Getting to Know You

Getting to know you...getting to know all about you.  Are you singing the song yet?  We are never too old to learn things about ourselves, and, well, I learned some things about myself this past weekend.

Hopson turned 40 in December.  I remember when my parents turned 40...I thought they were older than dirt.  Well, now Hopson is as old as dirt & I'm not far behind.  Well, my accountant husband did not want a party.  He was actually hunting the entire week of his birthday so he could make it as difficult as possible.  Instead of a party he and I decided to take a trip.  We decided to go snow skiing.

I learned to ski 6 years ago, and needless to say I'm not a super skier by any stretch of the imagination, but I can hold my own, or so I thought.  We usually ski in the spring.  There are a few things I am used to when I ski:  average temperature is usually around 35-40 degrees, all the green and blue slopes (except 3 or 4) are groomed as well as a few black runs, and we are lucky if we get a few inches of fresh powder to ski on.

What I learned about myself is I'm a spoiled rotten skier.  I learned this very hard lesson in Colorado this past weekend.  While skiing in Vail we had 10-12 inches of fresh powder over one night.  Um, yeah, I don't like that much powder, or I should say my knees didn't like that much powder.  I thought they were going to explode.  At one point I fell, and just wanted to lay in the snow.  I wasn't cold, but actually really comfortable.  LOL!  Poor Hopson.  He showed extreme patients with me, and really took care of me.  Towards the end of each day on my last runs I had to stop a ton, and he never complained or left me, but followed me down the slopes in case I hurt myself & needed the ski patrol.  Yes, I was in that much pain.

There was no one to carry my skies for me, no one was excited that I had come to ski on their slopes, and there wasn't a HUGE buffet for me to make a gigantic salad to eat for lunch.  Like I said, spoiled rotten skier.  On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, Colorado is beautiful!  I don't know how the early settlers handled the savage beauty of this state.  Early February is COLD, and very snowy.  It is so beautiful it looks fake.  As you drive on your way to the Vail/Beaver Creek area each town has trees lit with Christmas lights, and it looks like the town is in a perpetual state of Christmas.  It is breath-taking.

Hopson and I had planned to go out to dinner at least once, but after all the hard work we did on the slopes each day we decided it was more relaxing to eat in just the 2 of us.  We ate fried chicken salad. I'm going to include the recipe below because it's so easy.

We are going skiing again over spring break with the children.  I desperately hope we don't have as much snow as we had a week ago.  I'm being a little selfish, but if I'm going to last all day I am going to need a little help from the Ultimate Weatherman.  I'm keeping a close eye on the snowfall totals, but no matter what, I know I'll have tons of fun spending time with my family.

Y'all stay warm & be blessed beyond measure,
~ashley

Fried Chicken Salad for 2:
1/2 pound friend chicken fingers
1 bag baby greens or spring mix lettuce
Feta cheese
1 can Mandarin orange segments
1 small bottle Wish Bone Italian dressing

Cut chicken into bite size pieces.  Toss in with all other ingredients and serve immediately

Breckenridge. Co

delicious sadness

I remember a time early in my married life when Hopson & I didn't have 2 pennies to rub together.  He was a brand new CPA & low man on the totem pole at one of the big 6 firms.  Roughly that means he was slave labor.  There were weeks when he worked 7 days a week for 10-12 hours a day.  We were on a very tight budget, and I was always looking for ways to stretch the food I bought.  This is not a sob story, I'm an Auburn girl, and 'I believe in work, hard work'.  War Eagle to all my AU peeps, but I'm digressing.

Little Hopson, I will call him Hop or Hoppy from here on out, was almost 2, I was pregnant with baby number 2, Harry, and we were about to be hit with news that would change my life forever. We were excited to be going on our 1st family vacation, thanks to Ashley & Jim Moss for letting us tag along with them to the beach.  Being pregnant, I didn't sleep very much, and found an interesting cookbook at the beach house.  It was the Taste Alabama Tradition II; a cookbook by The American Cancer Society; Alabama Division, Inc. 

Once you've had a family member die from cancer, you almost do a double take when ever you see or hear that horrible word; so, I noticed the cookbook when I saw who it is by & wondered what's in it.  I start flipping through it, because, as you know from 'Peppa Chicken' I love to read cookbooks, and I come across an interesting recipe.  It's called Porcupines.  I liked it immediately!  No fancy ingredients, nothing too hard, it's perfect. 

I have done some variations of it over the years & have shared it with many on the go moms.  I'm going to list my children's favorite version 1st & then the original will be listed below.

The ending of our 1st family vacation was not what we wanted it to be.  We had to leave the beach the day after we arrived.  We were devastated because we found out my mother had melanoma, and we didn't know it yet, but it had already started to metastasize.  She lived for 1 1/2 years more & passed away December 30th of 1997. (big Hopson's birthday & the day before Harry's 1st birthday.)  It was a very rough time, but I always remembered when I found this recipe & am happy that from something so sad came something my family loves.

Be blessed beyond measure,
~ashley

I'm going to give you a 'small' version of the recipe, if you have big eaters like I do, you will need to double it.

Porcupines
1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 can Franco American beef gravy
1-1 1/2 cups Italian dressing
1 cup beef broth
a couple of dashes Worcestershire sauce
minced garlic

preheat oven to 350
mix ground beef & rice in a bowl.  shape individual meatballs & place in baking dish
in a sauce pan over medium heat mix gravy, Italian dressing, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce and minced garlic.
cook to just boiling, don't let it boil or it will scorch
once mixture is heated, pour over meatballs
cover with tinfoil & cook in preheated oven for 1 hour


the original recipe taken from Taste of Alabama Tradition II
1 pound group beef
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper

mix ground beef, rice, onion, slat & pepper.  Shape into meatballs
combine undiluted soup, water & Worcestershire sauce in saucepan.  heat just to boiling.
pour sauce over meatballs.
cover with tinfoil & bake at 350 for 1 1/4 hours, or until rice is tender, baste occasionally with sauce, if desired.