Let Me See Ya Grill

The summer moment I have been waiting for . . . the arrival of our grill! I was very excited! I've been wanting Jeremy to pick one out for such a long time- I think I finally wore him down! I didn't really know what I was getting myself into . . .

Of course, on the box, it says- some assembly required. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but 2 hours later, several cuss words, tons of sweat, a few leftover bolts, and a marriage on the rocks- we had a grill. The instructions said it's helpful for 2 people to put together the grill and work as a team. I'm not sure if I would call it "teamwork," but there were 2 people working on the grill. We chose a very hot afternoon, in the direct sun to assemble our grill, which was no doubt, poor planning on our part. I have a whole new appreciation for grills now!

After we finished putting it together, I didn't know if I even wanted to grill out last night- I was kind of sick of looking at the thing. But after a shower and some iced tea, I was ready to grill. Maybe you're wondering why it's nighttime in all our pictures- we ate dinner at about 9:45pm. Again, took a little longer than expected to put it together!

Dinner tonight- steak, mushrooms, onion, sausage, and corn on the cob!

The grill master!

Cheese on the Cob

1/2 cup mayonnaise
5 ears corn, husks and silk removed
1 cup shredded Parmesan
Chili powder
1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Prepare grill. Brush a thin layer of mayonnaise on corn. Sprinkle the corn with cheese, chili powder, salt and pepper. Wrap each corn with foil and place on the grill. Turn occasionally and cook for about 10 minutes (until kernels begin to brown). Serve warm.

Grill gleamin

Poor little Ivy- we didn't let her come outside!

Puppy Playdate

Mandy brought Harley and Paisley over to our house to play with Ivy. They had a blast! The three of them ran around like crazy and got along so well!

Ivy is waiting for Harley to look away, so she can steal the toy!

Taking a break!

Just a jumble of puppies- what we saw most of the time!

Paisley and Ivy

“If you talk bad about country music, it's like saying bad things about my momma. Them's fightin' words!" - Dolly Parton

Every year, Nashville hosts the largest country music festival- CMA Music Festival. People come from all over to see their favorite stars. Usually, it's raining tons! This year, it wasn't raining, but it was really hot!

All of the artists do autograph signings and picture booths for 4 days and fans line up for hours. Most native Nashville residents, just enjoy the nightly concerts, which features 5 or 6 artists singing four or five of their biggest hits. It's a great chance to see people that you like, but might not want to buy tickets for their entire concert. I went on Friday night and here's the line up:

"Concert hosted by CMT's Allison DeMarcus and featuring Ashton Shepherd (acoustic), Jack Ingram, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Josh Turner, Jake Owen (acoustic), Faith Hill and a surprise guest."

The surprise guest was Keith Urban! Everyone did a fabulous job, but the star performer award goes to Carrie Underwood. She was just a really great entertainer. I really wanted to pick Faith, because I love her and I think her husband is fabulous, but Carrie was better! Maybe it was an off night for Faith?!?!

Mandy and I at LP Field (our seats were a little high)!

Carrie Underwood performing.

I did not know how much I heart Josh Turner until tonight!

My favorite- Faith Hill!

Two for One

I love cooking one time and freezing some of a dish to have a few weeks later. Back a few weeks ago, I made enchiladas for my small group. I also put some in the freezer, so we had those tonight! It was the perfect amount for 2 people with a little bit leftover for the next day’s lunch.

The real star of the show was the guacamole! I'm very particular about my guacamole! I don't really like it if it's store- bought or out of a "can." And I think fresh lime juice is the make it or break it for perfect guac!

Dinner tonight- enchiladas, Mexican rice, and guacamole.

Erin’s Guac

2 avocados
Juice of 1 lime
½ of tomato, diced
½ of onion, diced
Garlic powder
Salt

Halve avocados and spoon into bowl. Juice lime on top of avocados and mash together. You can do it as chunky or as smooth as you prefer. Add tomatoes and onion and stir together. Season with garlic powder and salt to taste.

You are what you eat. For example, if you eat garlic you're apt to be a hermit. ~Franklin P. Jones

If you love bruschetta and garlic, you'll really like this dinner! The recipe is very simple and I thought it was good. Jeremy had seconds, which usually means that he is a fan! You probably have most of the items in your pantry or fridge. I didn't make very many modifications. But be prepared, you might not want to make this on a "date" night.

Dinner tonight- ceasar salad and bruschetta chicken bake.

Bruschetta Chicken Bake

(original recipe here)

1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken
1/2 cup water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese

PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Place tomatoes in medium bowl. Add stuffing mix, water and garlic; stir just until stuffing mix is moistened. Set aside.
PLACE chicken in 13x9-inch baking dish; sprinkle with the basil and cheese. Top with stuffing mixture.
BAKE 30 min. or until chicken is cooked through.

E’s Notes:

• I used chicken stock instead of water.
• I seasoned chicken with salt and pepper and I used some Italian seasoning and basil.
• I used petite diced tomatoes.

First pride, then the crash— the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.

That's from Proverbs 16:18- maybe you've heard- pride goeth before a fall? Same sort of concept. Well, we all knew it was going to happen, didn't we?

I spotted the Southern Living magazine "Best Ever Cakes and Pies" edition and I really wanted it. All the pictures were completely amazing and I couldn't wait to start trying them out. The magazine was a little pricey, so every grocery store trip, I talked myself out of buying it. But today, we were at Sam's and they sell magazines at a discounted price. I could no longer resist. I immediately flipped through it when I got home and showed a few of the dessert pictures to Jeremy. I told him I would make whatever he wanted. He said he would like a strawberry cake (I'm not even going to comment on the fact that he chose strawberry over chocolate?!?! What???). The magazine didn't have a strawberry cake, but they did have a strawberry frosting and I could make just a plain white cake. Because we decided all of this at 7:30pm, I decided to cheat a little bit and use Betty to help me out with the cake part.

I baked the cakes and they looked beautiful. I let them cool on wire racks, while I whipped up the frosting, which was a combination of butter, powdered sugar, and fresh strawberries. I got out my fancy little cake plate, while I already started to imagine the gorgeous pictures that I would post on my blog. A two- layer white cake with a lovely light pink frosting with specks of delicious strawberries and garnished with sliced strawberries on top. It was going to be my blog masterpiece! Somewhere along the way, as I was frosting the cake, things went wrong. The top layer slid a little bit, but that's normal, maybe even to be expected.

But then as Jeremy came over to take a look at my masterpiece, it just broke itself into pieces . . . or maybe hunks?!?!

I couldn't even believe it! I've never seen that happen before. Instantly, I decided that I could clean up the mess, put away my camera, and never tell anyone (except for Jeremy and he doesn't care how food looks!). But what kind of a blogger would I be if I can't be honest and tell you about all my experiences in the kitchen? A prideful one. So here it is, my big mishap and my crazy falling apart cake. Any thoughts on what happened? The cakes were completely cooled- maybe the icing was a little too runny or melted? I don't know.

We still ate it and it tasted pretty good. I might be a little gun-shy with layer cakes now. I think I'll stick to cupcakes- they've not yet turned out this poorly for me. This wasn't my "best ever" by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not going to post the recipe- you can email me if you would like a copy!

Quick & Easy

I saw this recipe on the Food Network and I thought it looked pretty good. It's so easy!!! I know I say that about a lot of recipes, but if you're reading this blog at 4:30 today, you have plenty of time to serve this for dinner tonight at 6:00. It's also a great recipe for leftover chicken. The recipe calls for 1 lb. of penne, but I had a little bit of 3 different pastas, so I just threw them all in there together. Still tastes the same! This has very simple ingredients, but it's a very flavorful dish and relatively healthy. Although pasta isn't necessarily always the healthiest choice, it doesn't have a sauce and the boneless, skinless chicken breasts are lean.

Dinner tonight- easy lemon pasta with chicken

Easy Lemon Pasta with Chicken

(from FoodNetwork)

1 pound dried penne
2 chicken cutlets, cut into fingers
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh parsley, for garnish
2 lemons, juiced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, until al dente. Drain well.
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a large grill pan over medium high and add chicken. Grill until golden and completely cooked. Remove to a plate and slice.
Add the garlic and red pepper flakes to a saute pan with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and saute until fragrant. Add the cooked pasta and turn heat off. Mix all together. Remove pasta to a large bowl. Add chicken to the warm pasta and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle in chopped parsley. Add the juice of 2 lemons and mix. Before serving top with Parmesan.

E’s Notes:

• Even if you are a little shy about using red pepper flakes, you definitely need to use them in this recipe. It’s just a little kick at the end of every bite!


• You could use leftover chicken.The parsley isn’t really necessary- it just looks pretty, but all the other ingredients really make this delicious!


• I put 4-5 whole garlic cloves in the olive oil with the red pepper flakes. Then, I removed the cloves before adding the pasta to the oil. It still had a garlic flavor, but it wasn’t over powering.

As I was finishing up the dishes, I realized that I could not hear Ivy or see her. That's a very bad sign! I was pretty sure she was upstairs, but normally, when she's upstairs, she's chasing a ball around and that is clearly audible. I start up the stairs and in the distance, I hear a licking sound. I round the corner into the bathroom . . .

By now, Ivy has probably licked the entire tub. I have no idea why she enjoys that. I'm sure there is a little water leftover from the shower I had earlier, but she has a completely full bowl of water downstairs. Crazy dog!