This week

We've had quite a busy week.  I have been working more than usual and tend to crash as soon as I get home.  So the blog has been neglected. 

First off, I forgot Foodie Friday since we didn't try out many new recipes this week.  For our meatless night (which ended up being on Thursday, but meatless Thursday just doesn't have the same ring to it...), we tried a recipe I found on Pinterest for Sweet Potato burgers.  Not bad, but we both prefer the black bean burgers I mentioned a few weeks ago.

Monday night, we celebrated our nephew, William's 3rd birthday.  He has such a bubbly personality and is absolutely precious with his head of curls.  He is quite attached to his Uncle Cameron and had informed him that he really needed a pair of sunglasses for his birthday - Curious George ones to be exact.  We didn't quite come through on the Curious George, but did manage to find a pair with monkeys on them.  I don't think he noticed!

After a busy workweek, we decided to go kayaking on Saturday.  I've mentioned before that Cameron has really been in to the kayak fishing lately.  I'm not such a big fan of fishing myself.  Now catching I like, but fishing is rather boring to me.  I did try my hand at catching the big one, but no such luck.

While fishing didn't hold my attention long, I did enjoy paddling around and taking in the beautiful day.  After years of growing up in Charleston, SC, I have a soft spot for marsh grass and Fowl River has plenty of it.

Yes, that is a Glamour magazine on the boat.  While Cameron & our friend, Elliott, fished, I worked on my tan and caught up with the girly magazines.

The boys were not too lucky with the fishing either.  A few little ones, but no keepers.  Elliott did manage to catch a seagull though.  Poor guy tried to eat the lure as Elliott was casting.  Luckily, he had poor aim and it caught him in the leg.  Don't worry, Elliott was able to reel him in and set him free.  No veterinary work needed on the river!

This morning, Cameron and I babysat his brother's 4 little boys.  Chris & Anne were out of town for the weekend so the family all took shifts with the boys.  They are so well behaved, but trust me, watching a 6, 4, 3, and almost 1 year old is hard work for someone not used to having children around.  We made it through the morning all in one piece!  I didn't take any pictures today, because I was too busy keeping up with everyone, so I stole this Easter picture from Anne's blog.  How could you not love these adorable boys?

They are tied for cuteness only with my brother's son, Elijah, who unfortunately lives several states away.  We don't get to see him much, but love hanging out with him when we do.  Definitely looking forward to our family beach vacation this summer!  Here we are on vacation last year:

I'm looking forward to a quiet night at home.  I have another busy work week ahead, then it's time to celebrate my 29th birthday.  Yep, only one more year left until the big 3-0!!  

Foodie Friday

I have several good recipes to share this week!

The first I pulled out of Coastal Living Magazine (a favorite of mine) - Pan-Roasted Pork Chops with Apricot-Ginger Glaze.  Very good!  I served it with some fresh green beans, which I make in the skillet with some butter and garlic.

I tried out a green smoothie recipe this week too.  It's called green, not for the color, but the fact that you add vegetables to it.  Now before you turn up your nose like my husband did, you have to give it a try.  You never even notice the greens!  I found the link to this blog on Pinterest.  She has tons of great smoothie recipes.  I made the Slammin' Sunrise with strawberries, blueberries, bananas, spinach, and vanilla almond milk.  This was our first experience with almond milk.  Doubt we will make the switch, but the vanilla flavor is good for smoothies.

Now for the grand finale...

Stuffed Flounder

Remember all those flounder Cameron's been catching?  Tonight we decided to try out a recipe from Uncle Bubba (Paula Deen's brother).  You can find it on Food Network.  We did switch out crab meat for diced shrimp.  Crab meat is never cheap, but it seemed exceptionally expensive everywhere I went so we opted for the shrimp.  Plus, Cameron made panko-fried shrimp for an appetizer with the extra shrimp.

We had an amazing dinner tonight.  Next on the list is Anson's crispy flounder if we can just find the recipe...

Lonely Boy

Cameron is always introducing me to new music.  With the exception of country, he's pretty much opposed to most songs played on mainstream radio.  While I still have a soft-spot for pop music, I do enjoy most of the songs he plays for me.  The Black Keys are one of those bands and the Lonely Boy is one of those songs you can't help but dance to.

And then he showed me the video....

Now we show off our most ridiculous dance moves whenever it comes on the playlist.  "The Carlton" anyone???

and then there were 5...

Our little family of 6 became 5 today.  We took our foster pup, Hank, to his forever home.  We found an amazing girl from Nashville who has been searching for several months for the perfect rescue German Shorthair.  A few weeks ago, Hank and I met her in Montgomery for a play date and decided it was a great match.  She's an active runner and I think he will enjoy being her running partner.  I have to admit I shed quite a few tears over saying goodbye.  I've just had to remind myself that he's going to a great home.  That, and our house has been quite a zoo since he joined us.  Lulu, the cat, has narrowly escaped death/serious injury a handful of times.  I'm pretty sure she would throw a party tonight if she could.  :)  I will definitely miss the best snuggler I ever met, but am happy to return to our family of five.

Hank with his new mommy

and we wonder why we can't grow anything in our backyard...

Hank has a funny way of pinning his ears back that make him look like Dumbo!

how many dogs do you know that lay down to eat??

the dog loves to snuggle

Mr. Hank, you will definitely be missed by the Gill family (except Lulu).  We were so happy to have you with us and wish you a long wonderful life with your new mom!

Foodie Friday

I'm really not being a very good blogger!  Sorry about that.  Maybe I will do better this week...

I made two new recipes this week, but neither were very exciting to me.  The first was Bow-Tie Pasta with Sausage.  Southern Living, you're letting me down! Cameron liked it (I think because it has Italian sausage in it), but I wasn't dying to have it again.  It turned out a little more soupy than I expected.

The next was from Fitness magazine (should've known) - Chipotle-Glazed Roast Chicken with Sweet Potatoes.  This just tasted like chicken with chipotle peppers on it.  The sweet potatoes were good though.

You can expect more fish recipes in the future.  The hubs has been catching quite a few fish.  I think we have about 5 whole flounders in the freezer right now.  Yum!

Foodie Saturday

One of the things I love about living in Mobile is happy hour at Wintzells Oyster House.  From 4-7pm, Monday thru Friday, you can get $5 pitchers and $5 for a dozen oysters.  I realize that slurping raw oysters is not something everyone enjoys, but Cameron and I love 'em!  After the oil spill a couple years ago, they were very hard to come by and when you could find them, they were pitifully small.  Thankfully, they're back and as delicious as ever!

While we treated ourselves to oysters Friday night, we did try out a couple new recipes this week.  Both I found through Pinterest.

First up - Spinach & Feta Quesadillas.  AMAZING!!  The hubs and I both loved this and wondered why we'd never tried something like it before.  We did make a few adjustments to the recipe.  We did not use boxed spinach, nor did we cook it.  Neither of us are big fans of cooked spinach.  So I bought a bag of fresh spinach leaves and we added them straight to the quesadillas.  We also chose to grill them on the Big Green Egg.  Cameron always jumps at the chance to use his egg (which coincidentally arrived on Easter last year).   We used spinach wraps rather than regular tortillas just because I had them already.  Yummy!  Definitely a keeper on our meatless rotation.

The only other recipe we tried out was a basic chicken recipe, Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken.  Pretty simple - mix together parmesan, Italian dressing mix, and garlic powder.  Dredge the chicken and bake.  Not bad, but nothing particularly exciting either.

Cameron and I have big dinner plans - a night out at Ruth's Chris.  Before you go thinking we're high rollers, we are going thanks to a very generous thank you gift from a family friend.  Now I feel like I should send a thank you gift FOR the thank you gift.  Oh well!  We will definitely enjoy our date night!