The makings of a perfect weekend...

A best friend...

(sorry for the roughness, but hey we're at the lake)

A lake sunset... 

A grill master...

a DELICIOUS meal...

(yes, that would be tequila lime chicken with grilled corn on the cob that has chile lime butter and feta sprinkled on top, props Lo)

and chowing down...

Once again, perfect.

I wonder if the hospital in Alexander City is hiring? :)

Sorry Mary

Yep! She did it! And sadly this is one of the only pics I have on my camera.  Oh well, this is a little grainy for some reason but a good one caught right in the middle of the "shake and accept" maneuver you do to get your diploma.  Congrats Kalpal, see ya in Austin!!

Last weekend we had a girls weekend at the lake, I've noticed some facts about everyone as I've looked through these pics: 

1.  Margaret loves dogs.

2.  Lori love magazines (and I probably bother her too much about less reading and more  talking)

3.  Margo loves headbands.

4.  We all love a group shot, even though we all are looking like the definition of lake rat.

 

And on ANOTHER note, this post is really jumping around.... I made lamb last night!  Now let's get two things straight, first of all, I am very nervous about cooking meat and secondly, I have been wanting to try this for a while now and finally got the guts to do it.  I asked my self what's the worse that could happen?  It would be inedible, which would be detrimental to my ego, but not the end of the world.  Here's what I came up with....

It was delicious and SO easy.  I got the recipe from here.  I liked the lamb, but I liked the fried spinach leaves even more, who knew that would be so good?!

Road Trip!

Well, I thought my blog had been broken, but it turned out to be my seriously inept technical skills...oh well :)

And we're off!  J and myself are headed to Gainesville for Kallie's Graduation this weekend!  I am so excited to see everyone!  One small pit stop in Auburn to pick up Anna-banana and we'll have about 5 1/2 hours of car fun ahead of us...yeah, so I've decided to make it a little more exciting and came up with some homemade snacks.  First up, Butter pecan cookies...you'll never want a Sandie again.

3/4c. chopped pecans

1/2c. butter, room temp

1/3c. sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1c. all-purpose flour

Preheat to 350.  Toast pecans until fragrant (about 6 min) and cool.  Cream butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt.  Add flour, fold in pecans.  Roll dough into small balls and roll dough balls in sugar.  Gently flatten and bake 12 min.  So easy, which is why I love these!

 Look at that mixer go, I really love this thing way too much.

Mmmm...

I also decided that instead of buying the Jalapeno Chex mix that I can't get enough of, I would make my own hot and spicy mix!  Of course I didn't follow just one recipe, I was working around about five I found and I added in a little of my own stuff too!  Here it is:

6 tbsp butter

1 1/2 tbsp seasoned salt

1/2 tsp onion powder

2 tbsp worchestire sauce

3/4 tbsp garlic powder

2 tbsp hot sauce (I used tabasco)

3 c corn chex mix

3 c rice chex mix

1 c buffalo hot wing flavored pretzels :)

1 c crushed bagel chips

1 c goldfish

Melt the butter and mix in the seasonings, pour over dry ingredients.  I baked it at 250 for about 30 min.  Of course I sprinkled a little more tabasco, seasoned salt, and added some hot everglades spice stuff we had just to make sure it had enough kick.  I already can't stop eating it and we haven't even left yet.

More pics from Gainesville when I get back!  Have a great weekend!

Because I'll be working all weekend...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I know...FINALLY!

Sorry, I've been a little busy :) ....

That's right it 's LAKE TIME!!!  Last week Mom, Dad, and Kallie all made it up for a whole week! Margo and I were in charge of food for one weekend, so naturally we headed to Sam's, we got a little carried away when we spotted this gem...

It's our Carribean Island and WE ARE OBSESSED!!! It's complete with 2 built in coolers, an anchor, seating for seven, and a password...sometimes I think we're still in seventh grade. This week was such a perfect time spent with my family and friends, these are the times when I'm reminded how absolutely blessed I am to have an amazing family and to be surrounded by such wonderful friends.  

Daddy-O was glad to be back to his favorite place in the world of course.

And me and Margs were glad to get away from Bham for awhile

To enjoy our study bug AU girlies...

Enjoy the ol' sunset cruise...

And of course LOTS of food

Complete with beer butt chicken...Kallie looks less than amused

Later in the week when it got cold and rainy,  Mom and Kal headed to Mountain Brook to spend a few days with me in Bham.  They did A LOT of shopping (notice how I say they, I choose to nap), and a lot of eating of course to recharge (to which I fully participated).  This pic was taken right before we discovered the car battery was dead...which could be a whole post in it's own...  

And after my week off, it's back to the real world.  But work's a lot easier these days (or should I say nights) knowing that I'm first now on the list for day shift!!!  Thank heavens!!  Have a great week!!

Margie Pie

Most of you know this girl, she's a frequent on Taste Buds. She's my roomie, partner in crime, and best of all...GIRLFRIEND (along with Beauty)!!  We are taking Birmingham by storm...gradually.  But one thing we don't let stop us is a small bump in the road.  That being said, Margo this summer is going to be exciting.  Love you so much dear.  Oh and the Franzia is not only in the pic but there's some in the fridge :)  Can't wait for May 3rd this year!  Chuck's ISN'T ready!

St. Patty's recap!!

Mags and Loberry came for a visit!!! Of course, they were just breezing through B'ham for the night and had to leave very early the next morning to catch a flight to the big D.C. for a spring break vacay with Maren (I'm jealous...)  Anyways, we take what we can get!  Margo and I made a little dinner which had to be in the spirit of things, which meant green.  I decided to go with Baked Chicken Pesto.  Very easy, very good.

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Pre-made pesto

Plum tomatoes

Mozzarella

S & P

Spread pesto over chicken.  Bake in oven at 400 for around 30 min.  Top chicken with sliced tomatoes and mozzarella.  Bake for another 5-10 min.  Your done!

It was good, but not as good as dessert.  Margo made her strawberry shortcake which I failed to get a pic of.  However, I did manage to capture the special dessert which was made for our guests who don't prefer fruit :)   Lo, I'm not sure if you were able to finish this off, but if you did I applaud you... this pic doesn't even begin to do it justice, the amount of ice cream, chocolate syrup and mini chocolate chips cookies Margo managed to pack in this little dessert bowl, it was impressive.