Luckily, our house faces east to west… and you know what that means??

The back porch is the PERFECT place to watch the sunset.

Hurricane Irene pushed some clouds in last week that made the sunset gorgeous…

and even gave us a rainbow!

So, it’s one of our nightly rituals… to sit on the back porch and watch the sunset…

and oh yea! You can’t forget dessert to go with it!

WITH A TWIST!

So… what is that inside?? It’s a chocolate chip cookie with an Oreo in the middle. I heard about this from Pastor P at New Spring and had to try it! I must say… It packs a surprise!!!

Let me know if you try it!

Even though I have a teaching degree, I’m not a teacher. I must say I hate it when school starts back… why? The main reason is this:

With the kids back in school my commute gets longer… way longer… Oh well! Goodbye Summer and hello Fall! I am so ready for the cooler weather!!!!!

I do miss a lot of things about starting back to school. Mainly the smell of new school supplies! I love school supply shopping and really really miss it. It always felt so good to be organized at the beginning of the year.  A clean slate! Now there are no school supplies to be bought and tubs full of teaching supplies hanging out in my attic. I think I have like 300 three prong folders, multiple rulers, a chem set, and tons of games just chilling out in the attic. Target runs GREAT sales

Click HERE to see what one school did to kick off the new year! FLASH MOB FOR TEACHERS? I THINK SO!!!!

What kid wouldn’t want to see their teachers break it down!? Now those are some awesome teachers!

I’ll leave you with my favorite back to school commercial!

Favorite Back to School Commercial!

I must say I am VERY excited. One of my favorite shows from last year is premiering TONIGHT!!! The Great Food Truck Race… I must say I admire these people. It seems like such an adventure and finally something I want to watch!

To elaborate on the whole FOOD… NETWORK theme… I was watching Food Network tonight and did a  little jig when I saw a commercial with this ladies face:

It looks like she has her own show now! I’m pretty darn excited. I actually used her cookbook tonight! Her meatloaf recipe was YUMMY and super easy! Once again I managed to not catch anything on fire! If you know me… then you’ve heard about my fire story…

It all started out like this… I registered for these pots…

My mom and dad called me from the store yelling into the phone that I do not want those pots. They are too hard to cook in, hard to clean, and I will burn everything I cook. I insisted that I wanted them… So,  my dad laughed, purchased them, and said just you wait!! (I must say…  I love the steamer… just add it to my list of “every woman should own one” )

Fast forward to the first home cooked meal I made for the Hubs… USC was kicking some bootay in the college world series… I figured it would be the perfect time to make a home cooked meal! I pulled out the pots… put some olive oil in the pan and let it start warming up…

All of the sudden there was smoke EVERYWHERE! And all I could hear was a whoosh! There were flames coming up out of the pan!

What did I do? PICK it up of course! The Hubs looked over as I was yelling “WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO??”

(That was the day he realized we need one of these…in every room)

Of course he came to my rescue… flew open the back door and ran outside… I followed after thinking… Stop, Drop, and Roll…  He turned on the hose as I continued to hold the pan… with flames… and smoke… and flames… and MORE smoke.

I quickly figured out that it MIGHT would be a good idea to drop the pan and watch him pretend like he was a firefighter… for about 3 minutes…

Then I mourned the brand new shiny pan I literally burnt up… while he laughed hysterically at me…

I proceeded to get the “I told you so talk from my parents.” I can’t remember exactly what I said back but I think it was something like… it wasn’t the pan! It was the stove… or the oil… or ANYTHING but the pan

Anyways, here’s the yummy recipe for the meatloaf I made tonight! I have to say… it’s pretty jam up! I made a few little changes to Ree’s recipe. I can’t say it’s easy on the waist line but I can say it was soooooo good! Can’t wait for leftovers!

What ya need:

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1 c milk
• 1/2 of a bell pepper
• 1 c Parmesan cheese (yum!)
• 4 eggs
• 1 package of  bacon (I prefer Turkey… but its your choice )
• 6 slices of bread (This is a great recipe to use those end slices!)
• 1/3 c of parsley

salt and pepper to your liking! I threw in some table and Lawry’s salt. I honestly didn’t measure. I just kept shaking until I said to myself… hmm that feels about right… Ree says to use :

• 1/4 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 3/4 teaspoons Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Oh yea, I have a couple secrete seasoning I use in EVERYTHING… No, really… EVERYTHING…. Emeril’s Original and garlic powder… Maybe it’s all the “kickin it up a notch” my dad used to do in the kitchen… but I love it!

All you have to do is:

Place the bread slices in the bowl and soak them with the milk. After it has soaked a few minutes, add in all the other ingredients.

Here comes the fun part!!! Mix it all together with your hands. Once everything is mixed together, form your loaf. You can either place it on a broiler pan or if you don’t have one… like me You can just use a cookie sheet. I covered my cookie sheet in aluminum foil for easy clean up!

After you form your loaf and place on your cookie sheet, place strips of bacon all the way across the loaf. Tuck the ends underneath the loaf. I think I used about half of the pack.

YUMMY! Next you are going to make your sauce! I LOVE SAUCE… especially if it has ketchup!

You will need:

• 1 c of ketchup
• 6 tbsp of brown sugar
• 1 tsp of mustard

Mix all this deliciousness together and slap half of it on top of the loaf!

Bake the loaf at 350 degrees for 45 min. After the 45 minutes pull it out and pour the rest of the mixture onto the loaf (if desired) and cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Then enjoy! Thanks Ree for sharing! Let me know if you try it!