Things I Love Thursday-Black Bean Salsa

Ingredients:

2 Can of black beans

4 medium tomatoes

1/2 red onion

Handfull of chopped cilantro

1 chopped jalapeno

Tablespoon of minced garlic

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients and serve with tortilla chips

*It would also be delicious with some roasted corn.

For more TILT head over to the Diaper Diaries.

Things I Love Thursday-Strawberry Lemonade

It wouldn’t be a TILT post if it didn’t involve alcohol, so here we go.

We had a big party here a couple weeks ago for my Father-in-law who just turned 70. In addition to the typical beer and wine, I wanted a fun drink. I came up with this Strawberry Lemonade.

Ingredients:
Big jug of rock gut vodka
Small container of strawberries
2 bottles of Simply Lemonade
Cucumber (yes, I said cucumber)

1. Take the jug of vodka remove the plastic pour spout and pour some out (of course don’t throw it away)
2. Remove hulls from the strawberries, cut in half and put into vodka
3. Let sit overnight. Its kind of amazing what happens, initially the strawberries sink, as they lose their color they float!
4. Rinse cucumber and slice into thin slices.
5. In a large container, preferably one with a spigot, mix strained vodka, both lemonades, and cucumbers.
6. Stir and serve over ice.

I love the earthiness the cucumbers add to counteract the sweetness of the lemonade. Its a great drink to serve on these insanely hot days.

Here’s a little hint: Save the lemonade bottles, so you can conveniently save the unused lemonade in the fridge.

For more TILT check out Jill’s blog at www.thediaperdiaries.net.

Things I Love Thursday

Summer is just around the corner. You know what that means…its time to deal with the dreaded bikini line.

I’ve tried everything from shaving, to creams and waxing ( which resulted in no hair removal, just a lot of wax left over an no way to remove it. I may or may not have gotten stuck to the toilet seat!)  I’ve never tried professional waxing, but lets be honest, the thought of some stranger getting up close and personal with my, well you know, doesn’t excite me. (That should be reassuring for Ricardo!)

Before we went to Mexico, I tried to give home waxing another try.  I went to Sally’s and found some Gigi Honey Microwaveable Brazilian Wax.

I brought it home and got to work. After microwaving it I applied it to a small section and let it cool. You just peel up a little corner of the hardened wax, pull the skin taut, and pull in the opposite direction of the hairgrowth.  Now, I’m not going to say it didn’t hurt, but I will say it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The best part is that it took all the hair with it.

It lasted for about 2 weeks. I did get a few bumps, but unlike shaving the hair wasn’t back once the bumps went away.

The only downside is that you have to have some decent length in order for the wax to take hold.

This might be a good winter project, because after waxing for sometime the hair eventually doesn’t grow back. Wouldn’t that be nice?

For more TILT check out the diaper diaries.

Things I Love Thursday-Miami Vice

…No, not the TV show.
Once in a while Ricardo and I have “Boat Drink Day.” We take a bunch of daiquiri mixes and alcohol and make frozen “froo froo” drinks. However, they’re not something I can drink on a daily basis…not that I would drink on a daily basis.
While we were in Mexico, a drunk old lady making out with some random guy at our table in the pool (yes, we were there first) turned me on to Miami Vice’s. They are half Strawberry Daiquiri and half Pina Colada.
My friend Danielle bought us each our own Bubba Keg, and the bartenders gladly filled them for us.

Next time you’re in the mood for an umbrella drink, order it by name.

For more TILT, check out The Diaper Diaries

Things I Love Thursday-Pizzelle Cookies

Sorry about the lack of “Hobby Humpday” yesterday. This was the week that I not knowingly scheduled to do everything I couldn’t do while recovering from surgery.

Anyway, Ricardo brought these gems home from the grocery store around Christmas. Think waffle cone in cookie form. Although they would be great with ice cream, I like to eat them right out of the box. At 23 calories per cookie, I do just that.

There is a special gadget called a pizzelle press. If my local grocer stops carrying pizzelles, I might just have to get one!

For more TILT, check out The Diaper Diaries

Things I Love Thursday-Everyday Food

I’ve been subscribing to Martha Stewarts’ Everyday Food for about 3 years not, and I absolutely love it.
The recipes are easy to follow and usually don’t need that many ingredients. I especially love the weekly menus. They give you 5 recipes along with a grocery list for an entire workweek.
After 3 years of subscribing I’ve accumulated a lot of magazines. To cut down on storage I created a spreadsheet.
I have different categories such as appetizers, desserts, vegetables, but I also have meals categorized by main ingredient. That way I can read the grocery ad, see whats on sale and reference my spreadsheet for a recipe.
When I categorize a recipe, I put the name of the recipe along with the date of the issue it came from. When I want that recipe, I go to Martha’s website and type in the name of the recipe I want and then print it out.

For more TILT check out the Diaper Diaries.

Things I Love Thursday

Today I wanted to share with you the way I love how Piper Ann’s table fits in her room.

Here are some not so good pictures.

I had to hurry up and take the pictures because her room was actually clean. Of course, that lasted until she got home from school!

Things I Love Thursday

(This is going to be a pictureless post. For some reason my camera won’t transfer pictures to my pc.)

I swear there’s no need for an intervention, but yes another “Things I Love Thursday” about alcohol.

I love my new vodka infuser that I got from my aunt for Christmas. It came as a gift pack with a bottle of Level vodka. (If you google Level Vodka Infuser, you can get a visual.) She also included a couple pomegranates, red naval oranges, 2 martini glasses, and a bottle of peppermint schnapps (because I also love peppermint).

I infused vodka with the oranges first and made my beloved blood orange martinis with it.

Next I infused some vodka with the pomegranates. I thought pomegranate martinis would be redundant with pomegranate infused vodka. We had some grapefruit soda that we intended to mix with plain vodka lying around, so I mixed that with the pomegranate vodka. It was fabulous. Ricardo and I tore through that in no time at all!

If you didn’t have grapefruit soda, you could probably just use grapefruit juice and soda water. It might be a little bitter, though.

Cheers!

On a side note, I guess I need to clarify the hoisting of my womanhood. Don’t confuse the much wanted boob job with the much needed bladder sling and prolapse surgery:)

Things I Love Thursday

I love all the pepperminty goodness that comes along with the Christmas season.

I just bought a box “for the kids” of peppermint Jojo’s from Trader Joes. They are basically Oreo’s with peppermint filling. So good. Since they’re from Trader Joes they don’t have all the trans fat in them.

I love peppermint ice cream.

The other coffee drink I tolerate is a white chocolate peppermint mocha. Coffee drinkers would hardly call that coffee. Ricardo has to write down my order when he makes a Starbucks run. He’s just a plain black coffee drinker. The more robust the better!

I also love those peppermint nougat Christmas trees. I filled some of the advent calendar with them. I don’t think the kids love them as much as I do.

For more TILT, check out here.

Things I Love Thursday-Cherry Limeade

Yes, another alcoholic drink. What can I say, I have 3 kids and no social life.

If you mix black cherry vodka with limeade and a splash of seltzer it tastes like cherry limeade.

For more non alcoholic TILT, check out this blog…