Peanut Butter Fudge Pie

 I made this peanut butter fudge pie for our sweet friends who came to visit us from Indianapolis last weekend. I took a few not-so-fantastic pictures with my cell phone when I was serving it (and, of course, not a single one while making it) then posted it to FB and Instagram and received several requests for the recipe.

So please pardon the less-than-stellar photos and keep in mind that this pie was eaten so quickly I barely got a chance to take pics!

My Summer Garden Tour

It's our second summer in this house, and I've really especially loved my garden this year.

In June, I traded in my car for a bigger SUV for the purpose of holding a ton more flats of flowers fitting in more of my kids' sports, etc. stuff. I've been able to cram all sorts of new garden finds in there!

Anyway, as a little break from the recipes I've been posting lately, I wanted to share a few recent photos of my garden:

I did two matching planters near the table on our deck and filled them with tuberous begonias (yellow), lobelia and a spike for height. The lobelia have such a pretty blue flower, but weren't as hardy as I'd hoped. Next year I may do a creeping vine for a filler and forego the pop of blue.

I followed the thriller-spiller-filler rule:

 find a "thriller" for height and pair it with a "spiller" that will go over the edges of your pot and a "filler" to take up most of the area inside the pot.

Vacation Recap and Savannah Recommendation

We spent last week in Hilton Head and had a blast visiting the beach and the different parts of the island. The girls LOVED every minute of their first time on an airplane, and I have to say how pleasantly surprised and appreciative I am of the outstanding treatment our family received by the TSA agents in Dayton & Savannah!

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from our trip:

We loved the dolphin cruise we took from Seapines!

We saw two dolphins that danced around our boat for almost the whole trip, and our guide did a fantastic job of showing us how to cast and reel a crab trap!

 Pretty sure I need this sign in my house...

 One night we popped over to the beach (which was only a few hundred feet from our hotel) to take some sunset photos of the girls.

 They hammed it up for the camera, but I was able to get quite a few sweet shots.

 They bicker like crazy, but I absolutely adore the bond these two yahoos share with each other.

We had a few hours to spend in Savannah before our flight, so we grabbed lunch at the historic Crystal Beer Parlor. 

We loved all original building features, photographs and old newspapers dating back to the late 1800s.

And the food was pretty yummy too ;)

The absolute highlight of our Savannah sightseeing was our visit to Kitchens on the Square.

The girls LOVED playing in the vintage kitchen and testing out all of the fun gadgets. They had a million and one different cookie cutters and all sorts of fun signs, tea towels and kitchen tools.

And speaking of tea towels...

I picked up this hilarious Primitives by Kathy towel and another fun little towel as a gift for my amazing neighbor who watered my garden every day while we were gone.

I put my new towel up in the kitchen and my sweet big kid keeps reading it out loud then commenting "It's funny because it's true!"

She kills me.

I can't say enough good things about this store!

The staff was so kind and everywhere you turn there is something new to see. I probably could spend a whole day here!

I also have to say that I was super impressed by the way the store welcomed my kids to wander and enjoy the cool products; the girls absolutely loved it!

I bought my neighbor's tea towel then came back later for mine and was so pleasantly surprised to see that the woman who rang me up gave me the Buy 2 discount (taking $4 off) without batting an eye. 

Love this place!

We are back home now and enjoying our last few weeks before school starts...

Feels SO good to be home!

Your New Favorite Oven Fries

We LOVE fries at our house.

In fact, we probably eat them about 3-4 times a week.

Thankfully, we bake our fries in olive oil, avoiding the extra fat and calories of a traditional fry. Don't get me wrong, there's not a lot that's tastier than a deep fried french fry, but there's no way we'd be able to eat those as frequently as we eat my version!

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

What began as a few days away quickly snowballed into a nearly two month blogging hiatus!

I've honestly just been enjoying my summer, spending as much of this monsoon season outdoors with the kids...

We've gone boating and tubing, taken a class on honeybees at a local farm, thrown a super-memorable joint birthday party, made great strides at the pool (no more water wings, woohoo!) visited a million and one parks and taken the girls to their very first Cubs game. Throw in some fun visits with friends, a trip up to Chicago to see our sweet new niece and two short summer camps, and we've been busy bees. Whew!

I'm excited to be back and am hoping to start posting a little more regularly as summer winds down and we get back into our school routine. To start back, I want to share one of my summer faves: sun-dried tomato pesto. 

DIY- Summer Tabletop Decor

I've been on a kick lately to spruce up our deck!

One of my very favorite things about our not-so-new-anymore house is the backyard, so we tend to spend a lot of our time on the deck during the warm months. Last week, I made a few simple additions to our deck decor to make the space feel more like an extension of the house and less like a separate space.

I got so excited about the changes that I totally neglected to take a "before" picture!

I started by adding this fun patterned rug from Target to give a pop of color and define the lower part of the deck.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Pecans, Cranberries and Bleu

Oh. My. Goodness.

If you are a fan of Brussels sprouts, then this recipe is a must-try!

I have somehow never in my life cooked these yummy little veggies, but they are likely going to become a staple...

Even my sprout-despising husband said "hmm, not bad!"

This is a super simple recipe that is foolproof and only requires a handful of ingredients- try in and let me know what you think!