Cowboy Caviar and the giveaway winner

 The giveaway winner is: amber b "the cookies look great"

Congrats.

As I carted my kids around to Costco and Walmart today, I thought to myself how did my mom do this with 10 kids? Ask yourself what's worse than a Costco trip with three kids? A Costco trip with three kids in the POURING rain! We were all drenched from head to toe.

They say when you have kids it makes you learn patience but I think I've only digressed. My mom is the perfect model of patience. Believe it or not with ten kids she rarely raised her voice. The handful of times I can remember her losing her patience was after trips to the grocery store. Picture my mom, with a gaggle of kids, pushing 2-3 grocery carts full of food. We would always try to guess the damage at the register only to be hundreds of dollars off. When you're 5 years old everything only costs a quarter...maybe four quarters if it's really expensive.

I'm not sure at what point we pushed her over the edge but by the time we pulled in our driveway we were told to get out and take the groceries inside while my mom drove off in the car for a moment to herself to regroup. Surely she earned some credits to curse like a sailor but she didn't.

I definitely earned at least some PG rated swearing credits today. I guess I'm learning to flex my patience muscle because I didn't use 'em.

Here's a yummy dip that is always the first thing to be eaten when taken to BBQs. I could eat this alone for lunch. My mother-in-law Sheri got this recipe from someone from church and has made this a couple of times and I finally got the recipe. Most of the ingredients were approximate in her recipe so I added the measurements of what I added just so you know around what to add.

Cowboy Caviar

from Sheri Denney

1 can black eyed peas, drained and rinsed

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can shoepeg corn, drained and rinsed

4-5 Roma tomatoes, seeds removed and diced

2-3 diced avocados, ripe but still firm

4 green onions, sliced thin (I used 1/2 purple onion diced finely because that's all I had)

around 1/2  to 3/4 cup Zesty Italian dressing

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped finely

1-2 limes

ground pepper and salt to taste

Drain and rinse the black eyed peas, black beans, and corn. Add to a large bowl. Dice the tomatoes, making sure the seeds and insides are removed. You want to do this to make sure that there isn't too much liquid in the dip. Add the diced tomatoes and cilantro to the bowl. Slice the green onions finely (or purple onion) and add to the bowl. Dice the avocado and squeeze a little of the lime juice over the avocados so they don't brown as quickly. Squeeze the rest of the lime juice into the bowl. Add the Italian dressing and stir to coat all the ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Chill in the refrigerator until cold and flavors have marinated together. This is best served the same day as prepared. Serve with tortilla chips.