Happy Birthday Adam!!

I don't get the excitement of this gift...but he was thrilled!

We went to the Sunset Grille to celebrate his 22nd birthday:

Adam's arms are so long he could get the 4 of us in a 'selfie'.  He said he's already done a 'selfie' with 19 in the picture...LOL!!

Me and my guy :-)

Road Trip to Lancaster

I made a solo road trip to Lancaster last week. One of my friends at work, Pam, and I wanted to get Jamie a graduation gift.  We talked about what we wanted to get her, and ultimately decided we wanted to get her a quilt wall hanging.  Pam and I both love Lancaster and quilts. We thought this would be something that not only would be a lasting gift, but also something that would always remind her of us :-)

I avoided all the commercial quilt stores....I don't think I've ever been in one of them!  I went to 4 different places, 3 of which were in people's homes.  I found some that I sort of liked, but there wasn't one that stuck out for me that I really liked that I thought Jamie'd like, too.  All day long I was texting pictures to Pam at work (shhh, don't tell the boss!) with some of the quilts I thought were possibilities.

These were some of the options:

This was the one I had pretty much decided on, and Pam was good with it, too:

Until I found this one at Hannah's:

You may not be able to tell it, but, in addition to different materials and colors, there's quite a few different stitches.  If you look at the maroon border, there's leaves and acorns in there!  I think as soon as we both saw it we thought it was perfect for Jamie!

I love Hannah's!  I've gotten several wall hangings and pillows from here.  I love supporting this Amish family, instead of some commercial business.  

You can't go to Lancaster without doing some sightseeing.  Even though I was all by myself, I put my windows down (which at a few points, was a bad, bad idea.  There was some fertilizing going on!!), and just drove on many of the roads between Rts. 30 and 23.

I follow a blog that the writer reviews and rates buffets.  His all time favorite buffet is Shady Maple in East Earl.  I don't even think he's from Lancaster, let alone even Pennsylvania.  He's written several times about this restaurant and I knew for a while that I wanted to check it out the next time I got to Lancaster.  It's attached to a grocery store/farm market.  It's not near as big as Shady Maple, but that's OK.  The day I was there they had 4 different kinds of soup (chili, New England clam chowder, chicken rice and beef vegetable) and quite a few main dishes (ham balls, 'Henny Penny chicken', roast beef, beef stew, pork and sauerkraut, turkey, catfish) and lots of sides.  They also had a stir fry bar that you could pick your ingredients to be stir-fried, plus a burger bar, neither of which I tried.  They had a nice variety of desserts, but all I had was half of a white creme filled donut :)

And you can't leave Lancaster without stopping at Lapp's Dairy Farm for an ice cream cone!

This guy jumped up on the picnic table while I was sitting there and wanted to be petted:

And here's Jamie holding her new wall hanging:

(If you click on this pic, you can see the stitching on the border)

New Recipe-Loaded Chicken & Potatoes

I saw this recipe floating around on Facebook and decided to try it.  Kurt and I both found it quite tasty!  It is spicy, but one could choose to not put any of the hot sauce in the recipe....or even use less.  Since it has chicken in it, I made it our main meal.  I served it with tossed salad and some cut up fresh fruit.  I tried it with both ranch dressing and sour cream...it was good with both, but I think i preferred the sour cream most.

1 lb. boneless chicken breasts, cubed (~1 inch cubes)
6-8 medium, skin on, red potatoes, cubed (~1/2 inch cubes)
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 Tbsp. paprika
2 Tbsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. hot sauce (use more, less or none)

Topping:
2 cups fiesta blended cheese
1 cup crumbled bacon
1 cup diced green onion

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mix together the olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and hot sauce. Add the cubed potatoes and chicken; stir to coat.  Carefully scoop the potatoes and chicken into the prepared baking dish.

Bake the potatoes and chicken for 55-60 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes, until cooked through, crispy and browned on the outside.  While the potatoes are cooking, fry your bacon (about 1/2 pound).

Once the potatoes and chicken are fully cooked, remove from the oven.  Top the cooked potatoes with the cheese, bacon and green onions.  Return the casserole to the oven and bake for an addt'l 5 minutes or until the cheese in melted.

Serve with addt'l hot sauce, ranch dressing or sour cream.

Yummy!!

Congrats Jamie!

Today was Jamie's first day back at work after having taken the summer off to finish her LPN program at Northampton Community College.  We had bagels, fresh fruit and pastries from Panera for breakfast, and then this awesome cake with cannoli filling for our afternoon snack.

Congratulations Jamie and good luck on your boards...whenever they are ;-)