Antipasto Kabobs

Here is yet another baby shower appetizer...they were really yummy...minus the olives. I am not an olive fan if you couldn't tell...lol!


Anitpasto Kabobs~

Ingredients:
1 pkg. refrigerated cheese tortellini
40 black olives
40 green olives
2/3 C. Italian dressing
40 slices of pepperoni
20 slices of hard salami, halved
20 wooden kabobs

Directions:
1.) Cook tortellini according to package, drain and rinse in cold water.
2.) In a resealable plastic bad, add tortellini, olives, and dressing. Refrigerate for four hours or overnight.
3.) Drain and discard dressing.
4.) On each kabob, thread one of each olive, two slices of pepperoni, slice of salami, cheese tortellini. You may choose whatever order you would like for them to go in.

*Kathy also added little cubes of cheese to each of her kabobs since her kabob sticks were on the longer side. The cheese was a nice addition especially for this mother to be who needs her calcium!!

These were very yummy and one of my favorite items, without the olives of course!

Salami Roll Ups

As some of you may know, our first baby shower was held this past weekend. My step-dad Jim and his girlfriend Kathy were kind enough to host it in our honor. We received lots of wonderful presents including the wholesale box of diapers that my Grandparents got us. This box literally contains probably ten or so packages of diapers. They should go lovely with the presents they gave to Daniel. Only my Grandpa would be able to give hospital packaged gloves and surgical masks, those items go with the safety goggles, jumbo sized tweezers, and clothes pins. What they don't realize is that gift probably should have gone to me instead. I am definitely not looking forward to dirty diaper duty in our house, Daniel is much better with foul odors than what I am.

Anyway, now that the talk of dirty diapers make you think of appetizers...lol, here is one to share with you. My step-dad was on drink duty for the party while Kathy was the foodie. She made several different appetizers and she made enough to feed a small army. I will be sharing a few of the recipes here over the next few days since any of these items would be great for all of your holiday functions.


Kathy's Salami Roll Ups

Ingredients:
40-45 slices of salami
1 8oz. block cream cheese, softened
1/2 C. sour cream
4-5 green onions, finely chopped

Directions:
1.) Mix the cream cheese, sour cream, and green onions.
2.) Spoon onto each slice of salami and roll using a little of the mixture to "seal" the salami.
3.) Refrigerate for an hour or so to allow the mixture to firm up. (This is my suggestion)

I hope you enjoy and by the way...the salami rolls are shown on the second tier of the above picture. I thought I would point that out for those of you who might mistake the fruit kabobs for salami...lol.

Thanks again Father and Kathy...we had a wonderful time!




Happy Thanksgiving...gobble, gobble!!

Hamburger Hash

Quick post tonight. I stumbled upon this recipe over at Three on Food posted by Kathy who found it over on Heidi's blog. Daniel actually liked this after he added some ketchup...me on the other hand could live without it. We both agreed that next time we make it we will use sausage and mild salsa instead of hamburger and the diced tomatoes. I threw mine in the oven for a little while to brown the top which is why my cheese is a little browner.

Cheesy Hamburger Hash~

Ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground beef

1 bag frozen O'brien diced potatoes, the kind with onions and peppers

1 can diced tomatoes with Italian herbs, undrained

2 Tbsp parsley (we did a little less)

1/2 Tbsp garlic powder (we added fresh garlic)

1 - 2 cups shredded colby jack cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Cook ground beef, then drain but leave a small amount of the fat in the pan to cook the potatoes in. Heat remaining fat in pan on medium heat. Add frozen potatoes, cover and cook 10 minutes; stir occasionally. Season potatoes with salt and pepper to taste. To the potatoes, add beef, tomatoes, parsley and garlic powder; stir well. Cover and cook 5 minutes. Stir and pat mixture down. Sprinkle with cheese and cover and cook an additional 5 minutes.

Do you like Pink?

Peanut...do you like pink? As in the color pink?

If not then I am sorry. You have more pink clothing than I know what to do with. This is not entirely my fault, I swear. Just about everything that has been purchased for you is either all pink or has hints of pink through out.

Would you prefer purple, maybe a suttle shade of orange instead? You just let Mommy know okay dear!

I painted your room yellow, does that help a little bit? Of course the bedding Mommy bought you last night has pink all over it so once again, do you like pink? I sure hope you do, because if not, then I don't know what to tell you girlfriend!

We were going to remain neutral and do your room in a farm theme but I found your new bedding on e-bay for much, much cheaper. I knew I had to have it as soon as I saw it. See last week when I was starting to realize we probably wouldn't be able to afford your farm bedding, I started drawing up butterflies and lady bugs to paint on each of your walls. Little did I know that while surfing on e-bay last night for a cheaper version of the farm bedding that I would stumble upon the bedding I actually bought for you. The butterflies and lady bugs were almost identical to the ones that I had been drawing for you. I feel that it must have been fate that I stumbled upon it with less than two minutes to go before the end of the auction.

I really hope you like it. I am pretty sure you won't really care but I hope you like it just the same.

Baby Shower #1

This afternoon was our first baby shower. It also happened to be co-ed and kid friendly. We had so much fun and there was sooooo much food. Here are some pictures to enjoy including my latest belly shot.

All of the yummy food

The presents!

The cake, wouldn't know if it was yummy or not, my tummy wasn't cooperating later in the evening so I didn't get to try it out.

Whose belly is bigger??

Some of the siblings and me.

And lastly, my almost 28 week belly shot.

Another ultrasound (Revised)

We had another ultrasound today and honestly, I don't think I will ever tire of seeing my daughter on the big screen. They confirmed that yes she was in fact still a girl, not sure how I would have broken the news to our family had she have suddenly grown an extra part. She is still wonderful and healthy and is weighing in at 2lbs. 1oz., with a heart rate of 156. She has a nice round tummy and I believe she is going to have her Daddy's nose and her Mommy's lips. We finally got a nice profile shot of her today which I will try to post sometime tomorrow, it's quite entertaining. She had her right arm over her forehead as if she was having the worst day ever and people, if her top lip was stuck out any further it might swallow her bottom lip whole. My little peanut...I cannot wait until she is finally here so that I can snuggle and love on her in person!
~As promised I added the picture to the post. My sister said she looked just like her...I think she is going to look like her Daddy. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Potato Skins...but Twiced Baked!

It's been a rough day at the old homestead today. My day started to go south last night during dinner preparations and continued to get worse until I had hit rock bottom at lunch today, if you would like to know more please head on over to my baby blog for a more in depth description.

I am fine now, just had a little pregnancy melt down that was way over due and I feel much better. Daniel was fine until he got to work, we are blessed in the fact he has a job to go to but there are days he would really like to just tell them to kiss off, please excuse my french...LOL. I knew we were in trouble when he arrived home and proceeded to drop his lunch box. Instead of picking it back up he gracefully kicked it across the living room and then proceeded to throw the trash cans back into the garage...today was trash day. I think it's going to be an early night for us, we of course have to stay up to watch Visitors though.

Anyway, dinner for tonight was altered some as I completely forgot to set out the chicken to thaw because of all of the drama. Hopefully I can make the chicken recipe I had planned to sometime in the future. I did get to make these potato skins which aren't really potato skins since I stuffed them like a twice baked potato but they hold all of the ingredients that a typical potato skin from a restaurant includes, call them what you may. We really enjoyed them which for me was a given but potatoes are something Daniel eats cautiously, he is the only person I know who doesn't like mashed potatoes or baked potatoes. I knew the only way I was going to get these in his belly is if I stuffed them full of some of his favorite baked potato toppings...he's got to load them up if he is going to eat them.

Potato Skins...but twice baked

Ingredients:
5 sm. to md. baking potatoes
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. salt
dash of garlic powder
dash or two of black pepper
1/3 cup bacon pieces
2/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Cayenne pepper

Directions:
1.) Scrub potatoes and baked in oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for on hour. Allow to cool and then cut in half carefully scraping out all of the potato innards make sure that you don't tear the outer shell.
2.) In a small bowl add the potato innards, sour cream, bacon, cheddar cheese, salt, garlic powder, and black pepper. Mix well.
3.) Carefully add mixture back into each empty potato skin and bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Sprinkle a little bit of cayenne pepper to the top of each potato, this addition can be omitted but it gives the potato a nice little kick. Cook potatoes until heated through and slightly browned on top, about a half an hour or so.

I wish we would have had some green onions to sprinkle on top but we were fresh out which is unusual at our house, green onions are normally a staple at our house.

I hope you enjoy these! They were actually pretty easy to do and will definitely be done again.