Show Us Your Life - Favorite Recipes!

This is my first time participating in Kelly's Show us Your Life tour. This week's theme is favorite recipes. I am far from being a good cook, and most of my favorite recipes are "borrowed" from other people. Some of my favorites though are listed below.

No Bake Cheesecake - better than the "real thing"!

-I'm not exactly sure of the origins of this recipe. My mom used to make it all the time when I was little. It was my Dad's favorite and now it is Rob's favorite as well. I believe my aunt got this recipe from a sorority sister of hers back in the 60's. It's delicious.

First, you need to make a graham cracker crust. You can use a store bought one if you must. Personally I think they're nasty, but whatever floats your boat. Here's how to make a homemade one....

1 1/2 sleeves graham crackers

1/2 c sugar

1 stick (give or take) butter

-crush the graham crackers in a baggie. I usually throw them in a large ziplock, break them up some with my hands, then use a rolling pin to crush them up really fine.

-put the crumbs in a bowl and mix in the sugar

-let the butter soften, then either use your hands or a pastry cutter to mix in the butter (I use my hands, it's more fun).

-spread the mixture into a pie dish and press it firmly down in the bottom as well as along the sides.

-bake in a 350* preheated oven for roughly 10 min.

-make sure you allow the crust to cool before adding the filling!

Filling:

1 pkg. cream cheese

1/4 c. lemon juice

1 can sweetened condensed milk

-let the cream cheese soften, then mix the ingredients together on high, till it's not lumpy anymore (mine is usually still a little lumpy b/c I'm impatient and don't let the cream cheese soften enough).

-after the pie crust cools, spread the filling in the crust & place in the refrigerator for a few hours till it's firm. Don't eat too much at once or you'll get a belly ache!

That's about as original as my cooking gets. However, here are some links to some of my other favorite recipes!

Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies

these are worthy of being sold in a bakery, I promise!

Spicy Chicken Farfalle

The Best Chocolate Cake

Bacon Cheeseburger Chicken

Onion Strings

Chicken Parmesan

Cincinnati Trip & other Randomness

Okay, I hate blogger - I added this picture late and since it's a total PITA to move them I had to leave it here at the top. This is B this morning before church. I thought he looked too cute in his polo and jeans and had to snap a pic.

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post! Actually, I can. I'm the worlds worst blogger. I'd much rather read other people's blogs than write about my own boring life. Which reminds me - I updated my blogroll on the side, I've found some more fun blogs to waste countless hours of my life reading! Enjoy!

Well we made it home from our trip to Cincy in one piece and without any major meltdowns (by either Brady or myself). Which was a lot better than our trip up there - Brady didn't like the plane rides too well. The plane rides were actually heaven compared to the first few nights we were there though - Brady hardly slept at all for the first 3 nights. It was a nightmare for me! And we are crazy enough that we are going to do it all over again in about 2 months! Rob's brother is getting married Memorial Day weekend and we plan on flying up there for about a week. Hopefully though things will be easier since Rob will be traveling with us this time. At least he can shield my boobs from onlookers as I try to nurse a screaming child in the airport and on the plane! Oh, how I feel for those poor souls who had to sit next to me on our last trip!

So, let's get on with it. Here are just a few photos from our trip. I took a TON, but I hate uploading them - it takes too long to do and it's too hard to rearrange them. Does anyone else have this problem?

Brady with 3 of his girlfriends (the kids of 2 of my friends from high school)

We had a mini high school reunion with our offspring! It was so good to see these girls again. I hadn't seen many of them in 8 years!!! Too long to go without seeing good friends!

Mike, Macy & Devin...the real reason we made the trip in the 1st place - Macy's 1st B-day party!

Brady & Macy hamming it up. They LOVED eachother!

Brady turned 5 months while we were there. 

Brady with another girlfriend, Lola. Lola's mommy (Sarah) and I were sorority sisters in college. They live in Nashville now, but happened to be in town that weekend. Check out the look on Brady's face - meltdown in action!

Aside from a little health scare from my dad, which landed our family in the emergency room one night, we had a great trip up north and I'm now itching more than ever to pack up our house and move! Unfortunately we haven't had any showings in a very long time. My friend Katie told me that I should plant a St. Joseph figurine in my yard to bring good luck. She said it worked for both her sister and parents when they were selling their homes. I had never heard of this before so I googled it and sure enough lots of information came up about this. I haven't bought my figurine yet, but I'm gonna try to find some time this week to get one. Hey, whatever works, right?

Katie also sent me a facebook message today to tell me she loved the Chicken Fafalle recipe I blogged about last year. This got me thinking that I should really do a favorite recipe post since I've really started enjoying cooking.  I'll link to (or post the recipes) of my favorites and if anyone has any of their own they can comment and add to the list. I'm gonna force myself to get started on this and (hopefully) it won't be another month before I get it up!

Nursery Progress & other randomness

So I know that originally I had talked about ordering our nursery furniture from the Land of Nod. But after receiving the crib and being disappointed in the quality we went looking for more options and found this line of furniture (Cocoon) in a local furniture store. We place our order 9 days ago and were told that it would take 5-6 weeks before it arrived. Imagine our delight & shock when they called yesterday to let us know it was here! I could not be happier with our purchase. Even though the crib was nearly double what the one at the Land of Nod was it is definitely worth every penny. 

Our new crib does have a *small* issue - there was a knot in the wood on one of the side rails which caused a small split in the wood (about an inch long). So I called the furniture store and they are ordering a replacement piece for us. Thankfully they can just send the one piece and not an entire new crib (transportation is a hassle). Other than this issue we are so pleased. The crib is VERY sturdy as are the dresser/hutch pieces. And the drawers on the dresser....oh, how they glide so smoothly! Here are a few pictures of the progress we have made in the nursery so far...

This is the corner where we will put the glider/ottoman 

we ordered.

In other news.....I did make the Chicken Farfalle dish that I mentioned previously. And it was DELICIOUS!!! Click (here) for the recipe. I was so proud of myself. Normally Rob despises pasta dishes so I wasn't sure if he would enjoy it or not, but he LOVED it. When I asked him if he wanted me to package the leftovers so he could take them to work for lunch his reply was "Yes! Hell Yes!" It kinda made me feel all warm & fuzzy inside :)

Here's a pic of our leftovers - again we were too excited & too hungry to wait around while I photographed our dinner before we ate it. 

Right now I am preparing for our trip to Cincy. I even took the time to bake some peanut butter cookies to snack on while we are in the car. Now I just need to finish some laundry & get the pets ready. I am LOVING being out of school - now I actually have time to accomplish all these things, whereas before I would be running around like a crazy person right before we left. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that I finally graduated from college with a pseudo "real" degree? Monday, was officially my last day! I now have a BA in History - what will I ever use this for? Probably nothing. Actually hopefully nothing - I pray that I remain fortunate enough to never need to work outside the house and can be a career homemaker - because I am loving it so much:)

Good Recipes!

Everyone who knows me in "real life" knows how big of a picky eater I am and understands how exciting it is for me when I find a new recipe that I actually like. My friend, Britni, told me about another fun blog (Kevin & Amanda) where Amanda has some really neat fonts & good recipes posted. 

Last night for dinner I made her Bacon Cheeseburger Chicken which was excellent. And get this - the recipe included Teriyaki sauce AND ranch dressing. Thats right....I ACTUALLY ate something that had two foreign substances on it - and I liked it! Maybe I'm ready to be an adult after all. This morning I made her breakfast casserole and it was very yummy as well. Here's a picture of the one I made (I cut the recipe in half).

I wish I would have remembered to take a picture of the Bacon Cheeseburger Chicken, but we were too excited and ate it before I remembered. You can find a picture (and recipes for both) by clicking on the names above. 

Tomorrow I'm trying her Becky Higgens' Garlic Chicken Farfalle, which she describes as "the most amazing, most flavorful pasta ever". I'm trusting her on this since she was right about the other two recipes. I'll let you know how it turns out.