Reflections on the A-Z

I thought I had a plan this year. I thought I had a theme. But on March 30th I panicked, thinking my ideas weren't quite right, so I scrapped them.  By 11:59 on March 31st I had an idea for "A" and that was it.  Flying by the seat of my pants I managed to make it all the way to Z and although a few of my posts were maybe not my best, I feel great about the challenge!

Some days the pace was grueling, but I loved having an excuse to post every day.  And it's great having the day's letter as a prompt to get me started.  I still can't believe how many different directions people went with their posts.

There were so many fantastic posts!  Some made me laugh and a couple made me cry.  I learned a lot about Louisiana over at Kittie Howard's blog;  Alex had a fab theme of highlighting fellow bloggers; Tara Tyler had some really funny posts with her word verification definitions and new book titles; but I think my all time favorite post was PK Hrezo's "Y" post where she got some great advice from the one and only Jedi Master Yoda.        
   
All in all it was a fantastic challenge!  Huge thanks and gratitude go out to Arlee and his awesome group of co-hosts for setting it up and running it:

Alex J. Cavanaugh, 

Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, 

Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report, 

Matthew McNish at The QQQE, 

Tina Downey at Life is Good, 

Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, 

DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude, 

Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, 

Elizabeth Mueller,

Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, 

Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain, 

Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small. 

You guys are great!!!!   I honestly can't think of a thing I would change other than making more hours in a day for April so I could get to everyone's blogs.  

My favorite part of the Challenge is meeting so many great new blogger friends.  We have such a wonderfully supportive and creative bunch of people! A big thanks also goes out to all my new followers!  Love you guys!  :) 

I'm already looking forward to next year!  Hopefully I will have a theme by then.  I'm going to start thinking about it right away!  But since approaching deadlines seem to help me think more clearly, I'll probably wait until March 31st again.  Oh well! :)

Kathy :)

Come Celebrate!

Today is Tara Tyler's blogaversary and she is celebrating!  In honor of this momentous occasion, she his having a blogfest where everyone brings their favorite recipe!  Yeah food!  So pop over to her blog and check out the festivities.  She's even giving out prizes.

Here is one of my favorite quick and easy recipes.  The kids and their friends love it and it can be modified easily for more adult tastes.

Quick Bean and Cheese Quesadillas:


Flour tortillas
Shredded Mexican cheese
1 can of fat free refried beans
chopped baby spinach (optional)
2 cloves garlic chopped (optional)
1/4 cup red onion slices (optional)

Spread a thin layer of refried beans onto one tortilla.  Lay preferred toppings on top of beans.  Here you can be really creative.  I usually use any veggies I have laying around but my favorites are spinach, garlic, and onion.  You could also use chopped cooked chicken.  Then sprinkle on your desired amount of cheese and lay a second tortilla on top.  Heat a nonstick frying pan to medium but don't put any oil in the pan. Lay quesadilla in pan.  When first side is browned carefully flip and cook until other side is browned as well.
Remove from pan and let cool for a minute or two.  Then cut with a pizza cutter and serve with salsa and sour cream/plain yogurt and enjoy!

Kathy