I think Pioneer Woman reads my blog

... I just blogged about pancetta the other week... and I blogged about being a leek freak (my term first) not too long ago. Then low and behold, today PW put up the recipe Pasta with Pancetta and Leeks.

She wants to be me. Or I want to be her. Whatever.

In either case, it will be made in Casa de Barnhill next week.

I actually made her recipe for Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta on Monday night. Since Chad wasn't home to do the grilling in time - mine was more of a pan-seared chicken. But regardless, it was delicious!

Oh yes, and I forgot to tell you kids that we rearranged our living room the other week - much more open than before. The room is still begging for drapes... but I'm waiting until our bank account has recovered from the irrigation system before trying to find an interior designer (Lord knows I don't trust myself to pick my own fabrics), buy fabric and pay someone to make the window treatments. So all in due time. For now, we're just enjoying the bright sunlight!

Ignore the fact that my couch is not on the area rug - details, details. I'm planning on moving the couch up more to make room for a huge antique cupboard --- the ones you see at a flea market so big you wonder how the heck you move 'em... nevertheless get through a door.


Oh well, that's a job for Chad to figure out. A couple of these from Restoration Hardware wouldn't be bad either... but I think the $4k price tag might scare Chad off.

Oh, and one last thing... "hi gorgeous snapdragons!"

Just a teeny tiny bit excited

Soooo yesterday, while driving home from church (yes we go on Saturday evening - because we're just that cool), I got a little buzz on my Blackberry announcing a new comment on MPLT.

It was from this fine gal, "Sam" at Sandwich365. She said had read my blog post which I gave some yummy recipes for a veggie sandwich and a pimento cheese sandwich. And she loved my blog! So of course I went to her blog to see her street cred - and sure enough - she has this awesome blog with nothing but cool sandwiches!

Cool blogger chick who writes about sandwiches checks out my baby blog post about sandwiches and she actually liked it! Yippee! I gave Chad a high-five in the car. Not that any of my followers are any less special - maybe you are like the CEO of Kraft Foods. But you don't let me know that. If you are - I'll make a big ol' deal about you.

The best part of my celebration is when Chad said, "I predict the Pioneer Woman will start reading your blog and follow it."

I shrilled in excitement. I heart PW. If any of you are like BFF with PW and could pass her my blog to review, I'd be eternally grateful. It'd be like the greatest day of my life.

Honey, can I help?

On most days, there is nothing I'd like more than to hear Chad say, "Honey, can I help with dinner?" However, the other night I had about 9 minutes left on the elliptical and about 10 minutes of crunches. I knew dinner wasn't going to take long to fix, so I just said, "No honey, it's fine. I'll start on it when I'm done." And yes we do always call each other honey. I blame our parents- they do it too.

Anyway, for some unknown reason - Chad was really jazzed to begin dinner. Sheesh - it was only like 5:45. Perhaps it's because he knew I was making Pioneer Woman's 'Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich.' He was pumped to be getting a "man dinner" because I usually stay far away from meat. I can't help it. Pasta + veggies are all I need in my life. Unfortunately, Chad was raised with a good Southern mama - and his dinners usually included a meat, a starch and two types of veggies. It makes it fun when I go to the in-laws for dinner because I get to fill up on the side dishes (the woman makes a mean butterbean). Once she learned that I'm not the biggest meat eater, she began making dinners of salad and baked potatoes - just for me. Chad is bitter and insists she NEVER used to do that, but she likes to make me happy. I really do adore my mother-in-law... love her like my own Mama.

Okay focus Caroline - meat. Yes, the man likes his meat. We have a guy in our Bible study group that has a coworker nicknamed "Bacon." Chad LOVES that. He asked me to give him a pork nickname. So sometimes when I'm extra-loving, I'll call him "Porkchop." He likes that.

So back to meat sandwich. Chad was determined to start dinner. I give him a simple task - I ask him to slice the onion into strips. He asked how to do that - so while on the elliptical I'm trying to demonstrate that you cut off both ends, cut it down the middle, put the flat side down, and just slice it through. Harder to type - but I promise I was doing the hand gestures and everything. So Chad goes into the kitchen to Iron Chef those onions.

He finished slicing his onions, and goes to get the Pioneer Woman website up on the computer so I could follow the directions for the rest of the recipe. He screams from the kitchen, "Oh no! I did the onions wrong." I can't help it - I am laughing while I'm typing this. He walks over to my mat and holds up an onion slice that looks like one of those petals from an Outback Bloomin' Onion. I don't even know how he did it! I don't think I could carve onion petals if I tried! It was like masterfully cut - just not the way I told him to do it. Bless his heart. He does try so hard.

So I gave up on my crunches. He was obviously desperate for a sandwich and tears of frustration (or probably onion cutting) were in his eyes.

Regardless, an onion slice is an onion slice - it didn't make a lick of difference. I sliced the onion petal-like slices length wise to make them a bit thinner. We proceeded to finish the recipe - minus him fussing at me for trying to cut the amount of butter in the recipe. I succeed, by the way.

The sandwich turned out great - not exactly my cup of tea but Chad was in heaven. He brought leftovers to work and showed some of his coworkers the Pioneer Woman website so they could make their own!

A day in the life, I'll tell ya...

A haiku moral of the story:
If man wants to help
Onions will be cut his way
That's okay with me