Happy Halloween!

Halloween on a Monday was tough this year!

Mondays are my busiest day at work.
Lots of accidents happen on the weekend....

 Mondays are crazy.

I was worried I might miss this:

Jack's first Halloween Parade!

But I didn't..
I made it!
And so did Clay!
He was so excited to see us.
The downfall of dressing in your costume at school is not being able to wear the whole thing.  No gloves, masks or shoe covers....

Booooo.

But he didn't mind at all.

All he cared about was Hi-Five-ing the 4th and 5th graders as he paraded by.

He couldn't wait for night to come.

We started our evening as we do every year.

Rocco's!

There's something about Pizza and Halloween.

Jack-man in full attire

Madeline the Owl

Maddie caught on right away.
She was all about the Trick or Treating

(I don't know why I always wait till the last house to take the family picture.)

Don't set your camera down...even for a second.

All the ladies....

Dessert.
MMMmmmm Pumpkin Chiffon Pie.

And one last sneak into the candy....

Until next year..


:)

Happy Halloween!

Welcome Fall!

Just in time....

The weather is changing...

Thank. The. Lord.

I'm ready for some Fall weather.

Wanna know what else I'm ready for???


This stuff:

MMMmmmmmm....

If you haven't had the pleasure...

You Should.

Best. Seasonal. Beer.
Period.
.

Stay Tuned.....

More Fall fun is just around the bend.....

On the Pinterest Band Wagon!

Mel from The Larson Lingo and My friend Kim inspired me to stop pinning and start cooking.

I mean Pinterest could be one of the greatest inventions I have EVER used, but what's the use of pinning and not trying....

It's like Window shopping....It's fun for awhile, but sooner or later....you gotta just buy it!

I know I have mentioned how much I love my crock pot.

But lately....

I REALLY love my Crock Pot.

My work has been a tad busier than normal.  Which makes my energy level not of it's norm.  

Enter slow cooker.  What better time to break out my Crock Pot than now.  AND what better time than to try all those recipes people have been pinning.

So that's just what I did.

First up: 

Egg Brunch Casserole

With the Holiday's just around the corner I need a breakfast that doesn't keep me in the kitchen and allows me to join in all the reindeer games.

This recipe had me at "Cooks while you sleep" 

Yes! Please!

With Mom visiting this last weekend, I had a sous chef and at 11pm we pulled ourselves up off the couch and threw everything in the pot.

*hint* It is probably a good idea to read an entire recipe prior to starting it just before midnight.

I didn't realize you had to saute the bell pepper and onion, nor did I realize the bacon had to be cooked.

Whenever I'm in a hurry, and don't want the mess, I cook bacon like Ina taught me.  Sheet Pan, cookie rack, 400, 15-20 minutes = Perfect Bacon.

You layer everything and pour your eggs on last.

Here is the finished product.  Not so pretty now, but I added sour cream, chopped tomatoes and green onion and it was great.  Clay even liked it.

*Winner*

and so so easy.

(If I were to change anything, I would add sausage and 1 and a half the recipe so it fills up my pot.)

Next up:

Two ingredient Pumpkin Muffins

I read Mel's blog and was so bummed that these weren't amazing.  I had such high hopes!

So I did a little google research.

And found a recipe from Sandra Lee.  The goddess of everything semi-homeade. 

Sandra said....Add 1/3 cup of oil.

So that's just what I did.

And they were so moist and perfect. 

Next time I would add some pumpkin spice, just to kick them up a notch.

I iced them with Ina's Cream Cheese Frosting.

Deeelish.

And again...

Easy!

This next one almost all of my friends have made and raved....how could I not try it!

Ranch House Pork Chops

Easy(check), Crowd Pleaser (check), Tender and Delicious (check)

I would recommend. Fo. Sho.

This one seemed too good to be true:

Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken

The only thing I added was Garlic Salt, Onion and Hot Sauce.

Clay loved it. 

Hooray!

It was creamy and easy and good!

Topped with Cilantro and Hot Salsa and Sour cream in a tortilla.

Yum!

And Finally.....

This is my old stand by.

You can find Carroll Shelby's Chili mix at your local Grocer.

It's the best.

This week I used Steak instead of ground turkey or hamburger.  

It was so good!

Carroll Shelby's Texas Chili

I usually use Chili beans with sauce, Kidney beans, onion, bell pepper, garlic and diced tomatoes with green chilies.

Throw it all in....

And Voila!

Autumn in a Pot.

I serve it with "Corn Puke"

You know....

Like when you go to Chevy's or El Torrito and your dinner comes with that little side of corn casserole. The link above will take you to that recipe.  And I promise it tastes just like the restaurants version.

And if you are not a fan of "corn puke" which means you are probably one of the people that gave "corn puke" it's fabulous name.....you are crazy.  Because it's fantastic. 

So there you have it. 

My Slow cooker, Pinterest, Crocktober, Palooza.

as Mel would say...

FTW.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

I LOVE this time of year.

I love Fall, and Pumpkins and Everything October brings.

Every October 1st we usually rush down to the Pumpkin Patch and stock up.

But this year.....

It's been tough to get in the "Fall" mood.

80 degrees does not an Autumn make....

So...

It took us some time to get to the Patch this year.

But we finally got there this last weekend.

Awwww...

The Baby Pumpkins are my favorite.

Especially these two little pumpkins

She wore the headband all afternoon.

(it was a Halloween Miracle)

Jack agreed to pose for 2.5 seconds

Why is it so difficult to a sibling photo?

I have about 47 more shots just like this.

The rule as always...

If you can carry it. It's yours.

Madeline picked a white one this year.

Jack tried for the biggest he could find....

This year Mom and Dad came with us.

I love it when my Mom comes because she's a Mamarazzi like me....which means she can't help herself when it comes to photographing her children and it helps me not feel so crazy with my camera.

She caught me.

Trying to get the "Perfect" shot.

(at least there's proof I was there)

(love this one)

Happy *almost* Halloween!

Happy Birthday Janice!

Happy Birthday Jannie!!

I think it's funny that my two closest "work" friends are born in the same week.

;)

Janice and I met through work, just like Honesty and I did.

But.... a little differently....

Janice was an intern.  A very Hot, Sexy, Intern.  She was probably one of the most beautiful women I had ever met.  

And I hated her.

Not because I knew anything about her, or had even talked to her, but she was SO pretty.  And Skinny.  And had the most perfect figure I had ever seen on a woman. 

So every day we would go to lunch as a group.  And we would leave her.  

Aren't we nice?

Until one day.  My friend Kim at work said... "Hey, Janice....Wanna Come with us?"

I shot Kim the look of death.  How could she?  I thought....

And Janice with her perfect dimpled smile said.  "I'd LOVE to!"

And off we went to lunch.

Thank God Kim asked Janice to lunch that day.  

Janice was the most kind, sweet, generous, thoughtful person. 

It was too hard to hate her.  So she quickly became one of my close friends. 

That was 11 years ago.

She knew me when Clay was called back to duty for the military.

She was my buddy when I had to live alone.

She knew me before I had my children.

Before I owned my home.  (both of them)

And I knew her before she married Mark.

Before she bought her first home.

Before she had her babies.

We've been through a lot.

We bought homes 5 houses apart on the same street.

And have probably had dinner together 1,000,000 times.

To top if off, our husbands became friends....

Which makes hanging out even more fun.

The boys golf, and we shop.  

We are quite the match.

We have traveled to Hawaii together.  

They have been to almost every Holiday at my house.

Life was a little less complicated before we had our children.....

But we still work out a way to hang out...

Just not as often as we used to.

We were both pregnant at the same time.

And we love to joke about their wedding...

Someday.....

Janice, I hope you know how much I love you.  

 I'm so glad you are in my life.

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Honesty!

Happy Birthday Lady!

There is one person who gets me through all the live long day.  

Monday through Friday ....

And it's this girl.

Honesty and I met through work awhile back.

It's so nice to have someone to talk to throughout the day. Someone who completely understands the demands of your job and can completely relate.  

We clicked right away.  We have the same goals, the same work ethic, and the same sense of humor.

We get each other.

I'm not gonna lie, Honesty has been on leave from work for awhile and I'm going crazy.  I definetly miss  having her at my fingertips 300 times a day. 

:)

Not only does she help me through the work day, but she helps me through life.  

She's my very own "life" cheerleader.

When I'm down, she cheers me up. When I'm happy she always happy for me.  When I'm whine-y she tells me to snap out of it.

She's always just what I need.

We have so much fun when we are together.

And through the years have become more than just "work" friends.

She is my friend.

My good friend.

She's always up for whatever I may have up my sleeve. 

I'm so glad I have her in my life. 

So Happy Birthday to you Ms. Honesty!

I hope your day is perfect!

It's Crocktober! (better late than never....)

Welcome to my first Link up!

Mel over at The Larson Lingo is doing a Crock-Pot Recipe swap!

As soon as I saw this post I was so excited.

I love my Crock Pot!

Anything you can Dump a bunch of ingredients to and get something Delicious is alright by me!

So here you go!

As Tegan would say...

My super secret Chile Verde recipe:

The Ingredients:

Here is the best thing about this recipe.  You can substitute and it turns out EXACTLY the same.

Above is what I had in my cupboards today.

Here is what you need:

-1 pork roast 4-5 lbs (I usually use shoulder or butt- but today I used Pork loin and it tasted the same)

-2 cans of Green Enchilada Sauce I usually use La Victoria, but I only had Fresh and Easy's brand and it tasted THE SAME)  (***also- I did not have 2 cans, so for liquid factor, I used one large can of enchilada sauce, and one can of broth and it still worked great!  Just a tad on the milder side.)

-2 onions sliced. (today Fresh and easy was having a sale on their fajita pre-sliced onions and bell peppers.  I picked up two packages and used that instead of the onion to see how it would taste- and Surprise! Surprise!  Just as delicious!)

-6 cloves of garlic-

-2 bottles of Green Taco Sauce or Green Salsa (today I used 1 bottle of La Victoria Green Taco Sauce, and 1 Jar of Fresh and Easy's Salsa Verde)

-1 can of ortega green diced chiles



1 bunch of cilantro-Chopped
1 bag of shredded mexican cheese
sour cream
your favorite salsa
1 diced tomato
1 bunch of green onions chopped

Flour Tortillas

Okay.....

I know this sounds like a ALOT of ingredients....

but this recipe is SO easy.

Here are the steps:

Placed the sliced onions(or fajita mixture) in the bottom of the pot, add one can of enchilada sauce (or in this case broth) before you add the roast.  Place the roast on top of the vegetables, add sliced garlic (you could even add the garlic whole-it won't matter after it has cooked for hours), sprinkle the green chiles, then pour the second jar of enchilada sauce on top of the roast until you can no longer see the roast

Like this

Then set your pot to the longest setting- 8 hours, or leave on low for 8-10 hours.

When you check it after 8 hours it will look like this

Take the entire pot and pour into a colander to get the excess liquid off.  Then take a fork and shred the pork, while it is in the colander. When almost all the liquid is gone, place the shredded mixture back into the pot. And add the two jars of Taco Sauce and Salsa.

This is what your finished product should look like.  It only needs a few more minutes to warm through once you add the taco sauce.

It can stay like this for quite some time, which makes it a great make ahead party meal!

Place the mixture in a flour tortilla and add your favorite toppings

I like mine with Tomato, Cilantro, Cheese, Sour Cream, Lettuce and Salsa!

You can easily feed 10 people or more with this recipe!

There it is!  My first Link up!

Enjoy!!





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(I have no idea how to link up to this.....How come Kim could figure this out and I can't??)

I had every intention of linking up on Wednesday and blogger didn't do my automatic post....so there ya go....better late than never....and un linked....  I guess my first Link up didn't go as well as planned!