Cheesy Green Beans

I never quite know what I'm going to pick up when we go to the farmer's market. Sometimes its broccoli and cauliflower, other times its squash and zucchini, but this week I saw massive baskets of green beans for $3 and I knew they were making it into the bag.

Usually I roast them, but this time I wanted to go for something a little different. A little...richer. The kind of dish you could serve up at Thanksgiving. In other words, I was craving comfort food during a Summer heatwave. It happens.

This dish was just the ticket. Vibrant fresh green beans, covered in a simple cream sauce with cheese.

I can see this becoming a Fall favourite in this house.

What you'll need:
4 cups Fresh Green Beans, ends trimmed
1/4 tsp Salt
Dash of Cayenne Pepper
3/4 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese
2 tsp Butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup Heavy Cream

After trimming the ends off the beans, steam them for 5 minutes or until tender-crisp. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 400°F.

Place cooked beans in a shallow buttered baking dish.
Sprinkle with salt, cayenne and 1/2 cup of the cheese.
Dot with half of the butter and then pour the cream over top.
Stir to blend the ingredients.
Sprinkle remaining cheese over the green beans and dot with remaining butter.

Bake for 20 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Serves 6, if you're lucky. These were gone in no time.

Printable Version

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Summertime Wedding

This weekend we attended the second wedding from the group of girls that I lived with at university. I still can't believe that we've all grown up enough to be getting married. Time has gone by so fast. It seems like just yesterday we were all sitting around our kitchen table talking about boys.

 The groom waiting for the bride to come through the church doors.

 The beautiful bride, my dear friend, Jenilee with her mama.

I loved the long train of her dress. She really did look like a princess.

Exchanging the rings.

First kiss as a married couple.

I now pronounce you husband and wife.

A giddy moment as they walk back down the aisle together.

A quick kiss under the Canadian flag.

Outside the church, our group of university ladies got together and caught up. Some of us have been friends for almost 9 years. I still can't believe that it was that long ago since we first started our undergrads.

Had to snap a picture of this bridesmaid's hair. I loved it on her.

The bride and groom's getaway car was a vintage 1950 Chevy police cruiser, on loan from the Durham Regional Police Association.

Of course I had to take a few pictures to share with my dad.

After the ceremony we headed back to our hotel for an impromptu hotel party (wine with the Olympic games on in the background) before we made our way over to the reception.

The reception hall was beautifully decorated with glowing lanterns and little twinkle lights.

The wedding party, who all looked so beautiful in their tuxes and hot pink dresses.

The bride and our friend Mel.

All of us roommates! I love these four ladies even more now than I did back when we lived together.

All of the former Queen's students. There were quite a few of us representing.

Some of the ladies. Everyone had on great dresses. I loved all the colours!

Nut-free gluten-free cupcakes! Mine is the upright one on the left and Garrett's is the upside down one on the right. It fell on the floor and landed with the cupcake upside down, but the icing up on top. How did this happen? (He was eventually given another cupcake that hadn't been on the floor)

First dance.

Such a happy day for these two.

It was a lovely evening catching up with lots of old friends, like Heather who now lives out in B.C. and is engaged herself. Congrats Heather!

The tossing of the bouquet!

Celebrating our friend Laura catching it. You're next!

And look who caught the garter.

And yet again I completely forgot to get a photo taken of Garrett and I together. That is what happens when there is always one of us behind the camera.

But I did find this one on my phone. Out of focus and blurry, but I'll take it.

It was one of the greatest nights I've ever had with the whole gang together and I hope that we can get together again soon! Miss you all already!

Insta-Friday - Summertime

I'm linking up to Insta-Friday today at Life Rearranged and Its My Insta-Life - sharing my favourite photos from my phone over the last month. You can follow me on Instagram @smallhomebigstart.

I have to admit that over the past month I have really become addicted with Instagram. I love sharing photos, seeing pics from all over the world, and having a good laugh about some of them too.

Out on the lake with my brother. He wakeboards while I watch from the comfort of the boat.

Chilling on a blanket at a concert in our town's park. I'm people watching...he's squirrel watching.

Eve emailed me this photo booth pic from her wedding. It's me and Moosejones hamming it up for the camera. (Seriously, you need to go check out her crescent roll s'mores....I've got them already on the grocery list for the next cottage trip. yum.)

A lovely picture with my man.

Finally tried the Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips from my June Luxe Box. They turned out pretty great and were fun for a bachelorette last weekend, but I don't think I'd be up for wearing these to work.

Late night yoga class - my favourite fitness class I go to and I try to make it every week. Sometimes Garrett even joins me if he needs a break from the weight room. We have a great instructor and she is super informative and attentive without being overly spiritual (which is what I prefer).  I am always ready to go to bed right after class. So relaxing.

The beautiful Pavlova that my mother and sister made. Melt in your mouth!

And the not so lovely (but still delicious) key lime greek yogurt with raspberries on top that I had for lunch one day last week. It was a last minute grocery store pickup in the morning, after I realized we had nothing but hot sauce and zucchini in our fridge.

Tried Oven Roasted Okra for the first time and loved it. Now I want to make it in other recipes!

Our colourful farmer's market bounty (split between 3 houses). My favourite thing at the market right now is the fresh peaches and cream corn. We've been buying a dozen almost every week.

Our own little community garden started out like this....

And now it is getting huge. We had to put a fence up because a local family of bunnies had decided that our pea shoots were just too tender to ignore.

Our first little tomato is starting to grow. Someday he will (hopefully) be a big beefsteak tomato.

A hot pepper in the making. Can't wait for these fellas to grow up.

A little toad from the garden.

And a snail from the front yard.

Hanging out in the dining room to enjoy the last of the evening light. It's become one of our favourite spots. I can see why this used to be the porch back in the day before they closed it in.

My two guys all tuckered out after a long day. They really are best buds.

We both took a day off this week to head to Wonderland. We had a great time last year and it was another thing checked off our Summer List.

The cookiewich! Thankfully we both shared this or I think I would have been sick. It was massive! We happened to be in line behind a snotty lady who basically ignored the employee serving her because she was too busy texting. She never even said thank you. So then we got up there and were nice to the attendant and lo and behold she rewarded us with the biggest cookiewich I saw there all day. See, it pays to be kind!

One of the rollercoasters we went on. It goes forwards and then backwards, which is scary. Especially when it started to rain right before we got on. Would the tracks be slippery? What if we fell? What if I got rain in my eyes?

At the end of the day, we rewarded ourselves with the traditional funnel cake, loaded with icing sugar, ice cream and strawberries in sauce. I barely even had half. It was just so sweet and awesome.

The rain continued all day yesterday and I came home to this - bath mats all curled up into balls. Poor Whiskey must have had to deal with a thunderstorm, which he isn't too fond off. His go-to move is bunkering down in the quiet bathroom all day.

By the end of the night we had him calm again. Tucked inbetween the two of us for bedtime reading. 

Tonight we have a movie date, then a wedding tomorrow and finally on Sunday we have...nothing....and lots of it.