A Good Weekend Had By all

     I think I'm starting to live for weekends.  There is always so much going on now that the brisk air of fall has taken over for the lazy summer days.  Matt and Ridley being home to keep me company is the best part of the weekend.  But I must say that the highlight of this past weekend was without a doubt Ladies' Night at my good friend's gorgeous home.  Ashlee is an entertainer extraordinaire who really needs to open her own catering/party planning business.  She offered two types of sangria (which I obviously only got a wee sample of) and a table loaded with beautiful food.  My contribution was these chicken crescent rolls that I swiped from the lovely website tidymom.net.

     This easy recipe involves simply putting a dollop of a mixture of shredded chicken (I used rotisserie), cream cheese, and garlic powder in the middle of the triangle of dough, then folding  and baking.  Easiest thing in the world.  And delicious.  I was rude and brought some back home.

Ladies Night Fiesta

     It had been way too long since I had had my favorite girls over to just hang, chat, and laugh.  I was having a craving for Mexican food, so I decided to make that the theme for the evening.  I made two types of quesadillas:  one with cheddar and apples, and the other with guacamole, pepper jack cheese and onions.  I just folded over the tortillas with the contents inside and heated them in my little sandwich maker.  The ones with guacamole were a hit.  The apple and cheddar---not so much.  I had a bunch left the next day and they were even worse after sitting in the fridge all night.  Ick.

 

 



     I also made a dip in the crockpot that turned out delicious, even though it wasn't as pretty as the quesadillas. 

                 One package of Velveeta
                 One package of Philadelphia cream cheese
                 One 16 oz jar of salsa (I used the kind with corn and black beans in it)
                 One packet of taco seasoning

     Dump it all in the crockpot and turn it on low for 3 hours.  That's it.  Seriously.  And it was good.  Then the decidedly non-Mexican dessert that I found on Pinterest.  It came from Baked from a Box and it was very much a hit.  I will be making this stuff again.

                 One box of yellow cake mix
                 One cup of confectionary sugar
                 Half a stick of butter
                 A quarter cup of milk

     Mix together and microwave for two minutes, then pour into a pan and cool for at least an hour.  That's it.  Cut into little bars and they're like crack.  I also made a mocktail for my other prego friend and myself where I simply mixed white grape/peach/mango juice with seltzer and dumped in some sliced peaches.  Pretty good.  I also froze some grapes for the girls without babies in their bellies to use to cool their wine.  Turned out nobody drank white wine anyway, so we just ate the grapes.
     My wonderful friends brought some heavenly things, too.  Like stuffed peppers, guacamole with pineapple (it's very tasty), artichoke dip and very American apple pie.   We had a marvelous time just catching up.  I plan on doing this again in a month or two, maybe next time with a French theme?  We shall see.

Friday Night in my PJs

      So, the hubs was out of town last night, and my son had a friend over, so seeing as I was stuck in the house all evening I threw on my pjs (ok, that's a lie, I had been in them all day) and deciding to make some homemade chicken stock.  I don't have a recipe for it, I just sort of throw anything in the fridge that will soon become questionable into a pot and simmer it for as long as I have time to do so.  I had:

                           a rotisserie chicken nearly picked clean

                     part of an onion that was beginning to look inedible

                     several broccoli stems

                     a few baby carrots that my son wouldn't eat because they were turning white

                     a perfectly normal celery stalk

                     a clove of garlic

     I threw all these goodies into a large pot, covered with water, and began to simmer.  I had never used  broccoli in stock before so I was afraid it might be too strong, but the house smelled glorious and the cat began to mew for some samples.  I simmered it for about 4 hours, and then right before bed I strained it through a colander and started divvying it up between several tupperware containers to freeze.  It was the richest, brownest stock I have ever made.  Not sure what was different, perhaps the broccoli?  I have yet to try it other than a tiny sip when I was packing it away.  Quite tasty!  I can't believe I ever thought making stock would be difficult.