this is our happily ever after

tonight

I watched Glee with some friends...and I'm really tired because I didn't get enough sleep last night...and I'm wondering how I will ever survive the first few months of motherhood on little sleep...and I will post a fall fun idea tomorrow...but I'm signing off for tonight...

fall fun {mummy munch and fall decor}

Been spending some time relaxing today...much needed after the week I've had.  I'm the kind of girl who recharges at home.  Of course, I've been spending some time surfing the web...hopping from blog to blog....and of course, I found a new favorite...Picky Palate

I truly love foodie blogs and am amazed at how so many people have made blogging their job...people who have had blogs for a shorter time than I have had this blog.  I guess it never dawned on me that blogging could become my job...plus I"m not sure that I would want that...although I do admire those who make it work.  Many food bloggers develop their own recipes and then make them, while photographing the process and I am inspired by them.  Who knows what the future will hold for this blog...but for now...just count it as a resource for things that I think look fun and tasty. 

Today's"mummy munch" is from Picky Palate.

(I know...seriously, how cute...presentation will get me every time)

and here's an idea from my own dining room table:  take large candle stands and perch tiny pumpkins or gourds on top... (I got the large, rustic candle stands at Stein-Mart, and the smaller one at Hobby Lobby)

festival weekend

I'm home resting today...the past week has been a whirlwind and the weekend wasn't any different. 

Saturday we went to the Greek Festival...this is the 3rd year we've gone...it was quite hot, so we only spent about an hour there. 

tenderloin...plain and simple...and really tasty!

and Greek Salad

On Sunday CB and I went to the Bayou City Art Festival where we saw ALL kinds of art and people!

loved the bright colors in this bottle cap art...this piece was a table that would be great in an outdoor eating area!

 

and if you were dreaming of Humpty Dumpty sculptures...they had those too!

thought this was cool from afar...then I got closer and realized it was entirely made out of electrical/computer parts...even cooler

this is a painting...not a photograph!  Amazing

Fall Fun ideas coming soon

fall fun {football snacks}

Tomorrow night we're having some friends over; the guys are watching football, the girls will likely sit on the porch, drink wine, and talk...this way everyone is happy! Here are some snacks that would be great if you're having a football get together this weekend or in the future.

Cowboy Caviar

Grilled Pepper Poppers

Red Onion Dip

Pigs in a Blanket

Corn Dogs

(all recipes from myrecipes.com)

Bolognese Sauce (a fancy word for meat sauce)

Actually it's the Italian name for meat sauce...and it's so good.  This has been my favorite recipe for several years.  The recipe is from Giada De Laurentiis and I have tweaked it just a bit, but basically it's the same. 

This week I tripled the recipe and took some sauce to a friend along with pasta, bread, and salad...and then we enjoyed it for dinner last night with our neighbors.  I still have 3 jars that I will freeze.  I bought some canning jars at the grocery store (they don't have them all year, just in the summer and fall), but you could totally freeze any extra in a resealable freezer bag. 

Here's the recipe:

1/4 cup olive oil

medium onion, coarsley chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 lb (lean ground chuck beef or ground turkey)

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes

1 (14 oz) can italian style diced tomatoes

1/4 cup coarsley chopped flat leaf Italian parsley

8 fresh basil leaves, chopped

1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add olive oil, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, and seasoning.  Cook until the vegetables are tender about 12-15 minutes.  Raise heat a bit and add ground beef, breaking it up as it cooks.  Cook until the beef is no longer pink.  Add tomatoes, red pepper, and herbs, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about an hour.  Add parmesan cheese and serve with pasta. 

chocolate crunch brownies

I'm not sure what's gotten into me lately, but I've baked twice in a week.  It must be the cooler temps and the fact that my sweet tooth is taking over. 

I honestly don't know where I got this recipe, I found it in my recipe binder and it sounded like just the thing I was craving yesterday.  It's relatively simple and I think you could simplify the process even more if you used a brownie mix.  If you do choose to use a boxed brownie mix, make sure you make the cake version, not the fudgy version.  This makes a lot, so make when you have company or plan to share with friends and neighbors!

Ingredients

2 cups of sugar

1 cup of unsalted butter

4 eggs

1 cup of flour

6 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1 (7 oz) jar marshmellow creme

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup creamy peanut butter

3 cups rice krispies

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350.  combine the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl.  Beat at high speed until creamy, scraping the bowl a few times.  Add the eggs, beating until blended.  Stir in the flour, cocoa powder, vanilla, and salt.  Spoon into a buttered 9x13 baking dish.  Bake for 25 minutes or until the edges pull away from the sides of the pan.

Cool in the pan on a wire rach.  Spread with the marshmellow creme.  Combine the chocolate chips and peanut butter in a saucepan.  Cook over low heat until blended, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in cereal.  Spread over the prepared layers.   Chill in refrigerator until set.  Cut into bars.  Store, covered in the refrigerator. 

fall fun + cooking through the seasons {basil pesto}

Basil, sweet, lovely basil...there is truly no herb that I love as much as basil.  The smell of it is a reason enough to grow it in the summer time.  I love to cut it and put it in a vase on my kitchen counter just because it smells so good. I always have a pot of it on my front porch and in the late summer, early fall I make basil pesto.  The beauty of pesto is that you can freeze it...it discolors a little, but still tastes great. 

Recipe for pesto: (from Giada De Laurentiis)

2 cups packed basil leaves

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

1 clove of garlic

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

2/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup grated parmesan

In a blender pulse the basil, pine nuts, salt, garlic, and pepper.  Once it's finally chopped begin adding the olive oil until smooth and thick.  Add cheese until just incorporated. 

Now one of my favorite things to do with pesto is to make Angel Hair with Pesto, Pine Nuts, and Tomatoes.  This is a great vegetarian meal. 

Ingredients

1 cup of pesto

1/2 lb angel hair pasta

1 can of petite diced tomatoes with basil and garlic, warmed up

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

grated parmesan

Boil the pasta until al dente.  Drain, but reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta water.  Mix the pasta with a cup of pesto adding some of the water to thin if needed.  Serve on a plate and top with heated tomatoes, pine nuts, and parmesan. 

It's really that easy and it's SO good!

fall fun {flower pots, decorating the front porch}

Fall is absolutely my favorite time of year.  Thankfully God has sent Houston some cooler temps (60's at night...low 80's during the day) so that it actually feels like fall...maybe not quite as crisp and cold as I would like it, but I'm not complaining.  And to be quite honest, October has always been my favorite month...always has been.  I think it has something to do with the fact that you can find pumpkins popping up in the markets and as silly as it may sound...I LOVE pumpkins!  Pumpkins of all kinds...orange, white, gray, little, huge, round, tall, or squat...I love them all.  Last year I bought about 8 pumpkins and this year I will likely buy even more...I've already got 4.  I decorate with pumpkins through Thanksgiving, so I figure spending about $30 isn't too bad for "decorations" that stay up for 2 months.  Plus they really just make me happy. 

Because October is my favorite month I am going to make it my goal to blog something fall related every day...ok..ok...it's already October 3rd and I haven't posted a single idea yet...I know...that's why there will be 3 ideas today.  There will be crafty ideas, cooking idea, decorating ideas, planning ideas, things to do with the family, etc.  I've done this same concept for the past few Decembers, but since fall truly is my favorite time of year and I'm feeling my creative ideas brewing and/or I've found some cute ideas I just had to share I thought I'd make a point to post some fall fun every day.

Flower Pots:

I really enjoy container gardening...Brian is the master gardener in our house, he carefully tends to the yard and the flower gardens (and even won yard of the month a few years ago).  One of the things that sold us on our house was the front porch...we're front porch kind of people (although we don't venture out there in the summer because of the heat and mosquitos).  Now that it's getting cooler we wanted to clean out some of the flower pots and replant them. I mixed flowers with herbs, one of my favorite things to do.  I look forward to doing my Bible study on the porch tomorrow morning!

Pumpkins:

As I stated above, I love pumpkins, so there will be many pumpkin related posts this month.  My first thought relating to pumpkins is buy them now...don't wait until Oct 30 to try to find pretty pumpkins...they are typcially picked over by then, especially the ones people carve into jack o lanterns.  After filling the flower pots and spraying off the porch I set out the pumpkins I bought today.  I will eventually buy some for inside the house, but these cuties belong on the porch.

more fall fun coming soon...in the form of a recipe :)

"homemade" microwave popcorn

My friends, this may change your life...well at least a little.  I grew up in a family who ate homemade popcorn at least 5 nights a week.  I have vivid memories of sitting next to my dad on the couch, watching tv, and snacking on popcorn before going to bed.  My mom always made it on the stove top with a heavy pot, a little oil, and popcorn kernals.  It's still my favorite way to eat popcorn, but I've found that unless you have just the right pot it doesn't turn out the same...plus microwave popcorn is just. so. easy! The bad thing about microwave popcorn is that it's full of chemicals and leaves a weird film on my mouth.  So when I read a small article in this month's Food Network magazine I knew I had to try it out.  If you have this magazine it's in the "ask Ellie" column.

So here's what you need: 

a brown paper lunch bag

1/4 cup popcorn kernals

1/2 tsp canola oil

1/4 tsp kosher salt (plus a little more to taste later)

Take the kernals, oil, and salt and mix them in a bowl.  Pour them into the bag and fold the top of the bag over about 3-4 times.  This may seem like a small amount of popcorn, but it really pops up to make about 4 cups of popped popcorn. 

Put it in the microwave and cook on high for 2 minutes; mine was finished in 1 minute 30 seconds.  You want to remove it once the popcorn stops popping...just like with microwave popcorn. 

Remove immediately and pour into a bowl.  Sprinkle with a pinch more salt and serve. 

I will say that I'm shocked at how good this is...it's truly the perfect snack!

Extras: you could also add the following to the finished popcorn...

m&m's

parmesan cheese

ground black pepper

spices