Ginormous Rambling Post

In my last post I mentioned my intention to try out some new recipes. I thought I'd go through and share how things went.

First I wanted to try these Cinnamon Twists. I have recently made real cinnamon bread, all the way from scratch with the yeast and the kneading and rising and all that. It was good but this recipe was even tastier and much simpler. It worked for a quick Sunday morning breakfast before church. The recipe says to start with your standard biscuit dough and go from there. Er, yeah. OK, so I don't exactly have a standard biscuit recipe but I did have a couple of cans of biscuits. So I decided to try rolling them out and then I kind of pinched the edges together to make one piece. (Note: I used store brand flaky large biscuits)

From there I just picked up with the recipe. This was great for when you feel like baking, but not really. I won't for one second presume that mine were as good as if they were from scratch but there were no complaints at my breakfast table!

The finished result!

The next recipe I tried was this Chicken Noodle Casserole. Except I left out the diced tomato because I forgot them. This I really loved. For the kids I pulled aside some egg noodles and tossed them with a bit of the sauce and served it that way. Well, "served" may not be the right word - it's more like Bella stood on a kitchen chair (something I now fervently wish I hadn't introduced!) and helped me stir stuff and ate her noodles.

Last night I tried these Chicken Enchiladas. I have to admit I had some doubts. Could Mennonites from Canada really make enchiladas that this Texas born Mexican-American would like? I did tweak a little, the recipe calls for adding guacamole to the filling - which I just had a "that ain't right" feeling about and so omitted. Plus I added cumin, garlic powder and onion powder to the filling. These were incredible. We were all set to enjoy leftovers tonight when things went horribly awry. Will went to preheat the oven and lo- there, still in the oven where I had left them to stay warm last night were the enchiladas. Yes, they sat out all night and all day. Oh it physically pained me to dump out them out - the waste plus they were so good! Not to mention that I had spent the better part of an hour playing in the yard with the kids thinking dinner was done. Oops.

So, instead I tried one last new recipe - Anastasia's Greek Eggplant from the Greek Gods Yogurt website. (Sidebar - you MUST try this brand of yogurt, the honey flavor will curl your toes, honestly the BEST thing I have ever tasted, it is like nothing you've ever tried, so good. They have it at HEB, except it is often sold out. It's 250 calories a serving!!! Lots of protein though). This one was also a success only I think for the size eggplant I had that it would be better to have two eggplants to sop up all the tasty sauce. We had it with Texas Toast. Outstanding and would be good for keeping Lent or a thrifty meatless meal.

Spring has definitely sprung around here. The red bud trees, and Azaleas are already gorgeous. Will teases me about some of the things I take pictures of - but they are so beautiful to me I want to grab that moment and keep it somehow. Alas, I am not the world's best photographer!

Azaleas in our front yard:

Here you can see the rock walls that Will has industriously been building over the last few weekends. Truly backbreaking work - but they look so nice!

View of the road over by the church a few weekends back when it was all misty and everything was so green!

These are my favorite trees, I think they are red bud trees, someone please tell me if you know.

Flowers aren't the only thing growing - my children seem to be getting bigger in their sleep lately. Jacob is near the 42 inch mark - this is great news because most of the rides at Disney have 40 inch height requirements but sad because he is almost too tall to play at the mall playground anymore. I'm really not looking forward to explaining this to him when the time comes.

Bella's less of a baby and more the toddler girl for sure these days. LOVE this little outfit - given to her by her Aunt Leigh. I can't remember if it was before or just after Bella was born and I totally remember thinking how HUGE this 18 month outfit seemed and that my sister in law said it was the only size they had but she had to get it because it was so cute. I can't believe she's wearing it already, time is just flying with this second child. Anyway - Thanks Aunt Leigh!