Whip It Up 2009 Recipe #2

Since the weather is finally nice this weekend, we decided to head to a BBQ with some friends. Well, we’re going with friends to a friend of a friend’s house which happens to be near where the fireworks are taking place tonight. We were tasked with bringing a side dish so I thought, what’s more summer/BBQ-y than a good ol’ potato salad? Can you believe I’ve never made it before? Yeah. My hubby isn’t a fan of mayo and probably won’t eat it but I figured there would be plenty of people to have at it today.

This recipe comes from my Better Homes and Garden cookbook.

The lowdown:

Was the recipe easy to follow: Yes but it was extremely messy to make! My kitchen was a disaster area (even though I cleaned as I went too!)

Did it taste good? I had a quick taste before letting it chill properly – so far so good! I omitted the pickles and it tastes like a good potato salad

Would you make again? Yes – only if I’m going to a gathering though. Since I’m the only one in the house who would eat it, it would be a shame to make just for me!

Check out the headquarters for more recipes from this week!

Classic Potato Salad

Ingredients

• 2 pounds potatoes (6 medium)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/4 cups mayonnaise or salad dressing
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup thinly sliced celery (2 stalks)
• 1/3 cup chopped onion (1 small)
• 1/2 cup chopped sweet or dill pickles or sweet or dill pickle relish
• 6 Hard-Cooked Eggs, coarsely chopped
• Lettuce leaves (optional)
• Paprika (optional)

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan place potatoes, the 1/4 teaspoon salt, and enough water to cover. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 20 to 25 minutes or until just tender. Drain well; cool slightly. Peel and cube the potatoes.

2. Meanwhile, for dressing, in a large bowl combine mayonnaise, mustard, the 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the pepper.

3. Stir in the celery, onion, and pickles. Add the potatoes and eggs. Toss lightly to coat. Cover and chill for 6 to 24 hours.

4. To serve, if desired, line a salad bowl with lettuce leaves. Transfer the potato salad to the bowl. If desired, sprinkle with paprika.

5. Makes 12 side-dish servings

7 Quick Takes Friday Post 3

Check out more posts like these here (http://www.conversiondiary.com).

 

.1.

 I’ve been walking on this cloud of happiness lately. It started last week – 3 day workweek, the walkway construction was mostly completed and my brother-in-law’s wedding festivities. Summer truly was kicked off in a great way (though let’s not talk about how it’s the second week of July ALREADY!).

 .2.

 In the mail yesterday, I received an invitation I really did not think I’d get. I’m still a bit perplexed but we’ll see what comes of it (holy cryptic batman)

 .3.

 Speaking of invitations – August is already filling up with fun plans! Birthday parties, baby shower, VACATION! Bring it on!

 .4.

 With all these plans comes $$. Hubby and I were trying to do a “no spend” month but that’s proving difficult. Especially when we have gifts we have to buy for all these parties. Life is expensive!

 .5.

Late yesterday afternoon my mom called me to invite me to dinner at Five Guys with her, my brother and my brother’s girlfriend. Too bad I already ate it for lunch! So instead I met them at the local small airport and drank the Mr. Pibb they bought for me and watched planes and laughed. It was nice – I love my family!

 .6.

 Because of last weekend’s wedding festivities, hubby and I were unable to see fireworks. Luckily a couple of friends invited us to see them tomorrow night on the river! Can’t wait. I’m hoping to buy that new sweet tea vodka and some lemonade and make Arnold Palmers – the perfect summery drink!

 .7.

 Let’s be honest. I have baby fever. Wicked bad. All these baby showers and buying baby gifts don’t help it one bit. Nevermind the fact that one of my coworkers is practically BEGGING me to have a baby so she can be around a tiny little person. We have a timeline but some days I’m just GAAAAHHHH!

Happy Happy

I just really need to remember this time in my life. For the past week now I’ve been incredibly happy. Things are going really well and sometimes I have to pinch myself with how well they are going.

I promise to expand more (with photos!) but I just want to live in the moment right now.

Whip It Up 2009 Recipe #1

Whip It Up is back in full force! This week’s theme is holiday foods so I picked something out of my To Try folder that was quick and easy and perfect for the 4th of July. No photos this time since I’m cleaning out my camera for my Brother-in-Law’s wedding in…6 hours! Yikes!

The low down:

It was easy to make! The thing I would do different is use more butter for the crust because it didn’t stay put as well. And I used the fat-free or low fat versions of the cream cheese, whipped topping and pudding and it’s still super yummy. I would definitely make again!

Check out the headquarters for more recipes from this week!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Dessert

Ingredients:

20 chocolate cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, divided

2 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted

1 package (8 ounces) 1/3-less fat cream cheese, softened*

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 1/3 cups powdered sugar, divided

1 carton (16 ounces) light frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided*

15 miniature peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped

1 cup fat-free cold milk*

1 package (small box) instant chocolate fudge fat-free sugar-free pudding mix*

Directions:

Finely crush 16 cookies; toss with butter. Press onto the bottom of an ungreased 9-in. square dish. In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter, and 1 cup powdered sugar until smooth. Fold in half of the whipped topping. Spread over crust. Sprinkle with peanut butter cups.

In another mixing bowl, beat the milk, pudding mix, and remaining powdered sugar on low speed for 2 minutes, until smooth and slightly set. Fold in remaining whipped topping. Spread over peanut butter cups. Crush remaining cookies and sprinkle over top of dessert. Cover and chill for at least three hours before serving.

Note: you can double this recipe and make it in a 9×13 pan.

* you can use regular products too – not just the fat free kind

7 Quick Takes Friday – 2

I meant to post this yesterday! Check out more posts like these here

.1.

Man, yesterday was insane with the news huh? We’ll all remember where we were when we heard that Michael Jackson died (even if there were conflicting reports). I was in my last summer class and we took our usual break. I logged onto CNN and saw the headline and a girl in my class came back from making a phone call and yelled, “MICHAEL JACKSON DIED!” It was crazy. We all spent the rest of class covertly checking news sources on our computers.

.2.

Did you know my very first concert was Michael Jackson’s Bad Tour? Well, now you do. I went with Joby Rogers who is a Michael Jackson impersonator. I believe he even worked for MJ. My mom worked with his mom for a while so we all went. It was fun!

.3.

This week was the start of our front walk/retention wall installation finally. The weather has prevented it from happening until now. It should be completed by the end of the weekend and I can’t wait to see the finished result! I’ve been taking photos daily and I’ll be sure to post them here for you.

.4.

Nothing overly exciting has happened this week other than the addition of a backhoe in my front yard! It’s been a long strange week, that’s for sure. I’m looking forward to this weekend – we have nothing planned which is not like how this summer has been so far. We’re hoping to catch up on yard work and things around the house and the 2 Netflix movies I’ve had all month!

.5.

I really can’t take any more rain and gloominess. Seriously, we’ve had enough. This reminds me of June 2003 where we had days upon days of rain. It was horrendous. I want sunny skies and I want to stop sounding like a broken record over something trivial like the weather!

.6.

I’m pretty stoked to start Whip It Up 2009 next week! Stay tuned to see what recipes I try along with photos and comments. I’ve been collecting recipes so I hope to finish with a bang!

.7.

Can I tell you how cathartic it has been to clean up my GoogleReader? Deleting blogs who’s owners never communicated with me or who I just don’t connect with? Or blogs I thought I was interested in and could never keep up. Normally it’s hard for me to purge things but it has felt refreshing. And I’d really not like to spend my summer in front of a computer (you know, if the sun ever comes back out!)

Whip It Up 2009!

Last year I joined Whip It Up which is a challenge to try new recipes each week from 6/28-8/22 and post about them. However; it clearly was not the right time as we had closed on our house and spent time moving in it (trust me, trying out new recipes when your pots and pans and utensils are all packed is not fun!). This year I have no excuse so I signed up again. I will be sharing my recipes here.

If you want to join in on the challenge you have until tomorrow, June 22nd to do so! It’s so much fun and you can read other’s posts about recipes they’ve tried, whether they like it or not and any little tips they found helpful.

Simply send an Email with your name and your blog URL info and you’ll be all signed up. Did I mention there’s a prize? Well there is. Everyone who completes the challenge will be put into a drawing for a fun, as yet to be named cookbook so you can find more recipes to try out next year!

Find out more info at the headquarters here or follow Whip It Up on twitter

7 Quick Takes Friday – 1

I stumbled on this site and saw that every Friday people post a 7 Quick Takes post for those things in your head that are too long for Twitter and too short for a blog post. Since my mind has been severely turned to mush due to my work and school schedule, I thought this would be the perfect thing to kick this blog in the behind!

.1.

Not to start this off in a you’re-so-going-to-think-I’m-a-paranoid-schizophrenic way, but this morning while getting ready for work I started thinking about pharmaceutical companies and treatments for incurable diseases. This of course led me to think that there is a cure for cancer and AIDS and that those pharmaceutical companies are keeping it from us so they can stay in business and sell medication. I don’t feel alone on this because I was listening to one of the couple of radio stations I listen to during each AM commute and they were talking about the SAME THING this morning! I better stop before I start thinking people can read my brain and start wearing tin foil hats.

.2.

This weekend is Father’s Day (I know, seriously where has the time gone) and my dad is cooking us up some ribs. Yes, my dad cooks the Father’s Day meal because he rules. And quite honestly if any of us tries cooking ribs we wouldn’t hear the end of it. Ever. I’m really excited to hang with my family, eat good food and drink good beer. It’s always a good time.

.3.

This weekend would be completely awesome if I didn’t have a take home test to complete and post by Monday. Ugh. Next week is my last week of class and I’m sure it will be a doozy. I’m still not sure how well I did on my last test because the grades have not been posted (grades haven’t been posted in nearly two weeks. I get that it’s a summer course and flies by but come on!).

.4.

Monday night hubby and I awoke to a bright flashing light on my BB (yes, I sleep next to it!). An ex friend of ours im’d me to say that he misses us and an update on his family and that we should write back. He im’d from a different screen name because I blocked his old one. It’s been at least 3 years since we all hung out (after spending an extremely fun summer with a core group of us, things got weird after and a bunch of us aren’t talking to each other. It’s a big ol mess but I have moved on for a while now). It’s strange because just last weekend I was just talking to hubby about the fact that his stalker ex-girlfriend hasn’t bothered us in a long time and that brought me to thinking about said ex-friend. I know hubby is done with him but I’m a sucker. Deep down I believe that people deserve second chances but I’ve been so burned by second chances before in the past.

.5.

Just realized in almost exactly 2 months we will be on a relaxing vacation in Vermont. Growing up my family took vacations every summer to northern Vermont and this year my parents, my brother and his girlfriend and hubby and I are renting a house on the lake we always stay on. It’s fantastically relaxing – pretty much you read, lay in the sun, hang out on my dad’s boat and do a whole lot of nothing for a week. We may do excursions around VT but the beauty of it is that nothing is planned. This will be the first vacation we’ve taken since our honeymoon in 2007 because last year we spent our vacation time closing on the house and painting and moving. We both deserve some R&R. Can’t.freakin.wait.

.6.

The teaser for Monday’s new Jon & Kate Plus 8 made me cry. Yes, she can be evil and he can be a big dope but I just totally feel for those poor kids. Maybe it’s time to stop production on the show and focus on their family. I dunno – I just really feel for them.

.7.

The weather here has seriously been messed up lately. Last week I came home from class and I could see my breath. IT IS JUNE! Someone on facebook wrote “I think the sun took early retirement.” It would be funny if it weren’t true! I’m so ready for backyard BBQs, campfires, beach days, sunscreen, wearing my flip flops again, BEING OUTSIDE, etc. For reals.

BlackBerry Love

Ok, so I am one of the many who own a BlackBerry and love it to death. Honestly, I never thought I’d be the type to be so connected but since last July, I am. Originally I bought it because the job I have brought me to a clinic that is much farther away from where I live and I would be working crazy hours so I’d never have time to read my personal email. It’s also wonderful to sync up my Google calendar which both my husband and myself put our appointments in and have little reminers pop up.

The BlackBerry has a trackball which, like your mouse, gets stuck with dust, crumbs, etc. Without the trackball working properly, it’s difficult to use the other applications on the BB or browse the web, etc. On YouTube there are several videos on how to clean your trackball with warnings of doing it at your own risk because you have to pop out the tiny trackball and there’s tiny parts that could break.

Last Thursday morning my trackball was becoming stuck again so I expertly popped it out and cleaned it with an alcohol swab. I was pushing it back into place only it wasn’t secure. I started to panic. Then I realized I broke a tiny prong rendering it impossible to stay in place.

My beloved BlackBerry was now simply a phone. Simple searches on crackberry.com showed that I would need to order a new trackball as the phone company I use (and really any) would have me send in my phone for a new one since it was still under warrantee. All for a simple $2.50 part. (I went to my local phone store and they told me I had to call it in and they would check my phone for things like water damage. Again, I knew what the problem was and did not feel it was worth the hassle).

I looked on Amazon and found a company selling 2 trackballs for $5. However; there was no way I was going to get this order up to $40 just to have it overnighted so I sucked up the fact that I’d be going the weekend without my faithful companion.

And you know what? It wasn’t that bad. It was nice to be a little disconnected for a bit.

I do have to give kudos to D B Roth on Amazon. I ordered the parts on Thursday afternoon with 3-5 day normal shipping and I came home Monday evening to the parts in the mailbox! Amazing! And the trackball is even better than the one I had before.

So if you have a BlackBerry, I suggest ordering the two trackballs just in case. Now I have a back up…but maybe I’ll just forgo for a bit every once in a while.

So sorry

I feel like I keep apologizing to everyone around me. I’m just completely overwhelmed and incredibly busy these days. The summer class I enrolled in is taking a toll on me – fortunately it is over in just over two weeks. I am longing for my late afternoons back! Visions of long walks with the hubby, dinners at the awesome restaurant on the lake, having time to read for pleasure, etc keep dancing in my head. Just two more weeks.

This past weekend was filled with friends I haven’t seen in a while, a happy baby girl, free icecream, making amends, campfires and s’mores, and relaxation. My camera is filled with photos that I need to upload and share.

This weekend hubby and I are participating in Relay for Life. It will be my second year participating and I can’t wait.

Things to be Happy About

I’ve been sick since Monday evening. This morning is the first time in over 48 hours that I’ve been out of my house. It’s not been fun. I’m still not 100% but I can’t see being couped up one more day!

So I must list out things that make me happy so I don’t feel guilty for missing two days of work and class.

1. Pushing Daisies is back for the final three episodes (started last weekend and for the next two weekends). I love that show and will miss it when it’s over!

2. Kitty cuddles – my kitties were all over me when I was laying in bed or on the couch feeling miserable. They are keepers

3. My hubby is the best. He took good care of me (I’m a huge baby when I’m sick!). I owe him a trip to Five Guys to repay him for his hospitality!

4. It’s already Thursday. The week sort of flies by when you’ve only been into work twice. Though I do have a ton of emails to catch up on…

5. I caught up on my homework. Other than watch TV/movies I was able to read and do my homework which was good. I’m caught up so it’s like I didn’t miss anything!