Hey there, friends, how was your weekend? We had a very slow weekend. Of course we got some things done, like laundry and groceries. We started watching The Hobbit (Josh finished reading that book about a month ago), visited a local nursery for some hanging flower baskets, and then we played The Oregon Trail game Saturday night. It was just a lovely time!

Let's talk about what I've been working on behind the scenes...English scones, for one. As you all know we went to London in April/May (full trip post coming soon) and I fell in love with their scones. I've been working on something similar. I've tested a recipe twice now, but I plan on trying a slightly different method to compare flavor, texture, and ease. I'm fairly partial to the version I just tried because it was so simple. In addition to English scones, I've also tested a recipe for clotted cream twice - another British staple that earned our affection! That one I'm still working on, too. While I haven't gotten the texture where I want it, the flavor is perfection.

Onto this week's menu - I'm keeping it simple, as I have some errands and more recipes to test. Here's what's on the menu this week:

We had the most beautiful weekend. It was pretty sunny and warm and I realized just how much I missed it. I mean, I knew I missed it, but I really missed it! I could probably be outside every day if my allergies could take it (I was confined to the indoors Saturday afternoon after participating in a walk/run 5k) and eat grilled food, and enjoy those long summer nights where daylight fades slowly. Gosh, I love all of that extra light - as I write this, it's 8:29 pm and still completely light out. It's beautiful!

In addition to doing a lot of recipe testing since we've been home from our trip, I've been on a mission to declutter the house. I didn't get much of a chance to do this in early spring, but I'm "all in" now. I've been tackling the hallway closet and the kids rooms and at this moment, my dining room table is full of Goodwill items to donate - I haven't even started on the garage yet, oh my! I'm currently in a place where I feel like we have a lot of stuff that just isn't getting used and my new theory or method is, if I haven't used it in 6 months, it goes! (Editor's Note: assuming holiday decorations must get an exception here.) I feel like that is a pretty safe length of time. I know what I've used and what I haven't. Have you started any late spring deep cleaning yet?

All of this talk of cleaning has made me hungry! Here's what's on this week's menu:

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day last week and good weather for it, too! We had very nice weather for an Oregon holiday. We don't always have temps in the upper 70's and sunny skies this time of year! There have been many rainy Memorial Days in the past. We hosted a BBQ at our house for all of our family - it's kind of like our official launch of summer even though technically, summer is still a few weeks off. We kept the menu really simple with hot dogs, baked beans and corn bread muffins (which are two recipes I've been working on), and then we asked people to bring drinks, ice cream sandwiches, chips, and two different kinds of salad, and macaroni and cheese. As usual, we had an abundance of food and enjoyed leftovers for dinner for awhile!

However, this week is not as lovely (so far - they claim the forecast will change). It's like a full on wind and rainstorm right now and in a way, I'm okay with it. Mondays are usually a busy day for me and the stormy weather makes it easier to get those things done, somehow.

As for this week's menu, I'm keeping it simple. Here's what we're cooking this week:

If you watched my IG stories this morning, then you saw my stories on Josh and I doing a quick weekend dash to Jackson, MS to celebrate our sister graduating with her Master's degree in Theology! We're so proud of her and are so glad we were able to make it to the South and celebrate her achievements! But now we're back and it's time for this week's menu...

I hope you're having a wonderful Monday and that you had a great weekend! We've been busy getting ready for our trip! We leave this week! Eeek! I'm still writing a weekly menu, though, because we all have to eat, right? My menu this week is going to be heavily influenced by easy, but while my own personal menu will reflect easy, it won't be exactly what I'm sharing today (but there is a fun little something in there for Earth Day).

I recipe tested quite a few recipes this week, and I am so excited with how they turned out - so good! I cannot wait to share them with you. Stay tuned.

Here's what's on the menu this week:

Hey, friends! How is your April shaping up? Did you all get your taxes done? I probably wouldn't if it weren't for Josh, lol! Over the last few weeks, you may have noticed fewer emails going out. I talked about this on Instagram last week, but in case you missed it, here is what is going on.

Josh has been doing a lot of travel which has made taking pictures hard. But you kind of need something to take pictures of, and while I've been doing a lot of recipe testing, it's mostly been for another project I'm working on. Which means we've actually posted all of our backlogged work that we had made! This week, I'm recipe testing for you guys and for my special project. In addition to all of this, our whole family is gearing up to take off for a trip to Europe (a trip that was previously booked...and canceled because of 2020!), which means we are scurrying around trying to get the kid's last few days of school done so they can take their state tests! Whew! All good things, but I did want you to know what was going on. We'll keep highlighting some good stuff from the archives and meal plans for you while we get some more recipes made and photographed so we can share new stuff when we get back...

Josh and I have a few plans for posting while we're gone and I'm excited to share them with you. So I'm going to be working on that before we head out of town, too. But here's this week's menu! I hope it offers some recipes that you can find helpful as you go about your week and meal plan for upcoming weeks.