Freecycle Friday

TGIF!! I don't know about you, but I am READY for this work week to be finished! We only have one doc in this morning, so the day is really dragging. But...the one who's here bought bagels. Nice!! And, some of the staff are heading over to his place after work for a little BBQ. It'll be nice to see my co-workers out of the office for a change.

On to the goods! Earlier this week I got a reply from somebody through Freecycle telling me they have a bunch of polish for me. *squee* We decided on a time and I went to pick up the goods. Let me tell you - this time around was much better than the first! The first experience netted me 3 polishes which I promptly put aside for my Zoya polish exchange package. There are a couple keepers in this batch! I got somewhere around 30 polishes. Take a look!! Oh, and BTW, the hubs and BFF think I'm crazy. LOL

The whole group - look at all my lovelies!

The Frenches, clears and whites - might use a couple of these

The reds! I love red, but I really don't have any in my collection. Now I do. :D

PINKS! I used to have some of the Revlon colors once upon a time. Kinda glad to have them back. And that little Este Lauder looks promising! It's a rose with enough gold shimmer to almost classify it as a duo.

Purples - The Avon color is OLD but I think the formula is still good. It's a pretty lilac with a blue shimmer. The Revlon, Purple Fusion, is UGLY. LOL

Everything else. This is a weird mishmash of colors. Glittery, frosty blue; pale blue; plain black; some weird frosty pale colors and an interesting burnt orange shimmer.

I'm definitely not promising a swatch of all of these - that would take me forever! But, when I do end up using these, I'll mention that it's from my Freecycle stash and link to this post.

Have you used Freecycle before? If you have, what have you gotten/given? I haven't given anything yet, but I'm scoping out my stuff to see what I can offer up.

Listening to: Never Gonna Let You Go by Sergio Mendes (I'm at work or I wouldn't be listening to this!)
Mood: Meh.

Yummy Chicken & some Freecycle love

Good evening, Kitchies!

This is one of my favorite chicken recipes. I made this for my parents during their visit in February and they loved it. All the garlic and Parmesan in this recipe makes it smell SOOO good in the house. Though it's really better to have this when it's cooler (takes a while to bake and who wants a hot house?!) but it sounded so yum, I decided to make it anyway. That, and my eternal slow 3-year-old eater doesn't usually turn his nose up at this one.

Oven Fried Parmesan Chicken

1 clove crushed garlic
1/4 pound butter, melted (1 stick)
1 cup dried bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 (4 lb) chicken, cut into pieces


Preheat oven to 350*.

In a shallow glass dish or bowl, combine the crushed garlic with the melted butter or margarine. In another small bowl mix together the bread crumbs, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Dip chicken pieces into garlic butter, then into crumb mixture to coat.



Place coated chicken pieces into a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Drizzle with remaining garlic butter and bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.

NOTES: I love garlic so I used about 1 1/2 cloves. No fresh parsley around? I use dried and it works just fine. I have never cut up a whole chicken in my life, and I wasn't about to try it the other night. I substituted 4 large boneless, skinless chicken breast halves instead of the whole fryer. This reheats well for leftovers.



I first hear about Freecycle through Getcha Nails Did. If you haven't heard about it, it's basically like Craig's List, but you don't pay for anything and you don't have to deal with the people one on one. Win, win. So, I thought I'd give it a shot. I posted WANT: Nail polish. Pretty. Ugly. New. Old. Doesn't matter. I've gotten two responses so far and was able to pick up the first group last night on the way home. I kept my expectations pretty low and it's a good thing because this first Freecycle swap was kinda a bust.

Left to right: Revlon Top Speed in Storm, Cutex Strong Nail in Crystal Clear and Vision Nail Lacqure in a nameless medium purple creme.

The only promising one in this trio is the Revlon Top Speed in Storm. It's a really pretty dusty lilac with darker purple shimmer. However, this polish has got to be at least a couple years (read: 5+) old and is really goopy. I might pick up some thinner to see if it's able to be salvaged, but I have a feeling it may beyond the "best when used by" date. The Cutex Strong Nail is your run-of-the-mill top coat. Plus it's SUPER thick. If you turn it on it's side, it takes 30 seconds to level out. Seriously. I counted. LOL And Vision Nail Lacquer in nameless purple creme is...well...nameless purple cremes are a dime a dozen and I already have a purple (or 3) in my expanding collection and this does not need to be another. But, with most dark clouds, this does have a potential silver lining. I now have 6 polishes I can trade in for Zoya's polish exchange program that runs through the end of June!

And don't forget! My follower numbers are growing and growing!! In the world of emoticons, that would make me colon and capital d. :D (Like my Big Bang Theory reference there?) You have until Thursday to enter the giveaway. Here's the LINK to that post. In the words of Apoo: Thank you! Come again!

Listening to: Come Original by 311
Mood: chilly