Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo

Last weekend, we went to the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. Now, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've lived in Texas for over 5 years and Fort Worth for 2 1/2 years and this was my first time to go. But - I'm a little less embarrassed because Jeremy has lived here his entire life and has never been.

To sum it up in one sentence: we had a blast.

Jeremy's youngest sister, Olivia, came to Fort Worth for the first time and went with us. We didn't get the full experience because it was freezing, but I'm pretty sure the only stuff they have outside are the rides, and we weren't that interested in those.

The first area we walked through was the shopping building where everyone has their different booths and gives away pens or tries to sell you stuff. Jacob spotted the John Deere within about .04 seconds. Two things Jacob loves: diggers and John Deere.

He was in heaven.

Once we got through that building, we had some lunch (I had a corn dog because I always have corn dogs at fair-type events) and then ventured through all of the livestock. I took random pictures of the pretty cows and strange looking brahmans and what not, but I figure I won't bore you.

Between two of the buildings, what did we find? More John Deere! This kid cracks me up.
He even found a cow that he could pet.
All four of us had an absolute blast. We walked around discussing how much we would love to have a ranch, what we would name it, how it would work, etc.

It's one of Jeremy's and mine goals. That would be the life, if you ask us.

So, if you live in the area, or are in the are between now and February 5th, check out the Stock Show. It's a fun time for all.

Also, with your admission, you get free admission to various museums in Fort Worth. We're going to be taking Jacob to the Museum of Science and History this weekend, which we're all pretty excited about.

Poppy Seed Chicken

Do try this at home; you'll thank me later.

The credit for this tasty dish goes to my aunt, Jill. This is my favorite dish she's ever made and, here recently, I've begun to make it myself.

It's easy. There's not a whole lot of prep work. And, it's delicious.

You start with four chicken breasts. Season to taste (which, as an OCD person who needs strict instructions and ingredients, I don't know how to do, so the boy usually helps me here... or I just sprinkle some salt & pepper). Cook at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
While the chicken is cooking, I get together my other ingredients...

In one bowl, combine 2 sleeves of Ritz cracks (smashed) and a melted stick of butter.In another bowl, combine a can of cream of chicken, 8 oz. sour cream and 2 tablespoons poppy seeds. (I forgot to take a picture of this.)

Once the chicken is cooked, chop it up.And throw it in the cream of chicken mixture.

Then, in a 9x13, coat the bottom of the pan with 1/2 of the Ritz combination. Pour the entire chicken mix on top of that. Spread the rest of the Ritz on the top.Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes & enjoy...
Thanks Jill for one of my all-time favorite dishes!

Some More Cookie Decorating

So, if you'll remember my first post about cookie decorating, and look very closely at them, you'll notice they're not very cute. They're quite juvenile. I wanted mine to be cuter, like the ones the other blogs I've read - or like the ones my aunt, Jill, decorates. You see, my earliest memories of both Jill and decorating sugar cookies go hand-in-hand, as we'd decorate cookies together quite often (at least, that's how I remember it.) So, I decided to teach myself how to decorate cookies a little less juvenile than before.

I changed sugar cookie recipe to one that Terry (step-grandma) gave me. Use your favorite sugar cookie recipe to work with. The ones I made before were good, but these were so easy to work with, which was great for cutting with cookie cutters.

Because Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I chose hearts. I made TONS of small hearts because I knew I'd be experimenting...

P.S. These pictures are from two separate days of decorating, which is why the colors and what not are different.

Once the cookies were baked, I needed to make my icing. I read on Bake at 350 about Royal Icing... but something about it seemed very intimidating to me.

Fortunately for me, Terry also sent me an icing recipe, with permission to share...

3 egg whites (Making this recipe, I finally learned to separate eggs... yes!)

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon clear vanilla

Throw them in your mixer and mix at medium-high for 10 minutes. While working, spoon out what you need at any given point and put a damp towel over the rest so it doesn't dry up.

This was my first attempt... FAIL! (I'm going to use the word "fail" more often in my blogs because that's the only time I got comments.)

See, to fill in the cookies, I learned you need to "flood" the icing. It took me a few tries to get this right and it's going to take lots more practice. But, I used Terry's recipe, Pioneer Woman's blog about getting the flood consistency right & this video from sweetopia to finally figure it out. Teaching yourself at it's finest, folks... thank goodness for the internet!

Now that I finally I had it figured out, I'd outline the cookies with the icing as is (not flooded).

Then, fill them in with the flooded icing... yay! This is what it's supposed to do!

Then, I toyed with the toothpick designs...

And made all of these...

(The boy took the icing from me and made this one. Ain't he sweet?!)

On my second decorating day, I made these pink and purple cookies...

And these, which are supposed to be like the Valentine's candy hearts. But, when the boys are around, never fear they won't want to join me...

And, per usual, get silly...

So, that's my experience so far. I have lots to learn, but I'm proud of what I've accomplished thus far on my own. One of the main things I have learned is to use the disposable pastry bags. If you'll see from the pink/white batch, I'm using containers... it was just too difficult to guess when the icing would come out, when you'd get an air bubble, etc. Also, the bags can be thrown away and the containers were nearly impossible to get clean. I got the 100-pack of bags for $20 and used a 40% off coupon from their web site. Also, on the pink/purple batch, I'm using the Americolor food coloring that nearly every blog suggests, which I found at Hobby Lobby.

Happy decorating!

Homemade Bread

I'm not even going to try to be humble here, because I am really proud of myself for this one.

I hadn't used yeast again since making crescent rolls a while back and wanted to get more familiar with using it. I didn't need more crescent rolls quite yet, so I went looking through my Baker's Illustrated book, put on my big girl panties and went shopping for ingredients.

That's right, I'd be making "American Sandwich Bread."

I don't have the recipe at the moment (let me know if you'd like it), but it was super easy. The book's goal was to have a loaf done in less than two hours including baking time. It took me a little bit longer, but it was my first time and I bet my time will go down as I get more experience.

The recipe was much easier than I expected it to be. Call me ignorant, but I wasn't even sure you could make bread at home without a bread maker. Boy was I wrong! Baker's Illustrated strongly discouraged bread makers saying the crust is, at best, mediocre from them.

Also, my book recommended using a stand mixer, which was also a plus for me. They discouraged hand kneading saying that people tend to add too much flour when they do.

In essence, I through everything together, kneaded it, let it rise, put it in the pan, let it rise and cooked it. The yeast was much better to work with now that I have a handy thermometer and boy could I tell the difference!

It. Was. DELICIOUS.
We happened to have some people over the night I did it, so everyone tried it and loved it.So far, we've used it for grilled cheeses and cinnamon toast (which I'll be blogging about soon) and it was absolutely fantastic both times. It can also be frozen for a few months, which is always a plus.

Kitchen Organization

Alrighty, I'm here to present to you this week's big project: organizing the kitchen.

Before you read further, I'm going to kindly ask you not to judge. I was lost in a messy and unorganized kitchen and I couldn't find my way out. The "before" images you're about to see are not pretty - they are shameful. :) I will even tell you that, during this process, an item or two was discovered that I did not know I owned.

Anyway, this is how it all went down...

This all began with a trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond and then The Container Store in search of magnetic hooks. Most of the reason for the space issues in one of my drawers was because of my many sets of measuring cups. But, I will argue that I need that many sets. Anyway... that's all I was planning to get, but I ended up at The Container Store in all its glory and a big ol' project was brought to life. It only took two evenings, and only took that long because I didn't have a plan going into it. The entire plan was formed at The Container Store without any measurements of my pantry or drawers. Once I got the first load home and started placing things, I had some things I needed to exchange for others, etc.

I went back the next day with my list, got everything I needed and finished it up that night.

We'll start with drawer one, the silverware drawer. First of all, it was pink. I got it when I first moved out on my own. As you can see, it just wasn't working.

Check out this beauty.... everything has a place! I like to keep the smaller spoons and forks closest to the front for easy access for Jacob as well as those are the utensils I usually prefer myself. For the right side, I couldn't decide between the few knifes that aren't on the knife block and the serving utensils... as my friend, Leslie (Better Together), pointed out, serving utensils were best since Jacob gets in this drawer pretty often.

One more picture after I found these adorable corn on the cob holders...

Drawer number two... pretty shameful. In fact, if you look through some of my pictures in other places on the blog (and maybe some that haven't been posted yet), you'll see that this drawer is generally open. Why? Because it couldn't close. Bad, I know...

A disaster!
Ugh.
And look at this! "New" items found & so pretty!
Oooooh. Aaaaah.
Drawer number three, the worst part. Why? Because I only have three drawers in my tiny kitchen and I wasn't even utilizing this one. This drawer had become my "junk drawer," the catch all for all of the stuff I didn't want to find another place for: instruction manuals, sandwich bags, batteries, etc. So wasteful of precious space!
But now! Drawer number two can close because we have an entire new drawer. Check out its organized beauty.
It's kind of my "baking" utensil drawer. And I love the little square full of tooth picks - keeping them handy is super helpful.
Lastly, we've got the pantry. It was a disaster.


But, with the help of some Elfa from The Container Store, it's now super organized. Elfa is a little on the pricey side, but I made the small investment because 1. it's on sale (30% off) right now and 2. it's so great. It can be moved so easily to my next place and utilized anywhere if I have tons of kitchen space (which I'm hoping for) and personalized any way I want it. Amazing!

The entire pantry is so much better now.

So that is my wonderful, "new" kitchen. All of the drawer organizers are the Rubbermaid ones that kind of latch together. They range in price from $1-2.50. The pantry was redone with Elfa from The Container Store. I got the 78" rod with five narrow shallow baskets and two narrow deep baskets. There was a much larger selection had I not needed "narrow," but my pantry door is tiny.

The "new" kitchen has been put to use quite a bit with... homemade bread, new sugar cookies and icing as well as one of my favorite dinners, poppy seed chicken. Lots of fun blogs coming this week!