F&E

I'll be the first to admit that when Fresh and Easy made there debut here in the valley I was so unimpressed. I couldn't understand what all the hype was about. But since they sent out $5 off of a $20 purchase I decided I would take a shot at it. I am not kidding when I tell you that I struggled to hit that $20 mark. I was not about to pay for bananas that were individually priced or a 4 pack of apples. Us Wrights buy things by the case!! And 4 apples would last about 20 seconds in this house. So I bought a bunch of stuff I didn't need and maybe 1 thing that I did, saved my 5 bucks and left. And I never went back...UNTIL I moved out here to Timbuktu and right on my main cross streets sat a Fresh and Easy! After about a month or 2 of living here and passing it on a daily basis I decided to go back...give it a 2nd try because I'm nice like that. And lo and behold, I LOVED IT!!! They are really just as cheap as any other place on a lot of their stuff and honestly, their stuff is so fresh!! I am addicted to their fresh pizza dough...no preservatives...all you do is roll it out...1 DER FULL!! They also sell the best chocolate for dipping as I think I've pointed out before. Their yeast is cheaper than anyone else's (except Costco). But the one reason I frequent that place as much as I do is for these....You will not find better Cashews than these bad boys!! Not at Sprouts, not at Sunflower, and definitely not in a planters can at Wal-mart! I've had lots of company in the last 6 months and ALL of them have tried and fallen in love with these cashews!! Now, go and get yourself a bag!! You'll be glad you did!

Gettin' Fresh

Isn't that beautiful? I love the look of fresh produce!! So colorful, so vibrant, and oooohhhh, so tasty!! Hubby had a great idea this morning...omelettes!! But of course, his idea consisted of me making them. Which is fine...I like to be in the kitchen. Anyways, our ideas of getting fresh differ when it come to omelettes. He likes his with cheese in the middle and all of the fresh produce on top. I like to sautee all of my veggies and put them in the middle which doesn't make for a very "pretty omelette" but it sho is tasteee!! Anyways, this was the highlight of our unemployed, moneyless, day. And we loved it!!

Gotta love Hungry Jack

Since meeting my hubby oh so long ago, he has introduced me to some things that I really didn't find a necessity in the kitchen. However, after 15 1/2 long years together and his demanding some things a certain way, I now find these things quite important as well. You see, he REALLY likes his syrup warmed up. I never did this until I met him. I would just pull it out of the cabinet and pour it on my pancakes, french toast, and waffles at the room temp that it was. I now have to have warm syrup too. So when Hungry Jack came out with the bottle that tells you when it's warm we both got really excited. I've since tried heating up Aunt Jamima and she heats up just fine too. Of course, she doesn't tell you when the syrup is hot but she holds up none the less. Since we are now on a tight budget I decided to buy the store brand syrup...you know, since it's like $2 cheaper. Anyways, I went to heat it up as I always do, and well, I guess the bottles really aren't the same. This is what happens to the store brand bottles when put in the microwave!!
They tend to warp and lean a little to the front. We thought it was pretty funny.

Valentines weekend

Our Valentine weekend started Thursday night with the traditional sugar cookies for all of the kids classes. Oh my goodness they were so good!! Justin just got some recipe off of the internet and it ended up being really good. The problem is that we threw it away in the cleanup process. Hope we can find it again. Friday we had some of those cookies leftover and we munched on those all day. Saturday the kids got to open their cards from granny and were pleasantly surprised with a few bucks in there for them so they can all go out and buy their own candy. I thought it was very sweet. Steph and I topped the night off by making chocolate covered treats for all of the men in in our lives....Dad, Justin, Jared, and Jarom. We tried to save some for Josh, the other man in our lives, but it just didn't happen. Our treats were so scrumptious they just couldn't resist. I use this Belgian chocolate from Fresh and Easy for chocolate covered anything...it is quite yummy. We topped off our weekend with Heart Shaped waffles right before church and more chocolate covered treats after church...a great way to end a "lovely" weekend. By the way, when did Valentines become a "weekend" event?

Pizza at the Wrights

After church today, which I LOVED, we rushed home to make pizza. The kids were looking forward to it all weekend. Costco sells these yummy, whole wheat and flax flatbread or pita bread, whatever you want to call it. Anyways, we thought we would try to make pizza on it. It was so good!! And the kids had a blast making it.Actually, I don't know if the kids had more fun or if Steve did. Either way, it was time well spent as a family.

Afterwards, my brother Mark stopped by and brought me some goodies from Texas. Oh, how I love getting goodies!!

Then Josh and Julia stopped by...I love them!! They are both just so cute!! But if they make me a grandma in the next 2 years, I may have to hurt them...married or not!! I am too young to be called granny!!

Martha is your friend!!

I have to admit that I've never really been a big fan of Martha Stewart. Even before her sentencing I never paid much attention to her. She is very talented yes, but I could never really stand the way she talked. Anyways, on Thanksgiving I was desperately searching for a dinner roll recipe and remembered Bianca had recently bragged about one of her recipes so I visited her website (marthastewart.com). Oh my gosh, they were the best rolls!! I've since been back to look up a few other recipes. She doesn't have everything on there but she does have a good variety. Anyways, tonight I made the BEST banana bread ever!!...courtesy of...Martha herself!! I have a pretty good recipe that I've used for years but it calls for milk and oil...Martha's called for butter instead of oil and sour cream, no milk...I wasn't sure about the sour cream at first but I have to admit...I loved it!! This was absolutely the softest, moistest (is that a word?) banana bread I have ever had. Next time your looking for a recipe I highly recommend Martha...she is your friend!!