Memorial Day/Strawberries & Cream Trifle

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!! I would like to take this time to thank all of our Veterans and current service members for all they have done to defend our country. You fight for the Freedoms we all enjoy, and many times go unappreciated. So THANK YOU!

 

Strawberries & Cream Trifle

Well, Summer Time is here and with it comes one of my favorite summer eats . . . STRAWBERRIES!  I love them . . . Especially, the fresh locally grown ones!

We hosted a small cook out for the Oaks Family this weekend and I wanted to come up with a yummy dessert to make with strawberries. So I began searching on Allrecipes.com, my favorite go-to recipe sight, for good and easy strawberry recipes. I can across several decent looking recipes, but nothing I just loved. So I called my go-to recipe person . . .mom! With her help we took the good stuff out of several of the recipes that I found at Allrecipes.com, and came up with our good strawberry recipe. By the way, it was kind of my idea for it to be a trifle, I am always looking for an excuse to use my trifle bowl! :) 

Here is our recipe which everyone seemed to enjoy at our cook out:

Strawberries & Cream Trifle

Ingredients:

1 box Strawberry Cake Mix and ingredients needed to prepare it

2 quarts of fresh strawberries (the amount of strawberries is flexible)

1 8oz cool Whip

2 packages of Cream Cheese

1 cup of sugar

Instructions:

Slice up the 2 quarts of strawberries.  Set aside a few whole strawberries for decoration. Bake Strawberry Cake Mix according to instructions.   Mix together the cool whip, cream cheese, and sugar until well blended.

Once all of that is done you can put together the trifle. First, cut up some pieces of the cake to cover the bottom of whatever bowl you are using, then add some strawberries, and then put the cream cheese mixture on top of that. Continue these layers until your bowl is full, you should end with a layer of the cream cheese mixture that you can put the whole strawberries on top of for decoration. Then chill over night.

  The next morning you should have something like this:

***A couple of notes on this recipe. You do not have to chill it over night but I really felt like mine was better after it had been in the fridge over night. Also you can cut and sugar your strawberries over night if you prefer. This recipe is also really flexible and you could probably do any kind of cake mix you wanted to or even do angel food cake. Also I am not really sure how many strawberries I used, I am guessing at 2 quarts but you could really do as many as you wanted.

 

Now no good blog post is complete without a good Lord of the Rings clip and this one happens to contain the inspiration for the name of the above dessert:

 

If Strawberries & Cream are good enough for Frodo and Sam they are good enough for me!

Happy Memorial Day to you all and I hope you get the chance to enjoy some Strawberries & Cream Trifle!

LOST- A few thoughts before the Finale

Well, the time has finally come, we are less than 24 hours away from the big series finale of Lost. I thought I would share a few thoughts before the Finale.

***Please note that this blog post is not intended to contain spoilers. I am going to talk about some of my favorite moments from Lost. So if you have never seen Lost before or if you have not seen every season or every episode AND you want to then you might consider this blog post to have spoilers!  You have been warned!****

As I have mentioned in a previous post I have been with Lost for every episode of this amazing 6 year run. I am extremely excited about tomorrow nights finale, but I am also a little sad.  I am going to miss a lot of these characters. Thus, it is time for a little reminiscing . . .

Favorite Characters

It is really tough for me to just pick one as it is impossible not to become vested in all the characters in some way, but there are a few I am always rooting for:

SAWYER- Who can truly resist Sawyer?! Looks aside he gets some of the best one liners on the show, and I absolutely love all the nick names! He can call me Freckles any day! I also like all the many different sides to his character his a tough guy/ con man but I think there is a actually a big softy hiding just beneath the surface.

HURLEY-  I just wanna hug Hurley, seriously I do! He has been in some of my favorite moments in the show. The unlikely hero that always comes through.

ROSE & BERNARD- My favorite love story on the show ( I think)! Just love them!

DESMOND- Where to even begin with Desmond,  his character and story line is so complicated. I always know when it is Desmond night something good and weird is going to happen, and I LOVE IT!!

Okay, I actually have a funny story to share about Desmond that is non-Lost related. A few years ago at the church we were attending at the time we watched a few exerts from the video The Gospel of John. None other that Desmond or Henry Ian Cusick as he is known to the acting world, played Jesus. Don’t believe me, check this out . . .

Naturally,  when  Desmond popped up on Sunday morning I almost lost it! Brings new meaning to “See ya in another life Brotha . .”

 

Favorite Moments

I have to many favorite moments to list from funny ones, sad ones, to OMG I can not believe that just happened. Here are a few of my favs:

As the Hatch Blows up John utters these words

You think John!?

Here is another great one where we learn that Bernard is not Rambo!

 

Sad but VERY Memorable one here . . .Not Penny’s Boat!

 

Another classic when Hurley beats up Sawyer . . .

 

How could we ever leave out The Constant

 

This is a long one but one of my favs! My favorite quote is a few minutes in on this clip, “Lets look death in the face and say whatever man!”

 

I am going to stop there because this truly could go on forever! Lost has so many wonderful moments!

I also wanted to share with all you devoted crazy  Losties a great place to get Lost paraphaellia. You know we are going to need some kind of t-shirt when this all over right?! Well, I found some really cool ones at CafePress. They have all things Lost here, it is truly great! I will personally be ordering the one that has all the nicknames that Sawyer used for people!

Thanks for indulging me in this little walk down Lost memory lane, and feel free to join me. I would love to hear from you about your favorite moment/scene/quote/character! Us Losties have got to stick together because after tomorrow night all we have left is each other and a bunch of DVD’s.

Lets get ready for the FINALE! I know it is going to be AWESOME!

PS- If it all turns out to be a dream I am coming through the TV, SERIOUSLY!!!!!

 

 

Whatever happened, happened . . .- Daniel Faraday

Guess who got a “Newer” Altima?

That’s right, I am sure you have guessed it . . .We did!!!

Now I just want to say I did not put out this blog post about our “new to us car” to brag, but just because I am so EXCITED!

The Nissan Altima and I have grown up together, this is actually my 3rd one and they just keep getting better. My previous car had begun to develop a few issues mostly due to its age and the number of miles I had put on it. So Nick and  I had been talking for several months about purchasing a newer car and after weeks of talking about it and searching on Auto Trader we finally found a great deal and decided to GO FOR IT! We drove to Gastonia, NC Saturday morning and after a few negations we left our old faithful but rough looking white Altima with them and drove away in this one. . .

Our new vehicle is a 2007 Nissan Altima and it only had 17,000 miles on it. I have never owned a car that was that low milage. It is FABULOUS!! The other thing I love about this car is the color it is called Pebble Beach Metallic or Taupey Beige (that is how I describe it). My last two Altima’s were white and while they were beautiful cars when they were clean but lets face it mine were rarely clean. Thus, it always looked like I drove dirty white cars. So this time I declared that I had to have a “Dirt Colored” car and I got one! Hopefully, it will look clean whether it is or not!

I do have to confess that I am now feeling a tiny bit sentimental about my old, white, scratched, beat up Altima being gone. I had bought that car a few weeks before Nick and I started dating in 2004 and ironically we got rid of it on our 6 Year Dating or Being together anniversary. That’s right Nick and I have been together since May 15th, 2004 and have had many great memories in that Old White Altima. That car took us to Myrtle Beach and back. It was with us on the long drive to Fort Lauderdale and back for our last cruise. It was even the car we drove off in when we got married.

There were also some bad memories in this car. The one that immediately comes to mind is the time when it was slick and I was driving a little too fast and did a terrifying 180 on Interstate 26. NOT FUN!!! Praise the Lord that no one was hurt and there was very little damage to the car. All in all, a lot of good times in that car. We may no longer have it but we will always have the memories.

Now it is time to make some new ones in our new and improved 2007 Altima. It may only have 17,000 miles on it now, but I am sure it will have ohhh so many more on it by the time we are ready for another new one.

For now I am focused on keeping it clean and in good condition, better condition than the last one! Naturally, it already has its first bird poop on the hood and yes we do have a gross picture of it . . .

That’s one stain even a dirt colored car could not hide!!! Despite this small stain, the new car is FABULOUS and we are praying for many safe and fun times with it!

Project Geranium & Happy Mother’s Day

Well, this week I began a new venture which I hope will be immensely successful- PROJECT GERANIUM. Now over the past couple of summers I have nurtured many plants to there death.  A fern, a pot of cat nip, some touch me nots, and I even killed my indoor palm tree. Now mostly I feel these plants did not make it due to a lack of watering . . .OOPS! Although I am not a natural at plant care, I do like plants and have become determined to keep one ALIVE!!! Thus, on the advice of my mother I have a purchased a geranium to care for this summer. She tells me they are a very hearty plant, which should be PERFECT for me.  As you can see from the picture above the plant is still very much alive and actually blooming. Confession I did just purchase it from Lowe’s on Wednesday! I would like to report that I am keeping the plant out front where it should get good sun and I have already watered it twice. I know we are early yet in the process,however; I am hopeful that this one will make through the summer. I will writing about Project Geranium as it progresses so check back here often! Who knows if this goes well we could progress to a Geranium and a Marigold next summer, but lets not get ahead of ourselves!

 

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

I did want to take a moment to wish my Mom a very big Happy Mother’s Day! Thanks so much for all you do for me! I appreciate all you do for me from shopping with me over the phone and at stores to playing Dr. Mom! You are THE BEST!!!!

Wishing all my other Momma friends out there a Happy Mother’s Day! Hope you had a good one!

The Little Things

Life can be complicated at times, especially in today’s fast paced world with iPads, Droids, and new technology.  Don’t get me wrong I think all the new stuff is great, but I think it does cause us all (my self included) to lose sight of simpler and smaller things.

This Saturday why weed eating and cleaning up the yard Nick picked me some little daisy looking flowers and left them on the counter as a surprise.

 

It was something little just to show he was thinking of me, and a sweet gesture that I truly appreciated :)

Big grand gestures are great, but the little things can make all the difference.

Here’s to hoping someone does something “little” for you this week!