Falling in Love with Family Dinner

The other day my fabulous cousin and I were trying to figure out what she could give her sister-in-law for her birthday. (That's one of the reasons my cousin is so fabulous because she is ever so thoughtful and committed to finding the perfect gift for those she loves.) She was perusing the shelves of the bookstore in the cookbook section (reason #2 she's fab) and found Dinner: A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach.

Fabulous cousin and I in OBX at the local grocery store
we pretty much lived in during our OBX vacation. 

So I must confess...I own a lot of cookbooks. (I'm obsessed with books in general so it's no surprise.) What's interesting about cookbooks is that in no way do I like/love or remotely enjoy cooking food, especially if there's a complicated recipe with more than five ingredients. I just like the idea of it all, looking through books with amazing pictures and  ultimately, eating the food that maybe someone else in my family (Mr. Wonderful) will make me. There are quite a few pages that have been bent back or one of those tiny post it notes are stuck on just in case someone (hint, hint) gets ambitious.

But one night...Something changed.

I decided to take a recipe out of the DALS playbook and make it happen. My recipe of choice - Jenny's Oven "Fried" Chicken. I carefully wrote my grocery list and shopped carefully for the ingredients. The biggest challenge was finding the cornflake crumbs so I did what I do and improvised accordingly with regular cornflakes. How hard could it be to make cornflake crumbs? Smush some flakes and voila! Crumbs. Right?

The recipe required eight items and I really only had to buy three of them. (Marry me, Jenny. Seriously.) The mixing the ingredients wasn't too bad and the cornflake crumbs were probably not as crummy as they were supposed to be but as a result, some delicious, flavorful and good lookin' and (fingers crossed) finger lickin' chicken was coming out of my oven...because of me and my new BFF Jenny.

Two thumbs up from the family and a possible rivalry to Mrs. Publix fried chicken. Always good to find a healthier option to something that I know my family loves to eat every once in awhile. Overall, I thank my lucky stars and you should too that DALS is out there to save any family dinner from becoming bland or boring. 

Baby Showering My Cousin In Preparation for Baby J

Cousins, cupcakes and strawberry cream cake at Three Layers Coffee House

Congratulations to my cousin and her super hero husband! 

I wish you two the best as you prepare for the arrival of your baby. 

Some of the baby shower guests with Tanya and Baby J

Merry Christmas 2011!

Christmas morning...like 12 midnight for the cousins and gifts!

My sisters with Baby girl and MJ. 

The cousins in a sort of Modern Family pose. 

Cousin Shelly's Getting Married...But not before we have a fun night out!

bride-to-be, shelly, and me

party shoe people!

cousin e and shelly

me and cousin e ... just like old times.

La Nop with the Cousins

Finally made it to La Nopalera in Jax. Thanks to cousin Shelly!

Cousin Lanie, Cousin Shelly and I outside of La Nop

Shell Bell AKA Chimi (a double)

Lanie AKA Chicki Enchiladas

Day @ SeaWorld

After running around all morning -- breakfast at First Watch, grocery shopping for curry chicken ingredients and loading the car with what we may or may not need at SeaWorld -- we FINALLY got to the park right before noon. Of course, it was blazing hot but we still made the best of it. We started off at the Pets Ahoy show which was so much fun for the Baby Girl. I had the best time watching her react to the dogs, cats, birds, mice and pot belly pig. After the pet show, we went over to the Shamu show. It was again very strange to watch the show without any trainers in the water. We ate lunch over where the horses once were. Sad to see that change too. Then, we finished the day off at the Dolphins show. By then, it was time to head out to Charley's to meet up with the Lay's and Budimans' for the annual steak dinner celebration.

Cousins Night Out

Sexy Tanya...Let's do this girls!

We decided to start at the Monkey Bar. Oh and now Super Shah is our adopted cousin.

My beautiful cousins, Shelly and Tanya

The elevator ride down from Monkey Bar.

My longtime friend, Tina and I at Ember

My dear friend and adopted cousin, Soluna, and I at Vintage.

My sweet baby cousin Shelly and I

Happy Birthday Cousin Lanie!

I love that she's wearing my favorite color AND

she was cool with wearing Baby Girls' Backyardigan

Adventure Kid Ribbon. Love you Lanie!