Baked Sweet n Sour Chicken

This is one of our new favs! All the ingedients are items that we almost always have in the kitchen and it is so fun to make. It can be a little time consuming but Kyle does most of the cooking for this meal and he loves acting like a Chinese/Japanese chef! The link to the whole recipe is here but, we do ours a little differently.

These are all the ingredients used (except the rice). It seems like a lot but most are things usually kept all the time.

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces, put 1 cup corn starch in a bowl and and crack the eggs in a separate bowl.

We set up an assembly line to coat the chicken in the corn starch, then egg then on to the frying pan. You only have to fry them for a few minutes on each side, just until the outside is crispy.

While Kyle is frying the chicken I mix up the sauce! Mix together ketchup, soy sauce, garlic salt, sugar and vinegar with a wisk and set aside until the chicken is finished frying!

Once all the chicken is finished put it a greased baking dish and pour the yummy sauce over the chicken. Then bake in the oven for about and hour, give it a good stir every 20 minutes or so.

While the chicken is in the oven we cook the rice. We use normal white rice and cook it just like the box says then Kyle uses our flat skillet and "creates" his fried rice. Kyle is a very basic eater so we don't add the onions or peas and carrots. We just add eggs and broccoli.

Kyle LOVES cooking the rice! He will be in the kitchen putting on a show twirling the utensils all around, rice flying everywhere! But, it is always wonderful!

Looks like we got take-out!

It is kind of time consuming and may be a lot of steps but it is definitely worth it! We love fixing this meal and it makes a lot so its nice for when guests come over and great for left overs!

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

The chicken coating:

3-4 boneless chicken breasts

salt + pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

The sweet and sour sauce:

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbs ketchup

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp garlic salt

Birthday Surprise

It was a weekend full of Birthday surprises for my Dad!! But first I want to say how wonderful it was to have my sister, Mollie, stay with Kyle and I for a whole week! It was so great to spend time with her, good quality time, that we haven't gotten to share by ourselves for a long time. She came to work with me, helped me with dinner and helped get everything ready for Daddy's big weekend! I miss her not being here this week and I hope she finds time to come back before the summer is over.

Now, back to birthday surprises!! We had so much fun planning the weekend! We started talking back a few months ago about what we wanted to do because it was a special birthday...the BIG 5-0! We decided to have a family party at the lake, the perfect place to get together during the summer.

Daddy's birthday was Friday and him, Teena and Judson meet us at a Mexican resturant in Macon where some of his friends surprised him and joined us for dinner. Mollie got him huge balloons that were perfect for the occasion saying, "You're How Old?" and and giant 50! It was great getting to see everyone and spend time with them at dinner.

When we got back to the cabin it was time for birthday gifts! Daddy loved his big candy card Mollie and I made for him! He also loved his Big Green Egg!

Saturday we had about 40 family members come for a surprise cookout. It was so nice to have everyone together, mostly this only happens at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I hope Daddy had a wonderful weekend and isn't too sore from all his water adventures...he busted it barefooting and wakeboarding. I do have to say, I have to coolest 50 year old dad there is!

Reverse Chocolate Covered Strawberries!!

I was so excited when I saw this on Pinterest! I LOVE strawberries! And chocolate covered makes them even better! It's like you are eating dessert but being healthy at the same time...hehe if only that were true! This is a twist on the traditional chocolate covered strawberry, this is actually a chocolate filled strawberry. It was so simple to do and took less than 30 minutes!

Start with strawberries. The bigger the better because that means more chocolate! Cut off the stem and hull out the center with a sharp knife. Be sure to cut deep enough for the filling but don't cut all the way through.

We lined the strawberries up in an egg carton so they would sit up and be easy to fill. For 12 strawberries we used about a cup of chocolate chips for the filling. Just cover them with a paper towel and put in the microwave until melted, stirring every 30 seconds.

Once the chocolate is melted don't waste any time filling the strawberries. The chocolate will start to harden making it more difficult to pour.

Once the strawberries are full put them in the fridge to harden all the way. We had ours in the fridge while we ate dinner and they were set when we were ready for dessert. We did learn that the chocolate gets really hard the longer it is in the fridge so for our late night snack we let the strawberries is out for a few minutes before digging in!

It was so fun to make these with my sister, Mollie! She is staying with Kyle and I for the week and we are having so much fun! I love getting to spend this time with her! It is something we haven't gotten to do in so long!

Lightbulb Pears

So lately I have been very addicted to Pinterest! I love pinning new recipies, DIY crafts and projects and new ideas for our home. And I have tried several new recipies but this was my first DIY attempt, simply because I haven't have the time to tackle anything big just yet.

I saw one of my friends had pinned this really cute idea to cover lightbulbs with Natural Jute/Twine and they come out looking like pears! Brilliant, I thought, to fill one of the many bowls I have sitting around our house. It was so simple!

First you have to find a little stick to hot glue on for the stem. This was really easy for me, because our little Maci loves bringing sticks on the porch for people to throw. Then you just start wrapping the twine around. Hot glue the beginning then just a little as you wrap.

I wrapped mine pretty tight so the bulb wouldn't show through and probably used more hot glue on my first one than the last few combined...I just wanted to make sure it wasn't going anywhere. I definitely learned you don't need much glue at all, espically if you wrap it tight.

This is not their final resting place I just put them in this footed bowl for a picture...altough I do like them here on the kitchen counter!

I got a little crazy with the twine and decided to do an old bottle to put fresh flower on our coffee table. I'm really excited with the way this turned out and I am going to do a smaller soup can and a bigger bottle to cluster with it!



"Kyle's Room"

I call this "Kyle's Room" because everything in it is because of him (except for the pretty white coverlets and navy blue pillows, one of my favorite Christmas presents this past year!!). This is the furniture that was in Kyle's room growing up, all the way up until we got married.

I love these beds, Kyle even branded one of them with his initials. I got the mirror as a birthday present from my Dad and Teena! I LOVE it and it goes perfect in this room. Kyle already had one of the European mounts and thought I had given him a funny request when I asked for him for another deer just like it so we could have matching mounts. But once I explained what I wanted them for he gladly agreed to get one of the deer he killed last fall mounted to match.

Kyle was thrilled when I asked him to bring his turkey inside so we could hang it up. (He was expecting this to be hung in the garage.) I think it looks nice tucked away in the corner of the bedroom.

I'm sure you can see why I call it "Kyle's Room"! Hopefully none of our guests are scared to sleep in here.

Kip

There is a new Arnold in town! Kyle's parents Bo and Wendy have gotten a new Boykin Spaniel puppy! He is OH so adorable!

All he wants to do is climb in your lap and cuddle! I miss the days that Maci wanted to do that. She will only cuddle on her terms now, mostly only when she is sleepy! Maci isn't so sure about him just yet, but is warming up. This is a picture from the day they met.

They are eventually going to be best buds (we hope! haha). They do run and play together. Kip likes to play tug-o-war with Maci's ears! We love our new addition to the family!

Beach Bum!

Beach bums is exatly what we were this past week!

We got all packed up Saturday and headed out just before lunch. I regret not getting a picture of us in Kyle's truck. We had the bed loaded down plus the canoe strapped to the top! We were surely a sight. When we got there the weather was PERFECT, we headed straight for the beach!

We had wonderful weather all week and spent hours on the beach every day! I don't even know the last time I was so lazy at the beach! Kyle and my Dad got up early almost every morning to go fishing...they weren't as successful as they had hoped to be, but they had a blast and it was great bonding time for them!

We had a great house right on the beach with just a private board walk to get there. It was so nice being this close and not having to worry about fighting a crowd. We really wished we had taken Maci! She would have had so much fun and would have been able to run free on the beach and play in the ocean. We know now for next time that she must come with us!

I loved getting to spend a whole week with my family! I don't even know the last time I was able to do this. It was so wonderful to just be able to relax and hang out together!



Since Mollie has her license now we are trying to plan some time for her to come stay with Kyle and I this summer!

We are now back to "real life" and hussle and bussle but the beach was so amazing and just what we were needing!

We are finally 100% moved out of our old rental house. Now if we could just get 100% moved in our new home! I know that there will always be something to keep us busy around the house, I'm just ready for all the boxes to disappear and to re-claim our garage! We are taking it little by little and have an almost complete kitchen. We actually had our first real meal with company the other night (silly me forgot to take pictures of the big event haha). I do, however, have pictures of the finished kitchen!  

This is the picture I centered our whole kitchen around. Kyle proposed in the middle of a sunflower field at his family farm house in Cochran. As a wedding gift my Dad and Teena had a friend of theirs paint one of the pictures I took that day! Hidden in the paint is our wedding date and our names. It is so special to me and will always remind me how our journey as a family started.

We had to enlist a little help to get the new light hung. After a few struggles and Kyle's dad coming over the next day to tweak a few things it was working...and not tripping the breaker in no time!

Breakfast area semi finished! Just need to do something to the windows. I have an idea of what I want just waiting to see if it will work!

We are working on getting pictures hung and arranged just the way we want them so there will be plenty of posts with pictures to come. But, we are taking a break from home life to try out beach life next week! We leave tomorrow for a week at the beach with my Dad, Teena, Mollie (my 16 year old sister), Judson (my about to be 15 year old brother), Nannie (my Dad's mother), one of Mollie's friends and one of Jud's friends so we will have a packed house! Kyle and I are so excited to get away for the week, we haven't been on a long vacation since our honeymoon! We are leaving Maci (our beloved Boykin Spaniel/our child) with Kyle's parents for the week so we will miss her so very much! It will be nice to get away, but I know I will be ready to get back to the house when the week it over!