CHEESY RANCH FRIES

Or as Scott calls them "an appetizer I would actually be OK with spending $8 on"

Which is a HUGE compliment coming from my very frugal husband who, if he had it his way, would never spend more than he had to on food.

Lucky he loves me so much and lets me splurge a little on our grocery shopping. 

But really. These might be some of the best things I have ever put in my mouth.

I already am a potato lover...so I was so excited to try this recipe. It was better than I ever could have imagined. 

Here is what you will need:

4-5 potatoes. 1/4 cup olive oil, salt, pepper, any other seasoning you want on your fries, 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup ranch dressing, 1/4 cup of milk, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese (I don't measure the cheese out- just a dump a few handfuls on), 2-3 slices of bacon. 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

First thing we need to do is make the fries.

Go ahead and peel the poetess and then cut them up in to slices. Cover a cookie sheet with foil and lay them out. You will need a couple of cookie sheets for all of the slices to fit.

Then drizzle olive oil on top. Then salt, pepper, and other seasonings. Toss them around a bit to make sure each of the fries got some.

Pop those babies in the oven for 40 minutes. But make sure to check on them every now and then to make sure they aren't burning. When they are nice and golden and a little crispy you're good.

While those are baking it's time to make the sauce.

Get your sour cream, milk, and ranch.

Whisk them all together

Put the mixture aside til the fries are about a minute away from being done. Make some bacon in the meantime.

You can use bacon bits but I think it tastes better making the bacon yourself.

Then break them up into little pieces. Set aside.

Now right before the fries are done take that ranch mixture and pour about 3/4 of it on a cookie sheet.

Drop those hot fries directly on top.

Drizzle the rest of the mixture on top and then dump as much cheese as your heart desires on top. Now is not the time to skimp!

Broil them for a couple of seconds- just until the cheese is melted! Then add the bacon.

Eat them right off the sheet. Nothing wrong with that.

Enjoy!

PHOENIX FRIDAY FOOD TRUCK ROUND UP

Scott got off work early on friday. Like early as in before lunch! So we headed out to explore the Phoenix Friday Food Truck Roundup. 

Say that 5 times fast. 

There are MISTERS everywhere.

Reeeeeally helps with the heat.

There were so many choices of what to eat, it was a little overwhelming.

Maybe just for me. Scott went straight for the burgers.

And finally after making laps and laps, I decided on an acai bowl.

I was addicted to them in high school, and I haven't any as good since.

And this one did not disappoint.

And then we got to eat in the misty shade while watching all the fun going on around us.

And then for the the first time in the history of us knowing/dating/engaged/married to each other,

SCOTT GOT DESSERT AND I DID NOT!!!!

Usually I am the one with the giant sweet tooth, begging Scott for dessert, but this time I passed it up while Scott indulged in a pie truck.

Which he so conveniently coordinated with.

In our books- Friday Phoenix Food Truck Roundup was a success!

CHICKEN CRESCENT ROLL CASSEROLE

Well that's a mouthful isn't it?

Despite popular belief, it isn't always fine dining in the Hiatt Household.

And sometimes, you just need some comfort food- like a good old fashion casserole.

Here is what you need:

2 chicken breasts, can of cream of chicken soup, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/2 cup of whipping cream, salt, lots of cheese (3-4 cups), one stick of butter, one 8oz package of cream cheese, and two packages of crescent rolls.

Probably not the healthiest thing you will eat this week...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees,

Beforehand, cook your chicken and cut it up into cubes.

You can buy already cooked and cut chicken, I just had some chicken breast in the fridge.

Get 3/4 cup of your cheese, cream of chicken soup, and whipping cream.

Throw it together is a sauce pan and mix until cheese is melted.

Turn down to keep it warm.

Get your butter and cream cheese.

They both need to be pretty soft so get them out ahead of time.

Our kitchen has little to no AC (??) so I just get them out a couple minutes before, put them next to the window to soak up the hot zonie sun, and they are practically melting.

Mix them together in a bowl.

Then get your garlic, measure out 1/2 teaspoon, and add it in.

add in your chicken and 3/4 cup of cheese. Mix it til it is well combined. You also can add 1-2 tablespoons of either whipping cream or mayo if it is looking a little dry. I added some cream.

Take your soupy mixture on the stove and spread about half of it on the bottom of the pan.

Now comes the fun part. That can also be a little time consuming. So if you are like me, and need something else going on to keep you from going crazy, turn the TV on or listen to music or something.

Get your crescent rolls out.

And add about a tablespoon or two of the chicken to the center of the wide end of the roll.

Then, starting with the wide end, roll your dough up, tucking in the edges when you get to the end. Press any holes together as well. 

Then place it in the pan.

Then repeat fifteen more times! Wooo!!

Once you have all your rolls in the pan

Pour the rest of your sauce on the top followed by 1 cup (or more) of cheese and a promise to yourself to work out tomorrow.

Pop them in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

You will know its done when the cheese starts to get goldenly brown on top.

Enjoy!

And Happy National Donut Day!

You know what I will be eating tonight!

THROWBACK THURSDAY: HONEYMOON

Since we have missed 10 months of our lives so far we thought we would do a series of throwbacks to important evens that have happened since we tied the knot.

Starting with the greatest week of our lives.

The Honeymoon.

We went on a cruise to the Bahamas. 

In our personal opinion, everyone should do a cruise for  their honeymoon.

Seriously.

You don't have to worry about food, people come clean your room and make your bed (twice a day), there are always fun activities going on, and you get to visit lots of different places without having to worry about transportation!

Day One: Miami

Our cruise left from Miami on Monday morning.

So we took a red eye from San Diego the night before.

One thing about Scott is he gets very sleepy when we fly. Even if it is the middle of the day!

So imagine an overnight flight, then a two hour wait at the dock before we could board. 

It was pretty much hours of me taking pictures of Scott while he slept and stalking some of our wedding pictures that had been posted the night before.

We finally got on the boat, but our room wouldn't be ready for another hour or so.

So we explored the ship and found where Scott would be spending all of his time.

Finally our room was ready and we went straight to bed and took a nice long nap.

Fun Fact: Scott loves bathrobes so he was really excited to find out the cruise provided matching ones.

That night we splurged and went to dinner on the cruise's steak house.

It paled in comparison to the Flemmings Steakhouse where we had eaten the day before.

But we still had fun with our fruity drinks and shrimp!

And our free cake!!!

They even sang to us. They were really bad.

Day Two: Grand Bahama Island

Side Note: The underwater camera we bought for the trip wasn't as great as we thought it would be. So keep that in mind for the pictures to follow

Day 2 was a snorkeling adventure.

We took this little boat with some fellow passengers to the middle of the ocean.

 They dropped the anchor and we were free to explore the reef.

The water was pretty choppy so the snorkel kept filling up with water. We just ditched it and dove with our goggles on.

There were fish everywhere.

We got back on the boat

And they took us to a private beach where we were able to hang out on for a couple of hours.

The tour guides found a conch and showed us how to open and clean it. They then made us conch salad. It actually wasn't very good at all.

We took a bite and then sneakily threw the rest in the ocean when no one was looking.

But the beach was beautiful

Day 3: Nassau

We hit up the Atlantis Resort on day 3.

Coolest place ever. 

(We stole this pic from google because we didn't really take any of the resort...or from a helicopter)

We spent the first part of the day playing around in their HUGE water park. We got to slide down the middle of a shark tank, get thrown around on the lazy river, and race down the slides you see in the Mary Kate and Ashley movie!! Dream come true. 

We then got our fix of Strawberry Daiquiris and Bahama Mamas

And then went to explore their private beach.

Perfection.

Day 4: Grand Stirrup Cay

aka the cruise ship's own private island. aka paradise. 

We started the day with a jet ski tour of the island, and neighboring islands around it. They were once home to coke lords. They got discovered when a plane took off from one of the islands, crashed, and dumped a massive amount of cocaine in the ocean.

Not to brag but Scott was the fasted jet skier there. The rest of the group couldn't even keep up so we basically had our own tour guide.

The rest of the day we spent relaxing around the island.

Everyone from the cruise was on the beach and it was pretty crowded. We rented a raft and floated out further. 

As we were floating we notices a secluded beach not far away.

So naturally I laid on the raft and Scott pulled me there. 

We (Scott) paddled till we couldn't see anyone and docked on our own private port.

After laying on the shore for awhile we decided to explore the little beach we were on and found the most perfect lagoon.

And we had it all to ourselves.

The pictures don't do it justice. 

It was one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen.

It was so peaceful.

We spent hours swimming around and laying in the sand.

We later were told that a shark and a ray live in that lagoon.

Luckily they are more scared of us than we are of them so we never had a run in.

What a wonderful way to spend the last day of our honeymoon.

Seriously, we couldn't have asked for a better honeymoon, unless it was three times longer :)