Chocolate cake, the long driveway and the rancher's field.....

So remember this chocolate cake I made for the Hubby's birthday:

it's chocolate chocolate cake I might add.

And remember how I showed you how long our driveway is?

 It is about a 100 yards long.

At the end of the drive way we have a little dip before you go out onto the road. 

(It is kind of hard to tell in this picture)

So since the chocolate cake was way too much for us to eat, I decided to take what was left with me to work to share with my coworkers. 

I had left the cake in the glass cake stand that also has a glass cake top to cover the cake with.

I buckled the cake in before I left, I didn't want it to bounce all over. 

As I was going down our driveway at 6:30 in the morning, work starts at 7, I glanced over and noticed I had the seat belt wrapped around the cake top instead of the base. It was pushing the cake off the base. So I reached over and adjusted the seat belt to wrap around the base. I glanced at it once more just to make sure it was going to be okay on the drive into work.

The next thing I knew I was bouncing all over the place in the rancher's field across the street!!

Cake was flying all over the place, stuff was banging around in the back of the car, and I was trying to figure out what was going on!

When I finally stopped, I was a good 40 feet in from road! 

I thought I was only going about 25 but it seems like I must have been going a lot faster then that.

My husband thinks once I hit the dip I flew across the street for about 20 feet, and when I hit the field the undercarriage took the blunt of the blow as I bottomed out for about 5 feet then I went another 30 feet before I came to a stop out in the field. 

Once I got out of the car I hurried and left a message with my supervisor telling him I was going to be a little late to work since I had run off the road. I hurried and got back into my car and drove back across the street, as I was driving across the street I heard something scrapping along the road.

"Great! I have totaled the car!" I thought. As I got out though I noticed in the dark the electrical wire that the rancher uses to keep his cows in was connected to my car and I had pulled it tight across the road. There was a semi that was coming towards me, without thinking I ran to the middle of the road waving my arms in the dark trying to get his attention to stop. He was still too far away and obviously it was too dark. I jumped back in the car and drove back across the street, hurried back out of the car and started pulling the wire out from under the car just to make sure it wasn't still in the road when the truck went by. 

After that all happened, I finally called the husband and told him what happened. Luckily it was his day off and he was still in bed. 

I drove back to the house as he walked down to go check the fence. 

My supervisor called back to make sure I was alright, I told him I was and he got a good chuckle when he found out I had run off the road into the field across from our house. 

While Dave went to mend the fence line and talk to the rancher (who by the way was extremely nice about it all!) I took pictures of the damages done inside the car.

(The pictures aren't the greatest but you will get the idea.)

So the cake top hit the windshield and made a nice shatter crack in. Needless to say, the cake top didn't survive.


It's kind of hard to tell but you can see the shatter spot on the windshield.






My tire tracks in the field.


The electrical wire I broke.


So as you can tell from the pictures there was chocolate everywhere!!! It got all over my work clothes, and even a little got on the purse I made! Snff, snff!
Dave was so kind to clean it up, by the time it was all cleaned out my shift at work was half over so I just called in for the day.
I am just so glad no cars where coming down the road when I did this!! 
I'm glad that all that got ruined was a little chocolate cake, my pride and a windshield that we replaced instead of other cars and who knows what else.

Shrimp & Grits

Hooray I finally am doing a recipe update!!

Now, I have never had grits before in my life. But since I live closer to where a lot of good southern cooking is made I decided I need to try them. 

When I told my Dad I was having grits for dinner, he told me to tell him how much of my dinner was going to be wasted after I tasted the grits. He served his mission in the Carolina/Virginia area, so he has had grits before. He wasn't too sure how shrimp and grits were going to pair together so well either.

Dad, the whole dish was absolutely delicious!

I will admit it probably helped that the grits had 2 cups of cheese in them. The grits are a different texture but I liked them.

It was a prefect bite when you got a little piece of bacon, a little shrimp and grits all together. 

All I can say is:

YUM!

For those of you who have never tried grits, I suggest you give this recipe a try. 

It is always fun to try something new!

Shrimp & Grits

Serves 4-6

4 c. water

1 c. grits (regular or quick-cooking, but not instant)

3 Tbsp. salted butter

Tabasco sauce to taste

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined 

6 oz. regular (not thick-sliced or maple) bacon, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. lemon juice

2 Tbsp. fresh chopped parsley

1 c. thinly sliced green onions

2 cloves garlic, minced

Cook grits according to package directions. When you have about 15 minutes left on the grits, cook the bacon until brown and crispy. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate, reserving the bacon drippings.

Cook the shrimp in the bacon drippings over medium-high heat until they are just starting to turn pink (about 2 minutes). Add the lemon juice, garlic, green onions, parsley, and cooked bacon and cook for about 3 more minutes or until the shrimp are just pink all the way through. Season with kosher salt and Tabasco sauce to taste (if desired).

When the grits are done cooking, stir in the butter and cheese until smooth. Season with kosher salt and Tabasco sauce to taste. Ladle the grits into shallow bowls and top with the shrimp mixture for serving (although you’ll want to stir it all together before eating). Serve with a light green salad to offset the heaviness of the grits. 

Recipe From: Our Best Bites

The New Place

Well we have been in our new place for 3 weeks now. 

I have enjoyed it, minus the mess of course! There is still a lot of things that need a proper place, but it will all come together eventually. 

We live about 15 minutes outside the city of Lubbock. 

We are renting a mobile home that sits on ten acres, and we don't have any neighbors looking into our windows.

This is the new place!

This is how far we are in from the street.

We have one great room that has the kitchen and living room in it, this side is the kitchen.

The other side where the living room is.

Down this hallway on the left is one bedroom and a bathroom and a room with no closet. As you can tell they aren't organized so I won't show you what the insides look like, it's just basic rooms and bathroom.

The master bathroom.

Our bedroom, it still needs to put together. We need to invest in a dresser and a few other things.

The back deck

Dave and Cosmo sitting on the back deck.
We do a lot of sitting on the back deck lately, watching these:

Yeah life is wonderful out here.

Someone Turned 30.....clear back on the 4th of April

This guy isn't a young guy any more, he's stepped into the thirties this month. 

And I must say he is one good looking thirty year old!!

We had a low key birthday dinner, we invited our friends the Glovers over for some delicious Chicken Parmesan, recipe will be coming soon.

And we had this chocolate chocolate cake for dinner. This is the cake that would come back to haunt me, story to come about that. 

This came in the Hubby's birthday package from his family. 

The funny thing is that I had text Jamie to tell her I might make this same thing for Dave when she said she had sent a package. She did a much better job then I would have on it. 

Look at that cute little baby in the middle!!

Hope you have a great year being 30 Dave!!

I'm Still Here!!

Hello ya'll!!

I still do maintain this blog, I just have been waiting for internet to do so. 

We moved at the end of March about 15 minutes outside of the town of Lubbock. Since we are outside of town we had to search around for an internet provider that would get service out here. 

I am amazed at how much my life has kind of revolves around the internet. 

Any way, I will be doing a post hopefully tomorrow of the new place we moved to and get back into posting recipes that I try and want to share with you all. 

Oh! And share with you the story about the day I met the rancher's field across the street!

Stay tuned!!