You see, to get into the nitty-gritty of why I chose to make such a drastic move, particularly when I’m featured in a book declaring me a long-time “Blogger-lover,” content to stay on that platform for-ev-er, it’s a long, drawn out, technical, Google-based story. To sum it up, my site wasn’t being recognized by Google, wasn’t searchable anymore, and it was dying, flailing about in the search engine, flopping like a fish struggling to survive on air, to be frank. Nothing I did on Blogger fixed this, either. My only recourse was to drop Blogger like a hot potato and start over.

My blog designer, Greg, did his best to stick with me through 1100+ posts, battling the codes and all the gobbledegook that comes from having four-plus years of someone’s chronicled life being transferred over. He fought valiantly, sleighing the dreaded migration beast. It wasn’t an easy task, being such a mammoth-sized blog and all, and I’m sure there are some hiccups that need remedying, still. But look at her, will you?

I drew the doodles, the notepads, and small icons in the post. Greg, before battling my migration, masterfully designed my logos, coupled with his coding genius, and got my ol’ blog to shine like a new penny, loading ridiculously quick, to boot. My talented artist friend, Robin, designed my signature in her one-of-a-kind handwriting. (I’ll be sharing with you the portrait she made for me once I receive it.)

If you are reading this via reader, email, or some other means other than visiting my site, I invite you to come take a look. Give ‘er a whirl.

What do you think?

(And please let me know if, at once, if you find a link that doesn’t work anymore, or something doesn’t look right. I am doing my best to pour over it one post at a time, but it’s going to take me a bit.)

Despite our Steelers not playing in the Super Bowl this year, we’re still die-hard football fans, and we planned to celebrate and watching football nonetheless. For the big game Sunday, we wanted to entertain with some easy-to-eat appetizers for dinner (easy for little fingers as well as for us adult folks, too). We stuck with some tried-and-true winning appetizer recipes, all while incorporating some new favorites into the mix, to make our party a success.

One of our new favorite recipes is for Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas, inspired by the dish you’ll find on a Chili’s menu. We discovered this recipe while we were looking for a house here in Texas; the hotel we stayed at had a Chili’s in the same parking lot. It was nice to be able to walk over there and drown our house-hunting sorrows in El Presidente Margaritas and Tex-Mex and schlep back to our hotel room in hopes that the next day would be better. You remember our saga well.

Weekend after weekend, we drove the six hour drive to look for a house, and with every rejection and failure, our dinner trips to Chili’s were failing to solve our issues, only amplify them. Eating out was beginning to put on the pounds, as well as the stress. I truly loved that delicious dish, but one night, long after the moving woes had ceased and we were brainstorming new dinner ideas in our new kitchen, deciding to create this recipe myself, I Googled and gasped to find my beloved recipe had a whopping 1480 calories and 3900 grams of sodium! Needless to say, I suddenly know where that “moving” weight came from! I knew I could make this from home cheaper and way better for you.

As you know, I make many things from scratch, healthifying them as much as possible. For this recipe, we chose to create our own ranch dressing (and you can, too, whether from scratch or from a mix – and for this recipe, we used a mix). I’m not sure what Chili’s used inside their quesadillas, but we decided to finely chop up grilled chicken and bacon finely (in order to use less but still offer the flavor), as well as use low-fat milks and cheeses, while only lightly spraying our skillet with low-fat cooking spray. This way, we are able to bring down the calorie count considerably while still making it just as delicious.

Normally, to further healthify this dish, we would choose to use turkey bacon, but for our big game shindig, we were asked to purchase and try for the first time a Texas brand of bacon called Petit Jean for our recipe. We chose their Peppered Bacon variety that we purchased from our local HEB. (Side note: HEB is one of my favorite stores since moving here to Texas, they offer a ton of discounted coupons throughout, and have a decent organic selection, too.)

I was excited to try peppered bacon in this recipe to see how it fared as opposed to our normal turkey bacon. I will say, though, in price tag comparison alone, it’s much more expensive than what we normally buy (however, it is, also, twice the size, at 24oz instead of 12oz). Still, I’d only consider buying this for special occasions/special recipes. Perhaps a peppered bacon-wrapped filet mignon for an anniversary dinner or birthday?

Look at that! Very peppery and beautiful to look at, isn’t it?

Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas Recipe

1-2 packages of flour or whole-grain tortillas
1 package of shredded cheddar or mexican cheese
Ranch dressing, bottled or prepared on your own (a little less than a cup)
Grilled or baked chicken breasts, about four, chopped up finely
1 package of bacon, cooked, chopped up finely

While grilling or baking your chicken until fully cooked, break out a skillet and brown your bacon until golden brown and cooked, setting aside to cool.

Prepare your ranch dressing (if you didn’t purchase it bottled) and set aside. Chop your bacon and chicken up finely, and get ready to make magic! (Or, just quesadillas. I think they’re pretty magic, though.)

Spray your heated skillet with low-fat cooking spray, and place two tortillas down to brown. Drizzle ranch lightly onto the tortillas, or “paint” it on lightly using a basting brush (the ranch acts like glue for your ingredients). Sprinkle the bacon and chicken onto the ranch, topping with shredded cheese.

Place a tortilla over top, smoosh down with your hand to set it together, and flip (but be careful)! Once browned on both sides, remove from heat onto a plate. Once you’ve finished cooking all the tortillas, cut each one up into triangle sections with a pizza cutter or super-sharp knife, approximately eight triangles per tortilla.

Don’t they look delicious!

This is one of those recipes that you can prepare ahead of time and not worry about serving hot, because it can sit for a bit while you’re busy making other things. Plus, it allows for little fingers to eat right away while other items cool on their plate. This is also pretty fantastic cold. Store it in your fridge in one of those gallon storage bags that zip for easy access to snack or cram food quickly when you find your ravaged and have little time (such as us busy moms do).

Despite all we made, we had a considerable amount of peppered bacon left over, so we felt inspired to add it to other appetizer recipes, too, like our spinach and artichoke dip and as a topping to our mini muffin pizzas.

And yes, it tasted just as good as it looked. What a scrumptious addition it was!

Here was our ‘big game’ spread – check it out! Alongside the quesadillas and saucy meatballs (not pictured), we served hot buffalo and barbecue wings, pigs-in-a-blanket as well as crescent-wrapped hot dogs (I couldn’t resist the craving) and crescent pizza roll-ups (found that recipe on Pinterest).

Oh, the deliciousness! Oh, the full bellies! Oh, the leftovers!

Overall I liked the spicy quality the peppered bacon that Petit Jean meats provided, but, considering the low-fat, low-calorie turkey bacon we’re used to, I’d only probably only splurge on this well-spiced, hickory smoked bacon for a special occasion, to really jazz up whatever I’m making. I did enjoy using it, and I am going to enjoy adding the remnants to things I create this week, since we still(!!) have some left over.

If you’re in Texas and interested in trying this brand, you can find Petit Jean Meats at your local Walmart or HEB grocery store. You can also find more wonderful entertaining recipes using Petit Jean bacon and ham by searching Twitter using the hashtag #TXBacon, too.

Did you entertain for the Super Bowl, too? What did you create and serve to your guests? I’d love to know, I love to entertain and I’d love to try some of your recipes, too!

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Last week, I was having a slight coronary over having a slightly horizontal baby and wondering if the baby-friend was going to remain breech. This week, not only did the kiddo to a somersault and is head down, I’m dilated already, and I think the doctor jumpstarted something, because contractions are more frequent than the regular ol’ Braxton Hicks before my appointment.

Operation Baby Watch 2012 has officially gone into effect. Husband’s work has been notified. In-laws have been given the official “stand-by” call. But then, panic begins to set in.

We are not ready.

This weekend we’re going to do a little shopping to get ready, though. Prefold diapers to be ordered & shipped with lightning speed, to include diaper detergent. Two take home outfits need to be purchased (one pink and one blue) and an infant car seat needs to be acquired. We had planned to do this at some point this month, but with the doctor’s magic, we don’t have time to spare.

I mean, LOOK at me!

We are so totally not ready.

Baby bump progression thus far:

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Seeing the gigantic unopened ten-pound bag of potatoes was enough for me to crave a nice, bitey potato salad. As I washed, peeled and marveled at the size of some of these monsters from the fresh sack, the smell of soil and earth infiltrated my nostrils. I couldn’t help but close my eyes at the sink, instantly transported to being an eight-year-old little girl.

I practically lived outside as a child. The dirt I’m sure I collected on my clothing and under my fingernails painted quite the picture of an outdoors-lovin’, awkward, gangly tomboy who loved running and performing cartwheels to and fro. I can still see the neighbor children with whom I’d bike-ride with every day, or the ones who’d play “red-light, green-light” with me, or would collect rocks and draw with chalk, and dig trenches and snow-forts and play hide-and-go-seek.

As long as the sun was up, I was outside basking in it.
If there was a tree with branches low enough, I’d be climbing that tree, or setting up forts against it.
If there were leaves on the ground, I was raking them to fall into a pile, or creating shapes with them.
I walked barefoot on the ground because there was no such thing as a ‘biting ant’ in New York.
I lived for the soil under my toes, the smell of mint in my mother’s grass.
I would lay on the ground, looking up the sun and clouds and find shapes for hours.

I particularly remember a world where it was uncomplicated to be a kid, especially outdoors. A world where we were expected to be outside always, never needing pressure or incentive to get there; a world where the games never ended, and the air smelled like sweet freedom, didn’t it? So much fresher, and oh so deliriously enticing.

There are days as a parent where I wish I could fold myself up into an envelope and mail myself back into time, back into those days, just to smell my momma’s grass and garden again, and lay on that cool lawn in the sun and stare at the clouds with not a worry in the world. I wish I could take my children with me, even for a few moments, to experience that childhood bliss with me.

It leaves me to wonder: in this technological age, what will our society’s children growing up today long to remember when they get older? What part of their childhood will they wish to mail themselves back to experience? Will it be to succumb to the sweet smells of friends, and dirt under their nails after a day well spent in the fresh air like me? Will it be to splash around in that mud puddle and wash grass out of their hair that night?

I certainly hope that’s what my children will long for.

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My little ones continued playing in the other room, not noticing my mini-break in which I contemplated life ten years from now, when his bed is empty, he’s off to college living his adult-life away from home. My heart burned at the thought of him not being with me everyday. How can I let him go? Why can’t he stay little forever? These thoughts swam around in my murky head while I fought tears from forming as I held his stuffed animals and groaned in motherly agony.

I looked around the room, putting myself into his shoes, looking at all of his things, his trophies, his toys, posters, shelves, games. I could smell him on the sheets, seeing his little-boy-for-not-too-much-longer clothes lumped on the floor exactly the way they came off when he changed, like shedded-skin.

Recalling my almost overflowing laundry-pile as it is, I can’t imagine it not being there tomorrow, or the next day, or in ten years. As much as I despise the repetitious laundry, chores, and constant cleaning, I can’t imagine my nest being empty with no one to care for, either.

Perhaps the next time I bend over to pick up another stray toy under foot while gritting my teeth, and mumble something quietly ugly under my breath when another piece of clothing is left shedded in the middle of the floor, or sigh at yet another mess made under the dinner table just after I’ve vacuumed, I’ll recall the sadness I felt moments ago at the idea of a naked-without-my-children home, and relive those chills, drink in that anguish, that yearning, and remember to count my many blessings, big or small, they won’t be here forever.

Even the diapers, crumbs, and laundry.

(This mama ache is fresh on my mind today. Dusting this off, as it was originally written March 3rd, 2010.)

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