Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Apples, Apples, Apples...

My hubby and I love apples.  He brings one to lunch almost everyday for work and I usually eat at least one a day.  Unfortunately, we've been spoiled by a local apple orchard, so we'll only eat apples from there. The other day, one of my facebook buddies posted a baked apple recipe that I just had to try.  I love making baked apples but usually I slice them and just bake them with cinnamon (I just asked my hubby how to spell the word cinnamon and he says, "C-I-N-N-A-M-O-N, CINNAMON" —just like he was representing his school in the spelling bee—how cute!)...

So I had to try this recipe, but I tweaked it, just a little bit.  

baked-apples-1.jpg

  • 4 large good baking apples, I used MacIntosh 
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 pinch of nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon of almond butter for each apple top
  • 3/4 cup boiling water







Use some big apples


It might be messy, but you have to core them, but not to the bottom; make a pocket




Stuff them with the mixture, put the almond butter on top
 The almond peanut butter is also from Soon's orchard and is pure; no sugar or oils are added.  Instead of eating the warm apple with ice cream, I went for some vanilla yogurt (not frozen).  It was a healthy and delicious alternative!  I'm not much of a baker because we try to stay away from sweets, but this was a little piece of heaven on this snowy night.

The Finished Product
Since I have a snow day from work, we're both getting stuff done around the house; so on another domestic note, I ordered a canvas from Overstock that came in the mail the other day and is now in it's proper place in my kitchen.  


If you know anything about me, you know that I love stars and moons.  I love looking at this picture; my hubby thinks the little kids are drinking alcohol in the old advertisement, but I'm pretty sure it's a syrup of some sort.  Although I really don't care what the ad was for, it's still fun to think about.  Anyone have any other guesses?  

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Tuesday Tea Quote...


"Frequent dieting: 

Lost & refound"

—Salada Tea

Last Year's Resolutions...

It's about time that I started on some of last years' new years resolutions... As I've said before, I'm really done with the resolutions.  I never stick with them and last years' resolutions were the last ones that I will ever make.  But I was thinking about some of the stuff that I resolved to do last year; other than the typical, lose a few pounds things, I vowed to do things instead of giving up things that were bad for me.



I really want to learn to play the guitar.  I grew up as a band/chorus nerd, kinda, and I love music and I love writing lyrics.  It's pretty much my dream career, being a songwriter. I've always wanted to pick up the guitar and learn how to play and last year I was lucky enough to have my bestie's brother loan me one of his.  Unfortunately, the guy who said he was willing to teach me never followed through and I never followed through on my own—another resolution that I failed at.

Finally, the other day I started to pick it up on my own.  After months of failing at certain beginner books, I finally found one that helped me at least get started.  The book teaches the strings and their names instead of teaching chords right off the bat.  I feel like I'm getting somewhere!  I know that the chords are obviously the most important part, but I'll get to that, I promise.

I'm not expecting to play like people who've been doing it for years; I'm just not trained that way, but I want to at least have it help me in my song writing.  Hopefully I can put something behind the words that I write; hopefully, it can help me with some of my melodies that I need to work on.  Unfortunately, my nails will never be the same IF I keep this up.  I never realized how long nails and playing really aren't a good combination—so long, long nails, hello painted ones...

I still want to learn a new language too—I haven't picked up the Rosetta Stone software because the price is still a little too high.  I've been looking on auction sites, but I can't help but be scared of scammers and ripped off software...

I guess I'm really not good at this resolution thing at all! Thankfully, I didn't make any this year, so I can't break any.  But I still want to follow up on last years, just to make myself feel better. 

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Tuesday Tea Quote...


"When pleasure interferes with business, give up business."

—Salada Tea

Monday, January 17, 2011

Just a Sentimental Fool...

When I was a kid, I loved rearranging my bedroom.  I changed the bed from wall to wall and moved the dresser.  It was so much fun for me.  Unfortunately, my rug in my room wasn't attached to the floor too well and left that ashy debris that old rugs left behind, so the carnage that remained of my rug was the downfall to my rearranging habit.  I'm surprised my mom let me do it as much as I did because we didn't have the money for a new rug, but she didn't care as long as I was happy with my room; which after each arrangement, I would always declare that the room looked perfect and that I wouldn't change it anymore.  Then, I would rearrange it, sometimes just like it was before the last session, and then again, declare that my room was perfect.  

I had a big, wooden canopy bed and a huge dresser, so this wasn't always an easy task, and I usually had to ask for help from the family.   Otherwise, I would just push the furniture and drag the rug just a little further off it's tacked down path.  That poor rug.

Now that I'm older and have a house all my own, I feel bad for my mom.  We had an old house and we all took pride in it, and if she was still in the house that I grew up in, I would have bought a new rug for my room by now.  I hated that rug and all it's black ashy stuff that was always coming up from the bottom.  And God forbid if you tried to vacuum it; half of the rug would end up in the bag.  But it was my room and my crappy rug!

I loved my childhood bedroom and all the little knick knacks that I collected over the years, but now I wonder what I'm supposed to do with all those things!  I'm not too into Cherished Teddy collectibles and  plush teddy bears.  I feel bad for begging my parents for all these things that seem so frivolous now.  Hopefully, I'm not a sucker if we ever have a kid, and continuously buy them things that they'll just leave in the house after they move out.  Silly kids. Always want want.  I was so that kid— "BUT MOM I NEEEEEDDDD THIS!!!!!!"  Hopefully, I can force out a, "too bad" every now and then.

One thing that I always wanted to have as I grew older, even from a young young age, was my baby plate.  Apparently, in our local hospital when I was a baby, the local business donated baby plates.  Unfortunately, when I was in about third grade a few friends and I were fooling around in my bedroom and my one friend knocked it off the shelf in my room.  I remember crying like a baby; maybe that was the start of the Dana Ugly Cry that I'm pretty notorious for.  I even cried in front of my friends.  I remember being so mad that my plate was broke.  My mom said we could try to glue it back together but we never did; some pieces were just too far gone, but the plate still remains in a plastic bag in my hope chest at the end of my bed...


A few months ago I brought this memory back to mind and happened to just google search baby plates and to my amazement—the plates are still being made!  They even make them in pink now for girls, but I had to buy the blue because that's what my original plate was.  Now, it's pretty much a guarantee that I'm one of the dorkiest and sentimental people around, so of course I had to buy the plate and put it on a shelf in my home where it should have rightfully been all along. 


Some things may lose their value as we grow older, but other things you just can't help but smile at.  The sounds that an old music box makes, finding an old coloring book that you and your Grama did together, an old newspaper article, a candy dish... for this reason, I love scrapbooking my life with my hubby; movie stubs, concert stubs, cards, restaurant cards... I love being an old sap.  Who cares if I cry at the drop of a dime; this world is meant for sentimental fools like me!

Do you have anything that means a lot to you from your childhood that you'd like to have back or that you're still able to cherish?  I love the internet, otherwise my baby plate would only be a childhood memory in a plastic ziploc bag.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Thought of Snow Terrifies People...

Even though we live in New York, I swear the thought of snow must just scare people to death around here!  Tuesday is normally my shopping day and I know that I was terrified at the thought of going to the grocery store on a day like today when the snow was just waiting to start falling from the gray pink sky.  

I ran some errands and then headed to the stores; unfortunately, I couldn't help myself from hitting up TJMaxx before buying groceries for the week.  Let me tell you how much of a destresser it is to go and buy stuff when you know you have a gift card!  It's just so freeing!  I was going to head to Victoria's Secret to buy some new stuff, that was much in need, but instead I bought about six bras and twenty pairs of panties for about $70!  Insane right?!  I knew that stepping into TJMaxx would just make my day that much better before heading into a grocery store from H-E-Double hockey sticks!

It amazes me to see the look in people's eyes when they're shopping for a snow storm.  Like if they don't get in two hours of shopping eight hours before the storm starts, then all hell will break loose.  People bump in to you, they push you out of the way for things, and when the cart traffic jams start, no one will budge from their spot in order to let someone pass.  People are crazy!  Who needs four loaves of bread unless you are feeding a family of ten for a week!  It's a couple of inches of snow people, and we live in 2011, you are realistically not going to get stuck inside over a few inches of snow.  

I came home, amazed by my TJMaxx purchases and started up the crockpot.  How can you go wrong with the crockpot when a snow day is going to happen?  You can't.  It's perfect and the house smells amazing.  

I'm just really not looking forward to waking up in the morning to tackle the driveway.  Why can't snow days be like when we were kids and it was actually fun?  Stupid grown-up life.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Tuesday Tea Quote...



"Hair dye gets to the root of the problem."

—Salada Decaffeinated Tea

Monday, January 10, 2011

I Just Love His Eyes by Candlelight...

Sometimes I just need a date night.  Do you ever start feeling like you're in a rut with your hubby and you just need to get off of the couch and get a little dressed up?  Well, I'm one of those people who could go out every week, twice a week, three times a week... but who has the money for that?  Who has the time?  And wouldn't it get boring?  I don't know, but one day I'd love to find out.  I'm just waiting to hit Mega Millions, then maybe we'd have the time, money, and energy for date nights more often than we get them now.

Tonight we went to Nina, our favorite restaurant, well, my favorite restaurant, the hubby favors Peter's just a little bit more.

I love it there, and every time we go, I can't help but picture myself owning a restaurant just like it someday.  I think I have the same conversation with him every time we sit down about how I'd love to own something like it.  At least that's what he tells me.  I can't help it; great service, great atmosphere, and amazing food.  For our first anniversary my dad and his wife gave us a gift card for Nina, and four months later, we finally used it.  The entire $100 gift card, gone in one visit, and worth every dime.  Thanks guys!  We'll be enjoying it for lunch tomorrow too—just too much good food to let go to waste.

Now we're back to reality and date night is over.  I'm back in my sweatpants and his old sweatshirt with my hair twisted up, and he just got back from the gym and started cleaning up the kitchen from our lunch this afternoon.  Tomorrow it's on to the bathroom for me; toilets and tiles are my speciality.

Thank God for a date night to remind us of the days when going out on dates helped us fall in love and get to know each other.  Every time we go out I remember one of those dates and the happiness I felt when I knew I was falling in love with this man.  I always remember the look in his eyes when I knew he was falling for me; that look hasn't gone away.  I guess that's why I love date nights and I'll always look forward to them when they come around.

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