Pioneer Woman Weekend Part 2

I am about to share with you the most A-Mazing tomato soup you will EVER eat!!!! This recipe from her cookbook is to D.I.E. for! We made it to compliment the grilled cheese sandwiches we had. We pratically licked the bowls when we were done. Then we had more at midnight!! So...without further ado..."Sherried Tomato Soup"!

Ingredients

• 1 stick of Butter melted
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
• 1 bottle (46 Oz.) Tomato Juice
• 2 cans (14 Oz. Cans) Diced Tomatoes (I used Fire Roasted) 
• 3 chicken bouillon cubes
• 4 Tablespoons (up To 6 Tablespoons) Sugar
• 1 pinch Salt
• Black Pepper To Taste
• 1 cup Cooking Sherry
• 1-1/2 cup Heavy Cream
• 1/4 cup Chopped Fresh Parsley
• 1/4 cup Chopped Fresh Basil

Preparation Instructions

Sauté diced onions in butter until translucent. Then add canned tomatoes, tomato juice, chicken bouillon, sugar, pinch of salt, black pepper and stir. Bring to a near boil, then turn off heat. Add in sherry and cream and stir. Add in parsley and basil to taste.
Adjust other seasonings and serve with a yummy grilled cheese sandwich. Then close your eyes...and give thanks for soups like this. Cynthia also came up with the idea of first pureeing the diced tomatoes to give it a thicker texture. So I will be trying that as well.

Pioneer Woman Weekend Part 1

In honor of the Pioneer Woman's new show on the Food Network (check it out here) my bestie Cynthia and I made some things out of her cookbook. The first thing we made was her yummy meatloaf!! But in honor of my husband (who is a proud member of the PDGA!), instead of a loaf....we made a meat disc! Cynthia made the yummy sauce AND took the amazing pictures! She is a rockin' photographer!!!

Ingredients

Meatloaf:

• 1 cup Whole Milk
• 6 slices White Bread
• 2 pounds Ground Beef
• 1 cup (heaping) Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 3/4 teaspoons Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 1/3 cup Minced Flat-leaf Parsley
• 4 whole Eggs Beaten
• 10 slices Thin/regular Bacon

Sauce:

• 1-1/2 cup Ketchup
• 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Dry Mustard
• Tabasco To Taste

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour milk over the bread slices. Allow it to soak in for several minutes.
Place the ground beef, milk-soaked bread, Parmesan, seasoned salt, salt, black pepper, and parsley in a large mixing bowl. Pour in beaten eggs.
With clean hands, mix the ingredients until well combined. Form the mixture into a loaf shape on a broiler pan, which will allow the fat to drain. (Line the bottom of the pan with foil to avoid a big mess!)
Lay bacon slices over the top, tucking them underneath the meatloaf.
Make the sauce: add ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, and hot sauce in a mixing bowl. Stir together. Pour 1/3 of the mixture over the top of the bacon. Spread with a spoon.
Bake for 45 minutes, then pour another 1/3 of the sauce over the top. Bake for another 15 minutes. Slice and serve with remaining sauce

Homemade Body Scrub

Orange Vanilla Honey Brown Sugar Scrub

Materials

• 1-12 oz jar
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup sea salt
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 T. honey
• 1 whole orange
• splash of vanilla

Instructions

• In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar and salt
• Add olive oil
• Squeeze in the whole orange, making sure to remove any seeds
• Pour in the honey and vanilla along with some fragments of orange pulp
• Combine thoroughly
• Put into clear 12 oz jar w/ lid

Great gift idea!!!
Courtesy of http://www.momtastic.com/

Bring on the Bubbly!

I have become obsessed with champagne! It's my new drink of choice. Given the fact that when you go out it's like $12 a glass, I do not get it very often. BUT....I found a delicious cheaper version that is so yummy you will thank me for the suggestion! I do not particularly care for dry champagne, and let's be honest I have no clue what Dom Perignon taste like because I have yet to come across a free bottle....hmmm....anyone? So bust out your toasting skillz and give a toast with this:

It's about $10.00 a bottle! Can't beat that! It has a slight sweetness but not overly sweet.

Here are a couple Irish toast for you as well....you want to sound somewhat cool right??

May you have all the happiness
and luck that life can hold—
And at the end of all your rainbows
may you find a pot of gold.

May neighbours respect you,
Trouble neglect you,
The angels protect you,
And heaven accept you.

I have known many,
and liked not a few,
but loved only one
and this toast is to you.

(And my personal favorite)
Here's to a long life and a merry one.
A quick death and an easy one.
A pretty girl and an honest one.
A cold pint-- and another one!

PS...for a fun summer treat add a popsicle to the glass!!

Reese's first day of Kindergarten!!

First day of school!! YAY! Reese was awesome! She was so excited to be at her "Big Girl School"! She could have cared less that Mike and I were there. She was not scared...no tears...no screaming as we walked away...nada! That's my BIG girl!!

Reese and her little sister Riley

Getting ready!

Checking out the classroom

Her teacher Mrs. Henrich

This is actually day 2. She wanted to show off her "pretty dress".

Homemade Pizza Natalie Style

Homemade pizza is the easiest thing you can possibly make! There are SO many variations. Here is my favorite!! Add or subtract ingredients to make it your favorite!

Ingredients:

•  ready made pizza dough (you can get it at your local grocery store's deli or bakery)
• 1 jar of Classico Pesto
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella
• 1 cup goat cheese crumbles
• 2 Roma tomatoes sliced
• 1 jar of sun dried tomatoes
• 1 bag baby spinach
• 1 can marinated artichoke hearts

Preheat oven to 500 degrees! Let pizza dough sit out and reach room temperature. Once it's room temp take a cookie sheet or pizza pan and spray it with non stick cooking spray. Spread pizza dough over cookie sheet. Spread pesto on dough (just enough to cover the whole thing). Then add the spinach, mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, goat cheese, and Roma tomatoes in that order! If you don't put the spinach and sun dried tomatoes under everything else, they will burn. Cook in oven for about 10-12 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn! Enjoy!

Sorry about the missing piece. I was hungry!!! Yum!!!!!!!

Marty

Meet Marty! He is our 1 & 1/2 year old son dog! He is half Golden Retriever for sure but the other half we are not so sure. Maybe lab? He is one of two pets we have. The other is Tina, our cat. She is Marty's best friend! I have no pictures of her because she refuses to be seen. She hates being petted and wants nothing to do with your lap!! Wierd cat.....anyway back to Marty.

Riley has croup, so yesterday I stayed home with her. They say dogs can sense when we are sick. After yesterday I agree!! He kept guard over her all day! He would lay with his head right next to her and occasionally lick her feet, hands, face, ears, etc..... He would look up at me everytime she started hacking! Poor thing. I love this pic because he knows he is not aloud around the baby (he still doesn't know how big he is and he tends to get too close for my liking). He has this "Oh Crap I'm In Trouble!" look!! I just wanted to share the adorableness of this moment. :)

Life Goes On

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on. ~ Robert Frost

In my short 31 years on this Earth there have been numerous times I have had to tell myself that life goes on. Growing up I did not have the "perfect mother". For many years I held that against her. It wasn't until I lost her and then became a mother myself that I was able to let go of that. I quickly realized that no mother is perfect. We learn as we go and make many mistakes.

When I had my daughter this past March I was beyond happy! I had two beautiful girls and a wonderful husband. Life was perfect. On the outside maybe, but on the inside I felt my World collapsing. I had this need to be the "perfect" mother/wife. There was never a moment when I was NOT needed. Instead of asking for help I tried to do it all myself. When I was unable to make the baby stop crying, or fold all the laundry, or get dinner on the table at a reasonable time, I began to look down on myself. I was clearly un-deserving of these two gorgeous children that I created and un-fit to be a mother. Or so I thought! There were times when I would sit on my bathroom floor and cry for an hour. I begged God to just make me disappear.

It didn't dawn on me that this was not normal until I went to my 6 week check up with my OB-GYN. She asked me how things were going and I immediately burst into tears. Sobbing, I told her how I felt disconnected from the rest of the World. I was sad at a time when I should have been overjoyed. You don't need a medical degree to figure out I had Postpartum Depression. We came up with a game plan that included yoga, a journal, and an anti-depressant. I did hours of research on the computer learning about PPD. It has been four months now and things are definitely better. I wrote this post to share with other Moms out there that are feeling or have felt the same. You are not alone and PPD is way more common then many people realize. I also want to put this all behind me. After "writing" it down...I feel like I can finally let go and move on....

For more information on PPD please visit:

http://www.ppdsupportpage.com/