Recipe Club Link Up!

We Californians love our Mexican food. When I went away to College at Cal Poly, SLO my roommates and I hunted for the best Mexican food in San Luis Obispo. We didn't find it. Keep in mind we were only a couple hours from home but here in the Central Valley we have the BEST Mexican food!

Today I'm linking up with Andrea for Recipe Club!

My one weakness with cooking is planning my side dishes. I don't. I usually just throw a salad together and call it a day. But last night we had white chicken enchiladas and I needed Mexican rice for my the side.

Here's what you need:

 

2 TBSP Vegetable Oil

1 ts garlic salt

2 ts chicken bouillon

1/2 ts cumin

1 ts salt

1/4 onion chopped

1 cup long grain rice

1/4 tomato sauce

2 cups hot water (or chicken broth and if you use chicken broth you don't need the bouillon)

 

In a medium saucepan heat the oil and sauté the onions until soft. Add in the rice and seasonings and let the rice cook and puff up for about 3-4 minutes. Stir in the hot water, tomato sauce and bouillon. Cover and cook over low heat 25 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand another 5 minutes covered. Fluff with a fork and serve! (Sorry I didn't get a pic of the finished products)

 

This rice was really yummy and I think the key is mixing it with the oil and onions and letting it puff before you add the water.

 

I hope you and your family enjoy it!

 

Oh and tomorrow is THANKSGIVING! Which means I've got a pumpkin pie, pecan pie and a Waldorf Salad to make today! I can't wait to see my family! I'm going to try and enjoy every moment tomorrow.

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

Cheers!

 



My Favorite Thanksgiving Dishes!

I'm linking up today with Andrea and Erika for a Favorite Things Party!

My Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes! (The easy ones)

Things have been a little nuts around our house the last couple week. And I'm not sure how it is now the WEEK of Thanksgiving. But it is.

I sat down to plan our menu for the week (at least Monday-Wednesday) anyways. I love cooking. I love baking. But I hate figuring out and planning out what our meals are. Lately I've been cooking a lot of recipes from the Pioneer Woman. Goodness. I love me some PW! I have never had one of her recipes fail me. I also use All Recipes a lot for inspiration.

I love food and I love to eat. I've always loved Thanksgiving and all the delicious food that my family makes. My favorite though is GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE.

 

 

If you've never made it. You should. Here's the link for the Green Bean Casserole Recipe.

 

We always have pumpkin pie. I don't really love it and I don't hate it. I love pumpkin but I wouldn't cry if we didn't have it one year. Since marrying my husband I have learned to borderline worship pumpkin pie and the crust that goes with it. His family makes the pumpkin from scratch. I'm talking clean out the pumpkin, roast it for 2+ hours, scrap out the flesh and Cuisinart the heck out of it. Oh and then you gotta make the pie. It's a lot of work. And it takes a lot of time. And yes the pie tastes good but I don't think there is a whole lot of difference in the taste when you use the can. But my husband does so I do the whole nine yards for the pie. The nice thing about it is that you can freeze pumpkin and its good in the deep freezer for 14 months or so.

We use the Joy of Cooking Cookbook for the pumpkin pie and crust recipes.

 

 

 

 

Do your families have some favorite Thanksgiving dishes? I'd love to know what they are! Let me know in the comments!

 

Cheers!

 

 

 



First Friday Favorites!

Today I'm linking up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites!

I hope I'm linking up right! #bloggervirgin

Anyways here are some of my favorite things from this week!

I love me some POREfessional. This stuff is amazing. I've never had good pores. And my make up does not last all day. But when I use this it makes my make up look flawless and it keeps it all from sliding off.

 

 

We took family pictures a couple weeks ago and I absolutely LOVE how they turned out. My husband hates taking pictures and starts complaining from the second I tell him we are taking them. I've been using the same photographer for the last couple years so my girls know her. Oh, and she brought tic tacs for them. Seriously, that was the best idea ever. I now keep cherry passion and strawberry field tic tacs in my purse for emergencies. Anyways, this was one of the final photos we took (which is why my husbands sleeves are rolled up) and is the only one where we are all smiling (mostly Giulia).

 



 

 

Some other things I'm loving about this week...

 

It's finally gotten chilly enough for me to wear my Uggs again! Yeah! We live in central California and our winters can be pretty cold but for the last few years we've had one or two super cold spells and then a pretty warm winter. I went to college in San Luis Obispo at Cal Poly and the weather there is basically 70 degrees year round so I'm a flip flop girl but I love to get my feet cozy and warm in my Uggs for the winter time. And these "Cardy" Uggs are on my Christmas list this year. 

 

Ok so that's all I've got for you this week! I hope you love my favorites too!

Cheers!

5 minutes

That's about how long I have until one of the kids needs me. I've been wanting a blog for like ever. But let's be real, I would be blogging in my sleep people. So, I'm making time for one; in my spare time of course. I have a lot I want to share with you. Some of it might be interesting and some of it might not. But it's about my family and my life.

I'm sitting here watching my 3 year old and almost 2 year old play with their princess wands while looking out the window waiting for the trash man to come by. What is it with kids and trash trucks? #imnotjoking They have all their toys lined up on the window sill. Let me just say that my kids can drive me completely nuts. Like, I want to lock myself in the closet in the dark and hide. But that's not all the time. It might be just 5 minutes out of the day or depending on the day, no time. My kids amaze me every day. They say the silliest stuff and they remember the crazy stuff.

I'm going to cherish the next 5 minutes watching them play nicely together and I'm going to pray that this continues throughout the day.

Cheers!