Chatbug Karen

I feel like a cow. We ate Mexican food again today. What is it about Mexican food that makes me shovel it in? I love it, that is what makes me do it. The sour cream, cheese and soft burrito shell make me act like a pig. Now, I am feeling the consequences. I am sluggish and need a nap. Miracle burn is not going to cut it anymore! I think I will sue all the Mexican restaurants. They give me way too much food and I cannot control myself. It is their fault.

My favorite Mexican dish is the burrito. I love it when they have very gooey cheese inside. I don’t care for the creamy cheese that looks like white/yellow gravy.

Here is a great recipe from Rachael Ray

Grilled Green Chili Quesadillas

3 fresh chile peppers, such as poblanos — any variety may be used, according to your tolerance for heat
4 (12-inch) large flour tortillas
3 cups (3/4 pound brick) smoked cheddar (recommended: Cabot brand, shredded)
1 cup store bought salsa verde, available on chip and snack aisle or in Mexican food section
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Heat a grill pan over high heat. Place whole chiles on grill and char all over. about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and split chiles. Scrape away seeds with a spoon and slice.

Heat a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium high heat. Char the tortilla and blister it on 1 side, 20 seconds, then flip tortilla. Cover half of the tortilla with cheese and chilies, then fold over. Press down gently with spatula. Cook quesadilla 15 seconds more on each side, transfer to a cutting board. Repeat. Pile up 2 completed quesadillas at a time and cut into 3 generous wedges. The yield will be 12 pieces from 4 quesadillas. Serve slices on a large platter with small dishes of salsa verde and sour cream for topping. Garnish the platter and toppings with chopped cilantro.

Arggghhh! I just saw, at the bottom of my dashboard page, that WordPress 2.3.1 is out of date. Holy crap! I just updated a month or so ago. Techie helped me, by basically doing it, and I thought I was good to go for at least a while. Why are they torturing me? Do the PTB not know how this stuff affects me? It makes my blood pressure go up. What seems like an easy thing to do turns into a major ordeal for me. I HATE IT! How can they possibly need to upgrade? Just shoot me and put me out of my misery.

Edit: This should make things a heck of a lot easier. It is an automatic upgrade plugin. I’ll have to run it by my techie guru.

The kids and I went shopping today. I didn’t have anything in mind to buy. I was just looking to see what bargains were out there. I thought maybe someone might return a plasma tv because of a small scratch and I could snap it up for less than a hundred dollars. Ha. Of course, I am kidding. I did see a lot of people walking out of the store with new plasma tv’s and plasma tv stands. The buyers were mostly men and boy did they have big smiles on their faces. I’m sure thoughts of football games being viewed on those large screens was being played in their minds.

A few of the clothing stores were having great sales. It was hard to find the sizes we needed though. Everything was pretty well picked over. It was hard to find a parking spot but the mall didn’t seem very crowded. We spent the longest time in the book store. I don’t think that they ever put anything on sale. You have to buy that dumb discount card to save any money. I have bought that card before and then forgot to use it.

It was very foggy on the drive home. I wasn’t looking forward to Greg driving to his fiance’s house in Illinois. He called when they got there, for which I was glad.

Everytime I drive near Brazil, Indiana I think of Orville Redenbacher. The founder of Orville Redenbacher’s® Popcorn, Orville was born in Brazil, Indiana. They hold a festival there each year with a Orville look-alike contest, a maze and other fun things.

From the website of the Popcorn Festival of Clay County:

Cinnamon Candied Popcorn

8 qt. popped Orville Redenbacher’s®

Popcorn

1 cup butter

½ cup Karo® Syrup

9 oz. pkg. of Cinnamon Imperials

(also called red hots)

Grease two cookie sheets. Pre-warm oven

at 250° F. Combine butter, syrup and

red hots in sauce pan. Bring to boil with

constant stirring. Boil for 5 minutes

medium heat until red hots are dissolved.

Pour over popcorn while mixing thoroughly.

Turn over onto 2 greased cookie sheets evenly.

Bake for 1 hour with stirring every 15 minutes.

Remove and place onto waxed paper to cool.

Emma Burnett’s favorite popcorn snack!

Van Buren Elementary (Brazil, IN)

Teacher: Mrs. Bailey

Another person who is very excited about Orville Redenbacher’s® Popcorn is my friend Elizabeth. She has been reviewing Orville Redenbacher’s® Popcorn and is holding a contest! Entries have a chance to win a year’s supply of Orville Redenbacher’s® Natural Popcorn AND a 12 month subscription to Netflix!

First of all, I have to win this contest because #1 I love Orville Redenbacher’s® Popcorn and #2 I need a Netflix subscription!

Well, the Christmas holiday has ended for another year. I am ready to get things put away and get this house clean and back to normal. My kitchen is so much easier to organize with the gift I received this year. Lynn had a pantry made for our kitchen. He is the practical one in this family. He never buys chemises or negligees for me. He tried that after the birth of our first child. I let him know right away that lingerie is a gift for the man not the woman he gives it to! So, I am getting ready to put the figurines back into their respective boxes and stop using the Christmas hand towels and pot holders. Christmas is ready to be put away for another year.

Here is a picture of my new pantry.

We had so much fun today! Hubby and I went with our kids, who are in their twenties, and had fun at a casino. We went to the Four Winds casino near New Buffalo, Michigan. It is one of the prettiest casinos I have ever visited. They certainly spared no expense when building the facility. The main lobby has marble and granite floor covering. It has two huge stone fireplaces. I could sit on a bench and watch the flames of the fire all day. Today was different from my usual visits to the casino. I actually gambled today. My daughter and I searched out fun machines and had a good time. I think I only lost forty dollars. The most fun, in my opinion, was playing Wheel of Fortune. I hit the jackpot by having 3 Vanna and Pat pictures come up. That enabled me to spin the wheel. I won 400 points! Since it was a penny game, I didn’t win a huge sum of money but the thrill was the same!

Many of us will be making resolutions to start the new year out right. I plan to maintain a healthier eating regiment. That means eating all the cookies and other baked goods over the next few days. I can’t let them go to waste! Greg’s fiancé is a wonderful baker. She made biscotti, scones, snicker doodle cookies and other yummies and brought them to our house. She put them in decorated cellophane bags that make each package look as if it came from the finest bakery.

As part of my plan of healthy eating, I would like to tell you about a way to make your skin healthier. I have used many exfoliats and other types of products to try to keep my skin looking young. Now, I have discovered that there is an all-natural product to protect your skin against damaging free radicals and to protect it from the inside out. R.G. Skin Revitalizer is made from Gâc fruit. For years, Asian cultures have known about Gâc fruit. Because of its rich carotenoid antioxidants, Gâc fruit helps boost the immune system. The nutritional value of this wonderful fruit assists the skin’s cellular rejuvenation process. Join me in my plan to eat healthier and treat my body well with this wonderful supplement.

Well, I would have never guessed what my husband got me for Christmas. I have been using our daughter’s pantry type cupboard because she didn’t take it with her when she moved to Baltimore. I found that it worked great in my kitchen. I was able to rearrange my cupboards because all of our canned goods went into the pantry. Her cupboard worked great except that it was a cheap piece that I paid $50 for at the lumber yard. Her apartment in Indianapolis was void of many kitchen cupboards and it was very useful in that respect.

My husband had a new oak pantry made for our kitchen! It is beautiful. I do not know where he hid it! Our friend makes custom cabinets and furniture and does awesome work. He is an artist at this type of work. He enjoys making furniture and since being laid off from his HR job at our local hospital, he has gone into the business of making furniture full force. He is a teacher at a local college now since making furniture the way he does, is not a fast process and doesn’t bring in the money needed to replace his salary from his lost job. Now he fits the furniture making in on his days off. He has a waiting list!

I’ll try to get a picture posted.

Tonights Christmas Eve service was very nice. Our senior minister read from the Bible as our new associate pastor lit candles. There were many colors of candles that were confusing to me. We haven’t been to church in a few Sundays and haven’t heard what these new colors of candles represent. There were aqua and yellow candles. They weren’t part of the advent candles so I don’t know what they were supposed to signify.

There was the cutest little girl sitting in the pew in front of tonite. When it came time to light our candles, I could see her eyes light up. I asked Stacy if it reminded her of when she was little. I think lighting and holding their own candle was my kids favorite part of the service. I was always nervous about them catching their hair on fire. My daughter gets tickled because every year, the last song we sing at the service is Ring the Bells. I really get into that song. She said that whenever she hears that song she can hear me singing it. When we sing that song, I feel like Christmas has arrived!

I think that Santa leaves our house for last when he plans his route. Our kids are older and we all like to sleep in on Christmas Day. Santa can come before 9 am and be perfectly safe from being discovered. That is quite a different scenario from when our kids were small. They were up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning. I can remember how excited they would be. It was awful to make them wait for us to get a cup of coffee.