Fall, football, Suzanne's visit, scouting, food......

I love fall. Fall in Michigan has made this my favorite season. I love watching football especially if one of my kids are playing, or if Michigan, or Utah is playing.

This is Andy playing flag football, he had a really great game. He made three touchdowns, one was after and interception. The picture below is Dan coaching Andy--and leading the team to their victory!

After the game the three of us with Estee in the stroller and Jake on his bike all went for a 3 1/2 mile run. It was the most perfect weather! Look at those beautiful leaves--I love it!

In this picture below we are trying to show off our matching Asics shoes. We could sell these because we all love how comfy they are. Ever since Andy bought his first pair we are all fans of the Asics! We are also trying to see who has the best calf muscle. I also love when there is lots of time for baking! Fall and sugar cookies go hand in hand. Estee loved these "skooky" Halloween cookies. This is Abby's spooky ghost.

I also made this triple berry almond chiffon cake.

While I was cooking one day last week I looked out my kitchen window to see this cute little chipmunk eating this little berry off the bush. You have to admit it's kind of cute, even for a rodent. Then as I was taking his picture he turned and stuck his tongue out (see picture below).

I was just watching him for a minute and thinking how cute he was when along comes a big, ugly squirrel. I am sure it was one of these annoying creatures who ate the wires in my garage, ate all my tulip bulbs, and ate all the padding off the handle bars of Dan's expensive road bike (see old post for more details on my hatred of squirrels). So anyway, he comes bounding up the bush and steals the berry away from the cute chipmunk and eats it! It might be time to get my squirrel trap out again (see old post for more details on the squirrel trap).

UPDATE** Abby is climbing trees again! Apparently the big fall and seven stitches didn't scare her at all.
Estee taking my picture. She is pretending she has a camera too since I kept trying to get her to look at me while I took her picture.
My good friend Suzanne came to visit from Japan!!! I was so excited to see her and catch up. It was fun to spend a couple days with her and for Jake and Brand to get to play again (they are great friends). Max (her other son) and Estee played really good too! It was fun to eat sushi with her and our old favorite--Indian food. Thanks for coming Suzanne--we had a blast!


And, last but certainly not least, Jake had his first scouting pack meeting. He got his bobcat badge. I can't believe it! He is growing up too fast. In this picture he is telling everybody at the meeting about his favorite activity, visiting the rabbit sanctuary. I couldn't be prouder of all my kids and I am so glad I get the chance to be their mom.

Guest Chef

I am very excited to say that I was asked to be a guest chef on a food/cooking blog (please hold the congratulations for later). My friend Kristin (aka chef extraordinaire) has her very own cooking/food blog, which I must say she is very good at posting delicious menu's week after week. She is an excellent cook and I am excited whenever I am invited to her house because I know I will eat well. So, you can imagine my excitement when she asked ME to be a guest chef on her blog. See, she thinks she doesn't really DO desserts, but I have had her cream puffs and apple cake and I am telling you she DOES dessert. Nonetheless, I was more than happy to oblige when asked to come up with a Halloween menu dessert. There is so many to choose from, but this is like a staple at my house, we always have all the ingredients and I KNOW it will turn out yummy every time. This recipe is from my sister Julie, thanks Julie!
Here is the link, you should check it out asap! http://efnrecipes.blogspot.com/

Blueberries!

I went blueberry picking FOUR times this season. I just can't get enough of these things. I recently read an article in the Parade Magazine about "foods that make kids smart" (click on link to read) and it went on and on about blueberries! I had to go blueberry picking again the very next day after reading the article. I forced/bribed my kids into coming with me to help me pick the brain power and memory enhancing, antioxidant rich, great tasting, little blue balls! After all, it is for their brain power benefit! I think my kids are probably so happy to be back at school--but I am missing my little helpers!
After eating so many blueberries I was about ready to pop I started mixing them in my smoothies, pancakes, muffins, yogurt etc. I still had a lot of blueberries, so I tried out some new recipes. I made, pie, tart, cobbler, salad dressing and salad. My favorite was the blueberry salad dressing with blueberry Cobb salad. With my history of taking pictures of my food I, of course, have some pictures of some of these things!

Salad:
4 cups spinach or mixed greens.
1 large fresh tomato, diced
1-2 ripe avocado, diced
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/2 cashews or other nut of your choice
1/3 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/4-1/2 red onion, diced
can also add or replace other ingredients with boiled and diced eggs, sunflower seeds, grilled chicken, diced, grilled shrimp or whatever else you like on Cobb salad and what you have available.

Dressing:
1/2 cup fresh lime or lemon juice

1/3 cup splenda or sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1 tablespoon olive oil

a few grinds of pepper
Mash up blueberries with a fork or in a blender if you want it finer. Add all the other ingredients, mix and enjoy!

Blueberry cobbler

with ice cream--yum!

Blueberry Tart was a yummy creation of cooked and fresh blueberries.

Fresh Blueberry Tart

Crust:

1 cube butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup flour

(you can add some chopped nuts or oatmeal)

press into a tart pan and bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes or until very lightly browned.

cool completely

melt 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips and spread evenly over crust (this prevents filling from making crust soggy)

Chill until ready to use

Filling:

3 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, divided

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbsp cornstarch

2 1/2 tbsp water

Combine 1 1/2 cups of the fresh blueberries with 3/4 cup sugar in a medium sauce pan. Whisk together water and cornstarch in a small bowl and stir into blueberry mixture. Cook, over medium-high heat, until berry mixture comes to a simmer and begins to thicken. Stirring occasionally, boil for about 1 minute. Transfer berry mixture to a large bowl to cool to room temperature.When berry mixture has cooled, stir in remaining fresh blueberries. Pour blueberry mixture into prepared crust and spread into an even layer. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Recipes

Here are some of the requested recipes!

I got the guacamole salad recipe from Barefoot Contessa cookbook it's a great cookbook!
Guacamole Salad
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved (2 cups or 16 oz)
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded, and 1/2 diced
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup small-diced red onion
2 tablespoons minced jalapeno peppers, seeded (2 peppers) *I only added 1 pepper*
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lime zest
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (2 limes)
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
2 ripe Hass avocados, seeded, peeled, and 1/2 inch diced

Place the tomatoes, yellow peppers, black beans, red onion, jalapeno peppers and lime zest in a large bowl. Whisk together the lime juice, olive oil, salt, black pepper, garlic, and cayenne pepper and pour over the vegetables. Toss well.
Just before you're ready to serve the salad, fold the avocados into the salad. Check the seasoning and serve at room temperature.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups white sugar

1 lb butter (4 cubes)

4 eggs

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla

4 cups flour

4 cups oatmeal
chocolate chips (any kind and as much as you like)

nuts (optional, also any kind and as much as you like)

Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs and beat well. Add salt, baking powder, soda, and vanilla. Pour flour in gradually while mixing. Grind oatmeal in blender (I usually don't do that part) add to mixture. Stir in Chocolate chips and nuts. Refrigerate for 2 hours (I usually don't do that either). Place on a greased cookie sheet, bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes.

Chocolate and Caramel Cupcakes

This one was made up so I don't have a recipe. But, what I did was I got some recipe on line for a yummy chocolate cake. I think it was on Martha Stewart.com and tweaked it a little according to what ingredients I had on hand. I then filled the muffin tins half full then put a caramel in half of then and a Reisen candy in half of them. Then I filled them up the rest of the way with batter, and baked them. They turned out pretty yummy with a little surprise in the middle!

French Onion Soup

I don't have a recipe for this one either! I looked at a lot of different recipes and just kind of put a little from each recipe! I can't remember what I did for sure. Lots of onions. When the soup is done put a serving in a oven safe bowl and put a slice of french bread on top and load it with lots of cheese (fresh Parmesan, Swiss, Romano all of those are good) and broil it in the oven. The cheese is the best part anyway!

hungry?

Abby and I love taking pictures of food we make and eat. Here are some of our creations!

This is a chicken pot pie personalized for our family!

Cupcakes filled with carmel and chocolate.

French Onion soup--this was yummy!

Abby's display of grapes and raisins--beautiful!!

My first attempt at a Fondant cake.

This little guy sat on top of a cupcake.

Oatmeal Chocolate chip, our family favorite.

Cinnamon Rolls

Best Guacamole Salad ever!

These minty, filled yummy cookies are sooo good.

This is all Abby, what can I say she is an artist, even when it comes to her food!

Guess what this is?

Double Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake.

We made this for a cake auction. Then we made it again for us it was tasty!