Saturday Scoop

We had another nice weekend.  Matt and I had a date night Friday night, then we had a fun family Saturday.  Saturday morning, we took the boys to get donuts. 

Homecoming at Cal's school is next week and Monday's theme is Tie-Dye Day, so we decided to make our own shirts.  We did them each a spiral shirt and I had an extra shirt, so we also tried a vertical one for Brady.  Soaking first 

Finished.  They have to set for 24 hours.

I have to confess I may have messed them up.  I was suposed to leave the rubber bands on, rinse them, then put them in the wash.  I got so excited about seeing them that I cut the rubber bands before rinsing and you can see a couple of dye spots where it rubbed off.  Hoping they will not look horrible after the wash???? 

Matt picked Buffalo Chicken Dip for our Saturday Tailgate around the T.V. item of the week.

Serve with celery sticks and tortilla chips.  Most people serve Frittos Scoops with it, but we still had 1/2 bag of chips from our nachos from last weekend, so that is what we used. 

I can post this recipe if anyone is interested.  Also, I may turn the rest of this dip into another dish since there is so much left.  Thinking maybe Chicken Spaghetti or Buffalo Chicken Pizza.  Will let you know what we decide. 

The Recipes of the Pioneer Woman

Last week I came across my November 2009 Southern Living.  As I was flipping through I saw where I had turned down the page to an article with the Pioneer Woman.  The idea was to cook a beef brisket then have 3 different meals off the brisket. 

So Friday night Matt prepared the brisket and it cooked overnight so it would be ready for our first meal for Saturday lunch.  Since it was Saturday and we like to do tailgate food on Saturday (last Saturday I did Giada de Laurentiis meatball sliders) we started with the Cowboy Nachos............yummy!   

We did the nachos again on Sunday for lunch.  On Monday I heated up the brisket and made her Slow-Cooked Mushrooms to put over the brisket........seriously yummy butter and red wine in these mushrooms.  The smell was awesome!  I made potatoes and mixed greens also. 

Here is Brady eating his 2nd plate of "steak" and mushrooms.  Even Cal who doesn't eat meat had some.  I just told Brady it was steak because he has been asking for steak recently.  The other night we grilled sausage and he said, "I don't want sausage, I want steak!"

Matt thinks we saved the best meal for last..................Cowboy Dip Sandwiches (Tuesday night).  He stopped by Panera during his lunch hour and picked up some fresh sourdough bread and we topped it with brisket and pepper jack cheese.  I put jalapeno peppers on mine.  I think we could have each had a 2nd sandwich (but we didn't).

 

One REALLY happy husband!

My sandwich with jalapeno's below.

Brisket Cook-Athon was a success.  Wish I had taken a picture of the meatball sliders last Saturday.  Thinking I will post pictures of what tailgate food we do each Saturday (if I can keep it up).

Does This Mean It Was A Good Day?

Yes, those are Brady's NASTY feet!

We went to Moe's tonight because kids eat free and they were having face painting tonight.  We ended up running into several other families we knew and the kids had a great time.  We ate outside and the kids ran around, had their face's painted and maybe ate a little.  Needless to say my dirty, sweaty, painted children went straight from the car to the tub.

Both boys started with a shark, but it quickly rubbed off from their sweaty hair.  Please note the lost tooth on the bottom.  Yes, he lost his 3rd tooth on Sunday. 

Brady was upset that he could not see his shark, so he went back for a snake "tatoo".  H was really excited about the snake.

I guess Cal wanted to stick with a marine theme, so he went with the dolphin next.

Who knew a Tuesday night could be so much fun?

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Cal saw a kid with a mohawk at the mall on Saturday and wanted to try it out.  Seriously, he asked if he could have a mohawk one day...............scared I looked at Matt and said, "maybe over the summer?" Thought he might forget about it by summer?????  I can only hope.

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Here are a few from a trip to the park Brady and I took last Tuesday.  He wanted to take his stuffed dogs to the park, so we did.

He loved watching his shadow

Took several rolls down the hill

Found a big bug

Found some acorns

Finally made it to the playground with the dogs.  After the walk to the park and playing on the playground, he said he was too tired to walk back, so I carried him most of the way back home. 

Ten on 10 (Sept)

I decided to try something a friend of mine and her super creative Northern friends do.  You take a picture every hour for 10 hours on the 10th of the month.  I am going to disclaimer that my Friday of errands and frantic cleaning of the house when I got a call from a realator that wanted to show the house at 2:00 did not provide very exciting pictures.  I am going to try to be a little more creative next month.  I did have fun!

Started at 7:15.............Playing Batman figures with Brady

8:15.................Coffee.............

9:15........Going for a run...........

10:15.......Cool down with a glass of water and my daily quiet time..........

11:15...........Target to get granola bars that were on sale this week..................

12:15........Lunch in the car on the way to Publix...................

1:15........These are my favorite, had both boys waiting in the car so I could clean the house up before the showing at 2:00.  They took 40 pictures of the inside of the car........here are my favorites........

2:15..............Italian Ice in the car...........waiting to go back home.......

3:15........Going back home, sitting at a red light I realized how hot it was.......101!

4:15..........Wish I was ending on a nice camera shot...........but no......finally sitting down at the computer for my daily dose of reading blogs 

Much Needed Vacation

Matt and I took a much needed vacation over Labor Day.  It was Matt and I along with 3 other couples.  It just so happened that all the husbands play golf and all the wives play tennis (just in case we got up from the pool and wanted some exercise). 

 We flew out of Atlanta Thursday a.m. and arrived in Puerto Rico just in time to have lunch in the grill by the pool overlooking the water.  This is where we had lunch for the next 4 days, except the day we ate in our chairs by the pool.

Thursday, we ate lunch, took naps spent a little time by the pool (Matt took a little walk to the local market, the Pueblo) and we all decided to just stay at the Ritz and eat at the on-site steak house.  This would be the first of four nights that we would eat THE BEST FOOD.  So good in fact that we overate EVERY NIGHT! 

Here are pictures of the lobby, indoor bar/lounge and the pool.

Friday the guys went to play golf and the girls played some tennis then headed to the pool.  The girls spent the rest of the afternoon with our pool waiter named Phelix!  He was awesome.  We went to dinner Friday nigth at a restuarant that had been recommended by some friends and everyone else we mentioned it to.....Marmalade. The owner/cheif, Peter Schinter, spent a good bit of time at our table.  He studied in Europe, has worked in New York and Asia before settling in Puerto Rico.  I have pictures of the outside (that I took 2 nights later), but waiting on another couple to send pictures from dinner that night.  Side note: Just looked up Marmalade and found a picture of J.Lo and Marc Anthony eating dinner at Marmalade in 2008.   

Saturday we woke up and went fishing for Tarpin.  We had to do 2 couples in each boat.  Everyone caught a fish. 

This is our captin. I wasn't about to hold the fish!

After we changed from fishing, we ate lunch then took a wonderful nap on the beach under an umbrella. Matt and I decided we wanted to go walk around a bit and look for the boys a little something.  We found the El San Juan (the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen).  We were eating dinner at a resaurant called Koco that was insided the El San Juan later that night.  We found a shop with suvenieres, a Starbucks and a candy shop.  Needless to say we were super excited about going back for dinner.  Of couse dinner did not disappoint.

Matt declared Sunday that his goal was to do as little as possible (because playing golf and going fishing was so much work :).  So that callled for us to not move from the pool.  We didn't even go sit at a table in the grill for lunch, we had them bring us our food to our chairs.  Yes, waiters at your pool chairs was a "horrible" thing all weekend......they would notice when you finished your drink and come and ask if you were ready for another.......Matt also wanted to eat a local dish call Mofungo.  We were sent to a place called Cafe Puerto Rico.  Matt and I were able to do a little sight seeing before dinner.  One couple went on an excursion and the other two were playing tennis then meeting us for dinner.  Have to say that we decided the steak Mofungo was great, the shrimp, not so much.

It was a great trip.  We loved our adult time, but were ready to get back to the boys.  We would go back and even take the boys back one day. My grandparents lived in Puerto Rico for 2 years during WWII and visited several more times.  I can remember them going back for the last time when I was in middle school.