A winter storm came through the Carolinas which started on Friday night. Snow fell through Saturday and now we are buried in snow! How exciting is that, eh? Well, when I say buried, take that with a lot of grains of salt especially if you live where snow is a regular occurrence. Don’t forget that we live in the South where any snow is a big event. So when we get almost a foot of snow, we consider that being ‘buried’.

We’ve been eagerly anticipating this snow since Wednesday when they started spraying the streets with the nasty anti-ice concoction. I was still at work around six o’clock on Friday evening when the snow started falling. When I saw the snow fall through my office window, you’d think a parade was going by! I was almost jumping up and down with glee and so was my office mate who eagerly came to the window with me. I hurriedly wrapped things up at work and headed home. As I was driving, the snow kept falling at a brisk pace. It was so pretty I had to take a video. I just love the look of snow coming at me and swirling around the car. It was beautiful! And I just found the coincidence so amusing that while I was enjoying the snow fall, the song ‘It never rains in California’ started playing on the radio! I just had to take a video. lol!
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The theme for this week’s bloghop is YOUR FAVORITE RECIPE. It has been a very popular topic and Brent is compiling all the recipes submitted into a book. If you’d like your recipe in the book, make sure to also submit your recipes to http://www.mcklinky.com/recipes.asp.

We have too many favorite recipes to mention, just take a look at our food blog to see some of them so how about the latest favorite that we made? This salad, we only make during the summer when our garden produces the sweet potato leaves used for this salad. Yes, you heard me right, sweet potato tops! My grandmother loved this salad and would always make it for us. Sadly, she passed away earlier this year and me miss her tremendously. It brought tears to my eyes when my daughter Asi asked for this salad earlier this summer and referred to it as “Lola’s Kamote Salad“. Lola means grandmother in Pilipino (the language spoken in the Philippines) and Kamote is the word for sweet potato or yam.

It just made me happy and sad at the same time that we get to remember her this way. I love how we associate so many memories of her with the food we continue to make and eat in her honor. So on to the recipe!
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We do a good job at eating home as much as possible; but when you have a full time job and three busy teenagers you just can’t help but eat out every once in a while. Well, more like at least once a week in our case. I try to plan meals so that when I cook, we would have enough leftover for the next day. Even with some planning, I get caught without a meal ready somedays. Often these times come when I’ve worked late or the kids had some after school activity that takes us past dinner time.

These are the times when we either pick up something to take home and eat or just eat out and save ourselves some clean up chores before bedtime.

More often than not though, I depend on quick and simple meals that can be prepared in less than an hour. Here are a few of our favorites.

Easy Carbonara, Easy Wonton Soup & Chicken with Basil & String Beans

 
 
 
 
 
 

Baked Tilapia with Teriyaki Sauce & Onions, Fried Tilapia with Pasta and Asparagus & Pork Loin and Fried Rice

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
All these dishes really can be prepared under one hour. What is your favorite quick meal (bought or home cooked)?

If you’re like me and hoard coupons to eating places for just in case moments, you may be interested in winning a $5 gift certificate to Wendy’s. Just click on the link and tell them what your favorite meal on the run is. Good luck!

Here’s another update on what’s been going on in our other blogs.

On our review blog, FOUND NOT LOST, we posted about a site we found on how to fold money origami, entered a book giveaway, and found a site to keep guys out of the dog house.

On our food blog, COOKED FROM THE HEART, we had the bunny baos, the black bottomed pie and steak Diane.

 
 
 
 
 
 
IN OUR BACKYARD, we’re just getting the beds primed for planting again. We have, however, just harvested our first crop of greens and managed to sock a couple of bags away in the freezer already! I’m excited. I can’t wait for the tomatoes, beans, zucchinis and herbs to come. We also now have four fruit trees that grew out of the compost. We now have peach, pear and cherry trees! Only on their second year, the peaches already have some fuzzy buds coming out. I can’t wait to see if they will put out some fruit this year.