happy new year!

well, in some ways, 2011 went by in a flash.  to close it all up this year, we had a wonderful, non-stop celebration for christmas in RI and mike and i are about to have an appetizer party for two, to ring in the new year.  i'm at the end of a cold and didn't want to push it so we are staying in our cozy home tonight and making: dumplings, quinoa gryere cakes, roasted chickpeas, and kale chips.  i may cheat and have a sip of bubbly (two sips, fine)!

2011 brought a lot of joy, a few new babies to our friends, a bit of vacation traveling (DC, DR, Cape Cod), and some serious cancer butt-kicking action.  i will be making black eyed peas tomorrow, in hopes for some 2012 luck!

Happy New Year!

this outfit is a long story!

someone getting the hang of opening presents

someone really loving presents

i ate Way too many of these!

stocking time for the barkers

cutie cheeks!

and more presents!

dad enjoying the wild joyous sound of happy kids!

{this moment} with my new fancy bundt pan!

Inspired by SouleMama:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

happy holidays!

see you in 2012!!

joy and cheer

I am feeling very festive this week.  I just recevied good scan news and now I am ready to celebrate! I have been doing a lot of shopping and making and wrapping and sewing.  I have been thinking of goals for the new year.  Mike found the best tree ever and our little home is all lit up.  I am hoping to do a little baking this week too.  Can't wait to spend some time with the family in just a few days! 

Merry Winter!

best tree ever

                                      

Homemade salt scrub for friends at work

                                    

Donna's holiday cheese art 

                                        

merry winter card making with jessie

{this moment}

A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

growing

I do love being an aunt.  Literally a few hours after posting the adorable, brief video of my two littlest nephews from a year ago, I was 'facetiming' on my iphone with both of my nephews, playing together.  Technology is bizarre! Here is a screen shot of our video chatting session! Look how big they are now!!  Kisses!

I usually participate in the Friday ritual of {this moment} but I literally did not take one photo this week...It has been one of those weeks...Instead, I decided to look back at last year in my photo files.  My sister-in-law started blog posts called "flashbacks" to see what was happening about a year ago. So I found a few photos of our pretty tree from just about last year, this week.  Then I found this short video of my two littlest nephews (3 days apart).   Look at these two little bald giggly babies!! They were just barely sitting on their own! Now, these two are running, talking, and being wild!!

tis the season already

Thanksgiving flew by.  I guess I have been stuck in the mode of enjoying the moment instead of documenting and posting here...which is fun too.  But I have been slacking with the camera these days.  We went to Mike's mom's house for turkey day and had a wonderful visit with the family.  The power went out for an hour thanksgiving morning, which livened up the party a bit.  We ate a ton of food and pie. We fulfilled one of the thankgsiving day traditions and went bowling that night.  (I think I need some bowling lessons...)  We went to see the Muppets! Then I got to spend some holiday crafting time with Jessie, making holiday cards and homemade moisturizer.

And all of a sudden, it is December, I really want a christmas tree, and I have a massive amount of holiday things to do!!  Mike and I started the season by making a home brew of spirited eggnog which will age for 3 weeks and be ready for Christmas eve.  We have a lot and it is really strong so be ready for some good spirits!

THREE years babe.

I really can't believe it is our third wedding anniversary!  I love the photos I posted for our 2nd anniversary.  This year, Mike found us a lovely, romantic spot to celebrate.  He was trying to save it as a surprise but couldn't hold on very long.  We celebrated a few days early since we will be traveling today for the holiday.  We went to this authentic mexican restuarant (a little theme we have going) up on a hill that is literally right across from the Empire State Building, on the water.  We went really early, so we could get a window seat and see the view in the light first.  As we sat through dinner, it slowly turned dark outside, and we watched Manhattan turn on all of its lights and start glowing in the night.  The view was fabulous.  We ordered guacamole first.   A waiter came over to our table with a tray holding: choppoed chiles, limes, salt, pepper, avacadoes, and a big mortar and pestle, and made the guacamole right in front of us.  It was the best guacamole I have ever had.  Then we ate yummy authentic Mexican meals and shared delicious flan at the end.  We walked around a bit, looking at the Manhattan skyline, all glittering with lights.  It was a lovely evening, celebrating three years of marriage.

Thanks Mike, for being the absolute best partner ever.  We may have been handed a huge challenge, but we are making it happen every day. Happy Three YearS!

pumpkins and squash, some treasures

Well, I can't believe it, but winter is just around the corner.  The autumn season flew by faster than summer, it seems. A whole lot of fall fun and love to be thankful for...

A few fall treasures:

• making butterut squash pear bisque from this cookbook on many nights after a long day at work.  i used a butternut squash trick from here.  Instead of spending all of that time peeling the squash, you just cut it in half, bake it cut side down on a cookie sheet for 40 or so minutes at 375.  While it bakes, you can get the rest of the soup together.  Scoop out the soft squash after it cools right into your soup and blend away!
• Mock Thanksgiving - some what of a tradition at donna's house.  she hosts a few weeks before the real day.  It is festive and fun to visit with everyone and we get to eat thanksgiving dinner twice this month!! Oh and there is a christmas cracker moment - which involves a paper crown wearing contest.  I did not win this year. 

• acorn squash seeds - roasted with salt and paprika - YUM
• sewing and knitting on these chilly evenings as it gets dark earlier and earlier
• this amazing tree - i used to look at it from my home office when we lived across the street.  now i can see it from my bedroom window! the yellows and reds have been making my commute to work so much more enjoyable than usual. 

• The many visits to my farmers' market this fall; getting so much that I could barely carry it all back to my car! 
• Some lovely nephew time, playing in the sunny, fall leaves 
• Pumpkin cranberry muffins using this recipe (substituted 1/4 brown sugar + 1/4 maple syrup for the honey - so less sugar overall and added cranberries from the farmers market and skipped the walnuts!)
• Milk Oolong tea that Mike bought me from a fancy tea place in DC

• Getting ready and excited for visiting for thanksgiving and then for christmas!

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

 (photo taken by my bro - don't want him to get mad for not crediting him!)

DC

I had a meeting in DC this week, so Mike and I drove down early and explored.  We went to the Newseum, drove by the 'Watergate' Hotel and gazed at the Potomac River with colorful trees behind it.  We went to the National Gallery of Art, which might be one of my favorites.  I had never been to the East Building, which contains a fascinating Matisse exhibit and a sparkly lit walkway between the two Buildings, created by Leo Villareal, and an awesome sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy.  I can't believe I had never been to that side of the museum!  

Saturday night, we strolled through DuPont Circle and ate an incredible dinner at an Italian resutaurant - one of the best meals we have had in a really long time.  After some sleep and breakfast, we spent some time at the newly constructed Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial.

After Mike left, I spent a few days attending my conference and finding yummy delicious food, a very special cupcake, freshly made orange soda with just squeezed OJ, and walking around in the beautiful, sunny weather.  I would totally move to DC.  I love it!

weekends

A week ago, Mike, Donna, Michael and I walked a 5K for breast cancer in north Jersey.  OK, I didn't exactly make the entire walk (kind of lame) because of my medication feet pain.  But it was a beautiful fall day and we walked along a river and it felt great. I even got a medal from the survivor tent!! Oh, yes.

The highlight of this past weekend was Major Italian night at donna's.  Eggplant, meatballs, and sunday sauce.  I didn't even have time to take a picture because we were all standing around waiting to dig in.  Mike was fasting all day.  And we got the door prize - the extra tray of eggplant!  I love being Italian.

I managed to do a little baking and writing and napping as well, this weekend.

And roasted a whole bunch of farmers' market fall veggies!

new recipe

I find new recipes on line every day.  I have 100's bookmarked and starred in my email inbox.  I also have a very nice collection of cookbooks...And some weeks, I never try a new recipe.  I want to but for one reason or another, I continue to flag new bites and never actually try most of them.  So, I am going to set an intention to try one fun new recipe a week (at least) from blogs or my cookbooks.

This week, I made pumpkin bread, because I love pumpkin.  I didn't use my cookbooks or any flagged blog pages, but used a recipe sent from my sister, Amy.  It was a yummy bread.  I decreased the sugar by half (!),  added a few chocolate chips instead of walnuts, and used a mix of whole wheat pastry, whole wheat, and all purpose flours.  Yum!

Here is the recipe in case you are in the mood for cranking your oven!

{this moment} - mike's moment actually

Inspired by SouleMama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

This is actually Mike's moment, yesterday, in Paterson, near his office.  Can you believe this is 10 miles from my house?!

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

weekend things

It is approaching Sunday evening, and I am totally exhausted.  I had a whole meal planned out for tonight, but my energy is zapped.  I was thinking about how I bookmark endless new recipes but never get around to them, so I want to start picking one new recipe a week.  Dinner was going to include a new one... Then, as I sank into the couch, thinking about making dinner, Mike sang a song about ordering Chinese food.  And guess what is on its way?! We did realize though, we haven't ordered Chinese since moving to our new place, which was in May. So we are overdue...and now I can spend what energy I have left on my sewing homework!

additionally, this weekend:

Dinner and a movie Saturday night at Donna's which included chili and all of the fixings you can imagine.

Mums outside and mums in the kitchen!

Sunny, warm weather shining into our home all weekend long

Pumpkins and squash

fall...hair...kitchen...short weekend

Have I told you what a bummer it is to lose your hair?  Some days, it is extremely difficult to deal with it.  I think I need an anti-hair loss mantra today...I will try to think one up. In the meantime, the more fun stuff...hobbies, cooking, crafty projects, pumpkins, finishing a 350-page grant that might bring 5 years of funding to my position, and tea with friends!!

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

(this is obvisouly not from my week, but I am slowly recovering old slides from the 70's and am enjoying this one this week)

tired but grateful

I always talk about gratefuls...but it helps...Working this past Saturday was difficult, after an extremely busy work week which included getting up at 5am one morning and working until 8 or 9 pm several days, I mean nights.  However, I was able to get away and visit 2 farmers markets this week.  It had been a whole month without any farmers market visits! That is too long, especially now that we are in serious harvet mode.  So, working in my office Saturday was a little better since I was snacking on farmers' treats and had this guy on my desk to make me happy.

When I was walking into the office with my first pumpkin of the season (there will be many more), a friend asked what I was going to do with it.  I said I would be placing it on my desk for happy viewing!!

6-day work weeks will be my norm now and indefinately.  It is serious dissertation writing time, and the bulk of this writing is going to happen on Saturdays.  I will need to find things to make me happy, to get through! I envision treats, special tea, and more pumpkins...Oh, and coming home Saturday night to a home cooked meal by Mike, what a lovely surprise!!

to the kitchen

after vacation, i always crave some time in my kitchen.  eating out is good for only so long.  breakfast was in separate segments today, our last day of vacation.  first, baked chocolate donuts.  here is the recipe, very low sugar and i used even a bit less than called for.  just a tiny bit of icing and coconut on top. they were delicious while they were here!  i think these will appear in my kitchen again very soon.  next, italian toast with homemade peach butter.  i used a few recipes as a guide, one from august bon appetit.  a lovely article on perserving, take a look. hard boiled eggs to finish it off...coffee and tea throughout.  hmm, now it seems to be lunch time...