Rollo's special at Pappa Rollo's in Waco

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The Phat UT at Big Bites

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Tales of Lemonade pie and mysterious mushrooms!

Happy Friday peeps!!

We've been so bad about eating out this week, we had Cowboy Chow not once but twice!!! 
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.  Monday night me, the hubster and the Mere went before we took her back home.  I had the Jalapeno Brisket Tacos and a Mexican Vanilla Coke.  SCRUMPTIOUS!!!
The other two had the Cast Iron Chicken Pot Pie which they love!   Last night I ventured to new territory and had a Cowboy Grilled Cheese, Buttered and grilled Texas Toast filled lovingly with shredded bison and mont. jack cheese.  LAWD have mercy on my soul!  gosh it was good. Of course, we always have an appetizer of Cowboy Nachos.  Someday I'm trying the Navajo fry bread instead.  Oh, I also had a margarita made with chili infused tequila. ooooh lalalaa  spicy senorita!

Ok, so first the lemonade pie and a small confession.

Here's what I used to make it with a picture when it was complete.

I couldn't take pictures during the process because you have to work quickly but it's super easy!

Take your can of eagle brand milk and dump it into the mixer bowl then dump in the thawed cool whip and mix quickly, then dump in a 12 oz can of frozen lemonade and mix quickly.  Pour that into a graham cracker crust, spread out smoothly and pop that baby back in the freezer for about 6 hrs. 

Now for my confession...................................

um, sorry folks, I ate this for breakfast  :0)   By the way, the secret to sneaking pie in the morning without giving yourself away is to use the paper plates.  hahaha    lick the fork clean and tada  no evidence left behind!   It's brilliant don't you think!

Anyway, it's hotter than cootie brown here and even at 8:30 this morning this pie was so refreshing!  I'm just pondering the possibilities....strawberry lemonade, strawberry daquiri, limeade..... I could go on and on but I have another topic to discuss.

Mysterious mushrooms!!!!

Mid conversation with hubby this morning I looked over and saw this.....

me thinks maybe there is a difference in indoor and outdoor potting soil???   I don't think my bathroom is very humid either.....hmmmm, I have promptly removed those rascals because a) it's just weird growing mushrooms in your bathroom and b) mushrooms gross me out!

That's it for today folks, I gotta run shower and get my little car over to Sewell to have an oil change.  It's service time and I really love my Sewell Saab dealership!  No kidding, they totally rock!!! 

Peace, Love and Yummies and Happy Friday Peeps!

Italian Veggie Ragout, a new fish and some amazing bread

So tonights dinner was kind of thrown together rather quickly but it was fantastic! I'm posting this one tonight because Court and I are headed to Austin in the morning to finish packing up her apartment. She is switching places this semester and of course since nothing is easy in this world she has to be out of the old place by Saturday but can't move to the new place until mid August. Life has a way of doing things like that to you, doesn't it?

So let's talk food!

I've made the Italian Vegetable Ragout before but let's recap since it was Courts first time to have it and I modified it a bit.

Cast of characters:
4 small zucchini, sliced thin
1 small onion, diced
2 cans Italian style stewed tomatoes
1 can chick peas (garbonzo beans)
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Olive oil


Heat small amount of olive oil in pan and throw those onions in and cook them nice and tender.

Once those onions are ready dump in everything else and bring to a boil, drop the temp to simmer and cover and cook until all those veggies are nice and tender.  As you can see we had another "misjudge the pan size needed" event.  Oh well...what's a few more dishes right??


Zucchini goes in

Now for the tomatoes and chickpeas

all dumped in the pan

all stirred up together and cooking away

We just cook up some plain couscous and serve the veggies over the top. Super yum!

Make sure you cook up that couscous plain, no butter or oil...Holy Smackeroli's did you ever think you'd ever hear me say that??

Now onto the fish, my favorite fish guys at Central Market once again come through. I tried a new fish tonight, swai. It's an Asian catfish of sorts. I likened it more to tilapia or other white fish. It's less expensive and quite tasty. Mine came pre seasoned as citrus sesame. We just added a little grape seed oil to a big iron skillet and pan fried those little jewels on the grill.

This is what it looked like in the bag...exciting stuff, huh???

Now .... Let's talk bread. Thanks to my sweet friend DeSha who turned me onto this one! I think I love her for it but my butt will probably grow widely because of her! Haha.

Take yourself a delightful loaf of French bread and slice in half lengthwise. Melt some good ole butter (about 2 Tbsp) and brush it onto the top sides of the bread and pop it under the broiler for a few minutes, just until the bread is barely crispy. While that's working grab some monterey Jack cheese and shred about 2 cups of it. Then mix in some ranch dressing, I used about 3/4 cup. The recipe called for a bit more but I toned it down some.....oh and I used a light ranch. ;0) gotta save those calories where you can. Smear that cheese mixture over that bread and pop it back in the oven for about 10-15 minutes on 300 degrees. For some color I sprinkled on a little parsley too. After that cheese is nice and melted and a little golden, slice it up and stuff it in yo face! Be careful, it might be a bit warm!

Here is that little goodie hanging out in the oven!!!

now just feast your eyes on that!!!

There you have it folks...dinner success! We stepped out of the norm again tonight and found a new fish to enjoy that's much more economical but just as tasty.  Like I said before celebrate your successes and laugh with the failures, tonight we celebrated!

Doesn't that fish just look yummy?  I was very impressed.  Success at dinner time peeps...gotta love it!

Peace, love & yummies!

Corn & Tomato pizza, an UGLY cake and a wine bottle craft!

well, it's Thursday and I have a few things to talk about today.  Some good....some disasters. Hey we all have them...so I'm poking fun of mine today!

First up, the wine bottle lamp.  I saw these at the Peach Festival and I loved them but didn't so much love the $30 price tag.  So off to Hobby Lobby and Michaels to find the supplies.   The grapes and the ribbon came from Michaels but had to go to Hobby Lobby to get the lights.   Couldn't find them there either until I had to use the restroom and I walked right past them on my way to the girls room.  That small bladder of mine comes in handy occasionally!

Here is the finished product!

Notice the name of the wine????   Chateau Ste. Michelle    :0) 

Too cute and too easy!  I'm making Court one from a Sangria bottle for her apartment. 

Now..... onto the pizza because it was soooooo good!!!

I saw this in Southern living magazine and modified it a bit to suit our taste but it was soooo yummy!!

You need about 3 tomatoes and go ahead and slice those up and place the slices on a paper towel lined plate and then sprinkle salt and pepper over them and let them sit at least 20 minutes.  I have no idea why.... I just did as I was told and you will completely understand that when you see the following section on the kitchen disasters I experienced making a cake!!

Now get some premade pizza crust, we like thin crust so that's what we used. Take that crust and put it on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and spread the crust with a good pesto sauce.

You notice the one on the right is pretty light on the pesto...well, hubby isn't real crazy about pesto so we decided to make a second pizza with a little bit of pesto and then added some marinara sauce

You know....just in case he didn't like straight pesto.  Court and I are pesto fans so we left the one heavy with the Pesto!

Since yesterday was Wednesday and you know that I go to Sprouts on Wednesday, I picked up the pesto there and also these beauties...

After you get them cleaned go ahead and scrape off the kernels into a bowl.  I have to confess both hubby and I were sneaking bites of the raw corn.  It was THAT good!!!

Now you need to mix a big heaping 1/2 cup of corn together with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and 1 tsp sugar.  I'm sure my corn was more like 3/4 cup but we like fresh corn!

Now that you have that mixed up let's add it to the pesto on the pizza crust.

and of course we need some on the variation crust too.....

now reach over and grab those tomatoes off the counter and add those slices to the pizza

and to the other, you don't want it feeling all left out and such

Now we need some slices of mozzarella cheese over these babies

 and the other

now then hubby wanted a few turkey pepperoni slices added to the variation style... so I did

and then I tossed a bit of shredded italian cheese blend on and a sprinkle more parmesan for good measure!

Then I baked them on 450 for about 15 minutes

and finally

these were soooo yummy.   We had corn on pizza when we were in the Dominican Republic last year on vacation and we all went nuts for it and this is the closest we've come to getting that taste again.  EXCELLENT....open your mind and try it. You won't be disappointed!

Now for the disasters of the day.  

I tried to make one of Jeff's moms recipes, Cherry Bubble Cake.  I learned a few things.....

1)  the cake is supposed to be baked as a sheet cake, not a bundt. 

in my defense, this was not cited in the recipe

2) cake plates will break directly in half if you aren't careful

3) salt spilled all over your stovetop makes a mess

Pictures to prove the above theories:

1)

2)

3)

I actually had to use the vacum cleaner to get all the salt up...geez, it was a bad afternoon in the kitchen.

On a brighter note, hubby said the cake tasted just as he remembered it. I have self proclaimed it the ugliest cake I've ever made!!!  

ehhh, try try try try again!!   I'd sooo love to have a big piece of this right now with the biggest diet coke in the world but alas.... I must sign off for the day as I'm about to leave to have a little outpatient surgery done and I've been NPO since midnight.  BLEK!!!!

Have fun in the kitchen peeps... celebrate the successes and laugh with the failures and the messes...after all, it's the fun you have and the love you give to your family that matters the most!!!

Peace, Love and Yummies!!!!

Seal your granite countertops...who knew??

Ok, so this is the first time I've ever had the joy of granite countertops in my kitchen.  Apparently about once a year those little boogers need to be resealed. Who knew???? Not me that's for sure...well, until recently.  Sooooo, it's so stinkin' hot around here that we set off to Home Depot yesterday to pick up a few necessary things and the granite sealer was one.  Since Monday is cleaning day for the downstairs....guess what else had to happen??     As a public service announcement to those of you, who like me were not aware of this process, I give you.......my sealing of the countertops!

Step one: Take everything off the countertops

Step two:  You gotta clean them first

I use this stuff regularly... I mean, geez I do know that you have to clean your countertops!! 

Step Two:

Apply the sealer with a white towel

As you can see....this happens to be a cloth diaper leftover from Alex's daycare days.  Good thing we don't send these suckers to the landfill...they'd live forever!!! 

Apply the sealant to a section of the countertops and then set your timer for about 5 minutes

Now while this is counting down I decided to start cleaning the next section of counters.

Once the timer goes off take another white towel and wipe the counters, it almost seemed like waxing a car to me.

Then carefully place all those items you cleaned off your counter back in their proper positions, and hopefully you are like me and you took the time to wipe all the grubby fingerprints off everything too.  :0)

See, nice and shiny!

and yes.... I'm aware that my air freshener is empty and I will replace that as soon as I'm finished with this post!

Once all those kitchen counters are finished...... you should treat yourself to one of these!!!

seeee...there was food in the post today!!  Tomato sandwich!!!  AWESOMENESS!!

While at the Depot yesterday we also got some new pots for the house....WOW...what a difference a pot makes!!!

Take this one before....

and now the AFTER.........

Much better....don't you think?

Now the big one..... BEFORE

Now check Mr. Corn Plant out......

He got a new location too.... I rearranged furniture a few weeks ago.

and a closer look at this gorgeous pot....

I tell ya....it's the little things that get me excited!!!

Peace, Love and Yummies folks

My kind of Happy Hour

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Holy Guacamole and Carne Asada.....Ole!

Happy Thirsty Thursday Peeps.  I'm beat I tell ya...just beat!

I have been up since about 7:15 and mowed three yards and weedwhacked one of those, cleaned my entire upstairs AND shampooed the carpets.  Can I go to bed puhleeeezzzzeee???

Ok, first things first, you need to know what we had for dinner last night!
Well, it was Wednesday so I went to my favorite Wednesday hangout.....Sprout's!!!
The Extra Lean ground beef was 1.99 lb. This is what I do to it when I get home.

All bundled up in nice one lb. packages just ready and waiting on me.  That $5 yard sale find Food Saver is worth it's weight in gold!!

So first of all we had to get the rice and beans going

Just follow the directions for the rice, easy peasy tonight folks.

We should have some guacamole don't ya think??!

Smush up those avocado's then plop in a big spoonful of that pico de gallo and then give a lime a sqeeze in there and then my secret ingredient....a little fresh orange juice!

TO THE GRILL JAMES.......  oh, sorry I got carried away actually it was me to the grill!

see those 'maters???  Well I just sliced those little jewels in half and poured some olive oil in that pan and tossed those pups with some Mexian Season All.  The meat, already all seasoned up from the Butcher at Sprouts, so I just popped it on the grill.

ooohhh, check out this shot

I even made it BIG for you!!   Are you salivating yet??  I am!!!

and then my dears....dinner is served

we ate our meat like fajitas but you can do whatever your little heart desires and may your dinner be as yummy as ours was!!!   Especially since there was almost zero effort on my side of the stove!

Peace, Love and Yummies!!!!