Chili Cheese Dip
I have a go-to appetizer for parties. It is always a sure fire hit, everyone wants to know what it is and there is never any left. Bonus, since it’s a Yankee dish and I live in the South, everyone thinks it is the most amazing thing ever… but have only had it when I have made it. This would be the opposite if we were in my hometown, because everyone he been eating it there for ages. It is the most amazing… Chili Cheese Dip. Heaven in a baking dish.
I used a ched- mont. jack cheese mix here
Ingredients
- One package cream cheese
- One can Skyline (or Dixie or Goldstar…. As long as it is Cincinnati style chili)
- One package shredded cheddar cheese
- Tortilla chips or Frittos
Steps
1) Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
2) Let cream cheese soften so it is spreadable
3) Spread cream cheese over bottom of baking dish…. You can use just about any size.
4) Shake up can of chili, then empty over cream cheese. Cover evenly
5) Sprinkle shredded cheese on top of chili- evenly.
6) Bake for 20 minutes, or until bubbly on edges.
7) Serve warm with chips of choice.
When I am going to a party now I usually pre-make this in a disposable pan and heat it at the party. Easy to clean up and then it is hot when eating.
I really am obsessed. And I can’t tell you then number of people I know that live down here that make it now for parties! Give it a try! So good!
The Silver Polish
When I was a kid, I didn’t get grounded. That is not to say that I never got in trouble, I just never got grounded. My punishment for misbehaving when I was young… polishing silver. Sit at the kitchen table and polish the tea server, or the silverware, or the serving trays. ALL with the I-can-never-get-it-out-of-my-memory blue Amway silver polish. When I was done, I could go play. I was a bit of a smartass, so I polished a lot of silver.
As an adult, all of the silver I inherited (some of the same stuff I had to polish as a kid) is packed up in a closet because I really have no use of it at the moment. So I haven’t had the need to bust out the silver polish in years and years. That is until last month. Last month my family and I had to move my Nana into a nursing home and it led to us cleaning out her condo and getting rid of everything. Or well, giving a lot to Goodwill, putting some valuables in the safety deposit box and setting aside a lot of things for an eventual estate sale in the future. The plan to have an eventual estate sale is how I ended up carting three and a half boxes of tarnished silver piece back to my place, where they sat in my dining room for two weeks while I stared at them in dread, thinking of the memory of that stupid blue polish. I am talking silver that has been packed up and not used in twenty years or so… punch bowl set, candy dishes, trays, silverware… you name it, my Nana had it and it was incredibly tarnished, I mean black in places. Needless to say, I was dreading the thought of having to polish it all!
Enter the internet. I knew there had to be another way to clean it. I had remembered learning something that involved tin foil to clean it, but I hadn’t touched silver in so long I had forgotten what it was. So I Googled it and had my answer… tin foil, baking soda, boiling water. Best invention ever!
- Step one- Line a big container with tin foil. I used a roasting pan.
- Step two- sprinkle baking soda into the pan
- Step three- put in the silver you want to clean
- Step four- Pour in plenty of boiling water
Leave it for 10 minutes or so, and like magic, all the tarnish is off the silver! Seriously, I got done in an hour or so what would have taken several days before. I then used a soft cloth and some Tarnex to give it some shine, and presto! Polished silver! Words cannot describe how much I was dreading this project and how happy I was to have it done and sent off to my father’s house. So, the next time you need to polish a silver tea set, be sure the pull out the tin foil and baking soda. And that is my house cleaning tip for 2012!
Silver cups before
And the after, or the in process… you can see the steam coming off the water still!
Translation Tuesday: I Reckon
Confession time… my family roots are a bit southern. While I definitely grew up in a large metropolitan area in the North, generations of my family before my Grandmother grew up on southern farms… granted, they were on the northern edge of what we consider the South, but they definitely had their southern idiosyncrasies. I have plenty of memories of running through tobacco fields when I was very little and visiting my great-grandfather and catching crawdads in the creek. Maybe those visits there are what helped make my transition to the deep South easier. But I digress, the point of this little insight into my history, is to set the stage for today’s translation: “I reckon”
I reckon. I soooo remember hearing my Papaw (great grandfather) say that when I was little. An answer to any number of questions: “I reckon.” Generally it means “I suppose so” or “I guess so”. There can be few other uses, but in my experience it is usually referring to “I suppose so”. Example, in answer to a question: “I reckon.” I think the only other way I have heard it be used after that is in trying to say “I figure….”. So an example: “I reckon she will come around on party plans at some point.”
Anyway, I still hear people use it all around me living down here. Any every time it brings a bit of a memory with it of my Papaw sitting on his front porch smoking his pipe and rocking in his chair while I played in the yard. Not a bad association to have with one little phrase.
Other ways to use it that I missed?
Strawberry Cream Pie
As promised, here is the recipe for my much-requested Strawberry Cream Pie that was served at Gail’s baby shower. I got it from http://www.justputzing.com and made a few modifications.
Ingredients:
- 1 and 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs – they sell the graham crackers already crumbled up, fabulous. Or you could buy the actual crackers and crumble them yourself.
- Nearly one stick butter, melted. Once it is melted I use almost all of it, but not quite.
- 2 8oz containers of WHIPPED cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 cups heavy cream + 1 tbsp
- 2/3 cups sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 carton strawberries, 1 one container sliced into thirds or halves. Save the other carton for possible additions, see the bottom of the recipe.
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 375.
- In a small bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs and melted butter until a crumbly mixture forms.
- Gently but firmly press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom and sides of a pie dish.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool completely. I have gotten to the point where I do this step the day before I am going to make the pie. Turn the oven off when done- no more baking.
- In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer on HIGH to beat your cream until it holds firm peaks. Set aside.
- In a separate, larger bowl, mix cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar until smooth and creamy. I use my KitchenAid mixer for this- most amazing invention ever.
- Fold about 1/3 of the whipped cream into your cream cheese mixture to lighten it, then add the rest. Gently fold until evenly incorporated and smooth.
- Spoon filling into your cooled pie crust, and spread it out in an even layer.
- Layer sliced strawberries in an overlapping rows around the top of the cream.
- Melt chocolate + 1 tbsp cream, and stir until smooth and liquid. Drizzle melted chocolate over the top of the strawberries.
- Stick the pie in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours to allow the creamy filling to firm up. I usually leave it in overnight.
** Additions. So there are a couple of additions you can add, but I am still working them out. First, I used about half to three-fourths of the second container of strawberries by pureeing them and adding them into the cream cheese mixture. It was really good, but I needed to add extra cream cheese or heavy cream to compensate for the extra “wet” ingredient and I haven’t pinpointed exactly how much to add, so if someone figures out the perfect combo, let me know.
The second addition can be used in place of the puree. Slice the second carton of strawberries same as the ones that go on top, but use the second container to layer the pie crust before putting the cream filling in. Then you get double amount the strawberries!
Friday Flashback: Amsterdam
Friday Flashbacks are usually not my thing on this blog, but I realized this morning that a 10 year milestone was here, so it seems appropriate to post a few pictures over the next few weeks. Ten years ago at this I was a just turned 21 year old college student who had just arrived in Europe for a whirlwind of an experience with three of my hometown friends: Gail, Sara and Michelle. We had an amazing time meandering through old cobblestone streets, seeing cultural sites, dancing through meadows, meeting drop dead gorgeous men in random Austrian bars, getting into trouble with bus drivers… so many stories and such an amazing experience, that I still remember vivid details of it ten years later.
So where was I ten year ago today? May 18, 2002- I was crossing the English Channel from Dover to Calais, driving through Belgium on our way to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. That evening we took a boat tour through the canals of Amsterdam… red light district and all. A few photos are below…
I am pretty sure we all still get a little nauseous remembering that ferry ride…. while pretty in all it’s chaos and power, it so made us sick to our stomachs. But the crossing over to the Continent still wasn’t as bad as the one coming back… I think because everyone was hungover from the last night in Paris the night before, but that came later.
Note the date… ten years. Crazy. Look at how skinny we all were (ok, you can’t tell because of some of the jackets, but we were). And how light are mine and Gail’s jeans? Such a great time, but wow how quickly time goes by!
The Clam Bake Baby Shower
At this point in my life, I have the whole throwing a shower for a friend thing down. I’ve hosted a lot of bridal showers, bachelorette parties and baby showers in my life. I have also been friends with Gail for well over 16 years now (yep, we are getting old) and I have probably had parts of her baby shower planned in my head for at least the last eight! See, Gail has this love obsession with baby names. And she has been pretty set on a boy name and a girl name for years now and I as a result I had been set to throw a baby shower at an Irish pub if it was going to be a boy or Cape Cod themed shower if it was a girl. Gail is being a good and protective mom, so I can’t actually share the baby’s name with you to tell you why those themes work with the names… but if you are friends with either of us, you get it. Gail and Puff’s sweet bundle of joy is going by the blog name (and probably knickname) Little Bimmer, as in the German equivalent of Beamer…. because Puff has a slight obsession with BMWs. Anyway, Gail is due any day now, so I hosted the shower back in mid-April with all of our college friends and I got to go with my New Englan/Cape Cod Clam Bake theme and it was a blast! Rach helped out with a lot of the items and it was fun to brainstorm with her in the weeks leading up to the event. So how did we pull of a New England Clam Bake Shower… check out the pics below!
I loved these invites. They were very Gail. Teal and pink with shades of gray with all sorts of different designs.
I’ve been on a bit of a balloon kick lately when it comes to decorating, so I picked up two dozen pink and teal balloons to fill the entry hall when you walked into the house. I also had order some giant pink and teal tissue paper poms off of etsy, so those were hanging all over the house, and there were a lot of teal and pink candle holders and rubber ducks sprinkled throughout the house.
Rach made these super cute candle holders with white rocks in the bottom and twine around the glass. We were going for something that could be reused and felt nautical.
What is a shower without food? To fit with the Clam Bake theme we did a spin on the New England version, with food that Gail would eat…. so instead of baked clams, we had grilled shrimp in a yummy Italian seasoning, lemon and butter marinade. Then grilled corn on the cob with Old Bay seasoning and boiled new potatoes. I made cheese and vegetable platter that we served with Rach’ s homemade bread (best stuff ever in the history of bread). Plus some yummy chips and salsa because I had a craving for them. Really- Publix’s organic blue corn tortilla chips and organic salsa are my faves. Then there was pink lemonade and pink sparking grape juice in honor of the soon to be little girl we were celebrating!
And it is not a shower without some kickbutt desserts and desserts we do well! I picked up some petit fours from the bakery and I made my Strawberry Creme Pie at Gail’s request. Then Rach made these yummy lemon cookies. Amazing.
Loved the napkins…. silverware wrapped up in twine and a lifesaver in a cute vase for easy access on the buffet line!
Gail isn’t really into games, so I promised a game free baby shower after I made her endure many at her two bridal showers. So we opted for two activities instead. In keeping with the theme…. we wrote “messages in a bottle” for Little Bimmer that will go in her scrapbook. Of course, with our group of friends I had to tell everyone that they couldn’t tell inappropriate stories in them about her mama in college.
The second activity was a ton of fun! We headed out onto the back deck and decorated onesies! I had picked up fabric paint and stencils along with a bunch of white onesies. They were all waiting on a clothesline stretched in front of the fireplace when everyone came in and then we took them outside to get some sun. It was a lot of fun to sit around and talk and wait to see if we could see Bimmer kick.
And here I am taking a break from the grill to point out the mess I made of my shirt. I had spilled some of the grape juice when I was in the kitchen and somehow got some on my white blouse. The idea of me spilling something on my shirt is not uncommon, so Gail had to be sure to get a picture of it.
And last but not least, Baby Bimmer. Can’t wait to meet you!!!
The Job Interview
It has a been a whirlwind of various graduation ceremonies, celebratory lunches and receptions and farewell parties in my world lately. It is the end of the school year, which means that there is something booked for nearly every breakfast, lunch and dinner leading up to finals. Then as finals slow down, we move into commencement everything. So, as I have spent the past several days celebrating my graduating seniors and graduate students, it reminds me about the next step they face, finding a JOB. As I hear my grad students talk about their search, it just reminds me about how odd we are in higher education. We had a family dinner tonight, and I was reminding the fam of the process I went through when I got out of grad school and everyone agrees that it is special.
What do I mean by “special”? Well, it is not your typical interview. According to most of my friends who do not work in the crazy wonderful world of higher ed, they have job interviews that last about an hour. Sometimes thirty minutes, or if it is really good, MAYBE an hour and a half. Higher ed? We go for the full on day long interview, which sometimes stretches into the evening before. One of my grad students recently had an interview, and her schedule went something like this…
Monday
Afternoon- Arrive in location, check into hotel (which is provided by prospective employer)
7pm- Meet with head of search committee and other committee member for dinner
- This requires you to be “on” and “engaging” during the whole meal. From pick up at hotel through coffee and desserts, and usually quick driving tour of the city or campus. One must always think about what to eat during these meals… don’t get something in red sauce that can drip on you (which is what would happen to me) and don’t get something that will get stuck in your teeth.
Tuesday
8:30am- Meet with person who would be your boss (in some interviews this first spot is with the head of the search committee and not the potential boss, it just depends on the position and the school)
9am- Meet with the four person office staff you would be working with on a daily basis
10am- Meet with the various members that comprise the search committee
11am- Open forum with any faculty or staff that would like to interview and bombard you with questions. In my experience this can be as small a group as three people around the table to as large as twenty.
Noon- Lunch with students. Please see the note about dinner the night before, the last go around I had with this I ate cottage cheese and a cheese quesadilla with my student lunch… it didn’t make a mess and I could shovel food in my mouth fast enough to still have a conversation.
1:15- Meet with the Vice President, or whoever the very head honcho for that area may be. Must be prepared to talk about any number of things, such as “ do you know so and so” to “ in this budget cycle” or “ what aspect of this development theory plays into your personal philosophy on working with students”
2:30- Campus Tour
3:30- Meet with the staff you would supervise
4:15- Wrap up with the person you started your day with to talk about various items
5:15- Get in car and drive home, after stopping for large caffeinated beverage.
For all of these meetings you have to be prepared for a range of questions, and you have to be prepared with questions to ask each group as well.
There are some variations to this of course. The people change, sometimes the members of the panels change. Sometimes an meeting with HR is tossed into the mix. More often than not the potential employee will need to give a presentation or lecture to display their competency in an area as well as their ability to present and communicate information clearly.
The job search in higher ed is crazy… this portion I described above is what we call the “on-campus”. They usually bring about three to five candidates to campus for an on campus. These only happen AFTER: you apply through the HR web site, have your app screened, are reviewed by the search committee, the search committee has a phone interview with you…. Sometimes TWO phone interviews before they ask you on campus. They have to narrow the candidates down… I have been a part of search processes where we have had over 50 applicants, you can’t bring all of them on campus, so you develop a list of criteria you are looking for and narrow it down. We even have conferences each spring where giant convention center rooms are used to interview people… imagine a giant room of table after table with two potential employers on one side of the table and a candidate on the other side. This process is sometimes used in place of the phone interview, or added in between the phone interview and the on-campus.
So, why do we have this process? Why is it so long? Well, people tell me it is because we all work together so much in a campus environment, that we all want to have the various stakeholders to have some sort of ownership in the process… it helps build good will among various constituents. Personally, I think it is a test to see if you can handle it or not. I work long hours and it takes a lot of energy and dedication to do what we do… if you can’t make it through the search process, are you really going to be able to handle the demands of the job? I don’t know, that is just my observation. If you think the job interview process is long, don’t even get me started on what our résumés look like! So, what is the process like in your field? Have you heard of something crazier?
Quote Brain Dump
I love Pinterest and thank various pinners out there for putting these up. Four that are sitting in my brain this week.
Yes. All while singing “I’m a little teapot.”
I keep telling myself this.
Yep- this is me in a nutshell.
I am reminding myself of this while I am singing in the shower and figuring out my life.
These fit in anyone elses life at the moment?
Translation Tuesday: Southern Medical Dictionary
So it has been a stressful few weeks in my family as my 85-year-old Nana has been very ill and we ended up having to put her in a nursing home last week. This week we have been cleaning out her condo and trying to decide what to do with all of her things. In the midst of all of that stress, I found this gem in one of her MANY piles of papers and it was just too classic not to share. I apologize to whoever came up with it, I don’t know who to give credit too, but it gave me a laugh!
Artery………………………… The study of paintings
Bacteria……………………… Back door to cafeteria
Barium………………………. What doctors do when patients die
Benign………………………. What you be, after you be eight
Caesarean Section………… A neighborhood in Rome
CAT scan…………………….. Searching for a lost kitty
Cauterize……………………. Made eye contact with a gal
Colic…………………………. A sheep dog
Coma………………………… A punctuation mark
Dilate………………………… To live long
Enema………………………. Not a friend
Fester……………………….. Quicker than someone else
Fibula……………………….. A small lie
Impotent……………………. Distinguished, well known
Labor Pain……………….. Getting hurt at work
Medical Staff……………… A Doctor’s cane
Morbid……………………… A higher offer
Nitrates…………………….. Cheaper than day rates
Node……………………….. I knew it
Outpatient…………………. A person who has fainted
Pelvis…………….. ………. Elvis’ cousin
Post Operative…………… A letter carrier
Recovery Room…………. upholstery shop
Rectum……………………. Near killed him
Secretion………………….. Hiding something
Seizure…………………….. Roman emperor
Tablet……………………… A small table
Terminal Illness…………. Getting sick at the airport
Tumor…………………….. One plus one more
Urine………………………. Opposite of you’re out
Vein…………………………. Conceited
I love The Masters.
Today marks the end of my most favorite week of the year- the Sunday of the Masters. Yes, it is also Easter and the end of Holy Week, which is also a beautiful week, but the post today is about The Masters. Now, for those of you who don’t know, I am a HUGE golf fan. I pretty much suck at playing golf- I have a set of old clubs, collecting dust and goodness knows what kind of spiders, in the garage at my Dad’s place. But I haven’t picked up a club in ages.
My Dad started playing golf when I was about five, and I would go with him and his friends when I was a kid when they played… the family loves to tell the story about how I used to wash my Barbie’s hair in the golf ball cleaner and how I forgot her there and the group behind us came charging up to us in their golf cart, like knights on white horses (err… golf carts) to return her to me. YEARS, I have been hearing this story for years and they always tease me, but I digress. So, all of those years of being on the course or watching golf with my Dad on TV has made me a fan. My poor grad students got a whole lesson on the PGA and what the Majors are at lunch the other day because one person asked a question. Point is, I like golf… follow it pretty well and it is always tradition that my Dad and I watch part of The Masters together.
Oh, The Masters. How I love you. Really, I do. I am going to conveniently leave out the whole “Women membership in Augusta National” debacle. I have an opinion, but it is not what I want to talk about today. I am also not going to lecture everyone on the PGA and try to explain what it is or what the majors are. You can find out about them HERE and HERE. So why is THIS tournament my favorite, well several reasons:
- It takes place in the South! It is such a classic Southern event. It is full of hospitality, good manners, great southern food… this list goes on. It is a classic Southern event.
- The history. Augusta National has been around since the 1930s and was founded by some of the greats in the history of golf. Now while I don’t like all of their history, I appreciate that it has a long and storied history.
- Augusta National is hands down one of the most beautiful places in the Southeast, if not the whole United States. From that walk up Magnolia Lane in front of the club house, to the azalea bushes framing Amen Corner, to the dogwoods. It is lovely. I was really disappointed this year though because there were no flowers! It was such a warm March down there that all the azaleas and dogwoods bloomed a few weeks too early and no one was able to appreciate their blooms during the tournament this year. Regardless, every blade of grass is still perfect and it is just amazing.
- The food. I know I did a blog on this a while ago, but I still think it is the coolest thing that you can get a sandwich, chips and a drink for under $5. You go to so many places… theme parks, sporting events, concerts and everything is ridiculously overpriced. The food is reasonable here and Southern- tuna salad, egg salad or pimento cheese sandwiches! And while the food is reasonable, you are still going to pay $65 for shirt… can’t be perfect.
- Respect. People are so respectful. People don’t yell, they don’t heckle players. Not at The Masters. They respect the grounds- you never see trash left somewhere. People respect the people there watching the tournament with them. You go and leave your chair on the 18th green, walk around to see the course for a bit, and your chair is still waiting there for you when you get back. Respect.
Okay, so I love The Masters, and the one time I was able to go was by far one of the coolest experiences I have ever had living in the South. I entered my name and my Dad’s name in the lottery to even get on the wait list last year… this first time they had done that in over a decade. No luck. I look forward to the day we randomly get tickets again. Even though getting tickets to The Masters is one of the toughest tickets to get in the sporting world, I feel confident we will get them. Heck, if my father can manage to have gone three times, I think I can manage two. So to sum up this ode to the best golf tournament there is, check out this article that was in CNN in the other day…. It sums up why it is the happiest place on earth: http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/06/sport/golf/golf-masters-impression/index.html
Translation Tuesday: Hushpuppies
And Translation Tuesday is BACK! This evenings topic, one of my most favorite foods: the hush puppy. To clarify, I am talking about hush puppies the food, not the shoe or character. Now, I had hush puppies growing up north of the Mason-Dixon line… they had them at Long John Silvers and since they had them there, I assumed they were all over the place- I was wrong. When I took a group of exchange students down to Charleston last fall, I introduced them all to hushpuppies. These students were from all over North America and at least half of them had never had the deliciousness of a hushpuppy!
So, for those of you that do not know, a hush puppy is a ball of ground up cornmeal and seasoning that is molded into a little ball and then dipped in batter and fried. The best ones have a hint of sweetness to them and are not over fried. Some restaurants in the South, especially along the coat, will even put a bit of crab or shrimp meat in the middle. Now, I prefer to eat my hushpuppies plain or dipped in cocktail sauce. Some people like butter, I have seen others use tartar sauce. To each their own. I love to eat them with a plateful of steamed shrimp, but they are also great as an appetizer or a side dish. Regardless, they are so yummy.
According to Wikipedia (which is not exactly a scholarly source, but it works when you need quick info) “The name “hushpuppies” is often attributed to hunters, fishermen or other cooks who would fry some basic cornmeal mixture (possibly that they had been bread-coating or battering their own food with) and feed it to their dogs to “hush the puppies” during cook-outs or fish-fries.” Even I didn’t know that, I know some random things. Regardless of what the story is behind them, I love me some hushpuppies and I am so happy I can grab some at Cookout whenever I have a craving!
Mexican Casserole
I made a really yummy Mexican casserole the other night… my first ever attempt at a casserole with a Mexican taste. It was sooooo very good and I got a ton of meals out of it for the next few days. I got it off of the Sweet Treats & More blog, but made a few additions and subtractions for my version.
– 2 cups diced or shredded chicken breast meat- I used two boneless, organic breasts
– ½ teaspoon ground cumin
– ½ teaspoon garlic powder
– ½ teaspoon chili powder
– A sprinkle of taco seasoning mix
– 1 can black beans– 15 oz- I used organic
– 1 can diced green chili peppers- 4 oz
– 1 can red enchilada sauce- 10oz
– 8 corn tortillas
– 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese
– 1 container sour cream- 8 oz
1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2) Mix the cumin, coriander and garlic powder together in a small bowl…. toss chicken in to the mix.
3) Spray some vegetable spray in a frying pan and sauté the seasoned chicken, sprinkle chili powder over chicken. Cook thoroughly.
4) Drain and rinse the black beans, transfer to a medium bowl. Drain green chilies and add to the bowl. Mix with beans. Add a light sprinkling of taco seasoning, mix well.
5) Add cooked chicken and mix thoroughly.
6) Spray a baking dish with vegetable spray and cover the bottom with enchilada sauce. Pending the size of the dish determines if you use half or a 1/3. The bottom of the pan should be covered.
7) Lay two-four tortillas across the pan, overlapping if needed, so that the dish is covered.
8) Spoon chicken and bean mixture over tortillas, about half the mixture
9) Spread cream cheese and shredded cheese over chicken and beans.
10) Repeat the process starting with the enchilada sauce, make as many layers as your ingredients will allow, I get about two.
11) Sprinkle the top with cheese and sour cream
12) Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove foil and cook for an additional five to ten minutes.
13) Let dish stand for ten minutes before serving.
First layer of chicken and beans
I served with organic blue corn tortilla chips and salsa, with a small salad. Oh, and a dollop of sour cream on top of the casserole and fresh bit of shredded cheese. So yummy, and I really did get a lot of meals out of it!
Still Talking About San Antonio!
Continuing on with my review of the trip to Teeeeeexas! The Riverwalk was nice, clearly a tourist epicenter, but one of the prettiest I have ever seen. It is a rather peaceful and picturesque scene, with two exceptions: the annoyance of the ducks that harass everyone and the lack of a rail. I tried to find out numbers of how many people fell or were knocked in each year, but no one had an accurate number, other than it DID happen. Over the course of the four days we were there we did get to do a river cruise one evening which was a lot of fun. Our guide was very informative and put up with all of our questions (we are educators, what do you expect?) and the weather that night was just lovely! We also went up in the Tower of the Americas, which was a blast and gave us a great view of all of San Antonio at night!
As far as food… it was pretty good. I didn’t have anything that was spectacular, but considering we were in a tourist area, it was fine. Mexican a few times…. Casa Rio (http://www.casa-rio.com) was the first night, and it is the oldest place on the RiverWalk, it was actually pretty mediocre. Bordering on outright bad… the chips and salsa were good, but the tacos were blah and the ducks trying to eat our food were a bit over zealous. Plus, the 45 minute wait was a little crazy and we were cold because they sat us outside.
Sunday night we hit up the Country Line (http://countyline.com/CountyLineRiverWalk.html ) and it was better than the night before, but not fabulous. Well, we didn’t have to wait forever and we had a really great server. Unfortunately, they had run out of a lot of stuff so there was none of their “famous” homemade bread, no lettuce for any of the salads and a few other things. I ordered the barbecue and I didn’t like it. I should be clear, it was good and tasted fine, I just didn’t like it. I just prefer Memphis or Carolina barbecue over Texas barbecue. They did have a really good grilled sausage appetizer.
Monday night was a great dinner. We ate at Rita’s On the River (http://www.ritasontheriver.com/) and it was so yummy. Still not the most authentic Mexican, but it was pretty yummy. I got chicken sour cream enchiladas and we got an order of cheese queso…. So good! Good service, nice atmosphere and good hot food… it was a good last night in Texas dinner.
We grabbed lunch before we headed to the airport on the last day at the Republic of Texas restaurant (http://www.therepublicoftexasrestaurant.com/) on the Riverwalk. It was a perfect day… nice and warm, blue and sunny sky and a lovely meal with great colleagues. Highly recommend sitting outside there for a meal on a nice day!
Overall, loved San Antonio and would really recommend a visit to the city!!
A Second Welcome
Hello to all of my new readers! When I started this little blog I didn’t think anyone but my family would be reading it, but a number of you out there in world have somehow stumbled upon the blog and have opted to follow it on a regular basis or have signed up to subscribe! So, thank you for checking in on a regular basis and welcome. Apparently the international crowd must find observations about living in the American South entertaining, because a number of you are coming from around the world. So an extra special hello to those of you reading on a consistent basis in: Ecuador, the Netherlands, Brazil and the Czech Republic! Maybe you all keep tuning in to chuckle about how crazy it is that I have the air conditioning on in mid-March. Yes, I turned it on, go ahead and judge…. But it was 88 degrees today!! (I soooo blame global warming).
I have gotten a number of questions from people lately, so I figure I should provide some answers and brief recap of why I am writing all of these entries.
I am thirty-something who lives in the American South, and am what many call a Damn Yankee. Someone who is a native Northerner, as in they grew up above the Mason- Dixon line, but have opted to live in the South… which is the area below the Mason- Dixon line. Please see a previous entry on the definition of the Mason-Dixon line. I have been living here for eleven years and love it. I still miss my home in the North, but I really can’t do snow, so I am very happy here. I love being around my family and friends, working for my alma mater, traveling all over the place and eating good food. I especially love good Southerner food, with fresh steamed shrimp and hot hush puppies being one of my most favorite meal options. For more info please see the very first entry in this blog or the ABOUT section above. You can also find some of my favorite quotes and favorite stores/ restaurant/ blogs and so on in the header above.
I was either in a ton of weddings or attended a ton in 2010, so I have devoted Wednesday to generally be around the topic of wedding tips. I figure with all the time and money I shelled out for them, I should at least be able to share my observations about what I learned. I was in so many weddings that people kept telling me I was like the character in 27 Dresses. I can tell you all that I will scream if I hear that one more time. Now all the people who had the weddings are now pregnant or have had children, so I am learning a whole lot of new things that I didn’t really want to know, so you all may be reading a lot about that in the future. I really do not do diapers well, but my friends keep expecting that I know what the hell to do with them. I have plenty to cover in Southern language and such still, so Translation Tuesdays will still be around for a while as well. Finally, be on the lookout for a new feature in the near future about lessons I have learned from my friends over the years.
I recently got the question- why do you put images on your face or others faces when you post pictures on here? Well, the answer to that is pretty simple… it is the internet. If you know me already, you already know what I look like, where I live and what I do at work. If you also know me already, you already have access to a lot of pictures and such through Facebook or my photo web site. If you don’t know me… sorry, but it is the world wide web. There is only so much I am willing to share with strangers. And I have already been the victim of identity theft once in my life, I don’t need it again because of something I share on a blog.
Someone also inquired about the stickers I use and the copyright sign. I have gotten those through picnik.com which is a web site I love. It has been easy and free to use and I have been a BIG fan. Thanks to Gail for letting me know about it. Unfortunately, they have been bought out by Google and the web site is going away next month. The upside is that they have made all of their premium content free… so that is why I have been using all sorts of different fonts and stickers lately… I figure I might as well play around with it while I can!
Well, thank you for following along as I talk about random things and for ignoring my propensity for run on sentences! Please feel free to keep asking questions and tune back in again soon!
A Southern St.Pats
It has been a perfect spring day here in the South, and we have had a heat wave just in time for St.Patrick’s Day and all the festivities that come with that holiday. Our city has hosted a 5k this morning, then a parade, followed by a festival downtown complete with a lovely kids section with a lot of rides and an adult section with plenty of beer and four different concert stages! It has been blue skies, filled with sunshine and little whote clouds, with an afternoon temp hoovering in the eighty degree range. Now if everything just wasn’t covered with pollen, it really would be perfect (I need to remember to do a blog on the topic of pollen later on).
I’m babysitting MG for the weekend, so I made sure we were up and out the door in time for the parade this morning. We got an easy parking spot up near the middle school and walked two blocks up to the parade where we saw a lot of green, a lot of Southern flare and interpretation of the holiday and had plenty of laughs. Then we went down to the festival and MG rode a pony. They had tons of rides, but she wasn’t interested in any of them… I think it has something to do with the cast on her arm (she broke it by falling off of her scooter a couple weeks ago). Oh, well, one less thing I had to buy. Anyway, we had great fun and hopefully we can go again next year.
MG decked out in green... with a pink cast
As you can see above, MG really got into the holiday. She won the hat at her after school program yesterday!
Float in the parade
Surprisingly, they actually had real floats in the parade… with lots of green and shamrocks, of course!
oh yes.... that is a costumed kid on a tandem bike.
Yep, that is someone dressed as a leprechaun on a bike.
Because we love to dress up and be silly in the South
Tutus and hula-hoops? Yep. The guy doing it on stilts was even better.
More floats
Because y’all, it is not a Southern parade unless there is a pageant queen in it 🙂
Motor bike things
These guys on their little motorbikes were pretty cool, they did all these tricks weaving in and out in cool patterns!
Irish flags
Cool Irish flags, you can tell how warm it is… girls are in sun dresses! 11am and sun dresses, it was a day that needed sunscreen , for sure!
Monster truck
And apparently it also can’t be a Southern parade without a giant monster truck covered in mud, complete with a shamrock on the front. Don’t worry, everyone around me was also giving an eyeroll at the sight. Clean the car people!
Family
It is also impossible in this town to go somewhere without seeing a member of my family. Above are two of my favorite people, my Aunt and Uncle. Since they know just about everyone in this city and are active in a lot of things, we were actually on the lookout for them and there they are driving their car and tossing out beads! Love those two! MG and I were yelling loud trying to get them to see us!
And lastly, one of my favorite pictures of the day… a spring day in the South. All of the trees are in bloom and I snapped this one driving home. Love living here, even with all the damn pollen!
Trees in bloom
Hope everyone had a great St.Pattys Day! We certainly had fun celebrating our Irish roots. MG even learned the history of the day at school this week and taught me several things I didn’t know (such as St. Patrick was actually kidnapped as a kid). May the luck of the Irish be with you today and always!
convertedsoutherner 