pimento cheese

this pimento cheese is bangin! Its my moms recipe with an added twist of pepper jack cheese.


12oz shredded mild or sharp cheddar cheese
4oz shredded pepper jack cheese
hellmans or kraft mayo (the real stuff) to taste
pepper to taste
2oz diced pimentos and juice
dash garlic powder

I think it is better to buy the blocks of cheese and shred them yourself, the taste is just so much fresher! I use 8oz blocks and shred them with my food processor attachment.
Next, dump the cheese in a large mixing bowl and add several spoonfulls of mayo until you have it the consistency you like. Add the pimentos and however much black pepper you want. if you feel it needs salt you can add some, but be careful. Also add a quick dash of garlic powder. If you add too much mayo you can fix it by adding more cheese.
I feel like pimento cheese is best served on white bread and grilled until the bread is lightly toasted....MMMMM.

mongolian beef

i love mongolian beef. I found this recipe and it is really good, but of course i made changes to it such as serving it with rice instead of noodles and i added broccoli and hot chili paste instead of the actual chiles. Also, I used vidalia onion instead of green onion

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Mongolian-Beef-192408

doughnuts and zucchini

Thats right, this weekend has been full of several things including doughnuts and zucchini. First came the zucchini. Amanda and I were examining our garden, when what do you think we found? One lone zucchini sitting amidst the blooming plants. It was the only one and I was so excited it had to be picked! It has not been cooked yet so here is a picture to show you our first garden vegi. Also, our garden is doing very well and some lima bean pods are out there, just the little beans in them have to grow before they can be picked.


After the zucchini came the doughnuts. Krispy Kreme bread pudding to be exact. This is what happens when you sit down with your husband to watch paula deen on the food network. It is jakes grandpas eighty something birthday today and everyone is making a desert so this was our contribution. Please disregard the missing corner in the bread pudding, but it was SO good we had to have a bite! We tweaked the recipe a little bit and didn't add the raisins and put in a can of peaches instead of fruit cocktail and this thing is wicked good. Here is the link if you are interested and also know you can just put in water and some vanilla extract to substitute for the rum!

blogging from a better place

Jake and I finally got moved into our new place! I cannot explain how happy we both are to have our own home again and the move wasn't too stressful at all. Instead of being on the north gate side of durham we are now a hop and a skip from RTP, briar creek, and southpointe! I can tell already we might have a hard time finding room for everything and my motivation to unpack is already dwindling which has left our downstairs nearly finished and our bedroom somewhat of a wreck. My job starts on Monday so I hope to knock out the rest of the unpacking and organizing before then, but being pregnant I always feel like i'm either stopping work for a snack or to rest on the couch! Jake came home from work the other day and we had a meal at our dining room table together, it was so nice Jake even mentioned how much he loved going to work and coming home to his wife and eating dinner together. It made me so happy to hear him say that! Switching notes, there is good news on the pregnancy front. I'm 11 weeks today!! :) All of my clothes still fit because there is only a teensy tiny baby bump right now and my morning sickness is pretty much gone, although I still get sick in the car more than I used to. My next doctors appointment is not until the end of June but im certain it will go well. I will keep everyone posted!

budgets are depressing

In our never ending quest to move out of our mother in laws house and into our own home again we decided it was important to make up a budget with our income and expenses laid out. Maybe we have just gotten too comfortable with the fact that we haven't paid rent in a year or maybe we just don't have as much money as we used to, but our budget is rather depressing. I just snagged a job part time at fidelity (thank you Lord) and Jake is working full time at Honda, but still the money coming in and the expenses going out leave only a tiny bit of money for spending and grocery shopping. Our days of movies, extended cable, and eating out seem to be coming swiftly to an end.
I am a little worried about all of the baby things we need to buy for the future, but we have already decided for storage we are sacrificing our long dresser and painting it a nice cream color and turning it into a diaper changing station/dresser for the baby. The townhome we are trying to move into has some awesome walk in closets so I am confident we will not miss our dresser and it will be much more efficient in the baby room. We also plan on buying most things gently used except for the car seat which we really want to get new simply for safety reasons and to put our minds at rest.
God always provides as seen by the recent jobs my husband and I were both able to get despite the economy right now. Also, we did save a large amount of money while Jake was in Iraq so when unexpected expenses come up we can use that to pay for them instead of credit cards which is always good. So, I know we will be okay, but the budgeting is going to take some getting used to, and scrupulous grocery shopping and coupons are certainly in my future. But, I guess several hundred dollars left at the end of every month IS better than nothing, plus since we are not buying a house we know we will not have unexpected expensive house repairs to do which will be super nice until we are in a better place financially.

So my advice to anyone either just starting out on their own or starting out on their own AGAIN, would be to make a budget and no matter how depressing it gets remember you can sacrifice on some things to make money stretch and always save a couple of dollars a month because sooner or later you're going to need it.

sweet tea

Dear Southerners,

I have become aware that many of you do not know how to make our favorite beverage. Many of us have fallen to the plague of ready made tea from the grocery store or Bojangles, leaving us ignorant of the fine skills our mothers and grandmothers possess. Or perhaps you just realized how much money you are spending on store bought tea and realize that you can make it much cheaper yourself. So, to the rescue I come! Here is an easy, efficient way to make sweet tea.

4 Lipton family size tea bags OR 8 regular size tea bags
1 1/3 cup sugar
gallon of tap water

Remove your tea bags from their paper wrappers and place in a small pot filled 2/3 with water. Place on medium high heat, keeping a CLOSE eye on them and removing pot right when water shows signs of boiling. (You do not want your water to boil because it will burst your tea bags. This should take several minutes and your water should be a dark brown tea color. ) Place sugar in bottom of gallon sized pitcher and pour hot tea over sugar. Stir well until sugar is dissolved. Run cold tap water into the same pot which should still have your tea bags in it. Make sure to swirl the pot around so the tea infuses into the new water. Pour this into your pitcher. Continue doing this until the tea bags are no longer coloring your water, at this point you can throw your tea bags away and fill the pitcher the rest of the way with just plain water. Give your tea bags the toss and stir your tea one more time. Your tea should be a nice dark amber color and will probably be warm, so add ice and enjoy!!

bbq beef

• I borrowed this recipe from HERE,
• But I have made my own changes to some of the ingredients based on what I had in my kitchen. The lemon juice has been swapped out for vinegar and the amount of onions have been changed. Also, instead of ketchup I have swapped it for leftover spaghetti sauce from dinner last night. Always remember that as long as you have the basic flavors you can really make a recipe your own based on what you have, don't be too hasty to run out to the store to buy things you don't need!
  
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• oil to coat the bottom of the pot
• 1 (3-4 lb) boneless beef chuck roast
• seasoning salt or white salt
• fresh ground black pepper
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp white or cider vinegar
  
• 1/2 cup left over spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• dash red pepper flakes

1. Set oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a bowl combine all the sauce ingredients together until smooth and well combined
3. Heat oil in a 5-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat (use enough oil to cover the bottom of your Dutch oven).
4. Season the roast liberally with seasoned salt and fresh ground black pepper; add to the pot and brown well on all sides, then remove to a plate or bowl.
5. Add in onions and bell pepper; saute for about 3-4 minutes or until softened).
6. Add in the sauce; bring to a medium simmer.
7. Add the roast back to the pot and turn a few times to coat in the sauce.
8. Cover with a lid then transfer to oven.
9. Cook for about 3 to 3-1/2 hours turning the roast over every hour of cooking or you may turn halfway through cooking (cooking times will vary depending on the size of your roast).
10. Remove the roast to a cutting board and slice thinly, transfer to a serving platter.
11. Remove any fat the has accumulated on top of the sauce, then drizzle some on top of the beef slices.
12. Serve remaining sauce on the side.