Sweet Potato Oven Fries w/ Blue Cheese Fondue

This pile of naturally sweet, cheesy goodness is just one of the excellent memories from last week. I am very recently returned from an amazing week at the Montreat Youth Conference. I bet there are very few people who attended that will tell you that their week was, in fact, NOT amazing.

Chipotle Black Bean Hummus

I don't think there will be any of this left when Paul gets home tonight...

My mouth is on fire and yet I can't/won't stop. At least I will definitely get my 8 glasses of water today.

Rock Cakes, Cathedrals, & the English Coast

We'll get back to these bad boys in just a moment. 

Berry Mascarpone Filled Cupcakes & Our Wedding

When we were planning our wedding we hired a young and talented photographer whose business has since exploded, which meant we had a really long wait for our photos. On the morning of our one year anniversary, we got our photos - along with a very classy apology. Yes, there is a recipe at the bottom of the page so go ahead and scroll if that's what you came for. I won't be offended.

Cold-Brew Iced Coffee

It is really hard to get back into the swing of things after being on vacation. For two weeks I barely sent a text message, hardly looked at e-mail, and didn't make a single phone call. It was truly a break.

We had a wonderful two weeks in England visiting Paul's family, touring the Lake District, and celebrating our wedding with family and friends abroad. I ate crazy amounts of food - market wares, home cooked meals by friends and family, delicious pub fare - and I have several recipes from our travels that I want to share.

But first things first - dealing with jetlag. After dinner the night we got home I made a joke about resting my eyes for a minute and put my head down on the table. Regardless of my intentions, I promptly fell asleep. Awkward.

I was hoping to post about this before I left but I was running around getting ready right up until we left and didn't get the chance. Homemade iced coffee seems even more appropriate now. Appropriate because coffee helps with the tiredness, but even more so because it's iced. It was 73 degrees when we left England and when we landed it was a whopping NINETY-FIVE DEGREES! And it hasn't gotten much better...

90º weather makes me want to grab a glass with some ice...

Berry Cream Ice

I'm not really sure what to call this...

... all I know is that I love it. And it was one of those happy accidents that sometimes happen in the kitchen. 

Brown Sugar Shortbread

One of my first posts was about my grandparent's neighbor, Gordon. (There was also a really delicious scone recipe.) Meeting Gordon was an interesting treat. He's in his late 90's, he's a retired CFO who lived in New Jersey, and he wears Adidas track suits. When we sat down to talk, Paul had to fix Gordon's hearing aid for him before we could have a real conversation. When I told him that I am a Sunday School Director, he spoke to me about doing things with meaning in a way that still touches me when I think about it.