Mandii's Muse

I'd like to wish a Happy Easter to all of my wonderful readers! May your day be filled with love, family, and the promise of good things to come! "Then came the Morning, night turned into day. The stone was rolled away, and Morning had come!" (I love that hymn.) Have a great day! ~Mandii

We've entered the Elite 8! How are your NCAA Brackets looking? Did any of you pick Florida Gulf Coast to go as far as they did? Be honest!  :)  I certainly didn't, and I'm sure they were a ruin of many a bracket. This has been a great tournament so far. There has been some close games, buzzer beaters, a Cinderella, and some excellent matchups. No other sporting event is a great as March Madness in my opinion. How about those Dukies?! I'm loving it! Here were my picks, and if you went off of mine, I'm sorry! Hopefully your brackets look better! Elite 8 Louisville Duke Gonzaga Ohio State Kansas Florida Syracuse Miami Final Four Louisville Ohio State Kansas Miami Final 2 Louisville Miami National Champion: Louisville So tell me, is your National Champion still in the running? Did your Elite 8 look different than mine? Leave me a comment and let me know! May the best team win!

Today, I'm linking up with Lauren from From My Grey Desk Blog. Have you read her blog? If you haven't, you definitely should! She has a weekly feature called "High Five For Friday" where she points out 5 great things that happened to her for the week. I think it is a great idea, so I'm linking up with her. 1. Do you recognize this fella? It's Bobby Deen! You can find out how I met him here! 2. Duke advanced to the Sweet 16, which means I can pull out this baby! 3. Only a few more days until I can have something like this delicious Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pie! 4. I made this Chicken Divan for the first time. It was yummy! 5. I've been loving these podcasts from Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany GA. They are the church behind Facing the Giants and Fireproof! How was your week? As always you can comment and let me know! Thanks again to Lauren for letting me link up with her!

*If you're a health nut, do not read this post. Insane amount of calories below. You've been warned.*  ;) I thought I would give you a great sweet breakfast treat today. I first found this recipe online. I don't even remember how I stumbled upon it, but I'm so glad I did. These are absolutely delicious. Good for you...not so much. They are simple, and require few ingredients. So if you love ooey gooey, delicious sticky buns, keep on reading! Sticky Buns Recipe: 3/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup honey 1/8 cup butter 1/2 cup chopped pecans 1 tube homestyle refridgerator biscuits In a sauce pan mix brown sugar, honey, and butter. Melt. Place mixture in 8 inch round pan. Sprinkle pecans on top of mixture. Place biscuits around the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 13-17 minutes. Invert onto a large platter. Tips~ I grease my baking dish with cooking spray before I place my mixture in the pan. Also, make sure you flip this onto a pan that is bigger than a baking dish...

Here are the recipes as promised! If you forget why I'm posting them, check this post . All of these recipes came from Bobby's book called From Mama's Table to Mine . I had the chance to try the Black eyed Pea Salad, and the Sweet and Savory meatballs. Both were very delicious. I put my comments using an asterisk. (*) Black-eyed Pea Salad 2 cans black eyed peas, rinsed and drained 1 large red bell pepper, finely chopped 1 large yellow bell pepper, finely chopped 4 ounces low fat pepper Jack cheese, cut into pea sized cubes 1/2 cup coarsley chopped scallions (white and green parts only) 1/4 cup coarsley chopped fresh parsley 3 tablespoons olive oil 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 2 tablespoons coarsley chopped oregano Freshly ground black pepper to taste In a bowl, mix orange juice, red wine vinegar, oil, oregano, and pepper. Mix with whisk. Then add the black eyed peas, bell peppers, pepper Jack, scallions, parsley.  Mix all t...

I'm going in to substitute teach today and I thought it would be nice to give you an outfit of the day "teacher style!" The students are only there for a half day, and I have some errands to run afterwards, so I wanted to be professional yet comfortable for the rest of the day. Perk of being a sub, I get to leave when the kiddos do!  :) My pants are a jean like material without being jeans. They are from New York and Company. I chose this royal blue, gray, and black top from Lane Bryant because it isn't bulky and still makes me look put together. My blue tank is also from Lane Bryant, and I love the lace detail at the very bottom. (Plus, who doesn't love a Duke blue outfit, especially when they advance to the Sweet 16?) As a teacher, it is always important to wear a watch, and mine came from my favorite jewelry store in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina called Bijuju . My replica "Pandora" bracelet came from a NYC street corner. The earrings were a gift f...

in the form of Bobby Deen. I had the pleasure of meeting him Saturday at a Giant Eagle that was near me. He talked for a while, and then he did a cooking demonstration! Let's take a step back shall we? My mom and I love to watch cooking shows, Paula Deen in particular. She sometimes has either Jamie or Bobby on helping her cook. Let's face it, Southern charm is hard to resist. So we kind of developed crushes on Bobby.  Black Eyed Pea salad So my dad was reading in the newspaper and saw that Bobby was going to be 30 minutes from us. This was a great time to surprise my mom! I ordered our free tickets and kept it a secret. Mom came in from being outside and we told her to get ready we were going for a ride to see Bobby. She thought we were lying.    ;) Sweet and Savory Meatballs So we got there, picked up our tickets, and headed to the demo area. A little after 3 Bobby comes out and just randomly starts talking to the audience. (Meanwhile, my dad got ...