Greetings!

I have been working so hard today ordering my Christmas cards and address labels and organizing a party for a friend. I figured while I was online, I might as well update my sad blog. I found a couple recipes of an easy desert, since I want to be fast and go drink yet another Cherry Coke Zero. Gotta have some energy for these chirren.

I don't have a title for this, and I think I may have gotten the idea from Pinterest. Either way, it's a chocolate chip cheescake pie.

First, get some chocoalte cookie dough--either make it yourself from scratch or buy some premade from the store. Mine is premade, cuz that's how I roll. (If you buy it, get 2 of the cookie dough rolls). Smoosh the cookie dough into greased pie pan (if it's bought, use only one roll of dough).

Set this aside, and get out your cheescake batter. Either make it from scratch or buy some premade from the store. Mine is premade, cuz y'all know that's how I roll. Put it in a pan or bowl, and using the rest of your dough, drop bits of it in the batter.
















Now, put all of that magnificence over the 'pie crust' of cookie dough. Mine got kinda squished.

Put in a preheated oven at the temp suggested for the dough you bought/made for as long as the dough needs. Usually 375 for 10-15 min.

The end!

Also, I'm putting this link in here cuz I love Shutterfly. I got my Christmas cards from them, and I'm doing this for a bonus. :)

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcN2rdy1ctmbpI&cid=SFLYOCWIDGET

We're ALL cray-cray!

Several years ago, when I was teaching, I decided to adopt the word 'gucci' and make it my own.  I used it all the time, to the horror of my students.  'Gucci' could mean anything-cool, good, got it, etc.  As a teacher, instead of asking if they understand, I'd ask, "We gucci?"  That way, not only did those who were listening respond to me, but those not listening immediately snapped to attention.  I was asked several times to stop using the word; apparently I'm too white.

I also used to word ad nauseum with my friends.  They rolled their eyes every time they heard it issuing forth from my facial orifice.  So, I needed a new word.  Something else I can use to bug my friends (not students, though, since I'm not teaching).  New word? Cray-cray.  As is crazy.  "Girl, you cray-cray." "Wow, that's cray-cray!"  I don't think I've quite gotten to the annoying point yet, but I'm working on it.

The other day, I told Babyla she was cray-cray.  My 3-yr old said, "she's not cray-cray, I'm cray-cray!" So true.

So my recipe I want to share today is a yummy dessert.  It's something my mom used to make when we were growing up, and everyone loved it.  It had never occured to me to try to make it until HH said he wanted it for his birthday.  I made it, and it turned out good!  Not as good as my mom's, but that's to be expected. 

(I make a huge mess when I cook, so I don't have pics of the process.  Also, I'm a terrible photographer.)

Chocolate Eclair Cake

1 box graham crackers                            2 tsp white Karo syrup

3 cups milk                                              1 tsp vanilla

2 (3 oz) pkgs Instant French Vanilla pudding mix

3 Tbsp butter                                           8 or 9 oz Cool Whip

3 tbsp milk                                              1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 squares baking chocolate

Butter 9x13 inch pan and line with graham crackers.  Prepare pudding with milk.  Beat Cool Whip into pudding.  Put 1/2 of pudding mix over layer of grahams in pan.  Put a second layer of grahams and top with the rest of the pudding  Top it all with a final layer of grahams. Then ice.

Icing: Mix chocolate (melted), Karo syrup, vanilla, butter, milk and powdered sugar.  Mix at low speed until smooth.  Spread on top layer of graham crackers in pan.

Refrigirate AT LEAST 24 hours before serving! You want the graham crackers to be soft.



Concerned and I know it

I made one of my favorite recipes tonight!  This recipe is cheap, fast, and delicious.  I always make it when we have company, and everyone is ALWAYS impressed.  My mom used to make this when I was a child and I only made a few modifications.  I remember as a child we were always fighting over the pepperoni, so I doubled that. I also added extra oregano since my husband likes it like that.

The first thing you have to do is pick some music to listen to while you cook.  This is very important and sets the mood for the meal.  Seriously, you want your pepperoni to be happy and tasty.  I chose to listen to several songs, including Adele's Rumor Has It and Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know.  Here, I was listening to LMFAO, and LM was fairly concerned.



OK, now that you have your mood music, it's time to get cooking.  The ingredients you need are 1 green bell pepper, one red bell pepper, 1 onion, vegetable oil, 2 packages of pepperoni, 3 cans of Italian diced (or stewed, depends on how big you like your tomato chunks) tomatoes, spaghetti noodles, oregano.

Get your water heating up for the noodles.  When it's hot enough, throw in the pasta.  I'm going to trust you know how to cook pasta.  I use about half a package, so you use however much you want.

Put 2-3 tbsp of oil in a big pan and put it on medium heat.  Cut up your bell peppers and onion.

Add these to the hot oil in the pan, and cook until the onion gets soft, stirring frequently.

While thats cooking and you're stirring frequently, cut your pepperonis in half.  You can cut them up smaller if you want, or not at all-whatever you want.

When they're cut up, add them to your pan.

Saute this until the pepperoni's warm.  All of the food in the pan should be warm saute'd.  When it is, add your 3 cans of tomato sauce.

Add your oregano and stir. Bring to boil, then it's time to eat! Drain the noodles, serve you up some and cover it with sauce.  Make some garlic to go with it. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2-3 tbsp veg oil
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 onion
2 packages of pepperoni
3 cans (15 oz) of Italian diced tomatoes
oregano (optional)
spaghetti noodles


Cut up bell peppers and onion and saute in pan over medium heat until onion is soft.

Slice pepperoni in half and add to peppers and onion. Saute for 5-8 minutes.

Add 3 cans of tomato sauce; bring to a boil.  Add oregano if desired.

Pour over cooked spaghetti noodles.

Alligator good!

I am going to try to post my first recipe on here!  It's not a recipe I've ever made before--one of my best recipes will be posted later this week.  But tonight, I made alligator.  Yup, alligator.  I'd had it before in Baton Rouge when I was there for a French teaching conference, and loved it.  So this weekend I went to a farmer's market and there was a Swamp People-type man selling fish, shellfish and alligator.  I done bought me some gator! I decided to make something up, thinking that blackened alligator tail with a homemade remnoulade sounded good.  And you know what? It was!

First, I googled 'bkackened alligator.'  I love blackened chicken, but didn't know how to do it.  I found a recipe at exoticmeatsandmore.com that worked well for me.  Here are the ingredients:

1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

½ teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon dried chives

(I didn't have any chives, and a good substitute is onion roots, which I also didn't have.  So I put some onion powder in.)

Mix all these ingredients up then put on a plate.

I had 1lb of gator meat, which I cut up into big chunks for easier grilling.

I melted about 3 tbsp of butter in the bowl I mixed the spices in, cuz I'm lazy and didn't want to dirty another dish.  I brushed the chunks of meat with butter, then rubbed them in the spice mix.  After they were coated well, I plopped those suckers in a pan and grilled them on medium-high.  Every time I flipped them I basted with more butter.  





I grilled them til they were done!  Cut into them like you would chicken.  I'm not a chef so I don't do well with times and temps--I go by sight and how they taste.  Sorry.

For the remoulade, I used a recipe from foodnetwork.com.  It was OK--too mustardy.  I'm not including it on here, so you can find your own or buy some from the store.  If you make it I hope you like it!

Bonne chance mes amis!

It's Late and I Want to go to Sleep

It has been sooooo long since I last wrote in this blog!  Like, 4 years?  I read my old posts a few days ago, and was shocked to see what I had forgotten!  Apparently this is a great way to keeo memories.  Especially since I'm too lazy to keep a real journal.

So I decided to come back to this because I see other blogs with awesome food recipes on Pinterest, and I think, "Whoa! I can make good food and post it here then pin it!"  But then I realized I only have like 1 original recipe to post.  I got sad.  I decided to make it this week, take pics, and put it on here.  I got happy.  We'll see how it goes!

For all like 2 of you who read my old posts, I guess I'll sum up my life since then--Hubby and I had a little girl in 2009.  I'll call her PP, for Pretty Princess.  Then we had another baby, a boy, a few months ago.  We'll call him LM for Little Man.  Babyla turns 8 next month!  I can't believe it.  Life is good now, though pretty crazy with 3 kids.

OK, tis late, and I do really want to sleep.  Now that I've reintroduced myself, I'll try to keep up with regular blogs about us and, maybe, food.  Ciao!



J'ai vue que souvent, dans les premiers posts, j'ai ecris en francais.  C'etait une bonne idee!  Alors, je vais ecrire quelquechose chaque fois en francais.  Ce fois, je dis--bonne nuit! (svp, m'excuse pour les fautes de mon francais.  C'etait bien longtemps que j'ecris ou parle le francais).

Did you bonk your head?

So now that I get to be a stay-at-home mom again, I realize how much I really do love being at home with babyla. It seems like whenever something we love is taken away from us, that's when we realize just how precious that things was and maybe how much we took it for granted. Not that I didn't know I loved being at home with babyla--I did. The weeks leading up to student teaching were difficult as I dreaded leaving her. Now I'm home, and I cherish the time even more. Fortunately, when I was gone my mother was able to watch babyla, so she always had someone who loved her with her.

Ok, enough warm fuzzies. This morning, babyla and I went outside. I had to weed in the garden and she was going to help me/play/slow me down. Yesterday I had noticed in one of our hanging pots a nest inside. Today when we went out, I saw a bird in it! She was hunkered down in it, watching us. Shortly after, the daddy bird came and perched on the pot, wacthing us. I pointed out to babyla that it was the daddy bird, and the mommy bird was inside with eggs (hopefully!). A few minutes later, the daddy bird flew away, and babyla asked where it was going. I replied, "probably to go get food." Babyla asked rather excitedly, "Oh, is he going to get pizza?" Sigh. Maybe we need to have some nature discussions. Cuz when I said, "no, probably worms", she looked kinda grossed out.

Here's the kicker. Or rather, the bonker, as babyla likes to say. In the garden, I was weeding and babyla was with me. I stood up with some weeds in my hand, and just as I stood up, I felt something hot my head. I ducked then looked up, to see a bird landing on the play set by us. Yes, a bird. Ran into my head. Let me repeat that--A BIRD RAN INTO MY HEAD. You don't see that everyday.

All men should rock the 'stache

Why hello there! It has been many moons since I have last written. Since Decemeber, if I recall correctly. A lot has happened in all this time. KMost importantly, I got married! Yay! How's THAT for awesome, huh? Tomorrow, May 15th, will be our two month anniversary. Booyah! I also was a student teacher. LONGEST semester EVER. I have an issue with caps right now. It's kinda fun. Try it. I LOVE being MARRIED! I'm GOING to see Neil DIAMOND! Heh. Anywhoo, students teaching was interesting. And long. But I miss my students and am going to wonder how they are. Hopefully I'll get to see them again. HOPEFULLY I'll get to SEE them... OK, stop it. It's just shameful now.

I apologize I have no funny story. I don't want to make fun of my students, cuz I love them. I don't want to bash, however jauntily or sillilly (heh!), the University for the hell they put me through. Cuz I could get in trouble. So, the next time something humorous happens to me, I shall blog it! Suffice it to say Hubby and I are extremely happy and Babyla is fabulous. She turns four next month.

Thought for the day: WOuldn't it be awesome if all men grew thick, dark moustaches (pronounced moo-stah-chays? heh.) that we could twirl our fingers through and giggle at in the morning?