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It's Beginning to Look a lot Like …

First of all, thanks to all for your condolences. They were very sweet and heartfelt.

Well I am starting to get some Christmas prep going. I'll be heading into 3rd trimester on Dec 1, so I'm especially keen to get going early cuz I'm moving a bit slower these days.

Over the weekend, I picked up both of these publications. On the left we have Martha Stewart Living's Holiday Handmade Gifts, which so far seems interesting. Lots of things to make from sweet stuff to personalized gifts to toys. Can't say I'll prolly do tons out of here, but I like some of the ideas.

The other is from a magazine I'm not familiar with called Cuisine at Home and it contains only cookie style recipes (some bars, barks, etc. as well). They all come with nice photos and instructions and I like the wide variety they included. Last year I got together with a friend and we baked a bunch of different cookies to give out as treats to friends and neighbors and we both enjoyed that and are planning to do it again this year … so it will be nice to have some new ones to try!

Anyone else got some holiday fun up their sleeve?

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Slow Weekend

This was one of the first weekends in a while where I wasn't totally devastated on Sun night that I had to return to work the next day. I think that's because I finally had a slow weekend. I did very little that was for or about anyone else and that level of selfishness apparently sits well with me. hehehehe

Friday we begged off a family obligation and Kelly came over and we cooked up some Mac 'n' Cheese and played an abbreviated game of Monopoly … one of those annoying ones where no one gets a Monopoly and no one has a clear advantage and you have to trade a bunch and the whole thing just feels dumb. So we quit. Don't remember what else we did.

Saturday we cleaned up the house, did laundry, and babysat Liam for a few hours. He's such an easy going good baby. He even took a nice nap. Then we hit Target and did the food shopping for the week. It was a bit later than we normally go and it was a mad house there, chock full of overtired screaming kids. Continue reading “Slow Weekend”

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Cream of Mushroom Soup

Ingredients

1/4 C butter
3/4 C chopped green onions, including tops
2 C chopped fresh mushrooms
2 T four
1 C half and half
1 C chicken broth or stock
1/4 t salt
1/8 t pepper

Directions
Ina dutch oven, cook green onions in butter over low heat until tener. Add te chopped mushrooms and cook mixture, stirring for 2 min. Add flour, and cook 3 min. Remove the pan from hte heat and add chicken stock and half and half in a steady sream, whisking. Bring the soup to a boile over moderate heat. Simmer, stirring for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper.

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Mmm… Grilled Cheese

Grilled cheese is quite possibly one of my fave foods of all time. I love the simplicity of it. Even more, I love the endless combinations between cheese, bread, and extras. Yum. So when my mom found out about Chedd's, I was more than anxious to try it. Finally we got our chance last night. After Matt picked me up from work, we hit the Littleton location for some FAB grilled cheese.

They truly have an amazing selection of cheese and breads and such and they grill them up perfectly. Matt had jalepeno havarti with bacon on focaccia and I had bacon, avacado and monty jack on vienna white. Both were amazing. We also shared some of their tomato bisque which was great as well. We will definitely be back. Now they just need to add apples and raisin bread to their menu of possibilities. Continue reading “Mmm… Grilled Cheese”

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Scatterbrained

Hi all. Sorry it's taken me so long to post t'day. It's just been one of those days … hit the ground running and still doing a bit of a sprint. Kinda nice, actually. Couldn't believe when I looked down at the clock and it was already 11! Yikes. Projects and meetings all morning.

We had quite a few trick-or-treaters last evening. We live in a neighborhood with loads of kids and houses on flat streets that are close together, so very desireable that way. Loki was a bit overwhelmed by the large number of strangely dressed strangers in his terrirtory, so I ended up pulling him upstairs with me for a while while Matt answered the door. We had crockpot red beans and rice for dinner last night and that turned out pretty well. I'll have to post the recipe later though because I can't remember where the heck it came from.

NaNoWriMo starts today too and although I've signed up for it, I am having trouble even thinking about starting it. Blah. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Seriously. Why do they pick November?? I've got to start Christmas shopping and such. Lousy idea.

Lastly, just wanted to send out a big congrats to bloggy friend Lisanne on the birth of her baby girl, Meredith!! Yay!

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Happy Halloween!


Well here are our finished pumpkins in all their glory. Mine is the one on the left and the other two works of art were crafted by Matt. He loves carving pumpkins. Mine was created by drilling holes in the pumpkin (a surprising amount of fun) and putting those little gems from the craft store (the kind you put in flower arrangements) in the holes. Matt's were created the old fashioned way with lotsa tedious hard work. Loki's little bite doesn't even show too much.

Happy Halloween, everyone! Don't get too sick eating all the yummy candy.

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Halloween Doings


Overall, it was a very boring weekend … which in my opinion was exactly what was called for. Yay. Lotsa naps. Lotsa book reading. A bitta TV watching (Tivo is back, Broncos lost, Office still good).

Last night, we went over to my parents' house for dinner. My mom was making Matty a “thank you” dinner since she hogged me a couple of weekends ago when we had the shower for her cousin. He loves this one paticular dish she makes which is sort of a chicken and stuffing casserole. It is quite yummy.

After our delicious dinner, we worked on carving pumpkins. Mom and I both did very simple ones but Matt (as is his style) did an amazing one that looks like a witch flying on her broomstick. We set them by the door as we were gathering stuff up to go. Loki had been sniffing at the pumpkins all night trying to get a read on them and we thought nothing of it. But sudden I hear Matt go “LOKI! What are you doing??!?” Loki had taken a chunk out of Matt's witchy pumpkin. Luckily Matt could fix it and it still looks pretty good. But still … weird dog. What is he doing eating RAW pumpkins?!??

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TGIF!!!

I have no plans for the weekend. Zip. Zero. Zilch. NADA. And thank goodness for THAT. No parties are scheduled. No friends/relatives are in town. The house is perfectly clean. I'm a free woman.

There are a few messy corners I want to clean out. Laundry will need to be done. My Tivo should arrive today (fingers crossed) and will need to be set up. I want to start scouring the internet for Christmas presents. And maybe I can even work on a fun project or two. Plus, there's always bedrest and water drinking.

Hope you all have a great weekend!