Spaghetti Sauce

I've been meaning to share this recipe for a while. This sauce is wonderful! For those of you that read and are familiar with Monjuni's in Shreveport/Bossier...it tastes very similar to it. This was given to me by my dear friend Jill Browning who I miss SO SO much! She supplies me with the molasses from a special store that is located in Coushatta, LA, close to her parent's in Martin. You can certainly substitute with plain molasses, but not guaranteeing it will be as good as what I get. :) Oh and this is the sauce I use in my lasagna.

1 32 oz jar/container Ragu chunky garden style pasta sauce
1 can Rotel tomatoes
2 T Molasses (you could also try just regular pancake syrup maybe)
1 T prepared Mustard (wierd, but it makes it!)
1/4 cup sugar

Bring all ingredients to a boil and boil for a few minutes, stirring often. Bring to a simmer over low heat and simmer for a couple of hours...the longer the better really. This sauce gets better the longer it "sits" so you could prepare it early. Also, it freezes well. Enjoy!

Crispy Lemonade Chicken | Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice

I wanted to share a recipe that I made for dinner tonight. It was wonderful! I was looking for an oven "fried" chicken recipe and found this. It was perfect...and the hint of lemon made it fabulous! This recipe would probably adapt well with fish too. We had it with roasted new potatoes and steamed broccoli.

NOTE: This must marinade at least 4 hours (I marinaded mine overnight)

Crispy Lemonade Chicken
copied from one of my favorite food blogs: Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice

Ingredients
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest, divided
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup water
1 cup buttermilk (you can make your own with vineagar and regular milk)
3 1/2 to 4 pounds chicken pieces, bone-in, skin-on (I used boneless, skinless breasts like I always do)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped or 1 teaspoon dried
Pinch of cayenne pepper (I used ground red pepper since I didn't have cayenne)
1/4 cup mayonnaise (I used light)
Olive-oil cooking spray

Directions

1. Mix 1 tablespoon lemon zest and lemon juice in a large bowl. Whisk in water and buttermilk. Pierce chicken pieces several times with a fork and season well with salt and pepper. Toss in the marinade making sure all sides are well coated, cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bring the chicken to room temperature. Put the panko, thyme, the remaining lemon zest, cayenne, 1 teaspoon salt, and black pepper to taste in a large resealable plastic bag and shake to mix. Put the mayonnaise in a wide, shallow bowl. Set a rack on a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray.

3. Remove the chicken from marinade, dip in the mayonnaise, then drop into the bag and shake to coat, transfer to the rack.

4. Mist the chicken with cooking spray. Bake until golden, about 35 minutes, flip and bake until cooked through (breasts don't need to be turned), juices should run clear and internal temperature should reach 165-174 degrees F."

Seth's Baptism

Seth was baptized on August 11th, 2010 at Southside Baptist Church. We have been attending this church since we moved here in June and decided to move our membership. Seth had asked Jesus into his heart in December, but hadn't followed through with baptism because we wanted to make sure he understood it and that it was really on his terms. I think he would ask every othe day, "When can I get baptized?!" This was the perfect time because at SSBC, they made a huge celebration out of it. Seth was baptized with 18 other children that evening. They had a huge celebration with cake, ice cream, and even gifts! I said, "What greater gift than to have Jesus in your heart?!", but Seth was sure glad to get his!

Our Family Pastor, Bro. Matt Walls baptized Seth and it was perfect since Seth sees him every week and Bro. Matt has been discipling him alot. We are so proud of Seth!

This was like our 10th attempt to get a photo together...I really wasn't frustrated, well I was about the picture taking. Can you tell Seth's expression, "Would you hurry up and make this one turn out ok?!"

We are so blessed to have already found a church home and even more so that Seth could be baptized!

Back to School

The kids started their new school in Georgia. They are in seperate schools, but they are on the same, large campus. Seth started 2nd grade goes the primary (Pre-K through 2nd) and Jonathan started 4th grade (goodness where did the time go?!) goes to the elementary (3-5). There are about 600 kids in each school! It's huge! Jonathan's school is only a couple of years old and Seth's isn't much older than that. We are in a part of the city that is growing at an enormous rate! Their schools are so modern and clean...each classroom contained with it's own active board. Last week, they attended their open house where the met their teachers.

Seth with his teacher Mrs. Singleton. Mrs. Singleton is SO sweet! She was so kind and loving. She gave Seth a hug right away and when he left. She's been teaching for just a few years and she's an Air Force wife who's husband is retired. She was awarded Teacher of the Year in 2008. We had heard from a couple of people that she's an awesome teacher and a lady that works with Nathan said she's the most desired in 2nd great...well the teachers pick her for their children so that says alot! Seth really likes her and just in three days, he says he loves school there! That's huge!

Jonathan and his teacher, Mrs. Wilson. Mrs. Wilson was much the same as Mrs. Singleton. She was very kind and loving. Here in the south, especially Georgia, hugging is huge so there ya go. :) I was happy about it. Mrs. Wilson has been teaching for 39 years! WOW! Jonathan really likes her and says he loves school as well. He says this school reminds him of Hanscom in Massachusetts. It is built just like it.

First Day! First we walked Jonathan to his school and then back to Seth's.

I have to say, I really dreaded school starting. For one, I love having my kids home with me, doing fun stuff and just being together. I was also nervous since they came from such an awesome school in Louisiana...I didn't know if it would measure up! ha! But most of all, I felt we got "robbed" this summer since we had so much chaos, displacement, etc. The move really made it hard.