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Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Purchases, Trips & Cooking - First Things First edition

Hello there ladies, on this slightly dreary Tuesday morning. It's cold and rainy here, and I'm super tired today. Not the best start to my day. But I just gotta suck it up and move on of course. I'm going to tell myself that today WILL be a good day, and then I'll make it a good day. Simple as that, right?! Anyways, today is week five of our First Things First link up with my girl Hallie at Life: Oceanside, so let's get this going! Shall we?! This weeks topics are:

First major purchase on your own, First trip out of the country, First thing I learned to cook



First major purchase of my own
My current laptop! My parents bought me one right before I went away to college in August 2006, and that baby got me through a lot during those four years. My mama got me a pretty, pink polka-dotted skin for her, and I named her Lucy the Laptop. (I like alliterations  remember?!) But then she started to wear down, and she definitely needed to be replaced. So in January 2011, I bought myself a new one! Seems weird that it was two years ago now, because I still consider it to be brand new sometimes. I went all out and got the best I could get (well, the best besides a Mac...) and upgraded her with all the bells and whistles I could afford. I couldn't bear to part with my original Lucy (she still sits in my room, unused in fact), and so my new one is also name Lucy as well!

First trip out of the country
For my high school graduation present, my Mama and I went on a cruise to the Bahamas! We went on Royal Caribbean, to their little private island and to Nassau. It was so much fun with just the two of us, and it was an amazing present for graduation. We went shopping and played bingo, and took a random scrapbook class on the boat one day. We went swimming, a lot, we went to fun shows and games and watched karaoke. We did as much as we could, and enjoyed every minute of that cruise! You can see a whole ton of pictures from it back HERE when I did my Throwback Thursdays to all-things-high school a while back, and here is a collage of just a few :)


First thing I learned to cook
I'm actually not too sure on this one, but I'm going to go with something like pasta salad. And here are a few reasons why I think that: 1.) My mama makes excellent pasta salad, and it's one of my favorite things she makes. 2.) It's one of the easiest things to make. Even for a silly teenager like I was! 3.) Hello, it's pasta. And in case you're wondering, here's a quick 'recipe' for the way me and my Mama make our yummy pasta salad.

Boil 'short' pasta of your choice. We like using tri-colored rotini. (That's the 3 colors of spiral noodles)
Dice up veggies: red & green bell pepper, vidalia onion, black or green olives...
I also add in a can of chick peas (garbanzo beans), and sometimes some pepperoni or cheese cubes. Depends how I'm feeling that day...
Then toss it all together with the pasta, in about half a bottle of Creamy Poppy seed salad dressing and add some salt and pepper to your liking.

What's great about this 'recipe,' is that you can change it up and make it however you really like it. You can add in different or new veggies and things, or make it super plain and simple with just noodles and dressing. Other veggie options could be: yellow banana peppers, cucumber, grape tomatoes, broccoli or corn. And you can add in whatever seasonings or spices  you like! Basically, it can be a kitchen-sink kind of pasta salad, but I guarantee it'll be delicious!

So now, go write your own post on this week's topics, and then come back here to link up with me and Hallie!  And if you'd like to prepare for next week, the topics are:
1. First broken heart
2. First thing you do when you wake up in the morning
3. First high school dance or prom (talk about date, dress, whatever, and share pictures too!)

And share this on Twitter to spread the word, and make sure to put our button on your post as well please!


First Things First


10 comments:

The Remodeled Life said...

You have such a cute blog! New follower via the GFC blog hop! I love Florida! We have vacationed there several times - my husband and I always say if we ever move out of NC - FL is the place we want to go!

Cramer Coffee and Jesus said...

So will this be every week? I'm totally linking up next week! by the way, cold and rainy days are my fav! how funny that they're my favorite and they make most people tired. haha. I'm wide awake during those days...windows open and coffee in hand! ha

gayle said...

Computer, that's a good one! I did buy a desktop computer for myself my senior year of college, but then the house kind of trumped it. :) I actually kind of consider everything more than $200 a MAJOR purchase, but that's just me!!

xoxo,
Gayle | Grace for Gayle

Anonymous said...

Now I am craving pasta - even though I just ate some.

Unknown said...

I name my computers too! I currently have a little pink netbook named Carol :) I've been to Nassau too! It was beautiful. How nice that you went with just your mom. You have some great pictures of the trip!

Postcards from Rachel said...

I would love to go to the Bahamas someday! I think we'll try to when we're living in FL.

And I'm pretty sure my mom taught me how to make her pasta salad in high school. :)

Megan said...

I wouldn't have wanted to get rid of that laptop either. I mean pink and polka dots? Only the best color and pattern combination ever!!

Ashley said...

I love pasta salad!

Lori Carey said...

Pasta salad - yum! I make a similar pasta, but instead of poppy seed dressing, we use a bottle of Ken's Three Cheese Italian. The key is to let it sit for awhile in the fridge to firm up the dressing a bit. It's so much better as "leftovers". It's also good to eat if you hadn't cooled the noodles completely..

hmm, not i"m contemplating a trip to the grocery store.

The cruise looks fun! I've always wanted to go on one!

Anonymous said...

thanks for sharing

Hope to see more snaps related to Gourmet tour

http://www.spaintaste.com/gourmet-catalonia/