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Our Last Tween

Monday, May 7, 2012 By 3 Comments

We enjoyed 22 months of teenage-free living and then, darn it, if that Scary Baby didn’t go and turn 13 and put us back in that parenting mode. Again.

Though really, her tween years counted double since she had three teen siblings for those years.

The tween and teen years really put the toddler years to shame. Oh how I yearn for those cute, funny days.

Alas, we can’t turn back time and here we are with a teenager once again.

We continue to keep birthdays pretty low key around here at the Humpfreeze house and have never caved to the peer pressure of extravagant, expensive parties and typically opt for family celebrations.

After her birthday weekend was spent with the grandmothers, she patiently waited two weeks to have a few friends over for dinner and a movie at home.

She picked the menu.

Fruit kabob appetizers. She was inspired to make kabobs when she found the funky skewers at a garage sale the weekend before for the bargain price of 50¢.

Chinese carryout – sesame chicken and fried rice.

And a birthday cake.

Selected by her via the Publix website.

Ebony & Ivory cake.

The chocolate pudding was suspiciously missing between the layers as described on their website but the cake was otherwise good.

Side note: I’d personally recommend the Chocolate Ganache Supreme instead. I also have a few customer service tips for Publix about the bakery clerk taking the cake order over the phone. Very surprised to get anything less than stellar customer service from Publix. (Especially since my 3 darling Twenties were forced to work there by their mean parents so they could learn the art of stellar customer service.)

Now we look forward to the next five years with our new teenager. She has so much potential and we can only hope her elderly senior citizen parents can live through it.

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Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Food, Milestones, Teens, Tweens

Cupcakes & Horses

Monday, April 16, 2012 By 2 Comments

I’ve read in several places that a blogger should take time to write good headlines. Seems it can help your SEO and Google ranking and what not.

Pretty sure no one will be searching for cupcakes and horses but it is the first thing that came to mind when I sat down at my laptop to write this.

The cupcakes and horses are actually unrelated except for the fact that I wanted to share pictures from Easter weekend and Easter weekend seemed like a really lame headline since I’m writing about it a week later.

I know you like to get a glimpse of the inner workings of my mind.

Horses

Friday night that sweet sister Roger Leroy came to the house and picked up Scary Baby and took her up to her college dorm to spend the night.

A twelve year-old’s dream. She might have changed outfits 3 times before her sister arrived.

I reminded her she wasn’t going to any college parties.

Ahem.

Instead, her sweet sissy was taking her horseback riding.

This is a HUGE deal because she has had this obsession idea since Thanksgiving and is relentless about not letting an idea go until one of the Humpfreeze family members gives in to silence her begging.

Does she look excited? I love that she accessorized with a scarf.

She said she was eight feet in the air.

The trail ride was in the beautiful North Georgia mountains.

Parts of the trail up the mountain were very narrow. I heard it was a bit challenging to snap pictures from the saddle.

Apparently, Meadows’ horse had some personality and she had to pull over to adjust her saddle.

And Rachel’s horse had no personality and was a bit of a slacker in keeping up with the group. Our speed demon circus baby is not familiar with coming in last.

Thank you Roger Leroy. From the bottom of our hearts.

Cupcakes

I cooked my heart out for Easter this year. The twenties and the tween each invited a guest so we were feeding ten.

Cooking all day on Saturday so we could enjoy a meal together was my plan.

Our menu included a marginal Costco ham but the side dishes made up for it.

If you haven’t made Pioneer Woman’s Au Gratin potatoes yet, do so immediately. Your family will thank you.

PhilBillPaul said the macaroni and cheese was the best ever. Big compliment because I’ve always made fabulous mac & cheese. I tried a new recipe that I’ve had for years but just got around to trying. It’s a keeper.

Love that you don’t have to make a roux or melt all the cheese. My changes to the recipe: I used muenster and mozzarella in the pot with the noodles and then topped it with shredded cheddar before baking. I omitted the onions and added a little onion salt. Loved the dry mustard, nutmeg, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce. Yum!

Mose-e-ack jello a.k.a. mosaic jello was a special surprise for Roger Leroy. My little thank you for taking Scary Baby horseback riding.

I did manage to snap a quick picture of the Easter treats. I even whipped up little cellophane bags for the guests.

Don’t worry, that concludes any attempts at craftiness from me for the year.

Obviously, I failed in Easter picture taking this year since I didn’t take any pictures of the people. But I think I passed in the cooking category.

It might be because I have cut way, way back on sugar and the idea of making TWO desserts made me dizzy.

Or not.

Just know that in addition to making my absolute favorite and perfect lemon cake, I made the best cupcakes I have ever made or eaten.

Please admire the white, wrinkled sheet we used as a tablecloth.

Fan-cee is how we roll.

Special thanks to My Baking Addiction for the Chocolate Malt Cupcakes recipe inspiration on Friday night.

The cupcake recipe is very close to our favorite doctored up cake mix recipe which is the one I used. One subtraction: I left out the espresso granules. One addition: 2 cups of chocolate chips.

The buttercream frosting is so freaking good that we are still talking about it this week and I’m making them again on Wednesday. One change on frosting recipe is that I used 1/3 cup of regular baking cocoa and 1/3 cup of Hershey’s® Special Dark cocoa…only because I ran out of regular baking cocoa. Pretty sure it will be sublime with what ever cocoa you use. Maybe it’s the 4 sticks of butter and/or the 5 minutes of beating.

I recommended them to my friend Leigh Anne and suggested she might just want to make the frosting. No cupcake necessary.

But if you want something to hold the frosting other than a bowl, go ahead and make the cupcake too.

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Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Food, Raves, Tweens, Twenties

Crazy March

Monday, March 19, 2012 By 4 Comments

I’d like to blame the current heatwave on my blogging break. Who can think clearly when it’s 80 degrees in March?

Have you ever turned your air conditioner on in March? I don’t think we ever have.

But we did turn it on this weekend. Crazy but I don’t like to sweat when I’m inside my house.

Fresh air is really nice except the Georgia pollen is turning everything yellow.

The heat, the pollen, the never-ending projects. March is feeling a little crazy at the Humpfreeze house.

March Madness Delirium

PhilBillPaul reminded me no one is allowed to use that trademarked phrase. Delirium seemed more appropriate than hysteria but neither have the same ring to it.

He’s been pretty excited to watch Indiana win this season. Saturday night’s game was no exception and Roger Leroy was home to watch the game with him.

Saturday at Ikea

I could also blame my March hysteria on spontaneously deciding that PhilBillPaul and I should go to Ikea.

On a Saturday.

The older I get, the less I like crowds.

I thought I could handle it. Especially if we ate at The Silver Skillet first.

Such a cool, authentic old diner.

Delicious breakfast with to-die-for biscuits.

I was fueled and ready for Ikea which is right around the corner.

Or not.

I may have experienced an actual, legitimate anxiety attack as we tried to find our way out of the maze that is Ikea.

A few too many people, a few too many foreign languages, a few too many pieces of furniture to look at.

Not sure the $10 table was worth the stress.

I did recover sufficiently to visit a few more stores. We’re on the search for some inexpensive furniture for another DIY house project that I’ll document here soon.

I took this picture with my cell phone and sent it to The Grunter…

…asking him which monkey he wanted because they were 50% off.

Do people really put this in their house?

Leave a comment and tell me if you have a monkey with a plunger as a hat picking his nose toilet paper holder. I’m fascinated by this purchase decision.

This weekend, two of the darling daughters were with us Friday night so we checked out some futons.

We had to twist Scary Baby’s arm to get her to try out a floor display.

Finally she did.

Maybe she was not very willing because it wasn’t exactly on the floor.

When in Walmart, act like the people of Walmart.

Roger Leroy fit right in.

I think she looks like a giant only because the futon was on a shelf which wasn’t really an accurate scale of a room. We plan to put the futon on the floor so I needed them to test it because I didn’t want to buy another toddler futon.

Obviously we all fit in since their Dad hoisted them up to the 2nd shelf to sit on a futon.

And their mom took pictures.

Yay-hoos. That’s us.

And I can’t wait to show you what I did with this weird stuff.

Because you know how crafty I am. ;)

DIY room makeover coming soon…

Meanwhile, how’s the crazy weather where you live?

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Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Food, Random Thoughts

Dessert Bliss Part Two

Thursday, January 26, 2012 By 4 Comments

Love the Longhorn Dessert Sampler I told you about yesterday.

You might be asking,

“How could it get any better than a little chocolate, a little fruit with pastry and a little cheesecake?”

Three words.

Mini Dessert Trio

Less guilt is what the “mini” implies.

But it really moves into a new category of B-L-I-S-S if you can choose your mini combination.

Imagine my excitement when I discovered this very mini dessert trio of my dreams when I was out of town last week.

Yes, I lifted asked if I could have another dessert card to take home and scan.

We picked the seasonal pineapple-upside-down cake because I never see that as a dessert choice.

I told the waitress that I had finally found my dessert bliss.

I also told her that the Bourbon Pecan Cupcake was NOT mini.

But it was soooo good, we went on my last day in town for one more cupcake.

Tony Roma’s wins!

I’m sure they will be thrilled to know of their victory in my personal, unpublicized, dessert bliss contest.

The only bummer is that I’ll have to fly or road trip to a Tony Roma’s to get a mini dessert trio.

There are no Tony Roma’s in Georgia. :(

Let’s be real – it’s probably best for me to not have one near me.

Tell me your favorite restaurant dessert…in case I’m still allowed to eat sugar after this week.

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Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Food

Dessert Bliss Part One

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 By 3 Comments

Edit: My feedburner email subscription does not always work right so if you get two emails today know that it is a fluke and I haven’t gone crazy. I do know it’s Wednesday even though email subscribers are getting Typo Tuesday on Wednesday. It was posted yesterday. Look at the chaos that happens when I start blogging again. ;)

It may not be a coincidence that I’m writing a two-parter about dessert during the week I go back to the doctor to get the results from my blood work including a glucose test and depending on what you may not hear from me again. Just sayin’

I looked back in my archives feeling sure I had written about one of my most favorite desserts when PhilBillPaul and I go out to dinner.

In full disclosure, we do split one entree so we can justify this dessert. Not that you’d know if from looking at us.

If we have kids with us, it’s every man/woman/child for themselves and you would think they never get dessert.

Which you know is not true at the Humpfreeze House of Sugar.

I have said for many years that restaurants could do a booming dessert business if they would make a dessert sampler much like their appetizer samplers.

I have a hard time deciding and I often want a little chocolate and a little fruit and a little cake or pie. Yes, I’d like several desserts, thank you very much.

My dessert bliss happened back in April 2010 and I guess I forgot to write about it.

Leave it to me to report up-to-the-minute dessert news.

I searched and found this picture on my computer that I had scanned from the dessert card I lifted asked our waitress if I could take with me.

LongHorn Dessert Sampler

A shareable sampler of three favorites: Chocolate Stampede, Caramel Apple Goldrush and Mountain Top Cheesecake.

Here’s a belated shout out to Longhorn Steakhouse for this excellent dessert marketing.

NOTE: It is a chain. Even though we prefer to support locally owned restaurants, some chains get it right and Longhorn is one of those chains!

I guess it’s a winner if it’s still on their menu a year and a half later.

Try it, you’ll like it.

Stay tuned because tomorrow I’m going to tell you who beat Longhorn in my quest for dessert bliss!

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Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Food

A Few of My Favorite Things

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 By 2 Comments

I’m pretty sure I blinked and December was over.

It was certainly not my intent to blog just one puny time in December.

We’re all fine, fine, fine here in Georgia.

When I don’t blog it does not necessarily mean that bad things are happening at the Humpfreeze house or I have taken extra medication to get through the holidays.

In fact, December was medication-free and it was a very good month! It just went by entirely too fast.

I’d like to tell you it is because I’m busier than the rest of the universe. Especially in December.

But that would start my new year off with a big lie.

Instead, I decided to share a few of my favorite things from our Humpfreeze holidays where all six of us gathered in our house together for almost the whole month and we have all lived to tell about it.

For those of you who might not remember, that means 2 adults, 3 semi-adults (the “twenties” people) and one tween all lived under one roof.

At. The. Same. Time.

We squeezed in the baking frenzy for the teachers and grandmas. PhilBillPaul made 3 kinds of fudge, pecans and pretzels. Then I got busy with bread and cookies. Scary Baby helped wrap and organize her 5 teacher gifts.

Guess we forgot to take pictures of the cute packaging and gift tags this year.


Plus random photo of small Charlie Brown-like blue Christmas tree in Scary Baby bedroom. She loves it.

And one darling twin and a friend (hi Rowe!) helped with the packaging until 2:00 a.m.

Perhaps she helped (for the first time ever) because she wanted to send a giant care package to a soldier friend in Afghanistan.

That’s a pretty good ulterior motive in my book and I appreciated their help!

I traveled at the beginning of the month and when I came home, Scary Baby had done a superb job of trimming the tree that she and PhilBillPaul picked out at Costco from the Marines selling trees there this year.

It’s not Christmas until we take at least a few of the kids to Waffle House. We like to reminisce about the year we drove to Illinois for Christmas and Waffle House was the only place open so we had to eat there 3 times in 24 hours with three toddlers in tow. Super fun!

On Christmas Eve we stuck to our regular traditions…

A special thank you to Mr. Humpfreeze who took it upon himself to get almost everything ready for fondue. I only had to make the breakfast casserole and cheesy potatoes for the next morning.

Never happened before. Very nice. Think it should be a new tradition!

Opening one gift on Christmas Eve

Please take note of how dressed up my darling children get for Christmas Eve. It appears some of them are in pajamas opening pajamas.

They are always *shocked* that the gift is new pajamas. Correction – it is fuzzy sleep pants and t-shirts that don’t match because wearing a matching set of pajamas is very uncool.

We played a few games.

Then another darling twin actually helped me wrap. And announced,

“I’m tired of wrapping.”

To which I replied,

“Imagine that I’ve been doing this all by myself for the 4 of you for 20+ years.”

I liked the help. Another new tradition to add for next year.

Christmas Morning

Bad cell phone picture of sweet daughters keeping warm and sleeping a little more with their daddy while trying to convince Everett to get up.

This almost became our first Christmas where we weren’t all together on Christmas morning because Everett had to work at 7:00 a.m. Luckily, his shift changed at the last minute so he came down in his uniform and opened his gifts.

Our pumpkin has worked on Christmas day for the last six years. Remember to thank those people who go to work so you can see a movie or get gas on Christmas day.

My favorite Christmas gift…

My favorite Christmas gift I gave Scary Baby…

I ordered this print after seeing it many months ago online and being on a wait list for the next printing. I think it should follow her all the way to her college dorm room to remind her how much we love her. ;)

During the holiday break, the darling twins took their darling little sister ice skating. Tiny cell phone picture not available.

PhilBillPaul and I also took Scary Baby and a friend to a movie.

War Horse ~ worth seeing but…the horses are quite large when you are sitting in the SECOND ROW of a very crowded, small theater.

This picture taken with my cell phone really doesn’t do justice to the view. No extra charge for neck strain. Or the bonus 4 year-old who joins your family to watch the movie with you talk to you during the movie. Repeatedly. His family didn’t seem to mind him walking down the row as he hopped from seat to seat.

This future blog topic on movie etiquette will be followed by a discussion on why I’ve become a recluse and no longer engage in public outings in small places and why people bring young children to 2-1/2 hour movies they are not suited for.

New Year’s Eve

Ours was wild.

Or not.

The darling twins went up to North Georgia for their own party. Everett and 3 friends came to hang out after a movie.

We went to the store because I declared “no more cooking!”

Frozen cream puffs for Scary Baby – her personal favorite. Store bought cookies and cupcakes. Leftover candy and fudge. Paper plates and plastic silverware. Frozen pigs in a blanket. Tablecloth? Nah, we were washing the sheet we had used at Christmas. Don’t judge.

Potato chips, dip, cheese, crackers – super fancy.

Scary Baby couldn’t wait to open the sparkling grape juice.

She washed a champagne flute she found that I had purchased at Target years ago. Clearance price tag on it said .62¢

We squeezed in a game of Bananagrams.

And toasted in the new year…

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and spent it with your favorite people…

More fun stuff to share but first, I have to try to figure out a manageable blog schedule for 2012.

Until then, please do tell how you spent the holidays and what you’re looking forward to in the new year!

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Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Food, Moments, Raves, Tweens, Twenties

A Perfect Saturday

Monday, November 7, 2011 By 2 Comments

We had a quiet weekend at home.

WHAT?

Shhh.

Yes, it’s really true. A quiet weekend at home.

Such a rare and strange thing for us.

Saturday was pretty much a perfect day.

I almost forgot what we were suppose to do.

Luckily, I remembered…

  • Sleep in.
  • Not run errands.
  • Not drive anyone anywhere.
  • Make omelettes for lunch.
  • Have The Grunter join us at lunch after he worked an early shift
  • Bake chocolate chip cookies.
  • Make little bags of cookies for the college girls.
  • Watch Amazing Race with Scary Baby.
  • Wait for the soldier daughters to be released from their weekend drill.
  • Have dinner with darling daughters and a few of their college friends.

They actually planned this and invited us to dine with them.

Watch PhilBillPaul traumatize his darling Roger Leroy by playing a home movie for her friends.

It is a highlight tape of some of her best comedy from her middle school years that Scary Baby had enjoyed watching a few weeks ago.

Someday I’m sure she will let me post a portion of the video here on the blog.

I don’t think she’s ready for that yet.

This is the 2nd time he has done this.

The first time her brother had to hold her down.

The second time she and PhilBillPaul wrestled to the floor. Then her friend Ashleigh sat on her so everyone could watch the video.

I think everyone will agree she is very strong.

And funny.

Please come home again to visit – we really do love you, Rachel.

Dad says he is sorry.

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Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Food, Moments, Tweens, Twenties

Chocolate Chip Cookie Throwdown

Thursday, November 3, 2011 By 4 Comments

We have loved our Chocolate Chip Malted Cookie recipe that we’ve been making for years and years taken from Taste of Home.

But I’ve stopped using Crisco almost completely and that recipe calls for butter-flavored Crisco. I banned margarine from the house about 5 years ago. It’s all butter in my baking now. Look at these healthy strides I’m making.

Let’s discuss the evils of white sugar another time, okay? I want to stay focused. This is about our new favorite cookie.

The recipe inspiration is from one that was seen around blogland in several places and you can check out the original recipe on The New York Times from 2008.

I’ve made them 3 times now and with some personal tweaking, they are now at the top of our favorites list!

The things we think elevate these to our new favorites:

  • Two kinds of flour ~ cake flour and bread flour
  • Coarse salt
  • Creaming the butter and sugar for 5 minutes
  • Three kinds of chocolate chips
  • Refrigerate dough over night before baking
  • Sprinkling with sea salt before baking

Scary Baby graciously allowed me to photograph her first cookie tasting.

Wizzy wasn’t quite as dramatic.

We love, love, love these cookies. They are fat and chewy and lightly crisp at the edges. The texture is exactly what I want in a cookie and I think the combination of two flours and refrigerating overnight are the keys to this perfect cookie!

Triple Chocolate Chip Malt Cookies

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour
1 2/3 cups bread flour
1/2 cup malted milk powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar (can use light but we like dark)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips – mix a combination of dark, semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips

Optional add-ins: You can also add in 1 cup of broken pretzel sticks and/or 1 cup of caramel bits which turn them into another delicious cookie!

Mix flours, malted milk powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside. Cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Mix in chocolate chips.

Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours or frozen.*

To bake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Use small cookie scoop (or large if you want giant cookies and bake a few minutes longer) and place on cookie sheet. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more.

Side note: The sea salt is optional. The Grunter and I love it. The others are lukewarm about it. The malted milk powder is also optional but we think it adds another subtle layer of flavor that we love. You decide.

*Frozen Cookie Dough Has Changed My Life

Don’t laugh at that. I have frozen cookie dough for years. Usually at holiday baking frenzy time.

What changed my life about freezing it is to scoop out the cookies and freeze into individual cookie balls first and putting in ziploc freezer bag.

Duh.

Shut up. I’m slow but when I learn something worth sharing, I share!

The prep time is totally worth it. Having bags in the freezer with cookie dough is great for all of us.

Baking just a dozen hot, fresh, homemade cookies after dinner is perfect. Really, is there a bad time to bake a dozen cookies?

Recipe inspiration came from a variety of sources. Look how this blog inspiration circle of life thing works:

My Baking Addiction inspired me to try the New York Times cookies AND led me to…
Goodlife Eats who taught me how to freeze cookie dough the right way and…
Leigh Anne inspired me to add pretzels and caramels to a batch of dough because she was inspired by…
The Diary of Dave’s Wife even though we all used different chocolate chip cookie base recipes.

Let me know if you make them. Or share your recipe if you have one that rivals this one.

These are the ones I put in the college care packages and I didn’t hear any complaints except from my family who squealed “Don’t send them all to other people!”

Which is why I’ve made two more batches.

And now I’m on to my pumpkin obsession…

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Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Food, Life Lessons, Tweens, Twenties

College Care Packages

Thursday, October 27, 2011 By 6 Comments

I’m a big believer in giving gifts that are memorable and that I can add a personal touch to whenever possible.

This leads to some gift procrastination because I’m sometimes a little slow coming up with an idea.

Way back in May, I was stuck on giving several high school graduation gifts that would be personal even though I know that most graduates love good old-fashioned cash or the more hip and cool gift cards.

Easy gifts that are very appreciated from my own experience of having 3 high school graduates who were very grateful!

Finally, I came up with what I thought was a great idea for gifts.

In August.

Not very timely for the May and June graduates.

Until I realized that the gift recipients were going to college and it would be way more fun to mail their graduation gifts as care packages.

So in September I ordered 3 copies of this favorite book.

And then I got busy and started baking. I made 3 different kinds of quick bread (no yeast).

I might have made more than 3 loaves. Good time to freeze bread. You know, I like to bake in batches. Great little gifts any time!

I did this baking over two weekends not all at once.

I made 3 different kinds of cookies. Chocolate Chip were the obvious first choice.

Next I wanted to try these Triple Threat Chocolate Fudge Peanut Butter Cookies and they did not disappoint.

Who wouldn’t love a box filled with 3 dozen cookies?


The chocolate chip cookies were made the weekend before so they were frozen in little dollar store foil containers. I decided the 3rd kind should be chocolate-free so I made Lemon Drops

And 3 adorable mini loaves of bread?

Pumpkin Bread, Banana Bread & Poppy Seed Bread

To share or hoard as I told the new college freshmen in the note I sent in each box.

I’ve heard via texting, phone and a lovely handwritten note that they enjoyed all the goodies.

Send a college kid a care package if you can. Any time of year, for no special occasion, just because you’re thinking of them. In fact, I think you can send anybody a care package and they’ll love it!

Next week I’ll share our new favorite cookies that are the best I’ve made in YEARS!

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Filed Under: Food, Moments, Teens

Midwest Eating Tour

Monday, October 24, 2011 By 9 Comments

Eating our way through each state is what we do best.

PhilBillPaul and I took a whirlwind trip for a wedding.

On the drive up in the middle of the night, we began our day with a less than stellar breakfast at Denny’s. The grand slam that wasn’t.

We did laugh (and feel a little sick) reading about this new twist on a grilled cheese.

Are you kidding me? Yes, that is four fried cheese sticks inside the grilled cheese. I LOVE cheese but seriously? Don’t even look at the nutritional info for this scary sandwich.

We did not order this. We did discuss that several of our children would have.

For lunch we used that not-handy GPS that took us to a non-existent Culver’s. We would not be deterred and drove around in circles until we found one. Thank goodness because while I’ve had Culver’s several times in the past few years, PhilBillPaul reminded me on the whole trip, he had not.

We made it to the Quad Cities in time for rehearsal dinner with a beautiful wedding the next day.

You know you are old when you attend the wedding of the baby that was about to be born the weekend you were getting married 24 years ago.

picture “lifted” from Dan’s facebook page

We celebrated our anniversary on Monday, 10-10 in the town we got married in after we watched that baby get married on 10-8-11.

It was an extra special wedding since that baby’s mom is a sorority sister and the baby also became a Pi Phi. That’s a story for another blog post.

Thanks Ann and Dan for being such lovely hosts and allowing us to celebrate with you on this important day.

We dined with that baby’s parents the day after the wedding. Village Inn breakfast with pumpkin pancakes with pecans. Oh my.

We do love visiting all the restaurants we don’t have in the South.

PhilBillPaul had just one night before he flew home for work and to hold down the fort so we were able to have Sunday dinner with my mother and siblings at our favorite italian restaurant in Rockford ~ Lino’s.

How can you beat an October dinner special of half lasagna and half pasta of your choice, salad, coffee and ice cream for $7.00? Yum!

On Monday before his flight, we crammed in an orchard visit.

Fond memories at the orchard where we have visited for so many years. Everett’s first visit was when he was about six weeks old.

They’ve all picked berries and had cider donuts in the cellar.

And pie.

It was nostalgic mixed with a little sadness that it has turned into a big orchard business machine.

I only bought one.

On our way to O’Hare, we got a perfect sausage and cheese pizza from Anna Marie’s.

That was his anniversary present. I’m pretty sure pizza is for 24 years. PhilBillPaul sweetly said he’s looking forward to the next 24 and we both agreed a trip without our 4 darlings was a very good present to ourselves.

Or maybe 24 years is honey? I could never keep track of that stuff. My sister kindly picked up 2 lbs. of Midwest honey for him because he doesn’t like most of the honey we’ve tried in the South.

We were both bummed we couldn’t squeeze in a meal at Gray Brothers but we just didn’t have time.

I continued the eating tour without him and had lunch with a high school friend. We hadn’t seen each other in over 20 years. We had lots to catch up on and lunch might have lasted until 5:30. Hi Melodi!

Movie night with sisters and mom meant one more Midwest pizza with Wisconsin cheese that embarrasses the cheese down South.

Dinner with two high school friends. {I really failed at food pictures on this trip and you know my point and shoot and cell phone photo skills are so awesome – guess I was too busy eating but trust me, the Wisconsin cheese curds on this night were delish.}

I squeezed in dinner with one of my aunts on my drive home.

After a good night’s sleep at an Indy hotel (thank you Toni!) and preparing my self mentally for the long drive home by myself, I did a quick search for a vintage drive-in with my kind of food.

I scored big.

It reminded me of the first drive-in I can ever remember going to called “The Teepee.” It was a giant treat when we were kids and our dad drove us to this cool place for the best cheeseburgers ever.

I was sure a cheeseburger wouldn’t be as good as the ones I remember fondly so I opted for a pork tenderloin sandwich.

It was a great choice and took me back to a time when we had pork fritters from the freezer at my Grandad’s farm. Definitely a Midwest thing!

Crinkle fries and coke with crushed ice. My personal little heaven.

Ketchup, salt and extra napkins in brown bag without even asking. Top notch service warranted a generous tip!

Loved every bite – it was a great meal to eat as I headed back to Georgia.

Late in the day, I found Culver’s (again) for one last treat before I crossed into Tennessee.

Don’t judge.

Thank you Bowling Green. Pumpkin pecan custard was flavor of the day and with caramel topping added, I was one happy driver!

Consider this your personal eating guide if you need to travel from Georgia to Illinois or back again.

I arrived home safely at almost midnight and was back in the car with PhilBillPaul and Scary Baby on Saturday so we could see the darling twins up at Gold Rush Days in Dahlonega.

That one in uniform was suppose to march in the parade but volunteered to take pictures instead because her little feet hurt in her tiny, shiny elf shoes.

I love everything about Fall – especially the food! Be sure to share any Midwest favorites in the comment section and I’ll add them to my list for next time.

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