July 28, 2012

The 411

Inspired by this post from one of my favorite bloggers, I purchased a cute little pan for $12 and made Æbleskivers this morning. Delicious! Turning was a bit tricky ... wooden skewers rather than traditional knitting needles ... but it didn't take long to get it down (sorry for the blurry photo). The main trick is to not fill each of the wells too full (2/3 at most). Not only do they taste good (a cross between a pancake and donut), they are darn cute which makes them even better :)

 

**UPDATE** We had leftovers for breakfast the next day and they're just as good though none of the crust when fresh. Anxious to try other recipes ... savory with cheese like a white cheddar sounds awesome. Other recipes here and here. Though the pan only makes 7 at a time, which is considered one serving, the recipe makes 4 servings.

It's the end of baseball season so Chunky has playoffs this weekend. He really loves it, but I will not miss the driving around for practices and games. Sassy is a HUGE help with that though.

We are watching the Olympics of course (have I mentioned I'm a fan?!). We've seen regular and beach volleyball and have heard about swimming 400 IM results but are anxious to watch tonight. I give the opening ceremony a B ... loved the flame lighting and fireworks. Paul McCartney sounded good but he is definitely not getting any younger.

Trying not to complain about hot weather ... wish we could bottle it for 6 months from now.

Stay cool!

July 16, 2012

Wings

Hubby was giving Chunky grief tonight about his hair "with wings" à la Leif Garrett. Of course Chunky wanted to know who Leif Garrett is and neither Hubby nor I could stop laughing long enough to give him a straight answer.

July 15, 2012

You've Got Mail

How sad is it that Nora Ephron recently passed away? Nothing better when you want a good stay-in-your-jammies-its-all-about-you-day than Heartburn, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail or Julie & Julia. My favorite is You've Got Mail. Which got me thinking about my current favorite mail item ... Birchbox. I discovered this in a TIME article about young entrepreneurs and decided it was the perfect way to treat myself with the birthday money my mother gave me (a gift that keeps on giving!). I heart receiving my monthly birchwood box of beauty samples, grab bag style. So I am starting a new monthly post about my treasures à la The Small Things Blog.


Alterna | Bamboo UV+ Color Protection Fade-Proof Fluide - I will likely give this to Sassy as she recently colored the bottom layer of her hair red (I guess it's called 'minking') and she is out in the sun much more often than I

Eyeko | Skinny Liquid Eyeliner - dying to try this! I've never tried liquid eyeliner ... I used to think it was retro in a not so good 60's way, but I guess what's old is new again

Harvey Prince | Hello Perfume - I wore this today and while it smells nice enough I didn't think it lasted very long. I am a HUGE fan of Jo Malone fragrances - they're beautiful, last a long time and are "blendable".

Supergoop! | City Sunscreen Serum - these are definitely going in Hubby's backback for any of us to use in a pinch. Love not having to carry a big ass bottle of sunscreen around.

Tea Forté | minteas - these are going in my purse

Birchbox Exclusive | Earbuds - super cool colors! Not sure if I'm daring enough to wear these, but I'll place them in with my seldom opened workout clothes drawer as a backup pair

July 13, 2012

Here I go again

Happy Friday the 13th! I may have mentioned my fondness for the day here and here :)

I've decided to get back in the saddle and resume my graduate course. My fall class will be International Trade and the Global Economy. Very relevant given the current state of many foreign economies as well as our own. I'm excited and nervous. I pray it's better than Finance because if not, this may be my last class.

July 12, 2012

July 10, 2012

What's for dinner?

I make dinner at least four nights a week, sometimes more. We value having family dinners to stay connected with one another, though admittedly not all family members are present for every meal, as well as it being important that Hubby maintain good nutrition (as we all should). I struggle with creative ways to make good meals and am often in a hurry because I'm either coming home late, tired or need to do something else. I've found resources like eMeals and Let's Dish are super helpful, but they require a degree of planning I haven't been able to muster lately. This morning I frantically searched the freezer (all 10 items) to find a leftover container of spaghetti sauce and package of Italian sausage. Then I scored penne and a little extra tomato sauce in the pantry. You guesed it, we're having spaghetti! On the drive home from work I got to thinking it would be nice to serve garlic bread with the spaghetti and I remembered I had a loaf of ready to bake French bread in the freezer. I called Chunky and asked him to take it out for me so it would be thawed when I arrived home. Then I had an epiphany ... I should make PW's Olive Cheese Bread! I salivated over this when she made it on her Food Network program back in March. I couldn't recall if I had all the ingredients, but knew I had at least one type of olive and parmesan cheese so would improvise if needed. It turns out I had both types of olives and a shredded Italian cheese mix. I did end up improvising a bit by paring down the butter (half stick), adding minced garlic (from a jar of course) and parmesan. The green onions were omitted (none on hand) as was the mayo (I am so not a mayo lover). I made one half garlic/cheese only for picky kiddos and added olives to the other half for Hubby and myself. Oh my stars and garterbelts is this ever good! Make this bread - it will rock your world! And you deserve a reward for making it through this entire post :)

July 8, 2012

Unity

It's been three years almost to the day since my last concert. While not as grand (small venue, no opening band), last night's 311 concert was awesome in its own way. The band kicked off their summer Unity tour in our fair city. We had great seats, or I should say Hubby had a great view from directly above the band and one member of our party of six was allowed to sit with him. I made friends with the security guard - stay at home dad with two girls ages 6 and 3 weeks - so both Sassy and I got good seats :) The lead singer is super cute ... it was a major hardship to see him so close up :) My only disappointment was that they didn't play two of my favorites - "Amber" and a cover of The Cure's "Lovesong" they performed for the movie 50 First Dates (it was also covered by Adele on her 21 album). It's sort of mine and Hubby's theme song. We listened to them in the van on the way home so all ended well. Rock on!

July 5, 2012

Memories

I started scrapbooks for the cherubs several years ago, but I lost interest after awhile so have a lot of hard copy photos in boxes and digital ones online that don't see the light of day, as well as a gagillion photos from life pre-kids. I discovered ScanDigital through one of the daily deal sites (Groupon, Living Social). I thought it would be a good idea to use this for childhood photos as well as much older ones from my parents' families to preserve and maybe build a photo book with my favorite online photo site.

This is one of the best ideas ever (the business as well as mine!). It was super easy - I signed up, obtained a customer ID and address to send in my box of photos. Voila, a few weeks later I received an email with access to view photos online as well as a box via mail with CD of all my photos, original photos, order form for future use and handwritten thank you note. I am extremely impressed and highly recommend this service. If I didn't have umpteen dollars worth of scrapbooking supplies I should put to good use I would use this service to catch up on all my hard copy photos for the kids.

I just had to share a few of my very early early year favorites.

How cute is she?!

July 4, 2012

Some Like it Hot

It is hotter than Hades in the arctic. Like last year, we're at 100F°, but this year the rest of the country is experiencing it too and for longer periods. We're not complaining - air conditioning works and the local movie theater has a great selection. The heat isn't conducive to Hubby's sensitive condition so we won't be seeing fireworks tonight (predicted to be 90F° at 9:00 pm).

Stay cool and God Bless America!