Real Housewife of the Midwest

January 24, 2010

Christmas 2009

This Christmas was a memorable one to say the least. We had a BLIZZARD Christmas Eve......that's right, a BLIZZARD!! Josh and I drove in to Chickasha Christmas Eve morning. The snow had started to fall but it wasn't too bad. By the time we got to Chickasha, the wind had really picked up and we had a feeling we might not be coming back home that night.

We celebrated Josh's birthday/Christmas Eve with mom, dad, Lesha, Billy, Me-Me and Allen. The weather was too bad for Nancy and Ethan & Ellis to make the drive from OKC.

Josh cooked his first fried turkey!

Mom had a birthday cake made for mine and Josh's birthday!

By the time we finished eating, the weather had really gotten bad! But, we had been looking forward to waking up at our first house together on Christmas morning, so we decided to make a go of it and try to get home........bad idea! We didn't make it too far before the car got stuck in a bank of snow. Josh and dad tried to dig us out....they dug for what seemed like forever in that awful snowy blizzard! And....we got nowhere!

We were really upset at first about not being able to be at our house on Christmas morning. We've always been at either my parents or Josh's mom's on Christmas morning - this was going to be the first time that we had a house of our own to wake up at.

But, it turned out to be a really good thing. I realized that this may be the last time that me and my sister would both wake up at our parents house Christmas morning. Lesha is getting married this summer and moving to Dallas and although Josh and I are only 20 minutes away, we have moved on and have a home of our own where we will be spending our future Christmas's together as our own family. I've had so many great memories of Christmas morning with mom, dad and Lesha and it was really special to add one last year to the memories.

The next morning, the wind and snow had died down enough for Josh and dad to try again to dig the car out. This time, they were successful!

When we got home, we had the most beautiful "White Christmas" scene you can imagine! It was so beautiful and just perfect!

The first thing we did was get bundled up and go out to play!

I attempted to make a snow man.

Rocky enjoyed the snow for a while, but he got too cold and had to go inside.

We made snow angels!

Josh's (above)
Mine (below)

Like I said, this was a Christmas to remember! It was a perfect day that will forever be embedded in my mind!

January 20, 2010

I'm Still Alive

I bet there are many readers out there worried about me.....hahaha! I haven't been able to blog in a while because our laptop decided to crash on us. Good news is - we got the laptop running again. Bad news is - I haven't gotten my camera software re-loaded yet. I have a ton of pictures and stories to share from Christmas and our trip to Tennessee, but that will have to wait.

But in the meantime...I have some great recipes to share! First up are PW's BBQ Meatballs. The first time I made these, I just used frozen meatballs and added the sauce. They were pretty good, but they are even better if you take the time to make the meatballs from scratch. The second time I made these was for our Tacky Christmas Party. I made them just as the recipe says, but then put them in the crock pot to keep warm. This worked okay, but I really should have used the frozen meatballs because the home-made ones are a little too loose to put in the crock pot...they started to fall apart a little bit. But the taste was still there! The third time I made them for Josh, myself and Lesha one night for dinner to go along with some Green Bean Bundles and Triple Layer Mud Pie (see recipes below). They were so, so, so, good! They are more like mini-meatloafs than your regular Italian style meatballs - they have more of a "comfort food" feel as PW says. Anyways.....see below for all 3 recipes, and try them soon!! I promise, you'll thank me!

BBQ Meatballs

Green Bean Bundles

Triple Layer Mud Pie

BBQ Meatballs

What You'll Need:

(for meatballs)
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
3/4 cups oats
1 cup milk
3 T finely minced onion
1 1/2 tsp salt
ground black pepper

(for cooking meatballs)
1 cup flour
canola oil

(for sauce)
1 cup ketchup
2 T sugar
3 T vinegar
2 T worcestershire
4 T finely minced onion
1 dash tabasaco

What You'll Do:

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all meatball ingredients. Roll into medium size balls and place on cookie sheet. Place sheet in freezer for 5 minutes. Remove meatballs from freezer and immediately dredge in unseasoned flour. Brown meatballs in canola oil until just brown. Place in baking dish. Combine all sauce ingredients. Pour over meatballs and bake @ 350 for 45 minutes.

Green Bean Bundles

What You'll Need:

2-3 cans whole green beans
1 lb bacon
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp garlic salt

What You'll Do:

Cut bacon in half. Wrap bacon around a bundle of green beans and secure with a toothpick. Place green bean bundles in oven proof dish. Melt butter over stove top. Add brown sugar and garlic salt. Pour glaze over beans. Bake @ 375 for 45 minutes.

Triple Layer Mud Pie

What You'll Need:

3 squares of Bakers semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted
1/4 cup canned sweetened condensed milk
1 oreo pie crust
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 cups cold milk
2 pkg (4 serving size) chocolate instant pudding
1 tub cool whip

What You'll Do:

Mix chocolate and condensed milk until blended. Pour into pie crust and sprinkle with pecans. Pour milk into large mixing bowl, add pudding mixes and beat with wire whisk for 2 minutes or until well blended (will be thick). Spoon 1 1/2 cups of pudding into pie crust. Add 1/2 of cool whip to remaining pudding, stir with whisk until blended. Spoon over pudding layer. Top with remaining cool whip. Refrigerate 3 hrs.

December 27, 2009

Christmas Happenings.....

Click the links below to catch up on some of Christmas Happenings!

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

The Pioneer Woman

Tacky Christmas Party

Can You Say......TACKY?!

I had planned on having a house warming party after we moved in but we got busy and never found the time to do it. Josh's birthday is Christmas Eve so he has never really gotten to celebrate his birthday with a big birthday party.....so we came up with the idea to host a party at our house for his birthday. It was a "Tacky Christmas Party", so everyone was supposed to dress in the tackiest, ugliest Christmas clothes they could find. I think each of our guests did an awesome job!