Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

It's my little muffin's first halloween. Oddly enough, she is not going as a muffin.

We aren't actually going anywhere or celebrating in any way. Just thought it was important to capture the day in some way for her! 






Her BFF didn't think it was so funny!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Thursday, October 24, 2013

First snow and lots of food

Since last time...

We had snow! 
It came and went twice. And lasted a few days where we are (lots of tall buildings and shade keeping the ground cold). My baby's first snow! :)


School going folk had last week off for autumn break.
My nephew stayed with us for a couple nights and watched the (old and best) Star Wars trilogy, made homemade fluff (!), popcorn balls and ice cream. 


We invited some friends over for coffee last Saturday so I made red velvet cupcakes.
The recipe called for 2 tbsp of red food coloring but I had only paste/gels so it was hard to gauge how much I needed. As seen, they didn't turn out nearly red enough, but they were still delish.



Having grown up in the 90's, I associate carnations and baby's breath with being "garbage flowers". I remember them always looking tacky and cheap and stuffed EVERYWHERE. Yeah, I'm a flower snob (even as a kid)... But wasn't that always obvious?
Anywho, never were they my favorites. 
However, they've really grown on me lately. Mainly because I have torn apart cheesy bouquets and made my own little arrangements. 
Like below. 
I think this little posy is so cute. And over a week later, it's still looking so nice!
....so my bad carnations and baby's breath... it seems I was wrong!



With the leftover cream cheese frosting, I made carrot cake. Yum. 
The lighting of this photo (and the rest) is pretty horrendous since they were taken after sunset in our home's artificial light. 
Oh well. The food was still amayzazing!


On my culinary kick, I decided I wanted to try my hand at making my own pasta. 
It actually turned out really well!
It was a bit thick the first time (as in this spaghetti dish) because I didn't roll it out (old fashioned with a rolling pin!) thin enough and I cut it rather thick... Didn't realize it plumps when cooking! 


But since we made egg noodles essentially (eggs + flour), we were inspired the next night to create a homemade chicken noodle soup!
Hubby did the rolling out this time with his man muscles and got them far more perfect than when I did it :D Go figure!


Also this week, I have made raspberry muffins ("healthier" than cupcakes and without frosting = muffin). 
Didn't get around to pictures though.

And dinner last night was a chicken pot pie. It was so yum, we didn't get pictures of that either!
In a frying pan I sauteed: garlic, onion, carrots, celery, and small chunks of rutabaga. Oh and chicken!
In a pot I boiled small chunks (to cook faster) of potatoes and rutabaga. 
(Trying to use the rutabaga bag we bought, hubby loves them!)
Then I added to the chicken mixture some seasoning that sounded good (salt, pepper, herbs). A dash of cream and dumped it in the casserole dish.
I made mashed rutabaga and potatoes and dumped that on top of the chicken and baked it until it was looking golden brown and delicious. 

Leftovers for lunch!!

I am just loving getting back in the kitchen! 
I like hubby's cooking and he's taken good care of me the past year as head chef, but man, I love having time to chop and peel and stand at the stove.
I'm one of those people that enjoy creating with food as well, I guess. 

Hmm... what else to ramble on about... :D 

I guess that's it for me.
This post took me two days to write since it's hard to get a chance to sit and upload pictures and think of what I want to say etc all at one go.

Thanks for stopping by!
Until next time, au revoir!




Thursday, October 17, 2013

Cheese party!!

Decorating for fall with gourds grown at our garden.
(The garden is so severely neglected it breaks my heart. But at least my gourds are here to cheer me up!)


Sunday we had an out of control cheese party. 
I say out of control because we had a lot of cheese (6 kinds!) and only 4 people eating it. 
We gorged. 
It was yum. 
 


We had a Dutch gouda, some kind of swiss and a French Saint Morbier (or whatever it was called... it was the least favorite!)
 

Blue cheese, goat cheese, brie. 
 


The rest of the brie was encased in puff pastry along with apricot jam and walnuts. 
Super yum!!
 

We had so much fun and I'd definitely like doing it again! 
Especially the baked brie!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Where have I been?

Funny how such a small person can take so much of your time... 


Sometimes it's frustrating to never have time for anything or anyone else... 

But I know this time is fleeting....

So I try to embrace the lazy days and cherish every little milestone, giggle, and smile.

She's the most beautiful, wonderful, calm baby I've ever met. And she's mine!! *


Summer passed us by so incredibly fast... No idea where it went!
So I'm trying to milk fall for all it's worth and so far have been rather successful. :)

Some faithful blog fans have asked when I'm going to continue blogging (so here's for ya'll!).
I'll confess, I did consider just letting the blog slide and just moving on.
And I'll admit I did feel a little more than overwhelmed to pick up from where I left off and bring the blog up to date with everything that has happened (and all the new pictures)... but honestly, it's just so much work and time that I don't have to do so.

Therefore, I'm just gonna say HI, HERE I AM!! 
And try to get here a little more often and share my latest pictures and going ons. :)


She's getting much bigger and is becoming less dependent on me (ok, so I get 10 minutes to myself every so often instead of 2 minutes ;) lol) so maybe I have a chance to get back into the blogging groove.
I really do enjoy having a little journal to look back on!

So thanks if you're still here following! 
And hope you had a great summer and equally wonderful fall. :)
 See ya soon!

*I know all mothers feel this way and I'm totally biased. :D