Post-Dinner Club

Chris and I have had such a busy, but fun weekend!  Saturday was our dinner club, and I think everything went really well!

Side Story:  I found chargers like I had envisioned at Hobby Lobby last Thursday but never found any great napkin rings.  I refuse to pay retail prices for something that is just OK.  So Friday morning Rachel and I went yardsaleing (or as I tell Rachel, "treasure hunting") and I found napkin rings just like I was wanting! It was a bag of 10 new, silver napkin rings with the Dillard's tags still attached.  I got 10 of them for $7! Yay! AND I found them in time for the dinner party! Bonus!

Back to Saturday...Chris wanted to get the yard looking nice before everyone came over, and it has rained to much this past week (to clarify, I am not complaining!) that he had to do it all on Saturday morning.  With a 17-month-old and  Christopher in the house, there's pretty much no point in cleaning ahead of time, so of course I waited until Saturday to do most of that, also.  Then I had to make Pasta Fagioli and Lasagna.  (We had made the tiramisu the night before.) So it was a very busy day, but I think everyone had a good time!  It is so nice to have a break from the usual dinner routine, and we had some excellent company!  Thank the Lord for church families, both new and old.

Sunday we made a short trip to Stillwater.  I always try to think of things to do on the weekends since Chris likes to have plans, but rarely likes to make plans.  So Friday night I called a couple of friends and thankfully they planned to be in town!  I got to eat lunch with one of my oldest friends, Julie Brown.  (Sorry Julie, I still call you Julie Brown!)  We had a good time catching up!  And then I got to spend the rest of the afternoon with my cousin Lydia!  Rachel loved running around campus, but of course she was too busy to take a nap so it made for a long day for her.  Thankfully, we were able to keep her up on the car ride home, and she slept like a baby all night long!  Oh what a difference a good night's sleep makes!

Campus Tour

Rachel has hit the going limp phase. Why do kids do this? And where do they learn it??

Pre-Dinner Club

This Saturday is our chance to host our church dinner group.  I am cleaning, doing laundry, and shopping like a mad lady!  I decided that I wanted chargers for the table recently, so I went on a hunt this morning to find them.  Rachel has wet through onto her PJs, quilt, sheet, mattress pad (you get the idea...) every night this week, which equals a LOT of laundry.  But! In the midst of this, I got my groceries bought yesterday and am really looking forward to our turn to host.  We are having Italian, and I hope everything goes smoothly.  I'll update after Saturday!

Caesar Wraps

We have been BUSY over here! But it's the good, outdoorsy kind of busy! Since the extra daylight and warm weather arrived at the same time, Rachel and I have been cleaning out flower beds this week. It's amazing what some weed-pulling and a dozen bags of mulch will do! I fed my pansies, well basically all the plants in the West bed, a couple of weeks ago, and I cannot believe how much everything has grown! And my peony!!! It's growing so much and so fast; I am super excited!

Watching Mom spread mulch is hard work....I think I'll just sleep while she cooks dinner.

It's this time of year that makes it awfully hard to stay in the kitchen. One of my favorite easy, light dishes to makes is Chicken Caesar Wraps. I use my Parmesan chicken recipe, toss some green lettuce and Romaine together with a bit of dressing, and ta-da! Dinner!

All you do for the chicken is: Melt 3/4 stick butter in a pie plate (or some other shallow dish), stir in 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, and 1/2 tsp salt. Combine 1/2 cup bread crumbs with 1/4 parmesan cheese (in this case, the canned kind is a perfect option!) in a small bowl. Dredge 1 lb chicken tenders in butter mixture, coat with crumb mixture, and place in a 9x13. Sprinkle any remaining butter and crumbs on top. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
Note: This chicken recipe is so super easy, and so super yummy. It's ridiculous. A lot of times I will make this with potatoes (since the oven is on anyway) and some other veggie, and do Caesar salad with the leftovers. But with weather like this, I just went straight for the "leftovers."

"Frito Chili Pie"

We grew up eating this stuff.  I was the pickiest eater alive as a child, so I took the time to pick out each and every chili bean; I started eating about the time everyone else had finished.  Eventually I decided it wasn't worth the time and that chili beans weren't that bad anyway.  But it wasn't until much later that I realized there were no Fritos in our chili pie.  I remember the first time I saw this on an actual restaurant menu (at Eskimo Joe's in Stillwater) and I told my friends that my mom made that all the time, except without the Fritos.  As it turns out, I like it much better without them. 

I think each of my sisters makes some version of this dish.  It's super easy, quick, and inexpensive- so that makes it pretty popular with all of us!  My oldest sister has actually grown to make fun of it because we all make it once in a while (or maybe a little more often...) so it seems that one of us is always making it. Anyway! To make non-Frito Chili Pie all you need is:

1 lb ground beef
1 pkg mild taco seasoning
2 cans chili beans
1 c. cooked rice
chips or taco shells
any toppings you desire (sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, cilantro, etc)

Brown your meat and drain any excess grease.  Sprinkle with seasoning and add beans.  Simmer while rice is cooking.  That's it.

yummy

I forgot to mention you might need some flour....it keeps tiny hands pretty occupied!

Churros: Semi-success

Once upon a time we lived in the wonderful land of Stillwater.  I love Stillwater.  It's where I met Chris, where we had our first apartment (and unfortunately, our second apartment), where Rachel was born, where we went to countless football games, one awesome season of basketball, and I think I went to class somewhere in there, too.  Anyway!  We also went to El Tapatio with one of the best friends of all time, Jerome.  This little tiny Mexican place had good food for cheap (hello poor college students!!) and they also had amazing churros for dessert.  So once again, Chris just says "Why don't we make them?"

I was not very excited about this because I thought it would be pretty difficult.  Turns out, it's really not hard at all! Except for stuffing them with the creme filling.  I had a very hard time with that.  Next time we are going to try a different filling method, and I'll let you all know how that turns out.  For now, here's how it went:

My recipe came from here: http://southamericanfood.about.com/od/snacksstreetfood/r/churros.htm
I also used the creme filling recipe listed on that page.  There are LOTS of recipes out there, but this one is great for beginners because it breaks everything down into manageable little steps!

Dough piped onto parchment paper

Frying the churros a few at a time

Roll in cinnamon and sugar

Add caption

One churro that I actually got filled without splitting it open

These are very yummy warm and pretty terrible as left-overs, so don't feel bad for eating them in one sitting! And it definitely helps to have an extra pair of hands for the process!

Eating "Out"

This weekend I didn't spend much time in the kitchen at all.  Chris and I joined a dinner group at our church last year, and a new group rotation just started back up after the holiday break.  The idea for the dinner group is that 4 couples will be put in a group together for 4 months-each couple takes a turn hosting.  After 4 months, the couple are all reshuffled and new groups are assigned.  Chris and I joined because we didn't know anyone at our church when we moved last year and thought it would be a good way to meet a lot of people.  We really enjoyed our group the first time around last year, and then I was out of town when groups were reassigned and missed out.  We've been slow to get back in the loop, but we are now and I was so excited!  We had a really nice time on Friday meeting other church members and enjoying a nice dinner.  Rachel had her first real, non-family member babysitter, but it was someone I knew really well so I wasn't too nervous to leave her.  Thankfully they both had fun and I was able to enjoy the dinner.  It was so nice to have adult conversation!  I LOVE Rachel, but it is nice to talk to someone who can talk back once in a while!  I think that may be one of the hardest things for me as a stay-at-home mom in a town without my immediate family- you just don't get much adult time.  Anyway, we had a lovely time and are looking forward to our turn to host.

Saturday night we went to Chris' cousin's house for dinner.  They have two little ones, and their youngest girl is just a few months older than Rachel so they enjoyed playing together.  They also have an inside puppy; Rachel wasn't too sure what to think about that!  April made excellent Chicken Parmesan, which is one of my favorite things!  And again, we got to visit and have an evening out of the house.

Chris' sister and niece stayed with us Saturday night and we ordered pizza after church this afternoon.  We've been so busy it seems sort of quiet in our house tonight (even though Rachel is still running all around)!

Chocolate Cake- Part II

I am not quite sure what happened to the rest of the chocolate cake recipe- is there a limit to how long a post can be???  I hadn't even noticed until this morning, but the end of it seems to be missing! So, I'll just pick up where I (apparently) left off:

Meanwhile, prepare ganache filling.  Place one cake layer on serving plate.  Spread with 1/3 of filling.  Repeat layers two more times.  Top with remaining cake layer.  Prepare frosting and spread over cake.  Enjoy!

Ganache Filling:  Heat 3/4 cup heavy cream, 1 Tbs butter and 1 Tbs sugar to a boil; stir until sugar is dissolved.  Place 1 1/2  cups semisweet chocolate chips in medium bowl; pour cream mixture over chocolate and let stand 5 minutes.  Stir until smooth; let stand 15 minutes or until filling reaches desired consistency.

Easy Chocolate Frosting:  Beat 1/2 cup softened butter in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until creamy.  Add 4 cups powdered sugar and 3/4 cup cocoa alternately with 1/2 cup milk; beat until smooth.  Stir in 1 1 /2 teaspoons vanilla.

Sorry about the previous post being cut short!