Ok...where did February go??

    Life sure never stands still that is one thing for certain. Every few days I fully intended to get on here and do an update...now Feb is gone and March is ...literally marching out the door too lol
  Feb was full of fun and love of course. We got to help out at the Valentines Day party and it was simply just a great time! Kids, desserts, drinks, valentines cards and lots of excitement lol The teacher did an excellent job on crafts and it was the same parent crew as usual. The kids had a ball and I love Kaya's face when she sees us come in the room. Wouldn't trade those moment for anything!!
   We broke Kosher this year lol and had a Valentines date just me and Steve. Kaya was a bit unhappy at first but then after playtime with Mammaw she was ok ;) It was nice to eat at our favorite place, talk and laugh. We've come to learn with a busy life, MS, a wild 6 yr old and work...whether it's a nice meal out or just five minutes over the kitchen sink...just talking and being together is nice. Life really is about the small things :)
  Feb was cold, snowy and..cold. Did I mention cold? I battled one snow storm after another it seems this month. When a barely 15 min drive to work turned into almost 40 minutes..that is insane! Road crews have done excellent...just a crazy winter.

New Years Day :)

   Kaya made it to 11 o'clock last night and then was out like a lightbulb. Steve tried to wake her to do her noise maker but she was out. She loved the little plastic wine glasses with sparkling grape juice. Steve and I did our traditional midnight toast and kiss. We've always said that it might not bring luck but who turns down a kiss from someone you really love?
   We've started a tradition of doing steaks on New Years Day. We are all steak eaters. Kaya and I usually split a steak..this year we are having Tbone. Steve has his own steak....porterhouse lol Steve makes his own rub and preps the steaks in the morning then grills them for a late lunch. Oh my! He does an excellent job! We all eat ours on the med rare side. We added in baked potato (for him and Kaya) and a baked sweet potato for me. I did a pan of rolls that came out wonderfully and used a good recipe for homemade cinnamon butter (butter, powder sugar, honey and cinnamon) for my potato and the rolls. Add in you HAVE to have cabbage in some form for the New Year so we had homemade coleslaw. Steve refuses cabbage period sooo just us girls had it lol
  Here's to hoping everyone's New Year is awesome and fun. Full of health, love, family and prosperity! 

and more recipes....

This picture doesn't do it justice...but I've been searching for a Spanish or Mexican rice that would rival our local Mexican restaurants. Steve will barely eat rice but LOVES Mexican rice. Soooo I tried this recipe and man alive..it's awesome. Not too sticky, not dry...just tastes like I got takeout!
  3 Tbsp veg oil 1 cup uncooked white rice
1 tsp minced garlic (one clove of garlic diced small)
1/2 tsp kosher salt 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup tomato sauce (just reg ole can sauce or your own home canned...don't use tomato spaghetti sauce!)
1 14oz can of chicken broth 3 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro
  Heat 3 tbsp veg or canola oil in your skillet. Add 1 cup of white rice (I use GV white rice quick cook). Stir the rice around in the oil and let cook till it begins to brown slightly (I won't lie..mine didn't turn too brown but it still came out great!). Add in  garlic, kosher salt, and cumin. Stir to mix and then let cook till it turns a golden shade. Add tomato sauce and broth and turn your heat up to bring it to a boil. Stir often. Add cilantro, reduce heat and let cook about 20 to 24 mins stirring occasionally. This rice is awesome!

    Of course no Mexican meal is complete without tortilla chips and white cheese sauce ;)  We fried up our own chips (much to Kaya's amazement) and we found a cheese sauce recipe we all gave a big thumbs up.
   White Cheese Sauce1/2 lb White American cheese (you can use sliced in the cheese section or get it at the deli in a large chunk. I used the sliced and it worked fine)
1/8 cup green chilies (I used canned chopped ones)
2 to 4 slices of pickled jalapenos, diced
1/3 cup whole milk (I used 2% and added a bit of heavy cream to it..worked fine)
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 oz pickled jalapeno juice (I just tipped a bit in it and didn't measure)
    Dice up the white cheese and put in a microwave safe bowl. Add milk to it. Microwave in 30 second intervals until cheese melts. Stir together with cold water. Really get your whisk into it. Add all the other ingredients and whisk till fairly smooth. As for the chips..simply get your oil to 350 degrees (I used a candy thermometer to keep my oil right at temp). Take a tortilla and cut into desired size chips making sure to cut in triangles. I simply cut across, then the opposite way and made say 12 chips or so out of each shell. Drop into oil and let it begin to turn golden. BE QUICK. It takes mere seconds for it to cook, flip once and then put into a towel lined bowl. Salt as desired. Again..be fast or you'll get some ugly nasty chips LOL
  We decided for New Years eve this year to have these dishes and it was awesome. Not a ton of prepping and cooking and everyone loved the recipes :)

White cheese sauce

homemade tortilla chips

Recipes.....

 I cook and bake..ALOT..lol and I love doing new recipes. We are not huge go to restaurant folks so I like to try something from a restaurant but make it at home. I have found some hits! First up I'll give you the recipe for White Sauce Enchiladas. Simple, hearty and actually taste like what you would get at a Mexican restaurant.
   Warm your skillet up and put a couple tablespoons of oil in it. I normally use canola or olive. Add 1 clove of garlic, diced to oil. Also add 3 lg diced fresh mushrooms, half a med onion diced, a bell pepper diced (I used half orange, half yellow just for the color) and 2 small diced tomatoes. Fry till onion and garlic are softer.Add about 2 cups of chunked chicken (I boil mine before frying..just easier to make sure it cooks through) or beef (use stir fry or fajita beef or even beef stew meat, just cut into smaller bits)Cook till completely warmed through (if you use raw chicken chunks then you'll have to cook till completely done). Take two good hands full of shredded cheese and put in meat mix. It should seem "stringy". I use whatever cheese I have on hand. Cover. Heat oven to 350.
  In a sauce pan put 3 Tablespoons of butter. Melt slowly. Slowly whisk in 3 Tbsps of flour It will thicken and almost look like sugar cookie dough. DO NOT freak out lol It's ok. Stir in 2 cups of chicken broth and continue to whisk until blended.Add about 1/4 a cup of diced green chilies, four slices of diced jalapeno and just a tip of the bottle of pickled jalapeno juice. Whisk. Remove from heat, stir in 1 cup of sour cream until smooth. Sit aside.
  Take a cake pan and lightly spray it. Take a soft tortilla shell and put a scoop or so of meat mix into it. Gently roll up and place seam side down in pan. Repeat till shells or meat mix is gone. Pour white sauce over shells. Spread it out so it's all really covered...over edges, between shells etc. I then sprinkle a tsp of fresh diced cilantro over the top and add a decent hand full of shredded cheese over the top.  Bake at 350 till cheese begins to brown slightly. Enjoy!!!


   To compliment the enchiladas you gotta have refried beans. But...no one likes that stiff out of can style. In a sauce pan dump your can of refried beans. When it begins to warm through stir in 1/3 cup of sour cream till smooth. Once it begins to get hot (NOT bubbling) remove from heat, sprinkle either mozzarella or Mexican shredded cheese on top and cover. Viola you have restaurant style beans :)

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

 I could post tons of family pictures, tons of pictures of Kaya opening gifts. Even tons of food pictures. But..I'm going to use these two pics for my Christmas post. Why? Because...to us Christmas is not just in our home..it's with family, family that has passed and with my little brother who is in California and can't be home (this is the 2nd year he can't be home..we've only had 2 actual Christmas's together in almost 6 yrs due to military and school)...so under these skies everyone was together :)
   We spent Cmas eve at home with our cousins, my mother in law, my Mom and Dad and a friend. It was awesome. Deep fried turkey, chili and potato soup, cheese ball, tons of pies. But it was just being together that made the evening. Cmas Day we got up to one super excited little girl that couldn't wait to open gifts..and she wasn't disappointed. Uncle J shipped her a new electric guitar..hot pink of course ;) and she was so happy, but missed him so much! Then we headed down home to the farm for the day. Way too much food, tons of family, cousin time and just being together. Exactly what the holiday is suppose to be about :)

A trip to see Santa...and a sweet cousin's bday

Kaya really wanted to see Santa this year. She's never really cared before one way or the other. Luckily the local Catholic church always hosts Santa along with a big breakfast and bazaar.  We opted out of the breakfast but Kaya happily waited her turn to tell Santa she wanted "LPS's mainly" for Christmas. To which poor Santa said "And what kind of games does that system play?" Kaya raised her eyebrow and said "It's littlest pet shops Santa. Not a game system." LOL She wrote it off as Santa's stand in (I know it's not the REAL Santa. The real Santa is too busy. This guy just takes notes) being tired and proceeded to do her craft. Each kid got a cute pic of themselves with Santa and could make it into a Cmas tree ornament. She loved that. As well as the elves helping lol
   We also celebrated Miss Addie turning 4 (on the 21st but her party is today). Hard to believe she's grew so quickly. She's bright, bubbly and lovable. Makes the cutest little faces. Her Mom all over again. Very thankful her and Kaya are buddies :)

Our first school Christmas party :)

  There is a good possibility that I might have been just as excited as Kaya for her party today lol Mrs W had her class Christmas party starting at 1 this afternoon and we all had a great time. I like the idea too instead of setting a certain price limit or drawing names that she just had each parent pick up a cheap coloring book, wrap it and write boy or girl on the front. Cut down on figuring out what to do and all the kids would basically get the same type of gift. We made adorable snowman cupcakes (half snowman...chocolate cake, half Cmas sprinkles...white cake due to one of Kaya's classmates not eating chocolate) that came out pretty cute. We also took a couple jugs of juice. We happily donated 48 cupcakes, plates, cups, napkins and two jugs of juice.
    

The teachers donated pizza for all the students, one parent donated her time and supplies so each child could make a cool Christmas tree ornament and then a couple of parents donated candy that went in the goody bags made by the teachers (each child got a new box of crayons, erasers, a pencil etc). The kids had a blast even though a few got upset over the book exchange because they thought they should get back their own books! lol A few parents didn't follow the rules and got expensive books with paint and markers on them etc but in general it went well. Kaya was super excited she got a new book. Of course Kaya's tooth decided to fall out right when they started to eat lol but she happily went to the office with her Daddy and got a cool tooth holder and rejoined the party :)
I LOVE that Steve comes to the parties. Rarely do any Dads ever help (I will say one besides Steve did this time!!) and the boys just love having Steve's attention. He listens to them, talks to them and really played up their cool books. It was nice to see the boys interacting with him. It does Steve good too.

reindeer games ;)

You would think that the party would last all the rest of the day since it started at 1 and school gets out at 2:50 but...the school only allotted from 1 to 2ish for the party and then the kids had to go to their special that day, which was PE. Mrs W told us to go with the kids and have fun watching them.
Oh we had a ball and tried hard to not laugh out loud. You have to picture a gym teacher complete with whistle and 1950s gung ho attitude towards phys ed with 20 kindergarten kids! LOL But she kept her cool well and sat up hula hoops in the middle of the gym. The kids had to pretend to be elves feeding the reindeer (hoops) with special feed (bean bags) after sledding (they use roller things) over to the deer. It was very comical. But the kids did well, even though a few had no attention span at all!!! The gym teacher did introduce herself and tell us that Kaya is a good kid, sweet and always tries. We also discussed her cough she had from her croup/mild asthma so that the gym teacher knew exactly what it was. She knows Kaya has an inhaler etc so it's not a biggie. All in all the gym time was fun and I'm glad we got invited to attend.
The whole day was fun! Love seeing Kaya so excited we helped out. Love hearing all the chatter. I think the neat thing was they split the room by girls and boys and each teacher did a special story for the coloring book swap. It was hilarious to watch the kids practice right and left!