Awesome Day!

It was an awesome day.  :)  This morning I got up early and picked up my friend Kristen and we went around to lots of yard sales that were happening in the housing developments in her neighborhood for a Community Yard Sale.  Unfortunately it was a really windy day and a hot day, which contributed to few people going out to shop and a lot of people giving up and putting their stuff away, so there weren't as many sales as we would have hoped.  But at least we have the rest of the summer too!  

Kristen and I did find some good stuff between the two of us, however, and had some good laughs about some of the people selling stuff.  First of all, it isn't really necessary to post a sign that says "Single clothing item - $1, Set of 2 clothing items - $2"...gee whiz, I had no idea that if you bought two shirts that were $1 each that it would add up to $2!  Please reserve such signs when you decide to offer a deal if you buy more; example: "Single clothing item - $1, Set of 2 clothing items - $1.50".  If not, it is only necessary to post a sign that says "$1 each".  The end.  Second, we aren't mind readers, so please don't give us incredulous stares when we think that a toy is for sale because it is among the other items for sale, but is in fact a toy not for sale that your child was playing with earlier and then left in the driveway.  Especially if none of your stuff is marked with tags.  And third: please don't make the situation even more cryptic by saying "my kid was just riding that around"...okaaaayyy?  Does that mean that the child was giving it a goodbye or is that your round-about way of saying that it isn't for sale?  Please be clear.  It makes things easier.  Thanks.

Anyway, Kristen found some cute coffee- themed items for her kitchen, some picture frames, and a lawn mower for her little boys to play with.  I found a simple metal wine rack that holds 4 wine bottles, some clothes for Johnny (some cool t-shirts and swim trunks with sharks on them for next summer), a pair of snow overalls size 4T, a toy vacuum cleaner for my son who is obsessed with my vacuum cleaner for only $1 (a steal!  but I was a tad bummed when later on I found a toy vacuum that looked identical to real Hoover vacuum), a little building set that has these little pieces that stack on each other, and an alligator costume that Johnny will be able to wear for a couple of years around the house to play.  All in all it was a successful yard sale day and I only spent $15 for all of the stuff!  I saw an awesome wood armoire for free that just needs a paint touch-up on the curb, but unfortunately I didn't have enough room in the Landcruiser to take it home and nowhere to paint it and refurbish.  It would have been awesome though. 

After Kristen and I exhausted a bunch of yard sales for a couple of hours, we decided to go and get some Starbucks together and had a wonderful adult conversation together for over an hour.  It was really nice to get to have some time with a friend and not have to worry about kids for once! :)  My husband was great enough to hang out with Johnny in the morning while I went out - apparently they spent it lounging in their underwear and watching Star Wars movies.  Typical boys!  I even found some caramel sauce at Starbucks today so we can make caramel lattes with John's espresso maker! :)  I am excited to get together with Kristen and some of my other friends in the near future for some more yard sales and conversation too.  I love yard sales! Next time, though, I'll remember to wear sunscreen.  I ended up getting a sunburn on the areas not covered by my t-shirt and shorts and flip-flops.  It is a whole lot easier to get sun burns here in Denver because we are at a higher elevation and have a lot of direct sunlight.  Plus, I am pale.  And burn easy. Ha!

Once I got home, I spent the afternoon with my two favorite boys.  We dropped by Old Navy real quick with the intention of getting some flip-flops for their $1 sale going on today, but by the time I got there the entire wall of flip-flops was picked clean.  It wasn't a total waste though, because I got a couple of cute patterned tank tops that were on sale for a few dollars each.  That is good because this summer is going to be so very hot!  We were going to take Johnny to EB Rains park after Old Navy but he was sound asleep in the car and he was drenched in sweat because it was sooooo hot outside that we made the decision to take him when it is a little cooler.  We opted for going home to our air conditioner and guzzling water.

This evening we watched The Fantastic Mr. Fox with Johnny.  It was good....really quirky and bizarre, but good.  It was faithful for the most part to the book by Roald Dahl, but the director took a lot of artistic and creative liberties.  A lot of famous people lent their voices to the characters in the movie - George Clooney was the voice of Mr. Fox.  It was stop-action too, which added to the bizarre artistic side of the movie.  I'm not sure I'll ever be able to watch it without thinking it is bizarre, but I liked it, if that makes any sense.  Johnny loved it though. He seemed mesmerized by it.  He really enjoyed his toys from the yard sale too (after mommy cleaned them, of course).

After the movie we made dinner.  We loved our copycat recipe of the Bruchi's cheesesteaks last week so much that we decided to do another copycat recipe of a favorite sandwich from Tomato Street - a local Italian restaurant back in Spokane.  This time we didn't have any help from anyone or any recipe to follow, so we had to come up with it on our own.  Surprisingly it tasted really close to the original!  The recipe was the Smashed Blackened Chicken Sandwiches (panini-style)!  They were delicious and we're happy that we were able to replicate another recipe that we miss from home. :)  Serve with a caesar salad and homemade breadsticks to get the full experience.

Smashed Blackened Chicken Sandwich (Copycat)

Chicken breast, thawed and cut into chunks

Cajun seasoning (we made our own homemade blend, but you can buy it too)

sun dried tomatoes (can easily make them at home, or buy them)

Mozzarella and Provolone cheese slices

Foccaccia bread

olive oil

1. Put a little oil in a skillet. 

2.  Place chicken chunks in the skillet and start to brown and cook.

3.  Part way through, pour cajun seasoning in and coat the chicken as evenly as possible.

4.  Cook the chicken until blackened.

5. Place cheese slices, sun dried tomatoes, and chicken on one bread slice.

6.  Put other slice of bread on top.  

7.  Brush outside of bread with a little olive oil.

8.  Put into panini grill (or you could smash the sandwich down in a skillet with a heavier skillet on top, but we used a panini grill) and heat up.

9.  Serve with salad and bread sticks.  Enjoy! 

The Verdict: tasted almost exactly like the kind at the restaurant - or at least as close as we're going to get!  It was delicious!!!  You can also make the dipping sauce they have at the restaurant to dip the panini into - a mixture of alfredo sauce & a bit of pesto.  Yum! :)   

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Now we're headed to read Roald Dahl books to Johnny - The BFG has always been my very favorite - and we're enjoying the rest of our very lovely evening before bed.  :)  I am so blessed to have such an amazing family and I'm so grateful to have had such a wonderful day with my friend and my little family.  I hope everyone else had a great day as well!