Happy Texas Independence Day!

In honor of Texas Independence Day, I thought I'd put up a picture of the frame I made TC for her birthday. We both love Texas and plan on living here with our hot husbands and adorable children until we are old and senile. So we took the phrase, "Texas forever" from the show Friday Night Lights and adopted it as our motto. For her birthday I thought it would be fun to make her a gift that reflected our future plans for Texas.

It was really simple to make. I bought a white frame at Hobby Lobby (my favorite store) and used a ruler to mark off the lines of the Texas flag. I used a star stencil for the star since my hand can get a little shaky and I wanted a clean line. I painted the different sections and let it dry for a couple hours. Then I modge-podged each section one by one and sprinkled on glitter in the matching color. I let it dry over night and voila! An adorable, glittery Texas flag frame. All that's left is to find a cute picture of the two of us to put in it!

Memaw's Twice Baked Potatoes

Now that I'm living in my own house, I've been getting into cooking and have been collecting recipes to try. When I think of great cooking, the first person I think of is my Memaw. She is the typical Southern grandma whose joy in life is feeding her kids and grandkids until their pants are about to burst a button. She's no fancy chef who serves tiny portions of some expensive dish on fine china. She serves real-butter, home-cooked, Louisiana-bred Southern cookin'. Her food is simply divine, so I thought I'd share one of her dishes. These twice baked potatoes are my absolute favorite. I sometimes dream of them and their warm, gooey deliciousness. When my parents come to visit us in Texas, my Memaw will make a batch of them and send them down for us. It's her way to spoil us even when we're not back home. So here is the recipe:

Ingredients

6 lg.baking potatoes or 12 small potatoes

6 oz. regular sour cream at room temp.

1/2 cups milk, warmed

3 tbsp butter/margarine, not light

1/4 tsp white ground pepper

2 tsp salt

3 tbsp onion powder (adjust to your taste)

Baking instructions

Wrap each potato in foil and bake for 1 hour or 1 hour and 15 minutes for lg; 1 hr for small---bake until tender

After potatoes are baked, score top of potato and remove a thin slice from top.
Discard skin and remove cooked portion and place in mixing bowl.
Add milk,margarine,and beat until there are no lumps. Add sour cream.salt,pepper,onion powder and blend until creamy.

Make a foil saucer for each potato half and fill with creamed potato mixture.

Put filled shells on pan and cover with foil and bake 350 for 35-40 min (or when centers of potatoes are hot)

Add grated sharp cheddar to top of potatoes and place on low broil for 3-5 min (until cheese is melted. I usually watch until cheese is melted because it burns easily.

Enjoy!