martha moments: bbq apple chicken in the crockpot

a must try! and so easy!

bbq apple chicken in the crockpot

you'll need:

3-4 chicken breasts
1/2 cup bbq sauce
1-2 apples--cored, peeled and grated (any variety will do, i tried it with granny smith)
juice of 1 lemon
6-8 slices of bacon
salt and pepper to taste

Wrap 2 pieces of bacon around each chicken breast and place in bottom of crockpot.

Mix grated apples, lemon juice and bbq sauce in a small bowl and pour over chicken.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

the rug in the bedroom, part deux

here's an update on the rug in the bedroom--if you remember, i was having a dilemma as to where to put it...or if to put one at all?

well i did. and i love it.

here's the finished product. (and a couple more pics so you can see the big picture!)

now, you know all bloggers love comments, so what do y'all think?

martha moments: french onion soup in the crockpot

i love a crockpot. that's no news to you. there's just something fabulous about putting things into a wonderful pot, plugging it in, going to work and coming home knowing that dinner is READY. it's close to magical.

if you want this one for dinner, make sure to make it in the morning, as the total cook time is 8 hours.

this one's a keeper if you love french onion soup. (i do, i do!)

you'll need:

1 large sweet onion (Vidalias work great), thinly sliced
1/4 cup butter, cut into cubes
2 cans (14.5 oz each) of beef broth
2 Tablespoons sherry or additional beef broth if you don't want to use sherry
1/2 tsp. pepper
4 slices of French bread, toasted
4 slices of Provolone cheese

1. Spray the crockpot with cooking spray lightly, then place the sliced onions and butter in the pot. Cover and cook just the onion and butter on low for 6 hours or until the onion is tender.

2. Stir in broth, sherry and pepper. Cover and cook an additional 2 hours.

3. Ladle soup into serving bowls (oven safe, see below) and top with slice of toasted french bread and cheese.

4. I like to then pop the bowl into the oven under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese gets all bubbly.

somebody has a birthday today.....

so here's what's for dinner:

some slices of these


plus a bit of this

spread on to these {resolution-friendly} thingies

and grilled in this


with one of these on top

...it's a dinner fit for a king!

happy 75th birthday to Elvis!

Christmas '09 recap (pic heavy!)

where did the holidays go? one minute i was having my latte out of the special, red holiday cup from Starbucks, now, back to the plain ole white one. it reminds of the line from the wizard of oz, "my! things come and go so quickly around here!" Christmas did come and go so fast, but we tried to stretch it out and celebrate as much as we could!

this year found us celebrating Christmas together for the first time since we've been married. how is this, you ask? well, jeff has worked every single Christmas for the past seven years. here's a pic from last year's' Christmas morning...me and my invisible husband!


but this year was different. and it was SO nice to have him home. it makes me really hurt for those husbands and wives who have spouses serving in the military not just on holidays, but every single day.

one of my favorite parts of the holidays is the music and the decorating. i love getting the house all Christmasy smelling, lit up and cozy. it's my happy place.

this year, it was our turn to host Christmas eve for Jeff's family at our house. we always have a big dinner, and this year, we decided to require everyone to wear pajamas. not only because it made for cute pictures, but also because pj pants have elastic waistbands, so everyone could eat as much as they wanted!

so here's how our Christmas went down:

to start, i sent out these invitations. i know, i'm a dork, but i love stuff like this!


and here are some pics of the house all gussied up! man, i wish we could leave it up all year long.

the living room:

the main tree:

the mantle (and check out our new easel from mom and dad...for playing Pictionary!)

the dining room tree:

table's all set!

view from jeff's head of the table seat. i surprised everyone with personalized pics of themselves as their place card.

handmade wreath that i worked on for 3 solid hours (but it was worth it!)


the scene on Christmas eve

We basically chilled on Christmas Day and enjoyed the drizzle and gray. My family came over Christmas night for our annual Christmas Miracle dinner. The miracle is the spaghetti that mama makes (long story.) Next Christmas will be even more of a miracle dinner, as Zack's girlfriend, Ashton, is expecting and due the day before my birthday. It will be fun to have a little one at the table next year. :-)

Here's Zack with his slippers mom got him. She didn't realize there were two different slippers in the box!

Ashton and her new windchimes:

Mama and Daddy

our new black bear ornament...to remember our encounter with a big black bear earlier this year in Tennessee!

And the next day, we went to visit Mema and then on to my Grandmama and Papa's to finish out all the celebrating.

Daddy and Mema

Grandmama sharing her new photobook with Don


Jennifer with her new cookbook. we had cookbooks made this year with all of Grandmama's best recipes in them to give to all of the grandkids. they were a hit!


grandmama and her fried pies...one of the many things that caused my pants to be too tight this morning, i'm sure!



What a whirlwind of fun! Now we are back to the real world, the decorations are all down and safely in the Christmas closet until next year. the fattening foods are all eaten and carrots and celery and Boca burgers now take their place in the fridge.

a new year has begun and we wish you all a healthy, prosperous 2010~