A great weekend

Well, I really have been MIA on the blogosphere lately huh? It's been a pretty crazy several weeks. After I wrapped up spring classes, I thought I'd have a bit more time, unfortunately that wasn't the case. Life happens. My summer class was VERY involved, my mom had a health scare, and life just seemed chaotic... I am glad to say I came through the other side unscathed (AND my Mom did too!!!!)

So, while I've had tons of ideas for blogging topics, I just haven't been able to manage to park myself down and start writing. Hopefully, I've turned the tide on that... I'm slowly trying to work my way back into the blogosphere...

My first blog back... is about my fabulous weekend trip to the 'Nati (Cincinnati) to see NKOTB (New Kids On the Block).

So, a few months ago, my best friend, being the great and wonderful person that he is, suprised me with an early birthday present of tickets to NKOTB... I cannot tell you how thrilled I was! I was a HUGE fan of NKOTB as a tween... you have know idea... I mean, my mom was pregant during this phase, and when I found it was supposed to be a boy, I begged my mom to name him Jordan Nathaniel Marcel (Jordan Knight's full name). I didn't manage to get the whole name to stick, but mom liked Nathaniel...

So, the concert was this past weekend. We decided to drive up a little early and stop and grab dinner first, at La Rosa's, yummy!!! Of course the fun part was getting from La Rosa's to the concert... See we had GPS'd ourselves to the restaurant. The plan was to then GPS from the restaurant to the concert. HA! When we got back into the car, even though the GPS had just sent us to this place, it now couldn't locate us. We thought maybe if we drove a little further back up our route, away from the trees, we'd have better luck... we were wrong... It was almost comical, we drove around Newport, and crossed over into Ohio before GPS found us. Luckily, we had managed to figure out on our own the direction to head, and we were headed the right way. Which is really a good thing, because GPS lost our signal again along the way.

We finally made it to Riverbend and parked. Then we completed what seemed like a 2 mile trek to get to the actual gates. Once we got inside the gates, we decided to go ahead and check out the concert merchandise and get something to drink before we headed to the seats. It was still rather humid out and pretty sunny... so in standing in line for both, the sun was beating down... and everyone standing around, including ourselves were sweating horribly.

The concert itself was great. The Jabbawokeez were the first opening act, they were suprisingly entertaining. Jesse McCartney was the second act. Then my boys were on. It was a great show, with alot of their old stuff mixed in with some new stuff. I got some great pics and had a blast. Of course by the time we drove home, I was more than ready to hop in a shower and get rid of the funk!

Crazy 8's

Natalie over at A Little of This, A Little of That tagged me for this meme.

THE RULES: Mention who tagged you. (check!)

Complete the list of 8’s.

Tag 8 other people.

8 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO:
(1) Public Speaking Class being over
(2) Vegas in October
(3) NKOTB concert in a few weeks
(4) Did I mention Public Speaking Class being over soon?
(5) Transferring to NKU in the Spring
(6) Kevin getting home to assist in monster watch
(7) Retirement (I've still got awhile)
(8) Oh yeah, Public Speaking Class ending... (lol)

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY:
(1) Bought a very expensive pair of black pants
(2) Bought a very awesome pair of black pants
(3) Contemplated whether the awesomeness outweighed the price of the black pants
(4) Took a bath while the monster spied on me
(5) Went to my FAVORITE class
(6) Gave a speech in my FAVORITE class
(7) Decided to grab dinner from a restaurant, because it was late and I was tired
(8) Ended the day with a good book and a hot bath

8 THINGS I WISH I COULD DO:
(1) Not go back to work until I finish school
(2) Find a job that paid me to stay home and go to school
(3) Retire at 31
(4) Figure out how to trap the house elves here to keep my place clean
(5) Catch up on sleep
(6) Remember to take my vitamins
(7) Eat Spaghetti
(8) Invent something that would make me millions of dollars

8 SHOWS I WATCH: ( I am going with what's on right now, everything it seems is in reruns)
(1) RW/RR Challenges (guilty pleasure)
(2) I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here (Junkfood for the brain)
(3) The Goode Family
(4) Little House on the Prairie (yes, I've seen them before, I still watch 'em... I actually RECORD them to watch!)
(5) Jon & Kate, plus 8 (yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah... those little kidlets are cute... leave me alone!)
(6) Rachael Ray Show
(7) Raising the Bar
(8) In Plain Sight

8 FAVORITE FOODS:
(1) Pizza
(2) Peanut Butter
(3) Ice Cream
(4) Croutons
(5) Turkey
(6) Chicken Fingers (though I've never seen one on a chicken)
(7) Bread
(8) French Fries

8 PLACES I’D LIKE TO TRAVEL:
(1) NYC at Christmas
(2) England
(3) Tuscany
(4) Lithuania
(5) Alaska (via a cruise)
(6) Australia
(7) Ireland
(8) France

8 PEOPLE I’VE TAGGED:
Ok, so several people I would have tagged have already been tagged, so I'm only tagging a couple, however anyone who wants to... feel free to join in!

Mary at Owlhaven
My favorite Newlywed

Secret to great cupcakes & cakes

Good Morning folks! It's Tuesday... and one heck of a Tuesday it's been already! You know it's going to be a great day when you have an icepack on your arm before 9 am!

However, I'm pushing through. I've been absent from the blogworld, because lots of school stuff going on in a small amount of time (that's what happens when you cram a semester class into a 6 week summer session)

It's time for Kitchen Tip Tuesdays over at Tammy's Recipes. I thought of this tip last week when I was baking up some Vanilla Zucchini cupcakes. It's a tip that I use most every time I bake any kind of cupcake or cake. I discovered it by accident. Once, while baking a set of cupcakes, I didn't have enough batter to fill all of the wells. I poured some water into the empty ones to prevent the pan from warping. I noticed that when I was finished baking, those cupcakes seemed moister. So I experimented... now when baking any cakes, I put another pan on the rack below, partially filled with water. The water in the pan creates some steam & moisture which helps offset the drying effect of the oven. Every time I use this method, I get a much moister cupcake, that stays fresh much longer!

Hope you find this helpful, and don't forget to head over to Tammy's site to check out more tips!

Murphy's law at it's best

Today was one of those meltdown days:

Overslept
Went to the grocery store & was ready to check out... no $$$
Lost car in grocery store parking lot... TWICE
Almost got hit by Graeter's Ice Cream Van
Bread that was purchased somehow opened, dumping into carseat
Dog broke tooth (her's, not mine)

Purple & Orange Cauliflower, Oh My!

I stopped in at Kroger today & they have a great little sale. You can buy a head of Purple or Orange Cauliflower for just .99 each! White cauliflower is still about 2.50, and these were normally almost $4, so I grabbed a couple (plus they are just so darned cute!)

Once you bring the cauliflower home, you might be looking for a good recipe. Here's a good one to try. I wish I had a pic of it, but it was gone before I blinked! Maybe next time.

One head of cauliflower - chopped into bite size pieces.

Olive Oil - about a 1/4 cup

Salt & Pepper (I never measure these when I'm just cooking, I just sprinkle)

Garlic Cloves - Anywhere from 10-20 (sounds like alot, but it's worth it)

Italian Seasoning - about a teaspoon

Red Pepper Flakes - just a pinch

Shredded Parmesean Cheese

Place your cauliflower in a casserole dish. Peel & slightly crack your garlic cloves, throw them in whole. Drizzle the veggies w/ your olive oil. Season w/ salt, pepper, Italian seasoning & red pepper flakes. Toss to coat evenly. Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven. After 15 minutes, stir the veggies & sprinkle with the shredded parmesean cheese. Bake another 10 minutes. Check to see if the veggies are tender. You may need another 5 minutes or so (stir again if you do)

Remove & Serve immediately.

I really believe that in most cooking, (not baking which requires some degree of measurement) it should be about just getting in there and having fun. Feel free to swap out some ingredients if you want.

I suggest:

Can swap broccoli for cauliflower (or use both!)

Don't swap the garlic - It gets really tender & sweet, and is great smushed into the cauliflower as you eat (or on a hunk of bread)

Use whatever seasonings you want, experiment!

A real sinker

More & more often, our cell phones go lots of places with us. And it is inevitable, that at some point, many people find their cell phone taking a swan dive into the nearest body of water... When this happens, you might think it's money & contact info down the drain... but this may not be the case.

A few years ago, I worked briefly as a customer service rep for a cellular company, as well as spent a couple years in other capacities for the company. The knowledge I gained there has been pretty helpful, I'm an expert at troubleshooting my own phone. One great tip that I picked up while there was how to handle a wet cell phone. I've shared it with a few people, most recently with one today, and decided it might make a good blog post, in an attempt to get the info out to lots of people faster.

So, if you find yourself in a situation where your phone is in the water, the first step is pretty simple:

GET IT OUT! The longer the phone is in the water, the less likely you might be to restore it.

The next step is very critical... DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, attempt to turn the phone back on to see if it still works! The truth is, often times a phone can survive being dropped in water, as in most occasions, the phone powers itself off when it hits the water. When you try to turn the phone on, because there is water inside the phone, you then short the phone out, frying it, so to speak... Water + Electricity = BAD

Now, quickly remove the back of the phone and get the battery out. This is really important if your phone by chance didn't power off, because you need to temporarily "kill" the phone.

Grab a towel, and dry your phone. Dry all the visible places... inside where your battery case is, around the hinges, open the little covers that hide the charger openings (you can use a Q-tip to try to soak up some moisture there) If your phone flips or slides or anything, open that too. The key is to expose as much as possible of your phone to air.

Next place your phone on a clean dry towel.

Now walk away, that's right... just leave it... you've done all you can do, and now you must leave your phone to the elements... Depending on how long your phone was in the water (say I dropped it into the sink and immediately grabbed it back out, versus I went into the pool and forgot I had it on me) You'll want to let your phone dry out for anywhere from 24 - 48 hours. If you have a small fan, it wouldn't hurt to set it near the phone to provide some air circulation.

After 24-48 hours, come back and reassemble your phone. Attempt to power it on. If the cellular gods are smiling on you, your phone should power back on. If it doesn't at first, you may want to try plugging it in and charging it, some batteries lose their charge quickly when wet.

I've had personal experience, and my phone came through just fine. I've also heard some really weird stories of things people have suggested that ended disasterously, such as:

Freezing your phone: BAD IDEA... water expands when it's frozen... you could really do more harm than good, plus you're going to be allowing more moisture into the phone.

Baking your phone: You would have to be VERY careful and I would NOT recommend baking the battery. Even without the battery, the LCD screen can be very tempermental when exposed to heat.

Of course the best plan is prevention... but we know that it's not always possible.

*On a side note, I imagine you could use the same process for other small handheld electronics, like Ipods, etc... but I've never had personal experience with 'em

Staleness be gone - Kitchen Tip Tuesday

It's Kitchen Tip Tuesday over at Tammy's Recipes. Be sure and check out her site for a variety of tips!

Ever reach into a sleeve of crackers only to realize they're stale? or perhaps a bag of chips that someone left the clip off of? Maybe in your morning fog you didn't close up your Cheerios... While I'm a huge proponent of repackaging items, using clips, etc to keep out the air... inevitably something is going to get stale. And nowadays, everyone is looking for ways to make their money go further...

So the next time you find yourself with some stale chips, crackers, or cereal... try one of these two ideas:

#1 - Microwave - Use the microwave, on high, at about 30 second intervals until the item is thoroughly heated (it will vary depending on your microwave & the amount of food you're working with). Just spread the stale chips, etc out on a paper towel & microwave. Afterwards let the food cool down, and you'll find they've crisped back up.

#2 - Toaster Oven/Oven - Spread out the stale cereal, etc on a baking sheet and bake for 5-10 minutes in a 300 degree oven until nice and toasty. Once cooled, you'll find they taste fresh again.

Breakfast Pizza

Like most of my recipes, this is more of a method, you can embellish as you see fit to suit your tastes.

Ingredients:

1 small/med onion

2 T butter

Salt & Pepper

Small can of refridgerated biscuit dough (6 biscuits)

2-4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 lb breakfast sausage

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

Start by cutting onion in half, and then slice fairly thin. Place onions in pan with butter. Season with salt & pepper. Start on Med/High for about a minute, then reduce down to Med/Low and continue to cook until the onions become soft and caramelized to your liking (depends on how much time I have) stirring periodically to prevent burning.

Brown & crumble the breakfast sausage (you could do this with the onions if you like, but if you want to cut down on excess grease, cook separately) then drain. This is where I took a short cut. I used precooked fake sausage crumbles because my roomie doesn't eat meat.

Roll out each biscuit individually until about 1/8 inch thin. It's easiest if it's done between two layers of waxed paper. Overlap the biscuits in an 8" or 9" pan/pie plate. I used a can of 6 biscuits, but these were fairly small biscuits, if your biscuits are bigger, you could probably get away with 4.

When the onions are done, spoon them onto the biscuits. Add the sausage as well. Sprinkle with cheese (you can use any kind of cheese, and more or less to your liking)

Whisk together the eggs & milk. Pour this mixture over the topped biscuits. Bake in a preheated oven (375) for about 20-25 minutes (until center is set). Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing and serve.

I forgot to take a picture until part of it had been served :)