A few randoms and some recipes!

#1. Today, at WAL-MART of all places, I saw muscadines for sale in the produce section. For a few seconds I was transported back in time to my childhood, 25 years ago, to my grandparent's house on Peterson Drive in south Jackson. Good, SWEET memories.

#2. To the person genius enough to invent the broom: There are no words adequate. Short of being my superhero, I am left speechless at your ingenuity.

#3. I love being back in school and back on a schedule. But I'm pretty sure I may loathe the third grade. When I was in 3rd grade I just remember bouffant bangs, bad perms, and New Kids On The Block. Now in 2012, it's the second day of school, and my son has a test Friday on 20 spelling words (I'm an excellent speller and find these difficult) and vocabulary words. OH, and a math test. Geez. My head is spinning. Hope I, I mean, HE gets out of third grade okay.

#4.  I decided to deactivate my Facebook account for a little while.  It is impossible to describe how much my blood pressure has dropped in the last few days.  I was so tired of people posting such hateful things.  It was just becoming ridiculous.  And I do feel so much better now.  I'm also taking a break from the major news networks for a period of time.  I catch up on local news every few days, but that is all.  I don't even keep up with Fox news anymore.  And we all know that Fox is the ONLY reliable source of news.  (Just kidding.....) I've decided to try and stay oblivious to the world and all of it's problems.  

#5.  Yesterday I was looking for something cheap and simple to make for dinner.  So I stumbled across a GREAT website that is tailored just for busy moms.  I found a whole menu of easy meals with only 4 to 7 ingredients.  The website can be found here.  Then I was almost overwhelmed with all the easy recipes.  I mean, where has this been all my life?  So I finally decided on cheesy sloppy joes.  I live in a house full of boys.  I figured I couldn't go wrong with cheese and sloppy joes.  Here is the recipe for that.  The recipe says to put it in a slow-cooker, but I just simmered it, covered on the stovetop for about 3 hours.

Another yummy thing I made last night: oven-fried okra.  Oh my wow.  SO good.  This was my third time to make them.  And my boys, who like NOTHING green, loved these.  I think Brennan went back 3 times for a big helping of this southern "delicacy".  If my kids will eat it, that says a lot!  I did a combination of fresh okra (from my boss's garden) and knew that it wouldn't be enough, so I also did the frozen okra.  The recipe for that is posted here .

I also have a recipe for oven-fried dill pickles that are breaded in panko crumbs if anyone is interested.  Another big hit at our house!