More State Fair

Here's our annual group photo in front of Big Tex (although most of him is missing--here you can only see his boots! Sorry big guy :)

but Nana is missing because she was behind the camera, so here's another

not sure why Avery thought Grandaddy was so captivating,
but she would NOT look at the camera!

Here we are about to have our first corny dog of the fair...Bub the hub tried the new jalapeno & cheese corny dog, which I think will be his new staple. My favorite fried delicacy by far this year was the fried peaches and cream, below. Turns out it actually debuted last year and was the Best Taste Winner. I totally agree! Can't believe I missed it! I think the raspberry sauce cinched it!! 

Here are some other fried suprises (not all mine!! everyone was trying something :)

from the top moving clockwise is fried frito pie bites, tornado taters (yum!!), fried guacamole bites, fried plaintains (just fair), and fried potato with pork

there was a guy carving pumpkins, a true artist! these faces were amazing

Here are the bubs enjoying one of the many goods on display at the Fair:
only $1200 for this ergonomic swing!!

And since you all know how much I like collages, here is one of the three years that lil'bub has been to the Fair. Her first year, the livestock really made her giggle. The second year, she was equally excited. This year she was a little more lowkey, but I'm pretty sure she still wanted to jump in....

And last but not least, I will leave you with this:

LLAMA! what a cutie eh?

State Fair Shenanigans

We are back from our weekend in Dallas for the annual State Fair of Texas visit, and it was so much fun! The whole weekend was amazing. Lil'bub did very well on the car ride and had a fabulous time at the Fair. Not one fuss was heard!  I don't have time to post all the photos today, so here is a little sneak peak...

that beautiful ferris wheel

Mommy and Avery wore their most comfy walking shoes

A little bit of rain did not deter lil'bub's excitement!

not sure what was going on here, but it's crackin' me up

oh delicious corny dog!

please notice my brother's awesomely huge head falls in between the words on the sign behind him so that you can still read it...Drew, I think this is my new wallpaper.

More tomorrow! thanks to Jessica for most of these awesome photos :)

BOO!

I've Halloween-ified the blog! It was so fun working on this design, and it turned out so darn cute that I couldn't wait another week to put it up :) But I do need your help. As you can see, we can't decide what our lil'pumpkin should be this year for Halloween. She was a giraffe for her very first Halloween, and then last year she was the most adorable little fairy you could ever imagine! It's hard to top that! Over on my sidebar I've posted a poll with a few choices. We'd really appreciate the assistance...this is just such a tremendously tough decision. Thank you in advance.

Summer Recipe Recap, Part II

I know you all have been on the edges of your seats for part two, yes!?!? Thanks to everyone who told me how much they enjoyed my food photos...makes me a feel a tad bit less crazy for taking them. Just a tad. Let's begin part two with something fan-tabulus:

TILAPIA WITH MANGO SALSA

Once again, this delicious delight is from my momma. We cooked up tilapia in the grill pan, along with some crusty bread and fresh asparagus. And kind of like the fish taco sauce from part one, this mango salsa totally makes the dish. Here's what you need to combine:

1 mango, peeled & diced

1 small can of corn kernels

1/2 cup peeled, diced cucumber

1/3 cup diced red onion
1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1 TBSP finely chopped jalapeno (optional)
1 TBSP lime juice
salt & pepper to taste
Momma a.k.a. Nana recommends refrigerating the salsa so all the flavors blend, plus I think it's extra tasty when chilled. I ate the salsa by itself as leftovers the next day! Love it.

CHICKEN AND APPLE POT PIES

Y'all, please forgive me. I did not get a good photo of the scrumptious little pot pies I made with this Rachael Ray recipe. Believe me, this makes me very sad. So, here is the photo from her site instead. Boo. Anyway, the tops of my pot pies did not look like biscuits like they do here, although I'm not entirely sure why...and I did not have these super cute ramekins either. But they were as gratifying as Rachael promised! And much better for us than a typical pot pie. I think the apples really make this dish amazing.

STRAWBERRY TART

When I was done making the potpies, I had a little pastry dough leftover that I did not want to waste. We also always keep strawberries on hand for lil'bub. So of course my mind wandered to this dessert dish (see sidebar)! I wanted to make it super simple, so the quickest recipe I could find online combined sliced strawberries with a couple  tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon of lemon juice, a pinch of corn starch, and a tiny pinch of salt. Easy! I rolled out a circle of dough, put the mix in, and then folded the edges over. I brushed those edges with a little egg, sprinkled the whole thing with a bit more sugar, and popped it into a 350 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes. Ce magnifique!!

BAKED SHELLS CASSEROLE

This one did not get much styling because we devoured it before I could even find the camera! ha! It's another Rachael Ray recipe. One of the reasons that I especially like Rachael recipes is because they are so quick. I mean, not as fast as she says exactly. Rachael time is about 1/2 of Bub time...so her thirty minute recipes take me about an hour. And that's about how long I like to spend. This one, however, is about four times longer than that.  If I had understood this, I probably would not have attempted it. No regrets though!! because it was sooooo good. I'd just like to point out that when you click on the link, there's a helpful little video where Rachael is showing you how to do everything. Turns out that sauce she has bubblin' away on the stove actually took me an entire night to make. As you might imagine, we had to make alternative dinner plans that night. The next night, however, I was able to put everything together and bake to perfection. As you also might imagine, we were extra ready to taste this dish. Hence, the post-dinner photo!

I hope you guys tell me if you try any of this stuff. You should take photos and send them to me! It's ok if you don't have a food setting on your camera, no judgement :)

Summer Recipe Recap, Part I

First of all, welcome to my new wider format! Y'all might have noticed that over on my sidebar under "Currently for Dinner...", I've been posting some of the yummy recipes we bubs like to eat. I decided to go ahead and devote an entire post to them since I took photos of all this food! You might be wondering why I take photos of my meals, kind of like my husband who looks at me like I'm nuts...well, I will tell you. Two things actually. First, my fancy camera has an actual setting for photographing food. I'm not even kidding! Secondly, it gives me a little thrill to make my cookin' look pretty. I think in another life I might have been a food stylist. Yes, people get paid for that. Like this amazing woman. I could look at her blog for hours. Anyway, back to the recipes.

BRUSCHETTA

I think I've established my lifetime love of bruschetta on this blog already! Bub the hub and I enjoy having this treat made three or four different ways as our entire dinner! I brush some olive oil on and use a grill pan to get the italian bread nice and crusty. This past summer I've been using this recipe from Parade. It tastes exquisite! Our other favorite bruschettas include slices of roma tomatoes with fresh buffalo mozzarella and some basil on top. And lately I've been doing some with sliced prosciutto, fresh grated parmesan reggiano and a little balsamic vinegar-- also heavenly!

CORN BACON CHOWDER

This one was so tasty! I spied it on Cooking Light's 5-Ingredient Soup list and knew I had to try it. Now I have to say that Cooking Light was cheating just a bit here because one of the ingredients is a "prechopped celery, onion, and bell pepper mix." Hel-lo, C.L. editors, that is definitely THREE separate ingredients! Thankfully, I forgave them and made it anyway, and had no regrets at all. And f.y.i., we made it with turkey bacon (which is the only bacon I buy in this house, much to hub's chagrin) and it was still super delicious. 


TURKEY BURGERS

And talking about turkey, I think all you red meat eaters out there forget how delectable (and so way better for you) turkey burgers are! We have them all the time around here. Bub the hub likes pepper jack cheese on his, and what you can't see under the bun on my burger is some dreamy avocado (of which I absolutely can't do without). We made these last week and added a little chopped onion, garlic and fresh parsley to the turkey before grilling, and now we will never do without! We also highly recommend Alexia brand organic sweet potato fries, seen here :)

FISH TACOS

My sweet momma showed me how to make these this summer and I am forever grateful. We cooked some tilapia on the grill pan with a little seafood seasoning and olive oil. Then we filled some corn tortillas with the fish, some sweet corn and avocado. And of course the sauce! The sauce makes the taco! It's fresh chopped cilantro mixed with light sour cream and a little lime juice. So simple and so delicious. I could probably eat that sauce with anything. No, make that definitely!

Later this week I am posting the rest of the recipes I tried this summer, including an amazing mango-salsa a la momma, pot pies, strawberry tart, and the baked shells casserole that's currently on my sidebar (and whoa-that one was a two night event). 

The Evolution of Laughter

Do y'all remember when I said a couple weeks ago that I was going to record lil'bub's new little lady laugh on video? Well, I did even better. I just spent an incredibly long (but really fun) time going through old and new Avery footage to bring you.....drum roll please....giggle a go go: the evolution of lil'bub's laugh!!

It started out as little squeals and turned into shrieky giggles. Then it developed into joyful laughter and now it's hysterical giggling fits! You can't help but laugh with her :) or at least I can't!  Sweet music to my ears!!

Respect the Date!

That's right, it's 9-02-10, so please take a moment to remember the cheesiness that was Beverly Hills 90210, one of the greatest unintentionally hilarious shows of our generation. I heard this morning on the radio that they were having big celebrations in that zip code today, because, you know, they've been waiting their entire lives for this date. I laughed so hard I almost cried.

An especially fantastic coincidence is that it's the day before Bub the hub's birthday, and you can't find a much bigger fan that that bub. When we were first married, I would come home pretty much everyday from work and find him on the couch vegging out to those reruns. At the time, of course, I constantly made fun of him. Fast forward to when I started staying home with lil'bub and I was totally glued to the 90210 rerun two-hour time slot. I'm not going to name any other names, but I also happen to have a close friend who is currently DVR-ing them everyday as we speak, ahem.

So, I think it's completely appropriate to leave you with my top 5 all-time favorite Beverly Hills 90210 moments. You can argue them with me if you want, but I am basically a connoisseur of this ridiculous drama, and this is what I say, counting down:

 5) The episode where Kelly and Brenda wore the same dress to the spring dance...

Neither of them would change, and none of us could understand why anyone would wear that hideous thing (shudder). Props go to this episode for terrible drunk-acting by Tori Spelling.

4) When David cheated on Donna in the limo....

because no one saw that coming! Or everyone did. More props to Tori Spelling's phenomenal acting.

3) Kelly vs. Valerie...it's pretty hard to pick just one of their many catfights. I think I'll have to go with an early one; the clincher was Kelly's horrendous hair.


2) When Ray pushes Donna down the stairs. This one was submitted by Bub the hub, but I have to agree. Try not to laugh, I dare you!

Personally, I think that stunt double should get an Oscar. An Emmy? Whatever, it was awesomely horrible!

1) When Dylan's new wife dies in a drive-by assasination by her father meant for DYLAN!! OMG!!

I mean, Luke Perry is really acting his butt off here!

Ok, that was fun! oh wait, I just thought of one for honorable mention! David Silver sings! hahahahahahaha