About our 'hood'
When CJ and I built our house a couple years ago, we couldn't imagine how great our neighbors would be and we are super blessed when they started moving in next to us one by one. They are all great young couples who have recently had their first baby, expecting their first, or planning their first. We all get along great and have so much fun when we get together and we need to get together more often.

Since the blizzard...
CJ has spent the last two days helping trapped cars get unstuck in our neighborhood because the city has yet to plow our streets. We don't have a snow shovel so he knocked on some doors to borrow one and found out Perez's wife Ernita, who's due with their first child ANY SECOND, had a doctors appointment the next day. CJ recruited our other neighbors, Josh and Matt to shovel snow so Perez and Ernita could get out of their drive and onto the main road. They shoveled snow from 10am-5pm!

A Cure for Cabin Fever...PARTY!
While he spent the last three days outside, I was going a little stir crazy inside and decided to invite everyone over for dinner and games. When the guys were finished, CJ came in and helped me clean the house and feed Gabe. What a great husband, right?! I'm so lucky! For dinner, my first thought was to serve all the soup I'd made earlier but that seemed kind of tacky so I had to think of some dishes to make with what I had in my fridge and pantry. We invited 16 people for dinner but 3 backed out and 2 said they'd be arriving later. I was able to create a great meal with some pasta, tomato sauce, spinach, cream cheese, chicken and Ritz crackers. For dessert, I happen to have some left over cheesecake, strawberries, marshmellows, and chocolate fountain chocolates.

DINNER MENU
(Remember, I don't really work with measurements unless I have to so figure out how much you think you'll need and eyeball it.)

Spinach Dip
Add frozen spinach and cream cheese to microwave safe dish. Microwave 2-3 mintues and stir. Add sprinkle parmesan, garlic powder, and salt to taste. Serve with chips, triscuits, crackers, bread, or whatever you have on hand. (I usually use alfredo sauce instead of cream cheese and I add mozzarella cheese but I didn't have either so I improvised.)

Crusty Chicken
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Defrost chicken breasts (one for each person). Meanwhile, crush Ritz crackers in bowl. Add sprinkle parmesan cheese and basil for seasoning. Bread chicken on both sides and place in oven safe dish. Bake for 40-50 min or until juices run clear.


Penne Pasta and Tomato Sauce
Bring pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook 11 minutes until tender. Drain. Add tomato sauce, garlic powder, italian seasoning, and salt to taste. Add sprinkle parmesan on top if you want. Done! Easy right?

Delectable Desserts
To melt the chocolate fountain chocolates, I put my metal strainer in a large pot and filled it with enough water so that the plastic tub of chocolates sat in 2-3 inches of water. Then I placed the pot on the stove on med high heat. Once the chocolate was completely melted, I dipped frozen strawberries in it and marshmellows. I don't recommend using frozen strawberries unless you are going to keep them frozen after they are dipped. When they thaw, they are mushy and strawberry juice leaks onto the serving dish. Use fresh strawberries if you can.

I also happened to have left over cheesecake but not enough for everyone to have large slices so I cut the cheesecake into 1"x1" cubes and put them in cupcake cups and served them on a small tray. It turned out great!

Today it's snowed 6-8" and CJ told me we are expecting more rain/snow Sunday and another blizzard Tuesday. Looks like I'll have to do some more grocery shopping or I'll make the neighbors host some parties to keep us all from going mad because we'll definitely be stuck at home for a lot longer than we anticipated!

When the weathermen on the news told everyone we were expecting a blizzard, I didn't take them entirely seriously. One: Because Oklahoma weather is sporadic and the weathermen never really know what's going to happen so they guess. One day it's 90 degrees and the next it's 20 degrees. In the summer, it rains when there aren't any clouds and a beautiful day could turn into tornado weather in less than five minutes. Two: Because people here FREAK OUT when the news mentions "snow". All the schools were closed for the entire week before a single snowflake touched the ground (CJ's a teacher at a Christian school 30 minutes north of where we live now). So the chances of us experiencing a BLIZZARD after having 70 degree weather in JANUARY was sort of hard to believe.

This time, they were RIGHT! Last night we had a thunderstorm that shook our house and then the snow started pouring down. It hasn't stopped since and the snow drifts in our yard are at least 4 feet deep. When we let our dog, Hershey, outside this morning, we had to let him out in the front yard because the back door had 2 feet of snow piled against it. He made it a couple of hops until he disappeared in a drift so CJ put his snow gear on and went outside to get him. Last year we had a lot of ice and our electricity was out for a while so I started cooking! I made a big pot of chicken noodle soup, broccoli cheddar soup, and 'zuppe toscana'. I've never used measurements when it comes to soups and stews so I'll just tell you what I put in each of them. If you're stuck at home in a snow storm and feel like cooking some really great soups, you now have some simple recipes to use! You're welcome =)

Chicken Noodle Soup
First, I defrosted two chicken breasts and cooked them in the pot I was going to make the soup in. Then I chopped it up and poured in enough water to make the stock. I then added chopped celery, carrots, Italian seasoning (oregano, marjoram, thyme, basil, rosemary, and sage), 4 chicken bouillon cubes, salt and pepper to taste. Once the water began to boil, I added egg noodles. Once the noodles were soft it was ready to serve! If you have chicken thighs with the bone in them, make stock the old fashioned way and boil then simmer them in water for 4 hours to make the stock first then throw in the other ingredients. Add onions or mushrooms if you like and eat with french fried onions or saltine crackers. (I butter my crackers then set them in my bowl to get soggy and then eat them with a spoonful of soup. Probably not the healthiest but it tastes wonderful!)

Broccoli Cheddar Soup
I poured a couple cups of chopped broccoli into a pot then added milk and 1 cup (I'm guessing) of Velveeta cheese. After the cheese melted, I tasted the soup and it wasn't cheesy enough for me so I added some more cheese. Voilà!


Zuppe Toscana
I started by defrosting 1 lb. of sausage then cooked it in the pot. I then added chopped spinach, sliced potatoes (with the skin still on), a lot of milk, garlic powder, Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, and salt to taste. One the label of the creole seasoning, it says the ingredients are "salt, red pepper, other spices and garlic" in case you have these ingredients and no creole seasoning. I've added butter before but didn't this time. Boil until the potatoes are soft then serve. Is it really a Tuscan soup? No, it tastes a lot like the zuppe toscana they serve at Olive Garden but they use kale instead of spinach.

I also baked a yellow cake and lathered chocolate frosting on top! After I enjoy each of these, it's back to cleaning as much of the house as possible and keeping Gabe (my 8.5 mo old) happy. Toodles!

When my husband, C.J., and I moved to Bixby a couple of years ago, we weren't aware of all the great places to eat in this suburb of Tulsa. If it wasn't along Memorial (the main stretch of road that runs straight through Bixby and Tulsa), then we didn't know about it. Luckily for us, a kid in a pig costume and teenager holding a small sign on the corner of the road yesterday, led us to try this restaurant- Jake's Place, which surprisingly has been in business less than a year.

Located on the corner of Armstrong and Breckenridge, we recognized both the waitresses as we walked in, a mom and daughter, who were members of the gym CJ used to personal train at. Then we recognized the sauce bottles on our table. The memories started flooding back to this past fall at the Blues and BBQ Festival held every year here (http://www.bixbyrotarybbq.com). For $5, you can sample all the BBQ you want from the vendors who enter into the competition for Best BBQ and I had voted them #1 for best flavor and best sauces! Why hadn't we come here before?!?!?! I could kick myself! Everyone is the restaurant was serenaded by a guitar playing prodigy- a 13 year old boy playing blues music and hits of Santana on his electric guitars (yes, plural "guitars"). Nearly all the tables were full and it's no wonder why...

DOWN TO BUSINESS

I ordered an appetizer of homemade, hand cut, beer battered portobello mushrooms which comes with homemade ranch dressing ($6). These 'shrooms are Phenomenal- with a capital P! Think they'd give me the recipe for the batter? I'll be dreaming about these tonight and thinking about the time we'll meet again.

For my main dish, I ordered a sliced brisket sandwich with a side of cheesy garlic mashed potatoes ($7). Let me tell you, the meat was so tender and juicy it broke and slid off my fork several times. It was flavored so deliciously, it didn't need sauce. My sister might kill me for saying this because she's a manager at a local chain bbq restaurant, but hands down, this brisket is the best I've ever had. About my side: Now...I love potatoes and I love cheese and I've had them many different ways, but I don't think I've ever had them sooo good at a restaurant. Have you ever tasted a dish so good, it sent a chill all over your body? And you catch yourself eating each bite slowly because you want to savor each spoonful? Yea... I was enjoying my plate so much, I didn't even think to ask CJ for a bite of his pulled pork sandwich and fries (also $7) and although I did give him a bite of my brisket, I almost didn't because I wanted it all to myself. He asked our waitress if they put crack in their food because he quickly became addicted. =)
Because everything I'd eaten up to this point was so...so...so so good, and against the pleadings of my full stomach, I couldn't pass up dessert. So I ordered a small glass filled with cheese cake, strawberry topping, graham crackers and whipped cream. Every bite was savored. What a great way to top off a great day. Earlier I watched a foreign film, my first, called Heartbreaker and I loved it! Two great finds in one day! I also watched Julie & Julia for the first time today which makes me feel dumb for writing another blog about food, but oh well, right? It's my blog and I'll write about whatever I want!!! Anyone who reads this would be a fool for not eating at Jake's Place regularly.

Today for lunch, my husband and I met with some friends and family at Caz's Chowhouse located at 18 E. Brady St. in Tulsa. When you first walk in, the restaurant looks small but there's a balcony with more tables and chairs. I loved the interior decor- some walls were brick, and others were painted red, navy, and yellow. There's a cozy gas fireplace and jazzy music playing softly over the speakers. Not only is the atmosphere great, the the food is delicious. The plates are large and truly inexpensive for the amount you get. I definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for a great time and great food.

After lunch we went shopping at Tulsa Hills Shopping Center and ended up at Peach Wave. It's a self serve frozen yogurt shop where you choose from a dozen different yogurt flavors and top it with as many toppings as you want. Once you're finished with your delicious creation, they weigh it to decide how much you pay. I had their white chocolate yogurt with bananas, strawberries, and crushed snickers on top. It was so good! This place is much like Orange Leaf and Fresh Berry.

A few of my friends are ready to start book club again soon so I'm hoping my next post will be about a book we decided on. Talk to you soon!

So, last year was crazy! Book club took a halt, I had a baby, got laid off of work as soon as my maternity leave was over (can I sue?), like many Americans I went on unemployment but not for long, started a day care out of my home, and read a ton of books (or at least what I consider a ton because I hadn't read a book voluntarily since Harry Potter in seventh grade. Every book I've read since then has been assigned by teachers or professors). I read the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, The Lost Hero, and The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. I also read Dear John by Nicholas Sparks, Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood, Inca Gold, Shockwave, and Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler, Saint by Ted Dekker, and a book I try to read every year, Was God on Vacation? by Jack Van der Geest.

Due to a decrease in income, I didn't get to eat out much but my husband and I did try a few new restaurants - The Apple Barrel in Bixby and Shiloh's of Tulsa are two that come to mind first. Both serve an array of "home cooked" dishes (I'm not sure if they are actually made in the restaurant or made elsewhere, frozen, and shipped to the restaurant). And they have really great prices.

As far as my goals for this year, they're not concrete yet. I'm definitely going to read more books but I don't have any on my list yet and I'm looking forward to trying new restaurants but haven't heard of any good ones to try. If you have any recommendations, let me know.

Update: Some other goals I've decided to add to the list are to buy new furniture (sell off the old and de-clutter. I've been watching a lot of episodes of Designed to Sell on HGTV) and a new car...maybe two (one for me and one for the hubby).

First of all (or as my husband would say, "First of off") if you're a perfectionist, OCD grammatician, you probably don't want to read this blog.

Anyway, we started this club, not because we didn't have anything better to do, but because we had so much to do we needed to take time out for us. We're always so busy with work, school, and family that we fell into the routine of eating at the same restaurants and never took time for ourselves. So we decided to start this club to get outside, explore the city, read new books, then do what we do best - TALK about it.

Currently there are six of us girls who get together each month and decide on a book to read. The second Monday of each month we meet at a local coffee shop and the fourth Monday of the month we meet at a restaurant no one's tried before. Hopefully, we'll start posting reviews on the books we read and places we eat so stay tuned!