Lots of Wind

So today brought a ton of wind to the Chicago area.  Even the car rocked when I was out earlier.  The power went out at the Rolling Meadows Meijer while I was there.  I was there to see if they had anymore of that free Pompeian olive oil.  It was a fantastic deal with the Meijer Mealbox coupon and the one on the Pompeian site.  Unfortunately they were out....but I did get a rain check which is just fine with me.

Also picked up 32 ct finish tabs at Dominicks for $1 a pack.  Which was a great deal.  Picked up six of those.  And also got Betty Crocker fruit snacks for $.24 a box.  Which isn't bad.  My sister at college will eat them.

Also picked up 80 ct Splenda with fiber for $.99 a box at Walgreens.

All in all a very good shopping day.  Going to have to learn how to build shelves soon for the basement to put all these great deals on.

Hope everyone else is surviving the wind well.

Coffee cups

Coffee cups of all kinds are extremely popular at my house.  I missed snapping a pic when Rosie was running all over with it in her mouth.  Couldn't catch her till she plopped down to have a good chew.  And no it wasn't a mocha cup.  She loves all things coffee....you have to keep a close eye on your cups around here or they could end up like this one.

Starbucks just let Rosie know when you need some new ad shots....she'd be happy to help you out.

Who loves apple pie?

So everyone at my house loves apple pie.  That includes the pets.  Or at least they think they do.

So this is the huge apple pie that we normally make.  It's from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book.  It makes a great pie which is well worth the extra step of cooking the apples first before putting them in the pie crust.  Cooking the apples first causes them not to shrink while baking and doesn't leave that hollow space in your pie.

See how great it looks?  Also since all the pets were hanging out in the kitchen....I asked if anyone wanted their picture taken.  This is what happened.

The evil cat ran right in front of the camera....and Rosie who's scared of him decided it wasn't worth fighting over being in the picture.  I got her later...when she was scoping out the pie being cut on the kitchen counter.

Hope the pie is as popular when you make it.  :)

Painting the Garage door

Apparently it needs to be repainted.  So yesterday, I spent several hours scraping and sanding the garage door over and over.  Luckily the neighbor had a hand held electric sander.  Otherwise I'd still be out there scraping and sanding. 

I have to go get paint this afternoon.  I'll add before pics to this post...and after pics in another one.  We're sticking to the same cream and dark red orange colors.  Which is blah boring....I think royal blue or bright green would be so much more eye-catching.  :)

Naturally Enhancing your hair color

So I read about this natural color enhancing in an email I'd gotten from Whole Living magazine.  I thought it might be nice for my mom to try as she colors her hair at least once a month.  Well it's not intended to use as a hair dye...but it does darken brunette hair quite considerably.  She had some left over after trying it and said I should give it a try.  Well it's goodbye summer highlights.  Leaving this on like you would a conditioner in the shower considerably darkened my already dark brunette hair.  Luckily it says it only lasts about a week.

But I can't imagine that it doesn't work just as well for blondes or redheads.  I was amazed that just a few minutes with cocoa powder, yogurt, honey and apple cider vinegar would make such a huge difference.  Whole Living says they got the information from this book; The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances by Julie Gabriel.  I can't wait to check it out to see what else great things it has in it.

Need a pumpkin design?

I just found the neatest designs for pumpkins this year.  Betty Crocker has pumpkin templates on their site.  These pdf's can be printed out and you'll have an extra special pumpkin this year.  Or just save them to your computer to print later.

I definitely see some Betty Crocker pumpkins sitting on my porch this Halloween.  :)

Made from Scratch Cream of Mushroom Soup

So I got this new cookbook, Cook and Freeze by Dana Jacobi.  It has a fantastic recipe for Cream of mushroom soup. 

Which is great, cause I have this annoying allergy to soy protein and soy flour.  And you can't have tuna noodle casserole without cream of mushroom soup.  Every canned variety I've ever come across has soy in it....this is a great alternative. 

The recipe also has directions for use right away or if you want to freeze and use later.  Which I'll definitely be trying.  It doesn't take long to throw together and thickens up nicely even if you omit the cream and just use all skim milk.  A great alternative to canned ingredients and easy to make too!

Incredibly Cold In Chicago

It wasn't even forty out this morning in Arlington Heights.  Talk about fall showing up quickly. 

Well Rosie is all hunkered down in her kennel this morning with a blanket.  The cat was even following her around this morning wanting to cuddle with her.  But since he normally just walks up and attacks her, she wasn't quite interested in being cuddle buddies.  He'll have to sneak up on her later after she's already fallen asleep.

It's been a very uneventful few days.  Even though we did make cake pops, they didn't turn out as gorgeous as the ones from the cookbook.  Apparently you need to dip them a couple of times to make them seem more round.  That wasn't a helpful hint included in the book.  Would have been nice to know before we started.  But they do taste great.  And we'll probably make more of them.

Been spending every morning working on the mold we've found in the basement.  Apparently if you don't use a/c during the summer months in the Chicago area its way too humid down there.  And mold develops.  I still have to learn about dehumidifiers.  To suck all the humidity out of the basement.  It does look like the basement is closed off because of contamination.  Just like it would look in a horror movie.