Stuffed Green Peppers

Another Pinterest inspiration I got from this blog.

For my stuffed green peppers you need:

5 to 6 green peppers (washed, and the tops cut off, and scooped out clean)

1 small red pepper (washed and diced)

1 small onion (washed and diced)

1 package of sausage (cooked and drained)

minced garlic

olive oil

black pepper

6 slices of bacon (baked and drained)

Parmesan cheese

2 packages white rice (90 second rice)

Cook up your sausage with some olive oil and minced garlic, and bake your bacon in the oven. Wash your produce and dice them up. Cook your rice. In a large bowl, add your diced peppers, onions, cooked bacon and sausage. Mix in the rice. Add black pepper and some parm cheese. Put peppers in a deep dish. I used my pampered chef baker. Add mix to each pepper. Top with some parm cheese and black pepper and then bake for about 20 to 30 min. DELISH! :)


This made enough to make a bag for the freezer, so next time I can just heat up the mix and add to the peppers, then bake. :)

UPDATE:
The hubby said "You can make this anytime, it's really good". :)

New Things Monday

Since it's Halloween I figured I would feature some kind of Halloween Candy. :) M&M's has a new flavor out for the season. They are: Candy Corn M&M's. They are weird to me. I don't know if it's the white chocolate or the candy corn. It didn't taste like candy corn to me. I'm not a fan which is good b/c now I won't be tempted to eat anymore. LOL If you pick some up and you try them let me know what you think. :) Have a safe and happy Halloween. :)

Homemade Baked Potato Soup

Today, in Virginia it is cold, rainy, and snowy. Yes, I said snowy. Snow isn't something that happens in October here. I haven't seen snow but there have been reports of snow and sleet in surrounding areas. It's best to stay home in your jammies and bundle up in quilts. :) I decided for dinner to make homemade baked potato soup. I got inspired from Pinterest which took me here. My husband and I really enjoyed this soup. We will def be making it again and again. :)

4 large baking potatoes (I cooked them in 20 min in my awesome pampered chef baker)

2/3 cup butter (which is about 11 tablespoons....I used unsalted)

2/3 cup flour

6 cups milk (I used fat free milk)

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 green onions (AKA: scallions......washed and chopped)

12 slices bacon (I baked in the oven at 400 degrees while potatoes were cooking for about 15-20 min.)

1 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

8 oz sour cream

Wash and poke holes in your baked potatoes. Add to your baker and put in microwave with the lid on and bake for 10 min., flip and then bake another 10 min. If you don't have the baker then you can bake your potatoes in the oven for about 1 hour or until tender. Once cool, cut potatoes lengthwise and spoon out the potato pulp then set aside. If you wanted to go for a more rustic soup you could probably chop up the skin and add it to your soup. I did not do that. I let Nate eat the skin. He loves the potato skin where as I don't care for it. :)

In your soup pot, melt your butter on low. Once melted add your flour. Stirring constantly until smooth. Cook for 1 min. Over medium heat, gradually add your milk until thick and bubbly. Then add the potato pulp, salt, pepper, 2tbs green onion, 1/2 cup bacon, 1 cup of cheese and cook until heated all the way through. Then stir in your sour cream. It should be thick. If it's not just add some more milk. Garnish your bowl of soup with some more cheese, bacon and green onions. And don't forget the bread. I picked up a fresh baguette from my grocery bakery but I know the farmhouse french loaf would be excellent with this soup.

I left the soup pot with the lid on and let it simmer a bit on low b/c Nate had to go run an errand. I found the soup to be very delicious and very filling. :) A perfect dinner for a dreary, drab day. :)

UPDATE:
The next day my husband "killed the rest of the soup" and had it for lunch. :) It was really good and so easy to make.

New Things Monday

Loacker Quaaratini Hazelnut Bite size wafer cookies are really good!!! I picked up a package at Wegmans to try. I figured anything with hazelnuts can't be bad. I really liked them. :)

Harley's Bath Time

Every year, Harley gets itchy and scabby from an allergic reaction to something. I take him to the vet and he gets a steroid shot and then he's good to go for at least a year.

I decided to give him a bath today to get rid of the dander and loose scabs. While I was getting the tub ready he waited at the door.

Here he is waiting at the door:

Once I had enough water in the tub I slowly put him in and then started soaking him. He was pretty good with it. He cried a bit but he mainly just sat there while I scrubbed him and poured water on him. :) (his breed is a turkish van and they are supposed to enjoy water....he didn't go swimming around like the ones on the internet but did sit in it. LOL)

After his bath I wrapped him up real good and dried him off. Now he's all fluffy. :)

As soon as I let him out of the towel bundle he ran under our bedside table and started cleaning.

He finally came downstairs and was cleaning again at one of his favorite places to sit.

Best Wife ever!

Today, is my 11 year wedding anniversary with my Nate. :) I had to work this morning and Nate had to deliver some football pictures for a team he's doing pictures for. We decided to go out to dinner tonight to celebrate. We went to Firebirds. Love that place!!! Nate ended up chipping one of his back wisdom teeth. :( We called a friend (Crystal) who works in the dental field to find out what to do. Nate will have to probably go to the dentist sometime this week. But she assured him that he will be ok. :) Thanks Crystal! :)

I got beautiful red roses from my Nate. :)

And he surprised me with a little cake. He even wrote a cute message on it. :) Awesome!!

I got Nate a new XBOX game that he wanted......forza 4. I gave it to him earlier this week and he's been playing it like crazy. :)

Redneck Casserole

The other day Nate had a bonfire with co-workers at a local farm. He brought hot dogs but ended up not using any of them b/c someone else brought some too. (OOPS) Anyways, what to do with all the extra hot dogs? Yes, you could freeze them. I didn't want to do that. I thought about doing a Hot dog casserole.

I made hot dogs (I made 1 package) and then I made homemade mac and cheese. Mix them together and you get hot dog casserole. Nate renamed this dish to 'Redneck Casserole'. LOL

It turned out pretty good. Who doesn't like homemade mac n cheese and hot dogs? Of course, while eating this I felt like I should have been cuddled up on the couch watching Roseanne reruns. (love that show) LOL :)

1 package hot dogs (cooked and cut up)

1 box elbow macaroni noodles

1 block of velveeta cheese

shredded cheese

black pepper

w sauce

bread crumbs (optional.....I don't add bread crumbs b/c Nate doesn't care for them)

Once the noodles are cooked and drained you can then add in your melted cheese. (to melt the cheese I cut the block up into cubes and just microwave for 30 second intervals until melted) While mixing the the cheese into the noodles add in some shredded cheese, w sauce and black pepper. Once mixed, add cut up hot dogs. Pour into a pam sprayed 13x9 dish. Cover with some more shredded cheese and or bread crumbs. Enjoy! :)

New Things Monday

Dr. Pepper's latest concoction is Dr. Pepper 10. The 10 is for 10 calories. Now I'm sure you've heard by now that Dr. Pepper 10 is catered to men. I guess men feel whimpy drinking Diet Dr. Pepper so Dr. Pepper is trying to reach their men drinkers by making a diet drink without really calling it diet. Just look at the bottle and the colors. It's so got a manly look. Well, I don't care that this is supposed to be for men. I like it. It tastes much better than Diet Dr. Pepper to me. It's so much closer to the regular Dr. Pepper taste. I love it. :)

Crispy Italian Chicken with Farfalle Pasta

We eat a lot of chicken and I am always trying to make different recipes with chicken so it's not the usual. :)

I got inspired from this Pinterest Pin. Just from the picture I knew how I was going to make my chicken. I didn't even look at the blog until just now and realized I totally did everything different. haha Oh well....make it your own eh....that's why I love cooking. :)

For my Crispy Italian Chicken with bow-tie pasta:

Chicken breasts

Shake n bake packet

Italian dressing

1 box farfalle (bow-tie) pasta

Shredded cheese (I used a Parm/Romano cheese but you could use an Italian blend)
Black pepper

Wash your raw chicken breasts. Pat dry with a paper towel and place a tray. I love my Pampered Chef Coating Trays for coating chicken. In the second tray, pour in some of your Italian dressing. And in the third tray add your shake n bake packet. Take a chicken breast and coat it in the dressing. Then coat the shake n bake on both sides. Place on a cookie sheet (that's covered with foil and pam sprayed). Bake on 350 degrees until done. Once chicken is about done boil your pasta. Once you've drained your pasta add it to a mixing bowl. Mix in some Italian dressing until pasta is coated. Sprinkle in some cheese and mix in some black pepper. Place your pasta on a plate and put the chicken on top and enjoy! It was delicious!! :D

New Things Monday

Yep, Chocolate Twizzlers. Someone brought these into work. I tried one and spit it out. This is just my opinion and I don't really want to be negative but it was disgusting. It sort of tasted like black licorice to me which I don't like to begin with. GROSS!!!!! I didn't taste any chocolate at all so I don't know why it's chocolate. LOL I will not try these again.

State Fair of Virginia 2011

Our group of friends all went to the State Fair yesterday. It was a great time. The place was packed. :)


I got chicken on a stick. It was good. :)

I also had funnel cake. ;) And later in the night I got cotton candy. :)

Kristen had a goal to ride a Ferris wheel so she could mark it off her fall bucket list. Dave, Joe, and I decided to ride with her. Sharon, Nate, Eddie and Crystal watched us from the grounds. It was a little scary. I supported Kristen the whole time who was very nervous and in freak mode for most of the ride. But she did it and I can mark it off my list too b/c I've never ridden the Ferris wheel before either.


View of park from Ferris Wheel.

Other side view. Look at all those people. LOL
Turkey legs. I don't think Joe and Dave could get enough. LOL

It was a great time with great friends! Loved it!! :)

Graves Mountain Apple Harvest Festival 2011

Yesterday, Crystal, Kristen and I all went to the Graves Mountain Apple Harvest Festival. I try to go every year. It's always fun! :)



The leaves aren't at the peak yet but you can see they are starting to turn. I love fall!! :)

Cute apple! :)

The funniest part off the day...... me seeing a guy that I thought might of been my traffic guy. I'd never ever met him in person. I only talk to him over a phone line at work. LOL But I've seen a few pictures of him on a social networking site that I had a feeling that it was him. So, I went up to him and asked him if his name was Rich and luckily for me it was him. YEY!! It was finally nice to meet him and his wife. :)

Chicken Pesto Pizza

If you're on Pinterest then you know there are a lot of great ideas on there for crafts, baking and cooking etc. I got inspired for dinner tonight by this Pin from this blog.

I changed things to make it my own and to use what I had on hand.

It was great. Nate loved it so much. I love hearing Nate tell me that what I cook or bake is good. It makes me happy. :)

You will need:

Chicken (cooked and chopped)

2 Packets of Pesto (Veg. Oil, and Water)

Bacon pieces

Italian Cheese Blend

Mozzarella Cheese

Black Pepper

Minced Garlic

Pizza crust (I used Pillsbury pizza crust)

Onion (optional....I was going to add onion but I forgot)

I first heated up the pesto in a pot. Once that was heated up I added some minced garlic and black pepper. Then my chopped chicken, bacon pieces and a little bit of cheese. I pam sprayed a cookie sheet and place my pizza crust on the sheet. I added some black pepper and some cheese to the crust. Then I added the pesto chicken mix all around and topped with cheese and more black pepper. I baked on 350 degrees until the cheese was melted and the crust was done. Let rest a few minutes before slicing. :)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Whoopie Cake

My little sister got me a giant whoopie pie pan for my birthday and I used it this afternoon to make 2 Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies. I used my favorite recipe.

When I flipped the cookies onto the plates, one fell out perfect........

And the other.....not so much. :(


Oops.......Oh well. I guess it won't be one big giant cookie. My plan was to put frosting between the 2 layers but I goofed up. There is always next time. :D The cookie still tastes delish. :D

Chili Fest 2011

This year, for our Chili Fest I volunteered to make Chili for our radio team. There were 20 other amateur cookers. The radio team and the newspaper team were only competing against each other not against the amateur cookers. Whoever wins of course gets bragging rights. And well radio wanted that win and that we did achieve. :P YEY!

The Radio team name: The Revvin Rockers!

We hung station banners, cd's, toy motorcycles and music sheets. We also had a Harley, a sport bike wheel and a helmet for decor. Not much decor but simple is sometimes best!


Oh and I picked up a huge bag of dried chili peppers from the Hispanic section of the grocery store for $2.50. We used the peppers as 'confetti' on the table. People loved it and some thought maybe our chili was very spicy but we assured everyone who asked that it was just cute decor.


Lots of stewed tomatoes.


Everyone setting up.


First thing.....cook the beef.


Fayth cooking and stirring the meat.


Jim (Classic Iron Motorcycles) and Sam prepping and cutting onions.


Hot beef links, chopped up and cooking in the pot before we add to the chili pot.


Now just let it simmer.......lots of goodness in there. Can't give away our secret recipe. :D


We topped each sample with cheese. Our table got to be a mess. haha We couldn't keep samples on the table. They were being snatched up as quickly as we were dishing them out. We had soooo many compliments and several people came back for seconds and thirds. It was awesome!! :)


Empty pot......

Group shot! :D

DJ friends from our sister station. (Marion and Tony)


Todd being silly.....
It was a fun day. I def liked making the chili. I felt a little like I was on Top Chef or some competition show. It was great. I had a great team and I hope to do it again next year.