We laughed so hard that we __________'d.

Don't we look like a nice bunch of women? So mannerly & quiet....not a group likely to get into any trouble. (Hee-hee) Some of my very best friends ever got together this weekend for a girls reunion. We did a lot of eating, laughing, sharing email addresses, laughing, looking at family photos, laughing, and remembering stories that no one else is allowed to hear.

We came from Minnesota, Illinois & Nebraska. Our Washington DC representative was not able to attend, but sent an offering in her stead. When we checked into our hotel she had waiting for us a bottle of Boons Farm wine (hardly a wine by today's standards!) that made us all laugh uncontrollably.

I know that I valued each moment spent with these special ladies. Some have gone through hell and high water, some are living lives that are completely selfless with their choice of vocation, and all of them have my utmost respect. I can't wait to do it again.

I made this little snack mix that we munched on in our suite. This recipe is already cut in half, and it still makes a BIG batch. I'm giving it a special name that only the girls will understand. Here's to you ladies! May God bless.

GGW SNACKIES

1 box Crispix cereal
1 bag of Bugles
1 bag of pretzels
1 box Cheese-its
1 bag of Ritz baked crackers
1 can of mixed nuts (2 wouldn't be a bad idea)
Combine all of these 6 ingredients together in a plastic trash bag.

1 Cup Orville Redenbacher popcorn oil
1 package Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
Whisk together the oil and dry dressing mix, then pour over the dry ingredients above that have been placed in the trash bag. Close the bag and gently rotate many times to coat the crackers evenly. Now pour it into a large roasting pan and place into a 250* oven for about 20 minutes to crisp up. This helps the flavors to 'bake in' to the mix evenly. Store in an airtight container.

Mirror mirror on the wall, what the best thing to do with a pound of hamburger?

I've been sooooo tired this week. I've been fighting with a jaw/ear/tooth problem that is yet undiagnosed. TMJ? Sinus? Ear infection? All I know is that it hurts!!! It comes in waves, hits really hard and then subsides for a bit. I don't like it much. Do I grind my teeth at night? I don't know....I'm sleeping! My dentist is moving offices and will not be open for about 10 days, so I'm going to keep the ibuprofen close and try to forge ahead.

Last night was one of those nights when it was time to eat, and I had no idea what I could possibly throw together. I had a pound of hamburger and very little imagination. I grabbed an old cookbook that is literally losing it's cover and looked under the sandwich section. I found a possibility right away, it was a pizza type recipe that was very easy to put together. I know I'll make it again, it was pretty dag gone good.

Pizza Sandwich

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp pepper
optional toppings: red onion sliced very thin, red or green bell peppers thinly sliced, mushrooms, black olives, etc... whatever you like!
1 loaf of french bread
shredded mozzarella
cheddar cheese (optional)

Combine the cooked ground beef with the Parmesan cheese and tomato paste, then stir in seasonings.
Slice the french bread loaf into 1" to 1 1/2" pieces. If the bread is not very large slice it on a diagonal to get bigger pieces, you'll need 4-6 slices.
Divide the meat mixture evenly between the bread pieces, and spread it to the edge. Top with onion, red pepper and any other ingredients you would like.
Next sprinkle on a generous amount of mozzarella and top with a thin slice of cheddar cheese just to add some fun color down the middle of your sandwich.
Bake on a cookie sheet for 10 min @ 350 then broil it for about a minute to brown it slightly.

GO BIG RED

It was a wonderful weekend. We went to the Spring football game with 80,147 crazy fans, so with us there was 80,149 people there....a new record! A beautiful day, so beautiful in fact that today I am sporting a bright red forehead. I never used to sunburn, what in the world??? We tailgated before the game with James, Nick and Chris, you should have seen all of the smiles on all of the red people. It was fantastic!

Yesterday was also Nancy's birthday. Bill & Nancy are the biggest Husker fans I know, but they had a wedding to go to last night so they did not make it to the game. I stopped over today with Nancy's birthday card and a gift, it sounds like everyone had fun even though we didn't get to spend the day together.

I've been noticing that there are a lot of strawberries right now, and they are a great price at the grocery store. Here is a fun pretty dessert that you can whip up in a jiffy to impress your friends. Use a tall glass bowl to get the best visual effect.

BROWNIE EXTRAVAGANZA

2 1/2 Cups milk
2 (4oz) instant chocolate pudding
2 tubs cool whip (9oz?)
1 lb fresh strawberries
1 9x13 pan of baked brownies cooled and cubed

Mix the milk with both packages of pudding. Beat with whisk until blended and thick. Fold in only 1 tub of the cool whip. In a large glass bowl layer brownie cubes, pudding mixture, sliced strawberries and half of the remaining tub of cool whip. Repeat ending with cool whip. Garnish with strawberries. Cover and chill 30 min. before serving.

dum de dum dum...tax day

April 15th has a bad reputation....those blasted taxes need to be finished by today. I get a stomach ache just thinking about it, blagh. We had a little trouble with ours this year, had to file a correction on our daughters taxes, got our first e-file rejected because of the error on hers, waiting on the phone for the tax people to finally pick up and give you and answer, yada, yada, I love tax time.

Today was however a warmer day, about 70* I would say....and the wind pretty much matched that number in it's speed. Our brave dog would not go out for more than 2 minute intervals - she's scared of wind. Oh, and did I mention that we're out of milk??? I know that tomorrow will be a better day, at least it will be a different day.

If today were Friday (it's only Tuesday) I might possibly plan to wake up tomorrow morning and make this recipe to celebrate Saturday! But since it's not even close to the weekend, I'll just write about it. I really shouldn't complain because it's a 4 day work week for me, Friday off since we have our big family night extravaganza Thursday evening. Now that's something to be happy about!

BREAKFAST PIZZA

1 lb pork sausage or bacon
1 cup hash brown potatoes
5 eggs
1 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese
1 (8oz) pkg refrigerated crescent rolls
1 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Cook the meat until brown, drain. Separate dough into 8 triangles and arrange them on greased 12" pizza pan with points toward the center. Press over the bottom and up sides to form crust. Spoon meat over crust, sprinkle with potatoes and cheese. Beat together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper, pour over pizza. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake @ 375* for 25-30 min. You can make this in a 9x13 pan if you don't have a pizza pan.

Friday.....ahhhh!

At school today we had a very fun show and tell, four soft (and smelly) Labrador puppies that were yellow and chocolate colored. The other 5 brother pups had to stay home, that's right there were 9 pups and they are all male. SO cute. I think they were 6 weeks old. Maddie gave me a good sniff when I got home, she was wondering where I had been.

Mike and I had a lazy supper tonight to celebrate Friday. Hot wings, fresh pineapple, strawberries & grapes, some veggies and those new teenie tiny pringle chips in a bag. We ate dinner while watching a movie and now we're stifling yawns and feeling like the weekend has really arrived. Tomorrow brings more work on the tile in our shower, several loads of laundry, baking & just maybe a quick trip to Target to have coffee with my parents in the morning.

The weather today was cold and very windy. We could have gotten a lot of snow, but we dodged that bullet. Hooray! By the middle of the week the prediction is 60's I believe, now that's more like it.

Next week is our K-8 school family night musical. Mom's have been busy painting scenery, windows have been covered with blue paper to block out sun and make the gym look more like a water retreat. The children have been practicing their songs and choreography and are getting it down quite well. I love this event every year.

I realized today that I have only about 25 days of school left. There's so much I want to do with those children yet. I'm never very happy when the school year is over, I miss the conversation that you can only get from a 3-5 year old child. They are priceless, and precious and winsome.

I'm sending today's recipe out to Amber today. She is a friend of my daughter, and when she came to our house for the first time I made this cheese ball. Amber is not(self proclaimed) a picky eater, she liked most of this recipe. That's all I'll say :-)

CHOCOLATE CHIP CHEESE BALL

8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup butter - room temp
1/4 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp brown sugar
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and brown sugar gradually. Stir in the chocolate chips and refrigerate covered for a couple of hours. Place the chilled mixture in plastic wrap and shape into a ball. Roll the cheese ball in nuts (if desired) and serve with graham crackers or teddy grahams.

Poopie!

Today was a banner day for the 3 year old class. One of the requirements when they start school is that they are able to take care of "toilet" duties themselves. A few weeks ago one of the boys came back from the bathroom with a troubled and disturbed look on his face. He announced to me quite loudly that he had a 'skid mark' - having heard just the tail end of his comment I looked at him and said, "really?" and he proceeded with, "do you even know what that is???" I assured him I did know what it was and that I was sure his mom could take care of it when he got home.

Well, the same lad had difficulties in the bathroom this morning. This time it was more wide spread, and not in a good way. I called mom to bring him new clothes, and as we waited I told him that I thought his mom was a super hero...that she was coming to his rescue with new pants!! He laughed at my analogy, but certainly was happy to see her arrive. I can count my lucky stars that there have been few incidents this year like this. It sure makes for an interesting day.

I will say that the most amazing poop related memory that I have is a students who managed to poop in the urinal. He came back and told me that it wouldn't flush...it took me a while to figure out exactly what wouldn't flush. I still don't know how he made it up into that urinal, it's terribly high on the wall!

How does one segue from poop to food? I don't think there is an easy transition, so I'm just going to jump right into my recipe for the day. I'm not doing chocolate for obvious reasons, although this recipe title could have your imagination running away with you.
Hope you have a good one!

Salted Nut Roll

1 16-oz jar roasted peanuts, divided
2 Tbsp. butter
1 10-oz bag mini marshmallows
12 oz peanut butter chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Grease a 9x13 pan, sprinkle half of the nuts in the bottom of the pan. Melt the butter and peanut butter chips together in the microwave, then stir in the sweetened condensed milk. Add the marshmallows stirring to coat. You don't want them to melt, they should have some chunk to them. Pour this over the nuts in the pan and top with the remaining peanuts. Press down gently and refrigerate to set.

Strawberry Sunday

My girlfriends just left after almost 3 hours of fun. We ate some snacks, had Bible study, ate some more and laughed intermittently throughout the entire event. I always enjoy making snacks for these girls, they are very appreciative! Kristin requested my chicken tortilla dip that I posted Jan. 27th, so of course I made that. I experimented with some bread sticks that I stuffed with mozzarella cheese before baking, and then I had strawberry shortcake to end it all!

I have to tell you that the big success of the day was my strawberry lemonade. I watched the girl at Red Robin (restaurant) make this beverage last week when we went to Sioux City, it looked delicious so I had it on my mind all week. Here is how I made it, and I think the others will be making this recipe very soon!

Strawberry Lemonade

1 12-oz frozen lemonade
4 1/2 cups water
1 10-oz frozen strawberry, partially thawed

Combine all and serve immediately over ice. Yum!

I only bought enough ingredients to make one batch, I should have doubled it. There were only 5 of us, and it was gone in a flash. I'll have back up next time! I think you could easily double the lemonade and water, but use the same amount of strawberries. The girls thought I had bought pink lemonade, but no.....the strawberries turn it a beautiful rosy color.

April snow brings May _______ ?

How DO you fill in a blank like that? This morning while I was in school it was snowing! For crying out loud, it's April 2nd! April snow brings May.....woe?

As I was looking for an emergency contact numbers paper for our first aid kits we made today, I ran across a recipe that a preschool mom gave me a couple of years ago. This is a crazy easy soup that I'll admit I probably looked at and thought, "Hmm how good can this really be?" It was surprisingly good, and extremely fast. You can always jazz it up with herbs & seasonings if you want to kick it up. What a great emergency meal to have on hand for a day when you just don't have the energy to do more than open a can!

7 CAN SOUP

1 can tomato soup
1 can vegetable beef soup
1 can rotel tomatoes with chili's
1 can veg all vegetables
1 can kidney beans (or red beans)
1 can corn
1 can chili without beans

Open all of the cans (do not drain) and pour into a sauce pan. Cook for 20 minutes and serve!