Tag Archives: UCONN Huskies

Change is good!!!

TRANSLATION OF PICTURE ABOVE: “Don’t forget to change your clocks ahead 1 hour!”             (May not be grammatically correct, but it gets the message across!)

Daylight savings time is upon us, meaning this weekend, we set our clocks ahead 1 hour.     Some folks are not happy losing the hour of sleep, but we’re looking forward to the extra hour of sunshine at the end of the day. We decided that change is a good theme for this week’s blog entry. Change can be difficult, but sometimes change can be fun! You can be creative by changing and adapting things. In honor of upcoming March Madness, we changed some UConn Huskies coasters into a banner! (What a surprise!) We also offer our recipe for Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers. It’s a quick and easy change-up of a classic recipe.

After this winter, the change we are most excited about is Spring! It’s just around the corner!

SPORTS BANNER FROM COASTERS

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We’ll make a banner out of anything! This time, we used a hole punch to string blue and white ribbons through these UCONN coasters, creating a simple and festive banner! Go Huskies!

DECONSTRUCTED STUFFED PEPPERS

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Kevin’s mom made great stuffed peppers. It was one of her go-to dinners. This one-pot meal brings to mind her classic stuffed peppers, but with a lot less work. It’s delicious and uses canned and frozen vegetables to good advantage.

Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 medium onion chopped, 1 lb. lean ground beef, one 16 oz. package frozen multicolored pepper strips, 2 cups cooked brown rice, 2 cups crushed tomatoes, one 10 oz. can diced tomatoes with chiles, 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder, 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce, 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, salt and pepper to taste.

In a skillet, saute onion in 1 tablespoon olive oil until soft, add ground beef and cook until browned. Drain excess fat. Defrost pepper strips in the microwave for 3 minutes; add to beef and onion mixture. Add both types of tomatoes, worcestershire sauce, garlic and oregano. Add rice and mix well. If mixture seems dry, moisten with low-sodium chicken stock or water. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Easy and tasty!

A FEW DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME FACTS (source cnn.com) : 

  • The idea for daylight savings time was conceived by Benjamin Frankin in 1784, to reduce the cost of candlelight.
  • About 70 countries around the world observe daylight savings time.
  • In the US, Hawaii and most of Arizona do not follow daylight savings time.

Remember what the Brady Bunch kids sang in their classic song :                                             “When it’s time to change, you’ve got to rearrange!”

Enjoy!

Roy & Kevin

 

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If we wanted to live in Minnesota, we would!!!

We are posting this blog watching yet another Sunday snow storm hit New England. There’s no way around it, this winter has been a challenge. The snow has made driving and parking more difficult, delayed and cancelled many events and caused all sorts of household problems. Personally, we are dealing with ongoing roof leaks in our apartment, and as managers of a storage facility, it has made our jobs much more difficult. A positive is that we are saving money on gym memberships. Chopping ice and shovelling snow are exercise enough! But, we are trying to be patient, looking forward to spring, and finding ways to enjoy ourselves now.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

One of the things we look forward to each year is March Madness. We are fans of the UCONN Huskies. Some of our UCONN gear is pictured below. Great win against SMU today guys!!!  Next up are the conference tournaments, the men’s and women’s selection shows and March Madness.

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IMG_2247GARDENING Last year, we had a great patio garden. We enjoyed planting flowers and had surprising success with our first attempt at growing container tomatoes, especially the cherry tomato varieties.

IMG_3320 (2)Here are a couple of pictures of our gardening efforts. The picture to the left is our patio last June. Picture below shows our tomato buckets. Loved it!! IMG_2408

 

The picture above is our patio today!!!  (We much prefer the other images of our patio!)

 

ENJOY NOW

We were thinking of ways to enjoy the winter. Some folks love this kind of weather and enjoy skiing and outdoor activities. We both broke our legs skiing – enough said!

A few Ideas for enjoying the winter:

COMFORT FOOD

Leek & Potato Soup: As a nod to our unfortunate roof leaks, we decided to make Leek & Potato Soup. It is a delicious and comforting meal. The link for Rachael Ray’s recipe is below.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.food.com%2Frecipe%2Frachael-rays-leek-and-potato-soup-197008&ei=vYvzVKbzIYy1ogSnk4LYDg&usg=AFQjCNGaeUWsNl3K55jKSy3UfuUSCoqgUQ&sig2=RHwNUjEwf3DZHrtY86H9vQ&bvm=bv.87269000,d.cGU

CREATE SOMETHING

Draw, paint, write, do crafts, make a banner!

GO TO THE LIBRARY

We are very fortunate to have a great local public library. This year, Roy is taking a class at the Warwick Public Library based on the book, The Artist Way, by Julia Cameron. He is enjoying it very much and it was free. (It’s a great book – highly recommended!) Check your local library websites, they have free or inexpensive classes, shows and discussions – and great books, of course!!!

STAY WARM – AND HOPEFUL

Daylight Savings Time is next weekend!

Roy and Kevin