Tostadas

If I had to pick one type of food to eat for the rest of my life, I would pick Mexican food. I love Mexican food! I love the chips, salsa, and cheese dip. I love guacamole, and you all know how much I love margaritas!

Marcela Valladolid is a new chef on Food Network. She cooks Mexican food, and she has a lot of good and easy recipes. Last week I used her recipe to make tostadas, but I did not follow the recipe exactly.

Nick didn't even follow my recipe exactly.

So feel free to change the recipe to your likings.

A tostada is a deep fried tortilla topped with a variety of ingredients. What could be better than that?

Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large corn tortillas
Salt
1 whole boneless, skinless chicken breast, pounded flat and thin
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder
Juice of a lime
1 tablespoon olive oil

*ingredients may vary depending on how you make your tostada

*topping ingredients are not included

To make a tostada you need corn tortillas. I think it fries betters.

Begin by putting about an inch of oil (vegetable or peanut) in a cast iron skillet. Any skillet will do. I think cast iron is best.

Fry the tortilla about 3-5 minutes (flip half way through) or until it is lightly browned on both sides.

Drain on paper towels and sprinkle both sides with salt.

Spread the tortilla with refried beans. These are from a can, but if you are really adventurous you can make your own like Marcela Valladolid.

Sprinkle with cheese. I chose colby jack, but other varieties would be good too.

Top with shredded chicken. Our chicken was boiled along with some Fajita Magic, and then shredded.

But options are endless when it comes to flavoring chicken. Most of the ingredients on my list are for the chicken. You will have to check out Marcela's recipe to see how she cooked the chicken. You could also buy and shred a rotisserie chicken. Just do what is easiest and tastiest to you.

Now comes the fun part!

The toppings. I topped mine with lettuce, tomatoe, avocado, cilantoro.

And of course sour cream!

Nick took a different approach. His was topped with lettuce and salsa. He enjoyed it, but his was a little messier than mine.

Now pick it up and take a bite. YUM!

One of the tastiest dishes I have tried in a while. Now all you need is a margarita!

Tostadas

If I had to pick one type of food to eat for the rest of my life, I would pick Mexican food. I love Mexican food! I love the chips, salsa, and cheese dip. I love guacamole, and you all know how much I love margaritas!

Marcela Valladolid is a new chef on Food Network. She cooks Mexican food, and she has a lot of good and easy recipes. Last week I used her recipe to make tostadas, but I did not follow the recipe exactly.

Nick didn't even follow my recipe exactly.

So feel free to change the recipe to your likings.

A tostada is a deep fried tortilla topped with a variety of ingredients. What could be better than that?

Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large corn tortillas
Salt
1 whole boneless, skinless chicken breast, pounded flat and thin
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder
Juice of a lime
1 tablespoon olive oil

*ingredients may vary depending on how you make your tostada

*topping ingredients are not included

To make a tostada you need corn tortillas. I think it fries betters.

Begin by putting about an inch of oil (vegetable or peanut) in a cast iron skillet. Any skillet will do. I think cast iron is best.

Fry the tortilla about 3-5 minutes (flip half way through) or until it is lightly browned on both sides.

Drain on paper towels and sprinkle both sides with salt.

Spread the tortilla with refried beans. These are from a can, but if you are really adventurous you can make your own like Marcela Valladolid.

Sprinkle with cheese. I chose colby jack, but other varieties would be good too.

Top with shredded chicken. Our chicken was boiled along with some Fajita Magic, and then shredded.

But options are endless when it comes to flavoring chicken. Most of the ingredients on my list are for the chicken. You will have to check out Marcela's recipe to see how she cooked the chicken. You could also buy and shred a rotisserie chicken. Just do what is easiest and tastiest to you.

Now comes the fun part!

The toppings. I topped mine with lettuce, tomatoe, avocado, cilantoro.

And of course sour cream!

Nick took a different approach. His was topped with lettuce and salsa. He enjoyed it, but his was a little messier than mine.

Now pick it up and take a bite. YUM!

One of the tastiest dishes I have tried in a while. Now all you need is a margarita!

Dove Bites

I know I'm over a week late for this post, but on Labor Day weekend Nick and I traveled to my parents' house in Greenville, MS, along with the Stephens. We had a grand time!I enjoyed watching Toy Story with Stephen Small on our way to Greenville.

I forgot how funny that movie is! Should I see Toy Story 2 and 3?

Nick, Stephen Grande, and my dad had fun dove hunting almost the entire weekend. My mom and I enjoyed watching Stephen Small. My Saturday consisted of playing with Stephen while watching tennis (U.S. Open) and football. I couldn't ask for a more relaxing day.

Saturday night Stephen enjoyed the Auburn game in his Auburn attire.

Isn't this the cutest thing? I wish I had such a spirited outfit! I love the tiger on the shirt.




Later we gave him a shaker. He eventually got the hang of it, and pulled Auburn through to a victory!



Sunday we drove over the brand new bridge to my cousins' lake house in Arkansas. This bridge is dramatically better than the old one. I don't feel like I'm going to fall off the side anymore.

New Bridge

Old Bride (it was only 2 lanes)

The men had several successful hunts. We enjoyed their hunt in the form of dove bites.

Dove Bites:

Take half a piece of bacon, place some cream cheese and a slice of jalapeno pepper between two dove breast, and secure with a toothpick. Our dove was soaked in hoover sauce before the wrapping process. Hoover sauce is a tasty sauce found in MS. Grill the dove bites and enjoy.

They are delicious!!

This is my dad and me preparing the bites. Don't you like my apron and side ponytail?

Hopefully Stephen will cheer Auburn to another victory this weekend!

WAR EAGLE!!

Sweet or Salty?

Nick and I are alike in some ways, but today we laughed as we realized how different we can be. I have always loved sweets. Nick does not. He doesn't even like chocolate. I try not to hold this against him. Since we have been married, I have not eaten as many sweets as I have previously in my life. There is one time when we were first married that I made a chocolate cake. I ate half of it before throwing the rest out because I was feeling guilty about eating the entire thing all by myself.

My family likes to make fun of Nick for being a "picky eater." However, the longer we have been married, the more I realize that he is not that picky. He often orders the most exotic item on a menu, and if I ask nicely, he tries almost anything.

This afternoon I made a little snack.

Yummy, strawberries dipped in chocolate!

They were fabulous. The worst part was waiting on the chocolate to cool and harden on the strawberries. As I was enjoying my treat with a glass of white wine, Nick was eating cold fried chicken, with cold ketchup, and a beer. One thing we have not compromised on is ketchup. He likes it cold. I like it room temp. To solve our problem, we have two different ketchups.

This afternoon we laughed as we realized how satisfying our two different snacks were from each other. So whatever your favorite is, sweet or savory, I hope you can enjoy it as much as I did these strawberries!

Routines

Do you have a routine? Or are you stuck in a rut?

I go through the same routine almost every morning.
Drink a cup of coffee while watching TV.
Shower and make up.
Fry 2 eggs, and eat them with a piece of toast and a glass of milk.
Get dressed, make up the bed, make another cup of coffee, and head to work.

I enjoy my relaxing morning, and I really love my breakfast. You would think I would be tired of 2 eggs every morning. However, I've also eaten a turkey sandwich almost everyday for lunch for years, and I'm not tired of it yet. Even though I don't mind eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch, I do need variety when it comes to dinner.

My afternoon routine varies. When I get home there are so many things I want to do. Exercise, eat, watch something good on TV, sleep, cook, blog. The list could go on and on. Since I've been working at Sylvan, I do tend to get home later than I'm used to, but I don't mind because my sanity is worth it. This has led me to neglect the blog for quite some time. But I will not blame it all on work, I have also been cooking a lot more. I'm normally starving and can't spend time blogging while dinner needs to be cooked. After dinner it's bed time. With all my cooking I feel like Julie on the movie Julie and Julia. However, I have not been cooking Julia Child's recipes, I've been cooking out of the Pioneer Woman's cookbook. She has some easy and delicious recipes. I've been in a serious dinner rut, and I needed some new things to cook. Just take a look at what I've recreated.

I'll try to change my afternoon routine to have more blog time. If you are stuck in a cooking rut try cooking out of one cookbook or from one particular person. It has really helped me!

Until next week, I'll be by the pool.

Have a good weekend!

Stay-cations

For the past two weekends I have have enjoyed some stay-cations. The Wikipedia definition of stay-cation is, "a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home or takes day trips from their home to areas of attraction."

Two weekends ago 2 of my college roommates came to visit me! We had a wonderful time relaxing and catching up on each other's lives. I didn't take many pictures of the weekend, but we enjoyed good food, good drinks, and we had plenty of sunshine by the pool. Saturday night was very stormy so, instead of going out to eat like we had planned, we ordered pizza, rented 3 movies, and drank wine. It was great! We felt just like we were living together again!

Since I did not take many photos of the weekend, I'll share a few from our Auburn days.

Stephanie, me, Allie (could not attend this past weekend), and Mary Catherine posing in front our house in Auburn before a football game.

All of us on Bid-Day 2006 Before our formal in the Spring of 2007
Allie we missed you, and hope we can do it again soon!

This past weekend we went to Lake Martin with Nick's immediate family. I am considering this a stay-cation because it took us less than an hour to get there. We rented a cabin on the lake and a pontoon boat for the weekend. We enjoyed skiing, cruising in the boat, eating, and playing cards. We also attended this year's AquaPalooza. Don't you remember that from last year? It was not quite as big this year, but it was still fun! It was a great place for a vacation, and we are already planning to go back next year!

This was our cabin. It had a great front porch for happy hour, cards, or reading.

This was our group: Nick and meNick's sister Lauren and her husband JasonNick's brother Jeremy and his fiancee BrynnNick's mom CindyNick's dad DarwinAnd of course, all the dogs. Boots, Tucker, and RileyThis is one of our docks where we enjoyed getting some sun. Isn't this a great view? There was also a nice covered part for those who did not want to be in the sun. It was great for everyone!Both mornings I woke up to this. A good cup of coffee, my book, and the water. I'm reading Laura Bush's book, and it is great! More on this to come later.

Besides relaxing in the sun, we also had an eventful time on the water. Here are some pictures of this year's AquaPalooza. There were not as many people as last year, and the main event was John Anderson. We didn't even stay long enough to see him, but we enjoyed the entertainment for a little while. Nick was the captain most of the time. This has been his summer of boats! We really enjoyed the pontoon boat because everyone could fit comfortably. We also took our boat. This one was a little rough on this lake.However, it was great for early morning and late night skiing!We also went to Chimney Rock. In this picture Jeremy had just jumped off. Can you see him? We spent a lot of time at one-tree island. There is sand all around this one tree, so it was a good spot to sit or float without having to go in. One night a few of us stayed out here late into the night. It was beautiful with a bright full moon.

I have enjoyed all of my stay-cations. I love traveling, but sometimes staying home (or close to) is wonderful too! I hope your summer travels have been lovely! Hope you can have a fun stay-cation soon!