A Swafford Christmas Story

You know I love A Christmas Story, right? I mean, this better be nothing new because my all-time favorite quote is from that movie and by the day after Thanksgiving I begin responding to inquiries with quotes from that movie. Yeah, I love it. ;)

Now, I must preface these pictures by saying that despite my love of this movie, I did not influence or pose Gavin in ANY WAY. He did this completely on his own, no prompting whatsoever. I swear! I have about 6 witnesses to back me up!

Meet Mommy's Little Piggy!! :D

MUPPETS!!

I love Muppets. Loooooove them. :D

Mom & Dad, you will like this one

This pork is AWESOME!!! I made a few tweaks off the original recipe (2 tablespoons of pepper??? Holy crap people!!) and plan to make a few more (why stop at just two strips of bacon? What's wrong with wrapping the whole thing up in bacon?) but it still turned out REALLY good. :q Mom & Dad, this one is right up your alley. ;)

Rosemary Pork Tenderloin
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary, plus 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
5 large garlic cloves, 2 cloves minced and 3 cloves smashed
2 pork tenderloins, about 1 lb each
4 slices maple bacon

In a small bowl, mix together mustard, pepper, 1 tablespoon rosemary and 2 cloves minced garlic. Rub this mixture all over the tenderloins; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375. In bottom of roasting pan put 4 sprigs rosemary and 3 smashed garlic cloves. Unwrap tenderloins and place on top of rosemary and garlic. Lay 2 slices of bacon on each tenderloin.

Place roasting pan in oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes*, or until internal temperature reaches 160. Remove from oven and let sit 5-10 minutes before slicing.

*NOTE: My oven may have been having an off day but 30 minutes wasn't even close to long enough! Next time I'll try for 40 minutes to start with but this may possibly need as long as 50 minutes in the oven.

Upstairs Bathroom Update: Phase 2, day 1

It's that time again!! :D Time to tackle Phase 2 of my effort to update our upstairs bathroom. In August I ripped off all the old wallpaper, washed and primed the walls. Now my goal this week is to have the cabinets and walls painted (phase 3 will be the Mirror Wall with tiling, new mirror and light fixture. Phase 4 will be the floor). Today I hit my target of having the cabinets sanded and primed as well as having most of the walls trimmed out. :)

For more pics check out my FB page.

Been waiting 3 years to take this ridiculous, cheap, ugly towel ring off the cabinet. I'd like to slap whoever thought that would be a good idea.

Cabinet doors are off and got primed in the basement.

Primed!

So the blue I picked out, named "East Coast" (LOVE IT!!), is drying a bit darker than I'd envisioned but it's already growing on me. I think part of the problem is I'm comparing this color to the stark, white primer that it's up against. Should be better once all the walls are done and the cabinets are finished in the pretty dark brown. :)

Painting behind a toilet sucks.

Pesto-Stuffed Chicken Breasts, as requested

Made this last night and thought it turned out really well. :) Bragged about it a bit on FB so now the recipe has been requested...Here ya go, along with my notes:

Pesto-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

1 cup ricotta cheese (I don't like ricotta so I used small curd cottage cheese instead)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup pesto sauce (If you freeze in ice cube trays like I do, this is about 4-5 pesto cubes)
6 chicken breasts, pounded out thin (Use all 6 but cut in half like you would if you were butterflying them, only cut all the way through. This way the portions are a bit more reasonable)
Salt and pepper
1/2 can (10.5oz) cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup white wine
Toasted pine nuts, for garnish
Fresh basil leaves, for garnish (These are to echo the pesto so use whatever nut and herb that you used in your pesto, if it's homemade. I used basil and walnuts so, if so inclined, I'd used walnuts instead of pine nuts)

In a small mixing bowl, combine cheeses and pesto. Place a dollop of the cheese/pesto mixture on each flattened chicken breast. Roll up and secure with toothpicks. Place rolls in crockpot and season with salt and pepper.

In another small bowl mix soup, milk and white wine. Pour soup mixture over the chicken breast rolls. Cover; cook on Low 4-6 hours or on High for 3-4 hours. Garnish with pine nuts and basil. Makes 6 servings.

Gavin's Interests

So it's quite well known that Gavin adores trains, particularly Thomas. I'm finding out some of the other things he's into also, which is fun. :) He likes Sponge Bob, but I'm not too keen on encouraging that. Not going to forbid it, but not of my favorite things he's into. Gavin also REALLY like Dora the Explorer. Interesting!! Now that I've seen a couple episodes, it's cute. :) And I'm not a big Spanish language person but I do like any and all encouragement of speaking another language at a young age. :)

We also went to the library today and they are really expanding the toys in the Children's Section (LOVE IT!!!). They have a train table, which Gavin loooooves, a new Lego table, a puzzle table and today we discovered a two piece kitchen set. Cuteness!! As soon as I can figure out how to get a picture off my phone I'll show you. For now though, here's the 4-piece version of what he played with: