Y’all – that picture up there is filled with madness.

But I can’t tell y’all about it yet.

I’m truly – honestly – heart wrenchingly sorry that I can’t, but I can’t post the recipe until 11 AM CST.

Loaded Baked Potato Grilled Cheese recipe is live!!!

Sorry – those are the rules.

I know that I missed last week.

I hope y’all can forgive me.

Monkey is SOOO much better!

and then there was the WEDDING!

and the root canals.

Basically, I’ve been a bad. bad blogger.

But a really good mom and sister and wife and coach and friend.

So…

ummmmm……

Thanks for sticking with me.

and seriously, y’all.

COME BACK AT 11 AM CST – because a grilled cheese sandwich that tastes like a loaded baked potato is so tonguegasmically worth it.

The recipes that caught my eye from the last linky

Dewberry Lemon Pudding Cake – Newlyweds Blog

Mini Cheese Straws – Made Famous By

Grilled Potato Salad – Pocket Change Gourmet

Fresh Orange and Vanilla Cake – Feeding My Temple

I can’t wait to see what y’all are sharing this week!  Y’all have no idea how much I love your comments, recipes and inspiration!  Thanks for coming by every week to share your recipes!

If you follow me on facebook, you know that there hasn’t been a lot of cooking going on in my house because for the past 3 weeks we’ve been dealing with some health issues with Monkey that have taken up a ridiculous amount of time.
This past Wednesday – we (he) finally found answers and relief (Praise God)
I won’t go into the details in this post because it’s not in any way appetizing – but I will say that I think we finally have some light at the end of this tunnel and he FINALLY got to go back to school today!!!!!!!!

I have a couple of recipes to share later this week, but for today I’m sharing with y’all the recipe that kept snagging my attention over and over and over again from last week’s linky.

This Rosemary-Sriracha Chicken from Mostly Food and Crafts grabbed my attention immediately, how could it not?  It features two of my favorite ingredients; Fresh Rosemary and Sriracha and look at that GORGEOUS caramelization on that chicken leg {drool}

This chicken definitely going on our summer bbq menu rotation!

Danielle’s blog is full of all kinds of yummy recipes, crafty ideas and family fun – y’all should definitely go check her out!  Thank you for the recipe Danielle!!!

A few others that made me drool from last week:

• Fried Pickles from Mom’s Test Kitchen
• Plain Jane Vanilla Cupcakes from The Farm Girl Dabbles
• Homemade Vege Chips from Real Food Forager
• Brown Sugar Bacon Stuffed Waffles from Mrs. Happy Homemaker

I think that next week Mouthwatering Monday will have a brand new beautiful linky button created by the amazing Deanna!!!! YAY!

Thanks for linking up, y’all!  I love browsing your blogs, seeing your recipes and photos and sharing your family stories!  Thank y’all for being so fantastic!  Remember to play nice.

Link Up

Link Back

Comment

Visit

Share what you love!

This Baked Honey Mustard Chicken Tenders recipe is so good (as is the giveaway) that I’m not posting a new recipe today, but re-linking them so that all y’all wonderful Mouthwatering Monday linkers get to see it, too.

Seriously, y’all – the chicken is juicy – the ‘breading’ is crispy and they’re BAKED.

Get the recipe for the Baked Honey Mustard Chicken Tenders and enter to win.

Thank y’all for linking up every Monday.  I love seeing what y’all are serving your families and whipping up weekly.  Your tonguegasmic dishes inspire me, make me drool and have me pinning like a fool

A few favorites from last week:

• Cranberry Orange Bagels
• Chicken Black Bean and Salsa Soup
• Blueberry Coconut Lime Puffins
• Cilantro Chicken Salad

Make sure y’all link up and follow linky etiquette:

• Link Up a recipe from YOUR blog
• Link Back in your recipe post so that your readers can join in the fun.
• Leave a comment on today’s Mouthwatering Monday Post.
• Visit and Comment on 6 other fellow participants.

Do y’all remember when I posted about Eggy?

About the 17 Day diet, our successes and my complete lack of inspiration for what to do with eggplant that fit into The 17 Day Diet parameters.

Little did I know… there’s a recipe for Eggplant Parmesan in the back of The 17 Day Diet book.

My brother started raving about it, another friend who has had amazing success with the diet, also raved about the recipes.. so I threw caution to the wind and decided that I had little to lose (if you’ll excuse the pun) by experimenting with this spongy-purpley-black veggie

I can’t be the only one who wants to put googly eyes and ears on them… they just remind me of little purple piglets.

This recipe called for 1 C low carb marinara sauce, I have yet to understand why anyone buys spaghetti/marinara/red sauce when it is so unbelievably simple to make

2 (1-lb) Cans of  Petite Diced Tomatoes – 1/2 a large onion, chopped – 7 garlic cloves, minced and 1 1/2 TBSP of your favorite garlic seasoning (I am partial to Zatarain’s Big and Zesty Garlic and Herb Seasoning – and I have been since LOOOONG before I started partnering with them)  sweat the onions, add the garlic and tomatoes and seasoning and simmer for 30 minutes to all day.  No matter what you pair this with – it will be devoured.

This was my secret weapon for this unknown dish – This 17 Day Diet Purple Spongy Veggie Thing – I knew that no matter what I put this sauce on – it would be edible.

Caution. Meet the wind, and prepare to be tossed.

The first time I made this, I completely made it according to the book – we ate it.

The second time, I adjusted it according to our preferences and we ate it and enjoyed it.

The book suggests pressing the 1/4″ eggplant slices into the fat free parm cheese to coat – in our opinion, this is too much.

I sliced the eggplant 1/4″ thick – dipped it into the frothy egg whites

and lightly pressed both sides into fat free parmesan cheese (yes, the shaker kind) that I had mixed with a bit of paprika and fresh ground pepper.

Spray a vented pan with baking spray and bake at 400 °F for 20 minutes, turn and bake for 10 minutes.

Top with your delicious tomato sauce and serve

Happy Monday, y’all!  Hope it’s tonguegasmic!

Thanks for linking up your deliciousness – I love seeing what you’re feeding your friends and family.  Thank y’all for linking up every Monday.

Remember the Linky Etiquette and make sure y’all are being good linkers:

• link up
• link back
• visit and comment at least 6 other participants
• pin, stumble, tweet etc..

I can’t believe that Easter is this coming weekend!
WHERE is this year going??

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got class parties this week, Easter Menus to plan and Easter shoes to find.

I thought I’d help y’all out a little bit with the menu planning and share some of my favorite Easter Recipes.

Do you have a class Easter party this week?

I made these adorable and EASY Easter Peepcakes last year and they were a major hit!

Easter Appetizers

• I love this Creamy Avocado Yogurt Dip from Maria at Two Peas and Their Pod
• These Old Bay Deviled Eggs from Noble Pig make my mouth water
• You can’t go wrong with my Party Cheeseball

Main Dish

• Bourbon and Brown Sugar Ham
• Pineapple Chipotle Glazed Ham

• Need your oven for your apps and side dishes?  Try this Slow Cooker Maple Ham from CrockPot 365
• This recipe for a Honey Mustard Glazed Ham from Chow looks amazing!

Side Dishes

• Wow your friends and family with these tonguegasmic Bacon Wrapped Asparagus Bundles

• This Corn Casserole with Bacon and Cream Cheese from Buns in My Oven sounds heavenly
• I’ve recently fallen in love with snap peas and these Herbed Sugar Snap Peas from Family Fresh Cooking are already on my list of things to make SOON!

Dessert

• Caroline, from Chocolate and Carrots, developed this AMAZING Bird’s Nest Cake for Food Bliss and I honestly drool every time I see it.
• These amazing Triple Chocolate Cookies from Dine and Dish would be a perfect easy to grab, rich and yummy dessert
• This bourbon banana pudding with glazed pecans from Gourmet makes my heart go pitty pat

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just a few recipes to inspire y’all and get y’all thinkin’!  What are your plans for Easter weekend?

Do y’all do a traditional Easter Egg Hunt? Sunrise Church Service?  Lots of Food, Family and Friends?  I’d love to hear your Easter plans.

Thanks for linking up every week, y’all!  I love seeing what’s going on in your kitchens and what y’all are serving your loved ones.

A few favorites from last week

• Parmesan Quinoa Bites
• Italian Rainbow Cookies
• Potstickers
• Chipotle Sweet Potato Fries

Mouthwatering Monday:  Link up your recipe, link back, comment, visit others and comment, pin, stumble, tweet, share the love :0)  Happy Monday, y’all!

Well, that’s what was supposed to be featured today.

This, however is the only picture that I have

Y’all, I’m really starting to think that I’m just not meant to cook recipes from Cooking Light. Every single time that I attempt something from that magazine something always seems to go wrong or something happens and the recipes never quite work out.

I was attempting this herbed panko crusted shrimp from the March Issue and I managed to get the breading made, the shrimp peeled and de-veined and even got the shrimp into the pan with hot oil…

When from the living room I hear…

THUNK

Then I hear,  “Rach, I need paper towels in here.  NOW!!!”

I grab the paper towel roll and run into the living room, to see Nathan with his hand covering the back of Monkey’s head, blood on Monkey’s shirt, and tears streaming down his face.

Oh no. Not Again

Thank God, it wasn’t.

This time, instead of the fireplace, he slipped and fell by our entertainment center.  This time he hit his back on the way down, giving himself one helluva bruise/raspberry on his back, but I think that saved his head.  I think that hitting his back slowed his momentum and resulted in a small crack on the back of his head, instead of a staple requiring gash.

By the time I got back to the kitchen the stench was overwhelming and the black crispy things were in no way edible.

Monkey’s fine

We’ll try this recipe another time (maybe)

I have several yummy things planned for this week – it’ll be fun to fit them in between kickball and open houses and subbing and Easter pictures at the school- can’t wait to share them with y’all!

A Few of My Favorites from Last Week’s Linky

• Baked Snickerdoodle Doughnuts
• Bacon Guacamole Grilled Cheese Sandwich
• Creme De Menthe Mousse
• Calabacitas Enchiladas

Happy Monday, y’all!  Thanks for stopping by and linking up your delicious recipes.  I love seeing what y’all are serving your friends and family and being inspired by what y’all are whipping up in your kitchens.  Make sure you link up, link back, leave a comment saying Hi or something and visit others!

If you follow me on instag.ram or twitter or were at Wasabi restaurant on Wednesday night before Blissdom — you know that I had my first somewhat skeptical and reluctant experience with sushi.

you will also know that I rented a 50 mm 1.2 lens and that this is one of the first pictures taken with said lens (soc)

I arrived at the ridiculously accommodating and wonderful Gaylord Opryland hotel at 5:00 on Wednesday – I was starving.

While standing on a bridge tweeting about being hungry and wanting dinner companions,  I met the adorable Melissa, due to our mutual love and ownership of a certain beautiful Epiphanie! Bag.  Right after agreeing to eat dinner together, I ran into the simply incomparable, Cecily who introduced me to Amber and from there – let’s just say – the party got started — and then some.

Cecily and Jennifer RAVED about their sushi – the meal that I had ordered was definitely beautiful

Just not rave-worthy, except for the spinach and quince, that was insanely tonguegasmic. 

( this is not a complaint – it’s just life and what happened)

The darling Jenner (our server) was definitely on top of things and noticed that my food was not being eaten (except the spinach.  Y’all that spinach was crazy good) He immediately took action by offering me another meal, anything I wanted, on the house.   I hemmed and hawed and proclaimed that I was fine and didn’t need anything.. Neither Jenner or the table was letting me do that.  I was finally convinced by the other ladies at the table (there were roughly 10 of us) to give sushi a try.   I was skeptical, but I knew that if I didn’t like it, Cecily and Jennifer would be more than happy to step in and take over

The crazy ari roll arrived and at Cecily’s instruction – I swished some wasabi (YUM) into my soy sauce, snapped apart my chopsticks and somewhat apprehensively grabbed a bite, dipped, swirled, dunked and took a mouthful.

Y’all.

Y’all.

Y’ALL!

Flavor explosion!

Slow burn.

YUMMMMMMMM

Why did nobody tell me about this????

There’s a rumor that I had that Crazy Ari roll at Wasabi a couple of days in a row — but we don’t believe in rumors, do we? *wink*

 What else are y’all hiding from me?

I’m dying for y’all to tell me your sushi secrets!  Do you make it at home?  Do you have a favorite sushi place?  What’s your favorite dish and why???

Be my sushi- yoda(s)!

I met so many amazing people this weekend and was beyond inspired by the photography workshops that I attended and by each and every person with whom I spent time.  My heart is overflowing, my brain is partially melted and my body is beyond exhausted – I can’t wait to do it all again next year!!!!

For now – let’s go with y’all sharing your recipes with me!  It’s Monday and y’all know what that means!

It’s time to link up, link back, comment, visit and share the Mouthwatering Monday Tonguegasmic love!

A few of last week’s favorites

• Mini Raspberry Marble Cheesecakes
• Cranberry Jalapeno Salsa
• S’mores Cake
• Linzer Pop Tarts

Happy Monday, y’all!

I made this recipe again last week and I remember again how much I love it!  I re-photographed it, because the old pics were sooo dull and grainy and orange-y!

This Rosemary Garlic Lemon Chicken recipe is a gift to me from one of my favorite people, Jessi of To Kiss The Cook and it’s become one of our favorite recipes over the past few years.

As a bonus!! by lowering the olive oil and salt amounts – and serving it with steamed broccoli and lemon – it’s completely in line with our 17 Day Diet weight loss plan!

So – for this delicious Mouthwatering Monday – I’m sharing with y’all a family favorite – a friend’s recipe – and a new design!  What do y’all think?

Isn’t Deanna fabulous!

Can’t wait to see what y’all have in store for me today!!!

A few favorites from last week’s linky

• Whole Grain Waffles with Raspberry Syrup
• Strawberry Fruit Leather
• Dipped Red Velvet cookies
• Double Chocolate Meyer Lemon Mousse Cake

y’all know the routine:

link up – link back – visit – share – comment   (hopefully  we’ll have a new Mouthwatering Monday button for y’all next week!

(relax, breathe...they won't bite)

The part of Rachel will be played today by…Deanna

(hi!)

So there was this storm…A storm that knocked out Rachel’s internet. Like COMPLETELY. So she asked me to step in for her today, and I just hope I don’t wreck the place. (it’s ok, cause I’m her blog designer too)

Speaking of, we are working on a new look for A Southern Fairytale – a little new paint, some new decorations…it will be fabulous!

But you didn’t come here to listen to me ramble – you want to share some recipes!  I’ll be visiting as many of you as I can, and hopefully Rachel will be back by Tuesday!

This beautiful, buttery, cinnamon and brown sugar filled Southern Classic – Sock It To Me Cake – is Nathan’s favorite cake.

It is the one he requests for every birthday.

This year, Monkey and Princess helped me make Nathan’s birthday cake.

I love passing family recipes on to my kids, watching their eyes take in the tattered and stained recipe cards, the smells the same ones that I remember from my own childhood.

With this cake, we even had a milestone reached.

Monkey finally mastered cracking eggs into the bowl without getting eggshells in the bowl!!!

Look! Even the eggs were happy!

This cake is so simple to make – it starts with a boxed cake mix – as so many delicious Southern recipes do and the rich buttery flavor is enhanced by cinnamon, brown sugar, walnuts and even sour cream.  Y’all should have seen Princess’ face when I told her there was sour cream in this cake

Oh.. Wait..

Here it is -

After the gifts were presented and a few tears shed by a very touched and proud Daddy,  the cake was served and declared the best one yet – which is saying A LOT – as I’ve been making this cake for Nathan for over 13 years.

I hope y’all try out this southern and family favorite recipe!

A few favorites from last week’s linky

• Chickpea Salad with Grilled Pita Bread
• Cinnamon Raisin Oatcakes
• Tamale Cups
• Fried Green Beans
• Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

Thank y’all for linking up your amazing recipes every week.  I love seeing what y’all are serving your friends and families!  You often inspire my own table and definitely leave me hungry!

Don’t forget to visit and comment on a few other participants, link back to A Southern Fairytale and Mouthwatering Mondays in your recipe post and leave a comment after you link up, I love hearing from y’all!

Happy Monday!