The Birthday Girl!

Gabs had her 4th birthday party at the park on Wednesday and it was really fun. They day was overcast and breezy but then went to a partly cloudy afternoon. We did the party in the morning, but it went well! We had lots of friends come since it was Spring Break. Gabby got lots of nice presents, with jewelery, purses, webkinz animals, bubbles, etc. We got her a little tennis racquet and some tennis balls. She will get the rest of her gifts on her birthday day, Saturday, from the grandparents and such. Thanks to everyone who made it a special day!! We have great friends! Gabs is very happy.

Also, I like to spell her name as Gabby now, but then Kev has just told me that he likes the way we were spelling it, Gabi, and has been teaching it to her. So then I wrote both down and asked which she liked, and she pointed to the one I like, but now, she knows how to write her 'i' and likes to write her name with an i. So I have no idea how her name is going to be spelled and so I will spell it lots of different ways until she finally decides which way she likes it, and then I will let everyone know. Funny.

Pie for you, pie for me

Thanks to the wonderful website www.ourbestbites.com, I was told by my friend Jennifer about this site and the Pies-in-a-Jar recipe. Super fun!! Jen and I were supposed to make these together but her son was sick, so I went ahead and made 7 blackberry pies. The kids and I ate them as after school snacks, they were yummy! The only thing I did wrong was not add as much sugar to the filling as I thought it was going to be too sweet. After I was eating the pie I realized how pie filling and jams/jellies, are just fruit and sugar. Ha! So yeah, next time, keep the right amount of sugar. It wasn't bad, but blackberries can be really tart and the sugar helps with that. I used 3 cups of blackberries. I used my Grandma Virginia's yummy crust recipe, which is with vegetable oil. She doesn't put sugar in it, and I add sugar because I like a sweeter crust. I also doubled the crust recipe since I wasn't sure how much I would need. I didn't follow ourbestbites.com really, I just used it for the cooking time, etc.

So I have two left in the freezer, since Kev was out of town during the creation, and so we will eat them next week. These are super cute for gifts! Oh, and I got the half pint jars at HEB with the lids and all, 12 jars for $6.77. I thought that was a good deal. I LOVE HEB!

The most work for this recipe is lining the jar with the crust. I was also doing other things during this process, but it seemed that was where a lot of energy went. But I would still do it again. In fact, I plan to as I have pear pie filling my Bishop's wife gave to me that she canned lasted summer. I also didn't mention the great feature that the pie just slides right out of the jar onto a plate, it was easy to eat and clean! And you don't have to grease the jar, the oil from the crust makes it not stick.

Baked Potato Farmer Casserole

Before and After baked pictures... Yum.

This is my creation but with inspiration from the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. I love that thing!

I am not going to put exact measurements on this recipe at the moment...

2 or 3 Cups Ore-Ida Hash Browns Southern Style, Thawed/steamed... enough to line bottom of pan (I used 8x8 for our family).

3-4 eggs beaten with a half to 3/4 cup milk mixed in. Add pepper and sea salt 1/2 tsp+). In fact, I added the salt on top of the potatoes first. Then added some to the egg mixture. The egg/milk mixture is fun to mess with as it makes the egg more fluffy and less dense when more milk is used, so I like adding more to it.

Pour egg mixture over potatoes.

Add Oscar Meyer Real Bacon Bits, enough to your liking.

Grated Cheddar cheese. Then I added crumbled Feta cheese. That is a fun flavor enhancer!

Then chopped green onions to top with.

Bake 350 for 35 min, but check on it and make sure it looks done and cheese is bubbly. I also don't like my eggs cooked hard or scorched brown, so I baby mine and check on egg type dishes regularly. In fact, whenever I bake now, I just leave the oven light on the whole time. Now I just need an eye-level oven!!

The combinations for this casserole are endless. Obviously, avacado, cilantro, salsa, green chilies, sour cream, olives, ham, you name it, could be added before/during/after. I LOVE casserole. I was also wondering about if I fried up my hash browns before lining the pan for a bit of crispness... not that the extra oil is needed, but yum, I bet that would be a tasty way to do this as well.

And the fun thing about this is it can be made (not baked) ahead of time and then when ready, remove from fridge and just throw it in the oven for 10-15 min longer.

Enjoy!