Super Bowl Menu

Chili (Don’t forget condiments: sour cream, chopped onion, grated cheese, Ketchup)
Cornbread (with honey butter) or garlic bread
Buffalo Wings (make your own or get from your favorite restaurant – like Red Robin)
Ranch or Blue Cheese dip for wings
Celery sticks, carrot sticks
Dip and chips (onion dip and crinkle cut potato chips)
Salsa (or 7-layer bean dip pictured above) and tortilla chips
A bowl of mixed nuts and/or pretzels
(if women will be there, include a green salad)
Dessert: brownies, homemade chocolate chip cookies
Drinks, and lots of them

Have the snack foods on table(s) in front of guests and put the “real” food (and the dessert) on the dining room table.

I usually NEVER use paper plates and paper napkins – but I make an exception for Super Bowl parties (just make sure the plates are STURDY and wont flop with a pile of food on them – when in doubt, use plastic). Be sure to buy paper or plastic BOWLS for the chili. Don’t use plastic utensils. Use your everyday silverware.

Hint: If you didn’t make the chili in a crock pot, transfer it to one and keep it plugged in so the chili is always hot. The wings can be served at room temp.

Decorating: Men don’t care about the decorations – as long as you have good FOOD, they are happy.

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

The "crab cake"

Here she is celebrating with all her friends at the Waikoloa Hotel in Hawaii:


The trip was actually AFTER her B-Day. They went Feb 11 - 16th, then Alan and I joined them at the Hualalai from the 16th to the 21st.

What's for Dinner?

3-Ingredient Pot Roast

Put pot roast in a crock pot.
Sprinkle one package of Knorr’s onion (or Leek) soup mix over it.
Add 1 can of Campbell’s mushroom soup (undiluted)

Cook for six hours.

Serve it with Hungry Jack mashed potatoes and canned creamed corn. Add a slice of bread with butter on it and you’ve got a real meal. Couldn’t be easier.

Leftovers make a great sandwich the next day. Or, add some frozen mixed veggies and a can of stewed tomatoes for a nice beef and veggie stew or soup.

2-Ingredient Recipes

For 2-Ingredient recipes for Chocolate Fudge, Pumpkin Cake, and Macaroon Cookies,

. . . . Click Here !

Amy says she can beat me. She has a 1-ingredient snack - Cheetos! (But I trump that with...wait for it...Oreos!

First Lady - Fashionista?

Having a young family in the White House brings back memories of the Kennedy White House. Obama IS the new Kennedy - How about Michelle? Is she the new Jackie O? What do YOU think?

Michelle is a beautiful, intelligent, well-educated woman (graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School) who will be an excellent role model for the upcoming generation.

Angelina Jolie - Helping Others

"Angelina Jolie was made a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Refugee Agency (and donated $5 million to a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia.) According to tax records, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt donated more than $8 million to charity in 2006 alone."

Apparently no matter how skanky one acts on and off screen, goodness abounds in us all. Wait a minute. What is she doing? Signing autographs????

Aargh!

1919 poster

If you were around in 1919 and came upon the following poster.........



I mean seriously, Would you quit drinking?


(If you get email forwards like I do, you've probably seen this already - but if you haven't, it's tacky enough to be included in my blogs this year. )

Enjoy Your Hot Chocolate!

My mom sent me this in an E-mail and I liked the message so much I decided to share it with you:

“A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.

During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.

Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups — porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite. He then told them all to help themselves to the hot chocolate. When they each had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:

"Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress."

"The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink."

"What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup... but you consciously went for the BEST cups."

"And then you began eyeing each other's cups."

"Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life."

"The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate."

The happiest people don't need the best of everything.

They just make the best of everything that they have.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

…and enjoy your hot chocolate!!

Cutest Car Commercial Ever

Confessions of a Shopoholic

No, I'm not talking about the movie, I'm talking about MY life! I admit it. I LOVE to shop - for anybody, anywhere, anytime.

At 10:00 a.m. I stand at the door to the mall with my credit card in hand and say..."Let the games begin!"

When we decorated our new home, Alan (my husband) gave me an unlimited budget and I exceeded it the first month.

I wore out the magnetic strip on my Visa card in one year.

I lost my Visa card once and Alan refused to report it. He said whoever stole it spends less than I did.

I have a shopping buddy. She can find things for me I didn't even know existed. She thinks I'm thin. I think she's a natural blonde - we're best friends.

Another one of my friends bought me a personalized license plate. It said, 2DMALL

Anybody who says money can't buy happiness, doesn't know where to shop.

There is only one month of the year that I avoid shopping and that is December. I hate shopping in December with all the "amateurs." I'm a professional. I shop because I have to - it's my job!

I have two mottos: "When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping." and "If the shoe fits - buy it!"

p.s. Alan says when he dies he wants me to cremate him and scatter his ashes over Nordstrom's so I'll come visit him.

(Unfortunately, this dang recession has slowed me down considerably. When asked, "what's in YOUR wallet," more often than not I have to answer, "NOTHING!"

Poll of most annoying phrases of 2008:

10. "It's not rocket science"
9. "24/7"
8. "shouldn't of ”
7. "It's a nightmare"
6. "Absolutely"
5. "With all due respect"
4. "At this moment in time"
3. "I personally”
2. "Fairly unique"
1. "At the end of the day”

Words added to the dictionary this year:
Meh (I don’t care), Bahookie (butt), "crunk" (crazy drunk and/or crazy funk), "zombie"( a computer attached to the Internet that has been compromised by a hacker), and "Yogalates" (the new fitness craze which combines yoga and pilates)

The Ten Dumbest Quotes Ever!

Countdown: The ten dumbest quotes ever!

10. “I’m planning to be celibate…I just haven’t started yet.” - yes, Paris Hilton, we know.

9. “I get to go to a lot of overseas places, like Canada.” Britney Spears really is as dumb as she looks.

8. Dan Quayle my have topped her with: “It’s wonderful to be here in the state of Chicago.” (Since when did Chicago become a state?)

7. Of course, we should have expected this kind of statement after the comment he made while still in office as Vice President: “It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.”

6. “Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.” – Marion Barry, Washington, D.C. Mayor

5. “So, where is the Cannes Film Festival being held this year?” – Hmmm, strangely enough Christina Aguilera, it’s held at Cannes. Hence the title!

4. When Shaquille O’Neal was asked if he went to the Parthenon when he went to Greece, he said: “I can’t really remember the names of all the clubs we went to.”

3. “Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you lose a very important part of your life.” Hmmm, you think? Sorry Brooke Shields. I was on your side with the whole Tom Cruise, antidepressant thing. But this is a seriously dumb quote.

2. Madonna: “I want to be like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, and Jesus - but I want to stay alive.” Good one.

And the number one dumbest quote? Wait for it…(I actually saw this live on TV – it was painful.) -- Lauren Upton, South Carolina contestant in the Miss Teen USA contest, when asked why one-fifth of Americans cannot find the U.S on a map.

1. “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us." Huh?

Is "Tacky" an inherited trait?

Apparently so. Here are my two daughters (left and right) out on the town with their friends.

You go girls! (by the way, why wasn't "I" invited??? You know how I love purple boas)

Eulogy

If you would like to really make a New Year's Resolution, read this eulogy and set goals to make your life a life worth living:




"Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won’t matter where you came from or from what side of the tracks you live on at the end. It won’t even matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured? What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave. What will matter is not your success, but your significance. What will matter is both what you learned and what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What will matter is not your competence, but your character. What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone. What will matter is both your memories as well as the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what. Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice." (paraphrased and edited from a talk by Michael Josephson).
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Happy New Year!