Birthday #9 is COMPLETE

We concluded the celebration with gourmet lemon cupcakes - I wish I had made them - with purple, glitter candles!

Praise the Lord for the Ladybug - today we celebrate her!

Aquarium Pictures

Georgia Aquarium

Ladybug & Pots are right there in the middle!

The Ladybug touching a seastar.

The Ladybug reaching for a SHARK!

The Mall of Georgia

When you live in Smalltown, GA, just outside of Atlanta, you have the perfect balance of small town living and anything you could want or need just an hour away. One of our favorite things to do is to visit the Mall of Georgia - it is truly a destination...not to mention the fact that Master Chef Mom's favorite restaurant (On the Border) is located just outside.

Here are some pictures from our most recent visit:

Next time you come to visit, we will take you to visit the Mall of Georgia!

The Ladybug is 9

Today the Ladybug turns 9 - I can't believe it! Where does the time go? We could never have imagined what a wonderful gift God brought into our lives on that hot July night in Hattiesburg, Mississippi? Since that day, our lives have never been the same...that darling baby with the strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes is becoming a little lady right in front of our eyes!

We will be celebrating with a trip to the Georgia Aquarium (www.georgiaaquairum.org) - we can't wait. Check back later for pictures!

  What a great day!

Heavy Drinkers

At the Ladybug Cafe, we are heavy drinkers! When we moved from Texas to Smalltown, GA, Gran said that she thought it might be time to get rid of the stadium cups...I cannot imagine living without stadium cups. When I go places and they are serving drinks in 8 oz glasses, I am not sure what to do - except refill my glass, numerous times. When you come to the Ladybug Cafe, there are 8 oz glasses, if that is what you prefer, but if you really need a drink, we have a wide variety of stadium cups that all come with a story!! So, while all of us should be drinking more water and less Coke Zero - or whatever :) it is that we need to get us through the day - here are a few beverages that we mix-up to keep us going and beat the heat!

Lemonade Iced Tea (adapted from Southern Living Magazine)
6 cups water
4 family size tea bags
1 cup sugar
1 can frozen lemonade concentrate
Additional ice and water

Boil the 6 cups of water, insert tea bags and remove from heat. Steep for 10 minutes. Add 1 cup of sugar to the "hot" tea, stir to dissolve the sugar. In a one gallon pitcher, add ice and can of frozen lemonade concentrate. Pour the tea and sugar mixture into the ice and lemonade concentrate. Mix. Add additional water to fill the pitcher.

Pampered Chef Punch (from Diane - my wonderful Texas Friend)
6 cups cranberry juice (I use diet or lite), chilled
4 cups Sprite (I use diet store brand), chilled
1 can frozen pineapple, orange, banana concentrate (I use whatever my grocer has that is close)

Combine, stir, and ENJOY!! I am not sure if this really is a Pampered Chef recipe, but I think I had it for the first time at Diane's house for a PC party - so fun and delicious!!

Homemade Starbucks Passion Iced Tea (from Gran)
TAZO brand passion tea at Target
Simply Lemonade
Truvia sweetner
Ice and water

Gran just sent this to me - I haven't tried it, but it looks DELISH! Here is the link to the recipe and details: http://vickidesigner.com/2012/05/21/homemade-starbucks-passion-tea-lemonade/

Happy Drinking!

Ladybug & Kit: Turning 9

On Thursday, the Ladybug and Kit (the American Girl) will turn 9 yrs old. We love these girls - each with "yellow hair and blue eyes."

This is the beginning of the celebrating - notice Pots trying to get in on the fun!!

Happy 9th Birthday Girls!!

Happy Birthday to BBQ Pit Boss Dad!

Today in The Ladybug Cafe, we are celebrating BBQ Pit Boss Dad's birthday! He is...., well, today we are celebrating him :) !! As part of the celebration, we are making peanut butter banana icebox pie - we will let you know how it goes.

While in search of a little inspiration...

I read the most recent post on Beth Moore's blog. If you haven't "met" Beth Moore, you need to meet her! I have completed several of her Bible studies - amazing! Here is the link to the yesterday's blog post Want to share something fun? The posting is great, but what I found hillarious was the comment made by Linda...ENJOY!! I laughed out loud!!

Lynda Rickey says:

June 6, 2012 at 4:14 pm

Beth, What a fun idea! I teach school and if there is one thing you learn early on, you can’t control their mouths. Plus, the most challenging ones seem to come with the most energy and opinions. So, I’m teaching about cultures around the world. One part of culture is religion, a topic that a public school teacher has to be careful about when you’re teaching children. We were highlighting a country in Africa where they primarily worship in mosques. Well, that led to the inevitable questions about churches, sanctuaries, temples, synagogues and mosques and who worshipped where. Eventually, my most challenging little guy wanted to know what the difference is between Protestants and Catholics. I simply told him that the difference is primarily how they view Jesus. At that, he gets out of his chair, marching to the front of the room where he can command an audience, and before I can stop him nearly shouts at the top of his lungs, “I know something about Jesus. He had two dads… God and Mary’s boyfriend!” I quickly ushered him to his seat and redirected the students to the culture worksheet we were working on but couldn’t help but chuckle all day long about the sometimes unbridled chaos and content of the classroom.

Banana Cake with Quick Caramel Frosting

...is cooking in The Ladybug Cafe. While this sounds delicious, it is actually FANTASTIC!! The frosting has a very intersting texture but tastes like pralines!

Cake
Solid vegetable shortening, for greasing the pans flour, for dusting the pans (I used Baker's Joy)
1 package plain yellow cake mix, (18.25 ounces) - I found only one mix in this size
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 medium-size ripe bananas, peeled & mashed (about one cup)
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons crème de banane liquer (optional) - I used this
1 cup pecans, chopped toasted (optional for topping frosting) - I didn't use nuts

Quick Caramel Frosting
8 tablespoons butter (one stick)
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 whole milk
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions are here: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/recipe?id=6985307

Memorial Day

Thank you to all who serve and have served, particularly those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, to keep us free!

John 15: 13 (The Message)
Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.

This just happened...

...in The Ladybug Cafe. So, after Master Chef Mom assembled a delightful breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon(cooked in the oven - my newest trick), and assorted fruits (grapes and mangoes), the Ladybug and Pots ate...everything but the eggs. I am confident that we could go through a pound of bacon a morning if I would allow it! Anyway, there was some resistance to eating eggs - understandable when they were accompanied by yummy fruit and BACON, but, nevertheless, eggs, as a quality source of protein, need to be eaten. After a brief battle over what constituted two more bites, I, of course, required the obligatory, "Thanks for the nice breakfast, Mom." To which I received..."thanks for the bacon and fruit!!"

Such is life in The Ladybug Cafe...

My life

By the Ladybug.

When I was little I was mommy's little  cowgirl  : ) . So any way when I was 7 in a half me and Master Chef Mommy would read so I had a dream to be like Ree Drumund ' s blog just for the love of blogging a dream can make diffrent thing in your life : D so follow your dream in your life like a seed to grow by a path .                                                          

                                     THE END : D                                               

Ask the Ladybug about Curtis...

Curtis is a tiger salamander she found in the downspout to one of our gutters. He is darling but has been returned to his natural habitat. Suffice it to say that the Ladybug misses Curtis!

A Food of Love Thing: Guest Chef, New Tools, Pork Tamales

Notice the sign!?! This was a Christmas gift to our family from some of our dearest friends - everyone needs a friend like Diane...my life is different, richer, more fun because of our friendship. She and her family live in Texas, so we have missed her (and them!) every day that we have lived in small town Georgia!

Under the new sign, we enjoyed a real adventure that exemplified "a food of love thing." Under the direction of our second guest chef of the holidays - Oma - we made pork tamales. The process was supported by one of our new tools a FOOD PROCESSOR (that is a pumpkin pie filling in the picture, but you get the idea)! Equipped with our AWESOME food processor (a gift from Gran), we decided we were ready to tackle homemade tamales. We used a recipe from the Food Network Magazine December 2011 PORK TAMALES

This is the Ladybug stirring the masa before we assembled the tamales.

Yes, we even used real corn husks.

Everyone - Master Chef Mom, BBQ Pit Boss Dad, the Ladybug, Pots, Oma, and Opa - was involved in the assembly and, of course, the eating. After a loooooong time in the kitchen, the tamales were AMAZING, sorry I don't have a picture. My expanded waistline is proof enough that they were DELISH!!

The Apple Barn

As I cleaned out the refrigerator yesterday, it occurred to me that one of my resolutions for 2012 was to eat less and blog more...the leftovers in our refrigerator were evidence that we had eaten well over the holidays! 

So in my attempt to blog more...I wanted to tell you about a trip to one of our favorite places. We traveled to visit some of our extended family in Knoxville, TN - always a good time. During these visits, we often make our way to the Apple Barn in Sevierville, TN. We enjoy a variety of treats at the Apple Barn including fresh cider, deep fried apple pies, apple wine, and the signature Applewood Juleps served at the Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant.

Applewood Julep

4 cups apple juice

1 cup pineapple juice

1 cup orange juice

1/4 cup lemon juice

Mix and serve over ice.

Serves six.

 

Photos courtesy of the Ladybug