New Name, New Look and New Recipe!

Now it will be even MORE exciting to write in here because while my sister was in town, she gave me some "blogging" lessons so I can do things like add labels, links and also ways to spruce it up.  Along with the new look, we came up with a new name and I am stoked beyond belief!

She and my niece flew in from Fort Lauderdale Thursday night, and we were so blessed to have family time all day Friday and Saturday and part of Sunday, also with my brother who just hit 5-0 last Thursday.  I asked him what he wanted for dinner on Saturday night (when we would officially celebrate) and he answered exactly how I thought he would - Mom's Beef Stroganoff!

Talk about teamwork - my niece, daughter and I did the grocery shopping while my sister helped Brad with some errands on Saturday.  We were ready to roll with prep work at 3:30 or so, and divvied up the tasks amongst all of us so that it would all get done.  And the result was amazing!!!

The first step was to get the Ribbon Pie going - that is also one of Mom's famous recipes that Brad loves.  The first step is to cook the pie crusts, something I forgot until the first layer of pudding was done, but it worked out fine.  Here is the recipe for one pie - we made two, but you can adapt for one.

Ribbon Pie

Pie crust (cook according to instructions)
1 small box of instant vanilla pudding mix
1 small box of instant chocolate pudding mix
Milk (see boxes for directions on how much)
Cool Whip

Bake the pie crust according to instructions and while it is cooking, prepare the vanilla pudding according to the instructions.  Once the pie crust cools, fill halfway with vanilla pudding.  Refrigerate and let set for 2 hours.  Once it is set, make the chocolate pudding according to instructions, and layer over the vanilla pudding.  When ready to serve, spread cool whip all over the top.  Can you say DELICIOUS?!?

I then started on the beef stroganoff, another easy recipe, but I had to laugh at the lack of measurements in my mom's original recipe.

Mom's Beef Stroganoff

Cut round steak in cubes.  Salt, pepper and flour.  Brown with 1 medium onion (chopped) and one clove of garlic (minced).  Add 1 can of undiluted beef bouillon soup (or 2 beef bouillon cubes) and 1 cup of water.  Simmer until tender.  Add sour cream during the last 5 minutes.  Serve over cooked egg noodles.

So you may be wondering - how much of everything?  We bought 3 pretty good sized packages of the meat - since 3 of the folks we would be serving were grown men who like their meat and potatoes.  After I did all the simmering, I put it all in the crock pot to continue to slow cook.  I added about 1/2 container of sour cream.  We cooked 2 packages of the "No Yolks" egg noodles and had TONS leftover - will probably be making some kind of soup tonight since the fridge is STILL not working properly.

We put together an amazing salad with greens, fat free feta cheese, strawberries, walnuts, avocado slices, and mangos along with some rolls and Brad was one HAPPY camper!  A super fun birthday celebration for my awesome brother.

Uh oh...I was about to upload pictures and that icon is missing.  Somehow I was able to upload the pie picture above, but I have made a LOT of changes.  Will publish this for now and look for it later!!!

YAY!  Finally got my old toolbar back!  Won't even say how long it took, but here are some pics of the yummy dinner!  Beef stroganoff just isn't a "sexy" meal, so though it does not look as appealing, it really was tasty!