Just Keep Talkin'

Going Casein Free

2012-02-18T14:28:00.008-05:00

Good afternoon readers! I hope you all are having a great weekend so far. It is so quiet in our house, Tim is working (it is tax season after all), Anna is at grandma's, and Monkey Boy is asleep on the couch. Time to update the blog!

We have started Camden on a casein free (or CF) diet. We took him to a doctor in Charleston, SC in December to get some answers regarding his autism and see if there was anything we could do to help his behavior. We did some lab tests and Camden has a sensitivity to casein, the protein found in milk products, and this is not unusual in children with autism. Thank you Lord this is his only food sensitivity and we're not looking at a gluten free, soy free, yeast free, etc. diet.

It has been relatively easy to stick with this CF diet. Tim and went to the swanky new Earth Fare store in Huntersville and I bought some Dayia non-dairy/vegan mozzarella cheese since Monkey Boy loves his cheese quesadillas! The cheese is actually pretty good and doesn't taste weird, like I'm eating chemicals. It melts too!

I always do a special dessert for Valentine's Day and since most baked goods were out of the question due to Camden's CF diet, I bought two containers of Haagen-Daz sorbet, which is not made with milk. Aren't they cute?

I bought Mango and Raspberry and they are both AWESOME! The mango reminds me of summertime and I love the color of the raspberry. Camden loves them too, we have a few bites after supper every night. I'll be on the lookout for different flavors, the peach and strawberry flavors sound delicious.

I've had to study the school breakfast and lunch menus closer now and sometimes I have to send his food to school. Did you know that Pop-Tarts and Cheerios are not made with milk? I'm so glad Camden is a good eater and he loves to drink almond milk.

If any of you all want more information about the doctor we saw in Charleston or more specifics about the CF diet, just send me an e-mail mbsmith@tntie.com.

Have a great week everybody!
XOXO,
Melissa

Awesome rice recipe! Must try!

2012-02-04T13:32:00.010-05:00

Good afternoon readers! It's a rainy, dreary day here in NC. Camden & I went shopping at Wal-Mart with Mom & Dad this morning and it was crazy. Lots of people buying food for their Super Bowl parties. We, however, were in search of great buys on summer clothes for Camden. Mom had scoped out the clearance rack earlier in the week and they had a good selection of boy's short sleeve shirts and sets for $3 - $5! Camden racked up! I even got him two long sleeve shirts for $3 each. So check out your local W-M for good deals on clearance.

As you all know, we love Mexican food. We have chicken quesadillas once a week, if not more often. When we go out to eat at a Mexican restaurant, I always get rice as a side item (and guacamole too). I was in search of "real Mexican rice" since the boxed kind at the grocery store just wasn't the same. I found this great recipe at food.com and it is a keeper! The secret is to rinse your rice before cooking. Who knew!

The recipe is kind of involved but if I can cook it without burning the rice to a crisp, you can too. Tim (a.k.a. Mr. Picky Rice Eater) loved it and went back for seconds, maybe even thirds! For the sake of taking up blog space, here's
the link. I cooked it in a Lodge cast iron Dutch oven and I used a 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes since fresh ones aren't in season.

Y'all have a great weekend and stay warm!
XOXO,
Melissa

Weekly recap!

2012-01-28T09:53:00.013-05:00

Happy weekend everyone! Here is what we've been up to the past week.

It has been unseasonably warm here in NC. There has been no snow or ice and barely any frost this winter. We live NW of Charlotte and we usually get some snow in January. I like snow, but I don't like the disruption it causes since you can bet that on a snow day, schools will be called off but I have to work! I have a snowman flag outside and it looks so strange to have it out when the thermometer is showing 65 degrees, the kids are playing outside, and I hear a lawn mower running!

Anna said something cute the other day. We were cleaning out her closet and she took out a black turtleneck. I asked if she wanted to keep it and she said "No, I'd look like a female Steve Jobs if I wore it!" She is a mess.

Camden has been saying "bye" and waving consistently instead of making the sign for "please". This is a huge step for him as he is autistic and non-verbal. His speech teacher said he would most likely learn speech as whole words-like "bye"-instead of phonetically like "b b" then "ba" then "bye".

I am the new Children with Special Needs forum moderator on a local mommies forum that covers 3 counties. I hold the same title on another similar forum but this one is just for Lincoln County moms. I'm excited to help other moms with similar situations and to learn from them. Parental support is key when you are parenting a child with special needs.

In Lilly news, I scored an awesome dress from the Re-Lilly group on Facebook for $25! I can't wait to wear it this summer. The print is Chilean Avenue.

In the latest issue of Southern Living, they had a recipe for Pimiento Cheese Rolls. I might give these a try for our next employee birthday breakfast. What do you think?

1 25 oz. pkg. frozen Southern style biscuits (Pillsbury Southern Style Grands is what the SL kitchen used)
All-purpose flour
2 cups pimiento cheese (which I will purchase from the deli)

1. Arrange frozen biscuits, with sides touching, in 3 rows of 4 biscuits on a lightly floured surface. Let stand 30 to 45 minutes or until biscuits are thawed but cool to the touch.
2. Sprinkle thawed biscuits lightly with flour. Press biscuit edges together, and pat to form a 10- x 12-inch rectangle of dough; spread evenly with Pimiento Cheese.
3. Roll up, starting at one long end; cut into 12 (about 1-inch-thick) slices. Place one slice into each of 12 lightly greased 3-inch muffin pan cups.
4. Bake at 375° for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly, and remove from pan.

Have a great weekend everybody!
XOXO,
Melissa

What's Going On? + A Recipe!

2012-01-22T10:34:00.010-05:00

Greetings readers! How's everyone doing? Here's a recap of what we've been up too.

The tooth fairy has been quite busy at our house, Camden lost both his two front teeth within a week. Anna lost a tooth too. Camden looks cute with the "window" in his mouth.

I decided to try Netflix since they offer your first month free plus a ton of Swagbucks if you are a new customer. I've watched mostly documentaries and a few tv shows. I watched A&E's "Obsessed" this morning. How the mind works has always interested me. I also enjoyed "The Story of Pixar Studios" and "Behind the Scenes at Walt Disney World". I guess I'm still a big kid at heart-and someone who doesn't have the attention span to watch a full-length movie!

It is officially tax season and Tim has been burning the candle at both ends. I still don't see how he can work so much and still keep his sanity. I would have punched my one way ticket into Broughton Hospital a long time ago if I had to work those kinds of hours.

Anna goes to a 4-H cooking class once a month and she had to make a display for a recipe she made at Christmas. She made hot chocolate and here is the recipe:

10 cups low fat powdered milk
1 3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
4 3/4 c. sifted powdered sugar
1 3/4 c. non-dairy creamer

In a large bowl, stir everything together. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 15 cups of mix or 45 servings.

For a mug of hot chocolate, put 1/3 cup hot chocolate mix in a mug and add 3/4 cup boiling water and stir. Top with marshmallows if desired.

This is rich and so good! Anna gave these as gifts at Christmas as it made a ton! This would be good for teacher gifts.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a great week!
Until next time,
Melissa

Lilly Sale! (or Christmas Present to Myself)

2012-01-03T15:25:00.008-05:00

Happy New Year to all my readers!

Lilly Pulitzer has a big sale going on today and tomorrow and it is free shipping if you purchase directly from the Lilly site itself. I scored these two things:

Lexie Crew Top in Thrill of the Chaise

Murfee Scarf in True Navy Dress Rehearsal
to match my Cassie top I bought this past summer.

The crew top was only $19! What a STEAL for Lilly! There are still some good deals available and you can't beat free shipping!

Have a wonderful week, I go back to work tomorrow and the kids go back to school tomorrow too.

XOXO,
Melissa

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T07:54:00.003-05:00

Isaiah 9:6 "For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Around The House Decorating for Christmas

2011-12-24T14:44:00.006-05:00

Greetings readers and Merry Christmas Eve! We have been busy busy the past few weeks including a long weekend trip to Charleston, SC. That's for another post! But first, here is Anna with a video tour of our Christmas decorations. She hung all the ornaments from the windows herself! WTG Anna! Something Mommy didn't have to do!

I don't put up a big tree, I do the pre-lit porch trees in urns for the kids' trees. Anna has Barbie ornaments on hers and Camden has the Snowball & Tuxedo (polar bear and penguin) ornaments on his. Have a great Christmas everybody! Thanks for reading!

XOXO,
Melissa

Christmas Parade

2011-11-28T08:20:00.011-05:00

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We sure did! Thursday night we went to my in-law's house and had an exciting time with Tim's extended family. I stuffed myself and felt like the chipmunk pictured. After we ate, the children and assorted parents went down to the basement playroom and romped around. My younger nieces were pretending to be on America's Next Top Model and walking around wearing a pair of high heel boots that belonged to my oldest niece (age 15). It was a hoot!

I went shopping on Black Friday BUT it was mid-morning, after all the early birds had left and gone back to bed. I have essentially finished my Christmas shopping, this is the earliest I have EVER been through. We went out Saturday to shop for Tim's parents and are finished with them. Now to wrap all these gifts!

Yesterday was Lincolnton's Annual Christmas Parade. Only at a small town parade would you see the following:

A truck painted like the American flag with a deer head on the grill. This wasn't in the parade but parked behind Tim's office.

A green dog! This dog grooming place is in every July 4th and Christmas parade. The dogs are painted/dyed something different each time. One year this dog was pink! The other dogs had lights and garland wrapped around them. It's so funny to see what they come up with next.

Someone dressed like a chicken, promoting a city ordinance coming up for a vote. Camden loved the chicken and my father in law made me take his picture with it! What a nut. A resident wants to have backyard chickens allowed in the city (no roosters though). Read more about it here.

Anna rode in the parade again this year on her dance studio's float. Miss Thang was standing up and waving to the crowd, while wearing a silver sweater dress and black sequin fingerless gloves. We have a diva in our midst! You can see her in the middle of the float.

That wraps up our holiday festivities so far! Stay tuned for my adventures in decorating our house for Christmas.

Have a great day!
XOXO,
Melissa

*Photo of the chipmunk by Barbara Lynne/Solent via the Ontario Telegraph

2011-11-23T15:24:00.005-05:00

Greetings readers and Happy Thanksgiving! This year Mom & Dad are taking
advantage of their newly-found free time due to retirement and are in Florida
for 10 days. Therefore, our little family will be at my in-laws for
Thanksgiving. We don't have to travel far, they live just two blocks away! I'm
making sausage balls and salted peanut chews. I featured the sausage balls not too long ago on here and if the salted peanut chews turn out decent I'll do them as a Food Friday entry.

We found the recipe for the salted peanut chews in a special Taste of Home
Christmas magazine. Tim was looking through it and suggested I try those
especially since I had almost all the ingredients on hand. I LOVE this time of
year when the special Christmas magazines and books come out. I did a happy
dance in the middle of our kitchen (much to Anna's embarrassment) when I
received not one but TWO Southern Living Christmas books in the mail yesterday! YAY! There is nothing better than turning down the corners of the pages for the
recipes I want to try or getting ideas for decorating our home.

I've seen this cartoon going around on Facebook and Pinterest and I have tried
hard this year to celebrate Thanksgiving and not jump from Halloween to
Christmas. However, time is a valuable commodity and last weekend we didn't
have anything going on so I put up the kids' two Christmas trees and decorated
our mantel. I have never had Christmas decorations put up this early but I had
the time and took advantage of it. I will decorate our porch on Friday and I'm
hoping to put up a big tree this year. Our tree color scheme is red and gold
and I'm having the hardest time finding shiny gold, non-round ornaments. I can find plenty of round balls but I need shaped ones, I love the icicle style and
onion shaped ones. I hate to buy a big ol' tub of ornaments just to get a few
shaped ones. Any suggestions?

I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving, celebrated with those you love.

Catch you all on Food Friday!

Melissa

Happy Birthday Lilly!

2011-11-10T09:14:00.005-05:00

Happy 80th birthday to Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau! Thanks for making the world a much more colorful place!

Here's photos of Anna & I in various Lilly:

Have a great day!
Melissa

Halloween Fun

2011-10-30T11:21:00.010-04:00

Happy (day before) Halloween everybody! Today is also my and Tim's 12th wedding anniversary. To celebrate, he used 12 eggs to make a huge pile of French toast for breakfast. Delicious! Here's to a lifetime of many more anniversaries and great memories!

The kids are out of school tomorrow so we are headed up to the mountains to see my aunt and uncle at their cabin near Mt. Airy, NC. I don't know if we will get in any Trick-or-Treating due to being worn out from traveling but here is Camden in his costume:

Anna is so easy to scare. She will be hanging out in our home office and I'll tap on the window outside. She will scream and totally freak then she and I will bust out laughing. I got her good one night, she was in the tub and I kicked the door open and stood beside the door where she couldn't see me. I waited a few seconds and then....well, see for yourself, here is a re-creation of it:

Have a great Sunday everyone!
XOXO, Melissa

S'Mores Cups

2011-10-03T16:30:00.006-04:00

Happy Friday everyone! I have been sucked in to that wonderful ~~timewaster~~ website Pinterest. Such great recipes and ideas are pinned over there. I have many inspirations for teacher gifts thanks to Pinterest.

I found this recipe for S'Mores Cups on there. A rundown of the recipe with much better photos can be found on Texas Cottage. Here's the short version:

7 whole graham crackers (1 cup finely crushed)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
4 bars (1.55 oz each) milk chocolate candy, divided
12 large marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place graham crackers into a large resealable plastic bag. Finely crush into crumbs. Combine graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, and butter in a small bowl.

Place 1 tablespoon of crumb mixture in each cup of a mini muffin pan. Press crumbs to form shallow cups. Bake 4-5 minutes or until edges are bubbling. Meanwhile, break two of the candy bars into rectangles. Remove pan from oven; place one rectangle into each cup. Cut marshmallows in half crosswise using shears dipped in cold water. Place one marshmallow half, cut-side down, into each cup. Return to oven 1-2 minutes or until marshmallows are slightly softened. Remove pans from oven to cooling rack; cool 15 minutes. Carefully remove cups from pan. Cool completely.

NOTE: I decided not to dip these in chocolate but here's the instructions for that.
Break remaining candy bars and place in small microwavable bowl. Microwave on high 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring every 20 seconds. Dip the top of each marshmallow in melted chocolate. Turn top-side up and let stand 40 to 60 minutes or until set. Makes 24 cups (I got 18).

Have a fantastic weekend everybody! We're planning on going to the Autsim Speaks Walk at the Charlotte Motor Speedway tomorrow. A full report will follow!

XOXO,
Melissa

Free Coffee Today at Krispy Kreme!

2011-09-29T08:44:00.005-04:00

Greetings readers! Today is National Coffee Day and in honor of the occasion, Krispy Kreme is giving away a FREE 12 oz. cup of their new House Blend coffee! No purchase necessary! Here's a link to their YouTube video with more information:

http://www.youtube.com/krispykremedoughnuts

Too bad there isn't a KK here in town but I have already celebrated by drinking a cup of decaf this morning.

Have a great day!
XOXO,
Melissa

Happy Punch Day!

2011-09-20T13:53:00.004-04:00

Greetings readers! Today is National Punch Day. No, not the "punch" where you punch someone upside the head but the kind you drink. Here is a favorite punch recipe of mine, taken from the so wonderful Cooking With Class: A Second Helping cookbook from the Charlotte Latin School. This is my go-to punch recipe.

Cheerwine Punch
2 (2 liter) bottles Cheerwine soft drink
1 (2 liter) bottle ginger ale
2 (46 ounce) cans unsweetened pineapple juice

Directions:
Chill Cheerwine, ginger ale, and pineapple juice thoroughly. In a large punch bowl, mix all three. Serve immediately.

I might just whip up a half batch and break out my punch bowl and have some tonight.

Have a great day!
XOXO,
Melissa

Happy Labor Day!

2011-09-05T11:54:00.003-04:00

Happy Labor Day everyone! I hope you all are enjoying a nice day off from work, as I am. We hit the Goodwill this morning, everything was 50% off! Woot woot!

Kristen over at one of the fantastic blogs I follow, We Are THAT Family.com, posted this and in honor of Labor Day, here are the stats of my labor when I had my two munchkins.

How long were your labors?
#1 Anna 12 hours
#2 Camden 12 hours

How did you know you were in labor?
#1 induced 9 days early due to swelling up like a toad.
#2 Felt uncomfortable in general, I was 2 days overdue, water broke on its own.

Where did you deliver?
Hospital for both. With Camden, it was a larger hospital in the next town over and they had just opened up their newly built Birthplace with the swanky rooms, whirlpool tubs, etc. Very nice!

Drugs?
Oh yes!

C-section?
No to both.

Who delivered?
#1 My OB
#2 Mid-wife who I LOVED. Such a gentler birth than #1.

How about you? What are your numbers?
[Did you adopt? (how long did you wait?) Not a mom yet (how long were your mom's numbers)?]

My mother-in-law was in labor on Labor Day when she had Tim! We celebrated Tim's birthday on Saturday and took a day trip to the always fabulous Dan Nicholas Park in Salisbury then went through the village of Gold Hill. Gold Hill used to be a mining town and it has since been restored with quaint shops, parks, and various events during the week, including a bluegrass jam session on Fridays. I highly recommend going there for those of you all who live in NC, it is southeast of Salisbury.

Have a great week!
XOXO, Melissa

What a week!

2011-08-27T07:48:00.004-04:00

Happy weekend dear readers! I am thankful every morning that I am able to live to see another day and I will make the best of it. However, I am also glad to see this week go! I am worn slap out. Let's see: a co-worker suddenly lost a family member on Monday, an earthquake hit on Tuesday, here in NC! Our building started swaying, it was very creepy. Wednesday I sprained my ankle when it got tangled up in a vacuum cleaner hose and I fell out of our van, on Thursday school started and the school secretary and I butted heads over a late bus, and yesterday ended up with a doctor visit and a rescheduled appt. for Camden since the office manager forgot to send me paperwork. SHEESH. Repeat after me: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Phillipians 4:13.

However, I am thankful that we don't live on the coast, which is being battered by Hurricane Irene. Prayers to all who live in the path of this nasty hurricane. I am also thankful that the kids had a great first week of school, especially since they are both at new schools this year. I am also thankful for being able to participate in some retail therapy last night, I found some great buys at a children's clothing consignment sale.

I don't have a recipe this time around, unless you need to know how to make a BLT or spaghetti, I didn't feel much like cooking something new this week, I was in "go with the flow" mode all week.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Here's to a better week!
XOXO,
Melissa

Food Friday: Sausage Cheese Balls

2011-08-19T09:05:00.004-04:00

Yay! I am up and blogging again. We have been without internet/phone since last Friday and just got it back yesterday. Our internet/phone was out since I switched from AT&T to Magic Jack.MJ transferred our phone number over, however, before I could order the “internet only” plan from AT&T once the number transfer was complete, AT&T shut off our internet and phone! Aaaaack! Once we have been using MJ for awhile, I’ll do a review of it. So far so good.

As mentioned before, every month at work we have a birthday breakfast and this time around I made sausage balls. Sometimes sausage balls can be quite dry but these turned out really well! We had some venison sausage in the freezer and I used that. I didn’t use all the ingredients called for (no onions, red pepper, or s&p since the sausage was zippy to start with). So here goes, recipe adapted from the wonderful blog La Petite Chef.

Sausage Cheese Balls
Ingredients: (makes 6 dozen)
• 2 LB Sausage, Venison Sausage
• 3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 2.5 cups Bisquick
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 TBL crushed red pepper
• 1 tsp Chili powder
• Salt-n-pepper, to taste
Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Form into 1 inch balls (this is where you could freeze them for later use).
4. Place on ungreased baking sheet.
5. Cook 15-20 mins. until golden brown and cooked.
Also, freeze uncooked to use at a later date, but freeze cooked to use within a few days in a crock-pot.

Have a great weekend everyone! We’re going to IKEA tomorrow since kids eat free. YAY!
XOXO,
Melissa

Photo courtesy of www.isitedible.net

Christmas in August

2011-08-03T20:55:00.017-04:00

Our town lost a wonderful man on Sunday. He was the former music minister at our church and when he suddenly passed it was quite a shock. He was full of life, had the best laugh, and had such a gift for music and performing. He sang at our wedding and his wife directed it. One of the things he was known for in our town was decorating his house for Christmas in September. His family lived in a Victorian house near us and it would be DECKED. OUT. for Christmas inside and out. He loved Christmas! So as a tribute to him, last night the neighbors living on his block put out luminaries and have started decorating for Christmas. Word is that streams of cars drove through the neighborhood last night to look at the decorations. What a neat idea to honor a man who will be truly missed, it doesn't seem real that he is gone. Today he is playing the piano in Heaven and leading the angel choir. Save a place at the Lord's Table for us Charlie!

During his funeral service, which was more like a worship service, I was thinking today how I am slowly getting ready for Christmas. My annual Gooseberry Patch Christmas idea book came last week and I'm thinking about what to make for Christmas gifts.

When we were on vacation I bought a Christmas ornament at Hallmark. It has become a tradition since the Ornament Premiere Weekend is close to when we are on vacation so I go ahead and buy the Winter Fun with Snoopy mini ornament for the year. Heck, the ornament Dream Book came out in April and I think that's a bit early for ornaments but it is fun to look through. Anna circled about half the ornaments in the book as a wish list.

I have also started working on the family photo Christmas card. Last year I did a New Year's card and it was a collage card from CVS. I really liked how it turned out so now I'm collecting all the good photos from the year thus far and getting them laid out on the card.

Maybe I'm changing the way I think about the Christmas holiday, instead of it being a stressful, time crunching, rushing around to get everything done holiday, I should celebrate it in bits and pieces all year, whether it be secular like buying Hallmark ornaments in July, or religious based like stopping to remember the reason for Christmas in the first place, to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I love this painting of the Nativity by Sandro Botticelli, circa 1473-1475, now in the Columbia Museum in Columbia, SC. It was a fresco that was transferred to a canvas. That's your art history lesson for today!

I'll leave you all with that to mull over. Have a great weekend everybody! Stay cool!
XOXO,
Melissa

Credit: Street photo courtesy of Kirk Herbertson.

Food Friday-Texas Caviar

2011-07-29T12:19:00.006-04:00

Happy Food Friday everyone! It's like 1000 degrees outside and it's hot as Texas out there. I just want to melt everytime I walk outside.

So in honor of it being "hot as Texas", here is a recipe for Texas Caviar, a fantastic appetizer/dip that you don't have to turn on the oven for. Just start opening those cans!

Every month, our office floor has a breakfast to celebrate everyone's birthday for the month. We graze all day in the break room so the foods are not limited to breakfast type foods. One co-worker always brings this and it is SO GOOD! It's from Southern Living, November 2001 and I tweaked it just a bit. Enjoy and stay cool!

Texas Caviar

Ingredients:
1 can Del Monte Summer Crisp sweet corn
2 (15.5-ounce) cans black-eyed peas with jalapeño peppers, rinsed and drained
2 (10-ounce) cans diced tomato and green chiles
2 avocados, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1/2 purple onion, diced
3/4 cup zesty Italian salad dressing
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation:
Stir together all ingredients. Chill, if desired. Serve with corn chips.

Photo courtesy of The Wheatfree Life blog. Have a great weekend!
Melissa

Vacation recap and Lilly

2011-07-28T12:15:00.006-04:00

Greetings readers and a big welcome to my new followers! Our vacation was wonderful and went by so fast. We went shopping, ate too much, strolled on the beach, went swimming, played Bingo, watched cable tv (we are "Old Skool" at home and don't have cable/satellite) and hung out with the family. It is nice to be back home and back in a routine.

We took a photo of Camden by the "Historic Camden" sign (in Camden, SC) as seen on the right sidebar. I've always wanted to take his picture by it. He wasn't named after the town, it was the only "C" name Tim and I could agree on since we wanted to keep his initials CTS. Next we need to go to Anna, Ohio and get Anna's picture by the "Welcome to Anna" sign. Now that I think about it, I could take her to an Anna's Linens store and not have to go to Ohio :)

I love going shopping at the beach because the Belk's at the MB Mall carries Lilly Pulitzer (thanks Mom for the Belk's gift card for my birthday, it was put to good use). I bought a navy top for fall. Speaking of fall and Lilly, this came through on my e-mail today and I love this top! I may have to spring for it. It's the Cassie top and the print is Trill of the Chaise.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Food Friday! Thanks for reading!
XOXO,
Melissa

Vacation..aaaahhhhh

2011-07-16T07:48:00.006-04:00

The title above could be said two ways: "Vacation..aahhhhh" as in relaxing, forgetting to wear your watch, and total destressing. Or it could be how I am feeling now: "Vacation..aahhh!" as in "I have so much to pack, I need to clean my house, finish the laundry, pack the food, who will get out mail and water my plants, will all our stuff fit in the van, etc."

Have a great week everyone, I'll be nice and relaxed once we actually set foot on the beach! We're going to Sea Watch in N. Myrtle Beach.

Until next time,
Melissa

2011-07-04T08:38:00.002-04:00

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe July 4th!

God Bless America!
~Melissa

Happy Lilly Day!

2011-06-21T15:59:00.005-04:00

Greetings readers! Today is National Wear Your Lilly Day and I wore my black Flower Market capris to work today. Anna took this photo of me after work while I was drinking some iced coffee out of my Lilly Latte-Da mug.

Have a great day!
XOXO,
Melissa

Father's Day

2011-06-20T18:55:00.009-04:00

Happy Monday everybody! I hope you all had a nice restful weekend. Happy (belated) Father's Day to all the dads out there. I'd like to give a shout-out to my dad, my husband (pictured at left during our beach vacation last summer), and my father in law for being such awesome dads! We love you! We celebrated by making breakfast at home and the kids and I ate liver mush for the first time. It wasn't too bad, Tim fried it crispy and we ate it with biscuits. Camden couldn't get enough of it! Then Tim wanted to go to the flea market to look for some landscaping tools so off we went. The kids liked looking at the chickens and bunnies, I enjoyed people watching. We meandered around the small towns nearby and ate lunch with my in-laws and celebrated Father's Day with them. My dad was out of town so I gave him a call and wished him a happy Father's Day and also a happy birthday. It was a great day all around.

Speaking of my dad, he is a retired pastor so I basically grew up in the Baptist church and was there every time the doors were opened so it seemed. One of the highlights of the year was the Sunday night on Father's Day when the mens missions group (the Brotherhood for all you Baptists) would host a men's cake baking contest complete with judging by the WMU and prizes. I liked the cakes that flopped the best! I remember one cake that was a carrot cake and the man had stuck a big carrot right in the center of the cake. Another year a man baked a cake in his daughter's Easy Bake Oven and placed it on a big cake stand with a sign that said "Ooops, I think I ate too much batter!"

Dad would always bake a sour cream coconut cake the day before and it was SO GOOD by the time we ate it on Sunday night. He won Best Cake a few times with this entry.

***Cake***
3 large eggs
1 carton (8 ounce size) sour cream
1/3 cup water
1 can (8 1/2 ounce size) cream of coconut
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 box (18 1/4 ounce size) white cake mix

***Coconut-Cream Cheese Frosting***
1 package (8 ounce size) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package (16 ounce size) powdered sugar -- sifted
1 package (7 ounce size) coconut flakes

PREPARATION:
Beat eggs at high speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes. Add sour cream, 1/3 cup water, and next 2 ingredients, beating well after each addition. Add cake mix, beating at low speed just until blended. Beat at high speed 2 minutes. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x13" baking pan.

Bake at 325°F. for 40-45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack. Cover pan with plastic wrap, and freeze cake 30 minutes. Remove from freezer.

Spread Coconut-Cream Cheese Frosting on top of chilled cake. Cover and store in refrigerator.

For Coconut-Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat cream cheese and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; add milk and vanilla, beating well. Gradually add sugar, beating until smooth. Stir in coconut.

The longer this cake sits, the better it is. By day 3, if it lasts that long it is "lay on the floor and scream" good.

Until next time,
Melissa

Food Friday: Teacher Gifts

2011-06-10T13:26:00.010-04:00

Happy Friday everyone! What a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants week this has been! I'm glad it's finally FRIDAY!

The kids' last day of school was yesterday so summer vacation has officially begun. I had 11 teacher gifts to make and I needed something quick and easy. I found a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Squares from the Gooseberry Patch Christmas Vol. 9 book and I whipped up a batch. So easy and the teachers loved them!

CHOCOLATE CHIP CHEESECAKE SQUARES
2 18 oz. tubes refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
non-stick spray
3 eggs
9 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 t. vanilla extract

1. Preheat over to 350. Spray 9x13 pan with non-stick spray. Spread one tube of cookie dough out over the bottom of pan. Mix together eggs, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Pour over cookie dough in pan. Take last roll of dough and break up into little pieces. Drop them all over top of cream cheese mixture and bake for 30 minutes. Chill before serving.

I put two squares into a snack size ziploc baggie then I taped the recipe onto the back of the baggie. These were yummy! Definitely a keeper.

Yesterday, each class at school had an awards day. Camden won the "Future Meteorologist" award since just about every day he accurately predicted the weather with his communication device (he's non-verbal). YAY! We were so proud of him for sitting still during the awards presentation, his teachers have worked really hard to get him to sit still and not run around like a wild person when he needs to stay put.

Anna won the "Fashionista" award for her class and was also recognized for improvement in Math. Yay Anna!

It was a great school year and kind of sad yesterday since both kids will be at different schools next year. Monkey Boy will have the same teacher so that will be nice. Here's to a great summer!

Until next time,
Melissa

Pretty in Pink: Part 1

2011-06-05T17:36:00.006-04:00

Greetings readers! What a busy, crazy weekend. Anna's dance recital was yesterday and it went really well. I'll do another blog post soon about her dance recital. This week coming up is the last week of school and I swear I have a meeting to go to or something at the kids' school every day this week.

In the midst of all the busyness, I decided to bake a Pink Lemonade Cake. What on earth possessed me to attempt this, I don't know, but I like how it turned out. This recipe is a keeper. It is Paula Deen's recipe so go out and buy some butter (haha).

Cake:
butter for coating pan
1 (18.25-ounce) white cake mix, plus any additional ingredients the package directions call for
3 tablespoon pink lemonade drink powder
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
red food coloring (optional)

Frosting:
1 lb confectioners sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoon frozen pink lemonade concentrate
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon milk to thin icing if needed
red food coloring (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottom with parchment or waxed paper; set aside.

For the cake, in a large bowl, stir together the cake mix and lemonade powder. Prepare the cake batter according to the package directions, using any additional ingredients called for (eggs, milk, water, oil, etc…). Stir the lemon zest into the batter. **NOTE: if you want to make your cake pink, put a few drops of red food coloring in and mix well. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the centers of the cakes comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Carefully turn cakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting, beat together the confectioners’ sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat in the remaining ingredients until combined. *NOTE: my icing was quite thick like cookie dough so I added 1 TBL. milk to thin it out and it was much better. You can also tint it pink by adding a few drops of red food coloring as you are mixing.

Transfer one cake to a cake stand or large platter. Using an offset spatula spread the top of the cake with a layer of frosting. Place the second cake on top of the first. Spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of both layers.

This cake was so pretty! I did a horrible job of frosting it since I was in a hurry but it tasted great! This would be a neat cake for a baby shower or bridal shower. It was a bit "twangy" due to the lemonade but it was a nice change from overly sweet cakes.

Until next time,
Melissa

My Experience with Triples

2011-05-21T09:33:00.009-04:00

No, not triplets, but triple coupons at Harris-Teeter.

Many of my friends are into couponing and saving big at the grocery store. Since I'm ~~cheap~~ thrifty, I wanted to get in on the mad couponing action but my time is quite limited these days. I don't have time to spend searching through stacks of inserts and grocery store ads looking for the match-ups of coupons plus what is on sale every week.

There are many good couponing websites out there but the one I use is We Use Coupons. The Forums are sorted by stores with sub-categories of the hot deals for the week and where to find the coupons. Members who have much more time than I do post the match-ups so yay for someone else doing the work for me!

The Find Coupons tab will take you to a coupon database. For instance, I was needing to buy Claussen pickles but wanted to locate a coupon. I searched for "Claussen pickles" and it listed what coupons were available and where to find them.

I had saved up the coupon inserts from the Sunday Charlotte Observer since the end of March and had a decent stash. When I heard that Harris-Teeter was doing triple coupons this week, I found the match-ups list and started clipping. It didn't take long to get my coupons together since I wasn't going to buy everything on the match-ups list. I bought an envelope style coupon organizer from the Dollar Tree and I was good to go.

I was actually apprehensive about going to H-T on Wednesday, I was afraid it would be like Black Friday at Wal-Mart with major crowds and crazed women with their coupon notebooks fighting over the last box of Eggo waffles or what not. I went on my lunch hour and I was surprised at the amount of stock left and it wasn't too crowded. Bottom line: I had $40 in groceries before coupons and spent only $13 after! Not too shabby! I went back yesterday and bought almond milk and brownies and spent a grand total of $.79 for BOTH. Wouldn't it be nice if groceries were this cheap all the time!

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Melissa

Mother's Day

2011-05-17T12:41:00.005-04:00

Hi dear readers! I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day. It seemed like we ate the whole entire day! We met the in-laws for breakfast at Ryan’s (their breakfast buffet is highly recommended, weekends only), then went to my parents’ church. Most churches around here honor all the mothers, plus recognize the youngest and oldest mother in attendance. Who would have thought at 40 years old I would have won the hanging flower basket for being the youngest mother there! Here’s a photo of me, my mom, and Anna after church.

For lunch, we went to my in-laws’ house THEN for supper we went to my parents’ house. Remember that commercial from way back when: “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing”? Good lands, pass the Mylanta. All the food was fantastic but the diet started on Monday!

Tim cleaned out my van as a gift and that was a great gift! I keep the van fairly clean and vacuumed out but he REALLY detailed it, he took the seats out and shampooed the carpets. Anna and Camden made me cards and crafts from school. I loved everything I received and this Mother’s Day was very special.

Tim made up this wonderful avocado and Ro-tel dip. He drained the juice from the Ro-tel into a cup and set it on the counter. In .004 seconds, Camden showed up, grabbed the cup, and drank some! The look on his face was hilarious and Tim busted out laughing. Life is never dull at the Just Keep Talkin’ house!

1 ripe avocado
1 can Ro-tel (chopped tomatoes and green chilies)
Salt

Peel and dice avocado (don’t mash), place in large bowl. Open can of Ro-tel and drain, saving the juice, then gently mix together with avocado. Add some reserved juice if needed. Salt to taste. Let sit for 30 minutes to let the flavors blend. This keeps for about a day but it usually won’t last that long! So easy and simple.

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Melissa

Photo courtesy of the O. is Me blog since my food photos always turn out weird looking and not appetizing!

Sweet Tea for Dummies

2011-04-28T14:25:00.012-04:00

Hello, I'm Melissa, I was born in the Deep South, but I can't make a decent
pitcher of brewed sweet tea.

My mom makes the best sweet tea but when I asked her for the recipe, she said
"Boil your tea bags, let it steep for a few minutes, and add sugar and stir."
Thanks Mom but when I make tea like this it is either A. weak as colored water
or B. thick and strong like motor oil. GROSS. So to make drinkable tea, I have
used instant tea from Aldi, which isn't half bad but it certainly doesn't have
the flavor of brewed.

Luckily for my tea drinking family, I got the new Southern Living magazine earlier in the week and in it was a feature on tea with 28 different recipes including the basic Southern Sweet Tea. Is it sad that I needed actual measurements and cooking times to make
sweet tea?! I made a pitcher immediately and it was pretty good. The recipe is
now in my recipe box. When I get more confident in my tea making abilities,
I'll try my mom's vague recipe.

Ingredients
3 cups water
2 family-size tea bags
3/4 cup sugar
7 cups cold water

Preparation
1. Bring 3 cups water to a boil in a saucepan; add tea bags. Boil 1 minute;
remove from heat. Cover and steep 10 minutes.
2. Discard tea bags. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Pour into a 1-gal.
container, and add 7 cups cold water. Serve over ice.

NOTE: this makes more like a half-gallon of tea instead of a gallon. Tea photo is from the SL website, photographer is Beth Dreiling Hontzas.

Until next time,
Melissa

Spring Recap + A Recipe

2011-04-27T08:23:00.004-04:00

Greeting readers! I hope you all had a blessed and meaningful Easter. Here’s a recap of what we have been doing.

We made it through another tax season-YAY! To celebrate, we went to IKEA. Love that place. I don’t like shopping for clothes, but stuff for the house, bring it on! I could wander around IKEA all day long and so could Anna. She wanted to buy a chandelier for her room.

Monkey Boy lost his first tooth. WAAAHHH! My baby is growing up! He has another tooth loose too.

Anna was chosen as the BRAG student of the month from her class. She got to attend a special pizza lunch put on by Domino’s and also received a certificate for a free Domino’s pizza! WTG Anna!

I recently discovered a wonderful magazine at the dentist’s office, Taste of the South. It publishes every other month and they had yummy and easy recipes in the February/March issue. I whipped up this little appetizer that was featured, Gingersnaps & Strawberries. I got the honey flavored goat cheese at Aldi, it was a “Special Buy” earlier in the month.

Honey flavored goat cheese
Strawberries, sliced
Gingersnaps (I bought these at the Dollar Tree)

Wash and slice the strawberries. Put a dollop of goat cheese on each gingersnap and place a strawberry slice or two on top. Enjoy! So easy and refreshing.

Have a great week everybody!
XOXO, Melissa

Foolish Food Friday!

2011-04-01T19:30:00.006-04:00

Happy April Fool's Day! Anna has been talking about April Fool's Day for some time now and I wanted to pull a prank on her. She's pretty sharp so I knew it would have to be good.

I follow Bridget's amazingly creative blog, Bake at 350, and she had a terrific idea for a prank on April Fool's Day, courtesy of Family Fun magazine. It is a fake grilled cheese sandwich, made with sliced & toasted pound cake and dyed cake icing.

Ingredients:
Pound cake (we used Entenmann's brand)
1 cup buttercream or white frosting (canned is just fine)
Yellow and red food coloring

Instructions:
Cut the pound cake into bread-like slices and toast them in a toaster oven just until they turn golden brown. Once they've cooled for a few minutes, stack two slices for each sandwich and cut the stack in half diagonally (slicing the sandwich before you fill it makes for fewer crumbs).

Now tint the frosting by stirring in a few drops of yellow and red food coloring (more yellow than red) to get a shade of orange that resembles American cheese.

Carefully spread frosting between the slices of each half sandwich. If you mound the frosting on one slice, then top it with the other and gently press down, the frosting will ooze out a bit and look all the more like melted cheese. Makes one sandwich.

This was so easy to make! I used a 2:1 ratio of yellow food coloring to red food coloring. For supper tonight, I fixed gyros and spanakopita. I told Anna since I wasn't sure if she would like the gyros, I made her a grilled cheese sandwich. She took a bite and then I busted out laughing after yelling "April Fools!" Needless to say, she had the gyros and spanakopita for supper and this fake sandwich was our dessert.

Have a great weekend everyone!
XOXO,
Melissa

The Fresh Market and Coconut Shrimp

2011-03-24T17:48:00.016-04:00

I have always loved wandering around gourmet grocery stores, similar to window shopping for clothes, except it is for food. Give me some free time at the swanky Harris-Teeter at Morrocroft in Charlotte (where it’s not a “covered pick up area”, it’s a “porte-cochère” as seen in the photo) or at Trader Joe’s, the IKEA food market or The Fresh Market, and it’s like therapy for me.

As a pre-teen back in the 80’s, my parents and I would go to the new Fresh Market in High Point. I remember the grind your own peanut butter, the barrels of snack mixes and candy, the Jelly Bellies, and my dad hanging out beside the coffee barrels, sampling the coffee while mom and I shopped.

Now Tim and the kids and I enjoy shopping at The Fresh Market in Huntersville and deciding what cheeses, meats, and prepared foods to buy. Unfortunately, we never can remember to bring a cooler with us since it is a haul from the store to back home so the foods have to be already cooked. We are anxious to try the Greek Stuffed Chicken but not until we remember to bring our mini-cooler!

One thing we bought and loved was the coconut shrimp. I looked online for a recipe and found this one. It was really easy to make and had an excellent flavor. Plus it was baked and not fried. How ironic, all ingredients came from Aldi’s and not The Fresh Market. I may browse at the fancy pants grocery stores, but I actually buy from the discount stores!

Crispy Coconut Shrimp
Ingredients:
24 medium shrimp
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp garlic and herb seasoning (I used Old Bay)
1 egg, well beaten
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray large baking sheet with non-stick spray. Sprinkle shrimp evenly with seasoning blend and pepper. Place flour, egg, and coconut in three small separate bowls. Dip shrimp first in egg, then flour, then back in egg, then generously in coconut. Arrange shrimp on baking sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden and crisp. Serve with dipping sauce. Makes 4 servings.

So good!
Until next time,
Melissa

the fine print: For more Harris-Teeter photos of the swanky Morrocroft store, check out grocerying.blogspot.com. The Fresh Market photo is from bradleyfarless.com. Shrimp photo was taken by me.

2011-03-13T17:54:00.004-04:00

Greetings readers! I usually don't do these Fill-in-the-Blank posts but I liked this one, taken from Sweet, Sassy, Southern, and Classy. She has a great blog! So here is what is on my mind right now.

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW... in the back yard, the sun is shining and SURPRISE! there is a cat back there. In the front yard, my neighbor is running the lawn mower. Spring is coming soon!

I AM WEARING.... a Boden striped 3/4 length sleeve top with appliqued flowers, jeans, and Sperry slip-on boat shoes.

I AM REMEMBERING... how nice it feels to play outside again and what summer will be like when it is still light at 8 pm! I like Daylight Savings Time even though it takes a few days to get used to it.

I AM READING... a bunch of magazines but I need to track down a copy of Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas, the next selection for Book Club.

I AM HOPING... to figure out if it is worth the time to drive over an hour to buy some bedroom furniture I saw on Craigslist yesterday. Tim's time is quite limited these days, not to mention the hassle of moving the old stuff out and the new furniture in. Hmmmmm....I need to think more about this.

ON MY MIND... the people of Japan. I just can not imagine the helplessness they are feeling.

FROM THE KITCHEN... our fridge has a little of "this and that" but I may pick up a pizza tonight for supper. The dishes are washed and I need to plan out meals for the week.

AROUND THE HOUSE... It doesn't look too bad. I have to hang up some of Anna's clothes and neaten up a bit. Sometime I need to scrub my tile floor in the kitchen but it won't be today!

PLANS FOR THE WEEK... This week is shaping up to be a light week. Last week was nuts. I need to start pricing and tagging clothes for my church's consignment sale in two weeks. Plus this week is payday week! YAY!

ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS... an iced coffee from McDonald's, sugar free vanilla to be exact. And the fact that Monkey Boy is taking a rare nap, that is how I can do this blog post!

I hope you all have a great week!
XOXO,
Melissa

Shamrock Shakes, Cats, and Quesadillas (Oh My!)

2011-02-27T16:34:00.015-05:00

Greetings readers! Has it been six weeks since I posted last? Time flies when you are having fun or life is really busy. We are in the throes of Tax Season so the craziness is amped up around here. Here is what has been happening lately.

I tried a green Shamrock Shake from McDonald's for the first time on Friday. I heard it was lime flavored (BLECCH) then I heard it was mint flavored (YUMMY) so I had to try one for myself. The verdict: mint! I split it 3 ways between the kids and me. So good! They are here for a limited time and a portion of the sale of each Shamrock Shake goes to the Ronald McDonald House charities.

Our yard is being overrun by the neighborhood cats! Every time we look out the back door, it is like a different cat is hanging out back there. Anna has named them all. The two main ones are Lilly and Siamese Cat. Our neighbors cat Lilly (not her real name) is always around, she is a sweet cat. We put up new curtains in our kitchen and Lilly watched us from the outside.

Next is Lilly's buddy, Siamese Cat, who is not very friendly and camera shy but still pretty to look at. I always think of the two mean Siamese cats from Lady and the Tramp.

Other neighborhood cats are the Fake Lilly (who looks like Lilly but isn't), Inky the black cat, Skinny Cat from across the street, Garfield the orange cat also from across the street, the three tom cats from up the street, and the Snow Cat who only shows up when it snows! Good thing I don't feed these cats or I can imagine how many would be showing up in our yard then!

In keeping with tradition of this blog, here is a recipe. We eat chicken quesadillas at least once a week. I can cook a pile of these in no time and everyone loves them. I can get two small corn tortillas in my pan and make two at a time. This is a great way to use up leftover chicken. Photo courtesy of complete food world.com.

chicken, cooked and shredded (I use my mini food processor)
Mexican blend cheese
Large round flour tortillas
Smallish round corn tortillas
Onions and peppers for Tim
Guacamole for me
Salsa, sour cream for dipping

Oil a large non-stick pan and heat on stove. Place tortilla on hot pan and sprinkle half with chicken, let cook for about a minute or so. Sprinkle cheese on the chicken (add some finely chopped onion and pepper here if desired) and fold over the torilla. Carefully flip and cook the other side until the tortilla is slightly brown in spots. Serve with salsa, guacamole, sour cream.

Have a wonderful week!
XOXO,
Melissa

Snow Day = Eating and Shopping!

2011-01-10T14:20:00.006-05:00

Today is a snow day here in NC. Schools were closed and I didn't have to go in to work. I shudder to think how much work will await me when I go in later this week. However, when it snows and I'm stuck inside, I just want to 1. eat and 2. shop!

I read about a big sale on Lilly Pulitzer home items at
Garnet Hill. I just bought this Lilly shower curtain for NINE. DOLLARS. Woo-hoo! It was originally $88! Won't it look so cute paired with yellow towels? Garnet Hill has some great deals in their clearance section so check it out.

As far as food, I recently made Quickie Chocolate Stickies from a recipe Tim found. His mom used to make these all the time when he was younger and I guess he got a hankering for them and he found a recipe on the Hershey's website. I'm glad he found the recipe with actual measurements since one time I asked Tim's mom for the recipe to include in a family cookbook. She was like "Oh, maybe this much chocolate, I don't know, a few tablespoons or so, a bit of sugar, maybe, 1/4 cup? Just eyeball it" and my OCD self was like "I NEED MEASUREMENTS"!

We deviated from the online recipe (we're such deviants LOL) and used a 9x13 glass pan instead of a mini muffin pan or 8" round pans. We gobbled them up in a day! So good.

Have a great week dear readers!

Until next time,
Melissa

Best of 2010

2011-01-01T09:11:00.014-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! I thought it would be fun to do a "Best Of 2010" edition and tie in a resolution for 2011. Here goes:

Best Book Read in 2010: Pilgrim's Progress. We read this in English class last year and watched the DVD along with it. The DVD was current, it was a modern adaptation, and the book made me think, especially in terms of faith and trusting in the Lord while going through bad times. Resolution for 2011: to pray more and be more compassionate towards others. Another resolution is to be more active in the book club I'm in and promote it. The book for this month is The Saving of CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman.

Best Purchase of 2010: My Keurig Mini Brewer! I love this thing. And the fact I got it for a STEAL on eBay makes it better! I'm currently drinking Green Mountain's Chocolate Glazed Doughnut while I'm writing this blog. Resolution for 2011: to ease off on drinking McDonald's iced coffees and also Cheerwine.

Favorite Photo of 2010: the hot dog photo of the kids and me! This was taken in July at Myrtle Beach in front of B&B Antiques. It is an antique store on the main drag at Myrtle and they have all these crazy statues for sale in their parking lot. Tim was such a good sport in stopping and taking photos of us acting like total goofballs. I also have a photo of us by a giant ice cream cone, rooster, and mermaid! Good times! Resolution for 2011: to laugh more, live life to the fullest, and try something new.

Best Recipe of 2010: the crab cakes recipe from House-Autry Mills. The blog post with the details is here. We enjoyed these many times during the year, we served them with lemon pepper fish, steamed shrimp, and scallops. Resolution: to broaden my taste in different foods and be more organized in my meal planning now that I'm working more hours.

Have a Happy New Year everyone and here's to a fantastic 2011!
Melissa

December Recap

2010-12-30T13:53:00.006-05:00

Greetings readers! What a month! Here's a recap.

I started a new job, I'm working in the Human Resources field again. It's local, the hours are during school hours, and I really like it! Substitute teaching showed me I didn't want to be a teacher full time. It was hard to leave my high school students but I am glad I am working more hours and also Monday through Friday.

Monkey Boy turned 6 (!!) and we had his party at the Sonic. We love having birthday parties there since hardly anyone is eating inside the restaurant so we have it to ourselves.

Since I started a new job, things were crazy to say the least so I scaled back my baking and goodie making. For teacher gifts I made chocolate covered almond clusters and bath salts. I also sent out New Year's cards instead of Christmas cards. Our Christmas photo session at Olan Mills was a bust since Monkey Boy was having NONE OF IT and we didn't get a usable photo. Plus it was too much of a push to get cards out before Christmas so I chose a new year's theme. We used CVS for our cards and I will be using them again!

We had a White Christmas here in NC! It was beautiful and the kids enjoyed sledding in it. Anna and Tim went snow tubing the day before in Jonas Ridge. If I can figure out how to put up a video, I will. It was COLD and WINDY that day so I'm impressed Anna even wanted to do it! Camden and I stayed in the lodge by the warm fire!

We're getting ready for Anna's birthday party, a glamour princess party. It will be a sleepover party, my MIL has graciously (crazily?) offered to host it.

2010 was a great year and here's to a fantastic 2011! Look for a "Best Of 2010" edition of this blog coming soon!

Love,
Melissa

Thanksgiving Food Hits and Flops

2010-12-01T13:35:00.005-05:00

Before I dive headfirst into Christmas baking, I like to look back and add some recipes to my "Must Bring" list for Thanksgiving and also add some to the "Never Again!" list.

I like to bring a dish that no one else will probably show up with. I usually bring a relish tray with colby jack cheese cubes, pepper jack cheese cubes, pepperoncinis, cocktail pickles (which every last one are eaten), black olives, and green olives. No one else usually brings this and my food is not competing with three other pans of stuffing or sweet potato casseroles.

This year I made something new, a chocolate chip cookie ball, similar to a cheese ball. I found the recipe in a special Fun Food magazine by Taste of Home. Here's the link:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Chocolate-Chip-Cheese-Ball (photo courtesy of Taste of Home magazine)

This was a HIT! It tasted so good and I served it with graham crackers, though vanilla wafers would work well also. Definitely a keeper!

Another recipe that is a hit is mini no-bake cheesecakes with cherries on top, similar to this recipe. Photo courtesy of the very cool Tastes Like Chikin blog.

I gauge whether or not to bring the same food year after year by how much is eaten (or left over). One year I wanted to make a pepper dip "tower" that you had to mold in different size containers with chopped red peppers in between the layers. It looked pretty, but as the evening moved on, it became the leaning tower of dip and hardly anyone ate it. Add that to the Never Again! box.

I hope every last dish you brought to Thanksgiving was eaten up and the same goes for Christmas recipes!

Until next time,
Melissa

Easy Chicken Pie

2010-11-13T20:38:00.004-05:00

Greetings readers! It has been a whirlwind of activity at our house, hence the lack of posts. I have many topics brewing in my head so get ready for more blog posts!

One of my go-to recipes when life gets hectic is Chicken Pie. You can get your protein, carbs, and vegetables all in one dish. I am not one to roll out handmade crust for the topping and this recipe is quite simple, as long as I remember to thaw out some chicken beforehand!

Ingredients:
3 cups chicken, cooked and diced
1 can of mixed vegetables
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 cup of chicken broth
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup of Bisquick
3/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400. In a large bowl, mix the chicken and mixed vegetables and place in 8x8 or 9x7 dish. In another bowl, mix together the soup, chicken broth, and pepper and pour over chicken/vegetables. In yet another bowl, make the biscuit topping, mix together the Bisquick, milk, and melted butter, stir until smooth. Pour over the top of the chicken mixture. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until bubbly and the top is golden brown.

Even my two picky little monkeys ate this up! It was a good way to sneak in some vegetables. I served this with black eyed peas.

Have a great week everyone! Thanks for reading!
~Melissa

Renaissance Festival

2010-10-15T08:20:00.005-04:00

Happy Friday everybody! This is field trip season at the kids' school, Monkey Boy's class saw Disney on Ice in Charlotte last Friday and this past Tuesday I went with Anna's class to the Renaissance Festival in Huntersville. Check out the photos in the slideshow to the right/above.

I didn't know what to expect out of the Ren. Fest. but it was so interesting and educational (more so than the Disney on Ice field trip but that was fun too). The best way to describe it is like an interactive theme park. The "cast" is dressed in Renaissance costumes and you can also rent costumes. There were tons of booths with artisans selling their wares and they were so tolerant of all the school kids coming up, feeling the jewelry, hats, clothes, crowns, etc. and they would actually talk with the kids about how they made the items and let them try it on. It seemed like every time we turned a corner, there was a performance of some sort going on, whether it was a falconry show, minstrels singing and playing instruments, or jesters doing their comedy act.

We saw a jousting exhibition, listened to a story teller while painting on her dress, met Twig the Fairy, ate too much at a bakery (did they have cream horns during the Renaissance? Doesn't matter, they were delicious, as always), saw a fire juggling performance, stopped at every single last jewelry booth, and rode a few rides.

The highlight of the festival, especially for the boys, was the Green Man. He was sitting in a nook with a big blog of green silly putty. He would put it in his brass pot and tell the kids to press on it, and it would make a "pfffffffftttt" sound, much to the great amusement of the kids.

There are different Ren. Fests. that take place all over the country and after going to this one, I would recommend attending one at least once.

I hope you all have a great weekend! The weather has finally turned cooler again so we'll probably visit the mountains this weekend and look at the leaves.

Until next time,
Melissa

Teaching and the Path of Life

2010-10-06T20:44:00.010-04:00

Hi everyone! Lately I've been thinking about how ironic it is what path you are on in life especially when it comes to your job. That's a deep thought but for the past two weeks I've been actively pursuing getting approved to be a substitute teacher for our public school system. I thought I would only have to take the training class and I would start subbing in the next few days. I was surprised (in a good way) all the hoops I've had to jump through, though it is good the school system really checks out their potential employees!

I took an all day training class with about 50 other people two weeks ago. I had to fill out an application, submit my college transcript, get a physical, get a TB test, go back and have it read then get a tetanus shot (I forgot how much those hurt! Wow my arm was sore), then observe in a classroom for a day, then go back to the doctor and get a drug screen, make an appointment to get fingerprinted at the Sheriff's office THEN get approved by the school board! Gracious! I was disappointed to find out it is too late to be approved by the school board at this month's meeting on Wednesday but I'll be on the list for November. Once that happens I will get a letter with my log in name and PIN for the substitute computer system where I can check to see what dates and schools need subs. I'm tired just thinking about what all I've done the past two weeks. And get this, if you don't sub at least once in a school year, you have to go through ALLLLLLLL that again. Believe me, I'm going to keep my substitute status active.

But back to my deep thought (there is a point to this rambling). What is ironic is when I was in college, I did not have any desire to be a teacher. My degree is in Communications and Journalism. I wanted to work as a copywriter for an ad agency. So after many twists and turns in my career path, now I teach 11th and 12th grade English at a private school two mornings a week and I want to be a sub on the days I don't work at the private school. It's so amazing how God works and gets you on the path for your life and His timing is perfect.

I really don't think I'll go back and get my teaching certificate in order to teach at a public school (the private school only requires a college degree in a related field) since I would have to take 10 Education classes plus do a student teaching semester and I feel that would be too disruptive to my family life. Tim works day and night during tax season and that is disruptive enough. I might take a Foundations of Secondary Education class but I have learned SO MUCH from my four years of teaching at the private school. Believe me, I don't "wing it" when I'm teaching English and my Headmaster is a great mentor and advisor. I do my best and I hope my students can see that I love English and the written word and I'm passionate about it. I think once I start substituting I'll realize real fast if I want to pursue getting a teaching certificate or not.

Thanks for listening and reading! Have a wonderful rest of the week!
~Melissa

Food Friday: Peanut Butter Chip Orange Cookies from Hershey's

2010-10-01T15:18:00.006-04:00

Happy Friday! The weather has turned cooler here (if a high of 78 is considered "cooler weather") and I wanted to bake something. We had some oranges that needed to be used up so I narrowed down my recipe ideas to something orange. I found this recipe for Peanut Butter Chip Orange Cookies from Hershey's and whipped up a batch after lunch.

Cookie dough anyone? This batter was so fluffy and I loved seeing the flecks of orange zest in the dough.

They smelled so good while they were in the oven! At first I thought orange juice and peanut butter chips would taste, ummm, rather interesting together but the flavors blended really well. I got 70 cookies out of this batch and I will be freezing some since lord knows we don't need 70 cookies hanging around our house and tempting us!

The recipe is a little involved so click on the link above for the recipe on the Hershey's website.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!
~Melissa

New Look!

2010-09-29T20:37:00.007-04:00

I'd like to give a Shout Out to Lyndzi at The Cutest Blog on the Block.com for designing my nifty new header above. My background is a free background called Candy Shoppe and I had a header created to match. I love it! Thanks y'all!

Check out TCBOTB if your blog needs jazzing up, they have many designs to choose from!

Murray's Mill Festival

2010-09-29T16:39:00.013-04:00

Last weekend we went to Catawba, NC to the Murray's Mill Harvest Folk Festival. Murray's Mill is an old mill (no longer in service) and has a neat general store on the premises. We loved the candy barrels! You can also tour the mill as part of a school group or on festival day.

There were woodcarvers, lots of Boy Scouts, blacksmithing demonstrations, Civil War re-enactors, a lady who gave a neat talk about parrots, hayrides, bluegrass groups, and much more! Touring the mill was fun and we got to see wheat being ground into flour, powered by the huge water wheel.

The festival was a fun way to kick off the fall season even though it was 90 degrees outside!

Apple Festival and A Recipe!

2010-09-18T10:17:00.011-04:00

Our county has many apple orchards and to celebrate our apple-ness, an Apple Festival is held annually on the third weekend of September. An Apple Queen is crowned a few weeks before, the Home Extension Agency holds an apple recipe contest, a craft show is held, the Apple Festival 5K run takes place, it's a big deal here in Lincoln County!

The best time to go to the Apple Festival is in the morning before it gets hot and super crowded. The official opening time is 9 a.m. but we were strolling downtown at 8:30. Many craft vendors, band boosters, churches, hopeful politicians, and of course the apple growers have booths set up through downtown. You can take your pick of what you would like to eat, the most popular are the bananas dipped in chocolate (or Wild Thangs) sold by the Lincoln Squares Square Dancing group. And there's nothing like munching on a giant turkey leg while walking around the festival!

So we have already been there, done that for the Apple Festival 2010. So in honor of another successful Apple Festival, I made a Pampered Chef recipe, Glazed Apple Daisy, for breakfast. So good and I remembered to take a photo of it, too bad I forgot my camera for the Apple Festival.

Glazed Apple Daisy by
The Pampered Chef
1 package (17.5 oz) grand size cinnamon rolls with icing
1 Granny Smith apple peeled, cored, and sliced
1/4 cup pecans chopped
1 orange

Preheat oven to 350F. Set icing aside. Seperate cinnamon rolls. Using 5" Utility Knife, cut each cinnamon roll in half. Arrange cut halves in a circle, pinwheel fashion, on 13" Round stone leaving center open. Gently press cinnamon rolls together with fingers to seal. Using lightly floured dough & pizza roller, roll dough out to within 1 inch of edge of stone. Peel, core & slice apple & nuts, place in small batter bowl. Using lemon zester, zest orange to measure 1 teaspoon, set aside. Juice orange to measure 4 teaspoons juice, sprinkle 3 teaspoons over apple mixture. Spread apple mixture evenly over cinnamon rolls. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, cool 5 minutes on nonstick cooling rack. Add orange zest & remaining 1 teaspoon juice to icing, mix well. Drizzle over warm cinnamon rolls, serve warm.

Yield: 10 servings
Approximately 190 calories & 7 grams of fat per serving

Have a great weekend!
~Melissa

*Crowd photo from the Lincoln Times-News

Food Friday: Greek Chicken Oregano

2010-09-03T10:19:00.010-04:00

Happy Friday everyone! And a special Birthday Shout-Out to my husband Tim, this recipe for Greek Chicken Oregano is dedicated to him! He introduced me to Greek cuisine since he discovered wonderful Greek restaurants in Charleston, SC namely Old Towne Restaurant and Athens when he was a student at The Citadel. In Charlotte, we love the Mad Greek Cafe and Piedmont Family Restaurant. The Greek Chicken is divine but it takes a while to cook and we forget to call in our order before we leave to go to the restaurant. We wanted to make this at home yet find a recipe that didn't take so long to prepare. So a Google-ing we went and we found this recipe for Greek Chicken Oregano. It is OUTSTANDING! Tim puts it on a roasting pan with rack and broils it in the oven, we don't grill it.

Chicken Oregano, serves about 6

1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 Tbl. dried oregano
one 2.5 - 3 lb chicken, cut into serving pieces
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 lemon

Preparation:
Combine everything except the lemon into a bowl or plastic bag. Seal chicken and let it marinate for 2 hours in the refrigerator. **IMPORTANT: Before you cook the chicken, let it return to room temperature.

Remove the chicken from the marinade and put it on a hot grill. Barbecue over charcoal or under a broiler for 15 minutes on each side, or until golden brown, basting often with marinade. Just before you remove the chicken, sprinkle it with lemon juice.

We have made this many times, and this time I remembered to take a photo before we chowed down.

Have a wonderful Labor Day! We're celebrating tonight with a shrimp boil at a friend's lake house.

~Melissa

So Long Summer! It's Been Fun!

2010-08-24T15:45:00.008-04:00

Wow, what a great summer we had! It went by so fast and my kids didn't drive me crazy by the second day of summer vacation.

We took swimming lessons, went to two VBS's, went to the beach, visited the mountains, took a day trip to Asheville, played at the park, took dance lessons, and kept ourselves busy and out of trouble (for the most part).

I am now a member of the Forty and Fabulous Club, Tim and I celebrated by going to P.F. Chang's and shopping at Target. Tim went on a beach trip with his college buddies last weekend and we're making plans to return to Charleston for his college reunion in November.

Anna and Monkey Boy return to school tomorrow and I started back on Monday. We are excited about what the upcoming school year has in store for us!

I hope each and every one of you who read this had a wonderful summer and that the rest of the year is full of blessings for you and your family.

~Melissa

Food Friday: Talking About Lemons

2010-08-06T08:27:00.008-04:00

Today's Food Friday post is about Lemons, in a roundabout way.

Anna and Camden share a bedroom and Camden sometimes takes a while to settle down and go to sleep. It didn't help that Tim gave him a chocolate doughnut for an after dinner snack last night so Camden was rarin' to go at bedtime. This morning at breakfast, we had the following conversation with Anna.

Anna: "Mommy, did Camden throw lemons last night?"
Me: "?????"
Tim: "Did you dream it?"
Anna: "No, I was wondering if he threw lemons during the night."
Me: "Okayyyyy....."

Now Anna has a crazy active imagination. The things she comes up with are so far out. Usually she says something off the wall and my reaction is "What is she talking about? Where does she come up with this stuff?" So I figured she heard Camden kicking the wall during the night and thought he was throwing fruit.

Later this morning, we go into their bedroom and Anna says "He did! He did throw lemons last night!" and then I realize she's talking about LEMONS, the yellow stuffed animal cat she put in Camden's bed last night and he subsequently tossed on the floor. Mystery solved! Never a dull moment at our house, that's for sure!

Since today has been all about lemons, here's a recipe for Lemon Cream Puffs. I made these recently and the lemon filling was great! Cream puffs are so easy to make. The recipe is long so here's the link from Real Mom Kitchen, read at your leisure. Photo is from the Real Mom Kitchen website.

Have a great weekend!
~Melissa

Food Friday: Peach Fro-Yo

2010-07-30T15:09:00.012-04:00

Happy Friday! We're in the home stretch of the last month of summer. I felt like I was in a cooking rut so I was browsing the Charlotte Observer Food section online last night. Food Editor Kathleen Purvis posted a great article on making ice cream without using an ice cream maker. The peach frozen yogurt piqued my interest since it had only 4 ingredients.

Here's the recipe (photos are by me when I made it this morning):

Peach Frozen Yogurt "I found the original years ago in a cookbook by the editors of Eating Well magazine, made with frozen strawberries and nonfat, plain yogurt. I like frozen peaches even better, and I’ve started using nonfat vanilla yogurt to make it a little sweeter."

1 (16-ounce) bag unsweetened frozen peaches (or strawberries)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 (4-ounce) cup nonfat yogurt (plain, vanilla or Greek-style)
1 tablespoon lemon juice

PLACE the frozen fruit and sugar in a food processor. Cover and pulse until the fruit is coarsely chopped. (If your food processor is small, start with half the bag. It will make a lot of noise when you grind the fruit, but hang on -- it will settle down quickly.) *Note from me: my food processor bowl is small and I had to make the recipe in two halved batches then combine at the end.

ADD the yogurt and lemon juice and add to the food processor.

Process until the mixture is smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides occasionally. It should be firm enough to serve immediately, or place in an airtight container and freeze a couple of hours for a firm consistency.
Yield: About 4 cups.

I let mine freeze for about 3 hours it and it is quite refreshing. Purvis also provided two more recipes, No-Machine Vanilla and Chocolate Banana ice cream with Bailey's and dark rum. Check it out here.

Have a great weekend y'all!
~Melissa

Vacation!

2010-07-11T20:12:00.006-04:00

I hope you all have a great week, we're headed to the beach!
~Melissa

Cheerwine Doughnuts by Krispy Kreme

2010-07-09T10:00:00.014-04:00

Happy Food Friday! I bought a box of the new Krispy Kreme Cheerwine flavored doughnuts to review.

In a nutshell:
Are they good? Oh yes!
Does the filling really taste like Cheerwine? Yep!
Would I buy them again? Probably, as a single doughnut.

Krispy Kreme released this new variety on July 1st and I bought a box of 6 for $3.99 from the grocery store. They are not available as a single doughnut you can buy from the display case so I had to buy a box. We each had half a doughnut after supper as our dessert and as my birthday cake.

If you are familiar with the chocolate covered, cream filled variety (or CCCF) that Krispy Kreme makes, this is very similar to that except the filling is Cheerwine flavored. The CCCF doughnut is my absolute favorite and is the standard I used to compare the two. The Cheerwine doughnut ranks pretty close in terms of taste and overall yumminess. It's not "lay down on the floor and scream" good like the CCCF doughnut, but I wouldn't turn one down if offered. My husband agreed that the Cheerwine doughnut was good but not as good as other KK doughnut flavors.

The filling really does taste like Cheerwine and not a generic cherry flavor, similar to comparing the taste of Cherry Coke vs. Cheerwine. Note to readers who have never heard of Cheerwine: Cheerwine is a non-alcoholic soda made here in NC. Its taste is very unique and not the same as cherry flavored cola. If you are ever passing through the South, try some Cheerwine. Cook-Out restaurants, Wendy's, and Bojangle's offer Cheerwine as a drink choice.

I would buy this doughnut again if it was offered as a single doughnut I could pick from the Krispy Kreme display. A box of doughnuts is a little too many doughnuts to have around no matter what the variety. I feel like I have to eat the whole box before they become stale (which is the whole point of buying doughnut boxes). The kids, however, could eat them all day long!

This doughnut is a nice novelty flavor worth trying once. Buy a box and split it with your family. You won't be disappointed.

Note: as always, I was not compensated by Krispy Kreme or Cheerwine for this review (though that would have been nice)!

Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-04T09:53:00.004-04:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful July 4th! We're watching our local parade tonight then fireworks at the high school stadium.

Cake photo courtesy of Cake Wrecks.

Great Giveaway At Shoffee.com!

2010-06-28T09:33:00.005-04:00

Coffee freak that I am, I'm always on the hunt for giveaways and great deals. Shoffee.com is giving away 5 boxes (1 box per winner) of the new Wolfgang Puck K-cups sampler. 48 K-cups are included in each box, four per flavor. Details and entry form are here. Giveaway closes at midnight PST Sunday, July 4th.

The Creme Caramel and the Breakfast in Bed sound delicious!

*Photo via the singleservecoffeedeals.com website.

Have a great day everyone!
~Melissa~

Hallmark Christmas Ornaments

2010-06-27T12:26:00.015-04:00

It seems that the seasonal holidays keep coming faster and faster. For instance, my kids have been out of school since June 9 and already I'm getting back to school catalogs! After July 4th goods are clearanced out at our local Wal-Mart, school supplies show up then it's Halloween merchandise starting September 1st. However, one holiday item I look forward to seeing early every year is the newest Hallmark ornaments.

My mother-in-law got me hooked on Hallmark ornaments. Before my kids were born, she bought the holiday Barbie ornaments for my older nieces. Then Anna was added, and now Camden gets his own Snowball & Tuxedo series ornament. Our local Hallmark store closed a few years back and they sold all of the ornaments they had from 13+ years. That also fueled my addiction since you can't beat a 90% off discount!

Even though we're in the middle of a heatwave, looking at the new ornaments for 2010 got me wishing for winter and Christmas. I even started humming Jingle Bells! I love these new ornament series:

Christmas Cupcakes from the "Oh So Sweet" series How cute is this? I am seriously considering adding this to my list of series ornaments that I collect, which would bring the total to four (Holiday Barbie, Snowball & Tuxedo, Winter Fun with Snoopy, and now Christmas Cupcakes).

Stained Glass Window from the "Glad Tidings" series Beautiful! Love this one too.

Merry Mixer
Not part of a series, but I keep my stand mixer in heavy use during the holidays. Last year they had a talking refrigerator ornament. Very whimsical.

When we were at the beach last July, the new ornaments were released and I bought the miniature Snoopy ornament to add to my collection. I am going to make it a tradition to buy an ornament during Beach Week.

Anyone else out there collect ornaments?

Have a great week and stay cool!
Melissa

*All photos are from hallmark.com

All Set For Coffee Now!

2010-06-23T14:41:00.006-04:00

I'm a fan of shoffee.com on Facebook. Shoffee is an online coffee shop that has great deals on K-cups, brewers, coffee gifts, etc. Recently they had a photo contest for their Facebook fans, the theme was "how do you reuse your K-cups?" and the prize was a rolling cooler from Green Mountain Coffee filled with K-cups.

To the left is the photo I entered and I said: "I reuse my K-cups by taking the lid off and saving it, like some people do with wine labels, so I know which flavors I have tried and liked. Then I save the grounds to use as fertilizer and finally I put the empty cups in the curbside recycling bin."

The people at shoffee.com were so generous, that everyone who entered the contest got the prize! How cool is that?! My package came today and I was expecting maybe two boxes of K-cups which is about 44-48 K-cups. WRONG. Try 135 K-cups! That's close to $75 worth of FREE coffee! Woot! I love free stuff! I was blown away by their generosity, especially since everyone who entered got the prize! Here is Monkey Boy with my coffee stash and rolling cooler.

Shoffee.com did not compensate me for this review but it's my honest to goodness opinion. Give them a click and check out their selection, they do have great prices and lots of coffee things.

Off to brew a cup!
~Melissa~

Refrigerator Handles

2010-06-17T07:43:00.015-04:00

No, I have not lost my mind by deciding to blog about something so mundane as refrigerator handles.

When Tim & I were renovating our house as newlyweds, I chose a white refrigerator and cream colored tile in the kitchen. Obviously this was Before Children since now keeping my white kitchen and cream tile floor clean is a constant PAIN. Never again will I chose white as a main color for a kitchen. Did I mention our cabinets are painted white boards with grooves? Yeah, those are real easy to keep clean too. Above is a photo of Monkey Boy cleaning the floor for me! He loves the Swiffer mop.

A few years back, I foolishly sprayed the fridge handles, which are a composite plastic, with a bleach mixture (stupid on my part) and they turned yellow and permanently spotted. Just gross. Everytime I looked at the fridge I cringed. I never invited people over to our house due to those spotted fridge handles. Seriously! I was that embarrassed. Our fridge worked great but just looked trashy. Compare how white the plastic piece around the ice maker is to how discolored and gross the handle is.

I went to Sears to price replacement handles and it would have cost close to $300! Thanks but no thanks. The handles must have been getting on Tim's nerves too because recently he suggested wanting to try a new spray paint made just for plastic. I told him it would be much cheaper than paying $300 for new handles so off to Lowe's he went for a can. I thought if the painted handles turned out looking worse than before maybe I could get a new fridge :) Spray paint has a reputation of looking cheap but anything would be an improvement for the stained handles.

Tim took off the handles and sprayed them outside. Lo and behold, the paint worked great and our fridge looks like new! I am honestly shocked at how well this project turned out. No paint is flaking off and cleaning is a snap. Now I'm looking around the house to see what else I can spruce up. Our outdoor chairs are next on the list.

So the morals of this story are: don't clean your appliance handles with bleach and a healthy dose of patience is a good thing, so is plastic spray paint!

Teacher Gifts 2010

2010-06-12T07:42:00.009-04:00

I had to make nine teacher gifts this year and I made coffee flavored truffles and red velvet Whoopie Pies.

First up, the truffles. I used a recipe from the Maxwell House Coffee Cookbook, which is an excellent cookbook if you love coffee and sweets.

8 squares (8 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup brewed double strength coffee
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Gen. Foods International Coffee Cafe Vienna (dry) for garnish

Line a square 8x8 baking pan with foil.
Microwave the chocolate, condensed milk and coffee in a large bowl on high for 2 minutes, stirring halfway through the heating time.
Stir until the chocolate is completely melted.
Stir in nuts and vanilla. Pour into the baking pan.
Chill for 2 hours or until chocolate is firm enough to handle.
Cut into squares and roll into 1" balls. They don't have to be perfectly round a la Martha Stewart.
Store covered in refrigerator until time to serve.
Just before serving, dip tops in GFIC powder and place truffles in mini cupcake liners.

Next up is Red Velvet Whoopie Pies. This is NOT a good recipe for your kids to help you with as it is MESSY and the red dye might set them off behavior wise if they ate too much. I recommend wearing food service gloves while you are filling and piping the batter onto the pans. This recipe makes a huge batch of pies and next time I will double the recipe for the filling. Click the link above to see the recipe.

Once the goodies were ready, I lined these cute Chinese take out boxes I got at Dollar Tree with wax paper and put the truffles on the bottom and mini pies on top, separated by wax paper squares. I thought they turned out cute!

The teachers gave the goodies a big thumbs up!

Lilly Giveaway

2010-06-11T08:25:00.005-04:00

Please check out the wonderful Lilly giveaway Trish is having at Preppy Pink Lilly Lover. She's giving away a Lilly beach towel, umbrella and paper umbrellas! Too cute.

Giveaway ends June 16th. Good luck!

Dance Recital

2010-06-10T08:32:00.005-04:00

Miss Kangaroo had her ballet recital on Saturday. We moved to a smaller studio this year where she could concentrate on just ballet. Her group did so well and we are so proud of her for learning her combinations! She even danced in the opening number, which was a sleepover theme. So cute.

Here's a photo of her and my Dad during intermission:

We're taking a short break from dance until summer lessons start up in two weeks.

Have a great day everyone!
Melissa

What it means to be Southern

2010-06-07T10:29:00.002-04:00

Happy Monday everyone! I saw this on Facebook and had to repost.

Growing up Southern is a privilege, really.
It's more than where you're born, it's an idea and state of mind that seems imparted at birth.
It's more than loving fried chicken, sweet tea, college football, beer, and country music.
It's being hospitable, charming, and respectful while having strength, grace, and a genuine love for our family and our land.
We don't become Southern, we're born that way.

Have a great week!
Melissa

Food Friday-Suddenly Salad

2010-05-14T10:19:00.003-04:00

Oh the crazy end-of-the-school-year madness! I have three schools to keep up with: Anna's, Monkey Boy's, and the school I teach at. Add in a dance recital, awards days, field trips, doctor appointments, therapies, and Tim's crazy schedule, I don't have time to cook elaborate meals. Therefore, today's Food Friday is Suddenly Salad in the limited edition Greek flavor.

I saw this at our Wal-Mart and picked up a box. I try to keep boxes on hand since this is my go-to thing to make for potluck dinners. The Greek flavor was SO GOOD! I added feta, tomatoes, diced cucumber pieces, and basil. WOW! I ate entirely too much of it. I even wrote the Betty Crocker company to rave about it and to please make it a regular offering.

Suddenly Salad has been around for a while and it's so easy to put together and you can whip up a batch ahead of time. Try the Greek flavor, you won't be disappointed!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!
~Melissa~

Disclaimer: photo courtesy of the Betty Crocker website, I was not compensated in any way for this review. Though if the Betty Crocker company wants to send me a case of Suddenly Salad, you can find me on Facebook :)

What A Week It Was!

2010-05-01T08:23:00.003-04:00

Hi readers, long time no blog! It has been nuts here at the Just Keep Talkin' house, this clip art sums up how I feel! I try to keep a positive vibe here in blogland but sometimes it helps just to let it all out.

I had a pre-op appointment last Friday for minor outpatient surgery on Tuesday (everything is fine, nothing to panic over, it's all good). My goal was to 1. not pick up a virus from the doctor's office/hospital and 2. have the surgery. However, last Friday night, Monkey Boy got sick. Poor thing couldn't keep anything down and I kept the washer and dryer going constantly on Saturday. Thank you God that I have a washer and dryer and did not have to schlep everything to the laundrymat. I ship Anna off to her grandparents for the weekend so she doesn't get sick. Sunday arrives and now *I'm* sick so I laid around and only got up to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer. This is so not good. I don't want to reschedule my surgery and go through the pre-op appointments again.

Monday arrives and everyone seems to be back on the mend, my bug was a 24-hour variety and I'm feeling better. I pick up Monkey Boy from my in-laws and he is sick again. Oh no! He takes a long nap which does him a world of good.

Thank goodness Tuesday arrives, Monkey Boy is better, and I have my outpatient surgery. I want to give a shout out to the inventor of the motion sickness patch, I didn't get sick at all from the anesthesia thanks to wearing that patch behind my ear. The patch probably cost me $250 since they gave it to me at the hospital, but it was worth it!

So I have recovered, Monkey Boy is still monkeyish, Anna is thankfully still my low maintenance child, Tim is through with tax season, and I have only 4 weeks of school left. Life is good and I'm glad it's a new week!

Y'all have a great weekend!
~Melissa

Awesome eBay deal!

2010-04-09T21:31:00.007-04:00

I posted in February how I was jealous of my in-laws new Keurig coffee maker. Since I refuse to pay full price for almost anything, I checked out eBay, or actually fatfingers.com. Now fatfingers.com will search eBay for misspelled versions of whatever you want to search for, with the premise being that misspelled words in the title will have fewer bidders because so few people search for the misspelled versions. So I searched for variations of "Keurig". I hit on an auction for a mini-brewer with an opening bid of $25 and shipping of $9.99. This model retails for $89.99 in the store. It was listed as used, which was ok as long as it wasn't beat to death and it worked. I was the only bidder and I got it for $25 plus shipping!

The box came today and I was shocked to find it was a BRAND NEW coffee maker AND it had 10 K-cups included! I was so excited since I was expecting a used coffee maker with no K-cups. Maybe it was a re-gifting auction, who knows. I'm just happy I got it for such a steal! Happy Dance!

Have a wonderful weekend!

He Is Risen! Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T07:59:00.004-04:00

From "Arise My Love" by Newsong:
"Arise! My love
Arise! My love
The grave no longer has a hold on you
No more death's sting
No more suffering
Arise! Arise! Arise!"

May you have a blessed Easter today!
♥ Melissa ♥

Food Friday-Carolina Crab Cakes

2010-04-02T10:51:00.002-04:00

Happy Easter weekend everybody! The kids and I are on Spring Break next week and we have lots of things planned. We don't want to get bored, do we?

Today's Food Friday selection is Carolina Crab Cakes courtesy of House-Autry Mills (I didn't receive anything in return for this, it's my honest to goodness opinion). One night last week, Tim had a hankering for fried oysters (I said "That's all you and you won't have to share"!) and he sent me to the store for some House-Autry seafood breader. He fried up his oysters and we had lots of breading left over in the box. We searched the House-Autry website and found the Carolina Crab Cakes recipe. I won't copy/paste the whole recipe so here is the link:

http://www.house-autry.com/recipes/carolina-crab-cakes

I used 2 cans of crab meat and a little of the fake crab (or "krab" as I've seen it called) finely chopped. We also added a few sprinkles of Old Bay seafood seasoning. I patted the meat mixture out thin and I fried them using my Fry Daddy. These were delicious! The breading wasn't heavy and it was tasty. Even the kids ate some. I halved the recipe two nights ago since I had some of the fake crab meat left over and the crab cakes turned out well then too. I served it with corn on the cob and garlic bread. Don't forget the cocktail sauce!

I hope everyone has a meaningful Easter weekend. Enjoy the sunshine!
Melissa

Food Friday-Fried Pickles

2010-03-26T09:32:00.015-04:00

Happy Friday! My students were the inspiration for this recipe. They love to talk about food, cooking, eating, anything to get me off the subject of literature, subject/verb agreement, predicate nominatives, etc. Typical teenagers! One of the guys asked if I had ever tried fried pickles and I had not. So I looked up a recipe and tried it out. The recipe came from a church cookbook, Loaves and Fishes and Other Dishes by the Covenant UMC Women in Gastonia, NC. Linda Raxter is the author.

1 egg, beaten
1 c. milk
1 tbl. all purpose flour
1 tbl. Worcestershire sauce
6 drops hot sauce

3 1/2 c. all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. each salt & pepper
1 qt. sliced dill pickles (I used a jar of Mt. Olive dill hamburger chips)

Combine first 5 ingredients, set aside. Combine 3 1/2 c. flour and the salt & pepper, stirring well. Dip pickles into milk mix.

Drop in flour mix.

Deep fry in hot oil (350 deg.) until brown-I used my Fry Daddy and did about 6 pickle slices at a time.

Drain on paper towel and enjoy!

My students recommended dipping in Ranch dressing, which wasn't half bad. Honestly, I might make these again, but I felt the batter was kind of tasteless, even with the hot sauce drops. It would be worth the time spent tweaking the recipe because these were fun to make and fried pickles are a delicacy around here. Some restaurants serve them as appetizers.

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Palm Sunday!
~Melissa

Great Clothes Shopping Day!

2010-03-19T20:39:00.009-04:00

Hey everyone! I really hit the jackpot today for kids' clothes. I hardly ever pay retail for Anna & Camden's clothes, or mine for that matter! Here's how it went down.

After helping my husband at his office, I hit the Goodwill. Our GW is wonderful and I go at least twice a week. I found Anna a snow suit and they are hard to find in the larger sizes. This one will be perfect next winter. I found a girl's Lilly corduroy dress with a polar bear print to resell next fall (size 5--anyone? I can send you a picture) and I found me a purple cable knit sweater. Oh! And a shoe rack for the bedroom since SOMEONE *cough* Camden *cough* broke our other one.

Late this afternoon, the mom of one of my friends called to tell me she's having her famous yard sale tomorrow and would I like to come by for a sneak preview? You betcha! I loaded up the kids and bought some cute things for summer and fall, spent $10 for it all. Great deals!

The best part of the day was going to my church's twice-yearly consignment sale tonight. This sale is huge and I got to shop an hour earlier than the other consignors since I snagged a 3 hr. volunteer time, only 12 of those are available. I found Camden a ton of shirts, pj's, and a few shorts. I was kind of disappointed in the selection of clothes for Anna but it's not like she's hurting for clothes. Mom went to a big consignment sale two weekends ago and found lots of cute clothes for Anna. I did find Anna a swimsuit, pair of sandals, and a few shirts. Only spent $26 and yay for that!

I don't have much to get to complete their summer wardrobes. I feel like I can get the rest of it from Old Navy and Target. It's stuff like sandals, a swimsuit or two for Anna, and pajamas.

However, with all this fun I had today with clothes shopping, now comes the icky part, washing all these clothes! My washer is packed with clothes and I forsee lots of laundry tonight. Then tomorrow I'm going to weed out the heavy winter stuff and put a few spring clothes into the mix. The weather is so fickle, it's hard to plan too much ahead. It's still way too cold for shorts but we can make do with short sleeves and a jacket.

Have a great weekend!
Melissa

Raspberry Jam

2010-03-14T10:25:00.005-04:00

Happy weekend everyone! Did you remember to turn your clocks ahead? We slept in late today, until past 8 (or was it 9?). It was wonderful but it's going to be a hard wake-up call tomorrow morning when we have to get up and go to school!

One of Tim's clients gave him a jar of raspberry jam she had canned. The jam is divine and I love the color of the raspberries, that is my favorite color actually. It reminded me of a photo where jellies are lined up on a windowsill and sparkling in the sunshine, like here. My version is pictured above.

The jam tasted wonderful on biscuits and on a pb&j sandwich. It wasn't too sweet since some jams are more sugar than fruit! Delicious. I won't post a recipe since canning is way above my cooking expertise and I have no idea what recipe was used to make the jam since it was a gift. Do a Google search and pick a jam recipe that suits your fancy.

Have a wonderful day!
♥ Melissa ♥

Food Friday-Chicken Salad

2010-02-27T11:19:00.007-05:00

Happy Weekend everyone! Today is unusual in that the kids are in school for 1/2 a day because we had to make up a snow day. I'm getting so much accomplished and it is so QUIET! I love it!

Today's Food Friday (albeit a day late) is chicken salad. I love eating chicken salad, just not making it. I refuse to boil a chicken, strip the meat off the carcass (gross), try to get all the seasonings right, and hope it's edible in the end. So I buy pre-made chicken salad.

Now these pre-made chicken salads always need a little something added to them, like tarragon, or more chicken, or sometimes I add one of the following: chopped grapes, pecans, apples, or almonds just to add some taste to it. I've had chicken salad which was mostly mayonnaise and that wasn't great either. However, I purchased a brand I never tried before from Food Lion and it is the best chicken salad I have tasted. Seriously. I would wake up and want to eat some on a cracker for breakfast.

The brand is Star's Private Stock All White Chicken Salad and they did not pay me to write this and I did not receive anything in return. This is solely my honest to goodness opinion. The chicken was in small bite size pieces, the base wasn't mayonnaise-y (is that a word?) and the spices were right on. I didn't have to add a thing to it. This would be perfect at a bridal shower in those phyllo dough shells or spread on a cracker or pita chips. I'm almost out so I'm going to pick up some more this afternoon. I'm even taking both kids with me to the grocery store, that's how bad I want some!

Have a great weekend!
♥ Melissa ♥

LL Bean Catalog

2010-02-17T17:04:00.007-05:00

The spring catalogs are starting to arrive and I enjoy leisurely looking through them and dreaming of warmer weather, sandals, grilling out, and playing outside until past 9 pm, all while wearing new clothes :) So when I received the LL Bean catalog recently, these two things caught my eye:

Madras Comforter Set
How cute is this?! If I had a beach house, I would so decorate Anna's room in this. It just yells Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket-and I've never been to either! I have to live vicariously through Preppy Sue when she blogs about her vacations there. The madras is so summer-y and you can't go wrong with it. I love dressing Monkey Boy in madras shorts and Kangaroo Girl in a madras dress in the summer.

Whale Cardigan Sweater
I love classic, tailored clothing. Whenever I wear trendy clothes, I feel like they are wearing me instead of vice-versa. I don't have the style or flair to pull it off so I stick with something safe. I loved the preppy look back in the 80's and when I saw this sweater, it instantly took me back to my childhood. I seriously doubt I'll buy it, but I loved the walk down memory lane.

Where's my bermuda bag?! Aah, now my outfit is complete.

Until next time,
♥ Melissa ♥

Things I Love

2010-02-12T08:41:00.006-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day weekend everybody! Since love is in the air, here is a list of the Things I Love.

1. Free mornings when I can update my blog, bake stuff, and catch up on my reading. Like today!

2. Our Eden Pure space heater. MIL gave us this for Christmas and I have slept so well since we have put it in our bedroom. Anna wants a pink one for her room for Christmas!

3. Speaking of the in-laws, I love their new Keurig coffee maker. I am having serious jealousy issues over it. It's #1 on my birthday list, along with a shopping spree to buy boxes of the K-cups.

4. My new VB Euro wallet. My mini-zip wallet was getting raggedy looking so this one adds a nice touch to my purse.

5. My chenille spa socks. My feet are so warm when I wear them to bed. It's heavenly.

And intangible Things I Love:

1. My family, immediate and extended. I'm so blessed to have my parents and my in-laws close by so they can help me with my two little monkeys I call Anna and Camden. And my husband, bless his heart, he works 24/7 during tax season. How he keeps from checking himself into Broughton Hospital every April, I don't know. I wish I had his work ethic and stamina to hang in there.

2. My job. My hours are perfect with the kids' school schedule. Can't beat working two mornings a week which allows me to get stuff done the rest of the week.

3. My mommy friends a.k.a. The Mommy Mafia, The Mommy Cult, etc. The highlight of my week is Tuesday morning coffee with the girls at the bakery.

I hope you all have a great weekend, I'm baking this and this (except I'm using milk chocolate) for Valentine's Day.

Until next time,
♥ Melissa ♥

Food Friday: Snow Cream a la Paula Deen

2010-01-29T14:02:00.005-05:00

They are calling for snow here in NC starting tonight. Our county is right on the line between snow and the nasty sleet/ice mix. I hope it snows because I remembered to pick up ingredients for snow cream when I was out getting my bread and milk like a true Southerner.

The recipe is from Paula Deen and is really simple. The link is here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/snow-ice-cream-recipe/index.html

Ingredients:
8 cups snow, or shaved ice
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place snow or shaved ice into a large bowl.

Pour condensed milk over and add vanilla. Mix to combine.

Serve immediately in bowls.

Have you all ever heard to use the snow from the second snowfall and not the first one to make snow cream? I heard that on the news and was wondering what the reasoning was. Have a great weekend!

I WON!!

2010-01-26T12:41:00.005-05:00

I love entering giveaways on blogs. I have never won anything until now! I won this Lilly keychain from Lauren Nicole Gifts. YAY! I'm so excited and I can't wait to get it.

Be sure to check out her website, she has tons of neat gifts, many of which can be personalized.

Have a great day!

Food Friday-Banana Nut Cake

2010-01-21T20:12:00.007-05:00

Happy Friday everyone! The weather turned colder here in NC after being teased with two days of sunny, almost 70 degree weather. Cooler weather makes me want to bake something and eat soup!

I have been wanting to make banana bread and I had some bananas I needed to use up. Alas, I have only one loaf pan and most banana bread recipes call for two pans. While Googling for ideas, I came across a wonderful, EASY recipe for banana nut bars and as a bonus, I had all the ingredients on hand! YAY! The bars turned out beautifully, it is moist, and my house smelled heavenly. It's more like a cake but still delicious! Recipe is as follows:

1 cup sugar
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 medium)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar (I omitted this)

Heat oven to 350F degrees. Grease pan, 13x9x2 inches.

Mix sugar, bananas, oil and eggs in large bowl with a spoon. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir in pecans.

Spread batter in pan. Sprinkle the dark brown sugar over the top. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. You won't need to frost it as it is plenty sweet, at least for my taste.

Take a peek at Simple Daily Recipes, it's a neat site with tons of good recipes and where I found this recipe and the photo.

Have a great weekend everyone! Thanks for reading my blog, I love reading the comments!

Resolutions

2010-01-16T09:09:00.004-05:00

I can't believe it has been one month since I last blogged. Christmas was great, we celebrated Monkey Boy and Kangaroo Girl's birthdays and 2010 is going to be a great year! Here are my resolutions.

1. Update my blog more often.

2. Eat healthier. I could live off Cook-Out barbeque, Cheerwine, and McDonald's iced coffees. Our local mommies group is doing a Biggest Loser challenge and though I don't have much weight to lose, I want to eat better and cut back on the eating out.

3. Make better use of cooking what is on hand in the fridge/pantry instead of spending so much on groceries.

4. Read more. I joined a book club and I need to spend less time online messing around and more time reading books.

5. Strive to be more of a role model to my students. My first priority is to be their teacher and not their friend, though it's a bonus I have a good rapport with them.

Thanks for reading my blog and here's to a great 2010!

It Bloomed! YAY!

2009-12-15T15:25:00.006-05:00

Every year I get an amaryllis bulb the first week of October. The last two years I bought a bulb from Lowe's, planted it, and nothing. No flower came up, just one lonely green leaf. This year, I bought my bulb from Aldi grocery store and it bloomed! I keep the plant outside when it's sunny and bring it in when the sun goes down or when it is rainy (like today). This flower is so Christmas-y to me and I like it better than poinsettas.

Next year I might try my hand at paperwhites since they need no soil to grow. That's my kind of plant!

Food Friday-Turkey & Ro-Tel Casserole

2009-12-02T18:33:00.005-05:00

Greetings! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I needed to reinvent my Thanksgiving leftovers so I made this casserole last night. Recipe is from my Granny Jean who lives in Florida. Like all her meals, it tastes wonderful!

Turkey/Chicken & Ro-Tel Casserole
leftover turkey or chicken, cut into bite size pieces
spaghetti
butter
onion (as much/little as you want)
1 can mushrooms or fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 can mushroom soup
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes and peppers (hot or mild, your choice)
cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Cut up turkey/chicken into pieces and set aside. Boil spaghetti noodles. Meanwhile, melt a pat of butter in a skillet and saute the onion and mushrooms until tender. Mix in the mushroom soup and Ro-Tel tomatoes, mix well. Drain the spaghetti and place in casserole dish. Pour soup mixture over pasta then add the turkey pieces. Sprinkle cheese over everything. Place in oven and bake until cheese is melted.

Here's a photo taken from www.discusscooking.com that looks much better than my photo!

Have a great weekend!

Food Friday-Nutter Butter Banana Pudding

2009-11-27T16:25:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone! I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws and it was covered dish. I brought Nutter-Butter Banana Trifle and it turned out so well, it is the Food Friday selection for this week.

The recipe is adapted from the Feb. 2009 issue of Southern Living. However, I didn't have the time or courage to make the pudding from scratch so I used my Easy 5 Ingredient Banana Pudding Recipe instead. Here goes:

2 cups milk
1 pkg. instant vanilla pudding
1 8 oz. tub of Cool Whip
1 pkg. of Nutter Butters
3 bananas, sliced

Mix milk and pudding together with a whisk for 2 minutes. Let stand 3 minutes, fold in 1 1/2 cups of Cool Whip.
Separate Nutter Butter cookies and place on bottom of trifle bowl. Top with 1 sliced banana, then the pudding mixture. You can place the cookies around the sides of the bowl too for an elegant look. Repeat layers, ending with pudding. Cover with remaining Cool Whip and top with cookies laid flat. Cover and refrigerate.

Photo courtesy of Southern Living Magazine.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T21:56:00.005-05:00

I saw this clip art and it cracked me up. I love creating captions for pictures, my caption is below it.

"I'll lure this turkey with my corn cob then I'll stuff him into my basket! MWAHAHA!"

And on a serious note, I like this Bible verse about giving thanks:
"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."
Psalm 107:1 (NIV)

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

Confession Friday

2009-11-20T11:21:00.005-05:00

Hi readers! I have two confessions. Nothing big and juicy like I'm pregnant (of which I am NOT) but two things I have to mention.

I subscribe to many cooking and baking blogs and I have seen a plethora of pumpkin recipes come across my Google Reader. Pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin cobbler, pumpkin martinis, etc. Confession: I think pumpkin (as a food) is gross. Enough with the pumpkin food! Bring on the chocolate!

I don't get the hype over the Twilight series, especially among women my age. Now I can understand my high school students liking it and my nieces who are tweens liking it. I have not read the books nor seen the movies. It's a teenage vampire love story. Someone please sell me on the idea of what is so great about it. No hate mail please, I'm just curious.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

New Blog Widget: Shelfari

2009-11-10T20:40:00.005-05:00

Hi blog readers! Thanks for stopping by. I discovered a new site called Shelfari that lets you create a book shelf to post on blogs and websites. I created one for my favorite cookbooks, some have short reviews when you click on them. You can see my "bookshelf" if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of my blog then click on the arrows to see more books. Pretty cool huh?!

Anniversary Wrap-Up: Destination Charlotte

2009-11-07T14:47:00.015-05:00

Greetings! Tim and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary Halloween weekend in Charlotte since our anniversary date is October 30th. We took advantage of a weekend away without the kids. Here's a recap.

We stayed at the Dunhill Hotel in uptown Charlotte. This small, boutique hotel is right in the middle of uptown. I highly recommend staying there! We ate at Outback Steakhouse then hit Goodwill, Target, a natural foods store, and World Market. We had dessert at the Mad Greek Cafe. Our favorite cuisine is Greek and this place was outstanding! Tim had kataifi, similar to baklava, and I had galaktoboureko, similar to egg custard. Absolutely delicious! I can't wait to go back and try the place out for dinner.

The next day we had breakfast at the Monticello Restaurant next to the hotel and Tim had shrimp and grits, I had Creole Benedict. Next to Greek food, Lowcountry cooking is our second favorite kind of cuisine! Both dishes were excellent and a nice departure from my Honey Crunch 'N Oats cereal I eat every day.

We walked to the Epicenter complex which has retail shops, restaurants, bars, etc. Dale Jr.'s bar Whisky River is located here. The restaurants were gearing up for Halloween parties that night.

We wanted to do things we really couldn't do if we had our kids with us so we spent about 2 hours in the Levine Museum of the New South. This is a new museum which has exhibits showing the history and progress of Charlotte from farming, to textiles, to banking and everything in between.

We checked out of the hotel and headed towards the Amber House for lunch. Unfortunately it was closed for lunch on Saturday so we found the new IKEA. Oh. My. Goodness. IKEA was fan-TAS-tic! We wandered around in there for I don't know how long. I love housewares and kitchen stuff and home goods and I was in absolute heaven! We also loaded up on cookies, pastries, and a pan of cinnamon rolls. YUM!

We came back home and we were happy to hear that the kids did great! We all rested then did the trick or treating routine. We finished up just as it started pouring down rain! It was a wonderful weekend full of great memories!

Great Lilly Giveaway @ SL:PS

2009-11-03T18:44:00.004-05:00

OK Lilly Lovers! Jennifer at Southern Living: Preppy Style has a fabulous Lilly giveaway going on. Look at all that Lilly goodness! Be sure to leave a comment at Jennifer's site to enter. Giveaway ends November 10th at midnight.

That's So Random

2009-10-21T19:50:00.006-04:00

Random thoughts that are running through my brain right now:

What is up with the weather? It's in the 30's in the morning but warms up to the 70's in the afternoon. It's hard to know what to wear or how to dress the kids.

I bought my Red Lion variety amaryllis yesterday. Three years ago, I grew one and it bloomed like crazy. The past two years, the plant never bloomed. I hope this one does!

Gas prices jumped .10 overnight. For the record, a gallon of gas here in Lincolnton is $2.54.

I have a stupid cold. Alka-Seltzer Night Time medicine is my drug of choice to help me sleep. My friend Rhonda turned me on to it in college and I've been a believer ever since.

I read The Lost Symbol in three days. Great book, it really makes you think. The scene where Katherine is being chased in the pitch black Pod 5 gave me chills!

I'm already looking forward to Christmas! I'm trying to decide what to give as teacher gifts and how to package them. I'm anxiously waiting the Southern Living special Christmas edition to go on sale.

I hope everyone has a great day! Stay tuned for Food Friday!

Lilly Giveaway at Lauren Nicole Gifts!

2009-09-26T10:21:00.003-04:00

Lauren Nicole gifts has the best giveaways! The latest one is for a Lilly make-up bag. Love the monkey print since I feel like I live in a monkey house most of the time. Giveaway Ends at midnight Thursday, 10-1-09, a winner will be drawn on Friday, 10-2-09.

Click here to enter. Good luck!

Food Friday: Blonde Brownies

2009-09-25T13:26:00.008-04:00

Happy Friday! I decided to go out on a limb and bake something from scratch this week. What possessed me to do this, I have no idea, but I am glad I ventured out of my comfort zone and did it.

My Dad is a Pastor and had a funeral to do last week. In true southern Baptist tradition, the church fed the family after the service and a PILE of food was left over. Mom brought me some leftovers, namely a wonderful dessert plate filled with red velvet cake, coconut cake, cookies, and blonde brownies. The blondies were so good, I decided to make a batch.

I tend to steer away from making anything from scratch for fear that I'll switch baking powder for baking soda, forget to add salt, use the wrong kind of flour, etc. I looked online for a simple, easy recipe for blonde brownies and found this easy recipe from Mark Bittman (of How To Cook Everything fame) and it turned out GREAT! We have eaten almost the whole pan of brownies in 2 days. The recipe itself was found on the blog Smitten Kitchen. Here you go:

Blondies
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla or 1½ teaspoons almond extract
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8×8 pan.
Mix melted butter with brown sugar – beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then vanilla.
Add salt, stir in flour. Mix in any additions (see below for ideas).
Pour into prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle. Allow to cool on a wire rack before cutting them.

Suggested add-ins (one or a combination of):
1/2 to 1 cup chopped nuts, toasting them first for even better flavor
1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon mint extract in addition to or in place of the vanilla
1/2 cup mashed bananas
1/4 cup bourbon, scotch or other whiskey; increase the flour by one tablespoon
2 tablespoons of espresso powder with the vanilla
1/2 cup dried fruit, especially dried cherries
Top with a vanilla butter cream or chocolate peanut butter cream frosting

Now I added 2/3 c. of chocolate chips to the batter. Dare I say this out loud but I thought it made the brownies a bit too sweet. Next time, I'm going to add pecans instad of chocolate chips.

Baking something from scratch wasn't so bad. Now I'm thinking I need to buy a pastry blender or a flour sifter. I seriously doubt I'll bake a cake from scratch but I will try some more cookies and bars recipes, maybe even a cheesecake.

Have a great weekend y'all!

Ice cream cake

2009-09-14T14:03:00.011-04:00

Hi blog readers! This past month has been NUTS with school starting and so much going on. Now that everything is settling down, I will get back into the routine of blogging.

Tim celebrated a birthday earlier this month and to celebrate, I made him an ice cream cake. It turned out wonderfully! The recipe is from the Taste of Home magazine "Fun Food". It will be on sale until September 21st. I have made so many good recipes from this magazine and none of them are complicated. Gotta love that!

Here's the recipe:

Not Fried Ice Cream Cake
1 cup cornflake crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 gallon butter pecan ice cream, softened, divided
4 tbl. honey

In a small bowl, combine the cornflake crumbs, sugar, butter, and cinnamon, set aside 1/2 cup. Press remaining mixture in a greased 9 in. springform pan. Spoon half of ice cream mixture over crust. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixtured over top, drizzle with 2 tbl. honey. Cover and freeze for two hours.

Top with remaining ice cream. Cover and freeze for 8 hours or overnight.

Remove from freezer 5 minutes before serving. Remove sides of pan, drizzle with remaining honey.

Delicious! I will definitely be making this again! Be aware, not many ice cream containers are truly half gallon size. The one I purchased was 1.75 quart and it was plenty for this recipe.

Preparation for School & Words to Live By

2009-08-14T12:00:00.007-04:00

Hi blog readers! Long time no blog. We have been running crazy here getting ready for the start of school. I have 3 school schedules to keep track of: my daughter's, my son's preschool, and the private school where I teach. Of course, they all have different Open House nights and different start dates so thank goodness for calendars and grandparents who love watching my children during all these meetings.

My school where I teach has a new Headmaster this year. I have been really impressed since I met her this summer and talking with her on the phone. She said "The students probably won't smile until after Christmas" once she implements changes. I think there is room for improvement and I am anxious to see what she has planned. My first day of staff development workshops is Monday. It will be nice to get back into the routine. I'm teaching 9th and 10th grade English plus 11th and 12th grade Career Planning. I've cleaned out my briefcase and I am getting my ducks in a row so to speak.

This year I am going to implement a short devotion time before I start the lesson and I'm looking for readings, devotions, prayers, etc. One of my Facebook friends who is going into the 10th grade posted this and it hit me upside the head. I'm going to read it to my class. The author is unknown:

"Christ is not a fashion, he is not something you put on and wear for the world to see and then take off when inconvenient. Christ is a blood transfusion, the removal of imperfection and replacing it with perfection. He runs through your veins and affects every aspect of your life. He is your life and if He is in you, He will shine through you and that shines brighter than anything you can put on."

Can I get an AMEN?! Thanks to Abbey for posting that quote.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and enjoy what's left of summer!

Food Friday: Strawberry Smoothie

2009-07-24T09:01:00.009-04:00

We had a great, relaxing time on our vacation to Myrtle Beach last week. The weather was perfect and not too humid. It would rain during the night so we were able to enjoy the sunny days by the pool and at the beach. Tim got caught up on his sleep and his cable tv shows, Camden enjoyed running around and hanging out with his girl cousins, who were like "little mamas" to him, which gave me a break! Anna loved playing Rock Band with her cousins, now she sings "That's What You Get" by Paramore and "Eye of the Tiger" around the house. I hit the Lilly Pulitzer department at Belk's and bought myself a birthday present (on sale!). It was a wonderful vacation overall.

Now on to Food Friday! New this year to Sea Watch was a Tiki bar/concession stand at the pool. After seeing other people carrying around fruity drinks, Anna decided she wanted to try out a strawberry smoothie (with added whipped cream of course). It was so refreshing! We got a banana smoothie the next day, and we decided that the strawberry one was better. The smoothies were made from a mix but here's a recipe from smoothie-recipes.com that sounds very similar to what we had:

Ingredients
6 large strawberries
1 cup Welch's Strawberry Breeze
1/2 cup ice cubes
Can of whipped cream (optional)

Directions:
Blend juice and with strawberries and add ice cubes until slushy consistency is formed. Soy milk may be used to replace juice for a thicker Straberry Smoothie Recipe. Add whipped cream on top if desired.

Delicious!

Awesome Giveaway at Lauren Nicole Gifts

2009-07-24T08:56:00.003-04:00

I love Lauren Nicole Gifts! Her jewelry is so timeless. She is offering a great giveaway this week, a silver monogrammed pendant set, including the seal used to make your initials.

Click here to enter, contest closes on Thursday, July 30.

Going on Vacation

2009-07-11T10:40:00.001-04:00

We are leaving for vacation next week and I have SO MUCH TO DO! Blogging will commence after I get back.

We are staying at Sea Watch in N. Myrtle Beach. We have stayed there every summer since 2000. I highly recommend it!

Have a great week everyone!

Food Friday-Chocolate Cherries and Bugles

2009-07-11T10:13:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone! Since I'm leaving for vacation soon, here's a double dose of Food Friday recipes.

Yesterday afternoon I made peanut butter filled Bugles dipped in chocolate. These are so easy to make and it is a great snack if you are feeding a crowd. My kids loved these and so did my husband! I'm definitely making these for the Holidays.

PEANUT BUTTER FILLED CHOCOLATE DIPPED BUGLES
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (room temperature)
6 cups Bugles original flavor snacks
12 ounces milk chocolate confectionary coating or 1 bag of chocolate chips
Colored sprinkles
small Ziploc bag
Aluminum foil
Cookie sheet/pizza pan

Fill Ziploc bag with peanut butter and cut a small hole in corner of bag.
Twist open end of bag tight and carefully pipe the peanut butter into the Bugles.
Do not overfill or the filling will leak out.
In a microwave safe bowl, melt candy coating at 70% power for 1 1/ 2 minutes. Stir.
Heat 1 to 1 1/2 minutes longer or until melted; stir until smooth (I used my chocolate melter instead).
Dip the peanut butter filled end of each Bugle halfway into the chocolate coating.
Place on waxed paper or aluminum foil covered cookie sheet/pizza pan.
While chocolate is still wet, sprinkle colored sprinkles over each Bugle.

Delicious!

I had some chocolate left over and Mom had bought some big, beautiful cherries at the grocery store. I took a bag full home with me last night after our visit and planned to make chocolate covered cherries the next day. Tim saw the cherries sitting next to the chocolate pot and plugged it in. We were making chocolate covered cherries at 10:30 last night! These were outstanding and the color just pops.

CHOCOLATE COVERED CHERRIES
Large stemmed cherries, washed and patted dry
(make sure the cherries are very dry since water will cause chocolate to seize and you have to make a new batch)
Chocolate of your choice, melted
Aluminum foil
Cookie sheet/pizza pan

Melt the chocolate in the microwave, double boiler, or chocolate melter (your choice)
Dip the cherries halfway into the chocolate, let excess drip off
Place on foil covered cookie sheet to set

Enjoy!

Happy Independence Day!

2009-07-04T08:41:00.007-04:00

What we're doing:

Grilling out

Chilling out by the pool

Watching the parade downtown

Catching the fireworks at the stadium

Have a fabulous Fourth of July everyone!
Let Freedom Ring!

Food Friday-Tomato Pie

2009-07-03T11:48:00.002-04:00

I first tasted this pie when the family went on vacation to Kiawah Island, SC in 1999. We picked it up from King's Market in Edisto Island. We devoured it and went back the next day to get another one and asked for the recipe. I've been making it every summer since then.

4 tomatoes, peeled and sliced
Salt
Pepper
As much dried basil as you can stand
1 (9-inch) prebaked deep dish pie shell
1 cup grated mozzarella
1 cup grated cheddar
1 cup mayonnaise
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the tomatoes in a colander in the sink in 1 layer. Sprinkle with salt and allow to drain for 10 minutes.

Layer the tomato slices and basil in pie shell. Season with salt and pepper. Combine the grated cheeses and mayonnaise together. Spread mixture on top of the tomatoes and bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

To serve, cut into slices and serve warm. Please note: this pie does not save well as leftovers. The crust gets soggy from the tomatoes so be sure to eat it all the first time it is served!

New Cake Pan from W-S

2009-06-29T08:00:00.002-04:00

I am a sucker for housewares. I could spend all day plus an entire paycheck in Bed Bath & Beyond, Pottery Barn, or Williams-Sonoma. Fancy silicone Madeleine baking pans make my heart race. Muffin top pans are so neat (but not the kind of "muffin top" that spills over my jeans). And candy making supplies? Love them. Is it a wonder I was a Pampered Chef consultant for over four years?

I was browsing the Williams-Sonoma website and came across this new cake pan. Now I am not a cake decorator, a while back I took all three of the Wilton Method cake decorating classes offered at Michael's only to realize at the end I stunk at it. I love making pastries and anything with my chocolate melter, but with this pan I wouldn't have to do any decorating per se. Just bake the top and bottom, make a cream filling, and there you go.

My birthday is coming up so I might spring for this as my birthday present to myself along with a large can of Baker's Joy spray. My fear would be that some of the chocolate would get stuck in the pan once I turned it out to cool. At any rate, I'll keep you all posted of my progress. Who knows, the finished product might end up on Cake Wrecks!

Comfort Food

2009-06-20T11:28:00.007-04:00

My favorite homemade dish EVER is my mom's Ham-
burger Corn Noodle Casserole. I grew up on this! I could eat it every day for a week and still love it. I rarely eat it now since my husband thinks anything with a cream sauce is gross (but he loves clam chowder, so go figure...). My mom made a batch of it recently and graciously gave me a Pyrex dish full of it. It brought back great memories of my childhood. And I didn't have to share!

Here's the recipe:
1 package egg noodles, cooked
1 lb. ground beef
1 onion, chopped (or as much/little as you want, I'm not a huge fan of onions)
1 can corn, drained
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Cook the egg noodles according to directions. Meanwhile, brown meat and onion in a large pot, drain off fat. Add the corn, cooked egg noodles, and soup. Gently mix and place in large serving bowl.

Oreo Pops-The Results Are In!

2009-06-16T08:50:00.005-04:00

To recap: I wanted to make Oreo Pops for teacher gifts but I had to round up the supplies. See previous post here. I got everything together and made them and they turned out excellent! The teachers loved them. I think the pink ribbon was the perfect finishing touch.

I followed this recipe and did not have to modify anything. Be sure to scrape the excess chocolate off the cookies with a rubber spatula or spoon after dipping since the chocolate can get too thick on the cookie and "puddle" around the cookie when cooling.

Dance Recital

2009-06-10T14:55:00.008-04:00

This year was Anna's first year of taking ballet. Her dance recital was this past Sunday and she did great! She knew all of her routine, they danced to Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler. We are looking forward to second year ballet in the fall.

She received two trophies, one for completing one year of dance and one for having perfect attendance. Yay Anna!

Food Friday-Free Doughnuts!

2009-06-05T09:17:00.003-04:00

In honor of National Doughnut day today, June 5th, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts are giving away free doughnuts! Here's the scoop from walletpop.com.

I think the smell of Krispy Kreme doughnuts should be put on a car air freshener. I may load up Monkey Boy and head to the nearest KK. Chocolate covered with vanilla cream inside is my favorite. Down it with a glass of milk and there's nothing like it! Needless to say, the diet will start again tomorrow :)

Lilly Pulitzer Wallet Giveaway

2009-05-31T11:57:00.002-04:00

Lilly Lovers, check out this great Lilly wallet giveaway at Lauren Nicole Gifts. Contest ends on June 4th. Good luck!