First Step Towards Simplifying My Life!

Last night was the first small step towards reaching my goal of simplifying my life in 2008. Always before Tuesdays were incredibly hectic in the Chiappini house. But now my oldest daughter has gotten her green belt in Karate (congrats my love!) we are now able to switch some of the nights that she needs to go. Then on Tues both of the girls will be able to go ice skating and I won't be expected to be in both places and try and get dinner together. This way I can organize dinner and have T. throw it on so that it can be ready for us when we get home. Pretty slick huh?

Last night I decided that I was just going to have a big old salad but they were going to have pizza. I didn't really think that I needed to make pizza dough for just the 2 of them so I figured that we could use tortilla shells topped with sauce, or olive oil, and cheese and bake them until they were nice and crispy. Sounds like it should have worked well huh? I guess with all of the stuff on the pizza's they were a little gummy when the cheese was nice and brown so we had to cook them a little extra. I would definitely do this again. It is great when you are tight for time and need a fast and filling meal!

This could also be used during a sleep over or any other type of kid party! You can let the girls build their own "tortilla pizza". How cool would that be?

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

The silence is almost deafening!!!

I now know what that means. Today is the first time that I have been alone in almost 3 weeks! If you remember my Mom arrived for Christmas about 3 weeks ago and the girls have been off for 2 weeks. And yes it has been wonderful but now I feel like I need to get moving and get a bunch of neglected things done or as my Mom pointed out to me this morning when I spoke her, I could do what I wanted to do and not what anyone else wanted! But my house is so very quiet.

I will not really be posting anything food related today as I have nothing really to post. I have been sick for what feels like a while now (since New Year's Eve...hard to beleive that was only a week ago!) and the girls lunches have been either frozen hamburgers or fruit salad and I already used that one and then last night we went out for dinner.

Last night we went to Carrabba's for dinner. Now we always avoid the chains. Very rarely do we ever eat at any of them other than Moe's Southwest Grill (if you have one near you and you haven't tried it go on in! It is fast food, build it yourself with fresh ingredients concept...we love Moe's) Tony hates Carrabba's but it was close and we were tired and hungry so in we went and it was very pleasantly, surprisingly good! I had a penne pasta special with alfredo sauce, peas, prosciutto, and mushrooms. Loved it. Tony had a pizza which he liked and the girls had spaghetti and meatballs and chicken fingers. All around a good meal.

I hope that I am going to be better soon so I can get on with my life and blog about it!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

It sure looks like summer!

This picture makes me think of the hot, dog days of summer. Lucky for us though it was taken today. We went to our local farmer's market this morning and got some really wonderful looking stuff. Florida Strawberries are ripe now as are our tomatoes. I hope not too much was hurt by the freeze we had last week! We got home and all the girl's wanted for lunch was fruit salad and who could blame them. Fresh strawberries, blueberries (unfortunately imported) and local carambola. Sure made for a pretty picture!

Also don't forget to vote for my entry in the Royal Foodie Joust. Voting only goes until the 7th!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

The Royal Foodie Joust!

Well it's that time of the month again. This is when I go begging for votes! Every month I compete in a challenge that is hosted by Jenn - The Left-Over Queen. At the end of the month we are then asked to vote on which one was the best entry.

This months entry was the Mint-Pomegranate Brownies. You can check out my post again here.
You can vote for me at The Royal Foodie Joust. You will have to sign in and register but I promise you this is the only thing you have to do. There is no spam from this or anything like that.

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Feast One Hundred & Seventy Four

Welcome to my feast! It is cold outside but warm in here. Grab a coffee or a hot cup of tea and pull up a chair...enjoy this Friday's Feast!

Appetizer
When was the last time you received a surprise in the mail, and what was it?

Yesterday I checked my PO Box which I hadn't checked since before Christmas and there was a check for me for $200! I love checks in the mail!

Soup
If you could have a summer and/or winter home, where would you want it to be?

I will stay here in Southwest Florida for my winter home but I will have my summer home in Highlands, North Carolina for my summer home. I would also have a vacation home on Tybee Island which I would use throughout the year! I say if you are going to do it do it right!

Salad
Pick one: pineapple, orange, banana, apple, cherry.

Banana (I have a banana smoothie every day. I love bananas.

Main Course
Describe the nicest piece of clothing that you own.

I have a lot of nice clothes. Unfortunately I don't get to wear them very often. I am a stay at home Mom and there is not much of an occasion for a full length gown! It is black and very low cut in the front and the back. The body is close cut and the dress is full length. The back has 3 small black roses which attach a short train. I wore this dress as the maid of honor to my sister's wedding and loved her for it. I will wear it again!!!

Dessert
If you could forget one whole day from your life, which day would you choose to wipe from your memory?

I am so sorry but I would never want to do that. All of the memories I have stem from things that I have experienced that were good or bad...they have made me who I am today and I like that! Maybe one of the terrible days form high school that really wasn't as bad as it seemed to me then???

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy

www.nofearentertaining.com

Oh Baby , is it cold outside!!!

This is my neighbor's house. He had the sprinklers going and you can see where the grass has frozen!!!

Man it is cold here. We are so spoiled here that we actually complain when it is hot in December! Today was a rude awakening for all of us. It was 32 when I got up at 7:00! Brr. But lucky for us it will be short lived and will warm up quite nicely for the weekend!

I ahve been pretty sick with the flu all week but today it seems to be easing up as well. I was able to get up and clean up all of the mess that has accumulated while I was down. I have a bunch of errands to run today so this will be a quick post!

One of the days when I was sick I heard the kids and T in the kitchen making one of my oldest daughter's "recipe's". She likes to make up food inventions and then feed them to us. This one involved ice cream so I was all over it! It ended up tasting pretty good (I think - my taste buds were shot but how can ice cream be bad?).

The recipe was Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with Pineapple juice. The juice is not to be poured over the top but squirted on with a baster of some sort!

This was the finished product! Yummy...really hit the spot when I was sick!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Happy New Year!!! (was that really yesterday?)

Oh boy. I missed whole day. It all started on New Year's Eve. I took my Mom to the airport got home and suddenly (no joke-- it was suddenly) I was sick. Stuffed up nose, headache, body aches, fever etc. I kept my fingers crossed that she would make it home to Toronto safely, we have had times when we have made several return trips to the airport. We had a casual get together that night that we were going to but by the time T. got home I knew that I should not be going but was too sad to even think about missing it! I really hope I didn't infect anyone...you all know who you are! T. realized that at about 10 o'clock I was done and needed to be home and in my bed. I got home and went to bed and got up today! I really did miss New Year's Day.

Hope you all had a great one and didn't make too many New Year's Resolutions! They always seem to make us feel so bad about ourselves if we can't keep them. Set some nice goals for yourself and thank me later!!!

I have some great foodie things and a recipe that my oldest daughter created and fed us to post but that will all have to wait...I need to go back to bed!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com