When a running buddy mentioned this November event to me, I just had to go check it out (CLICK HERE). Their advertisement says “Welcome to America’s most insane race. Warrior Dash lands in Central Texas for the first time in 2010 where 11 obstacles from hell await along this 3.2 mile course”………….. Heckfire, I just HAD to sign up!!!
Now I’m tryin’ to spread-the-cheer and get more folks to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Running, free beer and girls-in-mud!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Recipe for AWESOME!!!!!
From one of her many sources, Stephanie provided a crockpot recipe for us to check out this week, and it was awesome! These buffalo chicken sandwiches served on some ciabatta rolls from the local HEB with a bit of cheese, topped off with a ranch dressing drizzle is now on our quick-dinner rotation.
Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches
3 frozen chicken breasts
1 package of dry ranch dressing seasoning
1 bottle (17.5 ounces) of wing sauce (I used Texas Pete’s)
Place chicken in the bottom of crockpot, pour ranch dressing seasoning on top, pour in 3/4 bottle of wing sauce, cook for 6 hours, shred the chicken and return to crockpot for an additional half hour.
Use the remaining wing sauce to pour on sandwich if you want more kick. We didn’t use it.
So it’s summertime in Texas, when cucumbers won’t even think about growing in this heat… but what DOES grow like gangbusters? Jalapeno peppers!!!! So you make do with whatcha gots!!! And you pickle them bad muthas!!!
We’re big fans of the Homesick Texan blog, and she had this great sounding recipe for Bread & Butter Jalapeno Pickles, and since we had all the ingredients right here in the garden & pantry, heckfire – let’s just make some of them bad boys up!
Bread and butter jalapeno pickles
Ingredients:
1/2 pound jalapenos (about four) << I use as many as will fit, which in my case was more like a dozen
1 cup of apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 cinnamon stick
Method:
Pack into a pint-sized jar the sliced jalapenos
Bring the vinegar, sugar and spices to a boil, and pour over the jalapenos.
Let cool (about half an hour) and then cover and refrigerate.
Will be ready in a couple of hours, but I like to let them pickle overnight.
Looks like Fruit Season is over for the blackberries. Last season’s vines are drying up and next season’s are bulking up, so this weekend saw some time spent very gingerly cutting out all the old growth… and then saw some time spent with tweezers trying to get the stickers out of my hand. But I have to say, we were VERY pleasantly surprised this year to get several quart freezer bags of blackberries out of the vines… now we just have to make some cobbler and enjoy them!
My sweetie and I decided to treat ourselves to a night on the town, so as soon as they became available MONTHS ago, we grabbed some tickets to see “Wicked” downtown at Hobby Center. Heck, we even got 2nd row seats (which were AWESOME). ”Wicked” is one of our favorite musicals, and we’ve seen it both here in Houston as well as the resident production in San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre.
To top off the night, we had reservations at Vic & Anthony’s for dinner. And talk about an awesome meal! We started off with the much touted Jumbo Lump Crab Cake appetizer and even added the Tuna Tartare with its homemade chips. Then we skipped the salad course and went straight for the hard-stuff, the specialty of the day – filet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus spears along with a shared side of Wild Mushrooms. Combine all that with the wine steward’s suggested Surh Luchtel cabernet and we were in Heaven. Of course afterwards we had to have the creme brulee and bread pudding paired with the Peller Icewine and my own fav – coffee & Baileys.
After dinner we rolled out of the restaurant and off to Hobby Center where we adored the latest roadshow of Wicked… what an awesome evening!
So I’ve been a fan of LOST since the pilot in 2004. Even during the weird Season 4 when people started asking “WTF?”. And although this final season didn’t answer each and every one of my questions, I have to admit that they tried to broach all the major ones… who was Jacob? who was the smoke monster? why were there Polar Bears on a tropical island? what’s the deal with Richard?
So when it was all said and done and the final episode was over, I think everybody probably had their own take on exactly what really happened… so I went to the official LOST forums at ABC and gleaned these pearls of wisdom:
The ending of LOST. Okay, so basically:
- The characters were alive on the island since the beginning.
- The alternate time-line is a purgatory/afterlife where all their souls met.
- As stated by Christian Shepard, some died after Jack, and some before.
- Jack died when his eyes closed as he saw the plane fly by.
- So Kate, Sawyer, etc lived for x number of years before dieing.
To prove this: Kate said, “I missed you so much Jack”.
- Hurley and Ben lived for many years protecting the island.
To prove this: Hurley said “You were a great number 2 Ben”…or You are…
- Everyone else as in Sun, Jin, Locke died before Jack.
- In order for everyone to move on they had to be with the people who made the greatest impact on them which was showed in the afterlife.
As part of our spring plantings, a few months back we replaced some snow-murdered Peach trees in our backyard with a couple of hardier varieties from the local Home Depot. We watched as both trees absolutely filled with fruit, and we even had to ‘thin out’ both of them, getting rid of smaller fruit so that the larger could thrive. Over the weekend the very first fruit ripened sufficiently for Stephanie to harvest… and OMG but those are nice & sweet peaches. Not awfully large, but really good tasting. We’ll really enjoy picking one from time to time over the next few weeks to enjoy amongst ourselves.
Ree Drummond over at Pioneer Woman always has the greatest recipes. When Stephanie saw some bananas beginning to turn dark in the kitchen this morning, she asked if I’d make her some Banana Bread… so off I went to Ree for help. And she had just the ticket… check out her recipe HERE or grab it below. I didn’t have the sour cream that it calls for, so it was easier for me to substitute some greek yogurt that we had in the fridge… YUM OH!
When a running buddy mentioned this November event to me, I just had to go check it out (
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