Trim Down Tuesday Break

Im sorry to report that there will be no Trim Down Tuesday this week...be back next week!!!!    

Vacation has begun!!

Vacation has begun!!! I think I have finally mastered being able to post pictures and text on my blog! This was the sight for sore eyes as we arrived Saturday morning at Stone Harbor, NJ!  We left Pittsburgh at midnight and arrived at SH, NJ on Saturday morning at 8am!! Yippee!!  This is the view form our balcony!

 First day on the beach!

 Babysitting duty!!! My sister and brother in law went out to see their favorite band (Love Seed Mama Jump) and I got to watch my nieces and nephews. As soon as they left, this happened,,,,haha-kidding!

 

 Saw this in the store and thought it was so funny!!

 

Toes in the sand!!!!!

 Paddleball anyone?!?!!?

 

I could not believe that my oldest nephew and his friend agreed to pose for this one....HAHA!

 Monday night the adults all went to town for dinner and drinks and the kids had a pool party and got to enjoy the evening with the oldest cousin!

 Here are the adults waiting to be sat...

 BUCKETS!!!!! This place was great! It was on the bay in Stone Harbor, NJ and we waited for a seat to watch the sunset. The food was great too!

 One table...

 And the others...

 It was such a beautiful sunset...

 And we finished off the night with a magic trick!!! Whoop!

 I hope everyone is having a great week!!!

Basic Basil Pesto

Here it is ya'll! My attempt to save and enjoy the flavor of basil all year! In the summer I eat basil everyday! I plant a lot of basil plants on my patio and I enjoy it in salads with also just with tomatoes and mozzarella!! YUM!!!

IT makes me so very sad to be typing this but...

Now that Fall is on the way, I decided to cut down a few plants and make pesto to freeze so I can enjoy this flavor all winter on pasta!! Here is the recipe I followed..I make basic pesto...no fancy variations! HA!

 

Here is the preparation details...

Sounds so simple, right???...Well, it really is! Here is my basil washed and ready to spin dry!! This gadget is the best! I wash leaves at least three times and then let it sit in the water for about an hour so anything still alive and clinging on can escape!! No one wants ground spiders, bugs, etc. in their pesto?!?!? Then just use the spinner lid and spin dry!

I started off putting all the ingredients above into  my blender and that did not work...LOL!!  The blender did not want to grind the leaves at all. LOL!

So instead; I transferred everything from my blender to my handy bullet and it worked great!!!...

After it was well mixed and ground up; I moved it into snack baggies to portion it out...

And then into the freezer. After they are frozen you can use them as you want to. They will last a year in your freezer (although mine never make it to Spring). HA HA!  When you want pesto, just take out a baggie and use the whole thing or just break it in half and re-zip the rest!! This is the best method I have found since they freeze flat and easy to break off portions. (I used to use ice cube trays but I like this better.

I hope this convinces you to try it! Making your own pesto is so easy and you know exactly what it is in it! YUMMY. It is a great way to savor summer all year!! Thank you or stopping by and I hope you have a great day!

Anyone else love pesto? What do you prefer on your pasta? Have any fun, easy recipes you use every year?!?!

Yeah for Friday!

  Yeah for Friday!!!!

Today I am joining all the fun parties below...

Simply Sweet Home

 High Five for Friday
  5 on Friday

The Blended Blog

The five best gifts I have received this year!!!

ONE:  My birthday was in May and my siblings got me this baby!! I will be testing it out next week at the beach!! YIPPEE!! It is a lounge chair that has holes so you can lay on your belly and stick your arms through the holes and your head through a hole and read a book UNDER your chair-WHAT?!?! Total game changer at the beach!!! I will let you know how awesome it is next week!! :-)

TWO: One of my very favorite people, that I just happen to sponsor in AA, just had an anniversary! She is ten years sober!! Such a great milestone, right?!? Well, she got me this. Isn't it beautiful?!?! I was like, "Why did you get me a gift? It is your celebration?" But I love it so very much!!! It is so awesome watching others succeed and start having fabulous lives!! What a gift she is in my life! It is a hand-carved collapsible display bowl-love it!!!



THREE:  Another friend got this for my birthday! I love Himalayan salt lamps! They feel so zen and may even have health benefits!!!! I now how one in every room of my home!!! You can read about the benefits HERE.

FOUR:  My sister got me this for Christmas three years ago and it is something I still use EVERYDAY!! I made my pesto in it this year when the blender bailed out on me and I have a spinach shake every morning for a little health! HA! 

FIVE:  My sister in law and brother got me these from their children last year and they are awesome! It is a little smaller than a dinner plate so it helps me with portion control and it is so fun to cut up your food and decorate their faces!! There are a couple different ones...I have two!! Fred and the one below is his wife. LOL!

I just really wanted to share those with you! I love them all and they truly are my current favorites!!! Thank you all for stopping by and spending a little time with me on this beautiful Friday! I hope everyone has a great weekend!! I will be reporting in from the BEACH!!  YIPPEE!!

Were did you go on vacation this year? or where are you going to be going? Any fun gifts you have received lately? Hugs!

Picked a Peck of Pickled Serrano Peppers

Happy Thursday!!!!

Thanks for coming by today! Today I am going to invite you into my kitchen!!! I decided to try canning this summer!! It turned out great!! 

I grew a serrano pepper plant this year on my patio. I love hot peppers but always struggle with ways to use them at the end of summer.  My got a canning book from my Grandma's house when she passed away and found a few recipes for peppers. I wanted to try a hot pepper relish but I figured for my first try I needed to shot a little lower so I just went for basic canning of the peppers this year.

Here is the recipe I used...

See - very basic.

My new dishwasher came in handy to sterilize my new Ball jars prior to filling...

So here is the whole process...

This is my pepper plant after I removed the peppers...

And this is all of the peppers!! This is only from one plant...I think I will plant more next year...

I put on rubber gloves and then cut the peppers in half and removed the stems!! I also chopped in a few store bought banana peppers for variety...

I filled all the jars with peppers and then poured the hot mixture over them to fill the jars with 1/4 inch left on the top.  Then put the lids on and boiled them for ten minutes.  As you see, I do not have a canning pot so I made my own...LOL!! The water has to cover the top by 1-2 inches and then you just boil and remove from the water bath after ten minutes.

Here are the jars after taking them out of the bath. They are supposed to site for 24 hours before moving them around.  This is when you also check to make sure they all sealed. You simply push done on the middle of the lid and it should not pop at all...that means it is sealed.

These peppers will have a shelf life of 18 months without being refridgerated.

I'll let you know how they are after they sit a few weeks and I finally try one!!1

YUMMY!!

Black & White Memories

Today I am joining in with Terri for her Cherish the Memories...

Recently a co-worker that lives near an orchard has been leaving me a peach at my desk each day. It reminded me of my Aunt Laura and Uncle Chris.  They had a peach orchard in Stone Creek, Ohio when we were kids and we would go there and eat peaches right off the trees! YUMMY!!!

This is my Aunt Laura and Uncle Chris in a photo taken in front of my Grandmother Wells' house. They were such great people; they had no kids but they ran that orchard and made wine in their basement! Aunt Laura was always so nice to all of us kids and it was always fun to go to their house and explore outside and tease their dog that was always chained up outside next to his dog house! We were not allowed to go near him (he was Uncle Chris's hunting dog) so I assume he was not friendly. LOL!

Thanks for organizing this Terri...I think this will be a fun walk down memory lane each week!

Rocking some new appliances and REO Speedwagon

Hi everyone! Happy Wednesday! Anyone else exhausted?!?! LOL! Buckle down everyone...this is a long post!!

As you saw in my last few posts, I had a great weekend filled with family and fun!  If you missed my weekend post you can see it HERE!

I am working backwards through the weekend - LOL!

The past weekend started out with a new dishwasher and that led to a new vacuum!

My dishwasher installer was awesome and he did an amazing job! This is the pathway I had cleared prior to his arrival so he could remove the old one and bring in the new one!The furniture was all shoved to the left - LOL!

My cats get freaked out when anything is different at all - so that BLEW their minds and they hid under the bed all day! LOL!

Here is the new beauty installed!!! LOVE IT! (Photos courtesy of GE website)

 Bottle washers!!! A win for my sports bottles!!

A top rack that goes up and down a full two inches to be able to wash taller things on the top or bottom!!! Yeah!

You know you are getting older when a dishwasher gets you excited! HA HA!

After taking out the old dishwasher, there was a huge mess so I started cleaning like a maniac (behind the old washer, behind the baseboards) and then the wheels fell off my vacuum! It is impossible to use a vacuum that does not roll around anymore so I ended up having to buy a vacuum too! UGH!

I actually found a great one at Walmart by accident! PS-THIS IS NOT A PAID ENDORSEMENT it truly is my own opinion and my own money!!

I had a Hoover before and it only lasted for two years before the wheels fell of so I decided to switch brands and try a Bissel this time! I LOVE IT! It was the second to the cheapest model and $60 less than a comparable Hoover and it is amazing! See how used it is already?!??! HA!

 It came with this awesome pet hair attachment that really works!!! As a cat person, I have tried them all and none of the pet hair attachments really work - this one truly does!  I am now obsessed with vacuuming - it takes every speck of cat hair off of beds, curtains, furniture and even the cat trees!!! It is worth the price of the entire vacuum!!! If you are in the market for a new vacuum try it - I swear - this is not a paid endorsement at all - I have received nothing from Bissel from this at all but this vacuum (and the pet hair attachment) is AMAZING!

This baby gets every hair from every surface!!!

And while I was showing you things - I decided to throw in a photo of this adorable cat food bowl!!! My niece (who is now 22) painted it for my very first cat Lucky. She put his name on it and also added a painted piece of food in the middle of the bowl (see it?) so Lucky would never be hungry!!!! How sweet was that?!?! She was and is still a wonderful young lady!! Love me some Jessica!

 And finally, this was my view walking into work this morning - LOL!!! We have corn hole boards that people can use at lunch or when they need a break from work and we have wild turkeys all over the campus! It looked like the turkeys were taking a break and playing some corn hole this AM! HA HA!

Saturday night was the time for the REO Speedwagon/Chicago concert at Starlake Amphitheater (it is actually Key Bank Pavilion now but everyone in Pittsburgh still calls it Starlake).

Here we are at our little family tailgate - LOL!!!

And this is the start of the show! REO Speedwagon was first and they were awesome! Everyone was so excited for all their hits and the entire audience sang along with every song! They played all the best hits! Soooo good!

And then the craziness began!

Between the two bands a sick public display happened!!  Sadly, we had a spectacle two rows in front of us...UGH! I have a video of a 60 something woman so drunk that she peed herself! She was in jean shorts and a belly shirt and was so trashed her daughter was embarrassed. She stood up and was dancing all over her neighbors and everyone behind her (us included) watched her pee herself and not realize it or care - ICK!!! If you follow me on Facebook you saw the spectacle! Seriously feel bad for the woman's daughter and hope the woman gets some help!! THAT is not social drinking! ICK!

THEN - It was time for Chicago to take the stage and they played for about an hour but never played ONE SINGLE TOP TEN HIT!!!???? We were waiting to hear Hard To Say I'm Sorry, You're the Inspiration, Stay the Night or Saturday in the Park!!!  They played a bunch of psychedelic music with no lyrics and explained between LONG, never-ending songs that they would get to their top ten hits later?!?! WHAT!?!?! It turns out that they decided to play everything BUT their hits! LOL!!!

I thought it was just us and a few others that walked out early too that felt this way this but here is the OFFICIAL REVIEW!!! We decided to leave after an hour of "not what we came to hear".

We got our moneys worth just from REO though - REO Speedwagon was that good!!!

Thanks for a great concert REO Speedwagon - You rock!!!! Chicago...not so much anymore...

Thanks for sticking with me through that long post and thanks for reading!! I hope you all have an amazing week!!!! Hugs!

Anyone else love some REO? What song takes you back to high school? Do you have a favorite band from back then? Any handmade items you cherish from a loved one?