Banks and Barrett

Banks and his friend Barrett Jones played together last week. Banks loved watching Barrett move all around the den and Barrett enjoyed watching Casey and Basil through the french doors. It was very sweet the see them interact and play. Ashley and I had a nice visit too. It is just amazing to watch Barrett go all around and realize that my days of my baby just sitting in one spot and being content are limited. Boo hoo! I love watching him grow but it makes me sad because the "baby" stage is going by way too fast!

My Baby is Rocking!

First of all, let me say these pictures are not blurry if you double click on each one. For those who read and are blogger users, if you have had this problem with pictures appearing blurry on the blog and know how to troubleshoot it, PLEASE let me know! I am a MAC user if that makes a difference.

Okay, moving on. Banks is getting up on his knees and rocking and it is TOO cute! He is so proud of himself and will do it as long as you let him.

Or at least as long as he has the energy....but after a small rest....

He is ready to go again!

Then if he gets tired, I just sit him up and he is still so happy!

Stuffed Mushrooms

This is my Mom's recipe for Stuffed Mushrooms (from her cousin Joy Lance). It is easy and delicious. It can be made early in the day, refrigerated, and then baked right before serving. You will need:

1 pound of mushrooms

1 onion, diced,

3 tablespoons butter

1 clove of garlic, minced

2-4 tablespoons of cooking sherry, to moisten

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1/4 cup crushed corn flakes

salt and pepper to taste

To clean the mushroom, wipe down with a slightly damp paper towel. NEVER put mushrooms under running water to wash, the will turn to mush. Remove stems and hollow out mushroom cap enough to stuff. Reserve stems.

Place butter in pan on medium high heat. Saute chopped mushroom stems, onion, and garlic for about 10 minutes or until the mixture is done. Season with salt and pepper.

Add cooking sherry, corn flakes, cheese, and breadcrumbs. Add more sherry if needed to moisten the stuffing. You do not want it too dry so make sure to add enough. You can also add dry white wine if you wish.

Stuff the mushroom caps.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

4th of July Weekend

We had a fun filled weekend that all started on Saturday morning with Tripp Williams' 1st Birthday Party. Tripp is a classmate of Banks and Rebekah and Rich are in our Sunday School.

Tripp had a Cat in the Hat Theme for his party and it was super cute!

Tripp reading The Cat in the Hat.

After the party, we began to make our way to Tallassee. We stopped at Lake Martin to hang out with Lauren and Joe Baugh and their family for a bit of swimming and fun.

Lendon is 2 going on 5 and loves to jump in the lake!

Lauren and Collin

We made it to Tallassee and had a great dinner with my parents. On Sunday, we all went to church and of course, had to take some family photos.

The Butler Three plus their cousin

Family Photo. I think this one might make it into a frame!

Me, Banks, Leigh Anne and Mama

Mama, Granny, and Daddy

Nana and Banks

We played at the Butler house in the afternoon, where the children kept Banks very entertained!

On Monday morning, on the way back to Birmingham, we stopped at the lake again to see Kenzie and Joe and their boys.

Charlie, Kenzie, Jackson, and Joe

We went to The Club on the night of the 4th, but did not take many pictures, as it was so crowded and Banks was running on fumes. We had to leave early to put him to bed. We had a great time but were worn out.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

I am going to start posting some of my favorite and best recipes every week or so. I will try to post pictures with each recipe, as some of my recipes tend to have "Tori technique", which is not always easy to explain.

This first post is for my Aunt Tanti's Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies. My Dad told me that Tanti (Granny's sister) would bake these and send them to him in Tuscaloosa when he was in school at Alabama. They were then made by my Mom for us and were always a favorite. They are quick and easy, but the key is to not cook them too long (they will be too hard) or too short (they will be too soft).

Ingredients

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup milk

1/4 tsp salt

4 rounded tablespoons of cocoa

2 cups sugar

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a saucepan and cook dissolve on medium high heat.

Here, it is dissolved.

Slowly, bring to a rolling boil, and cook for 2 minutes exactly on medium to medium-high heat.

After 2 minutes, turn off the heat but leave pan on the burner. Very quickly add:

3 cups of Quick Cooking Oats

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Next, simply drop spoonfuls onto Parchment or Wax paper.

Let stand at room temp until they are firm. Do not refrigerate. They should harden at room temp very well. Depending on how hot your stove gets, if they are too firm, drop back the boiling time a bit and if they are too soft, simply cook a bit longer. Every stove is different but on my gas cook top, I cook for 2 minutes exactly. (I use a timer)

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful 4th of July weekend. We have had the best weekend and will continue to celebrate tonight at The Club. More pics from the weekend to come later, but I wanted to share these of our "little firecracker".