Cinco De Mayo!

Not Pictured: Boneless, Skinless Chicken Strips, Red Pepper, Green Pepper & Onion

Go ahead and turn your oil on medium heat because it takes about 20 minutes to heat up.

Cut the peppers, onions and chicken in long strips. You want to start with onions so they can saute down and then add the peppers. Add the taco seasoning into the onion and pepper mix (flavor to taste). Put on a low or medium heat and stir occasionally. In a different pan add the chicken and taco seasoning (flavor to taste) and cook until chicken is done. Add all ingredients together in biggest pan and just mix and put on low heat.

While your peppers, onions and chicken is sitting on low heat (stirring occasionally) place 1 tortilla at a time (unless you have a bigger pan) and let it fry for about 15 seconds on each side. Then place on a paper towel to damp off remaining oil and repeat until you have your desired amount.

Finished product! Serve with sour cream, mexican shredded cheese and hot sauce! Let me just say this is such a SIMPLE fajita dinner and I enjoyed mine much better then the local mexican restaurant Eric and I went to! :)

Now on to DESSERT :)

SOPAPILLA CHEESECAKE PIE....yes I just said that! For those of you that aren't sure what a "Sopapilla" is a crisp, puffy deep fried pastry often served with honey and syrup...ummm YEAH they are delicious! Well this recipe just adds more goodness because the top and bottom are pastry and the inside is the cheesecake! It is REALLY easy and definitely worth trying for your family or if your having a Cinco De Mayo party :)

INGREDIENTS:

What it looks like before going into the oven

Usually I don't take a picture of what it looks like while its in the oven...but the kitchen SMELLED Soooo good that I felt I had to capture something! :)

Right out of the oven

Add Honey on top after it comes out the oven and let it cool! Then SERVE!!!!

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract
• 2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent rolls
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup honey

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Prepare a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Beat the cream cheese with 1 cup of sugar and the vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth.
3. Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough, and use a rolling pin to shape each piece into 9x13 inch rectangles. Press one piece into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture into the baking dish, then cover with the remaining piece of crescent dough. Stir together 3/4 cup of sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Dot the mixture over the top of the cheesecake.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and drizzle with honey. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 squares.

Stuffed...cookies.. :)

As I've told you all before I enjoy reading food blogs, but I'm also addicted to cooking magazines--you know the ones that are in the checkout line at the grocery store!?! Yeah they get me every time, just today I went to the grocery store to get a few things and low and behold I ended up purchasing 2 cooking magazines while waiting in line ha!

Well the recipe below I got from a food blog, but I am sorry to say that I can't remember which blog it was from :( I'm wanting to say it was "Picky-Palate" (I think) you'll see her website in the left hand column, great blogger!

This past weekend Eric was on duty and when he's working I have a tendency to visit him at work and of course I bring some goodies to everyone there. But this past weekend was one of the girls birthday (well she's the only girl stuck at work with a bunch of guys--bless her heart ha). So it sucks having to work on your birthday and I figured to make her birthday a little better I'd bake her something good. Well this treat was definitely different! It is STUFFED chocolate chip cookies!!! Yes I said STUFFED! The recipe is at the bottom of this post. I used a homemade cookie recipe but if you don't feel like going through all that you can always just buy the store bought cookie dough.

These are just a few things that I chose to stuff the cookies with! Yes you even see brownie mix in that picture HAHA! I only did one with the brownie mix though.

My cookie dough

Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookie!

Snickers stuffed chocolate chip cookie

These are what they look like stuffed!

Voila! what they look like after they've been baked. I chose to cut the cookies in half so everyone could see what they were getting and plus the cookies are big so you'd only want like one or two and this way you can have a variety.

This is the oreo stuffed cookie and this was by far my favorite! The oreo cookie actually softens and the cream melts but just enough, its not a gooey melt.

All my lovely cookies!

So instead of just putting them in a container, I saw these cute boxes at walmart in the Easter section and they were toooo cute to pass up. So because these cookies made such a big batch and even more when I cut them in half, I shared them with a few of my neighbors in these pretty boxes too (they got great reviews!).

Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks softened butter

3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar

1 Cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla

3 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

10 oz bag chocolate chips

1 bag Oreo Cookies, I used the double stuff

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a stand or electric mixer cream butter and sugars until well combined. Add in eggs and vanilla until well combined.

2. In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined. Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie or Snickers or whatever miniature candy bar you'd like. Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo Cookie. Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo Cookie is enclosed with dough. Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until cookies are baked to your liking. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Serve with a tall glass of milk, enjoy!

Makes about 2 dozen VERY LARGE Cookies

FOODIE!!!!

It’s is no surprise that I LOVE to cook and bake! So don’t be surprised to see a few post’s regarding FOOD :)

This past Thursday I was basically addicted to Food Blogs! Which is where I came across my weekend menu—from multiple blogs.

Here is what we had this past weekend:

Friday Dinner

-Cheese Biscuits (like Red Lobster’s)

-Hash brown Casserole

-Fried Shrimp

-Sautéed Shrimp

-Homemade cocktail sauce (Thanks Dwayne!)

Saturday

-Homemade (Semi) Donuts

-Bourbon Chicken with rice and sautéed green beans

Sunday

-Scalloped Potato and ground beef casserole

See below for pictures and recipes…..

CHEDDER BISCUITS (Like Red Lobster’s)

2 cups bisquick
1 cup cheddar cheese
2/3 cup milk
¼ tsp. garlic salt
4 tbsp. butter, melted
¼ tsp. parsley

Preheat oven to 450º F

In a large mixing bowl, combine bisquick, cheese, and milk. Mix together until a soft dough forms then beat vigorously for 30 seconds. On an ungreased baking pan, spoon the dough onto the pan in small balls. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye on them though, they tend to bake quickly!

While they are baking, combine the melted butter, garlic salt, and parsley. Once the biscuits are done cooking, brush the butter mixture onto the biscuits while they are still on the baking pan.

Hash Brown Casserole
Can condensed cream of chicken soup
8 oz. Colby cheese - shredded
1/2 cup melted butter
1 small onion, diced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 lb. bag frozen shredded hash browns

Spray a 9x13x2 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray; set aside. In a bowl, combine soup, cheese, butter, onion, salt, and pepper. Gently fold the potatoes

into the mixture and pout into prepared pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-40

minutes, until heated through and top is browned.

VOILA dinner is served! Come HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!

So now onto Saturday’s food day! Well we woke up and made breakfast— figured since we had leftovers of the hash brown casserole we would just cook some of it on the stove top and have some eggs J But for some reason the casserole didn’t turn out like I had thought it would, what basically happened was I ended up just reheating the casserole—which wasn’t a bad thing, but I guess I was expecting more the regular hash browns you see for breakfast..oh well. So after breakfast I decided to make the Homemade (semi) Glazed Donuts-----YUUUMMM is the only word that describes these ooohhh sooo simple donuts! I don’t think we even ate lunch that day because we started cleaning out closets and storage boxes that were in the attic! We are trying to de-clutter as much as we can before we move to FL. When Eric and I went to Washington, DC for our 1 year wedding anniversary I had Bourbon Chicken for lunch and he had never had it before and tried it and loved it! Soo I figured we could attempt to recreate it! It turned out really great! So we had the Bourbon Chicken served over white rice with a side of Green Beans.

HOMEMADE (SEMI) DONUTS

Ingredients
-4-8 cups of oil for frying (the oil needs to be at least 2 inches deep)
-1 refrigerated tube of 10 biscuits (the smaller tubes, not Grands. I use Pillsbury Country Style biscuits, they come in a 4-pack)

-1/4 stick butter
-1 cup powdered sugar
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
-2 tablespoons milk

Directions
Start warming the oil in a pot on the stove. I set my stove on 5 (medium heat) and my oil takes around 20 minutes to warm up. Don't turn your heat higher than medium or your donuts will burn in .2 seconds.

I ended up using 2 cans of biscuits so I doubled everything in the glaze!

For the glaze. Melt the butter in the microwave and add the powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Stir until combined.

For the donuts. Use a small circular cutter (the cap of a 2-liter works well) to cut circles in each biscuit.

Place a few donuts in the oil and cook until browned (1-2 minutes). Flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes until browned.

Pull the donuts out of the oil and set them on a cooling rack (or paper towels) to drain the excess oil. While the donuts are warm, dip them in the glaze.

Use a fork or tongs to lift the donut out of the glaze and to shake off excess glaze.

Place on a cooling rack (or plate) to cool and store. They don't really have to cool off before eating.

For the donut holes I fried them and shook them in a ziplock bag with cinnamon/sugar instead of using glaze. BUT we didn’t like them as much as the glaze. So I think next time I’ll either use powdered sugar or just dip them in the glaze. But do whatever you like. My sister loves chocolate so we will be making a chocolate glaze when she comes to visit!

BOURBON CHICKEN

2 lbs boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces (***I used four chicken breasts)

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/4 teaspoon ginger

3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 cup apple juice

1/3 cup light brown sugar

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup soy sauce

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned. Remove chicken. Add remaining ingredients, heating over medium heat until well mixed and dissolved. Add chicken and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve over hot rice and enjoy.

Sunday Dinner: Of course I had to eliminate some of the stuff in the casserole cause my dear sweet hubby has a very limited palette! So in our casserole we didn’t have any onions or green peppers L But it still turned out pretty good. I used onion powder for a little seasoning.

Scalloped Potato and Ground Beef Casserole

1-1/2 lb ground chuck
medium onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
3 Tablespoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
For the potato/soup mixture:
5-6 russet potatoes
2 cans cream of chicken soup
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

In a skillet cook the ground beef with onion, bell pepper, and chili flakes until no longer pink; drain fat over a colander. Return to pan and add in garlic, season salt, and black pepper; cook until meat is lightly browned. In a medium bowl, mix together the soup with milk, sour cream, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, seasoned salt and black pepper and add the potatoes. Mix well to combine. In a greased 9x13 baking dish, late the potato/soup mixture. Top with half of the cheddar cheese. Then spread the ground beef mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour on 350 degrees. Uncover and continue baking for another 20-30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Sprinkle the remaining cheddar cheese on the top and return to the oven for 4-5 minutes or until cheese has melted.

Well I hope you all have enjoyed my blog….the food was very good. Our favorites for the weekend were the Donuts and the Bourbon Chicken! If any of my readers try any of the recipes please let me know what you think J

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!

"Home is Where the Heart Is"--NC to VA to FL!

As most of my readers already know we are getting relocated to Panama City, FL.

Well the day Eric called me with the news I didn't really have a reaction because I was in complete shock that we were getting transfered. I know I shouldn't of been too shocked because yes we are a military family and yes that does happen ha! But I seriously thought we would end up getting the 1 year extension here mainly because I was thinking who would request to get stationed in Wachapreaugue, VA....well apparently a guy who lives relatively close to the area that's who! Anyway so my reaction didn't hit until the next morning when Emma and I woke up (Eric was at work) and we were snuggled in the bed until we were both ready to actually get up--that's when it hit me! I realized that she'll have no memories of the house we first brought her home from the hospital, had her first Halloween, Christmas, New Years, Valentines, St. Patrick's Day and soon to be Easter and Mother's Day. So that's what hit me-I cried just thinking about all the sentimental things about this house that we've made into a home-I'm really going to miss it! We have such great neighbors throughout this neighborhood. The summer is always nice here because you can always hear all the kids playing outside, riding bikes and just enjoying being outside. I'm really going to miss them all :( I'm also going to miss my work "family"! Mr. Klein has been so understanding through the changes and by that I mean me being pregnant and always being sick or having doctors appointments to Emma being born and me only working 1 1/2 days a week. He's been such a great boss and his family has been wonderful to us too. We've gone over to his house a few times and they just make us feel so welcomed. I'm going to miss them! Mr. Klein was actually our very first visitor the day we brought Emma home! Then Janie has been so nice and is a great co-worker. She loves to cook so shares recipes with me and has become family to me as well.

I'm not one who likes change much, but I've been with Eric since before he was in Bootcamp in 2003 soooo I've grown a little to the idea of change mainly because I've had to! Nothing is written in stone with the military..except the fact that you are government owned property now! So I knew we'd be getting transfered throughout the years, make new friends, have to say bye to friends, move etc. Eric has already dealt with a move from when he graduated A School in November 2003--his first station was Nantucket, MA and he was there from Dec. 2003-May 2007. Then he got stationed here June 2007-until June 2011. I've only had to move from my mom's house to VA and believe me that was HARD ENOUGH! Leaving all my friends and family back at home, even though it was only a 4 1/2-5 hour drive I felt like that was really far. Now we will be 13 1/2 hours away! Sooo the distance is obviously the worst part of this entire news! But I've definitely got a lot of positives: it's an adventure, we will actually be near lots of shops, restaurants, and absolutely beautiful local beaches! I'm pretty sure we will have plenty of friends and family want to come visit us if not to just see Emma but to see this vacation destination!

Eric's last day at Wachapreague is June 17th and he has to report to FL by July 8th! So yeah the military thinks that's enough time to find a place and move HA! So Eric has taken leave May 15-25th we will leave here May 13th..which is a Friday and then come back here to basically clean up the house, cover up holes (from pictures) and just get the house ready for whoever moves in after us. April is my last month working, but I'll definitely go by there before we actually leave :(

Eric will be stationed on the 87 ft boat called "COHO". So he will get sea time YAY! Why you might ask this is a good thing...well because it helps him be able to get ranked higher :) But since this boat is considered a small boat he'll only be gone like a week at a time. This boat is only allowed to be underway for 150 days out of the entire year! So I'll actually get to see him more in FL then I do here in VA! :) So YAY!

One really cool thing about the military and getting relocated is the fact that they come to your house and completely pack everything for you! If you try to pack some stuff in advance they have to unpack it and then re-pack it themselves because they are responsible for it! Then whenever we find a place and its time to move they actually unpack everything and put it where you want! Ummm AWESOME! I know there are some people who would rather do this themselves but seriously WHY? So we are definitely taking that advantage!

Some little fun things about Panama City/Panama City Beach, FL:

Panama City, FL is located on the Gulf of Mexico in the panhandle ofFlorida between Mobile, AL, to the west and Tallahassee, FL, to the east. Panama City is serviced by its own international airport (Delta and Northwest) and is accessible by several major highways easily linking this vacation paradise to the cities of the southeast, central, and western states. So we are excited about so close to those other places that we've never been to before and probably would of never visited if it weren't for the military! So some more good things about this relocation :)

Pier Park is an awesome outdoor mall that is almost right on the beach! Not only does it have lots of cool stores but it also has some awesome restaurants. Everything from 5 guys hamburgers to Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville (Yes daddy there is one and its not in the airport!). This is one of the coolest places at Panama City Beach.

Well readers (family and friends) that is our big news! I know I've rambled on this post--but for those that know me know I love to ramble on e-mails so why not on my blog too :)

Nursery and memories :)

This post is to show Emma her first bedroom (nursery) in her first house she ever lived. This home will forever be in my thoughts even after we move, because it was the place we first brought Emma home from the hospital on Tuesday October 19, 2010 (around noon).

So this is why I'm wanting to create this particular blog post--For Emma. Because by the time she turns 12 she will most likely have at minimum 4 other homes. That's saying that we will be stationed for 4 years at each station until Eric can retire (at age 37). I will take pictures of each house and each room as we move. Below is Emma's first Nursery :)

We live in Exmore, VA

Eric works at the Coast Guard Station in Wachapreague, VA

Chelsea works at a Law Office (Mapp, Mapp & Klein) in Keller, VA

We have some very nice neighbors who live directly across from us who have 2 young kids, another family at the beginning of the street who have 4 kids also and then a young couple who live down from us. Its a great neighborhood and during the warmer weather you will see and hear all the kids outside enjoying themselves. Such a wonderful place! :)

Overview of your room: I didn't want to do the pink theme just because you were a girl. Not because I don't think it looks good but I'm just not a "pink" girl. I love the blues, greens, and browns. So when I found your bedspread online I KNEW it was the one I wanted instantly. It had the perfect colors and had paisley for a girly touch :) So the entire theme came from those colors.

The box below was given to me by my old boss and his wife (Mr. Thompson and the late Mrs. Thompson)in Morehead City as a wedding gift. It matched perfectly with the color theme and I hold all of your memorabilia such as your bracelet from the hospital, your "It's a Girl" card from the hospital and all sorts of other little wonderful things. You'll also see a small bracelet on the dresser that is your first piece of jewelry and it was given to you by our landlord for Christmas 2010.

The canvas painting was painted by your Aunt Carly :) The picture of you hanging up is when you were 1 month old and Amber Willis took your photos--she did a WONDERFUL job! :)

The mobile above your crib is from Kathryn :) The monkey on your changing table is from Aunt Carly!!

The puppy on the left is my puppy that was put in my crib before I was born. It was from my godfather Scott Glenn. So your granny Juju thought it was only necessary to get you your own "gund" puppy like the one I have. So hopefully when your my age you can still have your first stuffed animal still around :)

The 2 photo albums are from the day you were born through present day--the blue album is completely full and that was just with pictures from the day you were born until the end of December!! What can I say I LOVE pictures :) The table has a mini album, which your granny Juju bought before we knew we were having a girl so that is why its yellow--it holds all of your ultrasound pictures! The picture frame in the back was made by your great grandmother Naegelen as a gift to me and Eric, it has one of our wedding programs in it and flowers from the wedding! The blue and white frame is one of your ultrasound pictures--where we could already tell you were going to have some ADORABLE cheeks :) Then the accordion picture book was a gift from Amber with some of your one month photos in it :)

The sign below with your name was created by Aunt Macy and was given to me at the baby shower (exactly 2 weeks before you were born!)

The molds from below we did for your first Christmas 2010! We created them originally for ornaments, but now I use them as decoration in your room. We have your footprint framed, then we have your hand print and the other small mold is of your fist, haha yes your fist! You were always clenching your fists when you were first born. It wasn't until you started noticing different textures around you that you now love to keep your hands open or of course in your mouth :) So Eric only found it appropriate to make a mold of your tiny fist :)

This ends the tour around your room and all the wonderful things in it! Also you should know that you are almost 5 months old and I still can't bring myself to let you sleep in your room at night. So you sleep next to mommy and daddy's bed :) I'm not quite sure when I'll be big enough to let you sleep across the hall from me...as for now you are doing fine and so am I :)