This is the 2nd time I've made this. It's super yummy!

PRE-STEP: You'll want to prep your dough at least 1 or 2 days before. You can follow my Dad's homemade pizza crust tutorial here.

You can also prep the meat filling the day before. This saves time. You can store the meat mixture in the fridge in an airtight container. Then heat for 2-3 minutes in the microwave when you're ready to assemble your Stromboli.

Things you'll need for this recipe:

• Already prepared pizza dough
• 1/2 Pound of Ground Beef (or Ground Turkey)
• 1 Jar Ragu Double Cheddar Sauce.
• 6-8 slices of bacon cooked & crumpled. (I used Gwaltney brand bacon)
• 1 medium onion   
• Goya Adobo All Purpose Seasoning- Red Lid (It tastes good on everything!) 
• Salt 
• Pepper 
• Ketchup 
• Mozzarella Cheese (Optional) 
• 1 Egg (To egg wash the Stromboli crust with) 

(These are the deep cookie sheets I use, I love them! I got them from Walmart. They are $5.97 a piece. Better Homes and Gardens Non-Stick Bakeware 15" x 10" Baking Pan)

STEP ONE: Brown ground beef in a frying pan. Add about 1 teaspoon of Goya Adobe Seasoning to the meat. Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a few shakes of pepper. (Drain out fat).


STEP TWO: Cut up your onion into small slices and fry until caramelized with a little bit of Olive Oil.

You want these nice and caramelized!

STEP THREE: Cook your bacon. What I do is line a deep pan with foil (makes clean up easier,) and then I cook my bacon in the oven 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. You want the bacon to be nice & crisp. After the bacon comes out of the oven, drain the slices on a plate with paper towels. Crumble when cool.

Before the oven.

After the oven.

STEP FOUR: Once cool, combine your ground beef, crumbled bacon and fried onions in a bowl together. Add 3/4 cup of Ketchup and mix well.


STEP FIVE: Roll out your dough on a square cookie sheet, then pour some of the Ragu cheese sauce on the dough close to the edges. Place your meat mixture next, squirt a little more ketchup and drizzle some more cheesy sauce on top. You can also place a few slices of mozzarella cheese (Optional). 

I took the handles off my rolling pin, lol. I find it easier to use that way.

STEP SIX: Slowly fold and pinch your Stromboli closed- be gentle when doing this so the dough doesn't tear. (I fold one side & then the other- towards each other- meeting in the middle). If your seam isn't perfect- don't worry, it won't show when it's on the bottom! Clean up any sauce leaks or extra flour with a paper towel. To flip- gently place another cookie sheet over your Stromboli. Pick up and gently turn so your Stromboli is now on the clean cookie sheet!

Mozzarella on mine too! (Optional)

STEP SEVEN: Slice three air holes in the top of the Stromboli. Brush with egg wash (1 egg mixed together in a bowl), sprinkle some garlic salt or Goya adobo seasoning on top. Cook in the oven on 350 for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Let cool before slicing!

Time for an egg wash & then into the oven!

Just out of the oven!

Time to eat!!! Yum! :-)

*Krazy Candle is no longer open* 

My friend Brittney has started a company called Krazy Candle. They make homemade all natural soy tarts for warmers. (Think Scentsy). They also sell soy candles and warmers. I ordered 4 soy tarts in different scents. I ordered: Birthday Cake, Apples and Maple Bourbon, Beach Linen & Lilac Mist. (There are 26 scents to choose from!)


I am burning the Apples & Maple Bourbon scent. It smells like fall! Apples, and cinnamon, etc. The tarts don't smell very strong in the package, but when you burn them the scents are much stronger. They make the whole house smell good! I can't wait to try the other scents I ordered.

Since the tarts are not wax, to remove them easily from your warmer if you want to change scents- just stick your warmer or warming plate in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes. The hardened soy tart will pop right out! Easy clean up! :-)

(Apples & Maple Bourbon was already in my warmer!)

*Note: I purchased these 4 tarts on my own. I was not asked to review, this is my honest opinion. 

 

From reading nail blogs, I know there's all sorts of indie brand nail polish out there. So one Saturday I started looking up nail polish on Etsy and stumbled upon Enkelini Nails Shop. What caught my eye were her hologram polishes. They are gorgeous and I really wanted some! I have a bit of a nail polish obsession. ;-)

I like how her shop offers mini bottles & full size. You can sample more colors with the mini bottles and if you like something enough, you can purchase a full size. The holo's I did 3 coats with. The polish is nice and thick and coats just right. Removing them was also breeze- with no staining. I'm definitely eye-ing some other colors I want to buy!

Ultra Violet

Mercury Twilight- ignore the gash on my index finger :(

 

I can't say I created this, because I've seen this idea on Pinterest before. (My Pin). Most of the recipes I've seen on Pinterest, the muffins are always made from scratch. Mine is a little bit easier and just as delicious!

All you need is one box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix and four hot dogs. (I used Ball Park beef hot dogs). 1st, spray your muffin tray with Pam or another non-stick spray. Then follow the directions on the back of the Jiffy corn muffin box. Cut up your 4 hot dogs into little pieces and mix the hot dogs into the batter. Ladle mixture into a muffin tray. (Cupcake tray in my case). Cook muffins according to the back of the Jiffy Package. It should make about 9 muffins. Serve with ketchup or mustard! This is a yummy comfort food! :-)

I've updated my header banner with some cute little "Polaroid" photos. :-)

Click to view full size- or just look above! lol!

Thought I would share two albums I'm listening to right now:



Favorite songs off this album:

1. Teenage Dream    
2. Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)      
3. California Gurls
4. Firework    
7. The One That Got Away    
8. E.T.
9. Who Am I Living For?    
11. Hummingbird Heartbeat
14. Part Of Me        
15. Wide Awake    


Favorite songs off this album:

1. One More Night
2. Payphone    
3. Daylight
4. Lucky Strike  
6. Love Somebody  
12. Beautiful Goodbye
13. Wipe Your Eyes

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)  

Manila and surrounding provinces in the Philippines had a bad monsoon on 8-7-12. It flooded so bad they had to open the dams, which cause more flooding. It was almost as bad the flood back in 2009. Sadly my in-laws house was flooded again though we don't know how badly. :-(

My Father in-law works as ship captain and is back out at sea. (He helps transport cars, fruits, etc to different countries). My mother in-law had to stay with my Sister in-law & family at her 2 story house. The flooding at my SIL's house reached the garage but from last reports hadn't gotten into the house. And we pray that's still true. Their power was out for 3 days and they were conserving their cell phones so we didn't hear much from them. We still don't really have any definite detailed updates at the moment.

Everyone is okay from texts, facebook, etc (Friends & Family). Which we are very thankful for! (Thank you for all the prayers!) It really sucks that my in-laws house got flooded again. My husband remembers being there for the 2009 flood. He knows how hard it was and how hard the clean up was.


I was checking Twitter every hour looking up keywords for Cainta Rizal and their villages name (gated community), to find current updates. The flood waters were reported waist high at my in-laws village. Though the flood waters are subsiding. My husband said they shut off the power automatically when flood waters reach a certain level. It's also rainy season over there right now, which doesn't help matters.

We are just thankful everyone is okay. Including our niece who will be 1 years old on August 21st. She had a little cold, but from last reports is doing better.

Our Niece Zia!

If you want to donate to the Philippine Red Cross to help with relief efforts (Over 2 million people were effected by this storm), there are ways to donate on their website (Including Paypal).


Article on the storm on CNN

Yahoo Philippines Article

6ABC Article

 

Summer... has been oppressive and I'm sooo ready for fall and colder weather... and pumpkin spice lattes! We really haven't been up to much lately, just staying at home... in the air, lol. And I've been busy with work and exhausted in the evenings, so I haven't been updating my blog as regularly. But, if you want more up to the minute updates about what I'm up to you can find me at the following places:

• Facebook (My page is private, if you request me as a friend please include a short message so I know who you are).
  
• Pinterest
• Twitter  (My Twitter is private, leave your Twitter name in the comments below so I know who I am approving).
• Instagram: tunaynamahal82
  

 

My girls finally came home last night! I adopted two black self dumbo eared girls from Star's Rat Rescue in South Dakota. I've adopted from SRR two times before.

The 1st time I adopted 3 girls, the 2nd time I adopted 2 girls & 2 boys. Though my boys are the only ones still living and they are now 2 1/2 years old.

This rat train had 2 phases to get the girls all they way to Philadelphia. (1,500 miles from South Dakota!) The 1st part of the train was on July 28th. When my girls and some of the other rats being adopted traveled to Chicago IL. The 2nd part of the train was tentatively scheduled for August 4th. My girls had to be fostered for about a week in Chicago until we filled some of the other driving legs to get them to Philadelphia.

Then, Thursday morning- Brittney; my friend & owner of Star's Rat Rescue, texted me that she was in the hospital. (She is still there as of today, the hospital was running tests to determine is she needed surgery, she was in a lot of pain. I don't have any other details. Please keep her in your thoughts & prayers. She is trying to keep me updated best she can. I am posting any new information I get on the SRR Facebook Page, for Brittney).

(ETA: Brittney is now home from the hospital).

We were still lacking a driver for the very last part of the trip, so it was uncertain if the girls would be coming home Saturday. Luckily, I was able to get a hold of our friend Adam. Who helped with SRR drives before. He agreed to drive out to Somerset PA (About 4 1/2 hours from Philly), to meet one of the other drivers and get my girls! 

With Brittney still in hospital she was unable to contact the drivers and send out the email itinerary as usual. So late Thursday evening she texted me everyone's information (4 drivers) so that I could call and email everyone to confirm Saturday's plans. I had to make sure everyone had talked to each other before leaving Saturday morning.

Saturday morning things went off just as planned. Each of the drivers checked in with me when they passed the rats off to the next driver, and I kept Brittney up to date. At 9:45pm we met up with Adam outside a Petsmart near us so we could finally pick up my two girls and bring them home! It was definitely an adventure for them!

(Thank you to all the drivers and adopters, because we couldn't do these Rat Trains without you all!) 
The girls were born on Christmas Day, 2011. So they are about 7 1/2 months old. I renamed them Cherry & Bluebelle (Belle for short). Cherry has white front paws, she's also a bit bigger and her dumbo ears are set farther back. Belle is smaller, and she has more rounded full dumbo ears. They are both Black self.

Cherry in the hammock, Belle below.

Cherry

Bluebelle "Belle"

 

Lily passed away this weekend... she was a few months past 2 years old. We brought her home in July 2010. She never really had any major health issues or tumors in her life. I hate that we only have a maximum of 2-3 years with rats. It's truly not fair. They have so much personality. Lily was my ♥ rat. She was so spoiled in her old age. She loved to lay back in my hands and stay that way for the longest time on her back.

♥ When she got older and more frail, every morning I would take her out on the bed and get her some Vanilla or Strawberry Ensure. (She would have it at least twice a day). When you tapped the bowl, she would come running. She loved hanging out on our bed, she would stretch out or curl up in my comforter.

♥ When my husband came to the USA in March 2011, she would always sit on his leg and let him pet her if he was sitting on the bed. He used to tease me and say Lily was his rat now. Her nickname was 'Bean'. (When she was younger she was a little roley poley thing so I nicknamed her Lil-La-Bean, like a jelly bean). She had her feisty moments when she was younger, but for the most part she was a very laid back rat. ♥


Video of Lily with her Lolli-pop:



I love all of my pet rats, but there are a few special heart rats that you have. So I'm taking Lily's loss a bit hard. ♥