in the kitchen with rachel... clara.

My mom & Jayne came to visit last weekend. We had a full weekend of touring Canton, thrifting, getting coffee/hot chocolate, going for walks with Zooey, baking, playing Euchre (Jay & I beat Mom & Doug... twice!), and so much giggling. I had planned on making Mom's mac n' cheese for lunch on Saturday, but I forgot to start the process in the morning (needs 4 hrs in a crockpot), so we improvised and made homemade tomato soup & grilled cheese. I was worried, because I do like Campbell's tomato soup, but I loathe raw tomatoes, so I wasn't sure if I'd like homemade tom soup. Answer: I DO. Delicious. We got the recipe here & adapted it a bit, but this is a good start. 

And who doesn't love that amazing stretch of cheese when you pull apart the triangles?!

I also baked a pie for Ethan's 21st birthday. He was supposed to meet Mom & Jay in Erie, PA on their way home, but kid was a no show. What's the deal, E? Apparently it's in Mom & Dad's freezer, waiting for you. For shame. Could have had a fresh pie. For shame.

 Okay, this last pic is from awhile ago. Remember how I said I had an awesome culinary experiment involving the caramel cream cheese dip? Well, I decided to try it as frosting with these apple pie cupcakes. It was pretty good, but shockingly - jot this one down in the record books - maybe too sweet. I know. I just said that.

That picture looks pretty disgusting, but it tasted good... sigh, the pictures on my blog leave a lot to be desired... I should take more time to take pretty pictures for my blog & make them look fancy. Maybe someday.

On an unrelated note, we had our first 2 home studies today! Hooray! (Edit: you can read a brief story about my thoughts surrounding the home study here!) Now the paper chase begins...