Vanilla Coffee flavored Chili anyone ?????

Today was a frigid day!!! Out in the portables (where no one wants to go) the water was freezing on the gutters and handrails before it even had time to flow off of those things. So, as I was thinking about what to make for dinner...I came up with the idea of chili. Got a great chili recipe from a friend (S.U.)! And when I say great, I mean it. It has to be some of the best chili I have ever eaten...I digress.
So, I get home, watch some Oprah, then get up to cook dinner before the hubby gets home. I also decide I am going to make some chai tea (my favorite). I reach up into the tall cabinet to get the box of tea and at the same time a plastic tub of coffee falls down onto the cabinet. Nothing happened, it didn't spill, all was well. So, I have started the chili, began steeping the tea (making it old school on the stove). So, I figure I better put that coffee back up into the cabinet. I had taken down another coffee tub that was in my way. So, I put up the first coffee tub, no problem. I grab the second tub and as I am quickly putting it up on that tall shelf I didn't notice that it had fallen upside down when it first fell out. And that the lid had come off. So, as I am trying to put it back up on the shelf coffee spills out everywhere, everywhere includes in my chili...now it's in the cabinets, on the floor, on the stove, on the counter, and all over me. I had put on my robe over my clothes because I was cold and it even went into my robe pocket. Now, coffee is all over my freshly washed robe. I don't know if you have ever tried to clean up coffee but it is just like cleaning up SAND. It is awful. It seems to multiply and you can't get all of it up. As for the coffee in the chili, I figure "what the heck, leave it". Maybe I came up with a new recipe. Well, I couldn't taste any coffee in the chili, it still tasty yummy. Thanks again S.U. Fun times in the kitchen with margo! I was thinking about making vanilla coffee flavored chili for keeno!

Me, the next Barefoot Contessa.....NOT

Okay, so here is a funny little baking story. Monday I began baking some goodies for my sweet neighbors. I made choc. peanut butter cookies and Ritz Peanut Butter Chocolate sandwich cookies. And no I didn't buy the already make Peanut butter ritz sandwiches. I actually slather some PB in between to Ritz crackers then covered that in chocolate. Talk about RICH. Oh my, I could only eat one! Anyhoo....if you read my blog you know I have a dog who countersurfs whenever he thinks he can get away with it. Just that day he tried to countersurf the loaf of bread I left on the counter. Moving on....I made these goodies and had some leftovers. So I put them in a container and thought I will put them in the oven so Max does not try to get them.
The next day I decide to make some yummy low fat choc. chip cookies to top off my neighbors goodie gift. So, I turn on the oven and let it preheat. Meanwhile I am getting out ingredients, mixing, etc. I begin to smell cookies baking and think "that's strange, I haven't even put any cookies in the oven yet". I figure it's just leftover smell from the day before. So, a little bit later I finally open the oven to begin baking the choc. chip cookies and find a big mess. A melted plastic container with cookies falling out the bottom. Along with some chocolate bark I had forgot I put in the container to use for the next day. Ai yai yai, what a mess. Then not thinking I try to grab the container with my bare hand and burn myself while the bottom falls out and all the Ritz choc. PB sandwiches fall everywhere because the choc. & PB are melted. It was a WRECK! But, it made for a funny story to share. Ahhh, the joys of the season.
Happy Christmas to all and a Merry New Year!!!

The Doghouse....(no, not another story about my dogs)

Any woman who is married, engaged, or dating should share this with her significant other. This is most hilarious!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twivg7GkYts

I'm lovin' basketball (sing it)

Last nite we went to a beloved Mavs game. It's been so long that I had forgotten how much I love a live b-ball game. We have come to the conclusion that we would rather go to a few games and have really good seats RATHER THAN go to many games and sit in crummy seats. So this year, we have tix for a few games and only once are we sitting in the nosebleeds. Last night we went to the Mavs VS The Hawks. The game was a great one, it was close 95% of the time and the Hawks almost eeked by the Mavs within the last 3 minutes but the Mavs held them for a final score of 100Mavs, 98 Hawks. I love b-ball, I think I could be a b-ball groupie. Not the kind of groupie you guys are thinking, get your head out of the goal....
No, I would just like to hang around them and watch them practice, scrimmage and just chat with them in their free time. I know that if they got a chance to know me then would want me at their practice given them pep talks, and praise. They would want me there to chat with when they just needed a break from practice. So, if you are reading my blog and you have an opening for this type of position please leave a comment and I will get back to you ASAP.

Countersurfing for a midnite snack!!

Okay, since I don't have children to blog about I will blog about my dogs. Because they always seem to be doing something they shouldn't be doing. We have been told that dogs have the mentality of a 2-3yr old child. And I believe it. An since I don't have children to blog about then those of you who know me can say "Gosh, why do we always have to hear about those dogs"
So, Friday nite I am asleep when I am awakened by Chet yelling "Hey, hey" very loud ly. So I wake up wondering what in the world is going on, it's 1am. Chet says "they (the dogs) are fighting". So we jump out of bed and run into the kitchen, no dogs there, look around the corner into the living room and see Max. He has Bea cornered. We also see some foil in the living room floor. Yes, Max had countersurfed again in the middle of the night. Chet had gotten up at 12:55am (5 minutes earlier) to let them out to go to the bathroom. They came back in and when Chet went to bed Max went into the kitchen for a midnite snack, literally. What they (Max) ate was a whole loaf of pumpkin bread, that I had brought home from school. It was a gift from a student. It was no small loaf either and he ate 3 bavarian cream donuts (Chet's favorite that he had brought home from work, a gift from one of his patients). Within 5 minutes he devoured all of this stuff and kept Bea away from all of it. Luckily they weren't fighting when we got to them. I grabbed Max and Chet was getting Bea when she tried to attack Max before Chet could grab her. I'm sure she was mad that he didn't share the goodies with her. The were separated for about 10 minutes and then all was well. The next day Max was bloated and today he is really feeling the effects of eating/hoarding all that stuff. Serves him right for not sharing the goodies and eating our (mine and Chet's gifts). Anybody, want to dogsit?

Where everybody knows your name........

Or only the girl at the counter knows our name. One of our (Chet and mine) places to go for Sunday lunch after church is Chapps burgers in NRH. We go there about once every 2-4 weeks. That is really not that often. Anyway, we decide to go there Sunday. We go up the counter I give my order. Chet usually gets the same as me only this time he changes it up a little. After you place your order they ask for your name. Instead of asking for a name, the girl taking the order says "Chet, right". We look at each other like, Whaaa, she knows our name (well Chet's name). How can this be, we don't eat here everyday. Then she proceeds to say "you usually get the same thing as your wife, don't you"? Now we are even more surprised that she knows not only our name but our order!! This girl is good.
It took my back to my days of working at good ol' Clown Burger in Haltom City. Yep, that's what I said, Clown Burger. The establishment is over 60 years old. Well, the original establishment has been bulldozed but the business still lives on over off Haltom Road and Stanley Keller.
For those who are reading this (Laura S.), I didn't have to wear a clown suit or red nose or crazy wig. It was just a place to work during high school. I ended up working there for 4 years. It's probably the reason I got my job as a teacher in Birdville. Ask me and I'll tell you that story later.
Oh, those were the days........going home smelling like a greasy burger, YUCK!!

Who ate all the candy.....

Let me set the scene. I have been at a conference in Dallas for the first half of the day. Then I decide to do a little shopping. No luck there. I head home about 3. Pull in the garage, get the mail, then walk inside the house to find Max inside. This is strage b/c we put both dogs outside when we leave the house. We lock the dog door and put a chair in front of the dog door (they have been known to bust thru the dog door, even when it's locked). So, I wander down the hall to find toilet paper strewn from the bathroom into the hallway. I make my way to the kitchen to find NERDS candy on the carpet in the hallway and the living room. I find 2 boxes of NERDS spilled on the living room floor. I finally make my way to the back door to see candy wrappers in the back yard, a torn up magazine, and one of my shoes. I go outside and find the NERDS bag and several NERDS candy boxes in the yard. I see a Baby Ruth candy bar wrapper and think....oh no! One of the dogs go into the kitchen and pulled the silver bowl of candy off the island. In this silver bowl of candy was the NERDS, a bag of mini Baby Ruth bars, a few boxes of Hot Tamales, and 3 bars of Ghirardelli chocolate that came from my most recent trip to San Francisco. So, now I'm pretty mad that they ate all my chocolate, not to mention the chocolate from San Francisco. Now, that I'm not mad anymore I'm concerned that the dogs are going to be deathly ill b/c chocolate can be lethal to dogs. I called the vet and they said to watch for vomiting and/or diarrhea. They are such bad dogs. Anybody need a couple of dog door ramming, candy eatin' dogs!!!