The beginning of a new month means a new desktop download from Shabbyprincess.com. This desktop is just screaming FALL!!!! This is my desktop for the month of September. My oldest went to Kindergarten this year and I have one of the many pictures we took that morning in this desktop wall paper.
Betsy $63 Now $30
Little Betsy $59 Now $25
TODAY (August 27) ONLY!
Today is also the last day for free shipping on orders of $75 and over!! So many good deals from Vera Bradley this week. Click on the image to go right to the site and the deal! Which of the wonderful deals did you get this week!?
Once again Vera is offering something I don’t have the pennies for! I hope you do because it is a GREAT offer. It is once in a blue moon that Vera Bradley offers an item for 60% off. Click on the images above to go grab you zip around wallet for $15. If you happen to spend $75 you will get FREE shipping.
Restaurant.com offers a national directory of more than 10,000 restaurants and a number of exclusive online merchants. Search by state, city, neighborhood, zip code and cuisine type to find the perfect restaurant and gift certificates for savings.
For higher priced orders the “Dinner of the Month Club” has three different offers that provide “store credit” for our restaurant gift certificates. The prices are $30 for a $75 value, $60 for a $150 value and $120 for $300 value delivered over the course of 3, 6, and 12 months.
If I had an extra $34 laying around I would SOOOO be buying this tote. I LOVE big totes. We just got back from the beach and they are so useful for hauling EVERYTHING! Look at the deal you are getting from Vera Bradley TODAY ONLY! That is a pretty way to pinch pennies! Click the image of the Super Tote and it will take you right to the link where you get your Super Tote for $34.
I love Chick-Fil-A. If you do not have one close to you, I am so sorry. They didn’t invent the chicken…just the chicken sandwich. Through Twitter I found out that they are having a Chicken Wave. It is a digital wave ( think football games ) where you are able to personalize your cow and stand up and cheer for your favorite food… the chick -Fil-A sandwich. PLUS there are prizes!! We all love prizes!!
Come join me and stand up and cheer for Chick-Fil-A. I am wearing the pink jersey, I have blonde piggy tails on my bovine face and I am waving a #1 foam finger and clutching a Coca-Cola Zero. Yeah Chick-Fil-A!!!
This Easter I was able to convince my husband that the girls ‘needed’ to have chickens. I wanted them to know where their food comes from. We have a garden for veggies but I wanted them to experience having chickens for eggs. I am not real happy with the treatment of chickens in industrial hen houses. Not being able to turn around, not having natural sun light and not being able to touch any thing other than a metal mesh are some of my biggest gripes. Being a baker I go though a lot of eggs in a week and thought it would be a fun adventure to have chickens for eggs. Besides, who wouldn’t want a few chickens for pets?
So it took from early March till just yesterday to get an egg! My husband said, “It is brown.” Well duh! We have brown chickens!
Brown Chickens = Brown Eggs
White Chickens = White Eggs
On the left is a store bought egg. Size large.
Middle is our first egg.
On the right is our second egg.
The first one weighed 1 5/8 oz.
The second one was 1 1/2 oz. ( I thought this one was smaller)
A store bought egg weighs 2 oz.
I am pretty impressed that our first eggs were so close to a 2 oz. egg. I knew they would be small at first but I was very pleased with what we got. They are only going to get bigger!
I just had to share. **grins**
Here is a short lesson on how to peel garlic with little hassle. This is a bulb of garlic. It contains many cloves of garlic.
These are the cloves. Not to be confused with a bulb of garlic.
Next you are going to cut off the root ends off the cloves of garlic. The root end is the flat part, not the pointy part. You may get lucky and get a partial peel when you take off the root ends. If not don’t worry we will get the rest off in the next step.
Next you are going to smash your garlic. Lay the wide part of your knife on top of the garlic.
Give it a good WHACK with the heel of your hand. Go ahead…get out your frustrations of the day. The garlic won’t mind.
See? Nice smashed garlic.
Simply pull off the papery shell. I think this is so much easier than using your fingernails or a knife to try and pull the pesky papers off the garlic. Now it is ready to be chopped
, diced or minced.
There you go. Easy peasy.
I am on VACATION!!! I am gong to try and take a break from the blog too. We will see. I am not abandoning you, my faithful readers, but simply on vacation! Can you tell I am excited!? I will take time to refresh and renew. We all need it from time to time. Ta ta!!
I wanted to share with you my favorite soup. It is a lovely roasted tomato soup. I grow tomatoes just for this soup! It is tomato season so now is the time to make it, freeze it, and can it. Not to mention enjoy it! Here is a list of the ingredients you will need:
2½ pounds fresh tomatoes
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 small yellow onions, sliced
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 quart chicken stock
2 bay leaves
4 tablespoons butter
½ cup chopped fresh basil leaves, optional
¾ cup heavy cream, optional
*** I am going to double this recipe so my photos may look different from what you would be making if you are making a single recipe. ***
First step is to wash and core your tomatoes. Then cut them in half from side to side and remove the seeds. Put them on asheet pan cut side up and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Pop them in a 450* oven. These took 40 minutes to look like this.
Next we are going to have a short lesson on how to peel garlic with little hassle. This is a bulb of garlic. It contains many cloves of garlic. You are going to need 6 cloves for this recipe. I doubled the recipe so you will see 12.
These are the cloves. Not to be confused with a bulb of garlic.
Next you are going to cut off the root ends off the cloves of garlic. The root end is the flat part, not the pointy part. You may get lucky and get a partial peel when you take off the root ends. If not don’t worry we will get the rest off in the next step.
Next you are going to smash your garlic. Lay the wide part of your knife on top of the garlic.
Give it a good WHACK with the heel of your hand. Go ahead…get out your frustrations of the day. The garlic won’t mind.
See? Nice smashed garlic.
Simply pull off the papery shell. I think this is so much easier than using your fingernails or a knife to try and pull the pesky papers off the garlic. Now it is ready to be chopped, diced or minced. But for this recipe, we are just going to throw it on the sheet pan just like this.
Next step is to roughly chop your onions. Try and keep them about the same size so they all cook at the same speed. Just spread your onions and garlic out in a single layer on your sheet pan/cookie sheet.
Drizzle them with olive oil.
Add salt and pepper to your liking.
Pop them in the 450*F. oven and 30-40 minutes later they should look like this. YUMMY!!! If you are making a single recipe you are able to put the tomatoes, garlic and onions on the same tray. But when I do a double recipe I have to use 2 sheet pans.
Into a food processor they go. I scrape all the extra bits of onions and all the olive oil into the food processor as well. There is too much goodness not to scrape it into the soup.
Puree till it looks roughly like this. Kind of pasty, kind of chunky.
Put the roasted tomatoes on top. As you can see I am pushing the limits of my food processor here! Single batches work much better. I like to push the envelope! (roll eyes) If you are doing a single batch you can put your onion mixture and tomatoes in at the same time. Once again because I am doing a double batch I did my in stages.
This is what mine looks like. If you like it smoother purre it longer. I like the bits of onion and tomato in mine. MMMM. Freshness.
Next you are going to need 1 quart of stock, 2 bay leaves and 2 T. of butter. I have it doubles as pictured here. I normally use store brand stock or make my own but I was able to get this with a double coupon stacked with a sale. YIPPIE!
Put your tomato/onion pure in a largish stock pot and add your bay leaves, butter and stock. Bring to a boil and reduce by 25%. The soup will get thicker and more concentrated in flavor. If you would like it thicker just reduce it more.
Now for the part I don’t have photos for…basically because I don’t have cream or basil on hand. This part is optional too. Lower the heat and stir in your cream and basil. The picture below is without cream and basil. My husband does not appreciate the basil and I can do without the cream. Personally, I LOVE it with both. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.
