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Seeing Orange

I think I have my dad to thank for my savings nerd gene. He loves putting money away in neat little piles and watching it grow. The older I get, the more I appreciate this gene. It makes things easy when savings is a really fun game to me. A while back, I blogged about Money Matters and soonafter, I started my love affair with ING Direct.

Their company philosophy is that “saving money should be as easy as getting a cup of coffee” and my experience thus far has been just that. Easy. Simple. Hassle-free. This is paticularly amazing since my browser CRASHED while I was setting up my account. A quick (and I do mean quick – less than 3 minutes) phone call assured me that my account info that I'd carefully entered was in tact and gave me access to my account.

Now I've got my accounts all set up, and I can put money in or take it out at the touch of a button and it gets to earn a tidy 3.4%. Continue reading “Seeing Orange”

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Pumpkin, Raisin and Ginger Cookies

from: somewhere on the web

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 apples – peeled, cored and chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 10 inch tube pan. Cover raisins with warm water, let soak for 10 minutes and then drain. Whisk together flour, spices, and salt. Set aside.

Cream together butter or margarine and sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Stir together soda and 1 tablespoon warm water, and mix into the sugar mixture. Stir in flour mixture, apples, and strained raisins until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake for approximately 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool in pan. Once cool, shake pan to loosen cake. Turn onto plate, and dust with confectioners’ sugar.

from: Pillsbury Bake-Off

Ingredients
1 (14-oz.) pkg. Pillsbury Pumpkin Quick Bread & Muffin Mix
1/2 cup cinnamon-covered raisins or plain raisins
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions
Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, combine quick bread mix, raisins and ginger; mix well. Add butter and egg; stir until dry particles are moistened. (Mixture may be crumbly.)

In small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon; mix well. Shape dough into 1 1/2-inch balls; roll in sugar-cinnamon mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake at 350°F. for 12 to 15 minutes or until cookies are set. Remove from cookie sheets.

Nutritional Info (1 cookie)
150 calories; 6g fat; 25mg cholesterol; 120 mg sodium; 23g carbs; 1g fiber; 15g sugar; 2g protein

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Ghouls and Ghosties


Well, we carved pumpkins, decked out the dog, made baked rigaboney (which was a bit disappointing), and watched Halloween. For the number of kids in our neighborhood, the trick-or-treater turnout was a bit on the slow side, but people appreciated the pumpkins, especially the two that Matt did (the house and the Snow White witch).

Hope your Halloween was just as fun as ours was … and you don't have a candy hang-over.

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Happy Halloween!


I hope all of you have a very happy halloween, full of cool costumes, scary movies, and of course, candy!

Matty and I will be celebrating with a scary movie, a TON of trick-or-treaters, and possibly a scary dinner.

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Money Matters!

I was surfing around on MSN (they have some of the most interesting and useful articles, I swear) when I came across this little gem. It's a lovely article about saving $$ on a shoestring budget, though I think the tips are applicable to just about everyone.

The article talks about little tricks, tips and techniques to use when you're trying to save. Like:
* spare change savings plans some banks are offering where they round up your purchase and deposit the change into a savings account (there's also a credit card out there that's putting a percentage in a high-yield account too).
* auto transferring funds each month, so you don't miss what's not there
* don't overpay taxes: reduce your witholding to the proper amount and deposit the savings – the government holds them and gives you NO interest
* bank your raise: put that extra 3% or 5% directly in savings as though you didn't get a raise at all

Anyhoo, thought I'd pass the wealth of knowledge along. We can all use a little more jingle in our pockets, I'm sure.

Two more links:
* Women in Red are bloggers helping women get out of debt and save
* Lifehacker has an entire section on personal finance Continue reading “Money Matters!”

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Books Galore

As part of my 101, I made the commitment to read 11 books I've never read before. It seems kinda silly, but this is a pretty big thing for me since when I fall in love with a book, I read it over and over … in fact, I have a select set of books that I read at least once a year (helps that I read pretty fast). I'm sort of chicken when it comes to trying new books. But I did it!! And I did more than 11. Continue reading “Books Galore”

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Off into the Sunset

On a whim, I decided to subscribe to Sunset. This magazine appeals to me greatly since it focuses on life in the West (PS: don't ever tell a Denverite that we live in the “midwest” … I've lived in the Midwest and Denver ain't it). That's great for us denizens of the Mile High City, since a lot of publications leave us high and dry (which is our natural state … if you've ever been here, you know what I mean).

It has sections on food, travel, home and garden all with a list towards the Western style, a more laid-back style than the east. I think it would appeal to lots of folks in the East and everywhere in between. Like their sister magazine, Cooking Light, they have a very nice online recipe database, however it can only be used by those who buy the magazine (there's a code in there somewhere).

Check it out!

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Frosty Morning

Well the ground was all frosty this morning as I drove to work. I could see my breath when I got out of the car to drop Loki off at Doggy Daycare. And now I'm sitting at my desk, still wearing my jacket, with my space-heater going full-blast. Everytime I have to move away from it, I get very very cold. Brrrrr…

If the calendar, the beautiful fall colors, and the new skin for Jesser weren't enough clues, FALL IS HERE!

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Yum!!

Last night we had my parents and sister over for dinner. It's feeling very fall around here, and so were we, so we made a very fall meal. We made a spinach salad with some cranberries and pine nuts and cucumbers (dressing of your choice), Pasta with Spicy Sausage and Mixed Wild Mushrooms and we had a little red wine. For dessert, we made the absolutely scrumptions Apple Spice Cake, which I found somewhere on the internet (All recipes, possibly??). Truly one of the yummiest desserts I've ever eaten. Very fall too…

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Apple Spice Cake

from: somewhere on the web

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 apples – peeled, cored and chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 10 inch tube pan. Cover raisins with warm water, let soak for 10 minutes and then drain. Whisk together flour, spices, and salt. Set aside.

Cream together butter or margarine and sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Stir together soda and 1 tablespoon warm water, and mix into the sugar mixture. Stir in flour mixture, apples, and strained raisins until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake for approximately 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool in pan. Once cool, shake pan to loosen cake. Turn onto plate, and dust with confectioners' sugar.