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I made this easy parmesan kale pasta a couple of days ago. I found the recipe on Budget Bites. It’s a great web site, because not only are the recipes inexpensive, they also require few ingredients.
If I stick with blogging, I’m going to need to invest in some new plates. Gorgeous as these are, they’re going to get old quick! 
Posted in eats
I couldn’t help but make a few of my own top of the charts lists for 2011, mostly just for posterity!
What I listened to this year… not necessarily albums that were released this year. Just your typical collection of hip hop, folk rock, jam rock, and crunk rock. 
Again, not necessarily published this year, though some are. Here we have a ridiculously strange mix of Christian memoirs, celebrity autobiographies, business tales, and popular fiction. But some really great reads.
Most of the movies I saw at the drive-in this year did not make the list, but I did love Cowboys & Aliens, and not entirely in an ironic way! The Muppets takes the cake though by far!
New Girl is definitely the best new entry. I can pass hours on end watching Storage Wars, and the Sing Off had its best season yet.
I gave Project Accessory many chances, but it was really, really dull, and I pretty much fell asleep every time I tried to watch it. And to quote something I read elsewhere, “Glee has become little more than the show before New Girl.”
Posted in Uncategorized
My “to-read” list grows like a weed. I’m not really sure how I don’t manage to keep up with it, with as much as I read, but it’s a little nuts!
Here are a few of the highlights I’m super anxious to read.
Posted in reading
So a couple of days ago, I was out at the produce stand, and bought a bag of cranberries on impulse. I have never ever done anything with fresh cranberries before, and wasn’t sure what I’d do with them when I got home. I decided muffins sounded good, so I did what I usually do when I have a loose idea of a recipe I want to make, and did a Google blog search on cranberry muffins. I find recipes from blogs are way better than a typical search, because you’ll find those awesome recipes with photos of every step. And lo and behold, this search introduced me to the blog Delightfully Tacky, which I promptly spent a good hour or so reading.
Elizabeth’s Cranberry White Chocolate Muffins (via cranberryrecipes.org) were the easiest muffins to make ever! I didn’t even need to get out the hand mixer–just a whisk and a wooden spoon and one bowl. I had some vanilla candy melts left over from making peppermint bark popcorn at Christmas, so I cut them up and used them in place of the chocolate chips. Unforch, my chocolate all sunk to the bottom… I’m not sure if this was because I used the candy melts instead of chocolate chips, but since I’ll definitely make this again, I’ll find out!
While my lazy photo doesn’t do them justice, these were reeeallyy yummy. I’ve had three so far.
Posted in eats, Uncategorized
This is my new living room wall and I just LOVE it! All the decals came from a single pack, which is actually a 2012 calendar (get it now before they’re gone!) that I received for Christmas. The letters were also a Christmas gift… the R is mine, and the B is for Brita, my hedgehog. And then I had this mirror that I think came from the dollar store, and these little hanging pieces I bought at a flea market a couple of years back. The best part? It’s all removable…. decals and command strips.
Posted in crafty, Uncategorized
I was in NYC on Friday for the first time since MAY! Nuts, right? What’s really crazy was seeing some things that had changed since then, like a new cupcakery that popped up on 7th Ave. I immediately wanted to walk in and check out Baked by Melissa. The presentation was gorgeous, the price was right, and the flavors sounded fantastic, so we were sold on a 6-pack. 
L-R, top row: chocolate graham, cookies & cream, chocolate chip pancake, s’mores, cookie dough, and tie-dye.
Picking them out was fun, but… I left not quite blown away. The flavors were minimal. The two I tried (cookies & cream and cookie dough) were basic chocolate and yellow cakes, and that’s all the cupcakes really tasted like. Plus they are soooo tiny…. like, smaller than the two-bite brownies they sell at the grocery store. And while the calorie count makes them a winner, if I’m craving a cupcake (which pretty much never happens, sorry cupcake industry!) I’ll just go to Crumbs. Although if I can buy just one for $1 on my way home from a late night class…. well, then we might be talking!
Posted in eats
I should be ashamed of my bunched up and crooked seams, exposed lining, and sloppily cut shapes…. but since this is the first thing I’ve sewn since 2002, I’m not! I made two stockings start to finish yesterday–one for me, and one for Brita, my hedgehog.
Reference: My Life at Pansy Cottage & Village, Purple Panda Quilts
Posted in crafty
This evening I tried a new treat–pumpkin pie dip via skinnytaste.com.
It is a low-fat, weight watchers friendly recipe that mainly appealed to me because it was the only pumpkin pie dip recipe I could find that didn’t involve cream cheese. (Yeah, so I don’t like cream cheese!)
This is one of the easiest dishes in the world to whip up. You just measure and mix the ingredients. I substituted 1/16 tsp nutmeg for the 1/8 tsp pumpkin pie spice, because pumpkin pie spice was $5.99 at Shop Rite.
I ate plenty of it, but I still just can’t quite make up my mind about whether or not I liked this stuff. I think you can taste that it is healthy. Next time I might use splenda instead of brown sugar for extra sweetness. We served it with apple slices and graham crackers, and they worked great. I’ve also heard gingersnaps and nilla wafers are yummy.
The verdict: If you’re on a diet or being conscious of others who are, it’s a perfect holiday treat. If not, go for a real dessert. There are so many good ones out there.
Posted in eats
Opi’s Skull & Glossbones (from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection) is quite possibly my favorite nail polish… I mean, other than a good gold. Lately, I’ve been very inspired by nail art that I’ve seen on Pinterest and various blogs, so I tried to do a little freehand french manicure. I think it is HIGH TIME I pick up one of those nail art pens!
Posted in Uncategorized
I was beyond surprised by the email I received from Apple letting me know that my ancient ipad nano could pose a fire risk. I’m assuming that some 50% of the folks they sent this email to no longer use the same email address. The other 50% of us are trying to remember what an ipod nano even looks like or how it works. I actually have two other ipods since then–a gold shuffle and a touch. Fortunately, I found my first one easily and the number was accepted into the replacement program‘s web form.
So even though I haven’t touched this thing in a good three years, I’d love a new one. After double-checking that this wasn’t some kind of clever phishing scheme, I plugged in my serial number and address. They’ll be sending me a box. Let’s see how this goes.
Posted in Uncategorized
