Sunday, February 20, 2011

Luck 'O the Irish

Because I hail from partial Irish decent, I like to embrace the little holiday of St. Patrick's Day. I packed up the Valentine's decor and got out my green stuff.
I used green and clear vase pebbles that I already had and a little "Feelin' Irish" sign in my apothecary jars.
I hung my "Cheers!" sign with my spring wreath on the front door.
I printed and framed this cute St. Patty's 8 x 10 subway art. And for another little touch of green, I set out my little wooden croaking frog instrument from Cambodia.
You can find this printable subway art at Today's Fabulous Finds. The one I printed is called "Paint the Town Green." I ordered it on the Sam's Club photo center website and picked it up at my location after church today. If you use Sam's photo center, you'll want to turn off the "color correction" option before you finalize the order.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Bananas Foster

I've made Bananas Foster a handful of times now. It's so easy and SO good! I usually only make it for special occasions (like last night to celebrate Valentine's Day) because it is obviously not healthy. I've consulted several recipes and pieced them together into this recipe.
Ingredients:
2 Tbs unsalted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1 banana cut into slices
3 Tbs rum
Melt butter in a skillet over low heat. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and stir until sugar dissolves. Add banana slices and cook for about a minute, spoon sauce over bananas as they cook. Bring to a simmer and add rum. Use a lighter to ignite the skillet in order to burn the rum off or leave skillet on the burner and the rum will cook off on its own. Lighting the skillet is optional, if you are accident prone - I don't suggest it. If sauce is too thin after lighting/cooking the rum, continue to cook for another 1-2 minutes, or until sauce thickens. Serve it up in dishes and top with vanilla ice cream.
Here's a terribly unimpressive video of me lighting the rum on fire last night. It was the first time I've been brave enough to actually ignite the bananas foster. It wasn't too scary, but it also wasn't as hot as it is when they make it at restaurants and create a huge flame. I was being conservative so as NOT to burn my house down.

Broiled Asparagus

My favorite way to prepare asparagus is to broil/roast it. It's really fast and super easy.
Ingredients:
1 bunch of asparagus spears
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Rinse and dry asparagus. Trim or break off the thick stalky ends. Place in flat layer on a foil lined baking sheet. Drizzle EVOO over the asparagus, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Roll asparagus back and forth in the oil and seasonings to cover all sides. Bake under broiler for about 10 minutes.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

I didn't grow up eating sweet potatoes because my mom never made them. The first time I ate one was about 4 years ago at a friend's parents' house. It was baked and then I added a little butter, salt, and pepper. Baking sweet potatoes takes a while because they are so dense, so I investigated quicker ways to prepare them and found you can mash them. I've been preparing them this way for awhile now.
Ingredients:
2 Medium sweet potatoes (or 1 for each person you are serving)
Butter or Margarine
Salt
Pepper
Fill large stock pot a little over half-way full with water and bring to a boil. Peel, slice, and quarter sweet potatoes into uniform pieces for even cooking. Once water is boiling add sweet potatoes and cook for 10 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender after tested with a fork. Drain potatoes in colander. Return potatoes to pot and put back on burner for a few seconds to cook off excess water. Add butter or margarine and mash with a hand masher. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Meatloaf

Meatloaf is a comfort food staple in my family. I know...you either love it or you hate it. I wouldn't really eat it growing up, but I do love it now. It's also one of those foods that tastes better than it looks. My mom makes it similar to the way my dad's mom makes it, with BBQ sauce instead of tomato paste/ketchup. My mom doesn't use a recipe because she knows it by heart. After I got married, I requested that she write the recipe out so I could learn to make it for Tom and I. This is what she gave me. Click the image of the recipe below, and then click it once more to enlarge it enough to read it clearly.
*Sara's Notes:
My mom wrote the recipe for two loaves, but I half it when cooking for just the two of us and there are still leftovers.
I also substitute fine Club cracker crumbs with Quaker Oats for a slightly healthier twist.
My favorite BBQ sauce to use is Head Country Original.
I've learned that with my oven I only need to bake my one loaf for 45 minutes.
Let it cool 5-10 minutes before slicing or it will just fall apart.

Happy Heart Day!

Valentine's Day art courtesy of http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/.
I just had to borrow it because it's so stinkin' cute.
As tradition would have it, for the past 5 years, my FIL has sent a bouquet of flowers to my office for Valentine's Day. Thanks Steve, they're beautiful! :)
For the record, I told Tom NOT to get me a bouquet of flowers this year - and I really did mean it. We decided not to spend any money on each other and just have an evening at home since it fell on a Monday night. I made meatloaf, mashed sweet potatoes, broiled asparagus, and bananas foster. It was yum.my! I'll share the recipes in the posts to come.
I'll leave you with a pic of Ruby posing with a Valentine from my Aunt.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Ooops!

I accidentally let a momentous minor occasion come and go without any acknowledgement...
My first post was February 5, 2010. I missed it by 6 days, but thought my bloggie birthday was worth mentioning anyhow. Whether or not you are an official 'follower' of my little 'ol blog, thanks for stopping by to see what I have to say. I've really enjoyed being a member of the blog world. :)
Cheers to another year!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Lotion and Lamps

AHAVA is the Hebrew word for love and also happens to be a brand of Israeli skin-care products that makes a mineral hand-cream that I absolutely love! I've been using it for about 6 years now. When I was in college, the mother of the little girl for whom I was a part-time nanny first introduced it to me.
The price tag of this hand-cream is something I do NOT love. Enter, TJ Maxx and/or Steinmart. You can find it at either one of these discount gems for half the original price. I am so in love with this hand-cream that I have one tube in my night-stand drawer, one in my desk drawer at work, and one in my purse. I mentioned to my MIL that I was looking for it b/c Steinmart was out the last few times I was there. [I usually get it at Steinmart b/c it is closer to my house than TJ.] Well, my MIL called me yesterday to tell me TJ had it. So, after work and before the predicted snow storm hit last night, I went to go stock up.
Of course, I had to browse a bit before leaving b/c it's been a while since I've been to TJ. And what did I find?? This beauty, further proving my love affair with the color red. It's a problem, it really is.
I've been looking for lamps that have a turquoise base [or any other color that coordinates with our quilt] for our bedroom night-stands. The TJ sales associate told me they did have this style in turquoise too, but they only had one red lamp left. I was really wanting a pair. The sweet associate offered to call another TJ and find a 2nd lamp for me. [I was pleasantly surprised by her offer b/c sometimes they won't call another store for you, or they do it w/ a tude.] She tracked another one down and I went to snag it up. I love how they look in our room. The tan burlap shade compliments the base really well.
Interesting how a trip to TJ to get hand-cream turned into a new set of bedroom lamps. :/

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

You Know You're Getting Older When...

For me, the following are telltale signs that I am getting older:
Today, my breakfast consisted of oatmeal, a hard boiled egg, and hot tea.
*Please note, before a few weeks ago, I would not have touched oatmeal with a 10-foot pole. And I have never cared for tea (much less hot tea), until about a year ago.
I asked my mom and dad for a Shark steam mop/vac for Christmas, and it throughly excites me. I love that thing!
*This may be due to me being an OCD clean freak rather than getting older.
I quite often listen to NPR on my commute to and from work.
*It's either that or my ipod, and occasionally I just enjoy total silence.
Sometimes I choose not to go to certain restaurants because they are too loud.
*Yeah, yeah - Just call me granny and tell me to turn my hearing aides down. No really, the louder the restaurant, the more I have to repeat myself when sitting across the table talking to Tom. He has the hearing of an 80 year old man.
I have actually caught myself saying the phrase, "Kids these days."
*Who am I, my father? (He actually says that.)
The songs that I listened to on Magic 104.1 (the adult contemporary radio station) as a child while riding around in the car with my parents are now on KOMA (the oldies radio station).
*For example, KOMA was playing Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" from 1984 the other day. How is an 80's song considered oldies?? I think they're jumping the gun a bit.
What do you catch yourself saying/doing that makes you feel like you're getting older??

Thursday, February 3, 2011

A Lovely Day for [a] Picnik

No, I didn't make a spelling error up there in my post title, I meant to type 'picnik'. As in www.picnik.com. It's an awesome FREE photo editing site. Just upload your picture, make the edits you want, and save the edited version back to your computer. You can purchase a subscription for as little as $2.08 a month, or you can just use the free parts (like me). If you don't pay for it, you are limited as to which features you can use. And if you register on the site, it will save your most recent projects for you to refer back to, which is nice. Here are the most recent things I edited/created using picnik.
My new Sarandipity Blog Banner
A picture of my HOPE word figurine with
Hebrews 10:23, the theme I am claiming for 2011
Our 2010 digital Christmas Card
Now it's your turn to create!