Back in September, I took Melody to her first football game. My high school football team happened to have a game in Huntsville. Emily invited us to go along with her Lydia, so we did.
Zucchini Fries
In an effort to find new way and healthier ways to fix zucchini, I opted to make zucchini fries. These are baked and not covered with bread. Check them out below.
Wayback Burger
A while back we went and tried Wayback Burger. It is semi-new in Huntsville. It wasn’t busy at all, which made me question how great the food was going to be. I will say, the big plus is that your food is made to order. However, this does require you to wait.
September 2018 Disney World Planning and Packing
So I am not going to make this post quite like my Disney World planning post from the past. This trip was completely different than all of my previous trips. We traveled with my mom on a business trip, so we didn’t do as much planning ahead of time. So instead of going through our dining reservations (we only made one or two prior) or our Fastpasses (we made very few of these too), I am going to go through some of the other things we had to plan and pack.
Salisbury Steak
I found this yummy Salisbury steak recipe on Pinterest a while back. I have made Salisbury steak before, but this is probably the best I have ever made. And the gravy portion is to die for. Pair it with mashed potatoes, and yummy!!!
Updated Front Porch Light
While my dad was visiting to help us install our laundry room cabinets, he also helped us install a new front porch light. Unfortunately I don’t have a great before picture of our previous light. It wasn’t very visible anyhow. It was a flush light fixture that wasn’t very appealing at all. We have talked about getting a new light fixture for outside for quite a while. Then when buying some paint at Lowe’s we found this one on clearance. It matches our current fixtures perfectly (although we hope to eventually replace those too).
Laundry Room Makeover
So about 6 months ago, we started a kitchen renovation/restoration project. We sold most of our cabinets that we removed from our kitchen at a yard sale, but we did keep two sets of cabinets to repaint and put in our laundry room. We finally finished this project a few weeks ago, and below are the final results.
Ranch Dressing
Not too long ago, I wanted to make some dipping sauces for my leftover Red Robin. You may have seen the campfire sauce I made that same day. I then decided to make some ranch dressing to go along with it. I used the recipe I found online as a basis, but I did make it my own because I didn’t have all the ingredients. I also would make a few changes in the future. Check them out below.
Halloween 2018
This Halloween was filled with lots of new fun.
Chicken Guy!
My must try restaurant on our September 2018 trip was Chicken Guy! It opened back in August, and my parents were actually able to eat there on Grand Opening day. Mom liked it, and it looked great. So I really wanted to give it a shot.
Toy Story Land AP Event
Back in July, Disney announced a special event for WDW Annual Passholders called Passholder Play Time. It was offered in September for various days throughout the week at 7 am and 8 am. It provided pass holders access to Toy Story Land for an hour with little to no wait times on the three rides along with the character meet and greets. And Woody’s Lunchbox was open for breakfast. Mom and I were able to snag a reservation for 7 am on one of the days during our September trip.
Shrimp Scampi
I never think about cooking shrimp at home for some reason. I have made shrimp scampi a few times though. Publix had shrimp on sale a few weeks ago, so I decided to make it again. Here is the recipe I use.
Yak and Yeti
Yak and Yeti is an Asia restaurant found at Animal Kingdom. Mom and I recently gave it a try on our trip in September. I have been wanting to eat here for a while, but it seems like we are never at Animal Kingdom long enough for a table service restaurant. But this trip, I was sure to make the time.
Disney September 2018
My mom has the privilege to travel for her job. She found out back in June that she was going to be in Orlando for a week. So she wanted Melody and I to tag along, so we picked the week based on our schedules. We decided to go in September.
Campfire Sauce
A few weeks ago I bought home some leftover Red Robin. I rarely eat them myself because I hate reheated fries. And usually I just let Brad take the leftovers. Well he was out of town, so it was all me. We had some frozen fries here, so I only took home the chicken. Well after making my leftovers for dinner in the oven, I realized that I didn't have any dipping sauces. And I love their campfire sauce and ranch…campfire is for fries and ranch is for chicken. Well I wanted to try and recreate it. I found so many conflicting recipes online, and then as I went to cook the fries I realized Red Robin gave me the recipe on the back of the fry bag! So here it is for you! Straight from the Red Robin fry bag!
Halloween Happy
I made Melody another Halloween happy this year. I only did 3 things this year, and they were things I would do even if I didn’t consider them “happys“. First I bought her a cute pair of Halloween themed pajamas. I bought a 3T so that they would also fit next year (although I am not biased to holidays throughout the year…meaning she wears Halloween pajamas even at Easter). I also bought her a new book called Never Touch a Spider. She loves this series of book because of all the things to touch. However, this book is kind of weird compared to the others, but she doesn’t know the difference! Lastly I bought her a small pumpkin to paint from the Target dollar section. I plan on her painting this week since it is Fall Break for dance and school.
Dance 2018
We enrolled Melody in gymnastics this summer to see how she would like it. So then we decided to give dance class a try this fall/spring. So far Melody has only had about 5-6 classes (we missed one due to vacation and one for sickness), but she seems to enjoy it. I am really looking forward to seeing how she continues to do over the next 6 months or so. We are also hoping to add back gymnastics in the near future when an evening opening becomes available. Our days are just so busy! We haven’t been allowed to go into the class and watch them learn except for about 5 minutes at the end. So here are a few pictures of those moments (and a few I was able to take of her before or after her class).
Space and Rocket Center
Back in August, Brad’s parents came to visit us for the weekend. On Saturday of their visit, we decided to do something that his parents have been wanting to do for a while…visit the Space and Rocket Center. Brad and I both visited as kids, and he actually went to Space Camp, but neither of us have been since living in Huntsville.
Boiled Eggs
So I love boiled eggs. I like them alone, in salads, to make different salads, to make deviled eggs, etc. But I despise cooking and peeling them. They are always slightly undercooked and impossible to peel. Well I did some research, then I combined a few methods online until I found something that worked for me.