Josh & Shana

Few more wives-tales: hellacious storm this morning and a full moon this week. Maybe that will kick me into labor. Due date is Sunday. Stay tuned.

Yes, I am still pregnant :(

I have long been a fan of the Cosby Show. Its probably my favorite show of all time. I have seasons one and two on DVD (my birthday is soon and I don't have season three - wink, wink). Anyway, there is a food of legend on the Cosby Show. Cliff and Theo often talk of the legendary and mysterious "Bacon Burger Dog." What is this mysterious food? Is it a sandwich like a burger? Or is it something like a hot dog? Click here for one of my favorite episode clips when Theo gets one. (I would have posted the video but its disabled) I've seen several different interpretations of this food online. None of them looked that good or easy to make or eat. So I decided to come up with my own creation.

I've been wanting to make this for a while but hadn't had the time until today. Here's how it goes:
-1 pound ground beef (chuck is best for burgers and burger dogs)
-About a 1/2 cup of finely diced sweet onion
-3 slices cooked crispy bacon chopped and cooled to room temperature (chop it before you cook it - it makes it easier).
-1 good handful of your favorite shredded cheese - I used cheddar. You can use more or less.
-Season the beef with a little kosher salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. I didn't measure but I'd say it was somewhere in the neighborhood of a teaspoon of each.
Next mix it all together and chill in the fridge for about an hour. Or in the freezer for 15 min. *Tip - use a glass or aluminum bowl. It gets cold faster.I used my Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the sausage stuffer attachment. [ *Important* Put all the parts, especially the auger, in the freezer for 15 min. to chill them. Warm parts and warm meat make for a mushy mess.] I'm using a collagen casing. They're cheap, made from beef, durable, and most importantly not as gross as the other options. Plus you use them when they're dry and they last in the fridge forever. Well, maybe not forever, but a long time. Here's my rig. I have the sheet pan with aluminum foil to catch the casing as it fills up.Here's what they look like after they are stuffed. I made a mistake by cutting them before they were set. I should have twisted them to seal the casing and let them set for a couple of hours in the fridge, but hey, I was hungry.

After 10 minutes on the grill they're finished and ready to eat. (I grill the hot dog bun too - yum, toasty).

This is THE BACON BURGER DOG.
Its the burger that eats like a hot dog. Now, I don't know if this is what Bill Cosby had in mind when they came up with the idea, but this is my take on the Cosby food of legend. I recommend trying it. Its was really tasty. The bacon was still crispy in the middle an the onions were crunchy. Next time I think I'd add a little Worcestershire Sauce to keep it moist and a sharper cheddar cheese. Anyway, good luck! And don't forget - Be Brave in the Kitchen!

There seems to be a little confusion over my last "soundtrack" entry. The last set of songs were only for the trip to the hospital. From the comments it looks like "Eye of the Tiger" wins for our "driving to the hospital" song. Keep in mind that we're not actually going to play these songs, its just fun...unless we make a video about it then we might use them.

1 cm, 50%, and -3

Most likely no baby this weekend, boo. Next appointment is Wednesday.

People ask me all the time if I'm scared about having a baby. No way. I'm 100% excited. However, there is one thing that gives me a little anxiety. Actually, a lot of anxiety. I can do puke, blood, broken bones, etc. The one thing that I can't do: poop. Just thinking about it makes my stomach turn. I start sweating and I'm pretty sure that I've gotten hives before. Maybe not the hives part. Anyway, here's a video courtesy my favorite tv show AFV that describes how I'm feeling...

The way I see it is that there are 3 main parts to our birthing plan.

Here is an article that was posted online in our hometown newspapers website. Not sure if it made it into the real newspaper, but either way it is an awesome testimoney to the Lord. Atlanta is a huge city so who knows how many people got to read this. Clay is a really close friend of Josh's. He was in our wedding, we traveled together to Puerto Rico, and he has stayed numerous times in our guest bedroom during all his travels. He really is a great testimoney to the God we serve. Take a minute to read it and be encouraged.

I had a really good weekend. Josh and I had a real date night on Friday night. He didn't have to work all day Friday, so he had a refreshing day of leisure. When I got home from work (officially working half days now) we rested so my swelling could calm down a bit. Then we went to see the new Harry Potter movie. I was really excited for this movie to come out, but right now I am still scratching my head as to what I thought about it.

Definitely was a little disappointment with the ending, in the book the castle battle scene is way bigger. I think I might listen to the last book again on my IPOD to know what is missing again. I know when I saw the last movie I was scratching my head to with some of the pieces they left out. I guess the one thing this movie series has going for it is that they release the films so far apart that people forget what is missing, or it might just be my dumb brain. I will say this though. People are still taking their little kids to see these Harry Potter movies and I think they are nutz. This one and the last one are a lot darker and every time we have seen really small children in the theaters. This time there was a little boy behind us actually ducking down behind our seats and crawling into his mother's lap because he was scared. Crazy!

After our movie we did some window shopping and went to Target to get a few things that we needed still in getting ready for Baby Stringer. We purchased a Cargo bag to go on top of our CRV so that we can haul more stuff on road trips since folding down seats won't be an option anymore. We are pretty excited to try this out. We also purchased a trash can (i know exciting) and a funky hat that was a couple bucks for fun for Josh. I think he looks super cute in it. This picture is a bit dark, but you can see he is wearing it on our date night Friday.



After all that we went to dinner at Mimi's Cafe. We reflected about how in the old days (I know we have only been married 5 years) we used to do things like this all the time. It was a nice evening reflecting on where we had been in life and how God had grown us together and as individuals. Mimi's cafe was alright, I have said this before, I just don't enjoy eating out as well anymore because my husband is an awesome, creative home-chef. It was a relatively cheap meal out, 35 w/tip. But for $35 I was thinking man I could have had filet mignon cooked to perfection at home for this price. No worries folks I still cook, but Josh just knows how to cook meat really good. That is probably the most expensive thing we buy for special occasions.

Sunday I did my first attempt at canning. Judy walked me through it all on the phone, thanks again. But here is my final product.



I am super proud that it actually worked. It took a ton of tomatoes though to fill this 1 quart jar, 14 tomatoes. That is a lot of stinking tomatoes, but our earth box is mass producing so maybe I will get another one out of it. These tomatoes taste so good too. They are heirlooms. We'll use this jar probably in the winter sometime to make chili or something like that. We use lots of tomato things in our cooking, now we just have organic home grown tomatoes.

Well, that is all for today. Talk to ya'll later