Almost Mother's Day

And I got presents early. Hubby brought me a red rose in a pretty vase, and my daughter made me a cake at culinary school. Their project was to completely decorate a cake, which was to be presented to their respective mothers.

It's a white cake with raspberry and chocolate chip filling...buttercream icing and probably a bazillion calories. Tomorrow we're cooking ribs for everybody and will cut the cake then.

Our neighbor had a death in the family last week and we fixed dinner for them last night. Hubby cooked two spatchcock chickens on the grill and I made a big pan of scalloped potatoes and green bean casserole. Sure did look good and I'm sorry I didn't get a picture.

My green bean casserole is a little unusual but it is very good. It is supposed to be called green bean bundles but I am too lazy to make those tiny bundles. The original recipe calls for 2 or 3 cans of whole green beans. Drain the beans and wrap a bundle of 4 or 5 beans in a half piece of raw bacon. Make as many bundles as you want or need. Place each bundle in a baking dish and spoon a can of Golden Mushroom soup (very important...not Cream of Mushroom) over the bundles. Drizzle the top with any red salad dressing, Ott's, Catalina, Russian, whatever you like. Bake at 325 degrees until the bacon is cooked. It holds and reheats very well, or you can put them in a crock pot to keep warm.

Instead of making all those bundles, I simply empty 4 cans of drained, cut green beans in a baking dish. Spoon the soup over the beans, then dice raw bacon and sprinkle over the top. Drizzle with the red salad dressing and bake as above. The taste is the same, it's just not as tedious.

The laundry fairy didn't come to my house yesterday, so I've got to wash today. Maybe there will be a good movie on I can watch while I'm folding. I like those goofy Syfy movies where the woman always turns her ankle and falls and gets grabbed by the monster while she's trying to get away.