Happy Birthday Evan!

Twelve years ago today, October 17th, I gave birth to one whopper of a baby boy. Almost 9 pounds of pure sweetness. My little angel who slept through the night almost immediately, ate like a trucker, and always had a smile on his sweet chubby face entered this world at 12:06pm after a fairly easy childbirth for Mama (thank you!).

Evan still cuddles with me at night, ask me to scratch his head, and loves it when I read to him. We snuggle up under a blanket and get "comfy cozy". That's what we say every time we snuggle up. "Mom, lemme get a blanket so we can get comfy cozy". He still needs me to cut his fingernails, and butter his toast, and make double knots in his soccer cleats. I'm going to be sad when he doesn't need me for any of those things, so I'm holding on as long as I can.

Happy Birthday my sweet baby boy!

I love you to the moon and back again.

I took today off as a vacation day. So what have you been doing all day on your day off Lisa you ask??? Well let me tell you. I was up at the crack of dawn preparing cause tomorrow we are having a big family party. I have been in the kitchen all day cooking up a storm. Two casseroles are done, as well as some spooky deviled eggs...

And 2 dozen Halloween cupcakes......

There is so much more to do but Evan has soccer practice so that forces me to take a break (thank you again!) and get a few minutes to regroup my thoughts and my next plan of action for round two. After practice it's back to the kitchen with me.

Home

I titled this home cause as I was looking through more than 200 photos I took last weekend I realized, I live in a pretty beautiful place and I'm damn lucky to call it my home. Just a simple ride to and from work each day is filled with the most spectacular views and vibrant colors that I want to pull off to the side of the road and just start taking pictures. It's really that beautiful.

I didn't even venture near the ocean and still I was surrounded by beauty everywhere I looked. In the woods, by the reservoir, in the face of my friend Sue's dad, in the faces of some funny goats Gracie & Ginger, even in fungi. Here's just a sampling of the beauty that encompasses my little world.

I'm working on changing a few things on the blog too. I hate that blogger limits the size of my photos and until I go .com I'm going to try and switch templates so I can super size my photos (with the help of my friend ECM). That first photo in this post, it's breathtaking when you can see it nice and big, not so spectacular in the size you're seeing it in. Pooh.

Double Decker Pumpkin Bread

While I was shopping at Sam's Club last week I bought one of those 3 packs of canned pumpkin. I almost bought two. I even went as far as putting it in my cart and taking it back out again. You know when you get home from the store and you say, "damn I should have bought that". I should have cause over the weekend I laid in bed reading through cookbooks and found a few more pumpkin recipes I just had to try.

This double decker pumpkin bread sounded so good and it makes 2 loaves! One for home and one to share. My neighbors (who are pumpkin lovers) who just adore me this time of year got half of ours and I brought the other to work where it was quickly devoured within an hour of my arrival at work. I believe this is a new record.

Double Decker Pumpkin Bread
Printable recipe
4 oz cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
1-8 ounce sour cream
1 egg
2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 – 15 ounce can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease the bottoms and ½ inch up the sides of two 9x5x3 loaf pans. In a medium bowl combine the cream cheese and ¼ cup sugar. Beat with an electric mixer on medium until combined. Add sour cream and 1 egg. Beat until combined. Stir in crystallized ginger, set aside.

In another medium bowl stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg and salt, set aside.

In a large bowl combine the 2 cups of sugar the eggs, pumpkin, oil and water. Beat on low speed until combined scraping the sides of bowl occasionally. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until combined.

Spoon 1 ½ cups of the pumpkin batter unto each of the prepared pans. Divide the cream cheese mixture between pans, spreading evenly. Spoon the remaining pumpkin batter onto the cream cheese mixture, spread evenly.

Bake for 60 to 70 minutes on until toothpick inserted tests clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Wrap and store in the refrigerator overnight before slicing. Store leftovers in the fridge for up to 1 week.

A day off

One of these days when I have a day off I'm going to do absolutely nuthin'. At least that's what I tell myself every time I have a day off, but it rarely happens.

We were all home today for the Columbus Day holiday and my house was busier than normal. We changed all the closets over to our Fall/Winter wardrobe. Yuck. It's one of my most dreaded jobs, but it's done for another season. I made 19 pounds of apple butter. Yup you read that right....19 pounds! John worked in the yard some more. We pulled 2 deer ticks off Moose. One right on his little nose. Poor baby was bleeding, but at least the nasty ticks are gone. One of the hazards of taking him on a hike.

Later in the afternoon we did kind of just chill out. Jesse read a book in the grass.

John and Evan climbed the big tree in the front yard and re-arranged the ghosts and goblins.

Evan Moose just hung out and chilled.

It really was a nice day, but if you'll excuse me now.....I have to go can 19 pounds of apple butter!

Lentil Soup

While the guys worked outside (thanks for the help Mitch!) putting away all the patio furniture and breaking down the gazebo for the season I was in the house straightening up and making some soup.

I've been making lentil soup for about 20 years now. I know it's one of those soups that not everyone likes. My kids don't like it, but luckily my husband does. I have made dozens of different version of this soup. It always has onions and carrots in it, but sometimes I will add some chopped up kielbasa, or some diced up turnip, or escarole. I bought a huge bunch of escarole this week so that's what went in it this time. I used the little French lentils which really hold their shape in the soup.

After a busy day outside the guys were happy to come in for a big bowl (or two) for lunch. I'm saving mine for dinner.

Lisa's Lentil Soup
Printable recipe
1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

4 carrots, sliced

3 quarts chicken broth (about 12 cups)

1 cup of lentils (I used french, you can use brown lentils but the cooking time may be longer)

1/2 head of fresh escarole

season with Mrs. Dash

I start my lentil soup like I do most of my soups, with olive oil and onions. In a big pot put a few good tablespoons of olive oil and add the onions. Cook the onions until they are translucent. At the last few minutes add the garlic. Transfer this to a big cooking pot. Add in the chicken broth, sliced carrots, and the lentils. Season generously with some Mrs. Dash.

Cover and let come to a boil. Remove cover and turn down heat so you have a really low boil. It will take between 45 minutes to an hour to cook the lentils. Just take a taste every once in awhile to check. Once the lentils are cooked add the escarole.

Now escarole is a lot like spinach. It will look like you have way to much of it, but once you cook it it will shrink down to nothing, so go ahead and put lots of it in. Cook for another 15 minutes until the escarole is tender.

Chicken & Noodles

This is my quick and easy version of chicken and noodles. It does include 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, so if that offends you culinary snobs, then stop reading right now. Move along. You have no place here amongst my Pillsbury pie crusts and condensed soups. Shoo.

This was the perfect recipe for me yesterday cause I knew I would be out all day. When we got home after a long day of hiking all I had to do was boil some egg noodles, mix a few more ingredients in and in 30 minutes we had a hearty and satisfying supper. This is kind of a cross between a stew and a soup. It would be great with some home made bread. Hmmm, I need to make some bread.

Chicken & Noodles
Printable recipe
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 carrots, sliced.
2 – 10 ¾ oz. cans of cream of chicken soup
14 ½ oz can chicken broth
1 16oz package of egg noodles, cooked
1 cup frozen peas
salt & pepper
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

Salt & pepper the chicken and place it in the slow cooker. Top with both cans of the soup, the sliced carrots and the Italian seasoning. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours, or until chicken falls apart. Remove chicken and shred. Return shredded chicken to slow cooker. Add in the broth, the frozen peas and cooked noodles. Mix well, cover and cook on low for additional 30 minutes or until heated through.

Butterscotch Marble Cake

Today's my wedding anniversary. Probably figured that out when you read the previous post huh? John and I don't exchange anniversary gifts. We'll give each other a card, and do something special. Some years we go out to dinner, some we stay home and I make all his favorites.

Today he took me out into the woods so I could play with the Nikon. We went on a nice long hike and I got some really great photos. In return I made him a cake I knew he would love. Butterscotch is one of his favorite flavors. I have been saving this recipe for months just so I could make it for him on our anniversary.

Butterscotch Marble Cake
Printable recipe
1 package – 2 layer size white cake mix
1 – 4 serving size package butterscotch instant pudding & pie filling
1 cup water
4 eggs
¼ cup cooking oil
½ cup chocolate flavored syrup (I used Hershey’s)
2 ounces sweet baking chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
¾ cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon hot water

Preheat the oven to 350. Generously grease and flour a 10 inch fluted tub pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine the cake mix, pudding mix, 1 cup water, eggs, and oil. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl frequently.

Transfer 1 ½ cups of the batter to a medium bowl, stir in chocolate syrup. Pour the light batter into the prepared pan. Top with chocolate batter. Using a table knife or narrow metal spatula, gently swirl through the batters to marble.

Bake 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on rack.

Icing
In a small saucepan combing the sweet baking chocolate and butter. Cook and stir over low heat until melted. Remove from heat. Stir in powered sugar and 1 tablespoon of hot water. If necessary, stir in additional hot water, 1 teaspoon at a time, to reach drizzling consistency. Drizzle over cake.