A Week's Worth of Meals

Cheesesteak Sliders. I think these are just too stinking cute. I am most definitely making these for football season.



Crab Cakes with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce. The sauce was delicious, but the crab cakes didn't stick together as well as I would have liked. I am sticking with ones from All Things Good that I made a few weeks back, and just try different sauces. These, as you can clearly see, are way too done, but the crab mixture was running everywhere.



Citrus Chicken Skewers with Tzatziki for Dipping. The chicken was good, the tzatziki was okay. I will try another recipe for the sauce before I give up on it.



Cumin Lime Roasted Pork Tenderloin from Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats cookbook. Not bad, but not great. I think I overcooked it. :(



Chicken with Scallion Lime Sauce from Rachael Ray's Express Lane Meals. Um, this was awful. A disgrace to Rachael Ray's name. It had no flavor. I was so disappointed because I love scallions. This was the first recipe of hers that I have made that I just flat-out hate.



Flat Iron Steak with Blue Cheese-Chive Butter. This was divine and perfect for a special meal. The winner of the week! I plan to use the butter for baguettes in the future. It really added something to the steak.

Friday the Thirteenth

Friday the thirteenth...and nothing bad has happened to me. Actually, it's been a pretty good day! Jay and I went to lunch today, and after lunch, we went to pick up my new ring!!!! I'm so excited. For those of you who know the whole engagement ring story, you understand. I will have to post pictures soon.

I was curious about the origin of the superstition behind Friday the Thirteenth, so I did a little research. (Yes, I know I'm a nerd - I do research at work AND in my spare time!) Apparently, the fear of Friday the Thirteenth stems from two fears: the fear of Friday and the fear of the number thirteen. The "Christian-based" theory is based on the fact that Christ was crucified on a Friday so Friday is already a "bad" day. (Some people believe that Adam & Eve ate the forbidden fruit on a Friday - where that belief comes from, who knows.) Also, the number thirteen is considered unlucky because Judas was the thirteenth person to arrive at the Last Supper, as he was busy selling out Jesus to the Sanhedrin. It is considered unlucky by superstitious people to sit down in groups of 13 to eat.

Another theory is that in British history, people were traditionally put to death on Fridays, and there were 13 steps leading up to the noose. There are many more theories; check out the following links

Why Friday the Thirteenth is Unlucky

How Friday the Thirteenth Works

Whether you had a good day or not, the day of the week and the number thirteen had nothing to do it, no matter what "scientific" studies say. If you have paraskavedekatriaphobia (the fear of Friday the Thirteenth), good luck spelling your phobia! :)

One of my favorite Bible verses (from my favorite Bible book) concerns fear:

I John 4:18

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Have a great weekend! :)

Busy week/weekend

This week was crazy. Monday, we had a ton of new furniture delivered. Our house looks sooo much better! I will post photos as soon as we get everything situated and hung up. Jay started his new job Tuesday and left to go out of town on Wednesday. It was the first time we have been apart since we were married :( He will have to travel a little bit with this job (a few nights a month), but that is nothing compared to some CPAs who travel for weeks at a time. I guess I will get used to it, though.

We were really busy yesterday. I had an errand in the morning, and then we ate lunch with Jay's dad. We started looking to replace my engagement ring (finally!), and then we went to visit my grandparents. My sweet grandfather (Papaw) made us a fern stand to go in the corner of our living room to put our beautiful wooden vase he made us on. That, along with the mahogany bed he made us are the nicest pieces of furniture we have. He is so talented :) We ended up going to Howell's in Flora with Honey and Papaw to eat. I always feel like we step back in time when we eat there. For anyone who has never been there, it is a diner-type restaurant. They have yummy cheeseburgers and the BEST fried dill pickles ever. I also love the home fries. It is so good! There is a waitress there who calls everyone "baby." The waitresses are all so friendly that it almost like going to eat at a diner in Mayberry.

Since I'm SURE that everyone is dying to know how the experiment is going...here are some food pictures from this past week. (just kidding)

Sliced Steak Gyros. There is a sauce that goes with the gyros. I didn't make it this time because my mom brought me some feta dressing from Keifer's. The sauce looks pretty similar, though.




Sirloin Sliders with Crispy Bacon and Creamy Horseradish Mayo. Higher class Krystals! I just used lean ground beef instead of the sirloin to make it healthier!



Lime Chicken Soft Tacos. I made these while Jay was gone and took the leftovers for lunch. Perfect for summer!!





Grilled Chicken with Potato Slabs. This one was ok. I used boneless skinless breasts and I didn't care for it. The potato slabs were good, but they needed more seasoning, and they have to be sliced super thin to be cooked through.



Feta and Bacon Stuffed Chicken Breasts. These were divine, and in my opinion, the winners of the week! I cut waaay back on the olive oil and drained the bacon really well to keep the fat content down.



I made this BLT Spread from Rachael Ray's Yum-O cookbook to take to work for lunches this week. BLT stands for Bacon, LEEK, and tomato - not bacon, lettuce, and tomato. I love leeks. Jay had never seen one before (it's usually not on my typical shopping list) and we got in a play "fight" with them (they look like fat green onions/scallions). Abby look slightly freaked out.

Just an interesting note...I looked up leeks to explain to Jay that they were a member of the onion/garlic family. They are the national symbol of Wales and are worn on St. David's Day. Read about it here.



Happy cooking this week! :)

The Scoop! :)

I just realized that I had been posting about my culinary creations, but not what else was going on with us at this moment. So for those who care:

1. Jay starts a new job Tuesday. He will be selling commercial insurance with a local insurance firm. Hopefully this will be a lot more challenging and interesting. He is going out of town on Wednesday to visit clients and potential clients in Corinth. :( This will be the first time we've been apart since we got married.

2. We have a lot of furniture coming tomorrow, so the living room will be almost complete (minus a rug-we're waiting for Abby to grow up a little more), and we will have something in the front entryway. Pictures to come soon!

3. Abby got a much-needed haircut yesterday! Jay takes her and tells them that he wants to get his money's worth out of it. LOL. She had her cute purple bows out about 20 minutes after I caught this picture:



So, I guess it sounds like a slow week, but there is some other news; it's just not quite "publishable" yet. :)

6 months and counting!

Today, Jay and I have been married for six months!!! So far, so good :)

Updates on the experiment this week:

Grilled Chicken Caesar with Bacon-Herb-Parmesan "Croutons" from Rachael Ray's Get Real cookbook. This was good, but nothing special. The gimmick that I got sucked in by was the low/no-carb "croutons." I thought that they were greasy, but I loved the salad dressing. It was easy, and I will probably make it again.






Grilled Barbeque Shrimp from All Things Good. These were really spicy, and I have decided that is my fault. Trying to be healthy, I cut down the butter/margarine in the marinade and didn't cut down the spices. Oops! We will, however, try this one again (with less spices next time!!)



Italian Steak Pinwheels from Rachael Ray's magazine Everyday with Rachael Ray. These were stuffed with fresh basil, roasted red peppers, and mozzerella cheese.



Taquitos (with sauce) from Rachael Ray's Just In Time cookbook.




So now for dinner with my parents and grandparents...everything went well! I was slightly stressed about the house and cooking (my family has never thought that I would turn out to be even slightly domestic, which I'm still not 100 percent convinced that I am). I guess it is hard for me to accept that there might be a different "standard" for me. My mom has always kept a spotless house and been an excellent cook. Sometimes it feels hard for me to live up to that. I am (slowly) realizing that I will NEVER be able to come close to that UNLESS I stop working and become a "housewife" and I don't think I'm ready for that. I admire the women that can do that, but I just don't think it is for me. Maybe I'll feel differently if or when we have children, but I truly believe that I wouldn't be a good companion/wife for Jay if I didn't work. I need constant stimulation or a mental challenge(I know it's sad) or I'm completely and totally unhappy and unfulfilled. So all of that aside, I'm starting to realize that my standard is and should be different from hers. I'm a different person with different goals (for the time being at least).

I made a Fresh Apple Cake from Southern Sideboards for my dad's birthday. I suppose I should say WE made it, because my sweet husband peeled the apples> :) Proof that I actually use my pretty red mixer for more than just decoration:



The finished product with a few pieces missing :) :



This is one of my favorite easy appetizers. I use the Weight Watchers whipped cream cheese, so it is healthy. I usually serve with whole wheat crackers (Ritz Sociables) or bagel chips. The recipe is here.



Marinated Pork Tenderloin from All Things Good. It was so easy and so good! Pork tenderloin is my new go-to dish for entertaining. It is easy, healthy, and almost everyone likes it (and if they don't, they should!).



Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Onions from All Things Good. These are soo easy and so good (and healthy)!



My mom brought my favorite salad with mixed baby greens, Parmesan cheese, balsalmic vinegarette, strawberries, and pine nuts.

All in all, I think that everything turned out well, so I hope that my dad had a good birthday.

Cake-baking

My precious daddy's birthday was on Tuesday. So, being the great daughter that I am (not really), we are having my parents and my grandparents over for dinner tonight. I am even baking a cake (right now). This is huge...baking isn't exactly my thing. You can't just halfway measure and then throw everything in the bowl and hope it tastes right. Apparently, there are "mechanics" to baking (this according to my mother, the nutrition major in college/homemaker-extraordinare). Yes, I am a CPA, and I usually like exact amounts, but baking just stresses me out. Rachael Ray's show stresses me out, I'm not going to lie, even though I love her cookbooks. Half a palmful?? What size person is that? I have long skinny hands, so is my half a palmful the same as hers?? Or "twice around the pan"? What about for bigger pans?

I guess the real reason I don't really like baking is that I don't think I'm good at it. I generally avoid doing things I'm not any good at. Who likes to fail? I attempted to make chocolate chip cookies for the office pot-luck Christmas luncheon. Total disaster. They ran all over the pan. Like one big chocolate chip cookie. Jay peeled it up and ate the scraps and declared it "delicious" but these were the early days of our marriage when I didn't cook at all, so he was probably near starvation. Audrea and her boyfriend, Andy, were going to come over the following night for dessert after we went to Julep. I had planned to make Gharadelli brownies and serve with ice cream. In my panic of what-do-I-take-to-the-office-lunch-so-I-don't-look-like-a-total-slacker freakout moment, I made brownies. Then I had to stop at the bakery on the way home that day to pick up iced Christmas cookies to serve for dessert that night.

So, Daddy, if you're reading this, I really love you. I love you enough to bake you a cake. Even though it may be dry and icky or even burned on the bottom, I tried. I promise. :)

Memorial Day thoughts

We have not done much this weekend...we shopped the sales on Saturday, went to Char for brunch after church Sunday with Jay's family, and ate dinner with my parents last night. I have also been sorting through the stacks of china and other wedding presents we don't have a place to store yet. I boxed them up and put them in the closet. You can actually walk in the guest bedroom now!!

Since today is Memorial Day, I have been thinking about both of my grandfathers. My mom's father served in the army during World War II, and my dad's father was a Marine who served in Japan.

My mom's father, whom I always called Granddaddy, passed away when I was in college. He joined the Army in 1942. He served in France, Belgium, and Germany. He was on the outskirts of the Battle of the Bulge, one of the major turning points in the war. He spent six weeks in a foxhole in the bitter cold and snow. Granddaddy didn't change his socks for those six weeks.

Granddaddy never spoke much about the war, especially not to us grandchildren. I always remembered him as a man of very few words. He did, however, spend three to four hours talking about his experiences to my parents when my mother was pregnant with me. After the Allied forces freed the concentration camps in Germany, troops occupied these camps to ensure that the Germans did not return to the camps to continue killing Jews. My grandfather was a part of these troops. He said that the ashes of the Jews and others who had been killed were piled higher than a two story house. Maybe it was hard for him to talk about the things that he had seen because they were so gruesome, and it was painful for him to remember.

My dad's father, Papaw, was in Japan on his tour of duty for the ten year anniversary of Iwo Jima. They had a special ceremony to remember all of the Marines who died there. Papaw played the trumpet in the Marine band.

Neither of my grandfathers were career military men. Granddaddy went on to graduate from Mississippi State with a degree in agriculture and to serve as a loan officer for the FHA. Papaw went to USM to finish the accounting degree he had begun at Baylor before his service, and later went into the family oil business..

Join me in remembering all of those who not only gave time during their youth, but their lives for our country.

Happy Memorial Day!