Keeping in Teutsch

I've had this pail-like container sitting on my kitchen counter for years that I stuff recipes in. For the longest, I've had intentions to type them all out in a cute font, print them, and then glue them on cute scrapbooking paper backed with cardstock and put them on a ring with cute ribbon tied on it. The thing is, though, recipes take FOREVER to type out and when I would start typing them, I would lose interest pretty quickly. So, year after year, they've just been sitting there and every time I would need to find a recipe or want to look through the recipes I had saved, but hadn't tried yet, I had to go through every one of them. This was happening almost weekly and it was getting really old. I knew I could just buy a picture album and stick them in there by category (or even some specialty recipe book), but I wanted something a little more creative. So when I ran across a picture of a recipe smash book on the blog Joy's Hope that linked to this recipe smash book, I knew I had found the perfect solution for all my loose recipes.

All you need is a smash book (that's what it's called literally as you can see) by K & Company (scrapbooking company), some tabs (that are sold in the same section--I found my smash book and supplies on an end cap at Michaels), some pockets to glue in to your smash book, and the best part--the really fun looking tape! (If you decide to make one, the smash book with the pink spine has pictures of food in it if you want to keep with your "theme." Also, the supplies aren't that expensive.)

-- I made Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-up recently. I loved it! Matt said it needed some Tony’s (he says that about everything!) and Juliette, in true fashion, barely touched it. Since I’m the one that cooks, I’ve deemed this recipe a keeper!

-- The Tuesday night before last we went to Buck & Johnny’s for kids’ night (and to use our daily deal voucher). Juliette got to make her own pizza. They brought her the dough, marinara sauce, cheese, and pepperonis to decorate it. They had some kids playing violins and guitar and singing Zydeco music. Juliette was not impressed with them. She took one look and then said, “I can do that. I know how to play violin.” (She thinks this because she has been in the “strings” class at school for these first three weeks.)

-- We finally finished the first book in the Boxcar Children series. Am I the only one that didn’t remember that ending? I seriously thought all this time that they lived in the boxcar forever and ever. We just started the second book last night and the kids are going to spend the summer living in a barn, sleeping on hay, for the summer! Craziness!

-- The Wednesday night before last we had to pick-up our packets and order our shoes for dance. When we got to the studio, a little girl from Juliette’s kindergarten class was walking out. Juliette was so excited to find out that the little girl is going to be in the same dance class as her!

-- Matt finally fixed his shark the Thursday night before last. I was so glad I was going to Bible study that night (my leader cooks for us)! The apartment, though, STILL smelled like fish four days later. Not cool!

-- The housing department put fliers on our doors the Friday of Labor Day weekend about the “tropical activity,” as in Tropical Storm Lee. Their advice: move stuff away from the windows and pick stuff off the floor. Both of which were incredibly unnecessary. Of course, we didn’t do that, but it made me wonder if anyone actually did what they said.

-- Over Labor Day weekend, Juliette and I went to my parents. Matt and I have a “garden party” reception to go to soon for a friend who is getting married in Florida, so Mom, Juliette, and I went dress shopping. I ended up trying on around 15 dresses and getting two that scream “garden party” for $10 each on clearance. I told my mom that I felt like a little girl on Easter Sunday putting them on. (They are white and have flowers on them; I’ve settled on the more floral one now because I couldn’t find shoes to match the other one.) Do you know how hard it is to find summer dresses right now?

-- While trying on dresses, Juliette picked one out for me to try on that she “loved.” It was green and ugly…really ugly. I tried it on just to pacify her and it made me look pregnant. (You know...the type of dress that only pregnant women or super skinny women can wear!) Juliette almost started crying when I put it back…she was not happy that I didn’t like her choice!

-- We have celebrated Juliette’s birthday about four times now. It’s bordering on ridiculous. I sent cupcakes to school on her birthday. That night we took her to Chuck-E-Cheese’s (which is now an annual tradition) and had cookie cake. Over the Labor Day weekend, my sister brought an ice cream cake to my parents for Juliette, and then Saturday we finally had her birthday party. At this point, it felt like it had been ages since her birthday!

-- Matt is studying for his comps (big, big tests) that start two weeks from today. He'll take one a week for four weeks and they are basically comprehensive, meaning he has to know pretty much everything about the areas he is testing in, which are Renaissance Literature, Rhetoric, Early American Literature, and African American Literature. He has not been in a good mood because he is so stressed. (He HAS to pass these tests or he can't proceed any further.) Anyway, yesterday he was in a bad mood and Juliette was jumping around (you know, being a 5-year-old) and he was trying to do something on the computer and he told her to stop and she came over to me and said in a low voice, with her hand over her mouth (almost like she was afraid to say it), "Tell Daddy to chill out!" My thoughts exactly! :)

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First off, I wanted to share this recipe with you that I got from a little cookbook I have called "101 Things to Do with a Cake Mix." I've had this cookbook since before Juliette was born, yet I've only ever made one recipe out of it. Not sure why, as they all sound good!

We've had a busy weekend. My in-laws were in town and we took them to Washington, La., yesterday to eat at the Steamboat Warehouse for their birthdays. (Their birthdays are 5 days apart.) Washington is about 30 minutes north of Lafayette and is the 3rd oldest settlement in Louisiana (behind Natchitoches and New Orleans). Unlike Natchitoches and New Orleans, though, there isn't really a restored downtown area. There are some homes from the 1700s and 1800s, but other than a handful of antique stores and that one restaurant, there wasn't really much to see. We did go to the Old Schoolhouse Antique Mall, where Matt and I drooled over quite a bit of the furniture (some of which was very reasonably priced, but you know, we kinda have a space issue right now!). The food was good, though, and we enjoyed ourselves.

After going to the early service this morning, we went to the Sunday brunch at Blue Dog Cafe. It's a buffet with traditional breakfast items, like an omelet station and waffles and bacon and sausage, but they also have a lot of the cajun food too, like corn and crab bisque, crawfish etouffee, catfish, dirty rice, etc. It was pretty good, but I'm not sure it was worth the expensive price. Juliette ate for free, though, and ended up eating almost as much as us adults, so I suppose we got our money's worth!

Things are going to start getting busy around here this week, and we are ready for "fall" to start: school, football, and cooler weather! Juliette has her kindergarten testing in the morning and her orientation later this week. Matt has meetings this week, and then both Matt and Juliette will start back to school next Monday (the 22nd). Juliette is incredibly excited about starting kindergarten, and we're just as excited as her. And, let's not forget that she has her 5th birthday coming up in about a week and a half as well, so there will be lots to blog about in the next few weeks!

The grandparents are anxious to see Juliette in her school uniform, so Mammaw, Pappaw, Nana and Poppie (and anyone else who wants!) check back later this week for Juliette's School Uniform Fashion Show!

Today is the final link-up for recipes over at Kelly's Korner Blog. Whenever I'm asked to bring something to a party, I almost always bring an appetizer. Here are my favorites:

It's time to link-up again to Kelly's Korner Blog's Show Us Your Life. This week is about dessert recipes. It was REALLY hard to choose just a handful to post!

Since the link-up at Kelly's Korner Blog is only for main dishes, desserts (this Friday), and appetizers (next Friday), I thought I'd share my favorite side dishes today.