Liam's Pumpkin

Our play group took a trip to a local petting farm on Friday. Liam wasn't really interested in the animals, but he loved the train, hay ride and pumpkin patch. He has a small pumpkin that he got in the hospital when he was born and we have some pumpkin decorations around the house for Halloween. At the pumpkin patch, Liam went right for a small pie pumpkin. He carried it around, put it down, picked up other pumpkins, but always went back to the same pumpkin he chose first.

He wouldn't put the pumpkin down while he rode in the stroller or in the car seat. 

He carried it all around the house when we got home. That was fine until he dropped it a few times, then it was not fine. Surprisingly, he didn't have a fit when I turned his pumpkin into mini pies. I gave him a baby spoon and his stuffed pumpkin and he helped me scoop out the pumpkins.

I used the Mini Pumpkin Pie recipe from All Recipes. Liam's little pumpkin was just the right amount of pumpkin for this recipe. I only made a dozen on Saturday. After refrigerating the filling for a few days, it was still good when I made the second dozen pies.

Pumpkin pie counts as a vegetable, right? :)

Chcolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Peanut butter and chocolate are a prefect combination. Almost as good as chocolate and mint. I made these cupcakes for my birthday and shared with my neighbors and the class of 4 year old that I teach Sunday school. 

Chocolate Cupcakes (source) 

2 1/2 cups flour 

2/3 cup cocoa powder 

1 1/4 tsp baking soda 

1 tsp salt 

1/4 tsp baking powder 

1 2/3 cups white sugar 

2/3 cup butter, softened 

1 1/4 cups water 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

2 eggs 

Preheat oven to 350. 

Combine dry ingredients. Beat in wet ingredients until smooth. 

Line or spray muffin cups and fill 2/3 full. 

Bake cupcakes for about 20 minutes. (I made both regular and mini sized cupcakes. Mini cupcakes bake for about 13 minutes.) 

Peanut Butter Frosting (adapted from this source) 

1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening 

1/3 cup smooth peanut butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

2 cups confectioners sugar 

2-3 TBSP milk 

Cream shortening, peanut butter and vanilla. Gradually add sugar. Add milk to desired consistency.

 

Valentines Recap

Another holiday means new crafts for the picture wall in the entryway to our house. Both of these have been floating around Pinterest for a long time, but I do not have the pins saved and I didn't follow a particular tutorial.

Dan surprised me with a beautiful (and tall!) orchid. He put it on the kitchen counter. I must have been really hungry, because I didn't notice it until I had finished cooking my lunch. It is now living in the bathroom on the the ledge of my garden tub.

Liam was my little model for a fun Valentine's Day photo shoot.

This one is a little soft, but I had to include it because he looks so much like one of his cousins. I almost don't recognize Liam here.

This is the Valentine Liam sent to his Aunt Lacey.

Kisses! (He was actually howling. He doesn't know how to kiss yet. )

Dan and I got to go out to dinner at a local restaurant on the river. The weather was nice, so we ate outside on the dock. My entree was a little on the spicy side, but I gobbled up my lobster dip appetizer.

When we got back from dinner, I cooked dessert for me, Dan and my in-laws who had been watching Liam while we were out. I made molten lava cakes. I cooked them maybe a minute too long, but they were delicious with chocolate ice cream. I was so excited to eat them that I didn't get a picture. I'm sure I'll make them again.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Drinking the Green Monster kool-aid

I've been hearing about Green Monster smoothies for a long time now. I finally took the plunge and created my own blend.

2.5 cups fresh spinach, chopped
1/2 pouch Jamba Juice "Orange Dream Machine" smoothie blend
1 cup spiced apple cider

This was good! Liam hated the sound of the blender, but insisted on trying some.


For more info and recipes, check out Green Monster Movement.

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

Recipe: Italian Soup & French Bread

I have wanted to make my own French bread for a while now. Oh-Em-Gee, it is so good! There are few things better than a warm piece of bread right out of the oven.

Italian Pasta & Bean Soup (adapted from a recipe passed along at a women's group at church)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tbsp garlic, minced
3 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups of elbow macaroni, uncooked
15 oz can of cannelloni beans, drained & rinsed
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, with liquid
1 tbsp dried parsley
Parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil in a pot on medium-high heat. Add onion and cook for 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 more minute. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 5 minutes. Add beans and tomatoes and cook until the pasta is tender. Remove from heat and stir in parsley. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Remember to cover any leftover. I left the pot to cool before putting it in storage containers and it lost a lot of the moisture. This recipe is halved from the original, except the tomatoes (because it's hard to only use 1/2 can of tomatoes. There were too many tomatoes and not enough pasta. I would have also liked some more veggies, maybe squash or eggplant or zucchini. 


French Bread (from French Bread 2 from allrecipes.com)
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp active, dry yeast
1 egg
1 tbsp water
2 tsp sesame seeds

Combine water, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in a bread machine. My bread machine requires liquid ingredient first, then solid and yeast last. Select the dough setting. Dough takes 90 minutes on my machine. 

When the cycle is complete, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half. With a rolling pin, roll into 10 inch by 8 inch rectangles. Roll up jelly-roll style and pinch seams to seal. I didn't know what jelly-roll style meant, so I looked up a YouTube video of how to make French bread. It is too hard to explain and I didn't save the link, so that is what I suggest you do. Place loaves seam side down on a greased pan. Cover and let rise on a warm heating pad until doubled, about 20 minutes.

Whisk egg and water. Brush over loaves. Make 4 shallow slashes with a knife across the top of each loaf. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired. I made 1 loaf with sesame seeds and 1 without. I preferred the one with the sesame seeds. 


Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Try to not burn your mouth as you tear into the fluffy deliciousness of freshly baked bread.

Recipe: Chocolate Peppermint Parfait

Brownies
Chocolate Pudding
1/2 Pint Heavy Whipping Cream
3 Tbsp Confectioners Sugar
1 tsp Peppermint Extract

Prepare brownies and allow to cool. Prepare chocolate pudding and refrigerate to set. Beat heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form. (A stand mixer makes quick work of this- about 5 minutes on medium speed.) Add confectioners sugar and peppermint extract. Beat until stiff peaks form. Store in a sealed container and refrigerate.

Layer brownies and pudding. Top with whipped cream.

These are quick and yummy treats that look fabulous in a martini glass. The leftover whipped cream also makes a fabulous hot chocolate topping.

Recipe: Chunky Chili

Chunky Chili
(adapted from Flatlander Chili)

 Dan's Rating: 9 (and I quote "some of the best chili I've ever had")

Ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey
1 can red beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can corn (drained)
1 can diced tomatoes (with juices)
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 onion (chopped)
1 green bell pepper (chopped)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp oregano

In a large sauce pot, brown ground turkey.

I use ground turkey as a substitute for ground beef in almost all recipes. Funny story. When Dan and I were first married, he insisted that ground turkey does not taste like ground beef and he would not be happy if I cooked with ground turkey all of the time. So I bought ground turkey in bulk at the farmers' market and separated it into pound portions to freeze and labeled them "ground beef." This lasted about 6 months until I told Dan the truth. He has been eating ground turkey since then. 


Meanwhile, chop the veggies. Drain the fat off of the ground turkey. Drain and rinse the can of red beans. Drain the can of corn. Combine all of the ingredients in the pot.

I don't really measure any of the spices when I cook, so the measurements I listed are estimates. If you like spicy food, you can add more chili powder and even some cayenne pepper or hot sauce. Me? I'm a wuss when it comes to spicy food. 

Cover and heat to boiling over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and allow the chili to simmer (covered) for an hour, stirring occasionally. Serve with tortilla chips and cheddar cheese.

2011: A look ahead and some resolutions

2009 was a difficult year for our family. 2010 was a year of great and wonderful changes. 2011 looks to be the year of establishing the "new normal" for our family.

Dan will finish his masters degree in the spring. That will be a huge relief for both of us and enable him to spend more time with me and Liam. It would be nice if it came with a raise, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that part. He is expecting a very good review at his job in the spring and hopes to be able to negotiate working from home more often.

Liam will probably go through the biggest changes in 2011. He'll roll over, crawl, sit up, walk, eat solid foods, say his first words, get his first teeth and so on and so on. I can hardly imagine the 14 month old toddler he will be this time next year.

I feel like I will have to be diligent this year in order not to stagnate. This will be the first year in a long time without major changes in my social life, education or career. Being so new to my role as a mother, I should hope to be a better mother by this time next year, but that goal is difficult to measure.

One of my main goals for 2011 is to get back in shape. Pregnancy was rough on my body. I am only one pound away from my "happy weight" that I was pre-pregnancy, but my stomach is really flabby and I lost a lot of muscle in my arms and legs. I need to improve my diet and start exercising again. I have tried to do the couch to 5k program a couple of times and never finished. I think I can do it this year if I cross-train to strengthen my knees and back. I should blog my progress with the C25K.

Personally, I want to improve my cooking, photography and piano skills. I talked to Dan about taking piano lessons. He doesn't think lessons would do me any good and that I should just commit to practicing. I should set up the keyboard in the dining room or living room to remind me to practice. I think blogging will keep me accountable in working on my cooking and photography.

So here are the goals and my plan to do them:

Complete the Couch to 5k 

• Stretch before running to avoid injury
• Cross train (cycling and swimming) on at least 2 of the off days per week
• Begin by May 1st
• Complete by August 31st
• Blog progress weekly once I begin

Improve Diet

• Limit myself to 1 soda per day (no refills at restaurants!)
• Limit myself to 1 sweet treat per day (no exceptions for special occasions)
• Eat a real vegetable with every dinner (potatoes & corn do not count)
• Drink at least 64 ounces of water every day

Improve Photography Skills

• Record Liam's growth with a similar photo each month
• Blog about a photograph each week 

Improve Cooking Skills

• Try at least 2 new recipes every month
• Blog about a recipe every week

Improve Piano Skills

• Learn a new song every month beginning in February 
• Learn the keyboard well enough to play 2 song I already know in January
• Blog a video of myself playing the new song at the end of the month

Get Household Back in Order

• Stick to the envelope system for our budget at least 10 out of 12 months
• Sew Liam's crib skirt and curtains by January 31st
• Put up a photo wall in the foyer
• Baby-proof the house within 30 days of Liam beginning to crawl
• Finish unpacking boxes by February 28th

Recipe: Key Lime Pie

 Key Lime Pie
(adapted from Key Lime Pie VII recipe from allrecipes.com)

Dan's Rating: 8 or 9 (because Key Lime Pie is one of his least favorite desserts)

9 inch graham cracker pie crust
2 14oz cans of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup of sour cream
3/4 cup key lime juice
whipped cream

Others who tried the same recipe said that it took 20+ key limes to make 3/4 cup of juice. I must be an efficient juicer because it only took me 14 key limes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Combine sweetened condensed milk, sour cream and lime juice. Pour into graham cracker pie crust.
Bake for 5 to 8 minutes (took me 6 minutes) until tiny bubbles appear on the surface. Do not brown. Chill pie before serving. Top with whipped cream. I made whipped cream from scratch using heaving whipping cream, vanilla and powdered sugar. I also used Wilton tip #21 to make the whipped cream design.