Chili Dog Casserole

I was thinking about what I was going to make for dinner tonight and decided to look at AllRecipes.com to see what the daily recipes were for today. Lo and behold I recognized one of my photos - it was for the Crab and Shrimp Delight - which I have blogged about before.

That made me go and explore my recipe box stored there, where I was reminded of the Chili Dog Casserole.

Now granted, not the healthiest thing you can eat - in fact I think I just gained 3 lbs reading the name of it. But I've made it a few times when I had guest and they all loved it (or at least said they did). I personally prefer to make it with Hormel Hot and Spicy Chili with Beans but have made it using more mild and w/o beans (because that is how I thought my guest would prefer it).

I haven't made it in a little while but it is good - will have to make again soon.

Chili Dog Casserole

2 (15 oz) cans chili with beans (I like Hormel Hot & Spicy)
1 (16 oz) package beef frankfurters (I prefer Ball Park)
10 (8 inch) flour tortillas (the fajita sized ones)
1 (8 oz) package Cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Spread 1 can of chili and beans in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Roll up franks inside tortillas and place in baking dish, seam side down, on top of chili and beans. Top with remaining can of chili and beans, and sprinkle with cheese.

Cover baking dish with aluminum foil, and bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes.

Cute Christian Kids

We are starting a new sermon series at church this week on Psalm 23 so I went looking for this first video, which I first saw about 3 years ago at Women of Faith. While looking for it, I accidentally stumbled upon the 2nd video - they are both so adorable - very precious in HIS sight!

Japanese Visitors

Well, I call them Japanese visitors, they've lived in Japan for over 5 years. I am so happy that my beautiful niece and her wonderful hubby came over to the states for a visit. Neither of which are Japanese natives - she is from the USA (raised in Minnesota), he is from Matamata, New Zealand ( also home to Hobbiton - Yes, I can officially call my nephew a Hobbit)

I only had 1 full day with them and loved every minute of it. We took them on a tour of downtown and stopped at Centennial Olympic Park.We walked around there a bit, then decided to go to The World of Coke. I hadn't been to the new one since it moved next to the Georgia Aquarium in 2007 (gosh, has it been there that long?!). So I was glad to be able to go to it too. I am glad we got there early because when we left there was a HUGE line to get in, we didn't wait at all (aren't they cute?!)
They really seemed to have a good time
It was almost 2 pm by the time we finished there so we decided to take them to the local brewery - Gordon Biersch (which is also one of our fave places). They enjoyed the beer sampler
and I loved the fact that she takes after me in the fact that she takes pictures of their food.

We then road around town a bit more and ran into a Caribbean Music Festival and then headed to Little Five Points - we first went to Junkman's Daughter - Candace loved this place when she was younger so thought she might want to go there - well some things never change. She still loved it and ended up buying 2 new pairs of AWESOME shoes and a cute dress!

My sister-in-law made dinner reservations for us a The Commons, so after shopping, we headed back to Stone Mountain. We had a fabulous dinner and found out what Airline Chicken was (never heard of it before). After dinner, we headed to the Laser Show. I knew it would be packed since it was the opening summer weekend PLUS since it was Memorial Day weekend. But we found a great spot up near the top of the hill, sat back and enjoyed it. I loved that they had a Georgia Music Hall of Fame segment now (since Georgia Music is very near and dear to my heart and I used to do the accounting for the GMHoF)What a full day. We had breakfast this morning before they headed down to Florida to see mom and dad. I wish we had a couple of more days but I'm so grateful for getting to spend time with them. I miss them both and wish they would move to the US - seeing them every 2 years or so is just not enough.

Glee - Bad Romance

Have I said before that I love Glee? I'm sure I have.
I was looking for their version of Bad Romance on You Tube (which of course isn't out there - it is so hard to find videos from Glee - Fox is highly protective of them.

Anyway, I found this instead - it was made a few month's ago before the Lady Gaga episode appeared - maybe the creator of this video will change the music to the Glee Cast.

Graduation Card

One of my oldest friends, who've I've known for 25 years and who I tremendously respect, has a daughter graduating this week. I can't believe it! It doesn't seem like that long ago that his son was born and then 15 months later along came this beautiful girl. His children really are beautiful kids, inside and out - but they have great parents so it only makes sense that their kids turned out so well.

Anyway, I wanted to make her a card for graduation and decided to make one with Hello Kitty, but it just didn't feel right - so I pulled out my Cricut handbooks and started browsing. I really wanted to use my newest cartridge - Create a Critter, which is probably the best one they've come out yet for making cards - I could use this cartridge for days!

I found the cutest little owl and branch in there and thought it looked kind of scholarly so I made this card with it. All paper is Die Cuts with a View (DCWV) card stock.

I thought it needed some pattern paper in the background but it just looked too busy so I left it just plain - I'm happy with it and I am sure she will be too.

National Scrapbook Day

Today is National Scrapbook Day. Unless you are a scrapper, you probably are not aware of this wonderful day. I actually spent the day scrappin' ! Most the time I am out of town on this weekend so was glad to be here and actually have the time to participate in NSD.

Although I don't want to have extra competitors, I must share the love with my fellow scrappers and let you know about a FANASTIC give-away at Everyday Cricut - they are giving away a Cricut Expression. Wow !!!

Good luck to all who enter (including me!)

Savannah Retreat - Final Day

We were very sad to be heading back to the real world, we had a great time. Teresa managed to get us an invite to Sapelo Island due to her mother's connections through the UGA Marine Institute (note: it is VERY special to get onto this private island - not many people are allowed to do this and you must have special permission to do so).

We woke before the crack of dawn because we had to be at the ferry dock at 8:30 sharp and we wanted to be there by 8:00 since we had no idea where we were going. It was about an hour and 15 minutes further south from Savannah. We made the boat with plenty of time to spare.

Now of course once you get to the other side of the island, the Marine Institute said they would provide us with a car to ride around in. Now, we were not expecting anything spectacular but...we were not expecting a very rusted, very moldy, very scary car. It ran okay though and that is what mattered. We dubbed him "Jimmy" - well he already had that name technically so we just let it stick with him.

Thank goodness Teresa drove - I don't think I could have handled those roads - she did a great job - I was quite impressed by her driving skills actually. Only a tiny bit of the island is paved, the rest of it looks like this:

We first went to the Chocolate Plantation (which is derived from a French name - they didn't grow cocoa beans or make chocolate there or anything).

We also saw the Hogs Hammock community (which I kept calling Hogsmeade ala Harry Potter). It is a community owned by the Gullah people. We then saw the Reynolds Plantation (I think it made Teresa a bit sad to see that it had not be well maintained since she was last there as a child and also that we could not get into it)

We were running short on time - I wanted to make the noon ferry and it was already 11:30. Luckily our gracious UGA Marine Institute Program Director, Gracie, drove us to the lighthouse and to the ferry dock in record time. As we stepped onto the boat, they closed the chain right behind us...whew!

I would have like to have stayed on the island a couple of hours longer at least but if we didn't make the noon ferry then we couldn't leave until 4:30 and I didn't want to leave going home that late, we'd have to still eat lunch/dinner (there is no where to eat on the island) and we wouldn't get home until after midnight if we stayed that long. Hopefully one day, we can go again and spend a little more time there. We had 3 hours but wanted a little more.

All and all.... a great weekend retreat - we had a wonderful time and shared a lot of laughs. I wonder what we will do next year on Confederate Memorial Day?