Friday, October 29, 2010

Happy Halloween Lovelies

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Don't you just love these cute Candy Corn insprired pomander balls?  Want to make them?  Learn how here!

Happy Halloween everyone!

(Picture courtesy of Intimate Weddings Blog).

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Chez Posh Play. Creamy Easy Crock Pot Pork Chops.

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I love easy recipes that make good dinners.  Usually I am totally on the organic natural side of the fence so this one is a little different only still a good choice compared to take out or fast food.  I really try to cook dinner every night.  My secret is easy no fuss crockpot meals and prepping dinners throughout the day so that dinner doesn't have to be a stressful event.

This one is so easy it takes less than ten minutes to prepare and cooks all day.  Another bonus?  Your house will smell amazing and every time you walk in you can relax knowing dinner is almost done!

Ingredients

Four boneless pork chops
1 can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 medium yellow onion
About ten medium size mushrooms
8 oz. sour cream
One tablespoon of olive oil
About 1/4 cup of flour and one tablespoon
Garlic to taste
Paprika to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

-Take the four boneless pork chops out of the packaging and dredge them in flour.  I usually take a plate and pour flour about 1/4 inch thick and then roll the pork chops around until they are covered.  Lightly salt and pepper each pork chop and sprinkle some garlic powder on top.

-Heat one tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat in a large skillet.

-Place the pork chops in the pan and brown slightly about 2-4 minutes for each side.

-While the pork chops are browning slice the onion in 1/8 slices and spread them out over the bottom of your crock pot.

-Turn your crock pot to low.

-Once the pork chops are done browning place them on top of the onions.

-Slice mushrooms and sprinkle them over the top of the pork chops.

-Open the can of soup and spoon it over the mushrooms. Then put about a tablespoon of water in the can to get every last bit out and pour that over too.

-Put the top on and walk away.

-Cook for 10-12 hours on low heat depending on how hot your crock pot gets.

-About twenty minutes before dinner take the pork chops out and spread them on a cookie sheet.  Put them in the oven on low heat to keep them warm.

-Put about 8 oz. of sour cream in a bowl and mix together with one tablespoon of flour.  Put this in the crock pot and mix until blended.  Turn crock pot to high and let simmer until thickened.

-Remove pork chops from the oven and plate them with cooked brown rice, egg noodles or mashed potatoes.  Pour sauce over and garnish with paprika.

Your family will love this dinner!  The pork chops are tender only not falling apart.  Serve with seasonal steamed vegetables.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

No More Weeds for this House

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I couldn't resist one more opportunity to post a picture of Nancy Botwin.  So I won't be channeling her anymore since our house got sweeped by every imaginable inspector, electrician and contractor.  The house looks good and the grow op is history!  Looks like the little gardeners were pretty good at what they do and they didn't leave a trace.  Except for some annoying patched holes in the wall our house is no worse for the wear (that we know of).

We are supposed to close tomorrow only in typical annoying real estate fashion it looks like we are going to go straight to the wire and close on the last possible day, Friday.  Pretty annoying since we have the next two days planned out with projects and the move and all.  Hey no big deal guys we will just shuffle everyone's schedule that we know and reschedule every single thing we have planned for the next two days.  Ack!

I know I shouldn't be complaining only after 7 months of this nonsense I think I have a right to be just a teensy bit annoyed!

So I might be off the grid for a while since who knows when we are going to have internet access or if the house will actually close.  Then maybe I can catch up on the latest season of Weeds!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Jogging Strollers 40% Off and Tell Me Which One To Get

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I am pretty much obsessed with jogging strollers right now.  Our infant system the Chicco Keyfit 22 has been awesome only I am ready for a more heavy duty stroller.  I have been going back and forth between the BOB Revolution, the Mountain Buggy Urban Jungle and the Phil &Ted's.  See I love the Mountain Buggy.  The hubs is obsessed with being a BOB Dad and my sister in law has the Phil &Ted's and has been singing its praises for months.  She says they are all the rage on the East Coast.

Here is where I am at.  BOB Revolution holds its value and seems to be the most popular in our area for jogging strollers.  The Mountain Buggy just looks cooler to me is that so wrong?  Phil & Ted's can convert to a double without having to buy ANOTHER jogging stroller if we have baby number two and it isn't as WIDE as the BOB Dualie.  Thoughts anyone?

Today one of my new fav discount sites Zulily is having a HUGE sale on strollers.  They are offering 40% off on Mountain Buggy strollers and 35% off on Phil & Ted's strollers!  Need an invite to join ZulilyHere you go!

So I need you bloggy moms.  Which stroller should we get?

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Marijuana, Moisture and Mold Oh My!

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This isn't a pitty party of one.  This is just the latest in our fun filled adventure into home ownership.  So if you have been reading my blog for a while you know all the ridiulousness we have encountered during our dream home search.  There were cars crashing through fences and landing in yards.  There were realtors loligagging for weeks on Disney cruises.  There was cat pee, there was graffitti and there was house after house which we spent countless hours traipsing through to find just one house that was right for our family.

We are a week away from closing.  We are supposed to sign docs tomorrow.  Then Tuesday night the email arrived.  Weeks overdue we finally got the disclosures.  I quickly took a peek while getting Baby Posh Play all dried off from his bath, in his pajamas and ready for bed so if your wondering I didn't retain much.  Good thing the hubs is an attorney and SCOURS documents for a living.  Tucked away on like page 37 or a packet of over 60 pages he found one quick little mention.

Upstairs bedroom formerly used to grow marijuana.  Hole drilled into guest bathroom.  Holes in roof patched by painter.

Now I don't want to get all political here only I will leave it at.  We don't smoke pot only don't really make judgements either way on those who do.  Whatever.  To each his own.  As long as you aren't getting behind the wheel or doing anything stupid.  Whatever.

That is until now.  See the thing about illegal stuff is it isn't so much the end user that is harming anything other than possibly themselves.  It is the whole process of how the illegal stuff gets imported, produced and sold into the market that I have issues with.  Especially now!

So it turns out our house wasn't so much of a grow HOUSE it was more of a grow ROOM.  You know whose room was used?  That's right our cute little Baby Posh Play's future room. Ack!  At first we didn't think it was too big of a deal.  Sort of annoying.  Maybe a little creepy.  Definitely not a deal breaker.  We decided to swap his room with my office so I would be writing in the former greenhouse and he would be slumbering in a nice clean environment.

Then we started doing some research.  It turns out grow rooms and grow houses have all sorts of lovely issues which I never even considered.  See hydroponics require water so growers drill holes wherever they see fit to find water.  In our house that would be right through the closet.  Then these tubes or pipes used often drip and cause water damage, mold and dry rot.  Fun!  Want to know more?  Lots of growers also are experts in jacking HVAC systems to ventilate their grow environments.  Since HVAC systems aren't built for this they rust and grow yep you guessed it more MOLD!  Then these tricky modern day gardeners also need electricity for high tech lighting so they just drill away, swap wires, tap into the electrical panel, steal electricity from the street and overall turn homes into fire traps waiting to happen.

I never knew just HOW MANY houses were being ripped apart and abused until I did a quick search and found COUNTLESS cases right in our home town.  Crazy!

So this gets me back to the basic issue for today.  It isn't the end users who are tearing apart our country (literally) piece by piece it is the process of getting it to the end user.  When money is involved some people have no regard for anything.  Property, people or the future.  Example of our house.  Cute little family buys new house in the 90's.  Start having financial issues and move away back to their home town and rent house to nice enough looking 20 somethings.  The 20 somethings rip the house apart piece by piece and turn it into their own money farm.  Who knows who they give their product too and who knows who is getting hurt or hooked in the process.  20 somethings either get busted or move along to the net victim and original owner can't afford to fix the house when they find out what happened so they go into forclosure.  That's where we come along.  We happily put an offer on the house.  Do necessary inspections and are never the wiser.  Then find out lurking underneath the tranquil exterior there is a sorta seedy past.  Now we are stuck with a house that required almost $1,000 worth of extra inspections, the bank is getting stuck with our requests to remidiate issues and we might not even buy the house at the end of all this and will be out over $2,000 in total inspection costs.

Enter Mold Man.  So now the future of our family resides in Mold Man's control.  Mold Man needs one business day to process our house.  For now let me share Mold Man's tips for keeping your house mold free.

-Ventilation is key to keeping mold away.  Open bathroom windows after showers.  Make sure your attic is breezy.

-Don't clean with bleach.  About 20 years ago bleach mannufacturers replaced more aggressive ingredients with water.  Bleach actually just dissolves mold shells so they are now food for even more scary molds that take over.  Instead clean with white vinegar.  Easy right?

-Clean your house!  Lingering moisture, dirt and dust amazingly all transform into mold if left to stew for long.

-Buying a house?  Call the mold man in your area.

-Most importantly?  Don't turn your house into a grow house.  If you need to smoke.  Plant a garden or build a greenhouse.

So instead of becoming a real life Nancy Botwin (she does have a ridiculously cute wardrobe and is a pretty hot mom) I will hope that our house is mold free and I can continue on being a struggling stay at home mom in a mold free, drug free house.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Homemade Doughnuts. Husband Not Included.

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See this tossled hair cutie?  He is my exhausted husband who whipped all of us up some wonderful homemade doughnuts on Sunday morning.  I didn't think there was a lower fat way to make doughnuts until my Mom showed up on Saturday with a handy new pan from Wilton purchased at our local Sur la Table store.  It's a doughnut pan that requires no oil and no frying!  What a concept!

I first stumbled upon Wilton last week while reading some fellow bloggers postings like this one at Oh My Sugar High. (By the way. Oh My Sugar High is giving one reader a fab prize from Wilton that includes Pre-Baked Halloween Cookie House Kit, three  Silicone Mini Jack-O-Lantern Pans and two Halloween Cookie Shapes Pans. This prize package has over a $70 value)!

I am now completely obsessed with Wilton for their fun and innovative approach to baking and giving us tools that actually work!

I can't guarantee a husband who loves baking as much as mine. (It's his serious attorney destressing activity.  Hey I can't complain)!

Only I can definitely guarantee doughnuts that turn out just as wonderful  and beautiful as ours!

We tried the Cinnamon Sugar mix from Stonewall Kitchen and next weekend we are on to the Chocolate with Chocolate Glaze.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Gone for a Minute

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I have been away for a while.  I can't say I was living on a fancy island for a with no internet access and I can't say I was discovered and ran away to Milan for their fall fashion shows.  Nope.  I have been living with my Mom and six month old baby.  That's all.  Just here.  Like I am in high school again.  Only I guess I didn't have a baby in high school so now there is two of us crammed into a room.

We had to move out of our house about ten weeks ago and since then we have been on a housing roller coaster which started with us having to move in with our parents.  We are so blessed to have parents who actually wanted us around only I am pretty sure without the baby it wouldn't have been offered so easily.  I am living with my Mom and my hubs is two hours away so he can be close to work.  We see each other on weekends.  Not ideal especially for newlyweds like us and extra especially since we have a baby now.  Did I mention we STILL haven't been out on a date night in six months?  That one year anniversary just came and went and we spent it at Cheesecake Factory with baby.  It was actually pretty fun only someday somehow somewhere the hubs and I need a moment to ourselves.

After three offers on three houses all which crashed and burned (one literally) we are on to our fourth and SHOULD be moving in two weeks.  A real house.  All to ourselves.

I hope to start writing again.  Since the new house has a room for my office.  MY OWN OFFICE! Right next to the baby room it should be easier.

Love to my bloggie friends and hope you are all doing just fab!
 

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