Light, fresh wonderful

Photo: Southernliving.com

Last night we had a wonderful simple summer meal.  I made the Chicken Tortellini Salad from the June 2011 Southern Living.  We all enjoyed it immensely.  I did however change the recipe slightly.  I left out the green onions because I didn't have any and I used dried parsley instead of fresh for the same reason.  The fresh parsley would definitely be better, making this dish even lighter and fresher, so I definitely recommend you use fresh.  I also used edemame instead of peas just because.

The sauce in the recipe would be so versatile with a number of things.  The Worcestershire really gave it a special something!

I sure would have had two servings if there had been any left.

The lone tomato

What a sad little guy.  He had no friends on the little tomato plant.  I planted a single tomato and basil plant as an experiment, knowing full well that the light in the location was insufficient.  As expected my experiment failed, or maybe it was a success if I hypothesized that the plant would not do well.  It is slim pickings in our back yard for a place to grow vegetables.  I may have to get more creative next year if I want to try again.  I can't wait to see how it tastes in a few days!

Blissful Convection Cooking

A few weeks ago our oven died and I was so happy that it did.  We were fortunate that it decided to sing its last hoorah about a month before our home warranty was up.  This allowed us to upgrade our oven to a convection and it was a great decision.  I truly have found bliss in convection cooking.  I continue to giggle with delight each time I use it at the low temperatures and faster cooking times.

These banana Nutella muffins were baked in 13 minutes at 325!

This ratatouille spent a mere 12 minutes in the oven

Dark chocolate chunk cookies were only 8 minutes at 325 from frozen balls (yes, I forgot the after picture).  Let me just say that these cookies were even better that I expected.  I thought cooking with a Silpat made fabulous cookies, I didn't know that a convection oven would make them even better!

If your in the market for the new oven I highly suggest consider the additional investment in a convection oven.  While I don't know how to calculate it, I know there is going to be an energy savings given that the oven is on for less time at a lower temp.

If I had the room I'd definitely take two.

The good, the bad, and the polyvore.

Really, polyvore.com could be an awesome site to help women better utilize the clothes in their closet.  Most of the time that is what I do.  I see a "set" with an item I have or something very similar and I get a brand new outfit idea, no money spent, just using what I already have by thinking about it in a new way.  The problem is when I am introduced to a new item that would just go soooo well with what I already have in my closet.  Of course if it is so versatile it is truly a justifiable purchase right?  The goal should be to select pieces for our closets that serve multiple purposes, right?  Well at least that is what I am telling myself.  Check it out for yourself.  Here is a link to one of my favorite "set-makers" My4Boys on Polyvore.

A completely random first post

Last night a car and a mailbox had an argument and the car won, sort of.  The photo will show you what happened to the mailbox, which belongs to my neighbor across the street.  The car, which I did not get a picture of, was a red Toyota Yaris, so by now means a large vehicle.  So you can only imagine how fast said car would have had to have been driving to do this to a brick mailbox.  The mailbox was broken in two pieces and drug under the car for a bit.  On the right you can see the hole where it used to stand.

What is really interesting about this little accident is the "story" behind it.  The teenager driver of this vehicle claimed that school papers flew up and blocked their view causing them to run off the road and into the mailbox.  I'm sorry but I ain't buying that piece of fiction.  I'd bet dollars to dimes that this teenager was texting and not paying attention to the road.  If I was that kids parent I really think I would have to check their  text message on the phone to prove/disprove my theory.  Texting vs flying papers aside, this kid was going WAY TOO FAST down a residential street where there happen to be kids playing most afternoons.  My kids are too young for bikes and the street and whatnot, but my next door neighbors and the kids across from them are about are out there all the time.  Parents of driving teenagers, tell them to slow down and put that phone away!