If you're a guy reader, well, be warned. This post could potentially be TMI.
I play The Grocery Game. This week something on the Kroger list just totally strikes me funny. And odd. And makes me wonder if the people who named this item really thought it through about how the label would read.
Ready?
Excedrin Menstrual Complete Express Gels
It's the three middle words that crack me up and make me shake my head. Maybe it's just me and I'm just weird.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Day-to-Day Menu Plan:
With the garden coming in in a major fashion this week (zucchini, squash, tomatoes & corn), I pretty much just have to figure out what meat I want to have for supper, and then take my pick of whatever fresh vegetable I choose :)
Last night we had Bone-In Chicken Breasts (pan baked with a little seasoning), corn on the cob, zucchini patties & fresh tomato slices. It was SOOO good. The nice thing was that the chicken breasts were HUGE! Like turkey-sized huge. Maybe those chickens were raised next to the nuclear plant... anyhoo, neither of us ate a whole piece, and there were 3 in the package, so I will be taking the leftover meat to make tonight's supper.
Here's what I'm thinking right now (subject to change if I change my mind, of course):
Robin's Chicken Casserole
I don't think I've posted this recipe before, it's a really good one! It takes sour cream and chicken broth, both of which I have an abundance of, and then a topping of buttered Herbed Stuffing. A very nice, creamy, crunchy, chicken casserole :)
Fried Zucchini
Phoebe made some fabulous fried zucchini for us when we stopped in (another part of our vacation story that I have yet to get around to telling...) and it was the first time I'd had it. It was SO good! She shared her "recipe" with me and I hope to imitate it tonight since I have lots of zucchinis to use!
And now, ladies and gentlemen, I must gird up my loins and go back out and shuck the corn I pulled this morning. I dumped it all under a big tree so I should be able to sit in the shade and sip lemonade while doing it. I'm kidding about the lemonade part, but I guess I could if I had some. I will drag one of our lawn chairs over to sit in, and I haven't decided what I'm going to put the shucks in - not to mention all the wormies I'm sure I'll find. Maybe I'll take one of the large kitchen trash cans out to hold them. It's pretty warm today, but there's a slight breeze so that will help.
Last night we had Bone-In Chicken Breasts (pan baked with a little seasoning), corn on the cob, zucchini patties & fresh tomato slices. It was SOOO good. The nice thing was that the chicken breasts were HUGE! Like turkey-sized huge. Maybe those chickens were raised next to the nuclear plant... anyhoo, neither of us ate a whole piece, and there were 3 in the package, so I will be taking the leftover meat to make tonight's supper.
Here's what I'm thinking right now (subject to change if I change my mind, of course):
Robin's Chicken Casserole
I don't think I've posted this recipe before, it's a really good one! It takes sour cream and chicken broth, both of which I have an abundance of, and then a topping of buttered Herbed Stuffing. A very nice, creamy, crunchy, chicken casserole :)
Fried Zucchini
Phoebe made some fabulous fried zucchini for us when we stopped in (another part of our vacation story that I have yet to get around to telling...) and it was the first time I'd had it. It was SO good! She shared her "recipe" with me and I hope to imitate it tonight since I have lots of zucchinis to use!
And now, ladies and gentlemen, I must gird up my loins and go back out and shuck the corn I pulled this morning. I dumped it all under a big tree so I should be able to sit in the shade and sip lemonade while doing it. I'm kidding about the lemonade part, but I guess I could if I had some. I will drag one of our lawn chairs over to sit in, and I haven't decided what I'm going to put the shucks in - not to mention all the wormies I'm sure I'll find. Maybe I'll take one of the large kitchen trash cans out to hold them. It's pretty warm today, but there's a slight breeze so that will help.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Mixed Emotions over the Garden
Happy emotions:
I just picked 2 tomatoes, and several more are ready! I was one my way back in from taking a walk and decided to check it out since I haven't been out there since we got back from vacation (Daniel looked at it Friday and said everything was fine). Lo and behold, there are tomatoes ready! I need to go back out later and pick the rest of the ripe ones. The peppers are starting to turn, too! I picked one that looks like it has/had blossom end rot? I'm not sure if peppers get that. I think this is the last year I will plant my peppers alongside the tomatoes. I "know" that peppers don't like tomatoes, but up until this year haven't had a problem. My 3 yellow plants have the BIGGEST, and I mean BIGGEST peppers on them I have ever grown, rivaling the size of grocery store peppers if not bigger. They are so beautiful. The red and green peppers, though, are piddly little stalks with puny little ugly peppers on them.
I also saw a zucchini ready to pick! I planted a row of zucchini and a row of squash (I was outa my mind, I know, to plant that much...) and I need to look down the rest of each row to see what's there. I know I saw lotsa blooms!
I was eager to have a fresh, homegrown tomato sandwich and now I can have one for lunch! I think I'll also make zucchini patties for supper and have them with fresh tomatoes :) Ahh, I love eating out of the garden!!
Sad/Mad/Irritated Emotions:
Something has pulled over quite a bit of the maturing corn. I didn't investigate real thoroughly, so I'm not sure if they damaged the ears or just pulled it over, but probably about 1/2 of one row is pulled over. Daniel said he thought about 3 stalks were pulled over yesterday, so either something was busy last night, or he didn't see them all. Last year we had a skunk doing that, and we still have the Havahart trap from that experience. I guess we will be setting the trap tonight to see what we can catch. Rascal was barking in the middle of the night last night so I wonder if "the critter" wasn't out there last night doing it's thing. It's not unusual for Rascal to bark in the middle of the night (don't worry, we don't applaud or encourage it, we discourage it!), but it was more his "come play with me!" bark which would be what he would think of a skunk. Usually his night bark is more his "there's a ferocious, venomous, evil squirrel (or bird, or deer, or anything perfectly harmless and minding it's own business) that's going to destroy the whole planet, me included!!!!!" bark.
So yeah. I'm excited about the fresh produce that we are finally able to enjoy, but irked that the corn is getting torn up. Hopefully we'll catch whatever it is tonight and no more damage will happen.
I will hopefully take some pictures later on today and post them, but for now I just wanted to share :)
I just picked 2 tomatoes, and several more are ready! I was one my way back in from taking a walk and decided to check it out since I haven't been out there since we got back from vacation (Daniel looked at it Friday and said everything was fine). Lo and behold, there are tomatoes ready! I need to go back out later and pick the rest of the ripe ones. The peppers are starting to turn, too! I picked one that looks like it has/had blossom end rot? I'm not sure if peppers get that. I think this is the last year I will plant my peppers alongside the tomatoes. I "know" that peppers don't like tomatoes, but up until this year haven't had a problem. My 3 yellow plants have the BIGGEST, and I mean BIGGEST peppers on them I have ever grown, rivaling the size of grocery store peppers if not bigger. They are so beautiful. The red and green peppers, though, are piddly little stalks with puny little ugly peppers on them.
I also saw a zucchini ready to pick! I planted a row of zucchini and a row of squash (I was outa my mind, I know, to plant that much...) and I need to look down the rest of each row to see what's there. I know I saw lotsa blooms!
I was eager to have a fresh, homegrown tomato sandwich and now I can have one for lunch! I think I'll also make zucchini patties for supper and have them with fresh tomatoes :) Ahh, I love eating out of the garden!!
Sad/Mad/Irritated Emotions:
Something has pulled over quite a bit of the maturing corn. I didn't investigate real thoroughly, so I'm not sure if they damaged the ears or just pulled it over, but probably about 1/2 of one row is pulled over. Daniel said he thought about 3 stalks were pulled over yesterday, so either something was busy last night, or he didn't see them all. Last year we had a skunk doing that, and we still have the Havahart trap from that experience. I guess we will be setting the trap tonight to see what we can catch. Rascal was barking in the middle of the night last night so I wonder if "the critter" wasn't out there last night doing it's thing. It's not unusual for Rascal to bark in the middle of the night (don't worry, we don't applaud or encourage it, we discourage it!), but it was more his "come play with me!" bark which would be what he would think of a skunk. Usually his night bark is more his "there's a ferocious, venomous, evil squirrel (or bird, or deer, or anything perfectly harmless and minding it's own business) that's going to destroy the whole planet, me included!!!!!" bark.
So yeah. I'm excited about the fresh produce that we are finally able to enjoy, but irked that the corn is getting torn up. Hopefully we'll catch whatever it is tonight and no more damage will happen.
I will hopefully take some pictures later on today and post them, but for now I just wanted to share :)
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig
Ahh, after a 2 week, 4,000-something miles of driving (well, mostly riding for me) vacation, it is nice to be back in my "old stompin' grounds".
I really and honestly had planned to have some scheduled posts for while we were gone so I wouldn't leave you all hanging wondering what (or where?) on earth happened, but all that flew out the window when the time to leave drew nearer and nearer and my list of "things to do" changed to "absolutely MUST be done, the rest will just have to wait". I'm secretly a procrastinator. I'm sure none of you are like that, so I'm special :P
I hope to blog about our vacation in more detail this week, but it included a Kenny Chesney concert and getting to hear/see half of it from about 10 feet from the stage! I'm not a country music guru by any means, most of what I hear on the radio I don't care for, but at the same time, I occasionally hear songs that I really like - and just don't remember who sung them or their titles, so I don't listen to it much. Kenny Chesney wouldn't be my top pick for a concert, but he was the best option available for the time we were in Cheyenne, Wyoming, during the Cheyenne Frontier Days.
We had a great time travelling out, visiting friends and family along the way. It was good to catch up with people we haven't seen in quite a while. The trip back was a straight shot, done it 2 days; 16 hrs. 40 min. the first day and 10 1/2 hrs. the second. I was ready to NOT sit in the car by the time we got home!
The highlight of the vacation for me was that I didn't get sick!! It is not uncommon for me to get a cold on vacation - I pack any and all cold-related meds just because I "always" get sick. I was prepared mentally to spend the last days of the vacation miserable like usual, but I didn't!! I was tickled pink!
Now that we're home, I need to get back into the groove of things. And a good groove. Bad grooves are easy enough to get into, I need to really ramp it up to get into a good groove. Things like menu-planning, sticking to my to-do lists until they are done, and THEN doing things like blogging and facebook, going to be earlier so it's easier to get up and STAY UP in the mornings, making bread by hand (or KitchenAid) instead of waiting until the last second and having the bread machine do it, so on and so forth.
To start things off, I am going to make out my list of things to do tomorrow, and then GO TO BED. We got home Thursday night (I had a cake to decorate Friday), so I can't even use jet-lag as an excuse tomorrow.
Any tips or tricks that you use to get back into the swing of things after a vacation?
I really and honestly had planned to have some scheduled posts for while we were gone so I wouldn't leave you all hanging wondering what (or where?) on earth happened, but all that flew out the window when the time to leave drew nearer and nearer and my list of "things to do" changed to "absolutely MUST be done, the rest will just have to wait". I'm secretly a procrastinator. I'm sure none of you are like that, so I'm special :P
I hope to blog about our vacation in more detail this week, but it included a Kenny Chesney concert and getting to hear/see half of it from about 10 feet from the stage! I'm not a country music guru by any means, most of what I hear on the radio I don't care for, but at the same time, I occasionally hear songs that I really like - and just don't remember who sung them or their titles, so I don't listen to it much. Kenny Chesney wouldn't be my top pick for a concert, but he was the best option available for the time we were in Cheyenne, Wyoming, during the Cheyenne Frontier Days.
We had a great time travelling out, visiting friends and family along the way. It was good to catch up with people we haven't seen in quite a while. The trip back was a straight shot, done it 2 days; 16 hrs. 40 min. the first day and 10 1/2 hrs. the second. I was ready to NOT sit in the car by the time we got home!
The highlight of the vacation for me was that I didn't get sick!! It is not uncommon for me to get a cold on vacation - I pack any and all cold-related meds just because I "always" get sick. I was prepared mentally to spend the last days of the vacation miserable like usual, but I didn't!! I was tickled pink!
Now that we're home, I need to get back into the groove of things. And a good groove. Bad grooves are easy enough to get into, I need to really ramp it up to get into a good groove. Things like menu-planning, sticking to my to-do lists until they are done, and THEN doing things like blogging and facebook, going to be earlier so it's easier to get up and STAY UP in the mornings, making bread by hand (or KitchenAid) instead of waiting until the last second and having the bread machine do it, so on and so forth.
To start things off, I am going to make out my list of things to do tomorrow, and then GO TO BED. We got home Thursday night (I had a cake to decorate Friday), so I can't even use jet-lag as an excuse tomorrow.
Any tips or tricks that you use to get back into the swing of things after a vacation?
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