1st Apartment

Our daughter starts her summer session of classes today…well, I should say summer session of “class” since she is only taking one but it is an important one since it is a prerequisite for any of the the other classes she takes for her major in Communications.    The apartment/townhouse she and three of her other friends have leased came with a full year contract so even though the plans were for her to come home for the summer, once we realized she would be paying rent anyway…and the rents for anything in Chapel Hill, NC are outrageous…that’s just this Mom’s opinion….we decided the best plan was for her to at least take a class and live there since we were paying for it anyway.  It is all starting to fall into place.  She has a part time job there and now with her class officially starting she is keeping very busy and having lots of fun while she is there.  Her other room mates are all doing pretty much the same thing. 

   

So I haven’t had much time for blogging because I am either working…it’s a busy time in the cheese caves…or I am driving back and forth to Chapel Hill getting our daughter moved in.  Moving in is not just a one day activity.  No it’s been happening for weeks!  I took these picture of  her her new bed.  It’s a shame the landlord won’t let them paint the walls and really they aren’t supposed to hang things on the walls either.  It’s looking a bit bland.  So these photos are to help inspire me to try and come up with some ideas on what I can make to hang on her walls.  I’ll be needing to get my hands on some 3M Wall Sticky Wall Hooks that are not supposed to damage the walls.  I have never used these before.  Has anybody else used them with any success???

   

Here is the desk I so loving worked on.  Heaped with stuff.  And this next photo is to remind me that the girl needs a dust ruffle in a bad way!  I need to hurry and get that taken care of.  Not attractive!  :) 

My next visit I’ll be sure to take some more photos of the rest of her place.  It’s a work in progress but she and her friends LOVE it!   Do you remember your first place?

Oh The Lengths I Go To….

Oh the lengths I go to keeping mayonnaise out of my food. 

This week it’s all about food.  For some  unexplained reason I have been in the mood to cook and that is a new development over the last few weeks.  It’s been hot and humid and our son doesn’t seem to eat at home much lately.  He and his friends are loving the new found freedom that driving brings and they are enjoying a few too many “field trips” to the fine fast food establishments in our city…if you ask me….and nobody did.  :)

Anyway,  I pulled out one of my oldest and favorite cookbooks called Renaissance Cuisine.  It’s one of those fund raising cookbooks that I received as a gift back when I was first married.  It was printed for a fundraiser to raise money for a hospital in Detroit, Michigan.  It’s full of great recipes and it’s fun for me to pull it out every now and then to read it and to find another recipe to try out.  On page 83 is the Chicken Salad recipe we served at my baby shower when my daughter was born.  My friend Cindy had a beautiful newly built house at the time and generously offered to host a shower for me.  It was so nice and I wasn’t the only one pregnant at the shower that day.  If I remember right there was me, Tammy, Tina, and Karen all sporting various sizes of belly.  This is the recipe for the Chicken Salad that was served.  It was delicious and the best part is that there was NO MAYO INVOLVED!!  Sour cream  was substituted and the sour cream is mixed with Cool Whip and a small amount of orange juice concentrate.  It’s really delicious. 

I made a small bowl today for me and my husband to have for dinner.  I found a great loaf of Ciabatta bread which helped make this a great sandwich.  I prefer red grapes in this recipe but my husband likes green better….but if you want it to look “prettier”….use red grapes. :)  Enjoy!

Chicken Orange Salad

4 cups white meat chicken, torn into bite size pieces

1 cup mandarin oranges, drained (optional…I only add when I have them on hand.)

1/2 cup green grapes, seedless  (I think red is prettier. :))

1 pkg. toasted almonds, silvered

1/4 tsp. Tobasco sauce (I prefer Texas Pete and I added after the sandwiches were made.)

2 cups sliced celery

Dressing:

1/4 cup mayonnaise…SUBSTITUTE SOUR CREAM HERE!!

1/4 cup orange juice, concentrate

1 cup whipped cream (I used Cool Whip)

Toss all ingredients together lightly with dressing.  Serve on a bed of lettuce and have good bread or rolls if you want sandwiches.    Serves 6

Now normally, the sight of something this creamy would gag me.  But, because I made it and I know exactly what all the ingredients are…delicious!  I served it with some chunked up Cantaloupe Melon and we had a great summer dinner.  My son took one look at that and wanted no part of it…he and his friends dined at CiCi’s Pizza instead.  Fine with me.   Leftovers the next day!  :)

Cinnamon Rolls

These are so incredibly bad for you!!  And they smell and taste heavenly.  I am a huge fan of the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg.  I have had great success with making bread with their method and was so happy the day I bought this book.  The bread really does look and taste like the fancy breads you find in a real bakery.  Well, this morning, since I was up at the crack of dawn due to the dog….I decided to surprise my husband and son yesterday morning…there is nothing like waking up in the morning to the aroma of baking Cinnamon Rolls now is there.  This only happens maybe 2 or 3 times a year  in our house.

 

This book shows you how to make a batch of bread dough to keep in your refrigerator and you can chunk off a piece of dough anytime you like and bake it up fresh anytime you want.  The Cinnamon Roll recipe uses the same dough that is used for the bread.  (Only add mega amounts of butter, sugar, and cinnamon for the caramel topping and the filling.) :)

  

The butter, sugar filling is smeared over the rolled out bread dough.  Then it is rolled up and divided into 8 pieces.

  

A mixture of butter and brown sugar (pecans optional) is mixed and placed in the bottom of a cake pan.  The rolls are set on tip of this soon to be caramel mixture and then left to rise for about an hour before baking them off for about 40 minutes.  As soon as they come out of the oven you flip them upside down onto a plate and the melted caramel sauce drips down.

And then of course you have to finish them off with more sugar.  This time you mix up a little bit of Confectioner’s Sugar with a tiny bit of water and drizzle it over the whole thing.  

Beyond decadent!

Today’s Questions

Here are Today’s Questions brought to you compliments of Mannland5. This is a fun and easy Sunday morning post for me. Especially lately, when I haven’t had as much time as I would like to do some of the things I would much rather be doing and blogging about!

1. If you could have one of Superman's powers which one would you want? Superhuman strength..Flight..Superhuman speed..X-Ray vision..etc

Why X-Ray vision of course. Then I could see behind closed doors, see inside boxes and packages, and see what other women carry in their handbags. :)

2. The best thing I ever won is....?

Many years ago, in a land far, far away, I won an award with an all expenses paid trip to Marco Island in Florida for my husband and me. We had a great time even though the weather could have been better. Every night when we came back to our room there was a gift waiting for each of us. On the final night there was a surprise concert with Gladys Knight and the Pips. We were treated like royalty and it was a blast!

3. Have you ever skyped with a bloggy friend?

Nope. Don’t have Skype. Probably won’t for a while.

4. What is your favorite Summer month?

I used to like June but this June has been crazy. We would usually take a trip to the beach in June but not this year. Not liking June much these days. I’m going to go with August. That’s when my birthday is and the kids go back to school. :)

5. Pool, Lake, or Ocean?

I loved the pool when my kids were little. Love a lake if there is a boat involved. And my favorite is the Ocean. So many things to do and ways to keep entertained.

6. One of my favorite Summer memories is.....?

Most summers we would take our kids to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for a week at the beach. Swimming, boogie boarding, skim boarding, looking for shells and eating lots of shrimp are what we filled our days with. And, when I was growing up, my Mom’s side of the family had a cottage on a lake that we would visit on most weekends. Those were a fun way to spend time in the summer. I miss not having a place at the lake to visit on the weekends now that I am an adult.

7. What's your favorite secret bargain?

Why marked down cheese of course! The US requires that cheese have an expiration date when we all know that cheese is an “aged” food. Don’t let the expiration dates scare you. Stores can’t mark it down after the expiration date. They have to throw it away. But many stores will mark it down the week before it expires. You have a good week or two to enjoy it . Now of course, don’t buy anything that has already started to mold. But truly, there are some great deals to be found! :)

8. Do you plan on or have you been watching the World Cup?

Hmm…no I don’t think so. :) Not a big fan yet. Now if it was Lacrosse…then yes it would be on all day and night.

Sarah’s House on HGTV

      

I was channel surfing the television today after I got home from work…had my feet propped up on the coffee table and was drinking an ice cold Pellegrino with a wedge of lime of course, ;) and I accidentally came across a show on HGTV that I had never seen before.  It’s called Sarah’s House.  Sarah Richardson is the host and she is an Interior Designer in Canada who purchased a “modest” farm house and is renovating it room by room on the show.  Today I caught the episode when they work on the kitchen.  The transformation was amazing!  The yellows and grays she used are perfect for this house.  So soothing.

         

I can’t wait to check out more episodes of her show.  Watching this show had me actually thinking about picking up a paint brush this weekend.

Thinking and doing are two completely different things.  And besides, who wants to paint when it’s going to be 94 degrees and humid tomorrow? I hear it’s not a good idea to paint in humid weather…that’s what I’m going with anyway.  Hope you have fun plans for your weekend!

Random Updates

1.  I am still in the “cheese caves”…so busy with work right now.   Can’t seem to get anything started or finished right now.  So please bear with me and my “randomness” post.  It’s all I got right now!!

2.  I stopped by the Farmer’s Market today to check on the cucumber supply for making pickles.  They are almost ready…just a couple more weeks I think. 

3.  My garden is full of yellow squash plants that I didn’t plant.  The plant leaves are as big as satellite dishes.  Last year I just let a few of yellow squash decompose in the garden.  Well, the seeds self-seeded and I have 9 yellow crook neck squash plants and nobody in my house likes to eat yellow squash.

4.  Still haven’t planted my pumpkins or cucumbers in the garden yet.  I’ll get to it one of these days.

5.  Husband was home sick all last weekend into the beginning of this week running a fever with no other symptoms.  Doctor said he has Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.   His trip to Germany was cancelled.  He is on antibiotics and feeling much better.  I hate it when he is sick. :(

6.  Mah Jong has been cancelled twice this past month.  But next Monday we are scheduled to play.  Hope I didn’t forget how.

7.  Moved daughter into her new apartment last week.  She is a happy girl right now.  Summer session starts next week.

8. I opened my Etsy shop with my garden stepping stones.  Haven’t sold any.   But over 450 people looked at my “Save Ferris” stone.   Nice to know there are others out there that share my sense of humor.  I think my prices might be too high.

9. We just signed up for Showtime.  Love it!  Big fan of “The Tudors”.  Need to check out some of the other series they have.  Anybody have a favorite Showtime series????

10.  I really need a vacation.

11.  Oakley’s happy. 

Last Day of School

 

Tomorrow is the last day of school.  And that is a good thing and a bad thing.  Good because summer is here and it’s time lose all of the schedules.  Bad because this soon to be an ex-tenth grader would sleep all day if let him.  But he is ready for summer with his “tennis ball” head hair cut.  It’s good to be a 16 year old boy.  Sleep away most of the day and spend the rest of it at the pool.  Drive with your buddies to Chick Fil A when you get hungry and then play basketball in the driveway all night.  I wish I was looking at a summer vacation like that. :)