Author: Nicole

Hi thank you for stopping by. I am very excited to have you here. Pull up a chair and have a seat, this is the view from my side of the table.
Recipes

Sunbeam Bread Machine

Nicole

Here is one of my MUST HAVE items: 

I love fresh bread and I LOVE this bread machine! One thing I love about it is it was not over the top expensive and it works great! I have to say I am very impressed with the bread maker
My first recipe in this machine was banana bread, but silly me I was thinking it would be a normally banana bread. Nope it’s more like a loaf of sandwich bread with a little banana in it. Not sweet, and not yummy, but plain ol’ bread! BUT I it did turn out really nice! I have used this machine so many times to fresh bread, cake, rolls, and cinnamon rolls (they are the best) a good bread machine is a must in any kitchen. You simply can’t beat homemade hamburger buns! They make the burger!



Recipes

A Plumber on YouTube Helped Fix My Sink!!

Nicole
Who knew?
Our kitchen sink was clogged last night! I mean clogged! The dishwasher was backing up into the sink, and when I turned the garbage disposal on in one sink it backed up in the other sink.  No matter what I did nothing worked.
I went to the grocery store and purchased some Drano. Against my better judgment I left it sitting in the sink for one hour verses the suggested 15 minutes. It’s only a suggestion….  Ummm Right? 😉
So anyway one hour came and went. My sink was still sitting with water in it with no intention of budging. Kevin and I had already bailed water out of two sinks once I didn’t want us to have to do it again. He had an import call come through so I decided to use the woman within me to fix the sink. I wasn’t going to let some stinkin’ sink win! Hell to the NO!
After searching online I found a video on YouTube that I hoped was the answer to my prayers and questions. As you can see from the video above this nice man explains how to fix a clogged sink. GUESS WHAT it worked. I fixed the sink!!
I ran in on my husband important call and did the happy dance right in front of him. Yes, it was all he could do to not laugh out loud at me, but it worked! I would like to go on record as saying once again a woman can fix anything and doesn’t need a man to do it! Ha! Well except for the man in the video lol! 
Recipes

Wordless Wednesdday: Storage

Nicole
Wordless, unexplainable, or depressing? Ha! Our storage unit is a menagerie of mess! We have multiple boxes of every holiday you can think of, stuff for every sport Kevin plays (hockey, tennis, golf, and so on) stuffed toys, rabbit cage, cat carriers, the list goes on! We have been trying to put as much stuff in storage as possible to make our move at the end of September as smooth as possible. My goal by the end of August is to have everything in storage but furniture, clothes, a few pots and pans, and the pets!
Thanks to my wonderful mom last weekend she and I spent an entire day taming this wild beast. This picture looks like a work of art compared to what it looked like before. Before she and I started our storage unit was a nightmare. Nothing was organized, and we didn’t know what was in any box. The entire storage was a large pile of junk!
Now each box is numbered and every item and box number has been entered into an Excel document. It looks incredible. Now we actually have a ton of room to add more. Before she and I started it appeared to be full. We pay over $100 a month for our storage unit. I wonder how many $1000’s of dollars of junk we have store in there that we keep paying for over and over each month.
It’s an ever revolving work in progress!!

I am linking this post at:
http://www.shibleysmiles.com/
http://www.thelifeofrylie.com/
http://jellybean529.blogspot.com
http://www.mrs-marine.com/

Recipes

Yes Virginia, There Really is a Good Meatloaf

Nicole

Let’s get the facts straight right from the beginning … I HATE MEATLOAF! Well, until now! My family loves meat loaf, but never gets it, because I hate it! I finally decided to be nice and make it because I found a recipe that had such great reviews. 

This recipe was so easy to put together. I actually sat at the kitchen table with all of my ingredients and had it together in minutes. It comes out of the oven so juicy, and simply yummy. I have only had meatloaf a few times in the past, and it’s always very dry. You won’t have to worry about that with this recipe! 

One piece of information I will give you is that when you initally put it all together it seems very wet, but this is what keeps  it moist while it’s baking. This got rave reviews in my house … even from me! Original recipe
Serves 4-5
Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 lbs ground beef 
  • 1 slice bread (broken or chopped finely)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 small vidalia onion or type sweet onion, finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon table salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 4 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1/2-2/3 cup whole milk or half-and-half
Sauce:
  • 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 2-4 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed firm (I used 3 tablespoons I will only use 1 1/2 – 2 next time)
  • 1/2 cup ketchup
Directions:
  1. Meatloaf: Combine meat loaf ingredients and place into a loaf baking dish.
  2. Smooth out top.
  3. Sauce: Combine sauce ingredients and pour on top and sides of meatloaf.
  4. Bake at 350°F about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes or until done

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Recipes

We Lost Our Loving Bunny

Nicole
Yesterday our little bunny Cody went to bunny heaven. His presence is already greatly missed. The cats seem lost without their friend, and the humans are missing him like crazy too.
Who knew cats and rabbits could cohabitate so well together. They loved to play with Cody! He would chase them and they would chase him. I think he had identity crises and thought he was a cat himself. After all he did teach all the cats how to use the litter box, and they taught him how to walk on the tile floor, and roll over the way they did.

He was such a special guy. He was a free range rabbit never caged and always had free roam of the house. He wouldn’t have even known what to do if he had been put outside. He was a happy cat rabbit!
He was part of my life before I met my husband! It’s funny how something so small can be such a big part of your life!!

You are missed terribly Cody Roader! 4/26/04 – 08/03/2011 *big smile … little tear*