Chicken and Shells

Thanks for all of the recipes. I’ll post them here. If any of you are brave enough to send me a video of you making the dish…. I’ll post that, too! Love to see your video here!

My first recipes is called Dinner by Diane:

Buy  a box of the pasta shells (the kind you stuff).

Get a box of chichen stuffing and can of cream of chicken soup.

Cooked chicken- shredded (leftovers work great!)

Mix together chicken and stuffing and stuff them in the shells.  Pour  can of cream of chicken soup over the stuff shells and bake at 350 until they become bubbley and hot .

Hope you like them . Let me know what you think.  Diane

 

 

Recipe Help

Good morning. I’m sitting here wondering what I’ll fix for dinner tonight. No idea.

I recently got a GIANT cookbook (seriously, it’s 1008 pages!) which has tons of delicious-looking recipes. But each recipe has a million ingredients! Some of which I’ve never heard before. After working all day I need something much more simple to get on the table in 30 minutes or less. Something my kids will eat!

So here’s what I”m asking: Send me some yummy recipes that have no more than four ingredients and take 30 minutes or less to get ready.

Ziggy

My hairdresser Ziggy at Izzazu looks a little too anxious to chop off my hair!

Message Mix-up

I embarrassed myself again.  This time it happened while we were at Deep Creek, Maryland (great area!).

When I went down for the beautiful Autumn Glory Festival we stayed at a rental home on the lake called The Treehouse.  It was fantastic!  When we got there we put our stuff inside before heading out to grab some dinner…. but we quickly noticed there wasn’t any toilet paper in the house.  So I called the after-hours number to the rental company on the fridge and left this message:

“Hi. This is Michelle Wright from Pittsburgh. We are in The Treehouse and there is no toilet paper here. It’s not a problem right now since we’re going to get something to eat but it’ll be a problem later on tonight. So please bring us some toilet paper tonight. Thank you.”  And then I left my phone number.

Then it hit me that it was an odd greeting on the answering machine.  At first I thought the after-hours number must go to the on-call manager’s home…. thus, the casual message.   But then I walked back over to the fridge and realized I had dialed the first set of numbers for the after-hours line…and the last four digits of the regular hours line. ARGH!

So some guy named John…. got a message that Michelle Wright was in the treehouse with no toilet paper. Not a problem right now. Could be a problem later on!

P.S. The real after-hours lady told me you’re supposed to provide your own paper products… so after dinner we stopped and bought some.

P.S.S. John never called me back. LOL

Spooky Science Center Plans!

This just in from the Carnegie Science Center:

THE CREEPY SIDE OF SCIENCE IS CRAWLING TO CARNEGIE SCIENCE CENTER

DISCOVER ALL THINGS ICKY, GHASTLY, AND CREEPY AT SPOOKY SCIENCE ON OCTOBER 31

PITTSBURGH, PA – Carnegie Science Center is busy brewing up creepy concoctions and unleashing caldrons-full of its most thrilling science for Spooky Science on Saturday, October 31. Featuring Halloween-themed hands-on activities and programs, indoor trick-or-treating, and special theater demonstrations, Spooky Science is an unforgettable Halloween experience for kids of all ages.

The Science Center’s mad scientists have scoured their labs for the most shocking, most disgusting, and most hair-raising science demonstrations. From a one-million volt Telsa Coil firing giant arcs of lightning to wrapping their own mummies, visitors will unearth a unique Halloween twist to the Science Center’s ever-popular activities—free with general admission.

Other activities include making glow-in-the-dark slime, creating grossly-realistic wounds, and piecing skeletons together in a giant puzzle. Children are encouraged to come in costume throughout the day for safe, indoor trick-or-treating.

In the Science Center’s Works Theater, visitors can discover the secrets of electricity in special presentations of Frankenscience, an interactive science program that demonstrates the properties of electricity and features the Science Center’s own Frankenstein’s Monster. Experience the only location in Pittsburgh with indoor lightning, thanks to a Tesla Coil that emits one million volts of electricity. In the Kitchen Theater, visitors can sample human brains created from gelatin as they learn the structures of this complex organ.

On Saturday evening, visitors can wrap up their Spooky Science experience with a Family Halloween Laser Show in the Buhl Digital Dome. Beginning at 7 pm, families will be wowed with thrilling colors set to their Halloween music favorites. Laser show tickets are $8 for all visitors, and a $5 add-on price is available for those who come to Spooky Science and stay for the laser show. Members can see the laser show at no cost.

Rock Rhythm & Soul

I had a wonderful time at the 7th annual Rock Rhythm n’ Soul Night to benefit ALS research (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Click here to see more about the ALS research that’s happening here in Pittsburgh.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. It eventually takes away a person’s ability to do routine tasks such as going up steps or even swallowing.

A special thank you to Dr Bowser for all he does all year for ALS patients. Here’s his bio from his website:

( Dr. Robert Bowser is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Director of the Center for ALS Research. His research focuses upon the cellular and molecular mechanisms of motor neuron degeneration during ALS and he has recently discovered protein biomarker diagnostics for ALS and useful surrogate markers of ALS disease progression using mass spectrometry based proteomics.  his work has been performed in collaboration with Dr. David Lacomis who provided samples and clinical information from ALS patient and control subjects. Dr. Bowser was the first to uncover a panel of protein biomarkers that can distinguish early state ALS patients (near time of symptom onset) from various control groups. He has lectured on this discovery at various international conferences and was honored as a Proteomic Pioneer by ProteoMonitor Newsweekly. He was also honored in 2005 byPittsburgh magazine as one of Pittsburgh’s 40 under 40 for influential young people shaping the region.
Dr. Bowser has been the recipient of numerous research grants from the National ALS Association and also a recipient of the ALS Association’s Lou Gehrig Challenge Award, the most prestigious research grant provided by the ALS Association.)

Sand Art

This is amazing. Watch how she continues to transform the image.

The Swine Flu & Me

It started yesterday at work.

Chills. Sore Throat.  Uh oh.

I was hoping to be wrong. But it looks like I have the Swine Flu. Great.  I got the seasonal flu shot a couple of weeks ago. So I guess H1N1 is what hit me. I feel so tired it’s hard to move. UGH.

Getting the Swine Flu is no surprise. I have two children and it’s in their school, I was in a parade over the weekend shaking a lot of hands, and I did a five part series on H1N1 last week. I was doomed. But here’s the surprise. My primary care doctor dumped me!  I’m not kidding. I called him to see if he could phone in a Tamiflu prescription for me and the nurse said I was no longer a patient there.  It seems I haven’t been there since 2001 (when I got a flu shot from them before the shots started being given at WTAE for employees) so I was ditched by my doc.  I explained that I just don’t get sick often. Before anyone yells at me about taking care of myself…. I do get yearly exams at Western Pennsylvani OB/GYN Associates but that doesn’t count for my primary care doc.  So in addition to having the Swine Flu….. I’m now searching for a new doctor!

But enough about that…. here’s something for you to enjoy.  I won’t say which event …. but I helped with a recent charity.   I pulled out my flip video camera while I was up on stage waiting to get started. As I panned across the crowd ……. watch what happens when I get to the jumping castle:

Zoo Photos From Jon Greiner

You already know Jon Greiner is an awesome reporter.

He’s also an awesome photographer. Check out these photos he took at the zoo!

A Beautiful View at Wisp

During my weekend in Deep Creek, Maryland, I rode the chair lift at Wisp Resort. It lasted about a 1/2 hour and we had an amazing view of the Fall colors!

See the track below? It’s the Mountain Coaster and SO MUCH FUN!  It’s sort of like a roller coaster but you’re in your own little cart and can control your speed. AWESOME!

Autumn Glory at Deep Creek

I had a great time this weekend at Deep Creek, Maryland’s Autumn Glory parade.  What a beautiful place!  More to come on my weekend there (including the mountain coaster at Wisp!) but right now I want to say a big thank you to Tammy Lewis who drove me in the parade and was so much fun!  She sent me these pictures ….so since I’m still unpacking and can’t upload the ones I took right now… I will post these and say a big thank you to everyone there for a wonderful weekend in a wonderful place.

Below, I’m being interviewed live on a radio station Pam Trickett.  D.J.s can use their cell phones now to go live instead of lugging around all that remote gear.

Here I’m with the Chamber of Commerce President Joyce Bishoff.

Here is Tammy and her husband, Allen and daughter Amberly as we’re getting ready to get into the parade line. (Tammy brought that fuzzy red blanket for me in case I got chilly and I needed it!)

What a great time…. more on the weekend soon.

Phone Bank Thank You!

A huge thank you to all of our health experts who volunteered their valuable time to help us with our H1N1 phone bank. The phones never stopped ringing and our panel did a wonderful job.

Dr Rick Saladino – Children’s Hospital

Dr Michael Schmeltz – Vice President PA Medical Society

Shane Lindsay – Pharmacist Walgreens

Dr Michael Green – Children’s Hospital

Shirley Slagy – Health Department nurse

Megan Casey – Health Department nurse

Sharon Silvestri – Health Department nurse

Cool Photos from Cirque

Cirque du Soleil is so amazing.  It’s show Alegria is here in Pittsburgh through October 11th. Click here to buy tickets.

In the meantime, take a look at some of the cool pictures I just got.

The Magic of David Copperfield

I have no idea how he does it. It’s a mix between super cool and super creepy!   David Copperfield is here at the Benedum tonight (Oct 8). If you go and figure out any of his tricks please let me in on it!

Click here for tickets and to see a video of his show.

Grand Illusion is the logical and incredible evolution of Copperfield’s art. Grand Illusion takes one’s dreams (and nightmares) and makes them realistic through his sophisticated wizardry.Hailed by audiences and critics alike as the world’s greatest magician, David Copperfield elevates the ancient art of magic to new heights and redefining it along the way.

Cirque Du Soleil

Cirque Du Soleil is back!!! This time the show is called Alegria. (pronounced Ala-GREE-uh)  Go see it this week if you can. It’s breathtaking! Andrew Stockey got a behind the scenes preview and the performers are amazing! Click here to watch Andrew’s report.

(click here for a video preview from the show and to buy  tickets)