Road Trip!

This morning my dad and I flew to Albany, NY to pick my sister up from her summer internship. She has spent the last two months working at a camp for overweight kids in VT which completes her Bachelors degree in Health and Human Performance from you University of Tennessee at Martin. We are so proud of her... I will post pictures soon from her graduation party tomorrow.

We are currently driving home from Albany (don't worry I'm not driving and blogging). It's about 10:30 pm and we are just now leaving the state of NY... I thought that we would never get out of there! Now we just have to drive through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky before we get back to Gallatin. It's going to be a very long night....

Cooking with Kraft

I made both of these recipes to take to a work retreat... they're two of our new favorites. Ben says the Rocky Road Crunch Bars are his new all time favorite dessert. I got both of the recipes from the Kraft Food & Family Magazine. I get them in the mail for free (click here to got to the website to get recipes and sign up to get the magazine) and love it. It always has at least one or two recipes that I end up trying and loving... it's definitely worth your time to go to the website a sign up to get it! In the mean time try out these two sweet treats (and let us know which one is your favorite):

Rocky Road Crunch Bars (Ben's Favorite)

1/3 cup honey

2 Tbsp. butter

4 cups JET-PUFFED Miniature Marshmallows

6 cups POST HONEY BUNCHES OF OATS Cereal

1 cup PLANTERS COCKTAIL Peanuts, chopped

4 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, chopped (I used chocolate chips)

MICROWAVE honey and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1 min.; stir until well blended. Add marshmallows; toss to coat. Microwave 1-1/2 min. or until marshmallows are puffed; stir until well blended. ADD remaining ingredients; mix well. PRESS cereal mixture firmly into greased foil-lined 13x9-inch pan. Cool. Cut into 24 bars

Flat Bottom Fruit Pie (Laura's Favorite)

1 refrigerated ready-to-use refrigerated pie crust (1/2 of 15-oz. pkg.)

1 tsp. cinnamon sugar (3/4 tsp. sugar and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon)

1-1/4 cups half-and-half

1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

1 cup thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping

1-1/2 cups fresh peach slices (about 1 large)

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup raspberries

PREHEAT oven to 450ºF. Unroll pie crust onto baking sheet; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake 8 to 10 min. or until lightly browned; cool completely.

MEANWHILE, pour half-and-half into medium bowl. Add dry pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping; cover. Refrigerate until ready to use.

SPREAD pudding mixture over crust just before serving; top with fruit. Cut into slices. Store leftover dessert in refrigerator.

I actually modified this recipe a little... I used fat free half and half, sugar free instant vanilla pudding, and light cool whip and it was delicious. You really could not tell that it was almost good for you. I also used fruits that I new that we liked (peaches, strawberries, blueberries, and grapes) and you can do the same. I was particularly proud of the way mine looked, here's some pictures:

Please Pray

I just got a call from Beth, she told me that her step-father James passed away this evening. Please pray for her mother Lucille in this loss, also for Beth and her siblings, Teresa, Doug, & Allen and their families and also for James' children. We rejoice that he is no longer suffering but our hearts go out to his loved ones in their loss.

Flat Iron... Not Just for the Hair Anymore

Last Tuesday night while in Norfolk we were invited to eat at Rob & Vicki Goff's house. Vicki served the most wonderful steak, flat iron steak (Kroger has these on sale right now). She simply marinaded it in a pack for dry seasoning mixed with oil and vinegar . It was delicious! Ben and I have been craving it ever since so tonight we went to Target and bought a grill pan (since we live in an apartment and can not have a grill) and we are going to have it for our Sunday afternoon lunch.The instructions are so simple:
Mix up marinade pack following the directions and marinade meat for at least 1 hour. Grill for 8-10 minutes per side. When finished let meat rest for 5 minutes before slicing (be sure to slice strait across and not on a bias) and serve.

Vicki grilled two large steaks (probably about 1.5-2 lbs each) and was able to feed 9 of us, and we all went back for seconds and thirds. Because you slice the meat pretty thin it goes a long way, especially if you have a lot of sides. Speaking of side dishes, Vicki also made a wonderful salad... simple with just lettuce, tomato, and maybe cucumber, but she made her own oil and vinegar dressing with crumbled feta cheese mixed into the dressing a few hours before she poured it over the salad. I will definitely be trying this pretty soon as well!

Home At Last...But Where's Our Stuff?

We returned very early this morning (2 am) from our trip to Norfolk, VA to see Brandon. We started our vacation Monday evening by traveling to Clarksville after I got off work and flew out of Nashville early Tuesday morning. The next few days were filled with golf for the guys and hanging out at the beach for Cindy and me. On Wednesday night Ben preached at Going Public, the youth service at FBC Norfolk. He did a wonderful job. We had a marvelous time hanging out with each other and a few of the Norfolk folks. Our adventure home started yesterday with 5 unexpected hours to kill at the Philadelphia airport (luckily there was a shopping mall in the airport) and ended with no luggage in Nashville. Pete and Cindy's luggage was delivered to their house, but ours is still M.I.A.. I tell you getting ready in the morning is much faster when you have no hair dryer, flat iron, or make up. We're glad to be home, but we miss our stuff!!!

I had hoped to post pictures of our vacation all this week, but I did not even take my camera out of it's case. I very literally did nothing but sit on the beach and read and relax and it was WONDERFUL!