Easter

You want to know my secret for delicious Deviled Eggs?




Do you promise not to tell?



Promise?


You have to dye the eggs first!With good ol' food coloring....in a plastic Dixie cup!

Then you can peel them and make your favorite eggy side dish!
I refuse to grow up :)

Even making Easter brownies got a little messy!

I Want To Be Six Again

To Whom it May Concern:

I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult, in order to accept the responsibilities of a 6 year old. The tax base is lower. I want to be six again.

I want to go to McDonald's and think it's the best place in the world to eat.

I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make waves with rocks.

I want to think M&Ms are better than money, because you can eat them.

I want to play kickball during recess and stay up on Christmas Eve waiting to hear Santa and Rudolph on the roof.

I long for the days when life was simple. When all you knew were your colors, the addition tables and simple nursery rhymes, but it didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know and you didn't care.

I want to go to school and have snack time, recess, gym and field trips.

I want to be happy, because I don't know what should make me upset.

I want to think the world is fair and everyone in it is honest and good. I want to believe that anything is possible.

Sometime, while I was maturing, I learned too much. I learned of nuclear weapons, prejudice, starving and abused kids, lies, unhappy marriages, illness, pain and mortality.

I want to be six again.

I want to think that everyone, including myself, will live forever, because I don't know the concept of death.

I want to be oblivious to the complexity of life and be overly excited by the little things again.

I want television to be something I watch for fun, not something used for escape from the things I should be doing.

I want to live knowing the little things that I find exciting will always make me as happy as when I first learned them.

I want to be six again.

I remember not seeing the world as a whole, but rather being aware of only the things that directly concerned me.

I want to be naive enough to think that if I'm happy, so is everyone else.

I want to walk down the beach and think only of the sand beneath my feet and the possibility of finding that blue piece of sea glass I'm looking for.

I want to spend my afternoons climbing trees and riding my bike, letting the grownups worry about time, the dentist and how to find the money to fix the old car.

I want to wonder what I'll do when I grow up and what I'll be, who I'll be and not worry about what I'll do if this doesn't work out.

I want that time back.

I want to use it now as an escape, so that when my computer crashes, or I have a mountain of paperwork, or two depressed friends, or a fight with my spouse, or bittersweet memories of times gone by, or second thoughts about so many things, I can travel back and build a snowman, without thinking about anything except whether the snow sticks together and what I can possibly use for the snowman's mouth.

I want to be six again . Author Unknown

Chit Chat?

Easter is coming! Do you know what that means?!?! Vern and I's 2 year anniversary!Here we are at Cape Flattery,WA approximately 2 years ago

I'm still typing away, preparing recipes for the cookbook.
Work is good,I am so grateful to have so many loyal clients keeping me busy!

I think that the most important thing a woman can have - next to talent, of course - is her hairdresser.-Joan Crawford 

My new favorite products this week are a few things I picked up at work. Pure Results Sugar Scrub by Regis (sold only at HairMasters and other Regis owned salons) and the Cashmere body wash and lotion set. If you use the scrub on your whole body and then Cashmere body scrub after,you feel soft like a new born baby and yet you also smell feminine and sexy ;)
We canceled our gym membership. Ever since we decided to cancel I've lost almost 10 pounds. Ironic. Whatever.
Planning a trip home to Idaho soon. I haven't been home since last summer! I'm homesick!
Vern's surgery is next week.I am praying that he will have a successful surgery and a painless recovery. Poor guy :( It's going to be hard to see someone I love so much in pain! (While telling a friend I was going to keep him doped up for the first few days,she laughed and compared me to Cathy Bates in that movie Misery!LOL!)

Random Little Things

Preserving Spills & Thumbprints

 I am working on a family cookbook. It's a effort to preserve the precious recipes that are disappearing as fast as the generations of my family.I will be using old family photos and a few photos of my own for the book. I have been and will be taking photos and making a few recipes in the process just for fun! Tonight I made my Mom's recipe for chicken casserole and it was delish!

You can tell a lot about a woman by her recipes. My Mom's recipes all seem to be easy,quick,inexpensive and enough food to feed a small army. She raised 4 kids and ran a business with my Dad yet she still found time to feed us a yummy meal each night. Amazing! I have no kids and work 32 hours a week and can't manage to cook more that 2-3 times a week!

As I sit here at my computer copying the recipes I get a sentimental twinge..I love these recipes just the way they are..the newspaper clippings and food spotted recipe cards written in the handwriting of generations of women before me.

Then my eyes turn to the version I have just created....

My heart sinks. What have I done? But wait...I'm trying to make these last another few generations..isn't that good? Perhaps I need to scan some the recipes just as they are and add them to the book that way?Oh yes...brilliant... that makes me feel better! :) Off to keep at it..my goal is to have this book written,designed and printed by Mother's Day 2011..and that's pushing it!

Frugality 101

Today I grocery shopped.You know,the kind you do about every 3 months because you can no longer construct a make shift casserole out of what food is left in the house. I did some meal planning and wrote a list. My goal was to buy what we needed and what was on sale. I read too often about the frugal women out there who feed their families on a few dollars per meal and well..I want to be one of them.Nothing extreme,just adjusting our monthly menu according to what's on sale that month. I am also hoping this inspires some new meals around here,I feel like I have been cooking the same ol' stuff over and over.
My journey began at Safeway. Let me tell ya',I was shocked at how much they have lowered their prices! Plus the specials and sales were everywhere! I filled my cart so full that I thought the wheels were going to fall off! They were sqweeeling with agony as I finally rolled up the cashier an hour later after scanning every isle. I got a month or two's worth of everything from milk to meat to snacks for under $200! Ahh the satisfaction of  being thrifty...well not bad for my first attempt-I saved $60!I also did not fall into temptation and buy things I knew were cheaper at Grocery Outlet. It's on my way home and so there's no excuse not to make the extra stop. I always buy my butter and cheese there and I found a new stainless steel colander for $2.99!  Then home to put away groceries....
About once a month I love to make my Mom's recipe for Lasagna. The guys love it too-it's pure saucy,cheesy,comfort food :) The recipe is so simple,you don't even precook the noodles! Vern's Mom had surgery today, so I took the opportunity to offer to bring her dinner tomorrow. She let out a joyful "Yeah!" when I asked if she wanted home made lasagna,it made me giggle. I'm grateful that I can cook for my Boyfriend's Mom and it doesn't make me nervous. I guess I can thank my Mom for that one. I'm no gourmet chef but I can throw down some dam good comfort food when needed!Thanks Mom :) (Oh and even though you don't read this Mom..I'm attempting your "Chicken Broccoli Casserole" this week too. It looks frugal and yummy..just our style;o}) I will food blog and post recipes for the rest of you if you'd like!? Until then I am off to recharge for another busy day tomorrow....

If at first you don't succeed, do it the way your mother told you to.
-- Author Unknown

Just Once

I expect to pass through life but once.  If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.  ~William Penn