BBQ Chicken Pizza

Who doesn't love a good pizza, especially one that brings together cheese, chicken, and BBQ sauce on one delicious slice? No one? I didn't think so.

If you're like my family, any food that features BBQ sauce is a good dish. We have to stock up on the giant bottles of BBQ at our local Sam's Club to make it through the week. We put it in our burgers, on our chicken, and for this dish it replaces the traditional tomato sauce on pizza to give it a little Memphis zing. It's a favorite (and most importantly easy to prepare) dinner of ours and I'm sure once you try it, it will become a new staple at your house. Without further ado, I give you BBQ Chicken Pizza!



I'm no Rachel Ray. None of the ingredients involve fancy names. This is just a simple, delicious pizza that uses ingredients that you can find around your home and your local grocery store - and that's what I like about it! Also, I discovered how difficult it is to make a pizza look "sexy." The picture doesn't do this pizza justice - it's amazing.

Ingredients for 1 small pizza:

• 1 pre-made pizza crust. I use our local grocery store brand pizza crust that comes in a pack of 2, but I also love Boboli, it's just more expensive so I don't usually buy it. If you're feeling really adventurous, you can make your own crust to make it extra delicious!
• Olive oil to brush the crust
• 1 small bottle of BBQ sauce (KC Masterpiece is the preferred BBQ of the McCaffrey household.)
• 1 8-oz package of pizza cheese plus extra if you like your pizza really cheesy
• 1/2 small red onion, chopped
• 2 medium chicken breasts
• Oregano

Recipe:
First, preheat oven according to instructions on pizza crust package (mine says 450.) Next, prepare your chicken using 1 of 2 options: if you want to quickly cook your chicken, boil chicken breasts in water for 30 minutes or until chicken is easily shredded, or if you would rather go the slow cooker route, place chicken breasts in a slow cooker with enough water to cover the chicken breasts and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove chicken and shred with a fork, then mix shredded chicken with plenty of BBQ sauce. Set aside.

Next, brush the edges of your pizza crust lightly with olive oil (this will help the crust brown and crisp nicely.) Spread a liberal layer BBQ sauce on the crust, making sure to coat the bottom evenly. Sprinkle on cheese mixture and red onion, then top with mounds of shredded BBQ chicken.

Drizzle on more BBQ sauce to finish, then liberally sprinkle with oregano. Bake according to package directions (typically 7-10 minutes, 9 works just fine for us) and dig in! This is a great pizza for a quick Friday night dinner or for a get together with friends. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Baby in a bar

This weekend, I took the baby to a bar and enjoyed several tall, frosty glasses of water with lemon (and one shot of root beer.)

When we moved to Tennessee over a year ago, the Husband and I discovered a restaurant/bar called "The Flying Saucer" which specializes in offering a very long list of domestic, imported, and specialty beer from around the world. Being beer people ourselves, we have always wanted to visit...unfortunately, that didn't happen until this past weekend while I'm 4 months pregnant and unable to drink. So of course I became the official designated driver for my husband and 3 friends who were on a mission to sample some exotic beer from around the world.

After a promise that I could order an appetizer of my choosing and all the root beer I could drink, we all piled into the mini van Swagger Wagon and headed to The Flying Saucer. We were seated and given a food menu and a separate beer menu, complete with several different kinds of root beer for those of us who prefer the non-alcoholic kind. I have never seen a longer list of beer before! It was like a delicious catalogue of awesomeness broken down by style: lager, strong ale, fruit ale, stout, herbed/spiced beer, and the list goes on and on. If you visit the website, they list all beer available at each location and also give you the history of each beer.

You can choose from selections like:

• Schneider Aventinus. The oldest example of a wheat dopplebock, dating back to 1907. This top fermenting beer has a deep tawny color with malty notes in the nose and chocolate and fruit spices on the palate. The label bears a picture of Johannes Aventinues, the historian who first described Bavaria and its people.

Or maybe this one, with a background related to Santa Claus:

• Samichlaus. Meaning "Santa Claus," this specialty beer was brewed once a year on December 6, St. Nicholas Day. The beer was aged a full year and not released until the following December 6th. This was once the strongest beer in the world at 14% abv and was brewed by the Hurlimann Brewery in Switzerland. A larger German brewery bought Hurlimann and decided not to continue brewing this special beer. Schlossbrauerei, or "castle brewery" Eggenberg picked up the rights to brew the beer and reintroduced it to the world. This beer is ruby red with an intense malt aroma with notes of toffee, tawny port and nuts. The palate is round, smooth and sweet with perfectly tuned hops that help with a clean finish.

Or one that sounds more like a dessert than a beer:

• Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan. This American Brown ale brewed with pecan is the mash to provide a unique and pleasant nutty brew. Pours a deep brown in color. Fresh pecans and light hops are in the aroma. A deep rich nutty and sweet caramel flavor.

And, if you're like me and can't drink/don't want anything alcoholic, The Flying Saucer offers a classic with an simple description:

• IBC. Cool root beer!

'Nuff said. The root beer was cool and refreshing, the perfect partner to my plate of cheese fries with jalapenos. Everyone had a great time and got to try several beers they may have never had the opportunity to try.

I'll be going back in 5 months to try some of the beer for myself. And by that time, I'll be leaving the baby at home.

Sleeping like a king

Let me introduce you to my new baby....

Ok, so it's not the baby you were probably thinking of, but I'm still excited!! My husband and I are both sprawlers when we sleep, so that means someone inevitably gets kneed in the back or kicked in the leg night after night. (Patrick will tell you that it's all my doing, but I seem to remember a certain someone having a dream about a giant spider and kicking me in the back in his sleep.) Needless to say, our queen bed was just not doing it for us anymore. We are tall people! We need our space, especially since I'm only going to be getting bigger over the next 5 months. So on the weekend of July 4th, we decided it was time to get a king bed.

The guy at Mattress Firm saw that we were desperate was a great salesman. The bed we were looking at was already marked down $200 due to the holiday, but he offered us more money off the mattress, a free mattress cover, money off the frame, 2 year no interest financing, and same day delivery if we bought the mattress that day. A night without being kicked? Deal!

Our brand spankin' new king mattress was delivered last Monday and my back and I have never been happier. Oh and Patrick has yet to claim that I'm on his side kicking him relentlessly through the night. My favorite part other than the good night's sleep? Buying the new comforter and matching pillows in my favorite color combination!! Hmm, should I be getting this excited about bedding? I suppose this is one of those "adult moments" I never understood when I was younger.

Now, I just need to find a good tutorial for making a headboard. Any suggestions??

Moo

I'm not! This is what I'll be wearing to Chick-fil-a today for a free combo meal to celebrate Cow Appreciation Day. Oh and Haley will be in tow in full cow-spotted glory, complete with tail (pictures on that later).

If you want to participate, all you have to do is click here and print off Chick-fil-a's cow costume starter kit, then show up at your nearest location for free food. I have 2 Chick-fil-a's in my area, guess who's having chicken sandwich combo meals twice today??

Red, White and Blueberry Trifle

I don't know about you, but my favorite thing about the 4th of July (aside from the fireworks) is the food. The 4th is a great excuse to dust off the grill, cut up a giant watermelon, and enjoy time with friends and family between bites of traditional BBQ food.

A few years back, a friend of mine brought a delicious trifle to a BBQ that was unforgettable. I had never had trifle before, but after one bite I was hooked. She gave me the recipe (which is surprisingly simple!) and I've probably made this for friends and family more times than any other dessert since then.

Traditionally, a trifle consists of layers sponge cake with brandy or rum and custard and whipped cream, but there are tons of different variations to this dessert. This particular version has no alcohol in it. The fresh strawberries and blueberries, along with the whipped cream, make this dessert surprisingly refreshing.

Ingredients:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 2 small packages of Jello brand instant cheesecake pudding
• 1 large container of fresh strawberries
• 1 small container of fresh blueberries
• 1 cup of Cool Whip whipped cream, softened
• 1 package of white chocolate chips

*Note: If you're making this for a party, make it a few hours ahead rather than overnight. The juices from the strawberries tend to soak the cake somewhat, so this dessert is best served right away.

Recipe:
Prepare cake mix according to package and let cool. (You will only need 1 of the prepared cakes, so only make 1/2 of the box if you want, or you can do what my husband and I do and make both so you can frost and eat the other cake later :) While your cake is cooling, prepare both boxes of pudding according to the directions on the box. Set aside 2/3 cup of pudding to be used for the topping later.

Rinse blueberries and strawberries, then cut up strawberries into slices and coat with sugar if desired.

Cut up cake into bite-sized pieces and layer 1/2 of the pieces in the bottom of a trifle dish or other large glass dish. Layer all of the pudding on top (except your reserve), followed by 1/2 bag of white chocolate chips, 1/2 of the blueberries, 1/2 of the strawberries, and lastly the remaining cake cubes.

Combine the reserved cheesecake pudding with the 1 cup Cool Whip and mix well. Pour mixture over top. Use the remaining fruit and white chocolate chips to decorate the top of the trifle (or just toss them on top, no one will mind, they'll be too busy eating :)

Enjoy!

The "Miss Independence Day" dress

It's almost Independence Day, so I wanted to make Haley some kind of holiday skirt or dress. I knew I wanted it to be red, white and blue and have ruffles...then I found a great tutorial for
the Playground Dress by Nicole on her blog Create and Delegate!

I followed her basic design, but I added my own spin to it since I wanted to use a shirt that I had rather than cutting a separate strip of fabric for the bottom (which would have been super cute had I been feeling up to doing some extra hemming!) Thus, the "Miss Independence Day" dress was born!

Check Haley out, modeling as if she were born to do it. Yes that's a weed in her right hand, but it kind of looks like a pretty flower, right? This dress is made entirely of scraps from 3 different shirts (including one that I found during my recent garage sale marathon.) I got so into making it that I stayed up until 11:30pm to finish. The exhaustion the next day was totally worth it. I can't wait for her to wear it on the 4th!

One man's trash is another woman's treasure

My in-laws were in town this past weekend. It's always so much fun when they come into town because there's never really a game plan, we just go with the flow and fun stuff always happens. This time, and we took advantage of their time here by eating too much, watching movies, and one of my new favorite things - going garage saling! I knew I liked going garage saling before, but I think I love it after this weekend.

My mother-in-law and I were as prepared as you possibly could be for our adventure. The night before, we went on Craig's List and looked up local garage sales in the area, then we mapped out the ones we really wanted to go to through Mapquest. In the morning, we woke up at 6:30 am, ate a healthy breakfast, packed umbrellas in case of thunderstorms (well, my mother-in-law did anyway, my pregnancy brain made me forget mine) headed out to see what we could find.

We had planned out 11 different stops, but on the way we were lucky enough to find others near our planned destinations, so we probably ended up going to 17 or so. I was exhausted by the end since we were out for 7 hours (with a stop to Hancock Fabrics and Chick-fil-a) but it was so worth it, we found tons of great stuff!!

A cute decorative box that is now sitting on top of my kitchen cabinets.....

some fun pictures of different veggies to hang in my kitchen.....

some shirts for myself that I found for $0.50 each (!!)...

some cute prints that I'm planning on refashioning into clothes for Haley...

....and one of the best finds - a Little People barn for Haley that we found for $2.00!!

She LOVES the little barn, it makes sounds when she opens the stable doors and presses other areas on the barn. Unfortunately, the set didn't come with a horse so as you can see, her My Little Pony is standing in for now. I also found 2 shirts for the hubby ($1.00/shirt - brand new!) and packages of Pampers diapers for 1/3 the price I would normally spend at Sam's Club. The total amount I spent was about $35.00 for everything. I'm never shopping at another store again (until next week anyway.)

What fun things have you found while garage saling?