These are the Days to never forget: October 2011

Sunday, October 30, 2011

An Apple a Day-O

Apples are another one of my favorite fall foods. Every magazine I received last week had some amazing fall apple recipes. Even Andrew's first grade class has been learning about apples this month. This weekend I decided to try out a few recipes that caught my eye...or stomach.

I found some beautiful Gala apples.

Yesterday, I made prosciutto, manchego, and apple sandwiches for lunch. They were delicious! I found the recipe in one of my Cooking Light magazines.

1 1/2 tablespoons canola mayonnaise (I used mayo made with olive oil)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, divided
4 (1-ounce) slices sourdough bread, toasted
1/4 cup sliced shallot
4 ounces paper-thin sliced serrano ham or prosciutto (I used prosciutto.)
1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) shredded Manchego cheese (Machego is sort of expensive, but worth it!)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
2 cups arugula (I used baby spinach.)
1 tart apple, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced (I invested in an apple corer, definitely worth the $3 and I used a Granny Smith apple. I also recommend a Chef 'n Palm Peeler, this little kitchen gadget is genius! Thanks to Mimi for stuffing it in my stocking.)

1. Preheat broiler.
2. Combine mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon mustard; spread mayonnaise mixture over each bread slice. Top each slice with 1 tablespoon shallot, 1 ounce ham, and 4 teaspoons cheese, and sprinkle evenly with 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Broil 3 minutes. Combine 1 teaspoon mustard, oil, and vinegar. Combine the arugula and apple slices in a bowl; drizzle with vinaigrette. Toss gently. Divide the apple mixture evenly among sandwiches, and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. (I recommend pairing with a glass of white wine.)

While I prepped lunch, my wonderful husband cleaned our rides. He even shampooed the carpet!

The Stache- His mustache started off as a dare, but I think he kind of digs it. Me, I love facial hair so I'm all about it!

Always a piddlin'! (Drives me crazy sometimes!)

It was definitely open door weather yesterday!

I opened all of the doors and let the house air out. The weather was beautiful! We sat outside and enjoyed out sandwiches on the back porch.

Ok back to the apples!

Today, I'm making baked apples in my crock-pot. I found this recipe on Pinterest, imagine that! It is originally from the Skinny Chef.

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
2 tablespoons trans-fat free margarine
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 Gala or Macintosh apples, cored (I used Gala.)
1/2 cup apple juice or apple cider (I used apple juice.)
2 tablespoons orange liquor (optional, I also added a shot of brandy.)

Preheat a large crock-pot on high heat and preset it for 3 hours. (I preheated my crock-pot and when I poured in my liquids it cracked, so beware! It's still usable for now, but I'm thinking my pot had a defect. Thankfully I can replace just the pot.) In a large bowl, mix brown sugar, walnuts, margarine, and cinnamon. Fill the apples with the filling and place them in the crock-pot. Pour in the apple juice or cider and the liquor, if using. Cover and cook 2 1/2 to 3 hours on high heat until the apples are soft and begin to collapse.

We haven't tried them yet, I'm waiting on my husband's apple smoked ribs to come off the smoker, but they smell heavenly, so do the ribs! I'll let you know how they taste. Enjoy your Sunday and Geaux Saints!

I'll leave you with Andrew's Fall Break Poem about apples.

Apple Three

Fresh picked apples

From a tree

One for you

And one for me

One for teacher

That makes three

Apples picked

From an apple tree

-Monica Kulling

Sunday, October 23, 2011

More Than 1000 Words

We've all heard the old cliche, "A picture's worth a thousand words." Thanks to Pinterest I have "pinned" some amazing photographs that I think are worth way more than a mere thousand words! I've always been drawn to photography. I could sit for hours looking through my folks' National Geographics. In fact it's one of my answers to the question, "If you never had to work again, what would you do?" Me? I would so be a photographer for National Geographic.....or a yacht designer for Azimut Yachts.

Okay back to the amazing photographs. I thought I would share a few with you (mainly my folks since they have no idea what Pinterest is) in hopes that they'll bring a smile to your face and warmth to your heart, just as they did mine. Enjoy!

What?

So maybe if he could be whatever he wanted, he'd be a Christmas tree ornament.

Beautiful blueberries!

(No description required!)

A girl and her camel :)

A dewy little lady

Just a little thirsty.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Andrew's Fall Break

Since Labor Day, Andrew has grown 1.5 inches and a whole shoe size!! We mark his height every time he comes home, it's pretty much the first thing he does when he walks through our front door. He heads right for his closet door. I can't get over how tall he's getting! He's also put on some weight, his Nana's cooking must be good!

Let's see what else has changed in a month??

Ben 10 has taken a backseat to the Angry Birds...I think I foresee a Power Ranger phase following quickly behind. I'm thinking Power Ranger birthday party next time he's home.
His favorite top 40 songs are "Dynamite" and "Barefoot Blue Jean Night." He even sang karaoke at La Carretas, our local Mexican restaurant! It was hilarious I'll have to post the video.
He's going through a "scaredy-cat" phase. The kid hollers if you even call his name from another room, and walk into a dark room...nuh-uh it ain't happenin'! Wednesday night after his umpteenth "I don't want to go to the bathroom by myself!" fit, I finally held his hand and turned off the light in his room and bathroom and closed the door. Of course he freaked out and latched onto me for dear life. I told him to wait a minute and let his eyes adjust. Then we walked around his room and I showed him that everything was exactly the same in his room with the lights off or on. He sort of giggled at himself after that. Then we found all of the light switches from his room to ours in the dark, so that he wouldn't have to walk through a dark room. Of course his room and bathroom have nightlights...but "Sometimes that's just not enough light when I'm sleepy." He did better the rest of the week, but it's something I think we'll have to keep working on until he grows out of this phase. (Sigh.)
His favorite colors are still black and yellow.
His favorite food is still his Dad's BBQ Chicken Pizza. Which he requests every single night, on night three it was time to eat something else!
He likes math, "but only because I'm good at it."
His favorite game is Monopoly, the version with the credit cards. Oh my gosh, it's so much easier to be the banker...which of course is always Andrew. It's still a good game to work on your math skills, but he doesn't like to play by the rules. He wants to put houses on everything, even if he doesn't own all of the properties of the same color. Drew and I didn't have much luck trying to convince him otherwise. Buy it and build on it...so far that motto has worked out for his Daddy! ;)
Phrases: "Sa banana hula-hoop!" It's kind of like his "Woooah!" But from what I could gather, it's from some squirrel proof bird feeder video he and his Willie watched together. Like I said I'm still a little cloudy as to it's origins.

Our week was pretty busy: family pictures, pumpkin carving with Mimi & Erin, visiting Brady and his family, dinner with Poppy, Willie, and Aunt Syd & Co., dinner at Mama Days, visiting Susan & Cole, sleepover, Boo at the Zoo, and Michaela's birthday party...Plus all of the little things we did in between.

Here are some pictures from out busy, busy week!

A banker in the family would be nice.

Andrew grew quite attached to these three Tabasco peppers.

Halloween crafts with Brady!

Eating Daddy's yummy jambalaya. Drew fried it the next night, sort of like boudin balls, Andrew ate about five by himself. He's a growing boy!

Homemade donuts for the boys breakfast :)

All ready for Boo at the Zoo!

We had a great time and we're looking forward to one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Lovin' It

Five Fall Things I'm Loving

1. Fall Foliage. Who doesn't love the turning of the leaves?! The sycamore trees are all turning a beautiful shade of gold, the crepe myrtles are glowing orange, the red maples are finally living up to their namesake, and the cypress trees are starting to rust. Fall is South Louisiana is beautiful!

2. College Football. How 'bout them Tigers!! Between the Honey Badger and the Mad Hatter the wins keep on coming. And the night games continue to elude us. Every conference game thus far has been picked up by a major network for the 2:30pm slots. This will be the first time since 1935 that a home conference game as not been played at night in Tiger Stadium. It's a bittersweet statistic. Our Tigers are undefeated and the whole country seems to want to see Les and our Tigers play but there's just something about a Saturday night in Baton Rouge that makes your hairs stand on end. And what does Less say, “There’s a lot of magic in that stadium,” Miles said. “… But it’s a special place to play daytime or night.” Yes sir, it sure is!

3. Pumpkin Pie. Is my most favorite dessert of all time. My Mama is bringing me one to Canton in 3 weeks and my mouth is already watering. I never really liked cake growing up so for my birthday I would ask for pumpkin pie. Just say no to cool-whip too! My Mom's is the best of the best and with a cold glass of milk, it's like a little slice of heaven. Amen.

4. Crisp Cool Mornings. I feel a little more...alive, when I walk outside to a cool fall morning. I watch the sun come up on my way to work with my sunroof down or I'll grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the morning sun from my back porch on the weekends. It's mornings like this that I think God made them just for me...and my Mama.

5. Candy Corn. I know, you may be saying candy corn is available year round. But it's just not the same, candy corn is a fall staple. Who knew sugar or corn syrup could ever taste so good! I think the cavities might just be worth it. Did you know this stuff has been around since the 1880's!

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. ~George Eliot

My Little Pumpkin

What are your family's Halloween traditions?

One of ours is pumpkin carving. We take it pretty serious since we have some very talented carvers in our family. Half of the battle is picking out the perfect pumpkin. We headed over to our local fruit stand to hand pick ours. Andrew loves the fruit stand! He picks out all kinds of yummy fruit to eat while he's home.