Recipe of the Week!

Join in the fun and link up over at Thirty Something?

I was going to post my disaster recipe last week, but I never got around to it.  Sorry!  So here it is for this week:

Roasted Potato Salad

5 lb bag of red potatoes, cubed into pieces that are roughly the same size, I also leave skins on, but it's up to you

5 strips of bacon, cooked until crispy, then crumbled

3 hard boiled eggs, chopped into what ever size you like

1-2 stalks of celery diced

1 cup mayo

1-2 tablespoons mustard, I've used spicy brown and Dijon and they are both excellent, I like mustard, so I add the 2 tablespoons

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

2 teaspoons white sugar

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven @ 450, spray cookie sheet with PAM, spread potatoes evenly on pan (you might need 2 pans), spray tops of taters with PAM and sprinkle with salt and pepper

Bake for about 30 minutes or until they are as brown as you like them, turning occasionally.

Mix together mayo, mustard, vinegar, and sugar until sugar is dissolved.

When potatoes are done, let them come to room temp before you add to the dressing. 

Toss in bacon, celery and eggs.  Make sure everything is coated, then I sprinkle the top with a bit of Paprika for some color.  Chill until serving time!

This is my new favorite potato salad recipe, the roasted flavor of the potato is awesome!  It's really forgiving and can be tweaked to the way you like it.  I would add chopped onion too, but Hubby doesn't like raw onion flavors in anything, so I skip it. 

Happy Eating!!!

Summer Favorites

So, since I have had a bit of Blogger Block and can't come up with anything to share with you lovely folks...I am going to copy my sister (hehe) and tell you what I'm loving this summer!

Sweet Iced Tea...So fudging good and only takes a few minutes to make yourself!

2 c Boiling water

1 pinch Baking Soda

6 Tea Bags ( I used Lipton)

3/4 c White Sugar

6 c cool water

Bring water to a boil, remove from heat, add tea bags, pinch of baking soda, cover and let steep for 15 minutes.  Stir in sugar until dissolved, pour into pitcher and add cool water.  Refrigerate until cold and enjoy!

The T-shirt I won from www.SnorgTees.com via Krystal's Kitsch.  Check out her awesome blog that includes fun reviews and give-a-ways! 

My sewing machine!  Soon, I will be posting all about my Adventures in Sewing Land :o)  I'm currently stocking up on fabrics!

 

Maxi Dresses.  SOOO comfortable.  And great for day or night time!

And MOST importantly, Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Sun Screen in SPF 85.  This is the best sun screen I have ever used.  Being fair skinned really sucks, no tan lines, just crispy burned flesh that starts to peel after a couple of days.  I have never gotten a burn using this.  Well, only in the places I always forget to apply to...like the part of my hair, ouch.  I also use the Ultra Sheer Mist.  Both are great and they don't make my skin break out.

What are your summer favorites?!!

ReThinking Our Weekend

But this could be a good thing.  For the last couple of weeks we had been planning on taking a rafting trip down the Delaware River with two of Matt's friends and a few of their family members.  We have done the same trip for the last few years (with different groups of people) and we always have a great time.  Matt books the trip ahead of time to save a little bit of money, plus there is a non-refundable $10 deposit per rafter which goes towards the cost when everyone checks in.

Long story short, people backed out, there have been miss-communications (not on our part) the weather isn't going to be great so Matt is going to cancel.  He had a feeling from the beginning that there were going to be problems. We have a great time with his friends, but I think he's is getting a little tired of being the organizer of these events. 

I'm hoping they do the right thing and send Matt their portions of the money he put out for the deposit, but I don't see that happening. Which is a little frustrating.  Do any of you have people like this in your lives? 

Anyway, I'm not sure what we are going to do now, but either way, it's Matt's weekend off and that's always nice!

My Eyelids are Sweating.

Is that possible?  Yes.

Holy heatwave, NJ!  I can't remember it being this hot in such a long time.  My car thermometer read 100 degrees yesterday and today.  I haven't felt like doing a darn thing.  It's been luke warm showers, easy dinners and no blankets on the bed at the Duke house.  I'm not going to lie, we have AC, but the attic is right over our bedroom and it's hot as a mother up there.  We are trying to keep the temp around 75-78...as to not contribute to any brown out situations that might occur, but as soon as I got home this afternoon I dropped that sucker to 72.  Sue me.  Let's face it, if the power is gonna go out, it's gonna go out...but it will stay cool in here for at least a few hours.

I'm complaining about the heat and what did we do on Monday?  Went for a hike.  But I got some great shots.  Please enjoy the summer beauty...I'm gonna go have ice cream for dinner.

Cue the Music!

I just wanted to share with everyone our music selections for the wedding.  I can not tell you how long we searched for a 1st dance song, mother/groom song and a few others.  We couldn't sleep the night before we met with the DJ because we hadn't finished our worksheet.  Most of the "Top 10 Songs for your Wedding" lists were over done (for our taste anyway...no disrespect, but we wanted to try to be as original as possible).  Nice songs, but just not us.  So here's the list, including some of our requests for the night.  Feel free to steal them :o)


Processional (Parents & Bridal party making their way down the isle):
Feels Like Today - Rascal Flatts


Brides Entrance:  
Makin' Plans - Miranda Lambert


Recessional (We're married!):
What a Wonderful World - Joey Ramone


Parents/Bridal Party Enter Reception:
Theme from The Benny Hill Show (hehehe)


Mr. & Mrs. Duciewicz Grand Entrance:
The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows (Intro) - Brand New (Not a typical wedding song, but we share it as one of our favorites so we had to get it in there somewhere!)


First Dance:
Keep a Friend - Dr. Dog (When the DJ announced, "This will be their very 1st dance as husband and wife"...we turned to each other and said, "EVER!"  We had never danced together!)


Marie & Hew Dad:
My Wish - Rascal Flatts


Matt & His Mom:
Forever Young - Remake by the Pretenders (We cut this song short around the 3:30 mark because the last 2 minutes keeps repeating.  We also LOVED Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd, but WOAH!  7 minutes long!)


Cake Cutting:
Sugar, Sugar - The Archies


Requests:
End of the Line and Handle Me With Care - The Traveling Wilburys
Fearless - Pink Floyd
These Eyes - The Guess Who (Matt dedicated this to his work buddies...it's an inside joke, lol)
Twistin' the Night Away - Sam Cooke
Rockin' Robin - Bobby Day
A few Breaking Benjamin Songs (Not exactly Wedding appropriate either, but they are one of my favorite bands)
Can't leave Elvis out of the party!


Of course a few days AFTER the wedding we started remembering songs we should have also requested.  Oh well.  We still had a great time and the DJ played a great mix of classic rock, oldies, pop and country all night.  I feel like dancing now :o)

My Weekend

It's Monday again.  Already looking forward to Friday.

Saturday we had a nice time at my sisters house.  There is nothing like a BBQ on a hot summer's day.  Friends of ours came by and we just sat around the patio talking and laughing.  I love nights like that, need more of those.

Sunday Matt and I ran errands.  Our toilet seat took a crap *hehe, pun intended.  So we took a trip to Lowes.  It's fun to walk around there and pick out house hold appliances that we'll never be able to afford.  Ah, to dream.  But we went over to the carpet section and decided on what we want to put down in the fall.  Have to get started on sprucing up this place if we want to get it on the market next year! 

We went for a walk when we got home, but it was so HOT that we decided to turn around half way and go back home.  I was hoping an ice cream man might drive by, but there aren't many of those around any more.  Maybe that's what I'll do with my life, buy an ice cream truck...I think if people ate more Drumsticks and Choco-Tacos, the world might be a happier place.

And today, on our day off (Matt gets every other Monday off and it's so nice, but that means he also has to work every other Saturday, which blows) we are supposed to go pick up our Marriage Certificate so I can start changing my name on things.  There is a Social Security office near by and the DMV is close too.  Hopefully I can get all that done today.  But Matt got a call from his mom this morning and her car died on her way home from work.  That was at 8, it's now 11 and he's still not home.  I really wanted to get to all of these places as they opened to avoid the end of the month crowd at the DMV.  Oh well. 

In other news, I am so excited about the new "glass" I bought for my camera!!  After much deliberation, I went with the Nikon 18-200mm.  I was using the 18-55mm and the 55-200mm, which both came in the kit I bought.  It got to be too much of a hassle while hiking to keep changing, or wishing I had brought one or the other with me.  I think it was the right choice.  Can't wait to start shooting with it!  Now that the wedding is over, I can start getting more into my camera.  I've had it forever, and I need to sit down and REALLY start learning about it.

Monday Already?!

Where the heck did the weekend go?  It was a good one either way.

Saturday, Tina came over for waffles!  The waffle maker I got for my shower is awesome.  I have to send another thank you card to the person who gave it to me, lol.  I just used the standard recipe on the Bisquick box...now that I know how much batter needs to be used (I ended up making a TRIPLE recipe!) I will experiment with homemade versions.  The reason I needed such a large amount was because I got THIS bad boy:

The Krups 4-Slice Waffle Maker.  (Bed Bath & Beyond) It makes HUGE waffles...think Belgian, but just rectangles instead of one big circle.  My all-time favorite way to eat these babies is with a big scoop of  ice cream...thank you, Grandma Rommel for teaching me that so many summers ago :o)

Then for Father's Day, Matt and I took his dad out to breakfast at their local diner.  It was very relaxing.  When we got back to his parents house his mom showed us a picture video thingy that her best friend made of all the pictures she took from the wedding.  She had really great music playing in the background and it was pictures from the rehearsal dinner all the way until the end of the wedding...she did a great job!  She also got our vows on video, brought a little tear to my eye...again!

We went to my parents house for a BBQ.  It was the perfect summer day...charcoal grill, hamburgers and hot dogs, macaroni salad, beans, cole slaw, cold drinks.  And it was HOT!  And there was the kiddie pool..always more fun for the adults I think.  A water fight broke out between my parents and then my sister and I got involved...it was so much fun!!!  The boys all missed it because they were at Walmart....I actually had to call Matt and tell him to buy me dry underwear!  We laughed so hard...we all haven't had that much silly fun in a long time.  OH!  and we also toasted marshmellows....perfect end to a perfect day :o)

Today it's back to business.  No work, but I need to get this house cleaned up.  Laundry, put luggage away, put shower gifts away...my spare room is a disaster!  But we have such a small place, I don't know where I'm going to shove all this stuff!  As long as there is a home for my waffle maker...it's all good.