Rooting for our teams!

It's no secret that Rick and I love our alma maters, Texas Tech & University of Texas.  We also want Spencer to love them! :)  What I love more than anything is that Rick and I aren't out of control crazy with our love for our teams (i.e. badmouthing, acting ridiculous, etc.)  Rick wants Tech to win all of their games except when they play UT and I want UT to win all of their games except when they play Tech.  It's so much fun in our house and I'm so fortunate to have the most wonderful husband and son to share it all with.  Rick and I cannot wait to take Spencer to Tech and UT sporting events!  Sooooo fun!!

Go Tech!!

Go UT!!!

Orange Sherbet

We wanted something different this weekend and I remembered I used to make a lime sherbet in our ice cream maker that we just loved.  So we were off to do that and I couldn't find the recipe.  Rick started searching online and ran into this recipe by Alton Brown.  First let me say that Alton Brown is Rick's hero! HA!  He makes the most delicious stuff, but I can only handle him in small doses.  This recipe WILL NOT disappoint and it's way easy. 

This is our ice cream maker and if you have something similar, this recipe will work perfect.  If you have something larger or smaller, you can tweak it pretty easy.

Ingredients
7 ounces sugar (little more than 3/4 of a cup)
1 1/2 tablespoons finely grated orange zest
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice, approximately 2 to 3 pounds oranges (I used Simply Orange juice)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups very cold whole milk

Directions
In the bowl of a food processor combine all of the ingredients except the milk and process until the sugar is dissolved, approximately 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and whisk in the milk. Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator until the mixture reaches 40 degrees F or below, approximately 1 hour.

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and process until it is the consistency of soft serve ice cream. You may serve now or transfer to a lidded container and place in freezer until firm, approximately 3 hours.

I {heart} blogs!

My love for blogs is an understatement.  I love my blogs that I have listed to the right and i can't wait to check them 4,000 times throughout the day because there is so much fun stuff on them.  The crafting ones are my favorite.  The ideas people have are so awesome and it gives me some inspiration to do some of it too.  I also love the writers of these blogs that actually have etsy shops or just shops on their own website.  Two of my favorites are The Pleated Poppy and Amy Cornwell Designs.  I look at the stuff these gals make and sell and I just can't peel my eyes away. 

I've been planning on putting in a order at The Pleated Poppy (check out her blog button on the right & also check out her shop) for awhile now and just couldn't decide what I really wanted.  Well, I entered one of her give aways for a $75 credit to her shop and guess who won???  Yep!  That would be me.  My name was drawn from about 200-300 people!  Check out the greatness that I got from her shop (all photos taken from her shop page):

Sunglasses holder



Composition notebook cover



Checkbook holder



Zipper pouch for my purse that will house all of Spencer's junk!

You have to go over to her site to at least check out her stuff.  It's soooooo cute and I can't wait for her to get some more petal drop necklaces!!

Then, the next day I'm checking my blogs (as usual) and Amy Cornwell's birthday is that day and she turned 31, so she was giving a 31% discount on EVERYTHING!  I quickly got to ordering and my order has already shipped.  I'm hoping my order will be here today.  I'll take pictures of it and post. 

Again, PLEASE check out these two ladies.  They are wonderful!!

Peach Crisp

I have been a complete slacker on the recipe of the week.  I've tried quite a few new ones, but none really worthy of posting UNTIL THIS!

Rick saw a Barefoot Contessa episode one day last week during lunch.  She was making this recipe.  We had just made a recipe the weekend before using apples and Rick doesn't like pears, so he suggested we go the peach route.  Sooooo, I just substituted 5 lbs of peaches for the pears and apples and OH MY GOODNESS this was to die for and really easy!  The only time consuming part was peeling peaches and pitting them, but that didn't even take that long.  What made it even better is that the peaches were on sale for $0.98/pound!  Yipeeee! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

2 pounds ripe Bosc pears (4 pears)
2 pounds firm Macoun apples (6 apples)
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg


For the topping:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Peel, core, and cut the pears and apples into large chunks. Place the fruit in a large bowl and add the zests, juices, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour into a 9 by 12 by 2-inch oval baking dish. (I used a 9 x 12 baking dish that worked perfectly!)

For the topping:

Combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal, and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for 1 minute, until the mixture is in large crumbles. Sprinkle evenly over the fruit, covering the fruit completely.  (I didn't want to get out our Kitchen Aid mixer, so I put all of this in the food processor and pulsed until the butter was mixed and it worked great!)

Place the baking dish on a sheet pan and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the top is brown and the fruit is bubbly. Serve warm.

Let me know if you try it!  Happy Wednesday!

Melts my heart...

Rick calls me over to look at Spencer while he's rocking him yesterday and I see the picture to the right.  Why did Rick call me over to just look at him??  Well, his sonogram on the left speaks volumes as to why Rick called me over.  What a sweet blessing!

Labor Day (tad bit late!)

I have been meaning to get this post up all week, but school is about to do me in! 

We had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and finished it off with Dad and Dana coming over for steaks, grilled corn, baked potatoes, homemade Brown Betty and oh, don't forget...good beer!

Spencer had so much fun with Gram and PaPaw!  They played and played in the yard with him.  Needless to say, we had to wake him up Tuesday morning to get him up to get ready to go to school.  Spencer had PaPaw in his room doing everything he could imagine.  I really wish I could've gotten a picture of that, but every time anyone would come in there, Spencer would push us out and slam the door.  What a toot!

Spencer kept saying he was serving PaPaw "cake" (blocks)

BlackBerry pics

Recent pictures taken with my phone that I haven't posted...

Riding the lawn mower at Lowe's

Big brother Zach

Lovin' Doritos!

Daddy makes the best pillow!

Sitting the chair all by myself for the first time while getting a haircut!

Silly!

Bugs!!

To say Spencer loves bugs is an understatement.  He can spot a bug a mile away and is not afraid one bit.  He was pretty upset with us yesterday that we didn't let him touch and pick up red ants at the park!  Last night, Zach found a cricket in our yard and called Spencer over.  Oh gosh...we're talking entertainment like none other!  Spencer let it crawl all over him and kept insisting Zach put it back on his leg or hand whenever it would try to escape.  It finally got away and Spencer was not happy.  Poor cricket...

*Side note - Check out how green that grass is!!  Yes, that's OUR yard!!  Love it!

The Week in Photos

The week has come and gone (thank goodness) and now it's on to the weekend...a 3 day weekend to boot!!!

This week...

*We are now on week two of living and dying by this thing

How nice it is to come home and your dinner is already cooked!  We've done chicken & pork chops, both w/carrots, onions, red potatoes and celery.  We've also done baked potatoes.

*We enrolled Spencer in the Stretch-n-Grow program at his school on Thursday.  All kids got to go last week and this is the picture we got back of Spencer showing them his muscles.  It is scanned, not digital so that's why it's not very clear.

*I've drank my weight in these this week...(and happen to be drinking one now)...

*Rick and I have not gotten enough...

...because Mr. Spencer has been getting in the middle of the night for NO apparent reason and we're talking EVERY night this week.

*Rick and I have been enjoying our time at nights watching this...

...so HILARIOUS!

*Taught my first Bio Chem class and it went pretty well. 

I haven't had Biology in about 12 years.  Please continue to say prayers.  Oh yes & I AM certified to teach Biology, just been in middle school land for 10 years!  And my least favorite part of science is CHEMISTRY...bleh.

Cannot wait for our LOOOOOOONG weekend!  Hope you have a great one!

Fun Afternoon

This past Saturday, we went out to Dad and Dana's for a fun visit.  Bill and Susan aka GiGi and Gramps (Dana's mom and step dad) were in town and we were so thrilled to get to see them.  We don't get to see them enough and any time we can is always a good time. 

Spencer had a ball!  He rode the lawn mower with Daddy, 4-wheeler with PaPaw and the tricycle (which he calls a bicycle).  Of course we had to see all the cows (which are still a little too big for Spencer's liking).  Dana got some great pictures of the afternoon!

Swinging with PaPaw!

Cruisin' with Dad!

Spencer & PaPaw...absolutely precious!