A Sunday afternoon

It's 4:12 on Sunday afternoon, and everyone in my house is asleep except for me! This is RARE indeed! I don't really have anything spectacular to blog about, so here are a few random things on my mind:

1- We had some friends over for Valentine's dinner last night and it was so much fun!! We put the kids to bed and then got to work cooking a pretty fantastic dinner (if I do say so myself!). Cooking is something I always enjoy, but it was so much more fun with a friend! We made pecan chicken with honey mustard sauce, crunchy new potatoes, a fantastic salad, and Kahlua java cakes for dessert.....OH MY!!!! I would love to include all of the recipes, but it would take forever and I actually need to write out the one for the chicken, so I'll tell you the easy potato recipe and the dessert recipe at the end of this post (are you just hanging on the edge of your seat?). We ate ourselves almost sick, but it was worth every bite (and every bit of ensuing heartburn!).

2- Today was Global Outreach Sunday at church, and there was a gospel choir there from Poland.....yes, you read that right. They were INCREDIBLE!! So good, in fact, that after the service was over, we went to get the kids and then brought them back into the sanctuary to catch them singing again before the next service! When we left, Molly said, "bye bye big music!" We had a preacher from Singapore deliver the message. I always get especially inspired when we have visitors from other countries leading us in worship, because I imagine THAT is what heaven will be like. I can't wait to hear the choirs from all the nations, singing together to praise God. How utterly amazing!

3- There are some very mean-spirited pants taunting me from my closet. They are all in pretty spring colors and they just loooove that they get to hang there because they know I can't fit 1 leg in. I keep thinking that I need to do something about that, but honestly, I just can't seem to find the real drive. I definitely didn't find it in the dessert I ate last night. It wasn't in the kettle corn I made yesterday either. I don't want to be one of those people who, in 5 years, says, "wow! I weigh as much now as I did when I was 9 months pregnant!" It's time to show those spring pants who's boss. Do I dare make this a blog topic for accountability?

4- My friend commented today that her mother-in-law has said they need to do more things. I think that is probably not for her MIL to say, but what cracked me up is when my friend says, "Yea, I guess she wouldn't be very impressed with the fact that the only thing on my calendar is my period." ha ha ha ha ha!!!! I thought that was hilarious!

5- I wanted to round this out at 5 thoughts, but I don't have 5, so here are the recipes...

Crunchy Red Potatoes

12 red potatoes
1 envelope of Hidden Valley Buttermilk Ranch dressing mix
2 cups crushed corn flakes
1 cup melted butter (if you guess this is a Paula Deen recipe, you are correct!)

Boil the potatoes for 20 minutes. Cool and peel. Combine dressing mix with cornflakes in a bowl. Dip potatoes in butter and then roll in corn flake mix. Place in a greased 13x9. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes until golden.

Mocha Java Cakes

1 cup butter
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips
4 egg yolks
4 eggs
2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. instant coffee granules
pinch of salt

Grease 6 (6 oz) ramekins with butter. Microwave butter and chocolate chips for 1 min. and whisk until smooth. Beat egg yolks and eggs for 1 minute at medium speed in a mixer. Gradually add chocolate mixture in, beating on low speed, until well blended. Sift pwd. sugar and next 3 ingredients together and whisk into chocolate mixture until well blended. Divide among ramekins and place on a jelly roll pan. Bake at 425 for 16 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the outer edge and invert on dessert plates.
* To make Kahlua Java Cakes, skip the instant coffee granules and after whisking in the pwd. sugar mixture, whisk in 1/3 cup Kahlua.

It is now 4:42, and there is still NO ONE awake. I guess I'll go see if that leftover dessert is still in the fridge...