My brother surprised me when we gathered at his house for Christmas last year. He said, “Oh, I found something in the attic that I’ve been meaning to give you.” It was my first guitar that I got when I was around 14. I thought it had been thrown out or lost long ago, so it was a great surprise! It’s pretty much shot from the heat, but Logan has taken a liking to it and is starting to “play” it like that kid in the movie, August Rush. Start ’em young…
Logan and Guitar
Erin’s Find….
So, Penny is helping Erin get out of the back seat of our van this past week and I hear this brief conversation:
Penny: “Erin, what is that on your finger?”
Erin: “It’s a booger…out of my ear.”
Penny: “Mmm. Nice… Let’s go eat lunch now…”
Creative Ideas for Leftover Christmas Turkey
This year, Penny’s mom cooked a great ham AND a turkey breast for Christmas dinner. Somehow, we ended up with the whole half of the leftover turkey (which was GREAT!). So, after a few days of straight leftover turkey, dressing, gravy, etc., we decided to come up with some alternative creative ways to take advantage of that great gift of food to us. Here’s what we came up with so far…
Turkey Quesadillas: Easy lunch item. Chop the turkey slices into relatively small cube sort of shapes and saute in olive oil with whatever creative spices you have on hand… mine happened to be black pepper, cayenne pepper, jerked chicken spices, Mrs. Dash, blackened steak seasoning and a little powdered garlic. While that is sauteing, spray a little olive oil on a medium hot griddle, throw on the tortilla and your favorite shredded queso (mine is pepper jack, but I have to shred it myself – the girls like colby jack). Add the turkey on one side and any side items you may have, like sliced black olives or jalapeños. When the cheese is mostly melted, fold in half, flip once and you’ve got a great lunch. Serve with mexican rice, sour cream and hot taco sauce packets from Taco Bell. If you need some packets… call me — we have a bunch in our pantry, somehow.
Spicy Turkey Salad: Great for lunch or dinner. Over pure iceberg lettuce, cut into cubes, I add the following: the same sauteed turkey from the quesadilla recipe from above, diced or cherry tomatoes, shredded cheese, black olives, garlic croutons, sunflower seeds or cashews, real bacon bits, chopped broccoli if you like it, grapes actually add a nice sweet touch to the spicy stuff, and finally, a packet of Chick-fil-A Spicy Dressing (I confess that I ask for an extra packet every time I get a salad there, but my friend who owns our local CFA said it was A-OK.). Now, I should probably mention that even though this is technically a salad, which are typically considered a healthy meal choice, I cannot vouch that it is good for you or anything — but I think it tastes really great — and it MUST have less fat than say… a Big Mac.
Other ideas that need less explanation could be:
- Turkey and Broccoli Casserole
- Turkey Noodle Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
- Turkey Chili
- Turkey and Black Olive Pizza
- Turkey Salad with spicy mayo, sweet pickle cubes, a little diced celery and cayenne pepper… on your favorite toasted bread.
Let me know what you think and what ideas you have in the comments section. Enjoy!
Egret has lunch
So I drive up to our house just in time to see a big white egret eating this foot-long black racer lizard that’s been hanging around our front yard. Nice…
Erin is ready to go swimming!
Erin loves her goggles when she goes swimming. They make her look a little like Catwoman in a wind tunnel, but… she likes them.
Harley and the girls
Merritt got a new dog on September 16, 2007. We found a cute little 4-month old MaltiPoo (Maltese / Poodle mix) at a breeder in Columbia. She makes a great addition to our family and Inky loves her too…even lets her eat out of her bowl…most of the time.
She looks a little like Jabba The Hut’s pet…thing in this photo, but she’d had a long day and cleans up really nice.
Logan’s favorite hangout — the bouncy seat
Logan is about four and a half months old now and is truly growing into a little boy.
Logan Russell Locklair
Well, May 10, 2007 was a momentus day in the Locklair house. Our third child was born — a boy! No one was more surprised than Penny and I. It has been our tradition to not find out the gender of any of our children, in spite of threats of bodily harm from immediate family members. We see it as one of the last surprises in life — call us “old fashioned.” Since we have two girls already, everybody was rooting for a boy, of course. We had all of our friends making their guesses, Penny and I both thought we were having another girl. One dear friend was convinced that we were having twins, despite the ultrasound results showing just one baby. SO, you can imagine our joyful surprise when little Logan came into the world.
Of course, we would have loved a boy or girl equally. We know how to raise girls, so the boy is a journey into the little known for us as parents. God had in store for us another adventure — and we are up to the task, excited as all git out!
