There is no doubt that this man is tough.  It takes a special breed to endure the demanding physical and mental tasks of a cowboy.

Extreme cold, blizzards, rain, sweltering heat, sleet, hail, dust storms, wind and droughts.  Nothing keeps these kind of men from doing their job.

Without a doubt, I will admit, that it’s downright sexy.  What woman wouldn’t want a man like this?  Brute strength, McGiver-like skills and manners any momma would be proud of?  Yes, this is the American Cowboy.

But, I’ll bet that there’s something you don’t know?

These tough guys LOVE their soap operas.

Yes, you heard me right.  Soap operas.  Drama.  Cat fights.  Romance.  And family feuds.  They eat this stuff up.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve called Grady over the lunch hour to visit about the happenings of our day and line out the evening only to be trumped by The Bold and the Beautiful.

“I’ve gotta go!  Stephanie and Damien are about to drive off a cliff!  I’ll call you later.”

…click.

Huh.  Wha…  Did he seriously just hang up on me?

The really funny part is imagining a cowboy shack (the small building at the feedlot where the cowboys eat, rest and relax) full of cowboys covered in mud, cow poo, branding smoke and filth GLUED to the TV watching this stuff discussing what could possibly happen next.  What I would pay to be a fly on the wall…

So there you have it.  The next time you think these men are nothing but brute lumberjacks you’ll know they have a weakness for daytime drama.  It sure doesn’t make them seem quite as hardcore.

Peace, love and cliff hangers.

Friday night she discovered that she can now help Mommy unload the TOP rack as well.  Naughty little Monkey…

I had to enjoy a glass or a few of my favorite wine.  I am LOVING the stemless wine glasses I got for Christmas!!

I have two very important projects to work on in the next few months.  Jackie and I went fabric shopping to gather the goods.  Lots and lots and lots and lots of green.  Green makes me happy.  Green makes my heart shine!  …but this green isn’t for me…. (wink, wink)

On my fabric quest I found this great tall mug.  I’ve been on the hunt for a “mommy mug”.  You know…one that ONLY belongs to Mommy.  I’m fairly certain Daddy won’t want to drink out of this one.

Saturday night was my nephew’s birthday party.  We found this really hilarious game for him.  Flickin’ Chicken.  Doesn’t it just sound so stupid that it’d have to be a blast?!

You toss these chickens at a target.  I’m not sure what the whole goal is, but throwing rubber chickens HAS to be fun!!!  Tucker called this one the Chocolate Chicken…  Funny boy…

Before I start my projects, Jackie and I like to do trial runs to make sure that our ideas will turn out the way we want them to.  This fun crazy pile is the making of a fun blanket for The Monkey.  It looks a little wild, but laid out…it looks AWESOME!  I can’t wait to finish it.

It was a wonderful weekend.  I wish I had another day, but sadly, I will have to go to work on President’s Day.  I’m fairly certain we SHOULD stay home and honor those great men that have served our country well.  Don’t you agree?

Peace, love and weekend dreamin’.

This little guy makes my face shine.

He makes my soul sing.

He makes my heart break.

He makes my world go around.

He has a heart of gold.

He has a quick wit.

He has a thirst for knowledge.

He longs to please everyone.

He’s a peacemaker.

He’s his daddy’s sidekick.

He’s his mommy’s sous chef.

He’s his sister’s biggest protector.

This is my boy. 

He owns my heart.

The end.

Peace, love and sweet boys.

These little beauties are SCRUMPTIOUS!!!  If you haven’t made them, you really should.  Super simple!!!

We hope your Valentine’s day is full of much love, laughter and joy. 

May ALL your days be Valentine’s day!!

Peace, love and slobbery smooches!

Yesterday morning as I wrote about how frigid it was outside and thought about how cold my poor husband must have been while he was horseback checking on cattle, I knew that I needed to fix something not only belly warming, but soulful.  I wanted to use some sort of beef that was already in my deep freezer.  I’ve been intrigued by chili recipes that use cubed roast or stew meat.  I searched through my cookbooks and didn’t find anything that spoke to me.  In my search I happened upon a beef stew recipe that sounded A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  The picture was EXACTLY what I would want my stew to be.  So, stew it was.

Even though this recipe has peas in it, I would go so far as to say that it’s picky eater approved.  Tucker didn’t notice the peas much and the flavors so were so earthy and rich that you couldn’t pick out one thing over the other.  It was a perfect marriage of ingredients.

Here’s how it goes….

Stellar Beef Stew (recipe courtesy of The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook)

1 3 lb. boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1.5 inch cubes (or use already prepared stew meat from your butcher)

2 TBSP vegetable oil

2 onions, minced

1 TBSP tomato paste

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 TBSP all-purpose flour

1 cup dry red wine (VERY IMPORTANT INGREDIENT!!!!!  DON’T SKIP OUT!!!!)

2 cups chicken broth

1 TBSP minced fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried

2 bay leaves

1.5 lbs. red potatoes (approx. 5 medium), scrubbed and cut into 1.5 inch chunks

4 carrots, peeled and sliced thin or diced

1 cup frozen peas

Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat to 300 degrees.  Pat the beef dry with a paper towel, then season well with salt and pepper.  Heat one tablespoon oil in a large dutch oven over medium high heat until just smoking.  Brown the meat making sure not to overcrowd the pan (about 10 minutes), then transfer to a plate.  You may need to do this in batches.  Leave the meat on the plate.  Don’t worry if the meat isn’t cooked all the way through.  It will finish cooking later.

Add another tablespoon of oil to the empty pot and return to medium heat.  Add the onions and cook until softened.  Stir in the tomato paste and garlic and cook for about 30 seconds.  Add the flour and cook for 1 minute.  Slowly stir in the wine, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan.  Sitr in the broth, thyme, bay leaves, and browned beef along with any accumulated juices.  Bring to a simmer, cover and transfer the pot to the oven.  Cook for 1 hour.

Sitr in the potatoes and carrots.  Cover and continue to cook in the oven until the beef is tender and the potatoes are cooked through, approximately 1 hour.

Remove the pot from the oven and discard the bay leaves.  Stir in the peas and let stand off the heat for about 5 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.

***Notes***

Make sure that you have all your ingredients prepped and ready to go once the meat is browned as the steps go quickly!!!  I almost burned my garlic and tomato paste due to not having everything right at my fingertips.

The wine… oh, the wine!!!  This is so, so, so, so important in the flavor factor of this recipe.  On your way home from the trip to the grocery store stop by your local liquor store and get a cheap $8 bottle of merlot.  I don’t drink merlot, but I cetainly didn’t mind parting with the money on something that made this dish STELLAR!!!!

Browning your meat.  Make sure that when you brown your meat you’re actually BROWNING it.  This means that you WANT to get that great carmelization and crust on it.  That browning gives some serious flavor boosters to the stew.

Finally, make sure you are very hungry when you make this because (a) it’s ridiculously hearty (Cambell’s Chunky Soup eat your heart out!) and (b) you won’t want to stop with just one bowl.  It’s addicting.  CRAZY GOOD!!!

Peace, love and warm bellies!

May your Sunday be undisturbed and sparkly as well.

Peace, love and God’s glitter.

We hadn’t attempted a big puzzle yet and I was impressed that he wanted to start with this one.  It’s a little on the wild side. 

I helped get the outer edges put together and then I let him work on the middle. 

He struggled for a little bit and had to study the box. 

Then it was like a lightbulb just came on. 

He knew EXACTLY where everything went.  I was even having a hard time finding the right pieces to help out and he just GOT it.

I told him that I wanted to see him finish it and he was excited to do all on his own.

I’ve always known he was an incredibly bright and smart child, but when I get to see it in action it just makes my heart shine.

Mission accomplished.

Peace, love and pieces.

Last night was no exception.  Grady was fiddling around on the computer and I was getting Punkie ready for bed.  All was as it should have been.  That is, until we heard what sounded like a loud crashing sound coming from the bathroom followed by the most shrill, blood curdling scream from Tucker.  Grady and I both raced into the bathroom to find Tucker standing in the tub with a look of terror across his face.

“I want out!!!  It blew up!!!”  He was pointing to our light fixture above the sink, which has exposed bulbs.  Sure enough the lightbulb on the end had exploded.  I was bewildered, but Grady knew, immediately, what had happened.

For some time now Ella has been randomly picking up items around the house and depositing them into our bathtub.

This lovely item found itself a new home in the tub.

It’s purpose is to blow up party balloons.

Tucker quickly repurposed it.  It’s NEW job was to squirt water all over the tub, shower and general bathroom area.

The loud crash that we heard…it’s what lightbulbs sound like when they explode after being squirted with water.

The blood curdling scream we heard… it’s what little boys sound like when they make light bulbs explode in the bathroom after squirting water on them.

We didn’t even have to worry about any sort of disciplinary action for Tucker’s mishap.  The sheer terror he was in was punishment enough. 

His exact words were, “Mommy, I know how to not ever do THAT again.”

“How’s that Tucker?”

“Take that ‘fing’ out of the ‘baftub’!”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

Peace, love and explosions!!!

I LOVE breakfast.

I can’t live without breakfast.

I am the poster child for all the breakfast advocates out there preaching to us that it’s the MOST important meal of the day.  You DON’T want to see what happens if I don’t get some sort of early morning nourishment.  It’s not pretty.

I prefer eggs over something sweet.  I typically fry an egg in non-stick spray and eat it over a piece of whole wheat toast.  Nothing special, but definitely satisfying and healthy.

Yesterday I was browsing through a cooking magazine and came across a version of the blessed breakfast casserole.  I know there are a million different variations, but this one sung to my basic breakfast loves, potatoes, meat, eggs and cheese.  Who DOESN’T love all of these.

The best part of this recipe is the prep work.  It takes less than 10 minutes to throw together and it’s a make ahead meal.  This means that you whip it all up the night before, throw in the fridge and bake it the next morning.  No need to get out of bed über early to make a healthy meal for your family.

You can make this casserole as lean or as heavy as you’d like.  My version was fell somewhere in between a little closer to the healthy side.

Breakfast Casserole

4 cups frozen hash browns

1 cup fully cooked cubed ham (or any fully cooked meat of your choice)

1 can chopped green chilies

1 cup shredded cheese (any mixture)

6 eggs

1 can evaporated milk

salt and pepper

Grease an 8×8 baking dish or small casserole dish.  Layer hash browns, meat, chilies and finally ending with the cheese.  In a bowl, beat the eggs and evaporated milk until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper.  Pour over the cheese layer.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  The next morning, remove from the fridge and let stand 30 minutes prior to baking.  When ready bake at 350° for an hour.  Let cool for 5 minutes and serve with sour cream and salsa if desired.

***I used precooked bacon in mine which was easy and delicious.  You could certainly omit the meat altogether to reduce the fat and calories.

This was husband and Miss Monkey approved. (My picky eater, Tucker, tried a bite and made some silly remark about the cooked eggs.  He’s at the age that the power of suggestion is overwhelming his taste buds.  Big sigh…)

Peace, love and breakfast!!!

The PERFECT winter morning.  Cloudy, cold and wet.  PERFECT for snuggling and indoor fun.

Happy tummies.

Happy sister.

Happy brother.

Happy colors.

Happy momma.

The happy daddy just got out of bed.

I’m going to enjoy this “HAPPY MORNING” and savor the fact that we have a free day together!

Happy Saturday to you!

Peace, love and happy stuff!