Panzanella (bread salad)

I'm not much of a vegetable eater during the winter months. But, when summer comes around, I can't wait to get my hands on some fresh veggies! I like it when food is pretty, and there is nothing prettier than the vibrant colors of summer vegetables!

What You'll Need

3 cups cubed bread (I used sourdough)
2 large ripe tomatoes, cut into chunks
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp minced garlic
salt
fresh ground black pepper
1 medium yellow pepper, cubed
1 large cucumber, cubed
chopped parsley

What You'll Do

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet with foil. Arrange bread cubes in a single layer and bake 10-12 minutes. Meanwhile, put tomatoes, onion, oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Let stand at room temperature at least 30 minutes, tossing occasionally. Add peppers, cucumbers and parsley to tomatoes. Let stand at least 15 minutes for flavors to blend. Just before serving, add bread cubes and toss thoroughly.

Herb Crusted Pork Tenderloin

What You'll Need

1 - 4 lb pork tenderloin (I used 2, 1.5 lb tenderloins)
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried rosemary

What You'll Do

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Place pork loin on a rack in a roasting pan. Combine the remaining ingredients in a small bowl. With your fingers, massage the mixture onto the pork loin, covering all of the meat and fat. Roast for 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 425 degrees and roast for an additional hour. Allow to sit for about 20 minutes before carving. (if you use two 1.5 tenderloins like I did....cut cooking time down to an hour total).

All of the herbs and garlic turn into this nice flavorful crust.
Looks so good you could eat it.....wait, I did!
haha, I know I'm so funny!


I like to serve this with fresh, sweet corn on the cob!

Tres Leches Cake

What You'll Need

1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 whole eggs
1 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened, condensed milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tub cool whip

What You'll Do

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan liberally.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.

Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.

Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool.

Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle the milk mixture over top of cake—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can.

Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes. Spread cool whip over the surface of the cake.

I think this cake is even better the 2nd day. I would suggest making it a day ahead and keep it chilled in the fridge (we say "fridge" in these parts) over night. It is great for these hot days! This cake is very light and spongy, then it becomes completely absorbed with the sweet milky goodness. The sweet, ice cold milk just pours out of the cake when you eat it! Perfect summer treat!

Summer Days

Josh and I spent the first few weeks of summer working around the house. And now we're finally getting to sit back and enjoy it all! Here is a little picture update on the projects we've been working on.


Ever since we bought the house last summer, Josh has been talking about building a fire pit. He decided to take advantage of the few weeks he had between the spring and summer semesters to start working on the pit. He did an awesome job! I don't know how many hours he spent behind the shovel on this thing, but I know it was A LOT!

Rocky was pretty impressed!

We've already had a few bonfires with friends. It's been so nice having a "camp ground" atmosphere right in our back yard....complete with Smores!

Our next project was staining our back patio. Again, this was something we had been talking about since we moved in. I think it turned out great and it really was pretty easy to do. What do you guys think??

Here's the before....


And, after...


We also got some new patio furniture!

I think the finished look turned out so good! Now, I just need to add some potted plants...but I think I'll put that on next summer's project list.

Our biggest project has been our front yard landscaping. I did an earlier post on the first few steps, where we painted the shutters and created the lay-out for our flower beds. Since then, we've added some shrubs, flowers and fountain.

My mom thought it was funny that I was digging around in the dirt cause when I was a little girl I didn't like to get dirty AT ALL. She said I would cry if I got a drop of dirt on me. Haha!


Turns out, gardening is much more fun than I thought it would be!

And I have to say, for two people that know absolutely NOTHING about landscaping.....I think we did a pretty good job! I love pulling up to our house and seeing our pretty shrubs and flowers!


Other projects around the house have included, installing gutters and laying sod in the front yard. We are coming up on our 1 year anniversary of being home-owners and I think we have made some major improvements.

From what our front yard looked like when we moved in....

To now.....


The Hubs and I have been hard at work. We plan on enjoying the rest of our summer days together at the house!

Show Us Your Life - Proposals

I decided to participate in Kelly's Korner's Show Us Your Life Fridays. This week's topic is Proposals.

Josh and I had been dating for about a year. I knew he was the one I wanted to marry and I was pretty certain I was the one for him too. We started looking at rings and talking about marriage a little bit here and there.

One weekend while at my parents house, my dad asked Josh to go with him to "haul off" a stray dog. When they came back, my dad pulled me to the side and said "I don't know if this is something I should be telling you, but Josh just asked me for permission to marry you". I could not believe the words that came out of his mouth! Of course this wasn't something he should have been telling me! I am the oldest of two daughters and my dad, bless his heart, didn't know what he was supposed to do. Ha! I made sure with my sister, he knew he was not supposed to say anything to her!

On our way back home I could tell Josh was acting a little nervous. He talked the whole way home. If you know Josh, you know that is out of the ordinary for him. And I honestly didn't listen to a word he was saying.....I had thoughts of engagement rings and wedding locations running through my head!

We hadn't been home for more than 10 minutes when Josh popped the question! I was sitting in his recliner in the living room of our apartment and he pulled me up, got down on one knee, said a bunch of sweet things and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him! I said YES of course! Even though, I knew that Josh was planning on asking me. I was still surprised. I didn't think he'd do it THAT day. We had a cruise planned a few months from then, so I thought that might be when he was going to do it.

After making lots and lots of phone calls to tell our family. I realized that in all the excitement, I had completely zoned out and didn't remember anything he had said during his proposal. So I asked him to say it all to me again. He repeated everything to me....and I guess I was still a little too excited cause I still to this day cannot remember any of it!



Now for the ring.......rewind about 8 months.
We had only been dating a few months. We were in Arkansas visiting Josh's family. Josh and his brother (Patrick) wanted to go to the mall. While we were at the mall, Josh and Patrick decided they wanted to go look at some watches. I was not interested in watches so I roamed the store and ended up stopping in front of the engagement rings. I saw one that caught my eye and the sales lady asked me if I wanted to try it on. I looked at Josh to make sure he was busy and responded quietly with a "yes". After I put the ring on the sales lady yelled across the store to Josh "come over here and check this ring out"! I was mortified.....we had only been dating a few months and there was NO logical reason I should have an engagement ring on my hand! My face turned beat red and so did Josh's. He was totally caught off guard. I'll never forget the look on his face. I could not wait to get out of that store!

I still had that ring on my mind after we got back to Josh's mom's house that day. I figured if there ever was a day when I thought I would get engaged, that ring would be the perfect ring! I took one of his mom's post-its and drew a picture of the ring and wrote Zales on it so I would remember where I had seen it. I stuck it in my wallet and forgot all about it.

8 months later I had a ring on my finger! I was curious if it was anything like the ring I had drawn on a post-it many months ago. I got the post-it out of my wallet and sure enough, it was the EXACT SAME RING! I guess that sales lady knew what she was doing that day after all!



It is a pear shaped diamond with round diamonds surrounding it and lining the band. I am absolutely in love with my ring! You know when you first get engaged, how you can't stop staring at your ring? Well, I still catch myself doing that. I love it just as much today as I did in that jewelry store so long ago.

My Sister, My Best Friend

To my sister, my best friend..........

After 18 months of engagement, your big day has finally came and went. You were stunning! You and Billy looked incredible, you were both glowing in happiness! I know this was a day you have dreamed about for so long but there are many more dreams ahead. You and Billy truly complete one another. I am so excited for all that God has in store for you and your new family. I know that marriage is not always roses and romance but there is no doubt in my mind that the two of you will live happily ever after! I pray that when you guys come across life's speed bumps, you turn to God for strength and guidance, that you hold on to one another and never forget the love you share! May God bless your marriage!

Vegas Baby!!

Our much needed get away....in pictures....



We stayed at The Encore. Our room was AMAZING!







Had some awesome Italian food at Maggiano's


Gambled a little...


This was our lucky roulette table!


Saw a couple of shows.....
We saw Cirque du Soleil's "O" at the Bellago and "A Bronx Tale" at The Venetian. They were both really good but I LOVED A Bronx Tale! If you're planning a trip to Vegas any time soon, I would definitely recommend it.


We got dressed up and ate the best steak I've ever had at Stripsteak at Mandalay Bay. Again, if you're going to Vegas, you have to try their steaks!


We hung out by the pool and ordered fruity drinks...


We roamed around the Vegas strip....

This was probably one of my favorite vacations. We really didn't plan anything. We were in no hurry to be at any particular place at any particular time. I spent lots of QT working on my tan and Josh got lots of much needed sleep. And most of all.....I fell in love with Josh all over again. It felt like a second honeymoon!