The country smells of my childhood….

My world is full of memories for me today.  Freshly mown grass, clean, fresh air, and later this afternoon, burning leaves.  You never smell leaves burning anymore, but someone nearby was burning today and oh, it was wonderful!  One whiff and in my mind I was a little girl again, running  and playing in the fields of my childhood.

The renewal spring brings, hopes, dreams and plans.  It’s been this way forever, and I feel so lucky that I still get to experience all this.  The daffodils and the tulips, the baby animals, even Mr. Squirrel, shinnying up my bird feeder, to rob the redbirds of their food, made me smile.  It’s been a perfect spring day, and I took time to be thankful for what I have.  Peace, tranquility, sunshine, nature, my dogs by my side enjoying the sun.  It doesn’t get better than this…

How many times have I said to you all, it’s those simple things….

Yogurt, toilet paper, and sinus meds, random thoughts on a cloudy day…

Now that’s quite a combination, isn’t it? Let’s start with yogurt. I’ve had a love/hate affair with yogurt for years. I vow to eat healthy, buy it, it sits on the shelf far beyond expiration date, hubby throws it out and the cycle starts all over again. This has been going on for, oh, decades now. I really don’t like yogurt that much, and I didn’t realize why. I now know it was all of those artifical ingredients and flavors. I’ve discovered Stonyfield Farms Plain Yogurt in the past year, and I’m hooked. I add fresh fruit to it, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, or if I don’t have fresh fruit I add applesauce. Then I add Splenda, and it’s wonderful. I’m even getting hubby to eat it. I must confess that I originally bought it for the M&M’s, and since they are spoiled little pooches, I bought them the good stuff instead of the lesser brands, so we all eat it now. We can’t get greek yogurt at our local grocers, but if you have access to it in your town, oh my, it’s thick, satiny smooth and absolutely to die for. I used to have a yogurt maker years ago, I only used it when fresh fruit was in season, I never added anything to it, just cooked it with milk, ate it with fresh picked blackberries and I remember really liking it. Now why didn’t I try plain from the store? Who knows, I guess it took my dogs to show me the way.

Now on to the sinus meds. I have horrid sinus problems, and wake up frequently with my infamous tri-state boomer headaches. So many of my friends suffer with sinus problems as well, and so does poor Dilly. Nisha had told me before that she takes Mucinex (plain Mucinex in the purple box) every single night and she never wakes up with a sinus headache. I meant to try it, kept forgetting, but a few days ago I was in Walgreens with a rockin’ headache, and I bought a box of it. I’ve taken it faithfully for four nights now, our weather has just been horrid, rain, fronts coming thru, and I’m waking up headache free. I feel pressure some mornings, but no headache. Amazing, huh? I found an article online about sinus and Mucinex, here’s the site if you want to read about it.

An finally toilette paper. The soft kind. It’s eluded me for years, and I’ve tried every brand that promises to be kind to your tushy. Well those companies lie, I never think it’s pillowy soft, I even Googled it, and Yahoo answers say Charmin Ultra and Cottonelle. Of course I’ve used both and don’t think either are that soft. So when I saw a commercial for Quilted Northern Ultra Plush, I picked it up in the grocery store. It’s pretty soft, I must admit. It has 3-layers with Plush Quilts. And heaven knows, we all need Plush Quilts… Here’s a click for a downloadable coupon if you want to give it a try.

And that’s it from Heavensville this Friday, random thoughts from cluttered mind…

Vin Diesel…

I saw this clip on GMA this morning.  I was never a fan of the guy, but omg, he is a total marshmallow talking about his baby girl.  This is so sweet, ladies.  First you have to get thru the silly car chase trailer, but trust me, it’s worth the wait…

Here’s the link ~

The deal of the day, and a free ship coupon…

A few years ago I bought a salad shaker from Avon.  It was sort of like the salad shaker container they used to have at Mickey D’s, except larger.  It was a large cup with a domed lid. You put the dressing in the lid, took it with you, and when you were ready to eat, you pushed on the lid, the dressing distributed on the salad, you shook it up, and wahlaa, it blended perfectly.  It also came with it’s own insulated bag, which kept it cool.  I’ve used it a lot over the years, and today I stumbled across the new and improved one from Avon.  Yeah, Avon, I don’t quite get why Avon sells this stuff either but anyhoo, here is the latest and the greatest. 

This one is a pint container, instead of a cup, it comes with an ice pack that you freeze and snap under the lid, then pour the dressing in the little holder in the lid before you travel, and the salad and dressing stays cold for several hours.  Be sure and remove the ice pack before you distribute the dressing or you will have dressing all over the ice pack. This one also comes with a knife and a fork stored in the lid.  It’s $12.99, but I found it for $7.99.  Apparently it was a promotion with Curves, I don’t know if they are closing it out or what, but these things are great for people that work, picnics, eating healthy on the go, etc.  The shipping on this is $5.99, , but, I Googled Avon coupon codes and found that if your order is $10.00 you get free shipping.  The code is SPRING 910.

So did I order it, of course, you all know what a sucker I am for anything in the kitchen.  And what else did I buy to get the free ship???

I got these ergonomic tweezers for $5.00.  They got really good reviews, and I can’t find my Tweezerman pair that cost $20+ anywhere, so I’ll give these a try. My grand total, shipped to my door, including tax, was $13.90.  It’s  a good thing….

Are you interested in either one of these?  Here are the links if you are:

Curves Salad Shaker

Ergonomic Tweezers

And again, the free shipping code is SPRING 910.  This code is valid thru April 9.

Reba’s See Thru Red Dress Story, an oldie, but a goodie…

Reba's Red Dress Story - watch more funny videos

A special daily dose of cuteness…

At a zoo in California , a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger  cubs..

Unfortunately, Due to complications in the pregnancy,  the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size,  they died shortly after birth.

The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health,  Although physically she was fine.  The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve.

After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother.  The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment.  Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species.  The only orphans' that could be found quickly,  were a litter of weanling pigs.  The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger...  Would they become cubs or pork chops?

Take a look...you won't believe your eyes…

 

I’m on a roll…

Now that I’ve revamped Jan Can Cook, it’s time to give Eating Right a new look, even though the old one is great, it doesn’t flow with the new magazine theme.  Don’t rush over there, nothing done yet, but it’s next on my to-do list.

I also had plans to put a live webcam on the birdfeeder, yes I know, bor-ing, but hey, I have heavy bird traffic in Heavensville, some people might like it.  But unless I come up with a workaround it isn’t going to happen, as the screens are in the window permanently, and who wants to look at the birdfeeder thru a screen.

The girls look pretty spiffy in their new haircuts, but I don’t like the way she didn’t trim their faces, not at all, so I’m going to take the scissors to them myselves.  What do I expect for $80 anyway.  Eighty dollars, that’s a lot of money for two little dogs.  Same price for an english sheep dog, go figure.  Obviously, they don’t groom by the pound…

Black Fores Muffin Cakes…

New recipes and a Sauteed Chicken with Mushroom Sauce video on Jan Can Cook tonight…

I used to make a wonderful cake when the boys were growing up with a cake mix and cherry pie filling, topped with a chocolate chip frosting.  This recipe is very similar, without the frosting.

Oh, those were the days, when I baked with abandon without being guilt ridden… 

The Brassage, what next!!!

I was watching GMA this morning, they were interviewing the inventor of the Brassage, Christina Erteszek.

A Brassage is a bra that massages the girls…. It has these little bumps built into  it, and these little lumps “supposedly” give a constant massage to your lymph nodes all day long, and in return it is supposed to promote breast health.  What they aren’t saying, but strongly hinting at is that it somehow will keep breasts healthy, read between the lines, ladies, are they trying to imply that it will help control breast cancer.  The woman was really cagey when they tried to drill her down on exactly what this does.

I watched part of the interview, got bored and turned it off, drats, I guess I should have watched the whole thing because apparently it got heated and this Ms. Erteszek person walked out of the interview.  Now, the Chicago Sun Times is reporting that they’ve pulled the Brassage from the market.

Oops, looks like somebody screwed up royally… 

Well, Geezy Pete, who would want to spend $59 for a bra that had little bumps in it that rotated against your boobs all day anyway.    Bras are uncomfortable enough as it is without having to deal with a bunch of little lumps in the sides of them, pressing nonstop against your tender skin.….

I also read that someone else is marketing the Doodle Bra.  This baby comes complete with stencils, idea booklets and special Doodle Bra markers, so that you can decorate your bras.

Well, this is stupid, too.  It must have been designed by a man.  Both of these ideas are totally lame. 

Actually, I’ve been thinking for some time about designing a sequined studded bra with motorized twirling tassels.  We all know that sex sells, and men are so stupid they would probably buy these.  And think about it,  in the heat of the summer, you could turn those tassels on, rip off your shirt, and cool off the person sitting across from you with the breeze from the whirling tassels.  I could market them as  “The Tease With a Breeze!” Whaddya think?  It’s a winner, huh….. And if I could sign on  Pamela Anderson to do the commercials for it, preferably twirling them for Jack Nicholson, omg, the money would just pour  in…..

UPDATE:  I found the video from GMA, you watch it and be the judge…

Do you Skype?

Well, I didn’t, until today.  Hooterville decided we need to give it a try, since that’s all you hear about lately, so we downloaded it, turned on the web cams, and called each other.

Whoopdeedoo, NOT!  We’ve been doing this for years on Yahoo chat, the quality of Skype was not good, but maybe it’s because I’m on a Mac and she’s on a PC.  We’ll give this a try again, once I get my laptop back from Dell, I’ll try to Skype on it.  Just not cutting edge for us, not yet anyway.

Oh, if you don’t know what Skype is, it’s just the ability to talk and see each other.  Maybe we don’t like it because we’re looking at each other.  We don’t look so great at 6pm, twenty years ago we would have been much more interesting Skypers….  But I did put on my Carmex for her…

It’s back to Twitter for me, I’m hooked on Twitter…  It’s a real challenge to see how big of a fool you can make out of yourself in 140 characters, but so far I’m having no problems at all…

It’s a fresh new look for Jan Can Cook

Jan Can Cook has a new look for spring, and YummyTweets is in the right sidebar, quick little twitters about food.  I’ve also posted some new recipes, including this one, the currently featured recipe. I’ll be updating this site on a regular basis, you might want to bookmark it…

At the advise of my buddy, Carlene, my-own in house foodie expert, she really is, you should see what this woman cooks, you would be in awe, ladies! Anyway, at her suggestion, I added FoodGawker and Tastespotting to the list of favorite food blogs in the sidebar of Jan Can Cook.  You will want to check both of these sites, the recipes are all shown by their pictures, it’s a visual delight…  Be sure and click on the name (Tastespotting or FoodGawker) instead of the recipe shown directly below the name, so that you can see the entire site.

Here’s the quick click for you, I like the way it looks now, it’s bright and fresh, hope you enjoy it, also.

~ jan

Well, this has been a fun weekend….

Yesterday it was tornadoes, today it’s winter…  I did realize something last night after listening to Maggie bark nonstop for thirty minutes.  Nothing would shut her up, she barked at the sirens going off, she barked at the hail, and the wind, and all the time she was doing that, Mollie was chewing on her Texas Toothpick (dried cow tail, yes I realize it’s gross).

But I already knew that Miss Maggie was vocal, what I now realize is that Mollie is a nervous eater, she is. She was chewing on that cow tail like it was her last supper.  She would cut those little eyes at me every time there was a noise, all the while  just chewing as hard as she could.  I finally took it away from her, poor little dog, I was afraid her jaw would get sore.

I understand, too, because I’m a nervous eater, I’m also a stress eater, and a social eater, and let’s not forget, a sick eater.  While other people can’t tolerate food when they don’t feel well, not me, nope, i still eat.  There is no hope for me, apparently not  for poor Mollie, either…