Follow Your Spot

  I found this quiz on webgrits.   Here are my results below.  Can You tell that I lean to the south and not the Midwest where I currently live?

Brownsville, Texas
McAllen, Texas
Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Florida
Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi
Savannah, Georgia
Mobile, Alabama
Corpus Christi, Texas
Killeen, Texas
Bradenton, Florida
Kissimmee-St. Cloud, Florida
Dothan, Alabama
Jackson, Mississippi
Bryan-College Station, Texas
Melbourne, Florida
Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida
Tyler, Texas
Albany, Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Ocala, Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida
Beaumont, Texas
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Augusta, Georgia

Pesto Salmon Couscous

This is one of my favorite Salmon Dishes. I discovered on the inside box of near east couscous and decided to try it. Very Tasty and it is easy to make too. I use roma tomatoes insted of plum tomatoes.

PESTO SALMON WITH COUSCOUS

1 package (5.6 oz) NEAR EAST Couscous Toasted Pine Nut Mix 2 plum tomatoes, chopped 1/4 cup green onions with tops, sliced 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest 5 tablespoons prepared basil pesto sauce, divided 4 skinless salmon fillets or any type of white fish (~4 oz. Each)

Prepare Near East couscous according to package directions; stir in tomatoes, onions, lemon zest and 3 tablespoons basil pesto sauce. Meanwhile, in large skillet, cook salmon with remaining 2 tablespoons of basil pesto sauce; cook for 5 to 8 minutes or until well browned. Top couscous mixture with prepared salmon fillets. 5 Servings Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes

Crispy Baked Chicken

  Tonight dinner was Crispy Baked Chicken.  My grandmother used to make this for us when we were growing up.    As with all recipes I try I usually tweak to my taste.  My grandmother used to use a whole fryer cut up or chicken breasts with the bone in.  It takes longer.  Below is my revised version.

My Crispy Baked Chicken

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast 1 sleeve of Garlic Butter Ritz(Crushed) 1 C of Cheddar Jack Cheese Shredded 1 Tbsp Garlic Powder 1 Tbsp Roasted Garlic Pepper (Mccormicks Brand) 1 Tbsp Dried Parsley 1 Stick of Butter(Melted) Mix Your  crushed crackers cheese and seasonings.   Dredge your chicken in the butter and then coat with the Ritz Mixture.  Put in a Foil Lined Pan and Bake in a 375 Degree oven for 35 minutes.   If you like you can add extra cheese on top during the last few minutes of cooking.  I prefer the Boneless skinless chicken myself. It is much easier to work with

WinterStorm Warning

  I was just surfing the internet and found out that my hometown is under a winter storm warning.  They are supposed to get sleet and freezing rain.  I was looking at news on one of  the local tv stations websites and saw the winter storm warning.  It is cold here but, the only thing in our forecast is snow and not much of that in the forecast.  It is not often that you here about freezing rain in the south.  I was talking to my mom this afternoon and she told me they were going to have some icy weather tonight.  I am glad that we are not in the south tonight for that reason.  I hate driving in freezing rain even when we were getting it here earlier this month but having it in the south is even worse.

The Captains Table

   Art and I had dinner at The Captains Table.   The food was tasty.   Art and I both agree that it was kind of expensive compared to Red Lobster.   I know Red Lobster is a chain but they  do have good food.  We had a good meal and will more than likely go back but save it for a special anniversary or birthday.  Today it was nice outside.  When I was coming home from work this afternoon the radio said it was 51 degrees outside.  It will be not quite as warm tomorrow but we have had two days where it was well above freezing.  I came home and Art was on his desktop computer.  I say that because it is a rare thing to see him on his desktop.  Now, that we both have a laptop we spend more time on them with the wifi instead of our desktop.   He changed some settings and then his desktop did not want to operate so now he is spending time in there working on it..  Actually he has been in and out of there since we got back from dinner.

The pilot of the next shuttle is from Iowa.  I was listening to the Radio and they said that there was an interview with him on Wqad.com.   He is about the age of my brother in law.  It is hard to believe that we have two anniversaries of shuttle disasters coming up.  First was Challenger in 1986 and then Columbia was two years ago in February.

 

Winter Crap Again

   Just about every night this week we have had some form of frozen precipitation.   Right Now it is sleeting outside.  We are also supposed to get 2-4 inches of snow tonight.  I am just glad that I got home before it started sleeting today.   I just barely missed beating it home last night.  I turned into our subdivision and it started snowing.  We did not get much snow it was just a dusting.  It was less than an hour after I arrived home that I heard it sleeting outside.  You could hear it hitting the storm door as it was falling.  I told Art the other day that I would like to hibernate for the rest of the winter.  It has barely started and I am already wanting spring to get here.  Tomorrow it is supposed to be cold after all the snow is finished and we have to got to the grocery store and get gas for my car also.  I am just glad that the weekend is here.  It has been a long week for me. 

Cold

   Boy is it ever cold here in the Midwest this weekend.  Yesterday I had to pump gas and it was all of about 3 or 4 degrees outside.  I am not kidding you.  I was bundled up and still froze my tail off putting gas in the car.   Today was just as bad.  Today I had to go Grocery Shopping in the cold and again it was all of 3 or 4 degrees outside.   Hopefully we will warm up sometime Tuesday or Wednesday.   If we hit freezing it will be a heat wave to me.   Art is working a 12 hour shift tonight and tomorrow night.  So we have to eat early both days before he goes to work.  I know all I have done is rant about the weather but it is cold here.  I grew up in the Deep Dixie South as Art refers to it so we are not used to such cold temperatures for long periods of time.  It gets cold but, not this cold and for this long of a stretch.  We are also supposed to get some snow tonight too.  It will be around and inch or so but still it is snow the same.  We still have the bulk of the snow from a few weeks ago in our yard.  It is a good thing I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow.  I can stay home and sleep late too.  I tried to sleep late this morning but that did not happen.  I woke up just before Art got home and then I was trying to get back to sleep and Art was making lots of noise so I wound up waking around 7:45 am.  I will cut this short now since I am kind of tired now and want to go to sleep before midnight.

Goodbye Sbc and Overpriced Phone Bills

We recently dropped SBC and At&t for Vonage which offers Voice Over IP. So far I am happy with the change. Art and I had been looking into this option for a while and noticed that Vonage nor At&t Callvantage was available in our area. Well that changed last month. We signed up for Vonage at the end of December and also ported our phone number as well. I faxed the paperwork to Vonage on Dec 31. We received our phone adapter the middle of last week and Art hooked it up last Friday night. The same day he hooked it up I received an email that said our number transfer would be complete on Monday the 10th of January. I was told that it takes 20 days to transfer the number. It took 11 days for us. It happened very quickly. What I really like about it is that I know have unlimited local and long distance with most of the features that I had with SBC for under $30 a month. I had waited to see how I liked it before I posted and so far I am happy. The one feature that I miss from SBC is the privacy manager which if I did not want to take a call I could deny the call if I was at home. I am hoping that Vonage will eventually add that feature. I guess for now I will just let what I suspect to be a telemarketer calling call go into my voicemail. The advantages for us just outweighed the disadvantages of changing. The only thing is if you do not have broadband or access to broadband in your area you cannot get VOIP. Some time last summer we heard that our cable company was going to bundle phone service with its cable and Internet service but , the drawback is our cable company was not offering a long distance package and it was more expensive. I will keep you posted on how it is going later.

What a Start to the New Year?

   This January has been quite an interesting one so far.  First last week we had ice and then 6 inches of snow. In fact most of that snow is still in my yard piled up.  Today we had ice again.  Tomorrow we will have a high of 45 degrees and you guessed it plain old rain that will turn to snow late tomorrow night.  Last night Art and I went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner.  When we were driving home it started raining.  I was glad that we made it home before it started freezing on the roads last night.  You see we have to travel to Iowa to go to Outback Steakhouse.  Iowa is not that far but, we have to cross the Mississippi river to get there.  Normally, crossing the Mississippi does not bother me that bad but in the winter it does.  2 Years ago just before Thanksgiving we drove to Iowa to eat at Outback Steakhouse.   On the way home that night it started to snow and the bridge was starting to get slick.  The car in front of us lost control on the snow and ice and spun around.  Then the person behind us could not stop so we were rear ended.  So now if there is any hint of ice in the forecast I do not like to be far from home or sitting on the I-74 Bridge when it is freezing rain.  I did not post about this last night because when we arrived home I was busy watching the new season of 24 on Fox.    All I have to say is Kiefer Sutherland rocks.  More later.

Winter

   Have I said before how much I hate winter?   I was sitting here on the computer this afternoon reading blogs and email and checking the weather for the week.  This week looks to be a hairy week weather wise.   We are set to get some crappy ice, freezing rain and snow starting tomorrow night.  The weatherman is saying about 1/4 inch accumulation of ice.   I am glad that Art bought some ice melt.   A 50lb bag to be exact.  I am thinking that we will need it over the next couple of days.   Just when all the snow we got last week is starting to melt we are getting ice now.   Not my favorite kind of precipitation.   Boy do I wish I was back down south this week and last week too.   I know I rant here a lot about the weather but, I am a Southern Girl and we do not fair well in ice or snow.

Snow

   Well we wound up with about 5 inches or so of snow this morning when all was said and done.  The county we live in pulled the plows around 8:00 pm and they resumed around 3:00 am.  They were only plowing main roads and emergency routes first.  So I pulled out on John Deere Expressway and saw that it had been partially plowed.  I am not kidding when I say partially plowed.  They had only plowed one lane each way of a four lane road.  They one lane that was plowed was only half ass plowed.  Needless to say it was a long and messy drive to work this morning just ask Art.   I finally saw a plow about 1 mile or so from the house and it was not headed the way I was. It was a much better drive home this afternoon.  I turned into my subdivision and all the streets but mine had been plowed decently.  My street looked like John Deere did this morning on the way to work.  Hopefully they will come plow again or it will eventually melt.

New Pictures on Moblog

I just added new pictures to my moblog. Enjoy them.

Chicago and Snow

Well I did finally hear from Art about 30 minutes ago he is leaving Chicago soon. They just issued a snow emergency here. They do that so that people who park on the streets can move their cars so snow plows can plow the streets. Granted the snow emergencies are issued when there is 2 inches or more of snow. I have not heard an official total yet, but I am pretty sure it is a few inches because the street is covered and so is my driveway. Kwqc noon news just said 6 inches in some spots already. I am glad that I decided to stay home and not travel today. As I have said before, this makes me wish that I was back home down south in Alabama. Dad said it was in the high 60's and would be in the 50's tomorrow. Anything, to get out of this winter weather would make me happy. At 10:00pm last night the news said that some people in Hampton and Some in Rock Island had power outages. We have been lucky here at our house no power outage yet from this storm. Art should be on his way home now I anticipate that it will take him about 4 hours to get home with the roads being the way they are

Update: Art Made it home around 3:30 this afternoon.

Snow, Ice and Chicago

   Well I made it to work okay this morning   The roads were slippery in spots but not a sheet of ice.  My driveway however was an ice slick.  I backed out of the garage.  I did not have my foot on the gas or the brake and the car kept going.  I called Art before I left work and suggested that he salt the driveway so it would not ice over anymore than it already has.  I got home and Art said that he walked to the mailbox to get the mail and the garbage cans and fell 2 or 3 times between the garage and the mailbox.   I told Art that I think maybe he should have salted the driveway before trying to walk to the mailbox not after.  

 I just got an email from Art about 1 hour and a half ago.  He made it safely to Chicago for his concert.  Tomorrow may be another story since the snow is supposed to be heavy at times.   We are supposed to get ice tonight and it turn to snow tomorrow morning.  I probably will not go to work if there is ice under the snow it just is not worth it to try to drive on ice.  Snow I can drive on and have before but, with snow and ice under it that is another story.

Snow Storms

    What is it with snow storms?  Art has been planning to go to Chicago for a concert tomorrow and now we are going to get anywhere in the neighborhood of 5-10 inches of snow.   Art said to me earlier this evening that maybe he should start going to concerts in the summer time.  When we lived in upstate New York Art drove in a snow storm twice to a concert.  Once he drove to Boston and the other time it was New York City.  I am beginning to think that may be a good idea to not go to concerts in the winter around here.  We have had a pretty decent winter so far.  We have not had much snow.  What we have had has been less than 2 inches all winter.  I personally think that he is nuts for wanting to go to Chicago but, he is a big boy and can take care of himself so I do not worry to much about him.  

Salmon In Herb Butter

  This is one of my favorite Salmon Dishes.  I am actually making it for dinner tonight.   I have altered the recipe slightly.  It calls for Cilantro as the Herb.  I have made it with Cilantro but prefer to use parsley or basil.   Below is my version of the recipe. 

1 pound butter
1 to 2 lemons, juiced
4 to 5 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbps of parsley or basil
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 (4 to 5 pound) salmon fillet

Melt the butter and squeeze in lemon juice and add crushed garlic, parsley or basil and green onions and mix well. Place salmon fillet on a piece of aluminum foil that is large enough to completely wrap and seal the fillet. After placing the salmon on the foil, brush or pour the butter mixture on the salmon. Seal the salmon in foil. Place on the barbecue grill and cook for 10 to 12 minutes per side. Any longer will dry out the salmon. Cut in portions and serve immediately.

Fish can also be cooked in a pre heated 350-degree F oven for 35 to 40 minutes.