Bloody Marty Monday!!

You know the one good thing about today??  It's Bloody Marty Monday!!  Bloody Marty is a wonderful alcoholic treat that I concocted one weekend.  He is a close cousin of Bloody Mary.  One would say this is a Red Beer but I put a little twist on it.  It is very delicious and a wonderful way to end a dreaded Monday or any other day of the week.

Bloody Marty
1/4 c of tomato juice or if you prefer spicy, Bloody Mary Mix
1 12 oz bottle of your favorite beer
2 dashes of Tabasco sauce (optional)
2 large Spanish olives
A pinch of salt

Fill bar glass with Bloody Mary mix.  Top with entire bottle of beer.  It is best if you pour with the glass at an angle so you don't foam up and spill over.  Add Tabasco sauce and stir.  This next step is very important.  Take a few sips from your drink so you have plenty of room for the next two ingredients.  Add the olives and then slowly shake some salt on top.  If you think you are going to foam over your glass, take your finger and wipe it on your nose.  Then place your finger on top of the foam.  The oil from your nose will break down the foam and hopefully will inhibit it from spilling over. Trust me, it works.  I have many a time had foam spillage.  It is not pretty.

Slowly enjoy your drink, preferably on a nice summer evening while sitting on the patio.  As you get to the bottom of the glass, you will notice that your sips become spicy.  This is from the Tabasco sauce settling to the bottom.  Once you have finished your drink, you will see your dessert (olives) waiting in the bottom of the glass.  Consume one at a time.  Now your Monday is complete. 

Warning:  This drink may cause drowsiness and cause you to sleep like a baby.  It is wise to limit yourself to one Bloody Marty each Monday.  Consuming more than one may have you staggering, talking Jibberish and cause you to wake up with a headache on Tuesday. 

And always, always NEVER DRINK & DRIVE!!

P.S. to my Mom.  I am not an alcoholic.  There are just some days that a working mother needs to come home and unwind.  I just choose those days to be Mondays.   

My first attempt at cake decorating

Keeping up to speed with my latest craze to become the next Martha Stewart, I decided to take a whirl at cake decorating.  Tomorrow we are going to have family/Abbie's 1st birthday pictures taken.  The last set of pictures are going to be of Abbie going to town with her birthday cake.  Well I have never been a fan of the cheap smash cakes from Wal-mart.  And I'm not going to spend a butt load of money on someone to make it for me.  So why not make it myself!! 

First of all, the cakes didn't come out of the pan like I expected.  We had quite a mess on our hands in getting it look leveled and ready to frost.  Then I didn't do the best at frosting the cakes so I had Charlie take over and he did a suburb job!!  Well that was until one of the sides decided to not cooperate (as you will see in the picture).  I did all of the piping.  Charlie wanted to do something fancy but I told him since neither of us have any experience in cake decorating, that we should stick with the simple dot.  Although the dots were looking more like Hershey kisses so I had to go back and take off all of the peaks.  Then I tried to fix the whoopsie that Charlie encountered.  I made it look a little better and tried to cover it up with the piping as well as I could but it's still pretty noticeable.

But for the first time at decorating a cake, I don't think we did too shabby at all!!  Who knows.  With a little practice, I may just become so good that Duff will hire me to become one of his cake decorators at Charm City Cakes!!

Now it's time to go clean my kitchen.  Why can't there be a fairy that comes in and cleans your kitchen while you are sleeping?!?

This girl has my genes for Mac & Cheese

Abbie has reached the age where we can start giving her soft table food.  I'm ecstatic over the whole idea because I was really getting tired and bored of steaming fruits and veggies when there are so many different foods out there for her to taste.  Well tonight I introduced her to one of my favorite meals...MACARONI & CHEESE!!  Her father isn't a big fan of mac & cheese.  He really isn't a fan of anything cheesy.  I know, can you believe I married him?  When we make Velveeta Shells & Cheese from the box, he will only add maybe 1/3 of the cheese packet.  Who does that?!?  It's called Macaroni & CHEESE!!  Now he is to the point where he doesn't even want to eat it.  So I was so excited when I could enjoy this meal with Abbie.  I was hoping that she wasn't going to be like her father.  And thankfully she wasn't.  SHE LOVED IT!!  With most finger food, she will nonchalantly drop her food on the floor for the dogs to eat.  Or she will miss her mouth and there will be a pile of food sitting next to her when I take her out of her highchair.  But tonight, she made sure every little bit of cheesy goodness ended up in her mouth. 

The Great Saturday Morning Debacle

Good Mornin' ya'll!!  Don't worry, I don't use that term all the time so don't think I'm some sort of Southern Belle or Redneck Hillbilly.  My Nebraska roots run deep.  Well it's Saturday morning and I am faced with the Great Saturday Morning Debacle.  Do I a) go back to bed while snuggling with my baby girl or b) stay awake and get things done so I can take a nap with my baby girl this afternoon?  Decisions, decisions.  I think I'll go with the latter.  My washer & dryer are out in the garage and I would like to get all the laundry done before it gets too hot outside.  I am about half way done so I should beat the heat.  I also need to do some cooking today. We are going over to our friends' house tonight and I am bringing meat wrapped pickles, cucumber & onion salad and strawberry poke cake dessert.  I also need to go to the tag office to get my car licensed since it's the last day of the month.  Yep that's me, the procrastinator!!  I tried to have Charlie do it before he went into work this morning but he said that they don't open until 9 am.  Well better go hop in the shower so I can get Abbie bathed and get going on my day.

Move over Martha Stewart!!

I have always been one that likes to cook. I am always surfing on the Internet for new recipes that I can try. Some of them have been very successful while others have been an epic fail. So when Abbie was introduced to solids, I thought it would be great to make her baby food. I admit it, I tried jarred baby food. Abbie ate it and she appeared to like it. But it made me wonder what exactly was in those jars. And did you ever notice the expiration date of two years on commercial baby food. That just isn’t right. I want my daughter to eat something that is fresh and I know exactly what she is consuming. I was kind of hesitant at first because it seemed like it would be time consuming, but it really isn’t. I bought this book from Border’s and began to read up on homemade baby food. The best way to prepare baby food is to steam it. Steaming is the best way to preserve the fresh taste and vitamins in vegetables and fruits. This cook book also has several recipes that you can make for your baby. Although some of the recipes kind of make me wonder. “Fillet of Fish in an Orange Sauce”, “Salmon Surprise”?? Do people really feed their children that? YUK!! So far I have stuck with the basics. Green beans, sweet potatoes, apples, peaches, pears, etc. You just steam it, then puree it in the blender until it’s to the consistency that you baby can eat it. Then you stick it in some ice cube trays and freeze. Then you just have to pop them in the microwave to thaw when you are ready to feed your little one. After the first taste of homemade baby food, Abbie said, “MMMMMM!!” That alone reassured me that I had made the right decision in preparing her own baby food.

We should have ordered Digiorno

• Rapid Rise Yeast...$1.99
• Time spent of pizza dough rising in the slightly warm oven...60 minutes
• Preheating the oven to 450 degrees then 5 minutes later realizing that you forgot to take out the bowl of dough covered with Saran Wrap...PRICELESS!!