Multi-Tasking Friday Night

Love these two very cute cuties on a Friday morning!

My boss brought in a big ole tray of homemade blueberry muffins to share, so that was a nice treat. Very cute paper goods too.

There were actually a few muffins leftover that my boss let me take home, which was good because they saved us from the brink of a snack emergency on our way home. I had to fill up my gas tank, and Addie just wanted to get out of the car, so I let them sit in the way back to snack while I pumped the gas.

We also stopped at Walmart before heading home to pick up a small grocery order, full of stuff mostly for Addie’s family birthday dinner, which we’re having tomorrow. So ever since our family vacay to Pigeon Forge, we’ve been listening to a lot of Dolly Parton. Specifically, Addie’s current favorite song is “Love is a Butterfly,” which makes her happy anytime she’s grumpy, and she requests it every morning, and sometimes we listen to it on repeat. In fact, the first time she heard it in my car, like a few days after we were back home, SHE was the one that recognized it first (from the Stampede) and said, “This song was at the horse show!” So it was only fitting that I make her a Dolly-themed strawberry birthday cake! So I got that started tonight…

And I was also multi-tasking on the stove-top, making rice for tonight’s dinner, and also pasta for a pasta salad for Addie’s family birthday dinner tomorrow night.

And this morning, I had put some stuff in the crockpot, for tonight’s dinner. I had thawed out some chicken in the fridge yesterday (planned to make korma curry), and then didn’t cook it last night, so I knew I needed to use it today. So I kinda just made up this idea today, with some sliced onion, a splash of water, a packet of Ranch mix, plus garlic powder, onion powder, more Ranch seasoning from Trader Joe’s, garlic salt, and S&P. (I really wanted to make sure it very-well seasoned.) Then tonight I shredded it, and added some cream & a bunch of Parmesan cheese. Served it over some white rice, and this was actually super good!

OK so then by the time we finished eating dinner (in the living room, while watching the end of the live-action Beauty and the Beast), the cake was finished baking, so I set it out to cool. The noodles were also cooled off, so I made up the pasta salad. I made a new recipe I found on TikTok, using my favorite Olive Garden salad dressing, and a ton of this Salad Supreme seasoning.

Pasta salad is always better when you make it the night before, so this will have a whole day to set up, and hopefully it’ll be delicious.

We got the girls down to sleep at bedtime, and then I came back up front and iced & sprinkled the cake. We’re doing a sandwich bar for the family dinner tomorrow night, so at some point tomorrow I’ll make a batch of chicken salad, with those other things in the background, and my Mama is gonna make tuna salad & pimento cheese. Simple, but yummy, for an easy family birthday dinner.

And after all that prep work, I’m really proud of myself for getting all that done. Normally, Friday night is frozen pizza night, and I barely move off the couch. But man I was productive tonight! I’m gonna go wash up some dishes, and then head to bed, and hopefully get a good night’s sleep, because we have a very busy day planned for tomorrow!