Adventures in Alabama, Part 2

On Sunday morning, we all got up and got ready to to go to church (by way of Starbucks, of course :)). After the morning service, we made a quick stop at WalMart for some groceries and then met Joe at the house for a birthday cookout!

Let me just say: this man can grill. Also, I miss charcoal grills. Gas grills just aren't the same.

   

 Joe got the grill going while I made an egg and dairy free cake. Maggie has made this cake many times and it's always been moist and perfect. The recipe is simple: favorite cake mix, can of soda (we usually use Dr. Pepper), mix together, bake according to instructions. Amazing.

Of course, I being me, I managed to goof it.

 

In the end, I just heated the frosting in the microwave and poured it over in a resigned effort to make something edible, lol. It was still good, even in crumpled form. 

I may have been slightly distracted by these amazing chips, which I have discovered are just not to be had here in the North. Believe me, I've checked. If anyone I know goes down South and doesn't bring me back a bag, I will never speak to them again. :)

Of course, my favorite part was getting to chill with this little guy while we waited for everything to be done.

  

I was amazed at how chill Khy was about us being there. No shyness or anything. :) I can't wait until he gets old enough to remember me from visit to visit. 

  Something else Joe introduced me to, for which I might never forgive him :): Conecuh Sausages. I cannot tell you how many times since I got back that I've sat down and yearned for a Conecuh sausage, also not available in my part of the USA (I checked). Next time I go down South, I'm sooo bringing back a suitcasefull with me.

We gals were going out for a Girl's Night Out that evening, so we had resolved not to eat much at lunch, a resolution which quickly went out the window. :) A few hours after lunch, we all got dolled up to go meet Tanya for dinner at Bridge Street.

Robin and I were both wearing long maxi-dresses, and her sister Rachel found Maggie a maxi-dress in her own closet, so we all got to match! :)

We asked Rae to take a few pictures.  

   

Of course, she had to "test" my camera. :)

On our way!

Bridge Street is one of my favorite places in Alabama. It's amazing, bright, clean, and is perfect for strolling. Also, it's where the Monaco is located, and I happen to adore that theater. :)

  

 We met Tanya at Cantina Laredo. Since we were still getting over lunch, Maggie and I decided to split some appetizers - an Ensalada de Cameron con Miel, and some amazing ceviche.

So good! Scallops, shrimp, fish, capers, olives, etc. Definitely something I'll be getting again.

After dinner, we walked around Bridge Street, showing Maggie all the sights.

  

  

We tried to get Maggie to do some artsy poses. :)  

  I love the water! So peaceful.

  

The sunset was just gorgeous.

  

 Even though it wasn't running, the carousel next door was beautiful.

I had to take a picture of this tiger for Abigail. :)

We also walked up by the Monaco and showed Maggie the fountain.

We also took advantage of the streetlights and had a crazy silly photo session.

Then we went off on a walk around the lake.

 

The lights of Bridge Street across the water - love it!

After Tanya had to go home, Robin and I wanted to show Maggie Big Spring Park, (more info here) so we called Joe to meet us there.

 Under the bridge alongside the canals.

 Beautiful couple!

After walking the park, we sat in the back of Joe's pickup and visited for awhile before finally heading home. :)

Domestic Goddess

I remember back when I was stuck in "retail hell" how jealous I'd get when I'd read Tiffany's "Domestic Tuesday" posts. I was working 40+ stinky, sweaty hours a week at all hours (sometimes going in at 2 AM, sometimes working late till after 11, sometimes working overnight), I was strung out on lack of sleep, I desperately wanted out, and when I did have a day off I wanted to crash. I didn't have any brainpower left for anything creative.

It didn't take long after I was rescued (aka hired as nanny by my amazing aunt and uncle) to regain my creative abilities, though, and now, more than two years later, I'm grateful to have both the time and resources to pursue some skills I enjoy. Like gardening. And raising a (albeit small) flock of laying hens (or "haens" as Abby calls them).

And, okay, so domestic goddess might be a stretch. :)

First, the garden: The weekend before I left for Alabama, I planted my very small aka "cute" (Abby again) garden. Right tomato plants - four heirloom for seed-saving (another skill I want to learn) and four hybrids in case my luck with heirlooms turns sour. I want to learn to make and preserve my own pasta and tomato sauce this year, so my crop will go towards that. I also have four bell pepper plants - the picture showed green, red, and yellow, so I'm not sure if one plant can produce all three colors, or what. And I have four cucumber plants, because I also want to learn to make and can pickles. Super excited about that.

As of right now all my plants have nearbly doubled in size, though I'm not seeing any fruit, or even fruity beginnings, at all. Hopefully soon! And cuz I planted them under a thin layer of newspaper, my garden is also (with a few very small exceptions) weed proof. I'm totally in to low-maintenance, in case you didn't notice. :)

My chickens are thisclose to having permanent living quarters. Right now they're sleeping/roosting under half of a dog crate, but while I was in Alabama I saw my BFF's mom's beautiful new rabbit hutches, and realized that with a little modification, they were exactly what I wanted for a chicken coop. I bought the plans at Barnes and Nobles down there (because the South is awesome, that way), studied them like I used to study for tests in college (and I was a Dean's List student), and this past weekend I drove to Lowes, purchased the lumber, nails, and some French-inspired hinges (and a matching door pull), came home, cut the lumber myself, and framed it up. I am amazingly proud of myself. Of course, now I need to get the plywood cut to wall it in, so I have to learn how to use a different kind of saw, but I'm hopeful that by next week - cross fingers - my chickens will be permanently installed in new digs. I even have the paint color picked out - ivy green and cream - and a cute idea for decoration. Stay tuned. :)

I made dinner tonight - beer bbq chicken in the crockpot. New recipe that I absolutely loved and that my family at least enjoyed. I googled a ton of recipes and ended up combining several, and this is what I ended up making:

8 chicken breasts (I'm guessing about four pounds?)
1 12-oz can of beer (I used whatever my mom keeps in the basement for brisket, I think it was Coors?)
1 jar of BBQ sauce (in this case, Trader Joe's Memphis BBQ, I think 16 ounces or thereabouts)
A good sprinkling of both paprika and garlic powder
1/2 of a good size onion, chopped fine
Salt and pepper to taste

I added everything to the crockpot and turned it on low for seven hours. Our crockpot runs very warm, and most of the recipes I read called for eight hours on low, so be advised. All the recipes I read said the sauce turns out very thick, but mine never did thicken, so we ended up adding cornstarch to thicken it a bit. You can shred the chicken breast and add it back to the sauce, but we just served the breasts whole, and they were amazingly moist and yummy.

I served it with rice and Paula Deen's Broccoli Cole Slaw, except I modified that recipe, too. :) I omitted the seasoning packed because it contains milk, reduced the oil and sugar, and upped the sesame seeds and almonds.

I have more creative projects up my sleeve - an oversized clutch tutorial (coming soon!), and a high-low skirt among them!

Do you know what this means?

Another hint? Okay...

You're getting closer...

That's right! It's SUMMER! :)

Okay. It isn't actually summer. Apparently summer doesn't start until June 20th. ??? Yeah, right. Memorial Day was yesterday, Abby is out of school, the pools are opened - as far as I'm concerned, my amazing, awesome summer starts RIGHT NOW.

Luckily, I have newly pedicured feet. Bring on sandal weather!

Today was our first pool day.

New Ariel swimsuit? Check! :)

We were originally going to go up to Calvert County to go to an indoor pool, but I'm so glad we ended up going to a friend of Bean's instead. The weather was gorgeous! And the pool/deck was luscious. I think I could have stayed there all day. :)

The girls are so independent in the water now. It's nice, but it also just underscores for me how darn fast they're growing up!

I'm sure that by the time this summer is over, between our own frequent swims and two weeks of swimming lessons, Abigail will be swimming on her own. She's thisclose already.

It was amazingly relaxing to watch the girls splash around as Bean and I sat on the steps, enjoying the water.

Gorgeous mama and little man!

I'm impressed that these pictures came out at all, cuz I was totally shooting blind - it was so bright!

Moving on...

I'm excited for this summer. Going to Alabama was good for me - I feel inspired again, refreshed, renewed. I want to try new things, explore new places, be open to new experiences. Be impulsive. Need less sleep. Roll with the punches. Let things go, because really, I'm stronger that that. Remind people how much I love them. Just do it. Pare down; need less.

It's gonna be an amazing summer.

Adventures In Alabama, Part 1

I wrote this from the beautiful Alabama. Which, I'm convinced, has something in the air that makes life seem a little more amazing, the ordinary a little more adventurous. This might have something to do with the fact that it's the home of my amazing best friend... but I'm gonna stick with "magical air" for now. :)

It began Friday with the packing. I'm not a good packer... I tend to arrive in places with a suitcase full of amazing outfits, sans underwear. Or with absolutely everything... but a toothbrush. And this time there were two of us, since Mags was coming with me (more on this in a bit!) so it was crucial that all our stuff fit in one checked suitcase.

I was pretty impressed with us! We had to sit on the suitcase to get it to zip, but then we realized that after we'd given away all the birthday and hostess gifts we were schlepping, it would relieve some of the pressure. :)

We got up way to early for a Saturday to catch our 9:45 AM flight. 2 hours to the airport plus our 2 hour wait time equaled way, way too early. But once we did get there, we had a beautiful face waiting for us! :)

Abby and her parents were on their way to Disneyland, and we actually got to share gates as we waited for their flight (and later ours). Abby was super excited about going - Chris said the first words out of her mouth this morning were "Daddy, we have to go to Target and buy dolphin food!" (They're going to feed the dolphins in Florida).

I was a little afraid she'd be clingy, as she'd mentioned several times that Maggie and I should come with them, lol, but all it took once their boarding zone was called were the words "Go feed dolphins," and she gave us goodbye hugs and happily skipped away. :)

After we said our goodbyes and their flight took off, it was our turn!

And then, just a little shy of two hours later, we arrived! :)

The first amazing thing that happened was that we got to meet Robin's equally amazing boyfriend, Joe. For starters, aren't they a cute couple?!? :)

Secondly, Joe is as fun as Rob. I think five minutes after we'd met we were all fast friends and feeling like we'd known each other for waaay longer. He has an amazing accent, by the way - though he described it to me as "redneck," I find "southern drawl with a sort of precise enunciation" to be more accurate. :)

First order of business - lunch. :)

I finally got to try Little Rosie's last summer, and I've been dreaming of it ever since. Since part of this trip was to cram as much true Huntsville, Alabama experience possible into Maggie's first ever trip down south, it seemed a fitting first meal. It was amazing. (Pocket tacos rule!)

As soon as lunch was over, we were ready to head up to Tennessee to Rutledge Falls.

Rutledge Falls is a beautiful series of waterfalls, the largest with a round deepish pool at the bottom.

Since the last photo I took had no sense of proportion, leading my dad to believe that the falls were, in fact, six feet tall at most, I am including this pict that Joe took. :)

We ladies at the top of the trail leading to the falls.

Maggie at a little viewing point topside.

 Maggie sitting beside one of the smallest falls.

 More small falls!

There were tons of people there, which was nice in a way because we could watch other people jump off the top of the falls into the pool beneath. I've been to the falls several times now, and I always say I'm going to jump, but I never have the nerve. Maggie was determined to jump, and sure enough, she watched several other people jump, scaled the fall face to the top, and leapt fearlessly. :) She came out exhilarated.

Just as I was contemplating doing the same, there was a big peal of thunder and most of the other swimmers scrambled for shore. We had a quick discussion about whether or not to go, but a moment later, the rain was already dripping. I scrambled to the rock where we'd thrown our stuff to hurriedly wrap a towel around the bag containing our cell phones, cameras, car keys, etc, and glanced up at the sky...

... have you  ever seen raindrops falling? Not out a window, but in the midst of them, face reached toward the sky to see raindrops hurtling like lightning bolts to the earth. I was mesmerized. Maggie scrambled up beside me and I told her,  "Look up!" No explanation was needed - a moment later when Robin joined us, we all stood in wonder at the sheer beauty of it.

By the time we reached the car, we were laughing and running in the rain, drops dripping off our noses, hair, etc - we were all equally drenched, even those of us who hadn't gone swimming. We piled into the car and just had to take a photo. :)

Imagine the "wet dog" smell, and you're there! :)

And then time for the ride home!

Robin's friend Tanya, who we get to hang out with sometimes when I'm in AL, was hosting a Scentsy party that evening, so when we got home we gals scrambled to go from "drowned wet rat" to "fabulous". :)

The scentsy party was fun. Chocolate fondue - in dark AND milk! :) - tons of fresh fruit, pound cake, and rice krispie treats for dipping, and a million and one... okay, eighty :)... scents to sniff.  I was on the lookout for some sandalwood wax cubes, and was kind of disappointed to discover that they only carried "mixed" scents (I'm a purist at heart I guess lol). I did find several things that I liked, though! In the end I picked up some wax cubes in in "Weathered Leather" for a leather-obsessed friend, :) some of this alcohol-free hand sanitzer in Titanium, since Abigail always complains that regular sanitzer "itches" her sensitive skin, and a scent circle in "Route 66" for my truck - which, by the way, is fabulous. :)

After we got home, Robin left to go pick up Khy, and Maggie and I showered... and fell asleep before she even got home. Completely unintentionally, I swear! :)

Craving Mexican

Last week was Cinco de Mayo. I didn't celebrate on the actual date, but hearing so much about it afterwards via Twitter, Facebook, blog posts, etc got me craving Mexican.

When I was little, my dad used to make what we always called "huevos rancheros" - eggs scrambled with hot sauce. It was only recently that I discovered that googling "huevos rancheros recipe" returns about a thousand recipes, none of which resemble in the least my dad's concoction, though some of them look amazing. :) Whether they're "authentic" of not, though, I love the combination of eggs, salsa, and hot sauce, so last week when I had some eggs to use up, I figured I'd document this amazing dish... whatever it should properly be called.

"Not Really Huevos Rancheros"

(Makes 2 servings)

Ingredients:

Salt and pepper, to taste
1 TSP fajita or southwest seasoning
2 small corn tortillas
Nonstick cooking spray (or oil)
4 eggs
2-4 TBS (or more) hot sauce, to taste
1/4-1/2 cup salsa, to taste
1/2 cup black beans
Optional:
2-4 TBS chopped cilantro (to taste)
Shredded cheese, if desired

Cut the corn tortillas into smallish squares.

Spray a medium nonstick skillet with cooking spray (or oil), and cook tortillas with salt and pepper over mediumish heat until very browned and crispy - you don't want the tortillas to get soggy later on when you add them to the eggs!

Set the cooked tortillas aside. While your skillet cools slightly, gently mix eggs and hot sauce in a bowl. Don't overwork your eggs! You want them just blended, not frothy.

When your skillet is the right temperature, pour in your eggs.

Note: In my very humble opinion, there's three keys to amazing scrambled eggs: temperature, movement, and timing. You want the skillet to be hot enough that the eggs start cooking immediately when they hit the pan, but not so hot that they start "frying" on impact. Once you've poured in the eggs, you want to keep them moving by using a rubber spatula to constantly move the eggs from the outside to the middle, forming big "curds". And lastly, you want to remove the eggs when they're still a bit moist - they'll finish cooking on your plate! These are just my opinion, and I'm no expert - but I've been told I make good eggs. :) Now back to the recipe...

When your eggs are just barely set (but still very moist and glossy), turn off the heat and add your tortillas, salsa, and beans. Stir together until well mixed and your eggs are done cooking (if you want to add cilantro and/or cheese, this is also the time to add them!). Enjoy!

One of the ideas I ran across while I was googling "huevos rancheros" was a blog post by the Smitten Kitchen that looked sooo good, I decided to try it later that week for lunch. You can see the original post here, but this is how I altered it:

First, I chopped up some avocado, tomatoes, and a Mini Babybel Light cheese round, and measured out 1/2 cup of black beans. I also grabbed some salsa out of the fridge.

Then I heated a skillet with a little nonstick cooking spray and heated two small corn tortillas, sprinkling both sides with fajita seasoning. When they were very hot, I cracked an egg on top of each one.

I waited for the white to cook a bit, then flipped them over to finish cooking (I ended up with both yolks still runny, which is what I was going for).

Once they were done cooking, I slid them off the skillet and onto a plate, and topped it with my avocado, cheese, black beans, tomato, and salsa.

The verdict? So. Amazing. Totally different from "my" huevos rancheros, but so amazing. I will definitely be eating this again!

I still had about 1/2 cup of beans left over, so the next day I decided to do a Tex-Mex salad.

Mixed greens (heavy on the baby spinach, I LOVE baby spinach!), diced red, orange, green, and yellow sweet peppers, shredded carrots, diced tomato, chopped cucumbers, my beloved black beans, some Southwestern-style Chicken Shortcuts (I got maybe 1/2 cup, but strangely enough Abigail tasted these and ate a whole plateful for lunch, then requested the rest of the bag for lunch the next day!), and the easiest-ever southwestern ranch dressing: 1 tablespoons of low-fat yogurt ranch dressing blended with about 1/4 cup salsa.

That finished up my can of black beans, and, sadly, my amazing Mexican lunches. :)

Sunday Afternoon Roundup

Whew! I've been meaning to sit down and blog all week but something always got in my way. It's been a busy week (but good!).

This week promises to be just as full of good things - Abby and I are going strawberry picking at the farm with her preschool class, and Abby and her mama have a mommy-daughter date at school! Plus, we only have two weeks - count them - two weeks left of school. I'm pretty excited about this - I can't WAIT to have her all to myself! :) We've been working on our phonics a lot lately; she's up to G in knowing the sounds that the letters make.

Speaking of being out of school: the twins finished up school early this year, and I finally got a chance to get a blog up and running for Elizabeth - Forever A Country Girl. I think I'm going to ask them both to post twice a week over the summer - maybe less for Elizabeth if she starts college courses over the summer instead of in the fall. This week is the big week - I take them Thursday (the day after their sixteenth birthday) to the college to get them registered, placement tests taken, etc. Elizabeth is looking at a 2-year massage therapy program, and Allen is looking to knock out several semesters worth of math and engineering classes. I'm just excited to be handing over the bulk of their schooling to someone else. It's been an honor and a privilege (and yes, even a pleasure most of the time!!!) to get to teach them for the last three years, but part of that pleasure is getting to turn them loose to higher things and watching them succeed, as I know they will.

I got a tablet this week!!!

It's an Asus Transformer and I couldn't be more pleased, even though I've resisted Android platforms for awhile, positive I'd be lost. In reality, I find the Androir platform to be amazingly intuitive. I loaded a few apps - Kindle (of course), a crossword puzzle game, Angry Birds (so. addicted.), the KJV Bible (so I can legitimately use my cool toy in church), and, in honor of Star Wars Day, a lightsaber app. :)

Did you know about Star Wars Day? I didn't until the day before, so my celebrations were limited to playing the soundtrack to Episode One on the way to VBS rehearsal, but next year, watch out. I'm already thinking of ways to celebrate, beyond the obvious (and, alright, very appealing) - watching all six movies in an epic Star Wars marathon. :) Some ideas:

• Wear a Leia-inspired hairstyle
• Bake/decorate something Star Wars related (a death star cake? Or probe droid cupcakes, maybe? :))
• Load the soundtracks onto my Fuze and got for a long run
• Buy Star Wars pajamas

Any more? :)

I have become a redneck chicken-mommy. Since my dad is out of commission due to his torn achilles tendon, and I can't get Allen to help me out, I have accepted the fact that a chicken coop - even a very simple one - is going to be awhile. In the meantime, the chickens are TOO BIG to be indoors. It's just that simple, really. I came home from church today to find three chickens happily strolling the mudroom, having escaped from their washbasin-home. They were not happy about being put back inside. The solution? An old dog house inside their chain link dog run. *sigh* Eventually I will have a little coop with a door, but for now... dog houses and dog runs, people.

Finally, a bit of humor: we were sitting around last week, and started fooling around, and the result was this email that we sent to Anna as a practical joke:

"Hey, Anna!

We weren't sure whether or not to tell you this until after you got home, but we were afraid that Mom might mention it on her blog or facebook without thinking and we wanted you to hear it from us. Don't worry, your cat is FINE!
On Sunday, we came home from church and Ranger had lost a LOT of hair - like, big patches along his back and belly. Maggie was afraid he'd gotten into a fight with another cat, but he didn't have any marks on him. On Monday morning when we woke up, the garage looked like Ranger had exploded in a puff of fur - it was everywhere, and Ranger was almost completely naked. We couldn't find him for a long time because I guess he was so embarrassed he wouldn't come out of hiding. We took him to the vet that afternoon (they were so good, we had to wait a long time because they had no appointments but they managed to squeeze us in) and they said it was actually quite common for some cats to develop severe food allergies if the allergens are in large amounts in their regular diet (like humans), but they decided to do a blood test to figure out exactly what was bothering him since it was such a severe reaction. It ended up being gluten, which is actually good because Heather has been doing the gluten-free diet with Xena and so we called her to get some tips.
We checked all the labels on his food and his Temptations and EVERYTHING has gluten so right now all he can eat is food that we prepare for him. Maggie has taken this on as a challenge and has been in the kitchen ever since. He is eating homemade wet food, but he misses the Temptations the most, so Maggie is still working on a good solution. She tried flaking and dehydrating some fresh salmon, but he stuck his nose up at it so she's going to try to mash it up with some tuna and try baking it instead. The house stinks, but he seems to like it - we have to keep him inside because his skin is so sensitive and we're worried about him getting sunburned. The vet also gave us an anti-itching lotion that we have to apply twice a day. He doesn't like it and tries to get away, but it makes his skin slippery so Maggie has to pin him down while I apply it. You owe me, I have lost skin on my arms!!!
Luckily Giant has been having great seafood sales because he won't eat regular chicken or beef at all right now and the vet says it's important to keep him eating so he doesn't get a hairball (??? He doesn't have any hair!) and have it block up his intestines, cuz they're so inflamed from the allergic reaction. He does like lamb kidneys but we have to puree them in the blender until it's very, very smooth (we've just decided that can be his blender from now on, we will get a new one). Maggie's also giving him some herbs to help the hair come back quickly.

I want to take lots of pictures - he looks so funny! - but Maggie won't let me, lol, you're probably going to be on her side. She did let me take these to send you because otherwise you'd never believe us. You were right, he really is skinny under all the hair.

 

 

Mom says not to worry about the cost of the seafood, we know he is more important to you than the flooring.

Maggie says she read on Google that cat hair grows very quickly, and he should be back to normal by the time you get home.

Love you,

Sarah, Maggie, Lizzie, Ruth, Allen, and parents

P.S. we hope you had as much fun reading this as we did making it ALL up!"

The hilarious part is, she actually believed it until she reached the end of the email!!! (I still can't believe it worked, Maggie kept saying we were ruining it because it was just too unbelievable!). We received this reply:

Very, very, very funny (just kidding, not really, I'm gonna kill you guys).

The only thing that kept me from getting angry is knowing how much fun you had writing this. After I got over the initial shock...and shock...and more shock... I did laugh about it. It was a great story.

:)