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CSN Stores: A Review

Ya'll may remember the CSN Giveaway that we had here on the blog not too long ago?
Do you remember?
I know AC does...she was the winner winner chicken dinner.

Well, the good people at CSN Stores contacted me again, this time to do a review. They gave me $30 to spend at any of their hundreds of online stores. Thankyouverymuch.

The great thing about CSN is that they have anything and everything from shoes and clothing to cookware to outdoor furniture. Their selection is huge. This, ultimately, was a little bit of a problem for me. With 30 extra doll-hairs in my pocket, I really wanted to just find something fun to buy. Unfortunately, I got overwhelmed with all the options, so I finally just bought something that I needed. You'll be just fine if you have any sort of decision making skills (which I don't).

I got a new iron.
Snooze-fest.

You might be interested in a new iron too, though, if yours was a disgusting mess of yuckiness like this one.

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Isn't that aweful? My poor little sewing students were having to use this iron on their sweet little projects. It was shameful.

After I made my decision to purchase a new iron, I was able to check out several different types and brands of irons and compare their costs and features on CSN's website, which allows you to look at details of several products at one time...so handy.

I finally made my purchase and I was wow-ed at how fast my new iron arrived.

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Thankfully, I no longer have to live with the shame of my gunky iron. Here, one of my sewing estudiantes, Mary Jane, demonstrates the wonders of the new iron.

Go check out CSN Stores. You'll be glad you did.
mel

Window Box Herb Garden 2011

Last year, we enjoyed our herb garden more than nearly anything else we planted.

This year, we decided that if a few herbs were good then more would certainly be better.
We need MORE basil! MORE parsley! More cilantro!
We are greedy herb-eaters.
 So we expanded.
Without further adieu, here is the Dark Family 2010 Herb Garden.

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First off, we have a little oregano...yummy in Italian dishes. The oregano shares a home with some chives that survived from last year. They braved the winter and lived to tell about it. [Insert Brittney Spears, "Stronger"]

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Chives have beautiful purple flowers that smell amazing!

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Living next door, we have parsley and cilantro which we grew from seeds in our greenhouse. They started out so teeny tiny...it's hard to believe how much they've grown.

(Also, if you look closely to the right of those plants, you can see where Jack has beat the H-E-double-hockey-sticks out of our newly painted deck railing by jumping up on it to bark at passing joggers and their pesky little dogs.)

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This is David's favorite. We have a whole planter box full of basil (that we also started from seeds). David asks me everyday if I think we are growing enough. He's extremely worried about the imminent threat of a basil shortage...as we all should be.

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And lastly here's the rosemary and thyme. The thyme is a new plant, but the rosemary is also a winter survivor. [Insert Beyonce's "Survivor"].

A lot of these herbs are still a little too small to use much, but we have high hopes that in a few weeks they'll be ready-for-the-cooking.

Here's a recipe that we've dipped into the herb garden for a few times this season already:

***Herbed Chicken***
Ingredients
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons minced shallots (I use onions)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
  • 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • Cooking spray
Combine olive oil, minced shallots, rosemary, thyme, and minced garlic in a zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken breast halves. Marinate in the refrigerator 2 hours. Remove chicken from bag; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brush the herb mixture evenly over chicken. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; cook for 6 minutes on each side or until done. (We cook ours on our outdoor grill and it is SO yummy!)

(Recipe from Cooking Light)

Do you have a herb garden? What are you growing?
mel

And We're Back...

Whew. I think my photo crisis is over. I hope so, anyway.
A lot of google research, a Flickr account, and 25 dollars later...all is well.
And on Flickr it says "pro" by my name, which makes me feel legit.
I missed you guys.
I didn't realize how much fun I was having sharing the monotony of our lives until I couldn't do it anymore.
Isn't that a country song?
If not, Nashville needs to get on that.
It'd be gold record material fo' shaw.

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Here's a little bit of what we've been up to:

We've been watching our garden grow. Our plants are all getting so big! I can't wait to show you how great the garden looks. You won't even recognize the little baby sprouts from my greenhouse.

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I've been watching "Toddlers and Tiaras" on Netflix. I can't stop myself. I'm thinking of getting a flipper, a spray tan, and a hair piece for Lady.
Please send help.

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We went to Fitzgerald to spend Easter with my family. I ate a shameful amount of strawberry shortcake. On Sunday, when we were walking out of the Easter church service, a cute little blonde teenage girl said my husband was cute and she wanted to marry him. I told her that she better back off my man or I'll meet her in the parking lot.
Don't you hate it when you have to be that way at church?

Just kidding. I told her she would be a lucky girl if she could marry a man as sweet as Dave and who wears bow ties and Harry Potter glasses.

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We watched the final episode of "24". I don't know what we're going to do now. I realize that this was a long time ago for most of you, but didn't watching Jack in the final scenes looking up at the drones make you feel like he was actually in his own version of "The Truman Show."

Can we talk about how great "The Truman Show" is? I love that movie.

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I just finished Cold Sassy Tree. It was so good. One of my all time favorites. Olive Ann Burns paints a perfect picture of the dynamics of a small southern town. I'm thinking about making a little list at the end of every month of the books I've read to help me keep up with what I read and to spread the word about awesome books. Whatchathinkaboutdat?

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David's track team won their state track meet. He's so proud of his little team. I'm proud of him. I'm also glad that track season is over so he can come home a little earlier in the day and have his Saturdays back. Way to go, Vikings!

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Last night, we went to the grocery store and bought a whole chicken so I can make this. I get nervous when I cook meat with bones in it. I think it stems from a childhood encounter with a pork chop that I'm still pretty shaken up about. I'm going to cross my fingers, give myself a pep talk, and hope for the best. I may even wear a black oxford shirt so I can best channel my inner Barefoot Contessa. Stay tuned...

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I'll be back tomorrow.
Pinkie Promise.
Melissa "Comeback" Dark

P.S. These pictures have nothing to do with this post...They're just randoms from our Spring Break trip.

P.S.S. Sometimes David calls me "Megz" for reasons that are unclear. It's endearing nonetheless.

P.S.S.S. Other times he calls me "Robo-Legz." I have no explanation for this phenomenon.

Spring Break North Carolina

Many apologies for my recent absence...not that anybody's crying over it or something.

Blogger is telling me that I have exceeded my picture limit, so I have to figure that out AND Facebook won't let me post blog updates because they say that they're spam.

I have a tendency to ignore problems rather than dealing with them.
Thus, the blog absence.
But now I'm facing my problems head on.
Maybe.
Anyway...

As I mentioned the other day, we recently returned from our Spring Break trip to North Carolina. We had the opportunity to stay at a family friend's house, so we headed North to get our hike on.

Check out my hiking boots. They're legit. Davester bought them for me when we got married.


It was so beautiful in North Carolina, but it was still very very cold.


We hiked to the top of Roan Mountain  in the foggy rain.


Most of the trail was in a stream bed...lucky I was wearing my hiking boots.


David is a super fast hiker. I was far behind him most of the time, but I was singing "This Land Was Made For You and Me" very loudly the whole time so he knew I was nearby.


"From the Blue Ridge Mountains,
To the Gulf Stream Wa-aa-ters...
This land was made for you and me!"

Everybody now!
Hit the harmony, Dave!


There was a lot of snow as we got closer and closer to the top.


And here we are on top of the mountain. Check out my hiking hat. It lets people (read: hipster hikers) know I'm serious.


Because above all else...I'm serious.



We had a great time hiking and the mountain was so beautiful, despite the weather. Then to make a good day, even better we saw this little fella on the way back to our house.


I break for miniature donkeys.
mel

SB 2011

Dear Ones,

We have just come off of Spring Break 2011, with ner-ry an airbrush t-shirt to show for it.

Yes, we get a Spring Break. David is a teacher and I'm a secretary-sewing teacher-substitute-at-large, so we can take a Spring Break. It's a luxury that we don't take for granted, but if you've ever been a teacher, you know that Spring Break is the breath of fresh air that is absolutely essential for continuing to be a gracious and loving presence in the classroom through the end of the year.

Amen.

(Mel beachin' it-circa 2007)

David and I are very different people, opposite in many little ways. It stands to reason that our definitions of "vacation" don't usually line up. When the opportunity to get away arises, David suggests a new and exciting adventure and I suggest going to lay on the beach. Honestly, it had never crossed my mind to do anything else on a vacation besides going to the beach, until I married the Dave.

We have made wonderfully accommodating compromises through the years. David typically picks a Spring Break trip and then we go to the beach in the summer as many times as possible for me to lay on the sand and eat seafood.

When we go on our Spring Break adventure, David is careful to include movies, antique stores, and interesting towns for me to enjoy and when we go the beach, we try to snorkel, surf, and ride bikes to keep Dave from slitting his wrists from boredom. I really like David's adventure trips and he loves the beach, but it's nice to try and find some middle ground so we both have an awesome-super-fun-time together.

Since we've been married, our past Spring Breaks included a week long hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail and a 200+ mile bicycle ride on the Natchez Trace.

I typically find myself training for Spring Break, but this year was a little more mellow.

I'll give you a hint as to where we went. We returned to the place where this notoriously overused sidebar picture was taken:


We had a great excursion.
We are glad to be back in our own house and in our own bed.
Full report comin' at ya. ASAP.

mel

Spring Green


"Happiness? The color of it must be Spring Green."
- Frances Mayes
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