Pinterest-ing!

While visiting my sis-in-law last week, she showed me the world of Pinterest. I had heard things here and there… but had yet to go look at the website. Umm… amazing! I finally made myself one and am LOVING it.

Organized is a word I would use to describe myself and Pinterest feeds right into that. I can keep everything I find on the internet in one nice and neat place, with boards that categorize all of my finds. Yes!

You can follow me here: http://pinterest.com/skcarroll/ and check out my boards. Do you have a Pinterest? Do you love it as much as me?

By the way, some of my favorite things to find are ideas for my classroom. It’s opening up a whole new world of ideas to do with my kiddo’s. There just might be some blogging about my classroom and ideas of the sort in the future.

2 Year Anniversary!

Jonny and I are celebrating 2 years of marriage today! I am so blessed to have him in my life and thankful for the way God has worked in our marriage.

I love you, Jonny!

We joined a CSA!

First off – thank you sooo much for all of the love. Y’all are definitely encouraging! There just might be more vlogs in the future.

On to the point of this post – we joined a CSA. What is that, you ask? Well, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture. What this means is that we get a “share” of a farmer’s produce each week. I have been wanting to join one for so long but it’s kinda confusing to find one and the whole process was just a little daunting to me. A few weeks ago, Jonny surprised me with a date to go pick blackberries at a farm. Well, turns out that the farm was awesome! Not only can you actually go out and pick blackberries by hand but they also grow so many other fruits and vegetables. On this trip, we found out that they have a CSA and had spots left to be a part of it. The box is too much food for just the two of us, so we are going in it with another couple. The whole box each week is $30, so each couple only pays $15. And let me tell you – it’s such a good deal! We got so much food! And, we know exactly where it all came from, how’s it being grown, the farmer and his wife, and have actually been to the farm!!!! (Yes, that sentence deserved 4 exclamation marks.)

This week, we received: carrots, red potatoes, yukon gold potatoes, squash, cucumbers, onions, garlic, spinach, lettuce, beets, blackberries, raspberries, broccoli, and green beans.

It was so fun (and challenging!) to come up with things to cook according to what we got in our basket… according to what is in season and fresh right now, right in our area. How cool is that?! I’ll post pictures later that show the meals that we had according to what we received. What I haven’t used yet is the beets. I have no clue how to cook them. Any ideas?!?

I am so excited to get this week’s basket. When I picked it up last week, she said there would be corn and tomatoes soon.  Yummy!

Are you a part of a CSA or considered it? If you want to find one in your area, a good place to start is on this website: http://www.localharvest.org/

(blackberries we picked at the farm with our home group… in the process of making yummy blackberry cobbler!)

My First Vlog!

Oh you guys. I am blushing already. Jonny has really been into video lately… and I’ve been into watching cooking shows since I have a lot of time on my hands. (Yay for summer!) So – here’s the outcome of that. A vlog of one of our favorite recipes – Spinach, Red Peppers, and Mozzarella Pasta.

Hope you enjoy and maybe learn something. Leave me some love…. come on, at least pretend like you enjoyed it. :)

Lemon-Raspberry Bars

I am making these today for a family get together tomorrow. I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about these yet! I have made these several times and they always are a hit. In fact, we are celebrating my sister’s and Jonny’s birthday tomorrow and these are the requested dessert from Jonny. He loves them! Bars are some of my favorite desserts. Easier to eat than cake, more fun than cookies, and a lot of them are fruity.

Ingredients:
1 box Lemon Cake Mix
1/2 cup Butter, softened
2 Eggs
3/4 cup Raspberry Preserves
1 package (8 oz) Cream Cheese, softened
2 tablespoons Milk
12 oz. White Chocolate Baking Bars, chopped
2-3 tablespoons Powdered Sugar

Directions:
1. Heat oven 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease bottom only of 15x10x1-inch pan with shortening.
2. In large bowl, mix cake mix, butter and eggs with spoon until well blended. With greased or floured fingers, press evenly in pan.
3. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until edges are golden brown and crust begins to pull away from sides of pan or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes.
4. Spread evenly with preserves. Cool 30 minutes.
5. In medium bowl, beat cream cheese and milk with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth; set aside.
6. In 1-quart saucepan, melt white chocolate over low heat, stirring frequently.
7. Add warm melted white chocolate to cream cheese mixture; beat on medium speed until creamy.
8. Carefully spread over preserves. Refrigerate about 1 hour or until set.
9. Sprinkle powdered sugar over top. For bars, cut into 8 rows by 6 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.

The powdered sugar is optional. I have done them with and without and really haven’t even noticed a difference. Hope you enjoy! (Original Recipe found here)