Recipe: Roasted Acorn Squash

I'm pretty much game for any recipe that calls for butter, brown sugar and a rubber mallet. 

We are expecting the first cold front of the season later this week. In September in Florida, that means it will be in the 80s during the day. I'm still pretending like it is fall though. My fall wreath is up, I'm working on Halloween costumes and cooking squash. I love to see all of the different varieties of squash in my local grocery store and this week I picked up some acorn squash.

Ingredients:
2 acorn squash
2 TBSP margarine
2 TBSP brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Split the acorn squash in half lengthwise. This is where the rubber mallet comes in. Acorn squash are really hard. I used my biggest, sharpest chef's knife and still had to fetch a rubber mallet to pound on the knife to cut all the way through the darn thing. Scoop out the seeds & pulp and place each half, cut side up, in a deep baking dish.
Melt margarine and brown butter together in the microwave. I honestly could have cooked these with about half the butter and brown sugar. They were pretty sweet. Coat the inside of each squash half.
Fill the baking dish with 1/2 inch of water to prevent the outsides of the squash from burning.
Bake for 60 to 75 minutes or until the squash is soft and the tops are brown.

Dan's Rating: 10

Adapted from: Simply Recipes

11 months

Can you believe my baby will be one year old in a few weeks? Crazy!

Liam is getting so big and so smart. He says mama, dada, doggie and duck. He can stand on his own pretty well and takes a few steps before lunging to me. He can climb into the bathtub now, so I have to keep a hand on him when I fill up the bathtub. He also had a top tooth come in a few days ago and looks like the other top one will be in before long.

He is gaining weight better now, though he is still picky about solid food. He likes puffs and goldfish. He's starting to get the hang of the sippy cup, but still only gets about an ounce at a time. I am so ready for him to wean, but I don't want him to be hungry. I'll just have to tough it out a little while longer.

Liam likes to wrestle with Mom, Dad, pillows, blankets, stuffed animals and stacks of laundry. 

He makes this ogre face all the time. It's so cute!

Look at these baby blues!

Nap Time Crafting: Finished Quilts

I realized that I never posted about finishing Emma's Rag Quilt that I started here and here. Once I got it all sewn together and cut the hems it looked like this:

It looked much better after washing it to frey the cuts.

Dan also discovered that the back is the right dimensions to be a checkerboard, so we played checkers using the halves of plastic Easter eggs.

One of my best friends is expecting a baby in the next few weeks so I made her a baby quilt also. I found a picture online of a quilt that I really liked and, being pretty good at math, I designed a pattern similar to it. It required a lot of different material so I bought a bunch of fat quarters.

FYI- Washing fat quarters is a pain in the neck. It turns into a giant wad in the dryer.

The quilt turned out great though. I cut all of the rectangles and sewed them into squares before vacation and I packed them when I went to visit my sister. I finished the quilt top and quilted it in Utah. I really like the zigzag quilting.

I did the binding when I got back home. I loved hand sewing the binding. It was nice to be able to do it in the living room with Dan and Liam around rather than behind my sewing machine. I think it turned out beautiful and my friend seemed to really like it.

Utah

 I couldn't visit my sister in Utah without stopping for photo ops in Temple square.

Liam's impression of a gargoyle.

 The only other time I have been to Utah was in March 2007. Temple Square was much more beautiful in the summer with all of the plants blooming.

We had so much fun with Lacey, Uncle D (my brother-in-law) and Morgan. I wish I got a better picture of D and Liam. 

Liam has ogre face like his daddy. 

Lacey as Justin Beiber

Liam developed a taste for table food during our vacation to Utah and Las Vegas. At the water park in Utah, I let him eat the tomato off of my hamburger. Liam decided that he liked the onion better. 

Morgan had her birthday while we were in Utah. We celebrated with a dinner out, cake and a trip to the arcade. 

Liam loves his Aunt Lacey.

Product Rave: Squeezable Baby Food

I usually don't do this but I love these products. I haven't been paid or received any perks for this endorsement, I just really like them.

Squeezable baby food is awesome! There are quite a few different brands that Liam has tried and he has liked them all. The only ones I haven't bought at the ones that are not resealable. Earth's Best, Happy Baby and Ella's are organic baby foods. They come in all sorts of fruits and veggies. I have also fed Liam Go Go Squeeze brand of applesauce blends. These are found in the canned fruit aisle and are actually for big kids. They don't have any added sugar though, so I am okay with feeding them to my Little Dude.

Liam is able to suck the food right out of the pouch with no mess at all. When I feed him baby food, he tries to grab the spoon. I know that he has to learn how to use a spoon, but he ends up looking like this:

Big mess! I am okay with big messes at home for the sake of learning, but it is so nice to have something mess-free and easy when we are out and about. I hate to leave a sticky table at a restaurant.

St. George

On our drive from Las Vegas to Salt Lake, Morgan, Liam & I stopped to take a break in St. George, UT. I couldn't resist driving over to the St. George LDS Temple to take a few photos. I've always loved this Temple, though I had never seen it in person before this trip. It is really unique as far as Temples go.

I love that Liam sits with his legs crossed. It is adorable.