thank goodness...

the cicadas are gone!

it's only 1 more day & we're bound for Stockholm!!!

for our wonderful families & friends who we love dearly!

for a magnificent God who does answer prayer!

there is some much-needed vacation time on the way!!!


Just feeling overwhelmed with the many blessings of my life...

bad CSA news :-(

We got an e-mail this week from our CSA owner saying that the primary farmer and owner of our CSA farm has contracted Lyme Disease and will be unable to keep up the farm for atleast the next 6 weeks. Definitely unfortunate for him.

So, we won't be getting any more CSA boxes...oh boo :-(.

We do get our money back, but I still will miss our fresh goodies each week.
It was fun while it lasted!

CMA sisters!!!

What fun we had!!!

CMA Fest!!!

Cheri & Abbey were here this weekend for some CMA Fest sister fun...

We had a blast!!!

Here's a recap of who we saw in concert each night:

Thursday:

*Zac Brown Band-One of my favorites of the whole weekend. Randy Travis & ALAN JACKSON made guest appearances with them...a-w-e-s-o-m-e!!! *Easton Corbin

*Sara Evans

*Jason Aldean (great!)- Also amazing, especially his duet with guest Kelly Clarkson!

*Brad Paisley-Another amazing performance, and to top it off Alabama made a guest appearance to perform 2 songs with him.
Friday:

*Ashton Sheppard

*Dierks Bentley

*Keith Urban-He was great!!!

*Sugarland- Also made my top 5 performance list...They are a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!

*Lady Antebellum-Also wonderful!

*Reba- not so good :-(

Saturday:

*Chris Young- He put on a great show!

*Little Big Town- So fun!!!

*Josh Turner- loved it! The newest American Idol, Scotty McCreary, joined him for a duet performance too!

*Trace Atkins- He is sooo fun

*Martina McBride-She is super amazing! Lauren Alaina also made an appearance & performed "Anyway" with Martina...awesome!

*Rascal Flatts- Let's just say we left early (disappointing end to a great night)...Everyone did have little lights that created this awesome effect...

(David Nail performing on the Riverfront Stage)

Pics of us girls to come!

CSA bounty Week 4

This Wednesday's box was fun!

We got:
*swiss chard (kind of like spinach)
*red leaf lettuce
*squash
*pickling cucumbers
*broccoli

We turned it into:
*More chicken stir fry...I had a few sugar snap peas left from week 3, so with the fresh broccoli & some other goodies I had around it was delish!

*Manicotti-I stuffed it with a mixture of ricotta, mozarella, parmesan, asiago cheese & the steamed chard leaves.

*More salads!!!

*I have plans to try to can some pickles this afternoon...we'll see how that turns out!

CSA Bounty-Week 3

I'm a bit late on sharing details from week 3, but week 3's week's box contained:
*collard greens

*sugar snap peas

*squash

*zuchinni

*beets

We turned it into:

*More chicken stir fry...it was so delicious the last time we had to have it again. The fresh sugar snap peas make it so amazing!

*I was pretty skeptical about the collards, but I tried making timbales. I found the recipe in a great vegetable-based cookbook I got from the library. I steamed the collard leaves and used them to line 4 ramekins. I made a stuffing with small pieces of ham, grated gruyere cheese, chopped steamed collards, and diced onions. You fill the ramekin with the stuffing and pull the collard leaves over the top to cover the stuffing. Brush the tops with olive oil and bake in a water bath for 30 minutes.

I have never enjoyed collards before, but these turned out to be delicious.

*Roasted beets-Again, I was pretty skeptical. I'd never had fresh beets before. I washed them, roasted them in the oven with the skin on. When they cooled, the skins peeled right off & I sliced them, brushed with butter, basil, and parsley...delicious!!!

Details on Week 4 coming soon...