Dinner, not in a basket?

Our evenings have been taken over by Pinocchio.
 Dress rehearsals and last night was opening night for "Child number 5"...

that is her in the center back

 her two besties came to watch

one of my friends came with her kids... Katie is their favorite babysitter...

It has been fun. Kellie is really enjoying the show and is glad she did it!  I'm sure it will be worth every penny of that $30ish dollars they are paying her!

So the last few nights dinner has been eaten at the play... I should get a freq. drink discount from Sonic...

Last night was burgers, stuffed peppers and banana pudding

Stuffed mini peppers

6-8 mini bell peppers, cut in half, seeds removed
3 ears fresh corn cut off the cob
6 oz goat cheese
2 green onions finely chopped
season salt and pepper to taste

Mix corn, goat cheese and chopped chives till blended

fill cleaned peppers with corn mixture

Bake at 375 approx. 20 minutes, till bubbly and peppers soft.  I think these would be even better cooked on the grill.

Tonight I was the bad parent and just dropped her off.  Seeing it three nights in a row this week was all could take!

So, tonight we ate dinner at home!  I tried a new shredded beef recipe tonight and you need to make this!  I mean it.  It was that good!

Shredded Beef for Taco's

1 sm. Beef Roast

2 pk. Sazon seasoning packets

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

3 cloves garlic

1 lg onion chopped

1 Chili in Adobo chopped

1 1/2 cup beef broth

Rub Sazon seasoning on roast.  Sear roast on each side in hot skillet, approx. 5 min. on each side till browned.  Move roast to crock pot.  Using beef broth de-glaze pan.  Add chili powder and cumin.

Pour over roast.  Add Chili in Adobo, onion and garlic.  Cover and cook on Med. 6-8 hours. 

Shred.

Serve on tortillas and top with your choice of toppings, cilantro, feta or cotija cheese, chopped tomatoes, etc.

It got great review from the picky husband and the family I took dinner to...

On another tragic note.  Pepper the hamster passed away.  I discovered it this morning...  Mike "took care" of things before Kellie even got up.  She wanted us to get him back out of the dumpster so she could have a "funeral, light candles, say a few words...." 
That didn't happen. 
I have been surprisingly sad about the rodent death....
You see every morning during the school year when I go to wake Kellie up, I would open his cage, he would come running, let me pet him and then I'd give him a little hamster treat.
Katie has decided that since summer started and I had not been doing that as often, that he must have died from sadness...
Thanks for the guilt Katie.
I haven't heard yet if a new hamster is in my weekend plan....

I love a good weekend

Jennifer came in for the weekend. I think mostly for a sewing lesson. She wanted to make baby slings to take to the orphanage on her upcoming mission trip. Us sewing made Kellie decide that she also wanted to learn to sew. We found an easy pattern for the baby sling and I helped with with instruction but Jennifer did great polishing up her sewing skills and has 8 slings to take to the babies. We hope since they carry dogs well they will be OK for the babies. Jennifer didn't want me to publish the picture of her wearing two slings with two dogs... I guess she didn't think that would make her look like the sophisticated, young, single woman that she is...so Kellie gladly posed...

Kellie also informed me that she was going to cook dinner for us. We WERE NOT ALLOWED TO HELP!!! I love that she is wanting to learn to cook...We were ordered to "sit on the bar stools and don't come in the kitchen". Ok, be glad to!
She planned a dinner that she new Jennifer would like. Her menu included Light Fettuccine Alfredo, salad, bread and apple dumplings for dessert. Like I said, she planned things Jennifer would like, not things that were healthy.

I had seen the recipe for the apple dumplings on Pioneer Woman and my sweet friend Jennifer also had the recipe and spoke of her love for it, so I decided we needed to make this while our Jennifer was here. Given the ingredient of Mt. Dew we thought it might me made just for her.

Apple Turnover

2 Granny Smith apples

2 cans crescent rolls

2 sticks butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoons vanilla

cinnamon

1 can Mountain Dew

Peel and core apples. Cut apples into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan. Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, and spoon some of the sweet sauces from the pan over the top.

I fully expected to like this recipe...but we all LOVED it. I guess there isn't much with two sticks of butter that we wouldn't love!

We've had fun, seen two movies, ate well, played, fireworks, church and now are enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon. I love a holiday weekend!