Thursday, July 30, 2009

A New Twist on an Old Favorite

We're back from the beach and had a GREAT time! I'll post pix asap. For some reason I've gone into nesting mode. I'm cookin' up a storm! I came back to discover a massive overgrowth of basil in the garden and had to harvest it asap. So, I have a plethora of pesto in the fridge. The first night I concocted a pasta/chicken/artichoke dish with pesto cream sauce that was super yummy but after that I was stumped. What to do with all this pesto? I decided that since my kids LOVE the crescent roll chicken bundles I would mix that up a bit and come up with a new recipe.

Here's what you'll need:

2 cans of refrigerated crescent rolls
1 large (I use the 13 oz. size from Sam's Club) can of chicken
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup pesto (depending on how strong you want the flavor to be)

First, mix the chicken, sour cream and pesto and add salt and pepper to taste:



Next, separate your roll dough into eight squares, mashing the perforated lines together...



Add about a 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture to each square...



Next, fold over the points of the square toward the middle of the chicken mixture to create a pocket...



Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake at 350 degrees until browned (about 20 minutes or so)



These were so tasty! I even used the low fat version of the rolls and didn't notice a difference at all. The kids loved them (even though they were green!)

Serves 8.

These also freeze really well...

Friday, July 17, 2009

No, I'm not Dead

For Fun...

What is your salad dressing of choice?
Bleu Cheese

What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
A greek place in town called The Isaacs

What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it?
Cheesesticks

What are your pizza toppings of choice?
spicy sausage, onions, mushrooms, banana peppers

What do you like to put on your toast?
butter and raspberry jam

How many televisions are in your house?
6 if you count the portables

What color cell phone do you have?
silver

Are you right-handed or left-handed?
right

Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
moles, children, inappropriately sized saline implant, excess saddlebag fat...this is kind if a gross question cause I could go on...

What is the last heavy item you lifted?
bathroom tile

Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
yes

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
no friggin way. I'm already a basket case, ugh...

If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
I've always loved cute preppy names like Laney or Kipper or Libby. I don't know. I've NEVER liked my given name. I mean, how many Jennifers do you know? I guess if I had to choose I would choose Meredith.

Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
Yeah, probably. I suppose it would depend on how much alcohol was involved.

Last run-in with a cop?
Ugh...help me out Aaron, were the cops involved in that nasty run in at the karaoke joint in Pawley's?

Last person you talked to?
Dr. Daddy...dinner plans

Last person you hugged?
BabyGirl...my little love bug

Favorite Season?
Fall-love the colors

Holiday?
Christmas...you know I love me some decoratin'

Day of the week?
Monday...I'm a re-group type of gal

Month?
October-see a fall theme here?

First place you went this morning?
The kitchen for coffee

What's the last movie you saw?
New In Town...really cute

Do you smile often?
Yes

Do you always answer your phone?
Hell No

It's four in the morning and you get a text message who is it?
Aaron

If you could change your eye color what would it be?
Brown. I think blondes with brown eyes are kind of exotic.

What flavor drink do you get at Sonic?
Diet Cherry Limeade...the big one.

Do you own a digital camera?
Yes

Have you ever had a pet fish?
Gah. No.

Favorite Christmas song?
Oh, Holy Night.

What's on your wish list for your birthday?
Anna Weatherley Plates

Can you do push ups?
Hells to the yes.

Can you do a chin up?
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Does the future make you more nervous or excited?
Definitely excited.

Do you have any saved texts?
Yup.

Ever been in a car wreck?
yes, very mild

Do you have an accent?
I don't believe so

What is the last song to make you cry?
Wind Beneath My Wings

Plans tonight?
Mexican with Dr. Daddy, BabyBoy and his pal Grey.

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?
Yes, but in retrospect no.

Name 3 things you bought yesterday?
matching mario bros. pajamas for BabyBoy and his friend who is going to the beach with us
a Hannah Montana guitar shaped float for BabyGirl
tampons

Have you ever been given roses?
yes

Current worry?
behavior at the beach...and I DON'T mean my kids'

Current hate right now?
volunteer commitments

Met someone who changed your life?
yes

How did you bring in the New Year?
Supper club at our house...too fun.

What were you doing 12 AM last night?
definitely sleeping

What was the first thing you thought when you woke up?
Seriously? 7am? Who are these children and why are they calling me mother?

Now you know a few more things about me...

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Super Mario Bros. Success!

After having such success with BabyGirl's birthday at the Y Pool I was luckily able to convince BabyBoy to do something similar for his 7th birthday party. The Y has what they call and "inflatable" party where they set up this huge inflatable obstacle course in the gym, let the kids play for an hour, and then send them up to the party room for food and cake. Easy, right?
BabyBoy being the budding computer genius that he is was determined to find the perfect cake to go with his chosen Mario Bros. theme. So, he googled "super mario bros. cake" and here's what he came up with...






Ummmm. Yeah. Mommy can bake a little but Ace of Cakes I'm not. I had to bring him back to earth just a bit. We did end up with a pretty cool cake, though. I actually ran out of time and the option became I could EITHER bake the cake or ice the cake. Sooooo, I headed off to Ukrop's and purchased the largest sheet cake they had, scraped off the oh, so delicious icing, colored my purchased icing bright blue, and went to town with the pre made fondant I had purchased. Here was the result...






The fondant was actually really easy to work with. I wasn't really doing anything 3D or crazy like that so it went pretty smoothly.

For the favors I found some cute ice cream cups at the dollar store and filled each with crinkly shreds and a gift card for a kids cone at Maggie Moo's.





The invitations were purchased from a seller on Ebay and I have to say I was really pleased...you simply send them the info and they send you a pdf of the invitation that you print out yourself. You can find them here.





I purchased all of the birthday supplies from Celebrate Express. This was the only place I was able to find them. They had really cute blue balloons with white clouds and I added yellow balloons with white stars and solid red balloons. It was definitely a cheap way to add to the theme. Overall...another successful party and very low stress!