Monthly Archives: September 2014

Slow Cooker Apple Butter

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Apple Butter

Autumn is in the air and I absolutely love it! Our youngest, Sean, just celebrated his fourth birthday on the first day of autumn and we enjoyed a wonderful weekend in the mountains. It was his turn to be king and pick everything we did and ate. Needless to say he loved every minute of it all!

Among all the wonderful things we did was a trip to the orchard to go apple picking. For the second year in a row we went to Sky Top Orchard and had so much fun. In addition to all the apple trees we went through the bamboo forest, saw all the animals, played on the playground and had apple cider donuts. What glorious fall fun!

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Spicy Spinach Artichoke Casserole

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Spicy Spinach Artichoke Casserole

The weather is FINALLY cooling off here. That means the highs are down to the low to mid 80s. The best part is the slightly cooler evenings and mornings. It is much more pleasant to be outside, the kids can play outside and I can get some garden work done. I managed to weed the entire garden and pull up the remaining tomato plants this morning.

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Happy 40th

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Yesterday was my husband’s 40th birthday. Lucky him, I wasn’t even cruel in the slightest way! And no, it wasn’t because I fear what he will do to me, I already turned 40!

We had a wonderful weekend. We had friends over Saturday night, went out for bagels the morning of his birthday, had tea and birthday cake in the afternoon with my parents, enjoyed cocktails on the porch (it was unusually cool for us) and had a wonderful crab cake dinner.

While I don’t have time to post a recipe with this, I simply had to include pictures of the cake. Josh requested red velvet with a cream cheese icing. Jack is the one who helped with the “decorating”. We originally talked about putting their skeleton Lego man on the top for a poke at how old Daddy is, but Jack changed his mind and put an alien toy on top instead. Sometimes I wonder what goes through his mind!

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Honey Dijon Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries and Hazelnuts

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Honey Dijon Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries and Hazelnuts
I was recently browsing around my own site, in particular the recipes page. It was then that I noticed I hardly have any vegetable recipes. I promise, we really do eat veggies, quite a lot actually! Most vegetables we make are pretty simple, roasted or grilled. I guess that is why I haven’t posted more recipes. Continue reading →

Man Crates Challenge

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I have accepted a challenge from the people over at Man Crates. They are a company that makes gifts ideal for men, though I know I wouldn’t mind some of them myself either.

They have a variety of gift packages including themes for the griller, the athlete, the beer enthusiast and so many more options. The best part, the gifts are placed in a crate that the recipient has to pry open. No more boring gifts for the men in your life. The timing is right, my husband turns 40 later this month…a custom over the hill package is tempting!

MAN CRATES MANIFESTO
We say ‘no’ to ugly neckties, cologne samplers and executive trinkets. We don’t save wrapping paper, we don’t do ribbons.

We ship bragworthy gifts for guys. Gifts that you can’t wait to arrive because you know the recipient will love opening them.

Gifts that people gather round at the office, people following the sounds of wood being torn from wood by the included, laser-engraved crowbar.

We are Man Crates, and we deliver awesome gifts for men.

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