Slow Cooker Sunday: Brunswick Stew

I've been kinda obsessed with finding a good slow cooker Brunswick stew recipe. When my BFF Pinterest let me down, I returned to Ole Faithful, Google. I found this on Myrecipes.com and then added my own flair. The Johnson secret is the Sweet Baby Ray's. :-)

Ingredients:
3 pound pork roast, trimmed and cut into two inch chunks
1 bottle of BBQ sauce (seriously, don't use anything but SBR)
1 onion, chopped
3 medium new potatoes, peeled and chopped
6 tablespoons brown sugar
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon of salt
14 ounces of chicken broth
18 ounces of frozen veggies (the recipe called for 9 oz of corn and 9 oz of Lima beans but I used a bag of mixed veggies that included carrots, limas, corn, and green beans- yum!)

Directions:
1. Cut the meat, potatoes and onions.
2. Add all ingredients to the slow cooker.
3. Mix well.
4. Cover and cook on low 12 hours.
5. Remove pork chunks with a slotted spoon and shred with a fork.
6. Add pork back to the slow cooker, stir well, and serve.

feed a fever? feed a cold?

Either way, we gotta eat.

By the way, I'm gonna live. But man, that cold/sinus infection/most.annoying.sickness.ever really did a number on me. I'm on Day 10 and finally among the living again. Made it a full day at work and only had to retype a few emails thanks to a bit of fluid on the ears which makes me a bit dizzy and squirrely.

But, by being home for the most part the last week and a half, I have had time to do a lot of Pinterest-ing and then also able to spend more than the 35 minutes I usually have to make dinner between coming home from work and "Jake loses his mind" o'clock.

I thought I would share some of the better recipes with you tonight. These include a Slow Cooker Sunday recipe that I meant to share Sunday but probably fell asleep (and I hear it was good but I couldn't taste a darn thing).

Slow Cooker Sunday: Peach Chicken
*This was a modified "apricot chicken" that I have made several times. I thought it would be good with peach preserves so I altered it a bit, and Chad liked it a lot.

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
11 ounce jar of peach preserves
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon soy sauce (that's about 3 packets of the soy sauce you get from take out Chinese btw)
1/4 teaspoon of ginger

Directions:
1. Lay the chicken in the slow cooker.
2. Mix the other ingredients together.
3. Pour mixture over chicken.
4.Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours.

And here are some of my Pinterest adventures in the last week or so:

Source: the-girl-who-ate-everything.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

Source: ivillage.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

Source: whatsgabycooking.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

Source: food.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

Source: turbochef.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

Source: insidethekaganoffkitchen.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

I'm down but I'm not out...

Apparently this "cold" I caught last Monday is a bit stronger than I originally thought. I'm headed to the doctor this afternoon for meds that are stronger than Tylenol Cold and Flu (though it did serve me well the last seven days).

Until I can get my wits about me and start operating at 100% again, here's another iPhone photo dump for you.















(happy first birthday to our God-son, Silas!)




And a video of complete craziness for your enjoyment.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's happened to us all....

You know, when you spend hours putting away all the holiday decorations.....

Well, apparently this little guy has been staring at us for a few weeks now.




And refusing to walk out in the 30 degree cold to put him back in the Christmas tub in the shed, I just shoved him in the drawer under the wine glasses.

Hope we find him next year. Ha!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Slow Cooker Sunday: Double Trouble!

My, oh, my! Has it been a Pinterest weekend filled with yumminess. My house will probably never have all these cute decorations or home DIY projects and the kids birthday parties will still be sponsored by Target, but at least our bellies are full. :-)

In honor of Slow Cooker Sunday, I have two great recipes for you today.

Today for lunch, I made this soup- Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup. It was awesome! Definitely was an all morning affair, though, but it was totally worth it!

Source: 365daysofcrockpot.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

Then, tonight for dinner, I made Cashew Chicken. It was incredible (and fairly easy to prep before leaving for church).

Source: sixsistersstuff.blogspot.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

Both are definite keepers!!

You're gonna be sorry....

Oh my! This is so fun! :-)

Tonight, we went to my parents for dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday. My dad was grilling out, and I was in charge of a side. So, I went to my new BFF for a recipe.

Source: foodgawker.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

I have to be honest. I kinda thought these would turn out to be "Hot Chip like." You know, the "dip in ranch fried in yumminess" kind. But that was my mistake.

Once I got my mind wrapped around that this is more of a "kick up a notch baked potato" I was satisfied. It was yummy. :-)

Learning Something New...

You may recall this post here. I was super excited to have created new home decor but had no way of sharing it.

Today, I can happily report that I am a Pinterest newbie. Therefore, this week, I have spent an obsene amount of time on this website early in the morning, in the evenings watching TV, while on the elliptical, and embarassingly enough, sitting at longer stoplights.

And being the "sharer" that I am, I want to utilize this website to YOUR advantage so I can share what I have actually done.

Now, I know you can "follow me" on Pinterest, but wouldn't it just be easier on everyone if I can just post here what I have tried out?


But, I am not one that has time to read tutorials on the web (I am feverishly typing this quick post while keeping a sickly, clingy Jake busy on Netflix on the iPad), so I have taken to the "click around and hope this works" method.


Therefore, here is my test. I hope you see a delicious spaghetti stuffed garlic bread that we made for dinner last night. If not, you will see a bunch of jibberish.

Source: rhodesbread.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

And because I am really testing my internet knowledge here, I hope you see this dessert that I made last night as well. I really hope you see this dessert because it was even better than the spaghetti bread.

Source: kevinandamanda.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

Let the pinning begin!

Way Back When-esday: The Couch

As I was sifting through my Christmas pics from this year, as well as looking at some "gems" my Opa gave me a few months ago, I noticed a common denominator in some of them- a couch picture in Oma and Opa's living room. :-) I then hit up my Shutterfly account, and I now present to you "Way Back When-esday: The Couch" edition.

Here's a point of reference for you- Christmas Eve 2011Christmas Eve 1980:

Christmas Eve 1984:

Christmas Eve 1987-ish:

Christmas Eve 2005:

Christmas Eve 2008:

Christmas Eve 2009:

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Final Christmas: The Johnzler Spectacular

We went on our 11th annual trip to Tanglewood for the Festival of Lights with our God-family. It was a great time and so special to watch Jake experience this drive thru lighting extravaganza for the first time. :-)












And they added some pretty cool LED lights throughout the park that impressed even us big kids.





It was a great way to end our Christmas season and kickoff the New Year!


-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's no longer "Christmas with Caroline..."

Now that Caroline is an OFFICIAL member of the family, no more separate Christmas for her. We do one big Christmas for all the Baders- just whenever we can get us all together. :-) I sure with their crazy Christmas schedules, it will change yearly, but this year it was the 26th.Everyone was quite spoiled and it was some great quality time with Uncle Eric and Aunt Caroline before they headed on a mini-vacation to Alabama for their next Christmas stop.

A Big Family Christmas

Christmas Evening is always spent with our large extended family. We do an adult gift exchange with "secret Santas" and this year, we also did a fun $5 Dirty Santa Exchange. I didn't get many pics but here's some of my sweet fam.

(Again, the sillies come out with Uncle E)

Good morning, Christmas!

I was super excited this year to have TWO kids old enough to really open some presents....so I guess I went a little overboard with said presents (especially since Santa only brings three presents for each kid for the 3 Wise Men).

As expected, Jake LOVED the Drum Set from Santa and then pretty much refused to open anything else that morning.

And Brooklyn could not believe it when she opened her very own Video Camera.

They both had a great time putting together and playing in gifts all morning.

Christmas Eve 2011

The past 30+ Christmas Eve's have been spent at Oma and Opa's house. :-) This year was no different, and Jake wasted no time getting comfortable.

Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren- the first time we have ALL been together at Oma and Opa's house

With our favorite Oma and Opa

Brooklyn gets the major sillies around Uncle Eric

Jake gets his very own recliner (and now Brooklyn can reclaim hers at home!)

That night, we left out cookies and milk for Santa and sprinkled reindeer food in the backyard.

(We thought Santa would appreciate the "Living the Minivan Dream" cup of milk- ha!)