Whoopie Pies-S'more Style

As I shared with you in my last post, I was attacked by a metal shard via my dinner a few nights ago.  I saw my dentist this morning, and the metal did in fact gash my gums.  Brutal!!  An X-ray showed no remnants remaining, so hopefully in a few days all will be healed up.  I'm so not eager to dine out any time soon!  Instead you know where I'll be...my kitchen.

What's cooking these days?  Good stuff, S'more Whoopie Pies!  Here's an example of one of the many things I love about blogging.  You fun readers keep sending me recipes!!  I've got Rachael Ray recipes and more all piled up in my inbox just waiting to be cooked, baked, devoured, what have you.  Last week alone, I got 2 recipes just about s'mores.  You good, good people know I LOVE s'mores! 

S'more Whoopie Pies

Prior to this recipe, I had never ventured into the world of "whoopie pies."  As far as I can recall, I've never even eaten one!  So this was quite the adventure!

Brownie mix and S'mores Icing

 First I made a batch of brownies (with the Hershey's syrup packet).  You were supposed to spread the batter out thinly onto parchment paper placed in cookie sheets with edges.  As you know, I'm lacking in the bakeware department, so I used the bottom of 2 roaster pans.  You know, the kind that come standard with an oven.  Classy, right?  Resourceful, I say!

Brownies going into the oven.

Once the brownies are baked, you are supposed to cut out circles of brownies with a 2 inch circular cookie cutter.  Here's a big surprise...I don't have one of those either.  Anyone feeling a tad sorry for me yet?

Baked Brownies

 Maybe a little, right?  These are my only non-holiday cookie cutters: Mickey Mouse and the great state of Texas.

 Once again, I had to be resourceful.  I turned a wine glass upside down, and what do you know...it worked!

Before

After

 I made my little brownie rounds.  When I was done, I reached for the Hershey's S'more's icing and went to town!  I generously dolloped those little brownie rounds with plenty of s'mores flavored icing!

S'mores Icing dollop

 When I was done, I put a second brownie round on top, and there you go.  I made my first batch of whoopie pies!  While they were certainly a divine way to eat some chocolate, I think this s'mores lover missed the graham cracker aspect of the s'more.  If I made these again, I would probably sprinkle some graham cracker crumbs onto the icing dollop and see what that brings me.

Hey, there's a stack of chocolate fun!

 If you're a whoopie pie lover, maybe you'll want to give these a try.  If you are indeed a whoopie pie connoisseur, please comment below with you favorite kind.  I'd love to try whoopie pies again!

Link to S'mores Whoopie Pie Recipe

Click here for a chance to win a 1 year subscription to the Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine.  Must enter by Monday, September 5th!

GNO

Last night was GNO.  What's that you may ask?  It's an institution, it's therapy, it's Girls Night Out.  Last night I went out with my "Girls Night Out" bunch for the first time in 2011.  Isn't that sad?  We tried for every 2-3 months before, but somewhere along the way life got busy and we didn't make the time.

Here's the thing about GNO, there are 2 different types as I see it.  Type 1-I define this as the twenty something girls, where GNO can quickly turn into "look at that cute boy, I'm going to go talk to him."  In Type 1, GNO can quickly turn into a date hunt.  I currently participate in Type 2 GNO.  Our GNO bunch includes happily married women with kids.  There's no abandonment by the girls for "cute boys."  There's simply wine, FOOD, and laughter.  Oh, and let's not forget chocolate.  If you want GNO to be successful, by all means include chocolate.  For all I know, there are probably more than two types of GNO.  My mom's an empty nester, and she's in a book club.  Who knows, maybe Type 3 GNO is the empty nester bunch.  I'll let you know when I get there.

Our GNO has gotten pretty predictable when it comes to location.  We have found an awesome spot with amazing food, great atmosphere, and to die for chocolate cake.  Really, it's so good that I would put in on my "last meal" request for dessert.

4 layers of amazing chocolate cake drizzled with warm Godiva chocolate!

Last night's GNO seemed extra fun.  Perhaps, it was because we hadn't all been together in so long.  I don't know what it was, but let me tell you what it wasn't...short on food.  We ordered an obnoxious amount of food, and we drooled over every bite: various flavors of goat cheese, crab rangoon, spicy shrimp, and kobe beef sliders.  YUM!  When the third round, yes third round, of appetizers arrived, we laughed as we were just as thrilled to see the kobe sliders and shrimp as we were the first two rounds.  (Yes, we kept ordering the same food every round.)  This is the critical moment of the night.  I leaned over to tell my friend that these sliders were indeed the best of the 3 rounds,  and that's when it happened.  I felt a poke in my gum.  Startled, I reached in my mouth.  What I pulled out shocked me.  A coiled metal shaving not much bigger than a staple was in my mouth via the vessel of my tasty kobe slider.  Disgusting, right?  Needless to say, we were immediately over the sliders.  We were kind of over food in general, partially because we had just eaten 3 rounds of apps, but mostly the metal shaving bit.  The kind manager was mortified, as this is a "classy joint" and metal shavings just aren't good for business, ya know?  He brought us a ridiculous amount of dessert to apologize for this metal mishap and GNO carried on.

Here's the thing though, I had this feeling of dread once I got home.  I'm kind of nuts like that.  I started recalling my last tetanus shot, doing google searches on lockjaw, etc.  I  had my hubby shove a flashlight in my mouth to survey the damage.  While it did indeed poke through my gum, I can't for 100% say there's no metal in me.  Happily I have my bi-annual dentist check up this week, so I'll have it checked out for sure.

This "incident" prompted a conversation shift at the table...to beef.  Let me tell you, I learned a LOT about ground beef last night.  This is Texas.  Talking about beef isn't strange here.  Talking about what purse is the most ideal to "carry and conceal" a handgun isn't strange here.  It's Texas.  It's awesome, but I do realize that it is indeed different than most of the nation.  To keep this short and sweet, I'll give you a speedy synopsis.  You want your burgers WELL DONE.  It's a long story about oxygen and ground beef and E. Coli (which one friend kindly pointed out pertains to feces...lovely).  Get your steaks as bloody as you like, but by all means, get those burgers without the red.  Trust me, I argued the "medium burger" ad nauseum, but at the end of the day, Texans know beef and long story short...get your burgers COOKED!

If you're long overdue for a GNO, call up your girls, grab some wine, chocolate, and some well done burger patties and live it up!!

Click here for a chance to win a 1 year subscription to the Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine.  Must enter by Monday, September 5th!

Rach and Me News & My First Ever Giveaway!!

I am so very excited and proud to announce, that "Rach and Me" is a part of the most recent issue of the magazine "Every Day with Rachael Ray."  Subscribers should be receiving their copy in the next couple of days.  It will be available on newsstands as of Tuesday, September 6th!!

If/when you get your copy, turn to page 140.  There you will find my picture, a picture of the Texas Tornado, as well as some pictures of recipes I have made in the past.  All of the pictures and words come from this blog, so they should sound familiar!

Thank you so very much for your constant support!  I thank you also for celebrating this exciting moment with me!  To kick off the celebration, I will be offering my first ever contest giveaway...a 1 year subscription to the Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine.  With that magazine in hand, you can cook right along with me and share your stories and successes too.  The details on how to enter to win are below.  Good luck and thank you again for reading!!

Here's How You Enter To Win:


1.  Follow the "Rach and Me" blog.

2.  Be a fan of the "Rach and Me" facebook page.

3.  Leave a comment on this post. (When you leave your comment, check to see that it goes through.  You will also have to enter a code in order to protect the blog from spammers.)

4.  For an extra entry: post about this giveaway on your blog and then leave a comment with a link to your post.

5.  Giveaway ends Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 5th

6.  I will announce the winner on Tuesday, September 6th, so check back!  (Winner will be chosen via random.org)

Getting Back to Texas Time

Vacation was incredibly fun, yet utterly exhausting for all of us.  It is hard to figure out why the princesses are so tired.  As I look through our vacation pictures, I'm thinking that they had quite the relaxing trip.

Hanging out and reading magazines.

Catching up with old friends over breakfast.

Car naps!

A sleeping Texas Tornado!

Catching up on texts and phone calls.

Sure they walked their little hearts out at Disneyland, but still, don't they look relaxed?  Go figure.  I'm still not back to myself.  Partially I think because I'm still on California time and the princesses are on Texas time.  Translation?  I'm going to bed late, and they are getting up too early for me.

Chicken Milanese

Sleepy or not, life goes on.  In this house, life has been going on most deliciously!  I've been cooking quite a bit, so there will be much more to come.  First though, I want to share this winner of a dinner from a few nights ago, Rachael Ray's End of Summer Pork, Chicken or Veal Milanese.  I'm going to be honest and tell you that I have no idea what "Milanese" means, but the meal was 100% YUM!  I chose chicken as the meat du jour, as I have like 5 pounds of it in my freezer.  Thank you Costco!!

This meal reminds me of a meal I made back in April, Brazilian Chicken Cutlets with Raw Tropical Sauce.  It too was a breaded chicken with fresh salsa on top.  Both meals were very delicious.  One difference between the Milanese and the Brazilian chicken was the mango.  If you are not a mango fan, the Milanese might be more up your alley.

The link follows this post.  It was quite helpful, complete with a photo "how to."  I ate this meal "as is" without any other sides.  I used the fresh salsa topper as my veg.  My husband and princesses ate it with freshly steamed broccoli, mostly because they aren't big tomato people.  Hope you enjoy this one and adapt it to your family's liking!

Link to Every Day with Rachael Ray's End of Summer Pork, Chicken or Veal Milanese Recipe

Texas Tornado Meets Inappropriate Teapot

What happens when the Texas Tornado gets her hands on a toy teapot?  The teapot has a complete mechanical failure, and then proceeds to try and teach the little Tornado a phrase I'd rather her not know.

I walked all around the house trying to figure out where that phrase was coming from.  I walked in a state of confusion really.  First I thought, "what is making that sound?"  Then I thought, "WHAT is it saying?"  I guess the real benefit here is that the Texas Tornado doesn't say a whole lot, so hopefully this one will miss her vocabulary.  Thankfully the 4 year old princess was coloring in the other room, so she didn't pick it up either.  If you can't make out the phrase from the video, that's good.  You don't want to be saying it either.

A food post to follow soon,  as I've been a cooking fool lately! Just thought I'd share this odd little moment from my day!

Lights, Camera, Succotash

Since my reality is that I have 2 princesses ill with ear infections, I'm going to continue to show pics from our trip...the era before the ear infections.  Those were some good, good days.  

On one of our vacation days in Cali, we drove to L.A. to visit with my husband's former bosses.  Both of them transferred out to Cali awhile back.  We had a great time reconnecting with them and touring the CBS Studios lot where they broadcast from.  Below are some pics from that day. 

Sitting on the set of KCBS.  The 4 year old princess is ready to anchor.

She was given the ultra cool sunglasses from someone at CBS.
She enjoyed rocking them on the lot.

A family photo on what once was Seinfeld's street in "NYC."

The "Soup Nazi" kitchen for all of you Seinfeld fans.  Yes, you D!

An NYPD car from CSI:NY just parked amongst the cars, along
with NYC taxis and other NYPD cars as well.

I heart CBS!!

I'm keeping this post short and sweet today.  The princesses haven't been sleeping the greatest with their infections, which has left my husband and I extra exhausted too.  We're a fun bunch to be around right now.

In my attempts to get this house healthy, I've been trying to cook with a variety of fresh veg.  Last night's recipe is from the previous edition of the Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine.  It's called Grilled Succotash.

Rachael Ray's Grilled Succotash

In order to make this one, I had to do something I just don't do anymore...grill.  For those of you that have read this blog from its inception, you know that grilling and I have had a rough past.  Nonetheless, I looked past those issues and gave it a whirl anyways.

My Big Green Egg...master grilling mechanism.

My roasting veg on the Big Green Egg. 

As you can see, I grilled the corn an eensy weensy bit too much.  Not a problem though when it came to slicing it off, I simply avoided those areas.  Once the veg is roasted, you cut and slice according to the recipe's directions.  Then you add some thawed edamame, some butter, and some freshly snipped chives.  Yum in a bowl!  The directions say to serve it warm, but I honestly thought it was tastier cold.  You decide.

The link to this recipe is below if you find yourself in need of some fresh, grilled, summer veg.  It was really quite simple to put together, as well as an incredibly filling summer meal.  I hope you enjoy it!

Link to Every Day with Rachael Ray's Grilled Succotash Recipe

A 40 Degree Difference

40 degrees later...we're back.  When we left San Diego, it was 68 degrees.  When we landed in Dallas, it was 108.  ROUGH transition!  I can only imagine that the reason why both of my princesses just inherited colds is because of this enormous temperature shift.  Alas, we did actually survive a vacation without a major illness or a hospital trip.  (See what many of you don't know, is that "the back thing" wasn't exactly a fluke.)

Our Southern California trip was amazing!  So wonderful in fact, that I'm probably going to bore you with pictures over the next few posts.  With 2 sick princesses about and a good solid mountain of laundry, I've probably got little else to chat about.

Today, I'm showcasing some lovely photos of the princesses frolicking in the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean.  We had just finished an amazing meal on Coronado Island.  If you ever find yourself in San Diego, I recommend taking the intimidating bridge from downtown to Coronado.  It's magnificent!  While you are there, refill your belly with some Mexican food from Miguel's...and ask for extra cheese sauce.  It might be a good idea to opt for a flowing sundress that day, as I did, so that I was free to fill my belly up without limit.  Clearly, it's that good.

As you can see, the princesses did a LOT of frolicking.  We did everything we could to soak up all of the beautiful weather while we were there.  These pictures are from a picnic we had in Balboa Park...a San Diego must.  And no, the California Board of Tourism isn't promoting this...just me.  It's just really a  fantastic vacation destination, especially for us overheated folks from Texas.

Now that we are back, I am doing a little cooking amongst the chores.  Ok, I am actually doing very little chores, and mostly cooking.  Since both princesses are under the weather, and because I've just been plain ol' craving some, I made some homemade soup for lunch yesterday.

I made Roasted Squash Soup from the latest edition of the Rachael Ray mag (link to the recipe below).  In reading the recipe, it's good to note that I omitted the peppers.  No one else in my family would have eaten them, so regrettably, they had to go.  Peppers or no peppers, it was a yum soup.  First I quartered 2 onions, cubed 1 pound of butternut squash, and toss them in olive oil and salt & pepper.  I roasted these for 20 minutes in a 450 degree oven.

While the veggies roasted, I warmed a quart of chicken broth in a saucepan.  Then I added the roasted veggies, some cinnamon and brown sugar.  I then poured all of this into my trusty blender and pureed.  Because it was a snug squeeze in my blender, I poured the puree back into the sauce pan and added the heavy cream.  While I managed to make quite a mess of the kitchen in the process, I did yield 6 cups of delicious and hopefully "princess healing" soup.

While I would really classify this soup, as a "September soup," it did the job today.  The squash and the cinnamon really gave way to the first stepping stone to fall.  Even though it's still equator level hot outside where I am, maybe you live in a place perfectly ready for soup.  Either way, when you are ready, try this one out.  I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Link to Everyday with Rachael Ray's Roasted Squash Soup Recipe

An Emotional Breakfast

The 4 year old princess is my early bird princess.  Sometimes a tad too early.  Nonetheless, I wouldn't trade that time with just the 2 of us for anything.  Sometimes we snuggle and watch some early morning Disney, sometimes we color (clearly after mommy has had some coffee), and sometimes we are just plain ol' silly.  Today, I just wanted to share some pics of our silly, emotional breakfast.

I call our breakfast emotional, because we were giving our eggs and bacon feelings.  Clearly, the above breakfast is very serious.  Simply giving him a nose turned everything around for him, and now he's having a wonderful day.

Now you must know, that talking to the 4 year old princess is like talking to a much older child.  She's had an amazing vocabulary since almost birth it seems.  Here's how she described her breakfast below.  "Mommy, my cyclops sure must be frustrated."  I laughed so hard.  I didn't even think about the fact that I had only made her one egg and one piece of bacon.  We had been so focused on my breakfast and its feelings, that it was hilarious that to her...it was a very frustrated cyclops.  See what I mean?  I wouldn't trade a moment with that girl!

If you've got any kiddos around, or if you just need to express your feelings through food, see how your breakfast feels today.  Hopefully it's happy and excited for the weekend!

Ghirardelli or Bust!

I wrote this before I left.  As you read this, I should be in much cooler temps enjoying some character dining with my favorite mice.  Hope you enjoy these sweet treats!!

Every time we go to California, we absolutely have to eat at a Ghirardelli's.  If not, it just doesn't seem like we were really in Cali at all.  Our family trips always surround food.  It's kind of how we plan them. In honor of our Cali trip, Ghirardelli's, and because I just plain ol' love chocolate chip cookies, I had to make Ghirardelli's Dark Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

Back in May, I posted a link to an incredibly yum chocolate chip cookie recipe.  The only issue with that particular recipe...is that you have to refrigerate the cookie dough for 24 hours before you bake the cookies.  I'm telling you what, that takes some serious strength when you find yourself facing a good, solid cookie craving.  This time, I was too weak...so I went searching for something a bit more speedy.

That's where Ghirardelli comes in.  We've been so excited about our trip that I decided to jump the gun a bit in the Ghirardelli department.  In N Out is another one of our dining musts while in Cali, so at least I held off on that one (especially when the grand opening for the newest one was yesterday).  That was the only drop of restraint I showed.  The recipe is fairly simple and straight forward, and it's literally on the bag of chocolate chips.  If dark chocolate isn't your thing, these aren't for you.  If they are, well then maybe.  They definitely aren't even in the same ballpark as the 24 hour dough ones I mentioned above, but they did the job well enough.

I should mention that the recipe yields 4 dozen...somehow I only ended up with 16.  I clearly yielded some generously portioned cookies.  The next day I woke up to about a dozen left, and that's when I realized that they were a tad boring.  Well that, or I was bored.  These big fellas needed some dressing up, so that's just what I did.  I busted out some chocolate almond bark, melted it, and dipped these big boys in 'em.  Then, just because multi-colored sprinkles are the most fun, I sprinkled those fellas up before the chocolate set.  So pretty, right?  Well at least festive.  A fun festive start to what hopefully will be an awesome family vacation.

                         

Even if you aren't interested in trying this particular chocolate chip cookie recipe, make your favorite kind and think about sassing them up.  It sure made my little princesses smile, but then again, sprinkles and chocolate always do!

Link to Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

It Was A Good Run

Well, it didn't happen for us this year.  In Sunday's post, I talked about how incredibly close we were getting to breaking the record for the most consecutive days of 100+ temps.  The record is 42 consecutive days, and today would have tied that record.  The thing is that yesterday, Day 41, we bottomed out. 

It was the craziest thing.  Both girls were taking a nap and I decided to give myself a little mommy break.  I snuggled up under a blanket and grabbed a movie from On Demand.  Right in the middle of my unexpectedly dark and depressing movie, I happened to notice something that had long been forgotten...dark clouds and swirling wind.  Much like a little southern kid dreaming of a snow day, I excited ran outside. Sure enough, there were dark beautiful clouds and the glorious smell of rain in the air.  I was too happy to even remember about the record.  While no actual rain fell, it was a really nice 30 minutes or so.

I didn't even think about the record or what this little "almost rain" meant to it, until I heard a message from a friend asking if I had insider information as to whether or not the record was in jeopardy.  All I can say, is that it didn't happen for us.  We and our yards suffered for nothing, no broken record.  Is there any consolation prize you ask?  Not really, the forecast calls for 100+ temps for today.  What's my plan for relief?  I'm gettin' outta here!

In one more chaos filled day, I will yet again be on an airplane with the Texas Tornado, her big sis (who FYI, I'm think about calling Tiny Teen...more on that later), and their patient daddy.  On our last vacation, which horribly crashed and burned at the end, we didn't find any relief from the heat.  This time, we're going Pacific.  We're off to the wonderful paradise of San Diego, CA, with a side trip to see "The Mouse" in Anaheim.  At last check, the highs were in the low 80's, and the lows are in the high 50's.  All I can hear through the giant smile on my face, are my cardigans calling.  Perhaps even a scarf or 2!!  Sorry, I just can't stop smiling! 

I will do my best to post a thing or 2 while I'm away, but in the mean time...let me show you a little ditty I made for dinner this week.  Sloppy Hot Wing Joes (which the internet recipe calls Sloppy Buffalo Joes) were on the docket for Rach and me, as well as Rach's Smashed Potato Skins.  It's like a stay at home healthier version of bar food.  Awesome, right?

The link below will take you to the recipe, which I must say is unique enough to at least check out.  I had many of the ingredients on hand, plus I had been wanting to try this one from my Orange Book cookbook, so it seemed like the perfect time to do so.  I had some reservations going into this one, like the carrots and celery in with my chicken, but it is tasty.  I'm not a huge fan of blue cheese, but temporarily thought I was coming around to it...I'm really not, so I personally would opt out of that ingredient next time around.  Just a lil' FYI for my non blue cheese readers.  The other thing is that I almost skipped the pickle chunks all together, but those turned out to be one of my favorite parts!  The texture and flavor of them went ever so well with the chicken mixture, so I'd be sure to incorporate those.

Now onto the Smashed Potato Skins...I'm not a huge potato skin gal, but these were awesome.  The only substitution I made was the buttermilk.  I didn't have any, so I poured in some heavy whipping cream leftover from an earlier recipe.  Every member of my family loved these, and believe me, that is a rarity!

I hope you have an amazing weekend and keep cool however you can.  Again, please think of us as we take flight yet again with these little ones.  I can assure you that after the poo debacle from earlier this week, I've already picked out the Tornado's plane outfit...and it is complete with snug pants.  The last thing we need is Poo Debacle 2.0 on an airplane!  Until then friends!

Link to Rachael Ray's Sloppy Buffalo Joes Recipe
Link to Rachael Ray's Smashed Potato Skins Recipe

Spaghetti Love and S'mores

 

I once heard someone say, "If I my daughter would just give me a grandchild, I would love that child so much I would even let them eat spaghetti at my house."  I remember it well, because I thought it was a funny thing to say.  Now, I get it.  Cleaning spaghetti off of a toddler is a labor of love.  Somehow they all seem to love it, and because you love them you spend the next 10 minutes scouring it off.

I can't give you any spaghetti recipe tonight, as I didn't make any.  The girlies just had some leftovers from our Sunday dinner out.  The pics of the Texas Tornado and the spaghetti colliding  were just too priceless not too share.

In other news, let's talk about s'mores.  If you know me, you know my love of them.  I will go to any length to create a s'more out of odds and ends in my pantry.  Well today my friends, I urge you to join me in making some.  Today is National S'mores Day!  I find it oddly comforting that there are others out there adoring s'mores right along with me, so much so in fact they managed to score a whole day to celebrate them!  S'more lovers = good people.

In previous posts you've seen me uses peeps, various shapes and colors of marshmallows, coupled with any form of chocolate I can get my hands on to make s'more magic.  Today, I give you the Super Chocolate S'more.  It's "Super Chocolate" because it includes all forms of chocolate currently stocked in my home.

The base layer includes a good layer of Nutella, which is then covered by some Ghirardelli dark chocolate disks.

Next I place the zebra marshmallows (marshmallows drizzled in dark chocolate...the ideal s'more mallow in my opinion) on the disks.  As if this weren't enough chocolate, I poured on some Hershey's syrup.  Yeah, I did.  

Lastly, I put the graham cracker topper in place and sat back and enjoyed my chocolatey s'more creation.  I hope you take the time to cheer up what could be a standard Wednesday and celebrate National S'mores Day with me.  Raid you pantry, your fridge, what have you and piece together your own little ode to summer snack...the s'more.

Lesson Learned

It's true what they say, that experience is the best teacher.  Well I've been mommying it up for over 4 years now, so I should be pretty well versed in all things toddler...shouldn't I?  Leave it to the Texas Tornado to  further my education.

Tonight a kind friend invited us over for dinner.  She's a frequent guinea pig of my cooking experiments.  Tonight we traded places and enjoyed a delicious experiment of hers.  I want to emphasize the friendship, so you understand how much I'll miss it.  (This is the part where the Tornado comes in.)  

Today while M and I were chatting it up, the Texas Tornado blew into the room wearing an adorable little girly pink sundress and carrying  her diaper.  Instantly, I had a feeling of dread.  I knew for sure it was a wet diaper, but then remembered I had just changed her minutes before...that's when it hit me.  Have you guessed it?  That's right it wasn't wet...it was the other thing...except it was missing.  On my list of things I never want to relive, I will add having to search another person's house for a missing pile of poop created by own child.  HUMILIATING!!!  Thankfully, it was a quick search, and the missing poo was located amongst the toys in the playroom.  Awesome.  

I have to say.  I so didn't see this one coming.  Rest assured that I have indeed learned the lesson that the Tornado needs to be wearing her diaper panties every time she wears a dress.  Every time.  My friend says we are not banished, but who could blame her if we are, right?

This morning held no indication of impending doom.  Matter of fact, it started off really nicely.  Typically I am  a fancy weekend breakfaster, but decided to make today a fun breakfast day too.  I attempted my very first Eggs Benedict.  

When it comes to EB, I'm an enormous fan.  It's my absolutely favorite room service breakfast to order.  Today's recipe comes from Rach, and that sweet girl is even thinking of my figure on this one.  When it comes to making the hollandaise sauce for this one, instead of tons of butter, a portion of the butter is replaced by chicken broth.  Clever, eh?  To make it my own, I traded out the traditional english muffin for a crumpet.  I also swapped out the canadian bacon for regular bacon, only because I love traditional bacon more.  Lastly, Rach had paired her EB with asparagus, so I did as well.  Nothing quite like a green veg to keep you full the whole morning through.  Plus the hollandaise sauce goes oh so well with it.  A filling and sustaining breakfast to start a crazy day.

Check out the link below for the recipe.  If you're an EB lover too, but have never attempted it yourself, I urge you to give this one a whirl.  I was able to pull it off without a hitch, so that's got to mean something right?  Hope you're week is off to a far less embarrassing start than mine!

Link to Rachael Ray's Eggs Benedict Recipe