The Chicken Soup Post

LOL! Okay, so I'm a loser that spends all her time on the laptop, and can't be relied upon to remember to update her blog. DUH!


But I'm having a "Day" and am cooking again!



Pot roast for dinner. We don't do the usual Pot Roast, with a ton of veggies in the pot. We don't like our veggies marinated BLEAH!



And chicken soup, for those moments you think to yourself, "Hmmm, I wish there were some Chicken Soup in the house..."
This is the hard part, I take all the big bits out, clean and chop them, and clarify the broth. It's also not so much fun using the spoon to siphon the fat off the top, but it's really the _best_ way.





So there you go, they came out SO tasty!



Go cook up your favorite meal, and as usual...

Thanks for Noticing me!

Birthday Feast

Everything you could need for a birthday feast! and then some!




We also have the makins' for breakfast pizza! A totally yummy idea I never saw or heard of before moving up here.

This was my sis' birthday wish. She wanted me to make her my lasagne using my sauce. That's the jar back there. Every now and then I have this burning desire to cook up a batch. I thought I made plenty, but I ended up having stuff for THREE lasagnes!

And of course, no Birthday feast for my sis could possibly be complete without fudge brownies with dark chocolate frosting!

I cooked for 2 whole days that week! 2 meat, one veggie, lasagne, 2 pans of brownies, and 1 breakfast pizza! *whew*! I barely left the stove!

But it was worth it! Much yumming and over eating!

So there you have it, Breakfast, dinner and dessert! And as usual...

Thanks for Noticing me!

I'm a lazy bum!

So it's been _forever_ since I posted! And here I am on the laptop every waking moment I'm home. So to make up for it, here are some terribly cute kitties!

We have Dddasha Dddarlin' doing her "Felix the cat" impersonation... And just to make you LYAO! I caught the luckiest break! We recently got a flat screen monitor for the boys' computer, and hadn't brought the old one to the garage yet, I came into the kitchen, and, well, it was _really_ dark, so when I set the shot, I didn't see what she was doing other than sitting on top of the stupid thing!

Mystique found out that by making short jumps she can make it to the top of our cabinets... Here she is showing my geek off!

And poor underappreciated, Mona. The little lady of our clan. She's so well behaved, if not normal in any way, shape, or form.

And, awfulness! Our back yard path after the first snow of the season... BEFORE Halloween!
Okay, I'll try to get my shit together... I promise!

As usual,
Thanks for Noticing me!

Apple Festival

So, welcome to the Ithaca Apple Festival! This year they added something new, their own version of the Iron Chef Competition. Three Chefs, from local restaurants faced off against one another.
These are the Chefs, the other three were Judges. All the food they used was locally grown or produced. Including water buffalo! Who knew?!?! Don't ask me who won, I didn't stick around. The guy with his back to us was the announcer, a DJ from Ithaca college radio. The short one on the end is the Chef from Cornells dining hall, yes, you read that right.


Look! Little tree! Love this place! Best apple doughnuts in the universe! No surprise they were here!


I swear _everyone_ in Ithaca shows for the apple festival!!
This is just 2 of the 3 arms of the Commons...



As promised, a picture of the princess. She has some rockin' markings!


Well, just a quickie today. Have fun!

And as usual,

Thanks for Noticing me!

Brrrrr!

Okay, no pics yet, but I have too many observations for facebook statuses, so you guys are stuck with them!

I _LOVE_, love, love, love, autumn! Halloween is my favorite holiday of the entire year! Mostly because you can do any kind of celebration, and you _can't_ mess it up. No worrying about a dry turkey and undercooked turnips. No worrying if you got the perfect gift for someone, and if one of your decorations gets lost and rots, well, you have a plant already ready for spring!

So far I have about half my decorations up, and it is a beautiful, overcast, windy, autumn day. I'm wishing I was going to leave the house in a pair of jeans, a warm cozy sweater, and kick-ass boots, instead of dressed for work, but, *sigh*.

The sad thing is, this year, we seem to have gotten fall, before getting autumn, and the leaves are falling faster than they are changing color. RATS!

Well, instead of mourning the passing of the warm weather, celebrate the coming of the slower pace of winter, evenings spent at home, warm, with family. Cozy hot meals of comfort foods, hot chocolate with marshmallows, and as a nod to my buddy Tam... knee socks!!

And again...
Thanks for Noticing me!

Up here by Cornell U., there are a million things to do!

This is "Judys' Day". They pick a theme, and the whole day is devoted to learning about it. This years theme was grass. Rice is a grass, and this is son #2 husking rice. I'm told he spent nearly the whole day doing that little panful. (I had to work.)

They also made grits, out of corn, which apparently is also a grass, who knew?! And for some unknown reason, they made chocolate "grass masks" (African) That would be son #1 in the first pic.

My favorite Judys' day was a few years ago, they took us back 100 years ago. Every one was encouraged to dress in period dress, and they had a schoolhouse, and a bunch of amazing things to do and see!

It's always good to make learning fun, for both kids and kids at heart!

Again, Thanks for Noticing me!

OMIGOD! I didn't realize I'd put off doing this for _so_ long! Well, back to school year craziness I guess!
So, the Harvest Festival we go to every year, is cheezy, and campy, but a great place to catch up with your neighbors and do silly things in an acceptable venue.

That first pic is the hay ride, a big ole tractor pulling along a flat bed with a bunch of hay bales on it. _Always_ do this last, or you'll have perfect strangers trying to pick pieces of hay off your butt for you!

And the cake wheel of course! they nail down numbered paper plates, you put a quarter or $.50 (depending on what they tell you) and if the wheel lands on your number, you win your choice of donated baked goods from a certain shelf. Silly, but an effective way to get money for your charity.

And the biggest charity money comes from the quilt raffle, and silent auction. I dunno why, but people feel the need to pay good money for a quilt. I just wait for crafty friends to make them for me. (Yes, we've covered this, I don't sew well.) Okay, I've held your attention long enough, once again,
Thanks for Noticing me!