Addicted to Etsy

I spend way too many of my nighttime hours perusing Etsy, but it's an addiction I have trouble breaking.

Here are this week's favorite finds:

























1. Obsessing over these tea light holders...made out of pages from the dictionary! Talk about my favorite votives ever!

2. Gingham cherry apron? Hello!

3. I will never get over the duckie addiction. This is too cute!

4. These just crack me up. Bookmarks made out of book covers from the Twilight series. I do love the colors though.

5. Mmm cupcakes. I love anything with a cupcake on it! These gift tags are so fun.

Beauty on the Cheap

I'm not a total girly girl, but I love being pampered like there's no tomorrow. I have come to the conclusion after much research that I'm just not a massage kind of person. My vice is facials. Last year I decided to get a facial monthly to help my skin be as perfect as possible for my wedding day (it worked!); but I also didn't want to break the bank.

Instead, I started frequenting the local beauty school of cosmetology (here's a great one with branches all across the country: Marinello Schools of Beauty). Prices range from $15 on up to $40 and they are definitely worth the price.

You might not be in a private spa room, but it's actually very quiet and relaxing and the students are monitored by trained teachers, so I actually feel like they focus more and put in more attention than at some professional spas and salons I've visited for the same services. I highly recommend! Had a great one today and it was fabulous! A 90-minute deep pore facial for $30? Talk about a great deal! (And they have coupons for 50% off all the time, too!)

There are also massage schools in my area (probably yours, too; Google to find out!) and professional massage therapists oversee students or perform massages themselves.

These schools are also great places to get hair styled (I've been afraid to get it cut by a student since I was in college, but I have friends who do it regularly and happily), nails done, etc. Happy pampering!

Balsamic-Glazed Salmon and Garlic Snap Peas

By request, here are a couple of my favorite NO-CARB recipes. :)

The first one is a more recent find, a South Beach Diet recipe. The latter is a favorite, and since I bought a giant bag of sugar snap peas at Costco last weekend, it's also one I've made twice this week and will probably make again before the weekend is out. It's actually the P.F. Chang's recipe. Yum! No photos today but if I make the snap peas again, I'll take a pic for you all.

Balsamic-Glazed Salmon

4 6-ounce salmon fillets
1 cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt
Pepper

Heat oven to 450.

Season salmon with salt and pepper; place in ovenproof baking dish and bake until opaque throughout, 10 to 12 minutes.

While fish is cooking, place vinegar in small saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until reduced to 1/3 cup, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat, whisk in oil and lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. Place salmon on serving plates and drizzle with glaze.

*You can also try this glaze on chicken, pork, or grilled steaks.

P.F. Chang's Garlic Snap Peas

2 cups fresh sugar snap peas
2 teaspoons vegetable oil (I've also used my trusty olive oil)
1/8 teaspoon salt
Dash ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced (if you are a garlic lover like me, I will sometimes add more)

1. Prepare snap peas by cutting off tips on each end of pod (or buy the pretrimmed to save time).

2. Preheat oil in wok or medium skillet over medium-high heat.

3. Saute snap peas in oil with salt and pepper for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, tossing often, until peas are cooked, but still crispy.

4. Add garlic and saute one more minute. Serve!

Recipe from Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2: More Amazing Clones of Famous Dishes from America's Favorite Restaurant Chains by Todd Wilbur.

My Black Thumb

I've been waiting all year for this time to come. It's been months in the making and it's finally here! We moved into our home almost two years ago and since that time I've been wanting to plant an herb garden on our patio. We moved too late for planting season and last year I was too crazy busy with finding/starting a new job, sadly leaving my old job, and doing something else big...oh, that's right, planning my wedding. So life was too busy for me to deal with getting dirt under my nails.

But not this year! This year my awesome husband took matters into his own hands, determined we were getting our herbs this season. They are everywhere right now and we'd been price checking at every store we went to (we finally decided Wal-Mart and Home Depot had the best deals and selection). He really took the lead on this one, and was the enforcer in our little gardening experiment.


Now I have to go off on a tangent for a minute and say that we are a great match for each other. I'm not gonna be modest here 'cause it's pointless. We really work well together. Case in point: I like to vacuum, he likes to mop. I like to bake, he loves to cook. I like to play on my computer, and he can fix it for me I inevitably break it. He's handy with stuff like tools and I ... well, I like to alphabetize stuff. I do the laundry ... and he leaves it in a pile on the floor. Hmmm.

Anyway! We balance well in most areas. But when it comes to gardening, we've both got the blackest thumbs you ever did see (I could make a comment about my mother here, and believe me, I've thought of several good ones, but I think she reads this blog and I value my life too much). I always traded chores with my brother growing up so I wouldn't have to do any of the outdoorsy stuff (like weeding, raking leaves, anything with dirt). I'm not that much of a girly girl but I HATE having dirt under my nails. Sadly, my husband is the same if not worse. So we have a quandary.

But despite the odds against us we forged ahead!! We bought a bag of soil, 8 little pots of herbs, a watering can, gardening gloves, and a couple planters. And, ta-da! Herbs. I really hope they don't die. We're six days out and so far they are thriving, or at least still looking green.

By the way, I went to Vons this morning and SCORE! They have the cheapest herbs around! $1.99 each, and they had a better selection than anywhere else we looked. Go figure. So if my starter herbs make it through the next couple weeks, I may be adding another row to our garden. Oh, we also planted some garlic but nothing has sprouted yet so we can't tell if we've killed it, drowned it, dried it out, or if something down there might actually be growing.

My Current Literary Obsession

Also titled, Hey, Look, a Blog Post That Actually Isn’t About Food!

So, yes, I’m obsessed with books and reading. If you’ve known me for all of ten minutes, you know this already! I learned to read early and I fell in love from the first word I read.

I also grew up in the library. Almost quite literally. My parents were avid readers and had me visiting the library multiple times a week when I was young. I spend hours at my local branch after closing as a kid, while my mom tirelessly volunteered with the library’s board and on various committees. I did service projects as a teenager cleaning up library storage, and worked summers at my local library all through college. I spent the past five years working for various book publishers. I’ve been surrounded by books my entire life and they’ve integrated their way into my personal and professional personalities with abundance.

I now visit my local libraries once or twice a week and I have long lists of hold items at each library system (there are three in my county).

Some of my favorite library tips:

-If a certain book has a long waiting list (yes, libraries have waiting lists), check out the large-print edition as there are hardly ever holds on them, or definitely fewer than regular print.

-You can check out CDs and audiobooks at libraries, and many of them are now offering MP3 downloads for audiobooks (yay!).

-Most libraries offer DVDs, VHSs, and various video games for rent, usually for very cheap (think $1 at most) or free (usually for a week or two’s rental).

-You can search for items and then place them on hold directly from your computer and have them sent to your local branch. The library will e-mail you when the items arrive and you can go pick them up when they're ready.

-Most also have free wireless Internet access.

I could go on and on, obviously!

This leads me into my most recent literary obsession! A few months back, one of my friends turned me on to a site called Paperback Swap, where you can post old books that you own and receive books from others. The cost is free, but shipping your books out to others is on your own dime (and fairly cheap, thanks to media mail).

At first, I wasn’t too sure about this site. I wondered why I’d use it since I had my faithful library services. But then I wanted a book that had long waiting lists at all three library systems that I frequent; I checked on Paperback Swap and found it! I am now a loyal user of both this site and my local libraries.

I also like using Swap Tree, a similar service to Paperback Swap but that also deals with CDs and DVDs.

Check ‘em out! I gotta get back to my book now.

A Chef's Fantasy

This little gadget is my current obsession to covet (besides the Kindle and the iPhone). I want one but don't want to spend the $$, go figure! But it's sooo pretty.

www.mydemy.com

Now, I gotta say that I really love my current recipe program, Cook'n with Pillsbury, but this little one is so cute and would certainly be easier than hauling my laptop into the kitchen every night. But I still have loyalty to Cook'n!

Chicken, Biscuits, 'n' Gravy Casserole

Wow, lots of recipes lately! I guess I am going through yet another foodie obsession. I promise I have some non-food related blogs lined up next!! Lots of stuff to post about. But, for now....

We LOVE to make this recipe. It's like a guilty pleasure. So delicious and so easy to make. It probably isn't the healthiest meal, but it's worth it. I've altered it a bit to fit our healthy needs. I usually serve with some sort of vegetable to make it better, too. We made this last night and had a side of steamed green beans with it; perfect!

Chicken, Biscuits, 'n' Gravy Casserole
Adapted from Every Day With Rachael Ray

1 rotisserie chicken
7 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 celery ribs, finely chopped
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup skim milk
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups Bisquick baking mix
1/2 cup reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese


1. Preheat the oven to 425°. Butter a large casserole dish. Pull the meat off the chicken, shredding it with your fingers or a fork into the baking dish.

2. In a large skillet, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter over high heat. Add the onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes. Lower the heat to medium, sprinkle the flour into the skillet and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the chicken broth, bring to a simmer and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Stir in 1/3 cup of the milk and simmer for 1 minute more. Remove the skillet from the heat, add the lemon juice, and add salt and pepper to taste. Pour the gravy over the chicken in the baking dish.

3. Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter with the garlic.

4. Stir together the baking mix, the remaining 2/3 cup of milk and the cheese. Drop tablespoonfuls of the biscuit mixture on top of the casserole and brush with half of the garlic butter. Bake until the biscuits are golden brown, about 25 minutes, brushing them once or twice with the remaining garlic butter.