Baa Baa Black Sheep... for dinner

Let me introduce to you my sister in law, Sarah Dudley.

She is currently enrolled in a two-year program at a culinary school and is constantly sharing cooking ideas and tips with us which we all appreciate!

For Christmas, she whipped up an outrageously delicious turtle cheesecake dripping with caramel and nuts. She says she has no recipe for it either! I have never ventured out as far as that- cheesecakes scare me. I always picture the edges burning and the middle gooey. It just sounds like a lot of work to me. But this girl has got it mastered!

This week she decided to treat us with lamb. She bought 2 racks of lamb (2 lbs) for $20! It was more of a sample and we grilled chicken and steak along with it.

It took a lot of work to trim the fat and separate the chops. She lightly seasoned them and sent them out to the grill (in the snow). Oh wow! They were so good!

For the last 3 Christmas seasons we were in Taiwan decorating a fake little tree in 90 degree weather. But now we are back with family surrounded by snow and wind and for the first time in a long time I am really loving the winter season! And it's not because I love the cold- I am finally among family we love so much and missed during the holiday time.

Sarah, thanks for your friendship and we are so excited to see where this road of culinary will take you.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

My Sunshine Pillow

I love pillows and I love to mix and match pillows. I decided to try my hand at making one. I love the way it turned out and will experiment on more patterns and colors.

The pillow form cost me $8 and the material around $3 . Not bad for an adorable homemade pillow! If anyone needs the instructions, I can get them to you.

50% off sale on CROCS (TODAY ONLY)

wow! I just went to amazon.com and see they have a 1 day sale on selected CROCS If you like them, or want some for your children, you may want to check out their deals on select items.

But hurry, it's today only!

Rachel Ray's Huge Turkey Meatball Dinner

I had been wanting to try something new for dinner and who to turn to when you run out of creativity? Rachel Ray , of course! I love her healthy twist on things and these giant meatballs are made with ground turkey. I've never eaten JUST ground turkey and wanted my family to enjoy them, so I ended up mixing 1/2 lb. ground BEEF to 1 lb. ground turkey. These meatballs call for chopped, cooked spinach was is SO YUMMY! When mixing the ingredients, I presumed the recipe called for an 8 oz. bag of grated Italian cheese in the meat, so I put that in. When I looked again, it said 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese in the meat and the grated cheese later on in the cream sauce! Oh well, this was a splendid mistake and I will do it again this way. Good thing I had 2 bags!

I cooked egg noodles and served the meatballs over them with the cream sauce! What a treat! I even had time that afternoon to try a ciabatta bread recipe which turned out fabulous. Since I followed the recipes to ALMOST exactly, I am providing the link and you can go to the sites directly.

Super-Size Turkey Meatballs w/ Cream Sauce

Ciabatta Bread Recipe

Happy cooking!

My Etsy Purchases

An Earring, necklace and bracelet holder! I found this through Etsy.com, my new favorite online shop! Langton Studio is where I found it but currently he doesn't have anything in his shop.

I am really excited that I no longer have to keep my accessories in little pouches where they get tangled and broken. There are little holes for stud earrings, but it is on the wall and I have no idea how I would take the back off , so I leave those in my grandmother's little ring box. But this was well worth the $25 I spent!


The other thing I bought was this frame made by My Sweet Savannah. Her shop is awesome! But I particularly love this frame because it's a map of Asia and little Taiwan is in the right-hand corner- a very special place for us. Our daughter, Savannah, was born there. Maybe that's why I love her shop! :)

Yeah for Etsy!