Jalapeno Cilantro Dip Recipe

I found a wonderful new dip recipe on Pinterest for Jalapeno Cilantro Ranch Dip. It can be found here.

I've made it twice now using jalapenos fresh from our garden and I'm in love.  The kids had friends over for a sleepover on Saturday night and I grudgingly shared my dip with them and they all loved it as well.

Both times I've made it, I've used mayo and sour cream as per the recipe but I think next time, I will do what I normally do when I'm making plain ranch dip and substitute the sour cream with Greek yogurt. 

I also used this as a dressing on a salad and it was wonderful there as well!

Jalapeno Cilantro Dip Recipe

Ingredients

• 6-8 jalapenos (remove seeds if you don't want it too spicy)
• 1 clump of cilantro
• 1 pack of Ranch dressing mix
• 1 cup sour cream (Can substitute with Greek yogurt)
• 1 cup mayonnaise

Directions

1. Puree jalapenos and cilantro in food processor until it has the consistency of a paste.
2. Add remaining ingredients and puree until smooth.
3. Refrigerate for an hour.

WIWS: Why does it feel like Fall around here already?

It was rainy and cold all day yesterday. In fact, in never got above 64 degrees. Today is warmer and cloudy and it just feels like Fall to me - hence the red pants and black shirt combo. Not very creative but here you go:

Necklace: Kohl's
Shirt: Target
Jeans: Kohl's
Shoes: Kohl's

Photobombed by my husband! 

For more WIWS, head over to Fine Linen and Purple!

7 Quick Takes: The I'm Trying to Find Signs of Summer Edition

The high today is only supposed to be 71.  And it's cloudy.

 It's may be the middle of August here in North Carolina but it sure feels like the end of September to me.

And I don't like it. Not one bit.

So I went outside to see if I could find anything to remind me that it's still summer and here are the seven things I found.  (Take my word for it that there are seven.  I was having a horrible time trying to get these pictures numbered so I put myself out of my misery and said, "Oh, just forget the numbers!")

The rose bush is still blooming.

The sunflowers are finally blooming.  And we have lots of bumble bees buzzing around.

The Black-Eyed Susans still look pretty.

The vines may be dieing but we still have lots of delicious tomatoes!

The pumpkin vine blooms every morning.  But then the blooms die so looks like we will be buying our pumpkin from the store this year.  The yellow blooms are still so pretty to look at each day.

Our watermelon vine has one melon on it.  It's tiny but it's so cute!  Not sure it will be edible but I enjoy checking on it to see if it's grown.

It's 11:00 and someone is just now getting around to having breakfast after rolling out of bed at 10:00.

Head on over to Conversion Diary to see what everyone else is Quick Taking about today!

I love that mouse and his magical pencil!

Well, today was the day.  Summer vacation is drawing to a close, the kids are bored with each other and the pool so that means it's Chuck E. Cheese time.

I don't hate going there.  Especially now that I don't have to chase the kids around.  They do their thing and I can just sit there from a centrally-located spot and observe all the crazy that's up in the Chuck E. Cheese.

I'm sure eventually my kids won't want to go.  Cody (Jennifer's oldest son) didn't go with us today...he's 13 so I guess he's too cool for Chuck E's school.

But the other five went and seemed to have fun. And the pizza tasted better to me this year than in years past.  Either they've improved their recipe or I've lowered my standards.

Oh, and of course, Sarah and I took our annual Chuck E. Cheese photo:

Go here for previous shots and see why I have lyrics from Aerosmith running through my mind now...

....the lines on my face getting clearer....

2010


2011


2012

I like my name better!

If you plant carrots and don't thin them after they start to grow, you get a lot of funky looking little carrots mixed in with your normal carrots.

The kids found this one and dubbed it The Running Man.

I told them it should be named The Running Torso With the Crazy Long Toenail.

Strawberry Shortcake can't make sugar cookies. She just can't.

Sarah never wants to help me cook in the kitchen. And I can't really blame her.  Who wants to help their mom dump random ingredients into a crock pot at 2:00 pm? Or throw something from the freezer into the microwave to defrost at 5:30 pm?  Or frantically stir something on the stove top at 6:45 pm while tossing in some salt hoping that it will taste better?  Not me, that's for sure.

So I was a little shocked (and let's be honest here, a whole lot annoyed) when she opened up her Strawberry Shortcake cookbook on Wednesday night at 5:30 pm while I was in the throes of defrosting, sauteing, salting, etc. and declared that she was "going to make these cookies all by myself".

I did that big halfway-silent martyr sigh that I've perfected over the last ten years and asked her if we had all the ingredients hoping like crazy that we didn't.

But we did so she crammed beside me in our tiny kitchen and she got to work measuring and mixing.

She did a good job with minimal (okay, probably maximal) overseeing from me.  And then we got to the point in the recipe where it said to let the dough chill for two hours.

She was disappointed when I told her we were going to have to finish the cookies in the morning but there was no way we were finished them after dinner.  After dinner is when Mommy is done.  And rolling cookie dough is the last thing I wanted to be doing. I hate rolling cookie dough, remember?

The next morning we rolled the dough out and finished the recipe to the best of our ability.  I had to do most of the rolling and cutting the dough because dough is a huge pain!  I hate it, remember?

And here is young Betty Crocker right before she put the cookies into the oven.

After they came out of the over, she tasted one and declared that the sugar cookie dough tasted better than the actual cookie.  My mom had one and declared that they were wonderful.  (But that's what good Grandmothers do.  They eat bad cookies and tell their grand kids that they are brilliant.) I had one after dinner and declared that they were meh.  I put the rest of them away and they haven't been touched since.

I think perhaps it's time for me to get Sarah a real cookbook because Strawberry Shortcake just isn't getting the job done.


Edited to add:  We just ate dinner and Peter wanted his cookie for dessert.  It was his because he ate the one that had a chocolate chip "P" on top.  He declared his yummy and even ate a second one.  So, I guess maybe Strawberry can make a sugar cookie.  But I still think Sarah needs a new cookbook anyway.

I finally gave in.

I guess I'll spare you any more vacation photos but I'm still up to my eyeballs in my back-to-school to-do list so no fresh posts today.  BUT....I found this in my drafts folder.  I wrote it with plans to post it before we left for the Cape but I guess I was just so incredibly busy, I couldn't find the time to hit publish so here you go...a post that I wrote 3 weeks ago...


Our cucumber plants have loved all the rain we've been having this summer.  Our tomatoes on the other hand, have been missing the sun.  Apparently cucumbers need lots of water, while tomatoes need lots of light.  

Every time my husband comes in from the garden he says, "Sure wish you could can some of these cucumbers."  Or, "I hate to see all these cucumbers go to waste."

And he's been saying this for several years now.

And I've been pretending I can't hear him for several years now.

But after talking to another mom at the pool who just recently made pickles, I thought, "Oh, what the heck. I'll give it a shot."

On my next trip to Wal-mart, I purchased a big canning pot, some pickling mix, and jars.  Lots of jars. 

After I unloaded the rest of the groceries and fed everyone lunch, I pulled out the directions that came with the pot.  And the first thing I read was:  DO NOT USE THIS POT ON GLASS TOPPED STOVES!!

So I cursed a little under my breath, put that pot aside to be returned to Wal-Mart, and got the tallest pot I own out of the basement.

I pieced together instructions from the back of the pickling mix and from the directions that came with the unusable pot.

I rinsed and sliced the cucumbers.  I boiled the jars and the lids.  I simmered the pickling mix.

Then I packed cumber slices into hot jars, poured pickling mix on top, screwed on the hot lids, and placed the jars into my tall pot.  I set the timer for 10 minutes and held my breath. After 10 minutes I took the jars out, let them cool, then put them in the refrigerator.

The next day, we sampled the pickles and low and behold, they were good!  My kids approved of the taste, my husband thought they were good, my parents enjoyed them and my picky brother even gave them two thumbs up!

A couple  of days later, I went through the same process and ended up with 17 quarts of pickles.  That's a lot of pickles, y'all.

I'm proud of myself for trying something new and guess what?  I picked up some salsa mix on my last trip to the store.

Thanks to a week and a half of high temperatures and lots of sun we're about to have an abundance of ripe, red tomatoes and you can only eat so many tomato sandwiches!

Sox win! Sox win!

When we were in Massachusetts last week, we took the kids to their very first Red Sox game!  Well, technically, Peter went 10 years ago while in utero but since he doesn't remember, we aren't going to count that one.

The kids had a great time, especially Peter. Sarah was hoping for more ice cream and other food treats like we normally get at the local single A games but since the prices at the Red Sox are a wee bit more Major League than Minor League, we did not indulge her.

Here are a few pictures:

Outside of Fenway Park with Jillian, my neice.  Dan's two brothers and sister-in-law also joined us at the game.

After the game.  The Sox beat the Mariners!

The kids with Uncle Bob and Jillian.

My husband and his brother rarely give good smiles for the camera.  What's up with that????

It's been such a long time...

We are back! After a week and a half in Cape Cod, we arrived home on Saturday evening.

School starts in 2 1/2 weeks and my get ready for school to-do list is a mile long. Add in all the laundry that needs to be laundered and well, I've got better things to be doing that blogging!

So, I'll leave you with a few pictures from our trip: