For our first date we went to a baseball game. Larry suggested we "catch a game sometime" while we were talking during psychology class. I called him the next day to see if he was available. He said that he was, and so everything was set up. He then promptly called off of work for that night. Why didn't he just tell me he had to work? I didn't find out until much later that he had lied about being sick to go on a date with me. It's a good thing he did...he found $20 laying on the ground at the ballpark...that came in handy since drinks are $3.50 each! We had a good time, and great seats behind homeplate with a head-on view of the 1st baseline...when it wasn't obstructed by the "fathead" in front of us. They had fireworks after the game but it was raining lightly so we watched them in the car in between the windshield wipers. Oh yeah, and when we got to the game the ever so helpful parking lot attendant told me to back into the space he was directing me to...it was the first time I've ever had to back a car into a space...I was terrified, and even said "Oh my gosh, I've never backed up my car before,". Of course I meant I had never backed it into a space...either way it probably wasn't my most shining moment! We took our first ever photo together, ourselves. This is the scrapbook page I did to showcase that evening:

I used a now retired Stampin' Up! sports stamp set (I can't even remember the name of it now), and the now retired Quirky Alphabet stamp set (one of my favorites). The colors are Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Creamy Caramel, and White. I accessorized with twine and some Real Red star eyelets.

Posted by Courtney at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've reached the end of an era in our household. We can no longer keep Pixel confined to the living room. Today at lunch Larry was doing dishes, and I exclaimed (ever so intelligently), "Dog over the fence!" Pixel came bounding into the room by climbing OVER the baby gate. She climbed. Over the gate. Gone are our days of eating lunch in peace. What did we do as responsible doggie parents? We put her back in the living room and coaxed her to climb the gate again. Then we applauded when she made it. Oh well, she was going to do it had we encouraged her or not.

Posted by Courtney at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Note to the irresponsible grandmother I saw with her grandchild at the post office today: Your grandchild may be wonderful and delightful when he's not in public, but if he is splayed out on the post office floor screaming and kicking the person in line behind you, YOU NEED TO STOP HIM. You can't just say "Ben, stand up and quit kicking," a hundred million times without bothering to turn around and see if he has listened to you or not. While we're talking about this, how nasty is it that you let him crawl around on the post office floor in the first place? And before you entered the post office...you know, when he was running away from you on the sidewalk of a very busy street...calling his name fifty times and telling him to stop...didn't work. In the future you'll probably want to give chase in some form because he could've been hit by a car before you called his name for the tenth time. One more thing and then I'll be done with you: Ben needs to be in a car seat...or at the very least he should not be in the front seat. After witnessing this I made sure to tell my mother the following, "If you ever put my four year old, less than 40 pound child, in the front seat of your car where your airbag can kill him...it's probably going to be the last time you babysit." What is wrong with people?

Posted by Courtney at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Pixel's favorite toy is her quadrapus. It's an octopus with only four legs. Only now it's missing a leg because she pulled one off. At any rate, she loves this thing. She'll fetch it down the hall for hours...but only if she actually sees you throw it. If she's looking the other way you can bet that you'll be going after the dang thing. Larry was playing with her this morning when I captured this picture:

How yuck-o is that? After I took the picture I shrieked, "I can't believe you put that nasty octopus leg in your mouth. The dog puts that in her mouth." Icky.

Posted by Courtney at 8:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes it's the littlest things that make my day. Take today for example. Today is the first time in two years that I've had my hair in a ponytail. A real, acceptable-to-leave-the-house ponytail. I haven't had a pony tail since before I donated to Locks of Love. So all day today I've been sportin' my new 'do! I even managed to take a photo of it:

PS: The other thing that made my day? Wearing a pair of jeans that I haven't worn since my pre-Weight Watcher days. Ahh...the simple things...

Posted by Courtney at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Note to the chatty teller at the bank: When there are ten people waiting in line on a busy Friday morning, perhaps there should be less talky and more worky. None of us waiting care one stinkin' bit about your cat that you had to give away because it kept going to the bathroom in your garage. Nor do we care about which of your kids is home sick from school. In fact, we don't care if you have a cat that's home sick from school and your kids have been going to the bathroom in the garage. Know what else? I don't care one iota about the fact that the bank won't let you ride your motorcycle to work because it "doesn't look good". I don't mind chitty chatting (anyone who knows me will tell you that), but when there are ten people sardined into a bank lobby it would be nice if you'd take into consideration that we'd like to do our banking and get the heck outta there. Thank you.

Posted by Courtney at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here it is folks, another "Courtney Original". I don't have too many recipes that I make up myself...I'm not quite that brave. But once in a while I've been known to combine a few aspects of different recipes to come up with something delicious. This is one such occurence. Part of this fabulous dish is from a recipe I saw on Queer Eye For the Straight Guy, and part of it is from my own head. Scary, isn't it? If you don't like green olives, I suggest you try this recipe anyhow. They add a salty-goodness that even non-green olive lovers will like. It's yummy, I promise!

Olive Chicken

1 pkg. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 sleeve Ritz Crackers, crushed
2 eggs
1/4 c. (or so) flour
3/4 c. (or so) green olives, sliced
1 c. (or so) mozzarella cheese
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350.
Set up a breading station. If you don't have one of those fancy-shmancy breading stations, you'll need 3 dinner plates. If you do have one of those fancy-shmancy breading stations, just know that I envy you...I love kitchen gadgets! Dinner plate #1 will contain your flour, salt, & pepper. Dinner plate #2 will contain your two eggs, whisked. Dinner plate #3 will contain your crushed Ritz crackers. Please note: I rarely use Ritz crackers...I'm an off-brand girl...off-brand Ritz-like crackers will work fine if that's what you use. Now the yucky part...dredge each piece (both sides) of chicken through the flour, then egg, then crackers. Place in a 13x9 baking dish. Top with a handful of the green olives. Now top each piece with 1/4 c. mozzarella cheese. Bake in oven for 35 minutes. It may take longer, depending on the thickness of your chicken. Bake until the juices of chicken run clear.

Note to my fellow non-raw-meat touching friends: I use my tongs to do all the breading. I don't have to touch the chicken or the egg nastys. That's the only way I'd do it!

Weight Watchers points tip: Use the mozzarella cheese that is made with skim milk. It's only 1 pt. for 1/4 c. instead of 3-4 points for 1/4 c.

I have been known to pair this dish with Lipton Onion Soup Mix potatoes (cube a few potatoes and mix them with 2T. olive oil and a packet of Onion Soup Mix). It's nice because both dishes go in the oven...pop it all in, and relax while the oven does the work! If you're going to do that you may need to play with the chicken cooking time/temp. The potatoes go in at 425 for 35 minutes, so I'd do both things at 425...put the potatoes in for 10 minutes by themselves...add the chicken dish...bake for the other 25 minutes.

Weight Watchers Points: 1 chicken breast=7, 1 c. potatoes=4

Posted by Courtney at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let's play a game my faithful blog readers. It's called "I Didn't Need to Know That". It can also be called "Sentences I Never Needed to Hear". Here's how it works: think of a time when someone shared way more information with you than you ever needed, or wanted, to know. Post it in the comments section and then everyone can sympathize with your uncomfortableness. Plus it'll be funny! Maybe someone else has had it worse than you...maybe you'll be the one that gives someone a good laugh for the day. I'll go first.

Here's my "Sentences I Never Needed to Hear": Please note that this was said to me by someone who is over 65 years old...and a member of the family..."A friend of mine is having "one of those" parties, you know, a sex toy party. I told her I'm not interested....not at my age....maybe when I was younger and in my prime...but I don't have a reason to go to one of those now."

Unnecessary information to say the least. It's your turn!

PS: This "Sentences I Never Needed to Hear" was not brought to you by my grandma. She wanted me to tell you that it wasn't her.

Posted by Courtney at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the next few days Larry will be making some changes to this site. He's tweaking a few things here and there. Plus there will be some new additions...such as a menu bar, an about me section, a contact me page, a Weight Watchers points calculator, and some of my blog clutter will be cleaned up in general. Just wanted to give you all a head's up so that if things look all wonky you know that it's either on purpose or it'll be fixed soon! He's hoping to be finished this week. Then there will be no more redesigns for at least six months...I promise...I think...

Posted by Courtney at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Like any stamper or scrapper I have lots of embellishments which of course includes ribbon. Trying to find the ideal way to store all this ribbon has created quite a problem. If any of you have found a nice and organized way to store your ribbon, I'd be forever in your debt if you shared it with me.

My first attempt to solve this problem is what I like to call "Ribbon Box Fiasco #1". It all started when I saw a really cool ribbon box that someone had conjured up. It was a plastic box (from WalMart, I believe) with a snap on lid. This person then drilled holes in the side of the box, which she then used to feed out the end of each spool of ribbon. It looked something like this:
So off I went to WalMart in search of my new ribbon box that was going to be so fabulous when it was finished. I had my uncle drill the holes in the side and I was good to go...or so I thought. The problem I had with this box was that the ends of my ribbon kept slipping inside the box. What's the dang point of having the holes if I had to keep pulling the lid off to retrieve the color I wanted? That became tiresome very quickly. My mom and I then set out in search of a new ribbon solution...

This past November we hit the jackpot at Bed, Bath, & Beyond....the "Even Worse Than Ribbon Box #1" jackpot that is. Our new and improved ribbon box was acutally supposed to be for Christmas ribbons and bows. It had a compartment on top (with a lid) that had a stick that you could feed the center of each spool through. It also had a snap-on bottom compartment that we thought we could use for twine and other non-spooled ribbon-like fibers. Sounds great, right? Wrong-O. One problem was that the Stampin' Up! grosgrain ribbon is kind of a big thing of ribbon...the cardboard that surrounds the spool was too big to allow the ribbon to turn and unwind. So we promptly grabbed the scissors and mangled the crap out of our pretty rounded cardboard ribbon spools. It was still not all that it cracked up to be, and as you can see from the following picture, we were no better off than we were before.

Cute, isn't it? A tangled up mess. Out of anger we tried to throw the dumb box away, but Grandma or Aunt Leslie saved it from the landfill...which is right where I was going to send it...after smashing the heck out of it, that is. I'm currently in search of a new (and hopefully last) ribbon box. Right now I'm using a plastic shoe box (WalMart, $.97) and am taping down the ends of each mutilated spool so as to aviod the nasty tangled up mess.

Posted by Courtney at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Who doesn't love BBQ chicken pizza? Who doesn't love to make homemade pizza? Yeah, that's what I thought. I have here a recipe for BBQ chicken pizza that will be completely done--prep and all--in less than 15 minutes. Plus it only has a few ingredients! Have you noticed that I like quick and easy? I find those to be two of the most important things when choosing a recipe. If I can get it done in less than a half hour, then I'm a happy girl! This one is sure to be a hit that the entire family will enjoy...and you'll have it done in less time than it takes to wait for delivery.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

1 1/2 c. Cooked Chicken (I get the stuff that's already cooked & cubed)
2/3 c. BBQ Sauce
1/2 Red Onion, sliced thin
1 c. Mozzarella Cheese
1 Pizza Crust (such as Boboli)

Preheat oven to 425.
Microwave 1/3 c. BBQ sauce with the cooked chicken for 4-5 minutes. Spread 1/3 c. BBQ sauce on pizza crust. Spoon chicken onto crust. Sprinkle red onions over chicken. Sprinkle (there sure is lots of sprinkling going on in this one, isn't there?) mozzarella cheese on top. Bake pizza for 8-10 minutes. Slice into 8 and serve.

If you'd like to make this one more figure friendly (or Weight Watcher friendly as I like to call it), use the thin pizza crust and the low-fat (or skim) mozzarella cheese.

Weight Watcher Points: 5 per slice

Posted by Courtney at 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After almost two weeks at our house, things with Pixel are coming along quite well. She very rarely goes potty in her bark box (the cage). She is much more active now. I think she's come out of her shell a little because she is every bit the playful puppy! We're having loads of fun playing with her! Pixel is now learning to let us know when she has to go out. This is especially lucky for her because Larry isn't always patient with the pottying in the house thing. She now will go to the baby gate and whine when she has to go. But she only does this when she needs to go poop. Never for the pee. She'll just whiz wherever she likes...which she usually does when we're in a different room for the one millisecond that we leave her alone. It's like a little game we play...one of us goes to the bathroom, then we have to guess where the dog peed while we were in the bathroom. Fun, huh?

While we're on the subject of pottying...I have to say, I don't think I'll ever know what prompts her to have to poop at 3AM. Every morning. Like clockwork. Does she like the early morning air? Does she enjoy having to bark for a half hour to get one of us to come let her out? People tell me she'll get better with this and eventually be able to hold it all night, but I'm not holding out much hope for that.

Pixel is also learning how to sit. This is usually done with much coaxing from Larry, but she will eventually do it. It generally goes like this: "Pixel, sit." She ignores him and continues to jump. ""Pixel, sit." She ignores him and continues to jump. "Pixel, sit." She ignores him and continues to jump. "Pixel, sit." She ignores him and continues to jump. "Pixel, sit." She ignores him and continues to jump."Pixel, sit." Finally she sits. "Good Pixel!" I think she's getting better with it each day, though.

The following are some phrases that I've actually heard come out of Larry's mouth while he was talking to the dog:

"Get out of there! You are not a trash dog."
"You do not eat the computer."
"You'll go back online to be re-adopted." (He's joking of course.)
"That's not for you to chew on. That's for me to chew on."
(Talking about his bookbag strap.)
"Oohh...you left me one little poopie over there. Thanks for that."
"I love to come in my living room to find a nice steaming pile of dog doo."
"You can't possibly act stupid, all the time, can you?"
"Why must you pee on the floor?!"
"No, you cannot eat the cat food."

In response Pixel usually just gives him the pretty little puppy face and continues to do whatever it is she's doing. Maybe this is good preparation for having a child!

Posted by Courtney at 7:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The following situation that I was involved in today really frosts my gizzard. That's a phrase I borrowed from my Aunt Leslie which I find to be absolutely hilarious! Take a minute to say that aloud and picture a lady very seriously proclaiming that something "frosts my gizzard" when she's ticked off about something. It's a phrase that will grow on you! I about wet my pants when I first heard her say it. Okay, back to my situation. Please note that all names of store employees have been changed to protect the stupid.

My trip to Home Depot
I usually don't shop at Home Depot. I generally avoid the place...mostly because they sponsor Tony Stewart. I prefer to go to Jimmy Johnson's Lowe's. I was, however, sent to HD by my boss (aka Grandpa) to get ceiling tiles. He's re-doing the ceilings at work and was in need of 10 very large boxes (12 in a box) of ceiling tiles. So he gave me the gas credit card and the company credit card and sent me on my way.

I arrive at HD and enter the store at the contractor's entrance where a store employee, we'll call him Herbert, eagerly asked if he could be of assistance. I told him that I was after 10 boxes of ceiling tiles, box #210. Herbert leads me to the very back wall of the gigantic store that is HD, right to the ceiling tiles. Once we arrived he said, "You need 10 boxes, right?" I said that I did indeed need 10 boxes. He then told me that I'd need a flat-bed cart thingy. Where do they keep those? A hundred thousand miles away from the back of the store...in front of the HD...outside...outside the very door I entered when good ol' Herb offered to help me. So I trek over the tile and through the wood (get it...wood...I was at Home Depot....okay nevermind....) to get my flat-bed cart thingy. A different, and much more helpful associate, helped load the 10 boxes onto my flat-bed cart. He then drove the cart to the front of the store. This is where the real nightmare begins...

I was greeted by the Asshole Casserole of the Week, George the cashier. He rang up my 10 boxes of ceiling tiles without much fanfare. I swiped the company credit card. George asked if it was credit or debit. I said credit.

"I need to see your ID," he said.
"It's the company card, it's not really in my name."
"But it says ask for ID on the back," he said.
"I know. It's my grandfather's company card."
This back and forth continued for approximately 5 minutes.
"I'll have to call my head cashier," he said, "because of the amount."

This is the point at which I am still calm. I don't want to hurt him just yet. George calls Katie, the head cashier. She tells him to get my ID. It's in the truck, so I am forced to trek back outside to get my ID. I bring my entire wallet because I'm afraid George the Asshole Casserole will think it's a fake ID. I'm prepared to show him the entire contents of my wallet, including my preprinted checks with my name on them.

"She says it's fine as long as your last name is the same," George said.
Un-Bee-Lee-V-Able
"I'm married," and not to my grandfather I thought, "our last names are different."
"Oh, I'll have to call Katie again," he said.

Freaking wonderful. Katie's not much help this time and George gives me a sorry-I-can't-really-help-you look. I'm thinking to myself that even though I know he's just doing his job, I wish George would use some common sense and remove his head from his rectum. I give him an are-you-freaking-kidding-me look. I'm also thinking that this guy's a moron to think that I'd use a stolen credit card to buy $600 worth of ceiling tile. It's ceiling tile, George. If I stole this credit card from someone, you can be damn sure I'd use it to buy $600 worth of shoes, not ceiling tile. I calmly suggest that he call my grandfather and ask him. He said he'd be happy to. I begin to give him the number.

"Oh...it's long distance?"
"Yeah."
"I can't call long distance."

Un-Bee-Lee-V-Able. I'm now thinking "I just want to buy these freaking ceiling tiles and go back to work. I'm done with you. Just ring them up. Pretend that it's my card for goshsakes." So George decides to call Katie again (call number 3 for those keeping track), to see if he's allowed to call long distance to make sure that my grandfather really gave me, his granddaughter with a different last name, permission to buy $600 worth of ceiling tiles with his company credit card. Katie, of course, says it's fine.

I give him the number. Three times. Finally he gets it right. Which is good for him because I was one redial away from snatching the phone and calling him myself. Someone at work tracks down Grandpa and he gives George the go ahead. He rings me up, gives me my receipt, and sends me on my way. He didn't (nor did anyone else) offer to help push the flat-bed cart full of 10 boxes of ceiling tile. This is the most unwieldy thing I've ever moved. I about run over George on the way out. FYI: Larry said I should have nicked his ankle just because he was such a dolt about the whole thing.

I'm now struggling to push this very unwieldy flat-bed cart half-way across the parking lot to the truck. There's a giant asphalt bump that about caused me to dump the entire contents in the middle of the parking lot. Now THAT would've made me happy. I load all 10 boxes by myself. Note: A nice gentleman (a customer) offered to help, but I was almost finished and kind of sulking in my own irritation. I very kindly declined to save him from the possible outburst that was likely to ensue. I put the boxes in exactly as Grandpa instructed, and head towards work. Work is a half-hour from the HD, and it's windy. I didn't use the bungee straps and I'm approximately 5 minutes down the road when I see a shift in my truck contents. I pull over faster than an Amish buggy when there's a Semi coming down the road. This is the point at which I sloshed through the mud on the side of the road to secure my load.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. I hope I have conveyed my irritation to you in a way that you can understand my frustration. The encounter with George took approximately 20 minutes from start to finish. It was lengthy and he wasn't hearing a damn word I was saying. I mean really, doesn't he have REAL criminals to stop? Some cashiers just think they're the loss prevention guys.

Moral of the story: Shop at Jimmy Johnson's Lowe's when you need ceiling tiles...or when you want to use a stolen credit card...they never ID me there...

Posted by Courtney at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This weekend I made a super-duper delicious dinner that I'm not ashamed to brag about here. Because, afterall, it's my blog and I'll brag if I want to. Back to the delicious dinner...this one is extra super quick and easy...only a few ingredients and about 8 minutes of prep time. Try this one when you want a meal that's yummy, fulfilling, and healthy. You're asking yourself, why does it have to be healthy, right? Well in case you missed it, I'm a committed Weight Watcher member, now. Don't worry, topping off these un-stuffed peppers with a healthy amount of cheese will make it delicious to even the non-healthy eater!

Un-Stuffed Peppers

1 Green Pepper
(this is gonna cost you...hurricane Wilma ruined the crop...at least that's the bologna my grocery store fed me to explain why they're so expensive...)
1 c. Brown Rice
1 c. Ground Pork
(you can use any meat you like...ground beef, chicken, turkey, deer, squirrel...the pork was on sale last week at my grocery store...you know, the one that's making a killing overcharging for their green peppers...geez....)
1 package Taco Seasoning
(or your own combination of cumin, chili powder, garlic & onion)
1 small can tomato sauce
1 c. Shredded Cheddar Cheese
(I used less...feel free to regulate your cheese as you wish!)

Cook rice according to package directions...I'd recommend the microwave because it's quickest. Brown pork with taco seasoning. Mix cooked rice and browned pork in a bowl. While your pork is browning, cut pepper and remove seeds and membranes. Chop green pepper. Place the meat and rice mixture in the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish and sprinkle chopped green peppers overtop. Pour tomato sauce over entire dish. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Sprinkle cheddar cheese over and broil for 1-2 minutes until cheese is melted. This makes enough for 4 sorta hungry people or 2-3 really hungry people...it's super easy to make enough for more, though. Double everything and use a 9x11 baking dish for 4-6 people. I made corn muffins to go with this because it seemed like a good chioce since it's kind of a mexican flavored dish. Leftovers of this dish will hold up well in the refrigerator to be reheated the next day...I dare you to try that with stuffed peppers...know what you get? A slimy green peppery mess. And no one I know likes a slimy green peppery mess.

Weight Watcher Points: 6 for 1 cup

Posted by Courtney at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I began stamping I was a card only type-of-girl. I've now made my way over into the scrapbooking side of the galaxy, and it's been pretty fun! I went with a 12x12 because I'm also an anal retentive type-of-girl and I prefer a square work surface. Plus I can get more pictures on a 12x12. I started out with only the page protectors so as I completed a page I could protectorize it. I did eventually save up my pennies (and dollars) to get a bee-you-tee-ful Real Red Stampin' Up! 12x12 linen album. It was worth every single penny and dollar! It's a "you have to wash your hands and put it right back when you're done because it was expensive" type-of-album, but it's absolutely gorgeous.

The following page is the introduction page of my scrapbook. I wanted to do a page that explained what was going on inside of the album. I began this scrapbook now because I don't have children yet. I used to say "I don't scrapbook because I don't have anything to scrap." Now I've decided that I want to scrap the things that are going on now (our first date, our wedding, our new puppy, etc.) so my children will be able to look back at those things. I felt the need to explain the journaling point of view (my own), along with whatever else I felt like saying about me. I titled the Word document "the hardest page ever", and it truely was difficult to do an intro to what I wanted the entire scrapbook to be about. The supplies and journaling text follow the photo. And yes, it was hard to line up (and space out) those paper rectangles on the left side of the page...very hard.

Paper: Green Galore, Brilliant Blue, So Saffron, Whisper White
Ink: Brilliant Blue, So Saffron
Stamps: Mini Mates
Accessories: Clear Button (on middle square)
Techinique: Direct to Paper in Brilliant Blue around edges of whole page

The text reads as follows:

Contained on the pages of this scrapbook are the things that are near and dear to my heart. Some pages are funny and some pages are serious, but all were created to illustrate the events in my life. The journaling is meant to reflect my thoughts.

I try to be: Honest, Thoughtful, & The Kind of Friend I’d like to have.
I try not to be: Judgmental, Cynical, & Overbearing
I hope to one day be: A mommy

Posted by Courtney at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a fantastic recipe for pineapple angels. It takes one pineapple, and one angel. Now angels can be hard to catch, so you want to only serve this dessert for a special occassion. They also go bad after a few days so don't catch your angel too early...you want to only have them for 24 hours in advance... You'll need to chop up your pineapple. I'd recommend getting one already cored and cut even though they're a little more money, it's much quicker...afterall, you need time to catch that angel! If you're having a hard time coming up with a fresh angel, powdered angels will do, but TRY your best to find a fresh one. The powdered ones have to be mixed with this really strange smelling liquid that's only found on the underside of a yak, therefore making it more difficult to mix up a powdered angel. Really it's best to just take the time to find a real, true, fresh angel.

Okay, all joking aside...this recipe is NOT for pineapple angels...it's for a yummy pineapple angel food cake. I originally got this recipe when my mom and I were doing Weight Watchers (which incidentally, we just recently rejoined and I lost 5.4# in the 1st week!) so it's very figure friendly. I also like it because 1) it's easy to remember, 2) it's quick, & 3) it's the only way I can make angel food cake since I don't have one of those fancy angel food cake pans. This is a great cake for everyone in the family because it doesn't taste like "diet cake" but it is fairly healthy (especially when compared to a giant slice of chocolate cake!)

Pineapple Angel Food Cake

1 pkg. angel food cake (did you ever notice how expensive this stuff is? maybe it is made from real angels)
1 large can crushed pineapple, juice and all

Mix the two ingredients together (see I told you this one was easy to remember), pour into a 13x9 cake pan, bake at 350 for 30 minutes or so. I usually check it after 30 and it's good to go! That's it. That's the whole darn recipe! There's no frosting but it's incredibly moist from the pineapple juice, so it's really good. It's so quick and easy (two of my favorite things about recipes) that it'd be a good one to have when you're craving a sweet snack in a hurry! Sometimes it's nice to have a dessert that's not chocolate, and this one works nicely for that, too!

Added bonus: those of you that don't like pineapple (or those who would like to try a variation on this one), you can use mandarin oranges with the angel food cake (just use two small cans with the juice), mix and bake the same as above.

Weight Watcher Points: Cut into 12 = 4 points per slice

Posted by Courtney at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Introducing the newest member of our household:

We adopted this little cutie from a place we found on petfinder.com. We've named her Pixel although she doesn't really know her name yet. She's an 8 week old Dachshund/Beagle mix that was rescued from a shelter that was going to put her to sleep. She weighs about 6 lbs...which makes our 20 lb. cat seem much more heavy now.

Pixel likes to do four things: 1) Sleep in your lap, 2) Potty in the house, 3) Play with her stuffed quadrapus (it's like an octopus but with four legs), & 4) Eat; but only because it makes more potty material.

We're working on the potty training thing and I think that we're finally (after 3 days) ending the day with a few more "good potty" exclaimations than "bad potty" discouragements. I read somewhere that it could take up to six months, but we're holding out hope that we ended up with a genious puppy that'll be potty trained by next week. I know, not exactly realistic. Currently she stinks like nastiness because she goes potty in her cage and then lays in it...disgusting, I know...but she's so dang cute! Maybe that's why they make puppies so cute....so we need to bathe her every other day...which we do in the sink!

There will likely be more Pixel posts in the future, so I thought it appropriate to introduce her to you all! I think she has the Beagle bark and the Dachshund neck, length, and burrowing personality...so it should be interesting to say the least!

My grandma told me "now you'll know just what to do when you have a baby"...to which I replied "Yeah, get one that's potty trained."

Posted by Courtney at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Well, how do ya like it?! This is my new stamping and scrapping haven! When we bought our house a month ago this room was a toddler's room...it was full-on Pooh Bear...all the way to the fan blades. My mom and I painted it the lovely plummy roseish (yes I made that up) color that it is now. Then I totally copied the clothesline idea from another stamp room I saw. It's just a regular clothesline hung with eyelet hooks (I'll have to tell you the eyelet hook search turned fiasco at a later date). Then card samples are hung with clothespins. This is extra fun because when we get sick of looking at the same old same old border I can just switch in new card samples!

Corner #1 is obviously one corner of the room (clever, aren't I?!) with the clothesline. The view by the door shows off our lovely new dry-erase/thumbtack board so we can keep track of all the stuff we have going on. It's a 10x12 room with a mirrored closet so it's not the easiest thing to photograph. Plus the closet is all messy! The end of the room that's opposite the clothesline features a unit with five shelves of stamps and the closet has another cabinet with all of the necessary accessories. Oh yeah, and on the table (just in the corner of the Corner #1 picture) is our brand new Stampin' Up! Ink Caddy! It's so awesome to have all of our ink pads at our fingertips! No more digging through plastic shoeboxes looking for that one pad you can't find!

Also, check out the very cool flower arrangement in the corner. We got the vase as a wedding gift and I didn't want to put fresh flowers in it because they die so quickly. The best $38 I ever spent was taking that vase to a florist in town and telling them "I don't have a clue about flower arrangements, can you just do whatever it is that you flower people do?" Okay maybe I didn't say it exactly like that, but it did turn out beautiful none-the-less. It's been over a year and one move and it still looks brand new.

It's so nice to have a completely separate area that's totally devoted to stamping! Now my mom and I can stamp without having to disrupt the entire household by using the kitchen table! Plus we can just close the door if we get too involved in stamping and don't have time to clean up. Now I must tell you that this rarely ,if ever, happens...it's usually completely sparkling clean...ha! Those of you with your own stamping or scraping area know that that’s a complete LIE! The best part of having my own stamping room is that it can be as unorganized as I want it to be and it doesn’t matter because it’s my room and I can just close the door!

I highly encourage all of you to lobby for your own stamping and/or scrapping haven if you don’t already have one! After all, it is your right as a stamper to have an area that is totally yours, totally disorganized, and totally inspiring to you as you work!

Posted by Courtney at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Finally! A recipe that does not involve chicken. You're all excited, aren't you? Here's the background on this one: For my wedding shower my "girls" made a note on the invitation for everyone to bring a few of their favorite recipes so they could put all the cards in a pretty recipe box. It was especially nice because now I can flip through my recipe box and have recipes in the handwriting of my friends and family. It was also a really cool way to get a starter recipe box. The meatloaf a la Judi is one of the recipes I received at my shower. It's an easy and yummy variation of meatloaf that we have often. Oh yeah, and it's meatloaf a la Aunt Judi to you....

Meatloaf

1 lb. ground beef (the leaner the better)
1/3 c. oatmeal
1 egg
1/2 c. ketchup (she has it spelled katsup, but I think we know that it's ketchup)
1 small onion, diced
1 pkg. sloppy joe seasoning mix (Aunt Judi uses McCormick)

Mix well...you know the nasty way with your hands...and bake for one hour at 375. Aunt Judi had this postscript to share: "PS I fix the meatloaf in a regular casserole dish (such as an 8x8) and then serve it from the same dish." This is an excellent tip that I have used many times! Another cool thing about doing it this way is that you get more of that yummy crunchy goodness that sometimes is only had on the ends of the meatloaf....it gets all crunchy on the top if you do it in an 8x8.

This recipe is chock full of tips for you...here's another one...those of you who read the one and only comment I've ever gotten on this blog (see the Baa Gawk entry) will see that my friend Maggie said I don't like to touch raw beef. Well she's absolutely 100% right...this is the sort of thing your true friends will know about you...and the sort of thing you hope said true friends will point out upon reading your blog! Here's my tip for you: use meat bags. Yes, meat bags. When ever I am forced to touch raw beef (as I am, in a meatloaf type-of-situation) I place sandwich baggies over my hands. My husband calls them my meat bags. It works wonderfully to mix the meatloaf without having to get my hands all gooped up with beef & egg snot. I then shape the loaf, place it in the pan, turn the bags inside out and discard them. I keep saying that I'll get some of those food service bags and keep a box of them on hand, but using gloves won't have the same effect when I thrust my hands at Larry and say "leave me alone or I'll touch you with the meat bags". (You see, he doesn't like the thought of touching the meatloaf either.)

Posted by Courtney at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The much anticipated Sell-A-Brations promotion is here! It actually started yesterday, but I felt the need to post that brown sugar chicken recipe first. (If you're completely confused by that sentence, make sure you read the post that follows this one...)

I am patiently awaiting the delivery of my 2 pre-ordered sets. When I say patiently I mean stalking the UPS website to see if they have an expected delivery date yet...which, by-the-way, they don't. I'm working on some samples (in my head since I don't have the sets yet) and will be sure to post them as soon as I get them together.

You can officially see the Sell-A-Brations freebies at www.stampinup.com. Just click "view the online catalog" and then choose the SAB mini. If you haven't used the online catalog feature yet, I urge you to check it out. It's kinda neat how it flips the pages and stuff! You can zoom and all kinds of other stuff, too!

Anyhow, back to that UPS website to scope out my order status....

Posted by Courtney at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you didn't guess by the title of this post (which I'm sure you did...) this is yet another chicken recipe! I realize that this is an unfair balance of chicken recipes, but what can I say, we're chicken people. This is an easy fix it and forget it type-of-thing. Just add a side dish (I often pair this with the classic mashed potatoes), and you're good to go!

Brown Sugar Chicken

1 pkg. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
brown sugar
lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350. Press brown sugar (approximately 3/4 cup) into the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish. Place chicken breasts on top of brown sugar. Sprinkle (if one can sprinkle a liquid) lemon juice over chicken. I'm not sure about the amount of lemon juice because I usually eyeball it...not a ton...more than you'd use for fish...the lemon juice and brown sugar will form a beautifully delicious brown sugar glaze. Bake for about 1 hour, turn chicken 1/2 way through.

Posted by Courtney at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)