Good Eatin'

Some friends blessed us a couple of days ago with 2 beautiful home grown eggplant. I am sure that some of you do not think of blessed and eggplant in the same sentence. Honestly, I stared at them for about two days before I figured out what do with them.

My Mawmaw (my mom's mom) had a HUGE garden when I was growing up and she always grew eggplant. I can remember her making fried eggplant; I think these are also known as eggplant fritters.

On a side not, she had such a large garden that she had a whole room dedicated to her canned fruits and veggies. I loved this room. I always thought the jars were so pretty sitting on their shelves filled with their delicious treasures. My favorite thing that she ever canned was watermelon rind preserves. Talk about frugal!! You eat the red fruit then peel the skin off the ring, dice it up, and candy it. Oh my gosh, it is sooo good! I've made this once or twice and it is a lot of work, but well worth it.

Anyways, back to the eggplant.

I called my mom yesterday and asked how Mawmaw prepared her eggplant. Mom couldn't remember except she thought Mawmaw soaked them in something and then fried the eggplant. I decided to soak them in a mixture of buttermilk and milk for around 30 minutes. I peeled and sliced the eggplant first. Then I set up an assembly line of seasoned flour, egg/water mix, and seasoned breadcrumbs. I took a slice out of the milk, dipped it into the flour, then egg, and then the breadcrumbs. Finally, I fried the eggplant in grapeseed oil. until golden.

Oh my gosh!! These were sooo good. I also made a pot of collard greens I bought at Kroger for $1 on quick sale. Talk about a cheap meal! Matt actually loved the eggplant and he was so cute eating his greens; he called them green bean paper!

Old Navy

Here is what I found at Old Navy today:

• Hoodie orig $16.50 paid $1.98


• Star Wars tee $10.50


• Button up shirt orig $12.50 paid $3.49


• Button up shirt orig $12.50 paid $4.74


• Cargo shorts orig $12.50 paid $3.99


• Swim suit for next year orig $12.50 paid $1.74


• Socks on sale for $ .99

If I wouldn't have bought the Star Wars shirt, I would have saved a bunch but you can't refuse a man when it comes to Star Wars

Last Night

Yesterday was a great day. I was able to get a huge amount of stuff done including:

• cleaning kitchen baseboards
• going crazy with my label maker and labeling where things belong in my kitchen cabinets (talk about anal personality!!)
• washing my kitchen floor with a rag on my hands a knees
• cleaning up my dining room
• sorting through the massive collection station that is known as our dining room table
• cleaning out a drawer in our secretary furniture
• laundry

I feel so organized right now! I feel like I can finally take on the world, well not really but maybe if I had to.

To top off our day we had "Family Movie Night". Matt picked out a video, "The Love Bug". If you haven't seen this one, it is a classic Disney movie about the adorable VW bug Herbie. It's kind of like a friendly version of Stephen King's "Christine". I know, strange comparison.

Matt and I made chocolate chip bars for our fun night but the best part was the couch. While Matt was outside doing one last chore, I pulled out our sofa sleeper. When he came back inside and saw it, he squealed with delight. Who would have thought that something as simple as the couch made out would bring such joy.

It was great! You should try it.

A First!!

We have a first this morning in our house.

Richard said he will watch Dancing With the Stars this season!!

Why is he going to subject himself to this?? Because his UFC hero, Chuck Liddell, is going to dance. When I told him this I think he almost peed on himself. Michael Irvin and Tom DeLay are dancing as well. This made the event even sweeter.

Now the big mystery will be if I can keep him watching after they are voted off. It would be great if it did come down to Liddell and Irvin, but I doubt it.

Today I am going on a ladies overnight retreat for MOPS. I am very excited. Just an evening of girl chat. The last time I did this was Women of Faith about 3 1/2 years ago. Did I say I was excited?

More Playing Around

I was playing around with Picasa again last night. I thought I would share my pitiful attempt at photo editing and trying to be "artsy fartsy".

This is the original photo. Don't you love the art deco details at the top. I'm sure there is a much better way to capture this but I do not claim to be a photographer.

This is after I adjusted the fill light and highlights. Can you see the difference? It was more noticeable on the software program. Maybe I just posted the same picture...

Next I did something called warmify.

Finally, I used the soft focus effect. I thought it turned out pretty cool.

My Thirties

Ever since I was a young girl, I have always looked forward to my thirties. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it had to do with my naïve nature. Or maybe I was just a moron.

Two weeks ago I celebrated my 32 birthday. Would you like to know how I celebrated? It was really awesome.

Is the suspense killing you?

Are you ready?

With a sinus infection that I guess turned into a nasty cold! I was sick for over a week. For at least five days I thought my head was going to explode, became close friends with a Neti Pot, and was pretty useless.

It's very strange but I think after my past three birthdays I have become sick. After I turned thirty, once a month for three months straight, I threw-up (too much info, I know). After I turned thirty-one I got a bad cold. Now, after turning thirty-two I get a sinus infection.

What's the deal!?! These were supposed to be my best years, at least in my 10 year old mind.

Seriously, isn't this strange?

I have decided to take action. I am going to take a closer look at my diet and make sure that what I am eating is quality food. I use to be a freak about making sure we had our daily requirements of fruits and veggies, how much fat we were eating, and yada yada yada. Not so much now. Don't worry, I am still going to make my goodies but in moderation and with quality ingredients.

Regular exercise is another action I am taking. I used to go to the gym a couple of times a week before we moved. Now, I just exercise my fingers on my laptop. I am not going to buy a gym membership but I am going to start walking the dog daily and doing "The Biggest Loser Workout" video a couple of times a week. It's weird, I haven't gained any weight but my butt and thighs have grown tremendously along with my midsection.

I am not trying to have a pity party right now but this is the most unhealthy I have felt in a long time. My plan is not to lose weight or eat some kind of strange diet, I just want to feel healthy and set a positive example for my son.

Does anyone else feel this way? If you do, let me know and we can encourage each other.

 

Playing Around

I installed Google Picasa today and am playing around with the program. This is a pic from our trip up to Dallas last weekend. We are at my favorite place, Teepee Hill at White Rock Lake.

Cutie Pie

Just in case you forgot how cute my son is.