September 11 Twin Towers

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It's time again!  What time?  Time to get your creative thinking caps (or chef hats) on, because the 44th Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off is here!  The deadline for recipe submissions is April 20, 2009, so you've got over 90 days to come up with a brilliant original recipe.  The categories this time are Breakfast and Brunches, Entertaining Appetizers, Dinner Made Easy and Sweet Treats.  Be sure to check out the web site for all the rules.

$1 million cookie!

The $1 million winning recipe in the last contest was the Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookie submitted by Carolyn Gurtz from Maryland.

Last time, 2 years ago, SisMama and I entered the contest with a few original recipes of our own, and although neither of us made the finals, it was great fun!  It was the first time either of us had entered, so this time we should have a little better idea of how the contest works and how the recipes need to be submitted.  Hopefully we learned a little from the experience, and will do better this year.  SisMama and all you cooks and bakers out there…start your ovens!  Don't be intimidated by the number of entries the contest will get or by the enormity of this competition.  Someone has to win, and it may as well be you!  You could be the winner of ONE MILLION DOLLARS!  Now get in that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans!

~BigSis

Posted under Food

This is such a great story! I wanted to share it with you today in case you didn't hear about it last week.

Press Release Source: The Keep A Breast Foundation On Monday March 29, 2010, 5:12 pm EDT

DANA POINT, CA–(Marketwire – 03/29/10) – Professional surfer and Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP) ambassador Jodie Nelson became the first woman to paddle 39.8 grueling miles from the island of Catalina to Dana Point yesterday. She finished in 9 hours, one minute and 21 seconds, all in an effort to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research and prevention.

I hope you can take a few minutes to watch this video. It's incredible!

Jodie started her journey at 6:15 a.m. on Sunday, March 28, the only person doing a solo paddle as part of the Ohana Ocean Catalina Challenge. On the top of her paddleboard, she had printed names of loved ones close to her who were affected by breast cancer. Her mother is a breast cancer survivor, her aunt is a cancer survivor and one of her dearest friends is currently battling the disease.

“I wanted to go out there and do something big and overwhelming, something I had a good chance of failing at… I see so many people who have battled and who are beating breast cancer, they are tackling something bigger than them. They keep fighting and don't give up. I want to motivate people to keep fighting!”

18 miles into the paddle, Jodie had a close encounter with a 30-foot minke whale, which are fairly rare for the waters but are known to be friendly and docile. She dubbed him Larry and watched as he blew bubbles beneath her, fluked, and showed her his belly. The whale stayed with Jodie for about an hour and a half. “It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life,” she said.

According to Ray Hsieh from the Crow's Nest Boat Center, who was driving Jodie's support boat, “I've been boating and fishing all my life and have never seen anything like what I saw today. It was so strange, I actually called my friends at Sea World to ask them if it was normal, and they said, ‘It's your lucky day! That whale is just playing. Sit back and enjoy the show.' So I did.”

Jodie's campaign to “Paddle With Purpose” is supported by Emergen-C Pink®, which Jodie used during training to help prepare her for the endurance mission.

Jodie's goal is to raise $100,000, and so far she has reached about $8,000. All funds go toward The Keep A Breast Foundation and Boarding for Breast Cancer. To donate, go to http://www.paddlewithpurpose.com

Note: Video and still footage of Jodie's journey, the gray whale and heartfelt welcome by her family and friends is available upon request or by visiting or http://tinyurl.com/yeg48tv.

~LilSis

Posted under Fitness

One of my best buds, Patty, recently turned me on to these Kiss Fashion Toenails and I'm happy that she did because if she hadn't, I never would have bought them. I never was a fan of the old Lee Press On Nails because they didn't even look remotely natural to me.

When I first saw these nails on Patty, I thought her toes looked great and I was just about to ask her if she treated herself to a french pedicure, but she was so excited about her “find” that before I could even ask the question, she burst out with “Didn't you notice my toes?”  🙂

BigSis and I both have always been pretty fanatical about maintaining a nice pedicure. I can't even wear clear polish on my fingernails because of my job, but I never go without color on my toenails. My sister has always done her own pedicures and they look great, but I've never, ever been able to paint my toes nicely.

I usually treat myself to a cheap pedicure at a local salon about every 6 weeks or so and I just touch them up in-between appointments. And, in the summer time, I keep acrylics on my big toes for several different reasons. For $25.00, it's well worth it to me because I kill too birds with one stone since I get to sit in one of those amazing massage chairs while getting my pedi. It's a great stress buster for me.

Anyway, lack of time and money has kept me out of the nail salon for WAY too long and this is how bad my pedicure looked before I tried these nails. You can tell that I lost the acrylic on the right big toe and tried to camouflage it, but it still looks horrible.  I should be humiliated to show this “before” photo, but just tryin' to keep it real.

Maybe I like having a nice pedicure because it makes the ugly toes look a little better! 🙂

At Wal-Mart or CVS, you'll find the Kiss toenails for only $6.99 and you get a box of nails with a great selection of sizes, the glue, and a nail file, in case you want to file them down more. I was a little skeptical about being able to find a size to fit each weird shaped toenail and my big toes but since it says right on the box ‘Guaranteed to fit all', I figured I had nothing to lose by trying them.

I was pleasantly surprised with how easy these were to put on and with the way they turned out. I guess press on nails have come a long way because these Kiss fashion toenails really do look pretty darn close to a professional french pedicure.

Not too bad, huh?

This first set that I tried was the short version but the next box that I bought were the super short ones and I liked those even better.

And here are Patty's cute little toes.

And for any of you who may have suffered an unfortunate trauma to a toe or perhaps undergone a hammer toe surgery with complications and permanent loss of a toenail, as Patty did, these nails can be glued right to the missing nail bed.  It's a fantastic fix and no one would ever guess!  See, you can't even tell which one of Patty's toes is really missing the toenail.

These are super easy and super fast to put on so if you ever find yourself needing a quick pedicure and don't have the time to get to the salon, you might want to give these Kiss fashion toenails a try! And, I'd love to hear what you think if you try them.

My only advice is to remove these the proper way, as instructed. Don't get impatient like I did and just rip them off; that leaves the real nail a little damaged. 🙂

~LilSis

Posted under Beauty and Skin Care

I have grumpy skin.  You know the kind.  Let down your guard for about 3 seconds and you get a breakout.  Or two!

Some people – like LilSis – have happy undemanding skin that's perfectly satisfied being casually swiped with a facial cleansing wipe and going on its merry way.

Did I get that low maintenance skin?  Oh, heck no!  I'm on the other end of the spectrum.  My grumpy skin demands to be clean clean clean…deep cleansers and exfoliators are not an option or an occasional treat.  They're a must.

It takes a whole regimen to keep my skin clear:

• DHC Deep Cleansing Oil followed by DHC Pure Soap

• Serious Skin Care's Glycolic Cleanser

• Serious Skin Care's C-Clean Cleanser

• MAC Volcanic Ash Exfoliator (sadly it is a limited edition product and is not currently available)

• Origins Modern Friction

• Clarisonic

I talked about some of these products in a Sister Showdown on Skin Cleansers a while back, but these products are so incredible I think they deserve another mention.  Let's start at the top with DHC Deep Cleansing Oil and Pure Soap.

I've been using the DHC Deep Cleansing Oil and DHC Pure Soap for years and years, and always come back to it.  Why?

• It works!  This oil cleanses more deeply than any other cleanser I can think of. Plus your skin feels incredibly soft afterward.

• It's gentle; there is none of the scratching or scraping that you can get from some scrubs.

• It's so simple!  It contains olive oil and vitamin E and rosemary leaf oil; not a long list of artificial this and fake that.

• It's economical.  It only takes one little pump to clean your whole face, so a 6.7 ounce bottle lasts a long long time, and costs only $25.

• DHC does not conduct animal testing.

To use Deep Cleansing Oil, I just dispense one pump into my palm, and apply to dry skin with my fingers.  I massage it around for a minute or so, and then add some water to make it slightly foamy.  I remove it with a wet washcloth, and then use the bar of Pure Soap to cleanse quickly with wet fingers to make sure there is no oil left behind. Rinse well and behold your clean skin!

I know what you're saying…”BigSis, I have oily skin and there is no way that I'm putting MORE oil on it!”  I thought exactly the same thing since I have oily skin too.  It hasn't been a problem whatsoever though.  Just remember, you're washing it off.  You're not sleeping in it.  And there's something magical about the way oil dissolves makeup, dirt and dirty pores that makes it worth a try!

Guess what? I'm not the only one who loves this Deep Cleansing Oil! I just heard that Valerie Bertinelli thinks DHC Deep Cleansing Oil is magical too and tells Prevention Magazine that it's a beauty must-have!  I'd agree with that!

~BigSis

Posted under Beauty and Skin Care

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club kicks off its 2009 horse racing season in high style next Wednesday, July 22nd in Del Mar, California! I LOVE Opening Day at Del Mar. It's so exciting. I know some people go online to bet on the races themselves (as can be seen in this article where Love Belfast discuss the boom of Night Life in Japan, and how many are using the internet to place bets on many things), but I love being there on that first day truth be told.

And, as always, on Opening Day, you don't want to miss the “One and Only Truly Fabulous Hats Contest”. It's as much fun to watch as it is to enter. But if you REALLY want this, you can enter your hat in one of these four categories:

• Best Racing Theme
• Funniest/Most Outrageous
• Most Glamorous
• Best Fresh Flowers/Others

All entrants will receive two free passes to the races and the top three contestants in each category win cash prizes! You can sign up between 11:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. in the Plaza de Mexico, located just inside the Stretch Run admission gates.

We've made it a tradition to attend on Opening Day and I do wear a hat but have never had one quite fabulous enough to enter into the contest. Believe me when I say they go all out!

I love this pink one from last year's contest.

Flickr Photo by kjdrill

And, this one with the horse on top had to be heavy.

(Flickr photo by kjdrill)

Opening Day at Del Mar always proves to be a great day full of fun, food, glitz, and glamour. If you happen to live within driving distance and plan on making a day of it, make sure you get an early start on the I-5 to beat traffic!

I hope to see you there!!

~LilSis

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