Omelet's in a Bag

Last week at my Weight Watchers Meeting someone mentioned how to make easy omelets... in a ziploc bag! This was a new one for me! But how easy could that be!!!

SO we figured that we would give it a try today.

The directions are simple...

1. "scramble" your eggs in a bowl well, just as if you do when making an omelet.

2. Pour eggs into ziploc bag.

3. add your choice of "fillings".

4. Seal bag and place in pot of boiling water.

5. Boil for 13 minutes

Your omelet will steam itself right in the bag and slide out easily! No butter or oil needed

This morning I used spinach, portabello mushrooms, tomato and leftover hash brown potatoes. Once my omelet was cooked, I topped it with some cheese. It was perfect!

This would be the perfect way to make omelets wen you are camping. Have a bunch of omelets to make when you have company? Set up a omelet bar, everyone gets to put their own toppings in the bag with their eggs and all the bags get thrown in the same pot! What could be easier!!

It will probably take you longer to make all the toast for your guests that it does to make the omelets!Breakfast is served!

New Years Eve - Welcome 2009

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Originally uploaded by FuzzyKryton

Once again, we had some friends over for New Years Eve. Why go out and deal with how is out for the evening! We would much rather have a nice evening at home with friends! This year, in addition to the usual gang (Beth, Chad and Dan), Bill (a co-worker) and his wife Sarah joined us, and then Nicole (another co-worker) also stopped by for a while.

It was definitely an interesting evening! There was no shortage of food, as I once again, went overboard on the food! BBQ Meatballs, homemade chicken strips with various dipping sauces, the usual chips, dips and cracker, plus a HUGE variety of John's homemade chocolates!

With the chocolates, it was really hard to say which ones were the biggest hit... Bill and Sarah loved the chocolate coated coffee beans, but Beth and Chad... not so much! On the other hand there was only 1 of the s'mores left (marshmallows dipped in chocolate and then rolled in graham cracker crumbs), a larger amount of turtles were gone, I think ALL of the homemade peanut better Twix were gone as well as about half of the dipped potato chips! Needless to say, there was not a shortage of chocolate!

There was also not a shortage of beverage... one would think that we drink all the time with the variety of alcohol in our cupboard. We just have varying tastes and have started a grand collection of flavors. Some bottles we bought just to try a specific drink and then it sat there. So we were on a mission to maybe have some of those almost empty bottles become empty. As a way to make it easier to decide what to drink. John pulled everything out of the cupboard and turned the counter into a bar - it was a well stocked bar! I never realized just how much was up in the cupboard until it was all taken down! I think we need to use what we have before we buy anymore!!

The entertainment for the evening once again centered around Wii... upstairs it was a variety of games including Raving Rabbids, Redneck Jamboree, Bowling and more. The basement however had been turned into a rock concert as RockBand got a great workout!

Beth and Nicole had their own laughs playing pinball and pool. At first Beth was very confused as to why the 8 ball was white instead of black. That was, until I told her that was the set of pool balls that glowed under the black light. So that brought a whole new dimension to the game! Nicole even brought out the "Yooper Cue" - made out of a long stick with all the bark shaved off! Straightness was not high on the detail list when this cue was made - controlling your shot is a bit difficult!

Of course the highlight of the evening was the countdown to midnight... I was just really glad that I did not pass out the noise makers until right before midnight! From 11:53 until at least 12:05, it was a constant stream of noise from the party horns! I don't think the cats came out of hiding until morning!

The only drawback to having a NYE party at your house is the clean-up that you get to wake up to in the morning! What a great way to start off the new year... cleaning and dishes. But of course, we had to have fun with that! John pulled out the ice shot glasses that he had made for the occasion and figured that they would make a great subject for some photo's... Yeah, I know, big surprise there... John taking pictures of weird things! But I have to admit, they turned out really cool!

Surprisingly enough, even with all the food that we had the night before, there was not a lot of leftovers!

To see a full presentation of the photo's from the evening, go here

Adventures in food

When a new restaurant in town opens it's doors, you can't help but be curious. The curiosity got the best of us when Gali, a Puerto Rican restaurant opened up not too far from us. I was really excited to see this as I had recently found out that the Paradise Palms Cafe that I was wanting to go back to had closed! No more Jamaican cuisine just around the corner... but now I have Puerto Rican. This could be a good thing!

Since John isn't much for trying new restaurant, Darrin and I decided that it was up to us to go check it out. That would give us the chance to see if it was something that John would enjoy. So it was Gali night! We met up with Bill and Sarah there tonight for dinner!

The restaurant itself is a small place with only about 7-8 tables and a coffee bar. It is also the home of a small bookstore in the back - a great combination! Plus for Internet lovers, Gali's also offers WiFi for it's customers!

I was somewhat surprised at the relatively short menu! There were 6 different appetizers, 6 main entrees, 3-4 sandwiches and the typical American fare of burgers. Then there was the daily special.

Darrin and Sarah both opted for the Pasteles, which they both agreed were "ok" not a lot of flavor and a very small serving - they each got ONE Pastele... that would normally be a snack for Darrin! Bill was very please with his Mofongo - it was a HUGE portion that he knew he would never eat all of! I was also very please with my choice. And for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was called. All I remember was that it was the special for the day. It was plantains, ground beef and other ingredients all put together in the same style as a lasagna, then topped with cheese. It was also served with a side of rice. YUMMY! It was just a unique combination that I had never tried before but was very tasty! I just wish that was on the regular menu!

The more time I have plantains in my food, the more I realize that I really like them! They give such a unique flavor to any dish and I have had them prepared in so many different ways that it is always exciting!

All in all we were pleased with our adventure this evening... yes we will go back, some of us will definitely order different entrees! Trying new things means opening yourself up for a few disappointments, but we learn from those disappointments and work around them!

Wine, Shopping, Food and Grape Stomping

Every Fall, they gather from miles around for a stomping good time in Algoma. It is the Wet Whistle Wine Festival at the Von Stiehl Winery. This was the first year that we were able to actually make it to the festival... always too many other things going on!

We arrived just as they were getting the first round of grape stomping underway! What could be more fun than stomping on a barrel of grapes while the crowd cheers on! Everyone had their own method and style to getting the job done. In the end, it was not about how many grapes you stomped and how much juice you got, it was all about the response from the crowd! So I guess it is best of you bring a LARGE cheering section with you!!

And you cant have wine without food! From Chili to cheese, smoked salmon to brats, they had it all! The artisan bread was super too. We met up with Elle and Ellen from the Meet-up Group that we are part of - Food, Fun and Friendship. What a great afternoon! We sampled a few wines that we found to be wonderful and bought a bottle to share as we strolled the festival grounds, listening to the live music and watching the fun.

No trip to the Wine festival is complete without a stop at the actual Winery, just a few blocks from the festival grounds. For those that do not want to walk the few blocks, they have the Wine Train available for you to ride... so why walk when you can ride! At the winery we got to sample even more wine - many that they did not have at the festival, as will as purchase wine to take home.

So of course we had to buy some! But we had to bring that wine back to the car before heading back in to the festival, as no carry-in's were allowed. Cool thing... they had a golf cart that you could ride back to your car to drop off your purchases! WooHoo! Unfortunately, there was no way that 4 adults and Darrin were going to fit on the one golf cart... so we let Elle and Ellen ride with Darrin and John and I walked back. Apparently Elle and Ellen has some issues with staying ON the back of the golf cart....

Another afternoon of great fun and friends! For the complete set of pictures from today's adventures, head to our Flickr site!

Another Monday... Gotta Love 'em

Why does the weekend never seem to last long enough? But at least this was a fun one! Maybe that's why it went by so quickly!

Friday night we went with the Cub Scouts to the Gambler's Game. I don't' mind the events like this because the parents usually stick around (unlike the other pack events where parents come, drop the kids off and leave. Meaning that those of us parents that do stay are usually trying to keep at least some sort of order!). Even though the Gamblers lost the game, we all still had a lot of fun! One of the dad's was selected to take part in the 3rd period Trivia Contest. If he answer just ONE questions correctly, he would be invited back in March for the finals. The question that he ended up with was "In the 1991 NMU played the Championship Game against which Boston School?" I KNEW the correct answer because I remember breaking my toes watching that game at my Uncle's house! I yelled up to him that the answer was D - Boston University. But apparently hecould not hear me over everyone else that was yelling that it was A - Boston College. So he went with A. Oh well. At least he did win a $10 gift certificate for Marty's Boston Crab Restaurant!

Saturday by lunchtime, the snow started falling. We were forecasted to get 4-8 inches of snow by midnight Saturday and a total of 8-10 by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around. It was nice light, fully snow that was falling so shoveling it in the afternoon was not too bad - 10 minutes and the entire driveway was done! By evening, we had some nice accumulation, but that did not stop us from going out for the evening. We had plans to go with Chad and Beth out to dinner and then to Slap Happy at Comedy City. Driving there was oh so fun! Thank goodness for 4-wheel drive! None of the roads were plowed until we were about 2 miles from the Club! Due to the snow, we opted to have dinner at the restaurant kitty-corner from the comedy club. None of us had even been there before, but we will definitely go back again! There was basically no one else in the place (go figure - the weather was bad and no one was out to eat!)! The Martini's were super (drink special of the night) and the food was good too. Great company makes any meal even better. I forgot how much I enjoy getting together with Chad and Beth. We had some great fun just hanging out like we use to do all the time!

After dinner we tromped through the piles of snow to head across the street... there was not a lot of people at the club! Granted we ended up getting there before the early Improv show even started, so people were still arriving. By the time the show started, the theater was almost full - not sure how busy the Improv show was, but Everyone made it to see Slap Happy! Another great show! Now, this was actually the 2nd time that I was seeing the show. I went Thanksgiving weekend with the rest of the family - John ended up getting sick so he didn't go with us. I told him that I would pay to see the show again! So we did! Just as good the 2nd time! We have never been disappointed with any of the stage shows there. (they write all of their own shows). We stuck around for the "late show" - they were having a Miller and Mike Show afterwards (Miller and Mike are Professional Clowns that use to work with Ringling Brothers!) So we stuck around for that too... definitely worth the time and $$!!! John and Darrin have seen some of there shows before but I never had. They are great! Ever seen anyone blow bubble by dipping their hands (wearing rubber gloves) into a bucket of bubble solution, then blowing through their fingers etc? Yup, it works!

We drove home laughing so hard that it kinda made you forget about the wintery weather that we were dealing with! At least by that time it had stopped snowing and the plows were able to catch up! The only roads that were not plowed was the backroads going to our house!

Sunday was another quiet day around the house - got some Christmas cards done, most of the rest of the holiday decorating and some baking done. Never did get to the grocery store... guess I better to that today!