This looks like fun

I've never been here but I'd like to go one day soon. Doesn't it look like a lot of fun? I bet it'll be crowded on Halloween!

http://www.mysteryhill-nc.com/house.html

What a difference a weekend can make!

Wow, look what happened over the weekend! Can you believe it?! They've grown an inch it seems and I couldn't be happier. It's been one week exactly since they were planted and they are loving the sunshine and the wet dirt. It won't be long and they'll be on the table and in my mouth! Feel free to click on the picture to get a bigger view of them.

The Green Machines

Wow, they have sure greened up in the past few days! I'm getting excited now! Progress, beautiful progress!

This is for all you cooks out there

This is a website that is hard to live without if you love to cook. It's got tons of great recipes for every cooking skill and style. Have fun cooking!

http://www.cooks.com/

And the winner is....

Another tie! This weeks query found that the most popular characters on Gilligan's Island are the Professor and the Skipper. Thanks for voting!

For movie lovers

If you love movies and television as much as I do, you can't live without referencing this website on a daily basis. Enjoy!

http://www.imdb.com/

Same look, different day

Okay, this is the picture of them today. Not much change. They're really starting to get a deep green hue so at least that's something.

This is a little monotonous.....

Okay, I'll be the first to admit it. This isn't turning out to be more fascinating than tv. Watching my onions grow is rather dull so far. But, I've started this and I'm determined to see it through! Let's all hang in there and hopefully the onions will have a huge growth spurt in a few days.

Gilligan's Island Trivia

Since our query for this week deals with Gilligan's Island, I'm posting this website with the lyrics to the theme song. I personally memorized the song by watching Gilligan's Island over and over and over and over. It's the all time greatest tv show in my opinion!

http://www.geocities.com/rickanddarvagossip/gilliganthemesong.html

Day Two

This is still not a good shot of the onions but there's really not much change since yesterday. The tops look a little yellowish compared with yesterday but that's probably a result of their first experience with the wonderful sunshine. Maybe tomorrow we'll actually start seeing growth! I'm ready to eat them already! Oh, just in case you want a closer look at their growth, click on the picture and it opens a bigger window for viewing. I wonder if I should name each of the onions? ;-)

Check this out!

In keeping with my sharing interesting websites with everyone, I submit this site for your enjoyment. Wow, is this a great one or what?!

http://www.wackyuses.com/uses.html

This is going to be better than TV!

Okay, I'm warning you, this is going to be great! We are going to watch my onions grow! I planted my green onions yesterday that I'd saved from the spring harvest. I'm going to take a picture of them everyday to watch their progress. They were already starting to sprout so now that they're in the dirt they should really take off! I suppose to be truly scientific I'd need to take a picture at the exact same time everyday but I'm not going to do that. Also, the position of the pots will change but all in all I think it'll be a neat experiment. And the best part is that I get to eat the onions when they're grown! Now if I could only figure out how to take better pictures. So, without further ado, here's day one in the life of my green onions! Check back daily to watch these beauties grow!

Mooch

I had the opportunity today to meet a person VERY familiar to me and probably to you also. It was Mr. Mooch. He was everything I remembered and oh so much more. Icky icky pooh! Here's the definition of a mooch, in case you haven't met him. Given enough time on earth, you'll run across him once or twice or thrice.

mooch

dictionary results for: mooch

1.	to borrow (a small item or amount) without intending to return or repay it.

2.	to get or take without paying or at another's expense; sponge: He always mooches cigarettes.

3.

to beg.

4.

to steal.

–verb (used without object)

5.	to skulk or sneak.

6.	to loiter or wander about.

–noun

7.	Also, moocher. a person who mooches.

Yeah, you've met him before, you just didn't know a decent name to call him!

Triple tie!

This week's query resulted in a triple tie! Everyone's favorite Food Network hosts were Rachael Ray, Jamie Oliver and Tyler Florence, in no particular order. Be sure to check back weekly for the current query and the past week's winning answer.

TGIF!

Thank goodness it's Friday! I thought Friday would never get here and now it seems like Saturday won't get here fast enough. It also feels like I'm wishing my life away sometimes. Well, it's time for the cool website of the day but first, I have an important observation to talk about. Did you know that yesterday's date was ten nine eight? Yup, it was 10/09/08 yesterday and I didn't realize it until today. Bummer! But, I do like the way it sounds and looks! Yesterday was a good day! Now, for the website. This is a good site for folks (like me) who can never remember what those darn Roman numerals stand for. So, hope everyone had a very happy X/IX/VIII day!

http://www.novaroma.org/via_romana/numbers.html

What is wrong with this week?

This has been one of those weeks. We all know what I'm talking about. Nothing goes right and the weekend simply won't get here soon enough. So, without further ado, here's the nifty website of the day. I'm absolutely captivated by this website! Be careful or you'll get hooked on it also!

http://www.thesquirrelcam.com/

I prefer Camera 2 but Camera 1 is interesting because you'll see his chickens and dogs roaming around sometimes. Who knew animals got out in this extreme cold?!

Dried Bean Cooking 101

Once upon a time, a very dear friend of mine took the time to film a cooking lesson for me. Now, I'm doing the same but with less than satisfactory results I'm afraid. Maybe if I ask her really nicely, she'll let me post her cooking demo on here for everyone to enjoy!

Okay, just so you know, we eat a LOT of beans at my house. They're cheap and good for your heart, taste so good, uh, you know. Anyways, here's what I started out with.


Yeah, I know, I do ALL my shopping at Wal-Mart. I'm cheap that way.

It really doesn't matter what kind of bean you start out with, the end product should be yummy regardless!

Now, here's the next step when cooking with dried beans.

You've GOT to soak them. This step makes the cooking process so much faster. I soak my beans in warm water. After an hour or so, the beans should look more like this:




As you can tell, they're starting to swell. Now comes the most crucial step when cooking with dried beans. This step can NOT be omitted, trust me on this!







You've got to drain these bad boys as much as you can to get all the poops out of the beans! If this step is omitted, you'll get possessed beans that nobody can or will eat! Soak the beans and every 30 minutes or so, drain the water they've been soaking in and put fresh water on the beans. Your tummy will thank you for this and so will your co-workers!

After the beans have soaked for several hours and been drained many, many times, it's time to cook them. These are the ingredients I added to my beans when I put them in the crock pot. I did mention to use a crock pot, right? Yeah, I know, more Wal-Mart products. Italian Seasoning is great when slow cooking dried beans. I add the chicken broth for a little flavor and also for the salt content since I'm not big on salting my food as I cook. I'm getting better with salting my food while cooking but it's still a work in progress for me. I thought if I didn't add salt while cooking we'd eat less salt. Well, nobody eats an un-salty dish so we simply started adding more salt at the table. Now I've decided it's okay to add the salt while cooking. After adding the beans and Italian Seasoning and chicken broth, mince the garlic, add to the mixture along with a huge handful of dried peppers. We grow our own peppers and dry them for use later in the year. If you don't have home-grown dried peppers, crushed red pepper will work just fine. Just make sure to add some heat to the dish, peppers are great with beans! I don't add the tomatoes and onions until the beans are almost cooked. Adding tomatoes to the beans too early can cause the beans to toughen. I like my onions to have a bite to them so I add them late in the cooking process. If you've crossed your fingers and held your tongue just right, your lovely dish should look something like this:

As Rachael Ray loves to say, Yumm-O!!! Serve with rice and enjoy!

I made it

Well, we made it thru another Munday. I think it's time to prove to everyone that I'm interested in things other than cooking so today's kewl website of the day doesn't deal with cooking in any shape, form or fashion. This is a keeper as well!

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

It's Munday again

Ho hum, Munday is here yet again. How awful. And it looks like the hummingbirds are gone for the season. But, never fear, I have a wonderful website for you folks today! Let me know what you think about this site, I think it's a keeper because it's so handy!

http://www.onlineconversion.com/

House hunting

My husband and I are in the market to buy a home. Good golly, who knew real estate brokers were sleazier than used car salespeople?!? It is truly unbelievable at how shady things are in the real estate world. A "handy man's dream" is basically a nice way to say "it's a roof over your head but don't be surprised when the roof leaks like a sieve". A "cozy home" is code for "you'll bump into yourself going to the bathroom in this cramped house". And don't forget the old "this one has real curb appeal". You can expect this house to have nothing but the curb for a yard, and while this may be fine for some folks it's the pits for me. I dream of the day I can have a huge garden and a few dozen chickens running around. I'm pulling my hair out looking for a home. Oh, if anybody knows of an affordable place for us to live, let me know! We outgrew this RV about 5 years ago.

Day 2

This is my second day blogging and I'm already beginning to run out of ideas! This may be a lot harder than it looks but so far it's a lot of fun. I'm really interested in the website of the day theme so I'll go ahead and get that out for you now. As always, the rating system is based on a four star system with one star being awful and four star's being awesome. I'll let you figure out what star's numbered two and three are for because I only allow smart people to read my blog. Of course, if you must use a different rating system other than my four star system, feel free to do so but explain the rating system to the rest of the readers. Now, on to the cool website of the day. I've been following this website for quite a while now and I really love it. It's packed with neat stuff and I've just got to share it with you. Let me know what you think about it and feel free to look at older posts on her website, you'll find it very informative.

http://blog.al.com/frugalmom/

Cool Website of the Day

I'm such a kewl person and I do such kewl things and I know everybody wants to be like me, so, I'm going to list a website each day that I think is kewl. So, today's website is:

http://www.askthemeatman.com/index.html

I love to cook but I don't know anything about meat. This website is just too kewl for people like me because it has meat cutting charts, how to's on everything to do with meat and basically everything you need to know for foodies that aren't in the know! Let me know what you think about this website. Please rate it on a four star rating system.

* - Awful
** - Average
*** - Above Average
**** - Awesome

What have I done?!?

What in the world do I think I'm doing? Creating a blog site?!? I hate to write! Oh well, not many people will ever read this I imagine but it'll be fun while it lasts!