Nora's Burgers and Oven Fries

While we were in South Carolina in December, my sister, Nora and her fiance, Topher, invited us all over to Topher's house for dinner one evening. They served us burgers and sweet potato fries, and the burgers were incredible (the fries were too)! Nora gave us her recipe, and we've made it several times since we have been home. She has given me permission to share it here on my blog. Nora's Burgers
For each pound of ground beef, add:
a dash of Worcestershire sauce
2 T brown sugar
1/2 tsp. onion salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. season salt
Mix this all together, form patties, and cook or grill to taste.
These burgers really are delicious!

One of our favorite side dishes at our house is Oven Fries.
Oven Fries
4 medium potatoes
2 T olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 tsp. garlic powder
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese (optional)
Cut each potato into 16 wedges. Mix other ingredients, except cheese, and then add potato wedges. Spread on a foil-covered cookie sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. If you would like, you can sprinkle the fries with Parmesan when they come out of the oven. I often skip the cheese, and they are still good without it.

Our Week

We have spent most of the week at home this week, but we have had an eventful week. On Monday, Drew woke up from his nap with a fever. He lay down on the couch (Something he NEVER does), and then he fell asleep on my lap. He ended up throwing up later in the evening. He has been feeling better as the week has gone on, but he has a bad cough now. Jim's birthday was Wednesday. I made pork chops for dinner and blackberry cobbler for dessert. We were expecting for Jim to go back to work on Thursday, but that didn't end up happening. We got a call late Wednesday afternoon telling us that the City Council failed to stamp the contract at their meeting. They will meet again this coming Tuesday, and we are hoping that the contract will finally be stamped at that meeting, and that Jim and his co-workers will be back to work on Wednesday.
I have been enjoying the Let's Scrap Blog Hop. I've done a few pages this week.
This first layout is about Drew's trick-or-treating this past Halloween. I did this layout for Resolution #5 - not opening a pack of any new supplies.
This page is about my sister, Nora, coming home from the hospital. I did this page for Resolution #14 - 1 ribbon, 2 patterned papers, 3 - flowers, 4 bling.

This last layout is for the Julie Bonner sketch for the month of January. It is about Drew's visit with Santa this year. He was excited to see him until we got into the little room, and then he became shy.

I hope to have some more pages to share next week.

Daddy's Little Helper

Drew loves his Daddy, and he has been thoroughly enjoying having Jim at home these last several weeks! He loves to help Jim with whatever project he is working on. Jim was going out to clear the driveway the other day, and Drew went out with him to play in the snow. When I looked out the window to see what they were doing, I saw them across the street clearing snow for our neighbor. Drew was helping with the snow blower! Jim said that Drew was doing the pushing, and he was doing the steering.

Yesterday, Jim started a project that will on-going for the next couple of weeks. We are planning to replace all of our inside doors, and Jim did the bathroom door yesterday. Drew was right there with him, "helping" with his little tools.

I talked him into wearing his goggles for about a minute.

Drew was very interested in the door project.

I will post photos of the completed door project soon!

Getting Back to Normal

I hope that 2011 has gotten off to a good start for everyone! We have been staying busy around our house. We got all our Christmas decorations put away today, and now that Christmas is done, and things have slowed down a little bit, I've been doing some scrapbooking. I'll share some of my new pages in the next few weeks. I've been enjoying using some of my new scrapbooking tools I got for Christmas!
I will be participating in the Let's Scrap Blog Hop in a few weeks, and I would love to have some of my readers participate too! I will be hosting a challenge here on my blog, and several other members of the design team will be hosting challenges as well. There will be prizes for each challenge, as well as a grand prize from Cosmo Cricket for someone who finishes every challenge. The Blog Hop will begin on January 14 and go through February 14. There has been lots of football being watched at our house the past few days. Jim and Drew are watching the Orange Bowl this evening and cheering for the Virginia Tech Hokies. Here they are in their Hokies gear.

Jim is still at home with us for at least the next couple of weeks. We would appreciate your prayers that the contract will be finalized (hopefully around January 18), and that Jim will be able to get back to work as soon as possible.