Saturday Lovin'

It's Saturday and I'm lovin':

I got some Dr. Bronner's peppermint castile soap yesterday and I am loving it.  I used it to make laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, all purpose spray and grout cleaner.  After I got done I had a huge headache (probably from the fact that I had to work until 8...grrr) so I rubbed a little on a hot towel and put it on my face.  It was ah-may-zing.  I felt so refreshed and clean afterwards.

This weather we're having. It's low 70s, sunny, sort of windy, once again ah-may-zing.  I've done two loads of laundry and they are hanging on the line.  I also deep cleaned our kitchen and bathroom and washed all of our bedding.  It's fresh up in here.

The new episodes of Jersey Shore.  You can judge me - I know it's dumb, but I don't really care.  KB made a lot of fun of me, but the episode where Jionni broke up with Snooki was really sad.  I've definitely been there and it sucks when somebody doesn't want you around.  I imagine it would be even worse in a foreign country....and on TV....and wearing something that looks like it was harvested from a yetti.

What are you loving this weekend?

Thoughts on a Thursday

It's time for Thoughts on a Thursday!

Link up with Carolyn (on her honeymoon!) to play along.

• I pretty much love all MTV shows.  True Life, 16 & Pregnant, The Challenge, I Used to Be Fat, Made ... you could put pretty much anything into an MTV show and I will watch it, but I HATE the new Real World.  The people are so dumb and annoying.  Frank need to get over it, Nate is a douche, Zack is annoying, and the weird singer girl is boring.  I'll have another Teen Mom rerun please.

• I'm planning a big clean up weekend at our house.  I've been gone most of the past month so our house is definitely a little dingy.  I'm looking up some homemade cleaning recipes and plan on stopping by Target on my way home to get some Borax and Washing Soda.

• I found out I have to work late tomorrow to get some ads through legal review.  Seriously....working late on a Friday.....dealing with lawyers on a Friday......I'm not looking forward to it.

• I'm also planning on cooking quite a bit this weekend.  I'll be making the following:

Source: howsweeteats.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: crumbsandchaos.blogspot.com via Rachel on Pinterest

What are your Thoughts on a Thursday?

Pinteresting Wednesday

It's another Pinteresting Wednesday.

Here's some of my favorite Pins of the week!

Source: jennysteffens.blogspot.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: webecoist.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: images.search.yahoo.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: None via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: crumbsandchaos.blogspot.com via Rachel on Pinterest

What are you Pinning this week?

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

I just realized that my little Blog is a whole year old!  In honor of a whole year of fun times with the Browns, I thought I'd do some highlights of the last year.

My most popular post: apparently lots of enviro nuts read my blog

The most popular search terms: Pancho Villa (who knew one little chihuahua named after a badass Mexican revolutionary could drive so much traffic), puggerpillar (Rosa will turn into a beautiful pugerfly one day), fat pug dog (sorry Rosie)


Blogs that drive the most traffic to me: Life is Reediculous, Mo'Betta, and The Dever Dish.  Thanks ladies!

And just for fun (and more fat pug dog hits):

Menu Sunday

We're back from the wedding extravaganza weekend in Virginia.  It was a long trip...whew.  I also had to go to the grocery store pretty much as soon as I walked in the door, so these recipes are a little thrown together.

Here's what we'll be eating this week:

Mon: Southern Pinto Beans
KB loves pinto beans in a major way.  He asks for them when it's a million degrees outside, but I always feel weird eating them when it's not cold. These will stew in the crock pot all day and I'll be serving these with some sweet cornbread muffins.

Source: food.com via Brittany on Pinterest

Tues: Tomato Basil Soup
Tomato soup is some of the best stuff on earth, but the canned stuff isn't really that great.  This recipe looks easy and quick, but also like it would taste really good.  I'm going to substitute regular whole milk for the heavy cream.  I always feel like I buy heavy cream for a recipe and then the 3/4 of a container left sits in the fridge and gets nasty before I use it.

Source: jennysteffens.blogspot.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Wed: Slow Cooker Orange Chicken
I've really wanted Asian food a lot recently, but I haven't really made anything that hits the spot.  Orange chicken is one of my favorite Asian buffet foods and I hope it tastes just like it does at Panda Express.

Source: sixsistersstuff.blogspot.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Thurs: Rachel Turkey Crescents
Part of the reason why I chose this recipe is that it had my name in it.  I also happen to like sauerkraut.  This recipe puts those two together.  We'll see if it lives up to its name.

What will you be eating this week???

Thoughts and Pins on a Thursday

I ended up going out to dinner last night and not getting home until late so I wasn't able to do my Pinteresting Wednesday post.

This is a mash up of Thoughts on a Thursday and Pinteresting Wednesday.

Source: flickr.com via Rachel on Pinterest

KB loves butter mints and those chalky nasty after dinner mints.  These look scary and good at the same time.

Source: candidrd.com via Rachel on Pinterest

I made this peanut butter hummus over the weekend and it was wonderful.  I ate the whole thing in about 2 days.  That's alotta hummus!  You should probably use honey to sweeten instead of molasses.  My sister used molasses and said hers was really gross.

Source: projectwedding.com via Rachel on Pinterest

These herb wreaths look like they would smell really good and be really neat looking hanging all together.  Too bad I don't have any more fresh herbs.  This may have to wait until next year.

Source: d30opm7hsgivgh.cloudfront.net via Rachel on Pinterest

No words necessary.

Source: saksfifthavenue.com via Meredith on Pinterest

I'm wearing something similar to this to my cousin's wedding on Saturday.  Is black lace too much to wear to a morning wedding....probably, do I care....not really.  I'm still in the need for shoes, so we'll see what happens.

Recipe Review: Lasagna Soup

I got a lot of questions about this recipe when I posted it on my Menu Sunday run down, so I decided to do a Recipe Review on it.

Source: foodgawker.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Overall this recipe was pretty easy and tasted okay.  I didn't exactly follow the directions though, so that may be why it wasn't as glorious as the picture above makes it look.

First of all, I didn't use any meat.  I was expecting to have some left over pasta sauce from last night's dinner, but it didn't happen.  The spaghetti squash was a hit and we ended up eating the rest of it for lunch today.

Here's my meatless tomato paste/onion base.  From there, I added in the basic tomato products and let it cook while we took the dogs for a walk (and entertained KB's grandparents who decided to drop in unannounced).  When I came back it smelled wonderful and I added in the lasagna noodles.  The recipe says to not let them cook too long, but I'm not sure I cooked them long enough.  They were still a bit al dente.

You were also supposed to make a ricotta/parmesan mix to put in the bottom of the bowl, but I'm not a huge ricotta fan.  I ended up putting a white american cheese single in the bottom of the bowl....classy.

Overall it was good, but not great.  I think most of that was my fault for not following the directions.