Border Bash Weekend in Augusta

This weekend we had a blast hanging out with great friends.  Mitch was playing in a golf tournament Friday afternoon with his good friends Joe, Nate, and Meyur.  The tournament was called "Border Bash".  It's an annual golf tournament in Augusta to celebrate the rivalry of the UGA versus SC football game.  Nate and Mitch drove up Friday morning, and Emily, myself, and all of our kids went Friday after work.  I was dreading having to drive with Ansley that late because the afternoon is her fussy time, but overall it was a good ride.  She did scream for about 15 minutes, but then she finally fell asleep.  Despite the turnout of the UGA game, we had a great time with the Todds, Greers, and Meyur.  The Todd's house is a kid's dream!  There are toys of every sort and an amazing playground in the backyard.  Ansley definitely played hard all weekend. Here are a few pictures from Saturday afternoon.

The girls...Kate, Ansley, and Ellis.  Ansley's face cracks me up.  She isn't quite sure about the situation.

Sweet girls and their babies.

Ansley and Ross playing together.

Ross...he is PRECIOUS!

Emily and Ansley

Ansley being a ham for the camera.

Look at me trying to walk!

Sweet and pretty Ellis

Sweet and pretty Kate.

Ross and I bonding...he doesn't sit still long, so I soaked up that time with him.

Even Meyur, "Mo", got in on a little feeding action.  I think he fed Ansley two bottles over the weekend!  He was a great help to have!

Amanda and Ansley playing.

"Mo" and Matthew hanging out.

John John...look at that sweet face. Emily and John were buddies this weekend.

Rossy...love him.

Clearly she was excited about something.

Joe and his twins.

All of our UGA fans.  They were too cute!

The Greers

The Greers

The Todds

Matthew and John chillin' on the swings.

We had a blast all weekend, and we hope to get to see everyone again soon.  Thanks for having us, Amanda and Joe!! 

Curly Noodle Soup

I found the BEST chicken noodle soup recipe.  My secret pal at work gave me a cook book of all soups one year, and I decided to try the Curly Noodle Chicken Soup.  I needed a recipe to take to a friend who had a baby last January, and the recipe looked like something that would be good.  I wanted to make it first to make sure it tasted good before I made it for someone else.  I loved how it tasted, and it was really easy too.  Mitch isn't a big soup guy, but he likes this recipe too.  Since then, I've made it a few times.  We had it tonight for dinner, and it was just as delicious as the first time. Here's how you make it if you are interested.

I use my food chopper to dice the onion and celery really small.  I also bought the carrots that were already sliced to eliminate one step.  Chop the chicken into 1 inch pieces.  Saute with 2 TBS of butter and 2 TB of Olive Oil.

After about 5 minutes, add a mixture of flour, oregano, basil, and pepper and mix well.

Then add 1 can of diced tomatoes and 3 14.5 ounce cans of chicken broth.  I usually buy the box of 48 ounces instead of 3 individual cans.

It looks really juicy when you add the broth, but you'll need the juice to cook the noodles at the end.  After you bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 1 hour.

Then uncover and bring to a boil again.  Add the tri-colored rotini pasta.  Allow it to simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes.

Here is the final product right before I served it.

So yummy! I made sour cream biscuits to go with the soup.  It was the perfect "almost Fall" dinner.

Curly Noodle Chicken Soup
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces
1 large onion, diced
4 celery ribs, sliced
2 medium carrots, sliced
2 TBS butter
2 TBS olive oil
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp pepper
3 cans (14.5 ounces each) chicken broth
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
6 ounces uncooked tricolor spiral pasta (I probably use double this amount)

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, saute the chicken, onion, celery and carrots in butter and oil for 5 minutes.  Stir in flour, basil, oregano and pepper until blended.  Gradually add the broth and tomatoes.  Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour.  Return to a boil; stir in pasta.  Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered for 12-15 minutes or until the pasta is tender. 

Yields - 9 servings

Cheshire Fun

I love how things always work out.  When Mitch and I were looking for a house to buy in 2008, we looked everywhere.  I never thought we'd find our home.  We knew a couple of people who lived in Cheshire, and there happened to be a few houses for sale.  We found one that suited our style, and we made the purchase.  Over the next few years, several of our friends joined the neighborhood.  We love being so close to our friends, being able to go through the same seasons of life together, and getting to see each other on a weekly basis.  Sometimes it's just a wave riding down the street, but it's nice to see familiar faces.  When we do get together, it's always a great time.

Amy organized a progressive dinner with some of the couples in Cheshire.  We had a blast rotating to each house, and we definitely ate yummy food.  Since NO ONE took any pictures of the events, I'll just share a few recipes from the night.  We promised to do another progressive dinner, so next time I'll get some pictures.

Here is the invitation Amy emailed us.

We started out at our house for appetizers.  Since we were having appetizer, salad, dinner, and dessert, I didn't want to do too many appetizers.  I was going to just do one, but I decided to do two at the last minute.  Here are the recipes for what I made.  Both were big hits.

Salmon Chips
1 cup smoked salmon
1 tsp black pepper
2 1/2 TBS white chopped onion
8 oz cream cheese softened
1 tsp lemon juice
Grated cheddar cheese
Tortilla scoops
Sliced jalapenos

Combine salmon, pepper, onion, cream cheese, and lemon juice.  Combine well.  Spoon the mixture into Tortilla scoops and place on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle with cheddar cheese.  Place a jalapeno slice on top of each.  (I put a jalapeno on half of them since I knew everyone didn't like spicy foods.)  Broil until cheese melts.

The recipe makes about 25 salmon bites.  They are really easy and yummy!

I wasn't sure if everyone liked salmon, so I also did the delicious Charleston Cheese Dip.  I've had this many times, and it's always just as good.  I did make a few substitutions in the recipe.

Charleston Cheese Dip
1/2 cup mayonnaise
8 oz cream cheese softened
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese
2 green onions chopped (I didn't have green onions, so I just used chopped white onion)
Dash of Cayenne pepper
8 Ritz crackers crushed
8 slices of bacon cooked and crumbled (I didn't have bacon, so I used a small bag of bacon bits with the real bacon pieces)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix mayonnaise, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, MJ cheese, onions, and peppers together in a bowl.  Transfer to a shallow baking dish.  Top with bacon crumbles and Ritz crackers.  (I used about 15 instead of 8 crackers.)  Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until heated through.

Serve hot with crackers, scoops, corn chips, etc.

Here is a picture of the dip I found on Pinterest.

After appetizers, we all headed to the Arnold's for salad.  Amy made a wonderful salad that everyone enjoyed.

Ramen Noodle Salad
3 heads of Romaine lettuce
1 package of broccoli florets
1 heaping cup of craisins
4 TB melted butter
1 package of Ramen noodles
1 package of green onion chopped (Amy doesn't like onions, so she may have left these out.)
1 cup chopped pecans

Mix lettuce, broccoli, onion, and craisins together.  Melt butter and saute noodles and pecans.  Drain and let cool.

Dressing
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 1/2 TB soy sauce

Mix all dressing ingredients together and whisk well.

Mix pecans and noodle mixture with the salad mixture.  Add dressing and toss.

After salad, we went over to Charlie's house for the main meal.  Charlie did his specialty, lamb chops.  They were marinated in a Dijon mustard base marinade, and they were delish.  We had baked asparagus, hashbrown casserole, and bread with the lamb chops.

Last, we went to the other Arnold house for dessert.  Mallory made a yummy s'more dessert.  I found the recipe off her Pinterest site, so I wanted to share it too.

Smoresall
3  unbroken Graham crackers
1 roll of chocolate chip cookie dough
Hershey chocolate pieces
Mini Marshmallows

In a small baking dish, place the Graham crackers on the bottom.  Roll the cookie dough flat and place it on top of the graham crackers.  Bake according to package and until the cookie is cooked through.  Place pieces of broken Hershey's chocolate on top.  Spread mini marshmallows on top of chocolate.  Bake until the marshmallows are brown and puffy.  Serve with ice cream.

Here is the picture from Pinterest.

I loved how the marshmallows actually tasted like they were roasted over a fire.  It was a great dessert!

I can't wait for many more memories with our Chesire friends. 

Fun Weekend!

This past weekend was a busy weekend.  Westfield was celebrating Homecoming, and it was Mitch's 10 year class reunion.  We had several events to attend for that.  We also wanted to go to the annual NICU celebration in Macon to celebrate the babies who attended the NICU after birth.  I didn't do a great job of snapping pictures, but I did manage to get a few.

The NICU party was held at Central City Park in Macon.  They had about 6 big blow up jumpers for the kids to play on, 2 water blow-ups, a train ride, and of course food.  We dropped in for about an hour in between other events.  I was hoping to see some of Ansley's nurses and doctors, but it was too crowded to find them.  Most of the blow-ups were a little too big for Ansley, but she did enjoy this small jumper and the train ride.

Like I mentioned, Mitch's 10 year reunion was this weekend too.  Friday night, we went to the Westfield football game.  The alumni committee had a BBQ dinner for everyone before the game, and then we walked over and watched the game.  Afterwards, we went over to Christen's parent's house to watch old videos from their school years. 

Saturday morning, the ladies, moms, wives of classmates, and children were invited to a brunch at Amy's house.  Amy's house looked beautiful, and the food was great.  There were about 5 or 6 babies there, and they were ALL girls!  We had a good time catching up with just the girls, and all of the babies were so great.

Saturday night, we had the main event at the Coody Cabin in Hawkinsville.  Maggie and Amy did a great job setting up the cabin.  We had a delicious dinner and enjoyed watching the UGA game and catching up with friends.  Overall, it was a great weekend, and I think Mitch enjoyed seeing his old classmates.

These were their Senior shirts throughout the year.

They created these for each classmate.  It was neat to read about what everyone was up to.  I also enjoyed reading what they voted each class member "Most likely to do..."  Many of them were pretty accurate!

The cute name tags that Ashley Garrett made.

Appetizers and a few pictures.

Our sweet friends and neighbors, Chris and Amy.

Amy and me

Cole and Clayton enjoying the evening.

The table was so pretty!

Chris, always busy at work.

Mitch and me

Mitch, Griffin, and Chris catching up.

The lanterns were all lit, and they were so pretty at night.