Well, after the response to the goat cheese cheesecake giveaway, I’m all sentimental about you guys and like, “I knew we were born to be friends, y’all, I just had no idea that cheese would be a staple of our online friendship.”

That’s how I feel.

I think I love you.

Ahem. Anyways.

So I used random.org to pick our cheesecake winner, and it’s #19!

REEVE!

What a good move by random.org to pick a bit of a skeptic!

For the rest of you almost-winners, can I just encourage you to go ahead and grab some cheese gifts [for others or yourself... I don't judge you]. SHIPPING IS FREEEEEEEEEE for the holiday season, so this is the best time to put some Belle Chèvre in your life.

Thanks again to Tasia and the lovely goats at Belle Chèvre for blessing my palate and my blog and my Christmas amen.

. . . . .

It’s a big weekend in Nashville…. the entire fam heads up from Atlanta for a few days in Music City. Feel free to keep up with the Downs family shenanigans on twitter or instagram.

What are your weekend plans?

Well people.

I have to tell you about my Wednesday.

There’s no pride in it, but it happened. And honesty is respected around this corner of the internet, so I want to maintain that.

I woke up later than usual yesterday and was doing a little work, all PJed out, from the warmth of my bed when I received a text message from a friend inviting me to breakfast, casual style, at our normal Saturday brunch spot.

“Exciting,” I thought, and without even really thinking about it, I put on my Saturday morning uniform- pilates pants and a UGA hoodie.

Do you see these two really obvious mistakes? I made two Saturday choices on a Wednesday.

Well, we sit down to eat and my brain, unbeknownst to me, is totally in Saturday mode. And as I peruse the menu, my eyes are drawn to the pancakes. “Sure,” I think, “it is different than my usual Fiber One bar or cereal. Sounds fun.”

The fun was quite short-lived.

But I’ll tell ya what, I enjoyed those pancakes. I enjoyed them until they disappeared.

What happened next is hazy. It was about 10am, I know I drove home to get to writing, but I felt like a tranquilized narwhal. I mean, I had just slept for 6+ hours, worked for about an hour, and gotten dressed to eat breakfast and now I felt like I needed a nap something fierce. My body wasn’t responding to the normal internal peer pressure comments of, “Hey, just because you work from home doesn’t mean you get to lay around all the live-long day, Downs.”

I tried to work, I really did. It’s just that my fingers wouldn’t type. They would barely scroll across the mouse. I couldn’t keep my eyes open and I barely had the energy to hold my laptop on my legs as I was flat on the couch.

If you told me that tiny sprinkling of powdered sugar on my pancakes was laced with some sort of drug, I would absolutely believe you.

It took me until about 11:30am to get up and move around. Even then, I was scared to eat the rest of the lunch hour because I was like, “Dear body, are we in a fight? I mean I know we always have disliked carbs, but that was serious this morning and I’m worried the next one will take me out for a full day.”

I eventually ate some chicken and the ol’ bod was way happier with that.

But I continued to wear my Saturday outfit because, well, it was totes comfy.

So what did I learn yesterday?

My kryptonite is consuming pancakes on a weekday.

Don’t tell my enemies.

. . . . .

What’s your kryptonite food?

So about two months ago, the girls and I decided it was time to get serious and get sophisticated. Our lovely local farmers’ market was hosting a wine and cheese festival, so we purchased tickets, showed up on a chilly October day, and entered into a heaven we did not know existed.

Rows and rows of local made cheeses and spreads and breads, oh my.

I can’t even tell you how wonderful the afternoon was. We laughed, we tasted, we re-tasted, we were happy gals. We spent hours going from table to table, trying out anything a person would put on a cracker.

We were all smiles and with full-ish tummies and down to our last section of tables. And that’s when we walked over to Belle Chèvre.

I’ll tell you. I’m already a big goat cheese fan. So when I saw Tasia from Belle Chèvre and the beautiful things she was offering, I was pumped and quick to ignore my internal “you could stop now and you’d be full” signal. [.... which is a signal I've consistently ignored since the beginning of time, but that's another conversation for another day.]

But oh was it worth it.

You guys. If you read my dear friend Cassie, then you know she is a Belle Chèvre fan as well. But y’all- that cheese? THAT CHEESE? It is amazing. I multi-tasted which, to the real sophisticated socialites, is probably a no-no. But we all knew that I was poser in that crowd anyways.

And then. THEN. Tasia gave us a taste of goat cheese cheesecake.

I know. You don’t know what to do with that information and I respect that. But let me tell you, if you are a fan of cheesecake, this thing is fluffy and sweet and smooth and, dare I say it, almost perfect.

I stood there, before Tasia, dumbfounded at her cheesecake. I said, “My blog readers have to know about this. Do they know about this? DOES THE WORLD KNOW ABOUT THIS?!?” And then I took her card as my friends pulled me away from the Belle Chevre table.

Then I emailed Tasia. I said, “PLEASE CAN ONE OF MY BLOG READERS HAVE A CHEESECAKE?!?!”

And she said of course. Because she is generous and lovely.

So. SO. Guess what?

Merry Christmas!

One of you is getting a goat cheese cheesecake mailed to your house!!

All you have to do to enter is tell me in the comments who you would share your goat cheese cheesecake with this Christmas.

I will pick one winner FRIDAY MORNING and then we’ll get your address [continental US only please] to Tasia like whoa fast so that she can mail that cheesecake to your house and you can take pics and post them online and be all, “@ANNIEBLOGS WAS SO RIGHT I WILL TRUST HER CHEESE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ALL MY DAYS!”

If you are still looking for gifts to send, might I suggest you check out Belle Chèvre’s online store. I’m droooooling just having the website open. I just want it all and that’s a hard emotion to deal with when it comes to cheeses and budgets. I’m sure you understand.

So…. who wants a goat cheese cheesecake? 

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED…. WINNER ANNOUNCED!

. . . . .

Disclaimer: Belle Chevre is not paying me to write this blog post and all these opinions are my own. This whole thing was totally my idea. But much like our winner, Tasia is kindly giving my family a goat cheese cheesecake at Christmas, but that’s probably because I begged with a pouty-lipped email. Amen. Now get your win on.

So you know that I cook for my Cross Point small group every Tuesday night. It’s one of my favorite things- I love trying new recipes and thanks to pinterest, it isn’t always so difficult to feed twelve consistently hungry girls.

A few weeks ago, I saw this recipe for Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken and I thought it sounded fun, albeit a little more intense in steps than I usually try to pull off for the girls, but I was feeling brave… so I went for it.

Here’s the first thing I learned: the process is a bit time intensive if you are cooking for twelve. For four people? Totes worth it. For twelve? A little much. Meaning: we ate an hour later than we usually do and I was flustered.

As you see in the directions below [taken from this blog... where she also has step by step pictures], this is a multistep meal that requires you to work a few different stations – the chicken dipping on the counter, the chicken browning on the stove, the chicken cooking in the oven. So prepare yourself for that.

But seriously- the girls LOVED this meal. I mean, LOVED it. See for yourself…

So many happy faces. Let’s just say that it doesn’t always go this well. Someday I’ll tell you the “Baked Potatoes in the Crock Pot” story. Not successful.

So here’s my two thumbs up endorsement for this recipe [if you have a normal sized crowed to feed]. If your group is larger, you can totally feed them, no biggie, just allow for extra extra time.

Let me know if you try it and let me know what you think!

. . . . .

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

The chicken coating:

3-4 boneless chicken breasts
salt + pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil

The sweet and sour sauce:

3/4 cup sugar
4 tbs ketchup
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp garlic salt

Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs. Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9×13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes.

Then we put it over rice with Asian veggies. Like, beyond yummy.

. . . . . .

I’d like to introduce you to one of our November sponsors- Thirty-One Gifts. I am a BIG fan of the gifts they offer- especially when I think about my school teacher days and the gifts I liked getting around Christmas, pretty much it is this website. Each season, they develop new products built on the idea that their products must be functional, fashionable and affordable [and of course make great gifts]! And for this gal who loves a good monogram, almost all their stuff can be personalized. WIN! So head on over to Thirty-One Gifts and get a jump on Christmas shopping!

I googled that.

No kidding.

My friend Amber‘s birthday party was coming up and I was commissioned with bringing a dessert obeying the following rules:

1. Avoid hot fruit dishes
2. Avoid fruit flavors in general
3. We were going to be outside, so nothing that easily melts [so there went my ice cream sculpture idea]

I don’t know about you, but to me, that screamed rice krispie treat. Since Amber is way stylish, I felt the need to take it to the next level and get a little fancy.

So I googled “classy rice krispie treats” and ran head-on into these watermelon shaped beauts.

And I knew.

I knew I needed to make them.

It’s super easy- there is no change in flavor, it’s just a matter of using a circular pan and food coloring to make the watermelon shape. Don’t judge the fact that it isn’t perfect. I did the best I could. And one reason I will never be a food blogger or a famous crafty person is that I felt 0% pressure to make this a perfect presentation. 

So that’s after I turned them out of the pans. Sorry that there aren’t more “middle of the process” pictures, but if you’ve ever made these, you know why. If you stop to snap a shot in the middle of mixing melted marshmallows and cereal, you pay a hefty price in the currency of a sticky mess.

I went ahead and sliced them into triangles and added tiny chocolate chips as the seeds. Adorable, yes?

And then. THEN. LoraLynn responded to my tweet about classy rice krispie treats and she said what I meant was salted brown butter rice krispie treats.

These words. I did not know they even went together. But oh do they. The flavor is unique and just noticeable enough that people celebrate. That’s them on the left- just in front of the salsa and to the left of the watermelon.

I was able to make both of these recipes – two circles of watermelon and a 9×13 of the salted brown butter – with two 10oz bags of mini-marshmellows and one of those huge boxes of rice krispies.

Again, here are the recipes:

Watermelon Rice Krispie Treats

Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats

. . . . .

Have any fun rice krispie recipes to share? I’ve got a box of cereal left and 1 1/2 bags of mini-marshmellows. Planning on making plain ol’ treats for small group tonight unless you’ve got a better idea….

There really isn’t enough arguing and opposing opinions going on right now, so my friend Allison and I thought we would add our own disagreement to the internet today.

Here’s what.

I hate bell peppers.

There are lots of veggies that I can stomach for the sake of health and a few that I even like, but probably the only one that I absolutely avoid and sometimes am tempted to call an “allergy” [flat out lie] so I don’t have to eat them is bell peppers.

“But Annie, what about green ones? They are super yummy! Or red? Or yes, those beautiful yellow….”

Listen. They aren’t. I don’t like them chopped up in my chili and I don’t like them stuffed with delicious stuffing. I don’t like them in quesadilla or, heaven forbid, on a veggie tray. Just having them sitting along side a beautiful carrot or a tasty cauliflower bunch can ruin my day.

I think bell peppers are the bossiest and most overbearing vegetable. You know, if you order a pizza and it has mushrooms on it and you don’t like mushrooms, no biggie. You can pick them off. But if you order ANYTHING and there are bell peppers involved, that sickly sweet pepper taste invades every other food item. Bossy. Bossy. Bossy. Overbearing.

[My roomie has two sliced in the drawer of our fridge and NONE of my stuff is in that drawer... just to be safe.]

I try to be a fairly easy dinner guest and I am absolutely not a picky eater, but I have such a strong aversion to peppers that the smell of them even makes me shiver with dislike. Mama always taught me to eat what someone offers and for the most part, I can do it. But if I show up somewhere and the meal of choice is peppers stuffed with peppers with a side of grilled peppers, blech. [I'm not kidding y'all, just writing about this keeps making me say "gross" outloud and shaking my head in disgust.]

My emotions may not always be right, but at least they are strong. That counts for something, right?

No?

Oh, okay.

So I’m asking you nicely, please don’t contaminate my life with peppers of any shade. Please don’t be offended if your pepper delicacy never crosses my lips. I’m a nice girl and I’m pretty easy to get along with, but me and peppers? No way no how.

Amen.

. . . . .

Does anyone else hate peppers? Or is there another food item that you absolutely cannot stand? Tell me about it in the comments!

If you totally love peppers, like you put peppers in your breakfast scramble [gross] and on your salads at lunch and sauteed for dinner [I'm gagging], then pop over to Allison’s blog and leave a pro-pepper comment. We’re curious to see, between our two blogs, whether peppers are loved or hated.

That’s what I’ve decided.

So. Here you go.

You. Are. Welcome.

It’s such an amazingly easy recipe that Lyndsay found on pinterest. And y’all. They are delicious. I can’t even wait to make them for my small group when they get back to Nash in the fall. [Dear girls, HURRY BACK. Fine, we've been apart for six weeks and we all needed space but I am OVER IT. Ok? Thanks.]

A few things we learned in the making of these little pockets of love and joy:

1. Use a good size wad of Nutella and cut off a little of the crescent roll because otherwise it’s just a huge amount of dough.

2. We used a fork to seal all the edges. Recommended.

3. I wouldn’t hate it if you put a little cinnamon sugar on the inside as well as the outside.

4. Put one of these puppies with a little vanilla ice cream and you can die a happy human.

. . . . .

So there you go! Do you have a favorite pinterest dessert recipe? Share it, yo! I’ve got a birthday coming up and what that means, besides forcing my friends to excessively celebrate, is that we get multiple opportunities to eat dessert guilt free.

Also, I’m back from vacation and I am not one bit happy about it.

If you need me, I’ll be over here pouting and eating nutella with a spoon and eating carrots.

TOP 5 FRIDAY is when we each list five of our favorite things, depending on the topic. Feel free to join in via the comments or by posting on your own blog and linking back here. Play along. It’s Friday.

. . . . .

[You guys. What is that title all about? I'm a freak.]

Thanks to the blue circle and my friends getting married in random cities and Father’s Day and things of that nature, I have not been in Nashville since Tuesday morning.

I’ve been in Birmingham. Huntsville. Marietta. Knoxville.

But not Nashville. And not for a few more days even.

My Toyota Camry, bless her 180,000 mile heart, has been nothing short of a champ. I like her. I think I’ll keep her for another 180,000+. You can do it, Camry, I believe in you.

But when one is driving that many miles alone, there are some key components necessary:

• a phone charger
• a GPS system of some sort [I am, in the most severe sense, directionally challenged.]
• podcasts galore
• snacks

So these are my top 5 favorite roadtrip snacks. No, I do not consume them all at one time and even if I did, I am not saying I did or have or would, I would need you to love me anyways, okay?

And some of these are my own pictures because I believe there is power in honesty.

Ahem. The list.

. . . . .

1. Coke Icee

Well, if you’ve ever known me ever, you know that I have a certain weakness for Coke Icees. It’s a strange thing, especially since I do not drink sodas, but in the summer, I can hardly resist these treats. Unfortunately for me, fortunately for the economy, Coke Icees are easier than ever to find on the road thanks to Burger King.

2. M&Ms

They are my candy of choice. Plain, please. And if you can resist getting a King Size bag [but who am I to judge] then you have a handy little snack that won’t ruin your life or your waistline. All things in moderation, people. And if you try to tell that you take veggies… well, wait. I actually used to nanny a family who carried heads of cauliflower on road trips, so it is possible.

3. Grande No Water Soy Chai Latte

Just if you ever find yourself in need to order a drink for me at Starbucks, those are the magic words. And here’s the road trip trick: ask for a plastic stopper to put in the sippy hole. [fancy science words, y'all] By putting the stopper in, your drink doesn’t get cold therefore you don’t feel the massive pressure to drink it quickly therefore you haven’t consumed $4 worth of drink in 12 minutes.

4. Trail Mix

Because people need protein. I’m not a huge raisin fan, but I get that they are a good idea to have in your life, so trail mix is another way to sneak those past my refined palate. Sure, my trail mix is laced with a bit o chocolate, but surely you aren’t going to start judging now, are you? Because if so, you are totally going to want to skip #5.

5. Cracker and Cheese Combos

Some thoughts. Now, this is a “road trip only” snack for me because, let’s be honest- there is hardly a thing in this snack that the good Lord created. It’s mainly processed and chemicaled [not a word] and formed into a crunchy and creamy salty snack. They are just little and delicious and I always feel a tiny twinge of self-disappointment when I enjoy them. But alas, I still enjoy them.

. . . . . .

YOUR TURN!

What snacks do you take with you on a road trip?

Sub-question: Where are you road-tripping this summer? 

Friday night was somethin’, y’all. Really somethin’.

You know those crazy college gals that I meet with every week? They spent the night. All of them, minus one. [You can twitter stalk the whole experience by looking up the hashtag #smallgroupsnoozle. It's funny.]

We had a crazy good time. I’m not gonna blog about how much they ate because they hate when I tell y’all that. And I’m not gonna blog about what we talked about or what we did because mainly, we just had a really great time together before they go home for the summer.

Thanks to my pal Embracing Grace, I found this killer recipe for pizza rollz. So we went for it. I got my sous chef Sarah into the kitchen and we got our roll on for realz.

We started just like the recipe described. Took crescent rolls, laid ‘em out, put on the turkey pepperoni and half a string cheese stick.

Easy cheesy. Literally.

That’s my Sous Sarah. She’s a doll. Here she is mixing Italian seasonings with garlic salt to make some sort of  powder drizzle for the top of the pizza rollz.

One thing we decided in our chef-ing [huh?] was that the rolls are better if you close the ends. But then my poor vegetarian could have been bamboozled by a pepperoni. We made some with just cheese on the inside, ya see. So we created an identification system. Tiny pepperoni triangles placed on top of the meaty rolls…. Sous Sarah is a genius.

How beautiful are THOSE? I know. The gals loved ‘em.

Serve it with a bowl of warm pizza sauce and whoa mama these are delicious. I would like to try to make them again with more veggies [by "more" I mean "some"] and maybe other meats? I dunno. I just think it is an easy starter recipe that has a bazillion combo possibilities.

Don’t judge our snack table. We’re growing girls.

We eat strawberries and oreos. My people, they are balanced.

And I miss them already.

[Wanna read more about my small group? They're amazing.]

I’m continuing to bulk up my Feeding The 13 board on Pinterest. Have more big group / low cost recipes that I can start collecting before the gals return in the fall?

You know how some of you guys have little people in your lives and you have to feed them a few times a day?

Well.

I don’t have those. I mainly just have to make sure I have cereal and bananas and a piece of chicken every now and again. Or make sure I know which of my friends are going out each night so I can go out to eat too.

But once a week, I have these chickadees to feed.

Twelve girls from Cross Point Downtown pop by the house each week and we eat and talk and pray and cry and hug and share and do all manner of awesome things.

But.

I don’t know how to cheaply feed twelve growing gals. [Read: they are not afraid to eat.]

Don’t be deceived by their utter cuteness. They can put away some grub.

I’m not going to tell you about this child and her love for Mexican Seven Layer Dip. Just trust me. It’s there.

So here is where you lay-deez who feed millions [ie- the Duggars] teach me how to feed tens. We need variety, volume, and we need it cheap. Also, to throw a culinary wrench in your plans, we have a vegetarian. I don’t know she hates meat, but it makes me sad for her. So I have to have a veggie option each week. And we prefer to be mildly healthy… sometimes.

Here’s what we’ve had so far: Chicken Pot Pie in the crockpot [B- experience], Taco Soup with chicken [A+], breakfast for dinner [no one can hate that], and an appetizer night [A+, but high on the budget end].

Your links to good recipes, ideas for making filling food stretch, and your kitchen wisdom is greatly appreciated.

[Read: Help a sister out.]