All About Me And A Bag Of Chips!

It's going to be a LONG Summer...

So yesterday was the first day of Summer vacation for my daughter and I am already insane! LOL The bickering, the "mom he touched me, mom she looked at me" Oy Vay!

I shouldn't complain to much, one month and then they will both be going to school/Pre school and I will miss them like crazy. I don't really have to much to report today, the weather has just been gorgeous and DH has been taking the kids down for a dip in the sea when he gets home from work whilst I make dinner. We are trying to get them more use to the water and teach them to swim. So far it's going OK, so that is good.

I think this weekend we are going to check out Amager Strand Park (<--LINK) If you live in Copenhagen you should really check it out, it is really nice and they have a little shallow lagoon for the kids, a boardwalk, just a great place to spend a day AND it is just 5 minutes by metro from where I live. Have I mentioned how much I adore where I live?? The sea, the beach, parks, forests and downtown all within 5 minutes from me. You can't beat that!

Ok, enough rambling for today..have a good one and until next time..TATA!!

Weekend in Review and Lime Cheesecake Recipe...

Good Monday morning peeps! I hope you all enjoyed a lovely weekend. Ours was pretty nice! Somehow Friday I managed to pull a muscle in my shoulder. I woke up and it just hurt a bit, like I had slept wrong or something. I sat down on my computer and made my blog post and did a few other things whilst I enjoyed my morning coffee, but when I stood up I almost died! I couldn't move and the pain took my breath away, it was BAD, I thought I was going to have to call DH. Anyways, when I finally could move again I took a couple of DH's muscle relaxers (he has back issues sometimes) and some ipren and panodil and that helped. It is just finally today feeling better. Wish I knew what I did though to cause it so I can avoid it in the future! LOL

Despite that though life went on. Saturday was gorgeous and we spent most of the day outside, we BBQ and as I mentioned I got in touch with my inner Martha and made a lime cheesecake (recipe to follow).

Sunday was yet another gorgeous day and in the morning DH took the kids down to the havnbad (swimming pool in the harbor) and they swam for about 90 minutes, then my BIL called and said they were bringing lunch, so we all sat out in the courtyard and ate and the kids played, a nice day was had by all!

That brings us to today, the first day of summer vacation for my daughter and I got to sleep in, whoot!! LOL It looks like it is going to be another gorgeous day, so I imagine we will be spending it outside.

As promised I will also post the lime cheesecake recipe, it was TO DIE FOR! I did change the crust from the chocolate in the recipe to a regular type cheesecake crust though and added some zest of lime also!

Chocolate Lime Cheesecake

Recipe courtesy Nigella Lawson 2007 

Prep Time: 20 min, Inactive Prep Time: 20 min, Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min

Level: Easy

Serves: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 7 ounces chocolate wafer cookies
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 pound cream cheese (recommended: Philadelphia)
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 4 limes, juiced or 3/4 cup
• Special equipment: spring form pan

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place a large overlapping piece of aluminum foil over the bottom of the springform pan, and then insert pan ring over it. Fold the foil extra foil up and around the pan and place the whole thing on a second piece of foil, also folding it and pressing it securely around the pan, having a water tight covering.

In a food processor, process cookies until they are crumb-like, add melted butter and continue to process. Pour crumb mixture into springform pan and press with your fingers to line the pan. Place the pan in the refrigerator to set while you prepare the cheesecake.

Place a kettle of water on for water bath. In a food processor beat the cream cheese until smooth, add the sugar, eggs, egg yolks, and lime juice.

Take crumbed pan from the refrigerator and place it in a roasting pan. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the crumb pan, and then carefully pour the hot kettle of water into the roasting pan so the water reaches 1/2 way up the pan so the water does not splash into cheese cake.

Place roasting pan in oven for 1 hour, checking after 50 minutes. It should feel set, but still wobbly in the center. Take the roasting pan out of the oven, carefully remove the springform pan from the roasting pan and place it on a rack. Peel off the outer layer of foil, and tear away the side bits of the first layer of foil and leave the pan to cool. Once the cake comes to room temperature, place it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes before serving. Transfer to the plate you're going to serve it on, a plate without a lip, or a cake stand. Unclip the springform pan and remove the outer part. Carefully lift the cheesecake removing the metal bottom. The aluminum foil can stay on the cake. Serve chilled.

With that I will wrap things up for today, I hope you have a good one and until next time..TATA!!

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Foodie Friday!!

Good morning peeps! I hope you are all doing fabulously! Today is the last day of school for my daughter, it's been a great year and being able to see her flourish and make new friends and just LOVE her school and after school places, makes me a happy clam.

I am running a bit late today since my daughter didn't have to be to school until 9am today, so no gadget this week, BUT, I have a very cool little quiz you can take....

PASTA SHAPE ID QUIZ (<--LINK)

I got 17 right, not to bad. I made a couple stupid mistakes...LOL

Onto this week's menu. Again I have a couple carry overs since things keep cropping up and interfering with my plans. I also have a couple new recipes that I will link you up to! I am also getting in touch with my inner Martha and making a lime cheesecake tomorrow. DH LOVES cheesecake, so he is over the moon in anticipation! LOL

Menu for the week of June 27th until July 2nd.

• Sat- Chicken Kebabs with Turkish salad.
• Sun- Spinach Fritters (<--LINK) - Salad.
• Mon- Hot Dogs -Dijon Dill Potato Salad - Cut Up Veggies.
• Tue- Pasta - Meatballs - Salad.
• Wed- Sweet Potato, Eggplant, and Spinach Madras Curry (--LINK) - Rice.
• Thur- Pimped up Frozen Pizza.

With that I will wrap things up for another week! I hope you have a great weekend and until next time..TATA!!

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I'm Melting....

Seriously, at what point did I stop being able to handle the heat, oh ya that would be when I started having hot flashes..sigh..it was a gorgeous day yesterday, I think we got up to 25 or more and I was dieing! Oh course it wasn't helped by the fact my head was killing me. I ended up taking a cold shower and crawling into bed at 9:30. I fell right to sleep and didn't wake up until the alarm rang this morning, so I am feeling rather refreshed!

For those of you who emailed and asked me to explain Sankt Hans here is a blurb about it from Wiki...

"In Denmark, the solstitial celebration is called Sankt Hans aften

("St. John's Eve"). It was an official holiday until 1770, and in accordance with the Danish tradition of celebrating a holiday on the evening before the actual day, it takes place on the evening of 23 June. It is the day where the medieval wise men and women (the doctors of that time) would gather special herbs that they needed for the rest of the year to cure people.

It has been celebrated since the times of the Vikings by visiting healing water wells and making a large bonfire to ward away evil spirits. Today the water well tradition is gone. Bonfires on the beach, speeches, picnics and songs are traditional, although bonfires are built in many other places where beaches may not be close by (i.e. on the shores of lakes and other waterways, parks, etc.) In the 1920s a tradition of putting a witch made of straw and cloth (probably made by the elder women of the family) on the bonfire emerged as a remembrance of the church's witch burnings from 1540 to 1693. This burning sends the "witch" away to Bloksbjerg, the mountain 'Brocken' in the Harz region of Germany where the great witch gathering was thought to be held on this day.

Holger Drachmann and P. E. Lange-Müller wrote a midsommervise (Midsummer hymn) in 1885 called "Vi elsker vort land..." ("We Love Our Country") that is sung at every bonfire on this evening."

I love it because it is just so pagan and I have always been so incredible interested in that sort of thing!

With that I will wrap things up for today, I have to take the little man to a play date, plan my menu for next week and make a grocery list and return some books to the library...all in a days work, right? Until next time..TATA!!

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Middle of the Week Ramblings...

Ugh man I am sporting a major sinus headache today! I popped some pills, so hoping that will help. Headaches are such a PITA!

So last night was Sankt Hans here and what a gorgeous night it was! We grabbed a BBQ and headed down to the harbor (along with the whole population of Copenhagen it seemed LOL) and enjoyed the festivities. The kids ran around with their friends and they had face painting and other fun activities for them, we relaxed and chatted with a bunch of lovely people. They lit the poor witch on fire at 9:15 and we headed home around 10 to toss the very tired kids into bed. Just a really enjoyable evening!

My daughter only has three days left of school and each of those days is planned to the hilt with activities, sports day, ice cream party...fun fun stuff! I also got a nice little surprise today, apparently I don't have to pay for my daughters after school place for the month of July, I guess it is a "free month??" She is still able to attend though if she wants. We'll see how bored and how much she misses her friends...they do have a pool there...need I say more?? LOL

With that I will wrap things up for today...have a good one and until next time..TATA!!

Crazy busy today!!

I am short on time today and have a million errends to run, so I will just make a quick post letting you know I have a bunch of new book reviews and book related "stuff" up on my seperate book blog you might like to check out!

You can find the blog HERE (<--LINK)

So be sure to check that out! Until then have a great day and TATA!!

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Movie Review Monday!!

Good Monday morning peeps!! I hope you had a great weekend, ours was nice and relaxing! We actually got to see three new movies this past week, so I thought it was time again for a "Movie Review Monday."

First up is THE HANGOVER



"A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must retrace their steps in order to find him."

Gosh was this movie ever a RIOT! Crude, rude, but oh so funny. I don't think we stopped laughing the whole movie, definitely gets two huge thumbs up!!

Next up..THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT



"After kidnapping and brutally assaulting two young women, a gang led by a prison escapee unknowingly finds refuge at a vacation home belonging the parents of one of the victims -- a mother and father who devise an increasingly gruesome series of revenge tactics"

I am still undecided on this one, on one hand I thought it was a good thriller, lots of suspense, solid acting, on the other hand though there was an extremely graphic and way to long (IMO) rape scene that disturbed me a lot and a pretty over the top ending. I guess what I am saying is that I liked it, but didn't LOVE it!

Lastly we saw..ANGELS & DEMONS



"Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon works to solve a murder and prevent a terrorist act against the Vatican"

I was SO excited to see this one! I LOVED the book, in fact it is one of my favorite books of all time. Let's just say I was not disappointed! This one is leaps and bounds better then The Da Vinci Code movie (though I did enjoy that one also). This was an especially fun movie for us to watch because we have basically been to visit every place they filmed scenes for the movie in Rome and The Vatican (though they were not aloud to film in the Vatican and did an amazing job of recreating those places). Two very big thumbs up for this one!!

With that I will wrap things up for today, have a good one and until next time..TATA!!

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Foodie Friday!

It's time once again for all things "food" here on my little corner of the web! We are all starting to feel a little better here, just in the nick of time because my lovely daughter has a birthday party to attend tomorrow!

So let us get right to it then, this weeks "gadget" is actually for use outside of the kitchen. We LOVE to BBQ, that was one of the best parts of moving to a ground floor apartment, access straight out into the courtyard where we have tables and BBQ all around. We also love to grab one of those disposable BBQ's and head down to the harbor and sit and have a BBQ picnic.

I have seen these very cool bucket grills all over lately and thought what a great idea for a portable BBQ and much better for the environment then having to throw away the disposable kind after every use!

BUCKET GRILL (<--LINK)



"Grill on the go. Tailgate, picnic or entertain on the patio with our compact charcoal grill. Features 12" lift-off grate in chrome-plated iron and legs that fold in to store. Galvanized steel with green powdercoat finish."

Isn't it cute!? LOL I am sure you can find them all over the place, but I think 25 dollars seems a pretty fair deal!

That will bring us to this weeks menu. I have a few carry over dishes because with everyone being under the weather here, no one felt particularly like eating, so we had a lot of sandwiches and cereal this week!

Menu for the week of June 20th until the 26th

• Sat- Thai peanut noodles.
• Sun- Hamburgers - Fries- Cut Up Veggies.
• Mon- Caramelized Onion tart - Spinach salad. (vegtimes pg 57)
• Tues- Chicken Kebabs with Turkish salad - Home Made Pitas. (W&H pg 92)
• Wed- Spaghetti - Meatballs - Salad.
• Thurs- Minty Chili and Lemon Halloumi and Herbed Rice .(W&H pg 82)
• Fri- Home Made Pizza.

That will wrap things up here for another week! I hope you have a fabulous weekend and until next time..TATA!!

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Save yourself....

That is what I told DH as headed out the door this morning! LOL My daughter has been back to school the past couple days, but this morning woke up, threw a fit, which was a good indication she wasn't feeling good, so I checked her temp and she is again running a low grade fever, so home she is again today. Yesterday the little man was sporting a 39 degree fever and basically spent the day sleeping on the sofa, his fever is slightly lower today, so that is good. There of course there is me, low grade fever, stuffy..sigh..like I said to DH "save yourself" as he appears to still be healthy! LOL

I finished a couple LO's in the past couple weeks, my mojo has gogoed, which sucks, but what can you do! I have a major decision to make and am actually just waiting to hear from someone, what they say will effectively make the decision for me. Anyways, here are the two latest scrapbook pages, you can see the credits at my gallery!







With that I will wrap things up for today! I have to snuggle with sick children, plus make our weekly menu and shopping list...until next time...TATA!!

Cool Website....

I stumbled across this very cool website yesterday whilst serfing the world wide web and just had to share!

alltop.com (<--LINK)

"Alltop is an “online magazine rack” of popular topics. We update the stories every hour. Pick a topic by searching, news category, or name, and we’ll deliver it to you 24 x 7. All the topics, all the time."

Isn't that cool??!! So say you have an interest in "food" or "Books" or "Movies" you can search by category of alphabetically and it brings up the top blogs/sites on the web that fit those themes. You can also click on the + next to a site name and it will be added to your very own alltop page, a one stop page for all your favorite sites!

I told you it was cool, didn't I?? So be sure to check it out and let me know what you think! With that I will wrap things up for today, Have a great one and until next time..TATA!!

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