Bacon Lovers...

My friend Rachel (thank you Rachel!) told me to pick up the March 2011 issue of Southern Living and I am elated that I did. In addition to all the fabulous features in this southern girl's bible, there is a mouth-watering section called "everything's better with BACON".

Oh. My. Goodness. There are 7 insane receipes and a whole section on other uses for bacon bits besides the boring baked potatoe. One receipe that caught my eye were the Bacon-Herb Cupcakes. How yummy would these be with a tall cold glass of Abita Amber...YUM! This recipe is on my list of ones to try soon!

Since I have bacon on the brain, this past weekend I tried Hormel Black Label Maple Bacon. Sooo good. It makes your whole house smell like maple syrup.

Please give this a try this weekend.

Abita S.O.S.

I am in love. In love with Abita Save Our Shores (SOS). Abita makes some great beers. I love Jockamo IPA, Abita Amber and Strawberry Harvest Lager just to name a few but I am in total adoration of SOS.

It is an unfiltered Weizen Pils made with Pilsner and Wheat malts. On the label they call is a "Charitable Pilsner" because for every bottle sold Abita will donate $.75 to the "rescue and restoration of the environment, industry and individuals fighting to survive this disastrous oil spill."

This beer comes in a .750 mL bottle (about the size of a wine bottle). So because Alabama has this ridiculous law where you can't sell over 16 oz in the state I have to get my boyfriend to bring me some beer from Tennessee.

This past weekend I spent some time in Fairhope, AL and we found a bar that has SOS on tap. I was so excited I could barely stand it!

Definitely give this beer a try. It is worth the hunt to find it in your area.

Happy Monday!

Tide for Toomers

As most of you know, some douche bag known as "Al from Dadeville" poisoned Auburn's beloved Toomer's Corner oak trees. Unfortunately that dumb ass was also an Alabama fan. Regardless if your blood runs crimson, navy, orange or polka dot, this act was unconscionable. I might not understand why you crazy Aubies throw toilet paper on these beautiful old oak tress but it is a tradition. Tradition is what makes college football great.

photo @ Associated Press

Thursday night a group of Alabama alumni and students got together and formed the facebook page Tide for Toomer's to help raise money to save the beautiful live oaks at Toomer's Corner. Please read the open letter under the info button on their facebook page. Total class acts.

Less than 24 hours into their endeavour they have over 15,000 "likes" and have raised over $6,000. Please visit their page and make a donation.

Roll Tide,

I love you more than bacon.

I found the best Valentine's card on Tiny Prints this year. They had tons of cards you could customize for your honey. Here's the one I got.

I also got a wonderful surprise from my sweetie.

 These puppies were 3 feet tall! Hope everyone had a fantastic Valentine's Day!

Whoopie Pies - 2nd attempt Successful!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies, I will not give up on you! I made a final attempt last night to make these sweet little treats and I must say 2nd time's the charm.

I "kinda" cheated this time and used a recipe that called for the boxed cake mix. I found the recipe on Group Recipes and it turned out really well. You can use any flavor of cake mix but I was in a Valentine mood so I used Red Velvet.  I also decided to put Betty (my Kitchen Aid stand up mixer) up for this recipe and use Steve (my hand mixer) since I over mixed the last batch.

The recipe has a bit of a tweak on the water and oil measurements from the cake mix directions but it was still pretty straight forward.  After you mix everything together the recipe calls for dropping 2 tablespoons of batter on the parchment covered cookie sheet. I think that was just a little too much but I ended up cutting out a circle shape so it really didn't matter.

The filling is delicious! Butter, cream cheese and marshmallow fluff, what's not to love?

After the pies came out of the oven and cooled, I used my biscuit cutters and cut out circles.

I used a plastic bag as a piping bag and piped some filling on one of the pies and then topped it with the matching pie.

Since Valentine's Day is Monday, I packaged a whoopie pie with parchment paper in one of those disposable plastic containers with a red lid. I also found some really cute printables on Catch My Party and attached it with double stick tape (my new favorite thing).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Teaser...

I've been getting crafty this week. I saw this jewelry tree online and thought I would attempt to make my own. Details on this project and another coming soon!

Happy Friday!

Puppy Bowl VII

I love football as much as the next girl but I'm not too excited about the Packers or the Steelers this year. I pretty much just watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. The NFL is not my bag. I prefer to watch guys play for the love of the game and not just for a pay check.

So at 2pm CST my TV will be tuned to Puppy Bowl VII on Animal Planet. What can make your heart melt faster than an adorable puppy rolling around and chasing other adorable puppies? Nothing... unless you have a heart of stone.

All these cutie patootie puppies are rescues looking for a home. You can see the starting line up here. What a great way to bring awareness to these adorable puppies that deserve a loving home.

I'm excited to see Big Red flex his muscles. What an adorable Shepeard Mix. He is from Butch's Place rescue in Cleveland, AL and loves the Golden Girls (I do too).

photo @ animal.discovery.com

Calvin has also caught my eye. He's a Border Terrier Mix and is also a member of Oprah's Book Club. He is from Catawba County Animal Services in Newton, NC.

photo @ animal.discovery.com

These rescue dogs have a special place in my heart because my "puppy" is a rescue as well.

If you are looking for a puppy, please consider adopting before you spend hundreds of dollars on a pure breed. Rescues will love you just as much, if not more.

Kraut Juice

I LOVE sauerkraut. I love the smell of it, the texture, the bitter taste. It reminds me of my Oma and it brings back so many good memories. AAAHH...Kraut I LOVE you!

I even like to drink the juice out of a jar of REALLY good Kraut....BUT this is taking it a little too far.

Who the heck would drink this? I guess just Frank.

Kitchen Disaster

So Bianca Bakes Day was a no go!

I attempted to make these super cute Heart Shaped Whoopie Pies...

Photo @ pizzazzerie.com

and I got these...

Yes, I know exactly what they look like. I followed all the directions but somewhere in the receipe they forgot to tell me when to add the food coloring. So I had to add the food coloring after the fact and then I over mixed the batter (not good).

BUT I redeemed myself by cooking up this delicious Turkey Sausage Lasagna receipe I got from The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten !

I was so excited to eat that I forgot to take a picture before I dug in!

making the sauce

ricotta, feta and parmesan cheese mixture

soaking the noodles

pile of delicious sliced mozzarella

It's really easy and it soooo gooood!

I'm in Martha Heaven!

O..M..G! Martha Stewart has a new show, Martha Bakes. I am in love.

Every Monday on the Hallmark Channel, Martha shares her recipes and bakes up something delicious. This past Monday, Martha shared her classic yellow cake recipe and used it to bake 3 different mouth-watering sweet treats. An orange-curd-filled yellow cake with chocolate ganache frosting, stone-fruit upside down cake and strawberry cupcakes with strawberry meringue butter cream frosting.

Photo: MarthaStewart.com

I have tomorrow off so it will be Bianca Bakes Day! Stay tuned...