recipes and ramblings

Man, I was up early today! I was reminded how much I despise waking up when its still dark out to an awful alarm clock, so thankful those days are (currently and hopefully forever) behind me. I've learned a lot about pre-schools/school since arriving here in Waco, and I still feel too young to be dealing with/worrying about where my daughter goes to school! How am I this old already and dealing with these issues?! Anyhoo, since Brennan will be starting her third year of pre-school in the fall she needs to start going 3 days a week rather than just 2. Her current school doesn't offer this option so I was on the hunt for one that did. I found it, but apparently its "the" school to get your kids into so registration is c.r.a.z.y. The doors opened today at 8am but I got there at 7:05am. I waited, it was cold, and early. BUT, hopefully it was worth it b/c I was the third person in line and was the first person for the class I wanted. This doesn't mean B is in though, I have to go back at noon today to find out. Seriously?!! Its pre-school people!! Anyway, we'll see how that all goes down. In other news, I haven't been cooking much this week since I desperately need to go the store and haven't yet, and I'm still recovering from St. Patrick's day cooking. But, I did make a couple things in the past month that I haven't shared yet. I tried this pasta primavera recipe recently and it was sooo good. I used bowtie pasta rather than penne but that was my only change. I will definitely make it again, we loved it. The other day I had some blackberries in the fridge that weren't being eaten (so bizarre), so I made these blackberry muffins. The batter was so tasty! I think I could've baked them about 3 minutes longer, they were a little too doughy for me but it wasn't the recipes fault, I'd say they are probably worth repeating. They only take a few minutes and are a little treat. That's the haps round here today. I don't really do birthday shout outs any more but today is my dear friend Izzy's birthday and tomorrow is Katie's birthday and I love them both a lot and they read my blog so, since its a random blog post day and I feel like it, HAPPT BIRTHDAY sweet friends!! Okay, that's all for now. Happy Thursday! xo (P.S. I'm having serious formatting issues with blogger, any other blog spot bloggers out there also having these problems?!!)

wanna see this beauty?...

..then head on over here where she is being blogged today! xo

Cole's Super Hero 4th Birthday Party

My friend Kellye sure does know how to throw a party! Cole turned 4 super hero style and it was soooo cool!

(images sooc)
























The super heros had to try to catch the bad guys, here are the bad guys...


go get 'em super heros!








The birthday boy...









It was a roaster! I think summer has come to Waco!

yesterday's (simple) pleasures

Yesterday was a typical day but it was full of life's simple pleasures. First, I met B at school for the "mommie and me tea," it was so cute. We ate pretty cookies and got our picture taken wearing feather boas, made me so thankful for my girl. Later in the day it was pretty much the perfect temperature outside (hooray for Waco in March!) I didn't feel like being hunched over a kitchen stove missing out so I ran to Chipotle to grab a burrito for Adam and I to share, then got B a hamburger right next door at McDonalds, came home, set up a card table, grabbed some chairs, and the 3 of us ate dinner outside. B loved it, we loved it, and we decided to put the card table in a more convenient location for last minute moments such as these. xo









my tulips have seen better days but I loved the way the light was coming through the window and making the flowers look so pretty

this super cute family...

...is being blogged over here today! xo

weekend menu wrap up and a sneak peek!

Whew! It was a busy weekend and I spent most of it in the kitchen! Here is the lowdown on the food:

I didn't actually get to try any of the Steak and Guinness pie but several people told me it was the best thing on the menu and it was gone in a hurry so it must've been good! (I cheated and used already made pie crust crumbs that just required water and rolling out)

I also didn't get a chance to try the Irish Stew but there were hardly any leftovers so I'll assume it was tasty as well. :)

The Corn Beef was awe.some. if I do say so myself! I will say though, it shrinks a lot when you cook it so there wasn't much to go around but it was delish!

I made 2 different kids of soda bread, in my post below is the link for one, here is the link for the other. Adam and I both preferred the plain bread versus the one with the currants, and the plain one got finished off but there was still 1/4 of the other left so I guess the general consensus preferred the plain. Both were good though!

The guinness chocolate cake was to.die.for. I didn't anticipate liking it since it had beer in it and I'm not a fan of beer but it was sooooooooooooooooo good! It was dense/moist/rich/YUMMY. I didn't go to all of the work to make the sauce, when I saw that you had to light it on fire I decided to pass, I just put carmel sauce on it and that did the trick just fine!

I also made this peanut butter pie. I've made this recipe for years and its always a hit. I don't make it the "light" way so I can't speak to that, but the fattening way is just plain delish!

I also made this vegetarian dish since there were a couple veges in the bunch, I thought it would be good but ohmygosh, it was so good! Its definitely going to be a repeater, maybe for meatless Monday?

It was a lot of time in the kitchen but worth it, we had a lot of fun.

All right, gotta get back to editing this cute session, here is a sneak peek of what's to come! Hope you all had a lovely weekend! xo

Happy St. Paddy's Day!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!! Since we lived in Ireland for a year Adam and I like to think we're part Irish now, so this day is extra special to us. :) I've been going over recipes for days, trying to decide what to make that is Irish but that in all honestly, won't taste too Irish (hey, just keeping it real, Irish food...not so great, sorry Tom!). So, since this lovely holiday falls on a Thursday we're going to have some folks from church over on Saturday to celebrate. Here is my menu lineup:

Irish Stew

Beef and Guinness Pie

Honey Marmalade Mustard Corned Beef

Irish Soda Bread

Chocolate Guinness Cake with Irish Cream Caramel Sauce

Here's to hoping it tastes good even though its Irish!

B looked so cute today, she is wearing a green shamrock shirt to school today, of course I don't have my wits about me much in the AM to think to take a picture but if I remember later today I'll upload it to this post.

Dinner last night was good! Several folks have asked what I made so here was dinner last night:

Herbs de Provence Chicken - I don't really ever eat chicken that has bones in it, or skin, but this looked so good I made an exception (although, I didn't eat the skin and stayed far away from any meat touching the bone). I thought it was good but it wasn't as flavorful as I anticipated, but the herbs de Provence made my house smell soooo yummy so it might have been worth it just for that. And I like using my cast iron skillet, for some reason it seems hard core or something.

I bought 3 cheese bread at Panera and heated that up -YUM, we had cesar salad and my homemade specialty potatoes (which basically means I cut them in small pieces and smoother them w/ evoo, salt and pepper and bake at a high temperature for a long time).

Dessert: Key Lime Pie. This was very tasty but mine didn't look at all like the pictures AND ohmyword did it take me forever and a day to juice a million teeny tiny key limes to make up 3/4 of a cup (it actually didn't even make 3/4 of a cup, after a little over half a cup the large bag of key limes I bought had all been used to I had to just use plain lime juice that was already in my fridge). So, all that to say, definitely worth making but if you live in a place that actually has something like a Trader Joes or a store with some fancier products than we have here in Waco, I would hands down buy some pre-made key lime juice (and maybe our store has some...I'm not sure but I would be surprised). Anyhoo, delish nonetheless!

As for B and the dentist, it was a success!!! Adam and I both went with her, they said only one parent could actually be with her and she chose Adam (I was so relieved, he's much better at distracting her and being less...hyper/paranoid about each thing). Anyway, I could stay in the waiting room and peer through a window to watch and Adam and I texted the whole time "is that a dentist or hygienist? what are they saying? Is B okay? Is she freaking out? Are they being nice?" I'm sure Adam thought I was ridiculous but since it was her first time I so wanted her to have a good experience so she wouldn't be scared the next time she had to go. Anyway, she came out all smiles, a new toothbrush in hand, and said it wasn't bad at all! My mom always rewarded us with ice cream after the dentist so I decided to carry on this tradition. :) All in all, a busy but good day!




I hope you all have a great St. Patrick's Day, wear green and don't get pinched! The Winns HEART IRELAND!!! xo

today is a busy one!

Its 9amish here and I gotta be up and at em today! (9amish is normally when I'm sluggishly moving around the house in my pjs, don't judge). :) We have some friends who's social calendar is crazy so we decided (and by "we" I mean my friend) hey, why do we have to do something in the evening? Lets meet for breakfast! So, me, Adam and B are off to have breaky with some friends, fun!! I've gotta race home, drop off B and Adam and head to the store to get some groceries for dinner tonight. We're having some friends over tonight, they've never been here so that means I a) need to make the bed, and b) want to try out some new recipes! (and trying out new recipes is part of my new years "goals" each week so this is a great time to knock some out! heres to hoping they turn out!). Then, I gotta race home so Adam and I can take B to the dentist (BOO!). I hate the dentist and don't look forward to torturing my child in this way, yes, she's 4 and this is her first dental appointment (again, don't judge...). Then I gotta race home and make the new dessert I'm trying b/c it has to chill for several hours before being served! Okay, all that to say, its going to be a busy one so I gotta get a move on. AND I'm doing all this on a bad nights sleep...for some reason I was up from 2:30am-4:30am. Ugh! Okay, gots to go...oh, and I got my haircut yesterday, first time in a long time, I like it! Nice to have a change, pics later if I can remember! Happy Wednesday! xo

these cuties...

are being blogged over here today, check it out! xo

back at it!

Hey there! Whew, I didn't anticipate such a long blog break! I really have no good reason for my absence, thanks to those of you who emailed me, facebooked me, etc to make sure I was alive -I am! I think I was just a little uninspired, a little pre-occupied with watching 24 (I've gone from obsessively watching Lost to 24, I know...hard to step away, right?!), it was B's spring break so we were gone for a couple days at the Great Wolf Lodge in Dallas (so fun), and I just honestly didn't feel like blogging. So, there you have it! After my little hiatus I'm back at it and eager to show this mini session (below), hopefully I'll get it blogged by tomorrow. In other news, B got a haircut (I think its only her third one ever, makes her look so grown up!) so I'll have to snap some photos of her, and I'm finally getting a haircut tomorrow (can't wait, its been too long!). Exciting stuff around here. :) Adam is on Spring Break this week (bummer that he and Brennan couldn't get their schedules to line up!) so I'm looking forward to having him around and maybe going on some little mini dates while B is at school. I'm photographing a newbie this week so should have some more photos coming as well! So, there you have it folks, theres the Winn haps. Happy Monday and lots more to come!

children's program at church

I snapped a few pics during the kids program at church on Sunday, they were so cute! (especially mine) :)



in the photo on the right, I think B was more interested in playing w/ the flashlight than singing