Strawberry Pie {National Strawberry Day, February 27}

I really wish I knew how I started in on finding out what national day it was… I spent a whole afternoon looking up dates here recently. It’s actually kind of fun to see all the weird, interesting, National day holidays. And today happens to be:
  • National Kahlua Day
  • National Polar Bear Day
  • and
  • National Strawberry Day

And then on a fun side note, this morning when I turned on tv, Mickey Mouse was helping the giant and he had a belly ache from eating “too many strawberries.” How fitting!

Yesterday we went to Sam’s and bought some beautiful strawberries. Fun fact about Strawberries and it’s not really a fun fact about strawberries but more so about strawberries involving me… When my mom was pregnant with me, there were 3 grocery stores in town. She craved strawberries and cool whip but felt guilty going every day to buy that, so she would bounce between the three grocery stores so they didn’t look at her every day and feel sorry for the poor pregnant lady. lol. They always joked they were surprised I didn’t come up red or with strawberry hair. Instead I came out purple but that’s another story for another day…..

(more…)

National Tortilla Chip Day {February 24}

Today is National Tortilla Chip day. How much fun is that? Tortilla chips are made from corn (or flour but predominately corn) tortillas, cut into triangles or circles or any other shape you want, then deep fried (or baked) and wallah… you have a snack. Typically they are either eaten plain or served with dips, but they are also great for making nachos or a taco salad.

Typically corn tortillas are made from corn, vegetable oil, salt, and water, but obviously each recipe maker has their own unique recipe that makes them taste just like they want. Variations include yellow corn, white corn, blue corn, and even red corn. Each of those corns give the tortilla chips their own unique flavor.

Usually Tortilla chips are associated with Mexican food, but the mass production of them is credited back to the 1940s and Los Angeles California.

These snacks have become so popular that they are usually a complimentary appetizer at Tex-Mex and Mexican restaurants.

So with that said, and the knowledge that it is National Tortilla Chip Day… Go out and grab a tortilla chip! Top it with topping of your choice and you’ll be set!

 

*Pulled from my old blog Paved Dirt Roads

Banana Bread {National Banana Bread Day}

I would like to start out this post by stating that today is National Banana Bread Day. It is also National Toast Day. So if you Toast your banana bread, does that have you celebrating both holidays? Just a thought… Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

I was one of the lucky kids who grew up knowing not only my grandparents but also one set of my great grandparents. My great grandpa died in 1998, 10 days shy of his 108th birthday and my great grandma died in 2002. Both in November. Great Grandpa was the 13th and Great Grandma was the 1st. Some people make fun of me because I remember dates really well and I sometimes really wonder how I do it. But I can remember my great grandpas because of a story. In October of that year he asked my great grandma if November had a Friday the 13th. She told him no, she thought it was Saturday the 13th. Then the week before Friday November 13th, he asked her again if next Friday was the 13th. She said, yes I believe it is. His response was, That’s a good day. He passed away on Friday the 13th.

(more…)

Cheesy Bread Sticks

Here while back I told you about my debacle with the pizza dough when I made the crockpot pizza… Well I had extra pizza dough, so what do you do? You make Cheesy Bread Sticks of course! And wow, just sitting here talking about them makes me want some cheesy bread sticks!

Okay so these are super simple….. Start with your pizza dough….

Make a mixture of butter and garlic

(more…)

Fish City Grill {Rogers, Arkansas}

Happy President’s Day. Hopefully you were lucky enough to have the day off but if not, there are still lots of great sales going on for President’s Day at least, right? I’m not a huge shopper, I just hear the commercials on TV. Okay, anyway, moving on….

Over the weekend I went to Rogers, Arkansas with my mom. She wanted to go shopping… maybe to take advantages of those President’s Day Sales…. But first we eat! When we got down there, we decided to go ahead and eat first. There is a restaurant called Fish City Grill that used to be right inside the Pinnacle Hill’s Mall area, but they move to just behind the mall complex. So we used google to find the exact location and off we buzzed to Fish City Grill restaurant.

This time around I got the Blackened Chicken Sandwich with a side of Cheesy Grits. This sandwich had just the right amount of heat and taste to it. Yum! The grits were even better.

Now, the real reason to come here is for the Bread Pudding and I don’t like bread pudding, but we didn’t get any dessert this time. My little one was throwing a complete major melt down type fit and I think they just wanted us to leave… maybe not because all the wait staff were excellent with her and helping me try to calm her down. They even gave her a fun Mardi Gras type necklace.

So let’s just say, this is my 3rd or 4th time eating here and it’s totally worth it! And I don’t even like fish. LOL….

 

*Pulled from my old blog Paved Dirt Roads

Our Valentine’s Day

Here while back I started thinking about Valentine’s Day and wondering what to get hubby. When I asked him what he wanted, his response was a quart of Thank You Cherry Much Ice Cream and the ability to eat the whole thing and not feel guilty. I laughed so hard, but he was serious.

Then I got to thinking about it and decided that he needed a receiver hitch in his truck. I have one in mine, but my dad’s got stolen when his truck was in the shop getting worked on, so dad had to borrow mine. It made me realize that we needed another one at least so I decided to get him one like the picture above. This way he had 3 different sizes, versus mine 1 size. My one will haul our flat bed trailer but if it is bigger or smaller than what was on my truck (and don’t ask me what size I have) we’d have been screwed, so I decided to get him the 3.

(more…)

Chocolate-Strawberry Cupcakes

If there is one thing they tell you to do, it’s try something new. While baking cupcakes isn’t a new concept for me, I’m not so good at it. It’s really always been a bit of a challenge for me, and I’m not really sure why. So when the January/February 2017 Food Network Magazine came out and they had a whole section devoted to cupcakes for each month, I just knew I had to partake… and at least try.

As we know, I messed up the January cupcakes just a bit… but it was more icing related issues than it was cupcake related issues. And the cupcakes themselves were excellent.

When I saw the cupcakes for this month, I was quite excited. While they don’t want them to be for a special occasion but say a random Tuesday, these cupcakes scream Valentine’s Day to me. No, I didn’t make them on Valentine’s Day or even for Valentine’s Day because I was busy getting ready to attend a wedding, but I knew I was going to make them no matter what.

(more…)

Red Velvet Cake Recipe + Ganache Recipe

So let’s step back in time to last month when we had our cake decorating day. Why on earth would we go back in time? Well I held off on sharing a recipe with you because I knew we’d be using it again! So my goal was to wait and share it this month.

Here’s the story. So as I mentioned earlier we had a cake decorating day. That day when I showed up I already had my chocolate cake made, Deb chose a Red Velvet Cake, Kristi chose a butter cake, and Tracy went with a chocolate cake as well. Deb and I went to work on her cake when I showed up… and I use me loosely because I more so stood and watched. She had this Red Velvet Cake she absolutely loved so I took a picture of the recipe and sat and watched her make it. I believe it was out of the newspaper from years ago.

 

(more…)