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Today is my 16th wedding anniversary....and look what my husband brought me!....I love Sarris peanut butter meltaways... the last time I had a whole box to myself is when I was in the hospital when Cubby was born.... white roses are my favorite!... and I love that my daughter texted my loving husband once or twice to drop a few hints :)
Today was also the Valentine's Day ball at Cubby's preschool. He was sooooooo excited for it!! He has really taken to dancing and practices a lot! If he has an audience he's even happier. He had a little routine made up for us too.....just like Dancing with the Stars.....we went to dinner before the dance and when we entered the school he was amazed at how the school was transformed........there were little white lights everywhere, punch and cookies and the disco ball was spinning. The photographer took our picture and we hit the dance floor......the chicken dance, hokie pokie and YMCA were big hits......what a wonderful night!!
I know I am probably the last person on earth to make homemade croutons...marzipan mom has probably done them a zillion times....but my daughter just happened to have the foodnetwork on after school yesterday...and I have to admit I VERY RARELY watch it because I can't control myself and want everything!!!...then I would be living at the YMCA!!!.....anyway, Giada, who I would like to die and come back as....was making her own croutons and I couldn't believe how easy they were!! I didn't even write it down......and I wasn't even planning on making them today until I came across the other half of the loaf of french bread that I had left from making hoagies over the weekend....it wasn't too fresh anymore and I was going to toss it until I remembered the segment on croutons!! I know a lot of people are watching their carbs......but I CANNOT have a salad without something crunchy in it!!! .....and croutons are my "crunch of choice"!!....so.......all you do is cut the not-so-fresh bread up into pieces (I now see why a lot of restaurants make their own with all of the leftover bread they must have!) toss it with olive oil until it is coated and spread it out on your cookie sheet.......I then sprinkled it with garlic powder, basil and oregano.....bake them at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes...or until they are golden and crispy.
I am sure I could have had a cheeseburger and fries for the amount of croutons I just had on my salad for lunch ......but I couldn't resist they were such a treat!! I don't think I will ever buy them again!!!!
Let me just start by saying I have NEVER bought a can of garbanzo beans!!...when I was little my mom would put them in our dinner salads and I'd pick each and everyone out...it's something I never acquired a taste for no matter how packed with good stuff they are! ...and just for the record they have a lot of different names....chi chi beans, chickpeas, and garbanzo beans. When I googled hummus this morning because I wanted to learn more about my newest passion...I found out chi chi beans is the italian translation and garbanzo beans is the spanish! Hummus is one of the oldest foods, dating back to ancient Egypt over 7,000 years ago. Hummus tastes different everywhere and I think the one or two times I have tried it, it has been quite bland...well, not anymore!!!!! With this roasted red pepper recipe shared with me yesterday by my girlfriend I am a complete convert to the joys of hummus!!!! I had all of the ingredients at home and just needed the can of beans...it takes less than 5 minutes...so why not make some hummus for your honey this weekend for Valentine's Day weekend??....p.s. the cute glass heart dish is available at the Dollar Tree or Walmart ....always a cute idea to bring it along and leave it as a treat for a hostess!Roasted Red Pepper Hummus1 Tbsp. olive oil2 Tbsp. lemon juice2 cloves garlic1 cup roasted red peppers...I used the whole jar! no juice15 oz. can of garbanzo beans5 oz. crumbled fetaMix all ingredients in a food processor and blend until your preferred consistency. I don't have a food processor so I just used my blender and worked it with a spatula :) Refridgerate for several hours and serve with veggies, pita chips or crackers. I think next time I will subsitute sundried tomatoes for the peppers....I think that would be fabulous too! Beware!!! this is totally addicting!
It's tax time...and my Dad always says he knows two things for sure....death and taxes.....and this is the time of year I go to my "Charity" file and dig out my Goodwill reciepts for my husband to include with our tax paper work.....I had a VERY good year at the Goodwill since they opened a gorgeous new one with a drive thru in our town....I drop stuff off every week!!!....I keep a bag in my closet and one in the coat closet downstairs and everytime I come across something I just throw it in.....anyway, this year we may try Turbotax for the very first time.....our tax preparation bill runs about $350 and this is the first year in a long time where things have been quite "normal"...no sales of houses, no depreciations on things or major write offs...no babies...so I think I have Chip talked into giving it a try....(and of course I want to get the fuel perks when we buy the software! :)...but I wanted to mention the bit of information that my dear friend out in Harrisburg told me about last week......you can go to http://www.goodwillsew.com/ and get a print out of the value of the things you donate.....it's amazing how much they give you for your stuff!!!.....I always get a reciept and write how many bags I have dropped off....and I just sat down to figure out how much it totaled.....I was thrilled!!!......over $1400!!!.....not bad!....hope this helps
I know you've all seen the commercial for the snuggie.......everytime I watch it I just can't believe someone thought of this , had it mass produced and is making MILLIONS!!!!!!!!.....the suggestions they depict for it's usefullness are just plain ridiculous!!.....my dear friend jennifer juniper over at http://www.hopestudios.blogspot.com/ has dedicated a post to this lovely thing as well.....if you haven't seen the remake of the commercial that these guys have put on youtube you HAVE to check it out!!!..she has it embedded on her post......well......my morning friends at the Today show have even jumped on the bandwagon!!....I snapped this picture of them on my t.v. this morning (I'm getting pretty good at that!).....they start off the segment by saying there is a cult-like following of the snuggie....and show a clip of Jay Leno announcing the lady in Californina who had the octuplets was wearing the snuggie and no one even knew she was pregnant!......they also showed Matt Lauer in a previous segment from a few weeks ago saying he would never be caught dead in a snuggie!!!....well, I guess from the picture above he lost that bet!.....they also state that there is not one percentage of natural fiber in this thing .....and that the family who is roasting the marshmallows on the commercial better be careful or they'll all go up like a torch!!......I'm so happy there's always a little bit of humor in every day!!! :)....oh, and in case you'd like to get yourself a snuggie...I did see they have them at Giant Eagle so you can even get fuel perks for your snuggie!
