Folks have been giving me a hard time about not blogging in while. Well, I'm SORRY! I've been busy!! And now I'm in Demopolis with no Internet at home. So I'm at a coffee shop, sipping on a mocha java and posting for the first time in a month. Are you happy now?? ;) Hee hee ...
I'm home for Christmas at the moment. Enjoying time with family. I should have some pictures to post soon. If I were smart, I would have remembered to bring my camera and cable to the coffee shop with me, so I could go ahead and upload what I've taken so far. But what can I say. Apparently, I'm not smart.
Tonight, we're doing a Christmas Eve get-together at Andrea and Jesse's. Should be a lot of fun!
Oh, and one thing I'm REALLY excited about ... yesterday, I booked my first ever appointment for a "spa day." I recently got a pretty sizable gift certificate to Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa; it's enough to do an entire half day of pampering. I think I'm a little overwhelmed by it. I've only had one professional massage in my life, and only this past year had my first mani/pedi. So ... this will be quite an experience. One that I'm VERY much looking forward to. Like I said, it's an entire half-day: 1:00-5:00pm on the last Friday of my holiday vacation. Here's the line-up for the day:
Classic Massage (50 minutes)
Elizabeth Arden Essential Facial (50 minutes)
Warm Cream Pedicure (40 minutes)
Warm Cream Manicure (25 minutes)
Makeup Application
Ahhhhhh ....
It's no secret ... I'm SICK. And this is despite taking a dose of Emergen-C or Airborne every day since the weather got cold. But I guess traveling and whatnot was just too much for my immune system. And I now have what I presume is a cold. Blah.
I'll tell you what, though. You know how people say you shouldn't go shopping when you're hungry? Well ... you should go grocery shopping when you're sick. I came home with tons of healthy, wholesome fixins. And then promptly made a very comforting lunch. I took a favorite family recipe and spruced it up a bit. (Much like I did with the chicken pot pie a few weeks ago.)
This is probably one of the BEST comfort dishes EVER, because it is equally easy and tasty. So it's a breeze to make when you're not feeling well, it's nice and warm and oh-so-comforting. Here's the recipe:
1 can cream of mushroom
1 small can white chunk chicken
dash of salt
dash of black pepper
dash of parsley
2 pieces wheat bread
Drain the liquid from the chicken and then dump chicken into small sauce pan. With a spoon, break up large pieces of chicken and then add the cream of mushroom. Add salt, pepper and parsley. Turn heat to medium-high and stir often until it's good and hot (and simmering slightly). While this mixture is cooking, toast two pieces of wheat bread. The toast and the creamy mixture should be ready at about the same time, so place the toast on a plate and spoon half of the creamy mixture onto the toast. Enjoy!
The creamy mixture stores well for a few days when refrigerated. Just heat the leftovers in the microwave and serve over toast.
Note: I always make this with toast because, frankly, that's the way my mom always did it. Besides, if you use whole wheat toast, you get some of that good-for-you fiber. But I'm sure this would be WONDERFUL served over biscuits, too.
If you're looking for a side for this, I think green beans would complement it very nicely. Ooorrrr ... the next time I make this, I'm going to add some peas and carrots to the mixture. I'll let you know how it turns out. :)
Well, happy thanksgiving! I thought I'd snag a moment before I surrender to the turkey-induced coma to share a few photos from the past couple days. I've uploaded more to a flickr set here (which I will be updating through the rest of my trip home), but below are a few of my favorites ...
Doesn't he just look like a trouble maker??
Aww ... this is possibly my favorite picture of these two EVER:
Dinner at my sister's, the night before Thanksgiving:
And two of my favorite fellas:
Spent the afternoon at the National Arboretum. Got to see a bonsai exhibit I was really curious about. Mom, as promised, I took a TON of pictures.
Isn't it neat looking?? It reminds me of the living forest in Lord of the Rings. I feel like they're about to step up out of the ground and start stomping around!
The entire set of photos is at Flickr here. Or you can just watch the slideshow here (click the "play" button in the middle, and then click the "play" button at the bottom left corner to set it to autoplay):
I was in the mood for chicken pot pie tonight ... so ... I decided to make it. But I tweaked the recipe a bit from how my mom always made it. Rather than two cans of cream of chicken soup, I did one can of cream of chicken and one can of cream of mushroom. And then I also added a few things to season it: a teeny bit of fresh ground pepper, a couple sprinkles of salt, and a few shakes of parsley. It was sooooooo good. The parsley, in particular, made it really savory. Full adjusted recipe below.
1 Pillsbury Pie Crust (not already in pan), thawed
1 lg. can chunk white chicken
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c. frozen shoepeg corn (I like sweet corn, too)
1 c. frozen peas & carrots
"teeny bit" fresh ground pepper
"couple sprinkles" salt
"few shakes" parsley
Drain canned chicken. Put chicken in pie plate, cutting up large pieces as needed. Add soup and vegetables. Sprinkle on seasonings. Mix well; spread evenly in pie plate. Lay pie crust on wax paper; cut several vent holes in crust. Place crust on top of chicken mixture. Finger crimp edges of crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min. or until done.
When pondering the question "On which day should we celebrate Miss Kozel?" ... the natural answer is "Everyday. Obvi." But for the official day of celebration, we want to make sure as many people as possible can make it. So use the nifty little poll below to enter your preference. And then be on the lookout for the Facebook invite!
Time's up! The people have spoken. ;) Looks like it'll be Friday, Nov. 14!
Okay, first of all, have you voted??? I have not, admittedly. But I do plan to. My afternoon is a little more flexible than my morning, so I plan to head back to VA to vote early in the afternoon and then work from home the rest of the day. (Whatever's left of it, anyway ... since I know I'll likely be standing in line for a couple hours.)
Needless to say, it has been a little nuts up here. Folks have been campaigning and encouraging early voting at my metro stop every day for the past two weeks. With Virginia being a swing state this year, it's more intense than ever.
Also for the last month, in particular, I've seen an insane amount of political paraphernalia EVERYWHERE. Never in my life have I seen so many t-shirts, buttons, hats, stickers, etc. proclaiming loyalty to one candidate or another. What's different from what I'd seen back home ... is that it's not like folks are going to a rally or a particular political event. I mostly notice this stuff on the metro or elsewhere in public. It's just people going to work. It's a guy wearing a McCain button on his overcoat everyday. Or a woman wearing an Obama t-shirt under her suit jacket. Seriously. Every day.
Think about it. Either way this goes, it's still a game-changing, hugely historical happening. By the end of today, we will either have our first female VP or our first African American president.
It is impossible to not be excited.
Speaking of which ... eh, I need to figure out what I'm doing for election night tonight. Parties everywhere in DC (and beyond) tonight. Decisions, decisions ...
Wish you were here!
UPDATE (4:15pm): Okay, I voted! Zipped out to Arlington a little after 3:00 and knocked that sh*t OUT. I was amazed at how fast it went. It literally took me less than 10 minutes. No lines, which was incredible. I spent more time on the metro than I did at the polling place.
... but happy anniversary to my dad and Linda! One year!
Trying out a new site, kaboodle, which let's you VERY easily build wish lists with any items from any website. (Seriously, if you use the Firefox browser, it's one click to add an item!)
My wish list is here. :) And in the left-hand sidebar over there. And ... I'm going to try to embed this nifty slideshow feature they have ... let's see if it works ...
I haven't been sleeping well lately. I lie down, but my brain keeps on clicking. And clicking and clicking and clicking. Then I finally snooze. Only to wake up an hour later with the brain just a' clicking and churning away. Bah! No good.
Can someone please send some good-sleep vibes my way? kthxbai
