Randomness

It's the last day of February already! 

Happy 83rd birthday to Aunt Marilyn in Arizona!  Who knew I would marry into a family with a Marilyn AND become part of a church with five Marilyns?! Korn, Neie, Wood, Green and Foster.  Marilyns of the world - unite!

Random thought #1 - It takes a long time for coconut to go from point A to point B...a long time.

Random thought #2 - Nothing says love like bacon...

Random thought #3 - I got a Weber grill for Christmas.  It's all fancy schmancy, with a gas burner on the side.  What's the first thing I cooked on the new grill?  Fried coconut!

Random thought #4 - I got a request a while back on "Words with Friends" from BeefJerkyDiet to play scrabble.  I assumed it was my cousin Steven.  (He is a big beef jerky fan.)  The note said "Yeah!  I got a good one mom!"  Obviously it wasn't Steven.  It ended up being a young lady in Los Angeles who thought she had sent the request to her mom.  We're still playing...

Random thought #5 - the progressive dinner went off without a hitch!  The theme for the evening was tropical flavors.  (We are all tired of the gloomy gray skies and dirty snow.)  Ours was the first house and we served prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe, bacon hearts topped with sweet and spicy chicken, and fried coconut.  We then went to David and Leslie's house for a crab/pasta salad and a mixed greens salad with fruit bites drizzled with raspberry vinaigrette.  Next we drove to Lisa and Scott's house for a Caribbean-style chicken with brown sugar-peanut spice rub and a Caribbean salad with black beans, corn, cilantro and red bell pepper.  Oh, and this.



Get some.  Seriously.  Add a little Bailey's to it.  I also added a splash of milk.  You won't be sorry.  It's 9:30 on a Monday morning and I'm thinking about pouring me a glass right now!  (But I won't.)

The last stop was Dana and Jeff's for dessert.  They served a yummy fruit medley with whipped cream, macadamia nuts and shaved chocolate.  Everyone had a great time and we have agreed to do it again very soon.  Maybe a Mexican or Italian theme the next time.  It's the perfect way to share some laughs, make some new friends and not have to be responsible for an entire meal.

Random thought #6 - I'm thinking of changing my blog name.  I'm leaning towards either Merrily Merrily Marilyn OR Prime-Marilyn.  Which do you prefer, or do you have a better suggestion?

Final random thought of the day - we are going to see these guys on Wednesday.  I'm looking forward to it!

Finding My Own Sunshine

Gray.  Gray.  Dirty Snow.  Wind.  Gray.  Gray.

That's been our reality for a while now.  Ugh.  Come on Spring!  Wake up, daffodils!  Elbow your way through the snow and dirt and bring us some of your glorious sunshiny yellow happiness!!!

However, yesterday was Valentine's Day and I was finding sunshiny happiness every where I looked!  Here are just a few happiness-makers from the past few days.....

This lady's visit made me VERY happy!  We went to a dairy and were

about to see a baby calf being born.  Shhhhhhhhh.  (It was a boy!)

Oh, my handsome hubby is definitely a happiness maker!

And a pie-maker to boot.  Shoo-Fly Pie, anybody? 

Makes you want to sing that song, doesn't it?

Va-va-voom!  Worked all day in a flower shop then got the last delivery of the day...

Hubby got some happiness, too! 

But the sweetest, most loveably precious rays of sunshine came at the end of the day.....



Those smiles say it all! 

Come to my house.....NOW!

Are you hungry for a little breakfasty/brunchy something?  Well get ready. 

But first I want to say something. 

I was introduced to a sweet blog not too long ago.  How Sweet, you may ask?  Anyway, I've made two of her recipes and I am on the fence with her.  The first dish did NOT taste like chocolate chip cookie dough.  It was sweet, buttery, cheesy and chocolately, but it was no where near CCCD.  I had to give a thumbs down to the recipe, simply because she had me salivating for some CCCD and none was to be found.  The second dish was definitely all it is cracked up to be.  As a matter of fact, it is better than it is cracked up to be, and I have a stomach ache to prove it!   

So this third recipe was a test.  If it doesn't trip my trigger, I may have to be done with the little Sweetie.  So here goes.

Chop up about four slices of bacon (or pancetta if you have it).  Add a little olive oil to your skillet and saute your bacon bits.  Lop off the head and tail of two leeks (you DO have leeks in your fridge crisper, right?), wash, dry, then thinly slice .  Toss in with the bacon and stir around. 

Check out this close up...

While the bacon is browning and the leeks are carmelizing (about 6 to 8 minutes), rinse and drain a can of Cannelini beans.  These are white kidney beans.  What?  You don't have Cannelini beans in your pantry?  Well I do.  (Well, not any more because I just used them to make this dish...)  Mix together and allow the beans to warm.  I added a little salt and pepper at this point.

Push everything over to one side of the skillet.  Add oil, butter or whatever you want to keep an egg from sticking to the pan, then crack open an egg into the skillet.  Fry that baby up, being sure not to crack the yolk.....like I did......because I didn't add oil, butter or whatever. 

Once the egg is done, spoon some of the bean, bacon, leek mixture onto a plate and nestle the egg on top.  Add a little more salt, a little more pepper.  Behold the finished product (please do not judge me by the looks of this one egg)......



And the verdict? 

Major success!  Brava!  Deliciouso!  The best breakfasty/brunchy thing I have ever had - dad's breakfast excluded.  My plate is so clean I can just put it back in the cabinet. 

Ewwwww.  Okay, I won't do that.

Blizzards and Baking

The majority of the United States has had some crazy weather today.  Henryetta, OK got 11" of snow.  San Angeo, TX got snow.  And Lafayette, IN is on the edge of a blizzard with ice pellets tinkling at the windows as I type.  So what does one do during a blizzard?  I spent most of the day in my kitchen...

How cute is that?!  It is the lid to a baking pan.  If you are

interested, you can go here to check it out.

First up was my sister's very beefy vegetable soup.  Very, very tasty! 

 I added a little millet to the original recipe because, well, I am on a millet kick. 

Voila...

While that was simmering, I worked on some salsa. 

Let me tell you, The Pioneer Woman has some great

recipes, and this is one of them.  Check out the finished product...

Rachel Ray would say this was "yum-o"...and she would be correct!

Time for something sweet.  How about some Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip? 

Oh.  My.  Goodness.  Run little animal crackers, run!  You are about to be dipped!



Want even more sweetness?  Love the title of this recipe -

"Better Than Crack Brownies".  I don't know what plumbing has

to do with this, but it is filled with peanut butter goodness.

I also have some flank steak marinating but I didn't think

you would want to see some raw meat in a Zip-Loc bag!

So that is my cooking day.  Hopefully the storm will be kind to us and

 leave us with electricity so that we can heat up our soup and keep

our cookie dough dip cool.