If you ever have the opportunity to host a foriegn student, do it. It will never be the "right time" so jump right in when the opportunity presents itself. What a blessing it will be :)
AGGGGHHHH. It's Paula Deen week and I passed up all of the down home, Southern comfort, sweet and salty, yummy food for Marinated Tomatoes. Don't get me wrong, they were good. But I have numerous others that I will be trying at a later time. I'm still trying to use up items I have on-hand.
"Start with one part Southern charm, add a dash of "hey y'all" and pour in a bountiful dose of cooking expertise, and you have the recipe for Paula Deen , host of three popular Food Network shows, including Paula's Home Cooking. Paula Deen is a self-made success story who learned the secrets of Southern cooking from her Grandmother some 30 years ago. She had no idea at the time that the love for Southern cooking her grandmother instilled in her would lead to a life-long career."
Where I really like to be is on top!
No fear here!
Check out more Wordless/Wordful Wednesday pictures at 5 Minutes of Mom, Sunny Day Today Mama, Seven Clown Circus, Experimental Mommy, Mrs. Cox's Slice o' Heaven& Mom Knows It All.
Pat and Gina Neely are the hosts of Food Network's Down Home with the Neely's. They make great southern food! I choose the Black-Eyed Pea Salad because I am trying to clean out my pantry and had a bag of black eyed peas I was supposed to cook for New Year's. So instead of canned beans, I soaked the dried beans over night and cooked them in the crock pot for a few hours until they were almost tender. I froze half of them for another occasion. 
The chef's for next week are Pat and Gina Neely. "Co-owners of Neely's Bar-B-Que, Patrick (Pat) and Gina Neely have turned their family restaurant into one of the most successful barbecue restaurants in the South. Now they share the secrets behind their favorite dishes and their passion for food, family, and fun on Food Network's Down Home with the Neelys." 
I couldn't help it....her hair is getting long enough for these teeny tiny pigtails.
Check out more Wordless/Wordful Wednesday pictures at 5 Minutes of Mom, Sunny Day Today Mama, Seven Clown Circus, Experimental Mommy, Mrs. Cox's Slice o' Heaven& Mom Knows It All.
This week's chef in the Food Network Chefs Cooking Challenge is Nigella Lawson and, if you were like me, it was very hard time picking just one recipe (OK, two, I needed to try her Cherry Cheesecake too!) . I settled on the Chocohotopots. This is definitely going into my dessert file. They are heavenly and, with a prep time of less than 5 minutes, they can't be beat. I didn't stray from the recipe one little bit. They are very rich, very chocolaty and a lot of fun. Cake with hot fudge sauce built right in. Try them. You will not be sorry you did!
The Cherry Cheesecake was outstanding for a no bake cheesecake! The only change I made was to make individual ramekins instead of one big one. I had to try it because Tomoko, the Japanese student that is staying with us, says cheesecake is her favorite. We loved it. She loved it. I will be making this simple and yummy dish again!
Nigella Lawson is our next Food Network chef. She has over 200 recipes on the FN site with a HUGE variety. I'm sure you'll find something that will suit you. 
Our first family picture in ages.
The petting zoo feeding is always the biggest attraction.
This week's Food Network Chef is Michael Symon. I didn't find anything on the FN site that caught my attention so I searched the Internet and found this beautiful recipe at Food & Wine - Toasted Cornmeal Corn bread. Toasting the cornmeal makes this unique. The flavor is so unlike regular corn bread. I am from the north and like my corn bread sweet while my husband is a Southerner and likes his corn bread salty. This was a good mix because the smoky flavor from the toasting goes nicely with the honey. Loved it!
We know she can drag the tower around but it's loud enough that we have warning that she is about to get into something.
Dragging. Climbing.
Much better view.
Can you see her little "wow" face?
