Girls’ Weekend '12

Back in June, Lisa, Casey, and I went on our annual Girls’ Weekend.  This year we decided to head to Greenwood, MS for a weekend of cooking, relaxing, pampering, and great food.   This year was our 5th year!  We skipped one year due to mine and Casey’s wedding that year.

This was my first time to  Greenwood; it was a pretty drive back seeing the farm lands.  We had the weekend book with a stay at The Alluvian, a Viking cooking class Saturday morning, the Spa Sunday morning, and great dinners for Friday and Saturday night. 

Friday night, we had a low key night planned since we were all driving in after work.  We had dinner reservations at Giardina’s.  We were able to reserve one of the private tables.  Sadly I didn’t get a good picture, but here is one.
The courtyard at the Alluvian. We enjoyed the evening after dinner for a bit before the mosquitos starting eating us.

Saturday morning, we took advantage of the breakfast buffet at the hotel. 

We had a bit before our class started at 10, so we walked around downtown for a bit.  Then the fun began!!  We decided to take the Cupcakes & Cake Balls class.  It was a blast!  We didn’t go over board with sugar intake, but we did sample everything we baked.  Here is a hodge-podge of photos.

The “menu” for class.

The class kitchen before we got a hold of it.

The

fun is starting!


The aftermath of our class.


Before/After

All of our goodies we baked

More of our goodies

Beautiful golden caramel. 

Caramel Apple cupcakes cooling.

Casey making Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Coconut Rum Cake Balls

Practicing my icing skills.

Lisa adding the final touches to her Red Velvet Cake balls.

Would have been a great picture if it wasn’t blurry!  Still the best time!!

Saturday night, we had reservations at Lusco’s.  Like Giardina’s, you can reserve a private dining table.

 
Sunday morning we had spa appointments.  The Alluvian spa is one of my new favorites.  The masseuse was the best I have ever had.  She provided the right amount of pressure; never once did I have to ask her to lighten up.  I tested out the claimed best shower; pretty nice having 9 shower heads on you at once. 

Overall the weekend was fabulous!  I love you guys so much!  I’m already looking forward to next year’s trip!

The holidays are upon us!

Whew.  Time has been flying by the past few weeks.

Let’s see what has been going on.

Last week was super busy with preparing for Thanksgiving at our place.  I had nothing to worry about; just that I am truly my mother’s daughter.  Brian and I tried to do a little here and there to get ready for the Big day, but never fails I put it off.  Wednesday, thankfully Jimmy let me leave at 2, we finished cleaning house and I cooked, the cornbread for the dressing, mixed up the dressing, cooked 2 pecan pies, and bake a caramel cake.  Boy, staying up till midnight to make caramel icing must mean I love my family a lot!   I honestly believe it wouldn’t be a holiday if I didn’t stay up late making something for it.  Growing up (still today as well) my mom would always be up late the night before cooking or baking. 

Thanksgiving was wonderful!!  For my first time cooking a turkey, it turned out GREAT!  It was a nice golden brown color and so tender it was falling off the bone as Brian tried to carve it.  (Did I mention he craved it!?)  All the food turned out lovely and we had WAY too much to eat. 

After lunch, Brian and I cleaned up and hit the road to Hartselle for a few days.  We were welcome with a lovely Thanksgiving Day supper of dried white beans, fried potatoes, and cornbread. Friday’s lunch was yummy!  Mom had all of our favorites prepared for lunch.  Dad out did himself once again with a smoked turkey (which by the way is the only way I’ll eat turkey now.)

Saturday we drove back in time to quickly unload the car, pack a cooler, and head to Oxford for the Egg Bowl.  Alas, the game did not turn out in my favor, but overall we had a good time.  It was very cold!  We were wimps and left at the half, but listened to it (thank you XM radio!) on the way home.  I was glad we came home when we did; it was already 9:45ish when we got home.  Here are a couple of shots of the game.

 

Sunday was devoted to decorating the house for Christmas!  I am not finished just yet (I will be sharing photos.  I just wish I could take cool artistic photos like everyone else does of their decorations.) and the house is a big mess right now due to everything strung out.

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving and was able to spend time with friends and family! 

Oops!

Last night I wanted to look and price freezers at Sears.  Now that the laundry room is completed,we are ready for the freezer.  Well……we ended up bringing one home with us. :)  We got a small chest freezer (6.9 cu.ft) to put next to the washer/dryer.  I’m ready to start filling it up with samples (now Brian won’t have to give them away) and vegetables!  I’m going to try and do a freezing day where I make up several dishes that are easy to freeze for those days where I don’t feel like cooking.  I’m so excited to actually feel like I have freezer space.  Having a confined space for the fridge we had very limited options on what to choose from.  It’s bad when you can’t even fit a frozen pizza in your fridge well (without some moving around and standing it on it’s side)!

Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows

What a wonderful weekend we had! 

Friday night we celebrated Ruff’s birthday a month early with a surprise party for him.  Angelia did an AMAZING job with the party, food, decorations, etc for being 8 months pregnant!  Ruff was pleasantly surprised to see everyone there to help celebrate the big 3-0 birthday. 

Saturday, we got up and ran a few errands.  It was nice getting things done early and still have the day ahead of us.  We picked up a few veggies and fresh bread at the farmers’ market for dinner that night.   We had brunch at the Stables with Tommy and Rachel since Miss Sadie was spending the weekend with the grandparents.  The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and preparing for supper.  Brian cooked a drunk chicken while I cooked a veggie stir fry.  Drunk chicken is one of my favorites due to how moist the chicken is even after an hour and half on the grill. 

Sunday afternoon, after Brian was finished with work, we headed to the movies to see Grown Ups.   Great movie!  We laughed through the whole movie.  It reminded Brian a lot of his buddies, we even decided who Randy will be (sort of already is) in the future.  Allie, you and Chad must go see this. 

We were sent the new album of John Prine music; Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows:  Songs of John Prine.  I LOVE John Prine.  This album is great.  It is a tribute album performed by various artists.  I really like this album. 

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend!  We are looking forward to a long weekend (well for me).

Happy Friday!

Oh, Friday how I love thee.  You make the work week all worth it in the end. :) 

The week turned out to be pretty good.  I finally learned that people won’t do their job when you need them to so you just have to let it go.  Patience is a wonderful thing.

I’m looking forward to a fun weekend. Tonight we have a surprise party for a friend and a fun-filled Saturday tomorrow.  I have decided I wanted to hit up a few stores/places that I never get to visit during the week. 

• Farmers’ Market
• Building Blocks in Tupelo
• Dirt Cheap
• Swirlz

Hopefully we will get to eat brunch at the Stables.  It’s been awhile since we had a day like this. 

I also plan to cut out the other 2 blankets and make them up.  Sewing really is becoming more fun. One day I hope to branch out and make something that is not just straight lines. 

Happy Things:

• Fridays
• Surprise parties
• iPod on shuffle; love coming across a song I haven’t heard in awhile
• Cardigans
• Sewing
• Breakfast made by the hubby

Vroom, Vroom.

Over the weekend, my parents came for a visit.  Mom had finished up a project for me and wanted to bring it to me, so I suggested they come stay the night Friday.  I decided to make turkey meatloaf, soy sautéed green beans, rosemary-garlic potatoes, and a key lime cake for dessert!  Brian and I did not want this to be a “working” weekend so we decided to head over the Automobile Museum.  I had never been; and was pleasantly surprised. 

Here are a few pictures from the museum.

Saturday morning I made a favorite for breakfast.  It has been years since I had these and my first time to make them.  If you remember back in the day when Hardees's had AWESOME cinnamon biscuits (before they changed the recipe and started using applesauce in them), you will love these.  This is the recipe.

Cinnamon Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 C self-rising flour
• 1/4 C shortening
• 1 T sugar
• 2/3 to 3/4
• 1 C raisins (optional)
• Cinnamon chips (see recipe below)

Directions:

Cinnamon Chips:

• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/3 C shortening
• 1 T plus 1 t cinnamon

The night before, mix sugar, cinnamon, and shortening.  Melt all ingredients.  Pour on foil-lined cookie sheet and place in freezer.  Next morning break into small pieces (keep frozen until use).

With flour, sugar, milk, and shortening; make biscuits.  Add raisins and cinnamon chips last.  Mix fast so the chips will not melt.  Roll and cut out like biscuits.  Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.  Frost with frosting (see below) while warm.

Frosting:

• 1 C powdered sugar
• 1 T milk
• 1/2 t vanilla

Brian’s response to these was; “You need to make these every morning.”  I responded back with maybe on weekends. :)

I was hoping to have pictures of a couple finished projects, but one is not completed yet (due to my lazy self) and the other needs to be cleaned up some before pictures are taken.  I will try to get some tonight of the completed one to share.  I’m uber excited about them! 

Snicker Ravioli

Yesterday when posting about new recipes I forgot to include one more.

Sunday after church we decided to try out the brunch buffet at Woody’s. Wow.  We all were very impressed with it.  We (Brian & I) had never been for dinner to Woody’s so we were surprised at the dining room side. The buffet was delicious.  It was more of a lunch buffet than brunch, but man the food was awesome.  There were about 5 different entrees to choose from,several wonderful sides, my favorite the smoked gouda mac and cheese, and a few breakfast entrees.  For dessert I was drawn to the Snicker Ravioli.  YUM!!  Shelley decided to try her hand at it for our care group dinner that night.  I actually liked hers better.  They are SUPER easy to make.

Snicker Ravioli

Ingredients:

• 2 sheets of frozen or refrigerated pastry dough
• bag of mini Snickers

Directions:

1. Preheat to 350 or to pastry dough package.
2.  Cut the pastry into either squares or circles.  Circles would be the easiest since you could use a biscuit cutter.
3.  Place on mini Snicker on one half of the cut dough and folder.  Using a fork, press the edges together to seal. 
4.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake until golden.  Drizzle caramel and chocolate sauces. 

A few new recipes

One of my all time favorite dishes is manicotti.  I prefer it when you use jumbo shells, not manicotti pasta.  I love making this dish when I am not in a hurry for supper since the sauce alone takes over an hour to make then you bake for about 45 minutes.  Last night I made a new recipe, Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells, that is very similar to manicotti only very simple to make.  I like this recipe in that you can add any type of veggie to the cheese mixture you wish.

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shell

Ingredients

• 20 jumbo pasta shells (about half a 12-ounce box)
• 1 24-ounce jar marinara sauce
• 2 15-ounce containers ricotta
• 2 cups baby spinach, chopped
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan (2 ounces)
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1/2 cup grated mozzarella (4 ounces)
• green salad (optional)

Directions

1. Set an oven rack to the highest position and heat oven to 400° F. Cook the pasta according to the package directions; drain and run under cold water until cool.
2. Spread the marinara sauce in the bottom of a large broiler proof baking dish.
3. In a bowl, combine the ricotta, spinach, Parmesan, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Spoon the mixture into the shells and place them on top of the sauce. Sprinkle with the mozzarella and bake until the shells are heated through, 10 to 12 minutes.
4. Increase heat to broil. Broil the shells until the cheese begins to brown, 2 to 5 minutes. Serve with the salad, if desired.

The blog EatingOxford posted the recipe for the bread and butter Yocona serves.  With the recipe for the Yocona sauce I have, I can have a Yocona dinner at home, minus the atmosphere. 

Knives

What a week it has been!  I’m very thankful this is a short week.  Work has been busy and I have been battles slight migraines all week (since last Friday actually).  I guess it’s mainly due to I been skipping the chiro for a few weeks and now I’m paying for it. I’m looking forward to a relaxing evening tonight and a fun weekend ahead. 

So, as the title of the post says, I’m wondering about knives.  I have a set, but they are not very good ones and I end up using my two random knives most of the time instead of those.  I’m now on a mission…start buying good knives periodically.  I honestly do not know that much about different brands of knives and what is the best, so this is where you come in.  What type of knives do you have and use most often?  I honestly just use a chef, paring, and bread knife majority of the time.  I also prefer a straight edge verse serrated edge. 

Elvis Fest starts tomorrow!  Brian and I are only planning on going tomorrow night to see Robert Earl Keen.  Should be a fun night all around.  Hopefully I will remember to take pictures. 

Mint

What do you do with a pound of mint?

Before our trip to the beach I asked Brian to order us a pound of mint to take with us to make mojitos. When we were in Pickwick I would make up a batch or two and use jugs to take out on the water; for the beach I did the same. I honestly did not realize how much a pound of mint would be. Needless to say I have TONS left over. We are still enjoying a mojitos in the afternoon, but we don’t drink them quick enough to use up all the mint. If we had decided to go the the Derby party, we had planned to share the wealth of mint. The weather was just too yucky for us to venture out Saturday.

If you are in town this week and would like some mint, let me know and I’ll share the wealth.

So, I decided to experiment some.

Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 C butter, soften
1/4 C shortening
1 C brown sugar, packed
1/2 C sugar
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 eggs
1 t vanilla (I always use almond)
2 1/2 C flour (all purpose)
2 C chocolate chips
1 C fresh mint, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 375. Beat butter and shortening with electric mixer until creamy. Add brown sugar, sugar, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour a little at a time until mixed. Stir in chocolate chips and mint in by hand. Drop onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8-9 minutes.

I was afraid the mint might be a little overpowering due to I was just guessing how much mint to use, but it wasn’t at all. Just gave them the right amount of hint of mint.

I really liked this cookie recipe (minus the mint). It was the best tasting and baking recipe for cookies I have tried in a while. I tend to have an issue with cookies flattening on me as they bake, but these did not. Not sure if it’s due to I’m using real butter and it’s not almost melted or what. (I used to only use margarine and always seemed to melt it too much.)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Happy Birthday Allie!!

There hasn’t been anything truly exciting going on in the Herndon household the past week. We took the past weekend and made it a lazy weekend. We laid in bed most of the morning, except for when we went to get azaleas, and had lunch at the Stables with Chad, Allie, Lauren C, Cole, and Megan. It’s getting to be a habit of going to the Stables for brunch and mimosas/bloody maries. It was great getting to catch up with everyone. Brian has decided to pick up painting again. He took art in school and was pretty good from what I have seen. We bought some supplies a little bit ago and he picked up the brush Saturday afternoon. He did a beautiful painting, but he didn’t feel it was worthy (in his eyes) so he painted over it. I am so proud of him getting into the paint again. After a few practice painting I know he will be back into the swing of things. Here is his painting from this weekend. I didn’t do a very good job of taking a picture of it.

Good thing we had low-key, relaxing weekend because we will be on the run this weekend! Friday night we are headed over to the Russells’ for dinner and game night. I do love a good game night, just seems like we never have time for one on a regular basis. Saturday I (we) are helping host a couple’s baby shower for Curt and Ashley. I should do a better job at managing my time at night this week and make the card for Ashley’s blanket one night instead of waiting till the last minute on Saturday morning while I’m making 2 dozen cupcakes for the shower. :)

We thought we were getting our new windows installed this week, but we miscalculated the timeline. It will be about another 2 weeks before they are installed. I cannot wait!! Funny how as you get older you get excited about different things than you did when you were younger. Who knew new windows would be so exciting.

I haven’t mentioned a new recipe in awhile. Last night I made a Spring Orzo Salad. Oh my. This is one of the best salads I have had in a long time. I cannot take credit for finding this one, Chris passed it along. I was a little leery of it based on the “dressing” but wow, this is full of flavor. Brian was a huge fan of it as well.

Spring Orzo Salad

Ingredients:

2/3 cup orzo

1/3 cup finely chopped red bell pepper

1/3 cup finely chopped orange bell pepper

1/3 cup finely chopped and seeded tomatoes

1/4 cup quartered dry-packed sun-dried tomatoes

1/4 cup chopped scallions

1/4 cup chopped watercress

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 teaspoons olive oil, preferably extra virgin

1/3 cup crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Prepare the orzo according to the package directions
2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the bell peppers, tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, scallions, watercress, garlic, oil, cheese, and lemon juice.
3. Mix the orzo with the vegetable mixture until well combined. Season to taste with black pepper.

Note: I didn’t put the tomatoes in it due to the cherry tomatoes I had were no longer good. Also I’m not a fan of watercress so I left those out as well and I put green onions in place of scallions since I couldn’t find any at the store.

I leave you with a picture of what Sunni does most nights. He will sit and stare at Brian until he makes room for him to sit next to him. Regardless if there is a whole side of the couch next to me (if Brian is in the chair) or plenty of room between us on the couch instead of the small spot between Brian and the end of the couch.

Time to Salsa

It seems like the week has CRAWLED by; even being home sick for 2 days it has been slow.  I kept thinking yesterday was Friday and today feels like Saturday. My hope is that it will feel like an extra long weekend.

Last night for girls’ night I made homemade salsa.  I have been craving some good “restaurant” style salsa.  The Pioneer Women just happened to have a post on restaurant style salsa yesterday.  This will become my standard salsa recipe now.  Super easy to make, you just pop everything into the food processor and pulse a few times and you are done.  I will, however, next time either just but half a jalapeno or none at all. It was a little too hot for me, but oh so good at the same time.  I toned it down some by adding a little more sugar.

The weather is turning out to be icy day.  Hopefully I will be able to go home at lunch to avoid any ice on the roads and take my time getting home.  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

The list that keeps growing

Do you ever get that feeling that you have too many “irons in the fire”? I seem to be the princess of that; my mom is the queen. It really must run in the family because my sister is the same way. I have a running list of projects that I’m currently working that need to be completed and then the list of the ones I want to start at some point. I’m hoping that when I’m off during the holidays I can get several completed.

I did complete one last weekend. I have an OLD filing cabinet that was mine back in junior high (for some reason mom thought my sister and I need one each) that I decided to update. It’s been around the block so it’s a little rusted (from 1 too many cups placed on it and sweated) and ivory. Since we do need one, I bought it back from my parents’ house. It is now a pretty deep red color. I know it’s not the best paint job (too many days of rain) but I think it still looks pretty good. I’m going to put it in the closet in the office so it doesn’t need to be perfect.

Before:

After:

Also I finally got put the primer on our rocking chairs. I haven’t had enough rain-free days to put the color on, but hoping to this weekend. I have a pretty deep bright blue as the color.

Before:

Semi-After (with primer):


Also on the list of things that need to be completed are:
Candy Corn garland (yes I know Halloween is over, but I need to finish it so I can put it up).
Advent garland
Christmas stockings
Coasters
Christmas wreath
Curtains for office and dining room
Paint windows
Paint laundry room
Baby blanket (2)

I really need about a week off and great weather to accomplish all this. This weekend should be great for the rocking chairs.

Wednesday I got a copy of the Pioneer Woman's cookbook in. I am in love with this cookbook. I started reading it that night and was salivating over everything in the book. Brian thought I was crazy when I mentioned I wanted to get up and start cooking right then. (It didn't help that I was hungry). For anyone who reads her site this is a must to have! She did such a wonderful job with the pictures, "story", and recipes. I plan on whipping up a few of the recipes this weekend.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last night I finally made up a batch of cookies. I have been wanting to make something sweet for a few weeks now and it just seems like I'm either too tired to mess with it at night or too busy on the weekends. Brian loves my peanut butter cookies (by far the simplest cookies you will ever make), but I wanted something chocolately. So, I altered my recipe alittle.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325. Mix all ingredients together. Roll cookies into balls (how ever big you want the cookies to be). Place on cookie sheet and press down with a fork. Back for about 10-12 minutes. Cool a minute or so on pan, then transfer to cooling rack.

These cookies are great just as peanut butter cookies, but if you want a chocolate fix, add the chips.

Another new recipe

Last week Brian was flippling through my Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine and came across a recipe he wanted to try. I'm all about not having to be the one who cooks so we tried it last Friday night. We have now added this as one of our stable meals. It's SUPER easy, makes hardly any mess, and takes about 5 minutes of prep time.

Grilled Salmon, Bacon, & Feta Packets

Ingredients:
Four 6-ounce, 1-inch-thick salmon fillets, skin on and at room temperature
1/2 cup ranch dressing
3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/4 crumbled feta cheese
2 tomatoes, chopped

Directions:
Preheat a grill to high. Cut four 8-by-12-inch sheets of heavy-duty foil. Place each salmon fillet skin side down on a sheet; top each with 2 tablespoons ranch dressing, 1 tablespoon bacon and 1 tablespoon feta; season with pepper. Fold up the sides of the foil, leaving the top exposed. Place on the grill, cover and cook until almost opaque in the thickest part, 8 to 10 minutes. Serve topped with the tomatoes.

Note: This can also be done in the oven too if you do not have time to mess with the grill or if it's raining.

Pan Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans

Last night I made a refreshing meal. I love it when I can find a recipe that is "one pot" meal. This is a good summer time meal. This is courtesy of Real Simple.

Pan Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 lemons, 1 thinly sliced, 1 juiced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 pound trimmed green beans
8 small red potatoes, quartered
4 chicken breasts (bones left in, with skin, about 3 1/4 pounds)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a large baking dish or cast-iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Arrange the lemon slices in a single layer in the bottom of the dish or skillet.

In a large bowl, combine the remaining oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper; add the green beans and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, remove the green beans and arrange them on top of the lemon slices. Add the potatoes to the same olive-oil mixture and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, arrange the potatoes along the inside edge of the dish or skillet on top of the green beans. Place the chicken in the same bowl with the olive-oil mixture and coat thoroughly. Place the chicken, skin-side up, in the dish or skillet. Pour any of the remaining olive-oil mixture over the chicken.

Roast for 50 minutes. Remove the chicken from the dish or skillet. Place the beans and potatoes back in oven for 10 minutes more or until the potatoes are tender. Place a chicken breast on each of 4 serving plates; divide the green beans and potatoes equally. Serve warm.