Oh, what would we DO without Cheap Date Night? What a boring 10 minutes we’d have on a Monday with absolutely nothing to do!

Luckily, I’m here to save you from yourselves. First with a recipe, then some happy drinks and a tiny movie.

Whew.

First up is Cherry Dump Cake. You literally dump the ingredients in the pan, toss it in the oven and voila. Dessert!

1 can Cherry Pie Filling
1 can Crushed Pineapple
1 box (about 18 Oz.) Yellow Cake Mix
1/4 cup pecans
1/2 stick Butter

Okay, here comes the fun part. Put the pie filling and pineapple (with juice!) in a 9×13 pan and mix it up. Dump the cake mix – dry – over the top. Sprinkle with the pecans. Cut the butter into slices and place over the top of the entire mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. You’re going to want to serve this warm with ice cream! Trust me!

And keeping with the “Dump” theme, you’ll love this one. Razzin Mike’s is SO easy to make!

1 bottle Mike’s hard lemonade
1 shot raspberry schnapps

Take a swig from the bottle of Mikes. Now pour the shot of raspberry schnapps into the bottle. Put your thumb over the top and turn the bottle once or twice. Enjoy.

Wasn’t that just the easiest drink evah!!??

Okay, time to get your giggle on – here’s the longest laugh ever recorded in TV history. By who else? Lucy. =)

Carrie Spencer Author - Smart Ass Romance

Oh spring is in the air and so are massive thunderstorms! I’m typing as fast as my little paws will go…then it will be time to burrow in and have some popcorn with Wilhemina…by candlelight! *wink*

Last week, we added a form to our WP.org site..this week, we’re going to add one to our WP.com site. Ready? Let’s dig in!

When you go to make a post or a page on WP.com, at the top, next to the media uploader is a form button. That’s exactly where we’re headed.

Click and up pops this screen

So, this is your basic contact form. With just this information, someone can contact you to ask a question, leave a comment without having your email address posted on your website.

BUT

We can customize it a bit. Click on the right hand side where it says – Can I Add More Fields? or at the bottom of the form where it says Add a New Field

Now we can add a dropdown box, a checkbox, a radio box – you name it, it’s all in there…

Here’s what I did..

The rest of the form is entirely up to your imagination.

Now click on Add This form to my Post

This will insert the shortcode into your post. Don’t mess with this code! =) I mean it!

Now when you hit Publish – your post or page will show the form.

Voila! If you need to edit your form, just go to the same Add A Form button as before and your form will appear. Make your changes, then click save.

Now, if you’ll excuse moi, the lights are flickering and the thunder is crashing. Sounds like a good night for a little woodchuck snuggling! =)

Carrie Spencer Author - Smart Ass Romance

Some time ago, I mentioned my fear of driving over bridges. Um yeah, that hasn’t changed so much. Mostly because I’m not near any bridges except a small twelve footer near my house that doesn’t even raise a hair on my head to cross.

I can almost pinpoint when that particular fear started. Driving over an extremely high bridge with the sunlight dancing through the pretty concrete struts. It was very pretty for a few seconds, then the sunlight turned into a strobe light effect. I blinked, trying to get my bearings. I put my hand over my eyes, closed one eye. But nothing worked. Dizzy, panicked, I slowed down to about 30 miles an hour, making for a slower strobe. When I finally reached the end of the bridge, I was in tears and refused to go back over.

Except the only way back to the motel was over the bridge.

I sucked it up and did it, and luckily the sun had set by then. But the damage was done.

But how many of our fears can we pinpoint just this tightly? Very few. Some revert back to our childhood, some our growing up years. Some are inbred – fears that are passed down from our parents or loved ones.

And our fears become stronger over the years. Whereas once, crossing a bridge that spanned the Mighty Missouri river was quite daunting, now crossing a bridge that covers a four-lane highway requires some mental pushing.

As we get older, we get more fears. Fear of slipping on the ice. Seriously? When I was twelve, I would have taken a running start at it and zipped along the sidewalk. I might end up with a bruise, but… big deal. What a rush! Now I do the penguin-walk. Arms carefully outspread, little penguin steps taking me to safety.

Am I being smart? Or am I being scared?

Once upon a time, I went bungee jumping. 13 stories in the air with nothing but a little rubberband holding me to the crane. Was I being stupid? Brave? Showing off in front of a cute guy?

=) I’ll admit, it was the latter of the three.

But, jump I did. Would I do it again today? Nope. Not on a bet.

Is that being smart? Or being scared?

There’s so many fears out there – spiders, snakes, heights – that we sometimes have to choose – are we giving in to fear because we really are afraid? Because – I mean it really COULD be a tarantula! – or is it something we need to conquer to get on with our lives.

I’ve decided it’s time, time for me to put some fears to rest. Take the bull by the horns, tame the lion, beat back fear. It’s time to slide on the ice occasionally, to finish writing the book and not yell tarantula every time I see a spider. Okay, so not so much that last one. But I am vowing to myself that it’s time.

Eep. =)

Carrie Spencer Author - Smart Ass Romance

Greetings all! I barely had time to sneak in a post today – Wilhelmina and I have been down by the river, playing in the water. Later we’re headed over to her folks burrow for a picnic! Lots of goodies – snap peas, petunias and broccoli!

Since I’m running short on time – due to my hachacha date – I’m going to show you the easiest form in the World to add to your WordPress.org site.

First, go to your dashboard go to Plugins>Add New

In the search box type the word Formidable. If you aren’t sure how to install a plug-in, check this post.

Now on your dashboard, you’ll have a new plugin called Formidable. Go ahead and click on it, then choose Forms.

Now we’ll click on Add New

If you want a quick contact us form, choose that on the left hand side. Want to build your own? Choose Blank form, then create.

In the top box, add a title to your form. Like Want a free Bookmark? In the small box below, you can add in instructions to anyone who might want to email you for a free bookmark.

On the right hand side are a collection of items you can drag onto your form. The top ones are for the freebie version. Here I chose single line text.

In the drop down box I marked that it was required information, I put in the field size (how many letters wide I think it should be) and titled it, First Name, Last Name. Then, click update.

Here I’ve used a single line, followed by a paragraph for their mailing address and checkboxes as to which type of bookmark they’d rather receive.

After that, I’ll click update, and move on to settings.

Here, I want my submit button to say Submit, so that’s good, and the confirmation message is ready to go. The only other buttons I would check under that tab is emails to make sure it arrives in the correct email box. If you’ve made changes here, click update and lets look at Entries.

Under here, you can see a variety of ways to publish your new form. The easiest is to go to option #3. This is shortcode. You can use any of these 3 items listed here and just copy and paste the code in a blank page and voila. Your form is complete. Don’t believe me? Go look at preview, you’ll be shocked what that little bit of shortcode will do!

This is Woodie signing off – I’ve got just enough time to grab a handful of tulips from Carrie’s garden for Wilhemina’s mother!

Carrie Spencer Author - Smart Ass Romance

Boy, I hope you’ve packed in your sweet tooth, because today we’re taking you on a sugar rush roller coaster!

As always cheap date nite features a quickie snack or meal, even quicker likker and a fast movie – for those times when you just don’t have hours to spare but want to have a wee bit of quick and cheap fun.

First up is our snack.

Peanut Butter Banana S’mores

Seriously? Need I say more? Well, okay, maybe the recipe for those of you already drooling. =)

30 squares of graham crackers
30 marshmallows cut in half
package of chocolate chips or Hershey bars
peanut butter
Bananas

Ok, first line your 9X13 with aluminum foil. Lay out your 15 graham cracker squares, then top each one with a sprinkle of chocolate chips (or a few squares of chocolate), a slice of banana and two marshmallow halves. The other 15 squares, spread with peanut butter and place carefully over the top. (Peanut butter side down, but you knew that right? right.) Bake at 350 for 4-5 minutes until marshmallows puff.

Let cool and bit and dive in!!!

You’d think with a sweet treat like this, you’d need a fairly simple drink. Right? Wrong. Here’s the perfect accompaniment to our s’mores.

Peanut Butter Cup Martini

chocolate syrup
1 oz. Kahlua
1 oz. Frangelico
1 oz. Baileys
Cream

Decorate your martini glass with a few swirls of chocolate syrup and slide into the refrigerator. In a cocktail shaker, mix your liquors with about 1/4 cup of cream and a scoop of ice. You can add more later if you’d like. Now shake it baby shake it. Yeah, no one’s watching. =) Strain into your pretty glass and decorate with a few mini Reese’s peanut butter cups.

Got it? Excellent. Now let’s plop down with our goodies and watch a bit of a movie.

Here’s one I don’t remember seeing before, from the Carol Burnett show – called No Frills Airline. Poor Tim Conway…lol…..I love him!

Enjoy!

Carrie Spencer Author - Smart Ass Romance