Oven Baked Onion Rings

I made these onion rings tonight to go with PW's Italian drip beef sandwiches. They were SO GOOD. You'll never missed the fried stuff!!! I got the recipe from this guy.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups Cornflakes
• 1/2 Cup Plain Breadcrumbs ( dried)
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 Cup Low Fat Buttermilk
• 1 Medium Onion ( Vidalia, Spanish) Sliced and broken into rings
• 2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/8 Tsp. Cayenne Pepper
• Coarse Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 450 Degrees
2. In a food processor, pulse breadcrumbs and cornflakes until fine crumbs form, then transfer to a medium bowl
3. In another medium bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk, flour, cayenne, and pepper
4. Dip onion rings into egg mixture ( letting excess drop off ) and dredge into cornflake mixture; place on a large platter
5. Pour oil into rimmed baking sheet and heat in oven for 2 minutes
6. Remove sheet from oven and tilt to coat evenly.
7. Arrange rings onto sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes turning once or until rings are golden brown.
8. Season with salt.
9. ENJOY!

By oiling the pan and preheating it in the oven before you put the rings on it, you'll be sure to get nice crispy onion rings!

Hoppy Easter!

We had a pretty relaxing Easter weekend. It was our flex Friday, so we ventured out to the outlet malls in Allen, with high hopes of finding some good deals! Unfortunately, we came up empty handed. :( Saturday morning, I got my haircut in Dallas while David played tennis with a friend of his. We grilled steaks for dinner and enjoyed the beautiful weather! Sunday we went to the gym, finally! I made carrot cake cupcakes, and they turned out absolutely delicious!

For dinner, we made cornish game hens, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, and roasted brussels sprouts! YUMMM!

We hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend!

4th Annual DVCBQ

Yesterday was one of our favorite days of the year - the DVCBQ!! For those of you who don't know, David and my birthdays are exactly one week apart. The DVCBQ tradition started when David and his best friend, Clayton, moved into a rental house in Dallas. We had a birthday/housewarming BBQ and had so much fun that we started having one each year in March for our birthdays. I'm not sure who dubbed it the DVCBQ, but the name has stuck and this year was the 4th annual! (DVCBQ stands for David, Victoria & Clayton BBQ)

As always, we have a ton of delicious food. David and I take care of the main dish, and our friends help out by bringing yummy sides. This year, I made the Pioneer Woman's Spicy Shredded Pork tacos. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS.

I used an 8 1/2 pound pork shoulder and slowly roasted it for about 6-7 hours. The final product basically shredded itself and was so tasty and flavorful! David also grilled about 60 chicken drumsticks because it's not a DVCBQ without something on the grill!

This year, we decided to get a keg of Shiner. And of course, our good friend, Zach, brought jell-o shots galore! I think he made a total of 120 jell-o shots...

You're never too old for a jell-o shot!

I think we had about 30 people over, and I think they'd all say it was a blast!

Our neighbors brought over a really tasty dip, and I got the recipe from her, so I thought I'd share it with you! We had it with tortilla chips, but I think it would be absolute perfection to have it with Fritos! Enjoy!

Mexi-Dip
Serves 10-12

11-ounce can of Green Giant Mexicorn, drained
8 ounces grated Colby or Cheddar cheese
4 scallions (including the white part), thinly sliced
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Chill for several hours.

27

I turned 27 yesterday. A year older...a year wiser...? Something like that. My day started out pretty good. Starbucks was honoring my birthday by giving out free pastries with the purchase of a coffee! So I went ahead and got myself a $2 daily drip and an apple bran muffin. When I got to work, our administrative assistant told me she made me a cake and we had to eat right away. Which means...Cake for breakfast! She made a banana split cake, which I have never had before, but it was out of this world DELICIOUS!!

When I got to my desk, my computer was covered in birthday cards! I buy a birthday card for everyone in our office each year. So every year, I wonder if I'm getting a birthday card, since I'm certainly not going to buy myself one for everyone to sign! And each year, I usually get one or two cards. But this year...! This year I got EIGHT birthday cards!! My cubicle wall of birthday cards now looks like this:

Needless to say, I felt pretty special.

I met my brother and his family for lunch at Panera. When I got there, Daniel handed me a box of cupcakes. And not just any plain old, run of the mill cupcakes. These were red velvet cupcakes from The Red Oven in Arlington. THE. BEST. CUPCAKES. EVER.

David is working out of town this week (again). He had a meeting in Waxahachie yesterday afternoon, and since he's the best husband in the world, he stayed in town to take me to dinner. We went to Piranha for dinner and had the sushi boat for two:

Delicious! Unfortunately, after dinner, David had to head back out to Tyler. So there I was, sitting on the couch at home. All alone on my birthday. Feeling sorry for myself. And eating leftover cake. By myself.

Then, the doorbell rang. I usually never answer the door when David's not home. So I looked out the peephole and saw a bouquet of flowers and my good friend, Krissy! She stopped by to bring me the prettiest flowers:

I am absolutely horrible at arranging flowers, so I promise, the flowers are a lot prettier than I have them looking here.

All in all, I had a great birthday and got to spend it with some pretty great people who all made me feel pretty special!!

So, since we devoured the banana split cake before I even thought to take a picture of it, I will leave you with the recipe so that you can make it for yourself.

Banana Split Cake

2 c. crushed graham cracker crumbs (twelve 2 1/2 x 5 inch crackers)
1/4 c. sugar
3/4 stick butter butter

Melt butter. Blend in crumbs and sugar. Press into 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool before adding the filling.

2 c. powdered sugar
2 egg whites
1 stick butter
4 bananas
1 large can of crushed pineapple, drained
1 large container of Cool Whip
Nuts (I think Carol used chopped pecans)
Maraschino cherries, for garnishing

Mix sugar, egg whites and stick butter; beat 10 minutes. Pour over crust. Next, split bananas longways and lay over mix batter. Pour drained crushed pineapple over bananas. Cover with large container of Cool Whip. Sprinkle nuts and cherries on Cool Whip. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve with chocolate syrup drizzled over each piece.

Be The Match

I got an email from a friend of mine last week that tugged at my heart strings. It was about a 2 1/2 year old girl from her hometown, who was diagnosed with aplastic anemia. She's in need of a bone marrow transplant, but there isn't a match within her immediate family, or on the National Bone Marrow Registry. The email also contained the cutest picture of the little girl, so of course, I went straight to the National Bone Marrow Registry website and registered to be a bone marrow donor!

National Bone Marrow Registry

It's super easy and doesn't take very long at all. Just answer a few questions, and you're registered! If you can't make it to one of the bone marrow drives, you can request that they mail you the donor kit. Mine arrived in the mail yesterday and I've already sent it back to them. All it takes is a couple of cotton swabs rubbed on the inside of your cheek, and you send it back to them. It's that simple! These mail kits usually cost about $50, but if you use the promo code "childrens" by the end of March, Children's Medical Center will cover the cost and the registry will send it to you for free!

Texas Travels: Lindale, Texas

I spent the last week of my life in Lindale, Texas. Lindale is located east of Dallas, approximately 20 miles north of Tyler, off of Interstate-20. What is Lindale's claim to fame? Home of country singer Miranda Lambert

and beautiful Tyler roses.

Unfortunately, I'm not so much a country music fan and those beautiful roses don't bloom until May. I, however, was very much looking forward to my stay in east Texas. Why? Feast your eyes on THIS.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you, the BEST. RIBS. EVER. Albeit, a little bit pricey (this is the medium rib plate, and cost me about $20), and a 30 minute drive from Lindale, I couldn't resist going to the Country Tavern for ribs last week. Twice. Don't judge me. The best, fall off the bone, ribs you will ever have in your life. So if you're ever in the east Texas area, stop by the Country Tavern and have a plate of ribs. And if you can stand it, get the blackberry cobbler for dessert. You won't regret it.

Country Tavern
State Highway 31 & FM 2767
Kilgore, Texas

Texas Travels: Life as a Bank Examiner

As you know, David and I met at work. What you might not know, is what it is exactly that we do. We both work for the state department of banking. We go from bank to bank ensuring the safety and soudness of each institution. What do we love about our job? We work 9 hour days and get every other Friday off. We get comp time for state holidays such as LBJ's birthday and Texas Independence Day. We accrue so much vacation time, we sometimes have to take a week off, just so that we don't lose it. What do we sometimes hate about our job? Hands down, the time we have to spend away from home. Our jobs entail A LOT of travel. The good news is that we spend every weekend at home. The bad news? We sometimes have to go to rinky-dink small towns throughout the state.

We work in the Arlington office, so we cover basically all of north Texas. We go north to Sherman, northeast to Texarkana, east to Longview, south to Waco, west to almost Abilene, and northwest to Wichita Falls.

The fun part about traveling all over north Texas is learning about what to do and where to go when you're in these small towns. So I thought it would be neat to kind of showcase each town we go to! So follow along as I show you around north Texas!