Love is...

By: Tristan Welch
Love is my song.
Love is when I dance.
Love is when I sing.
Love is when I kiss my sister Aiden.
Love is candy.
Love is love.
Love is when I am playing in the sun at the pool.
Love is when I am tanning in the sun.
Love is when I'm happy.
Love is when I play in the sun.
Love is when people kiss.
Love is romantic.
Love is when I read to my mommy.
Love is so sweet to me and other people.
Love is when I am playing outside.

New York Strip with Creamy Sundried Tomato and Crimini Mushroom Rigatoni

Makes 4 servings-
Pick 4 New York Strips of your choice or split 2.
Season with-
1 tsp. Steak Seasoning
1 tsp. Sea Salt
1 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
2 Tbs. Worstershire Sauce
- Sautee in about 2 Tbs. EVOO in a skillet according to how you like your steak cooked.
Rigatoni-
1 box Rigatoni (boil for appr. 9 min.)
1 cup Sundried Tomatoes (drained)
3 cups Sliced Crimini Mushrooms
2 pods Fresh Garlic (grated)
1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1/2 cup Grated Parmesan
1 Tbs. butter
3 Tbs. EVOO
1 Egg White (in small bowl)
-Sea salt, ground black pepper and cayenne to taste.
-Sautee mushrooms in EVOO til tender. Add in all ingredients other than parmesan and egg white. Simmer on low heat for 2 minutes, sittiring so that the cream does not scorch. Temper egg white with a little hot pasta water. After turning burner off of sauce, add in parmesan and slowly add in egg white, constantly stirring. Mix well with rigatoni.
~Serve steak over pasta!

Peach Crunch & Honey Cream

Peach Filling-
3- 14 oz cans of sliced peaches (drained well)
1 Tbs. brown sugar (can use white sugar)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
-Mix all together in baking dish.
Crunch topping-
3/4 cup all purpose flour
5 Tbs. cold butter (cubed)
2 Tbs. brown sugar (can use white sugar)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
-Smash all ingredients other than cinnamon together in a small bowl, until sandy consistency. And then crumble over peach mixture. Sprinkle cinnamon on top. Bake at 375 degrees for approx. 20-25 min., or until golden.
Honey Cream-
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 Tbs. honey
-Mix together in a small mixing bowl with hand mixer, until light and fluffy. Dollop on top right before serving warm peach crunch.
approx. 6 servings

~Artichoke& Goatcheese Crostini~

~you will need:
4oz goat cheese crumbles
14oz can of quartered artichoke hearts
(finely chopped)
1 pod of fresh garlic (grated)
1 lemon
1/2 red bellpepper (finely chopped)
2 tsp. green onions (finely chopped)
1/2 cup olive oil mayo
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
pinch of fine sea salt & black pepper
2 Tbs. EVOO
1 French baguette

~Before making spread, slice and brush bread with EVOO. Toast on 350 degrees for about 7 minutes or until golden.

~In a small mixing bowl, zest lemon peel and then squeeze in lemon juice. Grate in garlic pod. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes, sea salt & black pepper. Add all other ingredients. Then slowly mash together all ingredients, until in a spreadable consistency. Serve either hot or cold!
If you serve cold, you can put it in a pretty glass or if you want to serve it hot, you can bake it off until golden, on 350 degrees. Enjoy!

Thankyou Lord

God I give you my heart, do with it what you will. I give you thanks for my many blessings and life lessons learned. You are awesome and there is no other like you. Your name is above all names, Yaweh Yaweh. Sitting high on your thrown and walking at my side. All mighty and everlasting. Our Father. Carrying me when I cannot stand. Dusting me off when I get back on my feet. On bended knee with arms wide open, calling me to your embrace. Washing over me, purifying. Molding me, never giving up. Casting my past from one end to the other. Never looking back, never holding on. Keeping my dreams alive. Pushing me past myself, into my faith. Filling me, never letting me dry out. Calming me, in to a conqueror. Being a constant reminder that I am yours. Thankyou.

mmmhmmmm thats right! Sauteed Chicken with Lemon and Artichoke Pasta!

Beau and I are so hooked on this pasta! Beau came up with the idea and I came up with the recipe! A match made in heaven!

Sauteed Chicken-
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 Lg. white onion (chopped)
1 Tbsp. spicy mustard
1 Tbsp. worstershire sauce
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. black pepper
1 Tbsp. EVOO
~Cube raw chicken, and put in ziploc bag, and in all other ingredients and massage in to meat. Refrigerate for no less than one hour. Heat skillet and sautee for about 20-30, using a little water to keep it from sticking. Serve over pasta.
Lemon and Artichoke Pasta-
1 box garden ratoni
3 small lemons
1 can of quartered artichokes hearts (drained)
4 medium sized pods of fresh garlic
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 Tbsp. italian seasoning
salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste!
~Boil noodles and drain. Grate in zest from lemons and add juice from lemons. Grate in all garlic. Add in all rest of ingredients, mixing together and serve warm.

Waking up next to my boo!

This morning was like a dream! I woke up next to my honey! I know this may sound weird but, Beau has been sleeping on the couch for months. Whenever I had gotten pregnant again last year, and started getting bigger, he decided to move to the couch. With him, Aiden, me and my growing stomache all in the bed, didn't make for a good nights sleep. When I misscarried, he tried sleeping in the bed, and it didn't work out well. Aiden sometimes gets in the bed with me in the middle of the night and now that she is getting so big, we cannot all sleep in the same bed.
The kids spent the night with my in laws, so him and I slept like a baby in our bed! So to wake up with him laying next to me, and no kids in the house was wild! So, I let him sleep while I got up and picked up the house, put some laundry going and made some more home made buttermilk biscuits! While I was putting the laundry washing, he snuck up behind me and scared the mess out of me! So, we called and checked on the kids, and then we ate! We ate the biscuits with some left over milk gravy and some pan fried deer steaks that my baby made the other night! It was so good!

(recipe for biscuits is in one of my previous posts, under the April category, under "Fried Chicken and Biscuits" post.)

Sushi+Strbx+Tatoo= Our Date Night Tonight!

~So we started out our night by going to Church with the kiddos. After Church we dropped them off at Beau's parents. Then we went to dinner at a place that Amberlicious told me about! "Saketini", in Broussard. It was divine! I would have to say, that it is probably "the best" sushi place around!
~Saketini~

~Just arrived!

~I started off with ~Mushroom Miso Soup~it was very light but tasty! It is a broth based soup, with mushrooms and green onions!

~Then we had the ~Japenos~ fresh jalapenos stuffed with crabmeat, and cream cheese, with some other tasty ingredients that I can't remember and fried in a tempura batter!

~And the of course, the sushi~Baked Salmon Roll~crabmeat, avacado, with baked salmon on top, with spicy mayo and chefs special sauce drizzled over it! Very delicious! I prefer a warm sushi roll, and this was right up my alley!

~And my other roll and Beau's 2 came on the same plate. I had ~Crunchy Roll~ which was basically just crabmeat and avacado, with tempura on the outside. Like I said before, I like warm, and for some reason I ordered this knowing that it was cold! But it was still really good! Just wished I would have gotten what Beau got ~The Five Star Roll~ tempura shrimp, cream cheese, crabmeat, and avacado, with no rice, and fried. And his other one was~ Santa Fe' Roll~ which basically the same thing, but with rice and not fried!

~And then there was one!~

~My saving grace! Aaaahhhh~

~So I told my Beau earlier today that I thought we should get tatoos after we went eat. I wanted to get tatoos in remembrance of our baby that I miscarried in October. So we did some research and came up with that we would get "mother" and "father" in hebrew. Well, the size that we both wanted was more expensive than we were willing to spend. So, my husband, being that selfless man that he is, decided to let me get mine, and he would wait, so I got "mother" in hebrew, in the birthstone color of the month that I miscarried. October has 2 different birthstones, one being Opal and one being Tourmaline. There is a legend about tourmaline that says that it came down off of a rainbow, because there are so many colors of tourmaline. One of the more popular, being a purplish plum color. So that is the one that I choose. I think it is very pretty! It kind of looks like the word "ON", but here it is!
~Arrived at Bazaar Ink downtown, had to wait, cause the guy wanted to smoke like a 100 cigawhatevers.......and then finally~
~me very tired
@ 11 o'clock in a tatoo parlor!~

~and then there was my tat! I was very emotional after ward, just because of what it represents. Just the fact that it meant mother! I know some may not understand why I chose this, but I guess to each his own.~

~leaving feeling like I have a sun burn
in a small spot on my back~

And now time for nightie night!

Do your friends lift you up or bring you down?

Q:~What kind of people are you surrounding yourself with?
A:~I am so happy to answer this question! I have amazing friends! Friends that are women of God and that have the same morals in life that I do!
~Friends are like precious jewels, you should cherish them. You have to work at keeping up your friendship. You have to be a great friend to have great friends. You need to choose to have friends of substance. Women who are trustworthy, honest, dependable, etc.
~Ladies night was so much fun! We started with a movie-"The Back Up Plan".....I would give it about ****'s, It had some funny parts, but then some parts that where just like, "Say what?". And then to end the night, we had a delicious dinner at one of my top fave's- La Pizzeria! Yum! Did I mention, "yum"! A few of us started out sharing a appetizer of the Spinach and Artichoke Dip, which to me is one of the 2 best in Lafayette,(other being Copeland's). Kelly and I shared the Pecan Crusted Chicken for our entree'. It is chicken that they pan fry, coated in pecans, and it is on top a pesto cream sauce pasta and not to mention the garlic cheese bread that is served on the side! To die for! Aaannnddd then, Lauren and shared the Chocolate Mousse for dessert! it was so creamy and chocolatey! It even had a thin layer of white chocolate going through the middle! Utimate bliss! It was a much needed night of me feeling like I left something behind(like my kids)! Thankyou to my husband for pushing me out the door and telling me to go have fun, that everything was going to be taken care of at home. He is the best! Love you hun!
~Now time for pics of my night!
~My honey took a picture
of me before I left~

~On the way to
get Lauren and Sadie~

~It was ladies night and we were feeling right, oh what a night, oh what a night~

Thanks girls for a great night!