Month: June 2007

  • FINISHED READING......

    Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - (3.5/5)

    Silence of the Loons - R. D Zimmerman - (3/5)

  • untitled

    Monday 18th - Dad Cooks or Leftovers (Mom Working Late)

    Tuesday 19th - Egg Salad Sandwich (pg48)/Chips/Carrots and Dip

    Wednesday 20th - Spaghetti Pie/Cheese Toast/Peas

    Thursday 21st - Sloppy Joes/Ranch Pasta Salad

    Friday 22nd - Debbie Chicken in Marinade/BLT Mac Salad/Cukes

    Saturday 23rd - Tender & Tangy Ribs- Crockpot / Red, White & Bleu Salad (pg 38) 

    Bedtime Snack:  Strawberry Smoothie Pop

    Sunday 24th - Ranch Chicken over Rice- Crockpot/ Two-Cheese Tossed Salad

    Ranch Chicken

    4-6 boneless chicken breasts
    1 can cream of mushroom soup
    1 C sour cream
    1 packet ranch dressing
    1/4 C chicken broth

    Mix soup, sour cream, ranch dressing, and chicken broth together. Put chicken in crockpot; pour mixture over chicken. Cook on low 4-6 hours. Serve with rice, using drippings as gravy.

    Are you struggling to figure out what to cook for supper???  Join us in planning our menus each week.  Stop over to Laura's Blog "I'm an Organizing Junkie!" and see what is on all of our menus and find new great recipes to try!!

  • READING LISTS

    The Observer's 100 Greatest Novels

    1. Don Quixote, Miguel De Cervantes
    2. Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
    3. Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
    4. Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
    5. Tom Jones, Henry Fielding
    6. Clarissa, Samuel Richardson
    7. Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne
    8. Dangerous Liaisons, Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
    9. Emma, Jane Austen
    10. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
    11. Nightmare Abbey, Thomas Love Peacock
    12. The Black Sheep, Honore De Balzac
    13. The Charterhouse of Parma, Stendhal
    14. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
    15. Sybil, Benjamin Disraeli
    16. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
    17. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
    18. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
    19. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
    20. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
    21. Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
    22. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
    23. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
    24. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
    25. Little Women, Louisa M. Alcott
    26. The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope
    27. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
    28. Daniel Deronda, George Eliot
    29. The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
    30. The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
    31. Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
    32. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
    33. Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
    34. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
    35. The Diary of a Nobody, George Grossmith
    36. Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
    37. The Riddle of the Sands, Erskine Childers
    38. The Call of the Wild, Jack London
    39. Nostromo, Joseph Conrad
    40. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
    41. In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
    42. The Rainbow, D. H. Lawrence
    43. The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford
    44. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
    45. Ulysses, James Joyce
    46. Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
    47. A Passage to India, E. M. Forster
    48. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
    49. The Trial, Franz Kafka
    50. Men Without Women, Ernest Hemingway
    51. Journey to the End of the Night, Louis-Ferdinand Celine
    52. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
    53. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
    54. Scoop, Evelyn Waugh
    55. USA, John Dos Passos
    56. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
    57. The Pursuit Of Love, Nancy Mitford
    58. The Plague, Albert Camus
    59. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
    60. Malone Dies, Samuel Beckett
    61. Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
    62. Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor
    63. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
    64. The Lord Of The Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
    65. Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis
    66. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
    67. The Quiet American, Graham Greene
    68. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
    69. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
    70. The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass
    71. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
    72. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
    73. To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
    74. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
    75. Herzog, Saul Bellow
    76. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    77. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor
    78. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, John Le Carre
    79. Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
    80. The Bottle Factory Outing, Beryl Bainbridge
    81. The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer
    82. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, Italo Calvino
    83. A Bend in the River, V. S. Naipaul
    84. Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M. Coetzee
    85. Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
    86. Lanark, Alasdair Gray
    87. The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster
    88. The BFG, Roald Dahl
    89. The Periodic Table, Primo Levi
    90. Money, Martin Amis
    91. An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro
    92. Oscar And Lucinda, Peter Carey
    93. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera
    94. Haroun and the Sea af Stories, Salman Rushdie
    95. La Confidential, James Ellroy
    96. Wise Children, Angela Carter
    97. Atonement, Ian McEwan
    98. Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
    99. American Pastoral, Philip Roth
    100. Austerlitz, W. G. Sebald

    The Modern Library 100 Best Novels

    1. Ulysses, James Joyce
    2. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
    3. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyces Joyce
    4. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
    5. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
    6. The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
    7. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
    8. Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler
    9. Sons and Lover, D.H. Lawrence
    10. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
    11. Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry
    12. The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler
    13. 1984, George Orwell
    14. I, Claudius, Robert Graves
    15. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
    16. An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
    17. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
    18. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
    19. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
    20. Native Son, Richard Wright
    21. Henderson the Rain King, Saul Bellow
    22. Appointment in Samarra, John O' Hara
    23. U.S.A. (trilogy), John Dos Passos
    24. Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
    25. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
    26. The Wings of the Dove, Henry James
    27. The Ambassadors, Henry James
    28. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
    29. The Studs Lonigan Trilogy, James T. Farrell
    30. The Good Soldier, Ford Maddox Ford
    31. Animal Farm, George Orwell
    32. The Golden Bowl, Henry James
    33. Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser
    34. A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh
    35. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
    36. All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
    37. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
    38. Howards End, E.M. Forster
    39. Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin
    40. The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene
    41. The Lord of the Flies, William Golding
    42. Deliverance, James Dickey
    43. A Dance to the Music of Time (series) Anthony Powell
    44. Point Counter Point, Aldous Huxley
    45. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
    46. The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad
    47. Nostromo, Joseph Conrad
    48. The Rainbow, D.H. Lawrence
    49. Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence
    50. Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
    51. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
    52. Portnoy's Complaint, Phillip Roth
    53. Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
    54. Light in August, William Faulkner
    55. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
    56. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammet
    57. Parade's End, Ford Maddox Ford
    58. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
    59. Zuleika Dobson, Max Beerbohm
    60. The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
    61. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
    62. From Here to Eternity, James Jones
    63. The Wapshot Chronicles, John Cheever
    64. The Cather in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
    65. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
    66. Of Human Bondage, W. Somerset Maugham
    67. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
    68. Main Street, Sinclair Lewis
    69. The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
    70. The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence Durell
    71. A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes
    72. A House for Mr. Biswas, V.S. Naipaul
    73. The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West
    74. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
    75. Scoop, Evelyn Waugh
    76. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
    77. Finnegans Wake, James Joyce
    78. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
    79. A Room With a View, E.M. Forster
    80. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
    81. The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow
    82. Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
    83. A Bend in the River, V.S. Naipaul
    84. The Death of the Heart, Elizabeth Bowen
    85. Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad
    86. Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow
    87. The Old Wives' Tale, Arnold Bennett
    88. The Call of the Wild, Jack London
    89. Loving, Henry Green
    90. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
    91. Tobacco Road, Erskine Caldwell
    92. Ironweed, William Kennedy
    93. The Magus, John Fowles
    94. Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
    95. Under the Net, Iris Murdoch
    96. Sophie's Choice, William Styron
    97. The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles
    98. The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
    99. The Ginger Man, J.P. Donleavy
    100. The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington

  • School Uniforms...

    I found School Uniform pants on Ebay for a good price.  Cheaper than Target!!

    The Ebay Store is called Lucky 86

    I ended up paying 9.99 a pair with shipping.  That is pretty good!

  • Supper Tonight...

    Aunt B's Sloppy Joes

    3 lbs. ground turkey
    1 c. onion, chopped
    1 c. green pepper, chopped
    2 cloves garlic, chopped
    1-1/2 c. catsup
    1/2 c. water

    1/4 c. mustard
    1/4 c. cider vinegar
    1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
    1 T. chili powder
    10 whole-wheat hamburger buns, split

    In a skillet over medium heat, cook ground turkey, onion, green pepper and garlic until browned and tender; drain. Combine in a slow cooker with remaining ingredients except buns. Cover and cook on low setting for 6 to 8 hours, or on high setting for 3 to 4 hours. Spoon into buns. Makes about 10 sandwiches.

  • Bittersweet...

    My baby starts Kindergarten in September.   We are going to a used uniform sale this morning to hopefully get some of his uniforms for school.   I am happy and so sad at the same time.   I will just buy his uniform pants at Target or Walmart this weekend and we will be done with school shopping for him.  He will need a new pair of tennis shoes and underwear.  

    I am home with Tommy today as my SIL who watches him has a fuenral today.   I hope to get alot done today.  I am starting my weird summer schedule at work now.  Erik will be with us next week and I need to stay home 3 days of the work week, so I will be going in on SUnday and working for 10 hours.  I will work one day every weekend this summer.  Oh Well....you do what you have to do I guess.   Later!

    OOPS.....just stopped at church and the used uniform sale isn't until 10:00. 

    UPDATE - Argh...I didn't find one single shirt at the used uniform sale.  They were all size 4-5 and my little guy is bigger than that!  I guess we will be going to the uniform store this weekend.  ARGH!!   It will be expensive, to get everything I want for him will be over $200.00.   That seems like too much for school clothes to me.  That will only be for 11 uniform shirts for the school year.

  • I am finally sitting down to eat my supper.  I have been doing just terrible with eating.   Today for instance, I had two pieces of banana bread for breakfast and didn't eat anything else all day until right now.  I am finishing up a Jimmy John's sandwich. 

    Today has been a very long day.   I stayed home in the morning and did a few things around the house after running some errands.  Then I went to the court hearing for Erik, which had us waiting to be seen for a long time.  After we were finally seen I left and came to work.   I got ready for my meetings and then headed to a home visit in Lakeville and made it there in time even.   Now I just got back from that meeting and am going to work a few hours yet at the office.  

    I need to get a few extra hours in as my daycare provider will have a funeral to go to sometime this week and I will need to stay home with Tommy on that day.  I have no idea what I would do if I didn't have such a flexible job!!   Well I better get busy.  Later!!

  • Happy Father's Day...

    Wishing all father's a wonderful Father's Day!   I didn't wake hubby up for church this morning.  He is still sleeping.  I know he will be happy to have the extra sleep.  I was up by 8:00, which is really good since I was up until after 1:00.  

    Plans for the day.  I need to clean up the house today some more.  I also have to finally get Tommy's room cleaned!  It is TERRIBLE!   We are celebrating Father's day with my Inlaws today.   There are coming over for supper this evening.  I am making steak, corn on the cob, baked Potatoes and Green Beans.  I was going to make a carrot cake for hubby, but he requested a Banana Cream pie from Baker's Square.  I will go get that this afternoon.  

    What else have be been up to this weekend.......

    Saturday got up early and went to the garage sale at church.   I got a whole bag of clothes for Tommy, mostly Carter's Pj;s and T-shirts for only $8.00.  I bought a few pairs for shorts for Erik, but since he wasn't with us, I am not sure they will fit.  For myself, I bought a pair of Addias Capris and a New York and Company purse.  I was tired and hot after getting home from shopping. 

    I started on the dishes and Tommy went to swim in the neighbors pool.   At 3:00 hubby and I went to the movie Knocked Up, not a family movie, but VERY funny!   I had a good laugh over it.   A lot of the F word so if that offends you, you might not like it. 

    After the movie we came home and I made some Yummy Mushroom Burgers for Supper and Fries.  Tommy actually cleaned his plate.  I tricked him a bit.  He hates Mushrooms, so I put a piece of cheeese melted over the burger and he couldn't see the mushrooms and ate the whole burger.  He even like it!!   After that I was really feeling wiped out.  So hubby ran over to my SIL and got the movie Hook and Tommy and I watched that in bed while Hubby mowed the lawn. 

    You would have thought I would have slept well, but I was having leg cramps so I took some extra potassium and Calcium and got up and finished the dishes.  Emma was over hanging out with Josh until late.   Once I was done with the dishes, I realized I had not made the marinate for Father's Day.   I usually marinade the meat for about 24 hours, but this will still marinade for over 12 hours so I think it will still be good.    Then I collapsed into bed for the night after 1:00.  I am not sure what is going on, I have been having a terrible time sleeping.  I was up until after 2:00 am on Thursday night as well.     It is like when I was taking steroids, but I haven't been on any for over a year. 

    Friday I had a late home visit and didn't get home from work until a little after 7:00pm.   I decided since Aldi was open until 8:00 I would hurry and get groceries since I had my list all ready.   We were pretty much out of meat so I had to buy some and I ended up being about $6.00 over budget.  I had budgeted 160.00 for the two weeks of groceries.  I also bought two T-bone steaks, one for hubby and one for my FIL.  That is not a purchase I normally make so I would have been fine without that.   I came home and put away the cold and frozen groceries from Aldi and then I ran to Cub Foods and bought the last of the groceries for the next two weeks.   It was bedtime when I got home and I was sooooo ready to go to sleep. 

    I am off to get my cleaning done so I can enjoy the rest of the day relaxing.   Have a wonderful Father's Day!!!  Tommy is very blessed with a wonderful, loving Daddy. 

  • World's Best Banana Bread!!!!

    I found this recipe on Jamie's Blog, Mom, What Else Is For Dinner??

    Cream Cheese Banana Bread

    Today it is in the 90's in Minnesota.  I baked the banana bread outside in roaster oven.   This is so cool!!   It turned out very good! 

  • The week is flying by again.  It is warm in Minnesota today!   My supper on my menu tonight was suppose to be baked in the oven.  WAY too hot for that today!!   So after reading on Cooperswife's Blog I took my Roaster Oven outside and baked my casserole outside on the picnic table.  The house stayed wonderfully cool and hubby was happy!    I worked so great!!  Thanks so much for the idea Cooperswife!!  I know I will be doing that many more times this summer. 

    June_2007 014

    I came home from work and finished my book I was reading while the food cooked outside.  

    What is Mine - Anne Holt - (4/5)   I gave this a four as I did like it, but it was a bit slow and long, but worth finishing!

    Check out my new widget on my sidebar!!   It lists books on my TBR pile!!  It is offered through Librarything.com.   It is a great site that allows you to list the books on your shelf for free, well at least up to 100 books for free.   I am still checking out the site, but I love any site about books!!

    I am off to start a new book before getting Tommy ready for bed!!