What lengths would you go to for money?
Would you prance your little white self around and RAP on the internet?
Y'ALL KNOW I WOULD!!!!!!
Now, Unless you're into IT and computer stuff, this probably won't make sense. It doesn't make sense to me, but somehow I wrote a rap about it.
Apart from not making sense, I think it's pretty flipping hilarious. (Especially if you would LOVE to see me humiliate myself)
If we get enough hits we could win enough money for everyone to have a SWEET Christmas this year.
This was absolutely painstaking......please enjoy and feel free to watch it over and over.....and clear your cookies and watch it some more!!!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Who Knew You Could Have THIS Much Fun With Kids?
Due to.....extenuating circumstances....Joe is staying home the rest of the summer. Having never been a "stay at home Mother" I have given myself a challenge of coming up with fun things to do.
Fun things like staying up all night to write the papers I no longer have time to do during the day.
I kid. But seriously, Joe is the type of kid who needs constant stimulation. If he has something to do, he behaves. If not, well, that's for another day.
Friday, my best friend Tabatha and I took the kids to Helena where we played in a creek, played on a playground, and had lunch at a place called "The Depot."
We started on the playground.
Where Hartley posed like a supermodel.
Joe played on a tire swing.
Grayson barked orders at the rest of us.
And Tab and I took our first picture together after being friends for over a year!
They got good and sandy and Tabatha took pictures because "she loves butt!!"
We climbed trees and took pictures to document our bravery.
Or maybe to document our cute swimsuits.
Yea, that was probably it.
Grayson and Hartley showed us their tree poses.
After we got in the water...
Joe threw rocks, his favorite pastime.
I flexed my photography muscles.
Hartley took a faceplant in the water and WAS NOT happy. Check out that brotherly love in the corner! I love it!
I tried unsuccessfully to take a group photo of a 6, almost 3, and 1 year old.
It was a good day :)
Fun things like staying up all night to write the papers I no longer have time to do during the day.
I kid. But seriously, Joe is the type of kid who needs constant stimulation. If he has something to do, he behaves. If not, well, that's for another day.
Friday, my best friend Tabatha and I took the kids to Helena where we played in a creek, played on a playground, and had lunch at a place called "The Depot."
We started on the playground.
Where Hartley posed like a supermodel.
Joe played on a tire swing.
Grayson barked orders at the rest of us.
And Tab and I took our first picture together after being friends for over a year!
They got good and sandy and Tabatha took pictures because "she loves butt!!"
We climbed trees and took pictures to document our bravery.
Or maybe to document our cute swimsuits.
Yea, that was probably it.
Grayson and Hartley showed us their tree poses.
After we got in the water...
Joe threw rocks, his favorite pastime.
I flexed my photography muscles.
Hartley took a faceplant in the water and WAS NOT happy. Check out that brotherly love in the corner! I love it!
I tried unsuccessfully to take a group photo of a 6, almost 3, and 1 year old.
It was a good day :)
Monday, July 20, 2009
Goodbye to the Dinner Doctor- Chicken Fajita Wraps
This is the last recipe from the Dinner Doctor before she ships off to Valerie tomorrow (At least until I break down and buy another copy).
These chicken fajita wraps were absolutely delicious, super easy, customizable, and the best part is that they don't stink up your house like regular fajitas!!
Meet the all-star ensemble:
Here's the good thing about the Dinner Doctor, she's flexible. She's not going to show up at your door with a rolling pin and an angry eyebrow if you doctor her recipes a bit.
Things you definitely need-
Chicken
Fajita Seasoning
Burrito sized tortillas
Pepper Jack Cheese
Take your own liberties here- (I used the following)
Black Beans
Mexicorn
Green onions
Bell Pepper
Tomato
Throw in what YOU like, avocado, salsa, cilantro, onion...etc.
Enough yapping,
Dice up the chicken (I used 2 breasts) and toss it with the fajita seasoning. Dang, I need a better camera....probably a user error.
Saute that chicken until it's done
When the chicken is done (or almost done) dice up your fresh vegetables (excluding tomatoes, they go in close to the end.)
and.....you guessed it! Throw 'em in.
Let that hang out for a couple of minutes and......
Add your drained black beans and corn.
Now is a good time to add the tomatoes so they get just a little bit soft, but not slimy and mushy.
Give all that a good 2 minutes or so.
MMMMMMM.........
You know what, forget the tortillas, just give me a spoon!!
But, NO, I can't do that, because then I would miss the best part,
Delicious, soft, spicy, hand-shredded by my dear starving husband PEPPER JACK CHEESE!
Holy Mother, I didn't know how much I loved pepper jack cheese until I tried it yesterday!
This girl has been deprived of cheese for too long!
Seriously though, this cheese made the dish have juuuuust enough spice. Do yourself a favor and do not substitute this cheese.
Layer the cheese, fajita mixture, and some brown rice inside a tortilla and do the burrito envelop if you can. (Since I just got a new video camera, I smell a burrito tutorial coming.)
Y'all, these were SO good and they will definitely be going in the dinner rotation!
I'll miss you Dinner Doctor! Come back soon!
These chicken fajita wraps were absolutely delicious, super easy, customizable, and the best part is that they don't stink up your house like regular fajitas!!
Meet the all-star ensemble:
Here's the good thing about the Dinner Doctor, she's flexible. She's not going to show up at your door with a rolling pin and an angry eyebrow if you doctor her recipes a bit.
Things you definitely need-
Chicken
Fajita Seasoning
Burrito sized tortillas
Pepper Jack Cheese
Take your own liberties here- (I used the following)
Black Beans
Mexicorn
Green onions
Bell Pepper
Tomato
Throw in what YOU like, avocado, salsa, cilantro, onion...etc.
Enough yapping,
Dice up the chicken (I used 2 breasts) and toss it with the fajita seasoning. Dang, I need a better camera....probably a user error.
Saute that chicken until it's done
When the chicken is done (or almost done) dice up your fresh vegetables (excluding tomatoes, they go in close to the end.)
and.....you guessed it! Throw 'em in.
Let that hang out for a couple of minutes and......
Add your drained black beans and corn.
Now is a good time to add the tomatoes so they get just a little bit soft, but not slimy and mushy.
Give all that a good 2 minutes or so.
MMMMMMM.........
You know what, forget the tortillas, just give me a spoon!!
But, NO, I can't do that, because then I would miss the best part,
Delicious, soft, spicy, hand-shredded by my dear starving husband PEPPER JACK CHEESE!
Holy Mother, I didn't know how much I loved pepper jack cheese until I tried it yesterday!
This girl has been deprived of cheese for too long!
Seriously though, this cheese made the dish have juuuuust enough spice. Do yourself a favor and do not substitute this cheese.
Layer the cheese, fajita mixture, and some brown rice inside a tortilla and do the burrito envelop if you can. (Since I just got a new video camera, I smell a burrito tutorial coming.)
Y'all, these were SO good and they will definitely be going in the dinner rotation!
I'll miss you Dinner Doctor! Come back soon!
Cookbook Winner!
The winner of the Dinner Doctor's awesome cookbook is.............................................
Comment Number 18..................Valerie
Valerie, please email me at rachel.p.robinson@gmail.com with your shipping info. Congratulations!
Comment Number 18..................Valerie
Valerie, please email me at rachel.p.robinson@gmail.com with your shipping info. Congratulations!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
The Storytelling Goat and Other Saturday Follies
This Saturday was as fun as a barrel of monkeys (after Jason and I got over our typical outing sourness). We went to Downtown Birmingham to Pepper Place Market to get some local produce. I didn't have a solid idea of what I needed so we just kind of looked around purposelessly, which gave Jason stomach cramps. The man likes to have a plan. We ended up with some peas, squash and peaches.
Then we went to 5 points south and wandered around looking for somewhere to eat. Due to our general indecisiveness, I wound up having to make the decision, a decision which no one was happy with. But I'm not going to saturate my blog with bad restaurant reviews. SO after we ate, we walked around for a little while and found:
A goat reading a story
To a deer on a dog's back.
I love downtown.
I also found Quinlan Castle
I hope they do something with it, it's too cool not to!
We also went to a HUGE yard sale coordinated my my dear friend Tina's church to help a local community. We bought SO MUCH STUFF we had to bring the car around to get it. We only spent TWELVE DOLLARS!
Joe racked up the most,
He is set for a while on clothes. Many of them were brand new!
I also got some clothes (expensive brands that I wouldn't normally buy) AND
This beautiful brand new bundt pan and a brand new salad spinner in the box.
How can this day get any better you ask?
Only with a trip to Costco to finally buy the furniture I've been drooling over for my foyer.
This cute little bench,
And this fun chest to match the artwork!
But wait, there's more...
We ate dinner at Joe's Italian which I LOVE and had this for desert:
I hope y'all know I only eat stuff like this once in a blue moon, but my goodness was it worth it!
What a wonderful day!
Then we went to 5 points south and wandered around looking for somewhere to eat. Due to our general indecisiveness, I wound up having to make the decision, a decision which no one was happy with. But I'm not going to saturate my blog with bad restaurant reviews. SO after we ate, we walked around for a little while and found:
A goat reading a story
To a deer on a dog's back.
I love downtown.
I also found Quinlan Castle
I hope they do something with it, it's too cool not to!
We also went to a HUGE yard sale coordinated my my dear friend Tina's church to help a local community. We bought SO MUCH STUFF we had to bring the car around to get it. We only spent TWELVE DOLLARS!
Joe racked up the most,
He is set for a while on clothes. Many of them were brand new!
I also got some clothes (expensive brands that I wouldn't normally buy) AND
This beautiful brand new bundt pan and a brand new salad spinner in the box.
How can this day get any better you ask?
Only with a trip to Costco to finally buy the furniture I've been drooling over for my foyer.
This cute little bench,
And this fun chest to match the artwork!
But wait, there's more...
We ate dinner at Joe's Italian which I LOVE and had this for desert:
I hope y'all know I only eat stuff like this once in a blue moon, but my goodness was it worth it!
What a wonderful day!
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Dinner Doctor's Crab Cakes
I need to say something.....I LOVE CRAB CAKES! I also love crab claws, crab soup and most importantly, snow crab legs!
Okay, now that we have that admission out of the way, I'm bringing you the second recipe of my Dinner Doctor book, which of course, I doctored a little myself.
First you will need:
(I accidentally left a few things out of the picture)
1. 2 slices of white bread (I had some hamburger buns I needed to use)
2 1 cup of fresh parsley (I thought it was way too much so you might cut it in half)
3. 4 scallions
4. 2 tbsp Mayo (I used my trusty light olive oil mayo)
5. 1 tsp of creole mustard ( I had dijon on hand and added a few dashes of hot sauce)
6. 1 tsp Worchester sauce
7. 1 egg
8. 1 lb of lump crab meat (found mine at costco with the canned tuna, but if you live coastal, fresh will be juuuuust fine)
9. lemon wedges for serving
Roughly chop the green onion and parsley so it will fit in a food processor.
Then, tear your bread into chunks so it will fit too. As I said, I used a hamburger bun. I also peeled off the crust because I'm neurotic.
Reminds me of a certain episode of Spongebob.
Pulse that up for about 30 seconds
Add your mayo, mustard, worchester, hot sauce, and egg. Then pulse it up a little more.
I'm not sure all this was necessary, but since it was canned crab, I drained it, rinsed it, and dried it off with a paper towel. Neurotic I tell ya.
Mix the bread crumb mixture (too much parsley in my humble opinion) with the crab meat
And make some cute little cakes!
I made small cakes rather than large ones recommended by the Dinner Doctor because you run less risk of them falling apart on you in the pan.
The book recommends frying them in vegetable oil which is probably fine, but I just put a little olive oil in the pan and just kind of seared them. With calphalon, I didn't even really need the oil.
About a minute on each side will suffice.
When they're done, squeeze some lemon on them.
And try to be nice and share!
The recipe also includes a sauce for them, but I rarely bastardize seafood in such a way.
REMEMBER, THIS RECIPE IS FROM A BOOK I'M GIVING AWAY!
DON'T FORGET TO ENTER!
Okay, now that we have that admission out of the way, I'm bringing you the second recipe of my Dinner Doctor book, which of course, I doctored a little myself.
First you will need:
(I accidentally left a few things out of the picture)
1. 2 slices of white bread (I had some hamburger buns I needed to use)
2 1 cup of fresh parsley (I thought it was way too much so you might cut it in half)
3. 4 scallions
4. 2 tbsp Mayo (I used my trusty light olive oil mayo)
5. 1 tsp of creole mustard ( I had dijon on hand and added a few dashes of hot sauce)
6. 1 tsp Worchester sauce
7. 1 egg
8. 1 lb of lump crab meat (found mine at costco with the canned tuna, but if you live coastal, fresh will be juuuuust fine)
9. lemon wedges for serving
Roughly chop the green onion and parsley so it will fit in a food processor.
Then, tear your bread into chunks so it will fit too. As I said, I used a hamburger bun. I also peeled off the crust because I'm neurotic.
Reminds me of a certain episode of Spongebob.
Pulse that up for about 30 seconds
Add your mayo, mustard, worchester, hot sauce, and egg. Then pulse it up a little more.
I'm not sure all this was necessary, but since it was canned crab, I drained it, rinsed it, and dried it off with a paper towel. Neurotic I tell ya.
Mix the bread crumb mixture (too much parsley in my humble opinion) with the crab meat
And make some cute little cakes!
I made small cakes rather than large ones recommended by the Dinner Doctor because you run less risk of them falling apart on you in the pan.
The book recommends frying them in vegetable oil which is probably fine, but I just put a little olive oil in the pan and just kind of seared them. With calphalon, I didn't even really need the oil.
About a minute on each side will suffice.
When they're done, squeeze some lemon on them.
And try to be nice and share!
The recipe also includes a sauce for them, but I rarely bastardize seafood in such a way.
REMEMBER, THIS RECIPE IS FROM A BOOK I'M GIVING AWAY!
DON'T FORGET TO ENTER!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Asian Chicken Salad: Courtesy of the Dinner Doctor
This recipe is inspired by...well, almost exactly like...the one from the Dinner Doctor book that I'm giving away. It's the first of 3 I'm going to cook before I give the book away on Monday. This was ridiculously easy and took very little time. Plus, I imagine it will keep in the refrigerator for a few days.
Here's what you will need:
The Dinner Doctor book of course...but I guess not since I'm putting the recipe on here.
Some chicken breasts (My grill was still hot from hamburgers, so I threw them on, but you can bake or saute them as well.
1 pack of oriental flavored ramen noodles uncooked (I'm not even gonna lie...I love ramen!)
A few green onions
Fresh Parsley (The book called for cilantro, but I had to buy parsley anyway for another recipe, so I just used parsley)
1 bag of coleslaw mix
1 broccoli crown
Dressing (I'm using Ken's light asian toasted sesame because it was buy one get one free at Publix, but you can mix up your own vinaigrette too....Take the shortcut where you can)
Put your coleslaw mix in a giant bowl. This is a hot topic I'm sure, but I don't wash bagged salad. Publix tells me it's "triple washed and ready to eat" I trust those guys.
Chop the onion, parsley, broccoli, chicken, and break up the uncooked ramen noodles.
Dump it all in the bowl.
Mix it all up reeeeeaaaaal good.
So it looks like this!
For the dressing, I'm using this:
And doctoring it up a little with this:
The seasoning from the ramen noodles
The book gives you a couple of ideas for the dressing, but I figured this way was pretty healthy (minus the ramen sodium of course!)
Don't dress the salad until you put it on your plate. This way, it will stay fresh and crunchy for a few days.
That was easy enough, right?
I can't wait to make the next two recipes before the giveaway!
Don't forget to enter!
Here's what you will need:
The Dinner Doctor book of course...but I guess not since I'm putting the recipe on here.
Some chicken breasts (My grill was still hot from hamburgers, so I threw them on, but you can bake or saute them as well.
1 pack of oriental flavored ramen noodles uncooked (I'm not even gonna lie...I love ramen!)
A few green onions
Fresh Parsley (The book called for cilantro, but I had to buy parsley anyway for another recipe, so I just used parsley)
1 bag of coleslaw mix
1 broccoli crown
Dressing (I'm using Ken's light asian toasted sesame because it was buy one get one free at Publix, but you can mix up your own vinaigrette too....Take the shortcut where you can)
Put your coleslaw mix in a giant bowl. This is a hot topic I'm sure, but I don't wash bagged salad. Publix tells me it's "triple washed and ready to eat" I trust those guys.
Chop the onion, parsley, broccoli, chicken, and break up the uncooked ramen noodles.
Dump it all in the bowl.
Mix it all up reeeeeaaaaal good.
So it looks like this!
For the dressing, I'm using this:
And doctoring it up a little with this:
The seasoning from the ramen noodles
The book gives you a couple of ideas for the dressing, but I figured this way was pretty healthy (minus the ramen sodium of course!)
Don't dress the salad until you put it on your plate. This way, it will stay fresh and crunchy for a few days.
That was easy enough, right?
I can't wait to make the next two recipes before the giveaway!
Don't forget to enter!
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My favorite thing to cook and my family's favorite thing to eat.
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