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Post Lake Party Cleaning Tips

This past Saturday our social calendar was overstuffed. My parents had their annual lake party which meant that we made the requisite 10 gallons of sangria with the requisite wine that my friend makes. By the way, the lake is the main source of our drinking water, and it is currently "turning over".  Our tap water tastes "musty" like I imagine the water in Herschel's 3rd well tastes right about now. Even the triple-filtered tap water at Starbuck's is off.

I couldn't help but notice that the water in the lake doesn't smell bad like our tap water does after treatment. I wonder just what they are using to filter the water. Hmmmmm...  I stuck to sangria and bottled water.

Sangria starter - apples, limes, lemons, oranges and blueberries soaking in brandy and red wine...

Skating By

This picture flashed up on the iMac earlier today and I had to hunt around on the network drive to find it later because I wasn't quite sure when it was taken. Emi's first time at Skateland! It was still Skateland back then and she wasn't obsessed with going there every Friday night. Now it's StarSkate and everything's different.

December 2005

She was 3 then, Daddy's little girl. Now she's 12 and sometimes she's daddy's little girl, and other times, she too cool for that. Our pretty little girl has turned into a pretty young lady who likes to remind me how soon she'll be driving...

A month ago

Welcoming Fall

Hot Stuff

So we made Sriracha Roast Chicken (that I pinned the other day) for dinner last night.

Pub Grub

I recently read somewhere that there's no better pub grub than the Ploughman's Lunch.

A ploughman's lunch is a basic (English) cold meal typically consisting of crusty bread, cheese, pickled onions and chutney. It might also consist of deli meats, pate,slices of apple and other seasonal fruit. The cheese, bread and pickles would be traditionally home-made by the ploughman's wife - making it a cheap and substantial lunch.

How am I just hearing about this slice of wonderful? Oh yeah, because I live in Oklahoma, not England. We have something similar to a ploughman's and we call it a picnic, and we eat it in the living room. And when I was single (and also, a new mom), it was sometimes eaten over the sink.

Calling it a "Ploughman's Lunch" makes it sounds less decadent than it really is, therefore fooling oneself into not feeling guilty about said indulgence. I like that.

#pinning

So I mentioned before that I don't have a Pinterest account because I have a hard enough time keeping myself directed as it is. But that doesn't mean I don't want to pin interesting things for later. That's what my handy, dandy blog is for (sometimes).

The recent cooler weather makes me want to try these recipes (some of these are just in time for tailgating!) :

• Kentucky Hot Brown
• Green Chile con Queso
• Sriracha Roast Chicken with Sriracha Gravy by White on Rice Couple
• Bam-i (I wonder if my mom has a good recipe...)
• Chicken Spring Rolls (Ok, this is not for cooler weather but another awesome dish by WORC that popped into my FB feed the day after the Sriracha Roast Chicken)
• Sriracha Chicken Lettuce Cups (David asked me to make Lettuce Wraps again the other day so maybe we can kick it up a notch this time.)

Music that's been in my BlackBerry (old skool) to get:

• Urban Cowboy soundtrack. I have the cassette and but I want to be able to play Darlin' over and over again like I used to with a friend when we were leaving In Cahoots at the end of penny beer night
• Diamond Rio. Also from boot scootin' days gone by. A few weeks ago I heard they were on tour (!!) so I went looking for my old cassette of theirs when I found another treasure that I have been listening to for days now. 
• Sammy Kershaw. I was not a huge fan but Third Rate Romance has such a good melody for dancing (or vacuuming).
• Paul Simon. I have a few PS cassettes that work just fine, thank you very much. But I think we only have ONE Simon and Garfunkel song in the old digital library. I must correct this deficiency soon! Side Note: Since I found my Negotiations and Love Songs tape, I am inspired to paint "St. Judy's comet" for David. It's on my list to draw/paint now and when I googled around for Paul's inspiration I found another treasure.  This one isn't another cassette, but rather an article on Paul's son, that "St. Judy's Comet" Kid.
• More Willie Nelson - I put Just Breathe into a list on my BlackBerry ages ago and I still haven't gotten that song. I don't recall where I heard it but I knew I needed it. Probably on the road to any smaller town in Oklahoma over the holidays some year. Actually, I heard a female singing a song by the same name and when I googled it I found Willie's song.
• Anna Nalick. Just Breathe. 
• Sheepdogs.  Southern Dreaming. Learn and Burn.
• Frazey Ford September Fields, Firecracker
• Meghan Trainor - heard this song a few weeks ago with my daughter and think I need Like I'm Gonna Lose You. 
• Bruno Mars - love my brother from another mother... 

What about you? Any good food or music that interests you? Care to share?

P.S. I think they should call it "Pinspiration".  I am more than interested, I am inspired so...

Roasted

A couple of days ago, we grabbed six Hatch Chiles at the store after hearing about the craze on the radio for the past week, and then I quietly forgot about them.  So tonight I decided I better get to roasting these chiles or throw them into the compost pile.

I came across thousands of recipes for Hatch Chiles but my mind was set on Mac and Cheese because it's supposed to cool down tonight with a nice rain and I am feeling like Football Weather comfort food.

So I looked to Ree to help me roast these chiles with no muss, no fuss. I found a cool recipe for mac and cheese with chiles, chicken and black beans but I decided to make this dish sauce with my basic quesadilla fillings: cream cheese, shredded cheddar (or jack), green onion, green chiles, garlic (I used a dab of mayo in the quesadillas but I omitted the mayo for this dish).

While the chiles were roasting, I prepared the basic bechamel sauce.

Ready to go into the oven...

Campusing

On Saturday, for the first game day of the season, the hubs and I walked up to Campus Corner in the sweltering heat with my SIL and BIL to participate in the tailgaiting fun. Normally, I opt to stay home on game days, enjoying the camping aromas of grilling out from a safe distance, but we hadn't been away from the children in a few days and we needed a teensy break.

Me and Tessa

It was fun to partake in the festivities (drink beer) and watch the girls - foolishly wearing cowboy boots in near triple digit temps -grimace with each step after clomping around the campus sidewalks all day. Not me! I wore sensible shoes!