First Meal Back

Well, in case you don't remember, our very first meal in our home was actually prepared by my mom. I was sick when we got home from our honeymoon, so my mom made soup for us. Well, I thought what better way to start our blog back than to tell of yet another meal my mom made for us to eat in our home. This time, though, I did help (a little) and it was actually prepared at our house. 

My mom got steaks for everyone to have at Pickwick the weekend before, but we ended up going out to eat since our favorite Pickwick restaurant had just opened up for the summer season. Well, Mom offered to just give us the steaks, but we thought, just because we aren't at Pickwick doesn't mean we can't all enjoy them together. Daniel recently built us a new deck for our backyard, and has been working so hard on growing grass (this is quite a feat with such little sun allowed in by the trees), so we decided to cook them at our house. Carrie and Ryan unfortunately weren't able to join us, but Mom and Dad came over for a steak dinner on March 26th. This was the first time we had grilled steaks at our house which means it was also the first time we had used our steak knives. We received two sets of steak knives for wedding gifts. One set was from Wade and Barbara McKnight and their family. The McKnights have been close friends of our families since Carrie and I were in elementary school. They are big UK fans and when I think of watching Kentucky games growing up, I think of Erin, Gina and Bonnie McKnight. The five of us girls loved playing together while our parents watched many, many Kentucky games. Our parents are such die hard fans that they actually went to the '93 Final Four in New Orleans to cheer on the Cats together. The other set of steak knives were from David and Susannah Pace. David is the Biotronik rep in Corinth and Tupelo that Daniel does a lot of work with. They are also big Mississippi State fans, which of course means we love them even more!! 

Anyways, back to the meal! Mom brought over steaks, which Daniel cooked on our grill (which was his wedding present from me). Mom also made twice baked potatoes, which we did use our oven to cook, and she made a one layer salad with peas, corn, carrots, etc. All of it was absolutely delicious, and thanks again to Mom, we enjoyed another wonderful meal in our home!!  

Here are a couple pictures of our meal, blogs are always more interesting with pictures, even if they aren't very good.

Here's a view from the back door looking out at the deck and backyard. Didn't Daniel do an awesome job building the deck?!?! The grass also looks so green, so much prettier than dirt!! (which is what we've always had). May very much enjoys our new and improved backyard!

Here's Daniel grilling and May and Mom enjoying our bench. This bench, which you can't see very well, was the very first wedding present that Daniel and I received. I remember I was so excited and could barely wait for Daniel to get off work and come to my parents and open it!! It is from my great aunt and uncle Max and Linda McDade. It's a cute little butterfly bench, with cute red cushions I got from Garden Ridge, and looks great on our new deck!

The spread!  Steak, salad, twice baked potatoes and bread!

In the top of this picture you can sort of see the case to our steak knife set, so fancy! 

(Side note: Weird, but it really bothers me that some of the salad dropped on my steak. For some reason that's all I see when I look at this picture)

As you can tell, it was a little dark by the time we ate, but we made do with a few candles. 

I also meant to mention about the steaks my mom got. In case you have never tried Charlie's Meat Market on Summer, you should!! These were 10 oz. steaks for only $6/each, and absolutely delicious!!  Man, what a deal!
Anyways, I believe that's a long enough post, if anyone is even still reading. Thanks again, Mom, for helping me provide meals for my husband! What would I do without you? Also, thank you Max and Linda, the McKnights and Paces for wonderful wedding gifts that we enjoy so much! Hope to see everyone back soon, as I plan to post about the things I made for our most recent Crest Fest.

Happy Cooking!