SNOW Much Fun

Thanks for coming Old Man Winter....see you again sometime.....

For the Record

It's really happening and I just want to chronicle....

Snow is falling in sunny South Carolina. Rumor has it ... it's been 21 years since any measurable snowfall here so this is BIG time here on Marshside. The street is buzzing with excited children including 2 that live here.

I got a feeling.....that tonight's gonna be a good, good night.

More from the frozen tundra tomorrow!

A 1/2 decade in a few pictures

We are ever so thankful,
ever so happy,
ever so everything that you are our girl.
Happy Birthday Lil Lil!

5 Reasons to Celebrate

What a milestone for our family today. She came in quietly five years ago on a cold Monday morning and we've been filled with joy and gratitude ever since. So many happy moments and some sad ones too but all of it wonderful. She's a whole lot of sweet and a little bit of sassy and we wouldn't take her any other way.

More pics to post later but we've got some birthdaying to do right now.

Happy Birthday to the sweetest, most precious little lady we know. Have fun being 5!!

We love you beyond anything we could describe!!

Taking Cute to a Whole New Level

Busy weekend currently underway as we celebrate a certain little lady's 5th birthday. She's officially five tomorrow but we had her birthday party today. It was a tea party for little ladies; lots of fun with some sweet, sweet friends. Here are the cupcakes made by a very special friend who sure loves Lilly alot. These must have taken a sweet forever to make...so many sweet little details. She even made a special version just for the birthday girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Click on the pics to see them in larger size...it seems everytime I looked at them, I noticed something new.


More about the festivities later. We are enjoying some time with family and friends and celebrating a milestone of a very loved little girl.

Not a Post for The Vegetarian

They get some frequent billing on this here blog....our great friends the Yoders. It's because we spend lots of time with that wonderful family. We spend alot of time hanging out at our houses and considering they are 8 houses down, it's a nice quick trip for either family. It's usually low key and casual and that's just like we like it!!

Our kids and their kids play beautifully...most of the time (Lilly can get a little bossy with Courtney and we're working on that); most everytime we get together, the 4 bigger kids run off to play for hours and hours and the adults are able to enjoy an evening without alot of refereeing and intervention. Then there's sweet baby Charlie who just smiles, eats and sleeps so all in all, it's a great match. We're also in cahoots with them on a little project that's underway - it's a secret for now, you'll just have to wait and see. Joe and Brian have good fun together as do Katie and I. We have quite alot in common -- we all love to cook and eat so most every plan we make involves a meal and well.....meat!!

Brian is the grill master...he's got every outdoor cooking mechanism imaginable...gas, charcoal, smoker, turkey fryer.....and on many occasions, there have been multiple ones in use on the same night.

So recently Brian and Katie watched Food Inc....and learned alot about cows and chickens and how they are raised and fed before well, you know....they eventually end up in the case at Publix. We'll skip the details there....I think you know.

Last Saturday we got together for a Meat Taste Test...chicken and beef....the details of each were kept top secret so a fair assessment could be made. We rated each on texture and flavor and compared our results. The results were fairly consistent across the board and the verdict is in....

Chicken - Organic, free range versus Mass Produced

The differences were very subtle but they were there for sure, most especially in texture....for free range, there was more of an "organic" feel to it...a difference in textures in the bites we took. The flavor difference wasn't as distinctive but when we considered the amount of chicken "flavoring" that's likely injected into the mass produced, we wondered how much that accounted for the CHICKEN taste. We also wondered how much we are now accustomed to the taste and texture of mass produced.....scary really. We're used to eating highly processed chicken.

Chicken Verdict -- organic had superior texture...not necessarily enough for the increase in price but considering the overall health factors for us and our children.....if money not a consideration....Organic, free range chicken ruled the roost (pun intended)

Beef - Grass Fed versus Dry Aged Grass Fed versus Mass Produced

The differences here were more obvious and much easier to distinguish than the chicken. The cuts were the same but thickness and marbling were different so this muddied the waters a bit. A definite "richness" varied in flavor and texture too.

Beef verdict - hands down grass fed won out over mass produced. For Katie and I, that's where the differences stopped. For Joe and Brian, they could tell a big difference in dry aged versus just grass fed. (Preference being Dry Aged) Not surprising....both Joe and Brian are quite the carnivores and clearly have a more sophisticated pallet than us girls. Price is a HUGE factor with the beef.....and adding the dry aged element raised the price even more of course. A little sad to say b/c we are Publix people and typically enjoy their meat selection but by far, Whole Foods won out in the beef contest.

If you are still awake and reading, the bottom line....you get what you pay for with chicken and beef and the moral of the story -- grass fed, farm raised, mass produced, chicken flavor injections...it's all so much better and more fun when shared and compared with really great friends!!!