Tonight the new season of Deadliest Catch begins so of course that means crab for supper.

We love Deadliest Catch and never miss a new show (or periodic rerun or marathon). We’ve watched it from the beginning and of course have our favorite captain(s) and crew members. We gasp through the harrowing dangers and cheer when the pots come up full. We can’t wait to see who comes back (especially Phil) and to catch up on how they are fairing this season.

We love it so much that if I would have known earlier about Catch Con I would have tried to talk hubby into going. I’m sure since it’s being held in Seattle it wouldn’t have been too hard to talk him into visiting the Emerald City. At one time we were considering a move to the Seattle area and since then we have always said we were going to take a vacation in the area. One day…

Back to celebrating the new season what to have for dinner? Well duh…crabs…*g*. So we did take out from Red Lobster cause they do crabs, lobster and shrimp so well. We had snow crab legs of course and another favorite of ours is their Chef's Signature Lobster and Shrimp Pasta…mmm…got one of each and split them. Talk about stuffed, good thing Deadliest Catch is so suspenseful, I’m sure we’ll burned a few of the million calories we consumed by gasping and cringing during the show…*G*.

So if you haven’t seen the show, grab some crabs for dinner then sit back enjoy watching how your dinner was caught.

Thank You!

Thank you Veterans for all you have done for us. I can’t imagine all you have sacrificed and endured for your country. You are the reason we were able to make history just a week ago. Thank you doesn’t convey what you mean to me and my family but thank you with all my heart.

Thank you to all the families of Veterans. I can’t imagine having a husband or a father serving in a foreign land. The sacrifice families go through when they have a husband and or father is sometimes forgotten. I’m sure you have tremendous pride in their service but the constant worry must weigh heavily too. Thank you for all the sacrifices you endure as well as your serviceman.

Thank you to all the mothers of Veterans. You have brought your child into the world, nursed them through sickness, taught them right from wrong, held them through their first heartbreak, and loved them through it all. Having an eighteen year old son makes me appreciate you more for the sacrifice you and your child have made for our country. Sending my child off to college was hard I can’t imagine what you went through sending your child off to boot camp. Thank you for all you raising such an honorable child and sharing him with our country.

To day is Veteran’s Day and I hope everyone remembers our Veterans today, but most important remember them every day in your prayers…especial all those still serving every day.

Well this week’s menu is a crazy as this past weekend…*G*

If you read my last looong winded post you’ll remember this past weekend was my hubby’s birthday…really it was there, way towards the end after the equating the election to child birth (bet that’s a first…*ggg*)…anyway the weekend turned into a feeding frenzy of celebrating a milestone that we don’t talk about cause well hubby pretending he’s not getting any older…*g*. So how do you top off a weekend like that and follow it with a mini celebration again on Tuesday for Vetrans day?

You shop for enough recipes that anything you decide on you are ready to fix. Yup, that’s what I did…I have the fixin’s for several recipes and I have no clue what I’m going to fix or in what order I’m going to fix them…*g*.

I do know tonight I’m making Red Beans, Sausage and Rice (recipe will follow) and I’ll serve cole slaw made with cabbage, carrots, green onions, red and green bell peppers all rough sliced (not too thin) for a chunkier~crunchier slaw…and I cheat by using low fat Marzetti’s slaw dressing sparingly.

As for Veterans Day tomorrow…I really don’t know what I’ll make. Hubby will be home and we don’t really have any plans. I wanted to make something celebratory but my mind was totally blank. So I decided to just go with the flow tomorrow and fix what ever our taste buds want.

Here is the list of recipes I can make with the things I have on hand (in no particular order)…

~Impossible Chicken and Broccoli Pie
~Impossible Ham, Mushroom, Onion, Pepper and Swiss Cheese Pie (I love omelets made with ham, mushrooms, onion, bell pepper and Swiss cheese so this pie comes from that origin)
~Chicken, Potatoes and Peppers Hash
~General Tso Chicken Broccoli with Rice
~Southwestern Chicken Soup
~Chicken Layered Tortilla Dip
~Teriyaki Chicken and Veggie Stir-Fry with rice
~Chicken Salad (think Waldorf salad with chicken…and crasins for an extra fall feeling)
~Tuna Salad (think tuna salad with macaroni and green peas so it’s a casserole)

So you see I have quite a choice for this week’s menu. Even writing it down hasn’t helped me decide what I’m going to fix tomorrow or later in the week. These were just the things that sounded good at the time I was making my grocery list. It all sounds good but I have a feeling later in the week when it’s possibly rainy I’ll use that as my angle for choosing each nights menu.

As promised above I’m listing my recipe for tonight’s Red Beans, Sausage and Rice.

2 cups dried red kidney beans
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
½ bell pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 oz turkey kielbasa, halved lengthwise and sliced ½ inch pieces
5 cups vegetable broth
1 tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black,
½ tsp crushed red pepper, or to taste
¼ tsp dried leaf marjoram
1 bay leaf
½ tbsp sugar
8 oz beer
hot cooked rice
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced

Sort, rinse and set beans aside.

Heat oil in large sauce pan over medium heat. Add onions, bell pepper and garlic to pan and cook 3 minutes or until tender. Add sausage and cook about 4 minutes or until lightly browned.

Stir in broth. Bring to a simmer, scraping pan to loosen brown bits. Stir in beans, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, marjoram, bay leaf, sugar and beer. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until beans are soft and juice has thickened, about 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Add more broth or water if necessary. Discard bay leaf.

To serve spoon rice on each plate and ladle beans and sausage with liquid over top. Sprinkle with green onions.

Where did last week go? Or A week's worth of thoughts in on post...*G*

It seems like after the election things just sort of moved in a weird slow ~ motion ~ alternate ~ universe ~ excited ~ overwhelmingly ~ let ~ down ~ hurry ~ up ~ and ~ wait kinda way. With all the excitement leading up to the election it seemed we couldn’t get enough of the polls and last minute campaigned push (we are in one of if not the ugliest Senatorial campaign districts ~ total disgusted with that mess). All day Tuesday I watched MSNBC even though I knew they really wouldn’t have any information on the results until the polls closed. I couldn’t help myself. It was like being when you are starving and you still have to make the pasta. You keep watching the pot of water come to a boil…you know it’s not going to go any faster watching it but you just can’t help but checking it constantly.

Hubby and I watched President-Elect Obama make his speech with tears of hope. Afterwards we couldn’t seem to settle down even though we knew it was late and hubby had to go to work the next day. Wednesday we were still in a daze of hope and exhaustion. From there the week gets a bit fuzzy. Still trying to grasp what’s happened not only for our country’s government but also culturally the hope for the future for everyone. How exciting it is to see such happiness on the faces of young and old.

Then all the talk on Friday about what President-Elect Obama had to say in order to shore up our economy. The jobs report was so bad and added to the automotive industry Friday was almost overwhelming on the economic front. But what’s worse you realize not only does President-Elect Obama have come out saying everything is going to be alright but he can’t start his new job until the middle of January. Hence the hurry up and wait syndrome…

Kinda like having a baby. You are all excited when the stick turns blue and can’t wait until the baby comes. Then it dawns on you after the first flush of excitement, you have to wait nine months (if it’s unplanned possible less) for that baby to actually get here. You go through morning sickness, sometimes you puke so much you wonder if it’s all worth it…I did six months of puking several times a day. Then the swelling and not just your tummy…the cankles that have mutated from your ankles and calves…we won’t even mention our bottom…TMI. Heartburn you have at just the thought of food…but not eating is totally out of the question. Don’t get between me and chocolate (it was really viciously ugly). Even through all this there were lots of wonder and joy…the ultra sound and the many times everything stop while we stared in wonder at my tummy moving around…an arm here, a leg there and of course the total shifting body. Delivery oh boy that’s an experience like no other…and who cares what your body feels or looks like afterwards cause you are holding that beautiful miracle in your arms. You realize it was totally worth all the adjustments, pain and even puking for months on end…the biggest shocker of all while holding that beautiful miracle, you forget all you went through to hold that baby in your arms.

We have lots of puking, cankles, cravings and pain ahead but hopefully we’ll have moments of wonder and joy. With any luck when it’s all over we will have a country we can all be proud of showing off to the world.

With all the overwhelming emotions and excitement of last week I almost forgot this weekend was hubby’s birthday. So as Friday dawned with all the depressing economic news and the build up of P-E Obama’s speech, I was planning a weekend to celebrate a day hubby doesn’t want to talk about why we are celebrating but celebrate it just the same. I know kinda kooky but what can I say, he’s like an old woman when it comes to his birthday. When we first started dating age didn’t matter to him. Now we don’t talk about age…*ggg*…unless he really makes me unhappy (which doesn’t happen often) then I’ll make a comment about him getting old…*g*. We are both scorpions and according to mother the either mix really well or not at all. I don’t really follow that stuff like mother cause apparently I’m a true scorpion and that’s not good (according to her at least). I don’t know about all of that but hubby and I mix really good…in other words don’t cross one and don’t think you’ll separate and divide (after 18 years even our son hasn’t figured out how to do that…*g*).

So this weekend we’ve celebrated all weekend and since hubby will be off again on Tuesday we’ll just keep on celebrating. What does it mean to celebrate birthdays in our house? Well food of course. We were raised in families that celebrated (or mourned) everything with food. A weekend of food celebration means all our meals are celebrations…mainly our favorites or things we haven’t had in a while. But that will continue into next week too. I know doing that every once in a while that’s not too bad. But November is a bad month for us cause it starts with Halloween then goes all the way into Thanksgiving. We have been pretty good this year because we didn’t have a lot of candy left over from Halloween…those last kids that stopped by got extra…*g*. Hubby’s birthday this past weekend we did lots of celebrating and with him off again Tuesday breakfast will be more than just cereal. And we still have another birthday and the big long weekend of Thanksgiving eating…I mean celebrating…*g*. Then December is here and my son will be home and wanting all his favorites that he missed while away at school.

By January we’ll be ready for things to get back to a consistent menu of healthy foods minus desserts. But until then we will slowly slid into the cauldron of heavier meals finished off with progressively more decadent desserts. So sad that we can see it coming and yet we still can’t stop it…well we try at least to slow it down, kinda…*G*

Well I think that pretty much covers last week. I have lots of reviews to work on but I don’t know that I’ll get those done anytime soon cause today I’m finishing my parting of purging, organizing and cleaning the den. For such a small room you would think all the work hubby did yesterday would have taken care of everything but it only made a big dent. Most of this post was written yesterday while he was asking about stuff he was pulling out of the closet or rearranging the furniture around me. We were together in body if not in mind set…it’s amazing I can spend all day by myself and not get as much thought on paper as I can while he’s moving my chair while I’m typing…*g*.

Later today I’ll post this week’s menu…really interesting menu choices this week. I hope I haven’t scared you off after not posting then doing a mental dump on you. Stick around, who knows what will end up here this week…*ggg*.

Yes, We Can!

Just typing that chokes me up.

My son came home over the weekend to cast his vote for a man who moved him so much that getting up early Saturday morning and standing in line for over 2 hours didn’t faze him. He stood straight without wavering, complaining or fidgeting.

I got choked up when they called the race because I was excited for our country. When I called my son last night shortly after the race was called, the excitement in his voice choked me all over again.

Listening to President-elect Obama’s speech last night was so inspiring that even hearing snippets today make me stop in awestruck again. Thinking about the way he’s affected so many American’s with his speeches give me comfort in knowing he will be the person representing American’s when talking to foreign leaders.

How exciting it is to be living a history making day.

This Week’s Plans and Menus…

I know I’m a bit late but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have dinner last night…*G*. We never miss a meal around here. Sometimes I plan and shop then we don’t necessarily have the menu I planned on the day I planned it. The end of last week things didn’t go that way I had it planned. When that happens it’s easy the following week (kinda sorta…well sometimes) cause I usually push some of the menu plans down the calendar if possible.

Yesterday we had Spicy Shrimp Creole because hubby got a late start taking our son back to college. Since he wasn’t home Sunday night we didn’t do our usual Cajun/Creole dinner and watch True Blood. And before you ask, even though I was home I didn’t watch True Blood, we’ll catch it together one day this week. We did enjoy dinner last night though and we’ll have it again on a Sunday night in honor of our show…*g*.

What’s planned for tonight? Well here’s how my mind worked on that possibility…

I know with the election I could have gone a couple of ways for a wonderful Election theme night…Fancy Tapas Party Night (and this was a theme I was leaning towards), or I could have gone with my candidates favorite meal which according to the Cooking Light site is Chili (wasn’t in the mood for chili even though it’s a cloudy drizzly day) or I could have fondue as a fun food choice (also a play on the water cooler conversation…what are they going to be talking about at the water cooler tomorrow morning ~ or the fondue pot tonight…*G*).

If you’ve been following the election coverage…especially Keith Olbermann…then you heard about the day pie was mentioned so many times they wondered if someone needed more pie. Well while trying to decide on what I was in the mood for…I remember we didn’t have Impossible Chicken Broccoli Pie last week cause of a schedule change. So that’s how I picked tonight’s dinner…Impossible Chicken Broccoli Pie…which I lighten up with skim milk, egg substitute, 2% cheese and Heart Healthy Bisquick)…so we’ll be having pie for dinner tonight…*ggg*. Of course I couldn’t just have one…remember so many references…I’m fixing pie for dessert too, Impossible Coconut Pie (hubby’s pick cause he loves it)...same lighten tips, skim milk, egg substitute and Heart Healthy Bisquick. I’m also throwing Waldorf salad with it too.

Tomorrow will be pretty and I hope to get in the yard and work a bit so it will be a good night to fix General Tso Chicken with broccoli and rice…easy cause as I mentioned before I use the bottled sauce from Iron Chef…*g*.

Thursday I’m fixing Mexican Chicken and Rice with a side of corn. Another easy night but that’s cleaning and laundry day so I’ll be on the move all day.

Friday will be rainy and cool again so I’m thinking it will be a fun soup night but I don’t have it firmed up yet…some thing fun though…*ggg*.

So that’s on this weeks menu…the schedule is pretty light this week but I guess that’s the vacuum effect since last weekend our son was home for the weekend…*g*. What’s on your schedule and menu for the week?

Have you VOTED???

It sure would be a shame all the blood and tears shed for you to cast your vote…and you didn’t?

What reason could you have for not voting? Are you not feeling up to standing in line at the polls? Is the weather just too yucky? Have you had a death in the family?

Well what about those men and women in uniform? Think of all the things those men and women have to feel uncomfortable about but they still put on that uniform and do the job they were sent to do. Isn’t standing in line even in the cold and/or rain in anyway comparable to what they are going through every day they put that uniform on? Think about that while you are standing in line so you can vote.

If you have had a death in the family, I’m sorry for your lost. Since yesterday I have been remembering the death of my grandmother. She was more of a mother to me than a grandmother and her passing still brings a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. Seeing my son growing and changing has me remembering the hand she played in my life. How I wish she were here to see the way life has turned out. What I would give for her to see my son has turned out. For her to see him at college and maturing before my very eyes, I often wonder what she would say about my life and his.

I can only imagine what Barack Obama is going through now. The loss of his grandmother only hours away from the biggest day of his life must be overwhelming. No matter how the elections turn out, he won’t be able to call her and hear her words of praise and love that you know she would say. How hard it must have been for him to continue on with his day yesterday but he did. He continued with his campaigning through his feelings of loss. What strength that must have taken.

He was able to pull himself together and continue on and so can you. No matter your reasons or excuses just get up, get to your polling place and stand there no matter how long it takes. You can make a difference with your vote so why not get to the polls. Your country is calling on you to do your duty by casting your vote. Show all those men and women in uniform that you are doing your part by voting no matter the lines or the weather.

Review of Bitten & Smitten by Michelle Rowen

Title: Bitten & Smitten

Author: Michelle Rowen

Year Published: January 2006

Why did you buy this book?

I bought this book but I don’t know how long ago because it was hidden in my massive to be read mountain. I pulled it out because I was looking for some paranormal books to read the last couple of weeks…cause of the Halloween season.

Do you like the cover?

The cover was ok but not really what I would consider eye catching.

Did you enjoy the book?

I did enjoy the book. I thought the premise was a bit different from your typical vampire romances. Thierry is Sarah hero saving her from a horrific blind date where she unknowingly became a vampire, her date~sire was killed before her eyes and suddenly on the run from vampire slayers. Unfortunately Thierry tired of living has decided it’s time to commit suicide. Sarah talks him into helping her with her new way of life before he ends it all. And that’s where the fun really begins.

Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again?

Yes, the author was new to me and I will try another book by her. I’m going to wait until after I make a dent in my to be read pile. Not that I didn’t enjoy the book but I don’t have an overwhelming need to rush out and get the next one by this author.

A letter to Maya Banks about her new book Be With Me...

Dear Maya,

I don’t know how to tell you this…

The first book of yours I read was Coulters' Woman. That book so touch the romantic in me that I was hooked on your books and had to have them all. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with all your characters and to feel apart of each book of yours I read. But none of them touched me as much as Coulters' Woman for a couple of reasons. One being of all the ménages I’ve read they never touch me the same because Adam, Ethan and Ryan each had their own touching romantic relationship with Holly. It wasn’t just the four of them joining together that made the story but each individual man loving Holly in his own way. The second reason of course being the obvious it was my first and you never forget your first whether it’s your first romance in real life or your first romance with an author that touches you so deeply as Coulters’ Woman touched me.

Be With Me has become my favorite book even over Coulters’ Woman because it goes beyond any ménage book I have ever read. In the first glow of a ménage it’s so exciting and overwhelming you don’t really stop to think about the nuts and bolts of every day life. And since Reggie, Hutch, Cam and Sawyer were childhood friends it brings and even more complex relationship because of that long standing bond they each had with each other. On top of the fact that Hutch, Cam and Sawyer were foster brothers instead of biological brothers they each brought their own set of baggage. All of this leads to another facet of the story being how each of these very different, very strong men feel about knowing and seeing their brother(s) with their soul mate. They are all soul mates there is no mistaking that from the very beginning you feel they are all soul mates. As if that doesn’t make for a very different ménage story, you also have Reggie in the middle of these wonderfully different men each with his own temperament and baggage yet so loving and deeply in love with her. She has her own conflicts to work through one being how to handle her feelings for each man as well as her knowledge of their very different personalities.

Having a killer out to get Reggie on top of trying to work out a relationship with this wonderful group of soul mates makes for an exciting and nail biting read. Oh and let’s not forget the heart pounding, squirm in your seat lovemaking. Along with being totally different in personality and temperament each man has his own needs and ways of fulfilling Reggie’s needs. What woman wouldn’t want three men with three different styles and needs who want nothing more than to make her feel as loved and needed more than their next breath?

It wouldn’t be a Maya book without the Happy Ever After but the road there is more exciting and gut-wrenching than any ride I’ve had in a long time. My only disappointment with the book…it ended. I never wanted it to end because I loved Hutch, Cam, Sawyer and Reggie so much I wanted to move in next door and be a part of their lives because you know life in that household will always be exciting, rambunctious, and loving always loving even when Sawyer and Reggie but heads because they are so much alike or when Cam tries to get Reggie to cut out her junk food habit.

This book will definitely be in the re-read category for me. I books that I call comfort reads because they touch me so deeply and sometimes I just need a re-read of something so meaningful and touching. This will sit on top of that comfort read pile for times I just need a hot, exciting and loving read to lift my spirits and move my heart. Thank you for giving me many hours of wonderful reading now and in the future.

Kelly