Archive for December 2006

Thursday, December 21, 2006

What's for Dinner? Fast Mexican Soup w/ Biscuit Topping

Last night we had Taco Soup. It's not the real taco soup, but a cheater version and is Justin's favorite. This recipe won the $10,000 prize in the Pillsbury Bake Off, but I've changed it a bit.

2 cans of Campbell's Select Mexican Tortilla Soup
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Hot Sauce (I heart Chilula)
Roasted Red Bell Peppers, cut into slices
Small can of yellow corn
Monterey Jack cheese
2 frozen biscuits (I like Pillsbury's Flaky ones)

Divide the corn into the bottoms of 2 soup bowls. Open the soup, drain a little of the liquid out, and add the garlic and onion powders, and the hot sauce. Give it a stir. Pour into the soup bowls. Add the roasted peppers to the bowls. Cut 2 or 3 pieces of cheese for each bowl and lay them on top of the soup. Place the frozen biscuit on top of the cheese, spray with a little Pam (no idea why, but the original recipe called for it).
Place bowls on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes. So easy and no clean-up!

Monday, December 18, 2006

Weekend in a Nutshell

  • Christmas shopping on Friday night
  • Vance saw Santa, went better than thought
  • Had dinner plans with our South African mates on Saturday night
  • Got up early Saturday morning to make Christmas cookies for above mentioned affair
  • Dinner was cancelled due to sickness on their part
  • Tried a new BBQ place for dinner and went to Target
  • Sunday morning Vance opened presents from us and Santa
  • Grocery store
  • Made fudge
  • Survivor Finale

Overall a nice weekend. Vance is becoming a handful in his old age. Definitely seeing how much he can get away with. Was in time out twice last night.

Thursday, December 14, 2006


I saw this little beauty online while searching for Christmas gifts yesterday (No, I'm not done yet). I've been exposed to many methods of buttering corn on the cob, but this was definitely a new one. Surprising, because it's so simple. Melt the butter and brush it on! Genius! In the Lantz Household, you butter a piece of bread, roll the corn on the bread, then pass it along. The McFarland way is to simply place the ear of corn onto the stick of butter and roll. I'm not sure how it was done in the Fenoglio house, but I do know that there was never toast crumbs in their butter. However, that's a whole 'nother topic. I'm quite partial to the Butter Boy

Anything that makes buttering of corn more fun is OK to me. Will have to remind myself to pick one up the next time I'm out...


So, onto the question of the day: How do you butter your corn?

Wednesday, December 13, 2006


New pictures are up at Flickr, take a look if you get a chance. The majority are from The Weekend, plus I added some extras. The ones where Vance is bundled up are from "Christmas in the Village", a holiday celebration that's held yearly in our little town. It's a fun day for the kids, but it's as if the people here don't realize how cold it is outside. It was Freezing that night and extremely windy, but no one seems to notice. There's another Holiday Parade next weekend if anyone is interested!

Monday, December 11, 2006

I'm a Survivor

I'm proud to say everyone survived the annual holiday family get together. It's usually labeled "Cookie Making Weekend" but we should call it what it really is: "A Few of Us Make Cookies While the Others Complain, Drink Way Too Much, and the Kids Go Crazy with Excitement Weekend". But that's hard to fit on one side of a T-Shirt, so we'll use the original name. Even though we all know what our family events entail. I wouldn't have it any other way, because that's tradition with us. Even with all the chaos, I had a wonderful time and was sad to see everyone leave yesterday. Vance is still looking for Jack and doesn't seem to understand where everyone went, which makes it even harder to be away from all of you crazy people. Thanks for making the trip up and letting us pretend that we haven't moved so far away.

Pictures and More Details to follow. Hold your Horses.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

On Traditions...

I've been doing a lot of thinking about traditions lately. Maybe you'll disagree with me and maybe I'll change my mind in a few minutes, but the way I see it, traditions are just for the kids. I'm having a hard time finding a way to explain this, so be patient with me.

Thanksgiving was exhausting. I helped out in the kitchen way more than I ever had helped in previous years. Up at 5:00 am and the cooking and the dish washing and the cooking and the dish washing and the eating then more dish washing. (I'm not complaining by any means, I enjoyed myself thoroughly in the kitchen, this is solely just an observation.) It's hard to enjoy the company of family, friends, and the holiday itself when stuck in the kitchen. And I realized, this is what my mom does every year. For Thanksgiving and Christmas. But I guess she does it for her kids and her kids' kids, because it's tradition.

I have the best memories of Christmas as a child and am sure that's why I still enjoy the Holiday season so much today. Now, when I think about Christmases long ago, I realize how much work it must have been for the adults. But again, I'm guessing they did it all for the kids.

So, like I said, I've been thinking about traditions. I guess I've been trying to come up with new traditions because it seems like our old traditions are disappearing, but really our traditions are still around, I'm just older and seeing things from a different point of view. It's my turn to step up and make sure Vance has the same great memories as I did at Christmastime. I'm still looking for new ideas though. Something new I'd like to start is to read The Night Before Christmas to the kids before going to bed on Christmas Eve. So, there's another idea to those also looking for new traditions.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

It's been a tough week for electronics in our house. My laptop crashed on Sunday. I fired up our dinosaur of a PC Monday morning and couldn't get the mouse to work. Tried replacing the batteries and nothing. Reached over to the phone to call for help and again, nothing. At least I know what's wrong with the phone. The polite little message on the screen said, "Warning. Check Batteries". I've been to the grocery store 3 times this week and to Target 2 times but have managed to forget about the batteries.

I got my laptop back last night, but have been too busy to post anything. I've been getting ready for the annual cookie baking weekend. The female portion of the family arrived tonight, the men will join us tomorrow. I'm sure I'll have good stories to tell by the end of the weekend. Never can tell what this group is capable of.

Until then.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Fishin' for Comments

So far this week I've had 83 hits and zero comments. ZERO. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for each and every hit I receive and don't want to make you feel like you have to participate, but throw me a friggin' bone people! Humor me! Ask questions! Start a debate! Make up a name, post anonymously, I dare you! I double dog dare you!

So, in the spirit of attracting comments, I'll throw a topic out. Holiday Traditions. I'm looking for some new ideas, so tell me what are your favorites?

Don't be a lurker! Comment!

 

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