It's Almost Spring!

Actually, I guess it is spring. 

Hello!

I know it's been awhile, but I'm feeling ready to get back in the swing of things. There's something about spring that's just so inspiring for me, I'm starting to burst from wanting to share recipes and photos again. Winter is my least favorite season, it always feels bleak to me. I know there's many wonderful things about winter, and I appreciate them... for awhile. But then I'm ready for renewal. I love when the early daffodils pop, when there's buds on all the trees, when I start seeing juvenile cardinals and gold finches at the feeders again. It's magical. I have a few items in my garden that just pop up all on their own, like little gifts from nature. Such as my chives, above. They just burst from the ground one day, green and beautiful, full of hope.

Wrapping Up November: 2016

How is it December??

This year has simultaneously dragged on, and in the same inexplicable breath, flew by. Where did 2016 go? November was a pretty busy month for us, as it is for most with the Thanksgiving holiday. December is set to fly by too, as the hubby and I are leaving for Oregon in 15 short days!! I'm so excited, I haven't spent a Christmas in Oregon since Christmas 2009. It's definitely time to head home for a holiday!

But in November-

Wrapping Up October: 2016

Ok, I just really wanted to start the post off with a cute puppy picture. Mission accomplished 😁🐶❤️

Can you believe it's November already? In 6 short weeks, the hubby and I will be leaving for Oregon! I'm in shock. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was telling the hubby it was time for a Christmas in Oregon. And now it's almost here! Unbelievable. 

But for now, now it's time to wrap up October! In October...

Since I've Been Gone: August (So Far)

Ok friends, let's wrap up this time period of me being gone forever and a day. I've finished up talking about July, so let's talk about August so far. August has been pretty typical around here, lots of humidity (oh lord, the humidity) and heat. Also, lots of rain. I'm happy with rain in the summer though, we get such crazy downpours that I don't have to water the garden for 2 days. Talk about shaving some time off the chore wheel. But honestly, when you are talking about August in the garden (at least for me) there's not a lot to do. This downtime feels so crazy after the frenzy of landscaping the hubby and I did during the early summer. I can't complain though, it's a lovely contrast. I much need the rest after having such a full house. And August of the family's stay here was pretty busy-

Wrapping up June: 2016

Hola amigos!

Yeah, I'm a couple days late with my monthly wrap-up. This summer, infinitely more than the past 3 summers, has been full of work. It seems like the longer we live in the house, the more work there is to do. I guess this makes sense. When we first moved in 3 years ago, we didn't even have grass. Now, we have landscaping times 100! The hubby and I were talking about how we had binged "Lost" back in the day, in 2009. I think one day we watched 15 episodes of the show. We got to talking about how in the world did we find that much time to watch the show, and we both came up with the fact that we lived in a rental whose yard consisted of an approximately 5 x 5 patch of grass. Not only were we not actively improving the property like people do with homes they own, but we had no yard. Of course we had oodles of time!

Recipe Redux: Tortellini Pepperoncini Salad

It's been a stormy morning y'all.

The hubby woke me up at 6 this morning to let me know a monster storm was on the way. I roused myself from slumber, shuffled my way to the den window that faces the northwest, and took a peep. Oh yeah, I could see the storm coming. I could see the lighting from miles away! We are prone to losing power out here in the country with these big wind storms, so I booked it to the coffee machine. I brewed 2 cups before the storm hit. I figured if I lost power at least I would have a 2nd cup of coffee, even if it turned out to be lukewarm. Lukewarm caffeine is better than none I figured :-)

Strawberry & Avocado Pasta Salad

- with balsamic dressing

Well, it's finally happened. 

Almost 3 months after we got the bees, one of the dogs has been stung. Poor little Mariota. Just the other morning, I was letting the boys out- all four of them. I say four because my mother-in-law's Pekingese was staying with us. All of them were sniffing around in front of the bee hives. I hate when they get right in front because I'm always afraid they are going to get stung (obviously for good reason!). So, there I am, hollering away at the top of my lungs for the dogs to get away from the bees. They were all moving my way when I saw Mariota snap at his hind quarters. And then his front quarters. And then... the cries. Oh, I felt so bad for him. He came squealing up to me with no idea what had happened to his little body. 

Summing up May: 2016

Another month, in the books.

Ah, I know. I'm a bad blogger. I was supposed to get this posted yesterday, but I had urgent garden affairs to attend to. Some of my tomato starts had become root-bound and were starting to die. They had to be transplanted immediately. All is well though. The best of the starts are moved, I've gotten a wee-bit sunburned, and I'll just post my monthly wrap-up today. 

May's weather left something to be desired. It was an extremely rainy month. We've had a huge pile of dirt in our yard for most of the month, waiting for dry weather, just itching to be moved into future flower beds. We're also tapping our feet for the yard to dry out so we can get in and build our fence. Thankfully the end of May was not too wet, and we were able to get the flower beds out front done. Hopefully by the time I write my June wrap-up, the side and back flower beds will be done and the fence will be installed. In the meantime, let's look at the front flower bed-

February Findings: 2016

It's March! How did this happen? The days are flying by and I'm still way behind on my reading list for the year. Eep. 

February was a pretty jam-packed month. A snowstorm, the Super Bowl, Valentine's Day, bee school... February was pretty cool. I've got plenty of pictures from the month, so let's dive right in!

January in Review: 2016

Did January fly by... or did January fly by?

I cannot believe the first month of 2016 is already gone. It's going to be another one of those years, I can feel it. It'll be gone before we know it. Now, I know I was a very bad blogger and I started my monthly wrap-up's again in November. Then I skipped December. Me oh my. 

I'm just going to pick right up where I left off. Let's talk about January!

We started off the year with Oregon vs TCU in the Alamo Bowl. The hubby and I were on point with our spread-

2015: By the Numbers

Oregon Trip 2015

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a healthy, happy, and safe holiday season. Let's wrap up 2015 by summing up last year in numbers, shall we? Here we go!

1- Oregon finally has a Heisman Trophy!
59- amount of points the Ducks scored in the Rose Bowl (new record!) against Florida St. on January 1st

5-Ingredient Vanilla Ice Cream

Well, as always friends, I had the best intentions to blog on Monday. However, the day had other plans. You see, the hubby and I have been having the worst problems with DirecTv. We've been having multiple outages and our box resets every couple of hours. It's been happening more and more often since DirecTv merged with AT&T. Over the weekend, the hubby and I reached our breaking point and scheduled a technician to come out and switch our boxes. And our appointment just happened to be at 8 am yesterday. Prime blogging time for Jessica. I should have known there would be trouble.

Autumn in Kentucky: October 2015

Hola! I'm here with a Saturday post to show you some beautiful October leaves here in Kentucky.

This (above) was the view of the road right after leaving my house. That is, until the leftovers of Hurricane Patricia went through the area, viciously taking down those oh-so-gorgeous October leaves we had going on. Well, boo to you Hurricane Patricia. We were having the most beautiful fall that I can remember around here. 

That could be because 2 years ago, we spent October in Oregon and last year we spent the last 2 weeks of October in Mexico... Hmmm...

At any rate, the hillsides have been awash of gold and red, with the occasional evergreen poking out here and there. If I were to go back and take pictures today (these were taken last weekend), everything would look vastly different. Plus, they would all be gloomy and gray and who wants to look at those right??

What I Learned In My 2nd Year of Gardening

Well, I think it's time.

I officially put the garden to bed yesterday. Actually, I did most of the work on Friday before our first heavy frost. I was at the gym, walking on the treadmill, minding my own business when the local garden guy came on the news. He advised getting any vegetables you might have in the garden, out of the garden before the cold weather. I still had a few tomatoes and peppers on the vines, so I got to work. 

I pulled the last few green tomatoes, and put them in closed paper bags in the basement. They'll be ripe in a couple of weeks, and that will be a nice treat. I pulled up the tomato and pepper plants, and added them to the compost. 

Recipe Redux: Pasta e Fagioli with Kale

Time for this month's Recipe Redux! I think the soup was in dire need of updated pictures-

That's the funny thing about photography. The more you progress, the more you look back and think, "Why didn't I change this one little thing?" or "Why didn't I add some color to that shot?" or "For the love, just blur that background!". Even while I bemoan the state of my early food photography, I also realize it's a wonderful thing. I shared so many recipes in the early days that are the hubby and I's absolute favorites. I'm enjoying these Redux's, if only to compare how far my photography has come. 

Lately: Fall 2015

Oh my gosh y'all. It's been forever, 2 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days since I did a Sunday post. In fact, my last "Lately" post was February 1st. Holy Superbowl Sunday Batman! I've got lots of pictures to share, you know, cause I haven't in a million years. Let's dive right in-

Oh, and if you don't like pictures of things like puppies and Chihuahuas, you may want to skip this post :)

Watermelon Moscato Slushies

Happy Monday!

I don't make a lot of adult beverages for the blog, and right now I'm wondering why. They are, quite honestly, one of my favorite things to make for chatting about. Why, you might ask? Because I get to drink my subjects when I'm done shooting photos of them!

Strawberry Chocolate Popsicles

Ok, foodbloggers. Has this situation ever happened to anyone else?

You think of a quick little project that might make a good post. Say something simple, like popsicles. After you've dreamed up the concept, you then guesstimate that the project will take 10 minutes to complete. Then, smack in the middle of said "quick" project, everything goes south. Instead of taking 10 minutes, it's taking 40 minutes and you're late for another event because the darn project was not supposed to take that long?

Yeah. That was these popsicles. 

Raspberry Lemonade Truffles

Let's wrap up this week of Mexican food with something sweet. Make it a no-bake as well, and you have yourself a deal! These moist, lemon-y, fruity, faux-truffles would be a perfect Mother's Day treat.

Recipe Redux: Tortilla Soup

Happy Cinco de Mayo! 

Tortilla Soup is one of my ultimate favorite soups. In the world. Like, ever. It would be included in my top 5 list. It's a soup that I have on hand at all times, via the freezer, joining the likes of Clam Chowder, Tomato Soup, and Potato Soup. There's rarely a time I would ever turn down Tortilla Soup. In fact, I can't even think of a reason I would turn up my nose. Well, I guess if I had food poisoning, but then I wouldn't be eating anything...