Sweet Couch Potato

Well, as you may know my baby, Sweet Potato came to visit for the week. Here she is in the car on the way here. I should probably mention she is TERRIFIED of cars...particularly getting in or out of them and just about killed Sara Jane trying to get out of it on Saturday night.


Here she is sniffing around on one of our daily walks. She LOVES walks and especially stopping to sniff the drainage pipes. She thought they were so interesting and just couldn't quite figure them out....I on the other hand was worried that she would get bitten by something hiding in one of the pipes so I didn't like her sniffing around them.


Here she is playing with her little stuffed (well, formerly stuffed) pig and wagging her tail so fast that it's only a flash! Whenever I would walk in the door she would start wagging a million miles an hour and pick up her pig and starts tossing it around...it's outrageously cute.


She is so very snuggly if I sit on the sofa she crawls over and puts her head and a paw or two in my lap. I'm going to miss her now that she went home! Pardon my navy/black/terrible outfit...I was cleaning.



She sits so hilariously! Just look at that turkey leg! Kills me...



Pretty sure this doesn't need a caption.


We went to get doggie ice cream from Bruster's and also used a buy one get one free coupon for ice cream for me and Sara Jane. Cost for the evening: Sara Jane's bruise while Tater exited the car, and only $2.89 for the ice cream!


Here she is eating her ice cream off of the milk bone garnish they put in the cup. Presh!


I was so sad when she left today! Sara Jane came to get her today and it broke my heart. Now, it's back to the real world...back to life, back to reality. Hope you enjoyed these adorable pictures of our precious baby!

The Potato and Women with Tools

This weekend has been somewhat productive so far...although still I am very unsatisfied with the pictures I've taken. I'm in such haste to get them snapped before the batteries die that I don't patiently wait for a good shot. Anyway, my best friend, Lindsay (at my left in the above picture) came over to help me hang my bamboo shade in my bathroom that I've had laying on my floor waiting to be hung since January! She generously let me borrow her drill (and by borrow I mean she came over and did most of the work while I held the shade up with my freakishly long arms) and we got the shade hung and I think it is just lovely...particularly when you compare it to the former "window treatment" that consisted for a blue towel circa 1991 with embroidered butterflies held up by two clear push pins. Classy.

Very spa like, eh?


Thursday night Lindsay and I watched one of my favorite movies, "When Harry Met Sally". It's such a beautiful love story although it has many bumps along the way and they take forever to figure it all out, I'm a sucker for best friend love stories and I just adore this movie. We also had some Bailey's treats complete with whipped cream on top in the above green 1970s vintage mugs that Mama let me have, LOVE them also. Also pictured is my cake candle that I LOVE! The scent is orange cinnamon cake. TDF (to die for in Sara Jane's abbreviated lingo) and it has helped me get the stink of Tater (below) and her "tots" she keeps leaving on my carpet! I've taken her out many times during the days and she's had at least one or two walks everyday, yet still she leaves me presents over night. She is house trained and has only had one accident in Mama and Daddy's house to my knowledge, but for some reason while she's visiting me she seems to think pooping in front of the TV is a great idea. Meanwhile, I'm getting sick of scooping poop in bags in the house and scrubbing the carpet with OxyClean, and I'm running low on my supply! I guess this is good training for being a Mama someday. But just look at her! About six or so poops in my house and I still can't be mad at her for long...she's just so cute! I hope to have more pictures of her doing cute things from this weekend.



I mean really, this fat doggie rump, too cute! I never get tired of petting her and cuddling with her on the sofa. Sara Jane is coming to visit with us for Saturday and Sunday and much to my dismay, will be taking Tater back home. After receiving worried parental calls from both Mama and Daddy, I'm sure they will be happy to have the Potato back. Daddy even asked to talk to her on the phone! They love her so much and both have admitted to being so sad that she isn't there and missing her terribly! I'm sure she'll be thrilled to see them to and maybe she'll go back to pooping outside.

Wishing for good batteries

Again, poor quality photos due to rechargeable batteries that are new and yet refuse to recharge.
My dear sweet Angel, Sweet Potato came down with me from Augusta for the week. She's been such a darling and since there have been several tragedies among the roommates (including poor Allison losing her grandmother and her dog in only one week!) she's been so helpful in the healing process. I've been wanting to have some friends over for a dinner party for a while and it seemed like the perfect opportunity since the Potato was here to have everybody come and meet her. The picture above shows how she was sitting while i was cooking. She kept peering over the arm of the sofa so she could watch what I was doing from a safe distance and of course from the comfort of the sofa. It's so fun to hear her beating her tail on the sofa every time I walk into the room and to have her snuggle up beside me while I do my homework. I'm feeling very maternal having her around.





Here's set up number one for the 10 people I had over last night.




And set up number two!

Thankfully, others contributed side items like peas, tea, rolls, vanilla ice cream, and peach cobbler! The Cobbler was incredible! It was topped with pecans and I think she said white cake mix, I plan to get the recipe very soon.

So, I know that the number one (or at least it's on the top ten) rule for having people over for a meal is that you should always make a meal you have made before and that you know is delicious and of course, use a recipe.
But, loving food the way that I do, sometimes I dream about recipes I want to create and so I had a dream about what I wanted to make and couldn't bring myself to make anything else until I could eat what I dreamed about!

It turned out great if I do say so myself, so I thought i might share the "recipe" with any readers out there in the blogsphere.

Ingredients
1 box penne noodles
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 slices of American processed cheese cubed or torn
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups 1% milk
1 6-8 oz container of sour cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic and herb Mrs. Dash seasoning
4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts


Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Loosely wrap chicken breast in tin foil packets and sprinkle on the garlic and herb seasoning. Bake the chicken for about 30 min (cook time depends on thickness of chicken breasts). Cook penne until al dente in salted boiling water. Drain. Mix together in a large bowl the milk, sour cream, seasonings, eggs, and 1 1/2 cups of the cheddar along with the rest of the cheeses. Lightly grease a large casserole pan and pour the noodles into the bottom. Then pour the cheese and milk mixture over the top of that. Shred the chicken with a fork and then evenly spread it on top of the noodles and poke it down into the noodles. Cover with the remaining cheddar cheese and back for about 30 min in the 350 degree oven (still heated) cover in aluminum foil for the first 20 min of the baking and then remove the foil for the last 10 minutes to melt the cheese well.

What should I name it?

Tip of the Week...err, Month: Casseroles!

I realize this is probably the most boring and obvious post ever, but I figure, what the hey.
Casseroles are about the single easiest dish to make, serve, save, freeze, tote, and enjoy! Growing up, whenever there was a death in some one's family, a new baby born, any need for a meal to be delivered to friends, Mama would make some delicious casserole that Sara Jane and I would be watering at the mouth for and peeking into the oven jealously wishing we were eating it that evening. She always packed it in her Pyrex container and put these awesome gel packs to keep it warm in there that Sara Jane and I would LOVE to squish around (and then we were promptly told to "scram" when we were getting too munch underfoot and destroying the gel packs), and then head off to deliver it. Mama makes excellent casseroles.
Could it be because she was raised primarily in the casserole era?

On a normal evening, we don't typically eat casseroles, but I do recall nights when we had red hot/mashed potato casserole or a cheesy chicken concoction or even a beanie weenie with biscuits casserole. Those heavenly meals were reserved for busy PTA or choir practice nights when cooking in advance or throwing something quick and easy together was a must.

Mama would likely be embarrassed that I'm writing about those casseroles, but there is just something so comforting about the simple, no fuss, kid-friendly casseroles. And please understand, Mama is an excellent cook and we have never been hurting for delicious food she is more than capable!

The most standby recipe that everybody can enjoy across the board is Chicken and Rice casserole. Most simple and easy and delicious comfort food I can really lift the spirits.

Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 can cream of chicken soup
4 cooked and cubed chicken breasts
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups cooked white or brown rice
1/2 cup steamed broccoli (optional)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 sleeve crushed Ritz crackers

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Mix soup, sour cream, onion powder, black pepper together. Put the rice in the bottom of the pan, layer with chicken and pour soup mixture over the top and let it drain down into the rice and chicken. Top with crushed crackers and back for 20 or 25 minutes just to heat it through since everything is already cooked. Then top with the cheddar cheese and then put back in the oven to melt it.

Favorite Movie of the Year!

The movie Julie and Julia is an incredible movie! i LOVED every second of it (except one scene which was somewhat disappointing but considering the real life scenario it makes good sense). Every scene was beautiful, Meryl Streep was splendid and portrayed her character with perfect grace and clumsy sweetness. Julia Child (Meryl Streep) was heart warmingly unique, loving, and just all around wonderful.



The way her husband loved her was BEAUTIFUL!!! He was just absolutely enamored with her even in her awkward mannerisms and voice. You could just tell, he loved her and thought she was nothing short of a goddess. I want to be loved that way, although I do know that this is a Hollywood romance and in their real lives I'm sure there is no way that he was never irritated with her or her with him. No earthly relationship is perfect or without fights, flaws, and difficulties. They just loved eachother in such a way that was admirable even if somewhat unrealistic.



Julie's relationship with her husband was also very sweet. Their relationship was a little rocky at some point, but so redemptive in the end and quite beautiful. And just look at this scene above?! Gorgeous!


A blog about food, eating, love, and cooking?! I cannot express how much I loved it! Top two movies of all time? : This one and First Wive's Club. LOVED IT!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I feel as if this post is narcissistic but Sara Jane kept nudging me to do it, and I had to post better pictures of me than she did in her post!!!

Two days ago I made a drastic change. I cut off eleven inches of my hair (which looked like these pictures when I actually fixed my hair which i hate to admit was somewhat rare due to humidity undoing my efforts).

Now, my hair looks like this:


I should add that this is so newly cut that it is easy to fix and requires practically no work at all which may be a different story as it grows out. There's something about cutting hair and making a drastic change that provides somewhat of a release, and it does help with coping with some major change or heartbreak. Again, I want to stress that I do not believe in the slightest that any earthly thing will "solve problems" or make everything "all better", I know that all my tears and woes will be gone in heaven, and Jesus who loves me here and now will provide for my heart, soul, and body and never leave me...this a haircut, diet, new outfit, drug, relationship, whatever else cannot promise!

(My hair was still wet in these ponytails so that is why it looks so gross)
I'm mailing my hair to Locks of Love so that they can provide someone, generally an underprivileged child, who suffers from Alopecia, Leukemia, cancer treatments, etc with a wig made of real hair. They require a minimum of 10 inches of unbleached hair and it is totally painless to give. I highly recommend if you have long hair to donate! What's that you say? You have short hair and you want to help? Well, lucky for you even if you don't have long hair you can still help by making a donation to the cause which you can find more about on their website. I also encourage you to take a look at the gallery of recipients. Maybe it's because I was feeling emotional anyway, but the smiles on their little faces with their new hair nearly brought me to tears!

Also, I realize most of my pictures are crappy and as someone who can operate a manual camera...that is terribly embarrassing for me. However, my camera is NOT cooperating in the least by saying its newly charged batteries need to be changed and is preventing me from posting fabulous pictures of cool things.

The Healing Powers of Puppies

This past weekend has been one of the worst ever if not the worst in my life. Whenever I am sad, heartbroken, discouraged, etc., hugging a dog is one of the most therapeutic activities I can think of.
A hug from a friend is a great thing and crying on their shoulder certainly helps, but hugging a dog is so different. Sweet Tater is the best hugger I know and some how it seems like she knows how I feel and can empathize with me. I wish she were here with me, or that I had a dog of my own here with me to care for and love. Loving and taking care of pet has healing powers for sure...of course it doesn't make everything all better or even really get rid of pain but it is a nice way to give love and know it will be given in return in a tangible way.

So...here are two doggies that I wish I could have to hug every day and love and care for them. Dogs really know how to love. Their love is genuine and honest, can't beat that.



Of course, the love of Christ is truly the only one to which I can cling and know that it is not only unconditional but contra conditional when I am unlovable. Jesus loves me despite my sin, despite my not being perfect, despite my not loving Him as I should....and even when all I can believe is that I am not good enough and am not being loved by a person and blame myself, His love is ever truer and more genuine and real. He will not let me down even when the ones I love most do and I feel desperately hurt He promises me in His word that He knows how I feel and more because He was betrayed and rejected and He lived the perfect life and died for me.

Tybee Family Vacay

Tip of the Week: Chopping an Onion without Crying!

I assume you know by now how much I love to cook (new recipe coming soon by the way). Onions are part of the "holy trinity of Southern cooking" and I use them often in any way that I can. They're an incredible vegetable packed with so much flavor naturally and are delicious raw, grilled, sauteed, roasted, baked, fried...anyway you "slice" it (he he he) they are yummy!

Almost everybody I know reacts at least a little or "get the vapors" when slicing an onion...lucky for me my eyes water and sting uncontrollably and my eye makeup runs down my face making me look like an emo-gothic mix. So, I researched and did some experimenting and I have a few tips to keep some dry eyes in t he house.

So, to avoid looking like this when chopping:




1. Wet your knife on each side under running water.
2. Refrigerate the onion about 20-30 min before chopping to keep some of the juices that contain the irritants from running around and bothering your eyes.
3. Cut the onion through the middle so you can count the rings, and cut from the inside out. This is to keep from chopping the root area which contains most of the irritants until the very last possible chance.
4. You can also cut the core out of the onion before you start or soak them for a while before beginning to cut.



*Chopping through the root like the above picture releases more tear-causing vapors rather than cutting across the other way.

Hope this helps to keep you from crying next time you cook with this delicious and versatile veggie!