Fall Recipe Challenge: Spiced Maple Sausage Patties

This week's recipes all had a breakfast theme, hubs and I had a lovely fall breakfast feast and I actually tried out four recipes for the meal! This is one of two sausage recipes that we tried and it was absolutely delicious! Easy to make and really great flavor.




Spiced Maple Sausage Patties

1/2 lb. ground turkey
1/2 small onion, grated and squeezed dry
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 T dried rubbed sage
1/2 T dried thyme leaves
1 1/2 T pure maple syrup
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 T extra-virgin olive oil

Mix the turkey, onion, garlic, sage, thyme, syrup, paprika, allspice, salt and pepper with your hands. From into 8-9 patties; put on a foil-lined baking sheet, cover and chill for at least 20 minutes (can chill overnight too). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat 1 T olive oil in a skilled over medium-high heat. Cook half of the patties, turning once, until golden, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a baking sheet. Wipe out the skillet and repeat with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and patties, then transfer the patties to the oven* to finish cooking, 5-10 minutes.

*For an extra maple touch, I brushed the tops of the sausage patties generously with maple syrup before baking in the oven.

Shopbop Winner & A Dilemma

I'm sorry for my absence this week guys, it's just been one of those week! My family and I have been dealing with a very rough situation with a family member and it has really been taking an emotional toll on me. I would appreciate any prayers you could offer up on our behalf! Thanks guys!

I won't make you wait any longer, the winner of the Shopbop giveaway!


#53 was Brittany Ann from Living in the Moment, congrats Brittany! You'll have to let us know what you pick out!

For those of you who didn't win, they just updated their sale section with a lot of new markdowns and don't forget to go through ebates, you can get 6% cash back on top of other discounts!

Now, on to my dilemma. I was given some birthday money to spend (I know, big dilemma right?) and I'm having a tough time deciding between the following two items. This is where you come in guys, which one should I get? Both have been items I've been dying for years and I just keep waffling back and forth between the two!



For those of you who don't recognize the above items. The first is a Garmin Forerunner 305 and is just about the coolest fitness tool out there. You wear it on your arm while you run and it tells you all kinds of information on your run-heartbeat, pace, distance, calories burned...it's basically like taking a treadmill outside but way cooler. Now that I've been running more, I think this would really help me to the next level.

The second item is a Clarisonic pro. Designed by Sonicare (yep, designers of the super expensive toothbrush), it's a three speed face and body brush combo that makes your skin soft and silky smooth, reduces the appearance of pores & wrinkles, helps balance out your skin tone, helps product absorb better and tones up your skin.

As you can see, the both sound pretty fantastic...which one should I pick? I've found both pieces on sale so I need to make a decision before the sales end, any advice or experience you can offer up would be appreciated! Happy Friday Everyone!

Tuesday Randosity

A bit of Tuesday randosity for you (I decided to change the spelling to make it shorter, thoughts?).

I'll have the shopbop winner posted later today! We had a crazy busy weekend so it's been a slow and rough start to the week. Throw in a bit of a lull in inspiration (really I'm just brain dead in all aspects) and a ton of produce leftover from this week's produce run and I just feel a little meh.

What does one do with 24 heads of green leaf lettuce, 7 pounds of asparagus, 83 cucumbers, 41 zucchini, 5 cantaloupe,64 kiwi and 10 bags of red grapes??? And that's just the extreme excess, we're not counting the extras in normal quantities (including broccoli, beans, carrots, cauliflower, romaine hearts, spring mix, mushrooms, tomatoes, 3 kinds of apples, mangoes, pears and strawberries) My mom and I have 4 fridges between us but...I seriously don't know what all we're going to do with it, we certainly can't eat it all.

Moving on, we spent all day Saturday with the cutest most perfect baby, ever. Really Husband and I are both convinced she should model for Gerber and any other baby ad. She has the most beautiful blue eyes and loooooooong eyelashes and the cutest smile and facial expressions.


She was a big fan of the turkey legs at the Renaissance festival on Saturday and was really trying to get her hands on one.

Sunday, we watched the ridiculous football game, the Ravens ALMOST lost to the Bills. The Bills! It took overtime people! So embarrassing.... What should have been an easy relaxing game to watch turned into a nail biter! Not exactly how I had hoped to spend my Sunday afternoon!

Sunday evening, I was busy purchasing these:


and these:


We better have a baby real soon so that I don't have to give them away...

Lastly, I have been offered a chance to do a review for CSN, which will work perfectly with the cooking challenge I've been doing. I think most everyone in the blog world has heard of CSN by now but they have an excellent selection of everything from barstools, to home and holiday decor. Hubs and I bought the rug below from CSN a few months ago for our living room and we love it! Have I ever showed you all pictures of our living room? No? I think I left off with the office and living room, whooops!



The color is a gorgeous deep teal. *heart* The shipping was quite fast and the rug even came with a free rug pad! I've also purchased an awesome dish drain and a few Le Creuset pieces from them that I loved. I'm excited to try another product out with them. Stay tuned for that review!

Fall Recipe Challenge: Apple Bread

This was the other recipe I took to our small group get-together and it was a big hit, so popular, in fact, that by the time I got to the food, it was gone! Good thing there were three more loaves at home! :)

Apple Bread


3 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 eggs, beaten
3 C shredded, peeled apples (approx 4 med)
2 C sugar
2/3 C vegetable oil (could substitute applesauce for this)
1 tsp vanilla

Great and flour 3 7-1/2x3-1/2x2 inch baking pans (I used 2 larger and 2 mini).

In a medium bowl combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and baking powder; set aside.

In a large bowl combine eggs, apples, sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture just until moistened. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake a 325 degress for 45-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool on wire racks. Wrap and store overnight before slicking.

Fall Recipe Challenge: Candy Corn Rice Krispy Treats

I wanted to take a few fall treats to our small group Friday night and this recipe fit the bill perfectly! The candy corn added a perfect extra little touch to a recipe that's always a crowd-pleaser.


Candy Corn Rice Krispy Treats

4 T butter
1 bag marshmallows (10 ounces or 36 large marshmallows)
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 C Rice Krispies
1 C candy corns

In a medium-sized sauce pan over low heat, add butter to melt. Once melted, add marshmallows and sir continuously until the marshmallows have reached a smooth consistency. Add vanilla and stir to combine. Remove from heat and fold in the cereal and candy corns until completely coated.

Add the mixture to a 9x13 pans and smooth out until even. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Fall Recipe Challenge: Creamy Baked Potato Soup

This was yet another soup that helped me conquer my fear of soups needing hours to simmer and consequently, taking way too long for a week night. This soup was on the table in under 30 minutes and was incredibly delicious! Perfect for the cold temperatures we had.


Creamy Baked Potato Soup

2 T butter
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 C flour
4 1/2 C skim milk (we used rice milk)
1 can chicken broth (14oz)
4 medium baking potatoes, baked (approx 2.5 lbs.)
2 C freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 C sour cream
1/2 C chopped green onions
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (we used turkey)

Melt butter in a stock pot over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 30-60 seconds until lightly browned. Add flour to pan. Slowly add milk at a little at a time while whisking constantly to eliminate lumps. Whisk until smooth and then add chicken broth. Bring soup to a simmer and heat until thickened, stirring often, about 5-10 minutes.

Once soup is thickened, turn heat down to medium-low. Cut potatoes in half length-wise and use a spoon to scoop potato flesh into the pot. Alternatively, you could just peel the potato skin off and cut the potato up into chunks before putting it into the pot. Use a wooden spoon to smash the potatoes, breaking up any large clumps. Add 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar, salt and pepper and stir until cheese is melted. I highly highly recommend using freshly grated for this step as it melts much better. Remove pan from heat and stir in sour cream and 1/4 C green onions, and 4 strips of the crumbled bacon. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and top each serving with extra green onions, bacon and cheddar cheese. You can also top with additional sour cream, although we skipped this.

Fall Recipe Challenge: Maple Syrup Pancake Muffins

Oh my goodness, these muffins were delicious! Perfect way to start the morning! These were definitely a 4/5 star recipe and have been added to the list of our favorites. I'm planning on making a second batch this weekend since we've already cleaned up the first!




Maple Syrup Pancake Muffins

7 T butter
1/3 C whole milk (I used rice milk)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 T pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
3/4 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

Glaze:
3/4 C pure maple syrup
1 T lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin pan with liners.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Keep an eye on the butter. Melt and cook down the butter until little brown bits appear in the pan. The crackling will subside and butter will begin to brown fairly quickly after that. Keep a close eye. Remove from heat.

Whisk milk, egg, yolk, maple syrup and vanilla until combined. Add the brown butter and stir to combine.

Whisk together lour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Add milk and butter mixture all at once and stir gently to combine.

Divide the batter among muffin cups evenly and bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes.

While the muffins are baking, make the maple glaze. In a small saucepan, simmer maple syrup and lemon juice, stirring occasionally, until reduced to a thick (thicker than maple syrup) syrup. This will take about 15-20 minutes over a low flame.

Remove from heat and wait for the muffins to finish baking. When muffins are out of the oven and cool enough to handle, poke a few holes in the muffin top with a toothpick and dip each muffin top in the maple glaze. After dipping all 12 muffins, start with the first muffin you dipped and dip each muffin again.

Eat and enjoy!

Fall Recipe Challenge: Fiesta Black Bean Soup

I've always thought of home made soups as a long process, a dinner good for long cold drizzly weekends where there are hours for simmering time. Let's just say with this recipe, I was way off. While you may need hours for some recipes, that's definitely not the case here. It took about half an hour to get this soup on the table and it was delicious! This recipe got a 4 out of 5 stars and Hubs is already requesting it again! I highly recommend it!



Fiesta Black Bean Soup

1 T olive oil
6 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3/4 C diced celery (2 ribs)
3/4 C diced carrots (2 med carrots)
1 C diced onions (1 med onion)
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can green chilies (3.5 oz)
2 cans chicken broth (28 ounces)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1 bay leaf
1 lime

Optional toppings: sour cream, tortilla chips, sharp grated cheddar, chopped cilantro...

Heat a large stock pot on medium-high heat on the stove-top. When pan is warm, add olive oil. Add carrots, celery onion, garlic and saute 4-5 minutes.

Add in black beans, chilies, and chicken broth. Stir to combine and then add the salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, oregano and bay leaf.

Simmer uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until carrots are tender.

Remove from heat. Remove bay leaf from soup.

Place soup in blender (I used my immersion blender at this point and blended right in the pot). If using a blender, place the lid on the blender but remove the stopper on the lid so the heat can escape. Place a paper bowl over the hole to avoid splatters.

Puree sop until completely smooth. Squeeze the juice of one lime in and continue blending until smooth.

Ladle into bowls and cover with desired toppings. We tried cheddar and tortilla chips and cilantro!

Friday Feature: Cable

Happy Friday! Yay, it's finally here! I'm leaving work early today for an appointment so the weekend is just about to start for me. In the meantime, on to Friday's post!

Fall is peaking here right now and the colors are enough to take your breath away. Last year we had some freak weather that left us with a very short fall and I barely got a glance of the changing colors before everything was brown and on the ground. This year, we seem to have peaked early and it just keeps coming in glorious waves! I wish I could post pictures but its hard to balance the camera while driving (hah!) and most of my color enjoyment comes while commuting the hour plus each way to work...I leave in the morning when it's barely light out and by the time I get back the light is already fading! Maybe one of these weekends I can grab some pics!

I've put up all the fall decorations we have, which isn't much, just a few leftover items from our fall wedding that I kept along with the addition of a few pumpkins and gourds. I would love to pick up a few more items but Hubs and I haven't had the time to hit up a Hobby Lobby, Michaels or JoAnnes yet so I've been making do.

One of the items I really really want to get for the fall and winter is a creamy white cable knit throw for the couch and leather chair. I just think it looks so cozy and warm and inviting. Perfect for curling up under with the Hubs and watching movies! Below are a few of the options that I've found:





I'm leaning towards option #3. The first option is from Bloomingdale's and the last two are from Pottery Barn. Which one is your alls favorite? Any one seen any additional options that I should consider? Ultimately I don't want to spend a ton of money but it has to be cozy!

Don't forget to enter the $100 shopbop giveaway!

TGIF errr I mean TGIT!

I woke up this morning convinced it was Friday. I'm sure you can imagine my disappointment when I realized it was, in fact, only Thursday! *sigh* Hubs had a hockey game Tuesday night that had us out really late after having gotten up really early that morning to fill orders before leaving for work so I was exhausted yesterday and ran on adrenaline the whole day.

Unfortunately that left the adrenaline a bit depleted today. I'm counting the hours until the day is done!

Speaking of hockey, I've felt like I've been in the midst of an outrageous reality tv show lately. Do you ever get that feeling? I get it a lot at work too, feel like I should film it for an episode of the Office! There has been a lot of outrageous gossip and general ridiculousness going on with the hockey team (none of it bad, just boys beings absolute boys) and since I'm the "team manager" aka, team mom, they keep putting me right smack dab in the middle of it. Between guys being kicked out during games for excessive penalties, joining me in the stands and informing me all the quirks of teammates, to hilarious relationship hijinks...pregnancy, weird afflictions, new relationships, relationship advice, I keep waiting for the cameras to pop up and be like, just kidding! Really I should start writing them down!

Anyway, back on track here. The week's been such a busy one that Hubs and I are really looking forward to this evening, its felt like weeks since we've had a day at home to relax and really, it's only been three days! Time moves swiftly but also seems to stretch on for a long time, it must be the busyness. I look at everything we've done this week and I'm convinced that things that occurred on Monday actually occurred last Monday because it seems so long ago and it was only three days ago! Ahh!

Hubs and I have big plans for tonight, a nice cardio workout, home cooked dinner (thinking creamy baked potato soup), movies/tv and bed. We've both really been enjoying renting tv seasons from the library.

Currently we are working our way through season 1 of Mad Men, season 1 of Friday Night Lights and season 1 of Glee. We've also been borrowing a lot of movies from there that we've never gotten around to seeing....Dear John, Inviticus, Couples Retreat and When in Rome to name a few. It's been nice to have unlimited access for free weekly borrowings, plus they can be renewed online unless someone has requested it behind you! Sure can't beat free...

We've been meaning to pick up a number of tv seasons and movies to add to our collection but we're in no rush with this great resource just a few minutes from the house!

I have really been working my way through the Christmas shopping, not counting Hubs, I have four people plus parents left! And two of those people, I know what we're going to get for them, I'm just keeping my eye out for a deal. I feel like it's getting done so early this year but it's thrilling to know that our bank accounts won't be getting hit quite so massively for this at the end of the year. It's bad enough when Christmas is over and you start taking decorations down, that's enough to make me depressed, but realizing that entire paychecks are footing the Christmas bill always make the depression dramatically worse!

My ebates total is up to $117 you guys, can you believe it!?!? Plus I'm still waiting on three more credits from stores that are a bit slower to pony up the cash. This whole process is absolutely thrilling to me!! I am still kicking myself for not joining years ago! I've been shopping online since I was like 15! It's like choosing to shop from the full price rack when the sale rack of the exact same goods at a lesser price are sitting right next to you!

On that note, make sure you've entered yourself into my $100 shopbop giveaway! It ends on Sunday!

Tory Burch Discount

A lot of you have been mentioning that you have been dying for a pair of Tory Burch Revas in my Shopbop giveaway post so I thought I'd mention the following deal to you'll in case you are still trying to find a pair on sale.






Saks is currently running their friends and family discount and is offering 20% off on most orders. The discount code I used is friend6 (though it looks like on their site it has changed to friend7) Tory Burch and the Hunter brand are both included in the promotion and Hubs was able to score shoes for 20% off plus free shipping for me for our anniversary and Christmas!




Also, if you click over to the site through ebates, you get another 2.5% cash back plus a $5 bonus just for signing up an account through the following link here (you have to sign up through the link or you don't get the bonus $5). In total you will end up saving around $50 off a pair of TB revas which is an excellent deal if you are a fan of her shoes! Just thought I'd share!

Anniversary Weekend

Our weekend was incredibly relaxing, I consider it a partial do-over for the over-packed birthday weekend I experienced a few weekends back. I can't believe we're already celebrating two years, and then of course at the same time, Hubs and I agreed we can't believe it's only been two years! Not that it's been miserable but just because we have done and gone through SO MUCH that parts of it have seemed rather long! :)

The weekend was spent lounging, cooking and enjoying the fall weather. Friday night we enjoyed a yummy dinner of fresh made paninis while settling down to Meet the Robinsons and Leap Year, both cute, both thoroughly enjoyable.

Saturday we slept in until 11, it was glorious! Hubs and I both agreed that we need to that more often, as much as possible in fact, since I'm sure that will be non-existent once we have kiddos.

We then spent the morning opening presents in bed and trying them on. Hubs got me a glorious pair of Tory Burch Revas, my very first pair! I already wore them today! He also got me a new North Face jacket and some Under Armour (he didn't know about the Under Armour, hah! It was a few tag-alongs that I had bought with HIS anniversary present to try on and he decided I should keep them!) I got Hubs a whole huge box of Under Armour gear to add to his ever-growing collection. We are BIG Under Armour fans in this house, the quality really can't be topped, plus we get to support a local business! Win win! Any time Under Armour wants me to review their stuff or consult on new products, I'm ready!

Anyway, 2nd anniversary is cotton so I managed to find some Under Armour that had some cotton in it while still getting him his dream wardrobe and Hubs covered cotton with the jacket.

It was such fun! Really, I'm pretty lucky to have my birthday, anniversary and Christmas pretty much back to back to back (plus Valentines day not too long after!). I love me some presents (my love language) and Hubs always does such a great job of spoiling me.

The remainder of the day was spent going down to the Italian grocery store again to spend our last groupons and stock up on some more panini supplies and square dancing in the evening!

When we got married, we threw a huge square dancing party after our rehearsal dinner and invited nearly the entire guest list. While it initially sounded hokey, it ended up being SO much fun and it was agreed that it would be a wedding tradition for the rest of my siblings. My dad and sister ended up having to stop talking that night because they were going hoarse from all the hysterical laughter and were supposed to sing the next morning. It was the perfect way to spend the night before we were getting married. Really couldn't have asked for a better way to start our marriage!

Anyway, what could be more perfect than going square dancing again for our second anniversary! My siblings homeschool academy was having a fundraiser: dinner and square dancing, so Hubs and I went and got our workout in for the night and had a blast doing it. The Virginia Reel is my favorite!

Sunday was spent lounging, watching the football game, cooking/baking and picking up several cases of apples from our neighbors orchard (they had an overstock and gifted us enough apples to make cases and cases of applesauce, can.not.wait.)! I got a burst of energy in the afternoon and whipped up some black bean soup and maple pancake muffins. Both were delicious and I will be posting the recipes and pictures later this week for the recipe challenge!

And that's it! It was so tough to go back to work this morning, weekends like this past weekend are my favorite, I'm hoping we'll have a few more before the winter hits! How was everyone else's weekends?

Don't forget to enter the $100 Shopbop giftcard giveaway on my blog! You only have to give an email if you win!

Fall Recipe Challenge Week 1 Recap

The Fall Recipe challenge is off to a great start! Four down, 48 more to go! This week's plan includes Creamy Baked Potato soup, Candy Corn Rice Krispy bars, some sort of bread and something with maple or pumpkin, I haven't quite made up my mind yet on those last two.

I've include a mclinky thing below, feel free to link up recipes that you've done over the past week or so or throughout the upcoming week! I will probably post the majority of my recipes over the weekend and then each Sunday I will try and update with a recipe recap and a new link up for all of your recipes.



Can't wait to see what everyone has been making!

Fall Recipe Challenge: Marbled Stuffed Potatoes

I was kind of disappointed in the original version of this recipe, Hubs said they were delicious but personally, I'd rate the original 2 out of 5 stars. However, there was such great potential here that I reworked the recipe and I think the adjusted version is a million times better, I'd give it 4 out of 5 starts. In the original, I felt the sour cream flavor dominated the recipe too much and there wasn't enough sweet potato for my liking. Also, I love garlic and thought that roasted garlic was the perfect addition for this recipe, it added a delicious flavor! Below, I have listed the original recipe and made a note of my changes.

Marbled Stuffed Potatoes
4 large potatoes (I used baking potatoes)
1 large sweet potato (in the reworked version, I doubled this and did 2 large)
1/4 C sour cream (the sour cream flavor was too dominate in my opinion so for the rework I subbed low fat plain yogurt. Much healthier and added the hint of creaminess needed)
3 T butter, cut into pieces and softened (recipe called for unsalted but I used salted)
2 scallions, thinly sliced
3/4 C shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (I omitted this)
1 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
Roasted garlic (my addition)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place all the potatoes directly on the oven rack and bake 30 minutes. Pierce each potatoes a few times with a fork and continue to bake until tender 15-25 more minutes. Or just heat in the microwave until cooked, this method is actually my preference as it doesn't dry out the potatoes as much and it takes MUCH less time. I think my potatoes took 15 minutes to cook maybe?

Peel the sweet potato or just cut the potato in half and scoop out the flesh into a bowl, which ever is easier. I went with method #2. Mash it lightly with a fork until almost smooth. Trim a thin slice of the top of the baking potatoes, cutting lengthwise. Scoop most of the flesh into another bowl, leaving the shells intact. Add the sour cream/low fat plain yogurt and butter into bowl and mash with a fork. Stir in the scallions, 1/2 cup cheese, 1 1/4 tsp salt and pepper to taste. You can also add the nutmeg here but in the reworked version I opted for a few spoonfuls from a jar of roasted garlic I have from Williams Sonoma, you could also make your own. Gently fold in the sweet potato.

Brush the potato skins with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Generously fill with the marbled potato mixture and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup cheese.

Reduce oven temperature to 375. Place the stuffed potatoes on a baking sheet and bake until the cheese melts, 25-30 minutes. I actually opted to bake these in my toaster oven instead and they only needed 15 minutes before the tops were nicely browned, the potato was heated through and the cheese was bubbling, so just be mindful of the cooking time and keep an eye on them.




Neither photo is great but the majority of my cooking has been happening rather late at night so you decide whether it's better with or without the flash. :)

Fall Recipe Challenge: Chicken Chimichangas

Mmmm are these good! This is a 5 out of 5 star recipe and one that will definitely be entering the heavy rotation in our house! I took these for lunch two days in a row and was so sad when the leftovers were gone. Better still, I came up with a recipe that cut the original time from an hour to under 30 minutes. Perfect for the week nights!

Chicken Chimichangas, cheater's version

1 C (1 large) chopped onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 T oil
3 C shredded, cooked chicken
2 (8 oz) cans Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
1/2 C salsa, plus extra for topping
2 C shredded cheddar cheese
Opt. Sour Cream

Heat over to 350 degrees. Grease large cookie sheet. In large skillet, saute onion and garlic in oil until onion is tender. Add chicken; cook over low heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Separate dough into 8 rectangles (four from each can) Firmly press perforations between the two triangles to seal. Spread 2 T of the salsa on each rectangle to within 1/2 inch of edges. Stir 1 cup of the cheese into chicken mixture. Spoon heaping 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture on one-half of each rectangle. Starting at shorter side topped with chicken, roll up; pinch ends to seal. Place seam side down on prepared cookie sheet (or you can just assemble right on the cookie sheet, that's what I did). Bake at 350 for 16-21 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, top each with about 2 T of remaining cheese. Return to oven, bake an additional 1-2 minuets or until cheese is melted. Sever with sour cream and additional salsa.

Fall Recipe Challenge: Cauliflower Sausage Spaghetti

Recipe #2 was a lovely success! Hubs and I tremendously enjoyed the dish and decided it would definitely be something we would make again in the future. We rated it at 3.5 stars out of five but with that being said, I should clarify that we probably count on one hand the number of recipes we consider 5s and most of our favorites we consider somewhere in the 4 star range.

Perhaps we are too tough?

Anyway, this was delicious and I whole-heartily recommend it! It's essentially an all-in-one dinner, veggies, protein, carbs and dairy all mixed together. The original recipe source was from a food network magazine but I changed a number of things around so I will list the recipe how we made it below. For the original, check out the fall 2010 food network magazine.


Cauliflower Sausage Spaghetti

1 lb. Spaghetti
3 T olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 lb smokey cheddar turkey sausage, casings removed
10 cloves garlic, sliced
1 small head cauliflower, broken/chopped into very small florets
1 bunch scallions, chopped
grated Parmesan & cheddar sprinkled on top
kosher salt

Start by bringing a large pot of salted water to a boil. add the spaghetti and cook as label directs. Reserve 2 cups cooking water, then drain.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. crumble the sausage into the skillet and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until lightly browned and no longer pink, 4-5 minutes.

Clear a space in the pan, add the garlic and cook until just golden, 2-3 minutes.

Add the cauliflower and cook until the edges are browned, about 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of the reserved cooking water, cover and reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the cauliflower is tender, about 8 more minutes. Uncover and boil over high heat until the liquid is almost evaporated, about 2 more minutes.

Add the spaghetti to the skillet along with the scallions. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt. Toss for a minute or two to wilt the scallions and coat the pasta with the sauce, adding up to 1 cup of cooking water, as needed, to loosen. Remove from the heat, sprinkle with the cheese and toss. divide among shallow bowls and drizzle with more olive oil, if desired.

It was scrumptious and the reheated leftovers were delicious later in the week!

Friday Feature: Barbie Shoes

I may have gasped when I first saw these shoes. And I may have gotten all *grabby hands* .2 seconds after the first glance.



I've never owned a pair of pink shoes in my life but that's about to change.

QVC is doing their 17th annual FFANY Shoes on Sale, a breast cancer benefit, tonight from 7-10 and this is one of the many items that will be available. The brand is Fergie, the shoe is called Hope and from what I've heard, it was specially designed for this event!

Tonight it is available at half the retail price and I'm really hoping I can snag a pair! Tell me, what kind of outfit would you rock with these shoes?

Giveaway & Designer Spotlight: Shopbop & Tory Burch

I've got an awesome opportunity for you guys today, one that I'm quite jealous of! :)

One of my favorite online retailers, Shopbop, is offering up a $100 giftcard to one of you!

You may remember how I was lusting after a certain pair of Tory Burch flats last year around this time, well, this year the reva lizzard flats have me crossing my fingers they'll make their way to my door step!


Shopbop also has an excellent selection of jeggings, which is such a big trend again this year, personally I'm loving this 7 for all mankind pair:


Cropped jeans are another trend I've been strongly considering this fall, these Paige jeans are my favorites and will be making their way on to my Christmas list:


And for all your pregnant ladies out there, they have an excellent selection of maternity items! I know many of us don't want to spend a lot of money on clothing that we are going to wear for a limited time, but what if you could pick out something really nice for free??? You can fan shopboop on facebook to stay up to date on their sales, they just had a lovely promotion of 20% off! Last year I was able to get a lovely cashmere sweater 50% off with free shipping!

What would you spend the $100 on?

To enter:
Leave a comment on this post, letting me know what you would pick if you won!

The giveaway is open to US (except Pennsylvania-sorry that's the sponsors requirement) & International Readers. The giftcard will be emailed to the winner at the end of the contest, so no worries about giving out your mailing address!

For additional entries:
1. Follow my blog by clicking that little follow button up there towards the top right side of the page and let me know your a follower. (if you are already a follower, just leave an additional comment letting me know)

2. Tweet about the giveaway and include a link to this post.

3. Blog the giveaway with a link to this post.

That's four possible ways to enter but please leave a separate comment for each entry so it's easier to tally!

The giveaway will be open until October 24th at midnight, good luck!

Christmas Shopping

Well, it's official folks. The Christmas shopping is underway. I know it's way too early to even be mentioning Christmas but..I'm kinda thinking I want to actually enjoy my Christmas this year and maybe even throw a party and have time to decorate, rather than running around shopping.

With my large family, plus a few extended family members and friends plus Hubs family plus Hubs and my own gift exchange, it amounts to a whole lot of presents. Every year we end up budgeting well over $1000 between all the gifts for everyone else and the gifts we give each other. Seem excessive? It always feels like it is...

The fact is, when you break it down, it comes out to be around $50 bucks a person for family and about half that for close friends...which doesn't buy too much if you're trying to avoid trinkets and get what they actually need/want (we're not even talking video games here, we're talking slippers, clothes and other quality stuff).

In my family, Christmas has always been where you got a lot of your needs met. You need a new coat and don't have one that fits to get you through the winter? Well, you hoped Christmas would come through for you, my family definitely never had the budget to even go out to the thrift store and get a nice one unless there was a dire need. There might be a few "fun" gifts from my parents if there weren't too many "needs" for the child that year, but toys and video games came from my grandparents, if you got them at all.

Hubs and I try to always strike a balance between meeting the needs and getting them something nice that maybe my parents wouldn't get them (but still something my parents would approve of). For example, if they need slippers, we'll get them a nice pair of LLBean slippers, rather than the cheaper ones that fall apart in a year from Kohls. Or if one of them has been dying for a Ravens jersey or Red Sox shirt, we might try and search around to find a good deal on that.

While we budget around $50 per person, I always try to capitalize on sales and doubled-up discounts so that while the original cost might have been around $50, I'll end up paying much less than that. If I get a really good deal on it (last year I scored my sister a pair of shoes for $3), I'll buy the recipient some extras to at least get in the $30 range, but most of the time, it just gives us extra cushion in the budget and hopefully more money back in savings at the end of the year/holiday.

Last year my credit card also had a really really good reward points program if I clicked through their site (sort of like ebates). I was able to get a ton of bonus points that could be turned in for cash. We ended up getting back well over $300 of what we spent on Christmas gifts, which was fantastic! The rewards program isn't as good this year, so this year I'm making the switch over to ebates. I know ebates has been talked about all over the Internet, I've known about it for years, but up to this point just let my account sit dormant. After using it a bit and seeing the ease, I highly highly recommend it!

My goal for this year is to do even better than last year. So many retailers have been offering such awesome promotions this year, I've really been trying to keep an eye out for the really good ones. Here are a few amazing promotions that I've been able to take advantage of:

1. Gap has routinely been offering 25-40% off all items (including sale), if you stack that online with the current 8% cash back from ebates, you're looking at close to 50%off. I took advantage of a 30% off promo with an 8% cash back during no tax weekend here (6% for us) so that was somewhere in the ball park of 42% off. I also bought the gap groupon for the $50 giftcard for $25, so that was an instant 50% off. I highly recommend their flannel shirts, jean leggings, blazers and mittens. I bought several of their men's flannel shirts for myself and Hubs for part of our anniversary gift to ourselves and they are the best flannel shirts I've found anywhere! And we checked everywhere under the sun.

2. Under Armour sent me a survey and offered me a $15 giftcard for taking it (no strings attached), this combined with 6% cashback (ebates) and free shipping offered a nice 36% discount on another gift for Christmas.

3. Piperlime has been offering some fantastic promos lately, up to 25% off in fact! Today they are offering 20% off with code "style20" and if you go through ebates it's double cash back at 8%! I definitely took advantage of this deal as soon as I saw it!

4. JCrew sent me a 25% off card in the mail, I waited until several in-store promotions were going on (30% off sweaters, $10 off cords, $10 off sherpa hoodies) and was able to stack the promotions on top of each other for sizable discounts on several items. Currently they are running a 20% off promo with code "shopfall"!

5. The Limited has been running constant promos and I've really been loving the brand refreshing they've done. Right now they offering 30% off select items, plus 20% off your whole order (code "321") plus 2.5% cash back from ebates.

6. Lands End (Canvas) has been offering near constant promos of up to 40% off, this combined with free shipping, 6% cash back from ebates and no tax weekend got me close to a 50% discount on a large order of basics for Hubs.

7. Williams Sonoma sent me a survey and offered up a $20 giftcard for ten minutes of my time. I plan to spend a few more dollars and pick up a nice gift for someone with this.

8. Endless is offering 20% off boots, 25% off flats plus 7.5% cash back.

9. And I've scored three Anthropologie items at more than 60% off for two of my sisters.

I'm pretty pleased with how quickly I've been able to cross several individuals off my list, I even have tubs that I've started filling to tuck away with gifts until Christmas. I am determined to enjoy Christmas this year you guys! I'm especially looking forward to the baking, I think it's one of my favorite family traditions!

Has anyone else started their Christmas shopping? Any great gift ideas you'd care to share? I'm always looking for new ideas! And for any of you who need a little help in the shopping department, stay tuned because tomorrow, I have a fantastic giveaway to help jump start your holiday shopping!

Edited to add: Some of you have asked about signing up, if you haven't already signed up, I'd love it if you used my referral link to Ebates, right now, if you go through a referral link, you get a bonus $5 just for signing up!

Foxes & Ponies

I've come to the conclusion I know nothing of fashion:



Or maybe I should say, I don't want to know anything about fashion. If this is "in", I'll take what's out please. The fox can be yours for a mere $238 at anthropologie. I see items like this and ask myself how it is that half of my closet comes from the same store...



$328 my friends...there are just no words...

Weekend Recap

Our weekend was crazy busy this past weekend. Funny, it started empty and then, I blinked and it was filled! I didn't even get a chance to get my haircut like I'd hoped!

Our small group flip-flopped dates at the last minute, switching from this coming Friday to last Friday, so Friday evening I just barely squeezed in a run (2ish miles I believe) before we headed out for some wonderful fellowship.

The weekend was gloriously kicked off with some serious sleeping in and reading cooking magazines and planning out the weeks menu in bed. I think I need to make this a Saturday morning tradition!

Side tangent: I'm so excited for the fall recipe challenge, I think it's going to be just the kick in the pants I need! I've got so many recipes picked out already! Creamy potato soup, cauliflower sausage spaghetti, marbled potatoes, carmel apple cake, pumpkin spice cookies, maple pancake muffins, cheesy garlic bread swirls, black bean soup, stuffed pizza rolls, maple apple sausage, chicken chimichangas. garlic roasted asparagus, the list goes on and on! At the end of each week (probably over the weekend), I will post the recipes and a recap that includes a mclinky so that any of you who want to join in can link up your own recipes! The first recipe (apple cider donuts) is posted below!

Ok, back to the weekend! Once we were up, it felt like it was go go go for the rest of the day. Hubs had to work, so he worked from home in the morning while I tidied (read: major cleaning and organization). Our house has been feeling like a pig sty. So messy and dirty and unorganized...it's really been grating on my nerves so it was nice to have some time to work on it. Hubs was kind enough to tackle the bathroom and the kitchen dishes for me once he was done work and I even managed to finally get some fall decorations up! I definitely need a bit more time to get the whole house finished up and we also still haven't packed up all our summer clothes yet and gotten out all the fall goodies. It's definitely cold enough around here to do it! I'm sure that will be a project we try and tackle this week. It's even been chilly enough out to break out the flannel sheets! We are still holding firm in our refusal to turn on the heat, I'm curious to see how long we'll last! At work this morning, I'm dressed in a flannel shirt, fur lined mocs and jeans...yes, it's definitely fall out folks! Love it! :)

We have some expiring groupons to our favorite Italian grocery store that's all the way down in the city, it's a good hour commute each for us from us, so it can be tough to get down there during the week. Saturday afternoon we took a little field trip down there to stock up on fresh bread, cheeses, smoked turkey, pasta, olive oil, wine and yummy desserts. The rainbow cookies are my favorite!

We dashed back home, dropped the stuff in the fridge, then headed out to squeeze a quick trip to the local orchard to grab pumpkins, gourds, mums and homemade ice-cream before heading over to church. Then on the way home from church it was more grocery shopping, eggs were 79 cents a dozen and pasta was 69 cents a box! To say I stocked up would be an understatement! :) We didn't get home until 9:30ish Saturday night and we were starving! We ended up enjoying a late dinner of paninis while watching some mad men episodes I got from the library. I'm so excited that Hubs is enjoying this show with me! He's even a little obsessed! :) I love it.

Sunday, we took some friends up to the National Apple Festival that takes place in PA every year. We had lots of fun sampling just about every imaginable thing you can do with apples. Lots of yummy syrups, flapjacks, fried apples, apple slices with carmel, candied apples, apple daiquiris, cider, apple crisp, apple pie, apple ice cream, etc. They also had your typical fair food, fried mushrooms, cheesy curly fries (they were GOOD!), bison burgers, chicken fried steak, scrapple, etc.

Sadly, I realized after we had already left that my camera was sitting at home on the counter. I kicked myself all day because our friends have a five month old daughter that is the cuuuuutest thing and there were quite a number of awesome attractions I would have loved to share with you guys!

Have any of you all ever seen tractor square dancing? If you haven't, I encourage you to youtube it, it's incredible! We enjoyed a great show in the afternoon and decided the price of admission was worth it for the show alone!

There were lots of country singers, craft barns, petting zoo attractions and even a steel band! They had a highschool steel band dressed in Hawaiian shirts that were quite good, hilariously they fit right in!

We enjoyed a tasty dinner out at Buffalo Wild Wings followed by a late night hockey game for Hubs. I didn't get to see my bed until after midnight and boy did it make getting up this morning hard. I'm hoping for a yummy dinner, tv watching and early to bed tonight!

Fall Recipe Challenge #1: Apple Cider Donuts

I love a good apple cider donut in the fall. Hubs and I always get a couple when we go apple picking and there is something about a good hot homemade apple cider donut that just says "fall is here"! I've really been wanting to try my hand at making them myself but up until recently, I lacked the deep fryer to cook them. Hubs was kind enough to grab me one for my birthday and I spent the following weekend trying my hand at the recipe below.

Apple Cider Donuts
1 C apple cider
3 1/2 C all purpose flour (you'll need a great deal more for your work surface, the dough is super sticky)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 rounded tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 rounded tsp ground nutmeg
4 T (2 ounces) butter, at room temperature
1 C granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 C buttermilk (I used rice milk)
Vegetable oil or shortening for frying

To make the donuts:
Reduce the apple cider in a saucepan over medium or medium-low heat, to about 1/4 cup, this took my stove about an hour, I believe the recipe said it would take only 20-30 minutes.. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, while the apple cider is making your house smell delicious, combine the flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg in a bowl and set aside.
Using an electric mixer on medium speed (I used the paddle attachment) beat the butter and granulated sugar until the mixture is smooth. This is where it’s important to have the butter at room temperature in order to get a nice creamy texture. Add the eggs one at a time and continue to beat until the eggs are well combined. You may need to use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Reduce the speed down to low and slowly pour in the reduced apple cider followed by the buttermilk, mixing until just combined. Next add the flour mixture and mix until the dough just comes together, you don’t want to overmix.

Line two baking sheets with wax paper and cover them generously with flour, generous is key here. The dough will be very sticky and the dough will stick to the pan in any crevice that’s not covered in flour. It make it quite difficult to remove the donuts in their cut out shape, trust me. Turn the dough onto one of the sheets and generously sprinkle the top with flour. Flatten the dough with your hands until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Use more flour if the dough is still wet. Transfer the dough to the freezer until it is slightly hardened, about 20 minutes. Once you pull the dough out of the freezer, immediately start cutting out your donuts using either a donut cutter (William Sonoma has one available for $6) or use to different round cutters of various sizes to get the donut shape you want. It’s important that the dough doesn’t sit out too long from the freezer as it will start to get sticky again.. Place the cut donuts and donut holes onto the second sheet pan. Refrigerate for about 20 to 30 minutes. You can also reroll the scraps or eat the remaining dough (I may or may not have done both).

Frying the donuts:
Add enough oil or shortening to the fryer (a deep-sided pan would work just as well) to have a depth of about 3 inches, you need enough depth to be able to flip your donuts midway through. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and heat the oil over medium heat until the oil reaches 350°F*. Peanut oil or vegetable shortening work the best. I read somewhere that shortening is often the preferred method because it produces a less greasy donut (something to do with the oil being a solid at room temperature), so I tried that our first (first time I've ever used it in fact) and it did make a very nice non-greasy donut.

Once the oil has reached the right temperature, carefully add a few doughnuts to the oil, don’t overcrowd the pan or the donuts will stick to each other. Fry until golden brown, this was about 60-70 seconds for me but you’ll be able to tell when they look like they need to be flipped. Flip the donuts over and fry the other side, this will only take about half the time, 30-45 seconds so watch carefully. Using a long metal fork or slotted spoon, scoop each donut out, hold above the pan to drain off any extra oil and then place on a plate layered with several paper towels.

Toppings:
For my first round of donuts, I tried three different toppings: Apple glaze, maple glaze and cinnamon sugar. The maple was our favorite but I’ll include all three below.

Cinnamon Sugar:
Dip the top of the warm donuts into cinnamon sugar mixture (1 cup sugar, 2 T cinnamon) and serve immediately.

Apple Glaze:
Drizzle the top of the warm donuts with a mixture of 1 cup powdered sugar & 2 T apple cider.

Maple Glaze:
Drizzle the top of the warm donuts with a mixture of 1 cup powdered sugar, a few drops of maple extra and 2 T pure maple syrup. I just continued adding the maple flavor until I had the right intensity I was looking for.

I'm sorry I have no pictures of the steps, I definitely plan to make these again though and I will try to get hubs to take some photos while I make them (my hands were too messy or occupied to be able to wield a camera).


Any questions, just let me know, these were delicious!

Friday Feature: Warmth

Thank you all for your sweet comments yesterday! I have always had a great deal of respect for my mom but it was wonderful to hear all of your amazing compliments! I definitely think she's pretty special! :) We still have been unable to find out any information about the woman but I'll post an update when and if we do!

Moving on to today's post, I thought it would be nice to have a simple light-hearted post with pictures...no cringing or stomach churning necessary (unless you have strong opinions on fashion). I'm sure that many of you have seen pictures of Rachel Zoe traipsing about in a fur vest and given her popularity, is it any surprise that fur is so "in" this season?

I've never been an overly huge fan of fur, particularly the real stuff. My aunt worked in russia for a number of years and she used to bring back hats, gloves, scarves, vests, etc..either trimmed in fur or completely made of fur and let's just say there is nothing quite like the experience of having dogs attack you because they think you are actually a rabbit/wolf/fox. Yes the fur is unbelievable soft and comfortable but the smell can be a bit much at times so in the end, it's a trend that if I were to embrace, it would definitely be faux.

I wasn't even sure if I was even a faux kinda girl...my style tends to be more classic and girly so I've resisted as the trend has popped up here and there over the years. That being said, last year I fell in love with a faux fur jacket made by Sanctuary but literally a momentary deliberation led to the jacket being sold right out of my cart when I was checking out...this was before the time of Joyfolie shoe craze and Anthropologie sale pop-backs and I was unexperienced with how fast paced and intense shopping can be...never fear y'all, I have learned my lesson! Now I only shop at places where I can click without fear and return with ease if the item is horrible!

You can imagine my suprise and delight when I discovered the jacket was back this year!


I think it looks so soft and comfortable, perfect for cuddling up in at the hockey rink!

Piperlime had a 25% off sale a few weeks back and I ordered a couple different vests to try, a few of them are still backordered and I've yet to actually see them in person, but I'm excited to try them on!






Don't they look cozy? My hope is just to be able to throw one over jeans and a tee on the weekend and have it look a little nicer than a puffy vest but still as warm and comfy! Anyone else trying out the fur trend this fall?

Where is Humanity?

So I had a lovely little birthday re-cap post scheduled for today and than an incident yesterday has left me rather shaken, so rather than posting that post, I'd like to share a little story with you. If you are easily moved to tears, might want to have a kleenex box close at hand.

Yesterday morning, in the peak of rush hour, my mom was greeting kids as they were being dropped off at the homeschool academy where she is the co-administrator. The academy is located at a church that is situated on a decent sized plot of land on the top of a hill overlooking a main thorough-fare. As kids were trooping in, my mom heard a very loud crash and the crunching sound of metal. Running over to look down the hill, she saw a multiple car pile-up. A man, not watching where he was going, crashed full speed (60-65+) into a stopped car, pushing that car into another car and crumpling the middle car like an accordion.

Traffic stalled to a halt, cars were lined back for miles on both sides and in the middle of all this there was a middle-aged woman from the middle car, leaning out of the car crying and calling for help. And not. one. single. person. did. anything.

My mom ran down the hill, calling behind her for another mom to call 911. She got to the woman and the woman begged her to get her out of the car, she was in incredibly amounts of pain. Now, I know some of you might say that the most important thing would have been for her to lie still in order to not risk further injury and possible paralysis but the woman, even though she was wearing her seat belt, was thrown to the passenger side of the car, sprawled across the car with her leg sticking out where the windshield used to be and had already had been moving/trying to move on her own. My mom tried to lift her from the car but couldn't grab ahold of anything to get her out. She kept looking up and scanning the cars and still no one else did anything!

Finally, another mom made it down from the hill from the academy and they were both able to lift the woman from the car and lay her on the ground, though they still struggled to even do that. The woman had her foot on the brake when she was hit and the impact was so severe that her foot was forced to fold sideways and snap off, resulting in the worse compound fracture my mom had ever seen. The woman's artery was pinched at the end of her leg (where her foot should have been but no longer resided) but she was bleeding badly from her knee and other areas. At this point, my mom was now covered in this woman's blood and was trying to help her and still no one from any of the cars offered assistance!

As my mom got to this part of the story, I was in tears. I could hear the raw emotion and exhaustion in my mom's voice as she was telling me that she felt like she couldn't do anything for this poor woman. Imagining my mom or a family member or even myself, going through a situation like this and being in so much pain and so scared and not having a single person there to offer comfort or assistance. We develop a false sense of security sometimes with our cell phones, thinking if something bad happens, we can call for help. The reality of the situation is, most times in a crash, the impact throws the cell phone across the car, often times even throwing it from the vehicle! Other times the impact has destroyed it, this is why services like On Star have been become so favored.

Getting back to the story, after awhile, the man in the back car got out of his car, shaken and only concerned about his passenger in his car who was also shaken but uninjured. Even though, his carelessness had just caused severe damage to this woman's body, he offered up no concern or assistance!

The man in the front car also eventually emerged shaken, uninjured, admitting he was a cop to my mom but still offered no assistance to the woman!

There were more than 50 people in other cars around the accident and no one ever emerged from their cars to offer help.

A policeman showed up but once he saw the woman was breathing and able to utter a few words, he busied himself with checking out the damage to the vehicles.

What the heck is wrong with this picture?????

We have multiple policeman and able-bodied people on the scene and my mother had to crawl through the broken glass, cutting her hands badly in the process, in order to retrieve the woman's cell phone and purse so that she could call her husband. The poor woman was unable to even get the words out to describe what happened, so my mother had to get on the phone to explain the details. The woman had been on the way to the hospital to see her grandmother who had just gotten out of surgery.

The woman was eventually medivactd (sp?) to shock trauma, my mom unfortunately didn't get her name in all the craziness so we have no idea how she is doing, if they were able to save the woman's foot or how bad internal bleeding and other injuries were.

The whole experience has just left me shaken and I wasn't even there. The fact that the woman could have been dying, surrounded by people and not a single person offered help... The deplorable state of this country's humanity depresses me. I do not understand these blinders that people are able to put on!

I remember in psych 101 discussing a case where a woman was horribly raped and killed in an apartment courtyard with more than 30 different witnesses and apartment tenants that did nothing...they all assumed someone else would call and take care of it.

I don't understand people's unwillingness to help. If I could safely do it, I would stop and pick up every person on the side of the road that's run out of gas or who's having car problems....I would give money to every homeless person if it would actually help them rather than possibly furthering addictions. I just don't get it....have we not learned anything from the story of the Good Samaritan???

*sigh* Normal happy posts with pictures will continue tomorrow guys...didn't think y'all would want photos accompanying this post!

Great Fall Recipe Challenge

My time in the kitchen lately has been so sporadic...some weeks I have plenty of time and we get seven gourmet meals plus yummy leftovers, and other weeks it's chicken patties, ravioli, pierogis and baked potatoes...

I love to cook and bake so I've been mulling over ways to self-motivate myself to cook more and try new things. Over the weekend, I decided I was going to take on a whole bunch of new recipes before the end of the year.

Enter the Great Fall Recipe Challenge. I'm challenging myself to try 4 new recipes each week and to make sure to keep myself in check and from cheating in the end and doing 20 the last week, I'm going to take a picture and post the recipes here for each one. That's 52 new recipes by the end of the year! I will include a running list with links each week as well as a link on the sidebar.

I'm not going to break it up in sub categories since I have no idea how many parties or what all we'll have going on but rest assured it will include a variety of main courses, breads, vegetables, desserts and appetizers! Other than that, my only rules for myself are that I can't have ever made the recipe before, they all have to be new.

Anyone else want to join in the challenge? You wouldn't have to do all 52, you could do one new recipe a week or even a new recipe a month! I am always in search of new yummy recipes so I would love to see what other people are cooking!

Or if you have a new recipe that you think sounds delicious and you haven't gotten around to trying it, leave a comment with the link or email me the recipe and I'll give it a try! I'm curious to see how deep I'll get into my cookbooks and recipe binders.

The apple cider donut recipe was my first recipe for the challenge and I must say it was a smashing success, for all of you who asked, I will post the recipe up here later tonight!

Fall Weekend

Wow, time just seems to fly and I am falling further and further behind!

You know it's fall though when you're feasting on apple cider donuts and your menu is full of homemade soups and breads!

Good ole Hubs brought home a cold last week, I valiantly fought it off but no more....had a blasted headache yesterday and today has brought full on congestion, sneezing and sore throat....booooooo!

Hubs and I had a very busy weekend but crazily enough, it felt pretty relaxed at the same time.

Friday evening I was feeling old, lethargic and flabby so I decided to go out for a run, the weather was gorgeous, my shuffle was loaded with a bunch of new songs and once I got past the first mile, my body settled into a rhythm. I ended up running a little more than a 5k distance of hills, to say I was pleased would be a major understatement! This was a BIG deal to me! I haven't run anything like that since I broke my back 5 years ago! I'm hoping I'll be able to continue the trend and do a few races before the end of the year. Oddly enough, the only thing that was sore the next couple of days was my heart and lungs. I expected the heart and lung pain but I thought I'd have at least some leg pain. I was kinda bummed about that, I like the muscle aches from a tough workout (sick, I know).

We had a married couples brunch Saturday morning, I made homemade biscuits (my favorite recipe) and home-frys. After the brunch, Hubs spent the day napping and watching tv while I ran out to the grocery store and stocked up for the week. Now that we've been getting our produce through the business my mom and I have been doing, our grocery bill has significantly dropped. This weeks groceries cost a mere $28 and that's for cooking a full seven nights of meals!

While Hubs watched Rudy (can you believe he had never seen it before???? I was shocked), I whipped up a batch of homemade apple cider donuts. They were superb! I've had an old recipe that I've wanted to try for awhile but I really wanted to get fresh apple cider from the local orchard...that wasn't happening so I finally just caved and grabbed some from the local grocery store, I can always do a second batch!

I tried maple glaze, apple glaze and cinnamon sugar, the maple glaze was my favorite! I didn't take any pictures (I know, bad blogger) but I'll try next time! They were so delicious, the perfect fall treat

We went to a bonfire Saturday night and I ended up taking half the batch just so Hubs and I wouldn't eat our weight in donuts!

Sunday was spent watching the football game (Ravens kicked some Steelers butt!) and watching my husband's hockey game. It was a nice low key day and I was able to get a bit of cooking and cleaning done.

It is officially fall here folks. We aren't running our heat yet (we'd really prefer not to kick it in until December) so the house has dropped down to a crisp 54 degrees. Outside we're getting lows in the 40s and highs in the 60s! I'm hoping it will warm up just a bit more and we can get some lovely crisp UPPER 60s/low 70 days. You know, just a bit more of a transition from the t-shirts and dresses. I still need to swap out my summer stuff for my fall clothes! Time is just going way to fast!

Everyone else enjoying their fall?