Tasty Tuesday

This recipe was given to me by my cousin Shannon, she and her guests have nothing but good things to say about it. It may be a fall football season favorite :) Thanks Shannon!

FRANK'S REDHOT BUFFALO CHICKEN DIP

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup blue cheese or ranch salad dressing
• 1/2 cup any flavor FRANK'S® REDHOT® Sauce
• 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese or shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 cans (12.5 oz. each) Chunk Chicken Breast, drained

DIRECTIONS:

• HEAT oven to 350°F. Place cream cheese into deep baking dish. Stir until smooth.
• MIX in salad dressing, Frank's RedHot Sauce and cheese. Stir in chicken.
• BAKE 20 min. or until mixture is heated through; stir. Garnish as desired. Serve with crackers or vegetables.

Fantastic weekend

After work this weekend I drove over to KC to hang with my friend & fellow OD, Erin. We always have a great time no matter what we do. This weekend we shopped, grilled, enjoyed wine, went to church, hit up the pool and shopped some more. Erin brought home some amazing scallops from Costco on Saturday & we wrapped them in prosciutto, holy cow were they good!! But let me tell you, the grill was HOT!

Here is a picture of my amazing view on my drive home. The skies over the Flint Hills is absolutely beautiful!

Cinnamon?? Really??

READ THIS: Cinnamon May Help Prevent Diabetes, Heart Disease.

The UK's Daily Mail (8/27) reports that "cinnamon could help prevent diabetes and heart disease," according to research published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. In a study of "22 'pre-diabetic' obese" individuals, researchers "found that a cinnamon-water solution contains antioxidants that can cut the chances of getting either disease by up to 23 per cent."

It is not exactly a significant study, with only 22 test subjects, but looks promising! I am going to go find a recipe for cinnamon water!

Suzy gives birth

The Little Apple's Zoo made the headlines this week. Watch and find out why :)

Grilled Pizza

This is a building recipe... It is for grilled pizza, so I am just supplying the foundation and you can use what you like for your own toppings.

The best advice I can give you is to pretend like you are a TV chef. Get everything ready and in bowls b/c you have to work quickly on the grill or your dough will burn!

Ingredients for dough:

• 1 (13.8-ounces) prepared pizza crust
• Flour
  
• Olive oil

Directions for the dough:

• On a lightly-floured surface, unfold the dough and cut it into quarters. Place on serving tray with a bit of flour still on the bottom side. Brush the top side of the dough with olive oil and flip onto a 250-300 degree grill. It is very important to have all the ingredients within hand's reach at the grill at this point.
• Put olive oil on to the floured side and cook just until it begins to puff, about 3 min.
  
• Carefully flip the crusts and start putting on your ingredients! Immediately spread the crusts with whatever your heart desires. When all the toppings are complete, close the lid of the grill and cook just until the cheese is melted and/or toppings are warm, about 2 to 3 minutes. Be careful not to burn the crust.

Here are pictures of my pizzas. They were so good!! I even impressed myself :)
For my toppings I used the following:

• Canned pizza sauce
• Pepperoni
  
• Onion & mushroom mix - saute 1 small onion in olive oil & butter until soft, add 8 oz mushrooms and continue to saute until both onions and mushrooms begin to caramelize. Add kosher salt, pepper, basil & garlic to taste.
• Artichokes
• Tomatoes
  
• Fresh and shredded mozzarella cheese
  

Hope this inspires you to make your own grilled pizzas. It really is easy. I can't wait to make different ones, savory & sweet in the future!

Lost pictures

Here is a lost picture from this weekend. There were a few others, but this one was the only blog worthy one :) Such a FUN night!

Owen, me, Nate, Kimmie, Abigail (nice with the rabbit ears) and Nick.

My love & passion

There are 2 things I love doing... baking and seeing people smile. Last weekend I did not have to work on Saturday, so I got up and baked cookies. Some people think I am crazy that I do not eat what I make, and I tell them that if I did I would be 300 lbs. Here are the cookies I made to give to some special people. I was told it looks like something Martha would do :) I will take that as a compliment!

Tasty Tuesday

Here are 2 great recipes. Perfect for football season.

DIP IN BREAD

Ingredients:

• 16 oz. cream cheese
• 1 c. chopped parsley
• 2 T. mayo
• ⅛ t. lemon juice
• 2 T. sour cream
• ⅛ t. garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon dried mustard
• 5 oz. dried beef chopped
• Sourdough bread, hollowed out

Directions: Mix all ingredients and put into hollowed out bread bowl. Wrap bread bowl in foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The recipe is one that I found online but very similar to one of my very favorite places to eat in Manhattan, Rock A Belly Deli
SUMMER BEER
Ingredients:

• 12 oz frozen lemonade concentrate
• 12 oz vodka
• 3-4 cans/bottles of light beer

Directions: Mix and enjoy!

Wonderful weekend

And yet another great weekend... I didn't have to work, which always makes things nice. I woke up and enjoyed some coffee, went on a nice leisurely run and then came back to bake some cookies, will post that later!

The afternoon started off with a great lunch at Rockabelly and followed by a brewery tour at Tallgrasss Brewery. Highly recommend a tour if you have not been. They have some great brews. I think this one has a funny name but an awesome taste.
At Tallgrass they can their beers b/c it keeps 100% of the light out and cans are much lighter and easier to recycle than glass.

After the tour I had dinner at Coco Bolos, yet another local favorite and then headed down to Moro street to see the Kansas State Marching Band play and met up with some more friends.

The Weber's - Annie, Lucy & Brian. Lucy was NOT a fan of Willie the Wildcat.

Owen and me

Kimmie, Abigail, Willie, Annie & me

At Tubby's having a few cocktails

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil :)

Pure laziness... No other excuse

I have been a total blog slack this past month. I have not been taking pictures like normal and I really don't like to post a blog without a picture.

Last weekend my girls from home came up to visit. The last time we were all together was in January for our birthdays, so this trip was long over due. Here we are before heading to "Eat Pray Love". I had just finished the book a few days earlier, it was a decent book but the movie did not impress me in the least. After the movie we came back to my house and continued eating, it is kind of our thing :) Here is the shrimp I quickly whipped up.

And our favorite, dip in bread. Thanks to Megan for bringing it. YUM!

Audra & I enjoying our summer beers

Sunday morning we went to a breakfast place that I have heard amazing things about but had not been able to experience. We had about a 30 min wait but it was so worth it! I will be taking all my guests to The Chef from here on out. I had the buenos dias frittata and enjoyed every bite.

It was a beautiful morning so we were happy to wait for our table outside

I will have to post recipes later this week from our food. I am certainly excited for football season to get here and see some of these same girls on a regular basis. Thanks for coming to visit me girls.

Great Story

Here is a great story about K-State basketball player Curtis Kelly.

Click here!

BIG Typo

Here is a freshly paved stretch of road near Southern Guilford High School in North Carolina... OOPS

Disgusting

This whole ordeal is just gross and this guy should be ashamed of himself, but somehow he is not. I guess that is what happens when you are so clueless about life.

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