January 2014 – Page 2 – Loving Food, Fashion, & Life

How I Love A Good Game

Posted on January 11, 2014 by LFFL

I just love watching Manchester United play soccer/football. The games rarely show on a local television station here so I was pleasantly surprised that it was on one today. I usually have to watch them on a sports channel on cable.

I can be a bit of a nut during gaming season with all the hooping and hollering at the telly, but I enjoy myself SO much! And that’s the point of it really—to have a grand old time enjoying my life, isn’t it?

But, oh, how I love to see them win a game. It’s even more enjoyable then. They won the league last year and in so many prior years. So even though they’re in 7th place in the league so far this season, I have faith in my boys that they’ll hike right back up to the number one spot before the season is over.

Oh, this gets me so excited for the World Cup games this summer!! I’ll be rooting for both England and the USA. They both were lucky enough to get a spot in the World Cup and it pleases me so.

I can already foresee taking off work so I can watch the games “live” in real time—or at least so I can watch England and the USA in real time. It’s more fun that way.

Plus, it drives me absolutely mad to accidentally overhear people talking about the game and who won when I haven’t even seen the game yet!!!!! I don’t even want to accidentally see or hear media coverage of who won or what happened BEFORE I’ve had a chance to watch the game first.

I’d have to cover my ears all day or stay in isolation until I can get home to watch my recordings of the games. I tell you—it’s like walking around on pins, needles, and eggshells all day.

It’s enough to drive me insane before I can get home to watch my recording of the game. So in order to avoid myself going completely coconuts, I’d just rather watch the games live in real time. And with the big time difference there is, I’m sure I’ll be up bloody early in the mornings on some occasions.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, watch your favorite teams play their games throughout the year. Whether at home on the television or live at the stadium and in person is neither here nor there.

Take-Away Life Lesson: It’s perfectly normal to go a little coconuts while watching your favorite teams play during the gaming season. Aw yeah.

If I Were Running From The Law

Posted on January 7, 2014 by LFFL

If I were going to run from the law, there’s probably five places I’d consider going:

Mooselookmeguntic, Maine
Winchester-On-The-Severn, Maryland
Dalworthington Gardens, Texas
Humptulips, Washington
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Wales

Not because I think I’d have loads of fun at any of these places, but because not many souls have probably ever heard of such places! And of those that have—who would consider looking for an outlaw in these towns?

And to all my Mooselookmeguntic, Winchester-On-The-Severn, Dalworthington Gardens, Humptulips, and Llanfairpwllgwyngyll readers—no offense. But I just can’t imagine the cops saying, “I bet she’s headed for Mooselookmeguntic. Let’s start the search there and if that doesn’t pan out let’s head for Humptulips because she wasn’t at any of the hot party spots in Winchester-On-The-Severn.”

If you told the cops I was probably in one of these cities, they’d probably think you were just trying to throw them off their trail—which is exactly the point! I’ll be in one of these five cities and they won’t even consider it.

So don’t blow my cover.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, think about all the places you’d run to if the law was after your hide.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Nothing beats proper planning.

Light Bulb Extinction

Posted on January 5, 2014 by LFFL

Can you believe it?!!! These are the very light bulbs I’ve been looking for for a really long time and I just happened across them. I could never figure out why I was having such a hard time finding them in any store whatsoever.

I just assumed everyone was out of stock and it was a huge coincidence. And these weren’t even on the shelf with all the rest of the light bulbs—they were off to themselves in the middle of the aisleway.

Well, I finally found out from various sources that the government is involved in making these particular light bulbs extinct like the dinosaurs. (Not that the government was involved in making dinosaurs extinct, too, but one never really knows.)

I had NO idea! And as much as I’m on the computer, you’d think I would have seen something flash across the Internet—but I never have. Who knew they were making it illegal to manufacture the 40-, 60-, 75-, and 100-watt incandescent light bulbs anymore?! Certainly not I.

Was it crazy of me to buy almost the entirety of the top two shelves of bulbs here? I mean, yeah, I now have about 50 packages of 4 in each package—but I figure they’ll last me my lifetime and I won’t have to worry about these so-called new bulbs. Plus I’m sure I’ll share with family who were looking for these very bulbs as well.

Now my lack of being able to find these is all starting to make sense. No wonder I haven’t been able to find this particular type anymore. So apparently my only choices in the future will be:

compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)
LED (light-emitting diodes) light bulbs or
halogen light bulbs

I understand the idea is to save energy, etc., etc., but if my home isn’t as bright as I’d like it to be because of these bulbs, I’ll end up with 10 lamps in every room—and is that really saving any more energy?!!

All three have their negatives and positives:

CFLs—take forever to brighten up a room and contain mercury. So if you accidentally break one, make sure not to inhale the mercury lest you severely damage the inside of your body. I’ve tried these bulbs before a long time ago and I absolutely hated them. And the one I tried was never as bright as the incandescents. But these supposedly last 9 years with normal use. Maybe the ones they make now are brighter. I don’t know, but who wants mercury around anyway?

LEDs—these are probably the closest in comparison to the extinct bulbs that I would get if, and when, I have no other choice. But these bad boys are going to cost anywhere from $10-$40 just for ONE light bulb!! That’s a far cry from $2.24 for a box of 4 incandescent light bulbs. Granted the LEDs are supposed to last approximately 25,000 hours or 23 years with normal use. Hard to believe, but I guess we can only test it out. I guess it’d be worth the price at that point.

Halogen—these are made with halogen gas under high pressure and burn hot. Why do I want something that burns even hotter than incandescents do? Won’t that start a fire of some sort?

I mean, why don’t we all just go back to the good ol’ days of lighting fires and carrying around oil lamps and candles?

Maybe I’m just being overly resistant to change or maybe I’m spot on in my thinking of wanting to keep my incandescents. But that’s neither here nor there. I finally found the one store that still has my old favorite and I know the aisle way they’re in.

I don’t want to cause a panic so I refuse to say exactly where. Plus, I probably need to hoard the bottom two shelves as well just in case I live to be 520 years old.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, locate your old standard incandescent light bulbs in the nearest store in your hometown. I’d suggest you hurry and locate these and buy them out. Once they deplete their stock they won’t be getting anymore.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Apparently you may need to rent a storage unit for situations such as these.

Pumpkin Pie & Gingerbread

Posted on January 4, 2014 by LFFL

Pumpkin Pie made from Libby’s Easy Pumpkin Pie Mix in a can, eggs, evaporated milk, and Keebler Graham pie crust.

Oh, my. Look what I found in the cupboard just waiting for me which was technically meant to be made for Thanksgiving but never was! A pumpkin pie and a gingerbread mix for little ol’ me? Oh, yeah.

I was definitely not in the mood to make these from scratch today—but when I saw the can and box in the cupboard I knew I had enough energy to throw a couple of eggs into a bowl and stir.

Recipe for—Libby’s Easy Pumpkin Pie

Gingerbread from Betty Crocker Cake & Cookie Mix in a box, eggs, and water.

I just love gingerbread. I didn’t mean to eat the whole cake today—it just kind of happened. You know I only cut the thing into 4 servings anyway. So I ate two 2 pieces straight from the oven, then the other 2 pieces later in the evening after it was cold from the frig.

It was so light, fluffy, and moist. It’s just as good cold as it is warm. All I needed was a tall glass of freezing ice-cold milk to wash it down. Ahh, the good life.

Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cake & Cookie Mix

So, if you have nothing else to do today, bake away into the day and night to bring smells of gingerbread and pumpkin into your home. No need to do everything from scratch when you can get the can and box versions in the store and save yourself some time once in a while.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Your meals of the day should probably consist of more than just pumpkin pie and gingerbread. Don’t follow my lead folks. Oops!

Closet Organization

Posted on January 3, 2014 by LFFL

I tell you what—if anything keeps me sane in this world it’s an organized closet. Not just an organized closet either—a neat and organized home in general. Clutter and disorganization are the bane of my existence.

I’ve lived amongst disorganization before and, believe me, it drove me nuts. Who wants to come home to that everyday and be surrounded by madness? My whole body just stresses out and tenses up seeing so much clutter. I mean, you can never find anything either and it takes forever to get ready for the day.

My favorite neat freak, Colin Cowie, is spot on in that everything should have its place. You feel great, you’re not stressed, and you know where everything is at a moment’s notice. Amirite?

Not saying I’m perfect with this or anything—but I do try my best. I do have my moments where I lapse but it doesn’t last very long, I tell you.

Sweaters

Coats & Umbrellas

This also makes it somewhat fun getting dressed and putting outfits together everyday. You can actually find things when you organize your clothes by item, style, and colors.

I decided the sweaters here should have a space of their own in an armoire off to the side. Inside the bottom drawer are various gloves and winter scarves & hats. I figure I’m only going to wear these things during the freezing cold winter months whereas the walk-in closet has pieces I can wear all year-round.

The coat closet is not as spacious as I’d like, but it’ll do. I can’t possibly stuff one more coat in there though.

Ties

Hats

I just love my tie hanger. It keeps my ties organized just the way I like them.

The hats just kind of found a place on their own and put themselves on a rack over a door.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, organize your wardrobe, all your closets, and then your entire home. You’ll feel so much better afterwards.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Life is so much more relaxing, peaceful, and joyful sans clutter and disorganization.

Olive Oil Bottle Spouts

Posted on January 2, 2014 by LFFL

Oh, you might be wondering what in the Sam Hill is so exciting about an olive oil bottle spout. Well, I’ll tell you.

For the longest time I’ve used whatever tops came with the bottles that I bought. Not olive oil bottles that actually come with olive oil in them—but, you know, the empty clear glass bottles you can buy at any discount store and use to put olive oil, vinegar, and whatnot inside.

But the problem I’d always have with these bottles is that leakage would always start happening sooner or later and drive me nuts. Every time I’d go to pour out some olive oil through the spout it would start leaking around the rim. Not when you first buy these, of course, but after you take the spout off a couple of times to refill the bottles it becomes weak over time. Which is dumb—and so far, I’ve not had that problem with these.

But I accidentally found these lovely white spouts at The Container Store. They came 3 to a pack. So, naturally, I had to try them out. I was skeptical that they wouldn’t work any better than the original tops that came with the bottles—but as inexpensive as they were, I figured I’d give ’em a go.

And how wrong I was! As luck would have it—I SCORED! I discarded the old spouts and put these bad boys in their places.

Now I just walk around the house turning the bottles upside down for no other reason than to try to get it to leak—but it doesn’t work. Even when I have no apparent use for olive oil, I’m turning the bottles upside down.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, replace your olive oil bottle spouts with these beauties.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Never give up searching for the one thing that can put the biggest smile on your face. Little things can bring such joy.

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Potstickers For The New Year

Posted on January 1, 2014 by LFFL

Pork & Vegetable Potstickers made with dumpling dough, ground pork, green cabbage, celery, onion, and a mix of ginger, garlic, and black pepper.

Well my New Year’s resolution to eat a little healthier went right down the drain as soon as I woke up this morning. The first thing I stuffed in my face for the new year was one of those gigantic plumpalicious cinnamon rolls from the diner—or at least HALF of one.

To be fair, I didn’t buy it today—it was leftover from last night. So is it still technically my fault? Should I have known to throw it in the trash at midnight last night? Isn’t it still considered 2013 food, technically? I did eat a bowl of oatmeal this morning right afterwards to try to wash it out of my system.

PEOPLE, I’M LOOKING FOR SOME KIND OF CREDIT SOMEWHERE!

Let’s move on to my non-homemade potstickers-from-a-box. This is what I resorted to since I spent 90% of my day trying to figure out all aspects of my new camera—so I wasn’t in much of a cooking mood after reading that lengthy instruction manual. Who knew a wee camera could have 252 pages of instruction on CD to accompany itself?!!

And with some of the pictures I’ve taken today, I swear my cell phone did a much better job. I’m sure it was user-error and there was probably a setting I should have left well enough alone. But I’m still in the learning and playing phase with said camera.

Enjoy my first blog photos with the new camera while I still try to get the hang of it.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, spend your day reading a 252-page instruction manual.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Nothing wrong with breaking a New Year’s resolution a few hours after midnight. It happens.