A little something for everyone....

OK the theme of this entry is All-Inclusive! That brings back flashbacks to my honeymoon.....

(The poor quality of the picture has to do with because my wedding predated my digital days and I was too lazy to scan the photos tonight so I took a picture of our pictures from our honeymoon scrapbook. Nice right?)

Oh my word can't you practically feel the tropical breezes.  We were cute too. Love memory lane.

But all inclusive is the theme because this entry will cover a little of everything; food, feelings, and future.  All inclusive because that is the theme of the recipe.  

So let's start with the food.  I am not sure if this recipe is strangely awesome or awesomely strange. But regardless I am taking the plunge and sharing it with you. 

My husband is a very traditional Meat-n'-Potatoes kind of a guy and he loves nothing better than a dinner at a good steakhouse. We don't go out much, it's the "small kids at home" thing, just doesn't happen.  If you are thinking "we have small kids and my husband and I still take time/energy/money to go on regular dates" well I say more power to you Sister.  Logistically that just doesn't happen often for us.  My husband has been warned, I plan on dating him like crazy when our kids are older but I don't want to wish these years away either, I am extremely happy in this moment.  All that to say we have been a little more creative with our "dates" recently.  This week we celebrated 9 years of wedded bliss.  Almost a decade since those two adorable people up there were sitting chillaxin at that ocean-side All Inclusive.  Having an anniversary adjacent to Mother's Day has also added a interesting scheduling dynamic over the years and this year we thought it best not to try to squeeze in a night out also.  I suggested we do what we did for Valentines day which was put the kids to bed and wait to eat until then and eat a nice dinner just the two of us.  So I asked him "in" instead of out and set out to plan our menu.  What does my husband like? Steak house food.  Even up until as I was cooking I did not realize I was going to do what I did but I thought it was kind of unique and well as I said before strangely awesome.  I had a variety of recipes compiled and as I thought about them there was a familiar vein winding through them and that was because they were very "all-inclusive" of steak house food.  If you eat at a steak house what are the most likely foods you will partake in? Obviously steak and potatoes, probably a salad, some warm bread, maybe an appetizer like a bloomin onion with some dipping sauce.  Oh what about toppers for your steak like grilled veges? Somewhere in all that mess a light bulb went off over my head (instead of a traditional 60 watt incandescent light bulb this may have been a blue light bulb set to blink at various speeds and patterns that can be set to music) "How about mixing it all together?" How about it? Are you ready for this......

Amanda's All Inclusive Ultimate Steak House Salad

As I said I wasn't originally going to add all this together but finally I gave in and the result was as my husband describes "a taste explosion." He was quite happy and so was I but if you read this and think "she has lost her mind!" feel free to take parts of it and ignore the weirdness of it all. 
As I was building the salad there was a lot of zesty,tangy and peppery flavors going on and I like all big salads to have at least a trace of sweetness to them to balance it out.  That is where my unusual maybe Non-Steakhouse ingredient came in but once again I swear it worked and it was just sort of picked because it is what I had on hand.  It was....

Pineapple! I started with cut up romaine and added chunked pineapple!

Then I stir-fried colored peppers and mushrooms in a little EVOO and garlic salt and steak seasoning until tender

I had been wanting to try Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes for a long time, this was where I felt like things got strange. I was going to serve them on the side and in the 11th hour I thought, oh what the heck throw them on the salad, it was definitely a little odd because potato just isn't a typical salad topping but it really was cool how the flavors came together to give you a Steak House Meal All In One Dish feeling to it.  The only thing I may have changed had I known I was loading it all together would be to not use rosemary on the potatoes since I don't know if that completely blended with the other flavors as well. I used her recipe as is and that link can be found here. Thanks Ree!

Now we definitely need the steak, my favorite cut is the Flank, yum yum yum.  If I were rich I may eat it every day. 
I used Molly's Marinade (which I am sure I have mentioned on my blog before - my sister's friend Molly passed on this gem, it's short enough I won't link it but lay it out for you again!)  Marinade in A1 Steak sauce, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil and minced garlic.  I don't really measure I just dump a bunch of each on the meat.  It's amazing. 

Now we are getting to the top of the salad.  I made a batch of Comeback sauce to use as dressing.  I saw it on Pinterest. It's supposedly in line with the type of sauce you dip a bloomin onion in.  I used this blogger's recipe here. It has quite a kick to it but in a good way and that was why I hired the pineapple, to mellow out the sauce.  I thought we also needed something crunchy, crouton-like for our salad.  We used tortilla chips crushed the first time as pictured but we discussed what other options might fit the theme and for leftovers I used crushed Pita Chips (have you tried Stacy's, they are incredible!) I actually liked the Pita chips better.  Another optioned we considered would be those french fried onions.  But this was date night so we stayed away from those! Lastly we garnished with a little green onion (for some reason they are never quite as breath-busting as some other types of onion!)

Add a little candlelight, flowers from my daughters dance recital, a diet coke (although the waiter coming by with refills was sorely missed) and the kitchen radio playing softly to drown out any shenanigans coming from upstairs where the kids have a nightly routine of getting out of bed a hundred times before finally going to sleep and we were able to have a nice long conversation and a relaxing Steakhouse meal.  I think we talked uninterrupted for over an hour.   It was awesome. So there you have it.  Be sure to weigh in and tell me what you think; weird? or awesome? or both?

I can't be done though.  I also made a dessert, not for our date but for Mother's Day.  It is not diet friendly.  I'm sorry.  It was a special occasion. My special occasion.  I wanted chocolate and peanut butter so I went for it, deal with it. 

Reece's Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

This was the picture after my family devoured 2/3 of the pan.  My extended family not just us four, in case you were horrified.  Pretty easy start by baking your favorite type of brownies.  You know my rule, once you go Ghiradelli's there is no going back.  Then strategically place PB cups on top and stick back in oven for 3 min.

In as much as they melted spread them around.  Then whip up a batch of amazing Chocolate PB Frosting that I found a la Pinterest here. I seriously may spend the rest of my life trying to come up with new excuses to make this frosting.  It is the best thing I have ever eaten in my life.  Pour over brownies while hot (I think that makes it spread nicer!)

Do you want to see something cool?

Look at those layers, I see blobs of peanut butter.  There is nothing wrong with that. Then I took a few more PB cups and froze them so they would break apart and crumbled them on top. Happy Mother's day to me! Chocolate heaven.

Which brings me to another meaning of all-inclusive.  I need to talk about more than just food.  I was reading another blogger talking about how they sometimes build up Mother's Day so big in their mind that the actual holiday seems to fall short. And I totally do that too.  And having it always butting up against my anniversary I practically expect parades in my honor and to be carried around on one of those elevated chair thingies.  That hasn't happened. Not yet anyway.  But it occurred to me late last night that one of the reasons that I was feeling like this day didn't feel different enough is because my kids and especially my husband treat me pretty darn awesome all of the time!! I am a very blessed lady (I think blessed sounds nicer than spoiled don't you?) Breakfast in bed? There are many days when I wake to a breakfast in my room even if it's just a protein shake or a cup of coffee just the way I like it.  Help around the house? My husband helps me with the dishes and the laundry (he even cleans toilets -- no you can't have him, he's mine!) and my oldest is getting really helpful now too (the three year old definitely still messes more than cleans) so I know I am blessed in that regard.  Showered with gifts? I don't go a day without kisses and "I love you(s)" and "You're beautiful(s)" and "Look at what I made for you" (largely in the shape of arts and crafts) being thrown my way.  We joked today with my niece who said "when is Daughter's day?" that every day is daughter's day because Mother's (and Dad's too!) are constantly giving of themselves to their kids tirelessly and often with little thanks and appreciation.  Or are they? See when I think of it this way, everyday is Mother's day too. If I am loved and cared for by these little munchkins and my Big Hunky Man day in and day out even when I'm cranky and have a short fuse or burn dinner or don't want to read Go Dogs Go for the 9 Millionth time isn't that treating me special tirelessly on their part in their own way that they know how.

This morning I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was my beautiful daughter who declared that I her Queen would be receiving my Royal Breakfast In Bed momentarily and then that face disappeared and the next cherub appeared and said "Momma!" very excitedly as if she to had a very important proclamation.  "What is it sweetie?" "Ummmmmm.....I lub you!" Big toothy grin from her. My heart melted. Even now as I can hear the sound in her voice replaying in my ears I well up with tears.  That is all I need to have the Happiest Mother's Day ever.  I can think of scores of women who have struggled with fertility and miscarriages and on Mother's Day I often shed a tear and share a prayer for them.  There is no more thanks that I need or deserve that being made to feel loved as I am EVERY day if I sit up and pay attention. 

After church this morning my husband had to stay behind for the second service to fulfill ushering duties and would be along to help prepare for our guests shortly.  I hadn't thought we had left that much for the last minute! And I had jokingly told him yesterday that "tomorrow I won't be lifting a finger so be ready for that." When I arrived home he called to say that he had extra stuff to do at church and wouldn't make it home before guests. So I swept the porch and walkway, vacuumed the couch, picked up all random last minute items, finished the dessert prep, emptied and then loaded the dishwasher, washed down all the kitchen surfaces (although I feel like I never truly get it clean!), cleaned up the back door area which always is cluttered, vacuumed the kitchen (because every time the slider opens 8 million maple tree seeds come flying in), and attended to an invisible boo-boo that the three year old sobbed needed a band aid which she promptly removed 5 min later as the boo-boo was now "all done".  Meanwhile my "helpers" gave their best efforts to assist me. And I was impressed, they put stuff away, emptied the low-reachable-non breakable items from the dishwasher, swept with assistance, vacuumed with assistance and best of all apologized multiple times that I was having to work on Mother's day.  When my husband came home after this was all done I think he was expecting the "angry wife unappreciated and ignored on Mother's day" speech.  But I smiled and gave him a kiss.  You see the whole time I was doing that work I was thinking about all the single mom's out there who never have a helpmate for chores or mom's whose husbands bravely serve our nation stationed far from home what help do they have on these day to day activities.  Being a mom and having a loving and supportive family is my privilege and the greatest blessing in my life.  Thinking of all they do for me flashes in front of my mind's eye like the parade I felt in year's past that I had earned.  When I think back to why I started this blog, to be a better me for myself but also and more importantly for them, to sow a legacy of right living into their lives.  What better way to continue that pattern then to change my perspective on Mother's Day.  I am humbled by the blessings in my life. 

We needed sunglasses, so Grandma, the photographer contributed!

And of course I think about my Mom on Mother's Day, who would I be without her and her driving influence in my life (and no Mom I don't mean modeling how you drive, you sort of have a reputation in that regard!) She is so special to me and I honor her today.  Every day I spend loving my girls I think of how she loved me and pray they feel the same way about me when they are grown as I feel about them now!

My oldest sister couldn't be with us this year so here is a picture from last Mother's Day of my lovely Momma and her girls, and we are all Momma's ourselves now. 

Happy Mother's Day ladies!! Count your blessings.

And as for the future, this is too long already so that will have to be "included" next time. Peace.