Lots and Lots of Food

• Chicken - marinating
• Barbecue Bean Salad - fixed and in the fridge
• Brownies - baked and smelling good
• French Toast Casseroles for breakfast - being made, as soon as the bread thaws.  A hot oven from baking brownies works really well for thawing frozen bread.

So, I think that's the food for tomorrow - except the fruit will have to be cut up for breakfast/brunch, and I might cut up some potatoes and onions to cook, too.  Have I forgotten anything?  Or is there so much that everyone will leave here looking for the best weight loss supplements?  Probably, considering that other people are bringing stuff, too!

Now, I need to figure out what we're having for dinner besides the steaks I bought at Walmart the other day.  I'll probably do a potato packet for Jeffrey to grill along with the steaks and cook some green beans.  Also, those brownies are smelling so good that we'll probably have some for dessert and make some more for tomorrow.  They're real easy, since they're from a mix.  Walmart had them for 75¢ and I had a coupon for 75¢ off 2 - so I just couldn't pass those up.

So, who's coming?  It sounds like we'll have plenty.

Looking at the Sky - 58

I’m so glad there’s a meme like Looking at the Sky on Friday, because it means all the time I spend looking at the sky, and taking pictures of it, has a purpose! Click the badge for more info.

I really enjoyed this sunset as we were driving home from Illinois last weekend. 

It was kind of fun to watch the sun peek in and out of the clouds.

Since I was shooting from a moving van, I just took a bunch, hoping to get something good. Then my batteries died so I switched cameras, and then Cory shot a few from the back seat. I might even have enough photos for a couple of slideshows, but these are the ones I liked.

If you enjoy skies as much as I do, be sure to check out Looking at the Sky on Friday.

Need Some Recipes?

Speaking of dinner and recipes, I just noticed today that my recipe blog bcmom's kitchen has a PageRank of 2.  Last I checked it didn't have anything.  Not that it matters terribly, but it makes me feel good.

Mostly I use the blog to keep track of recipes I like or want to try.  Today I made this Barbecue Bean Salad, which I hadn't made in ages, and I posted a new sourdough bread recipe.  If you're looking for some good recipes, be sure to check it out.

Pizza for Dinner

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Freschetta. All opinions are 100% mine.

I usually have several frozen pizzas in the freezer for those nights I don't know what to fix for dinner or for easy weekend dinners.  They're really handy and quick, and my teenage son does a really great job of fixing them.  Usually I just buy whatever pizzas are on sale, and we're not real picky about them.  Besides, since we don't eat pork products, I almost always have to buy the Cheese pizzas and then have Cory doctor them up with beef sausage, onion, green pepper, mushrooms, or whatever we have on hand.  The pizzas all seem pretty much the same.

Recently, I got some coupons to try Freschetta FlatBread pizza for FREE.  You know how I love coupons and getting things for free.  The problem is that now I'm actually going to be a bit pickier about my pizza.  This Freschetta pizza is SO GOOD.  I actually couldn't find the new FlatBread pizza, though I looked for it at several different stores.  Maybe it's just not in my area yet.  So I bought the Brick Oven pizza - the Spinach & Mushroom and the 5 Italian Cheese.  I love, love, love the crust on this Brick Oven pizza!  The first pizza we tried was the Spinach & Mushroom - roasted and marinated portabella mushrooms and spinach, mozzarella and fontina cheese and a white cream onion sauce.  Cory took a couple pieces to his room, and when he came back out, he called it 'Amazing' and went for another piece.  It was pretty amazing.  The square shape of the Brick Oven pizza is really convenient now that Beth has moved out, because it cuts very nicely into 9 pieces - try doing that with a round pizza.  The 5 Italian Cheese was pretty amazing, too.

Tonight we had the Naturally Rising 4-Cheese.  When he took it out of the oven, Cory pronounced it 'Phenomenal' which you can see by looking at this picture:

And the crust? So good - just like fresh-baked bread.  This Freschetta pizza is definitely a step above some of the plain old frozen pizza I usually buy.  What makes Freschetta so special?  The naturally rising crust with no chemical leaveners, all natural cheeses, and vegetables picked at their peak and flash frozen for the best possible taste.

I'll be watching for Freschetta pizzas to go on sale from now on and buying them instead of just any old frozen pizza.  I'll probably have to try the FlatBread pizza when they get it here, even though I don't usually like thin, crispy crust on my pizza.  If you'd like to try Freschetta pizza, or if you already love it, you can go online and get a $1 coupon off any Freschetta pizza. 

Testing my Feed

I had to change my twitter password, but this time I remembered that I need to change the password on twitterfeed and feedburner so that things will work - or re-authorize them to connect with my account.

Now that I've done that, I just have to be sure it works.

Took it Back Too Soon

Cover via Amazon

I used to have a Yahoo 360 blog - because I already had a Yahoo account, and because it was free.  Did I really need another reason?  I wasn't really sure what to do with it, so I started posting various quotes from the books I was reading.  They may not be particularly deep or inspirational, but sometimes a line or a sentence in a book will just strike me.  I doubt an insurance quote will ever do that, unless of course they really can save me lots of money.

Yahoo has since shut down their 360 service, and my blog is history, along with all those quotes.  There really weren't that many, mostly because I don't always write the quotes down when they speak to me.  Then I can't always find the page again or else I take the book back to the library before I remember. 

I did it again this week.  I was reading the second Percy Jackson book The Sea of Monsters and there was something Hermes said that really struck me.  I was thinking I ought to re-start the book quote thing - maybe here on this blog, maybe somewhere else.  But, I didn't write the quote down, and then Cory and I went to the library to return books that were due.  I'd finished The Sea of Monsters, so I grabbed that one too - and didn't think about my quote until the next day.  I wonder if it's worth requesting the book from the library, just so I can find my quote?

One More Day

If you haven't entered my CSN Stores giveaway yet, there's still time.  The giveaway ends at 11:59pm tomorrow night, June 3rd.  So get those comments and tweets in. 

Winner gets a $60 gift certificate to use at any of the 200+ CSN Stores!

I can't wait to see who it will be!

Guacamole!

Image via Wikipedia

Speaking of shopping (really, I was - see last post) - I just recently realized that I can take the Aldi ad to Walmart and have them match the prices.  I don't know why I never thought about it.  I just always thought of Aldi as a different kind of store and didn't think their prices would be eligible for price-matching.  But they do have a weekly ad, and someone online happened to mention taking the Aldi ad into Walmart - so I've been doing it ever since.

It usually just works with produce or items that don't have a specific brand, since Aldi has their own brand.  I suppose if you could find the exact same slimming pills that work at Walmart as you can find at Aldi, then they'd match the price.  Things like produce and eggs don't have brands, so today I took the ad in and got pineapples for 99¢, avocados for 49¢, and strawberries for $1.29/lb.  So now I can have guacamole (2 mashed avocados, a bit of salsa, 1 tsp. adobo seasoning, juice of half a lemon, and a dash of sea salt - YUM!)

Also, we've got fruit for the weekend.

This Week is Too Short

Everybody loves those long weekends like we had for Memorial Day last weekend.  And it really was a good weekend.  We left Friday morning to go down and visit some of Jeffrey's family.  His mom and her Fred were there from Arizona, and we also got to see his grandma, aunt and uncle and several of his cousins.  They're a really great family, and it's always a pleasure spending time with them.  Oh, and Jeffrey's brother was supposed to be there, too - but he didn't make it until Sunday morning, and we had to leave Sunday afternoon because Cory had to march in the Memorial Day parade on Monday morning.

So, last week was a day short because of leaving Friday, and this week is a day short because of Monday being a holiday, and I feel like I just don't have enough time to get everything done.  Cory is graduating on Sunday, and we're going to have a house full of people over the weekend.  That means I have to get the house cleaned up and food fixed and...  But I haven't been able to get to it because I had to get the garden planted and laundry done on Tuesday, and then Cory had a choir concert that night so we didn't get home until late.   Then today I had to go to lunch with some friends - really, I did because we will probably never get another chance.  And then I had to go shopping to get some chicken and other food for the weekend and didn't get home until dinner time - but first I had to put all the groceries away, and then I had to wash the dishes which had piled up because they hadn't been done since before we left for the weekend.

So tomorrow, I really have to finish getting the house cleaned, because my parents will be here sometime in the afternoon or early evening - and I wouldn't want them seeing the house like this!  They think I'm perfect. :P

If only I could just click here and get everything done - like MAGIC. Where is that 'vacuum' button on my keyboard?

Reconnect with 100 of Your Friends at the Hampton

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hampton Hotels. All opinions are 100% mine.

Imagine an entire hotel filled with people you know. Wouldn't that be awesome? People to hang out with in the lobby, perhaps to play a game of Double Hearts. People to get wet with in the pool - the kids and teenagers really enjoy that.  Long conversations in the bar, pizza parties in the halls, and not a lot of sleep.  I speak from experience, because we've had several week-long or weekend getaways with church friends from all over the country.  Let me tell you - it really is awesome.


Hampton Hotels is going to give one lucky winner the chance to experience just that.  Enter the Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes, and you could win a 2 night stay in a Hampton Hotel for yourself and a whole bunch of your friends.  You get the entire hotel! (100 rooms)  Sure, facebook is great for reconnecting with old friends and keeping in touch with friends and family, but this would be even better, right?  An entire weekend to just be together would really be great.  The winner also gets $5000 to help with the taxes - and maybe to spring for that pizza party.

Besides the grand prize, there are 100 First Prizes.  First Prize winners get a weekend stay for themselves and three of their friends.  This sweepstakes is open to everyone, so what are you waiting for?  Enter today and share with all your friends.  Somebody's gotta win, right?  It might as well be me, I mean you or one of your friends.  (I really mean ME, or one of MY friends!)