Simple Girl

It's the weekend. Can I just go ahead and shout out a Woo-Hoo?  It's not that I'm celebrating the passing of time, it's that I'm celebrating the survival of time! Here's how my week panned out. Monday .  Before the dawn had barely broken, I was forced to face two of my irrational fears:  Running out of gas, and getting stuck in a car wash.  From the first fear, I was delivered.  My prayers to heaven were answered as I coasted into a gas station after realizing that, at some point during my shuttling of four kids to a seemingly endless number of places, my empty light had turned on.  Whoever designed a car who's only reaction to an empty tank is the illumination of a teeny tiny pinpoint of light was obviously not a mother of school aged children who rarely has time to squeeze in a pedicure, let along keep the gas tank full.  I might not have been so worried except that, guiltily, I have run out of gas before - exactly 200 yards before ...

Yesterday was my birthday and my husband, who always seems to have a way of surprising me, managed to stop at the Hallmark store with his co-worker on the way to meet me for lunch.  Before I had even made much of a dent in the guacamole which I had ordered for myself, two big guys walked through the door with cards AND gifts in hand. Now, for the record, I am not complaining that one of the gift bags happened to resemble the kind of bag that one receives for free when one purchases a gift at a Hallmark store.  I was sincerely touched by the gesture. My husband's card was quite funny and, since many of you have husbands, I thought I would share it with you here! From my Husband: The TOP 10 Things I Don't Say Often Enough: I hate to miss the game, but this floor could use a good scrubbing. Why don't you buy a nice new pair of shoes to go with that outfit? Let's rent a romantic movie.  If I see one more car chase, I'm gonna hurl! Yeah, I'm pretty t...

I'm not always good at remembering people's birthdays - unless they share a birthday with me! My friend, Tina,  shares my birthDAY(today!), but not my birthYEAR. My friend, Tina, has probably never even heard of the song "Muskrat Love" and I'm pretty sure she never called into a radio station and won movie tickets to the original screening of "Grease". While I went to High school during the Big Hair era, my friend Tina was just getting the training wheels off of her first bike. It's amazing that we can still be friends.  But we  are  friends because Tina herself is amazing. One is instantly drawn to her charismatic personality and her sweet southern Alabamian drawl. Her self deprecating humor keeps us in stitches as she manages to reign in a slew of Type A moms during a PTF meeting or direct our focus to a higher calling during our weekly Bible Study. To show my appreciation of this busy mom of three boys, I made her these portable "...

When procrastination pays off, it doesn't incite me to change.  Case in point - The Post Office.  On a normal day, our local busy suburban post office boasts a line of 7 or 8 people deep at any given time.  So on April 17th at 1PM,  when I was finally ready to mail my taxes, I allowed a good hour for the errand.  Everyone knows most people procrastinate when it comes to their taxes.  It's a job that no human being really enjoys doing.  I mean, who really wants to read through pages and pages of documents putting numbers into tiny squares?  And even if your accountant does it for you, who really enjoys giving their money to the government?  Things we enjoy, we do right away.  Things we don't enjoy, we procrastinate. So imagine my surprise when I arrived at the Post Office on April 17th, camp chair in hand, only to find a mere ONE PERSON in line ahead of me!  Was I in the right place?  Had I somehow experienced time tr...

These beautiful upside-down cakes were the latest baking assignment for the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club!  What I've really come to love about this baking club is learning a variety of techniques in palatable, cupcake-sized bites! No cupcake liners are used in this recipe, just a greasing of butter and a dusting of cocoa powder "flour".  Now when the directions say butter, do not try to take a shortcut and spray the tins with cooking spray.  Once you dust the tins with cocoa powder, you will end up with a gooey, chocolate-y mess.  Trust me on this one.  Properly prepared tins should look like the one above. This chocolate spice cake calls for molasses.  After reading a couple of online reviews, I reduced the amount of molasses to 1/3 cup and increased the brown sugar to 1 cup.  I also added vanilla, because vanilla just makes everything taste better!  Before adding the molasses to the batter, I added combined it with the hot wat...

We never really ate deviled eggs when I was growing up.  This could have been in part because my one grandma passed down a freaky high cholesterol gene to almost everyone in her path.  Eggs were evil.  They were only used for the occasional baking project and the annual Easter egg dyeing.  My other grandma had a phobia of anything containing mayonnaise - especially if it involved a picnic or potluck.  Where mayonnaise resided, salmonella surely lurked.  I know.  It's a miracle I turned out at all. Down South, deviled eggs are brought to every occasion - Birthdays .... Thanksgiving ..... Halloween ..... Bunco...... Seriously.  They're a staple. I love this version because they're colorful and look fancy enough to serve to guests no matter where you live!  And new research shows that an occasional egg is not going to kill you.  It may actually be good for your heart! Deviled Ham and Eggs By Rachel @ Simple Gir...