A Babbling Brook in Italy!!

OK, so my niece, Brook, is living in Italy.  She is amazing at writing emails that really give us a good idea of what life is like there for her.  She has coined several phrases while there, like "inch of coffee" as that is all you can get at one time, LOL.  I will let you discover some of the others.  I am going to post a few gems from her last email.  This girl really needs to write a blog!!

Greetings from Hotter than HECK Italy!!  Wowsa is it hot!! How these people do it in summertime is beyond me..I've been informed that our little summer town swells 3 times it's size when it's summertime and when September hits all of these people will GO HOME!! A girl can only dream..Just to put things in perspective, off peak season it takes me 15 minutes to drive my hubby to work, today it took me an hour to get there and another hour to get home.  As I sat in traffic getting more and more angry at the scooters (who always have the right of way) are whizzing past me with people holding such things as, GMA, flotation devices (blown up to full capacity)and little kids and you should see when a whole family gets on one!  They turn 2 lane roads (country roads mind you) into 4 lanes with the scooters and other vehicles that just get behind the scooters and follow them through the lights.  The cops are just sitting at the side street cafe's drinking their inches of coffee and just laughing at the whole mess. I also sat their thinking that this crazy driving is nothing new to them, they are used to it and no one really gets angry at those who skip in line.  I know if we were in America road rage would be in full effect and someone would have gotten shot or at LEAST a finger gesture would have been offered!!  I also found out that Mario Andretti who drives the formula one car for Italy is really just a guy from Italy who drives like the rest of them because they all drive like him !!

Well, this past Monday I dragged my girlfriend Deanna shopping with me and I see this junk store just begging to be pillaged!! Of course Deanna, like any good friend says "I'm staying in the car while you try to talk to them that way SOMEONE can identify who killed you by trying this stupid stunt" ..I wasn't deterred, that dilapidated building with it's huge fence around it and overgrown tree's wouldn't stop me from seeing the goodies on the inside!! So once I passed the hookers, yes I said hookers..lol..I parked the car in the dirt, left Miss Pris in the car and made my way up to the gate where I promptly forgot all of the Italian I know and just went with the yellow lab language!!  which is composed of me just waving and smiling and looking stupid while yelling Americano, hellllooooooooooo!!! not knowing what the other was saying, Finally the only Italian that came to mind was DEMIJOHN??? and he said yes and pulled a small one down wrapped in a perfect little basket, Then I asked, quanta costa (very pleased with myself that i remember that!!) of course he came back with at least 4 sentences, so i just handed him a pen and a piece of paper and he wrote the price down ..I remembered from watching American Pickers your suppose to buy something to "break the ice" so i agreed and he let me look through the rest of his little treasure chest!! He had some of the nicest things but I had to go so I think I told him I would be back?? and he kindly walked me to the gate and showed me the buzzer for next time!!ahahahahaha..Deanne become upset when she saw what I got but was insistent we come back when the car wasn't loaded down and She must have felt like they weren't going to kill us. If I keep remembering the little things like this when I'm sitting in traffic then it makes living here so much more enjoyable! It really is a nice place but it seems that all the good stuff is hidden behind overgrown trees and fences, Lydia my next door neighbor is in the middle of painting one of our demijohns and I had asked her to paint the coliseum so far it looks wonderful. She is also going to paint some other scenes on other demijohns for me. Ciao for now!

Smoothies, OH Yeah!

I love a good smoothie!  I love experimenting with flavors and seeing what I can "hide" in a smoothie.  This morning I had a banana fig smoothie.  I love figs and bananas and wasn't sure how it would work.  I have a stash of figs frozen in the freezer from this years crop.  I usually put chocolate syrup in my banana smoothie and don't get me wrong, it tastes great, but today I decided to try it without the syrup.  I took a scoop and a half of whey protein, a cup of 2% milk, 1 banana and 5 frozen figs plus ice, of course.  DELISH! I TELL YA!!  I can't really taste the figs but I know the nutrition is there.  I didn't need to add sweetener, the over-ripe banana was just right along with the vanilla protein powder. 

OK so a few other smoothie recipes are:

My family's absolute favorite, Watermelon Smoothie:

about 2 cups of watermelon and ice, literally that is it!
If you find that the watermelon isn't as sweet as it should be, add a little stevia or honey or even real sugar, this is so good you will want it daily.
 I got the idea from a restaurant in China Town in Boston.  They have it on the menu and it is amazing.  I believe they use a watermelon syrup, the real thing is even better. 

Linda makes fabulous breakfast smoothies.  She hides kale in then and other greens.
Yes the smoothies are green but the taste, OMG, try pineapple, berries, bananas, apples, carrots, almost anything you can think of.  These smoothies are super Delicious!

I also love apple & celery smoothie.  I add about 2 apples and 1 large stock of celery.  You will be surprised at how good that is.

Please feel free to share some of your yummy smoothie creations with us!  We enjoy trying new things and would love to hear from you!

Fresh Fig Preserves, mmm mmm!

 For years my Aunt Dot has had a fig tree in her back yard.  I've never seen anyone eating the figs or using them for anything.  This year when the figs started popping out all over the tree, I started picking them.  Some I froze by cutting in half, placing on a cookie sheet and putting them in the freezer.  Once frozen I placed them in freezer bags and use them for smoothies.

Aunt Dot and the rest of my family as well as some friends enjoyed eating fresh figs.  We all ate our fill and they were delicious.  But, I wanted to do something with them so I searched the internet and found several recipes.  I decided to try to make preserves.  Most of the recipes were similar.  So here is mine:

I cleaned and sliced the figs.

I used about 3 cups of figs
3/4 cup of Sugar about a table spoon of lemon juice and just a dash of cinnamon. 

I then simmered the all the ingredients together until the figs were soft and the juice thickened about 30 minutes.  Yes, literally that is all it took!!  Let me tell you, that was some goooood jam!  I took a jar to work for some of my coworkers and they were begging for more, even offering to buy it from me.  I was amazed!

My Aunt Bee made buttermilk biscuits to go with the figs and ooooooooooh my was that good!!

I am always looking for ways to use figs, so if any of you out there has any ideas, I would love to hear them.  I have two freezer bags full of figs just waiting for the right recipe.

When I use the frozen figs for smoothies, I use them in place of ice and I mix plain Greek yogurt, frozen figs, vanilla whey protein and a little Stevia to sweeten.  Yummy Yum!  I also mix them in with other fruit smoothies and love the extra nutrition. 

Let's save some kitties!!

Saw this on Facebook.  Please share with all your friends!  Just think, for every cat you spay or neuter, you save so many others from homelessness, neglect, hunger and the never ending circle of unwanted feral cats.

http://www.foundanimals.org/cash-for-cats

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Where are all the Freebies?

For many years now I have been searching the web for all the free stuff I can find.  I have an email dedicated to free stuff, I subscribe to freebie blogs and websites.  I get at least 50 emails a day to my free stuff account.  I LOVE getting FREE STUFF!!
My best score to date has been a pair of sneakers, completely free, not a prize and no shipping costs.  That was about ten years ago and since then I've gotten my fair share of samples, coupons and free books and magazines.  But I find that the really big scores ( like sneakers)  just aren't out there anymore, unless you want to sign up for 40 different deals and give out your credit card number, social security number, first born and your grandparent's homestead title!  


So I am pondering, via this blog post, how to streamline my searching and increase the quality of the free stuff I find.  I thought, at first that some of the websites I joined would do that for me and in some cases they do consolidate the good stuff and offer real information about them prior to having to sell a kidney to get something.  


I am asking for feedback here folks.  I would love to hear if anyone else out there is confused and overwhelmed by the plethora of information and offers out there.  Do you know of any great sites we can follow to help streamline the process?


Some sites I have found for samples are : getitfree.us, shopforfreebies.com, womanfreebies.com


Sites for earning points towards free stuff: Swag Bucks is great, I've gotten Whole Living & Martha Stewart Living from there so far.   My Points is also a good one for earning points for things.
Now if you want cold hard cash or gift cards, try inboxdollars.com.  I got a check for $32 bucks, but beware, I had to read a lot of emails that pay five cents each and the more things you sign up for the more money you earn.  


If you want to earn money for good causes, freerice.com is a word game that sends rice to the United Nations World Food Program.


Ok folks, I'm anxious to hear about your internet finds.  Thank you and have a fun,frugal,free stuff day!!

Up-Cycling at its best!

Linda and her husband Eric are always coming up with great ideas for up cycling stuff that Eric finds in his travels about town.  Eric, being an engineer can always turn Linda's visions into reality.  I am regularly amazed at what they are able to come up with.  This latest up-cycle is really cool.  Who would have thunk it?!?!?!

Eric found a set of drums and this is what they did.

So they sanded down the paint to uncover the wood and Linda stained it.  Eric found the table top also and added it, but the coolest part, it raises up and they can store stuff in it.  They also put casters on it so they can move it around easily.

This is a really cool up-cycle!!  Way to go Linda & Eric.  Keep em comin!