Welcome to another Monthly Scoop Post – May 2021 edition! With the weather warming up, we spent a lot of time out at the farm, gearing up for outdoor entertaining season and whipping up scrumptious, summery recipes! Let’s dive on into the latest scoop of what’s been happening around here this past month.

May Happenings

Since the weather has been BEAUTIFUL this past month, we’ve spent a lot of our time outside! From riding, to lawn work to planting flowers and herbs, it’s been great to get out and about!

We started out the month by cleaning out the water tank for Queso & Amos. Nothing like a squeaky clean water tank to start off the summer with! The grass is nice and green now and we’ve had some beautiful trail rides. I just love these boys! And!! John and I both stood up on top of Queso & Amos for the first time! They took it like champs as we were struggling to get our balance haha. Growing with them is one of the biggest blessings in life.

Since it’s been so nice out, we have also been working on getting our outdoor entertaining areas ready to rock and roll! A picnic table and fire pit are the newest additions to our backyard along with some lights hanging from the deck. I’ll have to snap some pictures when it’s all ready to go! So far, I’ve kept all my plants alive (even the ones I almost scorched), so I’m feeling pretty accomplished at this point. You can just call me “The Master Gardener.”

I love just leaving the porch door open so Darbi & Charlee can go in and out as they please. You can hear the birds chirping, cows mooing in the field behind our house and the neighborhood kids screaming. Classic.

May Recipes

May’s recipes were bright, flavorful and the perfect transition into summer! Plus, a new tradition was started: Marinade May! The first week of May was kicked off with a full week of marinades to use all summer long.  As always, I strived to create fun, delicious recipes with easily accessible ingredients that you feel comfortable making in your own kitchen. Click on your favorite recipe below and get to cookin’! If you make any of my recipes, I’d love to hear from you! Shoot me an email, post a comment or share on social media tagging @kjandcompany or using #kjandcompany!

Monthly Favorites

1. Target Shorts – it’s officially short season! I love this pair from Target. They are comfortable, cover your bum and have pockets! I purchase a new pair of these every year because I love them so much.
2. Target Tank Tops – $5 for a comfy tank top? Count me in! I love that these have wider straps and come in lots of colors. This will be a summer staple for sure!
3. Old Navy T-Shirt Dress – this t-shirt dress feels like an old, comfy t-shirt. It’s just perfect! I ordered it in “tall” to get a little bit more length out of it and it couldn’t be any more perfect. The “Dried Herb” color is so pretty!
4. Everyday Co Photography Backgrounds – I purchased a few of these vinyl backgrounds and they are so fun! I love that they don’t cost and arm and a leg, are easily transportable and come in such vibrant, fun colors!
5. Schitt’s Creek – Ok, how have we never seen this show before?! SO STINKIN’ FUNNY. We are hooked! We may have stayed up till 2 in the morning binge-watching a whole season…
6. Fire Pit – we snagged this fire pit from Menards and love it! It even comes with a cooking grate – I can’t wait to use it!
7. Baked Potato Salad from Costco – this stuff is like crack! SO good! It can be served cold or warm and it’s the perfect side dish for allll the summer activities. 

Next Month

June is going to be a busy one! We are keeping the tradition going on Instagram of the “Home Cook Takeover Week”, so make sure you are following along to see what everyone whips up! I started this last year, and I think it’s such a fun way to feature the home cooks out there making it work in their own kitchen. I’ve also got a lot of fun, summer recipes up my sleeve, so you don’t want to miss out on those!