On the Menu

Only because some of my closest friends know I cook dinner 6 out of 7 nights a week and have asked me what I cook each night because they seem to get in a rut about deciding what to cook for their families. I cook for many reasons. The main reasons are because I love to cook and love the smell of my house with a hot meal on the stove or in the oven. I also cook because it's way healthier than going out to eat and much easier on the pocketbook. So, with that being said, here ya go friends!!!

BBQ Chili

1lb of ground beef
1cup of chopped onion
1 can of baked beans (pork 'n' beans) undrained
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of tomato sauce
1 or 2 cans of mexicorn
1 tbsp of chili powder
1 tsp of ground cumin
1 cup of BBQ sauce

Brown meat and saute onions together. Mix all other ingredients in a large bowl suitable for the stove top and add meat/onions. Let it simmer for two or three hours. Serve with fritos, cheese, and/or sour cream.

ENJOY!!!

Peace, Love, and Softball...a little Christening too!

One afternoon about two weeks ago the 3rd grade teachers were setting up for their annual "Greek Day" when one of the sweet 3rd graders who had been helping with the set up came into my classroom to "order" her birthday cake. She proceeded to tell me in a very adult like voice that she wanted three different cakes- 1 chocolate peace sign cake, 1 strawberry heart cake, and 1 yellow softball cake with red stitching. I asked her to tell her mom to come talk to me just to confirm that a birthday party was really in the works and that they wanted me to do the cakes. It was confirmed- three different cakes just like the little girl described. That's exactly what I did! After baking and icing these funky cakes, I finished up a Christening cake for a dear friend of mine since all four of her children were being baptised today. Their cake was a surprise to them and I was very honored to do it (even though it cracked down the middle when I delivered it). She just asked for a cross cake that was vanilla almond with almond buttercream icing. She also wanted the lace on top with flowers on the cake too. This is what I did for her.

Miracle x 2= God's Perfect Plan

Over the years I've been blessed to teach with some really wonderful people, but never have I encountered such a Godly woman until God allowed my path to cross with Suzanne! She teaches the "little ones" at our school- first grade and I teach the "older ones"- fourth grade. This being said, you'd think our paths wouldn't cross so much because she'd be on the first grade hall with all of the other first grade classes, but instead she ended up on the third and fourth grade hall. Boy am I glad! She is a fine woman from Natchez with just as fine a husband. They are both, what we call in the south, just plain good people! She and Chip struggled for quite some time with infertility and seeing many doctors coupled with spending lots and lots of money left them with many questions about why they couldn't concieve. Their diagosis? Unexplained. This is NOT what any couple would want to hear especially for a couple who "does everything right". Also, besides her wedding day, what does any little girl dream of from the time she can walk and talk? That's right! She dreams of the day she becomes a mommy. Suzanne and I had many discussions about this very topic since Daniel and I are going through the very same thing. We would talk about how tired we were of hearing "It's just not God's time yet." or "You're trying too hard." or the age old statement from many people who've never experienced this, "It'll happen when you least expect it."

Now, don't get me wrong. I know all of these comments are meant with the most kindness that one could share, but I have to admit that it's extremely difficult to hear these words when all I can think about is all of the thousands of dollars we've shelled out or the time we've dedicated to this one thing that is NOT in our hands in the first place. I've always signed my letters and cards with "In His Hands" because I've always believed that our lives are truly in His hands. Why didn't this register before now? Not sure, but the day Suz told me she was pregnant... with TWINS it reminded me of how I sign letters and cards- In His Hands!!!

After all that time spent on trying to accomplish what THEY wanted, Chip and Suzanne reached a fork in their journey. They had a huge decision to make. One that would change their lives forever- invitro fertilization or letting go.

They chose to let go.... and let God. Boy what a leap of faith that is! Matthew 7:7 says "Ask and ye shall recieve, seek and ye shall find." This is exactly what they did for six and a half years, but it was not until they were completely surrendered to His will that "they found." So many times we find ourselves claiming faith in God, but how many times do we actually take that leap? Not many because we are scared. I'll be the first to admit that the teacher in me wants to have control of my life and living in a "right now" society doesn't help either. Suzanne and Chip's testimony has really spoken to Daniel and me. I pray that it speaks to you as well.

As an extra to this amazing story, of course, I have cake pictures to post for this super sweet family! The first grade team at our school hosted a baby shower one afternoon for Suzanne and asked me to do the cake. I decided to do something fun I'd seen on another friend's blog. So, here's what I called "The expectant mother" cake.

This summer Suzanne's sister, Kathryn, asked me to do the cake for a shower she would be hosting at her house. She sent me the invitation and I tried to match it in the best possible way. I was given the freedom to do whatever I wanted as long as I used blue and brown and the cake was strawberry. So, we had a pink (inside) cake with blue and brown icing!

Labor Day fun!

Last weekend, Daniel and I traveled "home" to Meridian to spend some quality time with our family over the three day weekend. The plan was for us to hang out with my folks Friday night and then join Daniel's folks for some post wedding festivities. As many of you know, Daniel's brother, David, met the love of his life several years ago and popped the question this past New Year's Eve! After much planning, the happy couple decided to head on down to Jamaica for a destination wedding just the two of them. (This makes me want to sing..."Just the Two of Us"). While they were down there getting hitched, they had a wedding DVD made which was our after dinner entertainment Saturday night. Every detail was perfect including reciting their own wedding vows to one another as well as the exchanging of rings.

Oh and they didn't even leave out the part when the preacher announced them as "Mr. and Mrs. DANIEL Culpepper"!!! I laughed until I cried. You see this happened to us during our wedding except the roles were reversed and we were announced as "Mr. and Mrs. DAVID Culpepper". Daniel and David grew up in the church where we were married four years ago and the preacher knew them well. It was just a mispronounciation boo boo. :) Kind of like when your mom calls you by your sister's name because she's in a hurry to get your attention and forgets who you are for a split second. It always makes us silently ask, "Don't they know who I am?", but then laugh about it in the end.
All of that happened Friday and Saturday night. Then Sunday, all day, we went to moma and daddy's deer camp. They've been wanting us to go out there for a while to see where they hunt and, more importantly, eat a cheeseburger at the truckstop that is real close to the deer camp. I love outdoors and nature and always have. So, I snapped away while everyone laughed at me for taking pictures of the "fancy" restrooms, the hay bales, and lots of other cool stuff. Here are a few cool pictures I came home with from our fun time with the parents! By the way, if someone can tell me what kind of flower this is in one of my pictures, I'd appreciate it.

Something pink...

I always enjoy it when someone asks me to do a cake for them, but says just do what I think is best. This past week Mrs. Deborah asked me to do a birthday cake for her 1 year old granddaughter, Sophie. She said it didn't matter what was on it as long as it was pink and had the number 1 on it somewhere/somehow. I was a little pressed for time so this is what I did. They took it straight to Memphis for the party Saturday morning. I think a fun time was had by all.

Would we need pink or would we need blue?

"Would we need pink or would we need blue? 12 months ago none of us knew! It's hard to believe our little boy is turning 1! Staton is having a BLUE birthday-it will be lots of fun!"

These are the words on the birthday invitation for a sweet little boy I know. His name is Staton and he has the sweetest parents. You see, I taught school with his precious moma until she decided it was best for their family for her to stay home with this little ham! By reading the invitation, you can figure out that they didn't find out if they were having a boy or a girl when she was pregnant. All of thier baby showers were decked out in gender neutral colors due to this fact. So, when it came time for his 1st birthday, Summer and Drake wanted it to be "all boy"! She asked me long ago to do the cake and she knew then that whatever we did, she wanted it to have LOTS of blue. I went over to visit one afternoon and we brainstormed many blue ideas. Finally, we came up with the idea of making Staton's smash cake a 3D number 1 iced in blue buttercream icing with blue fondant dot details. The cake was homemade chocolate. Then we decided cupcakes would be fun. I baked a dozen vanilla cupcakes and a dozen chocolate cupcakes both decorated in white buttercream icing and blue fondant dots on the top. I hope he enjoys every bite!!!

I plead insanity!

On the first week of school, one of my teacher friends asked me to bake an "over the hill" cake for her sister's 50th surprise birthday party. At first I said I couldn't do it because I knew I'd be so busy, but then I got to thinking about how much she helped me with scheduling and I felt bad turning her down. So, I did this tombstone for her to take to Birmingham.

Help! There's a racetrack in my kitchen!

Lightnin' McQueen broke into my kitchen a couple of weeks ago and raced all around my kitchen. Powdered sugar, almond buttercream icing, and fondant were everywhere!!!!!!!!!!! I had so much fun making this cake for a sweet friend of mine- Parker Thames! His mom, Carrie, sent me a text a little while before the "family" party and asked if I'd like to do the cake for him. Would I like to? Of course, I would! Parker was to be the one to decide between Curious George, Cars, and Toy Story. During a conversation between Joel and Parker (Joel is Parker's dad), Parker made it very clear that he was having a Cars birthday! So, Cars it is. That Saturday morning I met up with Joel and Carrie along with the rest of the Sunday School gang for our church's annual Run for the Son 5k. Some of us ran while we walked this year. I sped home quickly to put the finishing touches on the race track and let Mater get in position in the pit.

Food, Fireworks, and Family...

I'm a little late in posting this, but we've been running around like chickens with our heads cut off! Crazy busy around here!!! On July 4th, my family usually travels a little past Wiggins, MS to a HUGE mud hole!!! Madeline, Stephen, Moma, Poppie, Daniel, and I all pack up a weekend's worth of groceries, four wheelers, and our most stained shorts and t-shirts that we don't care about getting dirty again. We stay in a cabin for the weekend and thoroughly enjoy each other's company IN THE MUD! It's always a good time.

This year was a little different in the fact that we decided to spend our fireworks weekend on the lake. I tried to learn how to slolam ski this weekend and almost managed to master it before the nice "lake patrol" decides to check our boat for the proper amount of life jackets(check) and a throwable(not check-ticket instead). The "lake patrol" gave my parents a ticket because they couldn't find their throwable that is supposed to stay on the boat at all times. Needless to say, that ended our weekend with a BANG. A $150 bang at that.
What I don't understand is why he let the three young girls go park their jet ski because they were driving entirely too fast, gave them no ticket, but busts us on the first offense. Why is it that the people who always try to do things the right way always seem to get the short end of the stick?

Either way, we had a great time grilling out with family and playing in the water!

leftovers...

Have you ever made too much of something and let it go to waste? I certainly have since there's only two of us eating dinner most of the time. Well, not anymore! With mashed potatoes anyway. If I ever have any left over mashed potatoes, I always save them in the fridge for a day or sometimes two at the max just to let them get stiff. I will cook hamburgers or something fun that mashed potatoes would taste good with once my leftovers have had a chance to stiffen. I then take my cookie dough scoop to scoop small round balls of mashed potatoes to be fried in a skillet. I dredge them in beaten egg and cruton crumbs and throw them in the skillet. Once in the skillet, I take my spatula and "mash" them into a small pattie, fry it for a few minutes on each side-just enough to brown the breading. Take them out and place them on a plate covered with paper towel to soak up the extra grease and serve them! They are so good and EASY!

Retro Birthday topped with Red Velvet

Rachel's birthday was this past Sunday and she turned 29 + 2! As I was putting the finishing touches on the wedding cake for Daniel's paralegal last week, "ding, dong!". It was Rachel's mom at my door waiting to ask me if I'd bake Rachel's birthday cake. I was honored to do such. Mrs. Deborah said to do something funky with almond flavoring. So, I baked a white almond cake (round bottom, square top, with a cupcake topper) and iced it with almond flavored lime green icing. I decorated each layer with what I like to call 'retro circles'. The circles were made out of homemade fondant. I topped the entire cake with a BIG cupcake and retro flowers on top of it. Rachel said it was tasty!Also, way back in April or May, my good friend, Cindy, asked me to bake a bridal shower cake for a shower she was hosting in June. Of course, I agreed. After much discussion on flavors, we decided on a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing and cover the cake with homemade fondant. I decorated each tier of the cake with different "swirlies" and put the bride's monogram on the top tier. I also included fresh cut flowers to add more umph! I had a bite of this one...

Mmmm... good!

I've always enjoyed my mom's caramel cake simply because she makes the icing from scratch! No, seriously. She does just put a little sugar and other stuff in her black skillet and scratch it around for a LONG while and voila'! Caramel icing that is so yummy it makes you want to slap yo mama! I never really slapped my moma, but I sure did gobble up that cake. My moma's the best at cooking and I've learned everything I know from her and well...just throwing stuff together. Yesterday, I was making a dear friend a cake and had some extra batter left over and you can't throw out the extra batter. It has to be eaten. So, I pulled out my BIG cupcake pan and made three big cupcakes. As the cupcakes were smelling up my house, I tried a "different" kind of icing than what I normally top the cupcakes with. I pulled out a small sauce pan, a can of sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar, and half a stick of margarine. I just wanted to see if it would work. It's for sure not as tasty as what Moma does, but pretty dang close. Voila'!

Poppie

I have lots of men in my life who are very special to me; my sweet husband, papaw, Dad(Daniel's dad). These men have influenced my life in so many ways, but none can hold a candle to my poppie! You see, this is my daddy and besides him teaching me everything I know about cars or anything else mechanical/electrical, he's taught me a good deal about kindness, patience, and strength. He's also taught me about how to make all three of those attributes work together. I think he is the smartest man in the world. Four years ago, he had knee surgery due to a work related injury. He had hoped this surgery would 'fix' the problem and make the pain in his knee go away. Well, four surgeries later, we hope the problem is fixed. I write all of this to say that even as I waited today with Moma for him to be brought up to recovery, during recovery, and even when he "hoisted" himself in the truck to go home, he displayed such strength! This man will give you the shirt off his back and every dollar bill in his pocket just because that's who he is. That's how he treats others, and that's how he shows he cares. He can be pretty goofy at times too, and always wears his best smile! Guess what, Poppie? I love you!!!!

A Dead Snake is the only Good Snake...

That's what I always say! I am deathly afraid of snakes and we've already seen two in the past month! One was a chicken snake that showed up next to our garage dooor after we'd cut down a dead tree. We saw it after returning from a nice and relaxing dinner. Daniel and my dad took care of it since the fire was still hot from our work with the tree all day. The other one decided to show his face as I was stooped over in my flowerbeds today. With one hand I was holding up my lantana plants, and with the other hand I was spraying the weeds when this snake nearly slithered over my hand. Those of you who know me know that I dropped everything and ran squealing to the neighbor's yard. Our neighbors are just as scared of snakes as I am. So, we just stood there while our other neighbor looked for the snake in my flowerbed. She poked around amongst my elephant ears and daylilies until we hear, "There you are! Come on out here." I'm thinking at this point if this lady is really talking to this snake!!! Well, then she blinked! The snake got away and ran to the corner of our back patio as she cooed over it. Finally, she killed it with several chops of a gardening hoe. I guess from now on I'll have to have the kaiser blade close by when I'm on the patio drinking my coffee and reading my book. Gracious me!