Hey, Ya'll, it's appetizers Part 2

This has nothing to do with the recipe that follows. I just like my Christmas mug. I sip warm apple cider from it while I cook. Good times.

This recipe is for Tomato Tarts. Again, super easy...VERY tasty! Here's the recipe:

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry

olive oil

1/2 cup grated white cheddar cheese (couldn't find this in my podunk town, so I used mozzerella)

4-5 plum tomatoes sliced 1/4 inch thick

salt and pepper

fresh thyme

parmesan cheese

preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil or cooking spray. Allow puff pastry to thaw for 20 mins. Unfold the pastry and use a 1 1/2 or 2 inch biscuit cutter, cut rounds out of dough. Place the rounds on the baking sheet. Prick the surface of the rounds with a fork (I forgot this step in my first batch...huge mistake!) Brush each round lightly with olive oil and top with white cheddar (or mozz in my case), then with a tomato slice, then sprinkle with a pinch of thyme and a little parm cheese. Bake for about 15 minutes. Let cool for 2-3 mins before serving.

Here's what my prep looked like. Can you believe with all the cooking I do, that I dont have a biscuit cutter?? I do, however, have this muppets glass that I've had since I was a kid. It's always been my biscuit cutter. Cute, huh?

This is what these yummy babies look like when they are ready to go in the oven.

And here's the finished product. Even my neighbor (who doesn't eat tomatoes) gladly picked the tomato off just to eat the puff pastry. It's THAT good, folks.

The husband is already begging for more.

Hey, Ya'll, it's appetizers! Part 1

Last year, the husband gave me the Christmas with Paula Deen book for Christmas. I took it off the shelf this year and tried out two of her appetizers in the "Christmas Open House" section.

This recipe is called Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms, and it's seriously easy to make. Here's the recipe:

24 fresh mushrooms (stems removed)

one 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach

2 ounces of cream cheese, softened

4 ounces of feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup of finely chopped green onion (white and green part)

salt

parmesan cheese

Wipe the caps of the mushrooms with a damp cloth. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Drain the spinach in a collander and squeeze out as much moisture as possible.

In a medium bowl, combine the spinach, cream cheese, feta, green onions, and salt to tast. Mix well. Fill the mushroom caps with the mixture and place on a cooke sheet. Sprinke the parmesan cheese on top.

Bake 15-20 mins until golden. Serve warm.

This is what they look like assembled and ready to pop in the oven.


And although the pic isn't great, this is what they look like out of the oven. However, you want get to see them for long. They go fast. Trust me. Go ahead and double the recipe.

Santa Paws Came to Town!

Santa Paws turned a blind eye to the raw hide candy cane fights and the digs in the bathroom trash can, and he left these two girls lots of Christmas loot!

They were very excited to learn they weren't on the naughty list!
They even decided to kiss and make up for fighting over the candy cane last night. Sisterly love. :)
The heated bed is going to be a big hit (we can already tell).
So, I think we will return the heated pad and get a second heated bed instead. When you're pups are 9 and 12 years old, they have certain needs. Warmth is one of those needs as it the lack of aching joints. An upclose of my schnauzer, Jewel. The most perfect creature ever (even if she does get into the bathroom trash can from time to to time).
Sweet Wookie in her cupcake sweater. Be still, my heart!

Chicken Spaghetti by Pioneer Woman

I love the Pioneer Woman's blog. For Christmas Eve dinner I made her Chicken Spaghettie recipe. This is the second time I've made it, and it's quite YUM.
Ingredients
2 cups Cooked Chicken
3 cups Dry Spaghetti, Broken Into Two Inch Pieces
2 cans Cream Of Mushroom Soup
2 cups Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
¼ cups Finely Diced Green Pepper
¼ cups Finely Diced Onion
1 jar (4 Ounce) Diced Pimentos, Drained
2 cups Reserved Chicken Broth From Pot
1 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt
⅛ teaspoons (to 1/4 Teaspoon) Cayenne Pepper
Salt And Pepper (to Taste)
1 cup Additional Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Preparation Instructions
Cook 1 cut up fryer and pick out the meat to make two cups. Cook spaghetti in same chicken broth until al dente. Do not overcook. When spaghetti is cooked, combine with remaining ingredients except additional 1 cup sharp cheddar.
Place mixture in casserole pan and top with remaining sharp cheddar. Cover and freeze up to six months, cover and refrigerate up to two days, or bake immediately: 350 degrees for 45 minutes until bubbly. (If the cheese on top starts to get too cooked, cover with foil).

These are the directions straight from The Pioneer Woman's website, and here's a linky to her blog http://thepioneerwoman.com/

Christmas Eve 2009

Stockings are still my favorite part of Christmas. These are our stockings that I got for us last year.

Presents are good too!
Our tree. I worked hard to figured out how to take a picture of a lighted tree. I love the result.

That's all for now! Tomorrow I will post pictures of the yummy recipes I made today.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

wow, so its been a while

But I have an awesome excuse! We've been moving, plus working, plus photography....so yeah, a little overwhelmed! I didn't even change my background to something for the Christmas season. Oh well, I did quickly change the banner...hey, it counts.

We are in our new old house. Funny thing, our new old house isn't as old as the OLD house. Ok, just forget all of that. Bottom line, we are HOME. I love this little house and we are SO much happier here. We still have much to do to get our thing out of the other house, but that will come in the next few weeks.

My foot is in HORRIBLE shape. I get my brace on Monday. I'm really hoping that it helps and alleviates some (all) of the pain.

I hope everyone is ready for Christmas! I have just a few things left to wrap. We have a couple of Christmas party invites and a New Years trip with friends that we are looking forward to.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Well, I've now been to the Hattiesburg Zoo!

And thats about all I can say! Literally, it took 30 minutes to see the whole zoo. It was only $2 to get in, but you know what? It's nice that Hattiesburg has a zoo (small though it be) for little ones to enjoy. I was able to take a few pictures while I was there. I haven't used my old EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 lens on my Canon 50D until this day. I came to ONE conclusion...it's a piece of junk lens! I'll be holding out for the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L !!!

Pup in a Basket

Just wanted to share two pictures of Wookie that I did tonight. I'm playing with fabric as backdrops and my external flash. She is such a patient little model! White dogs are HARD to photograph without blowing areas of their bodies. Oh well, did my best. She is still SUPER cute to me :)

I'm in love with PSE actions!

I've been trying so hard to learn photoshop elements. It's NOT an easy to learn program. I am absolutely fallen in love with actions, and spent a good bit of time installing some tonight. Here is a pic I took today. It's unedited, SOOC (straight out of camera).

Here it is with the "moody pop" action.

Here it is with the "hazy days" action.

"Vintage News" LOVE this one!

"Vintage Honey"

All of the actions shown on my blog came from one of these two sites. If you're into this kind of thing, check 'em out!

http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com/

http://www.jessicabellphotography.com/designs/

2 pics 2 pups

Nothing much today. Just wanted to share two pictures I took of my "girls." I'm totally out of automatic mode and I'm not going to look back. PSE is also kicking my butt, however I know I will be better for it! So much to learn...it's overwhelming!

Anna E visits!

Anna Elizabeth came for a visit on Saturday. She was supposed to have her 3 month pictures done by her photographer, but the weather didn't want to cooperate. Later on, the sun came out so we took a few pictures here. Anna was not in the mood for all that. The only grin we got out of her was when Mommy did "flying baby." Apparently, it can't be resisted!

This is my favorite from the day. She looks so serious in this photo. I played around in PSE (still so much to learn) with an action that I downloaded. I just love the result!

Such a Daddy's girl :)

Poor Jew Jew Beans!

My sweet Schnauzer, Jewel, had to have surgery last week. If you have a schnauzer, you may have been through this already as it appears to be a common ailment with the breed. Last Friday, my husband took her outside for a potty break and noticed two small stones fall from her urine. He couldn't decide if they came out of her, or if she had picked them up when she stopped in the driveway to scratch and they fell off while she urinated.

To be on the safe side, he collected the stones and took them to the vet on Monday. The vet said that they looked like other stones she had seen dogs pass. She did an xray on Jewel and saw about a dozen stones in her bladder-one the size of a silver dollar!

Our vet arranged for surgery on Wednesday. For the rest of that Monday and Tuesday, I was in a total panic. My schnauzer is no spring chicken. As a matter of fact, she was turning 12 that Thursday. I hated the idea of her being put under anethesia, but I knew she was uncomfortable. She would make a potty but continue squatting like she still had to go. She had also had a couple of accidents inside, which she NEVER does!

So, poor Butters (yes, she has a gazillion nicknames) goes in for surgery Wednesday morning.

It actually didn't take them long to complete the surgery. This is our old girl on some pretty darn good drugs when we picked her up.

Poor baby had drooled on herself....LOL!

It turned out that she had nearly 100 stones in her bladder! This is what they looked like! These were not coming from her kidneys, they were being formed in the bladder. So, they will be sent off for analyzing, and we can determine what kind of preventative diet to put her on.

Dr. Loper is such a great vet!

My sweet girl, home and resting.

A Few More Layouts

Loving the KI Memories Flouish collection as well as October Afternoon's Ducks in a Row. What a sweet collection for baby pictures! I've thrown a Basic Grey layout in for good measure. :) It's hard for me to resist BG!

American Crafts and Fancy Pants

A couple more layouts using American Crafts and Fancy Pants products. Combine these two with Basic Grey and you probably have my top three favorite companies. Thanks for looking :)