48 Things about Lil Ole ME!

Tatersmama posted this today and I thought I'd join in the fun and let you all know a bit about me.

48 Things about Me

1. What time did you get up this morning? 9:15

2. How do you like your steak? Far from Moo-ing

3. What was the last film that you saw at the cinemas? Nemo (it's been a really long time!)

4. What is your favorite TV show? I don't sit down long enough to watch much TV but I always record Days of Our Lives and then watch it when I go to bed.

5. If you could live anywhere, where would it be? Out west somewhere on a ranch with plenty of horses.

6. What did you have for breakfast? Don't care much for breakfast

7. What is your favorite food? Taco salad or anything Mexican

8. What foods do you dislike? Seafood

9. Favorite place to eat? Undo's in Benwood, WV

10. Favorite dressing? Buttermilk

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? Dodge Ram

12. What are your favorite clothes? Tank top or t-shirt with shorts

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Mts. out west (pretty broad answer huh?)

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? :0) this really depends on my mood that day

15. Where would you want to retire? Lots of great places but as long as my kids (& hopefully grandkids by then) are close enough to visit then I'll be happy.

16. Favorite time of the day? Early morning- alot earlier than 9:15am

17. Where were you born? Wheeling, WV

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Not a big fan of watching sports- lots of other things I'd rather be doing.

19. Who do you think will not tag you back? I'm cheating and not tagging anyone. If you want to join in then come along!

20. Person you expect to tag you back first? Read above

21. Who are you most curious about their responses back to this? Everyone

22. Bird watcher? Occasionally

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Usually a morning person but during the summer I become more of a night person.

24. Do you have pets? Snickers- Siamese cat, Maggie- Peekapoo, and Cowboy-lab-mix

25. Any new and exciting news that you'd like to share? Nothing exciting going on around here at the moment.

26. What did you want to be when you were little? A Mommy

27. What is your best childhood memory? Too many to choose from

28. Are you a cat or dog person? Both but more of a dog person

29. Are you married? Yes

30. Do you always wear your seat belt? Yes

31. Have you been in a car accident? Yes

32. Any pet peeves? tardiness, must be on time if not early

33. Favorite Pizza topping? Pineapple

34. Favorite flower? Cali Lily

35. Favorite Ice Cream? Vanilla with peanut butter

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Wendy's

37. How many times did you fail your driver's license test? Never

38. From who did you get your last email? Dad

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Sounds fun but couldn't do that! It will come back and bite you!

40. Do anything spontaneously lately? painted my kitchen on a whim as my husband says & got my hair cut a little shorter than normal

41. Like your job? You bet!

42. Do you like broccoli? Yum

43. What was your favorite vacation? Anytime spent in the Mts. (I love the outdoor sights and sounds of the country)

44. Last person that you went out to dinner with? My Mom & Dad & Katie

45. What are you listening to right now? my kids talking to each other

46. What is your favorite color? Purple but I love to decorate with shades of greens & browns

47. How many tattoos do you have? None

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? Anyone who would like to join in!

Cookies & Milk!!!

I made a huge mistake yesterday when I made these.

The mistake was all in my timing.

While I was busy at the stove cooking supper I was also removing cookies from the warm oven and who can resist warm, just-baked cookies.....NOT ME!

No need for supper now!

My husband likes his standard version of chocolate chip cookies so I really didn't figure he would like these but when he got home from work he dove into them. They are soft and chewy!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 sticks butter

3 eggs

3/4 cups brown sugar

1/2 cups white sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 small box instant vanilla pudding

3 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 pkg. chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Beat butter, eggs, sugars, vanilla & pudding together.

Add Flour & soda.

Stir in chips & nuts.

Drop by tsp. on to a greased baking sheet.

Bake at 350° till golden brown (about 8-10 minutes).

Sarris Candy Factory- CHOCOLATE

These photos are from a few weeks ago when we took the kids to the Chuck E. Cheese in Pennsylvania. On the return trip home we always stop at the Sarris Candy Factory. This place is great! It is brightly decorated and loaded with chocolate. There are two sides to the store, one is the ice cream shop and the other is the candy counter. The candy counter offers chocolates by the pound plus you can walk around the store and buy packaged chocolates, pretzels, gifts sets and my favorite - the wall of old time candies that are hard to find and usually only cost 5, 10 or 25 cents.. I found a coconut stick on this trip that I had never seen before and it was sooo good. I would have shown a picture of that but I ate it before we even left the parking lot :)

They have a huge chocolate castle on display as well as a wall with jelly beans of all flavors. Above the jelly beans is a display of old-time trucks and Pittsburgh memorabilia.

A few years back I was in charge of our 6th grade class fundraising project and we decided to sell Sarris candies to raise the needed funds. It was so easy to do. They were a great company to deal with! They delivered to our school and around here everyone loves Sarris chocolates so it wasn't hard to sell the candy bars and chocolate covered pretzels for $1.00 at all. Actually, we sold out and had to order a second time around.

You can get more info and see more photos by visiting them at http://sarriscandies.com

Zucchini & Carrot Casserole

I love zucchini!

When zucchini season rolls around everyone usually has tons of it to give away from their gardens. Which is a good thing because for the past 2 years I have had NO luck at all growing it.

I like to cube it or shred it up and freeze it for later in the year when the prices are so high.

But I also use lots of it while it's fresh. Whether it's in a cake, casserole or just sauteed in a little butter or olive oil.

So here's a casserole that I threw together one day last week and thought that I'd share it with you. You could actually throw in other favorite veggies if you wanted.

Zucchini & Carrot Casserole

1 large zucchini, cut in bite size chunks

1 cup (or more) shredded carrots

1 tsp. dried minced onion

1 can cream of celery soup

1/3 cup water

1 to 1 1/2 cups Velveeta, cubed

bread crumbs

salt & pepper

Grease a 13X9 pan.

Place zucchini chunks & carrot shreds in pan.

Sprinkle with salt, pepper & minced onion.

In a bowl, whisk together soup & water & pour over vegetables.

Put Velveeta cubes on top & sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Cover & bake for 50-60 minutes.

Uncover and bake another 10 minutes.

Highly Impressed with Pacific-Cycle

I could not believe my ears yesterday!

We purchased this swing set about 2 years ago from Toys R Us. It is a nice heavy duty swing set that has provided my kids with many days of play. However, the other night while my youngest two were swinging the top black bar (that everything hangs from) came crashing down upon them.
It literally fell apart at the welds!
The bar just missed Katie but Gage wasn't as fortunate. He got hit in the head and neck with it. Luckily no one was seriously hurt. Just a few bumps and bruises. My Dad urged me to call the company and let them know what happened and so I did.
I called the 800 number and got Jan, an operator that was super nice and seemed truly concerned. I didn't actually think anything would come out of the phone call other than I would give them a piece of my mind on the quality of their product. (The swing set is in excellent condition except where it was welded together.)

Anyways, the operator told me that there was only a 90 day warranty on the swing set but if I could send her some pictures she would forward them on to the quality assurance team. I sent the pictures to her last week and yesterday morning I received a phone call from the company saying that they were going to replace the whole swing set for free and that it would be shipped to my house as soon as I showed them proof that I had totally destroyed the old swing set so that no one else could use it. (I'm assuming this step is for liability purposes!)
This was great news to hear and very unexpected.
Now a days there are not too many companies that will truly stand behind their product, let alone for an item that was beyond the warranty date.
This speaks volumes as to how this company feels towards it's customers and I couldn't be happier.

Polish Pierogi Bake

Well, I am making up today for sleeping in yesterday!

I got up early this morning and made a pineapple zucchini cake with some fresh garden zucchini.

Then in an attempt to keep the house cool so that I don't have to turn the AC back on I opted to cook in crockpots today.

I've got one loaded with fresh corn on the cob and the other is stuffed with what I hope will be a yummy steak and pepper combo. If it's good and I get a thumbs up from the rest of my gang then I'll share it with you later on.

Last night I made a polish style casserole with sauerkraut, potatoes, pasta and kielbasa and it was pretty tasty. I think the next time I make it though I will use a larger can of sauerkraut and homemade mashed potatoes.

Polish Pierogi Bake

16 oz. box bow tie pasta

14 oz. can sauerkraut ( Use more for extra flavor)

1 large onion, diced

2 small banana peppers, diced

4 tbsp. butter

1 lb. kielbasa

2 (4.1 oz.) pkgs. instant mashed potatoes

8 slices American cheese

8oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook & drain pasta according to box directions.

While pasta is cooking, saute onions & peppers in butter in a large skillet.

Cut kielbasa into small bite size pieces.

Place in the pan with onions & peppers & cook till browned.

Next add the sauerkraut and let simmer for 10-15 minutes on low heat.

Prepare mashed potatoes.

To assemble casserole:

Grease a 9x13 pan.

Layer 1/2 of the kielbasa mixture followed by 1/2 of the pasta and then 1/2 of the potatoes.

Take 4 slices of American cheese and tear each into 4 strips.

Layer strips on top of casserole and then sprinkle 1/2 of the mozzarella over top.

Repeat layers.

Cover and bake at 350° for 50 minutes.

Uncover and cook about 10 more minutes.

Sorry, this isn't the best photo but that's what happens when you eat before you make sure the photos turn out :)

It Sure Feels Like a Monday!

It's Monday....and it sure feels like a MONDAY!

Maggie here is sound asleep with her little eyeballs rolled back in her head. I don't look this bad but I sure feel like it!

I thought I'd jump out of bed this morning and take advantage of the cool weather and bake a few treats as well as get a nice dinner planned.

Well, it didn't happen as of yet!

I'm just getting moving at 9:30am and moving slow.

There is still hope of dinner & dessert though.

Just a little late start.

I'm off to the kitchen!

Kitchen Pics!

My kitchen is still not totally back in place but it's getting there.

Here are a few pics to show you.

Be warned! It's GREEN.

( These photos don't really help either. I couldn't seem to get the right lighting but they will have to do for now.)

I loved the green color at the store, however, it's a bit dark in my kitchen.

It makes me think of ER green or scrub green. (Hospital)

Which isn't a good thing but I do absolutely LOVE the bricks above my counters which makes all the green a little easier to tolerate.

These are not real bricks, they are fake and have been there way before we bought this house. They have looked faded & splotchy for a good while now and after many attempts with a toothbrush to try to clean them I had finally given up.

It was easier to paint them!

I am soooo glad that I did.

I put 3 coats of white paint on them which really helped to brighten up my workspace. After that I took a small paintbrush and dry brushed the green onto them creating a marbled look. It was a long process but in the end it was worth it.

However, I don't care if I never dry brush or stencil ever again!

I haven't put any of my decorations back up yet. I am still deciding what is going to go where and what needs to be replaced. Oh... and I also painted the kitchen table to match. Now I just need to take the chairs apart and do the same with them.

I do have a large addition coming soon to the back wall behind the table.

It's going to be a large chalkboard...yes I know you are probably thinking I'm crazy. However, it will be used everyday with our homeschooling and it just so happens that the kitchen is going to be the best place to put it.

WOW... Now that I am viewing my post I realize that the green is even harder to see, especially with the odd green background of my blog. I'll try to get better pictures later when we have a sunny day.

Catch you all later!

A Day for Play

I was planning on finishing up in the kitchen today but my husband came home last evening and informed me that he was taking the day off today.

So we decided to use the day as a fun day out for the kids. We headed to the nearest Chuck E. Cheese which is in PA.

Guess what we saw on our way there?

The Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile! My husband just rolled his eyes when I told him we had to get a picture. You know, it's not something you see everyday.

The kids had a blast!

Katie enjoyed the rides and games while the boys got into playing the older games, the ones more like video games. We stopped one other place on our way home but I think I'll save those pictures for later. I also have updated kitchen pictures to share as well as a few projects that I'm working on for use in the kitchen.

It's been a long day so I'm heading to bed for now. Night!

Busy Making Changes

Just wanted to pop in for a moment. I only got on yesterday for a few minutes because I was busy in the kitchen all day. This time I wasn't cooking...I'm painting!

We have lived in this house for 8 years now and have slowly remodeled the whole first floor & half of the second floor. So what is left to do is the rest of the 2nd floor and then the 3rd floor upstairs bedroom. But before we can do that we really need to put a new roof on and side the house.

So my poor kitchen...you know , the room that I spend the most of my time in, will be one of the last BIG projects that we do. Like in the year 2015 with my luck!

So the quickest and cheapest way that I, myself, could make an improvement was to paint.

Take note of those red bricks because that is my most favorite change of all!

Right now I have the room torn apart and work is still in progress.

So I'm off to get busy again and I'll take some new pictures to share with you hopefully tomorrow.

Scalloped Cabbage

My Mother-in-law always talked of how good this dish was but I had never tried it till Sunday. I decided to give it a try so I made it to take to Mom & Dad's for dinner and it was pretty tasty. A definite keeper!

Scalloped Cabbage

1 head of cabbage

bread crumbs

1 1/2 cups Velveeta, cubed

3 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

1 cup milk

salt & pepper

Clean & chop cabbage.

Place in boiling water and let cook 15-20 minutes.

Drain cabbage & place in a greased 13x9 pan.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Add Velveeta chunks on top.

In a skillet, melt butter and then add flour.

Let cook for a minute while stirring so it doesn't burn.

Add milk and let it cook till it becomes thick and bubbly.

You can add a bit more salt and pepper to this sauce if you wish.

Remove from heat and pour over cabbage.

Top with bread crumbs.

Bake uncovered in a 350° oven for 1 hour.

Cruisin to the Car Show

My oldest son has taken an interest in old cars so my Unlce gives him a call on the weekends and they cruise to the car shows. Here they are yesterday heading out to Bethesda, Ohio for a show. I'm not sure what the year is but I believe that is his Ford Fairlane.

My Uncle has always had show cars and I can remember him coming and picking me and my brother up to take us for rides when we were Logan's age. We loved it! Especially when he brought a convertible.

My Dad also messed around with old cars as I grew up. He had a Corvette, Nova and a Chevelle that stick in my mind as well as others that I have no idea of the makes or models. He got rid of the last one around the time that I started having kids. If he still had them both of my boys would probably be asking for rides nonstop.

Other weekend news......

Katie lost her first tooth and the tooth fairy visited her last night!

Catch up with you all later!

I'm a WINNER!

Woohoo!!!

I have won my very first blog giveaway!

Buttercup over at Buttercup Counts Her Blessings posted her 100th post and had a giveaway to celebrate. She is going to pass along a great summer read titled "Firefly Lane".I love to read so I can't wait to receive it.

If you have never visited her before then stop on by and leave her a comment. She shares her New York life & travels with us through pictures.

Thanks Buttercup!

Death by Chocolate

This is chocolate OVERKILL but my husband loves every ounce of it!

My Aunt gave me the recipe years ago and I see it in many small-town community cookbooks so I'm not real sure who gets the credit but I can assure you it's not me.

Death by Chocolate

1 family size fudge brownie mix

1/2 c. strong brewed coffee with 1 tsp. sugar

3 (3oz.) boxes of chocolate instant pudding

8 (1.2-1.4oz.) Heath candy bars

12 oz. Cool Whip

Bake brownies according to box directions.

Cool.

Poke holes all over brownies and then pour coffee mixture over them.

Mix pudding as directed on box.

Break candy bars into small pieces. I place them in a Zip-Loc bag and then use my rolling pin to pound them into pieces.

Break up the brownies. No need to be neat here!

In a trifle bowl, place half of the brownies in the bottom.

Put half of the pudding over the brownies.

Put about half of the crushed candy bars on top of pudding.

Put 1/2 of Cool Whip over candy.

Repeat layers and leave just enough Heath Bar to sprinkle over the top.

Refrigerate and ENJOY!

Freezing Season

Or shall I say freezing what is in season!

Berries of all kinds have been on sale at some great prices lately so I have been buying them up and freezing them to use throughout the year.

I am saving so much money by catching them in season as opposed to buying them throughout the year at regular prices or even having to buy frozen from the store.

In the past I have driven to a farm where you can pick your own for a very reasonable price but when the gas prices went up it just wasn't worth the trip. Now I just watch the grocery ads and stock up when they go on sale.

To freeze, I just wash them and then I lay them out on a cookie tray lined with a few paper towels to help soak up the moisture.

I then place the cookie tray in my freezer just long enough to freeze the berries and then I take the tray back out and place the berries into quart size freezer bags, label and toss back in the freezer.

Next time my recipe calls for berries all I have to do is go to the freezer and grab a bag out.

When I freeze strawberries I usually wash and slice them into a bowl. Then I add a bit of sugar to them and then spoon the mixture into freezer bags. They are just like the little tubs of frozen strawberries that you buy at the grocery store.

Iron Skillet Chicken Bake

I made this a week or so ago and it turned out good. I like meals that I can prepare quickly, place in the oven and get busy on something else that needs done around the house instead of standing in the kitchen all day. This recipe made enough to feed 5 people with a little extra left over so cut it in half if you only need a few servings.

Iron Skillet Chicken Bake

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1 onion, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 bag of chicken tenderloins

2 (10.5 oz.) cans of cream of chicken soup

2 cups water

1 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 cups milk

In iron skillet, saute onion & peppers in olive oil.

Remove onions & peppers to a bowl and then place chicken in skillet and brown on both sides.

Cook all of the chicken until browned on both sides. Once browned, remove to a plate.

In skillet, stir soup, water, salt, pepper, Worcestershire and milk together.

Add onions & peppers back in and give it a stir.

Place chicken back in the pan.

Cover pan with an oven-proof lid or aluminum foil and bake in oven at 350° until done. I cooked mine for approximately 2 - 2 1/2 hours.

I served this with noodles and green beans. The chicken sauce tasted good poured over the noodles.

P.S. Is anyone else having trouble with their spacing on here? When I type my post in, it has spaces between the recipe name and the list of ingredients but when I preview it the spaces are gone and everything is jumbled together.

Another question is.... How do you get another window to pop up with a printable version of your recipe?

If anyone can help me with these please let me know!

Fireworks - Wheeling, WV Style

We usually stick around town to watch fireworks on the 4th but this year we went to Wheeling along with my brother and his family, otherwise known as Fit & Flabless here in blogland.

We parked in the parking garage, which was the worst part of the night because it took us over a half an hour to get out. Anyways, I snapped this photo as we were descending the stairs. It is of the front steps of the Wheeling Wesbanco Arena.

There were tons of people. The Wheeling Symphony Orchestra played at the Heritage Port Amphitheater and fireworks followed at dark. The Wheeling Suspension Bridge served as a backdrop and launching pad for the fireworks display. Here is a partial picture of the bridge (in the background)before the display began.

The fireworks were beautiful! Here are just a few of my favorites.

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But of course, the best was saved for last!

Fireworks were in the air as well as cascading over the bridge giving the appearance of a waterfall.

Super weather, yummy food, family and fireworks.

What a great way to spend a holiday weekend!