Week 7 - Buffalo Chicken Dip and BBQ Ribs

I let the slow cookers and Sweetheart do ALL the work on Sunday.   I love when you can dump all the ingredients into the slow cooker and just sit and enjoy the games.   This week I made Buffalo Chicken Dip for our snack and BBQ ribs, corn on the cob and a salad for dinner.    Although very simple, it did not disappoint.   

I took the basic recipe and dumped it all into the slow cooker:  cream cheese, cheddar cheese, Frank's red hot wings sauce, shredded chicken and ranch dressing.  Start on high for about 1/2 hour until it all starts to melt so it's easy to blend.  Reduce to low and let it cook for about 45 minutes.    I usually start us with a light snack for lunch since we have breakfast after mass and are not really hungry when lunch time rolls around.  I started this about about an hour and a half before we would be ready to start snacking on it. 

It starts out like this:

And end ups like this: 

The ribs took 7 hours to cook on high.  I followed this recipe:  

As the recipe instructed when the ribs finished cooking, I carefully removed them from the slow cooker, slathered some BBQ sauce on them and then Sweetheart put them on the grill for about 5 minutes, each side (Sweetheart also prepared the corn on the cob and cooked it on the grill).    

They REALLY did come out looking like this:

And they were sooooooo good!!  And I forgot to take a picture of them.  And by "forgot" I really mean I didn't want to get BBQ sauce all over my new iPhone.  True story.   

One of my favorite things about at-home-football Sunday is this:

We all find a spot on the sofa and fall asleep....

p.s.  if you live in Phoenix you get 1/2 off of all drinks and slushes at Sonic the day after the Cardinals win.  And you know that after every win I am there.   At first it was for the 1/2 off, because this girl likes a good deal.  Now it's because I feel as if I don't stop and get our drinks, I'll jinx the team.  Just doing my part.

Go Cardinals!

TTFN

~Yolanda 

Halloween

It's what I've been waiting for!  The craft stores bring their Halloween stuff out earlier and earlier each year.   I think it was still August when I spotted the first Halloween decor at Joanne's.  But as tempting as it is, I always wait until October 1st to put everything out.

I try to move my stuff around so it looks different from year to year but sometimes the inspiration to do that is not there.  Sometimes my house looks like a cyclone hit because I can't decide what to put where.  Sometimes, there are three (possibly four) bins sitting in the middle of the living room for days as I work through my creativity blocks.   Sometimes, even Grievous and Naboo are annoyed by the bins that they need to navigate around.   Sometimes, I tell everyone to relax and just move along.   True story.

Does anyone else love the Target dollar section as much as I do?  I always grab at least $5 worth of stuff when I go there.  I can't help it, they have the cutest stuff!

The orange and black string I wrapped around my candles is from the Target dollar section.  Cute, yes?  And the feathers in the tray are mini boa's from HobLob:

During the last storm that left tree debris all over the streets, I grabbed a few branches with the anticipation of using them for my Halloween decor.   I spray painted the dead branches black and was looking for a good vase to use when I ran into one of Sweetheart's beer bottles in the recycle bin.  With a creepy pumpkin on the label, it was screaming for some creepy branches to accompany it on my shelf:

Personally, my favorite.  Sweetheart did one of those double-take deals when he walked by and saw it on the shelf.   I know he was thinking "that crazy girl went through the recycle bin".....

My witch shoes are one of my favs:

And this little end table sits to the right of my chair in the living room.   See the "oh my stars" plate?  Sweetheart got it for me because it's my favorite saying.   And I used wrapping paper from the Target store to make book covers:

I did the same thing here with the wrapping paper on the books on this shelf.  I love it so much I may keep the wrapping paper on even after Halloween:

To get the spider webs to the top of the wall I had to ask Sweetheart to pull the ladder out for me.  It was hard for me to get a good picture of it.  It looks really cool - you'll need to trust me.

And I made a table runner for the entrance way table.  It was so easy I decided to make a mini runner for the table in the hall:

There's my runner.  I bought the polka-dotted burlap at HobbyLobby.  I always thought burlap was hard to work with until I saw a how-to video online.   It's messy to work with but the process was very easy:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!