Enchilada turned Chimichanga...

If you have not made the enchiladas from PW yet, you must do it this week. Get to the store, buy the ingredients, GET 'ER DONE!!! They are awesome! You can find the post all about them here.


A good friend of mine turned 40 last week and we celebrated with a Mexican fiesta! It was so fun and so yummy! I made PW's famous enchiladas and I made a TON of them. In fact, I made some extra for my kiddos who went to stay with Steve's grandma for the evening. Which left me with about a half of a pan leftover. I love leftovers! But my kids can only tolerate the same meal maybe one more time. Which leads me to my dilemma. I had about 5 enchiladas left over and we had already eaten leftover enchiladas. What to do?!


Well, I must give credit where credit is due. I have this friend of mine, whom after this suggestion of his that I took him up on, I believe has a bit of culinary brilliance. Yes, I said it. He did actually impress me with this one. I wanted to use my leftovers but I didn't want my critics knowing they were indeed eating these enchiladas AGAIN. So he suggested re-wrapping the enchiladas in flour tortillas and frying them up like chimichangas. How easy! No, they did not become any more nutritious, but with homemade Restaurant Style Salsa, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, and guacamole---we got a whole new meal which the kiddos LOVED by the way.


Just thought I'd share! The enchiladas and Restaurant Style Salsa are two of our very favorite recipes we eat from PW.

Take care of my critics...

So long, farewell...

I'm leavin', on a jet plane...don't know when I'll be back again.

Well, yes I do!! I am off to go hold a newborn baby for about 72 hours and spoil his older brother.

Not to say that I won't be cooking. Maybe I will be? But I know I won't be posting anything in the meantime.

So don't be surprised if you see my critics out galavanting around the restaurants in the area.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Mother's Day!

Hoping you all had a wonderful Mother's Day, and if you're not a Mother yet, you celebrated the Mothers in your life! I know for one of my friends, it was very extra special as she gave birth to a baby boy yesterday afternoon. How wonderful is that?

That being said, I hope each of you got to stay out of your kitchen as I did...(smile!) Because I worked the night before, I spent my afternoon taking a bit of a siesta as my kiddos did what they do best with their Dad... F.I.S.H.

And no, we did not fry any of these fish up for dinner either. Happy Monday!! I am busy meal planning and can not wait to get to the grocery store! How's that for an exciting life? :)

Thinking Fish for supper...

There is nothing quite as sweet as a little boy with his Daddy and their fishing poles. And the excitement said little boy feels when he reels in his very first fish all by himself!

Gotta love those pics off the cameras, huh? Landon and Steve had a fun evening out last night and Landon was all smiles and giddy when he got home. All because of that fish. Which by the way, will not be eaten for supper. That fish is back in his natural habitat. You know, growing a little bit bigger so it can feed a family of six...

Gotta Love the Weekends...

Sometimes, it is just really nice NOT to cook. Our week and weekend has been so busy that I barely had any time in our kitchen. Which was nice for a change, I've gotta admit. On Friday night we took my parents to the Mennonite Relief Sale and ate some really yummy ethnic food including zwiebach, verenika, sausage, bohne beroggi, and pie. As you can see by the pictures, my critics do love their ethnic food. And every once in a while, my mom and I will get adventurous and see how much damage we can do preparing it. But, it's really nice to go to the MCC sale and just eat to our heart's content.
On Saturday we celebrated at a wedding of two very special people and once again had a yummy meal.

I did make this yummy chocolate cake to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday on Sunday. You can find all the details of the chocolate cake here.

I am so excited to make my next recipe but am looking for a real vanilla bean pod. I have had no luck in finding it. Argh!!!

An Herbal Hooray!!!

Yes, this is what all of my excitement is all about. My new venture, my attempt at fresh herbal cooking, and my attempt to be just like The Pioneer Woman. I have been amazed and completely hooked on cooking with fresh herbs since digging in to PW's recipes. And I have waited in anticipation of spring when I could get these potted and begin cooking with my own fresh herbs! Because buying them at the store has been adding up the last few months.

I know it may be a bit early, but I've already taken my scissors out there and cooked with them. I needed some cilantro the other night for my citrus dressing so I just grabbed a sprig and chopped it up. And last night, the herbed whole roasted chicken thing---so fun! I'm loving it and just hope that I can keep them alive and well so I can attempt to bring them in before the first frost next fall. We shall see...

But for now, I am going to have fun with what I've got. I hope to get some parsley yet. And I'm also praying that my sweet basil starts to look a bit more alive. The wind yesterday seems to have done it over. Either that or it is drowning from overwatering from my sweet boy.

Because

Because my day is so unbelievably busy and I didn't get home until 4:30 pm. Because I am on call right now at the hospital until 3:00 am tomorrow morning. Because we are busy planting trees this evening. Because it is 78 degrees and beautiful outside and I can't bear to turn on my stove or oven for that matter. Because we finally got our swingset up. Because we are in the process of putting up our basketball goal. Because I bought the kids a whole new box of sidewalk chalk. And some new sandbox goodies. Because Natalie has a basketball pizza party tonight. Because I am planning a big birthday party for Kassidy tomorrow evening. Because I just got done filling 300 Easter eggs for the big hunt for Kassidy's birthday party.

Those are the reasons we are each eating our favorite cereal for dinner this evening.

Amen.

***If you can believe it, I got "thank you's" and a big hug from one critic for my choice in fine dining this evening... ***

Missing the Kitchen...

Wow! It has been a whirlwind of a weekend already and it's only Saturday! Yeah! My Sunday is actually looking like it will be a Sabbath. At least compared to the last few days anyway.

We spent a night in Kansas City at the Great Wolf Lodge. My kids absolutely had a blast! For me, I was not quite as excited to get myself in to a swimming suit at this time of the year. But, I took one for the team and joined in on the fun.

After our whirlwind KC/Lawrence trip, we woke up early today for another basketball tourney. Our second to the last one for this year. It has been fun, but we will definitely be ready to wonder what to do on the weekends...

After all of that, it's obvious I have not spent ANY time in my kitchen the past few days. And I've gotta say, I am missing it and excited for a Sunday full of new recipes to try. Move on over McDonald's, Quizno's, McDonald's, Subway, etc...because I am back for the attack.

Take a look at this.

This is Ree Drummond, a.k.a. THE PIONEER WOMAN in the flesh at her appearance on The Fox News Morning Show and Good Morning America.

I am in awe of her!!

Not over yet...

****Update: The cookie on the left is my recipe and the cookie on the right is PW. And DeAnn, you were RIGHT, the two critics mentioned below want to stick with their old faithful. Sorry PW! I still think your cookies are delicious and will frequently make them too. We love chocolate chip cookies!!


Tonight I had each of the different chocolate chip cookies side by side. That is, one is from PW and one is my recipe. It is up to all of you to figure out which one is which. I heard loud and clear from Steve and Natalie about which cookie they think is the best. Can you figure it out?



So this is what you need to do...



The cookie on the left is _______ The cookie on the right is __________




Steve and Natalie's pick is _________________



Meanwhile, if you are craving some chocolate chip cookies, I have about 8 dozen sitting on my counter needing to be eaten. And if all of these are gone by the end of the week, we have a problem.