Mums and fall gardening!

Well, fall is here officially and starting to feel a bit like it, so what's next? Gardening! It is time to get flower beds ready for next year and plant some of those favorite fall plants! Well, I belong to the Home Depot Garden Club. Signing up gets you exclusive offers and tips through e-mail. I just received one today, click here to view it. It helps save a little bit of money. Also, if you are like me, it gives me tips about what I need to be doing next, I happen to be a novice gardener!
Go here to sign up and start saving!

Authentic Italian!

So we had the pleasure of having a true authentic Italian meal last night! How was it authentic you ask? Well, one of the Saving Sisters had an awesome co-worker, who visited Italy, and was kind enough to bring her back seasoning, pasta and olive oil from there! This is from the real Italy! (as if there was a fake Italy, right?) Well, we cooked it last night and wow, it was delicious! Definitely different flavors! But so tangy, a little spicy, but overall, just so delicious!
We paired it with homemade garlic bread and our favorite brushcetta! Here's how we did it!

• Homemade pasta sauce:
• 3 small cans of tomato sauce
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes
• 1 lb. ground beef
  
• 2 tbsp. REAL Italian seasoning (did I mention this was from Italy?)
• Simmer

• Pasta
• 1 lb. pasta (from Italy, of course!=)
• bring to a boil 8-10 minutes

• Homemade garlic bread
• 1 loaf of bread (italian, french, whatever you like)
• 3 cloves of fresh garlic chopped
• olive oil
• Pre-heat oven 350 degrees. Cut loaf of bread in half. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle fresh garlic on top. Bake for about 10 minutes.

• Our Favorite Bruschetta
• Use homemade garlic bread recipe above
• 1 8 oz bar of cream cheese
• Handful of grated parmesan cheese
• small can of chopped black olives
• 2 roma tomatoes chopped
• 6 basil leaves sliced julienne
• Put cream cheese in microwave about 45 seconds (until soft enough to stir). Add parmesan cheese and sliced black olives. Spread cream cheese mixture over both halves of bread. sprinkle with tomatoes and basil.

Thats it! that was our "real Italian" feast. This truly was delicious! How do you make this at home? Well, we think the seasoning from Italy really was the star of the show, so we tried to figure what was in it. We decided it was:

• Dried sliced garlic cloves (you could see them, they were quite large!)
• Dried tomatoes and possibly sun dried tomatoes (this gave it the tang)
• Dried basil
• Some red pepper flakes (this gave it a small amount of heat)
• Dried parmesan cheese
• The rest is speculation. We are guessing the usual oregano, black pepper, parsley, etc.

I am going to try to make this seasoning homemade. If I succeed, I will post it. Real fresh ingredients I think is key and will be well worth the time and money spent!

Giant Eagle Deals for the week

Here are the Giant Eagle deals for the week of 9/25-10/01.
Click here to see them!
Courtesy of Stretching a Buck! Thanks so much, be sure to check out her blog! It is awesome! It is on the side bar listed under "my blogs"!

Old Navy Sale

There is a huge sale at Old Navy in stores only this weekend.

• 20% off $50
• 30% off $75
• 40% off $100

This is running 9/26-9/28.
Definitely worth the look!
Click here to link to the page.