Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Want a very delicious homemade macaroni and cheese recipe? Here you go! Thanks to my mother-in-law for the recipe! Ryan and I love it, and I made this for guests, and loved it too!

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese


Ingredients (Proportions are for a small casserole dish, I think it's about 9x9 or so. I have made a much larger version by increasing the proportions.)
-Elbow macaroni (about 2 cups)
-Velveeta (1 lb)
-1/2 stick of butter (sliced into small pieces)
-About 1/2 to 3/4 c. milk

What it looks like before it goes in the oven.

Directions:
-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
-Cook the elbow macaroni as the package says to.
-While that is cooking, cut the Velveeta into small cubes or squares.
-Stir the ingredients into the cooked macaroni.
-Put in your casserole dish.
-Cook for 30 minutes until it is brown and bubbling around the edges. (You will want to take it out and stir it half way through so that it cooks evenly. Also, if you are increasing the proportions, you may want to cook it for longer so it is well heated through.)
-Take out, eat, and enjoy!

The delicious end result!

Strawberry Jam

I decided to try making homemade strawberry jam this summer. It was an experiment that ended up turning out DELICIOUSLY! Ryan and I both loved it, and I ended up making a couple batches of strawberry jam and one of blueberry jam (which I gave away, and those people all loved it!). So here's basically how's it done. If you want to try it, just buy Sure Jell (it comes in little yellow boxes, and you can get it at Walmart) and follow the instructions!

You start by cutting up strawberries and putting them in the blender. (If I remember right, I ended up using 1 box of strawberries. Maybe a bit more or less.)

Blend them until they look about like this.

Put the strawberry goodness into a bowl, and pour in the sugar.

Then stir it until it looks about like this, and then I think it's supposed to sit for about 10 minutes.

Then you combine the Sure Jell (1 package) and water, and bring it to a boil.

Then you combine the Sure Jell/water combo with the strawberry/sugary goodness, and stir it.

Then you pour it into freezer safe containers, and let it sit out for 24 hours. Then you can refrigerate it and eat it, or you can freeze it for up to a year (if it lasts that long!!!).

This is delicious, amazing jam! I can't wait until next summer to make a lot more, so we can have it all throughout the year!

Our Honeymoon - Friday and Saturday

Friday morning we packed up our belongings, took some pictures of the cabin, and wrote in the guestbook (or whatever it is called). We drove down the mountain for the last time and headed back through the Smokies to make our way to Deal's Gap, which is the end/beginning of The Dragon. The Dragon is a very twisty, windy road that motorcyclists love to drive on (and cars too). Some motorcycles tip over with all of the turns (sad!). It was fun to go on (in a car, not a motorcycle!), and there were some pretty views.

Writing in the guestbook.

Where we ate lunch.

 

Then we drove to Knoxville, where we stayed Friday night. After much wandering around, we finally ate supper at the Mellow Mushroom (the least sketchy of many restaurants we went by). Then after several attempts, we finally found a real movie theater and watched Cars 2!

Like the decor? It's fitting.

We had talked about coming part way home between Saturday and Sunday, but we decided to just come all the way back. We drove through a crazy, but very short rainstorm in Indiana, but otherwise it was an uneventful trip home. We had turned off the GPS when we got to "familiar territory," but we turned it back on when we were just a few blocks away from our new home, so that we could hear, "Arriving at destination." :) And of course, my wonderful husband carried me over the threshold of our new home.

The End

Well, at least of our honeymoon stories. :)

Our Honeymoon - Thursday's Adventures

Thursday we decided to drive through the Smokey Mountains a bit. We stopped at some of the scenic overlooks and saw some beautiful views of the mountains! I'll put up a couple of the pictures to give you an idea of how pretty it was.

Funny story about one of the overlooks. We asked an older lady to take a picture of us by this sign, and we handed her the camera. She took the camera and started trying to look through the zoom/lense part sticking out the front! (Wouldn't you think she'd know not to look out the front even if it was a digital camera?!) We helped her turn it around, and miraculously, this is the good picture we got!

At one point, we walked up a rather steep path to a scenic overlook that had been built (and which kind of was shaped like a mushroom). On a clear day, one can see quite far out in the Smokies. We couldn't see incredibly far, but it was still fun to get four different views of the mountains.

The path up to the overlook crossed the Appalachian Trail.

Later int he day, we decided we wanted to see some more scenic views, so we headed down a scenic roadway. We then got to one point (a road off the main drive), where there was a gravel road that went off into the woods and a sign that read "Unimproved Gravel Road." We debated whether we should go down this unimproved gravel road or not, and eventually decided to do it. (It made us feel a little bit better that we had seen another car go down it while we were trying to decide.) It was reasonably flat, but gravel and very, very twisty and windy. Ryan's hope was to see some more bears since it was later afternoon/early evening when we were driving. I documented our little adventure with a few videos, which I will not bore you with. 

One view of the road.

We ended up driving on the road for an hour and twenty minutes. Our GPS only told us we were driving through the forest (not that we were even on a road!). We sadly did not see any bears, but only a bunny and a butterfly. Once we got off the unimproved gravel road, we were very glad to see a two lane road with yellow stripes!

We made our way back to the Pigeon Forge area, where we had a nice dinner at Olive Garden (despite our interesting waiter who called us "Lady" and "Man"). We then headed back to the cabin and watched a movie.

Butterfly Toast

Looking for something yummy, easy, and fun to eat with your kiddos? Check out these beautiful, tasty butterflies!

Butterfly Toast

Ingredients:
-Crescent Rolls
-Butter
-Broiler

Directions: Bake crescent rolls. Cut in half. Butter and place in broiler until toasted.

Notes: I'm sure you could do this other ways, such as with a toaster, and not just butter, etc. Use your imagine and have some fun!

*Thank you to my wonderful husband for this idea!

Our Wedding Day - June 25 (Part Two)

The grandparents and mums and dads were seated, and then we had our pastor give a Gospel message. While Pastor Tom talked, the bridal party (except for Ryan and his best man) waited downstairs. We just talked and waited until we could go into sanctuary. This was probably the hardest part of the day. What was the funniest thing was when I was waiting, I got the exact same feeling that I got when I competed in gymnastics and was waiting for the judge to salute me before I started my floor routine. I would jump around in place until the judge saluted me. Then once I got on the floor and started, I was fine. It was the same thing. I wasn't nervous, I just wanted to get started. :)

Finally, we all headed up to the double doors that lead into the sanctuary. Everyone walked in to Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire...the bridesmaids and groomsmen, my sister (who was my maid of honor), and the flower girls and ring bearer. Then me and my Daddy walked in to Allegro Maestoso. I headed down the aisle to meet my groom with a huge smile on my face. :) I hugged my Daddy and then headed up the stairs with my soon-to-be-husband. One of our groomsman led everyone in singing my favorite song, In Christ Alone, and then another groomsman read 1 John 4:7-19 and Ephesians 5:21-33. 

Then our youth pastor (Aaron), who was one of Ryan's groomsmen, began the "officiating." He gave a challenge to me and Ryan, and then we exchanged our vows: 

I, Ryan/Melinda, take you, Ryan/Melinda, to be my lawfully wedded wife/husband, I vow to continue to love and serve the Lord Jesus, I vow before God and these witnesses, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, 'til death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.

We gave each other our rings, saying "I give you this ring as a symbol of my unending love. With this ring, I thee wed."

Then we lighted the unity candles, which was the scariest part of the whole ceremony. ;) Our friends, the DeVries family, played and sang "I Will be Here" (Steven Curtis Chapman). They did a lovely job. :)

Then Aaron pronounced us husband and wife, and for the first time, we kissed!

Our Dads came up and prayed for us, and then Aaron introduced us to everyone as Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Anderson. :) As "Go, Cubs, Go" started playing, we skipped back down the aisle as husband and wife.

We came back in, and dismissed everyone by row so that we could at least say hello to everyone. As everyone left, they were given bubbles to blow at us when we walked out of the church.

We took some more pictures at church, and then headed over to the reception at Aurora Christian. My sister-in-law had decorated it beautifully with flower, streamers, ribbons, and vases.

We ate a few things, cut the cake, and listened to the Best Man speech and the Maid of Honor speech. We played a slideshow of our lives, and my Dad give a little speech. We took some more pictures, and I tossed a bouquet. The time flew by, and before we knew it, it was time to change and head off on our honeymoon. We said goodbye to our family and began our drive to the Smokey Mountains.

It was an absolutely wonderful and unforgettable day! We pray that the Lord was glorified as we began our life as husband and wife!

Gobble, Gobble

On Friday, I went with my Mom to the Learning Vine (a large homeschool co-op type of thing), where she teaches sewing and cooking classes. It was fun to see what she does and to see the kids I've heard her talk about.

Throughout the sewing class, her girls where saying all phrases that she always tells them. Like "You need to clip some threads." Or "Can I sit down?" (That one means there's a big problem!) There were several things they said, and it was funny to see how they remember all the things she says.

She had two cooking classes, one with older kids (9-12ish) and one with younger kids (6-9ish). They made turkeys (not a turkey, but turkeys), which we used to make when we were younger. And believe it or not, the turkeys the younger kids made looked better.

My Turkey :)

Isn't he so cute?!

Best quote of the day: (My mom asked the kids what their favorite Thanksgiving food was.) 6 year old girl - "I know what my least favorite thing is." (Adults look at each other.) "Umm, okay..." "FOOTBALL!" :)