Bountiful Fall Harvest

Savory Stuffed Squash

It's turkey season, and the stuffed birds with all of the trimmings are upon us!  I LOVE Thanksgiving, I think it's one of my favorite holidays really.  To be able to sit at the table with loved ones and stuff your faces with lots of good food that you wait all year for; how can you not be thankful and love this holiday?  I'm looking forward to it as always.  With this season also come the wonderful bounty of fall harvest foods; squashes of all kinds, apples, oranges from the south, persimmons (one of my absolute favorite fruits), beautiful jeweled pomegranates, figs, sweet potatoes, I could go on but I will spare you. I know most of these are available year-round with the way we are able to import and ship foods now, but I really try to shop within season for my area and I love having the savory change of season and I look forward to all the time.

As I became more comfortable in the kitchen and I started to experiment more, I've come to love squash and the vast varieties as one of my staples for the fall & winter months.  I love making squash soups, apple crisps, sweet potato bakes and adding the pomegranates to champagne toasts or making a sweet sauce for dessert. It's a nice change of pace really, with that in mind;  Have you ever stuffed a squash for dinner? I remember stuffed squash when I was a kid. I wasn't a huge fan of it, but then again, I was a kid and my dad was not the best of cooks.  My grandma had given me some of her recipes many, many years ago but the older I get, the less meat I realize I need or want and her recipes are made with pork and ground beef and such. Not to say that I'm a vegetarian (I do still partake and love the carnivorous meal once in awhile) but I really don't eat it much or crave it much anymore.  So I started to think about what I could stuff my pretty white acorn squash with this evening, and it hit me.  I had some left over sprouted rice & quinoa blend by tru Roots in my fridge and I could make a type of rice stuffing for it.  My mind was set and I was ready to proceed. Now please note that I had de-seeded and pre-cooked my squash (350 degrees) yesterday night in the oven for at least an hour and had it in the fridge ready for tonight.

I had on-hand: 

• Spinach, about three handfuls
• Cooked Spouted Rice & Quinoa, about 3/4 cup
• Onion (Chopped), 
• Cherry Tomatoes, a handful or two
• Brussel Sprouts (sliced), at least 6
• Better than Bouillon (Chicken base, but regular broth or bouillon will do instead), 1 teaspoonful
• Parmesan Cheese Shred
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Garlic Powder, 1-1.5 teaspoons
• Thyme (dried), generous sprinkle

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees, took out my fry pan to saute the onions and brussel sprouts with the salt and pepper and garlic powder. Once they become more tender/translucent (for the onions), I added the spinach and the cherry tomatoes.  When the spinach starts to wilt and the tomatoes have warmed up, I crush them with the back of my spoon and add the thyme and Better than Bouillon with some warm water, at least 1/2 a cup to dilute the base. Then I add the rice and quinoa and simmer for a few minutes.  Have your acorn squash ready in a baking dish, once the flavors have mingled a touch, spoon the filling into the two acorn halves and top with parmesan cheese and put it into the oven for at least 35 minutes.  The cheese becomes a wonderful crunchy topping that adds a great nutty flavor. One half is enough to share with my son and have a completely satisfying meal. This would be a very good side dish as well.

Enjoy!

Lemon Basil Quinoa Salad

Lemon Basil Quinoa Salad

I found this recipe one day while trying to figure out what more I could do with one of the "super foods", Quinoa.  It sounded Amazing and I had to try it.  As usual, I substituted and made due with what I had on hand in the house.  I was also trying to utilize another "super food", Kale which I happen to have a massive amount of in my tiny fridge.  I ended up sautéing the kale with some garlic, salt, pepper, and a little bit of butter, it was pretty tasty and very simple to whip up.  Here's the recipe for the salad:

Lemon Basil Salad

Dressing:

2.5 Tbsp Lemon Juice

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 Tbsp Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar

1.5 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Basil

Salt

White Pepper

Garlic Powder

Salad:

1/2 Cucumber, diced

8 oz Black Olives, sliced

1/2 Red and Yellow Pepper, diced

16 oz (1/2 Clam Shell) Baby Kale, sautéed

4 green onions sliced

1 cup uncooked quinoa

Mix dressing together and set aside

To cook the quinoa; rinse in a pot and drain excess water, add 1 cup water or broth for every 1/2 cup of  quinoa.  Boil until all the water is absorbed the remove from heat and cover for 15 minutes.  Once it is cooked you can add it to the veggies and add the dressing and mix.  I like to refrigerate it for at least a few hours before serving, so that the flavors can mix and meld.  You don't have to though. I can't wait sometimes because it smells so good.

There are so many variation you can make with this recipe, mix and match to figure out what you like best.  Here is a list of variations you can use it the recipe.  Enjoy experimenting with different ingredients! 

Variations:

For the dressing:
Use Cilantro or Parsley instead of Basil

Add Fresh Lemon Zest

For the salad:
Omit the Kale and add sautéed Spinach instead

Add Chopped Avocado
1 Can Garbanzo Beans, rinsed
1 Can Corn, rinsed
1 Stalk Celery, diced
1/2 Red Onion, diced
Add Crumbled Bacon
Add Feta or Blue Cheese

*The original recipe I found was posted on: The Garden Grazer

Let them eat cake!

"Let them eat cake!"

Last month I was given the opportunity to bake a chocolate cake for my mother-in-law & sister-in-law's birthdays.  I have to say that I was very excited about this.  Outside of experimenting with substitutes and trying to "reinvent the wheel" I have not baked a "regular" dessert in a really long time and this was long over-due for me.  This chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting was delicious!  Aside from being a tad too dry (I believe I over cooked it just a touch), it was delectable. I found the recipe on my iPad app: How to cook Everything: by Mark Bittman.  *The website link does not have this recipe in it (and for fear of copyright issues I'm not going to post it here).

I have found this to be the best app I have on my iPad for recipes.  If there are any other really good ones that people are recommending, I would love to know about them.

However, The one thing I am incredibly proud of, is my "mad" frosting skills!  It turned out so pretty, and the frosting was probably my favorite part of the whole cake.  I'm not a huge frosting fan by nature, but this was really good.   I had a few ounces left over so I put it into the fridge and I shamelessly ate spoonfuls of it over the next few days, no I didn't share with my family I hid it away.  Yup, it was that good.

It's my son's birthday is this week and he's having a sleepover party to celebrate.  He's requested this cake.  I suppose I will "have" to bake this again for him <insert sarcastic groan here>. Seriously though, I am looking forward to making this again.

My recent chocolate cake experience has brought a new light onto my long-time love of baking.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing it.  I guess I became caught up in trying to substitute different types of fats and sugars and flours and I have had so many disappointments that I just didn't want to bake anymore.  It makes me sad to realize that.  I remember finding my step-mother's "Better Homes & Garden" cookbook and thumbing through it and landing on Peanut Butter Cookies.  Those were the only types of cookies I made when I was younger (mostly because those were the only ingredients I had on hand in the house to make). Regardless of the reason for making them (all the time), I loved them nonetheless.  I have a lot of fond memories baking.  It was nice to be reminded of how much I enjoyed it.  I'm definitely looking forward to making it again this weekend, just for the joy of baking.  

Refreshing Cucumber Watermelon Salad

This morning I found a recipe to use up some of the watermelon that my family doesn't seem to want to eat.  Why I'm not quite sure, but I bought the watermelon this past weekend and it's sat in my fridge, with only me eating it.  Now I'm sure we can all agree that this can get a bit drab after awhile, regardless of the fact that I love watermelon.  My only issue with this is that it's fully seeded, now this isn't as big of an issue when you slice it up and a whole bunch of people are eating it during say a BBQ and you can have a seed spitting contest but this was not one of those times.  I'm getting off track, so I made a salad similar to this last year and I cannot find where I had this recipe at, so I had to seek out a new one and this one is pretty similar.

It's a very easy recipe, i found it on Pinterest here and then the original link is from The Healthy Foodie.  I have taken the liberty of adding and removing a few ingredients from the original recipe on her site, but I think the beauty of cooking is making things more "your own".  I'm very happy with the outcome and will gladly be noshing on this throughout my day today.

Refreshing Cucumber Watermelon Salad:

1 Cucumber (seeded or not, your choice) sliced into quarters

3 Cups of Watermelon, diced (save yourself some time and get the seedless watermelon, unlike me)

3 Tbsp chopped fresh Basil

2 Tbsp chopped fresh Mint

1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper (I used course ground)

1/4 tsp salt (I prefer Kosher)

3 Tbsp White Balsamic Vinegar

1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 of a Lime squeezed

1/4 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

In a large bowl add everything but the Cucumber and Watermelon, mix and let sit until you've chopped up your Cucumber and Watermelon, once you do, add them to the dressing and mix well.  You can serve it immediately or cover and refrigerate until you are ready to dig in!  I love it, and you could even add some cooked diced pancetta or bacon to the salad too, for a little extra crunch.  Enjoy! 

Booties!

I have a few friends that are now expecting, this is wonderful news!  I would like to make them a gift, a keepsake, if you will.  Now, in general my overall opinion on baby booties are more geared towards cuteness and not really "usable" gifts.  I mean, I never used booties on my son when he was a baby, he wore little socks and they were oh-so-adorable!  Booties never stayed on his feet.  So the question is, why would I give my friends booties for their new bundle of joy?  Well traditionally, I wouldn't but in this case, I might have to because I found a few really cute patterns on ravelry.com and I just had to try them.  Number one, for the simple fact that I have yet to accomplish a good looking 3-dimentional, functional piece of clothing.  Functional is the key word here.  Number two is because, simply put they are freaking ADORABLE! I have high hopes that they will in fact stay on a tiny baby's foot or feet I guess.

Here is a picture of my first attempt at these ADORABLE booties.

They really are cute, I think the button completes them.  Now to make a few more and maybe adjust the pattern a bit to see what else I can come up with to make them that much more adorable.

The Scarf is Complete!

I finished the scarf before Christmas, which was intended for my husband.  It's beautiful, soft and exactly what he wanted.  Unfortunately, it's too short for him.  I did not have enough skeins to make a suitable length for a man.  I know, get another skein, right?  Well I tried, I exhausted my resources.  This dye lot was not being produced any longer.  I mean, it had been over a year since I purchased the current skein.  I searched Amazon, called other yarn shops, even in other states, and nothing. I finally gave up and blinded off the scarf.  It was complete, but fit for a child or woman, definitely not a man. Needless to say, my husbands disappointed that the scarf won't work for him.

I was speaking with a friend about my conundrum, and she had two skeins of the same yarn, weight and everything, in a different color.  She offered to give them to me.  Well, I was SO excited!  I mean, I could actually make a new scarf for my husband and he could have it before the winter was over!  Well, I was very grateful and very appreciative to have this wonderful gift of free yarn.  So I accepted them, naturally.  It was a completely different color from what we had before, but beautiful none the less.  I showed my husband, I was very excited to say the least and he popped my bubble.  He told me that it was indeed a beautiful color, but he didn't want that color, and it would make a beautiful scarf for a girl.  Really?  I told him to wait until it's been knitted a bit, and he can see the full potential of this beautiful color.  It went with most everything he owned and wore regularly, he would surely see it's potential.  So, I began working on it and produced a good swatch for him to look at, and again with the "It is a good color, and it will be a wonderful scarf for a woman.".  I was defeated, I accept this now.  Now my quest is to find a few new skeins to make my husband a scarf that will actually work for him in a color that he will love. It will happen before Christmas 2013.  It's just a scarf, it shouldn't take that long, right? This is my goal, we'll see how well i fare with this before, lets say August.

Just breath..

My family has adopted a new dog, she's a month new with us and she is a sweet 2 1/2 year old Lab/Shar Pei mix.  She looks nothing like a Shar Pei, and more closely resembles a smaller black lab.  She's a Pound Puppy, through and through.  We have no idea what her history is, so we know nothing of her potential "quirks".  Well, I think we've recently discovered some of them.

Let me give you a bit of back story first.  For the past year, I have been slowly knitting a scarf for my husband, a beautiful, soft, cashmere scarf.  My goal is to complete it before this coming winter.  Time is crunching closer to my end date, so I've recently picked it up again after having put it aside this summer due to purchasing our first home (that's a different train of thought for another time).  Well, my dog, Kayla, has been exploring our home and getting familiar and comfortable with her new surroundings.  This is a wonderful experience to witness and be able to participate in, I have wanted a dog for such a long time.  Anyhow, this past Monday, she wanted to explore my knitting box and discovered my nicely wound ball of cashmere yarn for my scarf project.  She wanted to taste it's silky smooth texture between her teeth evidently, and tore this ball apart, like she has her toys before.  I caught her red pawed, and was utterly dismayed at what I saw.  Hindsight I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but my emotions were too close to the surface to think rationally about the whole situation.  Luckily, she did not touch the scarf that has been already made.  I was at a loss, I cried.  I admit it, I broke down and cried like a child who's favorite toy just broke. This is what I was untangling for the next four hours.  Mind you, these pictures are after two hours of untangling already.

This is my end product of dangling:  I'm quite proud of myself, I'm not going to lie this was a very trying task for me.  I look forward to being able to finish this scarf before the winter comes, so that I can actually give this to my husband.  You can already see the project taking form, when I'm done, I'll be sure to take better pictures of it and show you the end product.

Spicy Tomato Juice

A few weeks ago, I was walking down the isles at the grocery store, talking with my best friend on the phone.  Best friend, I just had a fleeting moment where I felt like I was in high school again.  Anyhow, i saw a Bloody Mary mix on the shelf and thought that it sounded so good.  I started reminiscing about the best bloody mary that I have ever had.  It was at some country restaurant on Vashon Island.  It was spicy and rich.  Never again, have I had one quite like it. At the time I contemplated purchasing this drink mix, due to nostalgia overtaking my thoughts.  Then she says to me, "Why don't you make some yourself and post it on your blog!", what a marvelous idea!  So, over the course of the last few mornings, I've taken to making a spicy concoction for my mornings, sans the vodka.  Although, I believe with the vodka, would be just as tasty, if not a smidge better.

What you'll need:

4 1/2 Cups tomato juice (I've got Low Sodium V8 on hand all the time)

4 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

3 tsp hot sauce

2 cloves pickled garlic minced (originally posted here at the bottom of the site)

2 Tbsp of the pickled garlic liquid

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp dried dill

1 tsp lemon juice

Celery Stalks, Olives, or any other fun condiment to add

Add all ingredients, except the condiments into a pitcher or large measuring cup (it would have to be 4+ cups big), mix.  Rim your glasses with salt and ice if desired.  Add your condiments and serve.  Makes 4 servings.

My family loved this.  I have to share.  When I first started experimenting with this earlier this week, it was in the morning when my son and I get ready for our day.  I made some to go along with our breakfast.  He asked me what I was making, I told him it was bloody mary mix without the alcohol.  Not that he really knows what is in it but he knows that I enjoy Bloody Mary's once in awhile when we go out for breakfast.  Anyhow, I poured him regular tomato juice to have with breakfast, asked him if he wanted to try some of mine.  His eyes got real wide, he got this huge smile on his face and you could see the excitement he was trying to contain.  He caught himself and got real serious and said "Yes, please".  Well, he complimented my drink and said he really liked it.  I found out from my husband later that night that he came home and was talking with him about it, saying that he got to have "Bloody Mary's" with breakfast this morning.  Now, we have since established with him that he needs to refer to them as "Spicy tomato juice", since we know that he maybe going around to his friends and such wanting to talk about how he got to have a Bloody Mary.  Should an adult hear this, we may get some interesting questions about our parenting skills.

Sunny Orange Yogurt Muffins

This morning was absolutely beautiful! The sun was streaming through the kitchen and showing signs of spring, finally!  This weekend was warm and sunny, a nice contrast to the typical Northwest cloud.  To bring in this wonderful day, I had to bake a treat that reflected this morning.  So this time, I broke out one of my most loved cookbooks, William Sonoma.  I love how moist and subtly sweet these muffins are.  It's like a small sunburst in your mouth, maybe that's the sun-drenched happiness speaking but either way it's intriguing, don't you think? 

You can find the recipe here.  This is for the quick loaf bread, but it's exactly the same for the muffins.  It should make 14-18 regular sized muffins.  I made 12 regular muffins and 12 minis.  I love minis, they bring me back to my childhood.  When Hostess first introduced the mini muffins in a bag, it was all the rage then.  Banana Nut was my favorite at the time.  They are still around, I see them every now and again, but the real joy for me now, is knowing that I can make them ten times better in my own kitchen.  Anyhow, back to my point, these muffins are sure to bring a bit of sunshine to anybody's day.

Spiced Cranberry Muffins - Low-fat

I had an itch to bake this morning.  Why, I'm not really sure but baking some quick muffins at 6 o'clock in the morning sounded like a fantastic idea!  So, I whipped up some spiced cranberry muffins to bring into work because I cannot leave all of these muffins at home. I would eat them, ALL of them in one sitting. This cannot happen.

Anyhow, I had a Costco size applesauce sitting in my fridge for some time that needed to be used (I'm starting to notice a trend here.  Can you see it?).  Why my family chooses to ignore it in the fridge, I'm not sure.  Wait, I know. Because I live with men and boys.  They go for the easiest thing they see, apparently applesauce isn't that easy to prepare (open the bottle, pour into a bowl, add some cinnamon if desired and enjoy!). Sorry, I'm having a couple side thoughts travel through my brain.  Back to my story: I have wanted to try substituting applesauce for oil for some time now to see how different the product would turn out.  Yes, I admit I'm a bit slow to get on the applesauce substitution train.  My reasoning behind it is because a few years ago, my friend was substituting applesauce for oil in a cookie recipe.  Now, what she gave me to try, was absolutely horrible!  I kid you not, love her, not her substituted cookies.  Needless to say, this turned me off to this substitution for quite some time.  As it turns out after my experiment, this can work out pretty good. Now my first attempt was a bit dry, but I've tweaked it (again) and I think these are so much better.  They have a good sweetness and are perfect with a cup of tea or coffee for a quick on the go morning rush. 

Heat the oven to 400 degrees
1/2 Cup Whole wheat flour
1 1/4 Cup All purpose flour (you can omit the whole wheat and use all purpose too if you want, so use 1 3/4 C total flour instead if you do this)
1/3 Cup Zero calorie baking sugar (or you can use regular sugar, or a different sweetner substitute)
2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Ground ginger
1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1/4 Cup applesauce
3/4 Cup milk
1/4 Cup Greek yoghurt
1 Egg
1/3 Cup Dried Cranberries

• Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, set aside.
• Mix the wet ingredients together in a smaller bowl and  mix into the dry ingredients.
• Combined until you make a batter and add the cranberries and mix together.
• Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners or lightly grease.
• Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
• Cool on a wire rack.

You can also omit the ginger and cranberries and add 3/4 Cup blueberries to the batter instead.  These turn out really good as well.

Carrot Soup with Roasted Peppers

When I got home today, I found my husband in a foul disposition, for good reason.  To begin my story:  This past week, Alaskan Salmon was on sale, $4.99/lb whole fish.  Amazing deal right? So I bought a fish, weighing in at over 5 pounds.  It was frozen when I purchased it, because they ran out of the thawed fish so quickly.  So it has been thawing in my fridge since Saturday, well over four days.  Well, my fish leaked, fish juice all over my beautiful veggies in the drawer (luckily, they were all in bags, but still.  Precautions must be taken).  So now I need to cook them.  I had over three pounds of baby carrots, almost a full bunch of celery, four bell peppers and my wonderfully large Costco bag of peeled garlic.  What is a girl to do?  Since I had the most carrots, I thought a soup would be good.  So, as we speak, I'm cooking up a wonderful batch of roasted pepper and carrot soup.  Doesn't that sound good?

Roasted peppers out of the oven

To roast the red peppers, you need to halve them and take out the seeds.  Take a baking sheet and line it with foil (I only do this so that I don't have to clean it up after). Spray it with some cooking oil (I used canola) and place them cut side down on the foil.  Your oven should be heated to 450,  cook them for approximately 30 minutes, turning them halfway through, until they start to char on the skin.  When you bring them out, allow them to sweat by covering them for about 10 minutes.  This makes the skin easier to take off, you can peel the skin either by hand or with a paring knife.  Once you have done that, dice them and set them aside.

Peeled roasted peppers

What you will need: 

1 medium onion, chopped

10 (or less) cloves, peeled and diced garlic

3-5 lbs Carrots (baby or regular), chopped

1/2 bunch celery, chopped

4 bell peppers, halved and seeds cleaned out

6 1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon (or two cubes) vegetable bouillon

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 bay leaves

1 Tablespoon minced ginger

While your peppers are cooking, you can begin the soup.  I chopped up all of my carrots, celery and the garlic.  I love garlic, so by all means, feel free to use less.  I took an onion and chopped that up too.  

• Heat up about two teaspoons of oil in a tall pot.  I used olive oil but you can use butter or canola, which ever you have on hand.  Place the onions and garlic in the pot after it has heated and simmer until they start to brown a little.  
• Add your carrots then celery and about two teaspoons of kosher salt.  Stir around for a few minutes, the moisture will have left the pan, so add a little water into the pan, about 1/4 cup so that you don't burn your veggies.  Simmer for about  5-10 minutes.  
• Add about 4 cups of water to the pot.  I also took a heaping teaspoon of vegetable bouillon and added it to two cups of hot water to liquify, add to the pot.  
• Throw in about two teaspoons of kosher salt, ground black pepper, minced ginger, and the bay leaves.
• Simmer on medium low for approximately 1.5-2 hours or until the carrots are tender enough to smash with a fork
• When your peppers are done, add them to the pot to, to mix and mingle with the soup

The soup is thick, so if you want it thinner, add some more water or broth to thin it out.  Once the carrots are tender enough, remove the soup from heat and blend it in a blender or food processor.  Serve hot or chilled with a dollop of sour cream.  You could even sprinkle some croutons on top or serve with some warm crusty bread.  It's so good! 

Fat Free Veggie / Cracker dip

My family loves veggie dips, but we do not want to incorporate all of the extra fat and oils that can be included in store bought dips.  For this reason, it forced me to come up with a really good base dip for veggies and crackers.  Once you make the base, you can add anything else you want to customize this and make it your own.

The base:
1 package Fat Free cream cheese
1 small tub (16 oz) of Fat Free sour cream (Nonfat Greek Yogurt works too)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dill
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Mix it all together.  I use my Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment.  This makes it nice and creamy.

Here's a short side note story.  I recently purchased one of those huge bags of peeled garlic from Costco, but I never seem to use it all before it goes bad.  Well, I found a site that tells me how to pickle my garlic cloves in the fridge and I did this weeks ago.  The point of my rambling, is that I used some of this pickled garlic and the vinegar with it and made a FANTASTIC garlic dip.

On to the extras.  As I stated above, you can add most anything to the dip and make it your own.
In my pictured dip:
4 cloves pickled garlic (plus 2 Tbsp of the vinegar)
1/4 tsp dried Thyme
1/8 tsp ground Sage
1/8 tsp ground Ginger
1 tsp chopped dried red onion
1/2 tsp chopped chives
1/2 tsp chopped parsley


If you want to make this more like a dressing for salads, you can thin it out with milk to the consistency you desire. I've also been known to add shredded carrots and cucumbers to the mix if it's meant more as a spread for crackers or sandwiches.

If you are interested in other preserving methods for garlic, here is the site I found.  The refrigerated garlic is at the bottom of the site: Preserving Garlic

Braided Apple Pastry

I gained inspiration for this off of a Better Homes and Garden recipe I found years ago.

I made it last night for my family, and it turned out so good!  To start, I'm not very good at keeping track of my measurements  while in the process of making my "goodies".  So, the measurements can be (and should be) adjusted to your liking.

Warm the oven to 325 degrees
1 Sheet puff pastry, thawed
1 Medum apple chopped, I used Pink Lady
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Flour
Dash of Ground Ginger
Dash of Nutmeg
2 packets of Truvia (or approximately 2-3 tsp of sweetener of your choice)

Mix the apple and spices with 1 tsp flour and the Truvia in a bowl.  Set aside.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the puff pastry out to the thickness of your liking.
On the longest sides of the pastry, make slices towards the center of the pastry (almost like you are cutting hash marks into it), while leaving the center of the pastry intact.
Place your filling into the center of the pastry.
Fold over the ends, to seal in the filling.
Take the strips of pastry and crisscross them over each other, creating the "braid" look.  Once you get to the other end, pinch the last two strips to the end to seal.
Lightly grease a cookie sheet and place the pastry onto the cookie sheet and place in the oven.  It should take approximately 20-30 minutes to cook all the way through.  Remove from the oven and serve!

You could always serve it with some whip cream or ice cream too.  This reminds me of the apple pie from McDonalds only "super-sized" and so much better.

Picked, primed and ready...

It's been one of those weeks for me, by the end of Monday, it felt like it was the longest week of my life!  I kid you not, come Tuesday, I felt defeated and thought that someone should be picking out my plot and start prepping it for me.  Then Wednesday rolls around and I woke up thinking it was Thursday.  When I realized my mistake, I was so upset.  Still hopeful that I could catch up but alas, I was wrong again.  Today was no different, if not a bit worse then the rest of the week.  Tomorrow is the blessed Friday, and I'm still hopeful that it will be better, we'll see.  I did have one shining moment today, when I realized that this coming month I will only have to work 1.5 days the first week.  It made my day really, I got so excited when I realized this beautiful thought.  It helped the remainder of my day.

It's difficult to grasp the thought, that you work to enjoy your weekends but your weekends aren't long enough to enjoy and recoup.  I don't understand why things have to be so... what's the word.. tiring and complicated.  Simplicity is good, needed really.  Our society as a whole feels the need to overwork, over-stress, and undercut family times.  Without family and friends what's the point?  How are we suppose to guide our children into adult-hood if we aren't there for them?  Why are there so many corporations cutting some of the most important things?  Vacations, sick-time, medical.  What is the point of working, if you can't provide the basics or you never get to see your family or friends?  What's the point?  Does it make any sense?  To work your employees to the point where they are too exhausted to function?  If they can't function, they won't have their job to worry about any longer because they would get let go.  I don't understand it.  When I was single, it didn't make any difference to me.  I was young, unattached and no one to answer to but myself and my job.  I could do it then, but now.  I want to be a good mother, wife, daughter, friend, and employee, but how can I accomplish that on all levels without slacking in one area or another?  When I was younger, my job is what I related my identity to.  Now that I'm older, I relate my identity to how well I can accomplish being good at all of the above.  It's tiring, isn't it?  I think it is, and I don't know how so many people do it, with less then what I have on top of it all.  It's an admirable quality to hold.  Maybe one day, I will feel like I had it, even if for a short time.  Are we getting to a point where we are over working and undercutting family?  I think we are at that point, and beyond it.  What I want to know, is what do you think?

It's gone...

Today, was a tremendously busy and hectic day at work.  Nothing I set out to accomplish was, and it was cloudy and overcast to boot.  Typical Seattle weather really.  Driving in, I saw white all over the edge of the road, and thought it had hailed earlier, I thought to myself, it is June right?  It's not cold enough to hail, then I came to realize later that it was only white petals that had fallen during the rain and littered the streets edge.  Hind-sight, it was quite pretty, and made for a pleasant ride in.

By the end of my day, coming home I was ready to sit, and do absolutely nothing for the rest of the night. As every night, this didn't happen but I was welcomed home with a really tasty meal made by my hubby and found out that my son took second in two races during field day today at school.  I got to relax a bit after dinner and when I put my son to bed later, he was full of laughs and joy that made my stress melt away.  I have to say that after it's been all said and done, my day could not have been better.

It's funny how simple things can make life a bit more enjoyable.  I hope I get to accomplish more on my list tomorrow, then I did today.  If not, then I hope my day ends just as pleasant as it did today.

Living the sweet life, mind the thorns...

My life as I know it, is constantly changing.  I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.  To cherish the sweet moments, and try to forget the bitter ones and learn from them, is something I strive to achieve on a daily basis.  Our lives are so chaotic and filled with, well, fillers and I find myself wishing that I could live in the "simpler" times.  You know what I'm talking about, when you were a kid, and life seemed so big and 30 seemed so old.  Now, here I am in my 30's and life doesn't seem so big anymore, and 50 seems to be creeping around the corner.  I try to make things as simple as possible and get back to the basics, whether it's through cooking, cleaning, or simply living everyday without letting life get in the way.

I enjoy cooking and baking and most of my meals are true concoctions.  I don't follow a recipe to often, only when I don't know how the end result will be, most of my dishes are purely improvised.  Growing up, most of my meals were boxed and tasteless, until I started cooking on my own.  A whole new world was opened up to me!  My husband is into nutrition, and he's broadened my horizons with food to a whole new level.  I found myself experimenting with xylitol and stevia and agave nectar in place of sugar, and figuring out how to utilize almond meal, garbanzo bean flour, and brown rice flour in place of white flour.  I will admit, every time a new idea came into play on how to "improve" our diet, I was against the idea, and had a difficult time rethinking how our meals would pan out.  Do you realize how difficult it is to teach yourself to think about making a meal without some sort of starch involved?  To swim against the current and reshape how our meals are prepared, without foods that are so convenient and starchy, that fill in the gaps on the plate and sop up all the juices and flavors of the meal.  My challenge was given to me, and I did not jump to the plate.  No, I sulked and I fought the change, as I do with anything in my life it seems.  To date, it is still difficult for me to rethink how to prepare a tried and true meal, but I've learned so much in the process.  My nutritional knowledge is broader, and my cooking arsenal is greater then it has ever been.

I will admit that cooking differently has become a huge part of my life, but living a different life from the one I had is even more important in the end.