Celebrate Good Times!!

On Sunday evening we celebrated my nephew! His birthday is today and he is 21. I'm still not sure how that happened.

My sister decided that he is a little too old for a "real" birthday party, so we had an informal family gathering and ate finger foods last night. I'm always trying to come up with something that's a little different for functions like these. ..other than my Yogurt Spinach Dip.

When we enrolled in our homeschool group, we had snacks and drinks before the "meeting". I put the tiniest spoonful of an amazing dip on my plate. After I'd had one bite I wanted the recipe. I thought about asking around, but the group is large and the only other person that I knew was my cousin. So, I chit-chatted with the parents (of nine homeschooled children) at my table and thought I'd look online for a similar recipe. The very next day, the homeschool group's founder asked for website help on facebook. I saw where one of the members said that she had a website and could help. I clicked over to her site and found out that it was a food blog. I did a search for the dip and found it. And now we're facebook friends.

So here's the recipe that I'm going to call Homeschool Jalapeno Popper Dip! I'm already thinking this may be a neat dip for Big daddy to take to office parties and such.

Homeschool Jalapeno Popper Dip
2- 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1 c mayo
8 oz chopped green chiles
2 oz canned/jarred jalapenos, chopped
1/2 c shredded parmesan cheese
Mix first four ingredients in bowl. Transfer to casserole dish and top with shredded parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Serve hot with tortilla chips.

This isn't the healthiest dip, but if you're serving it at a party with lots of people you'll probably only eat a bit. To balance things out, I also fixed homemade salsa using a copycat recipe for Chili's Salsa.

Copycat Chili's Salsa

1- 14 oz can of tomatoes and green chiles
1- 14 oz can of whole tomatoes 4t jalapenos (I used canned)
1/4 c onion 1/2 t garlic salt (I used garlic powder)
1/2 t cumin
Put in blender until desired consistency. (I made mine a little runny, just like Chili's.) Transfer to bowl and chill. Serve with tortilla chips. It tastes better after it's a few hours old and all of the flavors have time to blend.

On a completely different note, today also happens to be six year anniversary of the day that we saw Maggie on the ultrasound screen for the first time! After years of ultrasounds and visits to my gynecologists and midwives it was so exciting to see a baby on the screen! It also came after a couple of days of "unexplained" bleeding. Of course, we found out at Maggie's birth that this could have been an early symptom of our vasa previa. It really does only take a moment to diagnose life. I was sure that I had miscarried, so seeing and hearing her little heartbeat was even more amazing.

Something Sweet

I very seldom share recipes because I don't use them that often. I have always enjoyed reading recipes and I can remember doing it at my Grandma's house when I was really young. I can remember hanging out in the kitchen with my mom or one of my grandmothers and just watching the things that they would do.

My first experience making anything from scratch was in high school in a home economics type class. I took a Teen Living class and a Foods and Nutrition class which taught the basics of sewing and cooking. This is around the time that I became an active member in FHA, also known as The Future Homemakers of America. I guess I sort of have my dream job after all!!

I made a pecan pie from scratch one day and I think this was my first fail! I had made biscuits and muffins from scratch in school, so I decided to try making my Grandma's Pecan Pie recipe. I didn't think it looked right and called my Grandma to describe it so that she could tell me if it sounded normal. I had planned to take the pie to work and I went along with my plans even though the filling never set up and was quite runny. My Grandma assured me that I did everything okay. Years later, I got pretty good at making her pound cake, but they were never as good as hers. I really wish I had watched a little closer when my other Grandma made her famous biscuits, but I'm sure I would have messed them up!!

My mom was going through my Grandma's recipes and found a "pie" recipe that she had cut out of a magazine. My mom made it and it was a hit. I looked over the recipe and was happy to see that it had simple ingredients that I had on hand. I copied the recipe, came home, put Ellie to nap, mixed up the pie and hoped it would come out okay while I homeschooled Maggie.

The good news is that it was yummy! I made a simple mistake (as I think I always do), but it didn't ruin it! I don't bake very many sweets because I'd eat all of them myself. This recipe was simple and everybody enjoyed it, so I think I'll make it again sometime. It's called apie, but it's really like a brownie.

Fudge Brownie Pie

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 c melted butter/margarine (I only use real butter)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa (I used special dark)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts- optional (I didn't use nuts)

Beat eggs and vanilla and blend in sugar and melted butter. Combine flour, salt and cocoa and add to the egg mixture. Pour into a greased 8 inch pie plate and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Pie will not test done.
Cut in wedges and top with ice cream and hot fudge. (I didn't do this)