A Little Trashy

Dinner. 

We've been grilling alot lately. Combination of beautiful evenings and moving. Grilling means less mess in the kitchen. 

Our kitchen is already a mess amidst the unpacking.  

Wheeell let me clarify. There is no "we" in grilling. Harley Man is the head of that department.  He actually enjoys grilling year-round, and when you live in the midwest that may be challenging. Especially in the middle of winter and you have a hankering for a steak. Grilled. 

Hold on, I may have a picture of Harley Man grilling in the middle of winter...

Oh, I do! 

This went down in February. 

Today I was in the mood to try out the oven in our "new" house and started to look for recipes and came across "Doritos Chicken Casserole" from "Buns In My Oven" -http://www.bunsinmyoven.com/.  Off to the store I went! 

It was easy and quite tasty. A little trashy as well but since I had a glass of wine with dinner I thought it might class it up just a bit. HAHA!! 

You should try it, especially if you have hungry high school kids! Or know anyone hungry. They'll like it. 

Doritos Chicken Casserole

1 Bag Nacho Cheese Doritos (11 oz)
2 Cups Shredded Cooked Chicken
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Cup Sour Cream
8 oz. Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 Can Ro*Tel w/Chiles
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 teaspoon Chili Powder
Pico de Gallo 

Preheat oven to 500. NO I'M JUST KIDDING. Heat it to 350. 
Stir together the chicken, soup, sour cream and half of the cheese, Ro*Tel, cumin and chili powder. Crush the Doritos (this is the best part if you have kids, have them do the crushing) and put 1/2 of the bag in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Top this with the chick mixture and then layer that with the other 1/2 of bag of crushed Doritos. Top this with the rest of the cheese. 

Bake for 20 minutes and sprinkle with the Pico de Gallo. 

Dinner is served! 

(I will mention that I did add more chili powder and also added red pepper flakes as well. I like it a little spicy). 

Don't forget the wine. 

We had dinner outside amidst the falling leaves (romantic) and the neighbor power washing his driveway (not romantic). After 10 minutes of listening to that we went inside. haha 

A picture of Oscar. Just because he's pretty lovable. 

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

Melody

xoxo

It's a great day to be alive~make it a great day! 

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

It's football season which must mean fall, right? Right. No, wrong. According to the calendar the autumnal equinox falls on September 23 at 4:21 A.M. (ET).  Let's not get technical. Labor Day is over. That is the last official weekend of summer, right? School is back in session and I've started seeing all of the high school homecoming pictures showing up on my facebook timeline. By the way, love them! I love seeing all of those monumental pics...first day of school, homecoming, prom, graduation and everything in between. Ok I've gotten off track. Back on track now, as it just has to be fall, all of the county fairs in the mid-west are over. Almost-don't jump the gun. The National Cattle Congress fair opened Thursday (Sept. 17) and runs through Sunday (Sept. 20). 

So, the reason we moved to Wisconsin is Harley Man accepted the position of General Manager for the Walworth County Fair. And what a fair it is! Everyone that we talked to during the 6 days it ran were welcoming and so proud of "their" fair. Many spoke about the many generations in their family that have showed livestock at the fair. People shared their tradition of taking a week off of work to attend "their" fair. Quite a few family reunions happened as well, coming early when the gates opened and leaving as those gates closed for the evening. The barns were full, the quilts were hung with caring hands, the carnival was in full swing, the food stands were oh-so-good. One thing that I found unusual about this county fair is that it does not serve alcohol. You did read that right. No alcohol. No booze. 

And I loved it. 

It was the most wholesome, family friendly county fair ever. The concerts were packed, the stands for the truck pulls and bull riding were full, the monster truck show was bursting with people. I didn't hear of one complaint that beer was not available. Do I think there are people that would have loved to have a few drinks during the concerts and other events? Sure. But they still came and had a great time. 

Anyway. I didn't mean to go on and on about it being alcohol free, but darn it, it's a rarity at county fairs as that is a viable source of revenue. 

You know what else those county fairs count on? You. Us. Families. Get out to your own county fair and support the local talent in the home ec building, ag building, the animal shows, the 4-H kids, and all the events in between. They count on us to come to the fair and have fun, spend some money on the food and souvenirs. Do it so they don't go away, so they are not just a memory to tell and retell our grandchildren. Let them live that dream, to see the big carnival rides and lights through a child's eyes. To have them walk through the barns, smell the "smells" see and hear the goats, pigs, chickens, horses, cattle, the rabbits, and enjoy creating those smiles and memories. 

If you live in the Waterloo, IA area, get out there and enjoy the 105th National Cattle Congress. And bring the kids, don't forget to eat at the Noodle Nook and grab those mini donuts. 

Here are a few pictures I took as I ate my way through the 166th Walworth County Fair. Already planning for next year, and I think I'm going to be entering of few of the categories! Yay! 

They said to try the cinnamon rolls. Had too. There's a line of people to buy them on closing day. 

Thought I'd try something healthy like a malt. After all, it has milk and it was hot as blazes out. 

They said you have to try the eggrolls. I'll be trying them again next year. 

Little fried yellow blobs of golden Wisconsin cheese. I love cheese. 

This was the surprise of my food travels. The Steak Sundae. It was so good I had it twice in 6 days. 

I had to go back to the cheese stand try the fried jalapeno cheese. Didn't disappoint. 

Harley Man and I shared the ribs. Finger licken' good. 

Did I tell you about the Steak Sundae? It was so good I had it twice in 6 days!

Yes. Finished out the fair with good old sweet corn. 

There were other attractions than food~  

  

I caught a couple of pics from the opening ceremony:

The Big Kahuna being interviewed. 

Walking through the draft horse barn and Larry found old fashioned air conditioning. A fan. It felt like 90 degrees at 8:00 at night. 

 Ohhh I love goats. 

A flash mob happened in the middle of the midway!

Until next year, I'll be dreaming of the sights, sounds, smells, and great eats at the 167th Walworth County Fair August 31 -September 5, 2016. 

You know, it's the "last" weekend of summer! 

http://www.walworthcountyfair.com/

Thanks for reading!

It's a great day to be alive, make it a great day!

Melody

xoxo

Did You Call U-Haul?

Well last weekend was busy. Very. Busy. 

Last Friday Harley Man, Oscar and I drove back to Gillette, Wyoming to get the rest of our "beloved stuff" we can't live without. Really, we can't. I have all of the boxes here in the new house to prove we can't do it. We didn't even bring most of our furniture. Just the stuff. If you know me, ya know I seriously can't live without my holiday dishes and decor. Well, I can but prefer not too. After two months of living in the "green room" to the stars and then a camper for four days I did prove I can live without it. For about that long. That's it.  Miss Pippi Jackpot and Mr. Pretzel Potpie went to the "spa" and I was ready to put the miles on Spud and get this move over with. 

"Someone" was unhappy with the seating arrangement. 

We drove all day Friday and arrived in the evening pretty tired. Oscar was excited to chase the one squirrel and rabbit in our yard. Harley Man and I were weary and ready to have a beer and order pizza and get to bed. Earlier I was thinking I would probably start packing the kitchen but after that long of a drive we weren't in the mood to look at anything but the beautiful view from our deck. I'm going to miss that view. 

Fitting that the Pronghorn Antelope stopped by on our final evening. 

Now, in the midst of planning this move we thought we'd pack all day Saturday and leave very early Sunday morning. After all, we weren't planning on taking furniture. It should be easy peasy. Right. That's what we were thinking. Wrong. We packed all day Saturday into Saturday night. And all day Sunday. We were done around 6:00pm. I wanted to call some friends to meet for drinks before the final move but there was no way. Absolutely no way. I couldn't even lift my eyelids I was so tired. Plus it was an early call Monday to get on the road. Road Warriors need to be in top condition and not sleep deprived. 

Monday morning I was awake at 2:55am. My alarm was scheduled for 3:15am. I thought it was fitting since that was around the time I used to to wake up when I worked at the station. We got up and got around at 3:25am and were on the road at 4:57am. 

All packed and ready to roll.

A couple of pictures along the miles that were interesting to me:

"Hello? Hello? Anybody there?" 

Not sure if I'd take my car here for service. 

After almost 17 hours of driving we made it to our new home Monday night. That included Oscar and I getting run off of the road and onto the shoulder, bad food, a stomach ache, me singing to Oscar, alot of thinking sprinkled with sadness leaving a home we loved, leaving a job I loved, leaving friends and a dream when we moved there thinking it would become our reality.  

Looking at the positive side, we will have those friends for life and we can't wait to have them walking through our front door of our home. There is so much to do here, being so close to Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago. And Elkhorn is a beautiful small town, very close to Lake Geneva. Harley Man loves his job, we have a beautiful home, and we have Oscar, the dog we rescued while living in Gillette. In a way he rescued us. 

Looking back on the lifelong friendships we made in Gillette, dreams that didn't happen, but no regrets. Looking forward to the future and ready to see what it holds. When one door closes, another opens. 

That's it for the night, I have a busy day tomorrow, unpacking more "stuff" and looking for a job. 

Thanks for reading.

Melody

xoxo