THANK YOU!!!

Ya'll rock! 5,000+ hits and they keep pouring in! 

I'm overwhelmed by the support I get sharing our kitchen with yours! 

Giveaway time (because I promised)! 

Tell me what my photo of the day was for January 15th and attach a picture of your own with the same caption! 

(ShellyHendrix@gmail.com) 

Prize: 

A favorite cookbook of mine for your very own! Winner will be announced on the blog! 

I will pick my winner this Friday! Good Luck! Thank you for your support!!

Date Night with Homemade Pizza--Cope Style

Remember our friend's the Cope's, who gave us that wonderful roast recipe awhile back during the holiday season? Well, they've done it again! Except this time they had a lovely date night with some Pizza and champagne and we get to share their experience (via lots of pictures and descriptions of the fantastic food)! I love getting beautiful photos from Full Feather Photography and I'm always more than happy to get a guest chef on here! The mixtures they used were from Wildtree, and look absolutely divine! If you're unsure what Wildtree is, (as was I) they are a company that provides all natural alternatives to your cooking lifestyle! Their products are free of fillers and additives which helps promote a healthier lifestyle. She started the company after finding that her two younger children needed specific dietary restrictions in their diet, and it took off from there. As a household that uses many natural alternatives to our everyday life, I'm excited to get to know more about this company and their products!  So let's get on with it, and make us a pizza!!!

Pizza Sauce 

1 (14.5 oz) can of Tomato sauce

1 TB of the Wildtree perfect pizza sauce seasoning

In a small bowl, you're going to combine the tomato sauce with the pizza sauce seasoning, mix together and let the sauce stand for 5 minutes to get all the flavors incorporated together. As a plus side to this being pizza sauce, it can also be used for dipping, lasagna, or whatever your heart may desire! Tara said this made more than enough for their one pizza, so they are saving the leftover sauce for some ravioli!

In case you're interested in what pizza sauce was used, this Napa Valley Bistro brand is outstanding! I use a lot of their sauces with my pasta and have never been disappointed!

Hello sauce! Don't you look just absolutely wonderful!

Now, onto the Wildtree So Quick and Easy Pizza Dough

1 bag So Quick & Easy Pizza Dough Mix 

1/2 c very warm water (120-130 degrees F)

1 TBS Wildtree Grapeseed oil (any flavor)

To start off you're going to want to adjust the rack in your oven to the lowest possible position, and set the temperature to 500 degrees. Take your pizza stone and place it on the rack in the oven and heat the stone for 30 minutes before proceeding with it! In a bowl, mix together the dry mix for the dough, water, and Grapeseed oil. Whisk all this together until a ball of dough forms. 

Once you have the ball of dough, turn the dough out on a floured surface and knead for 2 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic. (Okay, in very simple terms (just in case you need it lol), get the dough out of the bowl, lightly flour a surface area, and start working the dough with your hands until it seems smooth and stretchy). Cover the dough and let it rest on the floured surface for 10 minutes. 

After the dough has taken it's nap on your counter, flatten the dough using the palm of your hand! You're going to want to try and work the dough into a disc shape! Starting in the middle of the disc and working your way out, use your fingertips to press the disc until it's about 1/4 of an inch thick. 

How You Doin'??

There's a good reason why this chef is off the market ladies...

I see about 5 different reasons in this picture alone!

All together now:

 "When the moon hit's your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's Amore"

Using one hand to hold the dough, use the other hand to stretch the dough (carefully) outward until it has reached the desired diameter (eh-hem, I hate math terms sooo...Carefully stretch the pizza dough out until you have a dough that fits the size of the pizza you want)! 

Now you're going to carefully lift the dough off the surface and place on a peel (looks a paddle for pizza), or you can place it on a large wooden cutting board that has been dusted with semolina. 

Now you're going to proceed with the pizza toppings! From the looks of the pictures, I'm gathering they had cheese, red bell pepper, pepperoni, onion and possibly some ground beef! 

The sauce is going on!

Here comes the cheese

All the extra goodies are on!

Once all your toppings are in place, slide the pizza onto the pizza stone, and bake for about 8-12 minutes or until the crust is a golden brown. 

There you have it! It looks so delicious, I wish I could just reach into the picture and take that piece right out of his hand! So making your own pizza may not be the fastest dinner on earth. However, think of all the endless opportunities you have when you make your own! We've had pizza parties before where everyone can come and make their own pizza and choose the toppings they want! Whatever you do, please please please don't be scared to make your own! A little birdie was telling they went with some friends many moons ago to a pizza making class and spent big money on it! Let me tell you this, save your wallet, and experiment with different dough recipes at home. The toppings are the easy part! But once you find a dough that suits you, you've got it made! The thing I have learned is that EVERYONE has their own secret to dough. My philosophy, if it works for you and tastes great, use it! I can't wait to get my hands on these ingredients and try it out! 

~Happy Eating~

Challenge Update 2/10/13

Time for February's photo challenge update! I am really loving this challenge, because it makes us aware of everyday things going on around us, and I can look back at everything (big or small) that we are so thankful for, and remember these tiny moments each and every day! Here was my challenge this week:

Something Pink
Out your window
Numbers
Nature
Your shoes
If things could talk
Household

Something pink! We took my niece Macy, fishing last Sunday! We went on a hike through the woods and she got to discover all sorts of fun new things! She was dressed all in pink, which made my picture that day very easy!! Love these two people!! 

Monday was "out my window". I took this picture as the sun was setting! One of my favorite things about Oklahoma is our sky! It fills up with so many colors and if you're out of the city on open road, it seems to be endless! 

I'm so glad I have such a great man who gets on board with all my crazy ideas! The day was coming to an end, and he asked me, "What was your picture today?" I had forgot all about it, and remembered as we pulled into home that it was numbers! He pointed at the keypad and I snapped a picture! 

Well okay, so this isn't "outside nature", but we brought nature inside! DJ has been working so hard on a beach for our turtles! They need a way to sun themselves and get out of the water and dry off! Their log became too small, so he built this little beach for them and they LOVE it! All we need know is to add some plants around the pipe and we're done! We love our little turtles!

I was getting ready to walk out the door to go the gym, and saw that today's picture was "my shoes"...so I propped my foot up and grabbed a shot of my shoe! And yes, I could hear my mother's voice in my head the WHOLE time telling me to get my shoes off the couch! 

 I went to a market in Bixby (Conrad's) to get our 13 lbs of pecans we picked with my mom the other day, cracked and blown! (If you live in town and have pecans they will crack them and blow the dirt off for 50 cents a pound)! While I was waiting I walked around looking at all the fresh produce! I came across this basket full of little baby onions. If things could talk, these onions would be saying, "I may be little, but I still pack a punch"! My eyes about started watering just standing this close for the picture! These little guys are not kidding around!

So this isn't our household, but my new sweet niece, Morgan had her 1st birthday party this weekend! So here she is at the household we all were in, getting ready to dive into her cake, and enjoying all the festivities around her! LOVE you sweet girl! 

So far for February we have:

Words

Childhood

Something Pink

Out Your Window

Numbers

Nature

Your Shoes

If Things Could Talk

Household

~See you soon with great new recipes~

Fantastic Chicken Lo Mein

I did it again! Another Asian dish served up at home, and taken down by the two of us like there was no tomorrow! When I see ingredients like sesame oil and rice wine vinegar something in my brain goes haywire and I immediately have to try it! You can find the original recipe at Prevention.com which includes the nutritional information. If you're not sure about all the health benefits from sesame oil, you can check out this information on Livestrong.com. It's full of anti-oxidants and antibacterial properties that you won't want to pass up! There are other uses as well, including skin benefits among other medicinal health benefits, if you want to do some looking around on their site! So without further ado...let's get started!

Ingredients
8 oz lo mein or thin spaghetti (you could even use a little more, I only had 6 oz and it didn't go very far)
2 TB sesame oil (you can also use olive oil)
1 lb. boneless, skinless, chicken breasts cut into thin strips
1 onion-chopped
1 lg. red bell pepper-chopped
2 lg. garlic cloves-minced
1/2 c chicken broth
3 TB rice wine vinegar
3 TB soy sauce
1 TB fresh grated ginger

Start out by cooking your noodles according to the package.

While you've got your pasta going, heat 1 TB of the oil in a large skillet over medium/high heat. Add the chicken strips and cook the chicken until no longer pink. Remove the chicken from the skillet and cover to keep warm!

Heat the remaining 1 TB of oil in the skillet, and add your red pepper, onion and garlic. Cook for about 8 minutes or until the ingredients are tender. Stir in the broth, ginger, vinegar and soy sauce and cook for another 2 minutes  Add the cooked chicken and the noodles, stir to incorporate everything together and heat through. 

Serve on a plate (or in a bowl) and enjoy!! 

We absolutely loved this and will be eating it again! Very quick and easy and would even taste great if you let the noodles marinade in the mixture over-night, add the chicken, heat up and enjoy!! Stay tuned for a fantastic snack idea! Until then...

~Happy Eating~

Cheese Soup is one of my favorites!

For as long as I can remember my mom making cheese soup, it has been one of my favorite meals!   I decided to make it for us last night after looking through some more recipes in my new cookbook from my mom! In my hurried, excited state I completely forgot to get bread bowls, however it is on the list of things to do today (for leftovers). This recipe came from one of my mom's friends, Faye and I cannot thank her enough for sharing this recipe! Let's get started!

Ingredients

3 carrots grated

3 stalks of celery, chopped

1 small onion finely chopped

1/2 stick of butter

2 large can of chicken broth (roughly 32 oz)

2 can of cream of potato soup

1 pound Velveeta cheese, torn into small pieces

In a large pot, heat the half stick of butter, and saute the carrots, celery and onion for about 2-3 minutes. Add the chicken broth to the pot and simmer for 30 minutes! 

I love buying these matchstick carrots, because I'm not a carrot fan and D won't go through a whole package of carrots alone, so these are perfect for snacking and cooking! They are pretty long though, so I would recommend dicing them a little bit before you through them in!

3 stalks of celery

This is 32 oz of chicken broth. I used all of it by the time it was all said and done. I would recommend starting out with 3/4 of the box and adding more as needed!

After the broth and vegetables have simmered, add in the 2 cans of cream of potato soup and the pound of Velveeta cheese! Keep stirring frequently until all the cheese has melted over LOW heat (the cheese will burn over high heat, so keep that spoon moving)! Once you have everything melted and stirred in, spoon into a bread bowl and serve! Did I mention this recipe is ridiculously easy?! Stay tuned for some other great recipes! Until then...

~Happy Eating~

(cheese picture (top) courtesy of wegmans.com)

Penne Pasta with Roasted Red Peppers

We found a delicious pasta dish on Annie's Eats blog! We loved it, had plenty of leftovers and had no problem taking down the entire leftover bowl in the next couple of days! I also started February's photo challenge, so here is the beginning of February's photos and this yummy pasta dish!

The first two days of February's photo challenge were:

Words
Childhood

"Treasures from the Sea" were my words I captured on the 1st of February! This is from our package of Mahi Mahi that we had for dinner! Yes...Treasure from the sea is how I would describe this fish as well!

My childhood photo is a picture of the street sign from the street I grew up on! 

Now on to the pasta...

Ingredients

3 garlic cloves (if you don't like a lot of garlic flavor I would cut this down)

1/3 c Parmesan cheese

1 c roasted red bell pepper

Basil

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/3 c olive oil

1 lb. penne pasta

1/4 c heavy cream (this is optional...we used it)

To start off, you're going to mix the garlic, cheese, roasted red pepper, salt and pepper. Add the olive oil and mix together until well blended! 

To roast the red bell pepper, I placed the pepper in the broiler for about 5 minutes then took it out turned the pepper and roasted for another 3-4 minutes. You'll just want to keep an eye on the pepper, because once it starts to "roast" it goes quickly! You're going to look for a little "charred" effect, and make sure you turn the pepper so it roasts all the sides! 

Once it's roasted, wait for it to cool and then peel the skin off and finely chop the pepper! The skin is easy to remove and make sure you get the core and seeds out as well!

Now you're going to cook the pasta according to the the package, drain and rinse with cold water. To your olive oil mixture you can add the heavy cream if you so wish, and toss the sauce in with the pasta and serve! 

This dish is an easy alternative to a quick spaghetti dish you might throw together during the week! You can even make it ahead of time and heat when you're ready, it tastes just as good re-heated as right out of the pan! Stay tuned for some great new recipes this week!! Until then...

~Happy Eating~

  

Final January Challenge Update

I did it! One month down and 11 to go for my photo challenge! I'm going to start a new challenge too, that I'm very excited about! I absolutely can't wait to see the finished project, however I didn't learn about it until a few short days ago, so January will be skipped and I'll be starting it today! (HINT: capturing time, in a new way) So, here are my last photos from January!

Sunshine

Through

Grow

Down

Self-Portrait

Last Sunday was a cloudy day here in T-town! So, my sunshine picture didn't really work out! By far, I think these two (along with the other 3) bring so much light and happiness in the family that this picture of Macy and Morgan at a shower for my sister's family is my substitute "sun" picture! Love that I have 5 sweet kiddos in the family to bring sunshine to a cloudy day!

D and I travel sometimes with his work and sometimes we get to go to places that there is nothing to do there unless you want to drive 20+ miles! I decided sitting in the hotel one day last year that I was going to give crochet a try! I was "hooked" and have loved trying to teach myself over the year! I'm still not very good at reading patterns and a lot of times if I'm trying to make a circle I'll get another fun shape like a triangle or something of that nature! Anyway, I'm finishing a blanket for my niece (she wanted a "BIG" one) and this is my needle going through the loop to make one of the squares!

My love is working hard on making a tank extension for our little turtle children, Sheldon (on right) and Lilly (on left). They have grown so much they can barely keep both of their bodies out of the water on the log we have in there. It's hard to tell but Sheldon is about the size of my hand now and Lilly is catching up quickly. When we first got them, they were about the size of a quarter! We love these silly little pets, and they are so spoiled! Can't wait to see the final habitat D is building for the top of the tank so they can get out of the water and sunbathe and hang out! 

The end of the day means comfy slippers and catching up on the DVR! This is what I saw when I looked "down" before going to bed!

The final photo was a self-portrait! I was getting ready to head to Target to hang out with two fun ladies and their precious little girls! Nothing like sweating your rear off at the gym, rushing home, making yourself "going out" acceptable and rushing back out to have a little girl time! I always love our little get together time (even if the cold northern winds ruined our park time)! 

January

Today

Something new

Heart

The view from here

Movement

Mine

Street

Something beginning with "t"

Paper

One o'clock

Water

Surprise

Circle

Something yellow

An ordinary moment

Two things

Ready

Shadow

Delicious

Something you saw

What you did

Corner

Electric

Stripes

Landscape

Together

Sun

Through

Grow

Down

Self-portrait

Now, I have not forgot to update ya'll on my reading list! I finished, The Alchemist, and absolutely fell in love with it! I got to follow a shepherd on his journey to discover his life's treasure! You'll feel the anxiety as he sells everything he has to pursue something he's not sure even exists! You'll listen to the wind, and sun, and feel the tension as he wanders farther in to the desert to seek out his treasure! You'll be there when he falls in love, and watch him learn and grow as he learns that the whole world can communicate in the same language, you just have to be ready to listen. He speaks with nature, and through his journeys meets all sorts of people who help him discover the meaning to life (and the way to his personal treasure)! I highly recommend this book! It is beautifully written, and an easy read! You find yourself connecting with his lessons, and the people he meets, and cheering him on as you quickly turn the pages to find out what happens in his next step on his journey! I'll leave you with this quote from the book, and seriously believe everyone should experience this book!! 

" 'Don't give in to your fears,' said the alchemist, in a strangely gentle voice. 'If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart.' " (Coelho)

It's $7.19 on Amazon.com right now!