Eggplant Parmesan

Are you familiar with Cake Boss? Well apparently Cake Boss is also a Kitchen Boss. I did not know! My Aunt has tried a few of his Italian recipes and says they are SO authentic and delicious. They are only 1 or 2 ingredients off from the recipes my Grandma and Great Grandma used to cook! So I took her strong suggestion to try these.. and started last night with the Eggplant Parmesan. Delicious.. and even better the next day! I'll be trying some of his others out soon, and will report back!

Ezra was my helper and did a wonderful job coating the eggplant slices in the flour, egg, and breadcrumb. He is seriously a great help in the kitchen! 

Ok- so the recipe is HERE!

I didn't understand the first step of the preparation.. but it just basically wants you to pull all of the moisture out. So I set my eggplant slices on napkins, but paper towels would be ideal. And changed them a few times as they filled with moisture.. over the coarse of an hour. Other than that there are no tricks.. it just is time consuming because it makes a TON! I didn't follow his recipe for breadcrumbs. I just did a 1/2 and 1/2 combo of my own homemade crumbs (bread blended until they were crumbs, added Italian seasoning and baked until golden) and store bought Italian breadcrumbs. 

Yum-o!

clothes on the mind!

love: the scarf, ring and shoes! (FYI-Ezra says he doesn't like that shiny thing... he likes boy stuff.) 

want the shirt in a different color, and love the pants but can't pull of white! 

love this!

so happy these are back in! 

can't wait to find a pair for myself!! 

REALLY want this! So cute to me! 

That's all! I've had clothes on the mind a bit lately. And these are to cute to not share! 

The kid LOVES dress up!

 He's always coming up to us with something that he needs us to put on him.

He is so much fun and does this adorable side to side dance. He also attempted to say his name and it came out 'Key-key'. I'd say we have a new nick name if it didn't sound so girly! He also says applesauce. What a HUGE word for him to say considering he doesn't have tons and tons of words in his vocab. It sounds like 'appa - daut'. 

my construction worker

  

 my ... construction worker?? (off to work maybe?)

 my super hero 

 my cowboy

and lastly, just a little cutie in a hat!

My Mom and I saw the '2 friends' show with Michael W. Smith & Amy Grant last night at the Ryman.

 It was AMAZING! 

They did tons and tons of their old songs.. (if you grew up on that music it was a BIG deal!) I just can't explain how awesome it was! They have such a good chemistry and I couldn't get a smile off my face. Hahaha. I'm so glad I went with my Mom... Tony would have been rolling his eyes at me the entire time. Bravo to my husband on that birthday gift! (How will he top it next year??) Only kidding..

moving on..

A couple of days ago Ezra grabbed Tony's bible and insisted he read it to me. "I'm your Dad!" He said. "Let me get a bunch of cozy blankets and pillows." So after making us a bed on the ground he opened up the bible and began to "read" to me. After his 1st sentence, I knew it would be good.. so I grabbed a pen and paper and told him I was taking notes. 

Here's exactly what he said:

"The faithful God was good ..and he helped people a lot ..and he was always the same God. He's strong and can move people to heaven. He can do anything. Big and little. He can pick bibles up. He can do anything in your whole life. He created the whole world. Made animals, mountains, sun and moon. He said "Let there be sun" and the sun beheared (appeared). :) The faithful about Goliath. He was part of the Philistines. His army came. Goliath tried to fight David, David swat a stone in Goliath's forehead. He fell down. . . . . . And flying birds came. (???) This is a different part... #6, #5. About the King. He wasn't happy because Goliath the giant tried to fight everybody. David came to fight him and he won the battle.

I LOVE my boy and am so thankful he has the word planted in his heart at this young age. 

He makes me one proud Mama! Oh and he is a super silly kid!! 

26 and time for NEW things! 

I love having a February birthday .. and find it interesting that my 3 closest friends have February  baby girls. Any hoo. We have had some warm days this week, the sun has been shinning, and I'm excited about the things to come!

Here are our plans:

-We are planting a vegetable garden

-We will vacation in Florida
-We have been purging the house of things
 & will soon have a garage sale
-We will enjoy the warm weather whenever it is available
-We will expand our family
-We have canceled cable

-I am couponing
-Ezra will start pre-school

-Our future will be a little more clear

26 was easier for me than 25 was. I look forward to this new year and the exciting things to come! I had a wonderful birthday and was spoiled as always! I must say, my favorite part of the day was hearing Ezra say "I love you Boufday goul!!!"

 

love

was

 in

 the

 air

xoxo-

Valentines Day 2011

It's an icy 20 degrees outside right now. 

Everything is covered in snow.

Thankfully I did my grocery shopping yesterday. 

We don't have hot chocolate & our coffee is horrible (must have bought the wrong blend).

We have warm snugly beds and that is wonderful.

I took these pictures yesterday. 

They may or may not have been taken with my camera phone.

While driving. (oops) Who could pass up a photo opp like this?!

These remind me of a warmer time! Don't be fooled.. it was still very chilly out!

Look at the silhouette of the bare tree. I love that. Soon they will have plenty of leaves, and it will be 100 degrees outside. The world is so interesting to me sometimes. 

I love God's creation. Last night driving home from my Mom's Ezra said "LOOK!!! The stars are following me!!" And he was blowing kisses to all of the stars and the moon and telling me how he loves them!" Melt me to pieces. I love that kid!