The last 3 months have been hectic & stressful and not very conducive to cooking. My kids presented me with 3 grandbabies in 6 weeks, which was great. However, since I went and stayed a week with each kid, trying to hug babies and still get my school work done, hectic. While this was happening my two best friends both got boyfriends and our ( Read more... )

My allrecipes.com recipe of the day yesterday was Braised Balsamic Chicken. Since Tuesday's dinner isn't served until 8, I tweaked the recipe a bit and threw it in my crock pot at noon. At 7:30 I mixed up a batch of Trader Joe's Harvest Grains in the rice cooker and, with some sliced sourdough ciabatta bread and a salad, dinner was so successful ( Read more... )

Last Sunday the drive from Lewiston to Weippe was snowy & icy, this week it was rainy and blah. The Clearwater River is running high and extremely muddy. Some idiot fisherman was standing in the river about 2 feet from the bank in chest-high waders and the water was about 6 inches below the top of his waders. I just can't imagine fishing in ( Read more... )

So far I've managed to keep my 2 meals a week using my crock pots resolution. I like like the recipe book I got, but she uses a lot of canned ingredients and I think I'll probably be tweaking the recipes I like to use more fresh fruit and veggies ( Read more... )

My only NY resolution is to eat out less and cook more real meals at home. For the last 6 months I've been at school from 7 AM to 3 PM four days a week, plus I had a grant that could only be used at the school -- tuition, books, MEALS. So I've gotten in the habit of eating my first 2 meals at the cafeteria and either eating out for dinner or ( Read more... )

For the last 3-4 months I've been on a steak kick, an expensive steak kick. I could justify spending $6-$8 for a pound of steak each week only because The Boy doesn't like any red meat but hamburger and I got 4 meals and some homemade beef stock out of each pound ( Read more... )

I have found a new favorite brew, Fat Tire from the New Belgium Brewing Company. I also like 1554, although not as much as Fat Tire. I picked up a six pack of 2 Below, a seasonal ale only available in the Winter months. The jury is out on this one. It has an excellent winter feel to it, but a different, earthy aftertaste that I haven't decide if I ( Read more... )

It's gone!! Yay!! I pretty much hated that house from the moment we moved in. It was a 2-story, with all the kids bedrooms upstairs and ours downstairs, which was a major mistake when you have emotionally disturbed children who prey on each other. Plus, it was a 'fixer upper' and my husband died before anything was really fixed. We had managed to ( Read more... )

I decided that complaining about politics was not giving me the satisfaction it use to give, so I've been volunteering at the Democratic Headquarters. Helping organize voter lists and calling/emailing other members reminders about meetings is easy; cold-calling people to remind them to vote & then ask who they're voting for sucks big time. I've ( Read more... )

Last night, just before bed, I put away my laundry, tossed my nightgown on the bed, and went into the kitchen to turn off the light. The kitchen is 6 steps from my bed and once in there I spun in a circle wondering why I was there. Eventually I figured it out & went back into the bedroom, opened the drawer I keep my jammies in & wondered what the ( Read more... )