Within the last half hour of work, Michael sent me a link to CNN’s homepage. I clicked through to see a “Breaking News” headline–US Airways Flight 1549 Crashes into Hudson River. At the time, there was not any other information available, and I immediately thought the worst.
But now we know everyone survived. Absolutely astonishing.
I’ve been watching the news coverage on CNN since I got home from work, and I keep getting the goosebumps. The mayor and governor talking about the miraculous landing by the pilot. It sounds as if this guy single-handedly managed to save everyone’s lives. They said he walked up and down the aisle to ensure every passenger was off the plane before getting off himself. Of course, that’s his job, but I still find it to be commendable.
I’ve seen a few interviews with passengers. They say that before the crash, the pilot came over the PA and told everyone “Brace yourselves for impact.” Can you imagine? If I ever heard my pilot come over and say that, I would assume I was breathing my last breaths.
On a somewhat lighter note, I think I need to start paying attention when the flight attendants give the safety schpeel at the beginning of every flight. I’ve always been of the mindset that I don’t really get the point. I’ve always thought that if we’re going down, I’m not going to survive long enough to use the emergency information.
This just goes to show that anything is possible.
My future sister-in-law, Marie, and I are hosting a baby shower for my brother’s girlfriend, Kara, in March. We are just starting to plan for it, and earlier this week, I was inspired to come up with a concept for invitations.
Some of you may remember the baby shower invites I did for my friend Bethany back in August. I loved those and wanted to come up with something different, but a design I would love just as much.
During my lunch break yesterday, I wandered aimlessly around Michael’s. Marie and I hadn’t really figured out a theme, or even a color scheme, for the shower. I kept going back and forth–Greens? Blues? Red? Kara and Trevor are having a boy, so I was trying to come up with something boyish that wasn’t too cutesy. No baby blue!
In the scrapbook aisle, a piece of Halloween scrapbook paper caught my eye. When I first saw it, I thought that the little cartoons printed on it were bugs (turned out I was wrong). But that’s when it hit me–Bugs!
After some rapidfire texting with Marie, we agreed to do a bugs theme for the shower. Not disgusting, creepy-crawly bugs, but cute, cartoonish bugs. For good measure, I also checked in with the mommy-to-be, who said she’s OK with bugs. :) I’m so excited… the ideas are flying! I’m bummed the shower is still a couple of months away, but I’m sure it’ll be here before we know it.
Once we had settled on the bugs idea, I went into the stamp aisle and found the perfect dragonfly stamp to use for the invitations.
When I got home from work, I jumped on the computer to design the printed portion, then got to work on cutting, stamping, and assembling a mock-up. I love how it came out:
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What do you think?
Marie & I don’t have to mail these until mid-February, so I just did the one for now. After our Vegas trip, I’m thinking a “drink wine and make invitations” night is in store for Marie and me. :)
This book, Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris, was the most recent selection for my online book club. We were supposed to read it by 12/31, but with the holidays and everything going on, I hadn’t had a chance. Not only that, but I wasn’t terribly motivated to do so. Some of my fellow book clubbers had indicated they didn’t particularly enjoy it, so I was, in a lot of ways, not looking forward to reading it.
On Saturday, I finally picked it up and dove into it. And well, now it’s Monday, and I’m already blogging about it. That must say something good about it, right? It’s been a long time since I’ve finished a book so quickly, unless I’m traveling. 400+ pages, but once I started, I flew right through it.
Here’s one thing I’ll tell you right away that took me like 50 pages to figure out: The story is told in first person, but from two different perspectives–two different people. I was completely confused at first, thinking it was the same person, but it eventually became clear, and the story started to make much more sense once I understood.
One of our narrators is Roy Straitley, a teacher for 33 years at St. Oswald’s Grammar School for Boys, a traditional private school in England. The other is Snyde, who we come to learn grew up in the same town, always resented St. Oswald’s and its students, and now, as an adult, seeks revenge against the School.
Through Straitley, we learn about the inner dynamics at the School, about the tradition of it, and the people there. Through Snyde, we are given pieces of the story that Straitley is not privy to. Snyde also jumps back and forth between growing up at St. Oswald’s (1989) and present day (15 years later), which gives us even more insight into what is happening.
The story takes us through one term at the School. A term that starts off normally enough, but quickly starts to unravel, thanks to Snyde’s gradual execution of a sinister plan. Small things happen, then bigger things, and soon enough, the whole house of cards comes crashing down.
I don’t want to say much else because it is, after all, a mystery; I don’t want to ruin anything. But I will say that I figured out the mystery pretty early on in the book. While some other readers were put off by this (annoyed at having to read the rest of it after figuring it out), I found that knowing the ending actually led me to want to get there more quickly. I was anxious to find out how all of the pieces would fit together, and see how it would all play out. And generally, I was pleased with it.
I do wish I wouldn’t have known as early as I did… it’s fun when an author can actually dupe you until the end. But don’t worry, it’s not that obvious. There were several club members who read much further before figuring it out, or had it only half figured out, etc… so who knows? Maybe you’ll read it and enjoy the “not-knowing” a bit longer. Anyway, I’ve said enough about that.
Overall, another good read. I rate it 4 stars out of 5.
As always, the comments are fair game to discuss anything about the book (even spoilers!). So if you haven’t read and want to, you have been warned. :) If you’ve read the book, I’d love to hear what you think of it.
OK, I must confess up front: These are not the kind of cheese fries you are likely expecting. In fact, it might be unfair to even call them cheese fries (but don’t shoot the messenger!).
I’ll admit that when I clicked through to the recipe on Cooking Light’s website, I was a little bit disappointed, too. Because I would have given my left leg for a “light” version of real CHEESE FRIES. C’mon now.
Looking back, I should have known it was too good to be true.
Still, these sounded good and had great reviews, so we decided to go ahead and make them.
A bit time consuming? Well, cutting potatoes into thin strips can take a few minutes. Baking them for an hour eats up some time, too (obviously). But we planned ahead and they were worth the trouble. Overall, a good texture–I did overcook them a little bit–and great flavors. Really garlicky, and the parmesan added a punch. Yum.
For our fries, I used dried parsley because fresh herbs are always too expensive at my grocery store. And lord knows I’m not going to find them anywhere else around here at this time of year. I just used less of it since dried is always more potent than fresh. We also left the skins on the potatoes because, well, they’re good that way.
OK, and now that I’ve gone back to Cooking Light to cite the recipe, I realize that I am a dirty, dirty liar. They aren’t actually called cheese fries, but garlic fries. Whoops. I had done a search for cheese fries and these guys came up, so I guess in my mind, I wanted them to be cheese fries. *sigh* What an idiot. Don’t mind me.
Just uh… yeah. Where was I going with this?
Garlic Fries
(Source: Cooking Light)
Ingredients:
4 tsp. canola oil
3/4 tsp. salt
3 lbs. peeled baking potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch-thick strips (we left skins on)
Cooking spray
2 tbsp. butter (used margarine)
8 garlic cloves, minced (about 5 teaspoons)
2 tbsp. finely chopped fresh parsley (we used 1 tbsp. dried parsley flakes)
2 tbsp. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Combine first 3 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag, tossing to coat. Arrange potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet (we had to use two baking sheets) coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 50 minutes or until potatoes are tender and golden brown, turning after 20 minutes.
3. Place butter and garlic in a large nonstick skillet, and cook over low heat 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add potatoes, parsley, and Parmesan cheese to pan; toss to coat. Serve immediately.
I used less potatoes than the recipe called for, but we still ended up with way too many, even for two really hungry people. Next time, we will probably halve this recipe so we aren’t tempted to eat so many.
Today, more playoff football meant we needed to have more football food. Originally, we were thinking we’d go out to dinner somewhere, but after eating complete junk at a surprise birthday party we went to last night, we figured we’d be better off at least making our own junk food.
I saw this recipe a few months back on Amber’s Delectable Delights, but wasn’t really motivated to try it out until an internet friend mentioned it earlier this week. She said she tried them and highly recommended them, so I knew I had to find a reason to make these. As it turned out, football was the perfect reason.
The recipe for these Buffalo Chicken Tenders originally came from Cooking Light, so it actually isn’t all that bad for you. And as I’m sure I’ve discussed before… I’m all for delicious food with less guilt. So, starting off with these, I went on the hunt for a french fry recipe. We could have just gone with some simple frozen oven fries, but when browsing Cooking Light’s website, I found cheese fries! (I’ll share that recipe tomorrow.)
Anyway, I know… it can be hard to imagine cornflake-crusted chicken tasting anything like regular chicken fingers. But it does. And in my opinion, this chicken is actually BETTER than traditional, fried chicken fingers (I don’t really like much fried food). These guys are awesome, and I can’t wait to have the leftovers.
The recipe calls for making a hot sauce to drizzle over the chicken tenders when they come out of the oven. I decided to skip that and just put some Frank’s Red Hot Sauce on the table in case my husband wanted to use it. I don’t really like hot sauce (it’s not the heat that gets to me, but just the actual taste of it), so I dipped my chicken fingers in BBQ sauce, which was really, really good. The flour mix makes the chicken flavorful, and the corn flakes make for a great crunch. Really, you could eat them without any dipping sauces. You have to give these things a try; you won’t regret it!
Changes from Amber’s recipe: I doubled the amount of ingredients for the flour mixture, as well as the number of corn flakes (I reflected those changes in my recipe below). I had read in the comments on the Cooking Light website that people kept running out and had to make more, so I wanted to prevent that from happening.
Buffalo-Style Chicken Strips
(Source: Amber’s Delectable Delights, adapted from: CookingLight.com)
Ingredients:
– 4 tbsp. all-purpose flour
– 2 tsp. garlic powder
– 2 tsp. paprika
– 1 tsp. onion powder
– 1 tsp. salt
– 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
– 2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
– 3 cups coarsely crushed cornflakes
– 1 lb. chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch-thick strips
– Cooking spray
– 1/3 cup hot sauce (such as Crystal)
– 1 tsp. hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)
– 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
– 1 tbsp. butter
– 1/2 cup fat-free ranch dressing for dipping (can substitute blue cheese, BBQ sauce, ketchup… whatever you like to dip chicken fingers in)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Combine first 6 ingredients in a shallow dish, stirring with a whisk. Place egg whites in a shallow dish. Place cornflakes in a shallow dish. Working with 1 chicken strip at a time, dredge in flour mixture. Dip in egg whites; dredge in cornflakes. Place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Repeat procedure with remaining chicken strips, flour mixture, egg whites, and cornflakes.
3. Lightly coat chicken strips with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes or until done, turning once.
4. Combine hot sauce, pepper sauce, and Worcestershire in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in butter. Drizzle hot sauce mixture over chicken. (I read in the comments that it’s best not to drizzle it over the chicken, because it can cause the corn flakes to lose their crunch. If you make the hot sauce, I suggest dipping the chicken in it instead.)
Serve with ranch dressing, celery, and carrots.
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
