Summer's End & Easy Stuffed Shells

Summer has come and gone all too quickly. I cannot believe how fast my time off went, but I must say that I believe I'm actually ready to get back--for the sake of a routine. I go tomorrow and Friday for our summer inservice (which allows us Fall Break and a full week at Thanksgiving--love it) and then Monday it begins. We have about 3 days of inservice, or whatever you'd like to call it, and then the kids start Thursday. I'm lucky that I don't immediately get back into the full swing of things. We do kindergarten and preschool screening for at least the first month and then start back with therapy the first of September.

One thing I've really enjoyed this summer is having the chance to sit down with a good book, or a few good books. Throughout elementary/middle school, my siblings and I always participated in the summer reading program at the local library. I really loved reading until I got to Jr/Sr High and we had to read for AR and read from particular lists. I will admit that my reading this summer has been strictly for pleasure. There are several sacred (for the lack of a better word--Christian/inspirational, etc.) books that I want to read but I find it difficult for myself to read those. I'm going to try to read one sacred book for every secular one I read.

Now for a simple and wonderful recipe. I adapted this recipe from one I saw in a Taste of Home magazine.

Easy Stuffed Shells
jumbo pasta shells (I use approximately half the box at a time)
1-24 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
frozen cooked Italian meatballs (1-2 for each pasta shell)
shredded mozzarella cheese (and any others, if you'd like)

Place meatballs in crockpot and cover with just enough sauce (I use about 3/4 of the jar). Cook on high for about 2-3 hours or cook on low for twice as long. Uncover and let cool some while pasta cooks.

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse in cold water. Place 1-2 meatballs in each shell. (I like one per shell but Bailey prefers 2). Place in a 13x9-in baking dish. Top with sauce (I start with the sauce leftover in the crockpot; also, use as little or as much as you like--Bailey likes just enough and I like alot.) Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Two Recipes to Try

Two posts in one day. Unbelievable, I know. But I've promised to share a few recipes, so I'm going to do just that. I'm not exactly sure where I found these (I'm horrible at writing down where I got recipes from--trying to improve on that). I believe they both came from here, but I could be mistaken. Both are crockpot recipes and super easy--my faves! And, once again,  I apologize in advance for not having pictures of either of these dishes.


BBQ Beef Sandwiches
1 chuck roast
rootbeer
a couple of spoonfuls of brown sugar

BBQ sauce ingredients:
1/2 cup ketchup                        
2 T. chopped onion
4 T. chili sauce                          
4 T. mustard
2 T. brown sugar                       
2 t. Worcestershire sauce
2 T. butter

Put roast in crock pot and pour enough rootbeer on top to cover the entire roast. Spoon a couple of spoonfuls of brown sugar on top.

Cook on low heat all day, for at least 10 hours. (I cooked it on high for about 3 hours and low for about 7)

When finished, drain & shred with a fork.

Boil all the sauce ingredients together & pour over meat. Serve with french rolls for a sandwich or all by itself for a yummy meal.


Zesty Crockpot Chicken
4 boneless chicken breasts                         
1 c. water
1 can cream of chicken soup                      
1 t. parsley
1 pkg Good Seasons Zesty Italian Salad Dressing mix
1 pkg cream cheese

Place chicken in crock pot. Blend soup, dressing mix, water ans parsley, add to crockpot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

One hour before serving, add the package of cream cheese. (I would do this at least 1 1/2-2 hours before. I added mine one hour prior to serving and it hadn't melted completely. Also, might want to soften it some.)

Serve over rice or noodles. ( I served it over noodles---sooo good! And was even better for leftovers.)


Bailey doesn't always love when I try new recipes but he really liked both of these. Enjoy!

Congrats Bailey & Poor Wrigley

Congratulations to my sweet hard-working husband! He's worked very hard the last two years taking classes and getting many, many hours of experience in order to take two big tests. He took the first test earlier this summer, took the other this week, and I'm proud to say he is now a licensed appraiser. Now he'll start on the next round of classes and experience hours in order to reach the next "level" (which I believe is a general appraiser but I may have the terminology wrong.)

Wrigley has taken over what used to be Bailey's chair.

You may recall the post I did earlier this summer about Wrigley and her bite. Since then she's had a small knot where they cut it open. I was told she'd probably have some scar tissue there so it wasn't really anything...until two days ago when Bailey noticed it and thought it was a bit bigger. I looked at it and agreed. It also looked different--it was begining to look like a bubble, the skin was thinner there, and looked like there might have been some blood underneath the surface. So I took her to the vet yesterday morning. He decided to keep her there for the day so he could remove whatever it was. I went to pick her up and he said it was a mass of some sort and some of the area was infected so he removed all that mess and we have more meds to take for the next week. I'll take her back late next week to have the stitches removed.

All of this happened after we went to the vet last Friday. We'd noticed Wrigley has had some trouble controlling her bladder so I took her in just to be safe. Apparently, many females, after being spayed develop incontinence. However, it usually happens much later down the road, not to 9 month old puppies. So, Wrigley will be taking DES (dog estrogen) for a little while. 

I had a recipe or two to post but I'll save those for my next one since I've been talking about all this gross dog stuff.

Summer....

It appears I took another extended break from blogging--always unintentional, but I'm back, at least for the time being. So what's been going on with the Hunt's...let's see if I can recall.....

Bailey's been working and studying alot. He's had two different tests to take to get his appraiser's license. We've made day trips to Jackson for each one. He's also been working in the yard alot getting it nice and green and filling in the spots where there was previously no grass. (I'll try to get some pictures sometime...)

I have mostly just been lazy, enjoying my summer and pretty much staying indoors where it's cool. The only work I've done is on our entryway. As I've probably mentioned before, we bought a home that had been forclosed on and the people that previously owned it were apparently morons. I could go on and on about that alone, but I'll get back to the entryway. Well, it had one good layer of wallpaper on that we took down right when we moved in. Apparently the people that put that wallpaper up didn't remove the glue from the previous wallpaper or prep it the right way inorder to re-wallpaper (if that makes sense). Needless to say, the walls were covered in wallpaper glue and small pieces of wallpaper along with areas where it was down to the drywall. So....I got to work (well, a little here, a little there). I found some fabulous blue spray gel stuff that removed the glue. That was quite a task. Then I put on a couple coats of KILZ, puttied where needed and re-KILZed those spots. Then this week I finally painted it to match the living room and today I painted the trim. I'll touch up a few spots tomorrow but I'm proud to say it is pretty much done. I'm afraid I don't have any before pictures and have yet to take any after's.

We had a good 4th weekend. We spent that Saturday in Oxford with his parents visiting/shopping with his sister who is over there for the remainder of the summer. After lunch and a little shopping we went to YaYa's, a frozen yogurt place. It was soooo good. You go in, get your bowl, pick your flavor of frozen yogurt (I chose strawberry and birthday cake), get as much or as little as you like and then go over to the toppings bar. It had everything--fresh fruit cut up, nuts, cereal, candy, and of course, several different syrups. I topped mine with pecans and strawberries. Then you "check out." You place it on a scale and you pay based on how many ounces it weighs. When we left Oxford, we went to a friend's for a cookout that evening and watched fireworks. Sunday we cooked out with his parents and then went to my brother's to watch my niece and nephew shoot some fireworks. And on Monday we cooked out again with some friends at their place.

This past Saturday we went to a Redbirds game with Bailey's parents. They got some tickets from the rehab place that works with the school. We had all you can eat BBQ (sandwiches or nachoes), along with watermelon, and ice cream. Then we got to watch fireworks again, but this time with 3-D glasses. It was pretty cool, I must say. I have a couple pictures on my phone but need to upload them on here--maybe next time.

I have a few recipes to post that I've tried out but I'll get to those another time since I've rambled on and on.

What's in a Bag

I was tagged by Jill to share with you what's in my bag. I tend to refer to it as my suitcase. So take a look....

The bag/suitcase

The contents of the side pockets: hand sanitizer, keys, gum, two tubes of chapstick, one of my sister's student ID's (I used it to get into football and baseball games and still haven't taken it out), and a few various gift cards.

Pens, pencils, rubber bands, jump drive, nail file

Wallet, checkbook, and some change that was floating around in the bottom

Bag with lipstick, gloss, more chapstick, eyedrops, rubber bands (for hair), bobby pins

Umbrella and two note pads

\

Various receipts, ticket stubs, a few business cards, mostly trash

I'm missing the picture of the two lotion bottles, a couple bottles of tylenol/aspirin, some bandaids, a few (more) bottles of eyedrops, and my phone.

Thank you Jill for encouraging me to clean it out, although I really only picked out the trash.

Over the Weekend

Quick update on Wrigley: she is doing much better. I ended up taking her back to the vet on Friday because the opening of where they lanced closed over night. He said it looked ok and her temperature was back to normal so just watch it and finish off the antibiotics.

Friday night I went to dinner with some friends to celebrate a few birthdays. We ate at Pei Wei and it was very good. Bailey went to his parent's to listen to the baseball game while I was out with the girls.

Saturday was a very lazy day. We didn't do a single thing but relax until that evening when Bailey went to play softball.

I've had this recipe for Chili's Salsa for quite a while but hadn't got around to making it. I made it this weekend and it is so good. I'm not sure that it tastes just like Chili's does but it is yummy!

Chili's Salsa

14 1/2 oz can Rotel

14 1/2 oz can whole canned tomatoes (with juice--I used diced)

4 teaspoons jalapenos (canned, diced, not pickled)

1/4 cup yellow onion, diced

1/2-3/4 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon sugar

Combine all in food processor. Run for a few moments until tomatoes have been nearly pureed, yet still chunky. Be careful not to over-process. (I had to do a little at a time because my food processor isn't very big).

Pour mix into bowl. Cover and store overnight for flavors to properly develop.

Serve with your favorite chips.

Lately

Things have been pretty calm around here lately (except for a small incident yesterday, but I'll get to that in a minute.) I got out for the summer about a week ago and I can't say I've done a whole lot. I've made a list of things I've liked to get done while I'm out but I've just barely started on it.

This past Friday night we went to a Redbirds game with our Sunday School class. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and we got to enjoy a fireworks show afterward. Bailey's cousin, Jonathan, and his wife, Tiffany, were in town over the weekend. We cooked out at Bailey's parents Saturday night and then Sunday night there was a special service at church to ordain Jonathan. Bailey worked part of Memorial day but came home early. Then Tuesday he worked a half day and we went to Southaven to eat at Chick-fil-A. CFA is about to start selling a spicy chicken sandwich and they're doing a promo where you had to go online and reserve your free spicy chicken sandwich. It was pretty good. It has a good bit of heat. I'll have to say I prefer the original, but this one was good too.

Now on to our small incident/emergency. We don't have children but our dogs are pretty much like our children. Yesterday I had been out running errands, came home, let Lula out and I went out to see Wrigley and to make sure the water bowl was full. I was petting Wrigley and notice a HUGE hard knot/lump/something on her neck. Needless to say, I freaked out a bit. I called Bailey immediately and told him I was on my way to the vet. I wasn't sure if she'd swallowed something or a growth of some sort had suddenly appeared. (On a side note: not sure if I've mentioned it before but our backyard was basically a dumpster for whoever was here before. You name it, we've probably found it out there--tools, lighters, coins, suntan lotion bottles, permanent markers, just to name a few. So, I thought there was a chance she found something else, even though we'd just cleaned up, again, back there). I called my mom for her to ride with me and she called the vet on the way.

We got there and he said it looked like she'd been bit by something. He shaved two spots on her neck and you could see where she'd been bitten--not by a snake but by something. He gave her two shots and we came on home. I tried to take some pictures but between Wrigley not sitting still and the camera on my phone, they aren't great.

We went back this morning for them to lance it (or in other words, cut it open and get the junk out). We were also given some antibiotics to take twice a day. And lucky me, I'm going to get to squeeze it a few times a day so it doesn't close up too quickly and get big again. If that happens, we'll have to go back and have it lanced again. Thankfully, through all of this Wrigley was just fine. It wasn't bothering her at all. Hopefully it will heal like it should and, also, that whatever it was, won't bite her again.