What for dinner around here this week?

Roasted Chicken stuffed with rice, veggie
Fried chicken, potatoes and veggie
Enchiladas
Steak with salad and potatoes
Hamburgers and fixin’s
Beef Roast with rice and veggie

And on Thursday, we will have Re-Runs

No recipes for you today, but there will be one on Thursday. I made homemade granola last week, so I will be sharing that recipe. While you are here, don’t forget to enter the book drawing–click right there in the sidebar for details.

Click here to participate in Menu Plan Monday.

Do you remember that movie? I’ve never seen it, but I remember the line, and occasionally use it. Like now, how I just did, because it made me giggle. And that wasn’t hard, because I was already in a good humor after visiting the Trusted Tours & Attractions site. They are a travel company that specializes in family vacation ideas such as trips to the San Diego zoo. This isn’t a travel agent, where you can get plane tickets and such. Rather, you use them after you already know where you are going.

They have pages set up for different cities, so you can just click the city name on the sidebar and find fun things to do in San Francisco, for instance. I used to go there several times a year when I was in the Naval Reserves. Now, it’s been probably 16 years since I have been there, but I remember walking through China Town, and eating chowder in sourdough bowls on the wharf. And the Spaghetti Factory. Nothing makes a loud restaurant louder than 25 sailors, LOL! I guess I could confess that I got a huge tattoo on my back the last time I went there. That’s not rue, though. The craziest thing I ever did there was dance with a handsome-but-much-younger-than-me fellow reservist. Oh, and by a Christmas ornament shaped like a trolley car. Guess I was boring even back in the day.

Back to the website. TT&A is running a promotion for folks who visit their website and ask for more information. If you sign up for the Trusted Travels eNewsletter and enter to win an IPOD Nano! Offer ends Monday, March 31st, 2008. Having just gotten my own mp3 player, and already wanting a larger one, I recommend you go right over there and enter.

Let me tell you, the gals have done it again. I got my hands on the book 2 days ago, and I have already picked out three projects that I want to make. There is one in here, the Susie Hoodie, it’s a cross between a swing coat and a hoodie, and it has such wonderfully cable-y cables on the edges. I am totally making that for myself. I even have the yarn for it already! And the sweater on the front cover? That’s a must have right there, though I am pretty sure I don’t have the yarn for it. The Hot Cocoa Jacket, that double breasted piece of loveliness? Likewise. And the Goddess Shawl? Ditto. Okay, apparently I meant four, not three. Whatever. And Country has her eye on a couple as well. Though if she thinks she gets the first Susie Hoodie, she’s got another think coming.

Oh my. I think I just sorta committed to TWO Susie Hoodies. *GULP*

It’s a great book, and just as in the last one, Jillian Moreno and Amy R. Singer give you the whys and how to’s you need to design your own better fitting garments. My TBK(nit) pile is rapidly reaching the proportions of my TBR pile, and this is a very bad thing. Or a good thing, depending on how much housework I can avoid over the next decade. More Big Girl Knits will be hitting the book store shelves next Tuesday, but! Hahaha, you knew there was a but, didn’t you? Yep, you can win a copy right here. The contest will start when I hit publish, and will run through midnight April 6th. I’ll announce the winner via random number on Monday the 7th. You can get an entry by commenting on this post. You can get another entry by “stumbling” this post. (You can use the button right under the post (or your toolbar) to do that.) You can get two more entries by writing about this give away on your own blog with a link back to this post. And let’s throw in an experimental entry method: if you are a member of a crafty type forum, and you post about this giveaway with a link back, you’ll get another entry. You’ll need to come back and let me know you’ve done that by leaving a link to your forum post in the comments.

If you have never commented on this blog before, then your comment will be moderated. I’ll approve it as soon as I get back to the keyboard

I think that’s enough fine print, let’s get started!

Contest Closed

So. Here we are. I hope your crafty week was a bit better than mine! Did I mention that I ripped my sweater back twice? Yeah. The good news is that I am finally on round 52. The bad news is that if I hadn’t had to rip it twice I’d be through with the short-row boobs by now. I am beyond disgusted and trying really hard to fall back in love with this sweater. If you were knitting with me based on my instructions last week, just keep going to right under the boobs and wait. I’ll have the next instruction next Friday OR I’ll have a new project. And that’s enough about that.

Ok, one more thing– and it’s a biggie. In fact, it’s stupendous. It’s part of the reason I am threatening Skimmer with abandonment. It’s … More Big Girl Knits, and I am going to tell you all about it in the next post, and then I am going to give it away! Hang tight, ya’ll!

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Here’s how to play:

Take a picture of your current project, whatever that happens to be. Or maybe one you recently finished. Or the materials for the one you are about to start. Let’s say materials for a project in whatever state it happens to be in at the time you snap it. On Friday, post the picture and tell us about your project. What you did, or what you are going to do. How much you are enjoying it, or hating it. You know–show and tell.

Just copy & paste the code below the graphic and get crafty with me!

<a href="http://www.cassknits.com/category/online-craft-club/"><img src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/cassknits/online-craft-club-sidebar-sized.jpg" alt="" /></a>

Be sure to come back and leave a comment so we know where to find you!

I want to thank the kind folks at Cleopatra’s Choice for sponsoring the Club this week. They carry mineral makeup among other goodies.
[tags]Online Craft Club[/tags]

Guess what I am having tonight? Not this delectable Macaroni and Cheese, unfortunately for me! We are having “old favorites” night here. Re-runs. Previous Prandials. But I totally WISH I was having this!

Macaroni and Cheese

1 part uncooked macaroni
1 part grated cheese
2 parts milk
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all that together and bake, covered, at 350 for an hour or so.
Here’s what it looks like:

We used Co-Jack for the cheese and for my family I ended up using 3 cups mac, 3 cups cheese and 6 cups milk, but I wanted plenty of leftovers. It’s good with anything or by itself. I particularly enjoy it as a side with pork. Enjoy!

Garbage Bowls

Have ya’ll seen these “garbage bowls” by Rachel Ray? I picked up one of her mags the other day and saw these in it. Grandmother had bowls like this and she used them for actual cooking and mixing. I totally can’t think of these as useful for garbage, when I’ve seen them full of biscuits and beans and cake batter, and, and, and. Besides, at 18 bucks a pop….no. These bowls could lead to needing credit card debt relief. I like my way better–I just move the trash can to wherever I am prepping the food.

I did enjoy the mag, and I plan to try and then discuss several ideas from it. Also, I subscribed for the third time. I have yet to see an issue, but this last time, I went right through the website instead of a school fundraising sale, so hopefully my mailbox will soon overflow with cooking goodness.

[tags]mac and cheese, macaroni and cheese recipe[/tags]

I tell you, the weather here has been crazy. I don’t mean extreme temps so much as I mean wildly fluctuating temps. A couple of weeks ago, I was outside in shirt sleeves, Sunday it was cold, like in the 30s when we woke up, and sometime this week, it’s supposed to be over 75. I keep expecting a nice orderly progression of temperatures and I keep not getting it, ykwim? Regardless, it’s about time to get the backyard ready for Spring and Summer. There’s trash out there that needs to be gathered up, and the swing sets need the swings put back on them. Do your kids take the sets off the swing for no apparent reason? Mine do, and I haven’t been able to figure out why. They don’t do one bit of good just sitting there in the yard, do they?

And I need to get on some lesson plans. I told you I ordered all those books for Country. Did I tell you they got here? Well, they did. It is hard to believe it, but in May that child will start her 9th grade math book. How did that happen? Just yesterday I walked into her room and found her 18 month old self asleep across the saddle of her bouncing horse. I took a picture of her butt, because it was so funny. I’d show it to you, except it’s a paper picture. All I can say from this point in my mothering journey is that all that stuff they say about time flying is true. The days are indeed long, but the years pass in a flash. Can someone please tell me though, why is it that once we endure and struggle to turn the wild things into sensible human beings, it’s time for them to leave home just as we achieve some measure of success?

Spidey needs some more plans written as well, so I’ve got plenty of desk time coming the rest of the week. Hehe, at least I can turn on the mp3 player and tune out the distractions. Whether or not I can keep myself from reading Country’s books as I go is another question entirely.

I had to rip my sweater AGAIN. My gauge is looser than I remembered. My notes clearly indicate 4.5 stitches/inch, but I calculated at 5. Note to self: you make notes to self to help you later, so use them! Seriously, I am tired of re-starting, If knitting were can be compared to fitness equipment, then this project has become a treadmill: Always knitting, never making progress. In fact, I think that this week’s Online Craft Club may contain a first. For almost 30 weeks, the projects have grown as I’ve showed them from week to week. This edition may hold the first shrinking project.

This week’s menu mostly contains items left over from the previous 2 weeks. Not quite sure how that happened, because we did eat. And we ate well. We are going to have, in no particular order…

Fried chicken with mashed potatoes and a veggie
Pork chops with homemade mac and cheese (expect this recipe Thursday)
Cheesy brat stew
Beef roast with rice and veggie
Seven layer dip with chips

And on Thursday, we will have Re-Runs

Click here to participate in Menu Plan Monday.