Sunday Visit

My cousin, Brooke, and her sweet little family came to visit us Sunday evening. So of course that meant we needed something yummy for supper time!

On the menu:
Grilled porkchops
Au gratin potatoes
French sliced green beans
Strawberry cake

Believe it or not, I've never made au gratin potatoes before. I found a recipe that looked simple enough & it gave me a chance to use my new food processor for slicing & grating. I knew I liked my food processor but now I seriously LOVE it.

Here's the recipe & picture of the potatoes. They got rave reviews from all so I thought I'd share it here.

Ingredients
8 russet potatoes, sliced thin
1 onion, sliced into rings
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 + 2 tablespoons butter
1/4 + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream
4 cups shredded Extra Sharp Cheddar cheese
2 tsp. garlic powder
Paprika

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 baker.

2.Layer 1/2 of the potatoes into bottom of the prepared casserole dish.Sprinkle generously with salt & pepper. Top with the onion slices, and add the remaining potatoes. Season with salt and pepper generously again.

3.In a medium-size saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Mix in the flour, salt, garlic powder and stir constantly with a whisk for one minute. Stir in milk and heavy cream. Cook until mixture has thickened. Stir in cheese all at once, and continue stirring until melted, about 30 to 60 seconds. Pour cheese over the potatoes, sprinkle with paprika and cover the dish with aluminum foil.

4.Bake for 1 hour 25 minutes covered; remove foil & bake for 5 more minutes.

Next recipe is one my hair stylist told me a customer brought by to him and thought I'd like it. I didn't love it but the family did.

Ingredients:

1 Strawberry box cake (ingredients to make it according to package directions)
1 can of strawberry pie filling
1 can strawberry frosting
1 container whipped topping

Directions:

1. Prepare cake according to package directions for a 9x13 cake. Let cake cool. (I forgot to take a picture of the cake. So here's one of the box mix.)

2. Spread pie filling on top of completely cooled cake.

3. Mix the can of strawberry flavored frosting & tub of whipped topping together.

4. Spread frosting gently & evenly using a small spreader.

5. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Wordless Wednesday....

Motherhood...

"You are blessed with an amazing gift of motherhood. With homeschooling as a bonus. Your reward may not be a paycheck at the end of the week, nor is it a gold medal at the end of the race. It is so much more! The fruits of your labor will be eternal". ~ Jenn

Lauren, Chloe, Cecelia & Isaiah showing off the ribbons they won last year at Field Day for Homeschoolers.

Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers

Today I had the privilege to read the most wonderful book to my daughter Chloe. It was called, Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America.

The story tells of Lady Bird's childhood, how she got her name from her nanny, the loss of her mother, the sweet friend she found in her Aunt Effie who came to live with her & Papa after mother's death. Dearest Aunt Effie is responsible for "sowing the seed" of love for wildflowers in Lady Bird. It follows her to college, courtship, marriage, becoming First Lady & how she helped to beautify our highways by eliminating billboards and seeding wildflowers.

The real bonus in the book is the chart of wildflowers on the last page, and then to have your child find them on the pages, as they are woven thoughout the splendid illustrations. More fun to be had in the illustrations is all the wildlife hidden in woods. I think that was Chloe's favorite part.

I have to admit I got teary-eyed reading this book to her. (Thank God my tender hearted Chloe was thoughtful enough to get up right away and get her mommy a tissue, I love that girl!) The wonderful description of my beloved Texas hill country was so vivid & made me so "homesick" to be there, especially right now, after all....it's BLUEBONNET TIME and I know the trails are smelling sweet.

1, 2, 3 Cake

My wonderful friend Kathy McCullough told me about this quick & easy way to use my old bananas. I make it often now.

Here goes:

1 yellow box cake
2 eggs
3 bananas (I use up to 5 bananas, gives it more flavor)

Then to finish it off with complete yumminess here is my icing recipe:

1 c. butter (2 sticks) room temperture
3 c. powder sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2-3 TBS. heavy whipping cream

Cream butter & sugar together on low for a couple of minutes to blend then on high to mix well.
Add vanilla & 2 TBS. heavy cream; mix for 2 minutes. Test it for spreading consistency before adding another TBS of cream.

Pioneer Woman meets Katie Dean!

I had the pleasure meeting a nice lady I've been following for the past couple of years on her blog, Ree Dummond aka: The Pionner Woman.
For those of you who do not know of her, she was a fancy city slicker from California who fell in love with a real cowboy from eastern Oklahoma. He asked her to marry him & he swept her away to his beautiful working cattle ranch.

She missed her family, friends & city, but loved her cowboy who she lovingly refers to as "Marlboro Man", and decided the best way to keep in touch and up-to-date with them was through a blog. She posted pictures of her adventures on the ranch, learning to cook and well telling some funny jokes & stories along the way. What started out as a blog for family & friends exploded into a readership of...well...I know it's in the hundred thousands. On her FB fan page she has over 222,000 people following her! Wow!! She also homeschools 4 kids & takes some amazing pictures.


So here's how my awesome Friday night went last week:

Here we are all waiting like a herd of cattle lookin' for the shoot.

Teena, myself, Allison & her precious little Levi aka; Future Marlboro Man. Allsion made that onesie special for the occasion. It has a cute little cowboy & his playful pup. She couldn't fit the whole "Marlboro Man" on it so went with "Future MM". I think this was a good choice since most people would think she's already giving the boy cigarettes like the kid over in Indonesia. She's not. So hold off on the calls to CPS, she's a great mom with a funny sense of humor who wanted The Pioneer Woman to laugh (and she did).

While there waiting in the muddle I decided to post my wait to the mobile Facebook and found a friend who was waiting over in the children's section there in the back corner of photo #1. Here's me & Shawna:

Finally the moment we'd all been waiting for! She comes out first for a little Q&A. At first I wasn't too keen on this thinking, "What on earth do you people NOT know about her? She blogs pretty much everything & she's written a cookbook & her love story." Still, we had a Q&A and not to my surprise, it was a short one.

She brought her oldest daughter along for the road trip & well looks like she's gonna need to help Mama haul the cool gifts people brought as well.

Now it's our turn!! Here are the up close & personal pictures!

Teena

Ree checkin' out the precious baby Levi's shirt; Future MM

Allsion & Levi

Now it's Shawna, Ryan & Ashley's turn to say howdy!

As you can see here, Ree took a shine to Ryan. He was the only kid who asked her a question during the Q&A and she was most impressed.

And I think he got the coolest autograph too!

Now it's my turn to have my cookbook signed. Yay!!

A close up please!

And the final picture.....what we were all there for....the book signing..

I met several ladies the next night at a fundraiser for our friends the Dickinson's and they had NO CLUE who The Pioneer Woman was...I almost fell right outta my chair! So being the "helpful & friendly" gal I am, I moseyed right on over to each table & shared with them all what I knew & loved about Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman of eastern Oklahoma.

Now why don't you moseye on over yourself and have a looksey?

http://thepioneerwoman.com/

Chocolate Syrup & Fun Teacher

Today I found a new blog site that I was very impressed with and found a super recipe for homemade chocolate syrup for milk or sundaes.
It was easy to make, very rich and the kids all approved after sampling it in a glass of cold milk.

Here's the recipe:

1/2 c. cocoa
1 c. water
2 c. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Mix the cocoa powder and the water in a saucepan. Heat and stir to dissolve the cocoa. Add the sugar, and stir to dissolve. Boil for 3 minutes over medium heat. Be careful not to let it get too hot and boil over! Add the salt and the vanilla. Let cool. Pour into a clean glass jar, and store in the refrigerator. Keeps for several months, but trust me it will be gone before then. Yields two cups.

The result is very rich, so I only use a teaspoon for a glass of chocolate milk.

I also found a cool new teaching resource site with all sorts of things like free worksheets, coloring pages, flashcards, songs for kids, educational videos, fun activities & teacher tools.

Go here and check it out:


http://www.havefunteaching.com/

Sunday Fun-day

Today has been a great day. It's Sunday fun-day for us. Church was great & afterward we came home for lunch and just fended for ourselves. I decided to take on a new chili recipe I found on Rachael Ray's website called BBQ Chili.
I added a little to it, if you really know me you know I rarely follow a recipe exactly.

So here's the link to Rachael's recipe:

http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=3189

~I didn't have thick sliced bacon so I used 6 slices of regular.
I used 3 palmfuls (3TBS) of chili powder
~1 half palmful (1/2 TBS) cumin powder
I put in the whole bottle of beer
We always have petite diced tomatoes in our chili so I drained an extra large can of those & put them in last.

It slow simmered on the stovetop for several hours & my goodness did it smell heavenly in the house. Wow!
The end result was tantalizing. We girls gave it a 5 out of 5 star rating however the guys gave it a 4 out of 5 star rating because they said even though it was really good, it didn't have a lot of heat to it. They're right, this chili is not a heat setter but has incredible flavor for a mild chili which was exactly what I was looking for.



Daddy & Chloe were buddies today. She rode with him to church in his truck then right after they hotfooted it over to Lowes for more plywood for our garage shelves. She was most interested in watching the Lowes man operate the giant saw however got a bigger treat when she was able to ride the shopping cart around the store all by herself. (No pictures of that, I was at home, remember?)
Another big deal today was; When Chloe & daddy made this trip to Lowes they forgot something on the counter they had paid for so another trip had to be made. This trip was made on the motorcycle & Chloe was so excited because she's grown over the winter months & now can touch the foot pegs while holding on to daddy so she made the trip back to Lowes on the back of the bike! Wooo Hoo!! I was gone to the BX (Base Exchange) so there is not a picture of this milestone either.

Now our cats give us a lot of joy & one of our funny pictures of the day is featuring Graci, Jimbo's cat.
It's not "Black Friday" but she's in line already!



After our wonderful supper time, we kicked back in front of the television and watched Extreme Home Makeover, made some popcorn with our new air popper then watched the new season of The Amazing Race.





It's not looking too good for our Oklahoma cowboys, Jet & Cord, but we're still cheering them on & will until Phil says, "Jet & Cord, I'm sorry but you have been eliminated from the race." We're also cheering for Margie & Luke, Flight Time & Big Easy (Harlem Globetrotters), and Kisha & Jenn.

Never Say Never

Lots to blog about today:

This morning I made a new waffle recipe. I watched Rachael Ray make it on her show. I thought, "wow! that looks easy & I have all those ingredients", so I tried it. Was okay but not anything to spectacular. Keith & the girls liked it alright but didn't give rave reviews so I think, we'll find another waffle recipe to try.




This afternoon, we cleared out the front corner of the garage. Keith built some shelves & I must say, he did a great job! Can't wait to see what else he comes up with using his new tools. Now, I just have to get out there, unpack the rest of our boxes we've had out there since the move here from CA in April of 2007! Yikes!




Also this afternoon, I took Lauren to a birthday party at the Warren Theatre in Moore. She had a great time with friends while at the party & watching the movie; Never Say Never~The Justin Bieber Story.





Chloe, being the big Justin Bieber fan, would have been absolutely heartbroken if I had not taken her to see the movie when her sister saw it so we stayed for the movie as well. We all loved it. Was a great memory to make with my girls.

Jimbo came home from his debate tourney with 2 trophies in hand! He's so great at debate, it's one of his gifts. Notice the year "98" on them? They are "recycled" trophies to save money for the club. This made us laugh & well...just makes for a great story. He placed 2nd in DEX & Top Speaker {the bigger of the 2}. We're so proud of him.