Sunday, May 30, 2010

Kick off to Summer!!

Let's get back into recipes! What better way to celebrate the Memorial Weekend than to share two of my favorite get together recipes. Whether it's for a cookout, BBQ, or grilling get together, whatever you call it, the season is upon us. Time for longer nights, warmer days, and bigger parties.  Beside how wonderful these taste, I love them because they are great do ahead recipes. Perfect for allowing you to socialize, lounge around and drink with your guests.



First off is Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs. It's true what they say you know. Everything DOES taste better with bacon. Besides deviled eggs, you've got Bacon Risotto (you can find HERE), and how else do you get the hubby and kids to eat asparagus than to wrap it in bacon!

Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs

Ingredients


12 eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 slices bacon
2 tablespoons finely shredded Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon mustard

Directions

Place eggs in a saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, and cool. To cool more quickly, rinse eggs under cold running water.

Meanwhile, place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. You can also wrap bacon in paper towels and cook in the microwave for about 1 minute per slice. Crumble and set aside.

Peel the hard-cooked eggs, and cut in half lengthwise. Remove yolks to a small bowl. Mash egg yolks with mayonnaise, crumbled bacon and cheese. Stir in mustard. Fill egg white halves with the yolk mixture and refrigerate until serving. The easiest way to fill the eggs is to load up a ziploc bag with the mixture, cut the top off of one end, then pipe the filling into the eggs.


Next up with have Sweet Potato Salad.  This salad has a great combination of regular russet potatoes and sweet potatoes.  It's also a great base if you love lots of extras in your potato salad. I'm a plain jane kinda girl and just the potatoes, mayo, mustard, eggs, onion, salt and pepper are fine with me. But feel free to add whatever you love in yours: olives, celery, onions and yes even BACON ;)

Ingredients


2 potatoes, chopped
1 sweet potato, chopped
4 eggs
1/2 onion, chopped
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm. Since it usually takes longer for sweet potatoes to cook than russet, I boil in two sepearte pots. Drain and cool.
Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil. Cover, remove from heat, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water; cool, peel and chop.

Combine the potatoes and eggs.

Whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper. Add to potato mixture, toss well to coat. Refrigerate and serve chilled.




Enjoy your summer!!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Disneyland!


Thanks to the Disney  "Give a Day, Get a Day" promotion, for a few hours of our time, Chad and I were able to get free Disneyland tickets. Of course, we were so excited. Both of us haven't been in such a long time, and what better way to experience Disneyland than with your kids for the first time. Don't get me wrong, we had some reservations about taking a 1 year old and a 3 and a half year old on a day long treck through the happiest place on earth. We were worried about Reece getting too tired, Keegan now wanting to wait in lines, and being upset when we had to get off rides. But, we were very pleasantly surprised. Keegan and Reece both behaved wonderfully. Keegan walked the entire day. He got upset waiting in line once at the begining of the day but was a joy the rest of the time, even though he got no nap.  One of the best days we've had as parents.


Reece all ready to go in his big boy car seat!


You have to get a picture in front of the castle!


Both boys really enjoyed the submarine ride
Autotopia!

Reece on the carousel

Keegan on the carousel
Surprisingly Keegan LOVED the teacups. Mommy on the other hand got a little sick to her stomach just trying to film them.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I did it again!!!

I was doing SO WELL. I didn't think it had been almost a month since I last posted. Blarg!!!

We've had alot going on! Reece turned ONE! I cannot believe my little boy isn't a "baby" anymore! Great fun was had at his party.

We decided on a dinosaur theme, since his nickname is Chompers. He makes this great face and noise when he's crawling around the house.