Showing posts with label dinner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dinner. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

It's a Spiegel Crock Pot!

(Bonus points if you got the title of this post)

The rest of my week is going to be crazy. I'm running here and there and I'm working on top of everything else. Weeks like this I like to pull out my crock pot and let someone else do the cooking for me. To that end, this morning I was Googling some chicken recipes and came across a fantastic site. It's called "That's My Home" and besides having sections on conversions and substitutions, they have a big section of recipes. Tonight we're going to have Crock Pot Chicken Italian and Potatoes. I'll let you know how it goes.

Crock Pot Italian Chicken and Potatoes
  • 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

  • 1 C. Italian salad dressing

  • 2 t. Italian seasoning

  • 1 C. grated parmesan cheese
5 to 6 potatoes; peeled, cut into wedges

Place chicken in bottom of crock pot. Sprinkle with half Italian dressing, spices, and the grated cheese. Place potatoes over chicken. Sprinkle with remaining ingredients.

Cover; cook on low 6-8 hours.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Murder Anyone?

Steve and I have hosted numerous Murder Mystery Parties over the years - usually about one every other year - but it's been probably close to three or more years since our last one. Recently one of our regular party invitees was asking me when we'd be having another and has put me in the mood for murder.

I think I've officially talked Steve into refinishing our living room and dining room floors and once that's done Ed will deliver our new dining room furniture and once that's done.... someone will die.

I'm thinking of buying this murder: Honky Tonk Homicide

A “Texas Style” MURDER MYSTERY DINNER GAME

You lucky redneck! You are about to play a “Texas Style” murder mystery dinner party game!

It is “last call” for someone at Bubba’s Bar in Cactus, Texas… A nasty murder investigation sure can disrupt Karaoke Night, especially when everyone in town is a suspect. The residents of the Cactus Court Trailer Park must find the murderer among them. For a small Texas town, Cactus has plenty of dirty secrets, double lives, torrid affairs and alien abductions!

This is a one of a kind party your friends won’t forget! Treat your guests to our fabulous Trailer Park and Texas Favorites recipes! Find out who picks up the tab for this Honky Tonk Homicide!

THE SUSPECTS:

SHERIFF SISSY WESSON –She is as beautiful as she is treacherous.

CARNEY FOLK-A sleazy carnival worker just passing through town.

ROWDY LAWLESS-A member of the feared “Angels of Hades” biker gang.

REVERREND JIM BOB ETERNITY-A fire and brimstone TV preacher.

MARY KAY ETERNITY-Reverend Jim Bob’s wife and TV sidekick.

DUSTY DIAMOND-A hometown boy who dreams of musical stardom

TWYLA FLEETWOOD- Bingo addict and owner of the Cactus Court Trailer Park.

CRYSTALLINE DANIELS-A barmaid at “Bubba’s Bar” and the town tramp.

EXTRA GUESTS/NON-SUSPECTS:

VIRGIL ROSWELL-An oilfield worker and alien abductee.

HENNA BOUFFANT-Beauty shop owner and the town gossip hound.

The last time I had a party my friend Md was a lady of the evening. When I told her I was thinking about another party she said she was game but I had to promise not to make her the prostitute this time. I made myself laugh out loud thinking about her reaction to being given the part of "Crystalline Daniels."

Now I have to start thinking about the menu. I was leaning toward BBQ but I'd either have to buy it pre-packaged or I'd have to find a restaurant that would make it as take-out because I was reading a blog about making BBQ from scratch and there's no way I'd ever have the patience to do all that. I'm waaaaaay too lazy. Although now that I'm typing this it popped in my head that we have a Smokey Bones close by. I'll bet they have a curb-side take-out thing going on. Or I could do Tex-Mex. That gives me more options for having courses. And I happen to know from first hand experience that my BIL has a great recipe for Rice n'Beans.

I'm going to have to borrow some country music cds from my in laws. Maybe get a red checkered table cloth. Hmmm. Lots to think about. I love this part of the party planning. The hardest part will be limiting my guest list to four other couples. *sigh*

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Holiday Party

Here's another thing I can share with you now that we know that Steve will be staying with his current employer... This year marks his tenth year of employment. The HR director called me a month ago and asked me what Steve would like for his ten-year gift. She gave me a dollar amount and told me it was supposed to be a surprise. Well there's no way I'm going to pick out his ten-year gift without his input so together we decided on a cantered hutch for our dining room made by our friends, the D's. They own a furniture store in a nearby town. We helped them in very little ways when they got started several years ago as friends are wont to do. Ed has said that he'd like to give us a dining room set as a thank you but Steve and I were never really very comfortable accepting such a lavish gift. As it turns out when we ordered the cantered hutch, Ed happened to have a return on a table. He is insistent that we accept the table and four chairs (we'll have to order a couple more to fit our family) and he's finishing my cantered hutch to match the table and chairs. So in a round-about way we're getting a whole brand-new dining room set! Now I'm trying to talk Steve into restoring our floors while all the furniture is out. At the very least I've talked him into redecorating the downstairs rooms.

What does all this have to do with the Holiday Party? Well that's when they'll present Steve with his "surprise." It's a fun party with good food and a DJ and I get all dolled up. Unfortunately we didn't know what his employment status was going to be so I did agree to work the weekend of the party but I'm going to see if I can get that night off and if not we'll at least go for the dinner part. He doesn't really like to dance anyway.

I did get a dress today. Steve drove so he could give me his opinion and I took four dresses with me into the dressing room. The first one I tried on was acceptable but not fantastic. The second dress, he wasn't crazy about the stuff at the bottom but when I put on the third and stepped out of the dressing room his eyes lit up. He really liked the third dress and when I said I was going to try on the fourth he said, "Don't bother." It's nice to be able to make your husband's eyes light up like that.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Happy Thirteen Years

Today is our anniversary! We didn't do much since I slept all day but Steve did surprise me by bringing home a Dairy Queen Blizzard Cake for after dinner. While we were sitting around the dining room table I asked the kids to say why they were glad that Steve and I got married thirteen years ago. Here are their responses:

G: Because of the kindness. You don't make us sleep in boxes or anything like that.

E: Because you got married before Christmas.
Me: E, we got married after Christmas.
E: Oh

Ty: Because I'm alive.

S3: Because I got my good looks from Mom and Dad.

Friday, January 05, 2007

This Child Is So Hard To Parent

We were sitting around the dinner table tonight and G would not keep her feet off of Ty's chair or his person. Finally after about the tenth time of asking G to get her feet off he announced, "Hmm, I have a little something coming," then he tilted to the side and FARTED on his sister.

I so wanted to be mad.

At least his father had the presence of mind to say that it was only funny the first time.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Carded

I have "Please ask for Photo ID" on the back of my credit card to help prevent from theft. Most people in the store don't even ask but it gives me some false sense of security. Recently we went out to dinner with some friends and I paid the bill with my card. The waiter came back to my table and asked to see my photo id. I have never, ever, ever had a restaurant ask for my photo ID and I thought it was kinda funny.

So as I hand my ID over to him I joke, "Hey you didn't even ask me for my ID when I ordered wine."

His reply, "Oh you're obviously not 21."

Ha. There goes your tip.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Phew!

Wow, I suddenly and surprisingly became very busy these last few days. It's amazing how these things pop up so quickly. Tuesday was the last day I posted. Wednesday morning I drove to KOP to meet a friend who had flown in from Ohio for a business meeting. She and I had breakfast at the Corner Bakery (and I burned the stink out of my tongue!) but wow was it expensive! On the way home I stopped at a couple of stores including the grocery store to pick up a few things I'd been needing when my phone rang. Nancy, the scheduler at work had a call off and asked me to pick up that night.

When Steve is gone typically I don't like to work. It's just hard on me and the kids to schlepp all our things for bed and school and etc all the way to someone else's house and then all the way back home the next morning, not to mention the imposition on that person. Four kids tends to make a large crowd but it comes down to money doesn't it? When I am called in at the last minute like that I am paid extra for the inconvenience. So I figured if my parents were available to babysit I'd do it and if they weren't then that was a good reason to say no. They were ready, willing and able so I agreed to pick up even though I'd been up since 5:00 AM to be able to get to KOP and my friend that morning. It was a looooong night, let me tell you. I have some stories about work I could tell, oh my!

Anyway after all that it took me most of the day Thursday just to recover. I think I could have slept for the rest of the week, I was that tired. We had the craziest dinner Thursday night because I didn't have the energy to plan anything so the kids ended up eating BBQ chicken wings with garlic bread.

So here it is, TGIFriday. Steve is home but he and S3 are going to a 76ers game tonight with some friends. Saturday T has a candy making party for his Sunday school class and then a pool party for a kid on his soccer team. G is going to Lancaster for a Build-A-Bear party. I promised S3 I'd take him to GameStop to trade in some PS2 games and then after that I think I can breathe again.

Phew!