Trying to be Southern, Y'all!

Okay...so after reading the title of this post you're probably wondering what in the world I'm going to be talking about today! Let me start by backing up just a little bit.

On Saturday night when we got home from our trip, I was so excited to see that I had received a package. It was from my friend Steph. Steph lives in Arkansas, but she recently took a trip to Washington, D.C., a place I have never personally been to but would love to visit one day. Anyhow, while she was in D.C., Steph picked up a few things and decided to do a fun little giveaway on her blog. Well, the story gets even longer in there somewhere, but the short version is that Steph emailed me not long after posting about her giveaway and told me that she wanted to send me all of the D.C. stuff. I was so excited!

Here are the things that I won...



I was so excited when I opened up the package and saw all that she had sent, but this last item took the cake...
I was dying with laughter when I saw that she had sent me a can of Rotel! I don't think I've ever mentioned the story behind Rotel here on my blog. I guess it's become more of an inside joke between me and a couple of friends. It started off one day a few months back when I asked if anyone might be able to share with me any of their favorite recipes. I had been losing inspiration in the cooking department and needed a little help. As it turned out, a super sweet gal named Marci, who ordered a hat for me, decided to send me some awesome recipes with her payment for the hat she had ordered. It was so cool to receive the recipes but there were a few ingredients in a couple of the recipes that I had never heard of before. One of them was Rotel.

Well, fast forward to when I met my super sweet friend Kristin in this great blogging adventure. On the day we first talked on the phone I just had to ask her what in the world Rotel was, since here in CA, Rotel is something we know nothing about. Kristin thought it was just hilarious that I had no clue what it was, but then explained to me that it was basically just a can of diced tomatoes and green chilies. She also explained that it was pretty much an item that you will find in EVERY Southern kitchen. There have been jokes over the last few months about me getting my hands on a can of Rotel, just to see what all the hype was about. What was so special about it anyways?

Well, last night I decided to use the Rotel to make Mexican Chicken using a recipe that Kelly posted about last week, and guess what? It was sooo good! What's so funny is that here in CA we actually do have tomato and green chili combos available here, but there is just something a little different about the flavor in Rotel. I, of course, had to add to the recipe some of the yummy seasoning I always talk about and it turned out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself!

Here's what dinner looked like last night...


Dinner turned out to be a bit hit and everybody here in my house loved it, even my picky eaters who really don't like eating tomatoes! I would definitely say that my attempt to be a Southern girl was a success!

If you're interested in getting the recipe, you can get it here at Kelly's Recipe Blog!