Christmas? Already?

Less than 90 days away, folks. Can you believe it?

Thanfully, Scentsy is running a promotion for a short time where the Buddies are Buy One Get One free! That means for 25 dollars, you get 2 buddies!

Never seen a Scentsy buddy? Well here is one:

https://breannnash.scentsy.us/Scentsy/Buy/ProductDetails/SY-MTM-KIT

There are several to choose from and they are soooo soft. On top of that, they come with a little scent pack (of your choice) so they smell wonderful too!

Here is how you order:
https://breannnash.scentsy.us/Scentsy/Home

You choose your 2 buddies, and pick one smell (Scentsy chooses the other) and whala! You just finished a little Christmas Shopping. Or Baby Shower shopping, whichever.

Have a great weekend!

Chicken Soup cure all...

I think I am sick. I mean, I have had an on and off stomach ache since Thursday. While stomach issues are normal for me, one like this that lingers and produces zero.... sickness.... is not. I also have a mean migraine that is hiding behind my right eye until the cool front comes through. I wish I could find the little bugger and take his ice pick away.

I decided to treat myself with soft foods and what's better than homemade chicken soup?

Chicken soup is something of a celebrity in this house. I have been making it for our entire marriage and Lee eats at least 2 bowls at a time.

Tonight, because I am hoping if I am nice this bug will go away, I am sharing my recipe.

Ingredients:
3 - 4 carrots, thinly sliced
1 onion - chopped in chunks
2 stalks of celery
1 whole chicken
Noodles - I normally use egg noodles but all I had on hand was gnocchi tonight and it was awesome!

1: place the chicken in a stock pot and fill the pot 3/4 full with water. Add salt.

2: Bring to a boil and simmer/slightly boil for about 30 minutes, until the skin is pulling away from the bones on the ends of the legs.

3: Once the chicken is done, use whichever kitchen device you think is best to extract the chicken from the water and put it in a colander in the sink. DO. NOT. DUMP. THE. WATER!

4: In a skillet, saute your veggies with 2-3 tablespoons of butter and a drizzle of olive oil. I like to get them pretty soft if I am making the soup after work, otherwise I only saute long enough to get some color and then let them simmer in the stock in the pot. So - saute away and them put the veggies in the pot with your chicken broth. Let the broth come to a boil.

5: De-bone your chicken and put all of the meat into the pot with the veggies and the broth.  Add a hefty pinch of thyme, salt, and pepper.

6: Throw in (or toss, or pour) the noodles and let it all simmer happily until the noodles are done and everyone has gotten well acquainted in the pot. Also, if you only saute'd the veggies for a little while, make sure they are nice and soft.

Guys? That's it. So much better than canned soup. I like to dash a little Lawry's season salt or something like that on it but it really doesn't need it.

After that, Lee and I indulged in a slice of my mother-in-laws pumpkin bread. Also a celebrity in this family...

http://instagram.com/p/QBMPsuHm4u/

Feeling better already...

Spicy Thai Noodles with Shrimp

Awhile back, I re-pinned a recipe for Thai Noodles:

Source: asmallsnippet.blogspot.com via Breann on Pinterest

Original link: Thai Noodles

I was pretty excited so this week, after the farmer's market, I decided to make these and add some shrimp.

Here is my initial reaction:

All in all, I liked the dish. There are things I would change and here is why:

1 - the heat element/factor: I didn't like the type of heat. It was more burning than pleasant. The only source of spice was red pepper in the oil. I found this to be a little bland.
2 - sesame oil: I felt this overpowered the dish. I only tasted Sesame and then the heat. The rest of the flavors felt lost.

What I would do different:
1 - I would use just olive oil with maybe a splash of sesame oil.
2 - I would leave any heat out of the dish (unless maybe a little garlic/red pepper paste made it's way in) and would add a little touch of Sirachi to the dish once it was served. I think this dish needs the vinegar/tartness that the crushed red pepper lacked. I found the heat unpleasant rather than a happy spice that I get from Sirachi.

Other alternatives may be to add rice vinegar to the sauce.

All in all, we enjoyed this dish and here is a photo of how it turned out:

I can't wait to try this again with my alternatives and see how it differs.

Enjoy!

A weekend in Photos

The thing I LOVE about iCloud is that I can sit down at the computer and see all the photos I took on my phone.

In sharing an apple ID, I can also see all the photos Lee takes on his phone. It's usually stuff like this:

Cheers Kitty?

More than likely talking about the color of this beer (home-brewed Pumpkin Ale)

We started out the weekend with me going bowling with my office. This was a fund raising type thing and our boss wanted us to be memorable and have a great time because she wanted the other people there to remember our name.

 Ok fine - so let's bowl dressed up as princesses shall we?

No strike for me

 Saturday we were out an about most of the day, starting with breakfast and then the farmers market:

 Yes, it's a leash. It was necessary... but he actually did really well and didn't run off. We worked a lot on hand holding.

 Sunday we tried to be lazy in pajamas:

That lasted about 30 seconds and we had to find stuff to do. Logan's favorite thing on earth is "OUTSIDE!" so we played a lot outside and then I made breakfast:

Salsa and provolone on eggs.

Add to buttered toast

 Afterwards we were still trying to wear Logan out so he would take a good nap - and Lee was watching football so Logan and I hung out in the kitchen for a little bit:

Cars 2 - forever on our DVR

Logan loves these boots. If he sees them then we have to put them on. Thankfully it has been raining off and on so he got to splash around in them a lot. I have yet to wear mine out and about but I am hoping to do so very soon!

I hope you all had a great weekend as well!

Perfect Roasted Chicken

I am very excited it's not 110 degrees outside anymore because I can finally use my oven again!

Seriously, in the summer if I turn on the oven, my house is nearly 80 when I go to bed. No m'am.

This week we ate out of our freezer and pantry mostly. I stopped at the store Friday afternoon and grabbed a handful of veggies, some pasta sauce, and fruit to help fill in any gaps. So far this week I made the following things all from ingredients on hand:

Sunday: Thai Curry chicken in the crockpot.
Monday: Roasted Chicken and Veggies
Tuesday: Stir fry veggies and chicken with rice
Wednesday: Grilled BBQ Wings and corn
Thursday: due to rain making me take an hour to get home, lee picked up Pizza :)

Tonight I am out at a work event so Lee is on his own.

Oh yeah, there was a point...

I am so happy that I was able to make us one of our old favorites - which is overly simple to do.

Here is how I made it.

14" Oven-Proof skillet
Tiny potatoes, cut in half (cooks faster)
Baby Carrots cut in half (cooks faster)
Asparagus
White Wine
3.5 pd chicken
Lemon and herbs

Oven - 425 degrees (mine has convection option and I used it)

Prep the carrots and potates and place them on the outskirts of the skillet. Drizzle a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Place a lemon cut in half inside the chicken. Stuff in whatever herbs you have - I happen to have a maniac rosemary bush in the backyard and a little thyme so I used that.
Truss the chicken. Is this important? YES. The reason is that it keeps the chicken compact and it cooks more evenly.
Drizzle a little oil on the chicken and salt and pepper the entire outside.
Place the chicken in the middle of the skillet.
Pour about 1/4 cup of wine (or chicken broth) in the bottom.

Put in the oven and FORGET ABOUT IT for an ENTIRE HOUR.

Leave it alone. Let it do it's thing.

After an hour, pull the skillet out and add your asparagus (or green beans, whatev) and put back in for 15 minutes.

That's it.

Don't poke the chicken while it's cooking.
Don't look at it sideways while it's cooking.
Don't talk to it while it's cooking.

Leave it alone!

Now - bigger chickens take longer. To check the chicken without poking it, I always cut the skin between the leg and breast and gently pull away from the breast. If it's still pink I give it another 15 min. Most people start hacking at the breast since it's the thickest part but then all the yummy juices just run out and you are left with dry chicken.

Why a skillet? Because for a chicken, I feel like the roasting pan is too large. The veggies get all spread out and any cooking fat and juices from the chicken just run to the edge of the pan and burn. This method keeps everything cozy and happy. 

Lee proclaimed that I could make this every night and he would be happy.

Let me know how yours turned out!

Music

I am pretty open to listening to new music. Since I only listen to the radio in the mornings to hear the Roula and Ryan show, I am usually exposed to today's pop hits by the artists I despise - like Niki Manaj and Katy Perry.

One day, however, they played this song:

I love this song.

It's at happy and catchy as Call Me Maybe from earlier in the summer. In fact, between those 2 songs I feel like I need a diary and a crush in the current issue of Teen Bop.

Most of the time my music choice is a little more grown up.

But when I want to listen to good ole chick music, this is my go-to album:

I know the words to pretty much every song on this album. Her second one didn't grab me as much but I should probably give it another listen.

Now if I need a little angry girl music I go this direction:

If you are mad, at anyone, listen to this song, and then the rest of the album. I love all her music, in fact.

What about you? What is some of your go-to music?

No Namastay For You

Last week I ventured to Yoga with Sarah, Donald, Dwyn, and a few others. This was my first experience at an actual studio. Otherwise I have taken a Yoga-Pilates class at 24 hour fitness (which I enjoyed very much) and a few yoga DVD's.

One of the first things that popped in my mind when I walked in the room was "where's the damn air in this place?" See, this wasn't Bikram or "hot" yoga - just plain ole Beginner's. I was looking for the A/C the entire 15 minutes before class started...

Looking around, Dwyn noticed that of all the people we knew in the room that hung out together, we are normally drinking - not Yoga-ing. It would not have taken much convincing to get me out of there to the nearest wine establishment. However, this was not what happened.

Here is my timeline of how I felt the entire ONE HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES of "Beginners" Yoga.

First Impression of the instructor: Woah. That's some frizzy hair. Poor thing has been standing in this hot ass room all day I bet. What's with the polka dot tights? I'm dizzy and we haven't even started yet.

10 Minutes in: Hawaiian music? This makes me want alcohol even more.

15 Minutes in: I'm confused. Sarah looks confused. The chick behind us hasn't left Child's pose in at least 2 poses.

20 Minutes in: OMG it's only been 20 minutes. How do we do this for an hour? Next time Donald throws his leg up in the air like that I am going to knock him over. Rightfully so.

30 Minutes in: Sarah! WHERE IS THE CHARDONNEY?! Next week I am shoving an ice pack between my boobs because it it like Niagara falls in this sports bra.

35 Minutes: She just told us that envisioning the moves is almost as good as actually doing them. If that's the case I am staying home next week, drinking wine, and envisioning myself doing this shit.

45 Minutes in: The instructor is not explaining anything and keeps speaking in geeky, yoga-ese. If it's a Boat Pose, call it that. Not ioheounasuhuen.

50 Minutes: Wait turn to the left or right? I just turned the opposite way of my neighbor and now we are locked eyes in fear.

55 Minutes: I think we need to check on that girl in Child's Pose. She is either sleeping (good idea) or dead... The instructor has asked us to pose our hands to look like a "flame." Lady, that is not a flame. That's a vagina.

Last 15 Minutes: we are just laying here listening to ukeleles and envisioning vaginas flames on the ceiling tile. I am envisioning myself punching Donald in the throat. Screw this Groupon....

Afterwards - as I stand up and look at Sarah she says "Save it!!" We role the mats and high tail it out of there. Everyone said this chick was terrible. Apparently my next class should be better.

As for the chick in Child's pose? She seemed to be ok. Come to think of it, she looked quite well-rested...

Baby Jerk

In recent months weeks, I have been alerted to the fact that Logan is a Baby Jerk.

At school, he goes up to kids and just takes their toys. He runs up to kids that catch the ball first and screams in their face and tries to take it away (he does this to our dogs too!) One day, he got mad about something and just ran up and pushed a little girl down!

At home, he hasn't been so aggressive, but then again there is no competition here. He is rough with toys and is starting to throw tantrums, but I feel like a lot of that is the Terrible Twos.

The other day, I wrote on Facebook about how Logan is super rough and asked for advice. Tiffanie texted me about how they handle Time Out. She said they put P in his room and shut the door, while standing in the hall until the 1.5min is over.

Ok fine, let's try Time Out. Won't stop standing on the sofa? Let's try this!

First time - he cried nearly the entire time and had big tears on his face when I opened the door. The rest of the day he was good.

The second time, for standing on the chair, he cried for about 1/2 the time and then occupied himself with something he found in the room.

The third time, he fussed for about 10 seconds and then stopped. Then I heard him say "shoes!" Oh great, he is over there playing with the rain boots...

I am thinking this form of time out isn't going to work for us.

So, mommies of the blog world, I need your help! He is rough and tough and it's cute since he is a boy and all but I need him to be sweet and playful and kind to other children.

Everything she is saying are LIES!

He is the sweetest thing most of the time, but is obviously starting to be defiant. Help!

Update on Logan

Friday was Logan's surgery to remove his aednoid.

This day was interesting because he didn't go in until 10:30am. This meant he was hungry and thirsty all morning. He was a champ about it and didn't seem to really notice.

We left the house at 8am and started the process of getting him checked in and set up. They gave us these terrible pajamas for him:

Mom? Seriously?

He breezed through the 30 minute surgery and was pretty groggy for about 30 minutes after. We weren't in recovery long and were home by noon!

The only thing he really said was Logan was just full of green goop and they flushed him out and took some cultures to see what kind of crap was hiding in there. His aednoid was HUGE and blocking about 2/3 of his airway - which is why he snores and mouth breathes.

The next few days were pretty normal except the nasty dark green goop coming out of his nose - but that is normal. Today he was back to himself and didn't have a runny nose.

Let's hope we can get through at least a month of NO FEVER!

FALL TV!

It's almost time, folks.

Pumpkin Spice Latte is here...
Fall magazine are here....
Football is here (in 1 more day)

That means FALL TV SEASON IS HERE!

I watched the pilot of Go On on Hulu and it was pretty cute! I love Matthew Perry so I hope this ends the curse for him.
I also previewed Animal Practice - hated it. Couldn't even finish the pilot. No Thanks.

Thursday/Friday look pretty empty - so unless we get into some other shows later in the season, looks like these nights will be movie or DVR catch up nights. I mean with football on Sunday and Monday, we won't be able to get to it all anyway.

What shows are you looking forward to?