Hot Dogs and Corn Dogs and Puppy Dogs....Oh My!

Well hello Thursday!  It's nice to see you.  I am quite pleased with how quickly you got here this week....preciatecha ;)

I have gone non stop this week , which I like because let's face it the busier I am this quicker the weekend comes!  I have a few random things to talk about today so let's get to it, shall we?!

1. Adventure Dining is Back!

My old boss and I used to adventure dine at all kinds of random restaurants...part of the beauty of going to every random corner of your state for work. Since he's retited and I travel by myself for the most part, I usually just grab something and go....who wants to be the weirdo sitting all by themselves at a restaurant in a small town.  That's the kinda stuff that gets you talked about by the locals!  I had to go to Mobile yesterday and met up with some people from there for lunch at a little hole in the wall called the Dew Drop Inn.  We got there at 11 and I am glad we did because the place was packed out by noon.  They are known for their hotdogs, so I had to get one to eat, naturally.  You can't tell from the picture, but they use the BRIGHT red hot dogs, which kind freaked me out a bit. Don't worry, it was delicious! They put chili and homemade saurkraut on their dogs, too.  And those onion rings?  Absolutely scrumptious!  They were HUGE and crispy and actually had some seasoning in the batter!  Plus it had a really neat diner-ey atmosphere!

2. How to follow up lunch at the Dew Drop....

 My dinner last night?  You're lookin at it!  I followed by hot dog for lunch with a corn dog for dinner.  When I am left to my own devices for dinner 90% of the time I will eat a corn dog.  I love love love them.  I can't help it.  I buy them in bulk at Costco.....  And that empty cannister on the right?  You need some.  Seriously.  Go to your grocery store and buy one--they carry it in my teeny tiny town so chances are your grocery store carries it.  There's plenty of flavors so I am sure you can find one you like.  It's gelato. Don't think about the 220 calories per 1/2 cup while you are eating it.  You won't care.  I promise.  The good news is that it's only a pint so you can't eat more than 1000 calories if you happen to eat the entire thing.  =)

3. Mother Nature can Paint a Beautiful Canvas

 I took these outside last night when I got back from walking the dogs.  The sunset and cloud cover made fir a crazy pretty colored sky last night.  I am sure my neighbors were wondernig what the weirdo with the IPad was doing running all over the yard and looking at the sky, but I couldn't help it!  It was soooooo pretty!

4. Where's Hollow?

Can you find the Hollow Puppy in the pile of clothes? I promise I didn't put him there.  He did it all by himself.  I love my little burrowing puppies. =)  

And that, my friends is my day yesterday in a nutshell.  Happy Thursday!  

Weekend Recap: Wanna Play a Game?

You know how to tell you had a great weekend?  When you're laying in bed Sunday night and your hubby says out of the blue, "I feel like we just had a long 3 day weekend, " and you totally agree because you had such a productive fun-filled weekend.  Since we were out of town for almost all of 4th of July week, we decided to stick close to home and just hang out at the pool.

Friday I had to work in Birmingham and run some errands before I headed out of Montgomery, so I didn't get home until nearly 6 to a wonderful surprise.  My sweetie had mowed the yard AND cleaned the floors inside the house!  Talk about a great start to the weekend!  I am learning after nearly 3 years of marriage that it's the little things like doing my chores that make my heart go pitter patter....=)  We had some friends over for a cookout...steaks and taters and mushrooms and grilled corn....oh my!  Dinner was amazing to say the least.  We wanted to eat out by the pool, but Mother Nature had other plans, and decided that she wanted to continue with the daily monsoons we've had for the past 2 weeks which forced us inside for a game night instead which was no problemo!  After several rounds of Celebrity (many of which are still under protest) we decided that was enough.  We had no idea until everyone left, but it was already midnight! Guess time flies when you'r having fun!

Saturday we had a bunch of our softball friends over to celebrate our championship win with a cookout by the pool.  It was such a fun day of great fiends, delicious food, and a beautiful afternoon.  Of course we had to finish up the night with Celebrity (have I mentioned we LOVE this game!?!) and a few rounds of the Game of Things.

Sunday we worked....we spent the day cleaning out Eric's brother's old house they moved out of so we can rent it out.  It was a bit of an undertaking and I have a mountain of boxes of stuff to donate to a church yard sale, but we had it done in about 3 hours. We toyed with going to Montgomery to eat but decided we were both too tired to mess with that, so we grabbed Louie's and spent the evening vegging...it was perfect!

1. 1/2 of our new pool furniture....thank you Target and Academy summertime clearance sales! 

2. Eric's brisket that he cooked on Saturday.  It was his first attempt and it was a delicious success!

3. Summertime in Alabama means fresh tomatoes.  We've been given waaaaay more tomatoes that we know what to do with, so I used about 5 of them to make some fresh pico de gallo on Saturday.  It took me an hour to chop all of the tomatoes, onions, and peppers, but it was soooooo worth it!  I will take fresh pico over salsa from the store any day!  And it was amazing on my pulled pork sandwich!

4. One of my cards from The Game of Things.....what you you put?

5. Celebrity remnants.....\

6. A celebrity round in action.  I may have to share how to play sometime soon.  It's seriously one of the most fun games ever.  It combines catch phrase and charades in several rounds and will bring out the worst best in people.

7. Seriously...have you played this yet?  It's so much fun!

I am hoping that this week is a little less crazy that last week, but it's just Monday and only time will tell!

We are the Champions.....again!

Our end of the year softball tournament was short and sweet this year.  We had a bye and did not have to play on Monday, so we started and finished our tournament last night.  I am not going to lie, I was a little concerned because it's been a couple of weeks since we played last, but it ended up being no biggie.  We run-ruled the first team and won 10-0 after 4.5 innings.  We waiting around for an hour for the other semifinal game to be played and then run ruled the other team--who was by far the stiffest competition we played all year the first time we played them--and ended up run ruling them 14-0 after 4.5 innings again.  Done and Done.

I am sad for another season to come to an end.  We always have such a great time playing ball with this group!  Hopefully we'll get to play another tournament this summer before it's all said and done.  

Two New Go-To's

With the exception of 3 months in the spring we are always busy with some kind of practice, which does not leave a lot of time for sit-down family-style dinners.  I attempt to cook at least 3 times per week, but as the week goes on we just get busier and busier so there's no guarantee we'll be home for dinner.   I make no secret that I rely heavily on Pinterest for quick, easy, healthy (for the most part) dinner options. I think I would spiral in to a deep dark depression if my pinterest account suddenly disappeared, seriously.  I made a couple of recipes recently that were delicious and I will certainly make them again, One is a Philly Chicken Wrap and the second is a Bruschetta-Style Pita Pizza, both adapted from some of my favorite pinterest recipes.  

original recipe

This recipe is actually a slow cooker recipe, but I have yet to really get the hang of using my crockpot (terrible I know--I have a fear of leaving it on all day while I am gone, which I understand is the whole point of it, but I am still paranoid), so I marinated my chicken and cooked it on the stove.

What you need:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 TBSP steak seasoning (Dale's, Moore's, whatever you like)

2 TBSP butter

1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced

1 tsp brown sugar

shredded cheese (I used Gouda and mozzarella)

tortilla shells

How to make it: 

1. Marinate chicken breasts in seasoning sauce for a few hours (the longer they marinate, the more flavor they have!).

2. Melt butter in a pan and saute onions on med-low heat until caramelized.  Once onions start to cook, add brown sugar and stir frequently.

3. While onions are cooking, slice chicken into strips and saute in another pan on med-high heat. As chicken cooks, chop into small bite-sized pieces with a spatula.

4. Warm tortilla shells in microwave for 10 seconds.  Place chicken, onions, and cheese in the center of the shell and roll like a burrito. Microwave for 30 seconds or until cheese is melted.

This is probably one of the first wraps I have ever eaten that didn't need any sauce with it.   They are soooo good!


The second recipe I have to share is Brushetta-Style Pita Pizza.  I have tried a lot of different "healthy" pizza crust options, and I think this by far is my favorite.  It's thick enough to hold the toppings, but still good for you.

original recipe

What you need:

For the sauce:

1 can diced tomatoes with basil, oregano, and garlic, drained

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp sugar

garlic powder, to taste

For the pizzas:

4 whole wheat or multigrain pita shells

1 small container of fresh mozzarella

pepperoni (I used minis)

sauteed mushrooms

parmesan cheese

fresh chopped basil

any other pizza topping you want to use

How to make it:

1. Combine tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, sugar, and spices in a bowl and set aside.  This can be done ahead of time.

2. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Place pita shells directly on oven rack for 2-3 minutes to crisp.

3. Remove from oven and cover with mozzarella cheese. Return shells to the oven for 5 minutes, or until cheese melts.

4. Remove shells from oven again and top with tomato mixture (try to get mostly tomato chunks and as little liquid as possible), pepperoni, mushrooms, parmesan cheese, basil, and any other ingredients you want to add.

5. Return pizzas to the oven for another 2-3 minutes, until tomatoes are warmed.  Remove from oven and serve.

These were sooo good!  I have already thought up some more combinations to try out....Buffalo or BBQ Chicken Pita Pizzas anyone?!