happy birthday mom!

roth

one of my [secret] favorite things to do is writing.  go in our basement and you will find a box of seven white binders (lindsay you still have yours) that contains one of my prized possessions that im fairly sure even joe has no clue exists.  roth is still sitting and waiting [haunting me] hoping for me to come and pick it back up. i still can remember when i said, i will finish this before i turn 21, i will finish this before i move to atlanta, i will finish this before i get married...none of which have actually gone through. maybe i haven't been on a long enough airplane ride to really get my mind going lately...


so its all there in 200 typed pages of the roughest draft i think anyone could construe and now i wish i had a friend who was an editor and would do me a huge favor by getting out a bright red pen and tear it to pieces and drawing big question marks and circles saying this makes no sense.


maybe now i'm going to really put my foot down...two choices are in front of me, either you finish it or forget about it...if you're going to finish it, you'll do so before you get that puppy! or maybe it will take a puppy to inspire me some more...


its the one thing i can't get off my legal pad to-do list...ill go ahead and say, im not going to survive my 20 somethings without finishing roth...as for realistic deadlines i'll shoot for 30. surviving the start of my 20s did however start in a jail cell of a room, half way across the world, crammed on the most uncomfortable bed ever with your 5 best friends in front of the sorriest excuse of a honeywell with a box of tissues and chomping teeth...boy oh boy has dr. edwards come a long way from australia! 

my go to menu

here are some super easy/safe bet/guarenteed good faves of mine that are part of my go to menu when i have guests! if you've ever been over and havent had salmon at the house you need to come back...it is one of my many go to recipes that is a safe bet and by far amazing probably because it came from one of the most amazing moms i know!


kath girl's salmon
salmon
marinate salmon in lemon pepper seasoning, lime juice, and olive oil for as long as you'd like (a few hours is plenty)...preheat oven to 350 and put the salmon on a foil lined cookie sheet skin side down--youll thank me later for this because clean up is a million times easier! put a little square of butter on the top and squeeze a little bit of lime juice on it and bake until it bubbles white in the middle of the salmon--remove from oven and cover it with the sauce (below)


the sauce (best part)
get a small container of light sour cream, a few spoon fulls of diced jalapenos, a tsp of salt, a tsp of pepper, and 3 tbsp of lime juice and mix that together...it gets spicier the longer that you let it sit but even people like kate who think mild salsa is spicy can eat it immediately prepared.


i'm not sure that i've ever spent time with my in laws when come on in salad has not been on the menu--it is one of those classic good foods that you think you could [and often do] eat and then continue to pick at even after you're full...


come on in salad
romaine lettuce
broccoli florets (cut up really small--no stems)
toasted ramen noodles (scrunch up just the noodles--no flavor packet--and then brown in a skillet with a little butter)
handful of walnuts


the dressing (dress the salad at the very last second so it doesn't get soggy & don't you dare use all of this dressing on one bowl of salad!)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp soy sauce


this cheater chocolate chocolate chip pound cake [my husbands weakness] is amazing...it's actually one of pig's mother's recipes but i have made it a staple at our house--sadly i don't even need to look in the cook book for this or any of the recipes on this page any longer.  last night i made it though with peanut butter chips and it was yummy too!


chocolate chip pound cake
the cake
1 box vanilla cake mix
1 big box (or 2 little boxes) instant chocolate pudding
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1-1/2 cups water
6 oz chocolate chips...however i use the whole darn bag!--sub or add in other chips if you want to change it up.


dump everything but the chips in the kitchen aid mixer...blend that up till it looks like cake batter and then with a spatula fold in the chocolate chips.


bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes...the key is though to check it at about 40 minutes by sliding a knife in the middle to see how goopy it is...45 minutes is the longest ive cooked it in a convection oven and in a conventional oven 50 is the longest--should be gooey when you get it out but not too raw...


optional glaze/drizzle
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp butter
milk...just add a tbsp at a time until it gets to the consistency that you want it to be...varies every time i make it
*if you want it to be chocolate add some cocoa powder to the mix!


bon appetit to some guaranteed good foods! 

happily ever afters

cheers to happily ever afters! lindsey and adam came over last night to celebrate their big weekend last weekend...birthdays and engagement! i decided to whip out the china and silver after all...linen napkins and placemats...we have it and might as well use it! i'm sure i'll be kicking myself later when its time to iron them again but it will be well worth it! love having people over too who aren't here every day because its a great excuse to have a clean house!

on the menu last night...
come on in salad
kath girl's baked salmon
joes new favorite cous cous balls
broccoli
chocolate peanut butter chip pound cake

working to type up the recipes and share...

productive thursdays

so today was my first official day driving the new car to work...while simultaneously having the gps and bluetooth going i will say it was a success--only problem now is that i have to stop at the toll booth with quarters versus my cruise card until i get a new license plate! what a drag...

tonight i am headed over to visit with some of my favorite children elizabeth & hill...actually just elizabeth since hill gets to go to toy story on ice...joe has noted that he wants to go as well.  too bad work/studying keeps him from phillips arena.

looking forward to an amazing weekend of no traveling...this is unbelievable that we actually have nowhere to go! tomorrow night [the newly engaged] lindsey & miller are coming over for dinner at the house to celebrate with us and catch up! how adult...thinking it's a silver sunday kind of day and am likely to bust out the fancy stuff since its only every so often that you get to do it anyways. 

sunday will be the best[ie] day of the weekend i do believe though because i get to have lunch with lindsay who will be flying in town for the weekend! aside from being her birthday friday [happy bday linds] we get a lunch date on sunday and she even gets the first bestie ride in the new car when i take her back to the airport!

so many nice fun things to look forward to and carrie just called and greer is coming over tomorrow at 8am now too! we are getting into shape like whoa!