Campbells Select Harvest Maryland Style Crab Soup

It's fine if you put some crab in it. photographed the entire investigation buyt my card reader isn't... reading.. at the moment.

Basically, the picture on the label shows white slivers of crabmeat, floating throughout the soup and stuck to the veggies. The reality, however, is that in the entire can there was less than 2T of crabmeat. I am assuming that it was crabmeat, it wasn't white and slivvery, like you'd expect crabmeat to be. It was brown and rubbery and chunky. Like the boullion didn't dissolve or something. Those chunks didn't taste like crab either.

So this soup was a complete disappointment. Until I added some imatation krab. That's better than nothing. Never better than real Maryland Blue Crab, but way yummier than those nasty brown chunks of whatever the hell Campbells is trying to pass off as crabmeat.

Cooking Secrets from Me

The secret to making Annie's organic macaroni and cheese taste yummy in spite of the fact that the sauce is different from the Kraft stuff is to add only butter. Use half a stick of butter and no milk. Ignore the directions, be a rebel. It's tasty stuff.

Make grilled cheese with PAM. I know I've shared this before, I might even have posted a picture of it. The fact is, it works and you can even use spray olive oil or vegetable oil. Sure, butter is yummy but it's a bit on the greasy side.

Make breakfast from scratch every day because it's healthier and delicious and cheaper than using boxed cereal. My friend Emily makes crock pot oatmeal using steel cut or whole oats (not rolled oats) molasses or honey and raisins. YYUUUMMM

Fondant Cake

I've been experimenting with Fondant. Here is the first one I made
And this one was just a leftover slice of cake that I decorated

And this was supposed to be something else, I'm not even saying what it was supposed to be because The future of the free world depends on me not admitting that I am such a terrible fondant artist. No offense, sir.

Rose Petal Tea

This is one of my favorite Summertime Recipes.
1- go outside and pull all the petals off of your roses. Not the beautiful ones; the ones that you should probably cut off but can't bear to just yet because they still look good from far away.

2- put them in a strainer and rinse them with cold water

3-put them into a 1 gallon pitcher and add 1/2 cup sugar

4- pour 1/2 gallon of hot water over the petals and allow to steep for 10-15 minutes

5- pour it all through a strainer again to catch the leaves. if you're having trouble with little floaties, use a coffee filter to catch them.

6- fill the pitcher the rest of the way full with ice and stir until the ice is almost melted.

See if anyone can guess what flavor it is.

BONUS- add a few sprigs of mint to the petals, yummm

My Pot Roast

Saving a fortune with this whole coupon thing, but honestly I haven't cooked too much. here's what we had for Dinner tonight

Pot Roast- I seered the roast with an entire onion, sliced- caramellized and then slow-roasted it all until the meat just fell apart. Shredded it up and used it with boxed stroganoff mix instead of ground beef.

Tomorrow at lunch I'll be mixing it with some hot sauce and making burritos for lunch. Hmmm- I could do a homemade BBQ sauce, too for loose meat sandwiches. Oh I love Beef, so Why am I thinking about the macrobiotic diet?

Thanks, Nichole- you rock!

I've been chronicling my coupon adventures (or lack of adventure) here on this blog, but I do realize that so far this story (which isn't over yet) doesn't have anything to do with food. Except the milk.

So- my friend Nichole calls me this morning because she knows I am a failure at the couponing game, and she tells me about this Walgreens deal. You buy 4 suave products (buy one get one half off) and the register prints a $6 instant rebate. The shampoo is $5 so you make $1. Fine if you do it once, but even finer if you do it several times. So I did it twice today and I'm going back later tonight to do it again. The $6 won't be discounted if your purchase isn't $6 so when you go back through it's not like you get the $1 back, you have to make a purchase bringing your total up to $6 So I got milk. Total out-of-pocket $7.74 Total gained so far- one $6 rebate coupon, and 1 gallon of milk and 8 suave products. I'm going back for more. AND- I'm bringing my coupons. This ends Saturday I think she said- and it only works onthe bottom shelf suave, I got tangerine, ocean breeze & coconut. With 6 daughters, I go through a lot of shampoo. Thanks, Nichole- I will be saving some Hershey's Bliss for you:-)

Hershey's Bliss. Thanks, so much!

I'm having a Hershey's Bliss House Party soon. not soone neough. Hersheys (bless their chocolate-loving souls) sent me like 9 huge bags of hershey's bliss chocolate (3 dark chocolate, 3 milk chocolate and 3 with meltaway centers) to distribute at this party. Plus, a bunch of purple pens (I love purple) and grocery lists, fridge magnets, cocktail napkins and gift bags. Do you have any idea how hard it's going to be waiting until the party to gobble them up. And then sharing, I have to give these away? My friends are lucky people. And So far the dark chocolate are my favorite.