The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This is the time that I look forward to every year.

The National Peanut Festival.

And it was just as glorious as usual.

Ben's mom, Ms. Brenda, had never been to the Peanut Festival before, so she joined us on Saturday for our favorite day of the year! She was shocked that there were free peanuts everywhere!

We taught her that the first stop is always the line to the Corndog Man. Those are the most delicious corn dogs in the whole entire world. They hand dip them in their sweet and buttery batter right there in their little trailer. Usually the line for corn dogs is longer than the lines for rides on the midway.

After corn dogs, Ben and I got kettle corn and Mom and Ms. Brenda got roasted ear of corn. This is what we eat when we walk through the exhibits. We always make a stop at the tractors so Ben can dream about our little farm in the country...or at least a yard big enough to use a riding lawnmower.

Then we headed down the midway. It isn't so much fun to watch the rides when you're not planning to ride any...I think my OB would discourage riding the Himalaya at 5 months pregnant.

I could ride the big ferris wheel though! We always ride this ride. Ben is slightly scared of heights, so it's not his favorite, but I love to go all the way to the top where you can see the whole fair down below!

When we got off the ferris wheel, we found the National Peanut Festival queens! This was a treat for two reasons:

1. Over my entire life, I can never remember actually running into the queens!

2. Little Miss NPF was our Little Miss Houston County! It's fun to say you know Little Miss Peanut! She is absolutely precious, and so is her family. We are proud of Jules!

And of course, we always end our fair day by getting a funnel cake. All that fried dough and powdered sugar...YUM!

I love the Peanut Festival and I'm sad that I only get to go once a year now. When I was little, I was there 4 or 5 times each year.

Of course that was back when Mom paid for me to go, I lived there, and I had 4 or 5 different groups of friends I would go with. I always went once with Jayla, once or twice with school friends, and once or twice with church friends, and with whoever else wanted to go!

It's a big social event.

But it's so much fun. I can't wait to take Brooke Allen next year!

Mad World

Random unloadings on a Tuesday.

1. This is the fitness goal.

No biggie. Just a Victoria's Secret model who is genetically built that way whose job is to look good and probably eats whatever she wants.

I can do it! I am determined!

2. Ben and I are planning a CRUISE in May! We are planning a second honeymoon/last chance vacation. He will start a job in June that will dictate our schedule for at least five years, if not more. Plus, we're planning on having babies soon. Babies and cruises don't mix.

And I need to put my toes in some sand that does not belong to the United States.

3. I thought we left cliques behind in high school? I think I'm pretty likeable. Maybe not. But if you want people to believe you are a friend, then maybe you should be a friend. Just saying. That's what Jesus did.

4. Praying for the family of Jordan Middlebrooks, a Troy student of Wetumpka, and the shooting victims in Arizona. Jordan was abducted from her home off campus, stabbed, and left for dead. The shooting victims in Arizona were completely innocent at the hand of a madman. Lord, save our land.

5. I made some AMAZING soup tonight:

3 chicken breasts, boiled and cubed

2 tomatoes, cubed

1 can niblet corn

1 can mushrooms (stems and pieces)

Handful of chopped baby carrots

1 can chicken broth (with one can water added)

4 bay leaves

Minced onion to taste

Bring chicken broth and water mix to rolling boil. Add veggies and chicken with bay leaves.

Add minced onion until you like the taste. I judged that the soup was done when the carrots were mushy.

I like mushy carrots and this was DELICIOUS. My house smells wonderful.

I meant to add cubed potatoes, but I turned the wrong eye on so they weren't done in time. I went ahead and finished cooking those. I'll make a garlic butter sauce for that for dinner tomorrow.

AND I MADE THIS RECIPE BY MYSELF.

6. That's really all. I'm just in a crabby mood because I have seen too many instances of people treating each other like crap today. I just wish everyone would be nice and polite and respectful of each other's feelings.

Random Trivia Fact: Because Auburn won the National Championship last night - There has never been another state to produce back to back National Championship titles in all NCAA football history. Thanks for bringing it home, Auburn. Congrats on a brilliant season.

Mamma Mia

TA-DA!!!!

It has taken me three days to write this post, by the way.

Pictures from Atlanta! Mom and I had the best time just having "girl time." Since Mom lives so far away, we love getting to squeeze as much time as possible out of each other when we're together. She's my best friend!

And I have a super awesome, amazing, sweet, caring, kind, loving, and generous husband who lets me spend 4 whole days away from home so that I can spend time with my Mom. Thanks, Boosef. I owe you one. :)

We stayed at the Loews-Atlanta Hotel in Midtown. Piggy had been talking for weeks about getting a free robe at the hotel. As soon as we walked in the door of the room, he somehow ended up with it on and he was lounging on the bed. What a slob.

I get a really sweet discount on this fabulous hotel because my company owns and manages the building. So we get to stay 5-Star while paying 3-Star. And you know how much I love a bargain!

We decided to go for sushi for dinner. I got Mom to try sushi when we went to the beach together over the summer. She LOVED it! So, we walked across the street from the hotel and went to Ra, for delicious and yummy sushi! The one in the front is the Viva Las Vegas roll - crab and spicy something. YUMO! The one in the back was an eel roll. It was soooooooo good. :)

The next morning, Mom and I went to the Georgia Aquarium where we saw all sorts of amazing creatures. It was an awesome aquarium. I love to go to things like this.

I always wonder HOW people don't believe in a Divine Creator when they witness things like this octopus. There is no way that something so intricate, so beautiful, so perfect could have been made by a big bang. It had to have been made at the hands of God.

After the aquarium and a quick cookie snack, Mom and I headed over to the World of Coca-Cola across the park from the Aquarium. I had already been here once with Ben, but it is loads of fun and I was happy to go back with Mom.

The World of Coke is full of Coke memorabilia, artifacts, and super cool Coke stuff. Plus you get to taste Coke products from all over the world at the end. It is lots of fun!

They have a whole section of pop-art centered around Coke. This was my favorite.

When we finished with the Coke factory (and I had bought a Coke tshirt), we wanted to enjoy the beautiful day a little more, so we walked over to Centennial Park. When the Olympics were in Atlanta in 1996, all the impressive ceremonial stuff was in this park area. It's a central location right smack in downtown. The Olympic rings above are water fountains that shoot synchronized water up. We sat here for quite a while watching kids (and a few adults) play in the water.

We didn't take a picture of our dinner hilarity that night, but it was quite the adventure. We decided we wanted Italian food. I had looked up restaurant reviews before we left and had read about a restaurant called Baraonda just a few blocks away from the hotel. I figured we could walk there, so we got dressed and set out. After we walked about 4 blocks, we realized we had walked 4 blocks in the wrong direction, turned around, and then walked 4 back, and then an additional 5.

Dinner was DELICIOUS, but we took a cab back. :) Really though. Dinner was delicious. Mom had mushroom ravioli and I had homemade lasagna. They had an amazing wine list, and we split a warm apple tart with gelato for dessert. YUM.

The next morning, we went to the Margaret Mitchell House. For those of you who don't know, Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With The Wind. It is one of my all time favorite, love it, got to have it books, and movies, as well. Mom and I have shared all things Gone With The Wind my whole life, so it only made sense to go to the home where she wrote the book.

We were not allowed to take photos in the actual apartment, but we were able to stand in the corner where she kept her desk and wrote the massive novel that she only began as a hobby because she had broken her ankle and needed something to do. So she sat in a corner by a window and wrote one of the greatest love stories (or non-love stories, however you decide to look at it) of American fiction. She wasn't even going to publish it.

They had a little museum to the side with a few movie relics in it. The photo above is me standing by the actual portrait of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara that hung in Scarlett's bedroom in the movie. It was quite stunning in person.

We left the Margaret Mitchell House and walked to the High Museum of Art, where they were having an exhibition of Salvador Dali's late works. Dali is my brother's favorite artist, so we knew we had to go. I totally got caught and yelled at for trying to sneak a cell phone picture to send to Wes. Oops.

And, then there were no more pictures. But we did go to Atlantic Station that evening for dinner at Rosa Mexicano, where they make fresh guacamole tableside (and I don't even like guacamole, but this was GOOD) and a little shopping.

We had a blast.

Mom, you are my best friend and I love you more than you know. Thanks for such a great week. I can't wait to conquer another city with you!

Random Gone With The Wind Fact: The famous "burning of Atlanta" scene is not General Sherman and the Yankees burning Atlanta as commonly thought. It's actually set a few weeks before when the Confederates burned their own arsenals so Sherman couldn't get to them. Kind of a "if we can't have it, nobody can" thing.

Oh, and look closely. Vivien Leigh had not been cast yet when that scene was filmed. In the carriage with Rhett, it's either a dummy being used or a stand-in, depending on the shot.

Saturday in the...couch?

I love Saturdays.

We've done nothing today. I take that back. I've done nothing. Of merit, at least. Ben did get up and cut the grass, but didn't trim or blow the sidewalks off, so he halfway did something.

I, on the other hand, laid in bed with the dog til 11. ELEVEN!!!!!! I can't remember the last time that happened. I'm so glad Charlotte is finally old enough to let me sleep til 8, and then get in the bed with me and be lazy. Then, we went in the living room and got on the couch, where we took a nap until 2. The Bama game kicked off at 2:30. Ben dozed in the chair through a lot of that, until I started screaming at the TV.

Bama was playing AWFUL! I'm glad they finally turned it out and won. Whew. It was a nail biter.

With the last few minutes of the game, Ben was complaining that he was getting hungry, so I told him at 5, I would get up and start dinner. I started dinner at 6, really. The game was too interesting! I had to do a victory dance!

Tonight for dinner we had steak tacos with corn and black bean salsa! DELISH!

Here's how I made it:

SALSA:

1. Chop all your fresh vegetables. I used 1 tomato, 1 bell pepper (without the seeds), and 1/2 white onion.

2. Combine your fresh veggies with your not-so-fresh veggies: 1 can drained black beans, 2 cans green chiles (with juice), and 1 package frozen corn.

3. Add fresh cilantro and minced garlic to taste. Or to Ben's taste, rather.

For the steak, I used this:

Pampered Chef's grill pan. This is a kitchen life saver! For small grilling projects like the steak, or to do grilled chicken or fish, it's awesome! No need to break out the charcoal!

Anyways...

1. Heat some EVOO on your grill pan.

2. Defrost your steak. I used steak strips that are used for stir-fry. I didn't have to worry about cutting up any steak. Already done for me!

3. Rub a little mild taco seasoning on your steak strips.

4. Throw them on the grill pan until done!

Then, I warmed some flour tortillas in the microwave, washed some lettuce, and put together our steak tacos! They were yummy!

We kept sitting at the table, eating away, and talking about the tacos. We couldn't put our finger on what it was missing. Then Ben says, "These would be great with some cheese." Idiots. We forgot to put cheese on the tacos. And I even bought Mexican blend cheese specifically for the occasion.

Oh well. When you make these tacos, please use cheese.

Down in New Orleans

OMG.

Cajun pasta night!

So so so so so so so good. And I made it up all by myself! No recipe at all!

I guess I've watched enough Top Chef to be able to put together a simple meal.

How to make my Cajun Pasta:

1. Boiled my pasta until al dente.

2. Cooked six andouille sausage links in a sauce pan for about 10 minutes until they were plump.

3. Sauteed 1/2 pound of white shrimp in olive oil (or EVOO, like my girl Racheal Ray says) and dusted it with Tony Cachere's Creole seasoning. (If you don't know what that is, it's amazing stuff that tastes good on everything: seafood, meat, french fries...it's the ultimate salty creole seasoning.)

4. Dumped a jar of Newman's Own Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo sauce in a sauce pan on low so that it warmed through. (Hey, I didn't go to culinary school. I don't make sauce.)

5. Sliced up 3 of the sausage links (saved the other 3 for Charlotte) and dumped the sausage and the shrimp in the alfredo sauce and mixed it all together.

6. Poured the sauce over the pasta.

DELICIOUS.

It was so quick and easy. Made enough for 2, so Ben will have plenty for dinner tomorrow night! The roasted red pepper sauce was a great touch, too. Thank heavens for Paul Newman. Not only was he gorgeous, he started a company that uses whole ingredients and a portion of every sale goes to charity!

Now, this was not too terribly spicy. Ben and I don't like too terribly spicy foods. I'm sure this recipe could be tweaked to add a little more spice. I thought it was just spicy enough.

But it did take me back here...

New Orleans. One of my favorite places in the world.

Ben and I were able to take a few days to visit New Orleans back in June. I had never been able to go there before. It is an awesome city full of culture and flavor (and drunks). We had so much fun wandering the streets and ducking into small shops. And then the food...

I'm going to die just thinking about it.

Random fun fact: Did you know that in the famous landscape shots of Tara in Gone With The Wind, the front door is actually off center? Tara is always shown at an angle, and the director thought it looked funny with the door in the traditional place, so he had it moved right of center to be seen between columns. If you saw it straight on, the door would be behind columns.

And the movie is NOTHING like the book. If you haven't read it, I highly suggest it. Brilliant.

Food, Glorious Food

I ate too much this weekend.

Seriously.

We went to Jackson this past weekend to visit Ben's family. We ate chicken spaghetti, M&Ms, peanuts, sausage, steak, stuffed potatoes, cupcakes, Mexican, and Sonic. All in one weekend. It was delicious.

My poor tummy.

So, I needed to go to Publix (heaven!) today because we had n-o-t-h-i-n-g to eat in our house. I thought all day about what needed to be bought and I just couldn't bear the thought of any more junk going in my stomach.

Katie and Ben will no longer be eating junk. We will be eating fresh and healthy.

Since Ben and I are on opposite schedules, a typical week of dinners for us includes Lean Cuisines, Compleats, Lunchables, PB&Js, cereal, mac & cheese, and Dijourno pizza. We tend to eat fast food every day for lunch because that's the only time we see each other and we stretch lunch time by going somewhere, rather than me driving home.

So much sodium and preservatives in the prepackaged stuff. And $$$$$$$$$.

Don't get me wrong. I love some blue box mac & cheese. There are some nights when all I want is cereal. But my poor husband is suffering. And I look like a single mom with 4 kids when I go through the grocery line with all my single serving lunch box food.

Back to today:

I read up on some recipes and will be cooking at least 3 times a week with fresh ingredients. I will be making enough for Ben to take to work for dinner. I'm not so good at following directions, so I'm making my own recipes up as I go. I am not the world's greatest cook, so I will be using some prepared ingredients, but most vegetables and meats will be fresh.

On this week's menu:

Panko crusted pan-fried tilapia

Chicken fajita tacos with black bean and corn salsa

Cajun pasta with shrimp and andouille sausage

I will keep you posted on how I do. If it tastes awful, I will eat PB&J. I did buy fresh bread.

Random Fact About Charlotte: Charlotte does not play well with others. She tries to be big and bad with dogs bigger than her, but is terrified of smaller dogs and tucks her tail. Solidifies the fact that we will never get a second dog!