Flop

Well, the breakfast casserole in a Crockpot was a bit of a flop. I had such high hopes and kept such an open mind. I've had a few other breakfast casseroles that I haven't really enjoyed but this recipe looked to have good simple ingredients. First, I cooked it too long cause I went to bed early last night. There were some charred edges but lots of good stuff in the middle. Then I tried it for lunch and it tasted like single flavored mush.
I started telling a co-worker about my experiment. Immediately after I mentioned that it was breakfast casserole in a crock pot, she made this face and expressed her thoughts that it would not be good. "You have to be careful what you put in a Crockpot", she said.
Ryan said it was okay. It's his kind of food. I figured he would.

I still think using the crockpot is a great idea... so I'll be trying some other recipes!

A Day in the Kitchen

Labor Day. Why exactly is it called Labor day when most take a break from their labor? (rhetorical question) I remember having a quite confusing conversation about this once over dinner in college. I had planned to get some free Chik-fil-a, but plans changed last night after reading La Cucina Italiana and found some recipes to try. With a day off, I had the time today and thought I'd try my hand at a couple recipes.


Enjoying my camera as I do, I also documented my day in the kitchen.

And it was just about a whole day. When I thought the bread recipe would be fun, I failed to notice all the kneading, transferring,resting and rising the dough required.
A photo of the second kneading session.


It was still fun. It made the house smell wonderful. There's something about yeast, flour and cinnamon that I seemed to really like.

The finished product. Maybe all the kneading and resting took all the 'lift' out of the bread. This doesn't quite look like the picture in the magazine. Then again, does it ever? This bread was made with ricotta cheese and cinnamon. It has a good flavor, just wish it wasn't so dense and crusty.

For lunch I made

pasta al ragu di funghi from the magazine. Not normally a fan of mushrooms, this just hit the spot.






Here's a secret, I ate my very Italian meal with an American Dr. Pepper.:)


For supper, I made one of my all-time favorites, Spanish Tortilla. Simple to make, simple flavor - oil, potatoes, onions and eggs. Mmm.



The day in the kitchen still isn't over. I found this blog about a woman using her Crockpot everyday this year. I've come to realize this could

be a very practical thing for me to prepare a meal in the morning, let it cook all day while I'm at work and have it ready to eat when I get home around 6:15. She shares a good variety of meals. So one of the first dishes I decided to try is a breakfast casserole. Rather than dinner, I told Ryan it would be ready for breakfast when he gets home tomorrow morning. I'll take it for lunch at work.

Chacos Adventures

The photographer was my 3-year-old third cousin in-law (or something like that) while we were visiting his family in Kansas City.


I wear them everywhere!

What a week

It was a great week for deals at CVS and Walgreen's. Here are my grabs.

CVS - Items:
2 Stayfree - $9
1 Kotex - $1.49
1 CVS Shave gel - $1.49
1 Zipfizz - $5.99
1 Playtex - $4.99

How I paid:
2 -$2/$10 CVS coupon
$2 CVS skincare coupon
$1 CVS Kotex coupon
$1 Mfg Kotex coupon
$1 Mfg Playtex coupon
$4.50 - B1G1 Stayfree coupon
$9.36 ECB
$.48 tax

ECBs received:
$15.48 - I made about $6!


Then today was the first day of overlap in Walgreen's August and September EasySaver booklets.
Items:
6 Garnier shampoos/hair styler - $3.99 each
2 Glade scented oil warmers - B1G1 $4.79
Crest pro-health $3.79
Nieva mens body wash - $4.99
Revlon nail polish - $4.99
Chemistry Hair stuff - $7.99
L'Oreale Revitalift - $12.36
How I paid:
$1/1 Nivea coupon
6 $1/1 Garnier coupons
$1/1 Revlon coupon
$1/1 Loreal
$4/1 Glade coupon
$3.89 Glade coupon - not sure what the cashier did with this one.
$.75/1 Crest coupon
$6 WAGs Garnier coupon
$3 WAGs Chemistry coupon
$10/$40 purchase
$30.68 OOP because I could not find my gift card. Oops :)
Rebate:
$35.92

Wow, I just realized I didn't get all the FAR items, so there are still more deals to be had. CVS looks to be good next week, too!

Lunch?

Monday, Ryan came home from work and announced, "I have a solution to you wanting to eat out all the time and me not wanting to take time to cook something." Then set down a box of Emergency Meals, or MREs. Today for lunch, I decided to try one (rather than go out to eat :).

The menu: Glazed Chicken with Vegetables, Pretzels and chocolate chip cookies.

Cooking instructions: Pour salt water in the bag, seal and let sit for 10 minutes - or longer as I learned. A heating pad steamed the dish warm.

Mmm... deliciously salty, semi-warm preserved chicken mush. It would be good enough to eat in an emergency, for sure, but I reverted to other dining options for lunch today.

From the Archives: What's this

This is a game my family and I enjoy playing. Can you tell what this is a picture of?

Hint: I'm certain you see at least one of these everyday.

Saturday Happenings

It's been a very enjoyable Saturday. The morning started early, at 7:30 when the dog needed out - started even earlier for Ryan when he went to work at 6am. An early morning thunderstorm lingered until about 9am. I saw some pretty awesome lightening bolts while running errands. The remainder of the morning was lazy yet productive as the clouds cleared. I did take some time to dig up iris from where the vegetable garden will be, and learned that clay is hard to dig, even when wet. I may just have to rent or invest in some sort of tiller.

This afternoon I took my Little Sister to Heartland Park for some drag racing, courtesy of Big Brothers Big Sisters. She loves cars and I was actually surprised to learn she hadn't ever been there. I, of course, hadn't either. It was quite a bit more interesting than I thought it would be. (Can you see those two dragsters taking-off?) Oh, and that little blue umbrella - er, parasol - in the photo, a very important thing. Even though it teeters on being too frilly for racing, I'm sure those people look a little less pink that I do right now! Take note, sunscreen does work but only in the places one actually applies it. I have some splotchy legs and arms right now.


Back at home this evening I kept the house warm by baking. Right, it is in fact August and the house does not need to be kept warm but some friends gave us a bunch of apples from one of their four trees.
Ryan requested apple pie. So I got to work. First turned on the now infamous bread machine to make some bread for me. Then made the pie crust from scratch.
I'm not so good at peeling apples, but alas it had to be done. Thankfully, Camden was right there so when I cut too much apple with the peel, I just gave it a toss and it didn't go to waste!

That's right! I make square pies because I do not have a round pie dish. And... that piece... was de-li-cious!