Weekend Update: Another October Weekend

So, I'm coming to the conclusion that Fall is probably Pennsylvania's most glorious time of year. I may sound like a broken record, but I don't care: Pennsylvania is amazingly beautiful. It is. We are surrounded by mountains/ ridges here that are covered in the mostly brightly colored trees I've ever seen ... It is just unbelievable. Pictures just can NOT do it justice, especially not my iphone pics. I don't think I'll ever get used to it; at least I hope I don't.

I'm actually going to start our "weekend" update with Thursday so I can document Aaron's first Pennsylvania deer ... It was kind of a monster; I've never seen a deer that big. Not his antlers, but his body. That thing weighed 285 pounds. Huge.

I'm kind of annoyed that none of my pictures allow you to see the sheer mass of this thing ... But, believe me. He was big.


Friday Aaron needed to take his deer to be processed and then go look for a book for his new men's group, so the boys and I tagged along. We drove out in the country to find the meat processor and then into town to run some errands.
After we wore the boys out we decided to test our limits and try to take them to eat ... Eventful, but not awful. The restaurant was also a dairy barn, so we sampled their treats.

That night Aaron had bible study so the kiddies and I had a movie night. They wanted a fort, but this was the best I could do.

And those aren't snacks they're eating ... That's dinner. Yep. Clearly I would not be a good single mom.

They watched The Prince of Egypt almost all the way through. Then they started getting extra silly so we started putting babes to bed.

Saturday we were pretty lazy ... Aaron and Avery ran a few errands, I took a shower ... Good times for all.

I cooked a bunch of yumminess for dinner: Ranch Style Chicken, Twice Baked New Potatoes, and a yummy green salad with all of our favorite ingredients: Romaine, Baby Spinach, Bell Pepper, Banana Pepper, Red Onion, sautéed mushrooms, cheddar cheese and croutons. Oh ... And the star attraction: homemade ranch. I'm typing all that out to remind myself to make it all again very soon.
Pretend not to notice the fact that all three of those dishes have a hearty helping of cheese ... Oopsy.

That was pretty much our Saturday ... It's a life of excitement for sure.

Saturday night Sawyer decided to wake up about 512 times, Aaron even put him on the couch and turned on the movie Secretariat ... he stayed awake through the entire thing. What?? He continued to wake up several more times ... not okay. He totally botched our plans to try out a new church this am, thanks Saw-Dog.
 However, after naps we went on a VERY fun outing! Our sweet Pennsylvania friends, the Wanck's, invited us to Dawn's parent's, the Thrush's, house in Milan, PA. The Thrush's have a small dairy farm and lots of acreage and beautiful property. The kids got to play hard with the Wanck's boys, Parker and Graham who Dalton and Sawyer are a wee bit obsessed with. Dalton had been counting down how many more "night-nights" for several days, and I think it lived up to his expectations: four-wheeler riding, hay-bale jumping, creek splashing, cow feeding, bonfire burning and more ... it was SO fun.

I made them take some family snapshots before they got too filthy ... good call.

Clara, the calf, was just six weeks old.

Moooooooo.

Avery was a little less interested in the creek splashing and fire building ...

The Thrush's were LOVELY and I so enjoyed their hospitality. Mrs. Donna made a Panera copy-cat Broccoli and Cheese Soup and homeade breadsticks (yum!!); Dawn brought a batch of Chicken and Corn Chowder yumminess; and I brought the Pioneer Woman's Olive Cheese Bread and a "Better than Anything" cake. I think everyone left with full bellies.

 Donna and Curt were wonderful to host such a crazy group of kiddos, let us play all in their home (not get mad or even flustered when we found Sawyer painting his nails bright red on their carpeted stairs ... even though I almost died right there) and feed us too. It was such a nice day, and honestly such a sweet blessing and reminder that God is going to meet us just where we need Him, when we need Him. That He cares about little HUGE things like putting sweet, Christ following people in our path to welcome us in and make us feel right at home. Thank you, LORD!

 I really think it may have been my favorite Pennsylvania day to date. Loved our weekend.



Hope you have a GREAT week!

Mmm Mmm Monday: Soups and Such.

This weekend was kind of a downer.
I wasn't feeling great towards the end of the week and just could barely keep my eyes open. I kept drinking coffee and popping B12 vitamins like skittles, TRYING to get some energy. But, nothing was working. Finally I progressed to getting achy and feeling terrible; by Friday afternoon Aaron practically forced me out the door into the doctor's office where I found out I had a few "issues." Primarily Strep Throat ... Which I've never had before and for some reason thought I was immune. I also was blessed with a teensy bit of bronchitis, a sinus infection and and the beginnings of an ear infection. No wonder I felt awful!
I pretty much laid in bed for the next 36 hours waiting on my meds to kick in. This pic kinda sums up my weekend attitude:

 During that exciting time I sampled the best of what Wal-Mart had to offer from the soup aisle ... It was less than stellar. There was a ray of sunshine when my friend Emily brought a cup of soup from a local bistro.... I'm still not sure what kind of soup it was, but it was fab. Thanks Em!

Anyway, by Sunday I still wasn't feeling 100%, but I was definitely ready to step it up a notch in the dining department.
I spent a great deal of Saturday dreaming up what kind of soup I really wanted ... I have lots of faves when it comes to soup, you know.
Did I want ole' trusty: Paula Deen's "The Lady's Chicken Noodle Soup" that is hands down the best evah ... Especially when coupled with some of my mamas cheddar jalapeño cornbread muffins ... Maybe more of the Pioneer Woman's Beef Stew, or my latest Pinterest obsession Smoky Corn Chowder with Shrimp?
No, I think I wanted something a little big smoother, a little easier to throw together, and something just perfect for a sore throat ... The Pioneer Woman's Sherried Tomato Soup sounded like just what the doctor ordered. I think it was one of the first recipes I ever made of hers and I've been hooked ever since.
The great thing about this soup is I tend to usually have almost everything on hand.

Here's what you need:

6 Tablespoons Melted Butter
1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
1 bottle (46 Oz.) Tomato Juice
2 cans (14 Oz. Cans) Diced Tomatoes
1 Tablespoon (up To 3 Tablespoons) Chicken Base
3 Tablespoons (up To 6 Tablespoons) Sugar
1 pinch Salt
Black Pepper To Taste
1 cup Cooking Sherry
1-1/2 cup Heavy Cream
Chopped Fresh Parsley
Chopped Fresh Basil

And it's super easy to make ...

Here's what you do:
Sauté diced onions in butter until translucent. Then add canned tomatoes, tomato juice, chicken base, sugar, pinch of salt, black pepper and stir. Bring to a near boil, then turn off heat. Add in sherry and cream and stir. Add in parsley and basil to taste.

I mean, it doesn't get any easier than this! And it is so yummy! The sherry and the herbs give it the yummiest flavor! It also helps if you have lots of cute helpers for stirring.

Here's the problem with soups, though: They're not very man-pleasin'! Even some of my heartiest stews just don't really excite my manly man. So, I made him a little sumpin' special, one of his very favorite sandwiches: Bacon, Avocado, Tomato, and Egg. Mmm Mmm (Okay, okay it's one of my faves too).

Here's what you need:

2 pieces of thickly sliced bread (I prefer sourdough on this sandwich)
Bacon (1/2 pound will usually suffice for 3 sandwiches)
Mayonnaise
Avocado (thinly sliced)
Tomato (thinly sliced)
Egg (one per sandwich)

And here's what you do:

Fry up your bacon and let drain on a paper towel.

I mean, that's a beautiful sight.

Then lather (yes, lather) your bread with mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip! Bleck!).

Let it toast for 6-7 minutes at around 350 degrees in the oven. When your bread is almost done, fry up an egg where the yolk is still soft.

Then just pile everything on your toasted bread ... Avocado slices, tomato, bacon, and finally the hot, fried egg. This is meant to be eaten immediately!

It's pretty darn good ... Like, really good.

And then Aaron's perfectly happy with soup for dinner, great compromise. We've got this marriage thing all figured out ... Kinda. ;)


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Mmm Mmm Monday ... Let's Do Brunch

One of my very favorite things about our NYC trip was leisurely coffee dates with my mom and sisters every morning.



I'm not really a big breakfast person, I typically just drink coffee, and occasionally I'll have a bagel. But, most of the time I don't mess with it, I'm just not really hungry first thing in the morning. Nevertheless, I do loveee brunchy foods and pin different breakfast yumminess on Pinterest all the time.
I decided to try out a couple this weekend on the fam.
First up was the Pioneer Woman's Baked French Toast (Did your mouth squirt just reading that? Mine did.).
The last day we were in NYC we ate at a New York hot spot, Junior's Cheesecake, that had the yummiest French toast! I rarely make it because it's such a mess, but it is one of my absolute faves. This baked kind was PERFECT and I'm sure it will become a holiday tradition since you can get it all ready the night before and then pop it in the oven the next morning! Love.
This recipe was easy, but a teensy bit time consuming ... But, I promise it's worth the effort. Just cut up a loaf of sourdough bread and arrange evenly in a greased 9x13 Pyrex dish.
Then put together a mixture of 8 whole eggs, 2 cups of whole milk, half a cup of heavy cream, half a cup of sugar and half a cup of brown sugar and two tablespoons of pure vanilla extract and pour over the bread cubes evenly. Then you can pop it in the fridge overnight.



For the topping combine half a cup of flour, half a cup of brown sugar, a tsp of cinnamon, a quarter tsp of salt, and a dash of grated nutmeg. You can just mix this with a fork or whisk or whatever tickles your pickle.
Next, cube up a stick of cold butter. By the time I get done cutting it in little cubes its getting kinda soft so I pop them in the freezer for a few minutes. Then I pulled them out and put the topping and the butter in a food processor to blend into a "pebbly consistency." If you have a pastry cutter that would probably work much better, but I didn't, so the food processor worked fine.








After you get it all combined then dump it in a ziploc and put the mix in the fridge.
The next morning you can crumble the topping over the bread mix and then bake at 350 for 45 minutes. It is a DELICIOUS treat!
Next up I whipped up some yummy Cream Cheese Sausage balls. These were easier than I expected, I'll probably start making these more often. You need 1 lb breakfast sausage, (uncooked), 8 oz softened cream cheese, 1 1/4 cups Bisquick
and 4 oz cheddar cheese, shredded.
Mix all ingredients until well combined (The recipe recommended using your KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook attachment). Roll into 1-inch balls. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until brown at 400.




I tried to use my oven for both dishes and just bake the sausage balls at the lower temp for longer ... This worker okayyy. But the bottoms were burnt, so I wouldn't recommend this. Here is what they should look like.




Mine looked similar ... Lets just leave it at that.
To go with the not-so-healthy French Toast and Sausage Balls, I made a fruit salad that I've done a couple times now that was suggested by one of my friends, Mandy. It's a Honey Lime Fruit Salad and it's just delish.




I forgot to pick up a couple kiwis which not only looks pretty in the dish, but adds a different flavor, too. So I won't skip it again.
It's so simple to make and adds a teensy bit of "good for you" to the table.
Here's what you need:
1 (20 oz.) can pineapple chunks, drained well
1 can mandarin oranges, drained well
2-3 ripe kiwi, peeled and sliced into thick half moons
1 cup green grapes, halved
1 cup strawberries, quartered
Zest from one lime, about 1 tbs
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon poppy seeds (optional)
Here's what you do:
Combine the fruit in a medium-large serving bowl. Add the lime zest and poppy seeds, if using, and gently toss. Drizzle the honey over the fruit and again, gently mix until the fruit is evenly coated with the honey. Serve. Enjoy. Tell your friends.




I may have to start making a big spread every weekend; it seriously made the whole morning lovely and my house smelled divine.
Hope y'all have a Mmm Mmm good Monday!
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