We Interrupt this blogging strike to bring you a recipe...

Make ths and you will not be disappointed. This is the best thing I've eaten in a long time.

Pioneer Woman's Twice Baked Potatoes

Ingredients-
baking potatoes, as many as you want, just be sure to adjust the other ingredients accordingly
cheddar cheese, shredded
seasoned salt
crumbled bacon, from a package or you can cook it
green onions, diced
butter
sour cream
pepper

Bake the potatoes (no matter how many) at 400 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. After they've cooked cut them in half and scoop out the insides. Be sure to leave enough on the skin so it will still hold up. Combine the potato you've scooped out with the other ingredients. I didn't use specific measurements because her recipe calls for 8 potatoes and I only used 2. Spoon the filling back into the potato skins and top with more cheddar cheese. Put back in a 350 degree for 10 to 15 minutes.

Here's the link if you want to see the original recipe.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/07/twice_baked_pot/

I could do an entire post on Pioneer Woman-she's amazing and her website is awesome. I've made many of her recipes and all of them have been great.

Meanwhile Erik and I are fine-we've been playing Rockband 2 and I've been working like a dog. I started a PRN job at an Outpatient Surgery center and I'm loving it.

Taking a Break

As the title implies, I'm taking a break from blogging. There is a season for everything, and right now that includes not sharing in this forum. Thanks to everyone who has read so far, and I promise that I will return someday!

Jessica

Christmas Food Traditions

There are a few things that I make every year at Christmas, and I've added one or two this year. Christmas would not be the same at our house if I didn't make Homemade Chex Mix. I think this stuff is way better than what you buy at the store and it lasts a long time. Hashbrown casserole is another dish I make for Christmas Day. I'll be working 7-3 again this year on Christmas so I'm going to do make ahead or crockpot dishes for our lunch/dinner. My easy Cheeseball is great to take to Christmas parties and I think I'm going to take it on Christmas Day to work for the girls to snack on.

This year I'm doing something I did last year, therefore (in my mind), making it a tradition: buying a 9 pound spiral sliced honey ham for two people. I didn't intentionally buy a ham that big just for me and Erik, but my local HEB (the best grocery store EVER) has a deal right now where you buy a ham or turkey and get $20 in other items free. When I went to the store yesterday to purchase this ham the 9 pounder was the smallest one they had, so that's what I got. Last year we ate ham for days and then I froze the rest and used it over the next couple of months. My last new recipe is one that I used to make with my grandmother (mom's mom) when I would visit her at the holidays: Peanut Butter Balls. Oh man. These things are dangerous! They are very easy to make and very rich so you only need one or two at a time!

Here's the link for Chex Party Mix.
http://www.chex.com/Recipes/RecipeView.aspx?RecipeId=6709&CategoryId=343

Easy Cheeseball

2 pkgs cream cheese, softened

2 or 3 green onions, chopped

3 or 4 tablespoons real bacon bits

2 tsp Worchestershire sauce

1 tsp seasoned salt

1 cup pecans, finely chopped

Combine all ingredients except pecans. Form into ball. Roll ball in pecans, covering completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, best if overnight.

Peanut Butter Balls
3 cups rice krispies
1 jar peanut butter-the smaller jar (I think 14 or 16 ozs?)
1 lb powdered sugar, sifted
8 tbsp. butter, melted

12 ozs chocolate chips
2 or 3 tablespoons Crisco

Combine the rice krispies, PB, and powdered sugar. Next pour cooled melted butter into the mixture and stir well. Form into ice cream scoop sized balls. Melt chocolate in the microwave with 2 tablespoons Crisco. Stir until you get a thin consistency; you can always add more Crisco to make it thinner. Take a toothpick and stick it in the PB ball. Dip the PB ball in the chocolate and you can use a spoon to help coat it. Refrigerate the PB balls overnight.

Note* I used creamy and crunchy peanut butter and I prefer the creamy.

Black Cloud

I'm sure most of you who read our blog regularly know by now that my grandfather passed away last Wednesday and the funeral was last Friday. On another sad note, Erik's maternal grandfather passed away early this morning. Both of our grandfathers had cancer. I was unable to attend Poppy's funeral due to work responsibilities, which seems cold, however when you are the main bread winner and paid hourly you just can't miss 2 days of work in a row. I was and am pretty upset about it, mostly because I wanted to be there for my grandmother. While Poppy's passing was very unexpected because his cancer treatment seemed to be going well, Erik's grandfather was very sick. We were fortunate enough to see him on our 1800 mile round trip during Thanksgiving. Both of these men had been married to their wives for 35 plus years and left a lot of people mourning their passing. Our community group at church has graciously volunteered to bring a few meals by our house over the next week, of which I feel totally undeserving and humbled. They have wrapped us in prayer and we are so honored to be a part of this church family. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us.

P.S. I have been trying to post pictures of our trip from Thanksgiving but for some reason Blogger will not let me. I don't know if the file size is too big or what but I'll keep trying.

Pasta e Fagioli Soup

It has been raining off and on for about a week here in Waco and frankly, I'm sick of it! We don't really have a fall season here in central Texas, but the weather is so nice and cool and usually very sunny. I miss that weather. If I can't have the beautiful foliage that Tennessee in the fall offers, I should at least get to enjoy the sun! What really stinks is that our back yard turns into a pool when it rains constantly, so we have to keep part of the yard blocked off so the dogs don't drag in all kinds of mud. What I am getting at is that even though this weather is stinky, it's perfect weather to make soup! I love, love, love this soup. It's so hearty and delicious. This recipe came from crockpot365.blogspot.com aka the Crockpot Lady's website and it's a crockpot version of Olive Garden's soup. So if you're having a rainy cold weather week drag out your crockpot and make this soup!


--1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
--1/2 large red onion, chopped
--1 cup carrots, chopped
--2 celery stalks, sliced
--2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (and juice)
--1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
--1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
--4 cups beef broth (check label for gluten!)
--1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce
--2 tsp oregano
--1 T tabasco sauce
--1/2 tsp salt
--1/4 tsp black pepper
--1/2 cup dry pasta, to add at end of cooking time

The Directions.


Brown the meat and drain well. Let it cool a bit.

Chop up the carrots, onion, and celery. Add it to the empty crockpot.
Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole cans of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef broth. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and tobasco sauce. Stir in your meat.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. When the vegetables are tender, stir in the 1/2 cup of dry pasta.

Cover and cook for another hour on low, or until the pasta is tender. It will swell quite a bit.

(P.S. I copied the ingredient list and directions from the website!)

Because there's not enough pictures of my dogs on this blog

Stephanie took this picture of Roxy while she was visiting. I think she looks a little like Master Shifu from Kung Fu Panda. By the way, if you haven't seen that movie, you need to. It changed my life. (J/K)

Crockett is getting so big! He's still smaller than Roxy and I think he's about done growing. His dad was small and I kind of hope he stays this way!

Frequently we fing Roxy "hiding" under the beds or bedskirts. Sometime just her face or nose is covered up.

I bought these adorable (and cheap!) Halloween t-shirts for the dogs at Target. This is Crockett reaction every time I put it on him. He mopes around as if he's being punished.

I took this picture when I first bought the shirts before Crockett could get depressed about it. Roxy actually really likes hers.

Rebecca and Stephanie come to visit!

The week of September 11th my two best friends of all time came to visit me! Stephanie drove from Jackson, Tennessee to Tulsa, Oklahoma to pick Rebecca up and then they drove down to Waco. We had such a good time eating, hanging out, playing the Wii, and traveling to San Antonio and Schlitterbahn.

Rebecca hanging her head in defeat.

Steph and I got pretty competitive while playing Harry Potter.

I kicked both of their butts in Mario Kart.

At the Alamo! It rained the whole way to San Antonio and the whole day there. We couldn't even take the Riverboat ride since it was shut down due to the weather.

I had to take a picture of Crockett Street.

This was above the Mexican restaurant we ate lunch at. The food was sooooo good and I love their salsa!

We finally made it to Schlitterbahn! That was after Erik met us in Round Rock because somehow I put our tickets in the trash at my house. I am no longer in charge of tickets!

On the tram between the sections of the park.

Rebecca and Steph I'm so glad you guys came to see me! I wish the weather (and my attitude) had been more pleasant, but next year will be even better!