Cooking calamity or just Greek serendipity?

The other night as is usual I started to fix dinner.  I got my pork chops in the oven and then tried to decide on what to make as a side dish. I opened my cupboard and found I had red potatoes, green and yellow squash, onions and some frozen green beans.  It started to look like a very delicious medley to me so I cut up the potatoes and squash into chunks.  I chopped my onions and put the potatoes in the microwave to slightly cook before I added them to the large frying pan.

Now when I cook I don’t really measure anything out.  I toss in a dash of this, a pinch of that and call it a day.  Usually it all comes out pretty darn good and I’m not bragging when I say that most people consider me a pretty awesome cook, but occasionally when one cooks like that there are apt to be mistakes made.  Sometimes they work to an advantage.

I put some olive oil in my pan and heated it slightly, added the partially cooked potatoes, squash and onions and cooked on medium heat till the potatoes started to brown.  Then I added the frozen green beans and stirred.

So since I was in a hurry (I still haven’t got used to that darned DST) I reached in my spice cabinet for the seasoning salt and before I realized it I had added a good dash of cinnamon! 

Now how many of you know that the spice used in savory Greek cooking that you just can’t quite identify is, in actuality—cinnamon?  Since I’m Greek I just figured, yum!

Well, it turned out quite delicious, I did add a bit of seasoning salt as well.  Maybe I need to separate my spices a bit better because although this turned out pretty darned good, I can only imagine how awful cinnamon rolls might taste if I mistakenly used seasoning salt!!!!

Greek style veggie medley

Red potatoes, cut up in bite sized chunks

Green and yellow squash cut up in similar sized pieces

Chopped onion

Finely chopped garlic

Whole green beans

Light olive oil for cooking

Seasoning salt

Cinnamon

Black pepper to taste

Put the potatoes in a microwaveable bowl and microwave for about 5 minutes, until they are partially cooked.  Meanwhile put some olive in the pan and heat on medium heat.  Add the onions and garlic and cook till they are slightly transparent.  Add the partially cooked potatoes and cook until they start to brown. 

Add the squash and green beans and stir together.  Add about a teaspoon of cinnamon and a sprinkle of seasoning salt and cook for a bit longer till the squash and green beans are tender.  Add some freshly grown pepper and enjoy.

Don't forget to enter the Make it easy crafts giveaway  to win the two 5 x 7 notecard prints of my original art!

Giveaway on make it easy crafts

As most of you know I run two blogs.  This one, which is more focused on art and writing and Make it easy crafts which has all free craft tutorials.  A few months ago I started a Facebook page for Make it easy crafts and the reaction has been beyond expectations.  So when I reached 500 likes and counting I figured I would run a giveaway to say thank you. I am giving away two 5 x 7 blank inside notecard prints of my original art work.  "Paint the fields" which was featured on a cover of Equine Marketer magazine and "First mate." which placed in in an online art contest.  These cards are suitable for any occasion or they can be framed.  The giveaway runs for one week so enter today.

Click here to visit Make it easy crafts

~Crystal

Sleep time savings

So it’s daylight savings time in good old USA.  My question is this…why? I am beginning to think it’s a form of mind control.  I just don’t see how taking an hour away from our day is saving anything.

For the next week or so everyone will be walking around yawning.  We will oversleep and jump out of bed in a panic.  We will come to work with two different shoes on and way too much blush. We will glance at the clock and wonder where the heck the day went, that is, if we remember to even change our clock. In an effort to catch up on sleep we will nod off in front of the TV at 7:30…5:30 in retirement homes.  And since our animals don’t subscribe to any sort of savings time, they are on the pre-savings schedule.

Already late and rushing to get dressed his morning my cat opened my bedroom door and trotted in with her tail held high.  She gave me a look that said, “It’s freaking way past my breakfast time, so let’s get cracking!” I escorted her out.

While I am staggering down the stairs and slopping cat food all over the counter and myself, I am thinking how nice it would be to live in Arizona…where they don’t save any time.  And daylight just stays put

In like a lion

Well, it's the beginning of March and true to it's word In came in like a lion. Unbelievable as it seems yesterday was in the 60's and today its barely 20 degrees and snowing.  To think I went out yesterday with just a thin cotton shirt on!

And I don't need to mention that the supermarkets looked liked they had been looted again.  Now I'm just wondering when it's all over, how I will get down the hill by my house that they never, ever plow!

Not complaining though...I still love snow.  Enjoy these photos and take a snow day...

Thank goodness Crystal thinks about feeding us in all this snowy weather!

But when?  Little geranium asks, Is it going to be my turn?

Busy, busy, busy

No time to sit back and relax?

Now that my daughter has graduated from college and my son is in the air force, one would think that my life should be settled down.  I shouldn’t be so busy. I should be getting bored right about now, right?  Um… no.

Life, I find, is kind of like a pail of water.  You stick your hand in that pail of water and when you take it out, guess what?  The space it was taking up in that pail of water is already full.

Your kid’s grow up and you think that things won’t be so busy, after all you don’t have to pick them up after track and you don’t have to take them for this lesson or that lesson.  Homework is no longer an issue.  Unfortunately that’s not how it goes.  Other things just take up that space! 

It’s even the same at the grocery store.  When all the kids were home and I went to grocery store I practically had a coronary every time the cashier gave me the receipt.  I don’t think I ever saw my son when he wasn’t consuming something.  I don’t know for sure, but I’d swear he even ate in his sleep.  A gallon of milk every two days was the norm. The refrigerator became an additional cooling device during hot summer days thanks to the door swinging open every few minutes.

Now it’s just the hubby and I.  We eat out a bit more.  I buy ultra-pasteurized milk in the quart size every three weeks or so. I don’t use near as much paper towels but even so, when I get the bill for my groceries each week, it’s the same!

Ok, so long gone are the days of picking up my daughter from a friend’s house with two different shoes my feet while she looks at me with the obligatory eye roll. (I mean just how do they roll their eyes like that and not get a headache?) And I won’t rush out of the house with my shirt on inside out while I try and make it on time to a PTA meeting. Even so, I still feel like there are not enough hours in the day to finish my do to list.  Yup, a pail of water.

The princess, the pea and me

The princess--and the pea

Princess and the pea story

A few months back I suffered a herniated disc.  I had never experienced pain like that in my life.  I discovered that at some point in my life, I had a compression break in my back. (I’m pretty sure it was when I got thrown off a horse with a few loose screws when I was in my 20’s)  Since the herniated disc episode I have had back issues, maybe its psychosomatic and I’m just more aware of it since I have seen the MRI’s.  Anyway, my husband and I decided to get a new mattress.

We chose a good quality orthopedic mattress from the local warehouse store. It was rated to be medium, not hard, not soft. Memory gel foam is internally situated in the mattress, for comfort and coolness--so they say. Unfortunately they were displayed on their sides so we couldn’t lie on them…that was our first mistake. The first night we slept on it brought back memories of sleeping on the hard ground in Girls Scouts.  Definitely not medium softness.  And what in the heck happened to the pillow top?  Was is stuffed with lead. My husband told me to give it a few days to break in...hmmmm now a mattress was like too tight shoes? After the third night I got a thick memory foam pad to place on top.

Let me explain how I have always slept and try not to laugh. I am aware I'm a little odd and have accepted that fact. When I sleep, I cannot have even one wrinkle on the sheets.  If there is a wrinkle I get up and pull it tight.  If the sheet develops a pill I get up and use the clothes shaver to smooth it out. I must have my flat pillow and my fluffy pillow. Even when traveling my suitcase must have room for at least the flat pillow or I don't sleep.   And due to these rather odd idiosyncrasies, my husband has started to call me the “princess and the pea”.

Well the mattress was more comfortable but now the height was really up there and the sheets would hardly fit.  To put it simply the extra thick pad made "climbing into bed" a reality. So I went out and bought some new sheets that were extra deep pockets.  They didn’t fit.  I bought another set that was even deeper and while they fit, they developed wrinkles at night and I've already explained  how well I deal with that.

The next bright idea I had was to get those clips that hold the sheets down tight.  Have you ever used those clips?  If you haven’t you may in for some infantile frustration. The clips are similar to the ones on garter belts that hold up nylons.  Unfortunately sheets are a bit thicker than nylons.  Got a cartoonish visual of me yet?  After fighting with the sheets for 45 minutes and calling my husband for reinforcements we finally got them on.  And guess what...it worked.  The sheets are on, smooth, and the bed is comfy!

I'm dreading changing the sheets but sleeping well...And if you read the story of the Princess and the pea above, you will know that only a real princess could feel that pea and I married my prince.  

Snow, colds, flus and blues

I know I have been a bit MIA of late but I hope you all can cut me some slack.  First of all I know Virginia is known for flip flopping weather patterns.  What Virginian doesn’t know the old adage…”If you don’t like the weather in Virginia, stick around for 24 hours?”  This year however, it’s been flip-flopping all over the place.  One day its almost 70 degrees and the next day its barely past zero and snowing!

This kind of weather tends to help the nasty cold and flu viruses get a good hold on the body.  So first it was my husband, then my daughter.  Guess you could say I was running a soup kitchen for a while—chicken soup kitchen that is.

And then the snow came.  In Virginia when it snows even a few flakes everything shuts down.  And when it snows 9 or 10 inches, well, you get the picture.  The grocery stores look like they’ve been looted, mail and newspaper delivery ceases. I won’t even go into the issues a little Jack Russell terrier has simply doing her morning business. And since I live on a hill, I suffer from another sort of malady…cabin fever.

Valentine's Day red

And to top it all off my husband had to work extra hours on Valentine’s Day from 4 a.m. to 11. P.M! Before you think I’m whiny let me explain.  We got engaged on Valentine’s Day, so it’s special.  So I spent the first Valentine’s Day since we’ve been married alone.  Need I say I was suffering from cabin fever and the blues?  It did help that I woke up to see the sweetest card and a cute stuffed bear holding a big red heart. 

So things are slowly getting back to normal.  The snow is starting to recede, the schools reopen on a formerly slated holiday (Presidents day) and all is right with the world.

Only two more weeks till the day you can show how much you care!  I'm featuring these free printable Valentine cards on Make it easy crafts.  Instructions for making presentation envelopes too!

Click for tutorial