Broccoli cheese? Yes, please!

So as many of you know, I recently became a provisional member of the Junior League of Little Rock. I've already met some great girls and am looking forward to a wonderful year of getting to know them more and doing great things for the community! So last weekend at our retreat, we had the opportunity to buy one of JLLR's cookbooks. They have published four and I highly recommend them! You can never have too many sources of Southern comfort food.


So I decided to buy each of the four cookbooks and really dig into them. What better way to learn a group of ladies than to cook their recipes, right?? Plus, I'm trying to cook more at home since it's healthier for the wallet and the waistline!

Tonight, I decided to try the Creamy Broccoli Soup from the book, Apron Strings. Below is the recipe and the end result!



Ingredients:
4 cubes chicken bouillon
4 cups water
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
2 (10 oz) packages frozen chopped broccoli
2 1/2 cups chopped peeled potatoes
2 (10 oz) cans cream of chicken soup
1 pound Velveeta cheese, cubed
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce




This is all of the ingredients, minus the cream of chicken soup, forgot to get a picture of that!

Combine the chicken bouillon, water, celery, onion and carrot in a large heavy saucepan. Cook for 20 minutes.

Add the broccoli and potatoes. Cook until the vegetables are tender.

Stir in the cream of chicken soup and cubed Velveeta cheese. Cook until the cheese melts, stirring to mix well.

Add the Worcestershire sauce and serve immediately!

I think this recipe would be delicious on a hot day or a cold day and we had ours with grilled cheese sandwiches! It also makes a ton, so you can have leftovers and also prep your veggies before hand to cut down on time. I did most of my cutting while chatting it up with my good friend Katie, so I didn't even really notice the time passing! :) Hope you enjoy this recipe and make it soon!

If you would like to order a Junior League of Little Rock cookbook, you can go to http://www.jllr.org/ and go to the cookbook link! (Shameless plug for a wonderful group of women!)

Life Begins Now!

You know how some people say a woman's life doesn't really begin until she has a child? Well I don't think it begins until she has an Erin Condren planner! (I don't believe that first statement is entirely accurate either, but you get my drift!)

I'm a planner. It's just a part of who I am, part of my DNA. I spend a good portion of my day writing lists, remembering dates and trying to keep it all together on my iPhone. I keep track of lunch dates, dinner dates, birthdays, anniversaries, meetings, errands, meds for the dog and even changing the air filter at our house, all on that little black device! But I needed something more, something that could contain ALL of my stuff but still be cute and functional too. That's when I met Erin Condren...

I saw an Erin Condren Life Planner on a blog a month or so back and fell in love! I went to the website, was all set to order and then something stopped me. I just couldn't go through with it, for whatever reason. I think it was divine intervention! :) Because the next day, my good friend Katie emailed me a Plum District deal, similar to Groupon, and it was half off! Then the fun began...

You can go online and select your planner from tons of designs! You can even get something written on the front at no extra cost. I went simple and just had my name put on it. It has dividers for each month, calendars, daily section for morning, afternoon and evening plans, a special dates section by month, a little folder in the back to keep loose items and a little zip pouch. You MUST get one of these! Just go to erincondren.com and check it out!

Ten Ways I Know I'm a Southern Woman

1. I'm a sucker for a monogrammed towel.
2. I love sweet tea on hot summer days.
3. I say y'all and good gravy!
4. I'm not afraid of butter or Crisco.
5. I've been muddin', night fishin' and frog huntin'.
6. I love SEC football, especially the Arkansas Razorbacks! Wooo Pig Sooiee!
7. I appreciate seersucker.
8. I carry my wit and charm with me everywhere I go, along with my pearls.
9. I'm sweet as pie until you mess with my mama or my best friend.
10. My glass of choice is a Mason jar.

So what Southern ways or traditions are you most proud of?

VicTORIously creepy!

I just saw a picture on People.com (I religiously visit this and Perez Hilton's website, don't you judge me!) I saw a picture of Tori Spelling's little BOY with a....feather extension. What a little creeper!

Check this out!

My friend Emily has a wonderful blog and Facebook page for her store, The Social Butterfly. Very cute stationary, gifts and Razorback tailgating items to choose from! Check out her blog now! And "like" her page on Facebook! Tell her Trashy sent ya! :)

http://thesocialbutterflyar.blogspot.com

Dear Ryan Gosling's Abs.....

You are my favorite.

Granted, I am probably way too old for a celebrity crush. Or obsession, whatever you want to call it. How could I have missed out on this little hottie all these years? I haven't even seen The Notebook. And that's a big deal, seeing as how I watch Lifetime movies and cry my eyes out. Pretty sure The Notebook would push me over the edge and make me time time off work!

The fuel behind this new-found fire? Crazy Stupid Love. If you haven't seen it, you should definitely go watch it! It made me cry, surprise surprise! The main characters have been together since they were 15 and when they were reminiscing it reminded me of Jared and I, since we've been together since I was 17. (Yes, in all of my Gosling-mania today, I did not forget that I have a husband!)

I will now leave you with the conversation I had with my friend Jill today after I saw the movie and met her for coffee.

Jill: "So what did you go see?"

Me: "Crazy Stupid Love. Ryan Gosling took his shirt off."

Jill: "Oh, who else is in that?"

Me" "Steve Carrell, Julianne Moore. Ryan Gosling took his shirt off."

Jill: "So did you like it, was it good?"

Me: "Ryan Gosling took his shirt off."

Bartering Pays Off!

Check out my new blog header! Isn't it fabulous, and completely convey Trashy Tastebuds?? Thank you to my wonderful friend Madaline for creating this for me, I love it! I still need to adjust the rest of the design of the page, the little birds do not match the mullet! :) But that can wait until later.

Madaline does graphic design as a day job and also loves being crafty on the weekends, so she offered to trade cupcakes (my weekend craft!) for graphic design. I'm pretty sure I am now hooked on trading and bartering talents!

Does anyone else out there want to trade me for cupcakes? :)

Pioneer Woman, I am not!

You know how you look at some blogs and they have this beautiful picture of what they had for dinner and you instantly want the recipe? Umm, not here! We had pigs in a blanket and mac n cheese for dinner! Sometimes being a working woman interferes with my Southern Living dream!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I've had some peer pressure in the past to start a blog, but never felt like I could contribute much to the blogging community. But I have come to realize that my life is filled with random events -sometimes they are funny when happening, other times only funny months later and over a stiff drink! And these events need to be shared, if only to add a smile to someone's day!

There are alot of food blogs out there, but this isn't one of them. Well, unless you want me to write a review of what I think is included in the contents of a Taco Bell chalupa! I love food, especially dairy products. (My husband calls me the Dairy Queen.) I do bake cupcakes and cakes, and do some cake decorating, but that's about as close to the kitchen as I get on a regular basis.

So let me tell you how the blog came about: Tonight I was at a cooking class with my good friend Katie and we were discussing the food we were eating. It was all different variations of duck-duck pate, duck confit, etc. Everyone was cleaning their plates and mine was pretty much untouched. While it was good food, I'm not a food snob and don't care for anything other than steak and potatoes! When Katie asked me why I wasn't eating, I told her I was guessing I must have trashy tastebuds! And hence, the blog is born! :) Enjoy!