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Tuesday's Tidings for October 30, 2012

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1. Our thoughts and prayers are going out to everyone affected by Sandy. Please stay safe!

2. Halloween is tomorrow and my girls are so excited they are practically bouncing off the walls! Anyone else experiencing that with their kids.

3. The baby's room is all painted and it looks so pretty! I finally feel like it's all coming together.

4. I've begun compiling ideas for Christmas. I haven't done really any shopping yet, other than I got Grace a skirt I know she liked. But I plan to pick up things as I go, because I would love to be able to avoid the mall close to Christmas.

5. I am so freaking excited about Daylight Savings! I so plan to take advantage of that extra hour of sleep!


6. Over the weekend, I was bored and so I alphabetized my entire Pinterest board. I have all the food categories first, alphabetically of course, followed by everything else.

7. Josh took the girls to the store the other day and while they were wondering around, the girls spied some Pumpkin Eggnog and insisted I needed it. So now, I have the original eggnog and pumpkin eggnog in my fridge, lol!

8. I'm not sure if it's because I'm in my 8th month of pregnancy or if it's the time of year, but I find myself using my slow-cooker a lot more than I usually do. I can't say I'm to upset about it, lol! I love the convenience of it.

9. Josh introduced me to #Gangnam Style the other day. He actually made me watch Psy on The View the other night. I don't really understand it at all. I can see why it's catchy...but I still don't understand it.

10. I'm getting spurts of nesting at really odd times. Like last night, Josh was helping the girls carve their pumpkins and he told me to just sit back and relax. Well of course, I can't just do that! I started moving furniture and cleaning behind it, lol! I have problems, let me tell you ! :)

Weekly Menu 10/29-11/4

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It's Halloween week, the first week of November, daylight savings week, and today is my sister in law's birthday over at KitchenJoy and I hear she made some yummy cookies too! Stop by and wish her a Happy Birthday will ya?

This weekend we got a lot done. Josh and my dad painted the nursery Saturday night and it looks so beautiful! I am so pleased with how it turned out, especially since I let Josh have the final say on the room color. He let me choose the paint color for both of the girls rooms when they were babies, so I figured, this baby being a boy and all, I would try and let Josh have as much say as possible.

We stuck to our dinner list pretty well all week long, only changing it like two nights. Josh had to cook dinner on Wednesday because I pushed myself to much at the gym the previous night and my sciatic nerve started acting up and I couldn't get around, let along barely get out of bed. Needless to say, we've decided that for the remainder of the pregnancy, my gym days are over; which frustrates me to no end! Last night, Josh decided he wanted to make cheese fondue for dinner, so I made my mom's delicious apple crisp for dessert.


I've also begun planning all of my holiday inspired dishes to make and write for the next two months, so that I won't be so unorganized once the baby comes. I'm hoping to get most of January blogged too, but we'll see.

Monday
Crockpot BBQ Chicken Sandwiches, Macaroni and Cheese, with Green Beans
Tuesday
Wednesday
Sweet Potato Chili with Cornbread
Thursday
(Awana Night)
Leftovers
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
I'm thinking sandwiches because we have some Rye bread from our fondue night that I want to use up. 
I've decided that from here on out, I'm not going to post any fun desserts and stuff, because when I post them I want them to be fun little surprised for you all :)

How To: Freezing Pureed Chipotle Peppers

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Well, it's about time I shared this quick tip with you. Chels found this one for me several years ago, and I've used it many times since. I don't remember where she found it, but let me tell you, if you like making tasty sauces for your food, this is one you'll want to use every year. And the reality is, you only need to do it about once a year. So, what is this tip? Read on and find out!

In just about any grocery store, you can grab a can of jalapeño Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for next to nothing. The question isn't whether it's a good deal or not - the question is what to do with it! Here's the answer: open it, puree it, and freeze it. Here's how. Open your can of Chipotle peppers, and dump them into your food processor. If you know you're not ever going to want to make anything even remotely spicy, you can cut open the peppers and remove the seeds first. If you don't care, throw them in whole. As a third alternative, you can separate the sauce in the can from the peppers, and puree the peppers by themselves. The benefit to this is simply that you can freeze the sauce by itself (very mild and smoky), and the peppers by themselves (relatively hot). Regardless, puree them in the food processor.

Once your peppers are pureed smoothly, retrieve an empty ice tray from the freezer. Line the ice tray with plastic wrap, pressing down the wrap into each of the recesses in the tray, and leaving a generous amount of extra plastic wrap around the edges. Spoon roughly a tablespoon of the pureed peppers into each recess. If you chose to separate the peppers and the sauce in the last step, you'll want to spoon the sauce into one side of the tray and the pureed peppers into the other side, just so you can keep them straight. Put the ice tray in the freezer overnight. In the morning, you can remove the plastic wrap from the ice tray and fold up the extra to fully enclose the pockets of pureed peppers. Place the whole thing in a freezer bag, and return it to the freezer. Voila! Now, anytime you find a recipe that calls for chipotle peppers, or a sauce that needs a smoky, spicy kick, you'll be ready. Just reach into the freezer, grab a tablespoon of jalapeños, and get to it! Oh, and if you find that you need to defrost them in a hurry - twenty seconds in the microwave is more than enough! Enjoy!

Tuesday's Tidings for October 23, 2012

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1. I'm just a wee little bit excited! I've finally reached 100 followers through Blogspot!! I know that number may not represent how many people really do read the blog. It could either be a lot less or a lot more, but the number going up is so encouraging and I'm loving it! Thank you Readers!!!

2. I was forced to watch the debate last night, despite all my grumblings. I'm so glad those are over. I know who I'm voting for I think, but I don't think it's important to advertise who it is. I will say, that I do believe it is extremely important to vote. So many people in other countries wish they had this particular freedom and to not vote is such a waste of a freedom that continues to be fought for us, so I think we should respect the fight and vote!

3. Josh and I are kind of on a Halloween movie marathon. Josh won't watch scary movies with me, but he will watch suspenseful movies. We watched Psycho last week and The Prestige over the weekend, and now we've finally found The Illusionist! We love this particular movie and Josh actually found it for sale over Amazon a few days ago. What kind of movies are you watching this month?


4. Since our baby boy is due in December and that is always a busy month, I'm already compiling a list of Christmas-inspired post ideas to write about and schedule so my month will be a bit more flexible. Which means, probably starting next week, I'll begin making holiday goodies for the blog, lol!

5. Our first week of school has zipped by. Awana starts this week and I'm not leading a class this year. It was a hard choice for me, but in the end, I don't know if I can commit to it, especially once Christian gets here. School is going very well though. Grace does math in the morning with Josh and then I finish the rest with her in the late morning, early afternoon.

6. I had my first Caramel Apple Cider from Starbucks on Sunday. It was so so good!!!

7. I'm super excited about the holiday season rolling around. I'm starting to see lot's of free or nearly free gift ideas in my email.

8. My kitchen wishlist item is on sale this week at one of our local stores. Of course I've got a list 10 miles long of things I want for my kitchen, but I really want a dutch oven and the Lodge brand of Dutch Ovens is on sale. Is that a pretty good brand kids? I haven't done a ton of research on that brand yet, because I dream of a Le Creuset...but I would settle for a Lodge if it were good.

9. Does anyone else ever have this problem? Do you wake up in the middle of the night to your smoke detector beeping at you cuz it's running out of juice? Yeah, this is the 2nd time in 3 weeks this has happened to us. Not nice!

10. Braxton Hicks are annoying!

Weekly Menu 10/22-10/28

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Thank you to everyone who took a few moments out to vote in my poll. The majority has spoken and it looks as though, everyone likes my current set-up. I've really tried to balance and blend desserts and quick meals with some meals that are more time intensive and it seems as though for the most part, you guys are happy with that. So I will try and continue that theme.

Halloween is next week! Can you believe it? Josh found Grace's costume over the weekend and she is thrilled! Grace is going to be Rapunzel and Eden is going to be Cinderella. Two princesses, which is very fitting. Although, I have not bought any candy yet for the trick or treaters, I have picked out what chili dinner I'll be fixing for Halloween night. Every year, I make chili and cornbread. Sometimes I just use our fave go-to family recipe and some years I switch it up. I made a pumpkin chili last year and it got pretty good raves from Josh and the girls. Though, I didn't eat any at all. Chili is one of those things that either sounds good to me at the time or it doesn't. And if it doesn't, then I'll eat something else...like my kids candy, lol!

Monday
served with garlic bread
Tuesday
Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia with red potatoes and broccoli
Wednesday
Baked Spaghetti Squash with garlic bread
Thursday
(Awana Night)
Chili Dogs with the leftover chili from last week
Friday
Pizza-I'm leaning toward Hawaiian
Saturday
Slow-Cooker Taco Soup with Cheese Quesadillas
Sunday
Slow-Cooker BBQ Chicken Sandwiches with Macaroni and Cheese and Green Beans

Tuesday's Tidings for October 16, 2012

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Would you all take a moment and be so kind as to fill out my poll located on the right hand side of the site? I'm just trying to get an idea of what you all would like to see more of. Thank you so much guys!

1. Guess who saved $36 in coupons yesterday? This girl, right here! Booya!

2. Grace starts her first day of 3rd grade homeschool today! She's already had her math class with Josh and now it's my turn. May the force be with us :)

3. I took my Glucose test yesterday as well as my flu shot! One in both arms. It's safe to say that both of my arms hurt now. So I'm having the girls push my laundry bins across the floor from the laundry room to our bedroom instead of me carrying them.

4. A year ago, my mom bought these cute jeans for Eden. But seeing as though Eden is the smallest person known to mankind, they just now fit and she wore them for the first time yesterday and she looked so stinking cute!


5. I believe the cosmic forces are aligned because for some reason, it knows that Grace is reading The American Girl series (as I did when I was a little girl) and the American Girl catalogues are now making an appearance in our mailbox. I know she's going to be asking for this Christmas.

6. Can I say how much it sucks to load up and unload a car full of groceries in the pouring down rain? It sucks big time. But it is fun to let little girls splash in puddles :)

7. Only 9 weeks and 4 days left!!! And I have scheduled all of my prenatal appointments up until a week past my due date! It had to be done. My ob-gyn is like the most popular doctor in the clinic, lol!

8. The crib is all set up, WITH the bedding, the glider is gliding, and I found a cute little brown lamp at Goodwill for only $4.99 and it's perfect!

9. Speaking of Goodwill, I am really kind of obsessed with the store. The goodies I find there would B-L-O-W your mind!

10. Pinterest is a MECCA of amazing ideas!!!

Weekly Menu 10/15-10/21

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It's Sunday night and Josh and I are laying in bed with a cup of tea watching the most recent episode of Grimm, which is so cool because it's filmed right here in Portland! Holla- keep Portland weird yo! Today has been really fun! Josh and I did some baby shopping! Heehee, I'm so happy! Our baby bedding came earlier this week and so we had to get a crib sheet for it. Which we picked up along with a new changing table pad at the store.
Josh spent the afternoon rehanging all of Eden's pictures that were in the bedroom (aka, the nursery) and finding homes for them in the room the girls share now. It looks so beautiful, Josh did a great job! And, we got the crib all set up with the bedding and I'm so happy with the way it looks. Noel, thinks the crib is all for her now and jumps in it every chance she gets. Josh also brought up the glider from the garage and I think we decided on a paint color and should start painting here pretty shortly. I'm so excited, it seems like things are finally starting to come together.


Tomorrow, (Monday) I have my Glucose test and all the blood work that comes with it and my OB is encouraging to get the flu shot which I've never taken before. So, I'm pretty sure that by tomorrow evening I will be feeling like I have the flu and wishing I was dying, lol!

Monday
Light Potato Soup in the crockpot
Tuesday
Wednesday
Garlic Spaghetti with salad
Thursday
Friday
Chili and Cornbread
Saturday
Sunday
Josh's Egg McMuffins with fresh fruit
I'm taking a break from the baking this week. I'm trying to prepare myself for the worse when it comes to this flu shot and since it's also the first week of school for us, I'm just going to give myself the week to kind of take it easy and see how it all goes. But next week, I plan to make some yummy goodies!

Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie

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My husband has a thing for apple butter. He also has a thing for pie! I'm not really a fan of apple butter and I'm learning to have an appreciation for pie. I do however, love anything pumpkin! Since I'm determined to become better at mastering the art of pies, I thought this would be a fun dessert to make.

I have to admit, this pie is really quite delicious! From the flaky crust, to the sweet filling, to the savory crunch of the streusel topping, this pie is really really really outstanding! It screams FALL at the top of it's lungs and I think preparing a pie for someone is so special. I rarely ever make pie for dessert. I prefer to make cookies, and little parfaits...but pie is so elegant and I think people appreciate the extra work that goes into making something so beautiful and tasty. In fact, I'm thinking about making this again for Thanksgiving because it's kind of a show stopper with it's fancy crumble topping!


Since this pie is dressed to impress, make this for someone you love!

Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie
(Source: Adapted from Imperial Sugar)
Yield: One 9" PIE
Prep: 45 minutes
1 9-inch pie crust recipe 
3 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 cup apple butter
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
pinch of nutmeg
¾ cup half-half
Streusel Topping:
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup + 1 TB brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
½ stick cold unsalted butter
½ cup pecan pieces
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. 
Prepare or thaw a 9-inch pie crust and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk eggs until combined, and no strings remain. Add pumpkin, apple butter, sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg until completely combined. Stir in half and half. 
Pour into pie shell and place in oven. After 10 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. 
Bake until center of pie no longer trembles about 35- 55 minutes. Remove from oven. Allow to sit for 30 minutes at room temperature and then transfer to refrigerator. Allow to sit in refrigerator for 3-5 hours before serving.
Prepare streusel topping by combining flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Using a cheese grater, grate very cold butter into small pieces directly onto flour mixture. 
Rub between your hands to turn streusel into small lumps and eventually, into crumbles. Stir in pecans. 
Spread evenly onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and place in a 350 degree F. oven until fragrant, and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Stir mixture halfway during baking for even results. When cooled, store in plastic bag. 
Sprinkle topping generously onto pie right before serving. 

Tuesday's Tidings for October 9, 2012

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1. Last night at about 9:45pm, I was so ready for bed. But Josh wanted to unwind a bit, so we watched one of the episodes of The Mentalist. When it was over, guess who was ready for bed and who was wide awake? Yup, this girl here. I didn't get to sleep till 3:30am! And then guess what happened, at 8am, the smoke detector in our room started beeping letting us know the battery needed to be replaced. I get to hear beeping all day till Josh brings the right battery home. Oy vey!

2. I ate shrimp Sunday night!!! For those of you who've paid attention, you know shrimp was something that was turning me off when I got pregnant! We made Shrimp Scampi and it was so delicious!!!

3. We have finally watched every episode of Downton Abbey and I really don't know if I can wait till January for when it resumes for us Americans!

4. I finally began working on cleaning up the baby's room yesterday. I packed up and unpacked quite a few things that needed to be done and it feels good to have made a little bit of progress. I am emphasizing the words "little bit" here.

5. We start school next week! Josh sat down and wrote out or should I say didn't just write it out, he made a Key Note presentation with slides and everything! It's very fancy, lol!

6. I came across some bookends for the Christen's room. Everyone keeps asking me what the theme is...and we aren't really going for anything in particular. The bedding is very boyish, with colors, strips and polka dots. My dad is going to make the curtain rod for us out of a branch, and he's going to help me assemble a little hat/sweater rack.  and the book ends that I absolutely have to have we're little globes, until I found these darling sailboats that look like they've been carved out of wood. So I guess, if I were to lean anywhere, it would be nautical, but my goal is kind of like a preppy global look. I don't want anything to babyish, just more like a little man look. Haha, that makes no sense right? Don't worry, I will still stash stuffed animals and stuff everywhere it won't be to adult. Haha!

7.  We finally turned the heat on today. It feels so good! I'm loving the Fall weather that's coming!

8. I'm finding difficulty finding the energy to make it to the gym. I'm so tired by about 3pm that when the time would usually come for me to head off to the gym, I can barely get moving. Ugh, Must work out while I still can!

9. I'm pretty positive that my son does not sleep. EVER! LOL!

10. I'm going to be a mom of 3 kiddos in a little less than 2 ½ months. I'm so excited! Not at all scared, but more really excited!

Weekly Menu 10/8-10/14

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Everywhere I look now, Fall is around me and I am loving it! A lot of the houses on our street have decorated for Halloween, the air has a bite to it and I rarely leave the house without a cardigan of some kind, and the leaves have begun to fall and change colors. However, we still haven't had any rain...but the forecast for the following week is looking rainy. And here I sit, writing this post with my snuggie wrapped around me, even though the sun is out.

Since the bank isn't open today, being Columbus Day and all, Josh and I are going to tackle a few things around the house and such. He's going to take the air conditioners out, we have to go over a few lists, make Grace's school schedule for the year, since she'll probably start her 3rd grade homeschooling year next week and I might even go through some of the boxes of old baby items I have upstairs, since the nursery has yet to be started, however the bedding has been bought! Here it is October 8th and I know December 22nd will be here before I know it, so it's time to get cracking!

Monday
Taquitos with ground turkey with rice and beans
Tuesday
Homemade Pizza- Hamburger, mushroom, and bell pepper
Wednesday
Sliced Chicken with Apples and Pears served alongside red mashed potatoes
Thursday
Garlic Spaghetti with Salad
Friday
Light Potato Cheese Soup in the crockpot
Saturday
Sunday

I'm so excited that Fall is here, that I'm determined to only make "Fall like yummy's" for the next few weeks!

Desserts/Etc.