Last fall, I had a Pampered Chef party at my house. I had it for two reasons – first of all, I wanted to have fun with friends and family, and second of all, I needed a good set of pots and pans.  :)
After much deliberation, Neal and I purchased a set of stainless steel [...]

Halloween was pretty low key in our household. Neal and I ran errands in the morning, I planted a mum in my outdoor pot, and I made some yummy goodies for us.
Our neighborhood is like a trick-or-treat mecca. They bus ‘em in, man. I’m serious. It was raining when trick-or-treating started at 6, but we [...]

What’s been my deal lately? I have been slacking hard core on the blog. I guess there’s just been a lot of stuff going on, and this fell to the wayside. I’m sorry! Now that we are entering the arctic months, I’ll probably having nothing better to do than blog, haha, so hopefully I get [...]

So, I’ve been pretty lax on cooking lately. And when I have cooked, it’s been the staples – turkey burgers, meatloaf, baked chicken, etc.
Well, lately, I’ve been utilizing the awesomeness that is frozen shrimp. Our grocery store has had frozen shrimp on sale recently, so we like to buy the 2-pound bags of large shrimp. [...]

So, NFL preseason is on, and I have to say, I’m so excited for football season! We’re watching the Eagles play the Patriots now. *Sigh* Hope it’s a good year for the Eagles.
Anyway, I’ve been back to cooking lately. We’re been busy this summer and I got lax about cooking, but I’m trying to lost [...]

So, I was able to pick a couple roma tomatoes off of our tomato plants in our backyard garden. I sliced then for a BLT sandwich and they were DELICIOUS!

I sit them on the windowsill so they can ripen up a little bit better. And yes, that is a wishbone at the far end of [...]

I hope all the Dads had a good Father’s Day. Neal and I had breakfast at my parents’ and then visited his parents’ for dinner. It was a long day, but it was really nice. I’ll post some pics later this week.
For breakfast at my parents’, I made some strawberry scones. I had this recipe [...]

So, I think strawberry season in my county is close to the most wonderful time of the year. Seriously.
We have the THE best strawberries. I love making strawberry shortcake (the Bisquick mix in a 9×9 pan), because it reminds me of when I was little. My mom used to make it as a special treat [...]

Neal and I went to a friend’s house Saturday to see off our friend who will be deployed overseas soon. I made some fun treats for the party, ’cause that’s what I do!
First, I made some chicken enchilada dip rollups that I saw on a food blog. They were pretty simple to make. I wasn’t [...]

So, during the wedding ceremony this weekend, the pastor asked all the married couples to take a moment and reflect upon their wedding days. The church fell silent, and you could see shy smiles, hands reaching for loved ones’ hands and whispered memories.
It was a really sweet moment. I thought back to that day,  truly [...]

So, I’ve said before that Neal likes capers, so when I saw this recipe for Chicken Scallopine on PW’s site, I knew I had to try it.
It was very similar to the chicken piccata I make, but with addition of mushrooms and a much lighter sauce. The recipe called for heavy cream in the sauce, [...]

Sun! Warm temperatures! Happy Megan!
Friday is the first day of spring, and it’s starting to show. I love it!

Of course, the cats like staring at the black beast the lives across the street and barks at EVERYTHING. Seriously, I’ve never seen our neighbor walk this dog and he’s large and not socialized at all. He [...]

So tax season kind of got me in the mood to start having a bigger involvement in the finances. When Neal and I first started dating, I made it very clear I hated managing money and everything relating to it.
Neal, bless his heart, has done a great job dealing with all the finances, bills, etc. [...]

So, today is my birthday.
And I woke up to this:

And anyone that knows me AT ALL knows I absolutely hate cold, wet and most of all, SNOWY weather. Grrrrrrr…
So I was in a funk pretty much all morning. Neal was a sweetheart and drove me to work so I didn’t have to drive myself in [...]

So, I love pulled pork. LOVE.
I’m not sure when I first had it, but I still remember high school, when there was construction going on and we didn’t have a cafeteria. We ate in the unfinished gymnasium, and for lunch, the district brought in pre-made items, cold sandwiches, pizza and food they could keep in [...]

So, yesterday was a good day. We actually got up early and helped some friends move into their first house. It went quickly and it was fun to see their place. They are really excited to get settled in and I’m really happy for them.
Neal and I aren’t big celebrators (is that a word?) of [...]

So, Neal eats a lot of oatmeal.  Like breakfast oatmeal. He did some google-searching of his own and found some recipes for homemade oatmeal packets. He asked me if I’d make them for him, and of course I said yes. It doesn’t really involve cooking, haha, but it involves food, so why not?
I found this [...]

Finally! A beautiful, warm (relatively) weekend. Of course, this is probably just a tease and it will get cool again, but oh well. It was nice while it lasted!
Thursday or Friday (I can’t remember), I made Neal a stromboli. I didn’t really feel like doing it and just wasn’t in the mood, so I kind [...]

So, I made a whole chicken last week, and always have a lot of chicken left over. Neal always buys cans of soup to take to work for lunch, so I thought I’d give some homemade chicken noodle soup a try. I sort of used a recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, but [...]

Question — what do you call sloppy joes? You know, the sandwiches made with ground meat, onions, ketchup, etc.?
My family calls it “hamburg barbecue.”
Neal thinks we crazy. He always says “What the hell is hamburg?”
Neal and I grew up a little over an hour apart. But sometimes, it seems like we grew up on opposite [...]

So, this is how Simone helped me clean and bake yesterday:

She surveyed my work from the top of the cabinets.
And then she got distracted by her dirty paw.

Then she followed me over to the sink and watched me wash dishes.

Oh, and then she was distracted by a bird or something outside.

OK, then I guess watching [...]

So, here’s an update on my to do list:
Bake cookies, getting there, butter is softening
Bake dessert for Super Bowl Sunday to take to my brother’s house
Cry about my laptop (see post below) we haven’t turned it off since Neal got it to reboot, so I’m still using it. Good news, Neal is ordering a part [...]

So, every time I see a fish recipe, I get sort of jived to make fish.
Cooking a fish dish makes me feel cool. Healthy. Hip.
I’m usually none of those things.
So I found a recipe for parmesan crusted tilapia. I grabbed two filets at the store and modified the recipe slightly. I mixed equal parts bread [...]

One of Neal’s favorite foods is lasagna. And for some reason, I never make it.
I think the last time I made lasagna was in college. Andi and I told our neighbor that if he didn’t smoke cigarettes for a month, we’d make him a lasagna dinner. He cheated a little, but he was nice and [...]

So, I’m pissed the Eagles lost. Blah, Blah and Argh!
So drowning my sorrows in blog writing, HAHA.
First, cooking stuff. Last night, Neal and I had tacos for dinner. Neal loves Spanish/dirty/spicy rice and normally we just buy the mix. But we didn’t have any in the pantry so I dug around and found a recipe [...]

So, it was my goal not to leave my house this weekend.
It’s cold outside.
I hate the cold.
It sucks really badly.
I sort of failed, because I did run to Target with Neal, but other than that, I think I’m well on my way to staying inside the rest of the weekend. It’s awesome.
After work Friday, I [...]

I had SUCH a great holiday weekend, and I’m so bummed that it’s over. Oh well. Gotta go back to work so we can put food on the table (for Ferris and Simone).
As promised, I took some pictures of the cats today, mostly Simone. She’s easier to take pictures of because she’s really unfazed by [...]

I love lazy Saturdays. It’s 6:45 p.m. and I’m still wearing my pjs. HAHA. Awesome.
I’ve talked before about how Simone likes to jump on our backs. Her back claws are razor-sharp and it sucks. Here’s the damage she did to Neal.

Eeeeek! She draws blood!
Ferris, meanwhile, attacked a scarf of mine. He loves anything really furry, [...]

So, normally I think resolutions are stupid. The typical “lose weight and eat better” always loses steam around Feb. 21 or so. I don’t even bother.
But I know I’ve commented on this site before about how disorganized Neal and I are. We can never find anything, and our house IS NOT BIG. It’s ridiculous, and [...]

So, I can’t believe it’s the end of 2008! This year flew by. I heard it only gets worse as you get older. Jeez.
We’re heading back to Shawn and Andi’s house for New Year’s. But screw Shawn and Andi, I can’t wait to see COLE!! I promise to take plenty of pics of his cute [...]

So, before I finish up my holiday weekend post, let me first explain the reason for my sparse posting — xbox and the game Neal bought me, Fable 2. It’s this game where you run around this ancient world and perform different quests and you can either be a good guy or a bad guy. [...]

So Monday night, I went over to my parents’ house to bake cookies with my mom. We try to make time to do this every year around Christmas. We were cutting it close this year, but we did it!
I have made Emeril Lagasse’s recipe for raspberry lemon thumbprint cookies the last two years to give [...]

So, I spent most of Friday, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon in the kitchen. Which isn’t a bad thing, since that’s one of my favorite places to be!
Neal and I are heading to a Christmas party soon, but I figured I’d blog quickly about what I’ve been up to so that tomorrow can be a [...]

So, Neal and I spent most of Sunday relaxing, recovering from our eventful day in NYC (see previous post).
The kitties missed us like crazy and bombarded us with cuddles and lots of purring in bed this morning. They didn’t leave our sides most of the day.

And I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. I [...]

So, this picture is for my dear friend and loyal blog reader, Mumfy.

See? That’s me. Putting a frozen pizza in the oven for dinner. I’m just like you!
OK, so since I hated it in middle school when girls never explained inside jokes, I’ll fill you all in.
See Mumfy (her name is Heather, but I call [...]

So, I’d like to revisit a photo I took a couple of weeks ago.

Here it is. The one where Ferris is making my nutcracker dance. After further review of this photo, I’d like to point out two things that really made me laugh. These things are also pretty indicative of anything that goes on around [...]

So, I came home from work today, walked in the door, and promptly stepped on our tree skirt.
I told you Ferris has an unnatural obsession.

Anyone that knows my house knows that after somehow dismantling the fabric from the tree stand, he had to drag it up a step, through the kitchen and through our living [...]

So, Saturday was a good day. A really good day.
Neal and I woke up early, had a nice breakfast and headed to a local tree farm to get a Christmas tree. We spent a fortune last year on a pre-cut tree. So we decided to save $30 and head to a farm and cut down [...]

So, as promised, I have plenty of cat pictures to show you.
Friday, I got up early, put on the Christmas music, and started carrying up my boxes of Christmas decorations. I really love decorating for Christmas. But, I sort of forgot how difficult it is to decorate with the felines in my house.
First, I opened [...]

So, we had a great Thanksgiving and I’ll post about that soon. First, I got to tell you about last night’s TEIV. I got out of work early (YAY!) and was home by 4 p.m. I then had plenty of time to do some more cleaning and prepare the food.
I baked my bacon cream cheese [...]

So, for several years, we’ve been inviting friends over on the night before Thanksgiving. The first one was four years ago, and involved a lot of alcohol, a live band, snow and a lot of walking. Don’t ask.
So this year it’s TEIV. I came home from work Tuesday, vacuumed and started cooking for Wednesday night.
First, [...]

Megan’s Weekend To Do List:
Clean kitchen floor
Vacuum
Order photo Christmas cards
Make homemade mac & cheese (I need a layer of fat to keep warm this winter)
Clean downstairs bathroom
Do Laundry
Dust
Pick up Mt. Everest-sized pile of clothes in bedroom
Annoy Neal
Take pictures of cats instead of doing aforementioned chores CHECK!

So, I battled a sore throat and cold all week. I get sinus infections as fast as you can say “May I have a tissue,” so I tried to get my rest, take medicine, etc., to avoid it.
Alas, I woke up Friday morning with so much sinus pressure in my head that my ears were [...]

Neal and I occasionally put on our shoes and our toes hit something soft shoved into the front of the shoe.
It’s always a puffball. Our cats love putting their puffballs and sometimes small furry mice into our shoes and then trying to dig them out. I caught Simone playing with Neal’s slipper and took a [...]

This weekend was a pretty good weekend. A good mix of fun family/friend time and down time.
My dad’s birthday was Sunday, so Neal and I and my brother and his wife went over to my parents’ house to eat dinner Friday. I made this recipe for Apple Cake that I’ve been meaning to make for [...]

So, the end of the week wasn’t so good for me. I didn’t feel well at work on Thursday and went home an hour early. I knew it wasn’t the flu; my sinuses get really bad around this time of year when the weather is changing. Friday, my head hurt so bad that I was [...]

So, I’m writing this while the end of the Phillies game is on. I’m having trouble watching it (nervous!!!), so I decided to blog about dinner.
I saw this recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits that looked really easy, so I decided to make them to go along with my slow cooker pot roast. I love pot [...]

So, I spent the weekend at my college alma mater’s homecoming with my girlfriends.
I have to say, I had one of the best times I’ve had in a long time. A lot of bonding, a lot of laughing, and a lot of… ummm… inebriation. HAHA. It was really fun to be back, see our old [...]

So, this weekend, Neal and I traveled to Philadelphia to see his mom at the closing ceremonies of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for breast cancer. She worked so hard to raise the money to participate and trained hard to be able to withstand the 3-day walk.
I wanted to do something for her, so [...]

So, I feel like I post more about Simone than I do about Ferris. I feel badly about that.
But I feel like he’s trying to kill us. Really. I think we have a little panther man-killer.
Here he is trying to smother Neal with his large body.

Seriously, I heard this weird muffled noise while I was [...]

So, we finally had a weekend where we didn’t have plans or had to head out of town. The best part of the weekend? The Pampered Chef stuff arrived! I wish I would have taken pictures of all the boxes. The shipment was six boxes, and three of them were so huge that I could [...]

So, I’ve made some stuff last week/weekend/this week and haven’t gotten a chance to post about it yet.
First, Neal and I like to get Purdue’s Oven Roasters at the grocery store. They are soooo easy and not too expensive. You get so much meat out of them. I like to put mine on a bed [...]

So, I love these frozen Celeste pizzas.

My grandmother often gave them to my cousin and I when we were little for a quick lunch, so I’m used to them and really like them. They’re pretty fattening (heck, it’s pizza), but I don’t care.
So Neal went to the grocery store last night by himself. I gave [...]

So, I hosted a Pampered Chef party on Saturday and it was awesome! I had so much fun hanging out with friends and eating good food. Plus, what’s more fun than playing with kitchen gadgets?
I didn’t make a lot of food, because I knew the PC consultant was making a pizza. I asked my mom [...]

So, I know that mostly friends, family and people I know read my blog. But I also know that this blog is public, so pretty much everyone CAN read it if they want to. I do write with that in mind. I don’t like to say where I work, post pictures of the outside of [...]

So, Neal is forbidden to talk to me about politics.
FORBIDDEN.
We got into a heated discussion a couple of days ago where Neal was admittedly antagonistic. He kept trying to trip me up on my words and I felt like I was being grilled by Campbell Brown. Ugh.
So, I don’t care if we watch CNN or [...]

So, we had wedding #4 this past weekend. It was my boss’ daughter’s wedding, and it was a really, really fun time.
The ceremony was gorgeous. It was held at a local horse farm and the weather just held off for the ceremony.
Neal said he spent most of the ceremony looking at this daddy long-legged spider.

Can [...]

So, it poured buckets all Saturday. It was hard to wake up, because it seemed so dark outside. It was actually kind of nice not to have to run anywhere, or do yardwork. I was stuck inside, and loved it!
Neal’s parents came to visit, and my mom came over, too, since my dad was out [...]

So, I was hungry for cookies Tuesday. Like really hungry for some sort of cookies.
I saw this recipe online for Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters and decided to give them a try, because I knew I had the ingredients at home, most importantly the oats, peanut butter and chocolate chips.
The recipe calls for 3 [...]

Neal and I had a great — albeit full — weekend.
We spent Saturday morning working on the yard. I wanted to plant new potted plants and Neal did a whole lot of pulling weeds.
Here are the multitude of plants I bought before I planted them.

I think I got my camera lens wet, so excuse the [...]

So, my body hates me today. It hated me yesterday, too, and a little Saturday night. But it definitely completely loathes and detests me today for making it play wiffleball, thereby using muscles that haven’t been used (sadly) in a long time. I walked like I had a stick up my ass all day, and [...]

So, we had a crapload of trash from our little deck project this weekend – carpet, wooden trim, metal canopy remnants.
Our spot on the curb for trash day tomorrow is a little full.

Sorry for the dark picture.
This was taken five minutes after some guy in a pickup truck took away our panels from the metal [...]

So, I’m obsessed with the Olympics. I am so freakin’ exhausted this week because I have been up so late watching the Olympics EVERY NIGHT. It’s ridiculous. I’m obsessed with Michael Phelps and the men’s gymnastics team. I do have a stud for a husband at home, but he can’t do a pommel horse routine.
So [...]

So, my pics were acting up last post and I got frustrated and just stopped, HAHA, so here’s the continuation of the weekend.
Neal and I stopped at BJ’s on the way home from the family reunion and then I came home and slept for TWO hours. Yeah, I love to sleep. Simone cuddled with me [...]

So, my work week was pretty busy and I didn’t have a lot of time to post. I’ll start with Thursday. My friend Amanda and I went to the mall to shop for gifts for Jodie’s bachelorette party. I couldn’t go, but I wanted to send along some fun XXX-rated goodies. Jodie couldn’t make it [...]

So, we had a pretty good weekend. My boss had a party at his house for all of the employees and it was a lot of fun. He got steamed crabs (YUM!!) and we all brought side dishes. There was tons of food and since I have no willpower whatsoever, I stuffed my face. It [...]

I had THE biggest craving for chocolate chip cookies today. I’m actually not a huge chocolate freak, so this was kind of weird for me.
So I came home and after a quick sandwich, I went right to baking. I used some new recipe I found online.

Holy crap, was this batter good. It called for two [...]

So the egg casserole turned out pretty well. My mom’s on Christmas Day tastes better, but I think that’s combo of the fact that my mom made it, and… well… it’s Christmas Day!
So, we tried to get up fairly early, because we planned to go for a little hike. As is typical for holidays and [...]