May Your Stockings Be Stuffed With Cream Cheese

So as an Army Wife, I am used to being invited to parties where I am expected to Buy Crap in the name of "Social Outlets" for other Army wives. Personally, I prefer not to host said events, but I don't mind going to them, because there's usually free food, and that food almost always involves various uses of cheese. And I do love cheese.

The latest Buy Crap Party I went to was a Tastefully Simple party. I bought a few things. Everyone was very nice. Almost all the recipes I bought included sour cream and/or cream cheese as the additional item(s) needed to make the dish. I think if I didn't enjoy cooking, this would perhaps be a company I should own some major stock in, or at least find a way to get a discount... However, I really enjoy cooking. A lot. So I came home and started thinking about recipes and how I could make the dishes those smart folks at Tatefully Simple are selling for prices I'm too cheap to pay more than once (for the novelty value). For example: Key Lime Cheese Ball. Now, I tried it at the party. It was ok. I have a margarita pie recipe that would taste even better in cheese ball form, for free because I already have all the ingredients at my house. Next up, figuring out how to make beer bread from scratch taste as good as this.

So I headed home, inspired to make something delicious for dinner. Instead, I made a pretty normal meal (small steak, wilted leaf salad, baked potatoes), BUT I found a magical website (I'm having fun with the link button today) that just made my Christmas a whole lot easier! I figured since there's a whole two of you that follow this blog, it was probably pretty safe to post it here. Today, after class I spent all afternoon on the phone with my mother-in-law (she's in on the Christmas gift secret because it's her recipes and her mother's recipes that comprise most of the gift) and then copying recipes into a family cookbook. I'm super excited. I think this is probably the most personalized gift (other than the scarves I made a few years ago) I've ever made for That Nice Man I Live With's family.

I'm a terrible influence and proud of it!

I was chatting with a friend on the phone. And over the course of our conversation, her language went from everyday conversation to rather rude and vulgar. I asked her about that and she said she only did it when she talked to me and I said that I must be a bad influence and doing something right!

Nobody wants the black girl...

We have sold all the puppies but one. The last one was promised off, but the guy reneged at the last minute. So now, here I am with the puppy at 7 weeks old and I've got to do something with her. Hopefully she'll sell in the next week. I don't really want to house-train another dog...

Here's a picture of the bacon quilted meatloaf I made last week. It smelled deliscious. I've got to work on the meatloaf part a little bit more, though...

Picture courtesy of my brother.

Realizing I'm Back Home

So I decided to make a nice meal for tonight. Meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and wilted spinach salad. We're having a few people over, not just eating this all by ourselves.

For those that know me, know that I'm not a huge meatloaf fan. However, that nice man I live with has been requesting it for some time. So I decided to aquiesce. Since I'm not a meatloaf kind of girl, I decided a good choice would be to put a bacon quilt/weave on top/around the meatloaf. Everything's better with bacon, afterall. However, I had already bought all the ingredients (other than the bacon) earlier today at the grocery store. So I had to make a second trip just for the bacon. The first trip, I had all sorts of healthy food items in my cart and didn't run into a single person I knew in the very crowded Publix. The second trip, now known as The Bacon Trip, I ran into three people I knew, as soon as the bacon was in my possession.

Only in my world would I run into a ton of people looking like the fat kid I am. Now that I have three packets of bacon safely in my possession, time to make a bacon weave!


Photo courtesy of those nice folks at www.woosk.com

The Puppies Are Here!

Tallulah gave birth this morning to six beautiful puppies!

I am terrible about remembering to update. I'm currently working on a baby blanket for a friend made out of mitered squares with self-striping sock yarn. We'll see how it turns out. Hopefully I'll remember to take a picture. My goal is to get the blanket finished I go see the friend next week. Luckily, the layover in Chicago is like 3 hours...

In other news, I plan on tricking my husband intro trying some homemade ice cream.

I went to a friend's wedding yesterday. Their first date was our wedding three years ago, so it was a nice way to spend our anniversary weekend. The friend and I met in college when we lived in the same dorm. I got to see a lot of people we used to live with in said dorm. One of the former dormmates asked me what I'm up to these days. I told him I'm an Army Wife now and I do what I want.