Wordless Wednesday…

I know that this is WordLESS Wednesday, but this one requires some explaining. This little girl was staying at the hospital because she was orphaned, and there were no orphanage openings available. She was 2 years old, but about the size of the average 9 month-old. I’m fairly positive that she didn’t know how to smile. She would cry when she was put down, and snuggle in close on your chest when she was held. Look into her eyes… they tell her story.

Tasty Tuesday

For this weeks Tasty Tuesday, I’m featuring my very favorite Buffalo wing sauce!

Buffalo Wing Sauce to die wait all day for!

Ingredients:

1. 1/3 cup FRANKS Red Hot Sauce (no substitutions here, it is the very first Buffalo wing sauce ever created, and it is indeed the best.)
2. 1 tbsp Butter
3. 1 tbsp Vinegar (I prefer cider vinegar, but if you like things SUPER tangy, you can go with white.)

To make this Buffalo Wing Sauce, follow these instructions. They are VERY easy!

1. Put Franks sauce into a small saucepan.
2. Add butter and vinegar
3. Heat on medium-low heat until butter is melted and sauce is hot.
4. Pour over chicken wings, or (my favorite!) use like a condiment… dip chicken into the sauce as you go. I like to cook a chicken breast and use this method. You can control the amount of sauce (aka: HEAT!) you get with each bite.

It’s that easy! I sure hope you enjoy it! Do you have any favorite Hot Wing recipes? I’m always game for trying new ones!

Too lazy :-)

So… I was too much of a bum over the long weekend to write up a Not Me! Monday post… but I’ll return tomorrow with Tasty Tuesday! 11 days until Haiti!

Wordless Wednesday…

Tasty Tuesday!

So I decided to make up my own theme for Tuesdays… Tasty Tuesday! I’m going to post a recipe each week and write my thoughts and experiences with it. Then, you can respond with your favorite recipes! It’ll be a grand old time! I may or may not have a theme for each week, such as cookies, hotdishes (or casseroles, if you insist on being wrong !) ;-), or whatever. Suggestions are welcome for themes!

My first Tasty Tuesday theme is a great starter:

Hors d'œuvres!

My very favorite Hors d’oeuvre is Ham and Cream cheese wrapped pickles. To make this dish, you will need:

1. One block of cream cheese (I use Philadelphia)
2. One jar of your favorite kind of pickles. I’m a plain dill kind of girl, but other flavors would be awesome too! Also, I use a “medium” sized pickle. The large ones leave you with not enough ham and cream cheese in each bite, and the small ones leave you with too much.
3. 1/2 lb of deli-sliced ham, your favorite variety. Again, going with the plain theme, I use  plain Virginia Baked Ham.

Assembly is simple:

1. Drain the juice from the pickles and dump them onto a plate covered with paper towel. The drier the pickle, the better the cream cheese will stick.
2. Beat the cream cheese in a bowl until it is a “spreadable” texture. It will get lighter in texture and more smooth.
3. If the ham slices are large, stack them (if they didn’t come that way) and cut them in half. Cut or un-cut, the goal is to make the ham roughly the size of the pickle.
4. Spread a layer of cream cheese on a slice of ham.
5. Roll the ham around the pickle, cream cheese side towards the pickle.
6. Depending on the size of the pickle, you can cut it either in half or into 1 inch slices.
7. Repeat as many times as you want… these things are amazing! Any extra cream cheese can be used as an easily spreadable topping, dip, etc.

Makes approximately 50 pickle bites.

So, there you go! Now, reply to this post and leave me your favorites! Looking forward to reading and trying them!

Not Me Monday!

Well, here goes nothing… my FIRST EVER Not Me! Monday!

This week, I did NOT have to re-order my passport because I lost it after returning from Haiti last January. I also did NOT have to do the same thing last year at this time, because I did NOT also lose it last year. Nope, not me!

I did NOT travel over 4 hours with a co-worker friend to attend the Christmas MckGathering, or use said party as an excuse to stop at the outlet mall to shop. I would NEVER drive that far to spend time with people I don’t even know. I also did NOT discuss bra fitting, fertility, our most embarrassing stories, among other things with said people. Not me!

And finally, I did NOT find my other pair of glasses (which have been missing for months) in the center console of my vehicle when I was shoveling it out to make room for previously mentioned travels. I would NEVER let a mess overtake my space. Nope, it wasn’t me!

There you go, my very first  Not Me! Monday. Hope you enjoyed it! I’m going to try to come up with something clever for my Tuesday post!

One Awesome Party!

Hey everyone! I know that its been ages since I updated my site here. I kinda let it slide a little lot. So, I’m going to try to keep it up now, with some fun tidbits and themed posts. (Hopefully) It’ll be great!

So, last night, I went to a very special Christmas party! My coworker friend Mel and I drove down to the St. Cloudish area to attend. It was wonderful, and I met lots of new people who also happen to read the hostess, MckMama’s blog. It was pretty much amazing. We, along with these other beautiful women (and some husbands, too!) drank wine, snacked on some wonderful treats, and had some great conversation! A very merry time was had by all!

In other news, I will be returning to Haiti (for the second time) in January! We leave on January 8th and return on the 17th. We are bringing a plastic surgeon this year, and are hoping to see some cleft lip/palate cases done and some lives changed! Hatian people with cleft lip/palate are considered disgraceful to their families because of their deformity. These  surgeries are life-transforming for them- they become more “culturally acceptable” and are able to lead more normal lives. We are so excited to go!! I’m hoping to be more on top of updating with pictures and stories this time!

I’m going to start out on Monday with… Not Me! Monday!

 

See you then!

Please pray for Stellan...

Still comin'...

Hey everyone! I'm sorry for the lack of updates... I actually came back with quite a bad cold, and I have found that changing back from a more bland diet back to our diet is quite difficult! The food is very rich here, :-) so I have been fighting some nausea as well. I also started back to work this past week, which has been interesting after being in a develpoing country. So, the pics are still coming... promise!! Thanks for checking in on me, and more updates are coming soon!

Home Sweet Home!

Hello everyone! We are home! What an incredible adventure! I'll tell you all about it in the coming days... once I catch up on my sleep a little. :-) After all, it's back to the grind tomorrow!

Having a GREAT time!

Hey everyone! It's Erin! I'm reporting from the internet cafe in Pignon, Haiti! We are having a spectacular time... words can't describe all we've seen, done, and heard. I will have many pictures to show you all when I get back. It's an amazing place to be. I need to get going back to the hospital, but I will try to be in touch soon!

Arrival!

This is Abigail letting you all know that Erin has arrived safely in Pignon, Haiti! Her mom talked with her and the flight went well. They were all playing cards and waiting for the electricity to be turned off for the evening. That's all I know for now. She said that she will hopefully be able to call again on Monday.

Waiting...

Hello everyone! Well, here we are at the Miami airport, waiting. We got all checked in and through security and so forth just fine. So, I'm just checking my emails and hanging out with the crew. We got some breakfast here too, and I had a great chocolate and cherry pastry. We take off for Haiti in just a couple of hours (its 8am here right now). We should be in Pignon by 3pm local time. I don't know if the internet will be up in the dorms or not, but if it is, I'll update after awhile! If not, I will have my friend Abigail post to let everyone know that we are there safely after I call my Mom and my Mom calls her :-) . This will all happen by Monday :-) . So, I'm going to go for awhile, but I'll check in later!

And we're off!

Off to the airport! I'll update later!

T-minus 8 hours!

We leave in 8 hours! Crazy how fast it's gone. It seems like it wasn't that long ago that I ofund out I was able to go with! I'm all packed, and my luggage is in the vehicle. Ready to go! Off to the shower now, and we're off in the morning! I will be having my friend Abigail update that we have arrived safely, just in case we don't have internet access. I will update once we're in Miami tomorrow night!

Tomorrow!

We leave tomorrow!!!

T-minus 4 days!

Only 4 days until we leave! Time has gone so fast! Too fast, it would seem. I started a "stuff to bring with" pile awhile back, but haven't actually started packing yet. So it's all in a pile on my kitchen cupboard, awaiting packing. I have no idea how I'm going to get all that stuff packed in... clothes, shoes, some supplies, medications just in case, and the 58 (no joke) scrub hats that I made with my good friends Abigail and Mindy to leave down there. My hope is that they don't have to use the limited supply of disposible hats that they have there. They are so awesome... all different colors and patterns, some for gals, some for guys. Most excellent! We had 2 sewing parties where we made an assembly line of sorts... one cutting patterns, one surging, and one on the sewing machine.
I've also been trying to spend time with friends and family before I leave. I'm running out of time to see them all, though! After all, I have to spend some time with my family too (and pack)! I've finished most of my shopping though. Actually, I think all of it. This is good! Just to shove everything into bags! Wahoo!
I'm starting to get to the anxiety now... not bad anxiety, but just anxious for everything to happen and to be there! It's going to be awesome!
Well, I'm out for now. I'm going to try to update daily until I leave.