School has started for so many of us now and we are full swing in it. Woohoo! Back into our regular routines, shuttling back and forth to this and that. For some of us the weather will soon be changing to cooler. Not here in the desert southwest where I live. It will be warm until Halloween for us. I won't see the beautiful changing of the leaves unless I take a long drive to hunt it down. No nip in the air for me. Those are the things I miss. But soon you all will be rewarded for your hot summer. The beautiful Fall colors will put on their show and with our kids in school and us able to relax with a cup of coffee in the morning and just a quick breather for ourselves, we find out it really is all worth it after all. Enjoy it everyone.

Exciting news in Cooking Smart

ANNOUNCING... a new Recipe Contest in our Contest Forums here. Every month we will hold a contest that will end on the 25th of each month. Any kind of recipe can be submitted; dessert, main course, beverage, whatever, and our judges will decide the winner and that winner will receive 1000 Points and Prizes points.
The first contest will start Sept. 1st and will end Sept. 25th with the announcement on the 28th. Each new month will bring a new chance for a new winner. So warm up those recipes ladies. Good luck everyone!!!!!

We also want to send out our thoughts and prayers to Jacey from the June '06 board. She just lost her husband in a car accident last week. Our prayers and best wishes are with her and her kids.

And to one of our favorite board members, JavaJill. Her son Brandon gave up his struggle after his stroke and has passed away. Jill was enroute to another one of her son's side after a catastropic car accident when she was given the news. Thankfully Nick is doing better and will hopefully soon recovery fully. All our prayers and good wishes go out to Jill and her family in this time of grief and sadness yet joy at Nick's recovery. It would be great that if you have some money that you could spare for her, we are taking donations to help pay for funeral costs and money that it's taken to travel back and forth for both sons. Please PM Sarah, Bubbly_1, for information about donation money for JavaJill. Thank you.

Please join in our thoughts, prayers and good wishes for our SK families



Our Get-To-Know-You question this month for all our members is school related. Did you enjoy school as a child? Either elementary or high school and which one? All hosts please answer this question in the Leaders board with your P&P name so you can collect your points. Thank you.




Sept. 2 - National Blueberry Popsicle Day
Sept. 3 - Skyscraper Day, Uncle Sam's Birthday
Sept. 4 - Newspaper Carrier Day, Labor Day
Sept. 5 - National Cheese Pizza Day
Sept. 6 - Read A Book Day
Sept. 8 - National Literacy Day
Sept. 9 - Teddy Bear Day
Sept. 10 - Swap Ideas Day, National Grandparents Day
Sept. 11 - Make Your Bed Day, Remember Sept. 11th
Sept. 12 - National Chocolate Milk Shake Day
Sept. 13 - National Peanut Day, Positive Thinking Day
Sept. 15 - Make a Hat Day, National Hispanic Heritage Month Begins
Sept. 16 - Collect Rocks Day, Mayflower Day, Mexican Independence Day
Sept. 17 - Citizenship Day, National AppleDumpling Day
Sept. 18 - International Peace Day, National Play Doh Day
Sept. 20 - First Railroad Station Opened
Sept. 21 - Miniature Golf Day, World Gratitute Day
Sept. 22 - Dear Diary Day, Elephant Appreciation Day
Sept. 23 - First Day of Autumn
Sept. 24 - National Bluebird of Happiness Day, Good Neighbor Day
Sept. 27 - Crush a Can Day
Sept. 28 - Native American Day



This one sounded so yummy and easy I couldn't resist.

Crocked Beef

2 lbs Stew Meat Cubed
1 Envelope Dry Lipton Onion Mix
1 Stick Butter or Margarine
1 lb Wide Egg Noodles

Place Beef in crockpot. Add envelope of onion soup mix, then place stick of butter/margarine on top.

Cook on High for 4-5 hrs or Low 6-8 hrs. You do NOT need to add any other liquids or even stir this until you are ready to serve. The beef creates it's own juices that make the dish a lot like a stroganoff.

Serve over cooked noodles. Serves 6

Recipe courtesy of JavaJill

For more recipes like this, check out Cooking Smart's Featured Forum Crock Pot Cuisine here



We thought maybe you might have a question about something that goes on here at Graphic Central. We have lots of forums here...Photography, Signature Fun-which includes, Blinkies, Glitter Names and Custom Signatures and Graphics. The hosts have added tutorials in each category if you would like to learn any of these graphics arts. Please read through the tutorials and have a go at it. And please show us what you make. We'd love to see. We are also very open to having volunteers and/or Hosts in our requests forums. Please inquire within about becoming a volunteer if you know how to make blinkies, glitters, siggies or graphics of any kind.
If you have any other questions, something you would like to know about any of these fields, please let us know and we will give you the answer in the following newsletter next month. Just leave us a post below.