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Roasted Broccoli and Potatoes

from: Hungry Girl

Ingredients
1/2 butternut squash
kosher salt

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Peel and de-seed your butternut squash. If you're unfamiliar with handling them, you may have a little trouble at first. They're fairly easy to peel, but you'll need a sharp knife to cut them. Once your orange friend is peeled and seed-free, slice it in half. Then cut it up into french fry shapes. We like to use a crinkle cutter to make authentic looking crinkle cut fries, but they'll work any way you slice 'em.

Place on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Cover lightly with kosher salt (regular salt works, too, but we prefer kosher). Place tray in your pre-heated oven and bake for 40 minutes or so, flipping halfway through baking process. Fries are done when they are starting to brown on the edges and get crispy. Serve with ketchup, or however else you enjoy fries or sweet potato fries!

Nutritional Info (5 oz(
Calories: 65; Fat: 0g; Sodium: 486mg (includes salt); Carbs: 16.5g; Fiber: 4g Sugar: 3g; Protein: 1g

from: Fitness Magazine June 2007

Ingredients
2 med potatoes, cut into 1.5 inch chunks
2 C broccoli florets (the nice part)
2 T EVOO
1 t kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Heat oven to 400. Toss the potatoes and broccoli with the oil; add salta and pepper. Spread the veggies on a baking sheet. Roast, tossing once halfway through, until paotoes are tender and golden, about 25 min.

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Butternut Squash Fries

from: Hungry Girl

Ingredients
1/2 butternut squash
kosher salt

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Peel and de-seed your butternut squash. If you're unfamiliar with handling them, you may have a little trouble at first. They're fairly easy to peel, but you'll need a sharp knife to cut them. Once your orange friend is peeled and seed-free, slice it in half. Then cut it up into french fry shapes. We like to use a crinkle cutter to make authentic looking crinkle cut fries, but they'll work any way you slice 'em.

Place on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Cover lightly with kosher salt (regular salt works, too, but we prefer kosher). Place tray in your pre-heated oven and bake for 40 minutes or so, flipping halfway through baking process. Fries are done when they are starting to brown on the edges and get crispy. Serve with ketchup, or however else you enjoy fries or sweet potato fries!

Nutritional Info (5 oz(
Calories: 65; Fat: 0g; Sodium: 486mg (includes salt); Carbs: 16.5g; Fiber: 4g Sugar: 3g; Protein: 1g

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Laborious Labor Day Weekend

OK, so if I tell you what we did with most of our Labor Day weekend, I will bore the pants off you and then, well you'll be there … bored and pantsless. Hah. So I'll give it to you by the numbers …

10 peaches eaten
9 hours of sleep a night
8 bags of magzines to be given away
7 loads of laundry
6 houses viewed
5 people going to the zoo
4 movies watched
3 recipes cooked
2 cars deep cleaned
1 nice date night

Hope everyone else had a nice long weekend!!

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Six Months


Well, half a year has passed since we welcomed this sweet little person into our family and not a day goes by that she doesn't amuse, amaze, and make us a bit more awed that she's our daughter. She's an amazing blessing.

She has changed so much in the past couple of months …. weeks even. We find ourselves hardly able to keep up with her milestones. She is able to sit unassisted for brief moments now and is to be seen pulling herself onto all fours. Peaches seem to be her favorite food; she loves the purees we make and feeding herself the whole fruit in the teething feeder (basket thingy). In fact, there has hardly been a solid she doesn't love … avocado would be the notable exception.

Playtime is spent happily rolling around on the floor, trying to crawl and sit up and generally testing out her world. She babbles at length on a variety of subjects. We have no idea what these are, but it doesn't stop her from telling us allll about them. The outdoors still awes and fascinates her and is a surefire way to soothe her when she's cranky. When bedtime comes, we read stories and cuddle a bit and then she happily lays down with her froggy blanky, binky and music for the night, ready to wake up with a smile and a coo.

We are so thankful and happy she's a part of our family.

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Fluff from my Head

I made a batch of Applesauce Muffins on Monday when I was home. They are so yummy. I've really enjoyed having one to take with me to work every morning. Perhaps I need to do this every week. Maybe spiced peach muffins next … mmmm….

The site redesign is really going pretty well. I'm hoping to get a large block of time to finish up everything that needs finished. It really is very close.

I'm sure y'all have seen that you can print your Flickr pics @ Target now. It's still a bit more expensive than having them delivered to your house, but oh well. Like I can plan that far ahead.

I attempted to get some artistic photos of my craft room yesterday to put on my craft page, but they really did not turn out well. That room is overly cluttered and starting to drive me bananas. I think I will be attacking it this weekend. Continue reading “Fluff from my Head”

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Name Game

Cuz I'm bored/tired/boring today, here's a meme I stole from Chas.

1. YOUR SPY NAME: (middle name and current street name)
Kafer Coors

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your mom’s side, your favorite candy)
Ellen PeanutbutterCup

3. YOUR RAP NAME (first initial of first name, first three or four letters of your last name)
J-Nic

4. YOUR GAMER TAG: (a favorite color, a favorite animal)
Green Penguin Continue reading “Name Game”

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BBQ Chicken Pizza

from: Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Cookies

Ingredients
1 C butter, softened
3/4 C granulated sugar
1 egg
2.5 C all purpose flour

Directions
Heat oven to 375. Beat butter for 30 seconds. Add sugar; beat until combined. A dd egg; beat until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can do with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour.

Divide dough in half. Cover and chill one portion of dough. On a floured surface, roll other portion of dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters dipped in flour; reroll trimmings and repeat cutting dough. Arrange cutouts on ungreased cookie shseets. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until bottoms are very lightly browned. Transfer to wire racks; cool.

Decorate as desired.

from: Holly & Jess Original

Ingredients
1 recipe of sugar cookie cutouts
1 recipe/can of frosting
food coloring
flavorings such as cardamom, coconut, almond, ginger, and cinnamon

Directions
Make up your sugar cookie dough and before you've mixed in all the flour, break off some dough and figure out how you want to flavor it (experiment, people!). We used cardamom (lots), gigner (some) and almond extract (some). Once you've figured it out, flavor all the dough accordingly. Finish up with adding the flour. Cut and bake your cookies accordingly.

While they're baking/cooling, mix up your frosting. We used a bunch of red, yellow, and green food coloring to achieve that brown shade and we flavored it with coconut. Then use your handy-dandy piping bag to pipe mehndi designs onto your cookies.

from: Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, shaken, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
2 tablespoons brewed coffee
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup good cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

icing:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and 2 sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Lower the speed to medium, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. On low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the mixer bowl, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until blended. Fold the batter with a rubber spatula to be sure it's completely blended.

Divide the batter among the cupcake pans (1 rounded standard ice cream scoop per cup is the right amount). Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely before frosting.

While cooling, make the frosting: Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

Frost each cupcake with Peanut Butter Icing and sprinkle with chopped peanuts, if desired.

from: Matt & Jess

Ingredients
3-4 chicken breasts cut up
your favorite bbq sauce
2 T or so butter
red wine for cooking
chopped onion, if that's your thing
cheese as you like it (we use gouda, monterey jack and romano)
chopped parsley if you like
pizza crust

Directions
Heat your oven according to the directions on the pizza crust and get it all ready to top.

Put the butter in a sauce pan and cook up the chicken and chopped onion until they're getting pretty done then pour some wine over them. Cook them a bit more until the wine starts to evaporate and the chicken is cooked through.

Top your pizza with BBQ sauce, chicken (and onions), cheese and parsley. Bake as you would any pizza. Very tasty.

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Chocolate Cupcakes and Peanut Butter Icing

from: Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, shaken, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
2 tablespoons brewed coffee
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup good cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

icing:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and 2 sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Lower the speed to medium, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. On low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the mixer bowl, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until blended. Fold the batter with a rubber spatula to be sure it’s completely blended.

Divide the batter among the cupcake pans (1 rounded standard ice cream scoop per cup is the right amount). Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely before frosting.

While cooling, make the frosting: Place the confectioners’ sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

Frost each cupcake with Peanut Butter Icing and sprinkle with chopped peanuts, if desired.

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Change of Season

I have been getting up at 5 AM every morning to go to our community work out center (this, incidentally, has made me realize that our pediatrician lives in our neighborhood, but that's a story for a different time). I really have enjoyed doing this for a number of reasons … but one of the things I have enjoyed most is feeling the cooler temperatures early in the morning. It makes me forget for a while that by 4 PM when I leave work that my steering wheel will burn me and my short sleeved blouse will feel like too much clothing. It is brisk and lovely.

I am very much looking forward to fall. Not just for the cooler weather (though that will be nice), but also for what it brings. I am looking forward to bringing out the jackets and scarves. I am looking forward to the food that comes with fall. I am looking eagerly forward to weekends that aren't crammed with events. I am looking forward to beautiful fall colors. I am looking forward to a slower life.

We didn't like living in WI at all. We joke that we were freezing cold for two years straight. But what we look back fondly upon is what being house-bound did for us. We read tons of books, played games together and cooked all the time. And that slower pace of life was really nice … at least some of the time.