Best Day EVER!!

Well, maybe not ever, but it was definitely a good one, which I needed after yesterday. Yesterday was filled with computer problems at work, kid problems at home and was one of those days where it seemed best to just call it a day and start over tomorrow. Once the house cleared out and calmed down, Lucas and I decided to make an spontaneous "what's in the fridge?" dinner. We decided on some mashed potatoes and veggies, which became an "out of the crust" pot pie. We had some left over chicken from Sunday's cook out, and I mixed up a quick gravy, added the chicken and the Full Circle Organic Mixed Veggies that were left in the freezer and like magic, we had a yummy, hearty dinner that we didn't even know was there!


At the same time, we decided to make our Sweet Watermelon Rind Pickles. We had the watermelon soaking for 2 days, which is 1 day longer than instructed, but I had forgotten to buy sugar the day before.
The recipe was super easy to make, and I just hope that I did it all right! The one thing I had to change was that I didn't have whole cloves, allspice and cinnamon sticks. I used the ground spices and mixed it right in with the syrup. I was a little disappointed because it turned the syrup brown, of course, so I added a little red food coloring to the mix....

And to the wine glass...


And to my face.... I made a mess.



In the end, the jars came out pretty great.



After dinner, we made a special recipe given to me by my boss. He calls them Monkeys in a Blanket. It goes like this:
2 slices of white bread
drizzle of honey
sprinkle of cinnamon
1 banana
2 tbsp of butter, melted.

Roll out the bread with a rolling pin until good and flat. Drizzle honey on the bread and place 1/2 a banana on top of that. Roll the bread around the banana. Sprinkle the cinnamon in the melted butter, then roll the bread/banana in the butter to coat. Place in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes and you get sweet, hot, gooey, sticky, toasted bananas.





We finished the night with some tv, which Chuck rather enjoyed, too.




Today started out good enough - got to work, no computer issues, got some stuff done. Then I got a message on Twitter from Lowes Foods. They had read my blog entries about their store (see below)and thanked me and offered to send me a free cookbook! Score!!!! I decided right then that I need to pay more attention to my blog, since it's already paid off and I didn't even try!! That led to my awesome husband creating the new title for me...great job, baby!! Then, this afternoon, my brand new food dehydrator arrived at the office. I had mentioned to my boss that I really wanted one, and he went ordered one for me right away! Best Boss EVER, and I'm not exaggerating that one! Finally, my friend and receptionist, Liz, bought a HUMONGOUS watermelon at Bilo (I swear it weighed at LEAST 50 pounds!) She came and asked me to help her cut it up and that used up the rest of my dragging afternoon. I'm hoping to have a picture to post soon so you can see just how huge it is! I sent her my watermelon pickle recipe so she can use the tons of rind she'll have left over!

So I rushed straight home, put down my bags and broke out the dehydrator immediately! I sliced some bananas, apples and kiwi and got them going.


For dinner, I somehow ended up with 5 kids here to feed, so I made them the old standby of grilled hot dogs and a pan of macaroni and cheese. Lucas and I had stuffed cabbage rolls. We had some leftover Spanish Rice from Saturday. I boiled some cabbage leaves and sauteed some chopped up zucchini, mushrooms, pepper and onion. I added the left over spanish rice and some diced tomatoes to the mix and warmed it all through. The cabbage leaves came out so green and not rubbery like cabbage usually is. I wrapped up the rice stuffing, put them in a little casserole dish, topped them with more tomatoes and baked them. Soooo yummy!!





And that brings us to now. Lucas and I have barricaded ourselves in the bedroom and let the kids have the living room and the Xbox. Time for some tv and the stack of Better Homes and Gardens, Southern Living and Cooking Light magazines that are piling up, neglected by me.

Have a great night, everyone!