How Does Your Garden Grow?

Thanks to CarlaMac, we have a garden this year. It took a lot of work getting all of the ivy dug out of this bed, but it was worth it. The raised bed is perfect for a small garden and it has thankfully been very easy to maintain (in part, thanks to the soaker hose and a watering timer). Here's a pic of the garden on June 9:

And here's a pic of it today!

Tonight I was able to pick our first batch of green beans! Yum! So excited to cook these! I realize it's not much, but I was told if you pick them early they will grow more, and you can bet I am down for that!

#1 Daughter to #1 Daddy

Wanted to say Happy Father's Day to my wonderful dad. I have so many memories of him over the years. He bought me my first doll (Strawberry Shortcake) and let me sing my lungs out while riding in my car seat (to which he attributes my current stint in the 2ndEleven band). He taught me how to ride a bike and how to swim. Later he taught me how to drive and gave me "special" speed limits. He let me go to London for a semester and slept poorly the entire time. He's moved me from place to place over the years...and then rearranged my current house at least three times. He reminded me that men say stupid things sometimes and we have to forgive them (this was after a huge blowup with Barron, prior to our dating...say what!?!?! Who's dad are you, anyway!?). And then he gave me away this February (sometimes I think gladly! haha!) at a beautiful wedding. We have many more memories to make, God willing, but I have been so blessed to have such a wonderful Dad. I love you, Daddy!

Doh! (Dough!)

Our old friend Nate is in town from D.C. and tonight I thought it would be fun to make pizza for dinner. Nate is a very hands-on kind of guy, so I thought he would find it fun to make the pizzas himself. He was excited to help - so excited that first we had to watch that Visa commercial with the world's best pizza spinner for inspiration. I began to wonder if this was such a great idea, but all in all, it turned out ok...no dough on the floor! Here's some pics of the adventure. They did great!

Here we go!

Wow, we may have an up and coming dough-throwing champion!

Can you see why I was scared?

Nate's pizza.
Ready for grilling.Um, well, we got the first one a little toasty.

Finished product - yum!!!

My First Quiche

I was asked to make a quiche for my friend Amanda's wedding shower this weekend. The lady who called to ask said she heard I was a good cook. Ack! Sure, I'm not too shabby at the things I do well, but that's a lot of pressure for something new. But alas, I did know quiche was simple, so I decided to up the ante and make mini crustless quiche. (or is it quiches?) Here we go: Crustless Bacon and Egg Quiche. The nice thing about this recipe for translating it to minis is that all but the bacon and cheese is mixed in the blender, making it easy to pour into the mini cups. Sweet! Then you just sprinkle some cheese and bacon on each, pat it in just a little and voila! That's about as easy as it gets if you're going mini. Mini is cute, but mini can be annoying!

Before baking

After baking (not quite as cute as I had imagined)

Nothing like a pretty platter to punch up the cuteness a tad.

Overall, they tasted good and were mini. What more can you ask for?

We Be Grillin'

It's been a long process, but we finally bought a grill! I have wanted one for a long time but wanted Barron to want one to, or else I'd be the only one doing the cooking on it! We looked at some and I could tell Barron wasn't quite sure, so I didn't say much about it unless we were in the vicinity of grills. Before long he got in on the hunt and one day we came home and he said "Ya know, I am now on the grill bandwagon." Ha! Sweet! So after more shopping, we got one! I thought I'd document our first meal on it for those of you interested: potatoes, salmon, and scalloped zucchini packets.

Barron with the grill.

From left to right: potatoes, salmon, and scalloped zucchini packets.

Dumb shot of us - yes, we're dorks.

Scalloped zucchini packets - yum! Don't forget to use non-stick foil. You'll be glad you did.

Just don't forget they're hot...really hot.

Guess we'll have to have some parties now! Please share if you have any favorite grilling recipes. Next up: grilled buffalo chicken sandwiches - yum!