So, some of you may not know this about me, but I actually really like to cook. Baking, not so much...too much trouble and makes too big of a mess, but cooking, I like. Now, don't be confused. Just because I like to cook doesn't mean that it's anything complicated. I always have and always will refuse to cook anything that requires too many steps or requires ingredients that I've never heard of, or that I don't know where to find in the store. So I guess I could rephrase my opening sentence to say that I actually like to cook...things that are EASY and DELICIOUS!
The blog-o world has opened up an entire new resource for me to find and try new recipes. What's better than a recommendation from a friend you already trust, instead of just picking a recipe from a website that may or may not actually be as delicious as it sounds? I love it! We've tried all kinds of new recipes at the Nowlin house over the past year and it's been fun. Below are some links to some recipes that we've tried out and have now officially become staples in our house that I've put into our regular rotations:
Really Good Salad - From the blog of Leslie Jerkins
Best salad I've ever had (even better than from any restaurant) and so super duper easy!
Yogurt Pie - Also from the blog of Leslie Jerkins
Just can't get any easier than this - you can freeze it too which is even better on a hot summer evening!
Breakfast Pizza - From the blog of Kendall Jones
This one isn't easy, but worth the trouble and is hearty enough for dinner!
Chicken Tortilla Soup - Also from the blog of Kendall Jones
So unhealthy, but so worth it and makes enough for an army, so it's a great choice when having dinner guests.
And these are just a few of my favorites. I'll be sure and pass along more as I try them out and confirm their deliciousness and easiness. I've also got a few recipes of my own to share with the blog-o world one day.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Splish Splash!
So, in case you're not aware, it's been darn HOT around these parts lately. Too hot to even be outdoors. But if you're going to be outdoors, there better be some H2O involved, and a lot of it! I extended my vacation into Monday to have a day to get caught up on laundry and grocery shopping, and after Case's nap I wanted to do something fun with him to get him out of the house. But it was just so hot and I didn't have easy access to any swimming pools, so we went for the next best thing...the splash park. There is a small public one near our house, and the best part is...it's FREE! Case had a ball. He was a little reluctant at first, but it didn't take long until he was running and screaming through all of the water sprays! And there was a nice shaded area for all of the parents to sit and since we were so close to all of the super cold water spraying out everywhere, it was actually quite pleasant. This is going to be one of our favorite summer activities! Unfortunately, I didn't have my good camera, so these were all taken on my phone. Not the best quality, but you get the idea...
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Smokey Mountain Backpacking Adventure
Well folks, it's official. I survived my first backpacking adventure and I have to admit that not only did I survive, but I had a really good time. And I'm not just saying that to score some brownie points with James. I honestly enjoyed the whole experience and will definitely be going backpacking again in the future. James did such a great job planning and getting us all prepared, so kudos to him! I tried to document as much as possible below, but some things just cannot be expressed in pictures...like how far we hiked on day two. Whew...
Okay, so here we go....
Pre-trip prep: This is all of of the stuff we needed for the two nights and two days in nature. It was a lot of stuff and it was only the BARE minimum, believe me! Tent, sleeping bag, air pad, pillow, bug spray, clothes, water, water bottle filter, food, etc. It is a long list of little stuff that adds up to be quite heavy!
Can you believe that all that stuff fits into these two backpacks? We weighed them both and mine came in at 14 lbs. and Jame's came in at 25 lbs. Not too bad!
Pumped and ready to go!
We drove a really long way to get to the ranger station where we were to begin. The road was closed that we needed to take and our detour added an extra two hours...yikes! We even crossed into North Carolina for a while. It was long, but the drive was breathtaking. We had to detour through both the Cherokee and Nanahalah National Forests and the views were spectacular, so at least there was a bright side, but we worried about making it to our campsite before dark.
James' good friend from High School, Brandon (aka Poss), and his girlfriend Rachel, went on this excursion with us. We picked them up in Nashville on the way, and boy was I glad to have a female companion along!
Day One: We hiked about 4.6 miles along this beautiful creek to our campground. It was a nice leisurely climb with great scenery.
Yay! We made it to the campsite with plenty of daylight left to get camp all set up. I was relieved to have made it that far and nervous about the next day's ascent!
Tent up complete with the rain fly just in case...and surprisingly, I slept pretty darn good that night on my sleeping bag and pad. The hike must have worn me out pretty good. And the temperature was perfect. It got down into the low 60's that night.
Dinner time. This is what we boil our water in for cooking.
And here is our gourmet meal in a bag...just add boiling water. James had chili and it was tortilla soup for me.
I gotta admit that mine was pretty tasty! Especially after such hard work.
Day Two: We hiked nearly straight uphill for three hours, gaining 2,500 ft. in altitude, up to 5,000 ft. It was a tough hike, I won't lie. Uphill for over 5 miles. I had to stop for many a breaks. We finally made it to Gregory's Bald and the tough morning climb was definitely worth it. It was beautiful at the top. The azaleas were in full bloom and there were hundreds of them.
And when we came up out of some of the bushes, this deer was right there. Just an arms length away from us. It was amazing. Not one bit afraid of people.
Oh man, and the views from the top were amazing too, but not as clear as they would have been on a sunny day. Right as we got to the top the clouds started coming in.
We were so in hopes of seeing a black bear. We saw a lot of evidence of bears (fresh bear poop), but no bears. Maybe next time...
And then the rain began. Not bad though. It rained for about an hour and never hard. It gave us an excuse to get out our rain gear.
We were supposed to only hike about 10 total miles on day two and camp out for a second night, but it was only 2.6 more miles to our car from the camp, so we decided to tough it out and make it back to the car. That made for a total of over 12 miles in one day. Whew, were our legs worn out. We stuck them in the creek back at the car to numb them up a bit!
On our drive back through the Nanahalah and Cherokee National Forests, we stopped at an overlook and took some pics of the spectacular views! 
And night two was spent at the Hampton Inn in Athens, TN. Boy were we glad to get a hot shower and sleep in a comfy bed! 
So, there you have it, folks. It was such a great experience and I'm quite proud of myself for it. The only complaint I had was my sore calves the next few days! I am even looking forward to doing it again. Who knew I was such an outdoors woman??
Okay, so here we go....
Pre-trip prep: This is all of of the stuff we needed for the two nights and two days in nature. It was a lot of stuff and it was only the BARE minimum, believe me! Tent, sleeping bag, air pad, pillow, bug spray, clothes, water, water bottle filter, food, etc. It is a long list of little stuff that adds up to be quite heavy!
Can you believe that all that stuff fits into these two backpacks? We weighed them both and mine came in at 14 lbs. and Jame's came in at 25 lbs. Not too bad!
Pumped and ready to go!
We drove a really long way to get to the ranger station where we were to begin. The road was closed that we needed to take and our detour added an extra two hours...yikes! We even crossed into North Carolina for a while. It was long, but the drive was breathtaking. We had to detour through both the Cherokee and Nanahalah National Forests and the views were spectacular, so at least there was a bright side, but we worried about making it to our campsite before dark.
James' good friend from High School, Brandon (aka Poss), and his girlfriend Rachel, went on this excursion with us. We picked them up in Nashville on the way, and boy was I glad to have a female companion along!
Day One: We hiked about 4.6 miles along this beautiful creek to our campground. It was a nice leisurely climb with great scenery.
Yay! We made it to the campsite with plenty of daylight left to get camp all set up. I was relieved to have made it that far and nervous about the next day's ascent!
Tent up complete with the rain fly just in case...and surprisingly, I slept pretty darn good that night on my sleeping bag and pad. The hike must have worn me out pretty good. And the temperature was perfect. It got down into the low 60's that night.
Dinner time. This is what we boil our water in for cooking.
And here is our gourmet meal in a bag...just add boiling water. James had chili and it was tortilla soup for me.
I gotta admit that mine was pretty tasty! Especially after such hard work.
Day Two: We hiked nearly straight uphill for three hours, gaining 2,500 ft. in altitude, up to 5,000 ft. It was a tough hike, I won't lie. Uphill for over 5 miles. I had to stop for many a breaks. We finally made it to Gregory's Bald and the tough morning climb was definitely worth it. It was beautiful at the top. The azaleas were in full bloom and there were hundreds of them.
And when we came up out of some of the bushes, this deer was right there. Just an arms length away from us. It was amazing. Not one bit afraid of people.
Oh man, and the views from the top were amazing too, but not as clear as they would have been on a sunny day. Right as we got to the top the clouds started coming in.
We were so in hopes of seeing a black bear. We saw a lot of evidence of bears (fresh bear poop), but no bears. Maybe next time...
And then the rain began. Not bad though. It rained for about an hour and never hard. It gave us an excuse to get out our rain gear.
We were supposed to only hike about 10 total miles on day two and camp out for a second night, but it was only 2.6 more miles to our car from the camp, so we decided to tough it out and make it back to the car. That made for a total of over 12 miles in one day. Whew, were our legs worn out. We stuck them in the creek back at the car to numb them up a bit!
On our drive back through the Nanahalah and Cherokee National Forests, we stopped at an overlook and took some pics of the spectacular views! 
And night two was spent at the Hampton Inn in Athens, TN. Boy were we glad to get a hot shower and sleep in a comfy bed! 
So, there you have it, folks. It was such a great experience and I'm quite proud of myself for it. The only complaint I had was my sore calves the next few days! I am even looking forward to doing it again. Who knew I was such an outdoors woman??Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Levitt Shell
So, being born and raised in the country, I find myself on occasion missing the country and complaining about some of the ways of the city. However, tonight I want to talk about one of the reasons I love Memphis and all that the city has to offer. The Levitt Shell. The Levitt Shell is an outdoor concert venue in midtown's Overton Park (next to the zoo) that has free concerts on the weekends for all to enjoy. Yes, FREE! Which is our kind of entertainment. But even if it weren't free, we'd still partake. If you get there early enough, you can catch the band that is just for the kiddos. You just take you blanket or lawn chair, grab your ice chest and snacks and get ready for a great time for all ages. And if you don't have kiddos, just show up a bit later for the featured band of the evening. Unfortunately, it gets too darn hot to enjoy all summer and only lasts for one month, but we certainly enjoy while it lasts!
Tonight's Levitt Shell Kids band was the Boogers and they were rockin'
Case enjoying a fresh peach that we picked up this morning at the Memphis Farmer's Market. Yummy!
Tonight's Levitt Shell Kids band was the Boogers and they were rockin'
Case enjoying a fresh peach that we picked up this morning at the Memphis Farmer's Market. Yummy!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Memorial Weekend
I've been really lazy on my blogging lately. Life's just been BUSY, with a capital "B." I've missed a lot of special occasions...mother's day, my birthday and mine and James' 6th anniversary. I'll go back and catch up soon! In the meantime, below are some pics and videos from Memorial Day weekend. It was a much needed three-day weekend for all of us.
We headed to Waverly, TN for the weekend to see James' parents. They have a GREAT park down the road from them. Case (and the dogs) had a great time.
Really interesting story to tell about what happened following this photo, but I won't embarrass my father-in-law by telling the world on my blog. If you don't already know, I will fill you in later.
The dogs were worn completely out from running all over the park.
We came back to Memphis on Sunday so we could hang out at home on our day off. We headed out to our new Church for a Memorial Day celebration. They had inflatables for the kids and BBQ. It was so much fun. Case wasn't sure about it at first, but once he got started, he loved those things. Check out the videos below too!
He had to check out the slide with his daddy first, but eventually went down all by himself.
We headed to Waverly, TN for the weekend to see James' parents. They have a GREAT park down the road from them. Case (and the dogs) had a great time.
Really interesting story to tell about what happened following this photo, but I won't embarrass my father-in-law by telling the world on my blog. If you don't already know, I will fill you in later.
The dogs were worn completely out from running all over the park.
We came back to Memphis on Sunday so we could hang out at home on our day off. We headed out to our new Church for a Memorial Day celebration. They had inflatables for the kids and BBQ. It was so much fun. Case wasn't sure about it at first, but once he got started, he loved those things. Check out the videos below too!
He had to check out the slide with his daddy first, but eventually went down all by himself.
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