As many of you know we are in the Lenten season right now and many Catholics (and others) give up eating meat on Fridays.  This always seems to pose a challenge for me (I am not sure why either) and I always struggle with "what to fix for lunch and dinner," of coarse there are the old reliable things: fish sticks, mac-n-cheese, tuna, grilled cheese and that is usually where my list ends.  So this season my challenge is to fix new and delicious things for my family and it starts here!  I will be presenting a new recipe each Friday for the remainder of Lent!  Ready, set...let's go!

Before I start, two things:
1.  I truly believe in the Rachael Ray way of cooking, don't measure things, eyeball and add to taste, this works perfectly for this recipe.  Just don't put too much mustard!
2.  How to boil eggs perfectly:  Add eggs to pot, cover with cold water, place on stove and heat to boiling (lid off.)  As soon as the water starts to boil, turn off heat, move pot to cool burner or trivet, cover pot with lid, set timer for 10 minutes.  After timer goes off, carefully pour out hot water and refill pot with cold water several times (this stops the eggs from cooking.)  Once eggs are cooled down to touch, either use them or place them in the refrigerator for later!  Perfect every time!

Marci's Perfectly Delicious Egg Salad Sandwiches
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
4 Boiled Eggs
1/4 Cup Mayo
Sprinkle of Dried Onion Flakes
1 Teaspoon Mustard
1/2 Teaspoon Dill Weed
Dash Garlic Powder (To Taste)
Dash Salt and Pepper (To Taste)
Squirt of Lemon Juice
1-2 Peperoncini Peppers and Juice from Peppers (Secret Ingredient)
White Bread (It's just better tasting on white bread, but use whatever you prefer.)

Crack and peel eggs, place them in a bowl, crumble and break them up with a fork.  Finely chop the peperoncini peppers, add to bowl.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl, stirring well, tasting every now and then to make sure you have the right taste.  Serve on bread, or on a simple salad.  Enjoy!

Our son is two years and three months old, and in all this time my husband and I have had exactly two "date" nights.  Now don't get me wrong, we do have sitter options, but I guess we are both so anal retentive that leaving him just gets us all in a tissy and usually is not worth the stress and effort that it takes to leave the house without him, and honestly would you want to leave this little guy behind....no!  So anyways, this past Saturday was a beautiful day, 70 degree sunny weather, wonderful...so we decide to do Yard Work! Yeah! NOT...not for me anyways, but my husband did deserve the help so we ventured outside and helped Dad pick up and drag to the "burn pile" all of the limbs that he was trimming around the house.  By the way...my two year old is fully capable of helping, but decided not to, (even after much pleading from me,) so he played while Dad and I worked most of the day.  We finished around 2 pm, hungry and tired and decided to go inside, clean up and then....go out to eat at a "sit down" restaurant!  It had been a very long time since the last "sit down" restaurant venture, simply because it never seems to go well with our little man, and we usually leave with heartburn, indigestion, and doggy boxes full of the food we didn't get to eat!  We decided on a Logan's (Steakhouse) Restaurant close to our house and hopefully not crowded on a Saturday afternoon.  Well long story short, our big boy did wonderful, he sat in the booth like a "big boy," played with the peanuts, colored, ate his food, drank his drink, and about 10 minutes into our food being served promptly drifted off to sleep.  My husband just slid him down onto the booth (pardon the messy photo with peanut shells everywhere) and we were able to enjoy a relaxed slow meal like no other that we have experienced since becoming parents.  So nice...oh and the food was wonderful...maybe that was because we were starving, but still and all it was really good!  A really good day, and moments like this that remind us how lucky we are to have our little guy! 

P.S. For those of you wondering about Mardi Gras, we spent Fat Tuesday at the parades and my brother-in-law's crawfish party and thoroughly enjoyed the day, crowds, beads and all!  If you ever want to experience Mardi Gras, and are scared of the New Orleans experience, head to Lafayette, Louisiana for a family friendly affair!

Oh the simple things in life.  It is always absolutely amazing to me how some simple junky mardi gras beads can be so entertaining to a little kid.   So here is how the Junky beads came to be.  Last weekend my husband and son were on their way to a friend's birthday party and came across a Mardi Gras/Saint's Celebration Parade (in South Louisiana you are bound to just run across a parade at some point, sounds crazy but it is true!)  So, this is my son's first parade that he could actually understand what was going on, so the beads start flying and other little things (footballs, cups, pipes...you know the usual) and he is just in utter amazement!  How cool is this, people are throwing me stuff and screaming and acting absolutely crazy!  My husband said that for the second half of the parade our son was kind of in a dazed shock...I guess just sensory overload.  Well at one point during the parade, one of the floats threw to my son the adorable teddy bear (see below) which by the way is an incredibly nice teddy bear from Target, not a regular cheap junky mardi gras throw!  So the parade is over, their day continues and they eventually make it home with all the loot.   A day or two pass, and I decide to take out the beads for my son to play with...well apparently this was the most awesome thing ever and hours of play continue all afternoon, throwing, catching, wearing, dumping, swimming in...you name it, beads are awesome!  The funny thing is, as much as he loved the beads, he hates that Teddy Bear!  I guess he is all boy, and that Teddy is just too girly or something, but he really doesn't like it, this was the best photo I could get of the two of them together, because normally if I hand him the bear, he hurls it across the room and is like "Get that thing away from me...I mean it!"  Too funny.  So anyways, officially Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday is a few days away, don't know if we will make it to anymore parades, but if not, maybe we will just pretend at home!  Happy Mardi Gras!  Oh...One more thing...Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Hello everyone!  I am very excited to say that this is my first entry on my brand new blog - I feel important now...the whole wide world will be reading what I have to say, well...at least my mom will!  Anyways, to whomever is reading this, thanks for stopping by and checking out my brand new website, I really appreciate it.   Some postings may be funny, some informative, some complaining...but hopefully always entertaining at least.  Stop back by soon, and hopefully I will have something new to blog about!  Thanks for joining me on my brand new venture!!!