Happy Halloween and 9 Months!

Happy Halloween to everyone I hope you have a super trick or treating day. These are the pictures I took of Charlot at 9 months of age. She is the sweetest little girl with an infectious laugh. She is cruising everywhere pulling up and going all around every piece of furniture. In addition she has four teeth and we are starting solid foods, stay tooned for details on that adventure. I never dreamed how much my life would change when she came into it, I find myself spending the extra 15 minutes playing on the floor with her instead of doing the dishes (I just do them after she is in bed.) I laugh at her all the time, every little thing she accomplishes I applaud. She literally is the light of the hubs and my life and we thank the Lord each and everyday for her. Enjoy these pics of her!

Stuffed Peppers

This dish holds a very special place in my heart, because I made it for the hubs the first weekend after our honeymoon when he moved into my home, so it kind of symbolizes the transfer from my home to our home. I had always heard him talk about how much he loved his grandma’s stuffed peppers, as his new wife I wanted him to feel completely at home, so I decided to make them for him. The only problem was I had never eaten a stuffed pepper in my life, and had not a clue how to make them. I started by calling my mom to ask for help she was zero help since she had never made them either, she sent me to my Aunt Charlene. My aunt told me that some people use a ground beef and rice mix while others make almost a meatloaf type filling. Well I knew for a fact the meatloaf method was not happening here, I have explained before my fear of meatloaf. I consulted a few cookbooks and called the hubs grandma, and sort of got an idea of how I was going to make these. To make a long story shorter he loved them and I have been making them the same way since.


Makes 6 peppers (note this picture was taken prior to baking I was running out of daylight)

1 lb lean Ground Beef

1 cup onion finely diced

5 or 6 button mushrooms finely diced

6 bell peppers

1 cans petite diced tomatoes

1 small can tomato sauce

Beef Broth

1 box Uncle Ben’s Wild Rice

2 cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese shredded

Salt and Pepper to taste

¼ tsp red pepper

½ tsp cumin

Cut very top off of the peppers, don’t throw this away, I mean throw away the stem but not the pepper part and dice the tops of 3 peppers up to add to the stuffing. Remove the seeds and the white inside the peppers, cut a small amount off the bottom of each pepper, for stability, be careful not to take too much or you will have a leaky pepper. Blanch the peppers in salted boiling water for five minutes, remove and cool.

In a large heavy bottom skillet heat some EVOO and a pat of butter, add diced veggies (diced peppers, onions, and mushrooms). Sauté for a few minutes to soften add ground beef. Brown thoroughly and drain. Return meat and veggies to skillet, add tomatoes and tomato sauce. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Add rice and seasoning packet to the skillet plus 1 cup of beef broth. Simmer for the 20 minutes the rice takes to cook. Keep broth handy you may need to add more as the rice cooks. A few minutes prior to stuffing the pepper add 1 cup of the cheese to the meat and rice mix, combine well.

Fill each pepper to the top with meat and rice mixture; pack it down a bit so the pepper is really stable and full. Top each pepper with a bit of cheese. Bake pepper for 30 minutes at 350. ENJOY!!! By the way these freeze amazingly well. If you are going to freeze them, don’t bake them; just wrap them tightly with foil or plastic wrap and place in a Ziploc freezer bag.

Frozen Banana Split Dessert

This pic shows just how yummy this simple dessert is.

In honor of the momma-to-be in my office big birthday, I decided to indulge her ice cream cravings a bit more. Actually she found the recipe, printed off, handed it to me and said “I want this for my birthday treat.” I obliged, who am I to argue with a pregnant woman and her wants??? I will say this dessert is super easy to make and quite delicious. I think this would be the perfect dish to make for family dinners or picnics, kids I’m sure would love it! I used vanilla ice cream (the momma’s request), but the next time I make it I think I will try chocolate chip, or maybe cookies and cream. Yummy! For this recipe click Here.

Her First Trip to the ZOU!!!

No I am not talking about Zoo with all the animals I am talking about the Z-O-U! We took Charlot to the 100^th celebration of the University of Missouri’s homecoming on Saturday. We strapped on our black and gold through and through and headed out early Saturday morning to begin the celebration. We opted to just attend the parade this year for fear that Charlot might not make it through an entire game. She did enjoy the parade though (ok maybe I enjoyed it more), she smiled and waved and even got some candy sent her way. I was so glad to have to take my little one to my alma mater. I am so proud to be a Tiger.  

 Everyone came to celebrate with the tigers!

 Charlot found plenty of people to hold her where she could see the action!

 She even attracted some candy, for her paps afternoon snack!

Auntie Rach stopped by to say hi

It was a great parade and a great way to spend a Saturday morning!

Play date!!!

On Friday my cousin Melisa so graciously agreed to watch Charlot for me, Charlot’s regular sitter had to be out of town. Well Melisa happens to be momma to one of Charlot’s favorite play mates, Mia. Mia is just eight months older than Charlot, they are quite a pair. I thought about Melisa’s sanity all day, but she seemed to handle the two of them with the greatest of ease. And by the looks of the pictures that Melisa took they appeared to have a total blast!

Thank you again to Melisa for watching my little girl.

Updates and Education...

So it has been a busy few weeks in our home. Between work and pigs we are staying quite busy. I have been super busy with work; this time of year is simply put crazy. I do a lot of work with Pioneer’s recruitment team, meaning I go to some career fairs, speak to some groups on campus, and travel to some conferences to speak for the company. I love it! Because I do love my job and I am passionate about the work that the company does I truly love recruiting others to join the Pioneer family. The thing about this is that it isn’t actually my full job this time of year; it is kind of a side thing I do. So it runs into some evenings and weekends. This past weekend I was asked to speak at a conference in Washington D.C. This was my first overnight away from Charlot oh so hard. I mean crazy hard. I seriously am an eternal optimist, but I am pretty sure having a child has changed that in me. I thought of every horrible situation possible prior to leaving, I am pretty sure I was boarding the plane with tears streaming down my face. I did not want to leave her! She didn’t seem to mind it too much, her and Daddy spent some quality time.


Insert: The following subject maybe odd for some readers, but it is a part of my everyday life, and it is a part of the great industry of agriculture. Plus a cute pic of Charlot prior too.

The hubs has been busy trying to ensure that all the sows are bred for litters this winter. In our operation, as with many operations, it is more feasible for us to use artificial insemination to breed our sows than to have several different boars. This entails, logging the sows heat cycle, selecting the boar from a stud company (catalog/online), ordering the semen, receiving the semen from the UPS man and doing the deed(hahaha I couldn’t be completely serious about this subject). It is actually quite an interesting process if you would like to learn more click HERE, for a full tutorial. So I bring all this up because a couple weeks ago my cousin was here from Florida, complete city girl, and she was very interested and humored by the process. So I thought I would share with all of you! The hubs will be so proud!

Here are some more pics from our visit to the orchard and one with Charlot and my cousin.

I hope you learned a little something, and I hope you have a great day!