tried to get them to let me pet them a little through the fence when our dogs were nearby as I'm really trying to get our dogs used to bigger dogs too.
This afternoon I got a hankerin' to do some baking.  Made 5 minute fudge for hubby, then made some key lime mini pies, then made some mini apple pies. YUM!!  Everything turned out nice and I froze some of the mini pies for when the youngest visits. :-)


I've been catching a lot of the Olympics as well.  This was such a fantastic weekend...sad to see it almost over.  < Sigh>

Thursday, February 6, 2014

TGIT

Well it is Thursday.  YAH!  Only one more day until the weekend.  Sorry I haven't blogged as much as I have in the past but there just isn't a whole lot to say.  Winter seems to drag on, even more so I'm sure for those in the snow belts or even non-snow belt areas that just continue to get ice, snow and or sub-freezing weather!  We even had a chance of frozen precipitation this morning and again have same possibility tomorrow morning.  I don't think it got bad today but tomorrow there is a better chance of a thin layer of ice...just enough to cause a ton of accidents. Thank God that I work from home!


The Super Bowl sucked!  It really did.  The best commercials were near the end of the game so those who turned it off when Denver was getting clobbered, missed even them.  The best part was our refreshments that we made.  Yum!


The best part about this week is the Olympics started today. Now why they are having some today before the opening ceremonies is beyond me, but I plan on watching them for a few hours this evening, if I get my way, and I will! :)





Sunday, February 2, 2014

Super Bowl

Today is Super Bowl Sunday!!  I really don't care for sports (with the exception of the Olympics) or for even who wins today for that matter. But I will be watching the game.  While I will watch the game as I do enjoy watching the two best (or final anyway) teams playing this final game of the season, I will admit I am mainly watching it for the commercials. I have to confess though that I have already checked out the Budweiser commercial with the puppy dog as I have heard so much about how great it is. Very cute!  I'm even looking forward to seeing that again. :-)


Those who know me and have read my blog a while know that I generally eat healthy foods. In fact for breakfast while writing this blog I am eating plain Greek yogurt to which I added some cinnamon, honey and flax seed, topped with frozen fruit (partly thawed).


But the other day I mentioned to hubby that I'd like to enjoy the typical Super Bowl 'bad' food for the game today (to take place of dinner as well).  So we got some cheese and rotel to prepare in a crock pot and a bag of tortilla chips for dipping.  Also we got some lil' smokies cocktail wieners that I am putting in another crock pot (and making a recipe which includes brown sugar, ketchup and barbecue sauce) to cook up in time for the game.


I also made some Jalapeno Dip that is chilling in the fridge since last night for hubby to also have with chips.


So I'm looking forward having a beer or maybe two with this yummy food about as much as I am the game/commercials!! Today is the one day to toss aside the words 'healthy eating' and just ENJOY guilt free!