2 GREAT Recipes and 1 Request

We've been really busy around the house this week because we're having a mini family reunion here this weekend to celebrate my mother-in-law's 77th birthday.

The menu for the party is fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, and THE BEST macaroni salad anyone has ever tasted. It's Melinda's recipe over at Mickey and me. If you don't know Melinda, she's from Pennsylvania and she calls this her "secret and best recipe - ever". She is NOT kidding.

Oh, my goodness! You're supposed to make it the night before, then refrigerate it overnight. Well, the night I fixed it I just had to have a little taste before putting it in the fridge. It was still a little warm and I do believe I could have eaten the whole bowl of it right then. It is SO YUMMY - warm or cold!

For dessert we'll be having angel food cake with "sticky frosting" (aka 7-minute frosting) and German chocolate cake. Maybe some ice cream too if I ever remember to stop by and buy some.

I'm going to digress here for just a second. We've had plans to put up a "real" fence for our kids who live in the house. Up to this point they've only had a temporary fenced-in area where they go out and take care of their business. It's made out of cattle panels and chicken wire. In the midst of everything else that's going on this week, the fence guy called yesterday and said he'd be here today to start putting it up.

Elliott, Smoke, Dani and even Mikey, will really enjoy the new space when it's complete. Hopefully the crew will be able to finish it up tomorrow because they don't work on Saturdays. And the party is on Sunday. We'll make do whatever happens but it would be wonderful if the fence was all in place.

The second recipe that's mentioned in the title is one of Suzanne's over at Chickens in the Road. It's her version of a West Virginia favorite called Pepperoni Rolls. It seems to me Suzanne is West Virginia's version of our own Oklahoma Pioneer Woman.

I've made a spaghetti bread for years that has pepperoni in it so when I saw Suzanne's recipe for pepperoni rolls I knew it had to be tried out. It's not like the spaghetti bread recipe at all. And while the bread is pretty darn good, Suzanne's pepperoni rolls blew me, AD and Daughter away!

It's this wonderful bread dough that's way easy to make, then rolled out, cut into 16 rectangles, each topped with shredded mozzarella cheese, sliced pepperoni and banana pepper rings. Then the pieces are rolled up rather like a jelly roll, the seams are pinched, they are left to rise a little while, then baked. I made one batch. Next time I'm going to have to double it.

Pepperoni rolls would be great for taking to parties (I'm thinking Super Bowl party), lunch (hey, we had them for supper), snacks, etc.

So now that I have a recipe from Pennsylvania and one from West Virginia I think I'm going to have to start actively pursuing "local favorites" recipes from the 50 states. If anyone has a favorite and it's posted on your blog, please add a comment and I'll be sure to come right over.

And finally, the one request I have is on behalf Joan over at Notes from Oklahoma. She has no clue I'm posting anything about this on my blog, it's just something I feel moved to do. Joan teaches 6th grade at a lower income school.

If you don't know any teachers that are participating in Sonic's current "Limeades for Learning" program I'm sure Joan would appreciate you voting for her project, "Cameras for Storytelling". She's trying to get 3 digital cameras to use in her classroom.

If you're unfamiliar with the promotion, right now through the end of the month (I think) all Sonic drink cups have little tags attached to them with a different code on each one. If you have any of those little tags you can go to the website, search for Joan's project (Cameras for Storytelling), enter the code that's on the tag and vote for her project. I know Joan would appreciate it very much.

That's it for now. It will probably be next Monday before you hear from me again. It's busy, busy, busy through the weekend. I hope you have a great one too!