fire in the hole bites

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Flashback: Matt Saracen throwing a football through a tire in his front yard while Landry makes witty remarks on the side and Grandma yells confusing things from the porch. That's a round about way of telling you foosball fans that these would be a good thing for you to produce for your friends on game day.

Fire in the hole has nothing to do with this post. I just felt like using it in the title so these are now called fire in the hole bites. What they actually are is chicken tenders stuffed with cream cheese and jalapenos wrapped in bacon and grilled.

Ingredients (can be halved, I was making them for an event)
2 8 oz packages chicken tenders, pounded thin and cut in half
8 oz package of cream cheese
3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped
1 package of bacon, cut in half
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Pink Himalayan sea salt
Toothpicks, soaked in water

Directions
Grab a piece of chicken. Add a dab of cream cheese (just under a teaspoon) to the top. Top with some jalapeno pieces, pressing into the cream cheese. Dust with garlic powder and onion powder. Fold up or roll in half, wrap in bacon, and spear with a toothpick to secure. Top off with some pink himalayan sea salt.

Preheat grill to about 350. Grill until bacon is brown and crispy on both sides. Mine took about 10 minutes. Make sure you pre-soak the tooth picks. I did not and it was not cool. Learn from my mistakes! LOL

Clean up well with antibacterial everything since you will be handling raw chicken. Toss any cream cheese you don't use if it's been chicken contaminated.

Original recipe from Salad in a Jar.

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Haikuesday

Toothpicks on the grill...

Nearly caught myself on fire.

I still have eyebrows.

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Did you know today is my half birthday? It is. I think I'll have a piece of cake. You should too if for no other reason than it'll make Tuesday infinitely better. 

TWTW - the one before vacation

Friday night I had to work late and didn't get home until after 7. MFD was away for the weekend so I locked the doors, made naughty nachos, and sunk into Luther. Ruth Wilson is insane and awesome and not enough can be said about Idris Elba. 

Saturday morning I did a Target run for fun things like doormats and new glass water bottles and not fun things like toilet paper and sports bras. I came home to construction.

Yes, we are getting the backyard concrete done the week we go on vacation. We like to live on the edge. By we I mean MFD because this project so close to departure is stressing me the fuck out. There's no fence on one side right now so it's like playing goalie to the dogs. Not fun. I did get assurances that it was going to be poured today. If it's not, you will hear my scream this evening no matter where you are in the world. 

I met my BFFs Debbie and Michelle for lunch at Las Margaritas for a late celebration of Debbie's birthday. 

Before lunch I went to Marshalls. It was a bad one so I didn't expect the homegoods section to be awesome but it was. So I went back after lunch and secured things for a future decor project, including a clearance table I had to drag all over the store because they only had small carts. I was tempted to go to another Marshalls after that but told myself to slow my roll. Instead I came home, got in bed without dinner and watched more Luther. Then I was hungry at 9:30 p.m. so I had cookies and milk. Not nutritious but quite delicious.

Sunday I did the typical hausfrauing (sheets and towels and blah blah blah) and started packing for our trip. I'm waiting on the Amazon delivery of more e-bags packing bags but everything is laid out in the spare room and a lot of stuff is in the suitcase. I'm pumped. Do you guys print and bind your itinerary and confirmations or am I the only dork? I typically have it in my planner and phone but am worried about the lack of WiFi everywhere so I figured I'd be safe and have it all in hand.

L'Shanah Tovah to all of my Jewish friends, and happy birthday to my friend Lauren. La, if you find an awesome new appetizer this fall as you usually do, please take pics and do a guest blog for me! xoxo

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending

life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness

This weekend, I'm going to do whatever I please in the greatest country in the world. Fourteen years ago terrorists tried to discourage us from living life the American way. We lost a great number of our fellow Americans. It hurt then. It still hurts now. We will not forget what happened that day or the people we lost. We will also never forget the awe-inspiring takes of bravery and sacrifice. That's the American way.

Unfortunately for those who sought to destroy us, Americans are resilient. Every day our best counter attack is carrying on as we do. This weekend, do it for the people who no longer have the opportunity. They would want you to. That, too, is the American Way.

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Peace.

I'm gonna keep on loving you...

How about a little REO Speedwagon to tug on your heart strings on this fine Wednesday morning? There are some things I love so deeply I can say with near certainty that I'm going to keep on loving them. Things like...

Trying new restaurants

Reading books and blogging about books and checking out everyone's Show Us Your Books posts and basically never shutting the fuck up about books

Witnessing the sunrise

Taking advantage of Amazon Prime

Glancing up to see the American flag flapping in the breeze

Laughing at Veep, especially my favorite - Gary

Drinking weekend and vacation coffee

People watching

Seeing awesome things happen to and for the people I love

Strolling on the Ocean City boardwalk 

Spending time with my girlfriends

Watching my beloved 80s movies - Dirty Dancing, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo's Fire, Sixteen Candles, The Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck, Top Gun, Ghostbusters, Clue, Vacation, Christmas Vacation, Caddyshack, Fast Times, Stand by Me, Heathers

Having ridiculous conversations with MFD

Practicing daily gratitude

Hearing stories of generosity and wins for humanity

Walking in the woods with my dogs at Lori & Jack's

Buying new nail polish

Listening to the Born to Run / Rumors / August and Everything After albums from start to finish 

Wearing lounge attire

Planning vacations

What are some things you think you're gonna keep on loving?

Show Us Your Books - What I read in August

Books books books. It's book talk daaaaay. I mean, if you know me, every day is book talk day. I always want to hear what you're reading, especially if you recommend it. And the Show Us Your Books Linkup is certainly not the only day I discuss books on this blog. But it is my favorite day to discuss books because you're all out there all over the place discussing your books too!

Linkup Guidelines:
1. Please visit and comment with both of your hosts, Jana & me
2. Please display the button or link back to us on your blog post
2. Please visit a few other blogs who've linked up and get some book talk going!

Now for the nitty gritty - what I read since the last linkup. The library screwed me and didn't deliver on a lot of my holds so I actually used my kindle Lori passed down to me. I know, shocker. I need to assimilate myself to it anyway given that I cannot haul books throughout the National Parks later this month and overseas to Africa and Europe next year. Well, let's be honest - I will take one or two actual books, but I will need more than that. 

Engrossing Reads

Bad Blood (Virgil Flowers #4) by John Sandford - I'm really enjoying these. I mean, Sandford has this guy referred to as "that fucking Flowers" throughout the novels. That is totally something I'd do and say. This was probably the most fucked up of the four books so of course it was the most engrossing thus far. I read it in a day.

The Lies We Tell by Meg Carter - I got a free copy of this book from netgalley for a review. This does its job as a thriller - I really wanted to know what the heck was going on. There were a lot of good threads to this story - maybe too many as a few times I had to stop and go back to re-read, which doesn't happen to me often. And it wasn't because I wasn't paying attention. It was a little sloppy but I can overlook that. I was driven to finish by my need to know how far the lunacy will go. Which is a good indication of a book that is more than passable for me.

X (Kinsey Millhone #24) by Sue Grafton - The Millhone series is one of my favorite of all time. Between this and the Stephanie Plum series, I go back so many years with these strong female characters. I feel like we're old friends. The latest by Grafton does not disappoint. I was so excited when I realized it was released that I bought it immediately on Amazon and started reading it on the kindle. I don't buy many books at opening prices.

Passed the Time Just Fine

Loyalty (Fina Ludlow #1) by Ingrid Thoft - This is going to be a series (obviously) and I liked Fina and her friend and I'll read more of these. Fina kicks ass.

Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach - This was interesting for a while, then it sort of fizzled in a hurry. There were so many other places to take this. Moggach did real work to subtly point out the issues and unreliability of the narrator without shoving it in the reader's face. Then she played it safe and buttoned it up. Tsk tsk.

Everything I Left Unsaid by M. O'Keefe - I got this for free from netgalley in return for a review. I'm not typically a mommy porn reader, and being that this was really heavily centered around phone sex, that's what this is. If I had to say something to the author, I would say that I actually like Annie's character and how she comes out of her shell. The Dylan character wasn't fleshed out as much. There's great potential in the trailer park characters too that isn't tapped into. You can keep your sexy times and add some more substance, it won't hurt! I am annoyed because the cliff hanger is such that I feel compelled to read the next one...that's the mark of a good cliff hanger though, no? It is totally sex heavy and not for prudish readers!

Shock Wave (Virgil Flowers #5) by John Sandford - That fuckin' Flowers again. Another good one in a series of good ones from John Sandford. I really enjoy series I can rely on to deliver.

Love May Fail by Matthew Quick - There were a lot of things I could crap on about this book, but something about it just got me so I won't. It felt a little fly by the seat of your pants and leap of faith-ish, but I truly loved Chuck Bass (for more reasons than that he shares the awesome name of The Chuck Bass) and his part of the book, although last, was my favorite. It made me feel a little yearn-y and a little hopeful and a little believe in miracles-ish and I guess it hit me at the right time. I really enjoyed it.

Hard No

In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume  - This is not a hard no but I wasn't adding a category. This pains me because I've read and loved every single thing Judy Blume has ever written.. But I couldn't get through this. I think it's a case of reading it at the wrong time. I'm going to try it again over the winter.

The Red House by Mark Haddon - I really like Mark Haddon's turn of phrase. I basically subsisted through this book on the beauty of some imagery and how he strung together words. The story was weird and too scattered.

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith - I picked this up at the library and thought oh good, a weird one. This will be interesting. It wasn't. It was straight up torture. Save yourselves. I couldn't finish.

This link up happens the second Tuesday of every month. The next one is Tuesday, October 13. 

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Non-bloggers, what have you read recently? Let me know what you recommend and what to stay away from. Bloggers, link up your posts below.

An InLinkz Link-up

And one more thing! Sara was kind enough to share a Philly love post of mine over at Journey of Doing today - please check it out!