Fall

This weekend was one of those weekends that come along every now and then that wasn't busy, over-planned, rushed or gone in the blink of an eye. All too often it seems like Chad gets home from work on Friday evening and an hour later he's rolling out of bed for work again on Monday morning. And especially when he's back in school (he's doing an MBA program and each class is a 6 week session. They pack a lot of work into that six weeks--usually 30+ hours per week on top of his full-time job!) things can seem anything but calm. We always hold our breath right before a class starts and hope that the workload isn't too insane, that the professor is one of the good ones, and that his teammates in his group assignments pull their weight. Sigh of relief--it seems like those three stars have aligned nicely this time around.

We took Charlotte to the fall festival at Gale's Garden Center on Saturday. We snatched up the last few cupcakes from Alyssa's Cupcake Confections before she sold out--I think her tent was the most popular! We let Charlotte play in a big pile of pumpkins:

This weekend truly felt like fall--and with good reason, since Saturday marked the official start of my most favorite season! Chad and I got a chance to go out on a date (alone!) Saturday evening and on Sunday we just hung around here all day. It was chilly and a little rainy, perfect weather to stay inside with the fireplace going and football on TV. There were pillows and blankets and baby books strewn all over the living room rug and mug of hazelnut coffee in my hand that was refilled way too many times. Charlotte fell asleep in my arms, something she rarely does anymore, and we napped on the couch for over an hour. I made the best simple fall dinner I could think of: grilled cheese and soup. For dessert? Lazy Cake Cookie, found on Pinterest (go here for the original recipe where it was pinned).

I promise you that this dessert will knock your socks off. Just mix together a box of yellow cake mix, 5 tablespoons of melted butter, 2 beaten eggs and a few handfuls of mini chocolate chips. Toss it in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees and viola! A delicious sheet cookie.

I'm thinking of trying it with chocolate cake mix and peanut butter chips--doesn't that sound good??

And going on behind the scenes? Day 1 of the installation of our built-ins. Day 2 (and hopefully the last day) will be next Sunday. Here's a sneak peek:

I also got a lot of sewing/crafting projects underway--some even finished, woo hoo! More to come later this week on those.

Happy Monday!

~Stacy

P.S. This is my little peanut last year before we went to the Gale's Fall Festival. Sigh.

Without realizing it, we ended up getting her the same pants in a different size this year. What we couldn't do this year? Get her to sit still. She's a busy, busy girl. And for some reason this picture makes her look 4 feet tall (actual height? 2 ft. 6 in. She's itty bitty).

Project Pinterest: Pumpkin Cupcakes

Ahh, Pinterest.  The site that is single-handedly responsible for ruining a well-intentioned evening of productivity.  To say that Pinterest is addicting is an understatement.  I can literally spend hours browsing the endless supply of inspiring, beautiful, and mouth-watering pictures and "pinning" away to my 29 (and counting) pin boards.  I have discovered tons of recipes, decorating ideas, craft projects, photography, and new blogs this way and several times a week add more pins (currently 594) to my idea boards.  I can't get enough.

Despite pinning almost 600 ideas, though, guess how many I've followed through with?  None.  Granted, some are just pictures I think are funny, or quotations, or photos of dream houses, but there are at least 100 that are project or recipe related.  I have this whole virtual idea box that I keep adding to but never actually using, so I decided it was time to change that.  Thus the idea for Project Pinterest was born.  The goal with this is to make/bake/sew/cook at least one thing I've pinned twice a month.  Those are the only rules.  I made them up.  I like simple games.

I completed my first Project Pinterest today, and I'm very pleased with the results.  I knew it was going to be cloudy, rainy and kind of chilly today and it was making me think of pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks.  I consulted Pinterest and pinned a recipe for pumpkin cupcakes from Skinnytaste.com.  Have you heard of this site??  I hadn't, but I'm pretty sure it's my new favorite site (besides you, Pinterest).  Gina, the author, makes delicious desserts, appetizers, main courses, drinks, and more that are low in fat, calories, and all the other bad stuff that we crave.  Her photos are amazing and she includes nutrition information and Weight Watchers points values for every single recipe.  I spent a long time browsing her site and ended up making our dinner menu for the week from it.

The recipe I used is Pumpkin Cupcakes with Pumpkin Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting.  Check it out for the full recipe--it's quick and easy and will make your entire house smell ahhh-mazing.  Also, if you're on Pinterest (and if not, join! You won't be sorry and it's free), follow Skinnytaste.  You can also follow me here or by clicking the Pinterest link on the right column of this page.

Verdict?  They're delicious.  And moist.  And dreamy.  And only two points (three with frosting).  I made the frosting but ended up not using it.  The cupcakes are really flavorful and work fine without it, plus my frosting ended up really runny and hard to spread.  I could have thickened it with powdered sugar, but the point of using this recipe was to eliminate as much sugar and calories and possible.  If you do plan on using frosting, you may want to decrease the amount of pumpkin puree you use--you can always add more if it's too thick.

I will be making these again, and soon.

Happy pinning!

~Stacy

Strawberries, Anyone?

I have a strawberry obsession going on right now.  I didn't mean for it to happen and I never even used to like strawberries.  I started liking them when I was pregnant and it became a permanent thing (unlike Domino's Pizza, which I used to love and now, for reasons I won't detail, I will never ever be able to eat again).  Anyhow, awhile back I posted about joining a CSA with a local greenhouse, Dean's Greenhouse. Since the weather was so unseasonably warm this spring, their first crop was ready a couple weeks early for pickup so I was able to get our first box of goods on Tuesday.  Inside was a box of strawberries, a bunch of Swiss chard, and a big bag of sugar snap peas.  I had already bought a box of strawberries over the weekend that still wasn't finished so I found myself on strawberry overload.

We ate a bunch of them, then I made strawberry bars using this recipe.  The only adjustment I made to the recipe was adding about a tablespoon of cornstarch to the strawberry mixture to thicken it up a bit.  They were delicious--maybe even better than the blueberry bars.  They were gone in a day.  Don't judge.

I still had some strawberries left, plus some heavy whipping cream from another recipe (why is it impossible to find heavy whipping cream in a small size?  I needed 1/4 cup but had to buy a quart).  The only solution I could see was to make pancakes with strawberry and whipped cream topping.  I'd actually never made whipped cream before, and now that I have I might make it all the time.  I added a little powdered sugar (2 tablespoons or so), a splash of vanilla extract, and a teaspoon of sweetener.  I ended up with a giant bowl of whipped cream, but that's a good problem to have.  I found that putting a dollop of whipped cream on a graham cracker makes for a tasty dessert.  Also, eating it straight from the bowl isn't out of the question.

To add to the strawberry theme going on, Charlotte and I went to a garage sale yesterday morning.  I have some berry decorations for her party (mostly strawberries) and I found these:

I kind of love them.

Enjoy your long Memorial Day weekend!

~Stacy

Valentine's and Blueberries

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!  I was happily surprised when the FedEx man showed up at my door with beautiful red roses:

They're gorgeous and came with a lot of pretty greens instead of baby's breath, which was nice.  Baby's breath always makes me think of funerals...is that weird?  Probably.  Anyhow, I was excited about these and about the ice cream cake.  I'm not really a jewelry girl and Chad knows this, so he went out to Mitchell's Ice Cream (possibly the best ice cream place ever.  If you find yourself in Northeast Ohio ever, do go) and came home with a cookies 'n cream cake.  He knows me too well.

As part of his present, I made him blueberry bars.  Seriously, that boy could eat an entire pan of these in one sitting and it's possible that that very thing has happened.  Possibly.  I got the recipe here and have made it tons of times.  It's easy and will make your house smell like delicious blueberries (or raspberries, blackberries, or whichever berry you choose to use).  This time of year, I buy frozen.  They're cheaper and will last a long time in the freezer until summer comes and you can get better fresh ones.

You'll need:

not pictured:  baking soda

1 cup flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 stick butter
2 cups blueberries
1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, divided
1 T. lemon juice
2-3 T. sugar (depending on how tart or sweet you want your bars to be)
2 T. water
1 tsp. salt
1/8 t. baking soda

Stir together flour, oats, brown sugar, 1/4 t. cinnamon, and baking soda. 

 Melt the stick of butter and stir into flour mixture.  Reserve 1 cup of the mixture and press the rest into an ungreased 8X8 baking dish and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. 

 While that's baking, put the blueberries, lemon juice, remaining cinnamon, water, and sugar into a saucepan over medium heat. 

Don't those look delicious?  They make me think of summer.

 Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and lightly breaking up the blueberries (don't mash).  When the crust is finished baking, pop it out of the oven and pour the blueberry mixture on top.  Crumble and sprinkle the cup of reserved oats on top, then stick it back in the oven and bake for another 20 minutes.

Last step:  try not to eat them all at once.  Good luck.

I hope your Valentine's Day was lovely.  I leave you with a picture of my Valentines (minus Howard, who had better things to do than pose for a picture.  Like bark at the squirrel outside he will never, ever catch). 

See those sweet, pudgy fingers?  Her Daddy is wrapped around Every. Single. One.  Love them :)

~Stacy

A Cookie Kind of Day

I set out to be very productive yesterday.  Grandma watches the baby on Tuesdays, so that is my day to clean, run errands, and work on consulting projects (I'm also an independent HR Consultant.  This blog is a place for enjoyment and relaxation and since the sum total of people who find reading about human resources to be enjoyable and relaxing is zero I will not be focusing on that here).

It was a rare Tuesday when the house was clean, groceries bought, and all work projects done.  My plan was to drop Charlotte off at 10, run a few errands, and be home by noon to spend the rest of my day sewing a set of baby blocks.  Plan derailed.  See, I have a problem when it comes to crowds.  My problem is that I dislike crowds.  I think I require more personal space than the average person, so being in a crowded store with people and shopping carts blocking aisles makes me crazy in about .3 seconds.  I have been known, on more than one occasion, to set out for a shopping trip and abandon all plans before I even get out of the car if the parking lot is a mess of people and terrible driving.  Yesterday was one of those days, except instead of just going home and forgetting about the whole thing I decided to be strong and soldier on.  This might have been an okay idea if it wasn't, say, 2.5 weeks before Christmas at one of the busiest strip malls in the entire nation.  Long and frustrating story short, I arrived home much later than I planned and in a bit of a "mood" that could only be fixed by baking cookies.  Dark chocolatey, thick, gooey cookies.  I have bakerella.com to thank for giving me the best recipe I have ever tried.  Please, if you are having a bad day that begs for cookies, visit this site immediately and make them.  Or just look at the amazing pictures of her cake pops.

I won't include the entire recipe (because I want you to check out her site :)) but here is the ingredient list:

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 t. vanilla

1/2 cup cocoa

10 oz. dark chocolate chips

3/4 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

I left out the nuts, but you can include those as well.













These are soooo good.  It's been awhile since I've baked cookies from scratch like this.  I skipped Christmas cookie baking last year because eating raw dough was forbidden due to my pregnancy.  Not eating raw dough while baking?  Insanity.  Not to mention completely impossible, so I figured I'd be better off just avoiding the temptation entirely.  I felt good enough after my little baking extravaganza that I was able to muster up some creativity and cut out the fabric for the baby blocks.  Here's a sneak peek:


All made from leftover scraps of Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane line.  LOVE.

Have a good day!

~Stacy