Good Things in 2011 - February

February 1 - Michael and I both made it safely to work in the nasty weather.  The crazy "Texas weather" never ceases to remind me how powerful God is.  It was in the 70's this past weekend.  Last night, we finished running at 8:15, and it was nice...we didn't even need a jacket or gloves.  Then hours later, we wake up to find our vehicle doors frozen shut, and sleet on all the roads.  Crazy!  Tim and Stephanie walked down tonight to share all their leftovers from the day with us (plus, I think they were going a little stir-crazy).  We had so much fun eating dinner and playing games with them.  Then we all watched Parenthood before they headed home.
February 2 - Still cold.  At least we have water and heat (after a scare that we didn't have water due to a busted pipe...nothing like thinking you don't have something to help you appreciate it)!
February 3 - We both made it safely home from work and enjoyed a night watching Thursday night TV together.
February 4 - It's Friday, and there is lots of beautiful snow on the ground!  I enjoyed seeing the large flakes swirl outside my office window!
February 5 - Ice is finally melting...good thing since we had Jessica's birthday dinner at Five Sixty!
February 6 - Super Bowl...we had fun hanging out and watching the game with friends.
February 7 - Leftover cake for breakfast...and an afternoon snack...and an after-dinner, before-bed nightly snack!  I like my sweets!
February 8 - Super Bowl leftovers with Mom and Dad...it was fun to see them in the middle of the week.
February 9 - It was "our" turn to make dinner for small group.  Michael made delicious gumbo.  We had French bread to go with it and topped it off with a nice king cake!
February 10 - Most weeks I've been going straight from work and meeting Michael at small group.  He always offers to bring me something for dinner, which I usually accept.  Tonight was another night eating a PB&J sandwich made by my loving husband.  He even remembers that I don't like TONS of jelly on it like he does.  :o)
February 11 - Date night at Freebird's with Michael after the auditors' last day in the office!  (Busy season is nearing its end!)
February 12 - Fun baby shower for the Browns...we finally got to meet little Liam...ordered dress for Brett and Kristen's wedding...Mom hosted a wonderful Valentine dinner for the Hixons, the Avances, and us...all in all, it was a great day!
February 13 - Beautiful Sunday: the weather couldn't have been better...breakfast with Tyler and Ashley at Good 2 Go Taco...amazing breakfast (how can you go wrong wrapping scrambled eggs, sausage, potato, crumbled biscuits, and gravy in a wonderful flour tortilla?)...even better to spend a little time catching up with Tyler and Ashley - so good to see them!...a great Sunday school class (we're in the middle of a history of the church series - awesome!)...good worship, followed by lunch at Snappy Salads with the Farises, Fitzgeralds, and Hixons (we got to sit on the patio and enjoy the amazing weather)...relaxing afternoon...wonderful worship at Watermark...drive-through dinner with my love...Valentine's cupcakes...Fringe...what a wonderful weekend!!!
February 14 - Happy Valentine's Day!
February 15 - Dinner with Tim and Stephanie at Brooklyn's...we each got to use a coupon for a FREE cannoli!  Thanks for the coupons Mom!
February 16 - Carpooling to work with Michael...when I get dropped off for work, I feel like a kid again getting dropped off for school.
February 17 - Last day of mandatory overtime!
February 18 - "Milkshake party" with little Avery (who had her tonsils removed yesterday...thankfully it all went very well).  What a great excuse to eat ice cream!
February 19 - Wonderful weather and an afternoon nap on the couch...doesn't get much better than that!
February 20 - We got to have lunch with Michael's mom at Babe's today.  It was a big treat since we don't get to see his parents very often.  Of course, Babe's was delicious!  We also bought a hammock today!!!
February 21 - Michael and I ran/walked over four miles...it's nice to have that time to talk.  When we got back, I got to take a relaxing shower while he cooked a wonderful dinner (BBQ grilled chicken with awesome homemade BBQ sauce, yummy buttery biscuits, white beans, and mixed veggies...delicious!).
February 22 - Happy Hour!  Tonight, the "substitute" (4 of the 6 usual players couldn't be there, so we got to be two of the subs) ACIG volleyball team racked up three wins.  It was a lot of fun!  We definitely need to play volleyball more often.  I miss it.
February 23 - Snickerdoodle ice cream (Blue Bell, of course)!!!
February 24 - Buy One Get One Free at Chipotle...delicious!
February 25 - Budget spreadsheet is all up-to-date...yes, for nerdy accountants like me, this is a very good thing.  :o)
February 26 - Tex Mex night!
February 27 - Michael got to play golf, and I had a nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon, including some time in the hammock!  Tim came over for leftover fajitas and brought a delicious chocolate cake with him...YUM!!!
February 28 - While eating Nerds today (already a good thing!), I poured out THE BIGGEST Nerd I have ever seen...seriously, this thing was HUGE!!!

See?  :o)

Good Tunes and Grilled Food - The Riverwalk Edition (2-26-11)

Michael checking in...

The meal was a tex-mex feast of chicken and beef fajitas, homemade black beans, homemade Mexican rice, and all of the ancillaries that go along.  The music was a shuffled playlist of that ultimate Texan and overall top ten cool amigo, Lyle Lovett.  And when it was over, it felt like the Riverwalk had moved four hours to the north.

The day started early, but a pot full of Café Du Monde with chicory helped me along.

Although we don't have a patio by the river, we did look and dress the part!

After a long day of preparations (cleaning, cooking, stopping to appreciate ten hours of constant Texas country playing in our house, etc), we were ready to eat.

Fajita meat (chicken and skirt steak, both marinated, grilled over charcoal and cherry wood chips) and sautéed onions and peppers.

Homemade Mexican rice, homemade black beans (in the crock pot for eight hours), and some trusty old queso.

The fixin's...and yeah, the guac is homemade.

 

Finally, it's time to eat!

 

 

As if all of that wasn't enough, Melissa found some dessert recipe for Sopapilla Cheesecake.  Let me tell you, this was amazing.  Cheesecake filling, crescent rolls for the crust, butter, cinnamon, sugar, and honey to drizzle on top!  YUM!!!  We topped it off with some Blue Bell Snickerdoodle ice cream, and it was great.

Some other shots of the tex-mex flair...courtesy mostly (maybe all?) of Rhodonna...

 

All in all, I'd say it was a great night of good tunes and grilled food.  Thanks to Rhodonna for the deco's.  Thanks to the Reeves, the Kirks, and the Taylors for helping us get through that feast (and especially to the females for the dishwashing!).  (We missed the Packers.  Hopefully their chairs won't be empty next time!)  Thanks to Lyle Lovett for being cool and for making good music.  Thanks to the vaqueros from south of the border for figuring out that grilled meat in a tortilla tastes amazing.  And of course thanks to my better half for letting me find excuses to incorporate food and music into each other!

BONUS:  Because I know you are curious, my top five Lyle Lovett songs are as follows (in no order)...

• "Private Conversation"
• "In My Own Mind"
• "San Antonio Girl"
• "West Texas Highway"
• "Her First Mistake"

RECIPES:

• Mexican Rice (courtesy of allrecipes.com)
• Sopapilla Cheesecake (courtesy of allrecipes.com)
• Guacamole (3 avocados, 1 diced jalapeno, and unmeasured amounts of chopped cilantro, lime juice, pressed garlic, salt, and pepper)
• Meat Marinade (unmeasured amounts of vegetable oil, lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, dried cilantro, garlic powder, and minced onion...the beef can marinate for a long time, but be careful with the chicken as the lime juice will "cook" it)
• Black Beans (dried beans, water to cover, and unmeasured amounts of chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and dried cilantro)

Good Tunes and Grilled Food

Michael checking in...

I was just telling Melissa the other day that the recent warm weather has me jonesing to do some grilling.  After all, she got me a great grill for a wedding gift, but we just didn't get to use it that much this past fall as we tried to get settled into the house and then got her through busy season.  But the warm-front has had me motivated...we recently bought a hammock, and I also installed some speakers on our back patio and ran speaker wire from the stereo in the garage.  Needless to say, my backyard is finally coming together!!

Well, I have decided that the grilling will be happening this year.  We are gonna have a little thing called "Good Tunes and Grilled Food."  Everybody knows I like to grill...and everybody also knows that I like music...A LOT...and that I like to find the perfect song, album, or playlist for a given occasion.  What a great excuse to combine those things!!  I mean, we could have some BBQ and blues...or Mexican food and some Pat Green...or some seafood with a little Jimmy Buffett...the possibilities are endless!!

So stay tuned...it's gonna be a fun summer....

Mmmmm...

PBR at Cowboys Stadium

Last night we got to eat at Five Guys with some friends, followed by Professional Bull Riding (PBR) at Cowboys Stadium.  Thursday was Joe's birthday.  To celebrate, he wanted to go to the PBR event, so he and his wife Kristyn got a group together for our outing last night.  We had so much fun!

We arrived at Cowboys Stadium just in time for the Toby Keith concert.

The bull riders were introduced with lots of fanfare.

 There were some crazy fans.

The bulls' holding pens were right beneath our seats.

We saw some pretty amazing rides!

 Some of the bulls were not ready to go back to the pen.

I was excited to get cotton candy!

One of the most entertaining portions of the evening was during the bull-riding intermission...sheep riding!  This event was for kids.  I would guess the ranged in age from three to six.  It was hilarious, and they were so cute!  I don't know if we laughed more at the kids or the sheep...both were pretty entertaining.

The little boy who won was so excited when he finished his ride.  He stood up and started pumping his fist in the air and beating his chest.  He knew he'd had a good ride!  :o)

Joe and Kristyn, thanks for planning a fun evening!

Barbecue Beef Cups

Michael checking in...

While I was starting my morning with my daily perusal of the internet, I stumbled upon the Dallas BBQ Blog and something that sounded amazing...Barbecue Beef Cups.  (See recipe at link or below.)  I immediately emailed this recipe to Melissa, who responded, "We need to try them.  That’s basically the same recipe I told you about from my friend’s blog.  She just makes the BBQ sauce and doesn’t use onion.  She’s also the one that modified the recipe for the sausage and gravy breakfast ones."  Apparently I had "forgotten" about an email she had sent a while back containing almost the same thing!

After looking through the ingredients, I quickly realized that we had everything at home to make them and decided that we should try them tonight.  We all know I am impulsive, so it was a long wait to get home from work!  They were definitely as good as they sounded!

Here they are out of the oven but prior to the cheese.

Finished Product...DELICIOUS!!!  It's like a BBQ cupcake!!

We'll have to try the breakfast version soon.  I also want to make them again with brisket instead of ground beef (and then again with pulled pork after that!).  How amazing would that be? 

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See recipes at links below:
Dallas BBQ Blog Barbecue Beef Cups (also below)
Annalee's Meat Cupcakes (found through Melissa's friend's blog)
Erin's Sausage and Gravy Breakfast Cups (from Melissa's friend's blog)

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Barbecue Beef Cups (from Dallas BBQ Blog)

Ingredients

• 3/4 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup barbeque sauce
• 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
• 1 (12 ounce) package refrigerated biscuit dough
• 1/3 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  Grease the cups of a muffin pan.
2. In a large heavy skillet over medium heat, cook beef until evenly brown.  Drain excess fat.  Stir in barbeque sauce and dried onion.  Simmer for a few minutes over low heat.
3. Flatten each biscuit, and press into cups of the prepared muffin pan.  Make sure the dough comes to the top of the pan.  Spoon a portion of the meat mixture into each dough cup.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 12 minutes.  Sprinkle with cheese, and bake for 3 more minutes.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Dinner

Tonight Mom and Dad had us over for an early Valentine's dinner.  They also invited the Avances and the Hixons to join us.  We all had a wonderful time!

Everything from the front porch to the table to even the plates looked awesome!

I loved the vase on the table.  These were vases we originally bought for the wedding, but they were too skinny.  I still love them, and I'm glad we're getting some use out of them!

Mom had taken time to "glue" (using sugar water) Valentine M&M's on the perimeter of the dessert plates.  It was a great touch to the table-setting!

Jessica brought Mom some pretty tulips for hosting...so sweet!

Of course dinner was delicious!  We had a bruschetta appetizer, homemade lasagna, steamed veggies, caesar salad, and cheesy garlic bread...YUM!  To top it all off, we had Lady Finger Cake for dessert.  This is possibly my favorite non-ice cream dessert ever...so good!

Dinner was full of great conversation, some laughs, and sharing embarrassing moments.  After dinner, we played a few games.  This brought out even more laughs!  In true competitive fashion we had to spend some time discussing, defining, and debating the rules.  However, by the end of the evening, I think we were all laughing.  I must say, though, that I think Mom and Michael H. had more fun than anyone!  :o)

Thanks for hosting such a fun and lovely evening Mom!  We all had a wonderful time.  I also owe Dad a shout-out.  If tonight was like other "hosting" nights when I lived at home, he did his fair share of dishwashing today and clean-up after we left.  I love you guys!  Happy Valentine's Day to my favorite couple!