Friday, February 27, 2009

Hmmm... reminds me of colorful planets....


She sure does use colors and shading in fantastic ways no? CLICK HERE to see the posting about it...

16 Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Household Items....

Check THIS out.... Good to know right? I will remember that I posted this and look back on it if need be someday!

Hummingbird Lane.... thanks for sending this to me Uncle John...

If these are one of the cutest things on the planet I don't know what is????

HUMMINGBIRD LANE

This is something I have never seen before, or ever even heard of. This woman lives in a Hummingbird fly zone. As they migrated, about 20 of them were in her yard. She took the little red dish, filled it with sugar water and this is the result. The woman is Abagail Alfano of Pine, Louisiana - she has been studying them daily and one morning put the cup from the feeder,
with water in it, in her hand; as they had gotten used to her standing by the feeder they came over to her hand. She says in touching they are as light as a feather. Abagail also said, 'if she had known her husband was taking pictures she would have put on makeup.'







17 Kitchen Organizing Tricks...

I wish I had more space to store things... even though I have quite big kitchen, there isn't a lot of storage... but here are some tips for what to do and what to buy to help organize your kitchen... more importantly, WHERE to buy them too... CLICK HERE to check it out...

Friggen Sweeeeeeeet... Seasonal Fruit and Veg Chart.....

I could really use something like this and will take FULL ADVANTAGE of it... CLICK HERE ... that will bring you to the SPRING Seasonal Fruits and Veggies and what to look for in a fresh piece, how to store it, what the shelf life is and how to prepare it... FABULOUS site... then you can click to the right and left to switch seasons....

Another one from the Arcane Harvest....


oooh... another beauty... don't you just love these pictures? I do.. and I will keep posting these babies cause they are very colorful and whimsical and make me smile... CLICK HERE to see the original posting about it...

Thursday, February 26, 2009

I WANT THESE BOWLS....


I found them online... but can you guess how much they are? Come on... Guess... I bet you can't... you little guesser you... well, you are WRONG... they were 125.00 for 4 freaking bowls... OUTRAGEOUS RIP OFF! But they are wicked sweet though no? Wish they were cheaper.. sheesh!

Connecticut Budget Cuts

Do you need a new scarf?

Top 10 Dirtiest Hotels in the World....

Dirtiest Hotels - United States
(based on TripAdvisor traveler reviews)

* 1.Hotel Carter, New York City, New York
* 2.Continental Bayside Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida
* 3.New York Inn, New York City, New York
* 4.Eden Roc Motel, Wildwood, New Jersey
* 5.Days Inn Cleveland Airport, Brook Park, Ohio
* 6.Days Inn Airport / Stadium Tampa, Tampa, Florida
* 7.Travelodge Bangor, Bangor, Maine
* 8.Velda Rose Resort Hotel, Hot Springs, Arkansas
* 9.Ramada Plaza Hotel JFK International Airport, Jamaica, New York
* 10.Days Inn & Suites Gatlinburg, Gatlinburg, Tennessee

How FREAKING disgusting!

I had a good laugh at these cats...

Is anyone else soooo all set?

Is anyone else soooooooooooooooooo all set with winter like I am? Sheesh... I cannot wait until SPRING!!! I love Spring... HURRY UP!

I am IN LOVE with this bedroom!!!!!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

See! I knew there was a reason I didn't drink...

A study of nearly 1.3 million British women offers yet more evidence that moderate alcohol consumption increases the risk of a handful of cancers.

British researchers surveyed middle-aged women at breast cancer screening clinics about their drinking habits, and tracked their health for seven years.

A quarter of the women reported no alcohol use. Nearly all the rest reported fewer than three drinks a day; the average was one drink a day. Researchers compared the lightest drinkers - two or fewer drinks a week - with people who drank more.

Each extra drink per day increased the risk of breast, rectal and liver cancer, University of Oxford researchers reported Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The type of alcohol - wine, beer or liquor - didn't matter.

That supports earlier research, but the new wrinkle: Alcohol consumption was linked to esophageal and oral cancers only when smokers drank.

Also, moderate drinkers actually had a lower risk of thyroid cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and renal cell cancer.

For an individual woman, the overall alcohol risk is small. In developed countries, about 118 of every 1,000 women develop any of these cancers, and each extra daily drink added 11 breast cancers and four of the other types to that rate, the study found.

But population-wide, 13 percent of those cancers in Britain may be attributable to alcohol, the researchers concluded.

Moderate alcohol use has long been thought to be heart-healthy, something the new research doesn't address but that prompts repeated debate about safe levels. U.S. health guidelines already recommend that women consume no more than one drink a day; two a day for men, who metabolize alcohol differently.

"You have to balance all those things out," said Dr. Philip J. Brooks, who researches alcohol and cancer at the National Institutes of Health. "This kind of information is important for people to know and to consult with their physician about the various risk factors they have."

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Cat Adopts Bunny... too cute for words!

thanks for sending this to me Gramma S... i LOVED it like you thought i would~

Muffuletta Sandwich...



Muffuletta - (moof-fuh-LEHT-tuh or moo-foo-LE-ta)
– Its nickname is simply “muff.”

These sandwiches can be found all over New Orleans from deli's to pool halls and the corner grocery stores. It is a Sicilian sandwich that consists of a round loaf of bread (about 10 inches across) filled with Italian salami, olive salad, cheese, Italian ham, and freshly minced garlic. They key ingredient is the olive salad which gives the sandwich its special flavor and makes it appealing to the eye. A true Muffuletta Sandwich must always be served at room temperature, never toasted; it is considered blasphemy to heat the sandwich.

History: The Central Grocery on Decatur Street claims to have invented this sandwich in 1906. Signor Lupo Salvatore, owner of the Central Grocery, started making the sandwiches for the men who worked the nearby wharves and produce stalls of the French Market. The sign over the covered sidewalk proudly proclaims, home of “The Original Muffuletta.”

Central Grocery's biggest competitor, Progress Grocery, is just two doors away. The Progress Grocery started in 1924 as an offshoot of Central Grocery. Their sign proclaims the "Finest Muffuletta."

To this day, tourists and locals line up at both stores out into the street, waiting for their sandwiches. Muffulettas are more than just sandwiches, they're a tourist attraction, especially during Mardi Gras.

**********************************************************

Marie Lupo Tusa, daughter of the grocery's founder, tells the story of the sandwich's origin in her 1980 cookbook, Marie's Melting Pot.

One of the most interesting aspects of my father's grocery is his unique creation, the muffuletta sandwich. The mufuletta was created in the early 1900's when the Farmers' Market was in the same area as the grocery. Most of the farmers who sold their produce there were Sicilian. Every day they used to come of my father's grocery for lunch.

They would order some salami, some ham, a piece of cheese, a little olive salad, and either long braided Italian bread or round muffuletta bread. In typical Sicilian fashion they ate everything separately. The farmers used to sit on crates or barrels and try to eat while precariously balancing their small trays covered with food on their knees. My father suggested that it would be easier for the farmers if he cut the bread and put everything on it like a sandwich; even if it was not typical Sicilian fashion. He experimented and found that the ticker, braided Italian bread was too hard to bite but the softer round muffuletta was ideal for his sandwich. In very little time, the farmers came to merely ask for a "muffuletta" for their lunch.



Ingredients:
1 cup pimento-stuffed green olives, crushed
1/2 cup drained kalamata olives, crushed
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup roughly chopped pickled cauliflower
florets
2 tablespoons drained capers
1 tablespoon chopped celery
1 tablespoon chopped carrot
1/2 cup pepperoncini, drained
1/4 cup marinated cocktail onions
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup canola oil
2 (1 pound) loaves Italian bread
8 ounces thinly sliced Genoa salami
8 ounces thinly sliced cooked ham
8 ounces sliced mortadella
8 ounces sliced mozzarella cheese
8 ounces sliced provolone cheese

Directions:
1. To Make Olive Salad: In a medium bowl, combine the green olives, kalamata olives, garlic, cauliflower, capers, celery, carrot, pepperoncini, cocktail onions, celery seed, oregano, basil, black pepper, vinegar, olive oil and canola oil. Mix together and transfer mixture into a glass jar (or other nonreactive container). If needed, pour in more oil to cover. Cover jar or container and refrigerate at least overnight.
2. To Make Sandwiches: Cut loaves of bread in half horizontally; hollow out some of the excess bread to make room for filling. Spread each piece of bread with equal amounts olive salad, including oil. Layer 'bottom half' of each loaf with 1/2 of the salami, ham, mortadella, mozzarella and Provolone. Replace 'top half' on each loaf and cut sandwich into quarters.
3. Serve immediately, or wrap tightly and refrigerate for a few hours; this will allow for the flavors to mingle and the olive salad to soak into the bread.

Monday, February 23, 2009

A blog I came across had these wonderful drawings...




So I wanted to share this blog with you all... check out the beautiful colors of these pictures... LOVE THEM... you can click here to see the site I am coping them from... they are definitely not any sort of art I can produce that is for sure... The blog these belong to is called : The Arcane Harvest..

Martha drinking a 40 ouncer...

It's my birthday!

Thank you to all the people that said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY".... I appreciate it very much!

How to Slice an Onion...

2 in the Morning... by New Kids on the Block...


this is one of my favorites off their new cd... the cd is called THE BLOCK.. ENJOY!
CLICK HERE to see the new video and here the song... LOVE IT....

another good quote...

"You knock on lots of doors trying to get in, and at some stage you stop knocking and it's what's inside you that speaks." --Suzanne Goin, chef

Very true quote by the lovely, Sophia Loren...

"Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical" - Sophia Loren

Friday, February 20, 2009

Does Jennifer Lopez look amazing here or what?


She looks wonderfully happy and in great shape... here she is with her hubby Marc and their kiddies, max and emme...

Little Shiloh...

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's first biological child.. is she adorable or what? I love her name too... fits her face... she is just the cutest!

Rin on the Rox...

Rin on the Rox...

Rin on the Rox....

Rin on the Rox....

i love these girls... they are beautiful... funny and personable.. and just all around entertaining and talented... YEAH GIRLS... go on with your bad selves... if you don't know who they are, they are 2 young ladies that became famous cause they record in the bathroom cause of the acoustics and then Ellen had them on her show... they are wicked good!


What do you think about this pretty little piece of yummy goodness?



a brief history:

"In the tropical rainforests stretching from Panama through Colombia, Ecuador until Peru grows within the forest in the shadow of the canopy a palm called Tagua. One finds this palm, that grows up to 8 meters in length, usually in the swampy parts of the forest and often in groups. The botanical name of the palm is Phytelephas aequatorialis or Phytelephas macrocarpa and several subspecies are distinguished. The palm produces yearly up to fifteen spikes with its fruits. The spike has a hard shell with protrusions and has in its interior about thirty nuts.
It is this nut that has made the Tagua palm valued and famous. The fruits or nuts are 5 to 6 cm in size with the largest ones up to 10 cm., have a brown skin and its pulp is white cellulose and edible.

The wonder comes when the nuts is being left to dry: after a few weeks in the sun the interior turns to ivory: palm ivory. Tagua comes under different names like palm ivory, vegetable ivory, corozo/corozzo, coquilla (brazil), palmivoor, steennoot (Dutch), steinnuss (German) and binroji (Japanese).

The good thing about tagua is that its harvest leaves the rain forest untouched. Even more: the use of tagua gives an economic use to the rain forest and so helps to protect the rain forests."

Adorable Skateboarding Bulldog...

Very sad.. I loved Chris Brown and his music...

But i will have to say that i am now NOT a big fan... Hitting your woman is WRONG.. bottom line.. and now he has to pay the piper...



LOS ANGELES - It's a picture of undeniable pain and heartbreak.

A harrowing image of Rihanna with deep bruises on either side of her forehead, blackened areas around her eyes and what appears to be blood at the corners of her mouth was posted Wednesday night on the celebrity gossip site TMZ.com.

The picture matches descriptions of a police photo taken after the "Umbrella" singer's alleged assault at the hands of boyfriend Chris Brown on Feb. 8, the morning of the Grammys.

Police declined to deny its authenticity but issued a stern statement.

"The LAPD does not and will not release any victim's photos. It's that simple. We have not," said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Jason Lee.

Brown, 19, was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats while the Grammys carried on without his scheduled appearance. He was released on $50,000 bail.

Police never identified Rihanna, who turns 21 today, as Brown's alleged victim, saying only that an unidentified woman was "visibly injured" when they responded to a 911 call and found her battered and alone on a street in Hancock Park.

Barbados-born Rihanna, a striking beauty regularly photographed with a megawatt smile, has not confirmed the assault publicly but is cooperating with police, a music industry source told the Daily News

Brown issued a statement of apology and said he would seek counseling.

The Los Angeles District Attorney is expected to review the case before Brown's March 5 court date and make a decision on formal charges.

BELOW IS WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE WITH HER SUPERSTAR STATUS... AMAZINGLY GORGEOUS WOULDN'T YOU SAY? FLAWLESS SKIN AND JUST ALL AROUND SEXY AND BEAUTIFUL... How sad that he did that to her...






Thursday, February 19, 2009

two crying babies...

My Favorite Idol as of Right Now!


I LOVE that he has a bunch of different glasses that he wears... very cute! The glasses he has on right now look a LOT like my new ones that should be in soon... I finally ordered new ones and they are HOT... plus I got new contacts... waiting for those to come in too!

His hair is adorable too no? LOVE it...

I am BEYOND adorable aren't I?

Smartie Pants Dance..... too cute for words.....

How old are these celebs today??

Actor George Kennedy is 84.
Author Toni Morrison is 78.
Movie director Milos Forman is 77.
Vocalist Yoko Ono is 76.
Actress Cybill Shepherd is 59.
Actor John Travolta is 55.
Game show hostess Vanna White (Wheel of Fortune) is 52.
Actor Matt Dillon is 45.
Rapper Dr. Dre is 44.
Actress Molly Ringwald is 41.
Actor Tyrone Burton (The Parent 'Hood) is 30.
Musician Regina Spektor is 29.

Sorry about the swearing but I had to post this....

Thanks for this Tammy... it was hilarious...

The doctor, after an examination, sighed and said, 'I've some bad news. You have cancer, and you'd best put your affairs in order.'

The woman was shocked, but managed to compose herself and walk into the waiting room where her daughter had been waiting.

Well daughter, we women celebrate when things are good, and we celebrate when things don't go so well. In this case, things aren't well. I have cancer. Let's head to the club and have a martini.

After 3 or 4 martinis, the two were feeling a little less somber. There were some laughs and more martinis. They were eventually approached by some of the woman's old friends, who were curious as to what the two were celebrating.

The woman told her friends they were drinking to her impending end. I've been diagnosed with AIDS. The friends were aghast, gave the woman their condolences and beat a hasty retreat.

After the friends left, the woman's daughter leaned over and whispered, Momma, I thought you said you were dying of cancer, and you just told your friends you were dying of AIDS! Why did you do that??

Because I don't want any of those bitches sleeping with your father after I'm gone.

And THAT, my friends, is what is called, 'Putting Your Affairs in Order.

I definitely feel the same way... even if it's not a reality in my house....

"Cooking should not be a chore; it should be an opportunity to share and connect." —Lesley Stowe

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

good reads...

as you can see, i added a new widget to my blog that lists all the books i have read... i will be adding to that once i get home and remember to do it.. i set an alarm to remind myself... i am a HUGE book worm...

dawn - i will give you the name of the website where i got my new template as well... i'll be back...

Monday, February 16, 2009

WOW ... this is horrible!

PHILADELPHIA – Two judges pleaded guilty on Thursday to accepting more than $2.6 million from a private youth detention centre in Pennsylvania in return for giving hundreds of youths and teenagers long sentences.
Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan of the Court of Common Pleas in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, entered plea agreements in federal court in Scranton admitting that they took payoffs from PA Childcare and a sister company, Western PA Childcare, between 2003 and 2006.
"Your statement that I have disgraced my judgeship is true," Ciavarella wrote in a letter to the court. "My actions have destroyed everything I worked to accomplish and I have only myself to blame."
Conahan, who along with Ciavarella faces up to seven years in prison, did not make any comment on the case.
When someone is sent to a detention centre, the company running the facility receives money from the county government to defray the cost of incarceration. So as more children were sentenced to the detention centre, PA Childcare and Western PA Childcare received more money from the government, prosecutors said.
Teenagers who came before Ciavarella in juvenile court often were sentenced to detention centres for minor offences that would typically have been classified as misdemeanours, according to the Juvenile Law Centre, a Philadelphia nonprofit group.
One 17-year-old boy was sentenced to three months' detention for being in the company of another minor caught shoplifting.
Others were given similar sentences for "simple assault" resulting from a schoolyard scuffle that would normally draw a warning, a spokeswoman for the Juvenile Law Centre said.
The Constitution guarantees the right to legal representation in U.S. courts. But many of the juveniles appeared before Ciavarella without an attorney because they were told by the probation service that their minor offences didn't require one.
Marsha Levick, chief counsel for the Juvenile Law Centre, estimated that of approximately 5,000 juveniles who came before Ciavarella from 2003 and 2006, between 1,000 and 2,000 received excessively harsh detention sentences. She said the centre will sue the judges, PA Childcare and Western PA Childcare for financial compensation for their victims.
"That judges would allow their greed to trump the rights of defendants is just obscene," Levick said.
The judges attempted to hide their income from the scheme by creating false records and routing payments through intermediaries, prosecutors said.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court removed Ciavarella and Conahan from their duties after federal prosecutors filed charges on January 26. The court has also appointed a judge to review all the cases involved.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Happy Happy Birthday to my Girl MEGAN!

Happy Birthday Megan... I hope your hubby treats you right... and your adorable baby boy gives you TONS of lovin, hugs and kisses... and of course, Bailey the dog... we can NEVER forget him...

Another year older... but another year SMARTER too right? Love you! xoxoxoxo to you! MWAH!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

I Won't and You Can't Make Me!

i won't post pics of kristen's gifts yet cause her mother in law, debbie, reads my blog... hey deb.. i don't want you to see the stuff i got yet!! hee hee...

Gifts for Olivia's Baby Boy...

BIG BOY TRUCKS...


TRUCK STOP...


ON THE JOB...

FROGGIE HUMIDIFIER...