Stampin' Up + Entrepreneurial Friends

I went to a SuperBowl Scrapbooking Party at Archiver's Sunday and ran into Juli Bowen, my former Archiver's co-worker and fellow scrapbook fanatic. She said she reads my blog, so I thought I'd feature her here! She is SO creative. Maybe she'll let me feature some of her layouts or cards here soon. Well, if you're interested in hosting a Stampin' Up party or ordering some of their products, check her link at: http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/stampwithjuli/ They have great cardmaking supplies in addition to scrapbooking stuff. She does a pre-teen cardmaking class - wouldn't that be a great Tween Birthday Party! If she can work Hannah Montana in, it would be a huge success - maybe you could charge admission!!

I seem to find myself surrounded by entrepreneurial people lately. I'm thinking of Juli as well as my friend Julia E. (beading), Angela L. (diaper cakes), Kim M. (Sweet Celebrations - beautiful cakes), and of course, the fabulous Lundy - web guru and my partner in the soon to come women's resource website (to be called MemphisMom.com).

For my crafty friends who are interested in selling some of their creations, take a look at Etsy.com (see link to the left). It's an alternative to eBay. You pay a small fee per listing and another fee when it sells. No baby-sitting auctions. It's geared to handmade items. It's a great place to find the going rate for your wares.

Let me know if you have any other tips or resources you'd like to share.

Drat the Cat! - part II

Subtitle - Sleepus Interruptus

I had a rude awakening early this morning (before 6:00!) by the sound of the bedroom closet doors bumping together, plus loud meows. I was in the middle of major REM sleep. Turns out Lisa, the offending cat, got into Mack's closet when he while he was getting his clothes out. She's very nimble to be so obese (the vet's word). Of course, she changed her mind about being in the closet and began her very loud closet-break attempt. I beckoned Mack from the kitchen and asked him to sit on the bed and just listen. I think he wondered about my sanity in the minute or so it took her to resume the meowing and bumping. He apologized and let her out and I was able to go back to sleep. Regardless, I have a headache and a very late start to my day.

On a side note, regarding feline obesity, here's what happened on our last visit to the vet. He told me that she needed her food restricted or she would be at risk for diabetes and in this event, I'd be forced to give her injections. Right. Has anyone out there had to give a cat injections? I've been extremely unsuccessful in the past in giving her pills and brushing her teeth. I tried the tooth brushing after being told by said vet that she would develop heart disease from the plaque on her teeth. Didn't work. Do good pet owners brush their pets' teeth? Since I'm going public with my pet owner (Mistress?) failings, I run the risk that the ASPCA will come and take our cats away for not brushing their teeth and putting them on a diet. Seriously, it's not the worst thing that could happen. Feel free to report me. I should add their link here to make it a little easier for you.

As for the shots, I'm afraid if the insulin injection issue comes up, there will only be one shot involved and that will be the goodnight shot the vet administers. I'll hold her and sing a lullaby and we will miss her, but she's had a nice, long, comfy life. I have a feeling that if it were a dog, I'd feel differently, but then dogs are so compliant.

Better get busy now - I've got to hurry and get busy to make up for my late start this morning...

Drat the Cat!

For some time, I've been in a dilemma about our cats and the allergy I seem to have developed. The other day I took some Claritin I had sitting around, and voila, I'm breathing much better, and no more itchy eyes or sneezing. The picture is of Lisa Marie, our older cat. She's very sweet but has a bad habit of bumping our heads at night. If we close the door in the hall to our bedrooms, she cries and that wakes me up. The head-bumping is intermittant, but not the crying. We go back and forth on how to handle this.

She's taken to slipping outside again. She used to do this frequently when she was younger. She's very clever and waits until you're bringing groceries in. The few times she's done it lately, it's been cold and/or rainy, so she didn't stay long. Evans is the only one who can catch her. Oddly enough, our other cat, Mia Hamm, doesn't ever try to go outside, in fact, has hated it on the few occasions we've taken her out. We figure that's because she started life as an outdoor kitty and wound up at the Humane Society shelter due to an injury, so she knows what a cold, cruel world it is out there.

On a sad note, Lundy's daddy died last night. He had suffered with severe Alzheimer's for some time, so they lost him long ago, and are at peace with it. Still, pray for Lundy and her family, if you will.

Really Great Household Tips

Good friend Suzanne sent me the following list. I think it has some really great ideas. I know it's long - I've put my favorites and my commentary in bold.

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little "stringy things" off of it. That's how the primates do it. Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the
grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up. I've used a little Miracle Whip - it makes the scrambled eggs less crumbly and adds a little tang - Tabasco's good, too.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in
double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful
minty frosting. Yum!

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic. I know this is true.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simple chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yum, again!

1. Reheat Pizza - Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

2. Easy Deviled Eggs - Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

3. Expanding Frosting - When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar
and calories per serving.

4. Reheating refrigerated bread - To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

5. Newspaper weeds away - Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening
plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

6. Broken Glass - Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

7. No More Mosquitoes - Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away. This one has never worked for me.

8. Squirrel Away! - To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it. If you shot the squirrels and cooked them with dumplings (people in the south really do this), would it add a cajun flavor?


9. Flexible vacuum - To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

10. Reducing Static Cling - Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and -- ta da! -- static
is gone.

11. Measuring Cups - Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

12. Foggy Windshield? - Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

13. Reopening envelope - If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside , just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

14. Conditioner - Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair...

15. Goodbye Fruit Flies - To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2" with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

16. Get Rid of Ants - Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home," can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Pepperoni Chips + Camera Tips

Pepperoni Chips were my own personal happy accident. One day, while heating pepperoni in the microwave, I let it go too long and voila, I wound up with wonderfully delicious crispy (as in potato chips) little slices of salty-heaven. I thought, how is it I've never had/heard of these before? I did a Google search for Pepperoni Chips, and of course, they are not new (is anything ever really new?) There were all kinds of methods (of course only one ingredient, so not much variation there) including baking in the oven, and my favorite, the microwave.

Here's how I do it. I lay the pepperonis in a circle on a paper towel on a plate (for even cooking) and cover them with another paper towel. Then I put them in the microwave on high until the sizzling stops (about a minute for my microwave). I let them cool a very short time (if I can restrain myself) and they become wonderfully crispy.
Other than how great they are, here's why I love them: They are easy, delicious, NO-carb, great as a snack and wonderful crumbled on a salad. It's like really crispy bacon without the strip of fat, and of course with great spiciness. I tried them at Suzanne's yesterday, and she liked them, too, I'm pleased to say.
For any of you health nuts out there, a few pepperonis aren't a bad thing, calorie-wise, and lots of the fat comes out into the paper towels (see middle photo above), so they're even better for you than the Nutrition Facts box on the label says! As for the no-carb aspect, I'm trying to really avoid all my favorite carb-laden things. The next thing I'm going to try is the Pioneer Woman's Bacon-Wrapped Jalepeno Thingies (bacon, cream cheese and jalepenos - no carbs there). Find the recipe here:
http://www.thepioneerwomancooks.com/2007/07/bacon-wrapped_j.html/
On to photo-tips. I had a time photographing the pepperoni close-up, so had to poke around on my camera and found a macro-closeup choice - it did the trick.

More Food

In a nod to my new favorite blog, The Pioneer Woman Cooks (see link at left) and my strict new diet, I made one of my most favorite, simple, carb/sugar/fat laden desserts ever. It doesn't have a name - I've always just called it Mike's (my cousin) Wife's (her name's Sharman) Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Thing with Cream Cheese, but I've decided to rechristen it Carol's Cheating Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake. Too many, C's, couldn't resist. Don't you love alliteration?

It really is so easy. I show all the ingredients (except forgot to lay out one of the two eggs). You just mix the two things of cream cheese with the 2 eggs and 3/4 cup of sugar. Put one small (or 1/2 big) roll of chocolate chip cookie dough in the pan. Pour the cream cheese stuff on that, then lay the other half (crumble or just slice) of the cookie dough on top. Bake at 315 degrees (I never heard of anything at 315 degrees, but it works) for 40-45 minutes. Immediately take it to a neighbor (that's what I did). I resisted eating the errant pieces of cookie dough. That was the hardest part, because it's a reflex for me to pop cookie dough in my mouth, and no, I don't want to hear about the danger of salmonella in raw eggs - I figure I'm testing cake batter, cookie dough, etc., for the safety of the others who will be eating it. I know, it's a selfless, dangerous risk I take.

The egg thing reminds me. Does anyone else remember eating hard-boiled Easter eggs a month after Easter - straight out of the unrefrigerated bright pink plastic grass in the white plastic Easter basket with plastic flowers on it? Wait, I might be confusing the Easter basket with my bicycle basket. Anyway, how did any of us survive? Maybe that's why I can lick cake batter with no ill effects - I have surplus salmonella antibodies. And no, don't tell me that salmonella is bacteria, not a virus and therefore I cannot develop antibodies. I don't know if that's true, and I have a feeling anyone reading this won't know, so never mind about that.

Ok, it's time to end this prurient post. But first, I have to tell you the strangest thing (icing on the cake, so to speak). I checked the spelling (and meaning, too) for "prurient" at dictionary.com, and sure enough, it meant what I wanted to say, but right above it was an ad that said "10 Rules for Losing Belly Fat." Seriously. That's all.

Back in the Saddle

Evans is back to baseball practice/conditioning. Just about every day of the week. If not practice, he's running or lifting.

He's also driving to school every day so far this semester. That's been so freeing for all involved. He has a dentist appointment Tuesday morning, and will stop there on his way to school. It reminded me of his first checkup when he was two years old, and he laid in my lap in the dental chair and slept through the checkup! We've gone to church forever with our dentist, Dr. Tom, so didn't go the pediadontist route, so no kiddie-sized chairs, but we've been completely happy. Dr. Tom is a baseball fan, St. Louis Cardinals to boot, so he and Evans always have lots to talk about.

Evans' baseball season starts in February, and I'm not looking forward to the cold, windy hours of sitting outside, but it is fun to watch the games, and fun to catch up with the other moms. I always think of the days in July when we broil like rotisserie chickens - we span the whole Memphis temperature spectrum. For all my failures at being a good mom, I think the Saturday waffles and endless baseball game I've watched might redeem me in the end.