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!