Greek Salad with Shrimp & Orzo

Here's a good healthy recipe to help stretch out the Summer season. (At least the feel of it, if we can't control the temperature.)  Such an easy recipe and it's pretty! Very healthy, too. It's delightfully fresh tasting, and such a pick-me-up.

8 oz orzo
8 T green onion, chopped
24 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced
1 lb shrimp
16 black olives, sliced
4 oz feta cheese

Dressing:
4 tsp lemon juice
8 tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/3 tsp oregano
6 tsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

1. Cook orzo according to package directions, then rinse in ice cold water to chill it.
2. Saute shrimp in a bit of EVOO (this is how Rachel Ray abbreviates it, and I'm going with it.)
3. Make dressing
4. Chop veggies
5. Toss all together

4 Servings

Sad and depressing

The other night I went out for dessert with some girlfriends from my neighborhood. (My friend Anne-Marie is 9.5 months pregnant; good excuse to celebrate)

And?

I ordered a white chocolate molten cake and ice cream JUST SO I COULD SMELL IT.

I didn't have one bite.

Letting go?

About 3 years ago, we got a Chihuahua puppy. The sweetest thing in the world, and we named him Dino ("dee-noh"). Dino was really therapeutic for me because in my go!-go!-go! world, he brought me back to the basics. Taking care of him as a puppy, making sure he was fed, clean, walked, etc helped ground me, and gave me an excuse to take a breather during my busy day. I appreciated that about him so much. I still do. But you know? Now three years have passed and I'm not sure I was cut out to be a dog owner anymore.

He's completely house trained and extremely obedient. But he's a Chihuahua, which means whenever someone knocks at the door, he barks his brains out until it's answered. And then when our guest comes inside, he's all over them, "hi! hi! hi! mynamesdinowhatsyours? hi! you're here! i'm here! we'rebothHERE-HIIIII!!!!! doyouloveme? ithinkiloveyoualready,so.hi!!!

And then there's the hair, that I'm so dang sick of rolling off my clothes before I leave the house every morning. And the fact that Carter thinks it's hilarious to drop his toy cars into Dino's water bowl, hang out inside his kennel, and occasionally have an afternoon snack at his food dish. AHHH! Drives me nuts.

But I feel so guilty about all this. I can't believe I'm even considering finding a new home for sweet Dino. Because three years ago, I committed to being a dog owner. You can't just decide later on that you're not interested anymore, can you? On the other hand, my sanity craves simplicity. And I wonder if he'd be happier in a home with other dogs and perhaps an actual yard to run around in.

If I go through with this, I'll only accept one million dollars as payment OR zero dollars. And if it's zero dollars, there will be a strict interview process. I've already considered many of the points I will go over. And when they take him away I will stand on the porch and bawl like a five year old losing her best fwend.

But something tells me I'll wake up a week later relieved and validated.

Am I horrible?

Please either talk me out of it or give me permission.

Welcome to my new blog!

I am the biggest dork on the face of the planet to spend my free time this weekend on a new blog. But it's something I've been wanting to do for quite a while. Not only because the name of my old blog was like a bad tattoo (didn't think that one through too much, did I? I liked it for about five minutes, and lived with it for 3 years), but also because I wanted to slurp all my blogs together in one place. I snagged up the url of my namesake forever ago but was hesitant to make it my blog because, well, despite being a little cheesy, I wondered if people would think it's a little egotistical. But you know, I've put all that past me now.

So before you freak and try to tell me this doesn't even resemble the look of a blog, let me explain. The whole change-o-presto tabbed section at the top? Those are my posts, they're just categorized. That means if you don't care about my silly aspiration to be able to take a pretty picture one day, hate to cook, or could care less about Photoshop techniques and artsy finds, well then you don't have to bother yourself with those subjects and just stick to the first tab. Each tab displays my most recent post in each category.

Below the tabbed area we have two columns: "Kennalyn Recommends" and my blogroll. The recommendations are not ads. These are products or services I've personally tried, received or seen and I think they're just fabulous. So I'm sharing the love. They'll change from time to time, but you'll always be able to see the entire list.

So there you have it! A virtual tour of my virtual blog. And I even have a new post up in every category. A small feast to end the famine, if you will.

Free Advertising Giveaway!

Hi!

I have some space I need to fill on my sidebar! I plan for these areas to be FREE ADS for now. Free ads for blogs, companies, products, etsy stores and the like. And let me tell you, this ad space is in extremely high demand, as this blog receives about eighty to one hundred entire unique visitors every single day. Well, at least it did when it was at ShrekLovesFiona.blogspot.com, and I'm assuming all those readers will very soon update their bookmarks, but can you believe that crazy, band-width busting statistic?! I'm practically famous. I'm practically Marth Stewart, people. No. Oprah.

So to kick off Kennalyn.com (I still feel a little funny saying/typing 'kennalyn.com', kinda like I did with my new last name for a few weeks after getting married), I'm giving away the following:

One 250x250 ad (you need to design it yourself) (although if you absolutely can't and you are really, really nice to me, I suppose I could whip one up for you) (actually, I'd love to, but just.this.once!)

Two 250x88 ads (same rules apply regarding button design)

Your button will appear on Kennalyn.com for one entire month. That's approximately 3000 impressions. If everyone updates their bookmarks. Oh, and if everyone didn't go away while I was on blog-hiatus (it so far seems like you've all stayed, thank heaven!)

So to enter, leave a comment telling me about what your ad would be for (your blog... your store... your online dating profile?) and also a link to the site your ad would promote. If you have more than one blog/shop/company/product, please enter them all separately, and they'll receive a separate entry. After I rule out any inappropriate entries (you wouldn't do that, would you?) I will choose a winner using Random.org.

You have until Wednesday, September 20th to enter! I chose that date because 1) It gives people time to realize that I indeed still exist and to update their bookmark. 2) That gives the winners several days to send me their button so it can go live October 1st. 3) That's my sister's birthday, and she's a crazy punk.

On your mark, get set, go!

I heart bathrooms

Since I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do is walk through a brand new, freshly & uniquely decorated model home. I love the feeling I get in that emptiness, where there's no evidence of anyone actually living there, and I'm a complete sucker for beautiful interior design.

My two favorite rooms (decor wise) are the kitchen and the bathroom. My bathrooms have plain white walls and a simple rug thrown on the floor. Mainly because I'm too chicken to commit to anything else because I haven't found the perfect expression of me in bathroom decor. But these bathrooms make me want to drive myself to The Home Depot right this instant:











For many more bathrooms and photo credits, visit this post by The Inspired Room

Masochism and Snickerdoodles With a Twist

I'm not quite sure what got into me today. I've been on a diet "lifestyle change" for quite a while now and my commitment is still fairly solid. For the most part, I've only been eating fresh fruits and veggies, and plain grilled chicken breast or fish, and man! I've missed cooking!

So today I got a hankerin' to make cookies. Not to eat cookies, to make them. Because I enjoy torturing myself like that.

Snickerdoodles With a Twist:

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar plus 2 extra tbsp for later
2 eggs
2 1/5 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
4 tbsp finely ground toffee bar (no chocolate) or caramel sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 farenheit. Blend together the first 3 ingredients. Sift the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Combine flour and egg mixtures. Stick the entire thing in the fridge until it's chilly throughout. Combine 2 tbsp sugar with the cinnamon. Form chilled dough into 1 inch balls, then roll in cinnamon-sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Now for the twist:


Use a fingertip to dip a small hole into the top of each cookie. You don't want to squish it, you just want to leave the smallest dent, to keep the topping from rolling out. Now drop a pinch of your ground up toffee or caramel into each fingerprint.

Bake for 10 minute or until just starting to turn golden.

Then, be a good girl and refrain from even licking a piece of dough, because you made these cookies for the sake of making them, and not so you could enjoy them with everyone else once they were done.

He's already grunting for more and he still has at least 2 bites left on that thing.

Mariah

Mariah was super busy texting on her cell phone during my brother's wedding, so I had to give her a hard time about it. When I was in 8th grade, my parents laughed in my face when I asked for a cell phone. But now it seems everyone has one by the end of jr. high. Can you believe she's only in 8th grade?



I've known her since she was probably two years old.



She's a sassy goofball.



And now she's growing into a beautiful young woman.