Where in the World.....

have I been? Sorry, it is so crazy here getting ready for graduation and going through a box a tissues a day drying all my tears. My family thinks I'm nuts, which is probably true, but I have always worn my heart on my sleeve (not literally, cuz, eeewww) but every day it is one day closer to her graduating, one day closer to college, one day closer to her not being here everyday. We unfortunately have also have a couple deaths in the extended family and problems with schedules. Feast or famine.

I will be back soon with some recipes, and probably some pictures of my graduate. I finished her posters to decorate the barn with for the party. 10. Yes, I made 10 posters. Baby, grade school, her sports pictures, her awards, high school years, senior year. Dude looked at me and asked where they were going to fit on the walls-they are only 40 foot long. Shut up.

Please don't give up on me-I promise I will be back soon and I miss you all terribly, but have been trying to check in every couple days on your sites to see what is up.

See you soon,
Love, me

Cheers

Hi all, how is everyone? Been MIA since my birthday, but have been working and still planning the party. No help is being offered and I'm losing my patience. To drown my sorrows, I whipped up a cocktail that Rachael Ray had on either "$40 A Day" or "Tasty Travels". It is called a Dark and Stormy. Pretty simple cocktail and it had a different vibe to it. I'm usually all about the sweet drinks-I don't like something that slaps me across the taste buds and makes my shudder. Except Kamikaze's-those are like heaven on a warm summer night!

Dark and Stormy

Ice

1/4 of a lime, wedged

2 oz dark rum

10 oz ginger BEER (not ale)

Fill large glass with ice (the recipe said a 12 oz glass-math wasn't my strong suit, but I know a little about mass, and 12 oz of liquid plus ice will not fit in a 12 oz glass!) Squeeze the lime over the ice and throw in the glass. Add the rum and the ginger beer. Give it a stir and enjoy. The ginger flavor is much more evident in the ginger beer than in ginger ale. It was good and refreshing....

and enjoyed it here........

This is my anniversary present. I had to paint it and put it together myself....hmmmm, WTF?

Hope everyone has a nice Memorial day and eats lots of good food!

They say it's my birthday.....

happy birthday to me.....c'mon, you know you were singing along. Okay, I changed the words.

Yep, today I celebrate the 43rd anniversary of my birth. Or as they said at work last night, the 14th anniversary of my 29th. Either works. The cake I brought in was wiped out in 2 breaks and the hubby at least saved the last piece for me! Thanks again Donna-everyone had nothing but praise for it!

We were off today so I had lunch with a friend, mailed Hermit Crab's party invites, ordered her grad cake and went to dinner with the Dude and Hermit Crab. Drama Queen was too busy with friends to bother coming to dinner. Oh well. After our anniversary splurge last week, we went to one of my favorite places. King's in Miesville, MN. Awesome burgers; over 45 on the menu! All of them have cool names: Rook, Knight, Pawn, MVP, All-Star, Slugger. Most deal with either Chess or Baseball. Some with the usual toppings: cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato. Others have a fried egg with cheese, bacon and a hot dog on top, or the one with coleslaw and cheese, or another with cottage cheese, marinara, mozzarella and jalapenos!

For me, it is always the Pawn: bacon, BBQ sauce and Swiss cheese

excuse the toothpick-Hermit Crab is a comedian

I also tore the bun off and it ripped the cheese

Dude had a loaded burger, the Knight-and he upsized it to a half pounder:

Hermit Crab got the Pawn Chicken Sandwich sans the BBQ sauce:

After a leisurely drive home, I popped the cork on this bad boy:

Now I am headed out to the garage to paint my Mother's Day Adirondack chair I got and the rest of the cupboards for the laundry room. Hopefully tomorrow I will be ambitious enough to clean?

If you live in the Midwest....

chances are you have a recipe for Tater Tot Hotdish. I think every blue-collar family grew up having this dinner. I didn't know any white collar people growing up, so maybe they had it too. Around my neighborhood, all the dad's worked in factories, automotive industry, truck driving, etc. None of my friends (except one) had a dad that was a lawyer, doctor or an accountant. We had block parties, BBQ's, lemonade stands, played softball and swam at the 'rich kids' house. And we all ate Tater Tot hotdish. Not casserole-not in the Midwest-say hotdish with me people.

It is easy, tasty, and fast.

Tami's Tater Tot Hotdish

1 pound ground beef, browned

1 can Cream of Celery soup

1 can Niblet corn, drained

1/2 package Tater Tots

Brown the ground beef. Stir in soup, corn and half a soup can of water. Warm through.

Pour into a 9x9 pan. Top with Tater Tots.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes. Serve.

I sprinkled some onion powder and a Penzey's blended spice on the ground beef to give it some flavor. I drain the corn and rinse to get rid of some of the salt, since the potatoes have quite a bit of salt in them. I don't salt and pepper the meat for the same reason. Once I have it on the table, I taste and let everyone decide if they want to salt and pepper their own.

I've made Donna's Stepgrandma cake to share at work tonight. Yum!

Roast Chicken, Part Deux

Okay, tenth grade French was.......2009 minus.....carry the three......well, a long time ago-did I misspell the word? Is it a big deal if I did? Does anybody really care what time it is? Oh, sorry, I got a bump on the head today and I'm feeling a little off :)

It was a beautiful day here finally. Not overly warm-maybe 65, but at last there was NO WIND!! We have had gale force winds for days and my poor plants have taken a beating; the veggies look wilted-or actually, sideways. But today was awesome. Got Hermit Crab up and her and I went to church. I know, not a big deal, but with our work schedule we rarely get there anymore. It was such a great sermon and great songs. After feeling such joy we decided to go get more things for the yard to get ready for her party. Joy ended soon after. She had to do all the lifting since I have the restrictions for another week and a half. Hmmm, maybe joy had returned? No lifting-bonus! We picked up some more veggies for the garden. My seeds didn't sprout so well this year, so went and bought some cukes, zucchini and cantalope. I told Hermit Crab that the last time we grew melons they ended up the size of a softball and hard as rocks. She was persistant so they came home with us. We also bought a couple of pavers for in front of our shed. I added a window box and some flowers-thought it would be a fun addition to the back yard, kind of brighten it up where it looks a little junky. She also had to help Dude with the pavers he got for a little patio outside our back door, plus she planted 3 trees. I supervised Dude as he planted some shrubs next to the barn in his little garden he created with his 25 cent retaining wall blocks he picked up. Can't beat making a garden bed for under $20. Dude and I sat down and had a bonfire, roasted some weiners and had a beer. Hmm, still hungry. Ahah! Chicken left over from last night. Okay, it is 10:30 at night. I wasn't up for trying to come up with some kind of fancy left over. Took the easy way out-warmed up the chicken breasts in the oven, made a nice big plate of salad greens, sliced the warm chicken, sprinkled with some nice cheeses and had a terrific salad. Trying to negate the weiners and beer.

yum, melty cheese

Here are a few pics from today:

Hermit Crab laying my new pavers

The pavers are laid and the window box is planted

Inside the shed we found a nest with 3 baby birds.

Mama was busy squaking at us all day.

Pan roasted chicken

Okay, I have no clever title for dinner tonight. I'll just call it was it is. I had taken some chicken out of the freezer this morning with no idea what to do with it. I thawed it a bit in the microwave and then put in the fridge to finish thawing out. I tried to do chores one armed/handed. It is really hard to wash a dish or fold laundry with one hand! I picked some lilacs, covered all my plants in the garden because we are suppose to have FROST tonight. C'mon, it is the middle of May!! Took all my pots off the deck and stuck them in the garage. Tried to get kids to help me clean for the party, but how convenient for them that they had plans already. Sigh. So I decided to go back and figure out what to do with this chicken. Still had no ideas. I took out some bacon and crisped it up in my new cast iron skillet that I got for Mom's Day. Threw some creamy Italian dressing on the chicken parts. After the bacon was crisped, I threw in some butter, then the chicken pieces that I had marinated, sprinkled on some spices (it was a mix of paprika, garlic salt, celery salt) and browned it on both sides. I stirred in a can of Italian style diced tomatoes that I drained and put the crisped bacon back in pan on top of chicken pieces. Stuck the whole pan in the oven along side the loaf of beer bread. I made myself a salad with some nice crunchy romaine lettuce and I was a happy camper! Dude is working OT, Hermit Crab went to dinner with a bunch of kids from her class for a birthday party and the youngest has barely grunted at me in the last 5 days. It was tender and had a mellow flavor. I bet it will be even better on the second day.

Speaking of the non-speaking to me Drama Queen, here she is ready for her spring concert at school. They did a Disney medley so the choir dressed up as Princesses, which worked since most of them wore their prom dresses. This was the dress she was going to wear to prom but didn't as the whole works got screwed up.

Off to do some more one-handed cleaning. It may take me awhile......

What to do when you need a cookie fix

and it is 2 o'clock in the morning and don't want to wake up (or get yelled at by) your children?

yep, a couple mix ins, a little vanilla added also. A tall glass of milk. Yum.

Here is us last night going out for dinner for the anniversary. My sleeves aren't as puffy as they were 19 years ago! We went to one of our favorite spots to eat-Rudy's Redeye Grill. We had Flirtini's (I'll post my version soon), I had a marinated sirloin, he had a pork porterhouse and we shared some cheesecake for dessert. We then went to see "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past). It was cute, but not as good as I had hoped. But not complaining-I love it when we can squeeze a movie OUT into the schedule. Normally we are hopping in bed watching them at 3 in the morning.

Spent a large part of the day at the doctor's office yesterday. Nothing serious, but they taped up my foot to see if it is Plantar's Faciatis (murdered that spelling) to see if I need custom orthodics for my shoes. I can't believe the relief I got in one day from being taped up (No Donna, not THAT way!). I have also been having problems with my elbow. I thought it was Tennis Elbow but the sports doc said it has something to do with my shoulders that is causing the pain. Gave me a shot of cortizone in the elbow and also feels much better. Got a note from him that I can't use my left arm at work for two weeks; no lifting with it, only 10 pounds with my right arm and I have to wear a brace for 3 to 6 weeks and go to PT to learn some strengthening exercises for my shoulders. I really need to win the lottery so I can stay home and eat bon bons and not stand for 12 hours a day!

More posts this weekend; in between the cleaning, gardening, laundry and Tami losing her mind over this darn party. Calgon, take me away!