Gift Wrapping, Egg Rolls, & Salting Slugs

Today I got lots of gift wrapping done for Christmas (I know I'm 2 months early). I've already gotten a few gifts for Kim's kids, Ravyn, Vince, and a few others. Also, mom, dad, and Nathan's birthdays are all in November.

This morning I had to make waffles from scratch. I usually like to use one of the gourmet waffle mixes (such as Ina Garten's or Williams-Sonoma), and if I don't have that, then I resort to Bisquick. Unfortunately, I had none of those so I had to make them from total scratch. I threw in some blueberries and they were actually pretty good. I later thought about it being Halloween season & should have made something more fall-ish, like pumpkin, spice, or apple. Oh well.

I also started a pork roast in the crock pot & found out I had no BBQ sauce, so I made my own from scratch. I had ketchup, mustard, white wine, molasses, soy sauce, Dale's seasoning sauce, and some chipotle seasoning. It came out great & even smelled like BBQ sauce. I poured it & 1/2 a Coke on top of the pork roast in the crock pot.

Since I was in the cooking mood, I decided I needed to do something with the cabbage we bought last weekend in NC. I'm not a big cabbage lover, so I've never cooked with it much before. I decided to make egg rolls. I shaved the cabbage and a few carrots. I then added some of the cooked crock pot pork, some sesame seeds, ground ginger, garlic, and oyster sauce. I cooked it up in a pan and then rolled it in egg roll wrappers. They fried up very nicely.

We ended up having a great pork, rice & egg roll dinner.

Around 10pm, Vince went out to turn off the light in the pumpkin (it changes colors & runs on batteries). He came back inside quickly to get reinforcements. It was covered inside & outside with about 20 slugs. They were so gross. They were everywhere. We managed to get the light out & then I put salt on some of them while Vince used the lighter to toast a few. I think tomorrow night we'll use a real candle.

Rain, Facial & Massage

This week it has rained every day. I'm so glad we got our fertilizer down Sunday night. This way the birds didn't have time to eat it. I don't know if they do eat it, but just in case, it's been rained on really well now. I also planted a few tulips on Sunday so maybe they will hold off and not bloom until spring.

On Tuesday night, I met a friend of mine from college that I haven't seen in 14 years. She & her husband moved to Anderson recently. She has become a Mary Kay consultant & was needing someone to practice a facial on. I volunteered my face. I got a free facial & she got to learn some of the techniques.

A friend of mine that gives massages offered a 30 minute massage for $20 this week only. I jumped on this great deal & had a 30 minute massage right after work today. It felt so great. I only wish it had lasted 90 minutes.

Tonight I fixed the 3rd of 4 skillet dinners I had bought last week at the Nestle/Stouffer's outlet in Gaffney. They're actually really good & only take about 20 minutes to cook. Now I'm off to relax with my wonderful husband while we watch Ghost Hunters.

Pumpkin Time!

I love to eat pumpkin pie - especially the kind with the brown sugar crumble on top. Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are one of my favorite all time muffins. I like most any kind of pumpkin dessert. I also love looking at all the fall decorations & carved pumpkins. Well tonight Vince & I carved a pumpkin into a scary jack-o-lantern. I carved the face & Vince scooped out all the guts. Boo!

Winterized Yard & Chimney Rock

This weekend Vince & I got a lot of stuff done around the house. On Saturday, I mowed the grass for the final time before winter. Vince got the mower, edger & weed eater ready for me. I weeded the flower beds and then mowed the grass. I used the edger on the sidewalk & front of the yard. Then I used the weed eater to trim off all the bermuda grass runners. Vince washed my Rav4 & his Trans Am. We also did lots of laundry & cleaned up around the house.


On Sunday, we went to early service at church. We then packed up a picnic & headed up the road. We were trying to decide between Biltmore & Chimney Rock. We ended up at Chimney Rock since they have picnic tables. Does anyone know if Biltmore has picnic tables anywhere?



Anyway, we sat up lunch (soup & sandwiches) on a picnic table and ate with 1000 gnats. Literally. They swarmed us. Vince had 3 stuck on his face. It was horrible. We packed it back up & ate the rest by the car. We did take our electric fly swatter & killed about 20 bugs. And we sprayed Off. As soon as we sprayed, they swarmed even more as if we had just sprayed sugar water. It was so crazy. I had made a potato & corn chowder before we left & it stayed so hot in the thermos. But before I could blow on it to cool it off, gnats were landing everywhere. I'm pretty sure I ate a few gnats, so I've definitely had my protein today.


We packed up the rest of our picnic & headed to the school bus that took us up to the Chimney Rock entrance. Our plan of action was to go as high up as they allowed us, so Vince & I started out taking the elevator for the first part.

We then climbed stairs to the Opera House...



We got a great view of the top of Chimney Rock...

...then climbed more stairs to Devil's Head.

This was the view looking down from some of the scaffolding. Then we saw Devil's Head. It does look like a head perched on the side of the mountain.

We asked some other folks to take a picture of us at a tree near Devil's Head.

Then we climbed stairs...

...& stairs & stairs to Exclamation Point.

The weather was so perfect for hiking up a mountain.

We sat on the cool rocks to cool off & admire the view. The mood was killed a little bit thanks to the 30 other people up there being noisy & yelling at each other & laughing loudly in other languages. It was not as peaceful & serene as I had imagined. But the weather & scenery was so perfect. I could see a few trees that had fall colors, but a lot of them were still green.


This was some little building up near Exclamation Point.

We noticed a long path from Exclamation Point over to the water fall that was blocked off from guests. That was the portion that was used in the film, The Last of the Mohicans. It looked very close to the edge of the cliff so I guess they had closed it for safety reasons.

We rode the elevator back down & asked the guide about the path. He said they are redoing some trails and would be announcing the new trails in November. I can't wait to see what they have planned.

On the way back home, we stopped & got a head of mountain cabbage and we got a bag of apples. I asked if he had honey crisp & he did not, but he gave me a sample of another type & it was sweet & delicious. I can't remember the name of it, but I bought a bag.


When we got back home Sunday evening, we ran to Lowe's to get some winterizer fertilizer for the yard & some bug guard granules. We spread it in the dark, but wanted to get it down before the rain comes this week. I then cooked dinner & made a homemade apple pie with fresh apples. Yum!

Christmas Shopping

So I've started Christmas shopping lately. I don't know why I like to start so early, but I do. For some reason I always start before Halloween. In fact, one year I put my 10 foot Christmas tree up the week before Halloween. The trick or treaters really enjoyed it when I handed out candy. But now I try to do it closer to or after Thanksgiving. I still think only 4 weeks is too short to celebrate the season.

I've had my wish list made out for quite some time. I keep an on-going wish list so I can remember what I want when people ask me. Mom drew my name this year & Vince will be shopping for me as well. This way I can give them the same list & they can get together to see who gets what. Currently I have things on my list that revolve around the baking industry as well as a few other items. (I just removed the Sony Reader from my list this this week after Vince gave it to me for my birthday.)

I drew my sister, Kim's name this year. I have no idea what to get her yet. I have bought a couple of small things for Vince, but I'm waiting for him to give me a list of things to buy. I did buy something for Grayson & for Ravyn already. And I have a few stocking stuffers for folks. I love getting into the shopping season! I'm a born shopper, but I love to spend money on other folks more than myself.

Now if I could just win that lottery ticket...

Birthday Celebration

This past Monday I celebrated my 38th birthday. Well, actually we started celebrating over the weekend before it. On Saturday Vince & I ate with his parents at California Dreaming. Then on Sunday afternoon, we ate at Wade's. On Sunday night, we went to the Chef's Auction (see previous post). On Monday, my team at work took me to eat at Copper River Grill. Kaye brought me a pineapple upside down cake. Jay brought me donuts and Rick brought me a blueberry bundt cake. Then for dinner, Vince & I ate at the Peddler. I had so much good food in 3 days time. What a great way to celebrate a birthday!!

I also received some really nice gifts. Vince brought me flowers & a Sony Reader (digital book). I've been wanting one for quite some time. We laughed when we realized he bought me a Sony camera last year for my birthday. I guess there is something about Sony. No telling what he may get me next year!

Rachel gave me an Easter egg cupcake pan. Billy gave me an Oreo cake pan (this one has been on my wish list for a while as well). Kim's gift is on the way (well, she hasn't mailed it yet, but I have seen a picture of it). Kaye gave me some cake & kitchen tools. Julie gave me a bag of chocolates & a City Range gift card (score! more food!). Vince's parents & my parents gave me some money to do a bit of shopping on my own. So last night I went to the mall & found some cute Polo boots for the winter. I saved $10 since I could wear the children's size instead of the adult size. Yeah for little feet!

I've had a wonderful birthday week! Can't wait to have another one.

Chef's Auction

Last night Vince & I attended the Chef's Auction to benefit the March of Dimes at the Marriott downtown Spartanburg. It was such a fun evening. It was my first benefit dinner for this charity. I've been to several for United Way and others here & there, but not March of Dimes. They had 7 stations set up with food from various chefs around town. Each one prepared 2 small sample dishes to try. I'm sure they were all good, but unfortunately, 5 out of 7 had a shell fish dish to sample & in fact 3 of them served scallops. What is it with people that feel the need to serve shell fish as the only food these days? I tried the side dish or dessert dish at most tables. I had a bite of pork and a bite of trout. Other than that, I had to eat a lot of sweets. Everything smelled wonderful. A couple of folks had soup & both of them were seafood as well. It would have been nice if someone had steak, someone had chicken, and only 1 or 2 had seafood.

Okay, enough ranting about not getting to eat much. The other part of the night was the silent auction followed by the live auction. Vince & I bid on a couple of items & ended up winning one. We didn't bid on the live auction items as all of them were going for over $500. Most of them were dinners for your 10 - 25 closest friends by one of the chefs. We didn't want to feed our friends for $700. Sorry guys, we like you & all, but we're not dropping that kind of money on you. It was fun to watch other people bid on the items.

Now on to the dress code. Apparantly when my co-worker asked me to go represent our company he forgot to tell me it was a black tie affair. So I show up in my plaid wool skirt & tall boots. Every other lady is wearing silk or chiffon evening gowns. Um, oops. Vince looked nice. He grabbed a dinner jacket on the way out, but he didn't have on a tie. We looked nice, but not quite black tie nice. Next year, we'll know to spiff things up a bit. But hey, we got free food & a really nice evening out on the town! And Vince got to meet the emcee, Fox Carolina's Greg Funderburk.

BMW Car Show

On Saturday, Vince & I met his parents at the BMW European car show at the BMW grounds. They had so many cars there. It was a huge show. My favorite was the VW Pop Top van. I really want one now. It would be great to go camping in. And of course, I was so involved in checking it out that I didn't get a picture of it.

I also really enjoyed the Back to the Future car

& the Lambourghini

& the new Mercedes

.

& the Ferrari

But Vince thought this little car suited me best for some reason.

Chicken Stew for Family & Friends

This week I wanted to make a meal for my in-laws & for my friend Julie & her family. Jerry had a procedure this week for kidney stones. Julie had a new baby & finally got to bring the baby home this week from NICU. I decided to make something hearty, yet light. It's been getting cooler outside so I decided on making some chicken stew. I've never made chicken stew before so I just thought about all the ingredients I would like in it.

I cooked 5 chicken breasts in my stoneware after applying chicken seasoning and chipotle seasoning. I cut up the cooked chicken & put it in my large crock pot. I then added a bunch of the following (I didn't really measure much):
low sodium chicken broth
Healthy Request cream of mushroom & cream of celery
cilantro paste
parsley paste (I found these new pastes at Publix in a squeeze tube)
seasoned creamed corn
white wine
Paula Deen's silly salt
chopped green, red & yellow peppers
chopped yellow onions

I let it cook for a couple of hours & then added orzo. It actually turned out pretty great. I found some new crackers that make it just perfect - Wheat Thins new baked veggie chips. After work I took a batch to Julie & Jason. Baby Ivy is so cute & so teeny tiny. I then took a second batch to Barbara & Jerry. We chatted for a bit & then I came home to eat dinner with Vince. We also ate the chicken stew. It was fun being able to visit with friends & family & share the same dinner, although we didn't really eat it at the same time.

Next week I may make some white chicken chili or some regular chili. I love soup season!

Lunch at the Fair

My BFF (best friends forever - Kaye) and I went to the Piedmont Interstate Fair for lunch yesterday. It was free to get in from 11am - 2pm. At 4pm, the rides and games start & it costs $7 to get in, plus more money to ride the rides. Since I mostly wanted to go for the food & exhibits, I wanted to go during the free time. It wasn't too crowded & the weather was perfect.


Our first order of business was to look at the displays in the agriculture building. There were lots of food entries & some cute cakes.

They also had a scarecrow contest that had lots of entries with scarecrows made out of recycled items.

Our second order of business was to find the Krispy Kreme hamburger. We looked at every vendor's booth and asked about 5 of them if they knew where it was. It was no where to be found (even though the paper advertised it). So I settled on a frito pie (fritos, chili & cheese) while Kaye got a cheeseburger & fried pickles. After my main course, I had a deep fried Snickers. This would have been fine if I had asked her not to dip it in powdered sugar. Wearing black pants was not the best decision when eating powdered sugar.

The flower building had lots of displays for wedding companies, arts & crafts, and pictures. We thought about going to the petting zoo part, but after getting a whiff of the camels, we changed our mind. Man they stunk.


On our way out of the fair, I picked up a caramel apple with nuts. Kaye got a candied apple & we split a bag of cotton candy. It was such a fun lunch! I hope next year I can find that donut hamburger.

ZTA Octoberfest

On Tuesday night, 8 of us ZTA (Zeta Tau Alpha) alumnae gathered for our monthly meeting at Gehrhard's in Spartanburg. Gehrhard's is an upscale German restaurant with so many unique menu items. They have everything from pizza and fish & chips to lots of more unique & more expensive items. I brought Vince home the Elk. I have no idea what that tastes like. I ate the chicken cordon bleu. They were all out of ostrich. I can't wait to go back there to eat. There were so many interesting things I wanted to try.

I Sent It In

So today I finally sent in my application for The Next Food Network Star. Vince recorded me in the kitchen yesterday so I could send in a video, as well as the 11 page application, 2 pictures of me, and a copy of my driver's license. I decided not to cook anything in the video. I just talked to the camera and had some cook books & other kitchen props behind me. The funny thing is that the camera recorded it in black & white. When we re-recorded it in color, I never could say what I wanted to say as good as the first take. So we sent in the black & white version.

Okay, so now we wait. I doubt I will get picked among the thousands of applicants, but at least it was fun to try. We'll see what happens. The taping of the show is in the January - February time frame. So we'll know something by then.

Visit with Rachel, Pat & the Kids

On Friday night, Pat, Rachel, Ravyn & Cody arrived at our house. The kids were a little out of it since they had been sleeping in the car. The first thing Ravyn did was walk head first into our closed glass screen door. It left a small red mark on her forehead, but it didn't last long. Luckily, the door didn't break. As Rachel walked in, she knocked over a display shelf & broke a glass candle holder. We were off to a great start! As an added bonus, Rachel brought in a large slug on her shoe (she had on Crocs) and we watched it crawl in a slime trail across our living room carpet. Luckily, the weekend got much better...and we got to have a lot of laughs right off the bat.

On Saturday morning, I cooked some homemade cinnamon rolls & sausage. Cody announced, "this is like a really good breakfast." He said it like it was a complete shock that he should eat good food at my house. It was so funny. After that, the first order of business was to do Ravyn's hair like a "spider web." This is what I came up with.

We got to Fall for Greenville by 11:30am. Our first stop was to find the first mouse out of 10 on Main Street.

As we found more mice, we also found this chicken. Cody has an extreme obsession with all people in character outfits.

As we all grabbed some excellent food bites, we made our way down the street (still finding mice) and got to the children's rides.

St. Francis' Hospital had a free photo booth set up & they gave the kids a free tattoo & silly bands.

We finally made it to the Park at Reedy River.

Ravyn took this picture of us resting on a nice cool stone. It was so hot outside. Yes, I am wearing a turtle neck (it was 50 degrees when I got up that morning). The cool stone worked great in taking the heat out of our bodies.

I tried several times to get a picture of Ravyn, Cody, Rachel & Pat. This was the best I could get out of Cody. Believe it or not, he was screaming "cheese!!!" We walked all along the river & then made our way back up to main street. (Although, Cody did more "Buzz Lightyear" running than walking.)

Another character:

We had such a fun time that day. I've never seen so many people in downtown Greenville. It started getting a lot more crowded around 3pm. I felt like a salmon swimming upstream every time we moved through the crowd. The food was so great & the atmosphere was wonderful. I can't wait to go again next year.

Rachel & I left Greenville around 3:40pm to go back home. We left the kids with Vince & Pat. They took them to Cleveland Park beside the Greenville Zoo. They grilled out hotdogs on our portable grill.

I had agreed to help cater my friend's 30th year high school reunion. Rachel went with me to help load up my car & set it all up. The event was in Gaffney. We brought enough food to feed 100 people.

After we got it all set up, we left & stopped at the outlet mall to eat dinner. Outback was most excellent! It was such a fun-filled & long day. It was so nice having relatives to share the day with.

Rachel & family headed out Sunday morning. We will miss them!