Why is it?

I have a week off and we have doctors visits planned for every day except today.  Yesterday, the kids went for their yearly checkup.  No shots!  Can I get a woo-hoo?  Tomorrow the husband and I get our annual skin cancer check.  Thursday, Jake has an orthodontist appointment and then we’ll go straight to the eye doctor for checkups for all and hopefully some contact samples for Jake to try out.  Then, on Friday I have my hair appointment. So, this is the only days for me to get other things done.  I planned on getting the oil changed in my car and taking Jake to Wal-Mart to spend some of his money.  Instead, I click the DVR button on my remote and watch last week’s Bizarre Foods episode.  Then, I remember that I have Flowers in the Attic saved as well, so I watch that.  In the meantime, I finish reading all of Jorge Garcia’s blog and determine taht I like him so much more than I ever did before.  He is a very funny man! Then, I see that The Wiz has just started, so I watch that too.  Now, it’s almost 2pm and Jake & I are still in our jammies and Bailey & Reece are playing in the backyard.  I still have no intention of getting off my couch any time soon.  And that’s ok!

Cheese Spread

We have a local restaurant that is famous for their chicken salad.  I don’t have that recipe, but I do have the recipe for their equally famous cheese spread.  This spread is served on the side of every sandwich you order and it comes in a small scoop with fancy crackers on the side.  This recipe comes from a local church’s cookbook from long ago… long before this woman opened her famous little unnamed restaurant.  Enjoy!

 Cheese Spread

 

1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

½ cup mayonnaise

6 oz. cream cheese ( at room temp)

¼ cup milk

8 oz. fancy shredded sharp cheddar cheese (room temp)

 

Combine ranch dressing, mayonnaise and milk.  Add cream cheese.  Mix with mixer.  Fold in cheddar cheese. Chill. Serve with crackers.

 

For cheese ball, increase cream cheese to 8 oz. and use less milk.  Chill.  Roll in chopped nuts and serve with crackers.

Mmmm…pumpkin muffins!

Prepare to taste the best pumpkin muffins ever.  I mean, ever!  I’ve tried many a pumpkin muffin and none compare.  Make them and let me know how they turn out!

Becky’s Pumpkin Muffins

3 eggs 
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1- 15 oz can solid pack pure pumpkin
3 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp baking soda
4 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Topping
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease two loaf pans or 24 large muffin cups. Combine the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin in a large bowl, and stir until smooth. In a medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients and the spices with a wire whisk. Add to the egg mixture and mix thoroughly. Fill the loaf pans or muffin cups with the batter.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl, and sprinkle over the bread or muffin batter. Bake the bread at 375 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or the muffins for 30-35 minutes.

Chicken Pot Pie

If I have one recipe that people ask me to make over and over again, it’s this one.  It’s that good.  Kristen and my other veggie-head friends- you can leave the chicken out and just add more veggies- broccoli would be good!

Becky’s Chicken Pot Pie

 

4 large potatoes, diced

½ c carrots, diced

½ onion, diced

1 container sliced mushrooms

1 boullion cube

2-3 cooked chicken breasts, diced

½ c frozen peas

1 small container sour cream

1 ½ c cheddar cheese

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 T parsley

1 T sage or thyme

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 Pillsbury pie crust in the biscuit section

1 tsp celery seed (not salt)

 

Put potatoes in a large pot. Add carrots, onion and mushrooms. Add enough water and a boullion cube to cover half of veggies. Cover and cook until tender.

 

Drain all but about a cup of the water.

Add chicken, frozen peas, sour cream, cheese, soup and seasonings.

Cook on med. Heat until the sauce is thick. If you need to add water you can.

 

While this is heating, put 1 pie crust in the bottom of a large round casserole. Prick the bottom and bake according to directions on box.

 

Pour pot pie mixture into pre-baked crust. Unfold the second crust and sprinkle celery seed onto the top. Push it into the raw crust. Put the crust on top of the pie, celery seed side down. Cut vent holes.

 

Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes. Put foil on the crust to prevent burning

I’m down to posting recipes

So, since I have no motivation for el bloggo, I figured I might as well post some recipes. I’ll add one any time I feel like it- you have to try it and let me know how it turned out! I’ll even give you some long handed down recipes!

The first recipe is Dave’s grandmother, Babs’ enchilada recipe. Babs is from Spain. I guess I say that because these are relatively authentic…and simple! Boy, do we miss Babs.

Babs’ Enchiladas

2 lbs ground beef or more depending on number of enchiladas
1 package Chorizo sausage (don’t leave out- it’s the secret!)
Chopped black olives
Green onions
Grated Cheddar cheese – sharp or extra sharp
Flour tortillas
Enchilada sauce (canned – big cans or about 4 little ones)

*Brown beef
*Add cooked chorizo to beef and mix well
*Warm tortillas to make them easier to fold.
*Put light layer of enchilada sauce in the bottom of baking pans
*Fill each tortilla with beef and chorizo mixture
*Add some chopped olives
*Add some chopped green onions
*Add some cheese (do not be stingy with the cheese)
*Fold sides of tortillas over mixture (you can use tooth pics to secure if too full. *Place enchiladas, folded side down in baking pan.
*Once baking pans are full with enchiladas, ladle enchilada sauce over all enchiladas.
*Cover enchiladas with grated cheese.
*Place aluminum foil over enchiladas
Bake 350 for 30-45 minutes, until hot
Extra enchilada sauce should be available when serving enchiladas

Enjoy!

My lovely weekend

Yes, I know it was 27 degrees at times, but my weekend was wonderful because my very best friend, Lesley and her little boy, Giovanni, came in town for 3 days.  We packed a lot into those three days!

First, I took off work on Friday and we went to The Flying Biscuit, my very favorite breakfast spot. I had my favorite- eggs on top of love cakes (black bean corn cakes) smothered in tomatillo sauce, sour cream and feta cheese, with a side of grits and flying biscuits with cranberry apple butter of course.

Lesley had her first fried green tomatoes, which were covered with goat cheese-yum!  G had oatmeal pancakes which had a very strange texture from the oatmeal, but were totally addicting!

Here is G in the restaurant.

Then, we headed over to Perimeter mall.  I haven’t been there in ages- it is so nice.  I was pretty peeved that they don’t have a Hollister.  I mean, really.  Who the heck doesn’t have a Hollister??  That was the main reason for me going to the mall- Christmas presents of Hollister t-shirts (on sale of course) for Jake.  But, finding my new favorite store, Anthropologie, made it all worth while.  I’ve decided that if I ever win the lottery, I’m just going to buy the whole store. 

After that, we head home to take the kids to their birthday dinner- Japanese steakhouse, of course.  Bailey turned 9 on the 13th and Jake turned 12 on Monday.  The kids had fun with the warm hand towels.

…about Dave’s head…I’ll just leave you with “stupid human trick” and you can use your own imagination…

This was Giovanni’s first time at a hibachi and I was kind of concerned.  I shouldn’t have been- he had a blast! This was the look on his face the whole night.

Our hibachi chef was quite funny.  He even posed for me!

I also had the best drink I’ve ever had.  Seriously.  You know how much I love lychees.  They are absolutely my favorite thing.  My favorite fruit, my favorite drink (which I can only find at the Asian market),  my favorite candy (again- Asian market only) my favorite flavor of all time.  Well, new to America is Soho Lychee Liquor.  Yee haw! They made a drink there with it and it was just lychee yumminess.  Next time I go, I’m making them give me the recipe. Here is the loveliness which is my new favorite beverage.

After that, we headed over to my mom and dad’s house to drop Jake off to spend the night.  They brought out their bin of ooooold McDonald’s toys and we all had fun. I think Lesley and I had more fun than the kids!

The next day we headed out to Stone Mountain Christmas.  Lesley just couldn’t get over how amazing Stone Mountain was!

It is pretty darn cool!

Here are my goofballs.

This would have been a cool Christmas card, had Jake not made a silly face.

After walking around the Christmas village for a little bit, we decide to go up the mountain on one of these.

Jake keeps telling me he doesn’t want to go up and can’t understand why he can’t just wait in the car.  LOL  By the time we get in line, he is hysterical- he is sobbing, hitting me and calling me an idiot.  Um, yeah.  My response?  Suck it up, be a man, you.are.going.on.the.skytram.  Here he is halfway up the mountain.

We made it to the top!

There is nothing like a sunset on top of a mountain!

Jake LOVED running around the top- it looks like the surface of the moon.

So, we’re ready to ride down and somehow, Jake talks Lesley into hiking down with him while Bailey and I take G town on the Skytram. Great idea, right?  Sure, the hike wasn’t bad.  But, the fact that it took them around the other side of the park and they had to walk miles back to the Christmas Village was just not in the plans.  So, an hour later, with wobbly legs, they finally find us!

And then my camera dies…

If you have kids and you haven’t gone to Stone Mountain Christmas yet, I recommend it.  The village is adorable, the Christmas Train ride was great, unfortunately we didn’t get to see the 4-D Polar Express, but we’ll get that next time.  The best part was the Snow Angel show at the end- fireworks, snow (soap suds) falling from the sky and a real flying Snow Angel- she was actually flying above us- held up by wires.  It was very cool!

The next day, they went home and I cried, as always.

Happy Birthday Mandi!

Mandi just turned 30.  Last year, the sisterchicks all went on a cruise for our 30th birthdays.  Since Mandi’s a little younger, we had to do a birthday bash, sisterchick style.  First,  Staci, brought her to the destination blindfolded! 

We took her to dinner at Bahama Breeze!  Get it?  Just like our cruise last year to the Bahamas! As you can see, we’re missing Mandy, whose dh had to work at the last minute.

After a scrumptious dinner, we headed out for another surprise.  We went to the Atlanta Cupcake Factory, whose website was just a tad bit misleading.  It was basically a hole in the wall with no place to sit! 

Disclaimer- here are my two favorite single gals, Staci & Kristen.  If you are a God-lovin, mature man, go ahead and check out their blogs! They’re both beautiful inside and out and would be a prize for any man!

Back to the hole in the wall… they did have lovely cupcakes!

The man working there brought out fresh ones for our little partay.

Here we are with our baked goodies.  You can see Amanda’s little bundle of joy, Asa, in the bottom left.  He was such a good baby!

So, we headed back into my van and asked Magellan to take us to the nearest Starbucks.  Luckily it was only 0.3 miles away.  Don’t these cupcakes look delicious?  Here are the flavors we chose: Pumpkin Latte, White Chocolate Cranberry, Double Chocolate, Sugar Cookie Nutella, Gingerbread Lemon, Chocolate Almond, and Caramel Apple. 

This is what the box looked like when we were done.

Here are some other pics I just couldn’t leave out.

Here is Mandi, who kept asking what a certain cupcake was! 

Happy birthday, friend!

Girls trip to Florida

I’m finally back to blogging, after a wonderful week in Florida visiting Lesley & Giovanni.  Here are some of the highlights from the trip.

Here is Bailey on her first flight.

Giovanni missed Bailey!  He wouldn’t let her hand go on the drive home.

The next morning, we quickly got in the pool.  Man, do I miss having a pool.

Imagine our surprise when Giovanni points to the corner of the screen and yells, Iguana!  Yep, an iguana has decided to spend it’s days in the screened in pool.

You know me and spiders.  I am facinated by them.  I was so happy to see what we, as kids, called crab spiders. Tell me these aren’t cool.

Then, we headed to the beach.

 

That night, we went to the local Elks lodge to play BINGO.  I said to our table, “I just need an I-19.” Within a few seconds the caller said, “I-19″ and our table errupted in screams! Here I am with my winning ticket and my $50.

The next evening we took the kids to Clematis by Night, a really cool thing they do on Clematis St. in West Palm Beach.  There is a live band, food vendors and fountains.

That night, I hear all this noise in the kitchen- I thought it was Lesley.  Nope, it was Howie, the dog getting into trouble.  Yep, that’s a garbage can lid around his neck.

The next day we send Giovanni to daycare and we walked around Delray Beach. Here are some pics of Bailey in front of some cool trees.

 

That night, we went to sit by the water, play in a park and eat at my favorite pub.

Here is Bay being silly with her yummy pub food.

Bailey & Giovanni had to pose in front of the funny statue in the pub.

Next was the fabulous Lion Country Safari.  It was hot, but it was fun!

First, you go on a drive through safari.  We saw all kinds of animals, from elephants, to ostriches, zebra and monkeys.  Then, you walk through a zoo like area and then a small water world.

Our favorite thing was to feed the giraffes and the birds.

Bailey also enjoyed playing with Matilda the snake at Lesley’s house.

Back to the beach it is.  There were sea turtle nests everywhere.  They were huge areas with signs posted warning you not to disturb them.  Very cool stuff.

There’s nothing like a sunset at the beach.

Our last night there, we went and had dinner at Lesley’s parents house.  First, we had to drive by the house I grew up in.  It was strange because they had made the whole left side of the lot into a nursery, so it looked so small.

Bailey’s looking for tadpoles in the pond.

Lesley, Giovanni & Annie in the pool.

We had a fabulous time!

It’s all about the free food

Dress like a cow, get free food?  Enough said!

We were greeted with the sound of employees ringing cow bells. They then took multiple pictures of us and then let us pick anything off the menu! We got $24 worth of lunch- for free! Yay Chick-Fil-A!null

My new obsession

Bento boxes and Bollywood.  What the heck?  What are these two “b” words? 

Bento boxes are a lunch box system used in Japan. Here in the US, they are primarily called laptop lunches.  Look at this fabulous, and environmentally friendly lunchbox!

Here is a more traditional bento box, as used in Japan.

Our school lunches are so unhealthy, so I’m going to really, really try to make the kids lunches this year.  Now all I have to do is convince Dave to let me spend $70 on two lunchboxes!!! 

Look at all these yummy lunch ideas! 

Can you stand it?

Now for Bollywood.  What is this Bollywood, you say?  Bollywood is the Hindi-language based film industry in India.  I’ve always been intrigued by the dancing and the stories- it’s so beautiful.  I LOVED watching the first Bollywood dance on So You Think You Can Dance tonight!  I thought that Katee and Joshua did an amazing job!  They were just so fabulous in such a hard genre.  I can’t wait to see more from that choreographer.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  The dance starts at 1:19 on the video.