Hardwood Floor Cleaner Rave...

Our whole upstairs is hardwood floors. God Bless the previous owners of this house. They knocked down walls and ripped up this terrible cobalt blue carpeting that covered our, now, living room and dining room area. I love hardwoods floors. The pet hair forms tumbleweeds that are easy to sweep up, messes don't sink in, and they give the rooms a nice polished look. The hardwoods are in our kitchen as well, which has proven to be more of a challenge.

I've tried so many products to clean them. I started with my regular ole all purpose cleaner, Mr. Clean. It left them dull and they barely looked clean. I took a trip to my local Walmart to buy some Pledge hardwood floor cleaner. Hey, Pledge should know their wood products since that's what the cleaner is designed for. But, it didn't cut it. I went through some Old English hardwood floor cleaner and then tried my new go-to all purpose cleaner, Mrs. Meyers. All either left a tacky residue, didn't do anything, or left a film.

While visiting my dad and step-mother, they mentioned a product they found, that was environmentally friendly and they were very pleased with. They introduced me to BONA. I, honestly, had never heard of this cleaner. I looked for it at Target, Walmart, and my local grocery stores. Mr. Allan found it at Home Depot and my parents buy it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (don't forget your 20% off coupons!!)

We gave it a whirl yesterday and I am impressed. I vacuumed all our floors and got down on my hand and knees with the spray bottle. I used a rag to wash the floors, but apparently there's a whole polishing kit swiffer like tool that goes with it.

This left the floors clean, polished looked and no residue behind. Sorry Mrs. Meyers, I'm normally a fan, but Bona is better! There's also a hard wood floor polish. After washing the floors, I haven't gone down the polish road yet..mostly because my cats were interested in what I was doing and all over me.....so Bona polish reviews in the near future!

Here's more info and a coupon (ughh...I hate to pay full price where there's a coupon floating around...next time!)

http://www.mybonahome.com/home.html

There are no words....

for how smoking hot Jon Hamm is.

My new favorite salsa

I love salsa. I wasn't always a tomato lover, but there's something about a really nice fresh tasting salsa that I LOVE! Not to mention--salsa is a great snack...low calorie and healthy...just watch what you dip in it!

My new favorite salsa....

It's Sisters Salsa. This is a company based out of Blue Hill, ME. I find my Sister's Salsa at my local Whole Foods. They have a mild and this is my favorite...the Twice the Spice. It's perfect for those of you that might not like it hot hot hot, but like a tiny bit of spice!

check out their cool website...

http://www.salsafy.com/index.html

It's fresh, tasty and I feel like I'm eating homemade salsa when I polish off a container, yes, I sometimes eat the whole container. I guess I rationalize that it's better than polishing off a bag of salt and vinegar chips!!!

Here are my two favorite chips to dip in Sisters Salsa...I try and eat food that doesn't have a lot of preservatives, isn't processed too heavily, and doesn't have a million ingredients.

My sister, Heidi, the Whole Foods guru, turned me onto these. I like them because they're all natural and have 4 ingredients. Does that mean I can eat the bag, absolutely not. It just means I'm choosing a healthier chip and still need to watch the portion sizes...so just pile alot of salsa on your Tortilla Strips.

and...Tostitos gets a shout out too...I do like their all natural Blue Tortilla Chips. One downfall--they're a little flimsy if you're doing some heavy dipping!

Bring on Earl

We're bracing for Hurricane Earl. Previously a catergory 4, he's downsized down to a 2. They're predicting heavy winds and rain Friday evening into early Saturday morning. My co worker is getting married tomorrow! Boo Early...get your butt out of here!

The lawn furniture is tied down, the pool toys were brought in, my hanging flower baskets are in the shed, my  deck flower boxes are underneath and I ran to Walmart and fought the crazies to buy some candles. We're about 15 minutes from the coast of RI, yet we live in a woody area. Somehow I'm thinking this isn't the best mix for heavy winds, surf, and rain. I have alot of shows on my DVR to catch up on, so we better not lose electricity...not to mention the whole well water...we lose power, we can't flush toilets or use our faucets...fun Friday night in store for us!

Quick Summer Dinner

The garden is dying down and I have more cherry tomatoes than I know what to do with. Everyone that has walked through our front door goes home with some.

Mr. Allan has been battling the flu this weekend and I needed a quick easy dinner with ingredients that were on hand.

Cherry Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil Pasta

1 lb pasta of your choice ( I used whole wheat spaghetti)
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved
fresh mozzarella, diced
handful of fresh basil, sliced thinly
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Boil water for pasta. Salt water generously and cook pasta according to directions.

While pasta is cooking, halve all tomatoes and dice the mozzarella. (My local grocery store makes fresh mozzarella and sells it in a small clump. This worked well since the fresh mozzarella keeps it shape. If you use shredded mozzarella, you'll likely have a melty mess!)

Rinse basil. Roll basil and thinly slice.

Once pasta is done, drain and reserve 1/2 cup or so of pasta water. Mix pasta, water, tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. Add approxiamtely 2-3 TBSP of oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

This was a great, quick, summertime meal!

Easy Sweets

I needed a quick easy home baked good. My boss passed on a recipe for Blondies to me when I first started working with her. It's simple, easy, doesn't have a ton of ingredients and usually gets rave reviews. You don't feel guilty making something out of box, as this recipe is super simple for a great baked good made from scratch!

Anne's Blondies

(Note- I always double this recipe!)

Preheat oven to 350

1/4 cup of unsalted butter (melted)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Melt butter in the microwave for 30 seconds. Mix melted butter and brown sugar together. Let mixture cool and sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Once butter/sugar is cool, add in egg and vanilla. Slowly mix in dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips.

Grease or spray a 9 by 13 pan (spray well!!). smooth mixture into pan (just a note--it's a pretty thin layer --don't be worried!)

Bake for 25-27 minutes. Just be careful not to overbake. I did once and the large amount of brown sugar makes these like bricks if you overbake them! I blame it on our old crappy oven in our beloved Newport apt!)

Once these puppies are cool, I run a butter knife or spatula along the edges of the pan and shake it out onto a cutting board.

So easy, most of these ingredients I have in the pantry at all times and a crowd pleaser!

Favorite Product of the Week....

I've been a hair funk for the past 6 months. After I got married, I went for the post wedding chop. I was blessed with this strange very curly in the back and bone straight up front thick hair. I can't go without washing it for a day or else I get weird curly hair along my hairline. I also can't go without drying it. I resemble the Ogilve perm girl who stuck her finger in a socket

If you don't know what Ogilvie is...you obviously weren't a child of the 80's

But...after the post wedding chop, I embraced my shorter locks but knew Mr. Allan preferred them long. After the newness of the cut wore off, I missed having long hair to toss about and it was way easier to do yoga poses with my hair in a pony tail vs. flapping in my face. It's been the great grow out for the past 5 months of so. Finally my do can be pulled back. However, I've been struggling with shampoo and conditioner choices. I was a big fan of Trader Joe's Citrus Shampoo. For $3 a bottle, it did the job. However, some bottles are good, others not. I may sound a little crazy..but sometimes it conditions beautifully, other times, I'm stuck with a snarly mess.

I then switched to Kiss my Face. I love that it's an all natural product, but I went through the conditioner at warp speed. I would use one bottle of shampoo in the time I used two bottles of conditioner. I know you're probably saying..hey genius, buy an extra bottle of conditioner...but Target is always out of it, obviously someone's having the same issue as me.

So....my product of the week is my new favorite shampoo and conditioner- Bumble and Bumble. It's pricey, but a nice treat I like to indulge in. It conditions well, has a clean feel to it and makes my hair soft. I want to dry and straighten my hair when I use this. This product makes it worth my while. A pet peeve of mine is going out with wet hair or just shoving your hair in a pony tail while wet. Have I done it? Yes. Is there an exception once in a while. Yes. But, it just makes me feel so unkept, like I wasn't worth the 20 minutes in the morning to make myself look nice.

My Target PSA....right now they're selling a twin pack of Shampoo and a twin pack of Conditioner...so it's basically buy one get one free!