"Cooking is once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love."

Thanks to my trusty iPhone and the amazing recipe apps I have, I have found some new, super yummy recipes! So I just thought I would share them with you while I take a break from packing. This first recipe is one I made last night and it was SO delicious and pretty easy too!

Baked Pork Chops and Vegetables

1	can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of celery soup
4	bone-in pork loin chops, 1/2 inch thick (about 1 1/2 lb)
1/2	teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4	teaspoon garlic-pepper blend
2	cups frozen diced hash brown potatoes (from 32-oz bag), thawed
1	cup Green Giant® Valley Fresh Steamers® frozen mixed vegetables (from 12 oz bag), thawed
1/2	cup chive-and-onion sour cream potato topper
1/4	teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1	cup Parmesan-flavored croutons, coarsely crushed

	Print these coupons...
	About Concordance™

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. Sprinkle pork chops with seasoned salt and garlic-pepper blend. Heat 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook pork chops in skillet 4 to 6 minutes or until browned on both sides. Place pork chops in baking dish.
2. In large bowl, mix potatoes, vegetables, soup, sour cream and thyme. Spoon over pork chops. Cover baking dish with foil.
3. Bake 30 minutes. Sprinkle with croutons; press into mixture slightly. Bake uncovered 20 to 25 minutes longer or until bubbly and pork is no longer pink in center.

These next two are ones that I made when Mark's parents were visiting. The Pork Tenderloin turned out really nice but I really like the pasta dish more. It had a GREAT flavor to it!


Grilled Brined Pork Tenderloin

4	cups cold water
2	cups apple cider
1/2	cup maple-flavored or real maple syrup
1/4	cup salt
2	pork tenderloins (about 1 pound each)
1	tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1/2	teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1/4	teaspoon garlic powder

	Print these coupons...
	About Concordance™

1. Stir water, cider, maple syrup and salt in large container or stockpot until salt is dissolved. Add pork to brine mixture. Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours but no longer than 12 hours.
2. Heat coals or gas grill for direct heat. Remove pork from brine mixture; rinse thoroughly under cool running water and pat dry. Discard brine. Sprinkle pork with rosemary, pepper and garlic powder.
3. Cover and grill pork over medium heat 20 to 25 minutes, turning occasionally, until pork has slight blush of pink in center and meat thermometer inserted in center reads 160ºF.

Basil Chicken over Angel Hair

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package angel hair pasta
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 2 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes
• 2 cups boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and cubed
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook angel hair pasta until it is al dente, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and set aside.
2. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Saute the onions and garlic. Stir in the tomatoes, chicken, basil, salt and hot pepper sauce. Reduce heat to medium, and cover skillet. Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until mixture is hot and tomatoes are soft.
3. Toss sauce with hot cooked angel hair pasta to coat. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

These all have links to the actual recipes (just click on the title of the recipe) in case you want to read reviews or whatever. I did make some changes on the pasta dish that some reviews suggested, just to make things a little easier for me :) But anywho, hope you enjoy!

And that's the wonderful thing about family travel: it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind.

(This is a re-post of yesterday's post but with pictures!)

Boy did this weekend go by quick! Seems like we were just getting ready for everybody to get here and now they are all gone! Luckily we had a great weekend, got loooots of pics (of course), and had a ton of fun!

Ok so after hanging out with Amy for most of Friday, the Michael Erwin fam showed up prevening (that's a new word courtesy of my new favorite show, The Big Bang Theory :) We had a YUMMY dinner at one of our favorite local spots, Tony's Brick Oven Pizzeria...Seriously SO Good! Saturday we hung out, went to the outlets for some seriously good deals on baby clothes for Jessica (I got some summer dresses for Evelyn too), then headed over to the church, which was conveniently located on the parade route that day!

Jacob was trying to give Evelyn a kiss, too cute!

For once Evelyn is the only one looking at the camera! :)

Playin' around waitin' for the parade

Michael got Isabella and Jacob these delightful horns

The kids loved them though!

We sat in the shade and chilled til it started and had a good ol' time when it did! Mardi Gras Parades (family oriented ones that is....) are the ones to go to! Every single float is throwing out beads, candy, coupons, toys, etc....SO much more fun than regular parades. The kids had SO much fun and we got SOOOOOO many strings of Mardi Gras beads!!! I counted them when we got home and we got TWO HUNDRED strings! SO crazy!

Mardi Gras beads...woot woot! :)

Me and my Ebers!

Gettin' more beads!

Dance to the music!

Goofy girl!

All our beads!

After the parade, we took a potty break and then headed down to the beach! Isabella and Jacob were asking alllll day long to go to the beach and were SOOOO excited when we got there! They had SUCH a blast, Evelyn too! She loved playing with her big cousins and LOVED playing in the water! She hasn't tried to go in the water the other times we've gone but seeing the big kids go, she just had to follow and wouldn't come out! Isabella was so ecstatic to be at the beach and was just thrilled to be there and play. She was looking forward to it the most out of everything this weekend!

Family pic!

These two are SO cute!

Amy tryin' to look all cool in the sunset :)

Play time!

She was SO happy!

This is my all-time favorite picture..probably ever!!! I Just LOVE IT! So perfect!

Evelyn bein' nice to Auntie Amy!

You can't go to the beach without playin in the sand

Evelyn thought Isabella was SO funny!

So usually Evelyn doesn't go in the water but since the big kids were, off she went! Of course her diaper got soaking wet so I couldn't help but take this pic when we took it off :)

That night we had another deliciously yummy dinner from a place called Darwell's Cafe which has delicious BBQ and other things. They've been featured on Food Network's Diner's, Drive-in's, and Dives and totally deserved it! They are a great little joint, very quaint and quirky and delicious! Then we played games and that was the end of Saturday.

Sunday we went to church, ate lunch, and pretty much just hung out at our house/area for the rest of the day. The kids/dads played at the park for awhile while we girls hung out, then a bit of quiet/movie time, then dinner (enchiladas, which are always yummy and always a hit), followed by a quick little try at making beignets (I wanted to take them to a local place that makes them but unfortunately they only make them on weekdays :( ), and THEN had some DQ ice cream cake for my b-day! Overall pretty great day. Michael and Jessica had to leave Sunday night cuz of some stuff that came up that they had to do Monday but we were REALLY glad they came even just for a couple days! It was so great to have everyone together. The three siblings, and the rest of us, haven't all been together since Amy's wedding! Long time ago. :)

Delicioso!

haha....Amy looks pretty short next to these two :)

Brotherly love! ;)

Anywho....the Michael Erwin's left Sunday and then Amy left prevening on Monday so we got to spend most of the day with her again which was great. A stop at the fabric store and lunch at Chick-Fil-A made for a pretty decent day! :) We pretty much didn't do anything after everybody was gone, and today is gonna be the same since it's my b-day :) but tomorrow it's time to get workin'! I only have around 20 days til Mark leaves and then I leave!!!!!! I can't believe it and don't really want to think about it just yet but I have so much to do to prepare so I can't help but think of it...I just hope these next 9 months with him gone will go by as quick as these past 9 ones have! Anywho....really not gonna think about it today...time to chill on the couch with my baby and watch Dora and then maybe go on a walk in this people Mississippi weather we've been having!!! Have a great day!

"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once."

Life has been getting busier and busier this past week and won't stop for the next four at least! Needless to say I'm a bit behind on my blogging and don't know when I'll catch up...So while I have a minute this morning I thought I'd do a post.

I've thought of a few more things about Evelyn I'd like to share. She's learned to say poopie and says it while shes' pooing, after she's pooed, and when she farts (or someone else farts)...pretty funny. She's also been loving to hide lately...she'll go stand in corners and wait for you to come "find" her, she'll hide under things, she'll hide behind the clothes in my closet, and best of all she'll go in the bathroom or laundry room, even when it's dark, shut the door, and just stand there until you come "find" her....it cracks me up! For such an active thing it's funny to see her stand completely still, just waiting...sometimes I see how long she'll stay in one spot...I swear she stayed hiding in my closet one day for like 10 minutes. Such a fun age! Oh, another thing she's learned is to buckle her straps in the high chair all by herself! She's been trying forever, she loves putting things together, and she finally snapped them in the right way this week. So now she just wants to climb in her chair all day and buckle them...Oh, another thing! While I'm getting ready or trying on clothes, she likes to say cuuuute, or pretty...nice little boost of self-esteem :)

I think that's all I had on Evelyn for now...let's see....what else can I catch up on....Mark's parents came to visit this past weekend. We went out to eat a couple times, went to the beach, played some games, and watched Evelyn do her thing....which is always entertaining. It was a nice, chill weekend, and great to see them before Mark leaves for deployment! I know they enjoyed coming down. Mark's sister and brother and fam are coming this weekend (Amy is here but upstairs sleeping still.....lazy girl :), and Michael and Jessica are coming down today. We're excited to see them and spend time with them! I just hope this fog disappears soon cuz I promised them all sunshine and warmth! :) here's some pics from last weekend though! Amy's awake now so my blogging time is done! :)

Dead jellyfish on the beach, gross but intriguing!

A real jellyfish in the water

Walkin' on the beach!

Evelyn's neverending quest to find birds... :)

Dennis looking out at the islands

Watchin' for Jellyfish

Super cuteness!

(She loves her daddy!)

Buttons and patches and the cold wind blowing, The days pass quickly when I am sewing.

I FINALLY got my etsy shop up and running. I had some things to do over the weekend before I could post anything on it but tonight I put up my first listings! I made my labels for the shoes, made a banner for my etsy page, wrote descriptions for my items, put up the pictures, and wa-la! Shop started! And here's the link!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TaraErwin

It took me a bit to come up with the name but with a little help from my delightfully bored niece (who was at work at the time :) came up with this! ForEvers After. It's a little pun on my family's nickname for Evelyn, which is Evers, and I thought it was cute and fitting for this! I found a cute crown online and added my name and here's my banner! I think it turned out pretty cute! Although it's kinda hard to see here so sorry about that :)


The only listings I have up right now are some of my first ones but latest are getting better and more uniform. Soon I hope to be able to have both seams on the inside so they won't show at all but so far I'm still a little messy on it. I enjoy working with this median though for a change and am planning on modifying some of the patterns a bit to be more what I want them to be. I like creating my own things so hopefully I'm good at designing my own patterns! So keep tuned for my latest creations! Although they actually might be slow in coming cuz these next weeks are gonna be pretty busy for us! Yay for family visiting! Happy Sunday to you all!

'Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it' --Proverbs 22:6--

I know I haven't been blogging lately or updating much besides my projects so today I'm going to do a brag post of my lil' girl! This is also mainly so later when all these things have left my memory, I'll have somewhere to go back and remember when she did this and said that and so on.

Evelyn is about to be a whoppin' 16 months in a few days, so crazy! She's getting so big (although I have no clue how much she weighs or how tall she is :) and independent. She's VERY stubborn and persistent and knows what she wants! She's very silly and so much fun. She loves to dance (mostly bouncing up and down and spinning in circles while waving her arms around...very cute). She also loves to put things together and try to figure things out, very curious little thing, which she's always been that way. Her favorite toys are her blocks, her laptop toy, her books, her puzzles (just like her momma!) and her pretend food. She loves playing in the kitchen and with kitchen stuff.

Reading her Dora book with her Daddy

Sorting her blocks, she still loves playing with these and sorting them!

Her newest blocks, big legos!

Puzzle time! A neighbor/friend gave us these cool puzzles where the pieces have a magnet on them and you "fish/catch" the insects/fish (we have another one with fish on it).

She still loves Dora the Explorer as well as Diego and Blues Clues. She also really loves Toy Story, Buzz is her favorite :) She loves kicking back in her little chair and watchin' her fav shows. She brings me the remote when it's not on and then when the show is over she brings it back to do the next one....I'm really trying to limit her shows, some days that's all she wants to do! ridiculous...although she does follow along with the shows now and interacts with them, which is kinda funny to watch. She claps when they say clap, she calls out backpack and map when they ask for it. She also has been trying to say some of the Spanish words, I swear she said abuela the other day.... She knows most of the characters too (she's actually really good at picking out characters at the store and such...she knows Dora, Boots, Diego, Mickey, Buzz and the other Toy Story characters...she's got a good little memory! Hopefully better than mine...)

(vegging out in front of the tv...she wasn't feeling well that day so I let her stay like this for as long as she stayed there :)

Evelyn also really loves going outside! She loves pushing her push toy up and down the sidewalk and she loves walking along the ledge/curb and she LOVES splashing in the water along the curb with her boots. She loves going to the park, the slides are her favorite as well as just climbing up and down the jungle gym. She really loves to climb (especially the stairs, thank goodness for baby gates!). Every time we go check the mail she heads to the park, which is right by the mailbox. She gets SO mad when I don't let her go! That's where her stubbornness kicks in :) She's very persistent/demanding in her outside routine, the moment I mention it she runs and grabs her boots, puts them on (she puts them on the right feet most of the time too), gets my shoes, makes me put them on, gets her coat, makes me button it, gets my coat, then makes me zip it up, gets her hat (she really likes hats too)..then outside we go! :) silly girl....

I love this toy, and so does she! She loves to push it up and down the sidewalk, and in the house :)

Playin' in the rain! With all the rain we've been getting this week, we've had lots of time to play in the puddles.

Evelyn is still as talkative as she's always been, she's just more understandable now! Seems like lately she is picking up more and more words each day. The past couple days I've been trying to keep close attention to come up with a list of words she can say now so here goes...this is more for my memory's sake than to brag so you can skip this if you want :)

Evelyn's words at 16 months (words that she knows, understands, and uses in the right context too! :)-- Momma, Mommy, Daddy, Blues Clues, doggy, what'sthat?, ball, boots, Dora, backpack (almost all the way), map, binky, baby, blankie, baba (bottle), wawa (water), Bobos (the monkey's on Diego), shoes, movie (she said this one yesterday for the first time), crackers (almost all the way), Mickey, Buzz (although she can't pronounce the zz so it's pretty cute), choo choo, bye, please, thank you, car, no, mine (although this one is still new and I'm trying to keep it on the DL :)....that's all my poor brain can think of for the moment....I'm sure there's some more..

Let's see...what else has Evelyn been up to.... she's got lots of teeth but still one or two that she's teething on....I'll be glad when that is over, I'm tired of her chewing on everything! :) She's been wanting to color more but still likes to eat the crayons and colored pencils so I've been careful with that. She's very smart though and very observant and copies a lot of what we do. She's very good at folding her arms for prayer and sits still for the first half of prayers now :) She loves to "help" clean and pushes the swiffer around all the time. She's also started the phase where she likes hiding in corners and under the table...especially for some quiet time to go poo :) She loves giving hugs and kisses at bed time and loves blowing kisses to say good bye to daddy. That's how she says I love you. If you say I love you she either blows kisses or smacks her lips like she's giving kisses, so cute!

Well that's all I can think of for now....it's nearing naptime so my mind is slowing down and getting ready for a break :) That is if Evelyn will go down for a nap! She's all stuffed up and having a hard time breathing through her nose, poor thing! So here's a few more recent pics my little rag muffin. It's been very rainy this week and since she's had a small cold so we've been chillin' at home being bums. :)

She decided to show off her food to me the other day

Bummin' around the house yesterday