EGGIES!!!!!

One time at a family reunion, one of my cousins (who was probably seven or eight) picked up a small bag of potato chips and started repeating the word, "Chipees!  Chipees!  Chipees!"  This went on for fifteen minutes.  Literally.

(And I always use that word correctly.)

It has now become a running joke in my family.  Whenever something reminds us of that (It could be as simple as a bag of chips in general) we start saying, "Chippes!"

Yesterday, my mom ran into the dollar store while I waited for Katelyn in the car.  She came back with a bag full of treasures and said that she bought me a prize.  I spotted a GIANT bag of popcorn and was hoping that it was destined to be mine.  Instead, he handed me a box of EGGIES!!!!!!!!!

EGGIES!  EGGIES!  EGGIES!

I really am a sucker for TV infomercials.  I had to have a magic bullet because I just loved the infomercial.  Whenever I come across it channel surfing, I usually sit and watch it for a few minutes.  It is that good.

Eggies' big claim to fame is the fact that you can hard boil an egg without having to peel it.  I actually don't mind peeling hard boiled eggs.  Thanks to watching Alton Brown on Good Eats, I have the perfect egg peeling technique.  However, I HATE poaching eggs and I LOVE eating poached eggs.  A soft boiled egg is basically identical to a hard boiled egg.  Eggies are perfect for soft boiling eggs.

This morning Katelyn got to try the first batch of eggs from the Eggies.

You can always tell how much Kate likes a food by how much of it ends up in her eyelashes.  By the looks of this picture, the Eggies were a great success. :)

don't mind if i do

Tonight we invited the missionaries and one of Dave's coworkers over for dinner.  I went out shopping last night and bought all the ingredients for a roast chicken dinner with potatoes, onions, carrots, and gravy.  Well, apparently there was some kind of mix-up because as Dave was putting the groceries away, he thought I told him to put the chickens in the freezer!

We woke up this morning to two birds frozen solid and in no shape to be roasted.  Plan B was hamburgers, salad, and onion baked steak fries.  It turned out well in the end.

I really don't like to bake.  I think it looks like fun but everything I make turns out weird or wrong.  I think my problem lies in the fact that I loathe recipes.  I hate following recipes!  I hate measuring and sifting and following instructions when it comes to cooking.  I don't even own measuring cups or spoons.  If cooking is an art form, baking is a detailed Rembrandt and I am more of a Jackson Pollock kind of girl.  I really don't like to bake so we ate Loft House cookies from Target right out of the package.

You know you love those.

Katelyn had been sitting patiently in her high chair throughout the whole meal.  She spent the hour eating her food and staring at the elders.  (We don't often have company.)  I took a cookie to feed to her for dessert because she had just been so well behaved.  (Really, I would have given her one anyway.)  I distractedly started breaking a soft cookie into little pieces to put on her tray.  I got one piece broken off before I turned around to notice that Kate had made a reach for it and had over half of the cookie in her little fist.  Shocked, I laughed as she stuffed all of it in her mouth.

At that point, there was no pretending that I might be able to keep her even remotely tidy so I gave her the rest of the cookie to feed to herself.  Ten minutes later, she had frosting in her hair and cookie crumbs on her eyelashes.

What are baths for anyway, right?

kickin it old school

When I was younger, I used to watch my parents go on "dates" to places like the grocery store or Half Price Books or some other snooze festival like that.  And I would think, "Whoa.  You guys are pretty boring."

And then I grew up and got married and had a baby and realized that just leaving the house to wander around Target bleary eyed and with no agenda is pretty great.

I also realized that D is my best friend and we can make anything fun.  Lately it seems like when it comes to date night more simple is best.  We don't have to worry about the logistics of anything fancy and we can just enjoy each others company.  We talk about life (mostly about Katelyn).  We laugh about stuff.  We reminisce and we make new memories.

Tonight, D and I traveled the mile and a half journey to Chickfila where we had free sandwich coupons and then across the parking lot to Kroger's where we ate tortilla samples and bought groceries.  And you know what?  It was pretty wonderful.

When we got home, we played a few rounds of our favorite game on Super Nintendo: Wario Woods.

Look how close this game was!

baby kate celebrates cows

ironic that she's sitting on leather

 Today was Cow Appreciation Day at Chickfila.  If you visit Chickfila dressed head to toe like a cow, you get a free meal.  This is a bit of a tradition in my family.  We have been celebrating Cow Appreciation Day for years.  I would like to say that dressing up like a cow is a small price to pay for some free chicken but I have to admit that we have a lot of fun with an excuse to go out in public dressed like cattle.

katelyn and dad ordering free chickfila sandwiches

 This year we had the most adorable cow in the restaurant.  My mom made a special cow costume for Katelyn complete with a pair of ears and a tail.  When we walked into the dining room, everyone went crazy over the little baby cow.  The restaurant had a special PR employee and she asked us to sign a waiver to put a picture of Baby K on their website.

mad cow disease

queen of the barbeque

people who say they don't like zucchini have probably never tried it grilled.

When I was younger I thought that grilling was not for girls. I never had any desire to own a grill, store a propane tank, or deal with smoke and soot.

And then D and I were given a grill as a wedding gift. A really nice grill. And it seemed wrong not to use it.

... and now I am hooked ...

Grilling changes the very nature of your favorite foods. It transforms flavors and textures to create something new. Barbeque takes

something you've eaten so many nights in a row that you think you'll lose your mind if you see it again and you feel stressed because you can't think of what to do with that stupid frozen chicken breast ...

sorry.

Grilling gives you a reason to enjoy outside and watch your dinner transform to beautiful juicy flavors. Even cleaning the grill is fun. There's something about clearing the way for delicious meat, vegetables, fruit, and even bread.

So for the first time this spring, D dragged the propane tank out to the curb and I again sat in my throne as the queen of the barbeque.