Florida Part 2

So some people write 2 and 3 blog posts a week, I apparently write 2 or 3 a year... Its been slightly hectic in our house since we went to Florida and I haven't had any time to actually update the blog due to health reasons for my husband and sheer exhaustion on my part.
To start, Hubs had a seizure the week before Christmas and has been unable to drive since then.  It made last minute shopping slightly more difficult... but it all got done.  The past 6 months I have been his driver, and since he works 40 minutes in one direction from our place, and I work 40 minutes in the other direction, we had to get creative.  Basically I have been dropping him at a bus stop every morning to get to work, and then once his bus comes, driving myself to work.
We (and his boss) are very happy to say that he now has his license back and is getting used to driving again, not being the passenger.  Then we had some hectic stuff going on at my work, with new employees, yearly inspections, new clients, it was nuts.
SO! HERE I AM! Back again! to finish what I started with Disney, because we went to Universal and I never did the Universal post NOR did I give all my crazy tips for Disney.  Here we go!

Universal:
I am going to jump around with this, not like Disney because we just walked back and forth around the parks for this one.
So I have never been there and my husband had been there once with his mother.  We purchased Park Hopper tickets and I am SO HAPPY WE DID.  Let me tell you why!
If you purchase the park hopper ticket option for your Universal Studios Orlando vacation, you get to ride..... THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS.   That's right people!  Rather than walking all the way around Islands of Adventure to get back to Universal Studios, you can get on the Hogwarts Express and it drops you at Kings Cross Station in Universal Studios.


For those of you who have never been there, (like myself before I went in November) there are two portions of Harry Potter-ness to Universal.  There are 3 roller coasters in "Hogsmede" and some shops.  Hogsmede is part of Islands of Adventure, right by Jurassic Park (I'll get back to that awesomeness later!) but Diagon Alley is part of Universal Studios, and you have to have a park hopper to go back and forth between them.

Diagon Alley has more shops than rides, and unless you know here to look it was difficult for us to find.  Legit, we stumbled upon it.  I kept saying to my husband "I KNOW THERES MORE" and while looking for a bathroom in the rain, saw all these people standing by the entrance and went, "I wonder whats around these... OMG ITS DIAGON ALLEY!! WE FOUND IT!" lol.
You will never believe from the OUTSIDE how big it is once your there.  Diagon Alley is huge compared to what you think when you first walk up.

Now apparently you can go through the Leaky Cauldron to get in too, but I couldn't find it... until we were IN Diagon Alley.   I would have liked to have eaten there, but there was always this HUGE wait to get a table, and hubs and me were like "Meh... the food choices are okay..."  So we would snack on stuff instead.

I DID have Butterbeer while there.  I'm not a cream soda person, so it was okay... hubs loved it.  


My brother wanted me to bring him some back but they don't bottle it... I tried to bring him Pumpkin Juice, but couldn't find the store at the airport that sells it to get it (yes, they apparently have a store at the Orlando Airport that sells the same Merchandise as in Universal)
I got a chocolate frog too... Rowena Ravenclaw was my card on the inside.  The Frog is freaking HUGE!!!








We went on every ride that was Harry Potter themed... the two indoor rides have screens and special effects.  I get motion sick easily... so they weren't amazing for me... made me want to vomit a few times, and you had to wait awhile to get on.

TIP!!! If you are like my husband and above the normal average person height (he's 6'4") TELL THEM AHEAD OF TIME for the Gringotts Ride.  We waited in line, then had to get OUT of line because my husband needed a special seat for the ride, and so we had to wait in the Handicap line because he needed to be in a specific spot.  There are like 3 rows that are meant for tall and large people.  Hubs just needed a little more room for his feet.  The rides are very much designed for the average height individual...


Onto more!!! Now that I've ranted about Harry Potter for awhile...
I LOVE the Jurassic Park ride.  I had seen the commercial for Universal Studios on television SO MUCH as a kid, and I went to Disney when I was 18 so I was very curious about this giant T-Rex jumping out at people at Universal.  IT WAS AWESOME.  Universal better never get rid of that ride or I will lose it.  I will never return.  I will also never return if they get rid of the Popeye Ride.
Due to us going on a Thursday... and in the rain, hubs and me got to ride the Popeye water ride like 6 times in a row.  There was no one in line and we just went, "can we just stay on?" and we did... until we were soaking wet and it was time to go home.  Ponchos helped with keeping our heads wet slightly.  Did not help with keeping the rest of me dry... it was great.
I must say I loved many a ride at Universal.  Next post I will compare the two parks, because thats a post in and of itself.  As well as more tips.

While at Universal, we had scheduled our Disney Dining plan accordingly so we had enough to last the week, and got to eat regularly, lol.  HOWEVER on Friday we went to Wet n Wild.  Hubs loves water parks...
We decided in the end, we both would have rather had the water park option for Disney instead of going to Wet n Wild.  We loved Typhoon Lagoon at disney and we were like, "meh..." about Wet n Wild.  If we go back we plan to not get this option from Universal.  It had some nice rides, but I wouldn't go back.  Sorry WetnWild....

On our way TO Universal, we spotted a WAWA!!!!  I'm from the part of PA where we have Wawa's EVERYWHERE.  Hubs and me are trying to buy a house, and distance to a Wawa is crucial... we can't really function without it...
SO we ended up A. making friends with an employee there because we were amazed by the Beer Cooler (we don't have that in PA, you have to go to Wine and Spirits or a Beer Distributor for that stuff...) and B.  We ended up getting Hoagies and taking them back to our hotel at Disney for dinner because we had scheduled lunch in Epcot for the next day.

But seriously if you're from PA CHECK OUT THIS WAWA.  Beer Cooler, SEATS OUTSIDE.  We were like kids in a candy shop...

Friday Night after Wawa, we did some laundry because the Laundromat at Disney was next to the pool (thanks for that Disney!) and swam in their "Hippy Dippy Pool" at Pop Century.  It was nice to not have to do Laundry when we came home (we pay for laundry at our apartment so it was the same as doing it at home...)

Packed up everything, and was ready for check out the next day.  While packing up I was not happy about the fact that I found a pack of potato chips under our bed... seeing as I didn't eat any chips while there in the hotel room... nor did I bring them back... and they MAYBE changed the sheets once in the week...  See next post for more on that!

Saturday we went to Epcot for rides and lunch.  We had loved the Biergarten SO MUCH that we ended up finishing our trip with Lunch there.  Disney held our bags while we went to the parks, and we just gave them to the bus driver when it was time to go home.  We hit up some more rides in the parks, and spent maybe half the day there before going home.

All in all it was a good trip.  I'm glad hubs and me got to be there together without children, so we could experience it together and then later take any future children with us.  Now we have a better idea of what to splurge on and what to say "forget that one..." like, we might not do Universal Studios next time, just do Islands of Adventure, though I really enjoyed that Hogwarts express... :)

Happy Living!
taxikab

"Dreams come true!"

Hi Everyone!  I am back and mainly unpacked (its been a week I should be 100% unpacked but whatever...) from my lovely vacation with the hubs to Florida.  I miss Florida already, but we are back in PA and happy, cold, slightly sick, and stuffed with turkey because it was Thanksgiving about 2 days ago.

So I have lots to update on, lets start!

Disney!  So much fun.  We stayed at Disney and rented a car to go to Universal three days.  I'm making the trip a two part post, first Disney, then Universal and conclusion.  Sound good?  OKAY! Lets go!

As previously stated, Hubs and I stayed at Pop Century on the Disney property and rented a car for going to Universal.  People consistently were saying "save money, stay off ground, etc" but frankly, after you factor in parking and gas, etc, it was worth it, for hubs and me to stay at Disney.  Disney has their own transportation system that will transport you to and from the parks if you are staying at their resort.  Also if you know someone staying at another Disney resort, you can get a bus to one of the parks, then a bus from the park to that hotel and meet up with family or friends staying there, or take the monorail, which we did ride at one point... You can also use this to go to breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever at the other resorts.

Magic Bands: Your magic bands have your name on them, and then are your ticket to the park, your key for your room, your connection for charging things to your room, and your dining plan swiper.  I think Disney has some bugs to work out still, because I had an issue with my band a few times, and so did multiple other people I saw and talked to.  Bands not working at their room, not matching with your finger print at the park gate, sometimes just not working.  They finally had to take my picture because I could not get  it to work at the parks for a fourth time on one of our last days.

You basically wear the band, and scan your finger so that they know it isn't being used by other people.  Simple enough, but slight pain when one keeps glitching.  You also have the option in the parks to purchase MORE magic bands, with fun stuff on them.  I stuck with my orange one.

Now you have the basics, lets move on, taking this one day at a time….Sorry.  I’ll try to be brief, but no promises.

Saturday: EARLY EARLY EARLY!

My mother in law drove us to the airport at 4:30 in the morning…. no joke.  I was exhausted.  We apparently love to torture ourselves because Hubs and I did the same thing for Jamaica, like 4 hours of sleep then a day of awesome!  Got to Disney around lunch time, had lunch at Pop Century, got our cups (dining plan gives you cups) then off to Magic Kingdom we went!  It was the first time my husband had been to any of the Disney parks, as he had only ever been to Universal a long time ago... PEOPLE if you ever get the chance to take someone to Magic Kingdom for their first time, DO IT.  He was amazed because we got there in the middle of one of their parades and Oh my gosh, Hubs could not stop staring at everything.  He said to me atleast three times "What is this place?" lol.  It was pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie.

We got to meet Gaston, get on the tea cups, we only did like 3 rides at Magic Kingdom Saturday because there was an insane amount of people there.  So we left and went to Epcot because we had dinner reservations at Biergarten which was AMAZING.  Omg, best food.  My husband and I are both German descent and have a small love of German food.  Its in Oktoberfest, and its a buffet.  If you want like drinks and an appetizer, go to Summerfest because thats not a buffet and we met a couple who made that mistake.  Tried to be a beer crawl of Epcot, and went to Biergarten as a short stop… no.  You don’t do that.

Best like everything I have ever eaten, dessert was amazing, vegetables were amazing, sauerkraut was amazing, just omg.  The family we sat with were great too, very nice people from near where Hubs and I live now so.

Our room wasn’t ready until like WELL after 3pm (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t ready till 6 o clock… I may be wrong but I’m going to check it)

Sunday: We got super lucky and got Lunch Reservations at Be Our Guest.  Apparently dinner is much harder to come by, but frankly we just wanted to go in there…  Again, Food was amazing.  When you do breakfast and lunch you go through a line and order at a touch screen, then you pick a seat, and MAGICALLY your food finds you.  I asked how they find you and the girl looked at me so just done and goes “…Magic…”   Okay lady, good enough for me…  I got a roast beef sandwich, that came with fries, AND a cupcake with “Grey Stuff” on it.  It was icing, lol.  It was good.  

Got on some rides, got to ride Dumbo, because frankly everyone should go on the Dumbo ride at least once.  Because of the long lines we didn’t get on many rides at Magic Kingdom.  We did get on the Splash Mountain ride, which was great because Hubs loves log flumes, and it was HOT!!  Again, went to Epcot after magic kingdom, BUT! We ate the Akershus which was awesome too.  This was character dining, where the Princesses come around and take pictures and say hi.  Ariel was fascinated by my shirt because it had “bubbles” on it, and asked if I had been swimming.  It was a polka dot shirt lol.  Again food was amazing.  Missed the fire works for Epcot because we were in dinner, but we caught them Monday.

Christmas Tea Pot!

Monday: Typhoon Lagoon.  Kudos Disney for your wave pool.  Those waves came and people SCREAMED.  It was great.  Water slides were good.  I am not a fan of slides where I have to go down without a tube because my shoulder blades always hurt afterwards, don’t know why but they do.  This day we got to meet up with my sister and her family after we had finished at the water park.  So we left a bit before closing, went back got showers, and met up with my sister after dinner for fire works.  We ate at the coral reef which was SO COOL.  Everyone has a view of the fish tank which is awesome.  They give you a list of what all the fish are too so you can see as they come past the glass.  Also they had this black sea salt on their butter with the bread, OMG So delicious.  I’m a salt person, who I lost my mind over this one food lol.  

Fire works with my sisters family was great.  My husband had my nephew on his shoulders so he could see better, and apparently the Monorail was in the way because he insisted my husband move closer.

Tuesday: Magic Kingdom again, but this time with my sisters family. We got lucky and SOMEHOW got to eat at Be Our Guest AGAIN but for breakfast this time.  Hubs was like, “lets try it” and no joke, we were in and out in half the time as lunch on Sunday.  Met up with my sister after breakfast and frankly we really got in more rides with them than we did on our own which we didn’t expect.  My sister would go, “this fast pass” and i’d switch us to it and then we’d head over because on Tuesday this was less people and most of the rides we could take her kids on, had like NO waits.  It was good.  My nephew likes the Aladdin magic carpet ride, which is basically Dumbo, but with carpets and camels that spit at you, lol.

DOLE WHIP   Hubs insisted he have pineapple dole whip.

We went to Hollywood Studios after Magic Kingdom, and I insisted Hubs ride Tower of Terror.  I love it, its my favorite.  We tried to get fast passes for different stuff but basically ended up canceling some of them and using them for Epcot later.  We also got on rocking roller coaster and walked around just getting on different stuff.  We did NOT ride Soarin’ as there was an hour and a half wait basically every day we checked it.

Dinner was at Epcot again… I KNOW I KNOW but it was so good.  This time at Tokyo Dining which was again AMAZING.  I was not disappointed at any meal in Disney.  We got cloths before the meal to wipe our hands and we got to eat with chopsticks, which we love.  They were very nice too.

We didn’t go to Disney again until Saturday when we left, and this post is long enough already!!!  See part 2 for Universal, last day in Disney, and tips and such.  

Happy Living!!

taxikab

ps.  Happy belated Thanksgiving!

NYX soft matte lip cream review

Ok, so I don't usually write about reviews, and I tend to be very cautious when buying lipsticks, lipgloss, etc, BUT, I had a target gift card and had heard from really good reviews about the NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream, so I went, I'm going to try it!
Target only had like 4 colors... which was upsetting, but I also bought them, today...and I think most stores stock their shelves for things in the beginning of the week.  I got Addis Ababa and San Paulo today, and I'm contemplating checking other stores for some other colors because I'm obsessed with this cream.
NOW! I REVIEW!  Here goes.

Firstly, it is not a gloss.  It's a cream and it feels like baby powder on my lips.  Its nuts.  I love it.  It really feels like mousse if you touch it, and like I said, I love it.  If you let it dry, its not transferring.  You can kiss everyone and it won't come off.  I kissed my hand like 12 times testing it, and the longer I had it on, the more it dried, the less it transferred, until it just didn't anymore and the color was still just as vibrant and pigmented.  Like I said, I love it.  The color San Paulo looked mauve-ish when looking at the bottle, was reddish when I put it on my lips, but on the website looks like a rose color...  All in all, its kinda red...  I still like it, but was not what I was expecting when I bought it.  Addis Ababa is like magenta, hot pink, very awesome color, I love it.  Its similar to Clinique's Pudgy Peony Chubby Stick color.  I love wearing that when I go out, so this may be a new staple for me too.
I LOVE the smell.  I put it on and immediately went, "oh! it smells like vanilla!  Thats awesome!"  and was losing my mind telling the hubs about this stuff.  I had to take a couple minutes and freak out over this lip cream when talking to him.  Basically it was love at first sight.  It goes on very easily and with only a small amount.

Cons (aka I didn't like this...)
Its not very forgiving when putting it on.  It glides on very easily, as I said, BUT! You need a mirror to put it on, or you end up looking like you let a child do you lipstick...  I actually put it on however I felt like, then used my makeup remover to clean up around my mouth.  As I said previously, the San Paulo color was confusing.  I bought it expecting a mauve-ish color, put it on and its almost a dark red... Had I purchased it straight from their website, I would have bought a different color simply because it looks pinkish, like a dusty rose, I can't even describe it.  It just doesn't look like what I bought in the store... (I double checked to see if it was the right color too...)

I DO recommend this to people.  I only had to problems with it, and my good feelings about it REALLY outweigh my bad feelings about it so...  Basically I love it.  I do plan on going to buy more of them as I previous stated.

If you want some as well, go HERE!

All for now!
taxikab

sorry everyone, no pictures this post...

Good morning, good morning....its coupon clipping time...

Good Morning readers!  Its Saturday, its before noon, it looks like the weather is going to be nice today, so here I sit typing to all of you, with my coffee in my new mug.   I went to the Poconos over the summer and they had out all there Halloween stuff in September, and I got this super cute Halloween mug.
This is the link for the Mug and Coffee set but I just bought the little blue mug.

ARENT THEY CUTE!

I'm big on Halloween and have been waiting and waiting to use this mug because it was September when I got it and was like, "way to early for spooky Halloween mug... must wait until after my birthday..." SO I DID.

I half miss getting up super early and getting things done... I've actually tried getting my groceries done this early because theres sometimes less people at my store.  This thought inspired todays post because, I've decided my next "life project" is going to be couponing.  I like cutting coupons, I just end up not using them or go, "well thats a waste of money!" when I do use some... BUT my tiny stock pile of items has dwindled on certain everyday items and I want to get more!  I don't know about you guys, but I HATE having to constantly go to the grocery store and buy things like toothpaste, shampoo, soap, stuff like that.  So I usually check the sales during my regular grocery trip and if its a good sale, I stock up!  I do the same thing with yogurt, but end up having to really clear my fridge for that one because I have to clear a whole shelf.

Anyway OFF TO PINTEREST I WENT and found a nice blog talking about coupons, and a reader commented saying there was a website you can BUY the coupon ads they put in your newspaper each week.  So you can spend like $1.00-$17.00 and get all these different ads and coupons, and they tell you what coupons are in there.

Here is the original website, its a craft blog too apparently, which is awesome.  Its Katie's Crochet Goodies and Crafts.

The coupon purchasing website i had to search "whole coupon inserts" and its literally "wholecouponinserts.com"

This should be a fun new venture, and hopefully will save me money.  Hubs and me are trying to eat healthier and since fruits and vegetables don't keep very long, I see myself shopping more often, or buying more frozen foods... which I'm not too excited about.  I'm also not very excited about having to clean out some closet space for the stuff... but! ADVENTURE!

Pumpkin and Apple picking today! Yay!  Seriously, I love fall.  Best time of the year.

til next time! Happy Crafting! Happy fall!

taxikab

p.s. working on another Right Brain Bunch article, so check here soon for a new update there too!

We made it a year?

So, coming up this month (actually on Thursday) is the anniversary of my hubs and I moving into the lovely apartment we are still living in.  We got a crash course on adulting without help and how to cook, which you lovelies have gotten sporadic updates about.

Recently my adult lessons have included bug massacre, bathroom fixing, and how to use an IMac thanks to the people who were getting rid of it and said to my hubby, "want one?" and he said, YES! but then gave it to me, because frankly he hates Mac computers... so here I am typing to you from my newish IMac.

Want to hear about my bug massacre? OF COURSE YOU DO!  I'm actually going to do a nice little review of one product I used because I am loving the results.  IF YOU DON'T! scroll down, read about my awesome trip to Penn State!

I think I'm jumping around a bunch here but everything makes sense.  My birthday was October 5, so I of course, in tradition of my birthday, took the day off, AND my sister just had her new baby, so now I have a nephew and a niece to love and spoil and hand back to their mother when they scream too much.

BUG MASSACRE!!!

On my birthday, I took a lovely trip to Lowes at the suggestion of my BFF for Bug killing products.  I had told her I wanted like bug REPELLENT and he went,
"Go to Home Depot, they have that stuff everywhere!" but Lowes was closer, so I went there and bought not only basic ant traps and roach traps (we THINK we saw roaches, but I'm not an exterminator, and I'd rather be safe than sorry...), but I got Ortho Home Defense and it said to spray it around doors and windows, so I did.

I also sprayed it around the vents in my house because I saw a couple bugs near one of them.   No Joke, I LOVE this stuff.  Our maintenance guy fixed out screens, and I sprayed this EVERYWHERE and I have not seen a single bug since...

We had a big ant problem too (I'm making us sound like dirty people and we're not! Bugs just really seem to like our place).  Exterminator was coming, nothing was helping, and I finally realized that they were coming from the cracks in the bathroom tiles, so I also went out and got some squeeze tube clear sealant and got that issue solved.  Only saw one or 2 today and they were all dead.  I'm thinking I may have to check the bathroom again for cracks where they could be coming in.

WE ARE.... EATING CREAMERY ICE CREAM!

So I went to PSU for my birthday weekend with my lovely sister and BFF (not the sister with the babies, the other one with the degree about fish and teaching people).  My sister is currently living up there and so BFF and me stayed with her.
We drove up Friday (10/2) and were there all day Saturday and part Sunday.  PSU won (of course...) and we actually had really good seats, even though we were sitting down at the Army end...

Those are the Army cheerleaders, fyi.

It rained the ENTIRE game, no joke.  It rained and rained and rained.  Thankfully my sister got us poncho's and i was warm under my little plastic poncho and like 4 layers.  I seriously was wearing, two hoodies, a t shirt, a thermal shirt, sweat pants, leggins, socks, and snow boots, WITH my hat and scarf my sister gave me for my birthday! because she called Hubs and went, "what does she want!?" and he said, "she is kinda bummed she doesn't have a PSU beanie for the game" basically because I went there and have like NO PSU apparel for cold football games... BUT now I have a scarf, beanie and hoodie for the next one!

My hoodie I got on Sunday so I couldn't wear it to the game...

ON SUNDAY we got possibly the best bagels I could have eaten... and while my sister went to swimming, BFF and me went shopping.  Gots my hoodie, gots some magnets, bought a PSU planner, mainly because it was only 4 dollars and back home a regular one would be like 8 or 9 dollars...  Also got hubs a tshirt, that he is wearing right now, and looks good on him.  He may not have gone to Penn State like I did, but he sure looks good in their clothes!

Jumping around again...

We went to this INSANE church on Saturday, because we are very good Catholic girls who go to church every week.  The priest started mass late, and was really upset we didn't all like SHOUT 'good evening!" at him when he said it so... and then he talked forever, and then they had a guest speaker, but it was definitely not what ANY of us are used to so that was an experience.  Got mexican food, which was good.  I've had better I think... but was still good.

Of course we got creamery ice cream on Sunday, and I brought some back for hubs and myself, and I am very sad to say it has all since been eaten...

So I forgot to tell them I wanted Jimmies on my ice cream, so they legit gave me a bowl of Jimmies... I lost my mind.  I got jimmies in every bite and it was GLORIOUS.

THEN before heading home we stopped at  CIDERY.  Did NOT know they existed, but it was AWESOME.  I personally love Ciders.  They are usually gluten free because they used apples, rather than wheat to make the drink, unlike beer.  They served it like beer, but bottled it like wine, it was crazy!

Here is our samplings of Ciders.  I brought home two bottles, not gonna lie...

FINALLY!

This place we went to on Saturday used MEDICAL FILE FOLDERS as their menus.  I was seriously confused when someone handed it to my sister, and then went, 'OMG THATS THE MENU!' had to text it to a friend because I was like, "thats crazy!" 

Clearly I am easily entertained...

SO basically besides BFF and me getting lost and having to drive way out of the way to come home, like we added another half hour to our drive... BUT we knew where we were and how to get home, so we are now referring to it as "that time we got really lost but not really because we knew EXACTLY where we were and how to get home...", I HAD A PRETTY GOOD TWO WEEKS.

I hope everyone is doing awesome and enjoying MY personal favorite season FALL!!!    Enjoy this lovely photo of a mountain I took.  You can see the leaves starting to turn colors!

taxikab

I stirred the gravy - cheesy loaded potato and stuff soup.

I've decided to make a section on the blog for my trials in the kitchen, my hubby seems to enjoy my cooking (though I do think he's lying most of the time) and I want to start actually MEASURING things and writing them down, because currently I just throw stuff in a pot and go with it.
In honor of the days when I would tell my husband "I made dinner" when we were dating, this new portion is going to be called "I stirred the gravy".

I call this "Cheese loaded potato and stuff soup"  The "stuff" is optional.  You can simply do a loaded potato soup using this recipe and forget the other veggies, but if you think anyone in your family who doesn't USUALLY eat veggies, will eat soup with copious hidden veggies, throw as many kinds as you can in there!  Though I don't suggest peppers or REALLY flavored veggies as they'll change the flavor.  MOVING ON!!   Some of these you can do ahead of time, I did the veggies during dinner on Wednesday night and made the bacon at breakfast with the rest of the bacon... i just remembered to put some aside.  This soup serves 3-4 people we learned... If you want to have MORE soup, simply add more ingredients.  My dad says the potato rule is 1 per person when making mashed potatoes, so I follow that same rule with any potato recipe.  Also, don't be like me, don't read bits of the recipe then realize you could have made a short cut after you did like 3 hours of work... read the WHOLE recipe before starting anything.  Check your ingredients, make sure you have everything.  It sucks to have to go out and get something after you've started cooking... I hate it.  ANYWAY.

Cheesy Loaded Potato and *Stuff Soup.
Ingredients
Large soup pot
3 medium potatoes
1 container Cream soup starter
half cup milkmilk
half cup half and half or cream
half a bag of Sargentos three cheese shredded cheese (if you have a shredded cheese you prefer, use that)
bacon
olive oil
salt
pepper
vegetable seasoning (OPTIONAL)

Additional *"stuff"
1.5 bags baby carrots
1.5 small heads of broccoli
(see bottom for additional notes and additional suggested veggies)


Chop carrots, broccoli and potatoes.
The broccoli will separate slightly as it is cooked, so just make sure you have it where people can eat it with a spoon...
Carrots should be cut into small medium thick slices.  Like 2/10th's of an inch.  I used baby carrots and just chopped them.  If you use large carrots, I suggest slicing them in half THEN cutting them into little slices like I did the baby carrots.
Potatoes, I cut them in half, then slice length wise into 4s, then chop them into about 1inch of less pieces.

Cook the broccoli as you would to serve it by itself.
I cooked mine in water with the potatoes, then drained it all.  DO NOT OVER COOK YOUR POTATOES.  They will become mushy and be cubes of mashed potatoes...  Bring your water to a boil with broccoli and potatoes in it, reduce the heat to light medium, wait 5-10 minutes, turn it off.  Drain these veggies.

In the same pot that is now empty.  Drizzle olive oil, add carrots, turn on medium heat and let the carrots cook for about 10 minutes. When the carrots are done, add the potatoes and broccoli back to the pot and set that aside.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and if you're using it, vegetable seasoning.  I used it, I love it.

Cook the bacon.  If you want you can cook the bacon in the oven while you prepare the veggies, I find cooking bacon in the oven to be really easy so... and less time consuming than stove top...  Save the bacon grease for flavor to the soup.

Add the cream starter to the veggies.  Stir with a large spoon (its easier with a big spoon), set to medium heat.  Add milk, stir.  Add cream/half and half , stir.  Let it bubble stirring occasionally to keep it from burning.  Throw in one more sprinkle of salt and pepper, give it a stir, check that the temperature is warm enough for you and your family and ENJOY!



Remember!!! Any recipes I put on here are not a strict YOU MUST FOLLOW! list of instructions.  These are guidelines.  If you want more veggies than broth, add more veggies, if you are trying to get your family to eat more veggies, again, ADD MORE.  Double the carrots, triple the broccoli, throw some celery, spinach WHATEVER in.  Just be sure that you don't add something that will drastically change the taste, like adding sweet peppers when you want mostly a cream flavor, or chicken flavor.  Don't be afraid to add or take away from the recipe.  I never follow a recipe to a T.  Recipes should be guidelines not strict rules, cook some things with a recipe then find your own.  Make it you, not everyone's taste is the same so explore, throw some stuff in a pot and stir the gravy!  Good luck!

Keep warm all still in cold!

winter coats to spring coats...

...and all that in between.

So here in PA we literally went from crazy snow storm where we all had to be cooped up in our homes and it being like 10 degrees outside to 50-60 degrees and sweat shirts... I'm ready for picnics and there is snow on the ground... nuts.

During this lovely cooped up in our home weekend, my hubs had a birthday, which he and I originally planned to go away for the weekend, but thanks to the snow, that didn't happen so we ended up sledding with my sisters and my nephew instead.  Note to self, nephew is not the biggest fan of snow.  He did not enjoy the snow flying up in his face.  I think I'm safe in saying my family is a family of beach people... we like warm weather and sand beneath our toes, and the occasional 70 degree breeze that requires me to wear a light jacket... why we all live in the northern middle east coast of the US baffles me...
BUT! we took baby bear (who is now 2 by the way.  Crazy right? I did a whole entry on my sisters baby shower for him and now he's 2!) sledding and he preferred making snow balls.  Hubs tried to get him to throw a snow ball at me going, "here, I'll make  you a snowball to throw at your Aunt Kelly."   Smarty pants that baby bear is turns to me and goes, "Aunt Kelly, make me a snowball to throw at Uncle Dylan"  love it.  I am severely out of shape and the boots I was wearing were not good for ice.  I ended up having a hard time walking up the hill after sledding down the long hill, then even had a hard time walking up the "baby hill" because it was so packed down from us sledding on it with the baby bear.  One little girl tried walking up a certain spot and baby bear goes, "YOU CAN DO IT!'  to the little girl, lol.  My sister (not his mother) goes sledding down one long hill by herself and he continues to shout at her, "WATCH THE TREES!!! WATCH THE WOODS!!!" from the top of the hill.  When baby bear said, "Mommy, I don't want to walk up this hill anymore" I immediately went, ME TOO! and we all went home.  To prevent him falling on the ice, I was asked to carry him, big mistake.  My slipper boots slipped on the ice and I went tumbling down taking baby bear with me.  Thankfully I like tugged my head down trying to keep my nephew from smacking his head, and we were both ok.  Two like teenage girls shrieked and the one went, 'OMG ARE YOU OKAY!"  My sister immediately said the same thing, whereupon my husband picked up my nephew from me (who appeared unharmed) and went, "more important, are you okay bud?"  He was and is fine by the way.

Got to knit during the cold too.  Nothing is more comfortable than some hot chocolate and a little yarn while you watch the snow fall.  Working on a baby blanket for someone.  Not me, I also apologize again to the friend I showed it to who thought it was my way of going HEY IM PREGNANT!  Little Lohkempers are coming!  Nope, no baby yet!

Change of topic! Hubs and Me are Catholic, so we've been limiting how much meat we are taking in and since its Lent and we can't eat meat on Friday's anyhow we just decided we wouldn't include meat in the grocery list, at least until Lent is over.  We had bacon in the freezer from before Ash Wednesday and knew it was going to go bad, so we cooked that for breakfast on the Thursday snow day thanks to Winter Storm Thor.  This lead to me making soup for dinner that night as I had already cooked the veggies meant to go in it.  I had potatoes I needed to use, so I made loaded potato soup, and just kind of added carrots and broccoli... it was pretty good.  I had the remainder of it for lunch today.  I feel a piece of Italian bread would have gone well with it.  Ironically, my mother made soup tonight, and I ended up with soup as two meals today.  I had to stop there to pick up stuff and she was like, 'take soup!'  I didn't mind, I got to relax for some time before the hubs got home from work so.  yay!

Thats all for now people!  Enjoy the coming spring!
taxikab