Happy Monday...

Nope, no recipe... I'm not very good at this blogging thing, oh well. This weekend was fun. Friday, I ended my work day a little early in the afternoon and Sean and I got ourselves some Costco cards and stocked up on meat for the garage freezer, and some other random non-perishable necessities. We have a new Costco coming in just down the way from us soon, and we are excited! We do really well with our finances, but are trying to find that sweet spot of savings vs spending, so we're giving ourselves a more watchful eye on our spending habits.

Saturday Sean worked but I enjoyed a rainy morning, gave the dogs a bath when there was a break in the rain, and then pretty much spent the rest of the day fixing the curtains in my office. We have curtains up in front of what used to be a closet before the previous owners converted the 3rd bedroom into an office/library type room. I brought out my sewing machine back in Sept and made curtains, but they needed to be widened a bit, so I spent hours with my seam ripper (I hope I never have to rip another seam again), and added panels on both sides of each curtain. I must say I'm pretty happy with my handiwork, and am happy that you can no longer see our stuff peaking behind the curtain! I went to our friends Beth and Brian's house for dinner and some good conversation and stayed up late finishing curtain #1.

Yesterday (Sunday), there was a break in the rain which was nice since Sean and I went to church, then got him a new computer. I spent the afternoon finishing curtain #2 and then we went to our friend's engagement party. Always fun to get dressed up, spend some time with friends, and laugh a lot. No I didn't take any pictures, I suck.

Next on my round of craftiness/home improvement - painting the kitchen/dining room (I WILL take before and after pictures), sewing the dogs a new dog bed for the living room, making a cushion for the wall between our living and dining room for some extra seating when guests come over, and making some accent pillows. I'm feeling crafty in 2012!!

Monday Meals

So I'm going to try this whole weekly alliterative post thing. On Monday I'll post a yummy recipe that I made the previous week - not promising that I won't post recipes other days, but at least once a week I will. It will help me keep track of our favorite meals, and hopefully give some ideas to other people.

Anyway, Saturday, Sean was paint balling for a bach. party all day, and I hung out at home, got my hair trimmed, and got some other things done. I was watching tv that morning and a pizza commercial came on. After that, I didn't want anything else for dinner. Not wanting to go completely off the deep-end, I decided to get us some Boboli's with toppings so we could make our own. I did splurge a little though because I really wanted garlic brand, so I made an adaptation of these, mainly because they looked really easy to make. The only thing I did differently from the original recipe is used the crescents instead of breadsticks because I couldn't find them at my grocery store. I must say they were delish, and just as good the next day with my leftover pizza!

Garlic Knots

Ingredients

3-4 garlic cloves (the orig. recipe calls for chopped... I used the mincer on my garlic press)

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon dried basil (the orig. recipe calls for fresh, but I just decided to reach into my spice cabinet)

1 teaspoon dried parsley (again the orig. calls for fresh)

1 can Pillsbury crescent rolls (orig. calls for breadsticks)

Directions

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees

- In small microwavable bowl, microwave butter, garlic and olive oil on high in 30 second increments until the butter is melted. Stir in basil and parsley

- Unroll dough, and separate. Twist each individual crescent (or breadstick) into a knot and place in an ungreased 9in round cake pan

- spoon butter/garlic/herb mixture over the knots

- Bake 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm

Enjoy!