The Life and Times of...Um, Me?

Sorry I’ve been MIA lately. I miss blogging and I miss all of you. It’s been a rough couple of weeks…


My “girls” decided to have a little fight. Carmella bit Meadow’s ear and tore it close to in half lengthwise. Their jostle for Alpha status is an extremely rare occurrence and despite my mom running towards them, she didn’t see what started the problem. Meadow is a tough little cookie – and after then went to their separate corners – we thought everyone came out unscathed. Not so, unfortunately. A few minutes later Meadow ran up to her Grammy with blood dripping quickly off her ear. I was called home and the little princess had to have emergency surgery to sew up the ear. She’s been in an Elizabethan collar since then (just over a week) and I bring her for a re-check tomorrow night. To make her more comfortable (and to limit her jumping off my bed), I’m sleeping with her on the couch. I miss my bed!

A few of you lovelies have seen my job tweets. I try to keep where I work as shielded as possible, but I do need to share my utter disappointment here. I have been performing a job function (in addition to my normal job) for about 2 years now. Well, this project is getting off the ground and it’s time to hire a permanent person to perform this job function. As the person already doing it – and LOVING all that it entails- I applied for this position a six weeks ago. A month and one day after going through four interviews for said position, I found out that someone else was hired to assume my role. I’m sad. I’m disappointed. And, frankly, I’m a little ticked that I need to train the person taking my position. However, my boss has told me that my hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. (HURRAY!) I have yet to see the job description, but it seems a new job is being created for me. As soon as I know more, I’ll let you all know.

This weekend was hospital-centric. Mom has been experiencing side-effects from chemo. Saturday she went into the hospital with a fever, racing heart and shortness of breath. Right now, it looks like these symptoms are all part of moderate dehydration. Darn chemo!! With any luck – she gets to come home today. Not to be outdone by my mom – my grandma has been admitted to the hospital too. Grandma passed out in the parking lot of a restaurant yesterday after breakfast and had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. This freaked out my poor Aunt and Uncle! Anytime an 88 year old woman passes out, it causes concern. Both of these lovely ladies are now in the cardiac care unit.

As soon as life settles down a little, I’ll be back to blogging with a vengeance. I know I said it before – but I MISS YOU GUYS!!!! Please let me know what I’m missing. :-)

Tuesdays At The Table - Mixed Berry Sorbet

Sorry I ended up taking a week "off" from blogging, ladies!  It's only in the past 2-3 days that I don't feel like I got run over by a mack truck!!

I hope you all had fabulous weekends.  :-)  We had some great weather, and I got to enjoy a night out with the girls and got all my tomatoes & peppers planted.  YIPPEE! I'll be around to visit all of your blogs. What have I missed while I've been hiding under a rock?

This is such an easy recipe, and a great treat as we get ready for summer.

Mixed Berry Sorbet

1 bag (12 oz) frozen mixed berries (slightly thawed)
1/2 cup unsweetened apple juice
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tbsp sugar or honey
2 tsp real vanilla extract

Place slightly thawed berries, juices, sugar/honey and vanilla extract into blender and blend until liquified.
Strain berry-juice mixture through small sieve (to remove seeds) into a flat, freezer-safe container (9x9 Pyrex dish works well).  Cover with plastic wrap, making sure wrap touches entire surface and freeze for about 2 hours, or until firm.

What's cooking in your kitchen?

 

Tuesday At The Table - Honey Wheat Pancakes

Happy Tuesday, gang!  I hope you all had wonderful weekends.  Sorry I haven't been around the past few days.  I've been feeling a little under the weather, and finally gave in and saw a doctor Monday morning.  It turns out I have a sinus infection and ear infection.  Boo!

I'm going to be quiet for a few more days - until my entire head stops throbbing.  If there anything good going on, let me know!!

Honey Wheat Pancakes

1 1/2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 medium banana, mashed
2 tablespoons honey

In a small bowl, combine the first five ingredients.  Combine the eggs, buttermilk, banana and honey, add to the dry ingredients.Stir until just moistened.

Cook on a hot buttered (or cooking sprayed) griddle, turning when bubbles appear on the top.

What's cooking in your kitchen?

Adventures in House Hunting...

The first time home buyer tax credit ends in a little over a week...and somehow, last week I got it in my brain that I wanted to start looking for houses. Yep, I'm a genius.


Given the oddities that I've seen in the past week, I decided that I should share my housing chuckles and horrors as I go through the process. :-)

I got the name of a good real estate agent from my friend last Thursday and Saturday I looked at my first two houses.

House 1: Cute house, fairly good condition, great location. Plus, the back yard is already fenced in and ready for the pups!!

This house had been on the market for 3 days when I went to the open house. I got there, and there were 50-60 people outside waiting for the seller's agent to arrive. We all wait our turn to wander through and the house pretty much looked as good as the online pictures. However, the seller didn't clean her house. At all. To the point where everyone had to hop over trash. The seller also stayed in the house - with her dogs while everyone was wandering through. I've never heard of that happening! Then I realize that one of the doors to the house goes through the bathroom. Yep, you heard that right... the bathroom has a door that leads to the backyard and driveway. I'd be afraid that someone was going to come visit me and walk in while I was peeing!! Then, the selling agent announces that they are only accepting offers submitted that day! Um, I like the house (despite it's oddities), but you want an offer now? Like now, now?

Bye-bye cute little house. If only I had started this whole process a month ago, you could have been mine!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

House 2: Big house. I was charmed by the prospect of owning an antique farmhouse....

Where to start? OK. This house had been unoccupied for a year and a half, which didn't do it any favors. There is sooo much potential for this house. Great corner lot, new carpeting & water tank. However, there was a lot wrong too. As in, it would need to be fixed before I could inhabit the house. The roof needs work, the electric isn't up to code, all the windows (ahem - 21 of them) need to be replaced, the back yard needs to be fenced in. And theres a bunch of fixes that would need to happen in the next few years too. The kitchen needs to be re-done (the refridgerator is in front of the window because there are three heating registers that prevent it from being anywhere else), you can see through the floor slats in the barn straight down to the basement, there's tons of over-growth in the yard to be cleared.

Bye-bye antique farm house. Unless the seller cuts the price by $50K, I can't buy the house AND do the repairs.

Fingers crossed, I see a few more houses this weekend.  :-)

Tuesdays At The Table - Easy Ranch Pretzel Bites

Happy Tuesday! Holy moley, a lot of you linked up and played along last week.  THANK YOU!!!

I hope you're all having a fabulous week!  If you got Monday off - I'm jealous.  :-)  Besides being a holiday, Monday was race day.  The Boston Marathon is about a half mile from my office...but I never got the chance to sneak out and watch.  Maybe next year!

I love pretzels and flavored pretzels are even better.  Plus, I have a thing for all things ranch flavored.  :-)

Easy Ranch Pretzel Bites

1 package (20 ounces) large thick pretzels
1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix
3/4 cup canola oil
1-1/2 teaspoons dill weed
1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

Break pretzels into bite-size pieces and place in a large bowl. Combine remaining ingredients; pour over pretzels. Stir to coat. Pour into an ungreased baking pan and bake at 200° for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

What's cooking in your kitchen?

MyBlogSpark/Green Giant Giveaway

 The 40th anniversary of Earth Day is this week - April 22nd and for Green Giant, it’s all about trying to live up to the name by working every day to care for the land, the people who grow our vegetables and the families who share our vegetables at their tables. Throughout its century-long history, Green Giant has worked to reduce its environmental footprint through many measures including:

 

• Reducing the amount of land and water needed to grow vegetables
• Packing vegetables in smaller, lighter cans, so it takes less fuel to deliver them to supermarket shelves
• Utilizing traditional seed breeding methods over the last 35 years to double the amount of sweet corn grown on an acre of land
• Teaming up with growers to install a more efficient irrigation system that can reduce water use by more than a million gallons a year;
• Switching to more earth-friendly paperboard to package frozen vegetables, saving approximately 54,000 trees annually in the process.

 

Green Giant is now celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day by giving $200,000 to The Nature Conservancy to help fund an innovative project that will encourage greener farming practices to repair and protect a natural treasure - the Root River, one of Minnesota´s (Green Giant's home) best trout streams. Learn more about Green Giant´s sustainability program or make a donation to The Nature Conservancy, visit HERE during the month of April.

 

To motivate everyone to be green, Green Giant is holding a little giveaway.  First they sent me this and then shared that I can give one away too!!  Very cool!

 

 

I only have one rule this time (shocking, I know!) - tell me how you are trying to be green for Earth Day. You get one entry for your comment and one entry tweeting about the giveaway (make sure you include me @allthelilstuff).

 

This contest will end at Midnight EST on Earth Day, so act quick.  :-)

 

*Many thanks to Green Giant and MyBlogSpark for providing me with both a prize packages, and for asking me to host this giveaway!*

 

Tuesdays At The Table - Quick Bolognese Sauce

Hi gang!  I hope you had a nice weekend.  :-)  Every week I'm amazed by & grateful for all of you that contribute your yummy recipes.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Bolognese sauce is one of my favorites.  It tastes great and it's super easy! I got this recipe from Good Housekeeping.

Quick Bolognese Sauce

1 1/2 pounds ground beef/veal/pork
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large stalk celery, chopped
1 large carrot, shredded
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes in puree
Salt and ground black pepper
1/2 cup whole milk

1.Heat 5- to 6-quart Dutch oven over high heat until hot. Add ground meat, onion, celery, and carrot, and cook 10 minutes or until meat is no longer pink, breaking up meat with side of spoon. Drain off fat. Stir in tomato paste; cook 2 minutes.

2.Add red wine and cook 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; heat to boiling, breaking up tomatoes with side of spoon. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3.Stir milk into sauce; cover and simmer 5 minutes. Use half of sauce to toss with 1 pound pasta, cooked, for 6 main-dish servings. Freeze the other half of the sauce to use later!

What's cooking in your kitchen?