Memorial Day Cookout

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day! I also hope you remembered the reason we celebrate this holiday!

Today we had a cookout at our house, so I wanted to share some recipes with you!

Reed loved this! 

Pasta Salad

1 Bag Spiral Noodles

1 Bottle Italian Dressing

Handful of Cherry Tomatoes, sliced

1 Small Jar Sliced Olives

Cook pasta, drain and cool. Add dressing, tomatoes, and olives. Mix well.

 



 We also did "shrimp boil" kabobs on the grill. Here is the recipe I used: http://cookauvin.blogspot.jp/2011/07/shrimp-boil-kebabs.html

 



I also  made some strawberry lemonade. Nothing fancy. Just used Country Time Lemonade mix and added sliced strawberries and lemons. Let the fresh fruit hang out in the lemonade for a while, then stir it, before you serve.



 For dessert, I did some Oreo Cookie Pops. Just poke a stick in an Oreo and dip it in melted almond bark. Use sprinkles to decorate.

 

And because not everyone could eat the cookie pops, I made a Sugar Free Berry Trifle. I made some sugar free vanilla pudding and mixed it with sugar free Cool Whip. I layered it with angel food cake and fresh strawberries and blueberries.

Back to the ol' grind stone....

We're back from our camping trip! We could've stayed another week or month. If you've never visited the Smoky Mountains, it's worth the trip! Lance has been going camping in Cades Cove ever since he was little, and we have gone every summer for the past three years!

Here is a picture of our campsite. Along with our tent, we had an EZ-Up to go over our picnic table (it's very rainy in the smokies!), a hammock, and an outdoor shower (which isn't half-bad to use!).

Lance is the king of the grill when we go camping,

And I am the queen of iron skillet cooking! The biscuits were baked in our dutch oven, and the eggs and bacon were cooked on my iron skillet griddle. Mmm, mmm good.

If you have been here before, or if you clicked on that Cades Cove link above, you know that there is an 11-mile loop you can drive/hike/bike that is full of scenic views, animals, and historic buildings. We have biked it before, but this time it was driving only!

Wild Turkey...

Deer...
Bear...
Historic Buildings...

Beautiful Scenery...

Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the Smokies at 6,643 ft...
On Saturday, Lance's Uncle Jim, Aunt Nell, and Nell's mother came up to visit! They stayed in a nearby motel.
We hope you enjoyed our vacation pictures as much as we enjoyed our vacation!

Stay tuned for the adventures of the vacation stowaway!

I'm Back!

Well, before I say that, I should probably ask, "Did anybody notice I was gone?" haha. My internet has been kaput since Friday! There is so much to blog about! Where do I start?! How about Friday morning?!

See this rain gauge?

Over 4 inches! Thats what we got in 3 hours on Friday morning. The 3 hours I was up at the chicken houses. Hauling around bucket fulls of dead chickens in the rain is not one of my favorite hobbies. I looked like a drownded rat. When I stepped out of the chicken truck at the freezer shed (where I dump the dead chickens), my shoe went underwater. Wet socks and dead chickens. A match made in heaven.

Anyways, want to know what 4 inches of rain does to newly cleared land and a driveway?

My neighbor asked if he could put a catfish in it.

Don't think 4 inches was all we received though. Since Friday morning, we have had 6 inches of rain. The builder is now supposed to come lay off the foundation on Thursday, but its supposed to rain on Wednesday, and we're already under a flood watch for that, so it's not looking promising. You know it's getting a bit ridiculous when your builder's wife calls and says "I'm sorry, but we've decided not to build you a house. We're building you an ark instead."

Glad somebody's enjoying the rain!

Between floods, I managed to get some flowers planted!

Here's a blueberry cobbler I made with blueberries I picked from a neighbor's yard last year!

And here's one of the Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake that I made for the guys who cleared our land!

To celebrate an entire 24 hours without rain, we decided to grill out and picnic tonight!

Here's the grill master himself!

Look how happy Bo is that I'm back online!