Buffalo Chicken Tacos

Now when I first saw this recipe I thought it was a little different to have buffalo chicken bits in a taco. Dave thought they sounded awesome the minute I told him we were going to have them.

They were quite tasty!!

These tacos were a little on the spicy side for me, I had to drench them in blue cheese dressing and cover them with avocados. They were still delicious!! Even if my lips were nice and tingly when I was done eating them. 

The hubby thoroughly enjoyed them! I don't think he thought they were that spicy, he can handle the heat better then I can.

I think they would perfect for any football game this weekend, or a good finger food for New Years Eve.  

Buffalo Chicken Tacos

1 pound chicken breasts, skinless, boneless, cut into 1 inch pieces

⅓ cup flour

3 tablespoon cornstarch

⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

⅓ cup buffalo wing sauce (Frank’s Buffalo Wing) , plus extra for garnishment

1 Tablespoon olive oil

10 6-inch yellow corn tortillas

Toppings:

Shredded butter Lettuce

Diced onions mixed with cilantro

Avocado slices

Ranch dressing

Green onions, sliced thinly

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. 

In a large bowl, combine cornstarch, flour, cayenne, and garlic powder. Season the chicken pieces with pepper, then dredge in the flour mixture.

Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the Dutch oven and once it gets hot, add chicken and cook on both sides – about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Once the chicken is done, set it aside in a bowl and toss with ⅓ cup buffalo wing sauce.

Assemble 10 tacos, dividing the toppings evenly among each taco.

Recipe from: Mrs. Regueiro's Plate

I Hope You All Had A Merry Christmas!!

I hope your Christmas weekend was wonderful! Mine was! We even had a white Christmas here in Lubbock, Texas!

Yes our hammock is still up....


We didn't get to go home for Christmas Day itself, we were able to go home for a weekend this December.


Here is a recap of what we did:


We got to spend a couple of nights with Dave's parents. We got to have lunch with Bonnie, Shelly, Ian and some of Dave and Bonnie's old co-workers. 
Shelly was so kind to take us up to go see Kip and Shannon Howell's son Easton, he was in the Primary Children's hospital for bacterial meningitis. He is doing much better!! He is home and well! 
We go to see all of his family and some friends later that night, except Jenny, we missed you Jenny!! 
We didn't get to see Jamie that night either, but we did get to see her over Cafe Rio for lunch the next day. 
I LOVE Cafe Rio!! 
Once again, I am horrible at taking pictures while we are there. I should Dave in charge of taking pictures all the time.


We made it home for my families yearly making of gingerbread houses.
Here are a few pictures from that,

Blake didn't want to claim this gingerbread house as his.

A working progress...

Oh Chan man is rocking those glasses!

Shaylee looks cute in them.

They all found Uncle Nick's ticklish spot.

The finished houses!


I was debating if I should put up pictures with everyone with their houses, since it will make this post extremely LONG, but you can't really see the detail on the houses.

Shaylee's

Caden's

Nick and Robin's

Chan's

My Mom actually made one! She hasn't made one in years.

Stacey and Bart's

R-Dean's!

Dave tried to make is look like a Red Neck's house....

Mine....I really like that my Mom had ice cream cones that I can turn into trees.


We were able to attend my Grandma Stalder's yearly Christmas party.
We had a nice dinner and then we had a Christmas program, we have some very talented people in our family!

My Mom played the flute and Robin played the piano. 

Savannah is an excellent violin player!

Cora played the piano for us.

Sydney, she did great on the guitar! I need to practice on mine...in fact I need to find someone who gives guitar lessons....

Aunt Kathy and Madison did a piano duet.

As did Aunt Julie and Uncle Phil. 
Watching the people play piano just made me realize how I shouldn't of taken those years I was taking piano lessons for granted. There was also some Christmas stories read. 

We sang "Must Be Santa". Uncle Brett and Bart were the lucky ones to dress up.

This little guy loved playing in this box full of wrapping paper! It was so cute!

My cute Grandma. 

Me and Dave.
We had a wonderful Christmas time at home, we also had a great holiday time in good ol' Lubbock! I hope you all got a chance to sit back and remember the true reason we celebrate Christmas. 

I hope you all had a wonderful time of the year, and I wish you all a Happy New Year that is fast approaching! 

Sausage Souffle

This is a traditional Christmas breakfast dish for my family.

My Mom has been making this dish for Christmas breakfast for as long as I can remember. There have been a few times we didn't have this for breakfast and breakfast seemed different without it. 

I haven't tried very many different sausage souffles, but as far as I am concerned this one is by the best.

It is a very basic recipe of eggs, bread, cheese, sausage, salt and dry mustard. Which we left out cause we didn't have any but it still turned out delicious!

This recipe is an easy one, and one that you need to make ahead of time. It would be perfect for your Christmas breakfast, you would just need to pop it in the oven Christmas morning. 

This was the first time Dave and I have made it since we have been married. We did a half batch since it usually goes in a 9x13 pan. 

I love how it turned out with the nice golden/brown sides. The sides were my favorite part!

Having this for breakfast made me feel closer to home for the holidays.

Sausage Souffle

1 dozen eggs 

1 quart milk (4 cups) 

4 cups cubed bread 

4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese 

1 tsp. salt 

1 tsp. dry mustard 

1 lb. sausage 

dash pepper 

Brown sausage and drain fat. Mix with remaining ingredients and let sit in a 9x13 pan or glass baking dish for 24 hours. Bake at 350 for one hour, uncovered. If using glass baking dish, reduce heat to 325.

Grandma's Sandies

These scrumptious cookies go by a few different names, pecan sandies, snowball cookies, Mexican Wedding cookies, though those are moon shaped. They are also referred to Russian Tea Cakes. 

Whatever they are referred to as, they rank high on my cookie ranking. 

Now, I think I have said that I don't like nuts in cookies, except in these cookies. Pecans find a good home in these rich nutty shortbread rolled in powdered sugar.
This recipe was given to my from my friend Jan. She usual makes them every Christmas I believe, I had forgotten all about these cookies until she made them a couple of years ago. 
I am so glad she reunited me!
When making these make sure your butter is soft. Our rental is cold since it is poorly insulated so my butter wasn't as soft as it should have been. After you mix all the ingredients it should make a dough that sticks together somewhat. Mine wasn't sticking together to well. I had to work the dough with my hands to get the butter to melt so it was easier to work with. 
Though I still needed to really squeeze the balls I made in the palm of my hand to get them to stay together. It all worked out well though.
These little cookies melt in your mouth.
Just make sure NOT to inhale as you are biting into one, a coughing attack will occur due to the fact you will be choking on some powdered sugar.

Grandma's Sandies


1 cup margarine, softened (I used all butter)
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. cold water
1 cup chopped nuts (I prefer pecans)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
powdered sugar for rolling the cookies in


Mix all ingredients together. Roll into balls. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes. Roll in powdered sugar while still warm.
Once they have cooled, roll them in the powdered sugar one more time. 

Maraschino Cherry Cookies

I know there are a lot of people who don't like maraschino cherries, but I am here to tell you, you still MUST try these cookies!! I am one of those people who don't like maraschino cherries, but I LOVE these cookies! 

I was telling my husband yesterday that I plan on making these cookies every Christmas season. The texture is perfect, they are moist and chewy. There is also coconut in them, still add it even if you aren't a fan, unless you are allergic of course. You don't even realize it is in the cookies. 

I told my husband I was making these cookies, he gave me a funny look and said, "I didn't really like those cookies." Me, "What do you mean you didn't like them?! They were awesome!" Thirty minutes later I gave him one to try, after popping it in his mouth, "These are GOOD!" Me, "You just said you didn't like them." Hubby, "I must have been thinking of a different cookie cause those are delicious!" 

Like I said, don't be fooled by the ingredients.

This recipe comes from my Mom's side of the family. Apparently my Grandma use to make this cookies around the Holiday season. It must have been before my time, I don't ever remember having these. I was missing out on these little gems for a lot of years.

I am so glad my Aunt Julie made them last year before we moved to Texas or I who knows how long I would have gone without this wonderful recipe. 

Do yourself a favor before the Holiday season is over, make these as soon as you can, you won't regret it. I promise!

Maraschino Cherry Cookies

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup shortening

1 cup maraschino cherries

1 cup sugar

1 cup coconut

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

4 cups flour

1 cup nuts (I didn't use)

Mix as for a cake, drop by spoonful (I use a small spoon, scoop some out and roll them into a ball and just barely flatten them between my hands) on an ungreased cookie sheet for 10 minutes at 375.

My Parents Week Long Visit

Where oh where has time gone?! 

I have neglected this blog so badly this Holiday season. Not on purpose mind you, it feels like I have been on the go non-stop since November. And when I get a second to sit down I fall asleep almost instantly. That or I am reading. I have been sucked in while reading the "Hunger Games". I can't put those books down! I have the last book, "Mockingjay" to read. I enjoy reading but I remember why I don't do it a lot, I don't get anything else done.

The week and few days with my parents flew by. Though I knew it would, anything I get excited about comes and goes too fast. 

My parents flew in the day after Thanksgiving and stay until December 4th. 

The first couple days were very low key, I know when I fly in somewhere I like to not be in a rush the next day. We made cookies, watched cowboy and Christmas movies, visited Wally World, Gander Mountain, and the local supermarket. 

The first Sunday they were here, we had a get together with the Bradshaws. 

We had a delicious dinner of French dip, which I forgot to take a picture of. I will have to make it again so I can blog about it. Oh and the candy yams! Those were so good!

 After dinner my Dad had it all planned out to learn and sing the song, "Must Be Santa".

Dave and Spencer were dressed up as Santa as we sang the song.

The Bradshaw kids were the reindeer, aren't they cute?!

The Bradshaws

Me and Dave

We decorated those sugar cookies I posted early after we were all done.

Monday morning we woke up bright and early and headed up to Amarillo. We woke up early, but we didn't leave early.  :)

I wanted to show my parents Palo Duro Canyon, the Quarter Horse museum and eat at a dive called The Coyote Bluff Cafe, they have excellent burgers and cheese fries. 

Dad and I checking out the big long horns at the entrance of Palo Duro Canyon.

Mom and Dad

On the way out of the canyon we saw a 4 point buck try to get the water trough that the long horns weren't letting him get to.

We ended up not making it to the hole in the wall restaurant I wanted to, but we did go to the Big Texan, home of the free 72 oz. steak if you can eat the whole meal it comes with! None of us gave it try, if you don't eat it all you are out 100 bucks!

Since we weren't going to be home for Christmas, I gave my Mom her Christmas gift early. Dad is going to have to wait till Christmas Day for his, but he's going to love it!!

Cosmo was waiting impatiently for her to open it.

That's right folks I made a quilt! 

It's not perfect by any means, but she still loved it!

It's a nice reminder of Texas. 

We went for a carriage ride around the Kings Gate shopping center parking lot.

This isn't a great picture, but that carriage was very cool!

We went to the Annual Carol of The Lights at Texas Tech while they were here. Tons of people met at Texas Tech to hear carols, after a few carols they light of Texas Tech University. 

On the final day my parents were here I FINALLY got to open the gift from my parents to Dave and me. I have been hanging on to this wrapped present since June! It is a wheat grinder! I have been wanting one for a couple of years now. 

How does Dave benefit from this you ask? Lots and lots of fresh homemade bread! 

There were many other things we did while my folks were in town, we drove to Levelland to check out a music store there for my Dad.

Our church had a huge Nativity display all weekend, lots of people lent out their nativity sets to put on display for everyone to see. They had live music playing in the background. It was a very very cool thing, it really made you stop and think of the meaning of the season.

We went and saw a friend we made for the Ranching Heritage museum, Ray, the horse trainer. He took us for a little carriage ride around his arena and talked about training horses of course. I think this was one of my Dad's favorite parts of the trip.

We were able to go to the temple as well. 

I had a wonderful time having my parents in our home. I was very sad they day they had to go home. I wasn't ready for them to leave. I kept telling them they could stay another week, but sadly they do have lives to get back to. Someday we will live closer to home! Then I will be able to annoy them all the time.....then they will be wishing I far away and back in Texas.