An American Hero

God Bless You and Your Family

The Cost of Freedom

Last weekend, the Santa Clarita Valley received a reminder of the cost of freedom. PFC Rudy Acosta—a child of Santa Clarita, born and raised here—laid down his life for our freedom. A sacrifice of this magnitude can be little understood. Only a brave few have an understanding of or willingness to undertake such a sacrifice. PFC Acosta was one of those.

Kids Bowl Free

Register Here Select bowling centers and schools around the country are participating in the first ever Kids Bowl Free program. This program is designed by bowling centers to give back to the community and provide a safe, secure, and fun way for kids to spend time this summer. Children whose age does not exceed a limit by a participating bowling center are eligible to register for 2 free games a day, all summer long, courtesy of the participating bowling centers along with the schools and organizations.

Romano's Macaroni Grill Bread Recipe

I love Macaroni Grill mostly for their bread. It is not very often that I go there. Maybe, once a year to celebrate a birthday or an anniversary. My strategy - to eat a half a loaf of delicious bread and leave some room for dinner. Then, eat the rest of my dinner for a lunch that I would actually look forward to eating.

You don't need to spend money to eat at Macaroni Grill to have their delicious bread. You can make it at home and have it whenever you want! Be careful. Eat everything in moderation. Slice and dip in olive oil and cracked pepper. Yum-O! Here's the recipe which I give credit to Jo Lager for posting it on allrecipes.com.

Jo's Rosemary Bread

Ingredients

1 cup water

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

1 tablespoon dried rosemary

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select white bread cycle. Press Start

$5 for $10 Donation to Japan Earthquake & Pacific Tsunami Fund

Due to Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent after shocks, Japan is suffering from what its prime minister is calling the "worst crisis since WWII." The country's northern coast has been totally devastated, leaving the land and the people in ruins. Just like you, we here at LivingSocial want to lend a hand, so we are going to match your donations. For each $5 donation through this offer, we will also donate $5 to the American Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by this tragedy, and hope that by merging our efforts with yours and working directly with the American Red Cross, we can help with immediate aid and long-term recovery plans in Japan.

Happy St. Patrick's Day - Eating Green

I'm trying to come up with some green meals, well actually a dinner to help celebrate St. Patty's day and make it a little fun for the girls. So far, we had Lucky Charms for breakfast. No wait, we had the frugal Lucky Charms version - Magic Stars. Tastes and looks about the same.

Lunch, I didn't pack anything special but green grapes.

I am part Irish and my mom used to serve the traditional St. Patty's dinner of corned beef and cabbage. Yuck!! That just made me dread the holiday. So here's MY plan for a green dinner. For my husband and I, I'm planning to have a 3 cheese ravioli dinner with pesto, green salad with broccoli and maybe cucumber if I have it. I also made some bread that tastes just like the one they serve at Romanos Macaroni Grill. It is YUM-O! I'll post the recipe another time. I'm looking forward to eating that the most. It really has nothing to do with green. Although it does have green rosemary inside. So, I guess that counts. I was just craving to eat it with the pasta dinner.

I'm stuck on dinner for the girls. They will not eat pesto, the green part of the dinner. Maybe, pasta mixed with green food coloring. Haven't tried it; so I'll see how it turns out.

For dessert, I might take advantage of the Free green ice cream at Chick-Fil-A.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Free Green Ice Cream @ Chick- Fil -A Valencia

Baskin-Robbins Mini Parfait Giveaway - 3/16/11

Score FREE Mini Soft Serve Parfaits Wednesday 3/16/11 and Friday 3/18/11. Check out their Facebook Page. They already had a giveaway today which sold out in seconds to the first 50 people who clicked on their link and entered an email address. Good Luck!