Well, it's over.

I was all excited to post a contest - I thought that maybe the people who read my blog but didn't "follow" it (cause I know you're out there) would "follow" and that maybe a few new faces would appear. And a few more followers did come in, but... only ONE PERSON entered the contest!!!?!?!? 

Now, I LOVE her, and I MISS her dearly, but seriously - ONLY ONE!? 

Well... 

any of you out there who were thinking about it but thought my goal of 30 followers was too high and so "didn't bother"  

HA!

Fidelio my dear, I'm going to be needing that address.... :-P

 As an aside, while I didn't get 30 followers, I DID say I might be generous. Right HERE. So no complainin! :-P

If you've decided that you want your OWN set of memory cards, or that now you're sad you didn't enter... you'll just have to visit my Etsy Shop and request one or you can just be nice and leave a comment on my blog somewhere :)

CONGRATS MY FRIEND!!

-Betsy

Soulvaki... AKA, Chicken Gyros

I had 2 cucumbers from the garden that were almost at the "overripe" state... and we don't eat THAT many cucumbers (which is why I grew them... I hate buying them and throwing half away... growing them and throwing half away I'm much more comforable with) so I decided that I needed to make Tzatziki Sauce... which means gyros - but I didn't have any lamb around, so we had Soulvaki instead :)

Boy was this yummy - and way easier than I had expected. Lettuce, tomato, peppers, a little shallot, feta, grilled marinated chicken and Tzatziki on a pita. Heaven and even potentially a "quick meal" if you do a little prep ahead of time!

Tzatziki:
1/2 cup grated cucumber (I food-processed mine to save my fingers and cause I'm lazy.)
1/2 cup strained greek yogurt (I just put mine in from the container that said "strained" but it ended up being soupy... don't know if that's right, the cucumbers, or if I was supposed to drain the yogurt again...)
1 garlic clove (I used a rasp to mush mine in)
1 tbsp Lemon Juice (mine was from a bottle)
1/4 tsp salt
**combine, eat. Keeps in fridge for a week

Soulvaki
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves minced garlic (SOOO yummy!)
1.5 tsp fresh oregano or 1/2 tsp dried
1/2 tsp salt
**marinate chicken for 30 minutes, flipping once. I cubed the chicken and put it on skewers... you could use chicken fingers and just throw them on the grill, or use a grill pan too.

"Gyro" - Gyros are basically Lamb with Tzatziki on a pita. Anything else you add is considered a condiment. Soulvaki is the "chicken version" of a gyro.

-Betsy

Venting Space

I need a little venting space this morning so I can go be Christian.

I love my hubby, he did NOTHING wrong today, however... it's Life I'm mildly perturbed with at the moment. See, hubby doesn't always go to work at the same time in the morning. Sometimes it's 4am (yuck) and sometimes it's 10am (yay!) and sometimes, he wakes up, and decides he's gonna take another 1/2 hr or hr of sleep... just because? I dunno, I don't ask at 6:30 in the morning. And it's not important enough to wonder about later.  So last night, I decided I needed to get my sleep schedule back on track, so I was setting my alarm for 7am. 1/2 hour after hubby NORMALLY gets up to leave for work. So what happens? I take my Clariton last night, and at 12:30 in the morning, remember the "may cause sleeplessness" warning that had me taking it in the morning. Crap. Oh well, can't go back in time, I'll just wait it out. Well, at around 2, I finally got tired. And at some point, hubby decided he wasn't going to wake up until 7:30am... so when my alarm went off at 7, and I hit snooze, someone was there to give me a hug... and again at 7:09, so I asked "when are you getting up?" Response: "half hour." So I think... I'm gonna really annoy him if I let my alarm go off 4 more times before he gets up... I'll turn it off.  Meanwhile, my iPod had it's volume turned off last night so I wouldn't wake up hubby while I was poking at it waiting to get sleepy. So NO ALARMS for Betsy. 8:45, my "not enough water, wrong amount of sleep" headache is keeping my eyes closed and I realize that in 15 minutes, I'm supposed to be leaving the house to work the Thrift Shop. So I write this LONG status on Facebook, and realize that it's not enough venting for me (I'm always being accused of festering, when in reality it just takes me longer to vent, and if you let me finish it all goes away - if you stop me in the middle, I need to start over later) so I'm taking the extra 10 minutes and writing here. SO THERE!

So why is it, Life, that on the days I set my alarm, hubby sleeps in late, and the days I don't, he goes in to work on-time and I sleep late??

Off to be Christian with a Special K Protein Shake for breakfast, sore from yesterday's weight lifting session and run, with a "not enough water/sleep/something" headache.

Thank you for letting me vent.
I do not apologize for the length of this post. hahaha :)


-Betsy

Anyone out there holding contests?

I was approached by a giveaway search site in regards to registering my giveaway... since it's over in 2 days... I'm not going to partake, HOWEVER, I thought I'd promo their little shindig, so that anyone who DOES have a giveaway and might want to partake... can :)

The site is called Giveaway Scout dot com and although I'm not sure I'll be registering MY giveaway, I might start searching through it for those fabulous giveaways that I might want to enter... it categorizes the giveaways people register by type and then lists them... over 400 pages worth of them... somewhere around 7000 giveaways. I'm dumbfounded.

Anyway... if you're interested...

-Betsy

Treasuries!

 I had one of my new photos displayed in an Etsy Treasury today - check it (and all the other stuff) out HERE

I was in another treasury earlier this month HERE

And I was featured on a Facebook Page HERE

My CONTEST is still running for a few more days too.

-Betsy

Yay for table saws :-P

Made by us!

He used the power tools (most of them) and I was in charge of finishing. 

Nice, right? :-P

-Betsy

Dinner Tonight

This is what happens when you suddenly realize you have a bajillion cherry tomatoes from your garden, a HUGE bush of basil and a nice little bit of fresh oregano!

And I ate it all forgetting the picture of the noodles tossed in. :-P mmmmmm... yummy!!

-Betsy

New Series - Beaches

First of all, I find it amusing that I've posted so much after saying I'm only going to when I feel like it, lol, but I did get a new series of photos up - all beaches - on Etsy. So I figured I should put it up here too :-P

I grew weary making ACEO's, so at the risk of losing out on sales, I removed all "one click" ACEO's from the shop - it's all standard-size photos or greeting cards now. :-P

These are a sampling... there are a bunch more!

today's harvest

Which may soon become

Quiet Time

Been kinda quiet around here, and to be honest, feelin a little bummed that NO ONE has entered my contest. Maybe I was a bit too ambitious in the 30 followers... but NO entries? No one's even gonna TRY?!?  2 new followers since posting the contest though. I probably SHOULD keep posting, but I'm not really feeling it all that much - not feelin the love. So here marks my official departure from the three-day-a-week posts. Sorry ya'll. Officially posting when I feel like it from here on out ;). Now, the contest is still on... so feel free to post a comment and enter and invite friends to follow... rules still apply (but maybe I'll be generous... you'll have to enter to find out :-P)

What's for dinner? Empanadas!

But I didn't like the dough recipe :(  The filling was great though! 1/2 lb ground beef, cooked, 1/2 small onion, 1/2 tsp cumin and 1/2 can of beans, 4 oz shredded cheddar cheese. Easy to double ;)

Lame post today, I know.  We haven't been eating that fabulously around here lately, lol.

Contest is still open! No entries yet - but we're halfway to the follower count (ish)!