More yummy recipes

Hi friends! I have to apologize. Life got the better of me and I haven't even looked at my blog in a few weeks. I feel like there is someone sitting in their kitchen right now with a spoon and an empty spoon just starving, waiting for something to cook! Here are three recipes that I love. One I'm making today. It's called Sloppy Guiseppes. It is a great Italian take on sloppy joes. It's easy and yummy. I mixed it up after church today and I'm just letting it sit in the crockpot and get all good and yummy before dinner tonight.

Sloppy Guiseppes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds ground (1/2 pork sausage and 1/2 ground pork)
  
• 1 tablespoon fennel seed
• 3 tablespoons California chili powder
• 1 tablespoon New Mexico chili powder
• salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 (28-ounce) Crushed tomatoes
  
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• beef broth, thinning sauce ( don't think you need any)
  
• 6 large Kaiser buns
  

Directions

In a large bowl, mix together the sausage meat, fennel seed, chili powders, and salt and pepper, to taste. In a large skillet over medium heat cook the sausage mixture until browned. Remove it from the pan and set aside; drain off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat from the skillet.

Return the skillet to medium heat and add the onions and garlic. Cook until the onions are soft, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add the red wine. Stir in the tomato paste, pureed tomatoes, and dried oregano. Bring the mixture to a boil and add the cooked sausage. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. If mixture is too thick, thin it with a little broth or water.

The next recipe is for soup, which is what I love to make on a day like today. This soup is yummy and delicious and pretty easy to make too.

Pablano Chicken Chowder

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 large carrots, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 2 large onions, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 5 stalks celery, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/8 cup minced garlic
• 2 to 3 small poblano peppers. (I grill them first then seed and skin them. It makes them nice and smokey)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin, or more to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, or more to taste
• 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon granules
• 3 quarts chicken broth
• 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro leaves, minced
• 3 cups diced (large pieces) grilled chicken(Once again, I like to season with Tony Cachere's first and then grill. It really adds flavor to the soup!)
  
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce, or more to taste
• 1 cup heavy cream

Directions

Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the carrots, onions, celery, garlic, poblano peppers, salt, white pepper, cumin, and thyme. Saute for 7 to 8 minutes, or until the vegetables begin to soften. Stir in the chicken bouillon. Add the chicken broth and cilantro, and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the carrots are tender. Stir in the chicken and cook, stirring frequently, until the chowder is thick and the chicken is heated through.

The last part, I don't do. You can but I don't like flour in my soups. So if you want it real thick you can do this last portion. I just plop some butter in there for flavor and call it good! :)

Shortly before the chowder is done, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the flour and stir to combine. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3 to 4 minutes to cook the flour. Do not allow the mixture to brown! Ladle 1 cup of the hot liquid from the stockpot into the skillet, whisking constantly.

When the first cup of liquid is incorporated, add another 2 cups of liquid, 1 at a time. Pour the mixture in the skillet into the stockpot, whisking to blend. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3 to 5 minutes longer, or until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the hot sauce, then the cream, and serve.

This recipe was given to me by my friend Jeff who brought me a meal after my surgery a few years ago. Let me just say that there is nothing like a good brown gravy to get a girl out of bed and on the road to healing! I wish I could say the gravy was homemade, but alas, it isn't. It is so easy it makes me feel guilty when I take this dish to people! :)

Salsbury Steaks

Combine 1 lb ground pork, 1/2 cup bread crumbs and an egg. (I'm guesstimating because I make this with no recipe)

Shape into patties and grill until both sides show marks and are slightly done...not done all the way. After that place in a baking dish. Prepare PIONEER brown gravy mix as directed, HOWEVR, omit about 1/4 cup of the water used and replace it with RED WINE. I'm tellin' ya, this makes it! Pour one can of sliced canned mushrooms over the patties, then pour the gravy over that and bake it in the oven at about 350 for 30 minutes or until the gravy is bubbly.

QUICK COOKING SUGGESTION: Try buying the meatballs already cooked at the store in the frozen section and cooking them in the crockpot on low all day with the gravy and mushrooms!

serve with:

Everything Mashed Potatoes

In a bowl place one container of Country Crock Garlic Mashed potatoes, heat in the microwave for 4 minutes or until warm. Add 1/2 brick of cream cheese, and 1 cup of cheddar cheese. Stir well until all is combined. Place in a baking dish and then lay some precooked bacon over the top. Bake at 350 for 20 -30 minutes until cooked all the way through.

Fudge Pie and Coffe Cake Recipes

Here are two recipes I wanted to pass on to you. They both look yummy and easy but I haven't made them yet. They could be good recipes for company. You could freeze the coffee cake and pull it out when company arrives. Enjoy!

Fudge Pie
2 squares (2 ounces) semisweet chocolate
½ cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
One 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Remove the pan from the heat and add the sugar, then the eggs; beat well. Pour the filling into the pie crust and bake for 25 minutes. Serve warm or cold, with ice cream or whipped cream or by itself.
(I use a store bought crust and pre-bake it for about 5 minutes on 400 degrees. Then while baking the pie I tent the edge of the pie crust so it does not overbrown.)

Yummy, Yummy Coffee Cake
½ cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sour cream
2 cups flour
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
½ t salt
Topping
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 t cinnamon (I generally add a little more of each for more of this mixture)

Cream butter and sugar together then add eggs and sour cream. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix wet and dry together until incorporated. Spread ½ the batter in a 9 x 13 pan which has been sprayed with Pam. Sprinkle ¾ topping over batter. Carefully spread remaining batter then sprinkle remaining topping. Bake 325 degrees for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Enjoy!

Easy, Tastey Crockpot Pork Chops

Okay. This recipe is for Natalie. I told her I would give a real easy, yummy crockpot recipe.

Take as many pork chops as you want and place them in your crockpot, season with salt and pepper...I like to use Cavender's seasoning. Then place an onion slice on each pork chop, followed by generous slices of Sharp Cheddar cheese that covers each chop. Cover with a can of Cream of Mushroom soup and cook until done. If you have a lot of chops, you may want to do 2 cans.

It is very, very yummy! The gravy and soppin' good! :)

Ham and Cheese Quiche

A few years ago I went with friends to Salado. There the B&B owners served a wonderful quiche. It was light and fluffy and I could pretty much figure out what most of the ingredients were from eating a slice. I tried to find a recipe that was just like it after that. This is what I came up with. Unlike most egg casseroles or quiches, this only calls for 3 eggs! It's the fact that you beat the egg whites first and fold them into the remaining mixture that creates volume and makes it so light and fluffy. It's great! I use Mrs. Smith's frozen pie shells. They are delicious!

Ingredients:

3 eggs separated
1 cup chopped ham
1 cup grated Monterey - Colby cheese
4 oz cream cheese
Pie crust

Beat egg whites. Mix together cream cheese and egg yokes. Add ham, Monterrey Jack cheese. Fold in egg whites pour into pie crust. Bake 350 for 35 min.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I have given this recipe verbally to many people so here it is in print. It is one I made up but it is the one my family requests the most.

First, I get the pre-made pizza crusts at Wal-Mart in the pasta section...the crust Mama something. The package is purple and it is a thin, honey wheat crust. So this recipe makes two pizzas, but it will be gone in no time! :)

You will need:

2 Mama Pizza crusts
1 bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce (this is the best for this pizza.)
2 packages of sliced Muenster Cheese. It is buttery and full of flavor
1 package of pre-cooked bacon
1 jalepeno - fresh (this is for the adult pizza)
4 grilled chicken breasts, thinly sliced(I season mine with Tony Cachere's seasoning and grill but you can buy it precooked to save time.)

Brush the crusts with oilve oil, top with BBQ sauce, just enough to cover the crust...don't go overboard. :) Top with chicken, bacon strips, cheese (be generous!) and sliced fresh jalepenos for the adults pizza.

Pop it in the oven that has been heated to 400 degrees. Bake for about 10 - 12 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and done. Enjoy! ;)

EASY cookies

Girlz! This recipe is so easy that Tate made it for the fair himself this year! He got a blue ribbon, so we can safely call these "blue ribbon cookies". It is a Rachel Ray recipe, so here is the link. I will say that I did half white chocolate chips and half semi sweet and it tasted better. This is an easy cookie you can do with your kids but it tastes gourmet! ;)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/macadamia-coconut-cookie-bars-recipe2/index.html

Taco Soup

Here is a great recipe for Taco Soup. It's a Paula Deen recipe, so I'm putting the direct link to the soup here. I read the reviews and tooks some suggestions from the readers and added 1 extra packet of Ranch and one extra packet of taco seasoning. I think making it with half pork sausage would be tastey too! :) I would make it all and then just put it on low in the crock pot all day for ease. It is super tastey and makes a ton! It is great if you are taking a dish to someone. Stephanie R. this one is for you. :)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/taco-soup-recipe/index.html

I'm going to school!

Hi, ladies,
Well, today is my first day back at school in....18 years. Most of you know that my previous profession was court reporting. It was something I hated from the very beginning and hopefully one day I will complete school and have a new field to go into.

I think this should lend itself for some pretty funny stories...can't wait! I am going today for my first class in pre-algebra..and, no, it doesn't count for one darned college credit! I acutally tested into intermediate algebra but I used an old testing tactic of mine and did random A,B,C,D when I got down to the questions I didn't know the answers to! It worked but I accidentally placed myself above my own capability level. So, I have decided to go all the way back to the beginning of that one because chances are I can't do the random A,B,C,D on test for the rest of my life!

Wish me luck! It will be me and a room of 18 year olds..and I'm technically old enough to be their mother. :)

Barbeque Roasted Salmon

Okay. This isn't necessarily a "make ahead" meal but it is an easy way to prepare a nice dish.

marinate for salmon for 1 hour in 1/4 cup pineapple juice and 1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice. (If you over marinate fish it will become mushy and fall apart)

I do this part on the grill but you can do it in an oven. Remove the salmon from the marinade and discard the marinade. If you are preparing in the oven, spray a baking dish with cooking spray.

Mix together: 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 4 teaspoons of chili powder, 2 teaspoons of grated lemon rind, 3/4 teaspoon of ground cumin and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. (I know this sounds like an odd combination, but it is tastey!)

Place the salmon in your grilling basket or on the grill, or in your baking dish. Top with with the brown sugar mixture, rubbing it into the salmon. Bake @ 400 for about 12 minutes or until the fish flakes easily and is done. Test it in the thickest part of the salmon.

I serve this with roasted red potatoes and asparagus.

Yummo Tortellini Salad

If your kids like pasta like mine do...and salami..and cheese, then hopefully they will like this pasta salad.

Mix together:
10 oz of cheese tortellini, cooked and drained, cooled (rinse with cold water). Girls, don't overdo pasta, especially when you are putting it in a salad...it becomes mushy.
1/4 cup chopped, fresh parsley
1/4 lb Salami, you can do anything you want here...proscuitto, genoa salami, pepperoni, make it fun!
1/4 lb havarti cheese, cubed (I love this stuff!)
1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced (that way the kids don't notice it as much!)
1/3 cup black olives sliced...I can never have enough of these!
2 green onions, thinly sliced. Toss with homemade dressing, ez, 3 T red wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon dried basil, 1 teaspoon dijon mustard, 1/4 teaspoon coarsley ground black pepper, one clove of minced garlic (if you are using the minced garlic from a jar, I'd say a teaspoon) 1/2 cup virgin olive oil. Blend well, (you could shake it up in a jar), pour over the salad and let it refridgerate for at least an hour. If you make it more than 3 hours before serving, save 1/2 of the dressing to toss the salad with right before serving. :)

Two Easy Make-Ahead Recipes for Jaisy

My friend Jaisy, wanted to easy, make-ahead recipes for when she and her kids come home. Here they are:

Crockpot Chicken Tacos

Take 4 chicken breasts and place in the crockpot with a package of taco seasoning, if the chicken is frozen you don't need to add too much water. If they are fresh, you can add about a 1/4 cup. Serve with soft or hard taco shells and garnish as you desire.

This next one is a bit tastier and Yummy! You can serve it over rice, noodles or in a tortilla with cheddar cheese and all the fixins!:

Easy Shredded Beef over Rice
Rub both sides of a 4 lb boneless top chuck roast with Fajita seasoning, and then sear on all sides in a frying pan with olive oil. Place in a crockpot with the following over it:
2-14 oz cans of Rotel tomatoes
2 cups of beef broth
1 can of green chilies.
Cover, and cook until the beef pulls apart with a fok easily. Shred with a fork and serve over rice with reserved liquid. You may want to skim some of the fat off the top of the liquid before serving.

Biscuits and Gravy

One of Blythe's favorite meals is Biscuits and Gravy. We made this today and it took minutes. I could give you some long, drawn out recipe for the biscuits but then that would defeat the purpose of giving you a simple recipe that can be made quickly.
I love Pioneer Baking Mix! It makes great biscuits. I would recommend buying that and then preparing according to directions. I would change two things:

One make it with Buttermilk! It makes a world of difference. Two, melt butter and dip your biscuits in the melted butter BEFORE placing on the baking sheet. I'd also say take the extra minute to roll out the dough, fold over, and make the dough a little thicker and then use a glass to cut your biscuits. Please don't use canned biscuits. :()

Gravy: I love Jimmy Dean Silver Label sausage..I think it's sage. Fry that yummy stuff up in a metal frying pan. No teflon. Once it is fried, sprinkle in 2 tablespoons, max, of flour. Stir it in with the cooked sausage until you can't even tell there is flour in there. Sprinkle some Lawry's seasoning salt in to taste. Go easy. Now, fry that for a minute. It will kind of brown everything and make it all good...only a minute or two. Next, pour in your liquid. I like to go half half and half and half milk, but today I did all half and half. I'd say about two cups. I guesstimate. Scrape all of those tastey bits off the bottom of the pan. Let it simmer until it just begins to thicken...if your simmer it too long it will just thicken, and thicken and thicken.

Serve with your biscuits. I love hot sauce over mine! Enjoy!

10 Things I learned at Hawaiian Falls today..or more

We took the kids to Hawaiian Falls today...I was dreading it but really it wasn't that bad. I learned a lot from my time there today. I'd like to share what I learned with the rest of you:

1. They do make Lee Press-On Nails for toes.
2. Although there is an ample amount of beautiful clean, clorinated water, children enjoy playing in stagnant cest pools of runoff water for some reason.
3. A tattoo, though it may look good in concept and on paper, doesn't carry over as well to the human skin.
4. The Lazy River is not conducive to swimming and making out at the same time. No, I didn't try it! But I FLOATED OVER several people who were. Needless to say, I will have involuntary dreams/nightmares about that for nights to come.
5. If you are young and considering getting the word "SINNER" in flames tattooed right above your booty...think about this, if your child is lost or loses you that is what some person is going to be looking for when they return your child to you..if they choose to return your child to you after seeing that!
6. The hospital is not the only place you can get a water enema. You can also get on on the Orange Typhoon slide.
7. They make bikinis on all sizes, those sizes may not cover all necessary body parts. If they don't they make these handy lycra, see-through skin-tight body tube top covers to cover up, yet still show, all that lies between.
8. Back fat doesn't qualify as a breast, however it can be contained in your swimming top. as a breast.
9. I have decided nipple rings HAVE TO BE as painful as they look.
10. Why on God's Green Earth would any self-respecting woman tattoo two cherries at the very top, of her inside thigh?!

Coming this weekend..when I have free time

Recipes I hope to post this weekend for those of you who want quick and easy. Salsbury steak with mushroom gravy and everything mashed potatoes, Tortellini Salad, Crockpot Chicken tacos..super ez, and my BBQ chicken pizza recipe. Yummo. :)

Banana Caramel Cake

This one is for you, Leslie! I love this cake. It is a great "company" cake...easy and impressive. You can literally just throw all of the cake ingredients in the bowl, mix and bake. The frosting is quick, but a tad bit tricky...but yummy! It's like a praline sauce, is the best way to describe it. I'm making this cake for book club tonight. Here's the recipe...photo to follow.

Banana Caramel Cake

Mix together:
1 box of yellow cake mix
2 bananas
3 eggs
1/2 cup of oil
1 cup of water
2 teaspoons of Banana liqour (this makes it)
1/2 cup of BROWN sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I'm not a cinnamon person. I leave it out)

Pour into two greased and floured layer 9" cake pans. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven, let cool, remove from pans. Pour frosting over first layer, and then top layer...let it drip down the sides...yummo.
Frosting:
Melt 1 stick of butter and 1/2 cup of brown sugar in a sauce pan. Cook to boiling (2 min). Add the milk, stir and bring the mixture back to a boil, then remove the pan from the heat. Add the confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Beat with a wooden spoon until the frosting is smooth.
If it hardens while you are frosting, simply reheat to soften. You can top it with pecans also, if you like.

NOTE: The hardest part is to not curdle the milk when you add cold milk, into hot butter. I would let the milk stand at room temp, and also you need to first add a tiny bit (I believe it's called tempering) to bring the temperature of the hot butter down. If you immediately pour all of the milk in at once, it could curdle. Always stir too! :)

Enjoy.

I hope you grow up and have a child just like you.

When I was young, my mother used to say...probably about five times a day, I hope you have a child just like you, when you grow up. She was wishing all of her motherhood suffering on me because I was one of those kids that probably made her rethink the 9 months of pregnancy and hours of labor on a daily basis. If it could be broken, opened, damaged or destroyed, I did it. Some of the highlights on my childhood resume of destruction were: Eating the beak off my grandmother's wax Avon bird (didn't quite have that lemony taste I had imagined), squirting shaving cream all over our glass storm windows in our two story house after my parents had spent the entire weekend windexing them all and placing them on the house for winter...that was a bugger hanging out of the window onto the roof while trying to hold a shaving cream bottle in my hand, I put the truck in gear when my dad wasn't in it with me and ran it into the ditch...when I was probably 4, I took every single bottle out of the medicine cabinet one night and pour it all in the sink and then stood back hoping for an eruption the size of Mt. St. Helens to go off...unfortunately, it didn't! I write on my mom's brick fireplace with a ballpoint pen...brick is hard to write on! One time, I channeled Angie Dickinson in Policewoman and hopped over our loveseat with my funky fringe purse, pulled out my pair of handy needlenose pliers, I had no doubt stolen from my dad's tool box, and clipped the cord to the clock hanging on the wall. There were two things I didn't take into consideration before I pulled that one off...that it was plugged in, and my arm would receive a slight tingling and electrocution, and two that it would no longer tell time anymore...a sure sign I had been in the room! I poured the milk I didn't want to drink into my mom's house plants. I stole candy from the grocery store when I was about 5, my Grandpa was the County Sheriff, so I was promptly marched right back in and had to return what I hadn't already eaten. I think the crunching sound in the car gave me away on that one. I tried to eat an entire bottle of children's vitamins....those really do make for some healthy yet tastey candy! You know, there really are so many more that I can't even list...but my mom could.

Well, ladies, it happened! I had a just kid like me. Her name is Blythe! Now, I can report that my ficus tree that is actually fake looks DEAD because she tore all of the leaves off of it. My dining room chandelier hangs 3 inches lower than it used to because she tried swinging from it. My floral arrangements no longer have cute little berries on them because she picked them all off! Some of my Christmas balls no longer have necks because she bit them off...yes, they were glass...She wrote all over my LEATHER chair with a pink highlighter. One day I found her in my car in the garage with it turned on! I won't even go into the "diaper wall art" she attempted when she was still in her crib. She cut her curtains with scissors. And other things that I am just too old and worn out to list.

However, the ironic part comes here. She has also broken my mom's computer, screwed up her answering machine, probably done some things she still hasn't even discovered yet and recently lost one of her rings. She's given my mom ten places to look where it might be. My runs and looks and then calls back to say it's not there either. And when my mom complains, I just think....Hmmm, looks like you accidentally wished your daughter on yourself! :)

Poppy Seed Tea Bread with Orange Glaze

Makes 2 loaves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Bring 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of orange juice and 2 tsp grated orange zest to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Set aside to cool and thicken. (If you don't want to do this, just melt orange marmalade in the microwave. I've done that before)

Blend 3 1/3 cups flour, 4 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, set aside. Using a mixer, beat 2 1/3 cups sugar, 1 2/3 cups oil (I always use canola), 3 eggs, 2 teaspoons almond extract, until pale and yellow and thick, (5min). Gradually add your dry ingredients, alternating with 1 2/3 cups whole milk. Stir in 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds. Divide batter between two pans. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. After the bread is done and you have removed it from the oven, use wooden skewers to poke holes in the bread and pour the orange glaze over both. Let the bread cool completely before you remove them from the pans.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Pumpkin Bread
Mix together all of the following:

3 1/2 cups flour
3 cups sugar (or you can half it to 1 1/2 cups)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg (if you don't have all of these spices, sometimes I just use pumpkin pie spice, which is a blend of spices and it tastes great. I'd use at least 2-3 teaspoons)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons allspice
1 cup oil (or you can half it to 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup applesauce for lower fat)
16 oz of canned pumpkin (this could be equal to 2 cups)
2/3 cup water
4 eggs
It also calls for raisins, which I don't like. You can add them if you like them. You might try soaking them in rum first for a nice flavor.
Mix well, put in to 2 greased loaf pans bake at 350 for 1 hour. THIS MAKES 2 LOAVES.

PUMPKIN BREAD

Well, ladies, here it is, as promised, my "not so perfect" pumpkin bread. I can say that because minutes after taking it out of the oven Blythe grabbed a large piece out of the top which assured me a "not so perfect" photo. :) Anyway, Let me start by saying this is such an easy recipe. I can't say enough about stand mixers, if you have one. This is one of those recipes where you dump every thing in and turn on the beater and let it go! :) I am going to give you the regular recipe and then the exchanges I did. I tried taking out 1/2 of the oil and replacing it with applesauce. I read up on this first and found that complete taking out the oil would make it too rubbery. Then I cut the sugar in half. I once read that in most recipes you can cut the sugar in half and the taste will remain the same. The bread was a bit more dense but my kids gobbled it up just the same, so I guess it was good. You may try the regular recipe first to see how you like it and then later on try the revised version.

I love to make this in the winter and fall and take it to people when we visit then. I think I have given it to some of you also. I don't like a dry quick bread, so what I do is when it is just still a bit warm I place it in a large Ziploc bag for storage. It holds the moisture in from the heat and makes it moist...some people don't like, so it is at your discretion. I'm also including a great recipe my friend LeeAnn gave me a long time ago for a lemon poppy seed bread. The topping you pour over this when it is warm really makes it great! It is so yummy. I'm making that tomorrow. Enjoy! ;)

Coming up this weekend

I am going to attempt to make my regular pumpkin bread recipe with applesauce instead of oil. and I will take pictures..with my little digital camera! :) I also am making a wonderful lemon poppy seed bread that is definitely fattening but good for company. ;)

Funky perms and all that stuff!

Well, it's 4 a.m. and I woke up with a bad case of insomnia! Happens sometimes...anyway, I looked and I have three loyal followers! So I figure I have to write something for them! And, no, it isn't my mom signing on 3 times! :)

So I was driving past a high school the other day and the sign said, "Orientation August 14th at 9 a.m." I thought, "Man, I wish I could go back to high school." Am I the only weirdo that feels that way? I enjoyed high school so much that I didn't want to leave even when I did. I will admit that high school, for me, maybe had a different meaning than for some of you. It was totally social...I know, it shocks you all! But the whole studying and homework thing, no. I didn't really catch on to that until after high school. My days were built around the first day of school...should I get the new Trapper Keeper? What would my first-day-of-school outfit look like? How would I decorate my locker? Should I leave the Rocky/Sylvester Stallone photos up to go with something else this year? Then it was on to football season and what we would do after the games! I loved the smell of school on that first day. I loved picking out school supplies...not that I used them that much once I got to school, but I loved the idea of it! :)

But then I started remembering about all of those first days from years past. My elementary school years and the first weeks of school were chronicled on the infamous school photos. My mother thought she had mastered the art of perms...not! So, in her wisdom, she would administer "THE PERM" right before we started school. Ladies, let me speak for all small children when I say, Do Not Try the Home Perm! It is one of the freak of natures that no woman can control and it always turns out much more "lively" than one can imagine!

So in at least one or more of my school photos there I am...all hair! Then there was the hairdo that I was responsible for...I tried to find this picture last night but couldn't. I was going to post it. The "I'm going to cut my own bangs photo". Needless to say, after I was done my bangs were about a quarter of an inch long...and that is being generous. I had a great cover story for that when I went back to school but I don't think anyone bought the "I told my hairdresser I wnated no bangs and this is what she gave me!"

There it was...documented in a school photo. Then there was the "I'm going to try foundation" photo. I looked like I had been through a Max Factor, No. 3, bronze dust storm!! Not good at all! I'm sure we all have these photos laying around somewhere..and when I find mine I will happily share.

Does anyone else remember these bad hair days like I do? Am I the only person that the smell of perming solution still sends me into frantics I can't explain! Have you not sat in the kitchen of your childhood home before, hair all tightly bound in perming rods, while your mom relishes in the joy of living out her lifelong dream of becoming a cosmetologist on your head!? Then came the curling solution and it would drip down the sides of the wonderfully NON-absorbant towel she would give me, which was reinforced with a nice long wad of cotton strung all the way around my head! And then, behold, the reveal, where I would look in the mirror at the style I'd been given to live with for the next six months until it grew out!

SO WHAT IS MY BLOG ABOUT???

So this is where I decide what will my blog be about. What is it I'm blogging about? At first, my inspiration came from a movie I saw last night...you all guessed it...Julie and Julia! I loved that movie! LOVED IT! I am a foodie at heart..love food, love making food, love reading about food, and definitely love eating food! You all know the story. The girl went through Julia Child's cookbook making each recipe in 365 days. Hmmm. Can I do that? NOT! I have two kids people! I'm not even going to try.

So then I got on other food blogs. HAVE YOU SEEN THESE THINGS?! Are these people professionals? The first one I viewed was completely intimidating! This girl takes cakes, bakes them and then takes pictures of them that rival those of a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit photoshoot! The cakes are perfect, the lighting is perfect, the setting is perfect. What the heck!? I cannot compete with that! Some of the things that come out of my kitchen look perfect...once a year or so. My food tastes good. I'm a good cook. But if you think that I'm going to set a slice of cake on a beautiful plate, with a pink background, prop up a light, get out my camera and photograph it to the point where it looks like it came out of a test kitchen, it's not gonna happen.

Therefore, I decided the theme of my blog will be "I'm not THAT Perfect!" My life is a series of imperfections. I embrace that. It is who I am. As a wife, mother and daughter of divorced parents and grandparents, I acknowledge that my life isn't and never was perfect. I can say for many women out there that the notion of perfection is intimidating....to the point where we don't even want to try! Well, I'm going to try! Because I know that NO ONE is perfect and the sooner we all wrap our minds around that the better!

If I make a cake and it looks average, you're gonna see it! I burn chicken on the grill quite often because I forgot it, the kids started fighting, and I had to go throw in a new load of laundry,and then next thing I know my grill is on fire. That did happen. That is another story in and of itself. It is what it is! Guess what!? I'm going to take a picture of that burnt chicken so that every other woman out there that just messed up that night's dinner won't feel so bad! I will cut off the burnt part and put it on the table! Because I'm not THAT perfect! :)

All hyped up on coffee!

Okay. Easy part is over....signing in to a blog! It is obvious it am a child of the 80's, just having discovered the Internet at the age of 30...ten years ago...I couldn't even figure out how to continue to post blogs on my new blog! I have viewed my own profile twice now, not realizing that I was signing in as a "viewer". So I guess at this point, I am my own best friend!

My poor co-worker! I came in this morning all hyped up on coffee with all of my new blog ideas and the things I couldn't wait to write about and do and 2 minutes and 5,000 words later she just sat there staring at me in complete bafflement...is that a word? Well, I just made it one!

I get like that after a very large, espresso strength coffee...and people it is ESpresso, not EXpresso. Big pet peeve of mine. Anyway, once I have that first cup of coffee on an empty stomach, look out, my mind is racing at a speed that even my mouth can't keep up with!

Wow! That was easy!

My Aunt and I have this thing going...we're going to start our own blogs! How hard can it be, right? I called her last night and challenged her for us to each come up with our own blog ideas. We have ideas all the time...we solve world issues all the time and we love to go on and on talking on the phone like the self-proclaimed experts we are about inventions that we have or had until someone else came up with it and made a million dollars and not us!

So I challenged her to start a blog. We love to write, we love to talk...no brainer, Blog! I just did this in like, oh, two minutes, so if I can do it, she can too! It was easy!

I have to run to work now...I always seem to get on the computer and then an hour later realize that my hair isn't dried, no makeup and I'm running late getting out the door! So I will check in later with the idea and theme of my blog!