We're already gearing up for our Third Annual Bake Sale, which will be held on December 14th.  This is the second year that 100% of the proceeds will go to SPCA Texas, and we're beyond excited to get crackin' and bakin'!  We have a lot of work ahead of us: shopping, baking, wrapping, labeling, transporting, and promoting, but we all agree that we have more fun doing this than pretty much anything else all year!

The little-baking-team-that-could this year is me, SisMama, my coworkers K and SAA, and K's sister L.  Our goal for the one-day sale is $3000 again!  Last year, our final total was $3055, so we're hopeful we can exceed the goal again. We're not totally crazy though, so the goal isn't increasing!

To help us reach our goal again for the SPCA, we could really really use your help!  We know what recipes worked for us last year – and which ones didn't move – but we'd love to know what your favorites are.

Pretend that you went to a fund-raising bake sale at Christmas to buy cute packaged homemade gifts to give to your babysitter, hairdresser, postman, Bunco friends, kids' teachers, kids' friends, Secret Santas, etc.  What would you like to find?  Traditional items like gingerbread, pound cake, biscotti and sugar cookies?  Or indulgent items you might not make yourself like almond toffee, fudge, pecan pie bars, and fancy brownies?  Would you be interested in something savory like a spicy snack mix or nut blend?  Or something else altogether?

Maybe you've had some great success yourself with certain items at bake sales.  What works best for you?  Or maybe you have specialties that you think would be an awesome hit at a Christmas bake sale?

If you have ideas, please pass them on to us!  Thanks in advance from us – and all of the animals at the SPCA – for your suggestions!

~BigSis

Posted under Food

Hippo birdies art by monettenriquez on Flickr

Hippo birdies to us, hippo birdies to us, hippo birdies BigSisLilSis, hippo birdies to us!  Today is BigSisLilSis' first birthday!  Woo hoo!!  We're so excited that we made it our first blogiversary!  Plus, a big bonus is that we're still speaking to each other.  It's been a crazy, hectic, fun, challenging and sometimes stressful year of learning new technology, working together on design and ideas, and making compromises since both of us are stubborn independent control freaks!  😀

After all that, and with 394 posts published, we're still totally committed to the mission we started with, which is to:

• Write for women like us.

• Strive to be encouraging, and as positive as we can be (with the inevitable occasional Sis rant!)

• Pass along info that we hope will be helpful.

• Share our humor, however odd and twisted it might be!

When we look back over the last year, it has literally flown by on wings, but we're really happy about some of the enhancements we've added to BigSisLilSis:

• We're finally twittering!  Yes!  Finally!

• To show our appreciation, we added Comment Luv to provide a link to our commenters' last post.

• Every 2 or 3 weeks, we feature one of our favorite bloggers in our “We're Crazy About” feature to let everyone else know how awesome they are!

• We're sharing links to the books (and cookbooks) that we're reading at the moment.

• You can see our most popular posts in our sidebar, based on the number of comments received.

• Related posts also show up for each post, so if you liked a particular post, you can see more like it.

So that's where we've been.  Where the heck are we going?  We have a few ideas!  First, we're going to Vegas, baby, for BlogWorld!  But once we get back and recuperate, we have a bunch of things that we're noodling around:

• The BigSisLilSis Facebook page is in the works; yep, another belated overdue foray into current technology for us!

• Our “Shop” page will be a comprehensive list of our favorite things, all gathered in one place.

• We're both working on ideas for some fun individual blogs.

• And, we're super-duper excited about starting a new joint blog exclusively devoted to food!

The most important thing we can say about the last year is that we're abundantly grateful for the support our readers have shown us!  There would be no point in us writing if you weren't reading! So THANK YOU all so very much!  We appreciate you, and hope that you'll stick around for another year!  God willing, we definitely will!

~BigSis

Posted under This & That

Are you going to BlogWorld Expo?  We hope so!  We're going and are SO excited about it.  It's just 4 weeks away now…October 15-17.

If you want to go, the discounted registration pricing has been extended to September 21st.  That's Monday, so you don't have long.  Go to the BlogWorld Expo registration page and get yourself signed up asap.  The discounted weekend pass for Friday and Saturday sessions is $395, and will go up to $495 once the discount expires.

There are also some discounted $69 rooms left at the Hilton, but that pricing is only good til October 1st, if the rooms last that long.

Not sold on the value of BlogWorld Expo?  Check out the agenda for this year's sessions.  There are some pretty heavy hitters scheduled to speak:  Darren Rowse, Chris Brogan, John Chow, and Cali Lewis, just for starters!  And the Keynote Speakers haven't even been named yet, so who knows!

For more info, get yourselves over to the BlogWorld site.  You can also check out twitter #bwe09 and flickr tag blogworld09.

If you make plans to attend, please let us know!

~BigSis

Posted under Travel

Being vegetarian, a tomato sandwich in the summertime is one of my staple meals.  Great whole grain bread with mayo, and locally grown tomatoes.  Plus a good dash of salt and Penzeys shallot pepper.  Avocado, pickles and lettuce are optional.  Ah, but there's another kind of tomato sandwich out there. Let me explain.

Take a nice thick slice of GOOD tomato…do NOT use the crummy pinkish faux tomatoes that the grocery stores try to pass off on us.

Add a thick schmear of goat cheese with a spoonful of pesto mixed in.

Top with another thick slice of tomato.

Roll in seasoned flour, then egg, then panko breadcrumbs and saute til golden brown.

Sprinkle with salt.

Gobble down.

Rinse and repeat.

Are you with me?

I heard about this idea from a tomato recipe contest the Washington Post conducted.  Last year's winner used this method, but included bacon (I don't eat Babe), Boursin cheese instead of the goat cheese and pesto, and Italian breadcrumbs instead of the panko.  Besides my pesto version, you could also use a dollop of the Hatch Green Chile and Garlic Goat Cheese that I did a couple of days ago.

Helllooo, my darling Sammie.

Fried Tomato Sandwiches with Pesto and Goat Cheese
(adapted from Mary Joe Sweeney's winning recipe)

1 large ripe tomato
1 nice thick chunk of goat cheese
1 Tblsp pesto
Flour, well seasoned with salt and pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
Panko breadcrumbs
Olive oil or canola oil for sauteing

Core the tomato and slice it into 4 even slices.  Mix the pesto into the goat cheese.  Add half of it to one slice of tomato, and top with another to make a sandwich.  Repeat with the rest of the goat cheese and the 2 remaining tomato slices.  Dredge in the flour, then the egg, and then the breadcrumbs.  Saute in oil until golden brown, then carefully flip and lightly brown the other side. Remove from heat and immediately salt the sandwiches. Drain briefly on paper towels, and serve hot.  Makes 2 sandwiches.

Like LilSis' little baby quiches yesterday, this is a recipe that allows you to do whatever you want with it.  Use any soft cheese you like, but remember that if it's not soft and gooey, it won't get melty before the tomatoes get yukky.  Add in olives, herbs (chives would be good), garlic, scallions, anything you can think of.  A little shredded parmesan would be good mixed in with the breadcrumbs too.

Fried Tomato Sandwich with Pesto and Goat Cheese

~BigSis

Posted under Food

Today is our dad's 74th birthday.

We know that where he is, birthdays don't exist because we won't age, we won't be sick, and we won't ever pass from that that place of eternal joy!

Life will never be the same for those of us that he left behind. SisMama lost the one and only love of her life and we lost a great dad that loved each of us unconditionally, no matter what!

Until we see him again, we all miss him every single minute of every day.

Posted under Family

There's a lot going on in the news this week.

• Someone allegedly stole Michael Jackson's nose from the morgue.  He supposedly had a jar with 6 noses to choose from in his closet.

• Rumors are flying that Rihanna is hooking up with Chris Brown again, fueled by their stays at Trump Tower in NYC last weekend.

• The Bachelorette chose the guy she'll dump soon get married to (I didn't watch).

• “More to Love” premiered last night (nope, not watching).

• President Obama wants the parties involved in the Harvard professor arrest debacle to sit down in the White House with him and have a beer, but it can only be a domestic beer.

• South Texas is experiencing a serious drought and off-duty cops are on patrol for water wasters, while neighbors are tattling on each other for using their sprinklers.

I don't really want to talk about that stuff though, because today is Big T's birthday!  Twenty-five years ago today, I became an aunt for the first time.  I've been blessed with another nephew and a niece since then, and all three are equally special, but there's something unforgettable about that first experience when you realize you're an aunt.  I can't quite describe it, except to say that being an aunt has been one of the greatest joys of my life.

I can remember when Big T was born, and I have lots of snapshots in my mind of him as Lil T and Medium T over the years.

• I'll NEVER forget how we had to pull over for an emergency diaper change in my '84 Chrysler Laser on the way back from visiting our grandmother in West Texas. When I say emergency, I mean EMERGENCY DIAPER CHANGE!  Don't breathe; just get that diaper off the kid and then let's see how fast we can drive with the windows down to air out the funk in the car!

• I remember LilSis and I taking Lil T to the first Main Street Arts Festival, struggling with the stroller over the power cables.  I still go to that every year, all these years later, but it's never as much fun as that first year.

• I can hear him repeating “I weddy go now!” at increasing decibel levels until we finally left the State Fair of Texas.  When he was done, he was done!

• I can see Lil T sitting in his car seat – face red as a beet and sweating like a pig who knows he's dinner (as Dr Phil would say) – waiting on the a/c to fire up in the middle of a sweltering Texas summer.  All he could say was “Haaaa”, which was toddler-speak for hot.  We still say that in our family when we're really hot.

• We still laugh about his acting debut as a little hobo, when he ad libbed and scooped up a fellow actress in his wheelbarrow and scooted her all around the stage, to our amusement but to the horror of his teacher!

• Even though it's NOT funny and I'm NOT advocating violence, I can't help but laugh at the story of him stabbing a bully kid in the leg with a pencil, after warning him that one more insult of “fancy pants” would end with graphite in his leg. 😀

• I still think about the July 4th parades we used to go to, with 100 degree heat at 9 am, and wonder why we did it!

• And I have tons of memories of his hockey goals and his smooth signature wrap-around-the-goal move.

So how did the years fly by so fast?  Now Big T is a grown-up man with a responsible job, an incredible sense of humor, a big personality, and some really cool tattoos!  How did this happen?  WHEN did this happen? Somehow 25 years passed…

Happy birthday, Big T!  You're an awesome nephew; thanks for making me an aunt!  And thanks for all of the memories.  I can't wait for 25 more years as your aunt.

Note to our readers:  Thanks for indulging me today while I went off on a personal walk down memory lane.  I couldn't let this day pass without a shout-out to Big T!

~BigSis

Posted under Family

What the “L” is LilSis up to?

• Loving the beautiful lillies that BigSis sent me. (BigSis, I wanted you to see how gorgeous these ended up being when they opened.) The white ones were as big as the special Japanese Lillies that I always get from Trader Joe's. They're my absolute favorite!!

• Lugging around the lovely boot on my right foot. But, I promise I'm not going to whine about that any more.

• Lounging by the pool at a small resort in the desert. SirHoney and  HayHay are in a Father/Son golf tournament, so I tagged along. I couldn't pass up the chance to sit by a pool in hot, sunny, 90 plus degree weather.

• Looking forward to reading more of my book that I just started. My friend, E, gave me “The Shack” for my birthday. I'm only five chapters in, but it's definitely peaked my interest.

• Laughing with my friend, V, who also tagged along with her son.

• Listening to some great new tunes on my iPod.

• Leisurely sipping on my favorite, Heineken Light, from the cutest little ding, dang miniature keg. (BigSis, I couldn't resist. It fits perfect in the cooler!)

• Loving that we can finally have an overnight trip, BUT still

• Longing for our SarahGirl.

After a full blown meltdown last week, I'm taking the weekend off to try to preserve my sanity. I hope everyone has a great weekend! I plan on it!

~LilSis

Posted under This & That

I am a big fan of The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I don't always have time to read all of her Confessions of a Pioneer Woman posts, but I do subscribe to The Pioneer Woman Cooks. The woman is pretty darn amazing.  A lot of times, she has 40 or 50 photos posted with a recipe, and with some pretty incredible photography, at that!

I hope this doesn't come out sounding the wrong way, but I really want to know if Pioneer Woman is a one woman show or if she has a team of people helping her.  If any of our readers happen to communicate with Pioneer Woman, I would absolutely LOVE it if you would pass this post on to her.  I know she admits that she doesn't have time to comment much or reply to emails. She's just too busy!!

But, I would love to know how she home schools all her little ones, helps Marlboro Man with the ranch, cooks amazing recipes, takes amazing photography, and maintains a wonderfully organized blog.

Inquiring minds want to know…How DOES SHE DO IT?

~LilSis

Posted under This & That

A month ago, The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund urged Congress to pass H.R. 5092.  This bill would provide law enforcement with the tools they need to immediately crack down on animal cruelty “crush” videos.  If you're like me, you don't have a clue about what a “crush” video is.  Let me just say there's a lot of depravity in our world.  A crush video depicts the intentional crushing, burning, drowning and impaling of puppies, kittens and other animals for one purpose…the disgusting titillation of some twisted people who will pay for those videos.

Back in 1999, President Clinton's administration passed the Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act which pretty much eliminated the sale of the videos, but that Act was ruled unconstitutional in 2008.  Since then, the videos have reappeared and are now widely available for sale on the internet.

A day before H.R. 5092 was introduced in Congress, the Supreme Court ruled that the Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act was too broad, and might involve some depictions that are protected by the First Amendment.  That ruling led the sponsors of H.R. 5092 to immediately present it as a specific, targeted bill.

What can you do if you're as horrified as I am about this issue?  Encourage your representatives to support it!  Now that we know about this, we can't pretend that it doesn't exist.  Passing this bill is a no-brainer!

For more information, check out the Humane Society of the United States‘ web site.  You can see a list of the 50+ representatives who introduced the bill.  A good place to start is to thank them!

~BigSis

Posted under Animals

Aloha! Oh how I wish I had a magic genie right now! I would close my eyes, make a wish and hope to open my eyes and find myself in Maui. In my wish, it would be 5:00 a.m. and we would be starting the day out on our balcony watching the whales play. From there, we would go for a wonderful brunch, then to the beach for the day, then walk to Hula Grill for dinner and music, watch the sunset, and finally, walk back to our room for a good night's sleep.  A girl can dream, right?

BigSis posted some awesome photos from our previous vacations! I know we'll be talking more about Maui in the near future. We both love it so much. I would love to talk about some of our favorite local eating places and my favorite local artists.

I don't know what it is about Maui that is so magical, but it is a place like none other. It's almost as if once you get off the plane there; something says to you “It's time to slow down, enjoy life; enjoy who you're with, and enjoy the stunning scenery.” SirHoney and I talk about retiring there someday. Who knows, some dreams do come true. Unfortunately, it's time for me to get back to reality.

~LilSis

Posted under Travel