Weekend Wrap-up and a Recipe share

It was a great weekend---so much fun---busy---crazy! Just how we like it!

On Saturday, we started at a yard sale. I bought these chairs---love them. The family didn't---and really gave me a hard time.

Jeanne and Janet liked them too---and even encouraged me to buy them. When the family started criticizing me, they cowered---that's the only word I can think of to describe their silence!! Anyway, I still love the chairs. But Butch does get a say once in awhile. As it turns out, Jordan will be able to use them in her new apartment. The best part? The chairs were only $5.00 each!!

Next I took them to the PFunky Griddle for breakfast. It's a family favorite located in a little old house. Each table has a griddle built in to the middle so you can cook your own food. They have the BEST pancakes ever!

Breakfast was a good way to kill time until we could go to Marathon Village.

 The purpose of our visit here was to go to Antique Archeology---owned by Mike Wolf from American Pickers. The "door guy" said there is always a line. By the time we got there, the line was down the sidewalk nearly to the end of the rail. It was hot---waiting in that line.

 Jeanne, Janet and me posing outside the door---actually---inside another door.

The shop was really pretty nice with lots of expensive antiques. They had this entertainment, which was fun. We all left with a few souvenirs---t-shirts, guitar picks and cooler cups. I bought a couple of post cards.

We got back home around noon and did our project. Jeanne planned it. 

 We each made a fairy garden. They turned out so darn cute!

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. Steph, Nicky and the girls came over too. Mindy came for dinner (recipes below.) We had a poker game after dinner. When it was all said and done, I won a nickel! Morgan was the big winner. It was the perfect ending to a great long weekend. 

There was only one hitch. On Sunday, after they'd been gone an hour and a half, I discovered that Jeanne had forgotten her computer. They turned around and I drove to meet them. We met in Clarksville. When I got home, I went straight to a 2 1/2 hour nap. I was exhausted from all of that fun!

I love my sisters and look forward to our sister's weekend every year. Luckily, since Jeanne and Janet are scrapbookers, I have more opportunities to spend time with them. We'll be scrapbooking together at the farm in October. I can't wait!

Ritz Chicken

Author: Six Sisters Stuff

Serves: 4

There are just a few ingredients needed for this delicious, moist chicken! We grew up eating it all the time because it's just so simple to throw together!

Ingredients

•    4 chicken breasts (I doubled this recipe and used a whole bag of chicken tenderloins rather than the breasts)

•    1 cup Ritz crackers, crushed

•    ½ teaspoon garlic salt

•    black pepper to taste

•    2 eggs, beaten

•    ½ cup butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a small bowl, mix together crackers, garlic salt, and black pepper.

3. Dip each chicken breast in the beaten eggs, and then dredge in the cracker mixture, coating it completely.

4. Place each coated chicken breast in a 9x13 pan.

5. Cut the butter up into small pieces, and put them over the top of the chicken breasts.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

PS I Love You Cake

1 yellow cake mix

1 small pkg. coconut instant pudding 

1/4 cup poppy seeds

1/2 tsp. coconut extract

1. Grease a 13x9 pan. Prepare cake mix according to the package directions, adding pudding, poppy seeds and extract. Bake and cool.

Filling:

2 cup 2% milk

1 small pkg. vanilla instant pudding

2. Poke holes with a wooden spoon in cooled cake. Whisk milk and pudding. Pour over cake. Refrigerate for 20 minutes until pudding is set.

Topping:

1-8 oz. Cool Whip

1/4 cup instant coconut cream instant pudding (I didn't do this because I did not buy 2 pkgs. of pudding)

3 T. milk

1/2 tsp. poppy seeds

3. Mix and spread over cake. Sprinkle poppy seeds on top.

Sister's Weekend

Every year on the second weekend of July, we have a sister's weekend here in Nashville. I have 4 sisters and 2 sister-in-laws. Only once has everyone been able to make it. This year, since we were all together in South Bend for Devon's graduation and in St. Louis the following weekend, I didn't think they would want to do it. But Jeanne and Janet did and I'm so glad!!

They arrived Wednesday night---with my "Italian food fix" from St. Louis. We don't have any good Italian markets here. I rely on St. Louis to get all of my favorites---Italian bread, salciccia (Italian sausage), provel cheese (only found in St. Louis), Italian olives, Volpi salami, toasted ravioli, and Imo's pizza.

I have a busy weekend planned for us. We spent all day at the pool yesterday---complete with frozen pool drinks. We went to dinner at the Loveless Cafe---I take all out-of-towners to this famous Nashville "institution." Jeanne said I had never taken them. It's a delicious meat and three. We brought home a lot of leftovers.

A couple fun facts about the Loveless. They have 450,000 visitors a year and serve 7,000 biscuits each day. They are known for their incredible biscuits. We thought 7,000 biscuits was an impossible number, but then counted our biscuits. They server us (3 people) 10 biscuits! We brought the leftovers home to have for breakfast. Jeanne bought their blackberry preserves.

After dinner, we stopped by Home Depot to pick up a few things for the project Jeanne planned for us. I'll share that later.

Today (Friday), we have our AYM meeting this morning. We'll also be doing the title page for out album. Next, we'll get organized for the cork project I planned. I have Jordan and Morgan coming over to wait on us while we float in the pool. They'll be making our pool drinks and lunch. There will be 8 of us, so I like to "hire" the girls to do everything so I don't have to miss anything.

Tonight, we'll have happy hour, a light dinner and then work on our projects. Saturday, we're going to a sale, breakfast at The Pfunky Griddle and then downtown to visit Antique Archeology---Mike from "The American Pickers" owns it. After that, we'll spend the rest of the afternoon in the pool. Luckily, we've had a mild summer. Usually, by this time, the pool is warm---like bath water---not refreshing---just wet. Right now, the pool water is perfect! Still cool.

It's always a fun weekend that goes by way too fast. For now, I'm just trying to enjoy every minute.

I hope y'all have a great weekend too!!

Five Things Thursday

1. Why is it that whenever we are having out-of-towners our air conditioning goes out? This time, it was 2 of our 3 units. What are the odds of that? One had to be replaced. Now I know why I had such a hard time sleeping the past few nights---it was so hot. I thought it was just because we have our thermostats set at 78 degrees.

2. When it rains it pours. While,  Joe, my AC guy was here, he had to cut off the electricity to replace the air conditioner. That caused the internet to go out. I did all the tricks I could think of---unplug everything and wait---restart the computers, etc. Well, nothing worked so I had to call Comcast. If you've read my blog for any length of time, you know I have a love/hate relationship with them---mostly hate. Just put Comcast in the search box above to read about my other experiences. Anyway, I got on the phone with them. To make a very long story short---nothing worked. The only option was to get another modem---which didn't make sense to us. Butch went to Comcast and stood in line for over an hour to get the new modem. He came home, installed it and made the frustrating call to activate it. Let's just say he ranted and raved for quite awhile before he gave up. Turns out, it worked without being activated anyway.

3. And the rain continued when Butch said he might as well give me the further bad news. He discovered ants in our pantry. We have NEVER had ants in the pantry before. Luckily, I still had one of those ant baits that they supposedly take back to the nest to poison all of them. I called Greg, my "bug man" and he said to give it a day or so to see if that works. Otherwise, he'll come right out and take care of them.

4. This is GOOD news. I put a new app on my iPhone---which I'm totally in love with. I wanted to see the results before endorsing it here. The app is called GrooveBook. Here's how it works. You pay $2.99 a month for shipping and handling and they send you 100 of your photos from your phone, bound in to a nice little book. All of the photos are perforated, so you can easily tear them out to scrapbook, or to put in to an album.

It's a little hard to tell here, because this is a picture of a picture, but I'm really happy with the quality of the prints. This is such a bargain. And for anyone that would like to give it a try, you can check it out here. Plus, you can get your first book free by using this code: EADS100. It's simple. Just download the free GrooveBook app and follow the easy instructions. Enter the code at checkout for your free book.

5. This is just for your entertainment:

Two brothers recreate their childhood photos for their mother.

New Recipes

We tried several new recipes on our vacation. Although I cannot be sure where they came from, I follow these recipe blogs. Check them out for some great recipes:
Six Sisters  or Plain Chicken

Ranch Bean Dip (this one did come from Six Sisters)
1-16 oz. can refried beans
1 cup sour cream
1 pkg. ranch dressing mix
2 cups shredded cheddar
sliced green onion to taste

Over medium heat, mix together beans, sour cream, dressing and cheese (reserving a little to sprinkle on top) until the cheese melts---about 7-10 minutes. Top with reserved cheese and green onions. Serve with tortilla chips or Frito scoops.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese (this was a HUGE hit---so good)
1 lb. elbow macaroni
1 lb. white, extra sharp cheddar, shredded---6 cups (I couldn't find white, so substituted yellow---plus, the kids ate about 2 cups of it, so I only had 4 cups to work with. It turned out so well, that I think 2 more cups of cheese might have been too much)
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. onion powder
4 cups 2% milk

Pre-heat oven to 350. Cook macaroni according the the package directions. Start the cheese sauce by melting butter. Add flour, salt, pepper, onion powder and stir until pasty. Add milk and bring to a boil. Let boil for one minute or until sauce thickens. Remove from heat and add 4 cups of cheese. Stir until cheese melts. Add macaroni. Pour in to 9x13 dish and top with remaining 2 cups of cheese (this is what I skipped). Bake 30 minutes until hot and bubbly. (Mine didn't really get bubbly.)

Reese's Peanut Butter Cake (another HUGE hit)
1 box chocolate cake mix (baked according to package directions)
1-8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1-14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1-12 oz. Cool Whip, divided
1 jar hot fudge, divided
8 Reese's peanut butter cups, crumbled

When cake is done, poke holes in the top with a wooden spoon while still hot. Microwave the hot fudge (be careful, mine overflowed making a huge mess in the microwave). Pour 3/4 of the jar over the cake. Combine cream cheese and condensed milk with a mixer until smooth. Add peanut butter and mix thoroughly. Add half the Cool Whip and mix until smooth. Spread peanut butter mixture over cake. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Spread remaining Cool Whip over top and sprinkle with crumbled peanut butter cups. Store in the refrigerator.

I Didn't Know Beans About Beans

Until I visited the Bush's Bean Factory in Chestnut Hill, Tennessee. All I knew was that I've never really liked pork and beans. That's what we call them in the midwest. In the south, they call them baked beans. Either way, I've never been crazy about them. In fact, there's only been one recipe that I like. Connie makes them with ground beef. They're really good. 

Another thing I know about beans is that in England, they put pork and beans over toast as an after school snack. At least that's what our tour guide told us when we were there. That didn't sound good to me at all. My kids had cookies and milk or cereal.

On our vacations, we like to do unusual, educational things. The teens were not really interested, so we adults went while they were at the water park. 

We started with lunch at Bush's Cafe. The chairs have these cut-outs that match their logo. Bush's started their company in 1904. At the cafe, they started us with a little bowl of beans. They were really good. The variety was Sweet Mesquite Grillin' Beans.

For dessert, we had to try the Pinto Bean Pecan Pie. It was really good. Steph said, "finally---beans that I like." I have the recipe if anyone is interested.

They had a really interesting tour. There was a little activity for kids. We had Elizabeth with us since she's too little to do the water park without a parent. She wasn't happy to be going with us, but doing the little activity was fun for her. She had to search for answers to a series of questions. When she was finished, they gave her a little certificate.

At the end of the tour, they took a complimentary picture for us---and gave us each a copy. Quite a nice surprise since every where you go, they charge you $25.00 for a photo.

This giant can of beans was actually a tunnel. It showed the canning process step-by-step.

Elizabeth and I bought these cute little bean cans as a souvenir. They are actually mints, but we're keeping them like they are. Elizabeth handed me a dollar to pay for hers. (There's a little back story here. She was pretty upset when she found out she could not go to the water park with the teens. I pulled her on to my lap and told her I'd give her $20.00 to spend when she went out with us. She said, "well, can you go a little higher!" That cracked me up, so I gave her $25.00.) So, she gave me a dollar to pay for her "little can." I paid for both together. After she said, "Grammy, it was only 79 cents!" She wanted her change!! She's no dummy! But come on, it was my $25.00 to begin with. Kids say the darnedest things. I've got to remember to scrapbook that.

It was a fun little educational trip. I made a note of the beans we had at lunch so I could buy them at home. Butch says I'm a marketer's dream. Here's why. I went to the store when I got home to re-stock milk, bread, eggs, etc. I stopped to look for the beans. Wouldn't you know it---they did not have the Sweet Mesquite. But, they had all the Grillin' Beans on sale---3/$5.00. So I decided to try 3 different varieties. I'm hoping to find another type that I like. Beans are cheap---and good for you too. Win, win.

I already had this can in the pantry, but they are not the Grillin' style. Hopefully with all these choices, I'll find one I really like.

When we left the tour, we had to sing the bean song. You know the one, "beans, beans, the musical flute...."

How do you like your beans?

Can You be TOO Organized?

We are such an organized family when it comes to traveling. We plan everything down to the last detail. We purchase tickets and make reservations in advance. We do allow room in the schedule to move things around when necessary.

The only thing we forgot was the sharpie to mark the drinks. Without it, there's a lot of waste.

Any way, to the point of this post. I'm basically pretty organized all the time. My closet is arranged by  items and color within each category. My Christmas plates are all stored with the trees in the same direction. I say that to admit that I can be a bit fanatical. Heck, I organized other people for 15 years. But I have seen nothing like the organization in the house we rented for our family vacation. In fact, it was so over the top, that it made me uncomfortable. This house was beautiful and big---5 bedrooms and baths---sleeps 18 (although that's a bit of an overstatement when the sofa sleepers are so uncomfortable.) 

Anyway, we hadn't even gotten in the front door before the LABELS assaulted us. There were labels everywhere. Here are just a few:

I should have taken a photo to show you how high up the nest was. Seriously, anyone that wants to get to the nest would have needed to bring a ladder with them. We might be organized, but we don't travel with a ladder. Plus by, now the babies have long flown away.

Eeek, now that I am reminded of this one, I'm not sure we did that. Of course, we do wipe our feet. It wasn't muddy---totally dry, so I guess we're okay.

Duh!?! We do know what bugs are---don't need a list. Plus, we're pretty adamant about this. Remember, "close the door, do you live in a barn?" Someone's always yelling at the kids to close the door!

In my opinion, it's much harder to "thump" your luggage up the stairs than to just carry it.

Every room had an inventory list. I have to admit, the family had a good laugh making fun of this. Seriously, who would steal the thermostat or ceiling fan? On our last night, I went to bed at 11:30 and overheard a conversation about the BBQ brush. While cleaning up, Jordan was drying the brush and pulled out half the bristles. I told her to throw it away. Butch was kiddingly freaking out that we were going to be charged for that. I didn't bother to get up to tell them that it was my brush I brought from home!

Most people are familiar with the fireplaces that do not open these days. Since it was summer, we weren't using this anyway.

This one really got me. There are two cabinets side-by-side. One is open. The locked one would obviously be the owner's cabinet. The "please do not touch" got to me. What? Have they had a lot of thieves stay with them that tried to steal everything and pry open things obviously meant to be left alone? It's insulting.

Connie needs to do this inside her cabinets at their beach house. Not only were each shelf labeled---15 water glasses, 15 juice glasses, 15 plates, etc., There was a photo posted as to the exact location of everything. And as if that weren't good enough....

Another inventory list posted on the cabinets.

The lighting was not very good in the house. Part of the problem was that many of the bulbs were out. Some lights we couldn't turn on at all and just thought the bulbs must be out. Finally, on the last night, Morgan noticed the label---"lights are on a timer. They go on at 6 p.m. and off at midnight." Huh? Since when can't you turn on lights whenever you want them?

It's pretty ironic that I take pride in how organized we are when we travel. Yet, I was offended by the owner's organization. It's just too much. I felt uncomfortable. What I've posted here is just a sampling of what was there. Cabinets with towels were labeled and numbered. Every room had labels everywhere including the deck.

OMGosh---it was way too much pressure to keep everything so perfect-especially on vacation. Even when the whole family is together at our house, things get messed up. Things don't get put exactly where they belong. And you know what, I don't freak out about it. I can straighten things up when they leave. I want my family to have a good time---and that includes me.

 This was just plain insulting.

In fairness to the owner, she also has a manager that is supposed to do this inventory each time someone leaves. We arrived before the manager. When she got there, she said she was running late that day. She was in and out in 5 minutes. There's no way she checked and counted everything. I just hope nothing is missing so we don't get blamed.

Speaking of which, sometimes, things just happen. A few years ago, I inadvertently brought home a table knife from a cabin in a state park. It was inside my cake taker, so I didn't notice it. I wasn't worried, as I just carried it back a few months later when we went again. If it had been someone's home, I would have let them know and then stuck it in the mail.

When there are that many labels, you simply stop seeing them. We would have spent the first couple of hours of our vacation reading everything! Obviously we didn't.

I realize there are plenty of dishonest people out there. But I resent being treated like one.

Someone take the label maker away from this woman!

And the Winner is...

I can't believe that I forgot to post the winner of my little contest prior to my vacation.

The number of layouts in the stack were 132. That makes Judy the winner!! Congratulations. Your prize package will be sent this week!

Thanks for playing.