The only thing I could find in the office that wasn’t already claimed with someone’s name on it was a big Idaho potato in the vegetable bin of the refrigerator. Usually I keep a few things stashed in the freezer or in a desk drawer. I guess I ate the last of the freezer dinners some time ago and forgot to replace it.
So lunch today was a baked potato. We keep butter in the refrigerator and sometimes there is dressing or dip. But no such luck today. It was baked with butter and a little salt and pepper.
It could have been worse. It actually tasted good and was nutritious. So tonight I’m going to the grocery store and stocking up on a week’s worth of food to keep at the office.
We finally got some rain today. It was actually a great thunder and lightening storm that even took the power away for a few minutes, but everything is back in order now. Although I’m sure that there are some trees that were hit and need some professional attention and a few computers and/or TVs that got fried since they were not on surge protectors.
My back yard vegetable garden hasn’t turned out as well as I expected it to, but with this heat wave and practically no rain, it has been a challenge. I spent a good amount of time and money this year on outdoor furniture and garden tools that I’m still trying to salvage for the season. I have been able to use the grills that I got a few years back for outdoor cooking and barbecuing, which has been nice. I am looking for some new decent barbecue tools, my current ones have seen better days and just need to be tossed into the trash to make way for some new ones.
We will have to see what September and October brings us to see if my harvest will be worth all the time, money and effort that I put into my gardening this year. I hope that I can salvage some of it by that time. I can only hope that the rains won’t disappear again on us.
Have you ever had a bottle of beer or soda that you needed to use a bottle opener to open? And find out that you don’t HAVE a bottle opener? Check out this clever solution!
I decided to give my wife a break today and do the grocery shopping. I decided to go to Wal-Mart because we needed pet food, and that is the cheapest place for us to get the Iams brand cat food that we need.
There was a demo booth there with a lady handing out samples of the new Bugles Caramel chips. They were delicious! I bought two bags of them; only one of the bags made its way home! If you can find them in your store, give them a try! They were only $1.67 a bag at Wal-Mart – don’t pay more at someplace more expensive!
I have never really liked the taste of Pringles. They just don’t have the light crispness that I have become accustomed to and their flavors just don’t float my boat. The other day my wife brought home a tube of Pringles, the sour cream and onion flavor. I was starving so I grabbed a couple to tide me over until lunch time. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised and found myself wanting more!
Ever since we moved here, my wife has been telling me that she wants to try out a Boston Market restaurant. She says that her sisters keep telling her that they really like the food. I’ve been very reluctant to try it – I just don’t like trying different restaurants. Once I find one that I like, I try to stick to it. I hate the thought of going to a restaurant and then not liking the food!
Well, finally she dragged me into a Boston Market yesterday. It was suppertime and we weren’t home. We were in Fairfax, and she saw a Boston Market and she pulled in. I grumbled a bit, but we got out of the car and went inside. She was quite upset when we got inside and realized that it was a fast food restaurant! No one had told her that! She thought it was going to be like an Applebee’s or Ruby Tuesday. She looked at me and declared “I was expecting a different kind of restaurant; I don’t want to eat here.” So we left! That was a close call!
Many of our friends have been raving about the new Mandarin Japanese buffet and sushi bar restaurant that opened in town recently. So I decided to take the family there for dinner last Sunday evening. The atmosphere was nice enough, but the buffet was smaller than I would have liked. Our sons enjoyed the sushi bar (no raw fish for me thank you very much!) and my wife and I found plenty of food that we liked. But when the bill came for about $20 each, I was not impressed. I’ve had better meals at other buffets for much less money. I don’t know if this restaurant is going to be able to compete with the others if they keep their prices so high!
In this troubled economy, my wife and I spend quite a bit of time looking for bargains that will help us to stretch our budget dollars. Especially since I’ve been on the “injured list.” So I was really excited to find the Offers.com website. The website is chock full of freebies and discounts on a wide variety of items. There are several different categories set up to help you find the best deal on credit cards, software, travel, clothing, and much more.
Many of the links lead to a section full of links to click to get coupon codes, but there is also a category that I’m really enjoying that is full of free things. Like a free towel, free dog food, free fabric softener, free engine belt wear gauge, free ruler, free ice cream, free paint sample, free polishing cloths – the list goes on and on! I think I could easily spend over an hour checking out all of the free stuff! And this free stuff doesn’t appear to be “free trial” where you end up having to pay for something if you keep it; this is really free stuff!
I’m going to have to let my wife take a turn at looking at this site! I’ve bookmarked it to come back to in the future. This one is a keeper! I’m definitely going to order the free sample of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee! And I see a couple of free cookbooks for my wife! I’d claim this bargain hunt time today a glorious success!
Yesterday we drove to F’burg and met my in-laws for a late lunch at an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant called Ryan’s. It’s located in the Central Park shopping center. I had never eaten there before, and was reluctant to give it a try. My wife get very frustrated with me sometimes; I tend to resist trying new things! But she kept telling me that she had eaten there once before and that she was SURE I would enjoy it, so I went along. I’m glad I did! The salad bar was very fresh, and they had great steak. I’ll be agreeable to going back there again someday!
My wife has always liked having copper cookware in our kitchen. She said that she’s always liked the warmth of copper, and that it conducts heat better than any other metal cookware does. And she said that a copper mixing bowl is the absolutely best bowl to use when beating eggs whites – she said that there is a chemical reaction between the egg whites and the copper that makes the egg whites beat up stiffer faster.
Today I found a website that sells ruffoni copper cookware. To be honest I had never heard of ruffoni before, but I was really impressed with how many different copper pots and pans and molds they sold! I’ve never seen so much copper for the kitchen before! I’ve bookmarked their site for me to go back there when it is closer to my wife’s birthday. I’m sure she would love one of the brioche mold sets to hang on the wall over the range!
I’ve heard that eating chocolate can be good for you! I was thrilled to hear that – I happen to like chocolate quite a bit! Unfortunately, there is one that I don’t like – the dark chocolate. And that is the one that is healthy for you! Wouldn’t you just know it! My favorite is white chocolate, which I’ve heard really isn’t chocolate at all – it is almond bark. I’d be curious to learn how almond bark is made, and how that differs from how chocolate is made! All this came to mind as I unwrapped a Lindt white chocolate truffle and popped it into my mouth as I sat down to my computer. I could eat those truffles all day long!
I love cookies. I try to avoid them whenever possible, but this time of year it is impossible to do that. People are always offering me cookies! It’s hard to tell what cookie is my favorite. Sometimes I think that its chocolate chip cookies; sometimes I think it is sugar cookies. Sometimes I think it is butter cookies! Oh, there are just too many good cookies out there to decide!
I had some coupons to buy some Pillsbury cookie dough just burning a hole in my pocket today, so I bought a large roll of chocolate chip cookie dough and a small roll of sugar cookie dough. I had never seen the large roll of cookies before! I wonder if they are only making the large size for the holidays?! I’ve tried the store brand of cookie dough before, and it was good, but just not AS good as the Pillsbury brand. I wonder why that is – usually the store brand of food is as good as the name brand! Often it’s made by the same factory with the same recipe and ingredients, just different packaging!
Anyway, I hope I have the time to bake some of them this week! It would be nice to have some freshly baked cookies around the house!
Not very long ago I wanted to grill some steaks on the gas grill outside. We had everything ready to go, all of the sides and the table set. I went out to turn on the gas to the grill and was quite upset to discover that the tank was empty! I don’t like using the broiler in the house, or pan-frying steak, so we ended up not having steak that night.
Well my wife decided that we need a back-up plan for the next time that happens. We used to have a George Forman grill but my wife didn’t like it – she said it was too difficult to clean. And even though it was the largest Forman grill on the market at the time, we could only fit one steak on it! So we ended up giving that grill away and simply did without. This time, however, she got online and found a large grill made by Hamilton Beach that has removable grids that can get put in the dishwasher. I’ll be interested to see it when it arrives and give it a try. I hope we like it!
Lately my wife has been making a lot of fresh bread with a bread machine that she bought for $3 at a thrift store. She wasn’t sure at first if it would work or not because she had bought one several months ago that didn’t work, but she thought she’d give this one a try…. A leap of faith!
Well, it works – and boy does it work well! This makes up to 1 1/2 pound loaves, and so far she has tried about four different recipes. They have all been delicious! And the smell of the bread baking in the house drives me crazy! There is nothing finer than a warm slice of fresh baked bread. In this economy, such a simple pleasure makes life a little bit easier to take!
I was out on the road and it was lunch time; I was hungry so I pulled into a McDonald’s restaurant. I saw that they have a new country-fried chicken sandwich at a reasonable price, so I decided to order it. I ordered it as a value meal, with fries and a drink. I was surprised when I got it that the were no condiments on the sandwich at all, just a hunk of fried chicken and a slice of pickle on a bun.
There were no packets of mayonnaise “out” for the customers to grab a packet, and there were no salt packets out, either. No salt or pepper shakers on the tables, either. That was a little bit annoying because I had to get back in line to ask for mayo and salt! The sandwich was “ok” but nothing special. I could see that they were trying to compete with the chik-filet chicken sandwich, and I have to admit that it seemed to be just about the same in taste, although I think the piece of chicken was smaller.
Well my brother and sister have decided that they want to have a family reunion vacation this summer at a Myrtle Beach Resort. My brother has spent several vacations over the past few years at various North Myrtle Beach Resorts and he thinks that the whole family could have a great time and catch up on some family visiting at the same time. That way the family visiting won’t get too intense – the individual units could have their own suite at the North Myrtle Beach Resort and be able to do some activities that they enjoy on their own in addition to doing “big” family time.
I’ve been looking at the list of activities that are available to do in the area, and I think I’d love to see Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede show. I’m sure my wife would love it to – she is a big horse fanatic! And I’d like to see the Medieval Times Dinner show too. We saw it once in Orlando and thoroughly enjoyed it, I’d love to have the chance to take my sister to see it too!
If you eat, sleep, and drink golf, then you should check out the Myrtle Beach Golf Vacations for your next vacation. You could stay and Golf Myrtle Beach courses every day for a month and not play the same golf course twice!
I have never heard of an area where the concentration of golf courses is so dense! And in that area, in addition to Myrtle Beach Golf Packages to entertain yourself and your family, you can enjoy the ocean’s sandy beaches, great restaurants and amusement parks. There are great shows you can go to for an evening’s entertainment.
There are a wide variety of lodging accommodations to stay in as well. From standard motel rooms to luxury condominium suites, whatever suits your fancy you are sure to find it there! And what is really great about this is that you don’t even have to leave the country to enjoy every minute of your vacation!
Well I learned a lesson today that I won’t soon forget. This evening I was helping my wife by cooking supper. It was one of our favorite dishes that she taught me how to cook; a simple chicken dish. It involves putting pieces of boneless chicken in a casserole dish, dumping in a couple of cans of cream soup and cooking it in the oven for a while. Well, I took the dish out of the oven when it was done and put the hot lid of the dish in the kitchen sink. Unfortunately, the faucet dripped one single drip of cold water onto the hot lid, and it exploded into a million pieces of glass! Boy was I surprised! And MAD too! Fortunately all the food was far enough away that no broken glass got into the food, but now I’m faced with the problem of buying a replacement lid for the casserole dish!
Well the contractor came back and finished fixing the doggie door. The dogs have learned to use it pretty quickly, but they aren’t going out through it much yet because it has been raining all day. It sure has been a relief to not have to get up and let them in and out and in and out every five minutes! I’m glad we got it, and the contractor that put it in charged us a very fair price. I was expecting to have to pay him more because it took longer than he expected; but he charged only what his original estimate was. I’m thinking maybe it’s because I baked a batch of my famous peanut butter fudge cookies and let him have a few! One interesting thing that came out of this is that he has offered me a job, and I’m thinking about taking it!
Well, while my wife and her sister went off red-hatting today I decided to do my wife a favor and go to the grocery store to pick up the week’s groceries. Boy, was that a mistake! The store was absolutely mobbed! Now I know why my wife tells me that she will NOT go grocery shopping on Saturday afternoon! I always thought she had a screw loose by being stubborn about it, but I had to stand in line for a very long time at the checkout counter, and I was exhausted when I got home! And I was, I regret to admit, cranky. I guess I’ll make a point to NOT go grocery shopping Saturday afternoons myself!
Well we are having company over for a few hours tomorrow for Easter. They are all coming over around 2 in the afternoon to visit and play games, then we are going out to eat at a restaurant. My wife has to work tomorrow from 10-2, so today is the day she is frantically running around the house cleaning. I offered to help out by staying out of her way and running to the grocery store to buy fruit and veggie tray ingredients. My wife’s sister is over here, too, helping to clean the house. She says it’s better than having the whole family come over to her place! Later today my wife and her sister are going to a Red Hatter’s Tea Party. So they should have a good time! It’s funny to see them dressed up in their red and purple outfits!
I’m pretty sure that the cashiers and bagger that work at the grocery store get training on how to properly bag a customer’s groceries. It never ceases to amaze me how poorly a job of bagging groceries some of the cashiers and baggers do. First of all, I think that the big stores that make the cashiers scan the groceries and do the bagging is expecting the cashier to do too much. I think that each cashier should have a bagger so that each can concentrate on doing the job right, instead of doing it fast!
It never fails that when we come home from the grocery store and my wife and I are unpacking the groceries, that at least two or three things are beat up from improper bagging. It is almost a “given” that the bread will be crushed. We ask the person bagging the groceries to put all of the “cold” things together so we can put them in an insulated bag to keep them cold until we can get them unpacked. But if we don’t watch like a hawk, the bagger will put something cold in a bag with things that are not cold. You would not think that was a big deal, but when we get home from shopping, we are tired and would like to just put away all of the cold things as soon as we get home, and let the room temperature things wait a while. It’s very annoying to put away all of the cold things when we get home, and realize that something cold is missing and have to rummage through the other bags looking for it!
So, in a nutshell, I wish baggers did a better job of bagging groceries!
I’m not a big fan of onions. In fact I hate them. I am constantly telling people that I hate onions so that they won’t try to feed me anything made with onions in them. I go so far as to tell people that I’m allergic to them (although I’m not really.) And yet I like garlic bread. My wife doesn’t understand how or why I could hate onions but like garlic bread. We recently started buying frozen garlic bread slices to heat up in the toaster oven when we have spaghetti or lasagna. It’s quick and easy, and since we buy the kind that has cheese on it too I like it a lot. Even the “store brand” cheese garlic bread is really good.
My wife doesn’t drink coffee, but my I love it! My favorite coffee is Dunkin Donuts. We don’t have a Dunkin Donuts near us, so we used to buy several bags of their ground coffee to brew at home for special occasions, like my birthday or Christmas. Recently our grocery stores started selling the Dunkin Donuts coffee, which made it a lot easier to buy more often. Oddly enough, the whole bean coffee keeps appearing in the house. My wife swears that she doesn’t buy them, I KNOW I’m not the one buying whole beans, but it keeps appearing anyway! I got tired of listening to my wife complain about how she is tired of returning the coffee and exchanging it for ground, so today I broke down and bought a coffee grinder. Now when those whole beans find their way here, I’m ready for them! Bring ‘em on!
Well, I’m in a quandary. We love to buy the Angel Food Ministries food packages. They are a great deal, good food, and really help to stretch our food budget. We picked up our Angel Food box of food today and were delighted to find that the dessert this month is blueberry pie. When we got home we opened the box, thinking we would have a slice of it.
Much to our surprise, the pie was a frozen, uncooked pie. So we were unable to enjoy a slice of it immediately. What was disconcerting, however, is that there are not baking directions on the box! We don’t know how to cook it! We’ve spent over an hour trying to find instructions for baking it on the Internet, but no luck. So we are winging it. We started out at 350 for 30 minutes, but the crust wasn’t brown enough. So we turned it up to 400 for another 10 minutes, still not done enough. All in all we’ve cooked it now for about an hour and the crust is brown now, and we’ve taken it out of the oven. It smells good; we are waiting for it to cool off enough to eat it. I hope it turned out okay!
I was just reading on the msnbc news website that someone has been using counterfeit $20 bills to buy Girl Scout cookies in Bremerton Washington. The troop has accumulated 5 counterfeit bills so far! The article goes on to say that other counterfeit $20 bills have cropped up in the area, so it is not simply confined to the Girl Scouts. They found out about the fraud when they took the money to the bank and the teller told them that some of the money was counterfeit!
There is a special pen that can be used to detect counterfeit money, if you use it on a real dollar bill it turns yellow; when used on a counterfeit bill it turns black. So the Girls Scouts have bought a lot of those pens and are giving it to the girls, who will be using it on any $20 bill they receive as payment for their cookies.
I wonder if someone is doing this deliberately to the Girl Scouts, or if there are simply a lot of these counterfeit bills out in circulation and it is a coincidence that the Girl Scouts are getting so many of them! If someone is targeting the Girl Scouts, that is pretty low!
We love to eat food that has been cooked on our grill. During the warmer seasons we put the grill out on the deck and have grilled burgers or steaks several times a week. In the cooler seasons, we put the grill in the garage and grill a little bit less often – but there are a few warmer winter days we can grill if it is a really sunny day and around lunch time; the garage will warm up enough so that we don’t mind cooking out there with the garage door open for however long it takes to get the food cooked.
A few days ago my sister asked me what my favorite dessert is. Oh my goodness, what could I say? I love lemon meringue pie. But I also love strawberry shortcake. And oh my oh my, let’s not forget cheesecake! Oh, and white chocolate cheesecake ice cream with raspberry topping! Oh dear, oh dear, I can’t make up my mind at all! I think it depends on the season!
I think during the early summer I like strawberry shortcake when the local strawberries are ripe. Then when it gets hotter, I like to move on to white chocolate cheesecake ice cream with raspberry topping to cool me off! Then in the fall I like to move on to lemon meringue pie. Wintertime is cheesecake time. So, there, my favorite desserts are seasonal!
My nephew has come to visit us for the weekend. I haven’t seen him in a few years, and I’m glad he came. My wife and I picked him up from the bus station last night around 9pm and we got home about 10pm. He slept in late this morning, but we had a nice visit before lunch. I grilled some burgers for lunch and then took him for a motorcycle ride after lunch. It’s nice to have family come visit!
My birthday was Sunday, and my wife surprised me by holding a birthday party for me. Several family members attended, and we had a nice visit. My wife cooked a nice dinner, and we played some games and had cake and opened gifts. The most unusual gift that I got was from my brother-in-law. He gave me a Bushnell Rifle Scope! He remembered that the last time I came over to his house I had been admiring his Bushnell Rifle Scopes, so he bought one for me. Wasn’t that a great gift!
