Saturday, February 27, 2010

Hamburger Luscious

I'm not sure I'll get all my Mission 101 things done by the end of 2010, but here's another one to cross off the list - another hearty recipe from the Christian Home Cook Book. I wanted to make a casserole on Sunday that would make a good leftover on Monday, and casseroles are this book's specialty. After reading it again, I'm not sure we even have a skillet big enough to hold all these ingredients! I easily baked it for about 45 minutes at 350 in the oven.

1 lb hamburger
1 stalk chopped celery
2 cups fine dried noodles
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 lb American cheese, sliced
1 No 2 can of tomatoes
1 small onion, diced
1 tsp salt

Now this is where the recipe shows its age. I wasn't sure what they meant by fine noodles, so I boiled some penne separately, drained it and placed it in the casserole dish. I didn't know what a number 2 can of tomatoes was either! According to the Internet, a number 2 can equals 20 ounces. I used one 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes and about half a large can of crushed tomatoes (the other half going into Wednesday's dinner) and that seemed tomatoey enough. The rest of the recipe goes:

Brown meat slightly in a skillet, season with salt, pepper and onion. Arrange the remaining ingredients in layers as listed over browned meat. Spring salt and pepper over noodles. Cover, bring to a boil on high heat; then reduce to simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Occasionally remove cover and press noodles into the liquid.

It was quite tasty; I didn't know celery could be so flavourful before. That's four recipes from the cookbook I have tried now; one more and I'll be done the goal. My full list can be seen on Livejournal.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Workin' on it!

I seem to be stuck in one those weird cycles...for instance, recently I was at the library, then came home to find an email saying that my book had come in...so back to the library...then my printer ran out of cyan...so back to the Staples I went!

I noticed that I can seem to post comments on some Blogger blogs, but not others. It's rather annoying. I can't even reply to comments on my blog :-( It doesn't matter if I'm using Internet Explorer or Firefox, I can't see the comment text box. So Marlene and Carole, I have been reading your posts :-) And thanks for your kind wishes on my acceptance at ACAD :-) I'm still tickled.

Anyhow, now that my printer is all topped up, I'm working on getting the lovebird prizes out. If you haven't heard from me yet, you will soon :-) The cards look super nice - I retook the photos of the originals when we had some rare sun the other day, so I had to update all my templates. My work is never done :-)

Monday, February 15, 2010

And there was much rejoicing!

Hi friends! I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day, and if you're in Alberta, I hope you're enjoying the Family Day long weekend. Same for my American friends!

Thanks to everyone who entered the Valentine's Lovebird contest, and the well wishes for my portfolio. It really seemed to help! On Friday, I found out I had been provisionally accepted after going to the Portfolio Day on February 6th. This means that I don't need to actually submit a portfolio because they liked what they saw already. I'm so excited! It's been hard to wait for Tuesday when I can call and make my application deposit. And now I don't have to fret about finishing 6-9 more large pictures by April.

Now, the news I'm sure you've ALL been waiting for...I wanted to share my joy in being accepted into art college that I decided to make everyone that commented before the deadline a winner! Where would I be without the love and support of my online and offline friends? Give yourselves a pat on the back and let me know which ACEO lovebird you would like by emailing me calzephyr@gmail.com along with your snail mail address :-)

Monday, February 1, 2010

Love is in the air!

And because I love all my visitors so much, I'm having a little giveaway for February! Just make a comment on this post from February 1st to midnight on February 13. On February 14th, I'll pick a winner from the comments.

This is likely to be my only post for the first half of February - I'm having a mild panic over my college entrance portfolio, so don't worry about commenting on the wrong post. And what can you win? Your choice of one of the ACEOs below, along with matching stickers and notecard. They are also available on Etsy.


















But wait!! There's more!! My ACEO pals are also having similar contests - visit Marlene, Kathy and Pam are all having their own little contests too. Rules may vary, so read carefully, and good luck!!