Month: January 2013

Sopapailla Cheesecake

Did you know that I “wrote” on another blog?  I guess I should clarify… because I write on a few different blogs….

But then I have another Recipe blog that I share recipes on Tuesdays called – I Like it on the Table.

So a while back I shared a recipe for Sopapilla Cheesecake.  Quick, Easy and best yet – YUMMO!  And here’s something about me… I generally am not crazy about Cheesecake so that means this is either – Fantastic or Horrid – you know, since I don’t generally like Cheesecake… Take it for what you think!

So I am a member of a woman’s Organization, PEO, and we have monthly meetings.  Every month a different person chooses to be a Host (share their house) and a co-hostess (brings dessert).  One month a member named Cheryl (who also writes a column in our local newspaper) brought this fabulous dish called – Sopapilla Cheesecake.

The minute we walked into her house you almost thought you’d die from the yummy smell and the dish itself
EVEN BETTER!

So I’m going to share this with you and hope that you absolutely LOVE it as much as we (The PEO chapter) do!

In case you can’t read my handwriting :):

Sopapilla Cheese cake
Ingredients:
2 pkg Crescent Rolls
1 cup sugar + 1/2 cup sugar (separated)
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened or melted (I prefer softened)
1-2 tsp Cinnamon

Cream 1 cup sugar with the block of cream cheese.  Spread one of the crescent rolls out on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan, pressing all the seams together.  Spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the crescent rolls.  Roll the second crescent roll out and lay on top of the cream cheese mixture.  Spread your butter on top of the top crescent and then top with cinnamon and sugar.

Bake 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Pull it out and let it rest 10 minutes (or be like us and toooooo impatient and eat immediately out of oven, but be warned you may burn your tongue/mouth!)

Happy Friday Friends!

Linking up with: Foodie Friends Friday, Showcase your talent Thursday, Friday Favorites, Full Plate Thursday,

Dear Creatives
Sopapilla Cheesecake

by Nicole
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients (16 servings)
  • 2 (8oz each) tubes Crescent rolls
  • 1 cup sugar + 1/2 cup sugar (divided)
  • 1 Pkg Cream Cheese
  • 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
  • 1-2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
Cream 1 cup sugar with the block of cream cheese. Spread one of the crescent rolls out on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan, pressing all the seams together. Spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the crescent rolls. Roll the second crescent roll out and lay on top of the cream cheese mixture. Spread your butter on top of the top crescent and then top with cinnamon and sugar.
Bake 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Pull it out and let it rest 10 minutes (or be like us and toooooo impatient and eat immediately out of oven, but be warned you may burn your tongue/mouth!)
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Bamboo Gardens

Well Hello friends!  One place that I swear is a staple is Bamboo Gardens.  It is Chinese.

A couple weekends ago Earl and Pokey asked us to meet them and the kids plus K & A for dinner.  We said sure and this is where we wound up.  I’m not going to lie, that night I was a bit disappointed with the food.  My chicken tasted like it sat around most of the day.  But being a buffet style, anything is possible.

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Getting to know you… er me

**I check the weather every day and can generally tell you the next few days forecast or how it differs from the forecast I read yesterday.  Same goes for if we’re traveling, generally I can tell you what the weather will be like a few months out.

**I like order to my life.  I alphabetized my CD’s and my DVD’s, although they have gotten out of order recently, don’t worry, one of these days I’ll do it again.

**My hands and my feet are always freezing.  I blame it on early morning Band practices in high school.

**My knees get cold too.  It can be 110 degrees outside and my knees will feel like you brought them out of the freezer.  It’s CRAZY.  And if I don’t get them warm, the pain works its way to my ankle and my hip.  If all three ache, I’m done for.  And yes, I’ve been known to sleep with my electric blanket on in the summer on my leg to warm my knee up.

**By the way I have a habit of pronouncing the K in knee (cu-nee) all because of my husband and the fact that I’ll tell him I kneed him in the knee and he’ll ask me why I need him in the knee.

**I have to take a shower every day.  It weirds me out if I don’t and going to bed without a shower is unheard of, I have to wash the daily grime off.  The only time this doesn’t apply is if I was in my house all day and did absolutely nothing.  Every once in a while I’ll make an exception.

**But I can’t wash my hair every day.  Oh Lordy!  My hair couldn’t decide if it wanted to be straight, curley or wavy so it’s a mixture of all the above.  That mixed with washing every day is not a good combination.

**Toilet paper kind of freaks me out.  I mean I know what it’s used for but from there, it is not used for wiping your nose, using on your face, anything like that.  Your grubby paws touch it when you’re doing “other things”.  Enough said.  And I have a hard time admitting this fact to people because they look at me weird….

That’s why toilet paper wedding dresses are “fun” circa 2006

**I absolutely hate putting laundry away.  I have no problem washing it, but I also hate to wash it because that means either A) it winds up in a pile at the foot of my bed (generally) or B) I have to fold it and I hate putting it away!

**But one of the best smells in the world is fresh laundry.  Along with a storm that is blowing in, fresh cut hay, fresh cut grass and this lotion stuff I got at The Body Shop years ago… Satsuma.

**I want to go to culinary school so bad.  I can’t believe it costs almost as much as a 4 year degree to go, but then if you add in the cost of equipment and food, I can kind of see it.

**I want to get my pilots license, my CDL for a semi, scuba certified and my motorcycle license.  Why?  Why not?  Some days I feel like Rose DewitBecator (Titanic) or Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany’s).  It seems like nothing stopped them… Rose you saw in her pictures she traveled with and Holly, she always said, I did it because I never have before.

Yes they are fictional but still….

She Lost Her Girlish Figure

A few weeks ago we started noticing that Audrey was beginning to look fat and “belly down”.

Tbug & Audrey just after we got Audrey (via 2010)

Oh no, sad day, is she pregnant?  I love puppies, more than anyone, but I hate them too.  Let me explain.  They’re so cute and loving

But then I get attached and then I want to keep them all, but the reality is, I can’t.  So then I have to help find them good, loving homes.

In the past I used to try and barter with my dad, well if that one there is the last one, I’m keeping it… etc.  You all probably know the routine.

So yesterday morning, we woke up to 4 puppies in the crate with Audrey.  Darn it, she had puppies.  But aren’t they so cute?!?!

Yes, that is a bone in their crate.  I guess Audrey or Marlie took it in with them from outside…

Doesn’t Audrey look happy…. NOT!

But I think Marlie must have been a very good Midwife because she was bouncing around outside on my way to work like, Mom hey mom, did you see?  How are they?

Linking up with IA & SS
Seriously Shawn

My Car Collection

Over the weekend I went to my parents house to pick up a set of dresser drawers for Tbug’s room.  For some reason I went into their basement and found a bucket with all my old cars in it.  Now when I was a kid I had 3 favorite toys, other than playing kitchen (by the way I served the BEST water!), those were Barbies (yes, and still like them), play horses (for when I couldn’t be on a real horse) and cars/tractors.

I had a nice collection of different things too… My John Deere Tractors…

But don’t worry, I wasn’t a color snob, I went for red as well, thank you International Harvest and Case which is now Case IH.

And even one lonely blue Ford.  He pulled the green and red equipment just fine!

 I also had the Monster trucks.  Now it does crack me up that all my monster trucks were in deed Fords…. until Hubby’s Chevy and my Hyundai, all I’ve ever owned was a Ford.

Hubby told me these were three cars as seen on Days of Thunder.  I didn’t probably know it then, I just knew I had my very own race car.

And sports cars galore.  Anything from American to Foreign.  My absolute favorite was the black Pontiac Trans AM.  I wanted one of those cars when I grew up so bad (at the time).  Now I must also tell you that my parents had a 24 foot around above ground swimming pool and one of my favorite things to do was race them off the deck into the pool and then dive in (read that as jump, I can’t dive) and fish them out.  Yeah, that’s why the paint looks a little rough on a few of them….

Do you remember Micro Machines?  Apparently I liked them as well! I wasn’t a car snob!

Then I found this bad boy.  I can’t explain him…

You know these cars had to be old, even when I played with them.

I always said I wanted a Vet (Corvette), I guess technically I had one ;).

And we can’t forget the regular pick up truck, the bulldozer, the liquid tanker truck which obviously was hauling Nitrogen fertilizer out to the field for maximum crop yield and the Cruella Daville car for a night out on the town.

Hey all kids are entitled to an imagination, and by george I had one.  In fact… these were all my cars! 🙂

And for anyone who wants to knock Barbie… come on, she’s a snazzy dresser and was career oriented. 🙂

Anyway I was excited when I found these, not sure what I’ll do with them now, but we’ll see :).  I wanted to put at least the John Deere in my kitchen for decorations, but well… that may still happen, we’ll see.

Happy Monday!

The Bayou – Monett, MO

Back in 2009 a group of friends and I had what we referred to as “Dinner Club”.  Once a month we’d get together and try out a new restaurant, generally they were locally owned restaurants.  In May of 2009 we went to Bayou down in Monett, Missouri.  At the time 4 of the “members” worked in Monett so they located this restaurant.

So jump forward a few months and I started dating my husband, the man who likes seafood type foods :).  So I made it a point to take him down to Bayou.  He’s been hooked ever since.

Here recently we decided to have an impromptu date night and decided upon Bayou for dinner.

Very seldom do we start with an appetizer, although once in a while we get it in our head to try something as a starter.  This night we went with the fried pickles.  They are hand-battered and fried crispy, choose from dill slices or spears.

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Tbug Farm Girl Style

Not to long after I started dating my husband, I was riding down the road with Tbug and she had on boots and jeans while I was wearing tennis shoes and who knows what, knowing me jeans but I can’t guarantee that.

So we were driving down the road and she said to me, “I’m a cowgirl.” 
I said, “oh yeah?  How so?”
She said, “Because, I’m wearing my boots and jeans, that makes me a cowgirl.”
I just about cracked up laughing at her but that statement has stuck with me now for a little over 3 years.  So without further ado, Tbug – Cowgirl Style!

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Coffee Break

Happy Friday morning to you!  Have you had your coffee this morning?  I have, but I’m almost thinking this might be a two cup Friday!  I did NOT want to get out of bed this morning.  At work the other day we were talking and have come to the conclusion it might be the weather making us want to stay hibernating all. day. long.
Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos


So I stole this survey from a couple people… namely Jill & Janna… hmmm… it’s the J’s 😉

1. First thing you do when you wake up in the morning
well one of two things… immediately stumble to the bathroom (tmi??) or roll over and hit the snooze and wish that I didn’t quite have to get up right then.

2. First thing you do you when you get home from work
Set down all my stuff and head to the bedroom to get out of my work clothes.  Then go to the bathroom (haha)

3. First kiss
The first kiss that matters was the kiss to my husband.  It was just before 3am on July 26th as we were standing outside his momma’s house and I was getting ready to leave.

4. First home
This is the first home hubby and I have lived in together.  Although this was a photo from before we owned it.  I can’t seem to find a current photo of it….
Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

5. First car
1999 Black Ford Ranger.  One of these days I’ll find a picture of it to share.

6. First car accident / traffic violation
Um… I got my license on a Friday and partially (not fully) ran a stop sign on Saturday.  I stopped, the officer just supposedly didn’t like my stop so he pulled me over.  He let me off with a verbal warning.

7. First thing you wanted to be when you grew up
It was either a Veterinarian or a Ballarina on Broadway….

8. First choice beverage
Either Water or Sweet Tea.  Depends on the day.

9.  First choice dessert
I’m not huge on desserts.  I’m more savory than sweet, but I sure do like a good um….. I’m having a hard time answering so we’ll go with the most recent good thing… a red velvet cheesecake we had at Thanksgiving (or was it Christmas)
10. First choice restaurant
Zio’s Italian Restaurant!!

11. First song that comes to mind
Hard to Love by Lee Brice
or
The Cricket Song by Rich O’Toole

12. First major purchase
my 2004 Ford Mustang (check it out in our house photo!)

13. First job
If Babysitting doesn’t count, then I was a waitress at Royal Oaks Steakhouse that is no longer in business.  No I didn’t put them out of business, just so we’re clear 🙂

14. First time you flew on a plane
I was in 4th grade and my dad and I were headed out to Colorado to see my mom while she was on weekend break from college.

15. First real “big girl” job
Ok so this would be the waitress at Royal Oaks Steakhouse, right?  I even had a debit card by that time… haha.  Ok so when I babysat the little girl and I went for ice cream a lot and I paid with cash because I didn’t have a debit card, just an ATM card.  I didn’t want a debit card.  So we go up to the window and she asked why I didn’t pay with my debit card and I told her I didn’t have one.  She looked at me and said, “Oh well you can get one when you get a real job.”  So the joke at my house is if you have a debit card, you have a real job 🙂

Ok, one last thing before I go… you know how dreams are crazy?  I woke up almost crying this morning because I dreamed my husband didn’t marry me and I married some other guy.  In the dream we dated for a long time but he didn’t marry me so I married another guy but we remained friends.  The other guy didn’t love me like hubby does and he wouldn’t do my taxes.  Yup, I was worried about my taxes…..

Young Love

Something that has been on my mind a lot is how people make comments toward hubby and me about “young love”, “new love”, “Oh you’re newly weds”, “It must be nice to be young and in love”, “get a room”, etc.

My husband and I both tend to be very affectionate people toward each other.  A simple gesture as holding hands or making googly eyes across the room at each other, sitting on his lap (although he’ll sit on mine occasionally), things like that.  And the minute we start doing things like that people start smarting off and telling us to get a room or one of the other phrases above.

When we’re accused of young love I just want to tell them that I’m not young.  In the reality of things I am, but they’re not talking age… they’re referring to the marriage.  Our marriage is young.  We’ve been husband and wife just over 2 years with a little over a year of dating prior to that.  Our relationship is still considered new.

It seems like in a world with standards to day, it’s easy to get married and even easier to get a divorce.  I get excited when I hear of couples who have been married 10, 20, 30, 40+ years because it shows that their marriage has stood the test of time.

There are so many obstacles out there, hurtles even, that sometimes people lose sight of what is really important to them and their marriage.

I’m reminded of a story the preacher told in church one Sunday about a couple who were always holding hands, had cute little inside jokes, He’d put his arm around her in church, she’d grab his hand etc and they had been married 30+ years.  At first he felt sort of annoyed by the PDA (public display of affection), but then he came to realize that it was a gesture of love.  After all the years of hardship they had endured, the wonderful times, the family commitments, the outside commitments, after everything life had thrown at them they were still very much in love.

When we heard this story, hubby and I both giggled just a bit because this almost described us to a T, well other than the obvious we were newly weds at the time.

 

Yeah, you can say we have a “young love” right now, but give it a few years, I believe my husband and I will be as affectionate down the road as what we are.  And yes, I know life happens, there may come a time that we aren’t quite as cozy because of outside influences, but no one will ever question if we loved each other.

In thinking of this post for the last few days, the same song by The Judd’s keeps popping into my head… “Young Love”.  Please enjoy.  Happy Thursday

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StGB2ltrrzg]