#18 Complete 2010 Block of the Month Quilt- FINISHED

I LOVE to start sewing projects but I do not always finish them.  This is especially true with Block of the Month Clubs.  I have one from 2009, 2010, and 2011 that still need to be completed.  In addition, I am in another one for 2012 :)

I get the individual blocks finished but often I don't get the setting done.  I knew when I was coming up with my list of 101 things to accomplish, that finishing these quilts had to be on there.  That was one of the great things about getting my craft closet cleaned out... it made it easier for me to work down there and get started on these other projects :)

Anyhow, today, I was determined to finish one of them.  I finished the quilt for the 2010 Block of the Month.  I LOVE these colors and am very pleased with the overall look of the quilt.  I was never given the directions for finishing this quilt, so the outside border had to be tweaked a little bit.  One of the things I love about quilting is all of the math that I get to use when I am doing it.  It's the little things :) 

   

Now, onto the 2011 quilt...

So-Kool or Not Kool? Shrimp Scampi

So-Kool or Not Kool?  SO-KOOL
Picky Eater's Verdict:  SO-KOOL


Let me preface this post by saying this is the second time we made this recipe.  The first time (which I didn't blog about) we made this, David was adding the salt and pepper to taste and the lid to the pepper fell off and half of the pepper shaker ended up in the dish.  We were able to get some out, but it significantly altered the flavor, so I didn't think that should be the version that I blogged about.  Needless to say, we tried it again last night and had significantly better results. 

First off, I love how easy this dish was to prepare.  We started off by using already minced garlic instead of garlic cloves.  I used 3 Tablespoons of minced garlic in the butter and olive oil.  Then we added the shrimp and kept on cooking.  The last time we made this we also had added too much lemon, so this time we only used 1 large lemon and about 8 dashes of hot sauce.

This turned out very good but the flavor was not as strong as the last time.  I really liked this recipe but feel like I still need to tweak it to our liking.  Last time it had an overwhelming lemon/ pepper flavor and this time it didn't have a ton of flavor to our liking.  Shrimp scampi is one of the few foods with seafood that my husband will eat, so I am going to continue to work on this recipe because while the flavor wasn't strong, I liked the flavor much better than any store bought sauce we have tried.

Chicken Burritos... YUM!!!

I am ALWAYS in search of recipes to try that my family will like and my cousin recently sent me this one for Chicken Burritos.  I LOVE this recipe and so did my family.  The next time, we will add rice and my husband (Yes... Mr. Picky Eater himself) suggested we spread on a layer of avocado before we put down the cheese.  We did also add a picante sauce to the top because I like a lot of sauce on my taco/burrito/fajita.  My favorite part of this recipe is that it made 24... yes... 24 burritos.  The recipe says that you can freeze them, so that is what we will do :)  We only ate 7, so that leaves 17 to freeze.  I am excited beyond all recognition... that means we have at LEAST 2 more meals out of this that I just have to pull out of the freezer and bake.  I can't wait to see what they taste like once they are thawed and cooked.  In addition, the cost of this was relatively low to me.  I don't use chicken breasts for this type of cooking.  I get split chicken breasts and cook them, and then shred them for recipes like this.   So, I cooked the chicken like that and then had 4 more bags of frozen chicken for other food emergencies.  As an avid couponer,  most of these ingredients are things that I almost always have on hand, so I was very pleased with the cost, the taste, and the ease of this meal.  I just had to share, even though I didn't take any pictures of this food along the way :/

#24. Organize the Craft Closet

This is something that I have needed to do for the past 3 years, but I keep putting it off because I knew it would take awhile.  I am a "list" girl though, so if I put it on a list, I get entirely too much pleasure to not cross it off of the list.  All that being said, this is a project that I started Thursday night.  Here are the before pictures:

Pay particular attention to the Fabric Shelf... Yikes!!!

In the middle of cleaning the closet and watching the 3 kids (really only two b/c JMS hardly counts at 11 years old), I had quite a disaster.

It was not easy to leave Fabric stacked on the floor like this and not have the boys run all over it!!

I felt like I needed to Gut the closet to start from scratch.

I didn't work on it on Saturday, but it took me a good 3 days to get it done.  I am pleased and now feel like I can get some of the other 101 things to do checked off of my list to include finishing some scrapbooks and some quilts.

On the third shelf down, that is everything I have and need to finish LPS's baby book 

In the process, I got 14 pictures frames and hung up on our Wall of Fame.  I sorted the pictures that were going to be scrapbooked into appropriate envelopes so I am ready to start them one by one :)  I got rid of a bunch of stuff and I organized the shelves so that the stuff I rarely used was on the top and the stuff I used the most frequently was in a scrapbook carrying bag, so I could easily grab it and put it away when finished.  Now, onto the next task :)

Moving on Up...

LPS is moving on up in the world of beds.  Yesterday, he started out in this:

And finished the day in this:

#10. Scream "I'm Debt Free"

If you know me well, you know I am a huge fan of Dave Ramsey and have gone through his Financial Peace University.  He has common sense principles and easy to apply steps.  We started Financial Peace on January 16, 2011 and paid off $40,000 in debt over the next 8 months.  We didn't have credit card debt, our debt was the rest of David's Student Loans, the cabin, and new windows that we had put into the house.  We have refinanced our house down to a 10 year mortgage.  When we first started the Dave Ramsey class, I listed to his archived broadcasts while I was doing School Work and every Friday, people would call in or show up in his lobby and scream "We're Debt Free."  As I listened to this, I continually got chills, so I was determined that once we were debt free (except for the mortgage), we would do this.  It doesn't hurt that his Lobby is in Nashville, TN and I have a lot of very dear friends up there.

Well, this past Saturday, Dave Ramsey was in Gwinnett County and we went to see him and got a book signed and laughed all over again.  He is hysterically funny in how he relates to money and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  We haven't made the trek to Nashville yet, but I wanted to post these pictures and will mark it off of the list when we make the trip... for now it just feels good to have no debt except for the mortgage...

Meeting Dave Ramsey

Dave Ramsey's Daughter

Dave Ramsey

Apparently... It's Not a Secret !!

In December, I met a dear friend at the Yellow River Game Ranch and the boys LOVED it.  I heard that they were doing Dollar Day on Martin Luther King day, so I thought we would all go and enjoy it for $5.  Now, keep in mind, when we were there in December, there was NO ONE there... We had the whole place to ourselves.  On Monday, however, it was a different story.  Apparently Dollar Day was NOT a secret because the place was crawling with people.  We got there in the morning but the animals had already been fed so much that they were stuffed beyond words.  We did find one sheep that kept eating crackers out of our hands, so we spent some time with that one.  Even the rabbits were hiding out, they must not have liked Dollar Day :(

Baby Peacock

Feeding the Burrow

We were laughing at how much of their heads were sticking out of the fence!

LPS Loves the Bunnies

Birthday Boy is 4!!!

For any of you that know HAS, you know that he is very strongly opinionated about what he wants.  I could blame that on David, but probably not with a clear conscience.  He had told me that he wanted strawberry cupcakes for his birthday.  So, we sat down on Pinterest and started looking form which ones we liked the best.  All this did for him was give him a chance to form the opinion about EXACTLY what it was that he wanted.  He decided and I quote:
     "I want strawberry cupcakes with white... no red on top (meaning frosting).  I want 
     the strawberries to not have the green part on them, but I do not want them to be
     cut up.  I want them to tilt this way (and he leaned his head to the right).  I do NOT
     want them to have white on top but I do NOT want the cake part to be red"
Well, I am not usually a specialty baker, so I got a huge chuckle out of this.  I tried Martha Stewart's Strawberry Cupcake, but did not use her Strawberry Meringue Frosting.  I went with a Vanilla Buttercream Frosting that I used red food coloring on.  In the end, he LOVED the cupcakes and said that they were exactly what he wanted.  I was NOT a fan of the flavor of the cupcake.  :(  Here's the finished product along with some pictures from his party at school.

#64. Read 101 books- 70 completed

I LOVE to read, although I should probably not be proud of what I read.  I love to read a romance novel where I know that there is a happy ending after a brief turmoil.  I used to enjoy reading a mystery every so often, but since I married a police officer, I don't enjoy reading them any more.  I don't like anything that is dark or could realistically happen.  I know those things take place and unfortunately, I hear about the real life version frequently enough, that I do NOT enjoy reading about it.

As much as I enjoy reading, I haven't had as much time to read as I would like.  Being a mother sometimes causes time to get away from you much faster than it did as a single person.  I've started reading a bit more now that I have an app on my iPad and my phone, so I can always have a book with me.  I will keep a list of the books that I have read, just know that most, if not all of them are just trashy romance novels where the guy and the girl end up together and happy ever after almost always exists (except for you Mr. Nicholas Sparks).

1.  Her Singapore Fling (1/18/12)
2.  Front Page Affair (1/19/12)
3.  Overtime in the Boss' Bed (1/21/12)
4. Claiming his Honeymoon (1/22/12)
5.  Good Girl or Gold Digger? (1/25/12)
6.  Mistress Forgotten (1/31/12)
7.  Blackmailed Bride, Inexperienced Wife (2/3/12)
8.  To Love, Honor, and Disobey (2/4/12)
9.  Mistress:  Hired for the Billionaire (2/5/12)
10.  Champagne with a Celebrity (3/4/12)
11.  Every Girl's Secret Fantasy (3/12/12)
12. A Girl's Guide to Flirting with Danger (3/13/12)
13. His Bid for a Bride (3/15/12)
14. The Inherited Bride (3/18/12)
15. Fired Waitress, Hired Mistress (4/1/12)
16.  His Christmas Virgin (4/7/12)
17.  The British Billionaire's Innocent Bride (4/8/12)
18.  The Doctor's Wedding (4/6/12)
19.  The Billionaire's Engagement (4/8/12)
20.  The Konstantos Marriage Demand (4/15/12)
21.  Her Sweet Surprise (4/22/12)
22.  Innocent Mistress, Royal Wife (4/23/12)
23.  50 Shades of Grey (6/8/12)
24.  Fifty Shades Darker (6/10/12)
25.  Fifty Shades Freed  (7/8/12)
26.  His Plain-Jane Cinderella (9/3/2012)
27.  Mistress:  At What Price (9/4/2012)
28.  Deserving of his Diamonds?  (10/2/2012)
29.  Jonas' Beckler's Deal (10/4/2012)
30. The Twelve Nights of Christmas
31. Champagne Kisses
32. To Love, Honor and Betray
33. One day to find a Husband
34. Overtime Love
35. Ex-Mas Reunion
36. A Holiday Affair
37. It Started with a Crush
38. Win, Lose or Wed
39. Girl Behind the Scandalous Reputation
40. A Deal at the Alter
41. The Christmas Shoppe
42. A Christmas Angel for the Billionaire
43.Waking up in the Wrong Bed
44.  Captive but Forbidden
45.  Marrying the Enemy
46.  Secret Assignment
47.   The Last Woman He'd Ever Date
48.  A Reluctant Hero
49.  Duty and the Beast
50. The Darkest of Secrets
51. Heiress Behind the Headlines
52. His Reputation Precedes Him
53. Santina's Scandalous Princess
54. Contract with consequences
55. A devilishly dark deal
56.  The Incorrigible Playboy
57.  Boardroom Rivals
58.  Caught on Camera with the CEO
59. The Secrets she Carried
60.  The Disgraced Princess
61.  Gianni's Pride
62. Greek Tycoon's Reluctant Bride
63.  Her Bad Boss
64. Surprise:  Outback Proposal
65.  The Husband She Never Knew
66.  Man Behind the Mask
67.  A Night of Living Dangerously
68.  Painted the Other Woman
69.  Red Wine and Her Sexy Ex
70.   Unlocking Her Innocence
71. 






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101 Things in 1001 Days

I have two friends who have made themselves challenging to do lists... one over a period of a year and one over 1001 days.  I love the idea of making a list, so I decided to take some of their ideas and marry them to some of my own ideas.  I knew for me that one year would NOT be enough time to do these things, so I went with the symmetrical route of 101 things in 1001 days.  It is listed at the top of the blog on a separate page.  I will be blogging about the items as we go because I want it to be a growing experience for me.  Some of the goals are things I want to get done in my academic life, my married life, my children's lives, my own life and some of them are just things I want to get done because I have kept putting them off.  

If It is Chocolate... I LOVE it!!!!!

Anyone who knows me well knows my love of dessert.  There is rarely a day that goes by that I do not indulge in some type of dessert.  When I taught at CHHS last year, I talked several people in my department into participating in "Dessert Friday" where a different brought in dessert every Friday to make the week end well :)  Even though I work for an online campus, we meet once a month for meeting and staff development.  When we do this, we sign up to bring something and I signed up to bring dessert...of course.  Here is what I brought :)  (Maybe I'll take it over to CHHS one day for dessert Friday). 

That is crushed up Heath Bar on top!

This is a brownie trifle.  It is a recipe that I tried from Pinterest.  I have never made a trifle before and I was amazed at how quick and easy it really was.  My favorite thing is that it looks amazing and like it should have taken a lot of time, but in reality, it was very simple.

So-Kool or Not Kool? Quiche

So-Kool or Not Kool?  KOOL
Picky Eater's Opinion?  KIND OF KOOL... See Comments Below

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I like eggs in theory... however, when it comes to finishing a dish involving eggs, I often give up mid meal because I never liked them as much as I thought I would.  That leads me to the Quiche.  

I have to give my husband major props here as he helped me cook(and by helped me I mean prepared most of) this dish.  We were at the cabin with my parents and we have a tiny (and I do mean tiny) kitchen at the cabin.  It holds 1 cook comfortably, but if you have 2 cooks in the kitchen, there is a lot of bumping into each other as you move around.  So, we did a lot of the prep work the night before.  We diced the onions, cooked the bacon, cut the mushrooms and shredded the cheese the day before.  She said you could make the entire mix the day before and store it in the fridge, but we just did the chopping (and by we, I mean my sweet husband).

As if doing the prep work was not enough, my husband got up early the next morning (mostly because HAS consistently wakes up at 5:30 AM) and cooked the ingredients that needed to be cooked and let me sleep.  He almost wins Husband of the Year for that part alone.  I am NOT a person who likes to be woken up in the morning.  He did get me up when it was time to put it all together.  I did not make a pie crust because I had one that I had a refrigerated crust that needed to be used.  I had purchased this before my new found desire to learn to cook well.  PW says this will fill two regular pie crusts, but we only made one VERY FULL quiche.

Right after it came out of the oven... still puffy

15 minutes later when the puff settled... Notice, I even managed to make refrigerated crust look deformed...  I'm not known for my ability to beautify food

I found this quiche to be delightful and not very "eggy."  I was nervous when I started to take a bite out of this, but again, I was pleasantly surprised.  I didn't mind the artichoke or any of it.  I thought next time it might be better with sausage instead of bacon, just because the amount of spice you can get from sausage.  My picky husband enjoyed it as well and thought it would be better with half the amount of artichoke and if the artichoke was cut into smaller pieces.  This is a man who NEVER ate any vegetables before we were married 6 short years ago.  He suggested adding spinach, and maybe even broccoli.  My has he come a long way.  My family still struggles with getting a huge number of vegetables in a meal, but we are continually trying to improve that.  I was so pleased that he ate it, however, none of the kids did.  Now, JMS, my human garbage disposal was not at the cabin with us, but I am most certain he would have really liked it.  My dad suggested more onions, although he suggests that for every dish... that and garlic.  The great part about this dish is that it could easily be made for vegetarians or for carnivores.  We are very likely to make this again, but to tweak it just a little bit.

Should Be, Would Be, Could Be...

We have a great little cabin that we frequently get away to in the mountains of North Carolina.  We are 1/3 owners, along with my parents and sister's family.  The boys love going because they get to play with their grandparents and cousins and traipse through the woods and just be boys.  We were planning on leaving Saturday morning, but luckily David got off early (which never happens) on Friday night, so we got to leave then.  I'm so excited because every night there with my family is just memories in the making.  This time, I put the little two down for bed at 5:15, because neither of them had a nap.  We will wake them up at 8:30 when we get on the road.  I'm crossing my fingers that they go back to sleep, but I'm not banking on it.   Although it was cold, we had a wonderful time visiting with my family.  I even brought them into my new culinary experience :) 

So-Kool or Not Kool? Twice Baked Potatoes

So-Kool or Not Kool?  KOOL
Picky Eater's Opinion?  KOOL

I LOVE potatoes!!!!!  Any way, any time, any how!!!  So I was super stoked to make this recipe.  I had a lot of help from my little people on this recipe.  HAS helped wash the potatoes and put oil on them.  Then he lost a good bit of interest in the project. Then we put them in the oven and JMS went to see if they were done.  If I haven't mentioned before, another one of my new found interests in cooking (other than Chopped on the Food Network, Pinterest, and Sweet as Pie Cooking Club) is because of how much JMS loves it.  It is time that we get to share in the kitchen and that is awesome.  I am sure it is hard to be a big brother to two that are so much younger than you.  My two little ones do not eat potatoes, so I decided to half the recipe because 16 potato halves felt like a lot for 3 people. 

JMS likes to do the prepwork and use the knife (probably because it separates him from the "kids", who are not allowed to touch the knives).  However, he takes great pride in his ability to dice things and cut them the way they are supposed to be cut.

JMS is dicing away!

Ingredients before I added the potatoes

Adding Green Onions... He cut too many, so we didn't put all of them in.

Ready to go in the Oven

We did cut the recipe in half, but like Jennifer at Come Rain or Come Shine, I like a creamier, smoother mix for the inside of these potatoes.  So while we cut the recipe in half, we only cut the milk and sour cream by 3/4.  That made the potatoes almost too creamy.  In retrospect, it probably would have been better to leave the milk  the same ratio as everything else and just add the extra sour cream.  They weren't runny necessarily, but they did cook over the potato skin.  We also used Mexican blended cheddar cheese instead of sharp cheddar cheese, just because that is what we had on hand.  My husband's first words of the meal were "Wow honey, the potatoes are awesome".  Coming from Super Picky Eater, I consider that a success.   We will DEFINITELY be making these again, because I LOVE potatoes in all forms.  Next time, I want to use sharp cheddar and try a different milk/sour cream ratio.

JMS~ 11th Birthday

Up until recently, I hated cooking.  There are a couple of things that have peaked my interest... Pinterest and Sweet as Pie Cooking Club.  Pinterest gives me all kinds of ideas for food and decorating.  I can execute a lot of crafty, creative ideas; but I struggle to come up with them on my own.  Up until this year, I have made the boys very basic cupcakes, so I am trying to branch out a little bit.  JMS is really into scouting and outdoors this year, so I decided to find a Smore's Cupcake Recipe on Pinterest.  I searched, I created, I ate... all went well.  Anyhow, it is not super creative or great, but it is definitely an improvement for me.  Here are a couple of pictures. 

There is also a graham cracker crust on the bottom that cannot be seen!!!

Birthday Boy

Something that Magnifies the Special

Today, my oldest son turned 11...  where did the time go?  It seems like just yesterday that David and I went on our first date and I met JMS 8 days later.  This 4 year old (barely 4) with big brown eyes captured my heart from the get go.  In addition to the huge smile that will melt your heart.  Over the years, he has grown up and matured so much that it is sometimes easy to forget who that little boy was all those years ago.   He has grown into an intelligent, articulate and mature young man.  He can pick up any book and read it from cover to cover without taking a break.  He reads well beyond his years and takes great pride in being able to discuss what he reads with any kid or adult.  He has taken up baseball and scouting this year, which he loves.  David especially loves the December camping trips :)

More recently, JMS loves cooking.  He loves to help in the kitchen, not only with the actual cooking, but with the planning as well.   One of the MOST special things about my new endeavor with this cooking club is that it is something that I can enjoy with him and him alone.  He helped with the Chicken Tortilla Soup and then gave his opinion and ways we could do it differently.  Anyone who has ever cooked for him believes he is one of the easiest people in the world to please in the food department because he will eat ANYTHING... and most of the time ramble on about the deliciousness.  I'm so proud of him and so proud to be his Mom.  Happy 11th Birthday JMS!!!

Verdict on Chicken Tortilla Soup

This Chicken Tortilla Soup made my day.  Not only did I love it, my entire family was in love(on the food front at least)... and that is not an easy task to do. The only downside to the dish was it happened during the Steeler's loss to the Bronco's in the playoffs.  That doesn't really have anything to do with the dish itself, but it did have a little to do with my husbands mood... he is from the Pittsburgh area and a die hard fan.

There are a couple of things that I did differently than the recipe.  I didn't prepare my chicken exactly the way she did.  I am an avid coupon user as well, so when meat goes on sale I buy it in large quantities and freeze it.  Just recently, I started boiling several packages of chicken, shredding it, and then freezing it.   I find it is much easier and faster to pull out shredded chicken then to realize at 4 PM, I haven't laid out any meat for dinner.  In addition, it thaws so much faster in these smaller packages.  This time, that really paid off.  I thawed the meat and then added some of the spices (I used the exact amount she suggested) to a bag and shook it to coat all of the chicken.  The chicken was perfect and I was thrilled with the ease of preparing it.

When I ran to the store to grab the corn meal, beans and peppers, but the red peppers were $1.79 each, which I thought was a little bit high, so instead, I opted for twice as much green pepper and no red pepper.  This spring I will be planting my own garden, to include all types of peppers.  Does anyone know if peppers freeze well, once diced?  If they freeze well, I will do as she suggested and add all of the pepper colors :)

In the recipe, it calls for 4 cups of warm water, so I was a little confused here.  She referenced water once instead of chicken broth, and then a second time for the cornmeal.  I used the 4 cups of hot water with the cornmeal, but it was way too much.  Not to mention, she also mentions a "little warm water".  Anyhow, I found a consistency that matched her pictures... thank goodness for those.  And... it did to the soup what she said it would do- DELIGHTFUL!!!

For the toppings, I forgot the cilantro at the store (that was the one I wanted to try the most... next time), so we used avocado only.  I was thrilled that my guys were not trying to add cheese and were instead satisfied with the healthier avocado.  Even Super Picky Eater (husband) said next time we could add more avocado.  This made my heart smile.  Next time, I will also add sour cream and cheese to mine, although none of my guys eat sour cream.  I would have added it this time, but we were out at home.  It wasn't one of the things I checked for before making my list, because we almost always have some... lesson learned.

To sum it up, this delicious soup has made it into our rotation of soups for the winter.  I loved it and so did all of my boys.  It was hearty and comforting and I may even try making a cornbread to serve with it next time.  I know the next time won't be that far away and I will triple or quadruple the recipe, so I have some extra to freeze...

Let the Excitement Begin!!!

This morning I got an email from Jennifer at Sweet as Pie Cooking Club with our list of recipes for the month of January 2012. I am giddy with excitement! In this club, we are going to follow recipes from  The Pioneer Woman.   She does a show on Sunday mornings on The Food Network and she has her own blog along with a few cookbooks. Once I found out I was going to do this, I purchased on of her books for my iPad. The last time I read through a cookbook was… well, never. Last night, I found myself reading her cookbook from cover to cover. I even found myself reading some of comments that she wrote out loud to my husband (DMS) while he was watching football.  One of things I really like about her recipes are there common sense easy to make recipes and most ingredients are things you already have at your house.  In addition, DMS is an extremely picky eater. I believe he will like most of things in these cookbooks!!  That's a no brainer for me!!.

The first my recipes for the month is a shrimp scampi. One thing about DMS is that he hardly eats anything that comes out of the water, whether it's the ocean or the lake. However, he has recently added shrimp and crab legs to his repertoire of foods that he will eat occasionally.  In fact, he has even tried making a shrimp scampi himself a few times, so I'm really excited to try this recipe and see how it compares to the one that he has made.

Another one of our recipes is quiche. I'm not really a huge fan of eggs in general, but I am interested to try this dish.  In theory, I pretend I like eggs because to me they represent everything about breakfast… a meal that I love.  I always think I will like them every time that I or someone else prepares them, however, I often end up wishing I hadn't put so many on my plate. One thing I had hoped to get out of this cooking club was to encourage myself to try making things that I wouldn't normally make. This quiche is going to be an excellent example of that.

The third recipe we are going to make is Twice Baked Potatoes. I love these and they were one of my favorite things my mom cooked while I was growing up. We didn't have them that often and as an adult, I've never made them. My husband swears up and down he has made them since we've been married, however I have no recollection of that. This is one of the recipes I'm most excited about. I hope I can make them as well as my mom (or as well as my husband claims he were the ones he made :-) ).  This recipe came from her cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, page 152. 

The last recipe for the month is Chicken Tortilla Soup. I love soup! Especially in the winter and today it's dreary and ugly in Georgia, a perfect day for soup. Right now, we have two or three soups we make here on a regular basis in the winter. I'm 'soup'er excited to see what this soup will taste like and to see if we can add it to our menu of soups! My favorite thing about soup is that you can double or triple the batch and make enough to freeze... then pull it out of the freezer on the days when you don't feel like cooking or have the time to cook!  Yeah!   I have a lot of these days... the ones where I don't feel like cooking... however, I'm hoping this new adventure into the land of cooking and blogging will change my feelings towards cooking.

On that note, I'm off for now. Tonight I'm in going try this chicken tortilla soup and tomorrow I'll let you know how it tasted… Wish me luck!

I needed some motivation...

I needed some motivation to become a better blogger. I also needed some motivation to become a better cook. If you look thought the history of my blog, it is evident that I have blogged for three years (technically). However, I haven't posted an entry in over 15 months. A very dear friend of mine (and fellow redhead) posted that she was joining a cooking club involving blogging and trying new recipes; I wanted in on this action and she contacted the host, so.... This is leading to a new blogging experience for me. I am hoping that this will motivate me to blog about our family more as well... So here's to new experiences. Please follow along and enjoy our adventure ...