{cooking club}: pumpkin strata.

 

i’m sort of obsessed with this blog. and jaime and jacinda have created a project list for me that is a mile-long. no kidding. every time i look at prudent baby i have to run to michael’s to buy all sorts of crafty tools. but i digress. back to food. they also post recipes sometimes, and last week when i saw this one i knew i had to try it asap. so behold the pumpkin. it’s not only beautiful to look at, but it’s pretty dang tasty, too. and it was a hit all around. you must try. i’m doing it again for halloween. and maybe thanksgiving. i’m sort of obsessed.

get the recipe and how-to here.

p.s. jaime’s 500 pieces of prudent advice for my baby daughter is worth checking out, too.

yum: homemade vanilla.

it’s no secret i love baking, so there is always a steady supply of vanilla around these parts. at my cupcake class a few weeks ago, the store owner pulled out her homemade vanilla. i was floored, only to find out directions are all over the internet. i won’t go back, people, and if you try this you won’t either. have a bad day? pull out your homemade vanilla and take a whiff. all will be right with the world for awhile.

vanilla how-to

1 bottle of dark rum (the store owner recommended whaler’s rum at trader joe’s, $9.99)

4-5 vanilla beans

1 jar (i found inexpensive jars at ikea and cost plus)

pour rum into a cleaned and sterilized jar with a sealed closing. add beans and refrigerate. vanilla will keep indefinitely. you can also scrape some of the beans and stick them back in the jar. yum.

{bits from} the weekend.

{our beautiful cat, chelsea. we call her our halloween cat.}

not very exciting, but that suits me just fine. no meltdowns at all. not. one. j was the perfect date on friday night. a visit to ikea for frames was fun for the both of us. j is CRAZY for their  swedish meatballs and had 2 kid-size servings. and kids ate free, not that their food breaks the bank anyway. then a carousel ride at our favorite mall with grandma, dinner for the adults, and home where we cuddled in bed while daddy was at a football game. saturday was spent with mistee and sunday was spent baking and cooking an early thanksgiving meal (andrew and i were salivating the other night planning the holiday and decided that we needed a pre-holiday fix). we are excited for halloween, and best of all, we sign adoption paperwork this week. one. more. step. closer.

red , green, and purple: last harvest.

 

the last of our summer tomatoes and eggplants. i would truly believe summer was over,but we’ve had temps in the 80s and 90s. makes for uncomfortable days in fall tights. have a wonderful weekend!

things that delight me.

 

{moving on via i can read}

{i want this in my home, via uncharted odyssey}

{elisa carlucci home via design*sponge}

 

{this outfit from anthropologie. oh, i love everything about it}

{my mustard purse. i love you. you hold diapers, wipes, wallet, cars, crayons, and my big camera. and do it well.}

time-out.

true story: when i was 10 i accompanied my uncles to the dump to drop off furniture. when i saw the piles of junk i thought to myself, “where does all this stuff go?”. it seriously bothered me. such a little environmentalist, although my family probably thought i was a little weirdo. things like that still bother me, so i try to recycle whatever i can. everything in our living room except the couches are others’ castoffs. you know what they say…one man’s junk…yada, yada, yada.

not a hard diy project, but i’m quite proud of saving something else from the landfill and repurposing it. andrew found a couple of chairs streetside and brought them home. one’s been serving as a time-out chair for j in our living room. i sanded it, primed it, and painted it white, then recovered it in a pretty vinyl, which will wipe up kid messes easily.

before:

 

after:

 

{cooking club}: gnocchi.

{my lone picture from this meal. pathetic, huh?}

so the last “new” dish i tried for the fam didn’t work out so well.  i love gnocchi, and love squash and radicchio, so it sounded like a good combo. j likes pasta, and andrew and i love it, so it seemed a logical next step in the pasta family.  i hear gnocchi is easy to make, but i opted to buy pre-made. no use in making something if-fy even more so, right? the dish, my friends, wasn’t a winner, that’s for sure. j hated the texture of the gnocchi, and although he ate a few bites of the squash, i pretty much had to go to a plan b meal for him. the sad part is that we weren’t fans of this dish either. i don’t even know how to advise one to change it up to make it better. i like the components by themselves, but together, not for me. the only thing i can say is that if you LOVE radicchio and squash, then you’ll probably love it. other than that, this is not a dish to be had again in the red house.

Gnocchi with winter squash and seared radicchio (from Vegetarian Suppers)

1 large butternut squash (about 3 pounds)

1/4  cup olive oil

sea salt, and freshly ground pepper

1 head radicchio, sliced into wide ribbons

2 garlic cloves

a big handful of parsley leaves

12 or more sage leaves or 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary

1 tablespoon butter if making the sauce

3/4 to 1 pound potato gnocchi

freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1. Cut off the neck of the squash, divide into two or three easily managed sections, and slice off the skin. Cut into slabs, then dice into 1/2 inch cubes. Toss with a little olive oil and salt, then steam over 3 cups simmering water until tender, about 20 minutes. Reserve the water.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the remaining oil in a wide skillet; add the raddichio, season with salt, and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until wilted, tender, and no longer red, about 8 minutes. When the squash is done, add it to the pan. Chop the garlic, parsley, and sage together. Add most of it to the radicchio and squash and reserve the rest.

3. If you have time to make the sauce, put the strings and seeds from the squash in a pan with 2 cups of the water that was used to steam the squash, a few pinches of salt, and any leftover bits of parsley, garlic, squash, and sage. Simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes, then strain. Whisk in a tablespoon of butter.

4. Salt a skillet of water, bring to a boil, add the gnocchi, and simmer until done. Add them to the pan with a little of the cooking water. Taste for salt, season with pepper, and add the remaining herbs and garlic. Serve with the remaining oil drizzled over the top, plain, or with the cheese.

{bits from} the weekend.

lovely weather. recovering from something (could be a real illness, could just be what i call a “funk”). friday we did see where the wild things are, and j did remarkably well for having to sit through a whole movie. saturday we met a new member of the family, enzo (my family is insane about dogs) and during j’s naptime i caught up with the real housewives of atlanta (no judgment please, it’s just a guilty pleasure). sunday was filled with prayer, lunch out, costco, and, wonder among all wonders, reading for pleasure on the couch. hope your weekend was lovely, too. i’m around this week, so say hi, but i can’t promise i won’t need another break!

fall break.

 

it’s caught up with me folks. i’ve bit off more than i can chew. i’m 2 weeks late with photography assignments, a new class started for me this week, and although these are two classes that i’m taking for ME, i sort of have a real job to tend to, you know. essays are coming in this week, and i have a unit to plan for the scarlet letter, which is no easy feat. so, i’m taking a bit of a blogging break for a week, which KILLS me, since i love it so, but i’ve had to prioritize BIG TIME.

today i was to post my cooking club attempt, but since it was such an utter disaster (a by-product of doing too much at once), i will save it for next week. it also happens to be my birthday tomorrow, so i’d like to just do as little as possible. period. am enjoying all your lovely fall pictures, and can’t wait to come back!

thrifty finds.

september was a great thrifting month!

baby clothes for mikayla. $2 each.

table, use and color to be not yet determined, but for now serving as our cat’s meal table. $15.00.

velvet blazer. it satisfied my need for this j. crew blazer. $0.99

vintage tablecloth. $23.00.

vintage pyrex bowls. $8.95 for 2.

and folks, that’s all i have for you. this weekend was extremely mellow, yet not. i spent it running through a to-do list, and not everything even got done. don’t you hate that? i need one extra day on the weekend, i swear. have a great week!