Delicious!

Rachel and I ate alone last night since our guys were at there firefighter training that they do every Wednesday and every other Sunday. So we decided to try out a new recipe. Rachel says, "I give it two thumbs up!!!" It was truly a nice way to season tilapia. The flavors were unlike any we had ever had with the tilapia. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com. Here is the original recipe that makes 8 servings. We modified the recipe to fit our taste buds and we were only making 4 small fillets.


Broiled Tilapia Parmesan (note I baked then broiled mine... does that count?)

INGREDIENTS

• 5 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoon butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoons mayonnaise
• 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 4 small tilapia fillets

1. Preheat oven to 425. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with nonstick spray.
2. Bake fish for approximately 8-10 minutes or until the fish flakes with a fork.
3. While the fish is baking, mix all all ingredients in bowl. Taste. Mmmm. Add extra salt or cheese or whatever to fit your taste buds.
4. Once fish looks cooked, remove fish, and smother the top of the fillets with the sauce mixture.
5. Turn oven to Broil and watch the cheesy goodness brown for about 2 minutes. Remove when it has reached your desired color. Enjoy!

I will definitely eat this again!

Did you just meow at me?

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. I have been assigned a huge new duty at work and it is mentally fatiguing. I can do the work it is just a lot more than I was doing and I still have to keep doing what I was doing. Anywho, breakdown of the things you've missed: last Monday we had a huge snow. Okay it was an inch. But there was no snow in town just out here around the lake. We live at the top of a very steep hill. We couldn't leave and there were multiple accidents. We were woken up by the scanner calling for John's station to assist. That is when John threw on his clothes and stepped out the back door to find he couldn't leave. We had to just listen and wait. Luckily no one was terribly hurt that morning on our road. Though, an ambulance did slide off the road right next to our road and had to cancel responding to its call. Jeff went to PA last week and got to see a lot more snow than that.
Yesterday the guys did SOC training with the fire squad. Because the lake was frozen they were able to put on the fancy wet suits. They couldn't feel the icy water. They practiced getting each other out of the water and walking/crawling safely on the ice. (see pics)
I went to volunteer at the SPCA. It was actually very relaxing. I helped stack the newspapers that they use for liners. I mopped a little and washed a few pans with there fancy sanitizer/dishwasher. I of course played with the cats and a puppy. They only had one puppy there. The rest were all adopted at there adopt-a-thon the day before. Okay so today was the big day for our 3 cats. They all went to the vet. (see pics of ridiculously spoiled cats going crazy in my car). They had some tests done because of there age. We find out the results Wednesday.


This is Pebbles and Chelsea on the way home from the vet. 2 unhappy cats.
Here is Pebbles wondering when the torture will be over.

This is Wumples in her favorite spot in the car. She loves watching the scenery. I had the window cracked too, so she was smelling the city air.

This is where she was most of the time. It is so fun to watch her watch everything. She loves the outdoors. She secretly wishes she were a wild cat but she wont make it more than an hour outside our home with soft couches and endless food and water (and candy).

Okay, let me explain. This is John pulling another firefighter out of the ice. It was about 6:00pm when this was taking place so it was getting dark, but not quite as dark as it looks.

Here is John testing the waters. It looks like he is sitting in a hot tub, not a small hole that they made in the approximately 3" thick ice.

I wish this one hadn't turned out so dark. This is Jeff being pulled towards the dock by I believe John. Ideally they should stay low to the ice like here, but they were actually able to stand on the ice in most spots because it was so thick.

Here's another view. That is John pulling Jeff. That is our friend and firefighter Richie working with another firefighter on the dock.

That's all for now. I wasn't able to take pictures at the SPCA. I want to wait a for a few visits before I take pictures.

Taste of summer in the winter

We all think of summer barbeque's when we think of ribs. I just think of the fact that my husband is cooking so I don't have to that day! That really wasn't the case because everyone also happened to want twice baked potatoes that day also! So I have a little recipe that I follow when making these. I store that recipe in my head so it comes out different every time. My inspiration recipes a few years ago was from kraftfoods.com I think. Here's a little teaser picture since most of you weren't there for the mostly, 'indoor bar-b-q'!

Ribs:

John is still working on perfecting ribs. We have tried many techniques. The one he used this day was a new one that a local bar-b-q restaurant owner shared with him. It is instead of boiling the ribs, just slow roast them on a low temp in the oven. (or a large smoker). We have a small smoker, but went with the oven on this cool winter day. He set the oven to 210 sliced open the package of ribs........beep,beep,beep,beep,beep,beep,beep,..... got a call for the fire department. He then looked at me and asked me to put the ribs in the fridge. And left. Note, I didn't leave the house and discovered about an hour and a half later that the oven was on. It was only 210 so I didn't freak out. New rule: if you get a call for fire dept. turn off the appliances you are using at that time. Just for safety precautions!

Any who, so he got back 2 hours later. They ended up sitting near the fire on standby because another station got there first, and got the garage fire put out in a jiffy. So, he dry rubbed the ribs and wrapped them in tin foil and threw them in the oven. (another new rule, must put a shallow pan under the ribs to catch the juices-better for the person who has to clean out the oven!) I went ahead and threw in the potatoes wrapped in tin foil. about 4-5 hours later he says they are almost done.

I should have just cooked the taters in the micro because it took forever for them to cook and I prefer them extra tender in the middle, and they weren't so much. So he took his ribs and sauced them up and threw them on a low flame on the grill.

Twice baked potatoes:

all potato 'meat'

about a stick of butter

about 1/2 cup of sour cream

about 3/4 of a cup of heavy whipping cream or just milk

salt and pepper

about 1/2 cup or so of bacon crumbles

1. Bake about 4-5 bakers in the oven (I didn't need that many but needed to use up the potatoes, so we had leftovers
2. When potatoes are done, slice open and scoop out inside of the potato, trying to leave skin in tact
3. in large mixing bowl mix with a hand mixer all the ingredients, adding the cheese near the end
4. lay empty skins in a deep baking dish, forming a bowl of sorts with each skin
5. spoon mixture into skins
6. top with a little more cheese
7. bake for about 20 minutes at about 350. Watch for bubbling mixture.
8. Remove and let cool.

That's totally a throw together recipe for me. I don't think I will use the heavy whipping cream next time. I was just trying to use it up. Also, the potatoes, were a little chunky, so I will just bake them in the micro as appose to in the oven at 210 for forever!

Casserole time!

I also stumbled upon an amazing recipe on Kayash's blog, Central Cooking. I found a very easy and tasty looking chicken casserole. Her source was allrecipes.com . I didn't tweak the recipe much, but here's how I ran the show.

Veggie Chicken Rice Casserole

• 2 cans of condensed cream of chicken soup
• 4 cooked and cubed chicken breasts
• 1 package of frozen veggie medley (thawed) (corn, carrots, peas)
• 1 cup of frozen corn (I was sneaking in extra veggies)
• 2 cups of cooked rice (I used instant to speed up the dinner time)
• 1/2 cup of water
• about a package of crumbled Ritz crackers*

1. Set oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix chicken, soup, veggies, rice and water in bowl. (I just did this step in my baking dish)
3. Sprinkle crumbled crackers on top
4. Bake in a 9x13 dish for about 15-20 or until bubbly!

*I will use double the crackers next time. It was a very tasty part!

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup! Mmm-Mmm-Good!

I found this recipe on MrsSchoon04's blog, Sweet Savory Southern. Her source was allrecipes.com. She has lots of awesome recipes that I want to try out eventually. This one was a winner. For the original recipe click on the allrecipes link above. I made quite a few alterations to fit the needs of my household of taste testers.





Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup (my version)



the following ingredients can all be dumped in the slow cooker:

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cooked and diced
• 1- 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 cans of chicken broth
• 2 cans of enchilada sauce (mild)
• 2 cups of frozen corn*
• 1/4 cup of finely diced onions
• 3/4 tsp. chili powder
• 2 cups of salsa (mild)

These are the toppings I used:

• Mexican blend cheese (amount up to consumer!)
• tortilla chip strips (I found the strips in the bakery section of my Kroger's)
  

1. toss all the ingredients, except for toppings, into slow cooker. (I cooked the chicken breasts while cooking dinner the night before.)
2. cook on low in slow cooker for 6-8 hours. (my slow cooker keeps it warms after the time ends)
3. ladle into bowls and add desired toppings.

* I will add more corn next time.

This is staying on my top soup recipes. I am not a huge fan of soups, but this was delicious and of course easy!

#74 & #75 Paint!!!

We are just changing it to red, since I haven't actually painted, yet.
I received some gift cards for my birthday and Christmas that I was saving for paint. John and I finally went and got 2 test colors. We weren't very happy with the satin finish of the samples. I went back yesterday and they told me that they do not have samples of the eggshell or the flat. Only the Satin. So, I jumped. I just decided to get the flat. We have textured walls, which we both hate a lot! We hope that the flat will not bring attention to the texture but finally allow us to have color!

This is what it looked like when we moved in.
(Before pics will be added here: later :)

This is what it looks like now that I have painted chunks of the wall!
(again, to be added later. so sorry for the teaser :)

After pics of course will come who knows when. I have to convince everyone to give up a weekend to help! We are painting the living room, attached hallway, dining area, and attached kitchen all the same color. I am hoping that it will make the space look bigger. Cross your fingers we paint soon.

#9 pay off a bill!

I am very excited about this as well! I won't go into personal details, as this is the Internet, but John and I were able to pay off a credit recently. I am very excited to free up that allotted money for the next bill. We are fortunate that we don't have a lot of debt, like so many people, but I take pride in my money management! So yeah for us! 1 down 3 more to go (4 is the number I put on the list).

#85 Get a another shelf for the office!

I am very glad to have this one done. Rachel and Jeff got us the shelf as a Christmas gift. Jeff even put it together on New Years day while John and I were out shopping. I finally get some books and stuff organized and on it. I was even more excited when I realized that I had room to put my cookbooks on it (top shelves- plus a few more items). Now I feel more organized.

Talk-about-it-Thursday- On a Friday!

I know I am a day late, but I have a great excuse. On the cooking board that I love to visit online, I am paired up with a 'WC sister'. It's kinda like a pen-pal I guess. My W.C. sister is Erin. She is an amazing baker, and cook! I have never baked a recipe from her blog because it is all way above my level of baking-by leaps and bounds. If you want to see some good looking goodies, check out her blog, Dinner & Dessert. I think her Creme Brulee and Tiramisu are some of the tastiest looking things ever!
I would also like to wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Her birthday is today, and that is my excuse for being a day late on the post! :)
I have a few recipes that I've tried that I will be posting this weekend. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Explanations....

You are all probably wondering why I have firetrucks on the side of my blog (all 2 of you). Well, John starts firefighter training this week! He has his weekly maintenance meetings on Mondays every week. He also has the Monthly meeting on the first Tuesday of every month, where starting tonight he will be the Secretary! Go John! Then Starting this Wednesday, he will be doing his firefighter 1 training. Him and Jeff are both enrolled. It was so cute, uhum, I mean, manly, when they came home last night with their gear. They are practicing putting it on. The time to do it in is apparently 3 minutes. They are trying very hard to get there. I snapped a few pictures of them trying to get the gear on......

Even our cat Wumples got in on the action.

Happy Tuesday!

I just wanted to give an update of my weekend. I took a few pictures with my new camera! I'll be adding those to the post when I get home.
I really need to get on it with the postings. I have so much to blog about. It's kind of piling up. First, in case I forgot (and I'm sure I did), Happy Birthday Jeff! It was his birthday last Friday, the 2nd. John of course picked out the little gun that goes with the Wii as his gift. I chose the money saving gift, the rechargeable battery pack. Jeff agreed that it was something he wouldn't have forked out the money buy himself. I love saving money! This is Jeff on his Birthday!

This is Jeff playing the Wii. A tennis game.

John and Jeff got in a fight!!! Just kidding. They were posing. I though it was hilarious.

John torturing Wumples. This is what we call it when we make her let us love her. See her paw. She always pushes it on your face.

This is one of many of John's goofy faces. I have to say that this is one of my favorite faces. I just love that cheeeessssyyy grin. He's adorable. Okay, that's enough mushyness.

This is Pebbles sitting in the Kitchen.

This is Wumples hiding on our new bookcase in the office.

Saturday Rachel and I went shopping. We found some awesome deals at Bath & Body works. I have officially helped Rachel get addicted to the scented oils. Rachel's fav: brown sugar and fig. My fav is still the apple. (which I of course put away in the house and can't find it) John and Jeff went to the gun show on Saturday. John got a new carry pistol. (don't worry, I won't bore you with the stats-plus I don't remember them, lol!)
Sunday was John's birthday! It was pretty uneventful, which is the way John liked it. I made him breakfast-french toast. Then we watched cartoons together. He had to tell me which one was Tom and which was Jerry. (sad, I know) Then him and Jeff went fishing and hunting. I cleaned the entire kitchen as a gift to him. It was driving us both nuts. Then I made him homemade potato soup. After dinner John wanted to watch,- Rambo! ...... I know. It was good though. And that was my weekend.

This is John on the morning of his birthday. He helped me get the Christmas decoration up in the attic. Gotta love the faux-hawk!

I thought I would add a few additional pictures that I took over the weekend.

This is the blue-jay that kept flying over. (I was taking the pictures through the screen, and my camera kept trying to focus on it. That is why they are blurry. )

This is the cardinal (I think) that kept flying in. It was fun watching them.

This is the back of Chelsea's head. She is watching the feeding frenzy of birds on the porch.

Jeff took this picture. It is a wood pecker in the tree next to our house. It was so cute.

More Christmas fun as promised!

I am sure that this video is going to be terrible quality. I really don't know how to do it any better.

This is from our visit on Christmas Day to my 'Nannie' Naillon's house (my grandma). AKA Shorty. This is during the madness of opening gifts. There is a sea of little kids and moms (cousins and aunts) opening gifts. My brother is collecting trash with a big black trash bag. John is doing the filming, and I am sitting to his left. Like I said the quality isn't there, but just listening and seeing the people is entertaining!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy new years Eve and Day! John and I went out and ran some errands. We are camera shopping and looking for a some kind of cabinet/furniture piece for the kitchen. We have so many fun gadgets for the kitchen that they don't fit. (this is by no means a complaint. I need all those gadgets, and a bigger kitchen!) We had no luck finding the storage piece. We decided on a camera. It turns out it was $20 less at Sam's Club , so we left Walmart and went to Sam's Club only to find out that they were closed! So we didn't get the camera either. I can't wait to take some fun new pictures for you guys though. Our pets are going to be so annoyed, and subjected to lots of picture taking. It's about time to post about them anyway, so expect new pics soon!

Also, I realize that I haven't blogged a talk-about-it-Thursday in two weeks. I just didn't have time on Christmas Day or New Year's Day! So expect some great posts in the coming weeks. I also have some recipes to update you on. Have a great Friday!

Goodbye to 2008!!!

It has been a long year! I would definitely say that John and I have been blessed this year. Even through the rough economical times, we were fortunate enough to keep our jobs, each other and stay on top of our economic status. God really blessed us.

Best memory of 2008: getting to spend time at the lake with our friend Andy and having our friends Jeff & Rachel realize how awesome Roanoke is, and get them to move here.

Least favorite memory in 2008: I would say we are fortunate not to have any major concerns. We were very fortunate. I guess if I have to choose something, it would be when John and Andy discovered that it was a relay switch that had prevented my AC from not working the past 3-years! Not the compressor. At least I have a car though!

Best dinner out in 2008: John and I went to Williamsburg, VA to go to Busch Gardens, with our friends Andy and Penny. It was a fun trip. We ate at this nice restaurant next to our hotel. I had Prime Rib for the first time ever! It was amazing. I hope to go there again next time we visit there.

Best date with John in 2008: Honestly, I would rather mention that carpooling with him is best date ever. We get to see each other without much distraction for that little bit of time. I really do cherish it.

2008 was full of weddings as well!

We attended Trista and Allan's wedding in Charleston. It was a fun short little trip. We were unable to stay the night before the wedding due to the Hurricane that was off shore the day/night before. The wedding was absolutely beautiful though, and they couldn't have asked for better weather on their special day!

We also got to be a part of our best friends wedding, Jeff and Rachel. They got married in October. It was one of the best ceremonies I have ever heard. It was fit for them so well. They were blessed to have family from all over come in to visit. John and I will never forget getting to be a part of their magical day.

I am very excited about 2009 and what it holds for John and I as we are in our second year of marriage. I hope it is as blessed as the last and full of laughter and love. We wish the best for all of our family and friends!

I wanted to post a few more pictures of Christmas celebrations from our trip home to see family. It was lots of fun. We got to hang out with friends that we haven't got to see in a while and with my family. I enjoyed getting to spend time with my mom, dad, brother, nephew, niece and my sister. John even took my dad shooting at the range. My dad had never done that and John was happy to have a buddy to do that with.

This is my nephew Bryce, niece Jaden, me and John. We were eating Christmas Eve dinner at my moms.

This is John and me with my niece Jaden. She doesn't really prefer me, but she didn't mind sitting on my lap as long as I was willing to share my food!

This is my niece Jaden with my one of my many second cousins on my moms side of the family. He is adorable he was opening gifts on the floor in front of me, and kept trying to show me everything. There were so many kids. I will post a video if we can figure out how to load it from John's phone. John sent it to his brother who was with his whole family of about 9 people, in Florida. I think they thought we were kidding.

Here I am this past Monday night back at home making chicken noodle soup in my giant new stockpot that my mom and dad got me for Christmas! It was so nice to have a decent large size pot that I wouldn't loose half the noodles to the bottom. (something a lot of cookers understand)

This is the chicken soup I was making for my sick John, in my new pot. (he has strep. lovely.)

I just wanted to brag about what I did. I really wanted to put together a little basket for our friends Pip and Miranda. She is so creative so I had think of something cute and fun. I got a little help from Bed, Bath, and Beyond with their bucket with popcorn and candy. I added to it though. I just had to show the fun little date/movie night bucket! (contains popcorn, candies, pop, and popcorn seasoning)

Everyone stay safe tonight if you are out celebrating New Years Eve! I will be home enjoying shrimp, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, and buffalo wings!

Christmas Weekend!

Jeff, Rachel, John and I will all be heading back to Tennessee to see our families and won't be seeing much of each other this week for the holiday. So we decided to open our gifts to each other on Saturday. We started with a little Christmas dinner of our own. We had a spiral ham that the guys each received from the fire department where they volunteer. We were blessed with an amazing dinner. It was all delicious.

I want to start by saying we all spoiled each other with some amazing gifts, and don't normally splurge this much at all. Big gift for Jeff was a new Wii! John and I chipped in so that Rachel would be able to get it for him. We were all very excited to let the cat out of the bag. It was exhausting keeping such a big secret. Especially for John, who had to hear Jeff talk about wanting one all the time. Rachel also got some awesome gifts from Jeff. She finally got the bedding she had been drooling over. It looks amazing on their bed. John and I got her a few things that she had also had her eye on. A photo serving tray, photo coasters and these fancy gloves from etsy:

John and I got each other a few small things and each picked out one big thing that we will be getting ourselves in January. I got John a few necessities: couple pair of bluejeans, Polo's, a robe, socks, and for fun I got him an 8 gig jump drive. He got me these giant frames that I love from Walmart, a small crock pot, that amazing cookbook that I fell in Love with and blogged about (see post below), a couple shirts, these awesome canvas prints and wall words that I loved, and a pair of these for me:

Jeff and Rachel also got John the knife sharpening kit that John has wanted forever. They also got us the shelf for our office, and a new blender! I am super excited about what was hidden in my stocking. Rachel got me a meat mallet and potato masher! I was so excited about these. I can't wait to use them.

Here's some more pictures from the fun night.

God blessed us this year in so many ways. I hope that everyone is enjoying spending time with friends and family and eating lots of good food this joyous Christmas and holiday season! May God bless you and the ones you love in the year to come!

#40 Get our read on!

#40 Once a month go to the mall and sit at the bookstore together and read quietly



It was so fun to just go sit and relax at the bookstore. John worked on some Gun magazines. Don't laugh, I'm serious. While I worked on a cookbook, 'How to Cook Everything'. One day, I will own this giant book of Everything. I was very intrigued by it.

I also looked at a photography book. Not really the sit in the bookstore and read kind of book. I will have to find a good read for my visits with John. I can't wait to go again. We both had lots of fun.

WC swap time!

I participate in a swap with some ladies on the What's "Cooking Board" on thenest.com. It is a site I frequent when I need direction with a recipe or need new recipe ideas. The ladies there are amazing. That is how I find the amazing blogs that I talk-about. Back on subject, they do a swap of sorts where your name is given to another person anonymously. They secretively ask you what you need. Maybe for the kitchen or just in general. I got to participate in the fall swap and the winter swap recently. I thought I would share some of the fun new things I got.

Fall Swap-

My favorite thing from the fall swap is the was the towel-mitt. I have been using that thing like crazy!

Winter Swap-

My favorite thing from the Winter sway was the little silicone finger protector. You can pick up a pan or an egg from boiling water, and you can't feel the heat! And it is shaped like those little paper things from the 3rd grade that says yes, no, yes, no as you scrunch it open and closed. So CUTE!

I would like to say thanks again to the ladies who got me these wonderful items!