SUPER SALADS & SEWING

Hey there everybody! How are you doing this fresh first day of the work week? I am crazy stoked… I have lots to share with you from yesterday! I am quite proud of myself. I have already fed my kitties both inside and out, watered what’s left of the garden (including my new babies), picked a few yummies that wanted to come inside, taken the kids to school, and now I am writing you before I leave for work. Cool huh?



Well folks, Freshman marching band starts this afternoon, and my kids have to be there so they can get their partner. That means the chaos, which we call marching season, is right around the corner! Each year the upperclassman get “assigned a freshman”. The older band members are to tutor and mentor the young ones if they need any help. This year we are gaining 87 freshman!! That’s the biggest number in one year in the band’s history! (I wonder how many I will be gaining around my house LMAO!) Our band is getting close to covering the field with this addition! It’s Gonna be crazy now! Anyway, they have 2 weeks of freshman band before the summer and then the whole band starts summer training the beginning of August before school. This picture was our band this past year (October) at one of the competitions hosted by Sam Houston State University. LOL I know it (the whole band) doesn’t “belong” to just me, but I have a lot of pride in them and sometimes I just blurt out “That’s MY band” LOL! They are great kids! So it will be interesting to see how the new recruits do under the pressure… and if you think there isn’t any… GUESS AGAIN! Dickinson Marching Band is NOT for the faint hearted LOL! Let’s just say, it gets pretty tough! My brother even shattered his ankle one year and STILL tried to march! Yea band and football is a big thing around here… and I have one in each! CRAZY!!



I started out the day by running to the store to get a few things I kept forgetting to buy… including my B1G1F roses at Home Depot! Aren’t they just so pretty? And they weren’t very expensive either… 9.95 each, so it was $10.78 for both, or roughly $5.39 each… not too shabby I think. They are covered in buds, so I hope to have some beautiful bushes soon!



Once I got back home, the race was on… the sewing race that is! I made a list of 10 DIFFERENT things I wanted to get done. Sadly I only accomplished 6 of the crafts off the list, but I think I did pretty cool. This was the first thing… the Grandma T-shirt purse. I saw these shirts at Wal-Mart for like $5 and there were a couple I just had to get for the sheer purpose of making bags. This was the first one… and it reminds me so much of my mother! I matched the wording color with the butterflies on this fabric and I think it turned out really well!



This is the second T-shirt I got to make a bag… yes my pride in Texas really shines through huh? LOL! The state has the map on it and the awesome cow skull. I paired this with a pretty fabric that has the Texas Flag and bluebonnets (the state Flower) on it. I purposely narrowed the bottom as I was trying to make it similar to the shape of the state. I think its pretty nifty! I am gonna have a hard time getting rid of this one! LOL!



Here is a plastic canvas box with a Casino theme. I plan on using it to make a gift basket/package filled with Casino related items. I have a matching purse with the same print too. Isn’t it awesome!? I think it will make a good basket/container for a gift package.



Ok, this is a plain black apron my son got when he worked at Subway. He no longer needs it as he doesn’t work there, so he gave it to me. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it then I said, “I’m gonna put some pockets on it and use it as a crafting and do-it-herself apron. I won’t be losing any more tacks, nails, etc. anymore as I work around the house! LOL I thought it was a pretty good recycle idea!



Ok, now since the band kids have to have a special towel to sit on when they are at games and such, I figured so do I LOL! So, I had bought these blue towels on clearance one time and had them sitting in a box you’ve come to know as “the green crate” LOL! What to do, what to do… MUSIC NOTE SCRAPS TIME! LOL! Now I have my own special pair of band towels for competitions, games, etc! In the school color too!



Ok, so its time to stop and make dinner. Now when I was at the store they had a really good deal on crispy chicken tenders so I decided to make the Seasonal fruit and chicken salad for dinner and try it with the crispy chicken instead of the grilled chicken like normal. While it was super delish, the whole family agreed that we like it better with the grilled chicken actually. But isn’t that so pretty?



What would dinner be without a dessert? The other day when I took my mom to the store I got some clearance breads for 49 cents each. I also had a few more packages of those apple slices left too… so I made Apple Cinnamon Bread pudding. OMG let me tell you, it made the house smell absolutely marvelous! It tasted really good too LOL!



Ok, so after dinner I was slowing down dramatically. So I was just really piddling with the scraps in the crate and I managed to make 10 cell phone pouches. BUT I ran out of snaps, so they aren’t all totally complete… I still need snaps for 3 of them and the store I need to get them at was closed for the day so they have to wait. But 7 are completed and 3 almost done. That was some pretty spiffy productive piddling huh? LOL!



And finally… the piece de resistance! The LOTTO TICKET BAG IS COMPLETED! OMG this is so freakin’ cool! I ran into a few bumps and snags along the way, but let me tell ya, this is the most awesome thing I have ever made I think! Not only did I recycle, its just freaking super-de-duper! And expensive LOL! The bag is made out of $54 worth of losing lotto tickets and then material, thread, etc. But I don’t care… I think its awesome!!!!!!! I probably won’t be making another one for a long time (that’s a lot of money for a bag) unless I put out an ad for people to save their losing tickets for me across the county! So that makes this purse truly unique as well! Ain’t that just the shiznizzle??!!!

So now you see my exciting day of sewing marathon… whatcha think? I think I rocked it out… especially the lotto bag. But all my stuff is super cool I think. And that’s what makes it so fun. So let’s get you into another great craft… especially if I have managed to inspire you! Now I told you I was gonna bring you some patio/garden crafts, etc. And yesterday I showed you a cute bird bath with terra cotta pots and told you how I love them so LOL. Well guess what… I have another neat little terra cotta craft for you!



Craft Idea of the Day: Clay Pot Wind Chimes

Materials:

3 to 4 clay pots in different sizes.
Jute (you can also use macrame twine)
3/4” to 1” wooden bead.
Paints of your choice.

Directions:

It is best if you paint your pots first. You can free hand a design or use stencils. There are a lot of decals on the market that you can also use. Any craft store will have decals in all different designs. Swans and ducks look really nice on chimes.

Cut about a yard of jute. Put one end of the jute into the wood bead. Tie a knot and pull the ball down to the bead. Tie another knot about 1 ½’ up from your bead. I usually put a washer on top of the knot because the knot will shrink in time and your pot will slip past the knot.

Put your smallest clay pot on next. You will have to judge where to put your next pot. It should hang over the smallest pot by about ½”. Keep working up the line with your pots getting bigger. After you have your last clay pot on tie a loop to hang it with. If you have extra jute at this point just cut it off.

You now have a clay pot wind chime that you can hang anywhere. These wind chimes are very easy to make and make great gifts.

Now, we have been having such fun with themed food weeks, I figured I would bring you another. So far, I've brought you casseroles, soups, pizzas, and grilling. Now I want to go to something else that sparks excitement in some and dread or fear in others… SALAD. This week is SUPER SALAD WEEK! Now salads don’t just have to be green lettuce with raw veggies, etc. You have many different kinds of salads… pasta salads, meat salads, veggie salads, fruit salads, etc. So this week is a sneak peek at salads unique! LOL! I’m not posting the salad I had for dinner last night again because I posted it on March 27th, so go check it out there! LOL I am, however, going to bring you the first salad, which also has a bit of grilling… the perfect cross-over recipe to start another fantastic theme!



Grilled Pepper Steak Salad

Ingredients

2 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic, divided
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound lean skirt steak or flank steak
8 cups packed torn romaine lettuce or mixed salad greens
1 large tomato, seeded, chopped
1 ripe avocado, peeled, seeded, diced
1 1/4 cups Sargento® Shredded Reduced Sodium Mild Cheddar Cheese, divided
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion (optional)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons pureed chipotle chlies in adobo sauce (optional)

Directions

Rub 2 teaspoons garlic and pepper over steak. Grill over medium-hot heat on a covered grill 3 to 5 minutes per side for medium doneness depending on thickness of steak. Transfer steak to a carving board; tent with foil and let stand 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine lettuce, tomato, avocado, 1 cup cheese and red onion in a large bowl. Combine oil, lemon juice and remaining garlic in a small bowl; mix well. For a spicier dressing, add chipotle chilies. Add mixture to bowl; toss with lettuce mixture. Transfer to four serving plates.

Carve steak crosswise into thin slices; arrange over salads. Top with remaining cheese.

Okie dokie gang, it’s that time again. Time for me to get off here and get dressed and ease on down the road. I’ve had a blast this morning sharing my day off crafting photos and everything else with you today. I hope you can meet me back here tomorrow, because you never know what I’m gonna have in store for you! So until then… HUGS!

SEW CRAZY 4 POTATO PASTA

Top of the morning to ya my little chickadees! How are you doing this morning? I am good. I got a lot accomplished in the last 36 hours (Tuesday night and yesterday people LOL wakey wakey already LMAO) and I always feel pretty spectacular after some serious crafting sessions LOL! I know, it was supposed to be my day off, but you and I both already knew it wasn’t going to happen LOL! I got lots to share with you today! Take a look!



I started the day yesterday morning with a quick trip to my local Wally World and it yielded some pretty awesome results! This load cost me $17.86! YAY! I had $4 off on Women’s and $3.00 off on Men’s coupons for the Nivea Body wash (which were $3.97), $1.50 off any Whiska’s dry cat food (on sale for $2.97), $3.00 off each the BIC Comfort 3 Advanced and Soleil (which were on sale $2.88 each YAY!), Buy 1 Get 1 FREE Ziploc bags coupon AND a $1.50 off 2 bags (which the quart size and gallon size boxes were $1.97 each and the sandwich size was $1.34) and then the milk, cheeses, and allergy meds were “generic” so those were all regular price. I think it was a great buy! Think I need some more of these coupons LOL! Factor out the generic stuff and I really only paid $5.93 for everything! COOL HUH? Coupons are a wonderful thing! I’m already planning another super duper trip and have ordered more coupons from the Coupon Clippers! LOL!

Oh and to Tabitha, about the carrots… I paid a little less than $11 for the 25 pound bag of carrots. That breaks down to about .44 cents per pound. It’s A LOT cheaper than the grocery stores here. Normal price on a pound bag of carrots runs about $1, and occasionally you can find them on sale for 49 cents per pound (but that’s rare). So, even when they are on sale, I still save about a nickel a pound by buying in bulk.



Here you see a pair of hand towels I picked up at the Dollar tree that I embellished with the fabric from my kitchen curtains! All 3 curtains are up now and the hand towels are decorated. Making the towels sparked another idea with my lemon fabric!



Remember how I said I had to still buy the wallies for the cabinet doors? Well not anymore! I took the fabric scraps and cut out the whole lemon pictures and then spray glued them on the cabinet doors! This not only saves me money (no more buying the wallies), but I used up (didn’t waste) the scraps AND guaranteed that the wallies are something I like AND that they match! Pretty smart, huh?



Remember when I went to JC Penny with those latest $10 coupons and got some shirts? Well this is the Coca-Cola purse I made out of one of those free T-shirts I got! I also used some more “scraps” out of the green crate for the Fabric challenge. I think the really cool part is the fact I used the “printed shirt tag” on the inside as a pocket! Cool, don’tcha think?



Here you have “The Snack Sack”. I cross-stitched this picture about a year ago with a kit I got clearanced and never knew what to do with it… until today! I applied the same method as the T-shirt purse with adding matching fabric on the top and bottom of the cross stitched picture and then proceeding normally to make a purse.

While on the purse topic… the start of the lucky lotto bag has not gone so well! Note to viewers… the modge podge didn’t dry and it ruined the one side I started… so now I have to collect more non-winning tickets to redo the one side. The other side, however, worked well with the spray adhesive. I found a funky fabric backing that I spray glued on the back of the tickets. I’m gonna let it set for a couple of days to make sure its stuck good… meanwhile, I got some more $2 and $4 winners that I need to cash in for more tickets LOL… anybody got any losing $2 tickets? LMAO!



This is a present (here’s hoping she doesn’t read this before I get over there this morning LOL!) for my mother. It’s a Hippie walker tote! It has a velcro strap that she can just wrap the flap over the bar on the walker and it will hang in front… suitable for the mail, papers, or bounce rollers LOL or whatever she wants to put in it (even snacks LOL).



Here is the matching cell/hanging pouch. She can hang this too on the walker and put her cell phone in it when she is walking or whatever else she might see fit (why do I get sudden images of candy bars and such? LOL). I am trying to make things somewhat easy for her and I knew that, as she is a self-professed “hippie”, she should LOVE this fabric!



Well it has begun. Normally I always have more than one project going at once. I have officially started sewing for Madison’s room today. She never could decide how she wanted to decorate her room and when she finally did, I got all the stuff and told her to clean her room. She did and then I had to hold off due to family emergencies. But now I can get back on course and begin working on her stuff (just have to get her to clean the room again LMAO!). I made 2 pillow cases out of the room fabric tonight. Now I just have to buy new pillows LOL!



I pulled out a piece of fabric from the green crate and just kind of stared at it a little while. What to do… what to do… well I decided on can wraps. They have the playing cards on them and I think would be a great give away/favor at a poker night party. Or they could just be for someone who likes poker!



Remember that oh-so-precious veggie peeler my caring father got me? LOL! Well yesterday I played with carrots (sadly I didn’t finish prepping the 25 pound bag though) but I conquered POTATOES! Oh boy was that fun! Now, if you paid attention to the Wal-Mart shopping picture, you would see milk, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, and ricotta cheese… what does that normally make? Yep, LASAGNA! Now I am not real big on lasagna believe it or not, and my mother not liking pasta actually made this idea pop into my head! That spiff-a-licious peeler makes for some really THIN slices of potatoes… so why not make some potato lasagna? It took me 1 and a half hours to prep from beginning to baking but it actually turned out really good… the pan weighed a ton, and after dinner so did my tummy! LOL! I took step by step pictures in case you guys and girls wanted me to post my recipe on how I made it. Maybe a good thing for someone needing/wanting gluten free?

Sew, are you feeling a little crafty now looking at all my crazy sewing stuff? GOOD! LOL! I think this might be an interesting thing to make for hospital donations. Now, I don’t know if mom remembers, but in the hospital I was joking with mom about making a Foley cover because she was embarassed and didn’t want anyone seeing it. She was always trying to cover it up with a sheet (she’s such a proper lady LMAO). Well sure as the sun is hot, I found an actual site that gives instructions on how to make a Foley Bag cover (a.k.a. as a catheter bag cover)!! I think it would be a good thing for patients who are on dialysis, etc. Give them a little bit of “dignity” back if you will. Click the title to go to the page and see all the pictures, etc. I found the link on my Free Sewing patterns page… I should’ve guessed! LOL…



Craft Idea of the Day: Donatables: Catheter Bag / Foley Bag covers

Materials

14" x 32" rectangle of opaque fabric
2 - 18" pieces of some material to use as ties - or make them from fabric

Instructions

1. Fold larger piece of fabric in half length-wise.

2. Make a casing on each narrow end for the ties. Do this by folding over edge twice and ironing flat.

3. Open up the folded and ironed ends, and fold the fabric right sides together so folded ends are together. Sew up the sides to just 1/4" under the first ironed fold. Trim the bottom corner and iron the seams flat.

4. Fold the top casing over so that the cut ends on the sides do not show. Sew close to the edge making the casings and making sure the ends of each one are not sewn shut.

5. Cut two roughly 18" pieces of some sort of tie... I used satin cord for this one and have used ribbon and even bias tape for this. Thread one piece through each casing so that two ties stick out on each side. These will be used to tie the cover to a wheelchair or bed rail.

NOTE: I have tied some other finishing touches that I like better than the above. Just make the bag and hem the opening instead of making it into a drawstring top. Then do one of the following:

 Use 2 strips of blanket binding. Sew on each side of the hemmed opening, folding the ends to make the binding neat. Be sure you sew along the edge so there is plenty of room for the drawstring. Finish the drawstring as above.

 Sew bias tape along the sides of the bags leaving extra bias tape at the top. Cut it long enough to be a tie. Then sew another piece of bias tape from about 1 inch from the top of the bag. Cut the second piece to march the length the first piece. Tie off each as above. See photos below.

The sizes in this pattern can be somewhat flexible. The finished width should be as close to 13" as possible, the bottom to top not much more. How much tie you use depends on what you use.. since I used satin cord I made them longer to be sure they can be tied snugly. You could also use some other type attachment... Velcro for example.. so long as the strip of Velcro's fabric is long enough to reach around the bed rail or wheelchair arm.

I made this up as I went along and am not an experienced seamstress, so feel free to make and suggest improvements. Email me at hathorn@drizzle.com

This pattern is yours to use and republish.. but we would really appreciate if you would let people know it was from NW Wings of Love www.nwwingsoflove.org.

OK it’s that time again! Time to tempt your taste buds with a slice of heavenly deliciousness! Its PIE TIME! YAY! Day 4 of the Unique Pizza Week brings you a sweet treat today. A fruity dessert that’s sure to please your crowd! "Refreshing sliced fruit and creamy whipped topping over a tender cookie crust - delicious, impressive, and easy. Enjoy! Kiwi and peaches may also be added to pizza if desired."



Fruit Dessert Pizza

Ingredients

1 (18 ounce) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1/2 cup sliced banana
1/2 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup seedless grapes, halved

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Press cookie dough evenly into a 12 inch pizza pan. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack.

Spread whipped topping over cooled crust. Arrange fruit in a decorative pattern. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Ok everybody. Its time for me to get off here and get dressed so I can go to work! I hope you enjoyed the inside scoop as to what I did on my day off. Have fun in whatever temptations life may lead you to today… just remember to be safe! Until tomorrow… HUGS!

THE FABRIC CHALLENGE

Well good morning kiddies! How are you doing this humid day of days? I am alright… my brain is going a thousand miles a minute about lots of different things today! My back is a little sore, but I will just throw on my brace and I will be fine LOL! Yesterday was an incredible day for comments. Thanks everyone! Keep them coming cause you rock!! I love when my readers interact with me!

Ok tell me, have you ever have any super weird dreams that woke you up going WTF? LOL… that was me last night! It involved an old boyfriend (I’m talking like 20 years ago!), my DD and DS18 and HIS supposed 10yr old daughters, a baby (I can’t have any more kids), and me being a High School Teacher! Yea I know CRAZY! And I woke up really feeling like a pretzel, so I guess I really tossed and turned everywhere!



Well, after the kids were at school yesterday, I went outside and spent 3 hours planting seedlings into 4 inch pots in preparation for my plant sale. I am hoping to have about 100 plants for sale at $1 a piece. I think that would be reasonable. So if you are in the neighborhood, come on by and get yourself some healthy, pesticide-free, home grown plants! LOL! If all goes well, I am thinking about making this an annual event! Who knows, it might just turn into something! Now do you think I should try some flowers, or just stick with veggies?



Speaking of veggies, look at this! My first red and ready cherry tomato of the season!! Isn’t he the cutest thing!? I had the honor and privilege of bringing him inside off the vine today. I stuck him in the fridge and when the few others that are already turning red complete, they will become beautiful additions to a fresh tossed salad! YAY!



You know what else is cool? I have blooms and or the beginnings of food on almost all my plants! The peas you see pictured were started from seeds and they have their first blooms… so do the berries and a lot of the veggies! OMG don’t even get me started on tomatoes! This year I think will be a crazy crop of tomatoes! I have 5 very large Romas already and cherry tomatoes as far as the eye can see! My Husky Cherry plants are covered top to bottom literally with blooms and or tomatoes! Its so incredibly awesome!

Ok, yesterday I told you about the Fabric Challenge. I have 6 bolts and 2 crates/boxes to empty by sewing different things by the first day of school in August 2010. This year (the 2010-2011 school year) starts August 23rd, so that gives me approximately 139 days, or roughly 4 1/2 months to accomplish this goal. NOW… if I do as good as I did with the storage goal, we might be done way before then. The problem lies here… sometimes I am just not in the mood to sew. And if I try to sew during those times, I mess things up, get upset, and mess up even more. SO… I have to keep up the momentum and desire and use it wisely when it hits me! LOL… not to mention, I will be making tons of new things for my stockpile of crafts for sale. Cool huh? The more inventory I have, the better I think!



Now this month I am doing a lot of crafts with the Autism Fabric (in honor of Autism Awareness month), but I will be doing other fabrics as well. I don’t want to sabotage myself with just using one fabric, getting bored and stopping and losing my sewing mojo! That would not be cool. SO, yesterday, which was day 1 of the challenge, after I was done with my plants, I made can wraps in all kinds of fabrics. I made some breast cancer support and military ones from the cause box, and a bunch of others from the green crate. Don’t they look pretty cool? I set a goal yesterday morning that I wanted to do 20 of them and by golly that’s what I got done! I even made one in the scraps of fabric I had left from the watermelon print I love so much (remember the fabric I searched for and found for $9 a yard? Yea that’s the one!) LOL that one might just have to stay with me! LMAO!



I also managed to squeeze out a couple of other visors and another music note luggage tag before it was time to shut down both the sewing machine and the seamstress body. LOL! Watching Dancing With The Stars really makes it hard to concentrate sometimes LOL! Is anyone else following that silly show but me?

OK, so are ya feeling crafty? As I begin Day 2 of the Fabric Challenge, I ponder what to make. I might do some pillow cases, shopping bags, or purses… not sure yet. I will just sit at the table and see what strikes me to make. I might make some of these cute Fingertip Mitts for using on microwaved yummies! I found these on Savvy Seams once and they are really cool!



Fingertip Mitts

Downloadable Pattern (PDF)
less than 1/4 yard of outer fabric, lining, cotton batting and mylar/poly batting.
1 pkg. double fold bias tape
thread to match the bias tape

Step 1a: For piece 2, cut two of fabric, two of cotton batting, and two of lining. Assemble each half as shown.

Step 1b: Bind the straight edge with double-fold bias tape. Use a zip-zag stitch to attach the binding.

Step 2: For piece 1, cut one of fabric, one of lining, one of cotton batting and one of metallized poly batting ( or an additional cotton batting layer). Assemble in the order as shown. Zig-zag stitch the layer together. Be sure no to let your stitches drift too far in that they might be seen after you attach the binding. (You can always rip them out at the end if they do, but it's easier not to have to do that)

Step 3: Line up the top pieces with the bottom, matching the curves. Baste them together.



Step 4: Using an iron with lots of steam, shape bias tape around the whole mitt. This is very important if you want to have a nice smooth curve, instead of a bunchy, pulled sort of curve.

Step 5: Sew on the binding using a zig-zag stitch. Try to keep the ends even and tucked under, unlike my example picture.

Now are you already asking “What’s for supper?” Well guess what I am bringing back out today? Yep the old slow cooker! Me and my lovely crock pots are going to make some of the most Amazing Ribs I know how to make! As a matter of fact, you can’t call them anything other than…



Amazing Ribs

Ingredients
6 pounds pork baby back ribs
1 pinch black pepper
1 pinch salt
1 pinch crushed red pepper
4 cups barbecue sauce
2 (12 ounce) bottles porter beer, room temperature
Directions
Cut ribs into small portions of 2 or 3 bones each. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season water a pinch each of salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper to the water. Boil ribs in seasoned water for 20 minutes. Drain, and let the ribs sit for about a half an hour.

Meanwhile, preheat an outdoor grill for high heat.

Lightly coat the ribs with barbecue sauce. Cook the ribs over high heat for a 5 to 10 minutes on each side to get a nice grilled look to them.

Place grilled ribs in a slow cooker. Pour remaining barbecue sauce and one bottle of beer over the ribs; this should cover at least half of the ribs. Cover, and cook on High for 3 hours. Check ribs every hour or so, and add more beer if needed to dilute sauce. Stir to get the ribs on top into the sauce. The ribs are done when the meat is falling off the bone. The ribs were cooked completely in the first process, the rest is about flavor and texture.

Now as for me, I am off to begin the rat race of the FC- Day 2. Curious to see what I crank out today LOL! I would love to hear about some of your projects you might be working on. Leave those comments as I love hearing from you… Okie dokie… see you all tomorrow… this is the Frugal Mom signing off… HUGS!

IN STITCHES

Well hola, hi there, and hello to you this brisk Janny morn! Sorry I'm a wee bit on the tardy side... had to take the hubs to the courthouse. They set him a courtdate over a seatbelt ticket... A SEATBELT ticket!? Seriously?? OK so he goes February 10th to try to get it dismissed. If not, its gonna cost him over $200 for it. He better pray now lol! So we just got back home and he went out for a walk. I'm all alone! YAY! LMAO...

OK for those of you who have learned some things about me, you know I don't watch too much tv. However, I do love this show called Criminal Minds. OMG have you seen it? Its really good... that's actually what I wanted to do when I was younger- criminal pyschology and profiling. But certain events in my life did not allow that to happen. But I have recently been thinking about checking into the rest of the courses and seeing if I could do something similar on a more local level... not just FBI... cool huh? We'll see... I have such a busy schedule already. It would be nice though... I'll let ya'll know what I decide.

So are the fingers feeling crafty? I actually am in a very crafty mood... and its good cause I can sit down since I'm not feeling too good and do it. I'm going to be concentrating on making some purses with matching accessories. But I want to share a site with you today... not just a particular craft. Its one of my favorites. I found a ton of great things there and have made MANY of the items on this site. It's called "Sewing Stuff" and is the site for free sewing patterns and craft ideas. You can find all kinds of things such as baby stuff, clothing, charity sewing, and tons more! Make sure to check it out!

Ok, so I've worked up an appetite and its not even lunch yet! So what do we do... well we eat a nice healthy salad for lunch LOL and then we plan a killer dinner! I'm talking OMG-can't-believe-this-came-out-of-my-oven kind of dinner LOL! Tonight I am making a seafood spread! Baked Salmon Fillets and steamed lobsters (I found on the cheap at one of my local grocers... picked up and froze a bunch!) with grilled rice (that has baby shrimp in it) and fresh green beans with new potatoes and corn on the coblets. Served with sides of hush puppies (or shut up dogs as we jokingly call them here- remind me of the story to tell you about those later!) and cornbread or rolls. YUMMY!!! Here's some very delicious recipe for the salmon...



Baked Crusted Salmon Fillet

Ingredients

1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/2 teaspoon Dill Weed
1 salmon fillets (1 pound)
1 tablespoon vegetable Oil

Directions

Blend Old Bay seasoning, onion powder and dill weed; set aside. Place fillet, skin side down, in baking pan coated with cooking spray. Lightly brush surface with vegetable oil.

Sprinkle seasoning mixture evenly over fillet. Bake at 450° for 8-10 minutes per inch of thickness or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Yield: 4 servings.

OMG ok gotta share my SHUT UP DOG story with you... its so funny! One day when we went out I got to thinking about words I could use instead of hush puppies... another one for hush is "SHUT UP" lol and puppies are "DOGS" hense... Shut up Dogs LOL! So we go to Kroger one day and I was feeling pretty onry so I decided to mess with the little guy working in the freezer section. He asked me if I needed any help and so I said "Yes, can you help me find where you keep the shutup dogs?" He was like "Excuse me?" Yea the shut up dogs... so he walked up and down the isles looking and then comes back and asked who makes them. LOL Trying to contain myself, I said I didn't know so he says "Let me go ask my manager" and walked into the back. OMG I was about to wet myself laughing! Keeping it inside, the manager comes out and asked how he could help, so I asked him and he kept walking around. He couldn't find them and he tells me "Ma'am I'm not sure if we carry that brand" so I walked away a bit and then pulled a bag out of the freezer and said "I found them. Thanks for your help" and they said "You're welcome" and walked away... OMG I went outside and about died right there in the parking lot! I was laughing so hard, I was crying!

Ok so now that you are probably all wet from laughing so hard... I forgot to tell you about dessert! Miniature Peanut Butter Cheesecakes! OMG delish! Here lemme share... I found this recipe on Taste of Home and they are a big hit around here! The kids go CRAZY over them!



Miniature Peanut Butter Cheesecakes

Ingredients
1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tablespoon sugar
5 teaspoons butter, melted

FILLING:
4 ounces Kraft Philadelphia® - Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons beaten egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 miniature peanut butter cups

Directions

In a small bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Press onto the bottom of six paper-lined muffin cups; set aside.

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and flour until smooth. Add egg and vanilla; beat on low speed just until combined. Place a peanut butter cup in the center of each muffin cup; fill with cream cheese mixture.

Bake at 350° for 15-18 minutes or until center is set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Yield: 6 servings.

So there ya go my friends... a good craft resource, a couple of good recipes, and a good laugh... my work here for the day is done LOL! Ya'll have a great day and I will see you again tomorrow for another exciting adventure! HUGS!