Camera = DED

Well not officially.  It technically still takes pictures.... Sometimes.  It is a bit temper mental and will sometimes turn on with a bit of finesse.  Now, on top of the fact that it only turns on sometimes, it is holding my pictures hostage.  I am now in the midst of bidding on a new camera on E-bay.  I have very little patience for e-bay and their unnecessarily long bidding times, so I might just end up buying one from Dell.  Any who, many pictures to come as soon as I figure out how to get my camera to release them. :(

I love horse racing

My new favorite thing is going to OTB (Off Track Betting) for the three major horse races and betting on them.  I have a system where I look through the schedule of horses and bet on them according to their names.  I usually just do a $2 to Win, but when there are two names that jump out at me I do a $2 Win, Place, Show.  Win, Place, Show means the horses can come in 1st, 2nd or 3rd, in any order.  You don't win as much and the bet technically costs $4, but once in a while it pays off.
I'm usually there with a bunch of guys and end up being the big winner of the day.  For the Kentucky Derby I was the big winner with $5.50 (pathetic boys), for the Preakness I was the big winner with $9.40.  But for the Belmont I was really the big winner with $48.50!  My winnings came solely from the big Belmont race.  I bet the favorite horse, Shackleford, and then a horse named Runnin' On Ice, specifically because he was the horse wearing pink .  :)  The boys were not happy with me and I might have to reserve my own table next year. 
But it might be a good thing since the woman at the betting window knows me and tells me "Go get 'em girl" every time I come up to place a bet. 

No turning back now....

The wedding invites have been mailed out!  123 days to go until the big day.  I am excited every day to come home and open the RSVP cards that have come in the mail.  I have a :) box and a :( for yes's and no's.  And I am glad to say there are already more yes's than no's.  LOL. 
If anyone was wondering, I designed the invites myself and had them printed locally by Shelly at French Press Online.  She was amazing to work with and they turned out fantastic!

Pumpkin Pie Dip

I made this dip for a party we went to on Saturday.  Mine looked a bit darker than the picture below, but it was still amazing!  It makes A LOT of dip, so be prepared to be eating it the Wednesday after (such as I am doing now).

Servings:12, Size: 1/2 cup, WW Points per serving: 3, Cal: 103, Fat: .1g, Protein: 1.8g, Carbs: 27.7g, Fiber .9g

*15oz canned pumpkin
*3/4 cup brown sugar (Splenda works too)
*1 tsp vanilla
*1/8 tsp cinnamon
*1/8 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or more to taste)
*6 oz fat free Greek yogurt (I used Dannon)
*8oz Cool Whip Free
*Cut up apples to dip (these are extra points, not included in the 3 listed above)

Mix pumpkin with brown sugar, vanilla and spices, blend well (I used a fork).  Mix in yogurt.  Fold in cool whip and chill in refrigerator until ready to eat.  (Makes about 6 cups)

Wedding stuff...

Last week James, Jaime, Pete and I were lucky enough to head out to Vegas for a couple days to do some wedding stuff.  Such as, actually see the place we are getting married.  That's right, I had never been to this place before, but my dad assured me that it was very nice.  And that it was.  I am really getting excited now that I have actually been to this place and I saw for myself how pretty it actually was.  The ceremony is going to be right off one of the greens, next to a water fall and pond area.  It's going to be at 6pm just as the sun is setting and behind us you will be able to see the glorious, magnificent lights of the Las Vegas strip.  Then we will head to the patio area, which is equipped with fire pits, for cocktail hour.  After that we will head inside to the country club restaurant area for dinner and then getting our boogie on. 
I signed a contract with our DJ, who had amazing reviews from his references and has been doing this for quite some time, so I am really excited that he is going to keep the party hopping into the night.
We also met with the florist who will hopefully be able to make sense of my ranting and Jaime's directions to make some very nice centerpieces and bouquets. 
Last but not least we visited the bakery to try some cupcake flavors.  The flavor (it's a secret) that I'm going to be getting for the wedding was not in season, so we tried a couple different flavors....  Maple bacon (my favorite because it had actual pieces of bacon in the cupcake!), Snazzleberry, Cinnamon Toast and Apple Cider.  You will just have to wait and see what I have in store for the cupcakes at the wedding :)
On a side note, there were an abundance of transvestites at the Tropicana.  From Tuesday to Saturday we saw 12.  And that includes one "woman" who was walking down the hallway on our floor with no shoes on, disheveled hair and make up that was a mess.  "She" proceeded to go to the elevators, did not push any buttons to go down, got into the elevator and literally stood in the corner.  I assume "she" was doing the walk of shame after a night of, well....  It turns out, we found out after Pete asked the woman at the front desk, there was an "underground tranny convention" going on.  Only in Las Vegas! 
Don't forget to visit our website for more information! Make sure you turn up the volume for an awesome soundtrack.  :)

Chicken Rollatini with Prosciutto and Cheese

This receipe was delicious!  Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of my creation, so below is a picture from the website where I got the recipe.  Obviously mine did not look like this, but it was still good :)

Servings: 8, Serving size: 1 breast, WW points: 4, Calories: 168.6, Fat: 6.4g, Protein: 22.1g, Carbs: 4.6g, Fiber: .7g, Sugar: 0g

Ingredients:
8 thin chicken cutlets, 3 oz ea.
4 (2.8oz) slices thin lean prosciutto, sliced in half
4 slices reduced fat provolone or mozzarella, sliced in half (I used mozz and I only had shredded, I highly recommend using th slices, so much easier)
1/2 cup whole wheat Italian seasoned breadcrumbs (I only had white unseasoned breadcrumbs, so I used that and a little bit of Italian seasoning)
1/4 cup romano cheese (or parm) (I used parm)
1 lemon, juice of
1 tbsp olive oil
Fresh pepper
1/4 red onion, sliced
Olive oil non-stick spray (I used Pam Olive Oil)

Directions:
Wash and dry cutlets well with paper towels.  Combine breadcrumbs and parm in one bowl and olive oil, lemon juice and pepper in another bowl.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Lightly spray baking dish with Pam.
Dip the chicken in the lemon-oil mixture, then into the breadcrumb mixture to coat well. 
Place each cutlet on a work surface such as a cutting board and lay 1/2 slice proscuitto, 1/2 slice mozz and a few chuncks of red onion on one side of the chicken cutlet.
Roll and place seam side down in a baking dish (you don't need to use toothpicks at all). Repeat with the remaining chicken.  When finished, top with remaining crumbs and spray lightly with oil. 
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Serve immediately. 

Weight Watchers Meatloaf and Stuffed Red Bliss Potatoes

This is probably one of my best meals yet.  It wasn't too difficult and oh so good. 
I first prepared the meat loaf and then while that was cooking I made the potatoes.  I cooked the potatoes at 400 degrees with the meatloaf just cause I didn't want to wait for the meatloaf to be done before cooking the potatoes.  I was STARVING.  So instead of cooking the potatoes for 20 minutes in the oven, I cooked them for 16, but now that I'm thinking about it, they could have cooked for the full 20. 
Also, the WW cookbook suggested making the leftovers into sandwiches, but I didn't want to wait for leftovers so I made it into a sandwich right away.  I used Portuguese bread with Dijon mustard, light Mayo, tomatoes, spinach and red onions. 

Here is the meatloaf recipe

Ingredients:
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped  (I used the frozen chopped onions and red peppers)
3 cloves of garlic
2 pounds ground lean beef (7% fat or less)
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup Italian-seasoned dried bread crumbs (I used plain then added Italian seasoning)
1 egg white
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray large rimmed baking sheet with non-stick spray (Pam).
Spray large non-stick skillet with non stick spray and set over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and bell pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.  (Heat should probably be lower and cook time longer, if you leave too long they will burn).
Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Remove the skillet from the heat, let cool 10 minutes.  (I put in the freezer for 5).
Combine the beef, onion mixture, 1/2 cup of ketchup, the bread crumbs, egg white, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper in large bowl.  Transfer the mixture to the baking sheet and form into a 5x10 inch loaf (I made it more on the flat side cause I knew I wanted it for sandwiches).
Spread the remaining 1/2 cup ketchup over the top of the meatloaf.  Bake for 50 minutes.  Transfer the meatloaf to a cutting board and let stand 10 minutes.  Cut into slices. 
Make into a sandwich!
Here's the nutritional info for just the meatloaf:
Servings 8.  Per serving: 224 cal, 6 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 1 g trans fat, 695 mg sodium, 16 g carbs, 1 g fiber. 5 points.
For the sandwich, increase points by 3.

Stuffed Red Bliss Potatoes (4 servings, 3 points each)

Ingredients:
8 small red bliss potatoes, about 2" diameter
3 Tbsp light mayo
4 Tbsp EVOO
6 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp fresh thyme (I used dried, but only about 1 tsp)
4 Tbsp grated parm or asiago cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Paprika

In medium pot, cover potatoes in water and add 1 tsp of salt.  Bring to a boil on medium-high-ish heat and cook until soft (about 12 minutes).  Drain and run under cool water.  Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While the potatoes cook, in a small pan, add oil and garlic and cook on very low heat, about 12 minutes till soft.  Remove garlic and discard oil.  Mash garlic.
In a medium bowl, combine garlic, thyme, cheese, mayo, salt and pepper. 
Using a teaspoon, scoop out potato leaving a 1/4 inch shell (doesn't always work out well).  Add the potato to the mixture and mash with a potato masher.  Fill the potato shells with the mixture.  Bake for 20 minutes. (I put them into muffin pans so I knew they would stay standing).

And voila!

Goat Cheese and Spinach Chicken

I receive updates from a cooking blog called Smitten Kitchen.  I love seeing her recipes, but to be honest they are very time consuming and include too many ingredients.  The other day I noticed she had a link to another cooking blog called Leftovers for Lunch.  From what I can tell, this girl is making my kind of recipes.  They are easy and good!
I've tried two recipes from this website so far.  The chicken is the first one and you can find it here. 
For St Patrick's Day I made Irish Car Bomb cupcakes for Kegs and Eggs.  You can find that recipe here.  Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of my amazing cupcakes.  :(  Those took FOREVER to make!
So here is the recipe for the chicken.  Her chicken looks a lot better than mine, but boy was mine pure deliciousness!  Her recipe calls for bleu cheese, but I used goat cheese.  It's just a matter of preference.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup chopped spinach (she used frozen, I used fresh)
2 oz Goat Cheese

Pound out the chicken breast with a mallet (this makes it so the chicken cooks faster and doesn't end up burning on the outside).
Salt and pepper the chicken breasts.
Over medium heat, saute until cooked through, about 7-9 minutes each side, probably less if you pound them out.
Remove chicken from pan and keep warm (I put them in the microwave on a plate).
In the same pan, heat oil.  Saute onion until translucent (mine always ended up a little on the browner side), about 5 minutes.  Stir in garlic and saute one minute or until fragrant.  Add spinach and heat through.
Remove from heat, stir in goat cheese.
Top chicken with spinach mixture and serve immediately.

Crock Pot Shredded Black Bean Chicken

I got this recipe from my lovely step-sister Brooke.  Yes, her name is Brooke as well.  I am Brooke number one and she is Brooke number two.  DO NOT call me Big Brooke, I will not answer you.  Any who, here is the recipe.  I've made it twice now and the first time I used 3 chicken breasts and there wasn't really enough liquid to soak up into the chicken.  So the next time I made it, I decided to use a cup of chicken broth just for some extra liquid in there.  Also, the first time I ate it with just the rice as like a rice bowl dish.  The second time, I ate it as a filler in a burrito.  Oh my was that so much better!  I added a little lettuce, tomato, light sour cream and some guac.  Mmmmm good!  Here is the recipe (with my chicken broth added and my extra chicken breast):

Ingredients
1 cup salsa
1 can black beans, drained
1 package taco seasoning
1 cup chicken broth
3 chicken breasts
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Combine first four ingredients and stir.  Add chicken to middle of mixture.
Cook on low for 6 hours.
After 6 hours, remove chicken and set aside.
Add sour cream and cheese to mixture.  Stir until sour cream is mixed and cheese is melted.
Shred chicken with two forks and mix back into the sauce.
Serve over rice or in a burrito.
You can also top with chopped green and red peppers.

From hockey pucks to mmmm good

There was once a time in my life when I would burn everything I cooked.  It didn't matter if it was pop tarts, toast or the hamburgers I was in charge of making for Sunday dinner.  (Yes, that is the hockey puck reference).  I was so used to eating burnt food that I didn't think anything was good unless it was burned.  Gross I know.  I then figured out there were certain things I could make that I knew I wouldn't burn.  Ramen, mac & cheese, spaghetti with pesto and surprisingly the recipe on the back of the Campbell's cream of chicken can.  Hence, this was what I ate all through college. Once in a while I would make scones or cinnamon rolls.  Obviously my metabolism was way more active back then.
Then a Mr. James Lewis came along and he was not pleased with my selection of meals I could cook.  So I started my journey into the world of cooking. I started with easy stuff like enchiladas and more of those recipes from the back of Campbell's cans. 
Fast forward a couple years down the road and I am now more adventurous with my cooking since James will pretty much eat anything I put in front of him.  I'm trying to stick to the more healthy recipes (Weight Watchers mostly) since my hypothyroidism is already slowing down my metabolism to what seems like a stand still. 
So what does this little story have to do with anything?  I'm going to start blogging more about the meals that I make.  I love getting new recipes from other people since you can make your favorites only so many times. Honestly though, if it wasn't for James I'd still be eating mac & cheese and Ramen everyday.  :) 
Hopefully those out there reading this will at least get some good recipes from me. 

Daily Pug Picture

Tank was featured in the Daily Pug Picture e-mail that is sent out to all those who are signed up for the Owned By Pugs website. 
Go here to see his picture and bio!

Do it

My lovely, talented sister has created a website where you can purchase handmade items that she has made herself.  They are mostly for little girls and boys, but some of the items (headbands, bows) can be worn by adults as well.  And heck, maybe even the bibs can be worn by adults  :)
So check it out here.

Room Block

I have officially reserved the room block for the wedding at the Suncoast Hotel & Casino!!
Check out the wedding website to get the reservation ID to make reservations!
Click here

My one-armed chair

For the past few months I thought that someone had been moving my chair up when I leave. When I would come in to work in the morning I would sit down and I could tell my chair had been moved because the arm would hit a piece of metal under the desk.  Eventually this metal piece started to rip my chair arm apart. 
I thought I could cover it with some tape... Obviously this was a bad idea and the tape came off.  Plus, it looked pretty ghetto.  Well the arm kept getting worse by the day and was looking very trashy.  People would make comments about the chair, such as "are you eating your chair arm?".  Yes people, I'm eating the arm on my chair.  Idiots.  Anyway, I decided that it would be less trashy to remove the arm and just have a sad little one-armed chair.  And that's what I did.  Nobody even noticed that I removed the arm.  But I have noticed several times when I go to lean on the arm that isn't there and almost fall out of my chair.
As it turns out, there was not a person moving my chair everyday like I had thought.  It is broken and moves up on it's own. :)

Road trip to South Bend

James and I took a little road trip to South Bend/Chicago a couple weeks ago to see Utah get spanked by Notre Dame.  It wasn't really the outcome I was looking for, but that's what happened. 

Thursday was Veteran's Day and since James is a veteran we took advantage of a free night's stay at a Bed & Breakfast on Wednesday night in Newfane, about a half hour from our house.  We left from there Thursday morning and headed to Elkhart, IN, about 45 minutes from South Bend.  We spent the night there in a classy Holiday Inn Express.  (I'm being sarcastic here)  Friday morning we headed off to Chicago to visit the Frank Lloyd Wright house and then pick up my parents from the airport.  They also got to witness the horrible Utah loss. 

Friday night we went out on the town to a restaurant called Timothy O'Toole's, who serves delicious food.  After dinner we went to a sports bar called Mother Hubbards on Hubbard Street.  How clever...  This place was amazing.  There were so many Utah fans in there and we were all cheering for the Jazz so they turned down the music and for the last quarter of the game they turned up the sound on the Jazz game.  Luckily the Jazz won.  They also had these sports trivia games we played.  They had a list of all the team names in the league (football, basketball, baseball or hockey), but they were in "code" and you had to decipher which team was which.  We obviously won all four and they gave us Mother Hubbard towels.  But I'm not sure what I will use them for. 

Saturday was the big day.  We had to be to the Marriott by 6:30am to catch the bus with the Crimson Club.  They had 9 buses full of Ute fans all heading to the game, not to mention the fans that were just driving themselves from Chicago.  When we got to South Bend there was a tailgate party waiting for us.  There was awesome food and I also was a bit of a klepto and stole some nice souvenirs.  After this it went downhill.  We were harassed as we walked around with the usual comments about having seven wives and being polygamous, as well as getting our butt's kicked inside the stadium.  All in all it was a fun day because of the fun we had with my parents, but a win would have made it better.   We headed back to Chicago Saturday night with the Crimson Club, only to wake up Sunday morning and make the 10 hour trek back to Buffalo. 

Memorable moments from the trip:

- James saying he didn't like my ipod playlist but singing to every song that came on.

- Getting glares from everyone while wearing my Utah shirt/hoodie.

- The HUGE spider in our hotel room in Elkhart, which then made me start screaming and jumping on the bed.

- Sonic in Parma, OH.

- Mad Anthony's in Elkhart.  Except for the shot of spicy bloody mary vodka that gave me heart burn for 2 days.

- Going to the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Oak Park, IL.  I'm a nerd, I know.

- Seeing other Ute fans in Chicago and just being able to shout out GO UTES!

- Seeing many familiar faces at the game.

- Spending quality time with my dad and Elizabeth :)

- The guy at the gas station in Indiana who on the way home said he wished we would have won.  It made me feel a little better.

The bed & breakfast

SONIC!

The Frank Lloyd Wright house

Chicago

The bus to South Bend



I took way more pictures than this!  To see all of them, watch the slide show :)



One good thing about living in the Northeast...

is the abundance of trees and the colors they turn in the fall.  It makes the cool weather of fall a bit more enjoyable to look at all the pretty colors of the leaves.  I took this picture last week, it doesn't do justice to the colors.  But now that it's gotten colder, many of the colorful leaves have fallen off the trees.  This is the time of year when I start my countdown until summer.

Update

I have updated the Travel Arrangements part of our wedding website. 

Check it out!

A visit from some of my favs

My cousin, Christopher, called me a couple months ago to see if he and my uncle Ken could come to Buffalo and stay with us because they wanted to go to the Gordon Lightfoot concert.  For those who are less musically savvy, Gordon Lightfoot is a 70's folk singer.  But I only know who he is because my uncle Ken would play his music all the time when we were younger.  So Friday they flew in (after a delayed flight, a diversion to Philadelphia, and a long wait on a tarmac) and arrived about 12:30pm.  We headed off to John's for a delicious sub for lunch.  They then went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Encore.  It's the hot spot before all the concerts at Shea's.  We went to a wedding that night and after we met back up at home. 

Saturday was packed full.  First we went to the Darwin Martin House, which is a house designed by the famed Frank Lloyd Wright.  We went on the in-depth tour, but unfortunately we were not able to go in the main house because they are removing the asbestos in the walls.  Then we were off to lunch at the Anchor Bar, the original home of the Buffalo Wings.  This is where the wings were first invented many, many years ago.  They aren't the best wings in town, but it's a place you have to visit when you come to town.  After lunch we headed to Niagara Falls.  We rode the Maid of the Mist, walked around and enjoyed some fantastic people watching. 

The next day we woke up early to tailgate for the Bills game.  Once again, the tailgate was a lot more fun than the actual game, even if it was rainy and cold the entire time.  Monday, I dropped Chris and Ken off at the airport in the early am.  I love when visitors come to my house, it is so much fun.  So anyone out there reading this, come visit me!

To see all the pictures click here.

Pooped Pooch

At Tank's new daycare, Fisher's Friends, they are having a "Pooped Pooch" contest.  You send in a picture of your tired out dog after a day at daycare and they will decide which one is the best and that dog receives a free day of daycare.  Tank needs daycare whenever possible just to tire the little meatball out so he's not such a jerk all the time.  I entered in two pictures so we have twice the odds of winning.

Plant update:

It is still alive!!