Chai at 10 weeks old

He is finally home for good! His transition to our house has been so seamless. The first night we put him in his crate to go to sleep at night, he cried for a few hours. The second night he cried for about 45 minutes. Each night he cries a little bit less. It's hard not to go over and comfort him, but he needs to learn that we're the ones in charge, and that whining won't help him get his way. Puppies can be little brats! The breeder was so proud of us when we told her we were standing firm.

He follows Bill up to the chicken coop when he goes to bring them food and water, and loves to romp around in the meadows surrounding the farmhouse. Bill cut trails in the grass so we can take him on runs, it's like an obstacle course. He's also learning that cicadas are a tasty treat, despite me trying to convince him otherwise! We don't know how we ever lived without him.

Corgi Butt!

Meet Chai, our Pembroke Welsh fluffy corgi!!

Chai at 7 weeks

I am obsessed with this little guy! He's a Pembroke Welsh Corgi with a "fluffy" coat, meaning he has a softer, fluffier coat than a typical corgi that has a coarse overcoat and softer undercoat. My fiance and I found an amazing breeder based in Fogelsville, which is only 25 minutes from our house. She is the sweetest, most helpful person..she even let us have sleepover nights with him before we adopted him. We will be taking him to her for his final puppy vaccine, grooming, and play dates! He's the only boy out of his little, he was surrounded by sisters. We got to meet his mom, who was a gorgeous corgi. 

A corgi is the perfect fit for our lifestyle..we wanted a dog that would enjoy running across the meadows, going on hikes and out on the boat, keeping our chickens in line, and also relaxing with us. Chai loves to play and go on the trails with us, and then come home and take a nap. His energy level is a great match for us. We are both so in love with our new baby!

I can't resist those eyes!!

Scoping out the chickens

Cascade Platinum Actionpacs Review

Disclosure: I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Cascade. I received a product sample to facilitate my review.

About Cascade Platinum:

Cascade Platinum is a new premium product that was recently launched by Cascade. With its premium formula, Cascade Platinum is designed to deliver Cascade’s most powerful clean while helping to maintain the sparkling look of the interior of your dishwasher. Cascade Platinum, an advanced triple-action formula specially designed to delivers the following benefits:

• Eliminates the need to pre-rinse dishes
• Scrubs away tough 24 hour stuck-on food
• Delivers exceptional dishware shine
• Helps maintain the look of new machines and prevents additional hard-water film buildup

Availability and Prices:

Beginning in March 2013, Cascade©Platinum Pacs will be available in Fresh and Lemon Burst scents at mass merchandisers, grocery and retailers nationwide.

• Cascade© Platinum 14 ct: $4.29
• Cascade© Platinum 23 ct: $6.69
• Cascade© Platinum 43 ct: $12.49

Cascade© Family of Products also includes:

• Cascade© Complete© Pacs
• Cascade © ActionPacs™ with Dawn® Grease Fighting Power
• Cascade© with the scent of Gain® ActionPacs™
• Cascade © ActionPacs™ Destinations: Mediterranean Lavender and Thai Dragon Fruit scents

More information on the entire family of Cascade© products can be found at Cascade Clean,  or the Cascade Facebook page.

Don't forget to enter their Platinum Instagram Contest!

My Review

Having recently purchased a large tub of the Cascade Complete Action Tabs with Dawn that I really love, I was happy to try out the new Cascade Platinum. I think these are my new favorite! Not only did my dishwasher look and smell amazing and brand new after only one wash with these things, my dishes came out perfectly. No cloudy residue or film anywhere to be seen. Every glass was shiny and brilliant, and even a casserole pan with baked on cheese that I forgot to soak (oops!) came out flawless. My fiance uses tin foil pans on the grill a lot, and usually they're a total nightmare to soak and scrub, but these made it so easy. Plus, these actionpacs are just so convenient to use-it's really nice when I come home exhausted to be able to just throw one of these in the dishwasher and turn it on-no messy pouring or powders. Another hit from Cascade!

BzzAgent Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil Review

Growing up with an Italian mother and grandmother, I pretty much lived on olive oil. Our family would use it for everything from sauteeing to salads. Having tried such a large variety of brands, I find Filippo Berio to be a bit on the bitter side, but what stands out for me is the light, fresh taste, which is unusual for a lower priced olive oil. It's one of the best values out there if you're looking for an authentic Italian olive oil at a great price. I wouldn't use this as a dipping oil, but it makes a wonderful base for homemade salad dressing, pan frying, or grilling fresh kabobs and veggies. It's also great for creating a marinade for steaks. If you enjoy the taste, it might be worth it to look into buying the large tins at Costco-much cheaper!

BzzAgent provided a free bottle of Filippo Berio olive oil in order for my to give a review, all opinions expressed are completely my own

Obsessed with my new Gaimo espadrilles

Super comfy AND hot! I have a feeling I'll be living in these babies this summer

Dinner!

Most of you know I love to experiment in the kitchen. Here are a few of my latest!

Baked kale is one of my favorite veggies. I wash it, peel the leaves off the stalk and put them on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with a little salt, pepper and garlic powder, and pop them in the oven at 350 for about 12 minutes. My fiance loves them and he used to hate kale! Here I paired it with penne ala vodka and chicken parm meatballs.

This is the chicken Caesar salad pizza from Rachael Ray, it was like gourmet pizza! 

Prepping the chicken Caesar salad pizza..it calls for escarole instead of lettuce since it has to go in the oven and lettuce would get too..wilty..is that a word? haha

Homemade salmon patties with mixed veggies

And last but not least..our first dinner at the new Seafood Shanty in Wyomissing! We thought it was great, loved the food and the service couldn't have been better. Check it out!

Patio Life!

Hi guys! Slowly but surely our new patio is taking shape. We bought most of our plants from Lowes, Black Creek Greenhouse and Conestoga (Lancaster) and Seltzer's, a local place. We've had pretty good luck so far, we only lost one tree that has to be dug up and returned (thankfully Lowes has that one year warranty!). As far as edibles I planted a few herbs (can't wait for fresh brewed mint tea and homemade pesto!), blueberry bushes, and veggies. This year I'm doing zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, Bibb, buttercrunch and red sails lettuce, green, yellow and purple peppers, Good King Henry (a yummy salad green), eggplants, and..pumpkins!! My garden is on the small side this year so I'm not expecting too much out of the pumpkins, it's mostly just for fun :)

Christening the new patio..we couldn't wait for it to be done! Haha

Home grown lettuce just tastes so much better, and it's super easy.

One of my irises, don't they look just like purple velvet? Gotta get more of these

The cicadas are everywhere this year! They were all over the apple trees out in the field, we could actually see the little holes in the ground they emerged from. It's kind of creepy when one flies onto you, but they don't hurt anything. So far they have left the new landscaping plants alone, so I'm crossing my fingers!

Huge wood frog I saved from the mower

I just love frogs! Look at his gorgeous coloring.