Exceedingly Mundane

I am trying to get back into a groove of trying new recipes. Sometimes, I feel like I cook the same things over and over. I do try to break out of my rut, eventually. 😀

I entered a few new recipes that I’ve made in the last couple of months in both my local recipe software (MacGourmet, that I bought last year for my new MacBook and just LOVE!), and also on the recipe section of our website (here). I’ve tried to be better about taking photos. It’s funny, because when I transferred photos, I had two distinct themes:

1. Food
2. Beau

(So expect a couple of Beau photos soon!) Anyway, here’s a few of the new things I have tried lately. I tried to give credit for where I had found them (I think these are all online), and hope I got them all correct. I tend to troll for recipes, print them out or file them, and not always cite where I found them. Ahem.

* A change on regular banana bread. This is more of a dessert, since it has chocolate inside and a great chocolate glaze on the outside. Banana Chocolate Walnut bread recipe here.

* One I made back earlier in the winter, for quick enchiladas in the crockpot. I have a recipe very similar to this that I do in the oven, which is also just basically black bean enchiladas. It was nice to do them in the afternoon and have them ready at suppertime, just having to fix some sides to go with them. Crockpot enchiladas here.

* A honey oat bread in my bread machine, here.

* A tangy, strong vinaigrette for a spinach salad – here.

* A copycat recipe for Bourbon chicken. It was good, but not quite like the Bourbon Chicken at our favorite local chinese restaurant.

I also went back and entered a few recipes for things that I have made for years, or haven’t made in years, that were on recipe cards and not in either of my software systems. One is my mom’s chili, which is just a guideline. No measurements, she didn’t measure much of anything! Another is for a “pantry cake”, a quick snack cake that doesn’t use eggs or butter. It doesn’t have a frosting so Tim does not like this one. What a shame, I had to eat almost the whole thing all.by.myself!

Chili recipe here

Chocolate Snack Cake recipe here

I am hoping to try a couple more in the next few weeks. If they turn out good, I’ll probably make another recipe post 🙂

P.S. Sorry for all the different sizes on the photos. I just didn’t feel like going back and making them all the same size. Sheer laziness, I tell ya! 🙂

Have a great day!

Happy Anniversary to my darling husband!

Fifteen years ago today, we got married in a little chapel in the Smoky Mountains. Tim’s parents drove up to be with us, and we took vows to love, honor and cherish each other all the days of our lives. I’ve been so blessed to have Tim every day since, and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with him, feeling the love he bestows on me every day.

I love you sweetheart, with all my heart. Happy Anniversary Tim!

It rained, it was colder, all of which make for a nice weekend for me!

Not a whole lot going on here, but we had a nice weekend (or at least I did, Tim prefers 70 degrees, and hours spent on the golf course). It rained most of the day Saturday, so we stayed in and watched tv, and movies, and I read some. That’s a pretty perfect late winter day for me. Much better than the early spring we were having the last two weeks of February. Warm weather will be here plenty soon, so I don’t prefer to rush it.

Tim worked on our deck last week, and it looks really great. He used a new type cleaner on it, then put protectant on it, so it looks really good. So nice to have a useable space outside.

Sunday, we went to church, then to Fresh Market, then to the movie “The Grace Card.” It could have been a rental, but we like to support faith-based movies that come out, so we went to our theater to see it. It was a good movie, with a good message. Grace is easy for the people you know and love, it’s bestowing grace on the unloveable, the hate-filled, that is so very hard to do. We had also watched “Like Dandelion Dust” on Friday night (Netflix), another faith-based movie based on a Karen Kingsbury book. A really tough movie to watch, but a good topic and it ended well, so that is also a big thing with me, LOL!

The weekend ended on a bad note. Tim was outside hitting balls at dark, Sunday evening. When he and Beau came in, Beau was bleeding. Tim didn’t hear him get in a fight, so he probably got into some briars or something sharp. That dog loves to roam and wander. His ear is cut and it was bleeding profusely. It’s hard to put pressure on a dog’s ear to make it stop bleeding 🙁 It finally slowed up and we put some Vaseline on it. I hope he heals quickly 🙂 I keep finding little droplets of blood everywhere, poor baby. He obviously doesn’t feel good today, he’s been laying around and very subdued. My sweet Beau-baby.

Here’s to a good week ahead – I hope to get a few more things cleaned out around here, I’m hoping to try a new recipe or two (we bought brussel sprouts at Fresh Market, going to try roasting them), and I am looking forward to reading more on my Kindle. 😀 Have a great week, everyone out there in bloggity-ville!

Have you ever heard that phrase about “don’t go to the grocery store hungry” ??

I can vouch for that, first hand. Today, I went around lunch time and I wasn’t hungry when I left to run errands. By the time I got to the grocery and all that food, I was ravenous. I wanted to eat everything I laid my eyes on!

I rarely splurge and get things that aren’t on my list. And I tend to not buy junk food and have it in the house, because I will EAT IT.

Today, I came home with two boxes of cookies. Ay-yi-yi!

Let the sugar coma commence!