Falling in love with fall & Pumpkin Raviolis!

Word and picture vomit to follow (mostly because work? well it's crazy - between there only being holyfuckingshit SIXTEEN work days left and big projects being due in addition to the wrap-up of training and "OH WAIT I FORGOT HOW TO SHOW YOU THIS!")

Here's your 2015 Halloween celebrations:

We started to get into the fall mood with some Pumpkin Ravioli!! (I had found a looks-easy-enough recipe in a magazine, but then couldn't find the required Wonton Wrappers (plus forgot to look) until recently...)

 The filling was just (if I remember correctly) half a can of pumpkin, some salt&pepper to taste, and about 1/4 - 1/2 C of Parmesan cheese... Lay out the wonton wrappers and spoon about a tsp onto each, then run a water-wetted finger along each edge to "seal" a second wonton wrapper on top...

Boil up the raviolis like regular pasta (but be really careful! they're delicate!) and the sauce was just browned butter and fresh sage with a dash of lemon juice right before evertyhing is served (get the butter to brown by nearly letting it burn before each stir!)

The raviolis were VERY delicate especially after being cooked, so they kind of stuck together and clumped - but still, OMG DELICIOUS! I'll have to buy more wonton wrappers and pumpkin (I think I have a second can still in fact!) for another batch this fall!



The next day, (Wednesday before Halloween), DH's work had a small party (last year I was actually costumed-up as a mime, Button was Scooby Doo, and DH - well I just don't remember. lmao)
This year, I was just a PG lady for halloween, lol - but DH and Button were a hit!

(DH's fBook post: "Honey, they shrunk Marty!")

Friday was Button's big day - they had a party and parade at daycare in the afternoon for which I left work after the internal ponderings of: is it silly that I'm leaving work for a two-year-old's Halloween parade? I used to scoff at the mom who took an entire day for her THIRD child's preschool graduation thinking - it's your THIRD!
but now? I think... THEY'RE ONLY YOUNG ONCE!!!

So I darted out of work for an hour, watched this Ace do his thang at the parade, and then hauled ass back to work...

Except then Button and DH showed up to visit me at work the last few minutes before we all left together! (everyone LOVED Button...)

We decided (as we frequently do Friday nights) we weren't gonna cook (and had no leftovers at home) so we stopped at our favorite all-you-can-eat sushi bar where Button chowed down on his favorite: edamame and salmon teriyaki. (He also apparently had learned to WINK at some point and was Flirty-McFlirt with our waitress!!!)

Saturday morning (Halloween!) I decided to make iced pumpkin cookies 

(I had a powder mix recently purchased when we went to a petting zoo/farm and the canned pumpkin required).

After Button's nap, we headed over to my bestie Dee's house for a "Halloween party" (in quotes because it was only Bestie+DH+17-mo-son and fBFF+DH +almost-3-yo son) followed by some Trick-or-Treating!




We were then barraged with requests from family to "stop by" which entailed us being out and about until almost 6:30... By the time we got home, Button was hungry (and so, cranky) and I was worried our house would be egged since no one was home to hand out candy (not to mention all the candy we did buy that we weren't handing out! It wasn't candy I liked, and so I had no interest in any being leftover!)





(We only had ONE batch of TOTers after we got home... so all that candy has been brought to work for my coworkers over the last few weeks... 3.5 lbs of it, now GONE!)



That night was also Daylight Savings, and so - with fingers crossed - we kept Button up an hour later than normal (9pm pre-time-change) and ...
IT WORKED!
 Sunday morning he woke up his "regular" time!!! (7:30 post-time-change, which was actually 8:30 pre-time-change!)

(That was also the Sunday that Button and I hit up Kmart for half-naked-nesting time later that night!)

What I hadn't mentioned (or didn't have the pictures loaded yet to mention) was that after we successfully conquered DST Sunday morning, and after Button's nap, the boys did some leaf-clean-up before we enjoyed the last rays of sun at a local park (at 4pm - I HATE that about winter time!)

I also finally got pictures of our completed backyard renovations!!! (and holy pictures, there are a ton - a separate post to follow!)




**Also - this past Saturday my awesome SIL, MIL, DH's aunt+cousin put together a great Sprinkle for me, which, as I mentioned, a friend had kind of ruined the "surprise" but I was still surprised, as I totally didn't expect it that day! And there were more HUGE SURPRISES in store once the party got started!!
It totally deserves its own post, so next up - Sprinkle pictures (a few, no people/group shots really...) as well as pictures from the 3D ultrasound we got that evening (it was a crazy busy exciting day!) and some comparison bump shots I've slacked in posting! (and don't let me forget to tell you how I totally lost count of weeks this week! lol)

Fa-Rye-DAY!

as always, TGIF!

Some catch-up Food-i-ness (because I have this to-blog list that is going back to THANKSGIVING and the fabulous apple pie I made then, but really. seriously.  IT'S SPRING, and I'm spring-cleaning the blog drafts!)

SO - Thanksgiving Apple Pie, bask in its un-cooked amazing-ness:

 (Its amazing-ness is complete with store-bought crust... homemade + lattice-work DO NOT MIX for me...)

And sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we I made these scrumptious suckers for breakfast:

1. Crescent Rolls ready for the Egg ring

2. raspberry jelly on MonteCristo RollUps + Scrambled Eggs on Egg Ring

3. Ham+BrieCheeseSpread on MonteCristos and bacon wrapped into the Egg Ring

The Finished Products! 

And while we're on breakfasts, E decided one morning to enter the Breakfast Battle and make crepes!

(Note - we had to toss the Nutella, it was waaaaaaay old. and ended up using homemade coffee ice cream. YUM.)

I couldn't let E have the last word in the Breakfast Battle - I hit it out of the park with some breakfast muffins
(Great for grabbing-To-Go with a toddler!)

Made with pancake mix, I made three ham&cheese muffins, three blueberry muffins, three strawberry&white chocolate chip muffins, and three chocolate chip muffins.


E conceded the Breakfast Battle!!

MenVsWomen Musings

Another difference between Mamas & Papas (men vs women.  VENUS against MARS!)

I'm able to occupy (no valuables near the toilet!) and watch Button (through the vanity mirror, with one eye pinched shut putting on eyeshadow) while getting ready in the morning.

E stands there with him (basically tapping his foot) and says, "If you're done, can you take him so I can get dressed?"


Also - I am so able to get out of the house with Button (and Zoey - a therapy dog who comes to work with me once a week! seriously!) and (after balancing a tray of cut grapes, arranged TurkeyTail style - thank you P!nterest) can drop Button off at daycare (all the while traipsing in my new Guess loafer platforms!)

P.S. thrifed : $17

apparently MSRP is $115!!!

Dads? Like the one I noticed this morning akwardly hefting around the bucket infant seat in which sat an adorable baby girl (must have been dressed by mom - those leggings!) who was watching me watch them (I'm pretty sure she and I shared the look, "is this guy for real?")

That dad - he had on a parka, jeans, Tshirt (pretty good so far, right?) and.... 

flip-flops.

And in case you forgot, this is us right now

(with snow two days ago!)

And in keeping with Foodie Friday, some Food I've made lately (possibly on Fridays...)

One night I thought - homemade pizza! The best way to get rid of leftover sausage! and deli meats! and spinach!  Awesome-sauce.

Also - amazing lemon (I think) mushroom chicken tomato (stuff) pasta! 

I'm like, all domesticated and cooking shit lately - just think, a few short years ago (ok more like 6-7) I was catching taco shells on FIRE in the oven! (true story - thank god I'm married to a firefighter)

And just because G00gle does awesome stuff like this:

That's the hotair vent that both doggies fight for the prime real estate in front of, and that Button likes to strum like a guitar =)

Friday Funnies

(MUST have volume for this video!)

Hope your weekend is full of giggles!

Catching Up... Kind of

There was this nice and neat list of stuff to post about, all ready in a drafted post... but since blogger just decided to DELETE that list.. (THANKS BLOGGER!!!!!!) it's going to have to be mostly by memory, triggered by the pictures I had queued up!
(but seriously, EFF YOU blogger...)

So here goes, the last few weeks (months?!) in a nutshell:

We found Ben's costume (despite all wishy-washy day dreams of making a costume from scratch, one worth of a Pinterest-home-Page-Pin!) at Walmart!

(Ben had lots of fun shopping, and in fact tried loading half the toy aisle into his cart...)

We spent weekends with cousins at our favorite play gym - and it's our favorite because they serve Starbucks!!!

We prepared for Halloween WAY early... (like, I started buying candy the end of September - no it didn't last - and we carved on only the second weekend of October... I'll spare you images of the sad sacks our pumpkins turned into after the gorgeous late summer weather we had that wilted our leering Jack-O-Lanterns...)

Mickey pumpkin for Button!

I road-raged my ass off to get to Ben's daycare in time for his Halloween parade (I made it to the middle of the parking lot, discovered the first batch of Infant 2 kids had gone - started to cry when I thought I'd missed him ((seriously Kate? It's just a Halloween parade!)) then jumped for joy when E mouthed to me from his spot on the parade route (around the little enclosed playground...) "He's in the second group from Infant Two - haven't come out yet!")

 (cutest thing, his hesitancy at the whole she-bang, and then the shy smile when he realized we were there watching..... #meltingheart)

I cooked some awesome Food.  On Fridays.  (and also throughout the week...)

yummy Pasta Carbonara! (E hates peas, remember?! and so his looked really plain and not colorful...)

I had a half can of condensed (evaporated? I confused the two...) milk left over from the cream carbonara sauce, so I'd decided to make caramel sauce out of for some caramel corn! Well, the only microwave popcorn we had was kettle corn, so I had to even pop corn the old fashioned way...

I horribly burnt the first batch (see pic) as the oil was WAY too hot... but you can see (pic 2) I finally got the hang of it!  (I ended up eating just a few pieces, bagged the rest - and promptly threw it all away a week later...)

Some ground beef, Italian-seasoned bread crumbs, and spinach made for some yummy stuffed shells - Button couldn't get enough!

Also -

I wore clothes.  

On Wednesdays.. (and also throughout the week!)

My new favorite outfit:

(The plaid shirt is actually E's couin's... borrowed. I'm probably going to just offer to buy it from her at this point... lol)

I started making some really cool shit.  (and still haven't finished it... But I totally lay that blame on E - he said he didn't trust the hanging hooks that were currently on the shelf and insists they be replaced! I'm still waiting for him, weeks later...)

And you remember the groom whose Montreal Bachelor Party ended up with just one attendee and his bro-in-law?
Well we dropped Ben off (for the night!) at Grandma's, and went to the wedding where we made friends with our table-mates: laughed about kids eating poop (theirs!) and kids getting tongued by dogs (ours!) and got deliciously toasted.

It was fun.





There.

You're caught up.

See you next month!!! =P

((just kidding... I was serious about the whole I'm going to try to stop sucking at blogging! thing on Friday!!))

((and I also just remembered/found pictures from our Pumpkin Patch visit! I'll have to continue with Halloween 2014 next post, cuz I also just found pictures from the KICK-ASS cookies I made for Button's party...))

Best Part of Wakin' Up...

... is FRIDAY in your cup!!!

First off - E is flying off to Canada today for a cancelled Bachelor Party in Montreal... wait, what?

An ex-co-worker of his is getting married November 1st... so when the best man approached E with the Bachelor Party plans (a weekend in Canada! Bus transportation + hotel room for cheap!) he was so down - he's never been to Canada and was excited, more so since his BIL (who knows no one of the group) agreed to come along (E also knows no one but the groom, and wanted a friend to be along for the trip...) BIL was excited as well, has also never been to Canada.


A few days after they booked their plane tickets (no HOURS-long busride into Canada for these two divas... lol) E got a text from the best man - not enough interest (basically none) was expressed for the Canada trip (i.e. the groom's friends all still live at home, sometimes hold jobs, and don't have the money to go to Canada).
And so the Montreal Bachelor Party was cancelled.


But the best part was that E and his BIL have non-refundable tickets....

When the best man text E with the new plans a few days later (Atlantic City, your go-to for Bachelor/Bachelorette parties in the north east...) E just shook his head and responded, "yea, sorry I won't make it - I'll be in Canada that weekend!"  (AND THEN the best man had the nerve to still ask E to chip in for groom's expenses in A.C.)


Sooooooo E and BIL are going to have themselves a little man-cation this weekend. =)

and honestly, I'm looking forward to having the house to myself Friday and Saturday night! (ok yes, I have grand dreams of watching whatever I want on TV for hours, staying up late, playing my piano and singing as loud as I want, when the stark reality is: I'll be passed out on the couch by 10:30....)







 Anyways - a quick Foodie Friday for you! (In case you've been dying to know since yesterday, WHAT'S ON THE MENU?!)
(And watching Rachel Ray must have finally jump-started my domestic gene because I made:)

HOMEMADE Butternut Squash Soup!

The whole process was actually pretty easy (as these soups usually are)

(follow clock-wise from top Right:)

First was chopping time!  

Then I browned the onions in a big soup pot (which I used later)

cuts down on the dirty dishes!

While the onions were browning, (top of left picture) 

I peeled & cubed apples, and made broth (chicken, I think - basic bouillon!)

(And I cheated - I bought pre-cubed butternut squash...)

Once everything was cubed and the onions had browned, I added the apples, squash and broth to the pot.  This was simmered (see recipe below!) until everything got decently tender.
And then, as with a number of these kind of soups, the whole mixture gets mashed or pureed in a blender.  (And here is where I need a hand-mixer! I had to put it in the blender, bit by bit!)
And here is also where I think I under-blended it, as the final soup was a tad crunchy/chewy with onions...
But it came out AWESOMELY with the bread bowls I found at our grocery store!

 (And I just remembered where I even got this recipe - from a pumpkin patch a few years ago! They had a table full of paper scraps, all different recipes!)

(And no, I didn't use fresh ginger - I used ginger powder - it still came out pretty good!)

Foodie Friday: Bruschetta Chicken

Yea, I know - ME cooking?! But I've recently found some deep domestic gene that has been hiding the past 28 ok ok 29 years!

Of course, these little seasoning packets make it pretty easy to throw together a phenomenal dinner, aka:

Sweet Basil & Oregano Bruschetta Chicken

Last Friday night found me quartering plum tomatoes 

(and ok, I cheated a little bit using canned...) 

 I drained the tomatoes first - and waste not want not:

 I saved the juice in the red tupperware cup for some yummy bloody marys!

Then it was easy as 1-2-3. 

I mixed the seasoning pouch with olive oil and brushed it over tomatoes on one side of the pan 

and chicken breasts on the other, and intothe oven it went for about 20 minutes:

While the chicken and tomatoes were in the oven, I threw on a pot of water and cooked up some linguine (or vermicelli, or some other thin noodle, can't exactly remember - damn good Bloody Marys!)

I even got out my rarely-used large pasta bowl:

I cut up the chicken into smaller pieces, and then mixed both the chicken and tomatoes (and all the yummy juices that had collected in the foil - important part!) in with the pasta. 
 
And then it was Buon Appetito!

(The only shot I got of the finished product...)

Ben, E and I all dug in with gusto!

Stay tuned next week for Butternut Squash Soup!