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Earlier this year, I found that I needed a new printer AND a new scanner. Rather than buy separate components, I shopped around and found the very affordable HP Photosmart C4280 All-In-One Inkjet Printer. At only around $100 or so, it is a great printer for the money.

I was especially looking for something that would give me decent quality prints of my digital photos, which I use for my scrapbooking projects This little machine does the trick!

The machine comes with one black cartridge and one three-color ink cartridge, which do the job well. But for enhanced color for your photos, they make a six-color cartridge that you may want to invest in.

The ink cartridges aren’t dirt cheap (black goes for about $15, tri-color for about $20, you can save by buying a two-pack with one of each). But they last surprisingly longer than I thought they would. Just do yourself a favor and use only genuine HP inks, I have used cheapo ones in other printers, and they ruined the printers.

The scanner and printer features work really well, too. You can set it to scan into your favorite image editing software, or just use the software that comes with the device. And it makes good quality photocopies, as well…no more having to go out to a copy shop, or put money in the machine at the library.

You can either print photos from your computer, or you can insert your camera’s memory card and print from there, no computer needed for this. There are slots for various sizes and types of cards, including the SD card and Compact Flash.

The only thing is that this does NOT come with a USB cord, which is required for hooking it up to your computer. You will have to either buy one separately, or just use the one from your old printer, which is what I did.

If you are looking for a good all-in-one printer and are on a budget, you could do much worse than this one.  I highly recommend it for those looking to spend around $100 or so.

I LOVE Stampin’ Up’s products. I have a friend named Annette who is my demonstrator, and I belong to one of her clubs. She sends materials for great projects with each month’s order, along with instructions. Since I don’t live near her, I can’t attend her monthly workshops, so that’s why I get the goods mailed to me.

Anyhoo, she just got back from the SU Convention, and is full of exciting news. A big piece of news that she revealed on her blog is the fact that Stampin’ Up has teamed with Sizzix. Not only will they be releasing a specially-made for SU “Big Shot” die cutting machine, but there will also be new dies, designed by Sizzix especially for SU. These new dies will be designed to coordinate with some of the stamp sets…now how cool is THAT?

The Bigz and Originals dies are designed to cut through many different materials…paper, cardstock, thin metals, cork, felt, fabrics, and more. You can use these die cuts to decorate anything from scrapbook pages to cards, to clothing, to home decor, even pet beds. I even used Sizzix die cuts to make a pretty address thingy to stick on my front door. So much you can do with this system!

Anyhoo, if you don’t have a Stampin’ Up demonstrator yet, and you want one, you can’t do better than Annette. Please contact her through her blog to get on her mailing list, to order, to join a club, or just ask a question. If you do, please let her know I sent you!

…from a weekend in Manchester, NH. Not too far away, and not much to do there, either. We go there to enjoy New Hampshire Fisher Cats baseball. There’s a lovely hotel with rooms that face the ballpark, and we like to stay there.

But minor league baseball season is almost over. And then we’ll need to find other things to do, different places to go. Maybe we could go to someplace that is new to us. I’ve been hearing a lot about Branson, Missouri, and all that it has to offer as a vacation spot.

Sure, Branson is known for its wide variety of music and other shows, and there really is something for every taste there.  But there is a lot of other stuff to do there, as well, including theme parks, museums, and shopping.

If you like museums, as we do, they have some cool ones there.  They have a Titanic Museum, and an American Presidential Museum.  I’d be interested in the latter one, as I’ve always had a strong interest in American Presidential history.  The Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum would be cool, too, and we’d just HAVE to see the Roy Rogers/Dale Evans Museum!

And, of course, Mike would have to visit and ride the Branson Scenic Railroad.  That alone might be enough to get him to want to take this trip!

It seems that everyone is tightening their budgets these days.  But I was pleased to see that a vacation in Branson doesn’t have to be too expensive, especially if you purchase a package.   Theses are incredible bargains!  Take the first one, for example, called the “Platinum Package”.  You get lodging for three days and two nights, two tickets to the Grand Jubilee, a $30 gift card to either Red Lobster or Olive Garden, a $50 shopping voucher to the Tanger Outlets, and a book containing $1500 in money-saving coupons.  This entire package costs just $457 per couple.  Not per person, per couple.  I think we might be able to swing that, especially if Southwest flies there, and we can get a cheap flight that way.

We shall see…but it’s something I’m definitely thinking seriously about!

I don’t need to type this one out, it is online, and you can find it right here. I saw it last Saturday on the PBS show, Everyday Food. It looked so yummie that I had to find the recipe and make it.

Have you tried rice noodles yet? I had not until I made this dish tonight. They are quite tasty…different from pasta, but good. You don’t really even need to cook these, you just soak them in hot water in a bowl in one of your kitchen sinks for 15 minutes, and that’s all it takes. In this recipe, you also mix them in with the veggies in the skillet, and the sauce, just to reheat them.

Most good supermarkets sell rice noodles now, check the ethnic food aisle.  Or, if you have an Asian market nearby, they will have them for you as well.  I had no trouble finding them in a regular supermarket’s Asian food section.

What is harder for me to find than Asian food is thick cut pork chops.  WHY do most supermarkets insist on slicing them so thin?  Anyhoo, I got around this buy purchasing a small boneless pork loin roast.  It was just the right size to cut into four chops that were about an inch thick.  The loin roast also comes with a layer of fat on the top, I trimmed most, but not all, of that off before cooking.  If you were to cook it as a roast, it would have sufficient time to melt off.  But these chops cook so quickly, you do not need the extra fat, and it won’t render that quickly. So trim it off.

With the thick-sliced chops, they seared very nicely on the outside, yet were still not overcooked, they were perfectly cooked, with a VERY faint pinkness inside.  The timing for the cooking looks like it might not be enough, but remember that the chops will cook further as they rest on the platter or cutting board, covered with the foil, while you prepare the rest of the dish.

This was a most wonderful dish, I know because Mike only told me about 500 times how much he loved it.  I would most definitely make this one again, it is a keeper!

These are made with chicken and spinach in a creamy sauce. I got this recipe years ago from an old Martha Stewart book. If you’re watching your weight, been reading those Leptovox reviews and all, you could always substitute low-fat sour cream here.

The only changes I made to this recipe were that I use frozen spinach instead of fresh.  I just let it thaw out and then squeeze it as dry as possible, reserving a little of the juices for the sauce.  I also upped the amount of cheese slightly, we didn’t think 6 ounces was quite enough.

Green Enchiladas

2 pounds boneless chicken breasts
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 large white onion, finely chopped
2 (10 ounce) boxes of frozen chopped spinach, thawed
3 cups sour cream
2 (4 ounce) cans green chilies, drained and chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup milk
Coarse Kosher salt to taste
12 flour tortillas
8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, grated
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Poach the chicken in a skillet or saucepan with water to cover, until cooked through, about 15-20 minutes. Drain, let cool, and then shred it into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a skillet, and saute the onion until tender, about 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter a large casserole.

Squeeze as much liquid as possible from the spinach, reserving about 1/2 cup of the juice. Place the spinach in a large bowl, and add the onion, sour cream, chilies, cumin, reserved spinach liquid, and milk, mix well and season to taste with salt.

Add half of this mixture to the shredded chicken and mix well. Place the tortillas in the oven to soften, about 3 minutes. Fill the tortillas with equal parts of the chicken mixture, roll up, and arrange in the prepared casserole, seas side down.

Top this with half of the grated cheese, and over this, spoon the rest of the sauce. Finally, sprinkle on the remaining cheese. Put in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, or until heated through.

Spoon up and enjoy! Makes 6 servings, 2 enchiladas per person.