In his element

My man loves the woods. I'm willing to bet, many of you ladies know what I mean. Mossy Oak's little phrase, "It's not a passion, it's an obsession" hits the nail right smack dab on the head in my book.

I went with him one day to "help" him take down some of his tree stands... He never lost sight of me and my shoes...

He killed several good bucks this year including the two below. I'm so proud!! He actually hunts, if you know what I mean... like, he goes scouting and everything... A lot of guys always say he's just "so lucky" but I say he just knows how to hunt and it definitely doesn't hurt that he's should be a sniper a good shot. {But his humble self will tell you that luck definitely has a part in the scenario}.

Every year, especially around the rut, I get to missing him if he's gone longer than a weekend... but this year, his absence into the woods reduced many distractions for me and helped me get more studying done! So I guess it was a win-win for both of us.

I could never truthfully say that being neat, clean and organized housekeeping is "in his element" but ever since Santa brought us our Dyson ball vacuum cleaner, I can't make him stop cleaning! ;) 

Well, the floors will be clean, but his bow case is still placed in front of the fire place and his safety harness for his tree stand is obviously hanging by the door... Typical...

Pantry Burritos

This "recipe" is one of Aaron's most favorite dishes I make... I think it is pretty tasty myself, but he is obsessed. I can spend hours preparing one of the finest Julia Child french dishes and he definitely approves, but the night I literally "threw" this dish together he was ranting and raving... he is almost too easy to please.

I came up with these simple burritos when my pantry was barren and I needed to get supper on the table in a hurry and I was pleasantly surprised how delicious they turned out!

Here is the recipe: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown 1 lb. of ground chuck and drain the fat. Sprinkle one packet of taco seasoning mix over the meat and pour in one can of diced tomatoes. {Adding a handful of chopped fresh cilantro would be delicious in here too.} Let the meat mixture simmer for about 10 minutes. Next, fill each flour tortilla with the mixture, roll it up and place them seam side down in a baking dish. Sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese {pepper jack would be good too} over the top and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted. 

I have found the grocery store version of that to-die-for white queso dip that you can find in our southern mexican restaurants and it is delicious poured over these too... I just couldn't help myself.

And a side of salad greens with avocado vinaigrette was a perfect pairing but rice and beans would be great too.

I think it's a pretty good dish, but maybe you will LOVE it like Aaron does!

Weekend in the Bay

Hey there!

Guess who we went to see this weekend... 

On Saturday, there was a "kiddie" Mardi Gras parade in Bay St. Louis... 

You talk about one of the cutest things you've ever seen... each child had their own decorated "float"! If they were old enough, they threw beads and candy while the crowd lined the streets.

... and part of the route goes by the nursing home!

Tucker didn't exactly know what to think of it all, but he did so good chewing on in his little float. He had a big day.

During the evenings, we hung out at Emily's parents house and ate some delicious seafood...

Aaron told stories by the fire... ;)

and as I like to say, fun was had by all.

Watch and See

Can you believe he did that?? I compared it to jumping over a petite person's head! He's been working out really hard and obviously it's doing him some good. Ha!

And last but not least, I got so tickled the other night over Belle that I had to video this. 

She's cute and she sure does know it.

Happy Friday readers!!

Baking Day

We watch Food Network... We browse Pinterest... We flip through cookbooks... and maybe you can relate, but I get overwhelmed with so many amazing looking recipes that I want to make and I never get around to actually rollin' up my sleeves, puttin' on my apron and gettin' in the kitchen! Well, one day over the break, Courtney and I did just that. 

We made Pioneer Woman's Homemade Oatmeal Cakes. I'm all about following a recipe {especially when baking} to a "T" the first time I try, but I think some of our little glitches in this batch were because we didn't. Here is our review: they were good. Next time I would make each patty smaller and thinner. We used the marshmallow creme filling {which was yum} and I would try the second filling option just for kicks. 

We also made Pioneer Woman's Christmas Finger Jello. Her pictures of it are gorgeous and they had me at first glance. These little jello jigglies just looked fun to eat. Making them was a task in that you had to work layer by layer... very easy but very time consuming. It worked out fine because we we were in the kitchen all day anyway! They were good... tasted like jello... we used raspberry instead of strawberry like the original recipe says and it was yum. They would be the perfect festive addition to a heavy holiday meal.

Next up was a Pinterest recipe that I have been drooling over for quite some time... Better than Brownies Chocolate Cookies. They were probably my favorite item we made. They were chewy and rich and literally melted in my mouth right out of the oven. A warm cookie and a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream would be heaven. Make these today!!

And last but not least, we made Ina Garten's Fleur de Sel Caramels. Of course we did not have any "fleur de sel" salt on hand so we used sea salt... not as elegant but close to the same flavor. Also, with the combination of a pan too large and 90% humidity, our little caramels started to resemble turds. They didn't taste like it though! They were very rich {almost too rich for me- but that's not saying much} but were a big hit with our taste testers.

Our little baking day ended with us piled on the couch in a sugar coma with aching legs and feet... Baking that many desserts was hard work! We packaged up all of the goodies and delivered them to our families. We were very popular that day! Like we always say after making a new recipe, it felt good to get those recipes "out of our system" and now we feel that we can move on. We hope to make "baking day" an annual tradition!

It was a Happy New Year

We made our way over to SanDestin to celebrate the new year with Brad, Emily and Tucker. Last year, as Em was  dry heaving while Tucker was in the womb, we talked about how this year would be so different with the addition of little Tucker man and it was...

... in the sweetest, most fun way possible!!

He was one of the guys...

... holding his bottle all by himself with those feet crossed... Heaven help me.

Brad has him nicknamed "the hat shark"...

We bundled him up and he was ready to go to town!

Baytown is such a fun place to stay... There is lots to see and do. Oh, and the boys totally did not plan to match... Em and I said yeah right. 

And Tucker wanted to be just like them!

The food was amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed our meals as long as we kept him occupied. He's a wild man!

The nights did end a tad earlier, but honestly none of us were complaining!

Baytown is such a fun place to celebrate New Years, especially if you're able to stay there. Our balcony overlooked the band and fireworks and we had so much fun!



Tucker even enjoyed the fireworks from his bed.

I know all of my posts are "photo overload" but I can't help it... I want to capture every little thing and most of the time I don't even come close, but here are a few little extras from the weekend...













We say 2013 got off to a pretty good start!