619 miles

care packages

Kerry is AWESOME when it comes to care packages. Having friends that live across the states and often deploying means that both Kerry and I have ample opportunity to send care packages. I know we both enjoy putting together goodies that we think the recipient will love. Kerry's husband, Andy is currently deployed and she sent him some tastey goodies to share with the guys.

She made pistachio and apricot macroons (that look delicious) as well as Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Banana bread. I love how she styled these photos and packaged the goods. Despite taking THREE weeks to get to Andy, he said it was all still delicious and they devoured it all that same day!

photos by Kerry

I am pretty sure she got the recipe for the bread here via pinterest. I really want to try the bread, it looks YUMMY.

Kerry's canning - weekend project 1

While I was off camping and nearly dying on the side of a mountain (perhaps an exaggeration..perhaps), Kerry was canning and sewing and sharing some fun stories from childhood.

You know how when you make new friends as an adult it sometimes takes a while to learn about their childhood, where they come from, little things like that?!? Sometimes when you make friends through shared experiences, you are living so much in the moment that you don't talk a whole lot about childhood stories. Kerry and I met in pilot training and while we quickly realized we had a lot in common, we were going through a pretty intense and unique experience, so often we talked more about the day to day and recent past. More recently however, I have had the pleasure of hearing some really cool childhood experiences from Kerry. Listen to the memories that doing some canning this weekend stirred up:

"I hope you had a fun weekend.  How was camping?  Yesterday I went with some friends tubing down the Cold Creek River.  It was a lot of fun and the water was nice and cool and refreshing, a nice change of pace from the beach (I know how spoiled am I).  Well today was spent on catching up on yard work and some projects I had meant all week to get to.  The first one was to make some nice spicy asparagus pickles.  I had some asparagus and pickled them with some thai chilies and garlic to make them good and hot. I can't wait for football season, they are going to be so good with a nice red beer or bloody mary and some smoked hot wings this fall.  While I was making them it reminded me of when I was a kid.  Right before the Clay County Fair my sisters and I would scramble to get projects done in time to enter.  One year one of the 4-H categories I entered was food preservation.  My Grandma had helped me can some roast beef and I got a purple ribbon for it.  Little did that judge know that I had canned it a day before and then after the fair when I took it home, it had spoiled and started to grow mold within a week.  My grandma was really involved with the fair and did a lot of judging.  To this day I still think I only got purple and blue ribbons on the items that she was part of judging :) 

 

Canning was also a reminder of putting up corn each summer.  I grew up on a corn farm and each year during sweet corn season we would spend week after week freezing and canning extra sweet corn.  I got so sick and tired of sweet corn as a kid, but now that we don't have the "picked straight from the field sweet corn" I really miss it this time of year. 

 

Pics:  one is of my asparagus and chilies, the next is of my pickling spices boiling, then the final product."

{photos by Kerry}

I think I'm going to have to head on down to Kerry's come football time for some of that spicy goodness!!

time to make the doughnuts: kerry-style

Kerry is not only talented with the sewing machine, but she is also talented in the kitchen. She bakes some YUMMY treats. Remember this totally cool cake she made for Easter? Well she's been baking again. Check out these delicious looking mini-doughnuts. I love the colorful sprinkles and how she put them in mini-cupcake liners.

"So today was a pretty lazy day for me...I stopped by Joann's and got some thread I needed to finish up my quilt.  I also saw this really cute mini doughnut baking pan, so I got that.  I made some mini chocolate cake doughnuts, and thought of your grandma's.  These ones aren't as good as a nice fried doughnut but cute enough to ship in a care package.  I also made some banana walnut chocolate chip cookies which I found on Martha Stewart's website.  Hopefully it won't melt in the mail ..."             

                                                            -Kerry

Wouldn't you love to open up a care package full of those tasty looking doughnuts?

my life via instagram

This week sort of flew by. I spent most of it on a work trip in GA. We had fun flying around letting Army guys learn to jump out of the airplane! I returned home Friday and that evening I was finally able to start putting my rooms back together. As I mentioned earlier, due to some water issues I had to move my bedroom into my living room. I realized that I do NOT like to live with my space in such disarray. It made me cranky and anxious. I had all kinds of plans of projects to do on my week off, but couldn't do any of it. I was glad to escape to GA this past week and not have to deal with it all. So... the carpet guy finished up Friday evening and now the living room and bedroom are back in order - WHOHOO! That just leaves the kitchen/crafting studio to get cleaned up and organized.

In unrelated news, I am pumped to start the week with Elise's Blog 2.0 class. Expect to see some changes coming to the blog. I'm excited about learning how to beautify this space. Elise's blog looks great so I know I'm in good hands with her as a teacher. YEA!! I'm excited :)

And since I have no projects to share due to the whole bedroom in living room & kitchen ordeal here are some snapshots of life around here via instagram. 

Reese: please invite me onto the couch... pretty please

strawberry shortcake cookies -YUM - Martha Stewart recipe 

high-5

putting the bedroom back together

Reese is "helping" organize

So yes, I know I post a lot of photos of my dog, but she's my girl and she goes everywhere with me. Tomorrow we are off to Lexington to hang with my favorite brother..... yeah, he's my only brother, but he's still my favorite. He has a blog too... he creates games and makes books AND I think he's an excellent writer. I think he'll be published some day and then I'll be able to say that my brother is a famous author :)

Happy Monday! 

summer coffee

This morning Kerry sent me a link to an iced coffee recipe that looks and sounds delicious.

{image via The Pioneer Woman's flickr}

"I tried this recipe the other day, and it is hands down my favorite treat for the summer.  It was so easy to make as well.  I just put in my regular creamer and splenda coffee mate... then topped it off with milk and it's fabulous!  way more refreshing since its been in the 80s already at 7am down here." -Kerry

The recipe comes from Ree of The Pioneer Woman. I have heard of her blog, but tonight was the first time I really checked it out. I'm liking it and I am definitely going to try her recipe when I get home, I love me some iced coffee! Check out her blog, try the recipe... tell me if you love it as much as Kerry :)

Hoppy Easter

So, I opened my email this morning after church and saw this:

How flippin adorable is that cake?!?! Kerry made it!!! I'm thinking I might need to start calling her Martha!! Anywho... here's the email that accompanied these lovely photos:

"Hope you are enjoying Easter in PR.  I thought you'd like this picture of my grandma's carrot cake that I made.  She was famous for this recipe and kept it a close hold secret, in fact she wouldn't let anyone in the kitchen when she made it and would give out a false recipe to people when they asked for it.  The last one she made sold at an auction for $80 and the one before that she had shipped all the way to Afghanistan for me, which my crew quickly gobbled up for breakfast after a long flight.  Well long story short she never gave the recipe to anyone and passed away taking it to her grave.  We found her cookbooks and think we have the right recipe but it needs some tweaking because every time I make it its just not the same, maybe one day I'll get it close to hers.  The cake pedestal is the one she gave me as a wedding present that she had gotten as a newlywed years ago, its one of my prized possessions.  Well here are the pictures of the one I made this year. " --Kerry

Such a cool story, don't you think?!?! I'm wishing I was there to try a piece of that cake!

time to make the doughnuts

I'm about halfway through my 10 day GA & FL vacation. I'm at my sister's and we are having an awesome time. I love hanging with her and her family. My niece and nephew are so adorable!

As mentioned in my last post, my first stop in this road trip was at my Memaw's in GA. We had a very relaxing trip watching movies, cooking and watching Reese run around the backyard with sticks from her burn pile. She surprised me by remembering that while I was deployed I had mentioned that I was craving her homemade doughnuts that we used to make when I was a kiddo. I have no idea why I was suddenly craving this because, honestly, I can't even remember the last time I made them with her, but I'd venture to guess it was a LONG LONG time ago. Anywho.. she remembered that I had been craving them and she found her cookbook with the recipe.

Now, when I think cookbook, I think something published, something purchased at the local bookstore. But no..... this is no ordinary cookbook. The recipe is handwritten with my Memaw's pretty handwriting. And it's OLD. I think she guestimated that it's about 70-80yrs old! WHOA!!! There are handwritten poems in the back by my Grandad's mom. How cool is that?!?! I'm wishing I had taken photos of all the pages.

She made me do most of the work, of course.... so I could "learn". The measuring cups and spoons we used were her mom's, my MomLeet's. It was pretty amazing using the well-worn recipe book and my great-grandma's cooking tools. I have very fond memories of my MomLeet, so this was a very cool connection to the past. (Check out this post for a photo of my lovely MomLeet, Memaw, and Mom).

Some of mine stuck to the counter, so Memaw's stepped in to roll out some more and show me how it's really done.

making doughnuts from jenn n on Vimeo.

 

 

She was so fast at rolling out the dough, that I only caught her cutting out the doughnuts. We fried them and then shook them in powdered sugar. OMG... so good! The powdered sugar part is what I remember most from when I was a kid. She would let us shake the doughnut holes in a paper bag. 

The final doughnut pyramid tempted me the entire day and I was constantly snacking on them. The next morning I popped them into the microwave for a couple of seconds and they tasted just as good as the day before.

It was such a great experience hanging with Memaw, using the cookbook, and the family utensils. I can't wait to someday pass on the recipe and tradition of letting my kids shake them in the powdered sugar.

There were several pages in the back of the book of my Grandad's mom's writing. How awesome to see her handwritten words. I thought this poem about families was a perfect fit to our day.