This is one of my FAVORITE recipes! It's very easy and every time I think about it, I start craving it! Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS:
1 Prepared Pizza Crust (My fav is Mama Mary's thin crust.) 6 tablespoons of Alfredo Sauce (I don't measure - enough to cover the pizza crust. And use your favorite alfredo sauce) 8 ounces of Mozzarella (I usually get a bag of the already shredded stuff and use almost all of that... it's more than 8 ounces I think - the more cheese the better!) 1 cup or so of cooked and diced Chicken Breast(this is typically one large chicken breast for me) Buffalo Wing Sauce(I like Texas Pete's Buffalo Wing Sauce - I usually pour some in the skillet once the chicken is done and saute it. I may or may not add a little more on the pizza.) Other Toppings - Here's where you can get creative. I like sauteed onions and cilantro and Mark just likes the chicken and cheese. The original recipe also suggests black olives and canned mushrooms.
DIRECTIONS: 1. Spread a layer of the alfredo sauce on the pizza crust 2. Sprinkle half of the cheese and then add the chicken and additional wing sauce (if you want) as well as other toppings. 3. Cover with the rest of the cheese 4. Bake in a preheated oven at 425 for 15 minutes or when crust is golden brown.
This past Saturday we took Clay to an adorable kid's salon for his first haircut! I can't believe he's almost 2 and this is the first time he's needed to have a haircut! By the time I was 2, my hair was already half-way down my back! I was EXTREMELY worried at how he would act... he's very shy around new people and throws a fit if someone other than Mama is near him. I was expecting screaming, crying and lots of wiggling around. Boy, was I wrong! My little man was the best he possibly could have been!
His favorite thing was the little airplane he got to sit in...
The lady asked if he'd be ok if she put the cape on him and I told her to go for it. I was expecting a little resistance, but he willingly let her put it on.
Then she got out the scissors and spray bottle. I was a little nervous about how he'd be with a sharp object up close to him... and he was a champ! Although, it didn't hurt that he had his own private TV with Veggie Tales playing.
Thank goodness for the TV!
She pulled out the clippers and asked if I thought he'd be ok with that... I was REALLY nervous about that! This is the kid that had an extreme panic attack when I turned the blender on one day. I'm talking shaking, crying, screaming... there's no way the clippers are going to go over well. But, we tried it... and he was great!
Dada did have to hold his head slightly so she could get to where she needed.
When it was all done, he looked HANDSOME! He didn't have a whole lot of hair to cut... just some around his ears and trimming up the back. It is amazing what a little trim can do!
Once he was done he got to play a little on the airplane and got his first lollipop! We will definitely come back to this place to get his next haircut! I was so proud of my little man!
Since my baby is about to turn 2 I've been feeling slightly nostalgic and have been looking back at previous blogs to see how much he's grown. Being able to look back a year ago (or even 2 years) has made me really glad that I do a blog. I was able to see that this time last year we discovered that Clay LOVED the rice at the local Mexican restaurant... and still does to this day. I also was able to see that this time last year I had discovered Diet Vanilla Dr. Pepper... and it really depressed me that it has now been over a year that I have been going to Sonic almost everyday to get one. I'm not even going to try to add up the money I could have saved it I didn't get my Sonic every morning... but it's what starts my day off right so you can't put a price on that!
So here is my sweet baby one year ago... right before he was about to turn the big ONE!
Eating the yummy Mexican rice... Showing off his new Paul Frank Shirt (he still loves that monkey!). And look at how bald he was at almost a year old!
And here's a flashback to 2 years ago... when I was about to POP! Wow! It scares me to think that my belly was that big! That is the reason I will NEVER be able to wear a bikini again!
And here's that sweet boy now! Can't believe how much he's changed!
Yeah... it's me. I know it's been a while and I have no excuse other than my time has been consumed with work, taking care of Clay, and my obsession with his birthday party.
This week I did a dry-run of the Elmo cupcakes... and boy am I glad I did a dry run. I had a brilliant idea to make them on Sunday and then take them to work with me so that I didn't have 2 dozen cupcakes sitting around the house begging me to eat them. So, I made the cupcakes (from a box - I'm not that crafty) and then decided to try my hand at making red icing. I bought some pre-made icing (again, not that crafty) and some red food coloring and proceeded to add the food coloring to the icing a couple drops at a time. The icing was turning a really pretty shade of pink, so I started adding more and more food coloring until I ended up dumping the whole bottle in the icing. It was now a beautiful shade of pepto bismol pink, but I had read that as the icing dries, it will get darker. Then I decided to give it a taste... it WAS NASTY!!!! I felt like I had given myself food coloring poisoning! On top of the nasty taste, my mouth (teeth, lips, tongue, everything) was a nice shade of dark red. I could only imagine what Clay and his little friends would look like after they dove into these cupcakes. I had to find an alternative...
AND... I did! I thought about using red sprinkles so I went in search of those and (of course) couldn't find them anywhere in my small town. I did find red sugar crystals and thought that might be an ok alternative. In my search I did find the tubes of red decorators icing and decided to give that a try. Surely if they sell it, it shouldn't taste anywhere near as bad as the icing I just tried to make... and it actually tasted decent!
So, I'm thinking I've got the Elmo cupcakes under control... I decide to make them yummier by putting a layer of cream cheese icing and then piping the red icing using the grass icing tip so that it looks like fur. I added the eyes, nose and mouth.. and Wah La! I've got my adorable Elmo Cupcakes!
I was all ready to take with me when I went into the office on Tuesday morning, when the next level of carnage began. I was making Clay's lunch and I looked over at the container that held the Elmo cupcakes and noticed pools of red around the bottom of the dish. This wasn't going to be good! I removed the lid and there it was... poor Elmo had met his demise! The cream cheese frosting was obviously not a good idea and had basically melted and mixed with the red icing and it was sliding off the tops of the cupcakes. Elmo eyes were out of place... noses were not where they were supposed to be... it was a mess! Thank GOODNESS this was not the day of the birthday party! (Sorry, I do not have an "after" picture. I was a little traumatized.)
Needless to say, I did a little research and now know that buttercream frosting is a much better choice to put on a cupcake due to it's stiffer consistency... looks like I will be trying my hand at buttercream frosting in a few weeks.
Other than my cupcake debacle, I've been coping with the fact that my baby has less than 2 weeks until he turns 2. I've been holding it together pretty good... but I'm afraid I may lose it when I have to take him to get his FIRST haircut this Saturday! People have been telling me all kinds of stories about how their little boys went to their first haircut looking like a baby and then coming out looking all grown up. Better not happen to mine!!! He doesn't really have a whole lot of hair to cut... just a little on the back and then around his ears. I found a cute place in town that specializes in child haircuts so I'm hoping they are ready for my child! I learned a trick from our neighbors when they had their little boy's first haircut. They said that they put stickers all over their son and then he spent the whole time trying to pick them off... great idea! I'm going to be armed with Elmo stickers this weekend! I will be sure to take lots of pictures so that I actually have some to post to my blog!
My good friend, Leigh, always makes the most wonderful things to eat! I could fill up a couple months of Tasty Tuesdays with all her fabulous recipes! When we went to visit her and her husband in Cincinnati during the Roadtrip of Randomness, she was making this stew for him to eat on during the week. I could not believe how easy it was to make! She let us sample it and it was DELICIOUS! I've made it since our trip and it was just as good! Enjoy!
REALLY Easy Brunswick Stew
INGREDIENTS: 1 Can of Corn (drained) 1 Can of Creamed Corn 1 Can of Whole Potatoes (drained and then cut up) 1 Can of Crushed Tomatoes (normal sized can - or half a large can) 1 Can of Chunk Chicken (separate a bit with a fork) Tub of BBQ Pork or Chicken (I LOVE Curly's tub of BBQ Pulled Chicken - you can get it in the meat section where the other "cooked" meats are) Worchestershire Sauce (no measurement on this one - just add what you like) Pepper (LOTS of Pepper)
STEPS: Dump everything into a crock pot and turn it on low. Heat it up until it's cooked through. The longer the better! You can also heat this up in a big pot on the stove. If it seems a bit thick, you can add more tomatoes.
On the 8th of this month my baby turned 23 months… 1 month shy of being a 2 year old! That makes me one sad mama! I can’t believe in less than a month I will have a 2 year old!
This last month I feel like he’s grown up so much! I look at pictures and there is not one ounce of “baby” left… he’s a big boy now!
So Clay, what have you been up to this month?
I guess the biggest thing is your language skills. You are now putting words together into short sentences. You say things like “Mama open yogurt”, “Dada at work”, “I go school” and many other things. You’ve learned to say “please” and “thank you” and know how to use it to get whatever you want. At bedtime when you want another story you flash those big, brown eyes and say in your sweetest little voice “Peaze”… Yeah, I can’t turn that down! You must stop that or you will get anything you want!
You all of a sudden have become EXTREMELY obsessed with Elmo… that’s ALL I hear about now. Good thing since I’m really obsessed with your Elmo birthday party I’m planning. You don’t even want to watch “Money” (Curious George) at all! I even have a hard time getting you to watch Sesame Street without you wanting me to fast forward to Elmo.
You are learning your ABC’s and are doing really good at it. You can also count to 10 pretty well now, but you sometimes skip “7”. You are starting to actually recognize the numbers when you see them in a book or on TV.
You are still a PICKY eater. The only meat you will eat is bacon. You will still eat cheese, nutra-grain bars and most fruit. You also like yogurt and applesauce. But you NEVER turn down any kind of snack food… chips, crackers, cookies, ice cream… you love them all!
You still wear mostly 18 – 24 months in shorts and 24 months or 2T in shirts. Your current shoe size is a 7 wide, but you have already grown out of those! We’ve got to go this weekend to get you some new shoes! Your feet need to stop growing! You’ve got your 2 year appointment next month and I can’t wait to see how much you weigh and how tall you are!
Some of my favorite things you do:
Sing when you are taking a bath. I have no clue what you are singing, but it’s the cutest thing in the world!
Laugh like different Sesame Street characters. You can laugh like Ernie, Bert, the Count and Elmo.
Give me big, huge hugs when you wake up in the morning.
Throw me under the bus when Dada asks you who the “tickle monster” should get. You always say “MAMA”! You get so excited when the tickle monster (aka Dada) comes around!
Tell everyone “Night, night” when I’m rocking you before bed. “Night, night Elmo”, “Night, night Mama”, “Night, night Dada”…
I am so excited about your birthday party and can't wait to see your reaction to all the Elmo Madness! Only 31 days of party planning left!!!
Tasty Tuesday is back by popular demand! Ok, so maybe someone who happens to read my blog mentioned that they missed Tasty Tuesdays... so I must listen to my fan! I've also been making a lot of great things and want to share!
What better recipe to start back Tasty Tuesday than a Paula Deen recipe... and what better recipe to start off with than one that includes 4 sticks of butter! Oh, yeah... you read that right... 4 STICKS of butter! A friend of ours made this for us a while back and I LOVED it! It tastes like you slaved over it for hours, but it's really easy! Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS: 2 cups (4 STICKS!!!) of melted butter 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice 2 Tbsp ground pepper 2 Tbsp hot sauce (suggested: Texas Pete's) 4 cloves of garlic (minced) 2 tsp salt 5 pounds of unpeeled medium shrimp (I used 3 lbs of frozen, but thawed, large shrimp) 2 lemons thinly sliced French Bread, for dipping
DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Stir together the butter, Worcestershire, lemon juice, pepper, hot sauce, garlic and salt. Pour half into a large baking dish. Layer half the shrimp and then half the lemon slices. Then form a second layer with the rest of the shrimp and lemon slices and pour the rest of the sauce over the top. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes or until shrimp are pink. Stir a couple of times during baking.
The best part of this dish is the sauce so make sure you have PLENTY of bread to dip in it. I like mine a little spicier, so I add a lot more than just 2 tablespoons of hot sauce. If the rest of your crowd doesn't like it too spicy, you can add it to your sauce individually.
I went online to look the recipe up again to see if it included the nutritional information and came across this comment that made me laugh...
"so easy, healthy, and fast! thank you!"
Hmmmm... I'm not sure I'd categorize a recipe that has 4 sticks of butter in it as "healthy"... but it sure is good! Unfortunately, it didn't include the nutritional information. That is probably a good thing because I really don't need to know!
This week Clay moved up to the next class at his daycare. They had tried to move him up to this class this time last year, but he was just too young. So, he stayed back in the infant class which turned out to be really good for him. The kids in the infant class were actually closer to his age than the ones in the class above him and because of his September birthday, we would have had to hold him back in one of classes. Now the holding back is done with and he's good to go for the rest of his school career!
The first day... well, it didn't go so well. He walked to the new class like a big boy, but then fell out on the floor in front of the door and refused to go in. Once we got him in, he refused to let go of my leg, but we finally pryed him off long enough for us to run out the door. I stood by the door to see what he'd do and he flung himself against it while crying "Mama", "Dada". BROKE. MY. HEART! When we came to pick him up that afternoon, he got a great report! They said he was upset for just a few minutes and then went right to playing. He sat at the table like a big boy and ate most of his lunch and he even took an hour and a half nap on his nap mat.
This about sums up how he felt that first day! For the rest of the week he got better and better... He now loves it so much that when we went to pick him up Friday afternoon, he threw a major fit because he didn't want to leave! He's got 2 great teachers that he loves and he even brought home a cute little art project! I already feel like he's gotten so old just being in his new class for 1 week!
(Look at that sad, pitiful look on his face!) And speaking of getting so old, today he is 1 month shy of his second birthday. THAT MAKES ME VERY SAD!!!! His 23 month post will be coming up later... once I can bring myself to actually type it!
Today is also the day that 12 years ago I married my best friend! I can't believe it's been 12 years! We didn't make any special annivesary plans since we've been going non-stop, but we've had a great weekend with some friends of ours that came over from ATL. Tonight we are just going to lay low, relax and eat the left over artery clogging (4 sticks of butter - I'm not lying) Paula Dean shrimp recipe that I made last night. I will have to bring back me Tasty Tuesday blog post in honor of this recipe... it was YUMMY!
5 Days, 4 States, 2 Baseball Games... and the Holi-Dooley! Yeah, it was RANDOM!
Mark and I needed a vacation! We looked at going to Florida, Washington D.C, California... but we decided on the oh-so-popular summer destination of Cincinnati, OH! I'm sure you are wondering why in the world we decided on Cincinnati as our summer vacation destination of choice... We've got a friend that moved up there not too long ago for a job. He will only be up there until next year and we decided that if we were ever going to see Cincinnati, we needed to do it when a friend lived there! It also helped that he had tickets to the Cincinnati Reds vs. Braves baseball games. Mark loves to go watch baseball games at different fields.
The trip began last Thursday night and consisted of stops in Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, Fort Knox, and (finally) Cincinnati! Because this is the most random of roadtrips, I will let the pictures help with my story.
First Stop... Bowling Green, KY!
We decided to stop here for the night to break the trip up. We stayed at Mark's hotel of choice... or actually the hotel we got to stay at for free because of Mark's double black platinum elite status. The La Quinta Inn! (It was actually really nice!)
The next day we were off to Elizabethtown, KY to visit a friend Mark met through his Fort Knox job. BUT we couldn't leave Bowling Green without making a stop by the Corvette Museum!
I think the Impala with the 20 inch blades adds a nice touch.
(We didn't actually stop there... we just drove by for a photo op)
On to Elizabethtown, KY! While doing his big job in Fort Knox, Mark made friends with the sod guy so we stopped by his farm to say hi and pick up some cow (we haven't had to buy beef in months!). His farm is just how I pictured a farm in Kentucky to be... rolling hills and all!
Next stop... Fort Knox!
Mark wanted to check on the job and take some pictures so we swung through the base to take a look. I got to see the big Gold Depository but was told that I was NOT ALLOWED to take a picture of it or I'd be arrested (that's what Mark said). So, the big tank at the entrance will have to do.
Finally, we headed to Cincinnati!!!
Our friend lives in a really neat part of town. You can walk everywhere, including the baseball stadium. After we got there we headed out to the stadium to see the first of 3 games between the Reds and the Braves.
Not that you can tell, but I'm pretty sure that's Chipper Jones on 2nd base... and the Braves won!!
Mark got his picture with some Reds...
Leigh and I spent most of the game chatting it up (I'm not a big baseball fan).
And we got to see some really cool fireworks (it was probably the BEST fireworks show I've every seen!).
The next day we walked around Cincinnati and then went to the 2nd baseball game. This time we watched the game in the comfort of the restaurant that is for season ticket holders. That's my kind of baseball!
After the baseball game we headed home to find an unusual party going on at our friend's complex. (This is where the story gets REALLY weird!)
We had noticed a sign on the door of the complex saying that the pool area was going to be used for a party that night... something called "Holi-Dooley". It said that anyone was invited so we decided to crash it! Let's just say... it was the most unusual party I've EVER crashed! The party was celebrating every holiday of the year... New Year's, 4th of July, Cinco de Mayo, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas... ALL of them! Everyone was dressed up for one of the holidays. There were pilgrims and indians, Uncle Sam, a parrot, and a bunch of people running around with sombreros and mustaches (I'm assuming for Cinco De Mayo). They had green beer for St. Paddy's Day, an easter egg hunt for Easter... it was definitely interesting! Let's just get to the pictures for this one...
Since we didn't have a costume, Dooley (the one hosting the party) furnished some nice sombreros that we turned into cowboy hats. During the Easter Egg Hunt, someone thought they broke their leg, so the ambulance was called. Then Mark decided it would be a brilliant idea to drive the ambulance around the neighborhood while they were working on the injured...(He really didn't drive it around, but it made for a great photo op).
There were Halloween decorations...
Christmas portrait opportunities...
But the most random even of the Holi-Dooley was the stick horse race (and I'm not making this stuff up, folks - it really happened).
At the end of the evening, we were starving so we headed to Pompilios. This restaurant is famous because a few of the scenes from Rain Man were filmed there! This phone is supposedly the pay phone that Tom Cruise talked on in the movie!
The next day we hung out, had breakfast/lunch, had dinner and then headed back to Bowling Green. Bowling Green is the half-way point, so we thought it would make it easier to split the trip up. Monday morning we woke up and made the final leg of our journey home, but not before stopping at my favorite morning spot... Sonic! We had a great time, but it was good to get back to my baby!!! I'm ready to plan another Random Roadtrip!!
I'm a wife, a mommy, and a full-time work-from-home medical software consultant. I love Dr. Pepper, chips and salsa and Lifetime Movies. This blog is devoted to my sweet Clay and all the fun, new and interesting things he does!
