Author Archives: katherine

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The Sunday Review: Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken

To make sure we don’t fall into a “food rut” I’ve decided to try at least one new recipe each week. And to help keep me accountable, I thought I’d do a little recipe review each Sunday.

This week’s new recipe was crock pot buffalo chicken that I had found on Pinterest and heard great things from a lot of other blogger friends.

{Click the image to go to the original recipe} 

Level of Difficulty: SUPER EASY-I used frozen chicken breasts, overall prep took about 5 minutes tops.

What I did different: I only used 4 chicken breasts, not a 3 lb bag. I still used nearly an entire jar of the buffalo sauce. I poured the sauce and ranch packet in first and whisked it together, then put the chicken in. Mine cooked in 4 hours. I was able to shred the chicken right in the crock pot. I never used the butter.

Serving Suggestions: Based on the recommendation of other bloggers that tried it, we added cheese to our sandwiches…because, DUH, cheese makes everything better! We served it with corn. I’m thinking salad would have been a good side for it too.

PROS: This was definitely a crowd pleaser! I was a little apprehensive about it at first because my dad was going to be joining us for dinner and I thought it might be too spicy for him, but he loved it! Another pro: I only used 4 chicken breasts and it easily fed 4 men and me, with leftovers for at least 2 or 3 more sandwiches.

CONS: It only took about 4 hours to cook in the crock pot, so it’s not one you can start in the morning before work.

Will we make it again?: I have a confession, I didn’t really like it…but, the guys all did, so I figure if we have some kind of gathering that will have lots of dudes and I need something easy to throw together, I’ll make it again, but not likely just for our little family of 3.

Next Week? Foil-baked halibut with black beans, corn and chipotle.

You can see what we’ve got planned this week for dinner by checking out my “on the table” tab.

Working With Style {6}

Oh hey look! There’s those jeans and boots! again.

I am seriously getting kind of sick of just wearing jeans. I even had a real-deal offsite meeting this week and went to my closet for my favorite pair of slacks only to remember they’re in my “take to the dry cleaners” pile. Then, all the rest of my slacks I had in my closet are too big. Jeans again. WOMP.

Last weekend Tracy tweeted about a great sale at OldNavy.com so I went there, found some cute not jeans, but not quite slacks, tried to buy them and the website crashed. Lame.

Are you a working mom? Link up with us!

This Kid…

Oh my, this kid has been killing me with the cute lately!

I mean really…what a little ham bone.

I’m loving her sense of humor too…she’ll tell me one thing and then yell out “JUST JOKING!” with a big grin and giggle.

The other night during dinner, Andy said something and Ry looked over at him, sighed a little and said, “Oh Dad, you’re hilarious.”

She regularly looks at me and says, “Really mom? Really?”

{Ummm…when did she start calling us mom and dad!?}

She’s so silly and giggly and just all around awesome.

Happy Friday!!

Looking Ahead to Your Teenage Years {Halloween}

Dear Rylee,

We had so much fun the other night. It was so amazing to watch you be so brave and walk up the steps of those houses that were dimly lit with eerie music playing. You have grown so much since last year yet; you are still filled with the wonder of it all and still so innocent.

There will come a time when you’ll want to venture out and trick-or-treat with your friends. Believe me when I say that I’m ok with that…but convincing your father may be a different story. I’m guessing that day will come sooner than we’d like, but when it does, I want you to remember a few things…

If you’re going to go out trick-or-treating, no matter how old you are, you will be dressing up. End of story. It doesn’t have to be some big fancy, expensive costume, but seriously…put a little bit of effort into it.

Contrary to popular belief, Halloween is not just an excuse for girls to dress likes hoochies and get away with it. Seriously. Plus, it’s the end of October…it’s going to be cold out…bring a sweater! If you must, at least save that for your college years when you’re over 18 and out of the house.

If you’re going to go out trick-or-treating, you better not think you’re “too cool” to actually say “trick-or-treat”. None of this knocking on the door and just holding out your bag business…that’s not gonna fly.

After you knock on the door, in your costume, say “trick-or-treat” and get your candy? The words “thank you” {or some variation of} better come out of your mouth. I don’t care how much of a hurry you’re in to get to the next house, those people didn’t have to spend who-knows-how-much-money to buy candy for total strangers and you need to appreciate it.

Be mindful of the little kids, because it’s really for them, not you. Be mindful of the adults taking the little kids around from house to house. If they’re trying to drive down the road, just get out of the way, you are not “holier than though” or owed anything. Be respectful. Watch your language.

I sum all this up with 3 words: don’t be an asshole. 

Hugs & Kisses,

Mama

P.S. These words of wisdom, go right along with the first “looking ahead to your teenage years” letter I wrote you. Trust me, as you grow, there will be more.

This is how rumors get started…

My sister called me the other day to tell me a funny story.

My sister was talking to a Mary Kay customer of hers (yes, my sis is an MK consultant). This customer of hers is a friend of a friend of an in-law of mine…or something like that. Through their conversation about make-up-y things, they were catching on family life in general.

She asked what Rylee was going to be for Halloween. How old she was now, etc. Normal common ground chit-chat small talk-type stuff.

Then she asked if everything was ok with Andy and me.

My sister, kind of taken aback from this question out of what seemed like nowhere, said, yes of course, why do you ask?

Well, she went on to tell my sister how she was in town recently and went to the new Cosmos store in the mall and could’ve sworn she saw Rylee and me in picutres on the walls. But, it just couldn’t have been us because the man pictured was not Andy. She was confused. And concerned.

And the next time she spoke to her friend, who happens to be my sister-in-law {who, aside from family gatherings we happen to not really talk to} she asked what, if anything, was going on with Andy and I. I guess My sister-in-law just replied with an “I don’t know” sort of answer.

About that point in the conversation my sister laughed, assured her that everything was fine and that dude in the photos was just a model because Andy had to work on the day the photo shoot was scheduled.

Or maybe it was about that point in my sister telling me the story that I busted out laughing at it all…I can’t exactly remember now.

I seriously laugh out loud and just kind of shake my head thinking about it now.

And do think…it was all because of these photos…

I think it just goes to show you…we are very convincing models.