showers

I am making a Spring resolution....

Entertain or "shower" more guests at our home, having over friends and family. I am welcoming SpRiNg and savoring this season by opening up our doors and hosting some fun "get togethers". This past winter I read a book called Bittersweet by Shuana Niequist, see earlier post, one of the things I love about this book is how much the author talks about entertaining her friends. She makes it sound so easy.

When I think of having over company, I immediately think of all the things that need to be done before someone steps foot in our house; vacuum up dog hair, dust shelves, clean bathrooms, get flowers. Shuana writes that it should be easy and time that is free of judgements. She goes on to say that if the people you are having over are going to gossip about the center pieces or dog hair (ha!) then you probably don't want them to come over in the first place! So true! Also, she states that the more you do it, the easier it gets, and the more calm you will be when welcoming people into your home.

My Mom is probably the most amazing host I have ever seen. She is so calm and collected and thinks of everything! Not only does she have the meal out hot, but the flowers are beautiful (usually pulled last minute from her garden), the tables are gorgeous, and she is fun and actually a part of the party! I hope that with years of practice I can be half as good of a host as she is. I also have to add here that my Dad is a pretty great co-host :) Besides the fact that he is behind all the funding of a great time, he is also always in charge of the refreshments, and he does a mighty fine job at that! What would a party be without yummy drinks?! It's a big part :) Here is a cute drink, Sparkling Orange Ginger, I found today!

This is a shower that my Mom did, this is the table before the food and guests had arrived, but I thought it was so cute and creative! This shower was a sushi shower. We served sushi, an asian salad, and cabbage salad. The mini picture frames told the guest what each roll was. Everyone loved it! Oh and we had fortune cookies!

I just got my April issue of Southern Living. The front cover just screams "have people over!" I was so glad to see it. On the inside it goes on to give easy recipes and fun party ideas. I am going to use this magazine and my Mom as my coaches through this season :) Check out all this magazine and website have to offer, it's awesome! It shares that there are four main things that will make your entertaining a success. As long as you have these things all that's left is just good company. Everything else will fall into place.

1. Table Setting and Florals - this sets the mood of the party! Best part in my opinion!

2. Meal - make sure it is easy to make and easy to eat.

3. Drinks - always have two options mock and cocktail.

4. Music - playing softly in the background, just fills the air, not a must.

Two weeks ago we had over a couple and it was so much fun! The guys grilled outside and the girls made an easy salad. Our guests brought wine and we had some beer in the frig, everything just fell together, it was really easy. Before we new it, it was almost 11:30 on a week night and we had just been sitting outside enjoying time with great friends. A lot of times, it's just taking the effort to get it organized, the rest should be something to savor :)

orange delight

No, I'm not talking about a yummy frozen drink on the beach....I wish I was....that sounds wonderful right about now that the weather is changing and the sun is out :)!

I made this recipe about a month ago and then made it again tonight. It is so good and really refreshing. I get so sick of making chicken, but this recipe really hides the chicken flavor! It is also really easy to make. Plus, once you get the ingredients you will have the basic flavors in your frig for a while and only need to buy the chicken, onion, and whatever veggie you choose. Hope you and yours love this recipe too!

(Picture from Pillsbury.com)

Ingredients:

Plain couscous (cook according to package)

chicken breast (one per person)

1/3 cup onion chopped

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons orange marmalade

1 tablespoon butter

salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Flatten chicken and season both sides with salt and pepper.

2. Melt butter in large saute pan, cook chicken in butter 8-10 minutes or until done. Remove chicken from pan and keep warm.

3. Saute onion in same pan until tender

4. Pour in orange juice and chicken broth, bring to boil and then simmer.

5. Add orange marmalade and let mix into mixture, stirring

6. Put chicken back in pan and simmer for 3-5 minutes.

7. Place chicken and orange sauce over couscous on plate and serve hot.

DELISH!

memory lane

Last week, several times, I ate something that reminded me of my childhood. Which it turn, means that I was reminded of a lot of wonderful memories.

Funny, one of the things was a Jack N The Box taco and another was Mentos fruit chews. The tacos remind me of visiting my Nana and Papa in Dallas. We always stopped at Jack N The Box for tacos before hitting the mall for some shopping. The Mentos were my candy of choice while checking out at the all time favorite Casa Manana. We frequently visited this wonderful Mexican food restaurant growing up.

One thing that I love about my Mom is how she always plans meal-time as a special time. Growing up, no matter where we were or what our afternoon held, everyone had to be home by dinner time. All six of us would sit around a beautifully set table garnished with plates full of a well balanced meal (always a meat, starch, and vegetable) and reflect on our days. Funny stories were shared, history lessons from my Dad were taught, tears were cried - over who knows what, but most of all just time together sharing with each other. I will always cherish those dinners together. Now that Zach and I have started our little family of two, I try to keep up my Mom's tradition of making dinner time a special time with the ones you love.

This week it has been quite chilly in Dallas. I have been wanting to make a big pot of spicy chili, but didn't have a good recipe on hand, and Williams Sonoma has been sold out of their chili starter kit for a while now. Luckily, yesterday, during my calm and relaxing day, full of reading and napping, I randomly stumbled upon a chili recipe in the back of my January Southern Living. The pictures were of course mouth watering, and I knew I had to try it. I made it tonight and we both loved it! I cut the recipe in half (which is always scary) but it worked out great and we still have left overs. I served the chili with honey corn bread. Here is the full recipe below. Hope this warms up your homes and bellies too! Cheers to family dinners together :)

All dished up and ready to eat :)!

Mama's Way Chili

Makes: 8-10 servings

Hands-on time: 25 min

Total time: 2 hours and 30 min

2 lbs. ground chuck

1 medium chopped onion

3 minced garlic cloves

2 Tbsp. chili powder

2 tsp. ground cumin

1 to 2 tsp. ground red pepper

1 tsp. paprika

1 (6oz.) can tomato paste

1 (14.5 oz.) can beef broth

1 (12 oz. bottle dark beer) I left this out, didn't have any...still yummy!

3 (8 oz.) cans of tomato sauce

2 (15 oz.) cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles

1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce - I left out, didn't have...still yummy!

Lots of salt and pepper sprinkled in at end

Cook first 3 ingredients in a Dutch oven over medium heat, stirring occasionally 8-10 minutes or until meat is done. Drain well and return to Dutch oven. Add chili powder and next 3 ingredients, cook 1 minute. Add tomato paste, and cook 1 minute. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to boil. Cover and reduce heat to low, simmer for 2 hours.

thanks

"Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise, your glorious name."

1 Chronicles 29:13

I had so much fun last week!

Being a teacher, I am lucky to have a whole week off for Thanksgiving break! Which meant it was the perfect time to take a little trip to Midland. It doesn't sound like it would be hard to get there, but boy is it a long 5 hour drive. Flying is the best way to go, but that's when our baby dog comes into play. So, all around it's usually just easiest to find a long weekend and drive.

Once we were there we had so much fun spending time with our Midland fam. It was really nice to be able to relax and catch up with everyone. Addie is getting so talkative. She is such a sweet little girl, and we really felt like we got to know her loving personality this trip. She had tons of fun with her Uncle Zach and vice versa. We are looking forward to being in Midland again soon for the Christmas! Maybe baby Crawford will come a bit early

so we can see him then!

He's going to be such a great Daddy some day! ;)

The rest of the week was spent in Fort Worth with my family. All of my siblings were there and it was so wonderful. We have been so busy lately, and I felt like I hadn't a long weekend with my sisters in so long. I finally got to just sit, hold, and kiss on baby Olivia. She is such a precious baby, I love her so much! In fact, all of the kiddo's were adorable! I am so lucky to have so many precious children in my life.

Also, Marmie and Poppie were quite the hostest with the mostest. I think I gained about 10 pounds out at the lake, but it was worth it! To make things a bit easier on Marmie we split up the Thanksgiving dinner so that she could have more time for things like this... :)

Each family was responsible for one or two dishes. It really made things easy for everyone and the kitchen was a calm place :) I made the sweet potato casserole. I'll post the recipe later, but it turned out great! I'll use it again and again!

On Friday the guys played golf and the girls braved University Park Village. We bundled up all the kids and hit the road. I hadn't been to University in a couple months, and man has it changed. Fort Worth has an Anthropologie!! And it's a really neat one too! I swear I love every single thing in that store, I find myself thinking, "One of each please". Also, McKinnley's Bakery has moved to a bigger space. It is totally redecorated and looks great! The food was delicious as usual and the cookies are still to die for! The shopping day was a success and I made it home with our Christmas wrapping paper and new ornament for our tree.

All smiles with some soda pop :)

We ended the weekend with a grand finale celebrating Poppie's birthday at the City Club downtown. I love you Poppie! Thanks for being the best Dad in the whole wide world!

It was hard to say good-bye, but it was a bit easier knowing that baby Anna Jane (Janie) is going to be born on Wednesday! Please pray that Kate has an easy delivery and that Janie has a wonderful birthday! December 1st would be a pretty cool birthday to have :)

Can you tell I'm obsessed with our nieces and nephew (soon to be nephews)!

yum-o!

"Taste and see that the Lord is good" Psalm 34:8

Today was one of the sweet ladies I work with birthdays. The girls I work with are so wonderful. We always like to do something sweet on our birthdays. We found out that the b-day girl likes chocolate, so I decided I would make her a cake. I got this recipe from a great friend, Maggie (fellow frog), freshman year of college and fell in LOVE with it. Soon after, I made it for my family and it has been a fav ever since! The cake was a big hit at school, I hope you like it too!

Chocolate Chip Bunt Cake

Ingredients:

1 box Duncan Hines yellow cake mix

4 eggs

1 and a half cups water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 small package of chocolate pudding

1 small package of vanilla pudding

16 oz. Hershey's milk chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together

Add chocolate chips

Grease bunt pan

Cook at 350 degrees for about 1 hour

Let cool and sprinkle with powder sugar

DELICIOUS!

Pig Out or Not...

Why is it that every single day between 4 and 6 I want to eat, eat, and eat some more! It's killing me! I have been forcing myself to run silly errands between this time of day to just get out of the house so I don't eat! Should I have more self control? Yes! Do I have self control when it comes to eating? Usually, yes...this summer?...NO!

Maybe it has something to do with my addiction to Food Network. I have it on the TV whenever I'm home, and I love it! Everything they make on that channel just looks so delicious, which in turn makes me want to eat something yummy, just well, because.

Here are some healthy snacks I have filled our pantry with, so I can't grab high fat empty calorie foods during this time of day. You could try them too, surely I'm not the only one out there with pig-out food cravings between 4 and 6.

Almond butter is one of my new favs (thanks Kimberly!) It's pretty delish on an apple or even just a spoon full.

Luna Bars have always been a favorite as well...lots o protein!

And if I just need something sweet, but don't want to eat 10 Oreos (I mean who doesn't) I grab this instead. Only 5 calories = amazing!

What do you do to satisfy your afternoon cravings?

ENJOY mine!

Yummy....

"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

Trying to make cheaper dinners, is not an easy task. Especially when you are cooking for two! I have been trying to find recipes that are easy and not filled with lots of different ingredients. Also, it would be nice to start using some of the same ingredients in several different dishes, so I don't have to go get a particular spice for one meal and another one for something else. So, I was looking in my pantry trying to think of what would be good with some of the things we "always" have at home. Then I got online and started searching. I found this recipe at the Campbells Kitchen website (click title to be taken there. All I had to buy at the store was chicken, black beans, and chicken stock! It was really easy and yummy :) Hope you like it too!


Santa Fe Chicken and Rice
From: Campbell's Kitchen
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 35 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)
1 cup uncooked regular long-grain white rice
1 3/4 cup Swanson® Chicken Stock
1 cup Pace® Picante Sauce
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 can (about 15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup frozen whole kernel corn
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 10 minutes or until it's well browned on both sides. Remove the chicken from the skillet.

Reduce the heat to medium. Heat the remaining oil in the skillet. Add the rice and cook and stir until it's golden. Stir in the stock, picante sauce and cumin and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.

Stir in the beans and corn. Return the chicken to the skillet. Top the chicken with the cheese. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the rice is tender.