Have you heard?

New things are going on around this casa, Mama's got a new job. I'm back at with a big girl grown up job that requires regular hours. I have to say so far I'm liking it. The kids seem good with it and the Mr., I'm sure he loves it. So maybe this little creative outlet of mine will start to serve a purpose again. Having something new in my life has made me feel refreshed in other ways. So no I won't be whipping out the sewing machine or baking cookies for everyone in the neighborhood but I will be more thoughtful with my time. I've found when I have less time, I'm more creative. So hopefully I'll be checking in here a little more often. 

For now I'm feeling nesty and ready for fall so let's bring on the brown butter cinnamon rice krispy treats and hot cider! I'll just  pretend it wasn't 97 yesterday.

(PS - I used this picture before however it was perfect for today's post. A little recycle, no big. )

My fall baking plan

Being a mom is not for wimps. I'm sure everyone on the planet knows this but it's worth saying just one more time. The tedium of naps and diapers evolves into homework, sports and trying to help these small humans grow into a decent adults. Trying to keep them on track with homework and helping them navigate life without overstepping; letting them find their own way is a job in itself. It's like a giant act sometimes when you try to stay cool while inside you're cringing, steaming or laughing. The laughing is the best part so it takes the sting away from the moments that are not so hot. 

The kids have been in school for a month and thankfully life is settling into a routine. Routine I like, routine the kids like. So the ripping out my hair crazy person last week has morphed into "let's do this" mom. I like her much better, she's definitely much nicer.So when life settles and I feel nice I bake things. Baking for me is relaxing, making dinner NOT relaxing. I wish we could eat these Chai Spiced Sugar cookies I plan on making for dinner. I think a balanced meal is highly overrated. 

{recipe and image from My Baking Addiction}

I'm bribing, any takers?

We don't have a pool because  I didn't want one when the kids were little. I was too scared of what could happen when they weren't good swimmers but now I long for a pool. No pool means we're at the mercy of our kind hearted friends and family. I will be calling begging for the brood to come over. I certainly don't want to wear out my welcome so we'll be the family bearing treats. Here are a few of the things that might be coming up this summer for pool bribery.

Any icy cocktail always works right? A libation will loosen anyone up even for my little crazies. I'll take on that challenge, I'l be the one who brings the good drinks! Mango Jalapeno Margs, Strawberry Rhubarb Sangria? Umm, hells yes.

Wanna keep things lively? Play Uno. I'm telling you to bring the cards! It fool proof.

Bocce works too but cards are more my style. The dudes seem to like it though.

If all else fails sweet treats! Homemade ice cream if possible. There is NOTHING better. I'm partial to Summer Peach but Mexican Chocolate (with Almonds OMG) also sounds amaze.

Summer motto : Be Prepared. 

Eat it :: Rhubarb

Thank you Pinterest for coming to my rescue with summer recipes in my favorite flavor. RHUBARB!

Rhubarb Strawberry Meringue Pie

Rhubarb Macarons (with helpful macaron baking tips here)

Rhubarb Bars

Rhubarb Liqueur

Rhubarb Bitters

Looks like I'll be enjoying cocktails and treats only. Totally fine by me!

I'd like a dutch baby

I've been waking up too early for my taste. Sometimes I can fall back asleep and other times no. These 4 am wake up calls are beginning to get to me!

This is one of my all time favorite pins. Love it for my early mornings, ha!

The other night the kids spent the night at my moms and she made these for them in the morning. They were so pretty and more importantly really yummy. Just something you might want to try when you want to be a little more fancy than regular old pancakes. I wish I would have snapped a picture because they were insanely cute in their individual gratin dishes. Leave it to my mom to have the pretty table setting for my little messies.  

Sunday Pancakes by sarahsfabday on polyvore.com

Here's a little sample of something similar to what I would expect from my mom. Simple shapes with lots of bright cheery color, great way to start a Sunday morning. Click through for shopping details.

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Make It :: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Curry and Coconut Milk

This is my latest obsession. I've been making it every week and I think I finally got the recipe just about perfect.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Curry and Coconut Milk

(adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)

1 Butternut squash
3 Tbl. butter
1 Medium onion, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbl fresh minced garlic
1/2 Tbl minced fresh ginger
1/2 Tbl curry powder
5 cups chicken stock
1 cup coconut milk (I use the light coconut milk)


Preheat oven to 375. Cut squash in half and remove strings and seeds. Place each squash half face down on on baking sheet with sides. Add 1/2 cup water to baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes. After squash is roasted and cooled, scoop out flesh and set aside.

Put butter in saucepan over medium-high heat. When butter is melted add chopped onion and cook, stirring occasionally until onion is cooked about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add squash, garlic, ginger and curry powder and cook until fragrant about 2 minutes. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer and cover and let cook for about 10 minutes.

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup in the pan. Add coconut milk, season to taste and and keep on low heat for another 10-15 minutes so the flavors meld.

*Cooks note:  An immersion blender is invaluable kitchen tool if you love to make soup. Everything can be made in one pot so it makes life and cleanup much easier.

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Eat it :: Cornbread

Before the Littles hit the street for trick or treating we're having soup and cornbread for dinner. This is my hands down favorite cornbread recipe. When I make it, I eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner until it's gone. With lots of butter of course.  I like to share so here is the recipe just in case you need to make something tonight.

Cornbread

• Preheat oven to 325.
• 1/2 C Butter
• 1/2 C Sugar
• 4 Eggs
• 4 oz Green Chiles
• 1 can Cream Style Corn
• 1/2 C Shredded Jack Cheese
• 1/2 C Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 1 C Flour
• 1 small box Cornbread mix (I use Jiffy)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp Salt

Mix butter, sugar and eggs, adding eggs one at time. Then add green chiles, corn and cheese. Mix in flour, cornbread mix, baking powder and salt. Grease and flour 13x9 pan. Bake for 55 minutes.

PS - Why is Trader Joe's so awesome?! Washed and cut Kale? Love it. Thank goodness for them now it's even easier for me to get it into the meals since we like to eat cornbread and all. Are you all in love with TJ's as much as I am?

Read It :: Green Kitchen Stories

I love reading food blogs, especially veggie ones. I do my best to keep a healthy bend to my cooking so when I happen upon vegetarian cooking coupled with great photos I'm excited, new recipes to try! My latest blog crush is on Green Kitchen Stories. She's the recipe experimenter and he's a magazine editor; hence the great eye for styling and photography. They're cute, so go and read!

{all photos from Green Kitchen Stories}

Salad for Crabs

It's hot and I'm crabby.

You know what they say, if you can't say anything nice...soooo I won't say much. But this salad looks yummy, easy and more importantly assemble only no heat!

Make it :: Lyon Roasted Chicken

I know big deal Roasted Chicken (it looks fabulous), but I loved how AmberLee at Giverslog decided to make it after reading Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. Deciding to try something based on what you've read in a book is not only fun but a tribute to a great author if their words have made you long to try what they're eating.

I'm currently in the middle of A Moveable Feast and I adore it. I should say I've been in the middle for about a two months because I started to read it just after reading The Paris Wife. I decided that I needed a break from the Hemingways so I could really get to Ernest Hemingway's voice without Paula McClain's mixed in there. So I'm back to A Moveable Feast and I'll admit I never really wanted to read Hemingway. I've always read the classics but I've always skipped works by him, his larger than life, macho persona preceded his novels and turned me off. Anyways Ernest sorry I gave you the blow off because you're pretty cool despite your boozy philandering. I might even make a chicken in your honor!

{image and recipe from Giverslog}

Brown Bag Microwave Popcorn

Did you all know that Little eats next to nothing? Unfortunately one of his yes foods is popcorn. I don't mind giving him popcorn as a snack but I do mind all of the additives in microwave popcorn, gross. Yes I know it's an easy fix just get an air popper...but I always hesitated because I really don't need one more thing to clutter up my kitchen. Happy day now because my friend Christina makes her kiddos popcorn like this.

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We tried it today, success!  Here's her recipe.

Brown Bag Microwave Popcorn

1/3 cup popcorn kernels

little bit of olive oil

salt

Add all of the ingredients in the bag. Fold the bag over twice and sit upright in the microwave. All microwaves are different but I would just cook on high between 2 and 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

{image via Feed Me I'm Cranky}

Get it :: Swissmar Peelers

This time of year I often hear people bemoaning the fact that they fell off of the good eating wagon. Vacays are coming up, trips that involve swimsuits and beaches. Aaahh! Well here is a little tip that might help with that and it's super easy. Get these Swissmar Peelers, I'm loving the julienne peeler. Perfect for those chopped veggie salads that are so fun to eat but such a pain to make, without having to get out the food processor or mandolin.

This will make it much easier, promise. Just doing my part to help with the vacay plans. Don't forget the salad recipes here's a few oldies but goodies from Mark Bittman.

Tuscan Kale Salad

Saturday I made my way to True Food Kitchen (Andrew Weil's collaboration with Fox Restaurants) and I had to get my favorite Tuscan Kale Salad. I just knew I would find it online so here's the recipe so we can all enjoy it's tastiness while feeling smugly superior for being so healthy.

{image from here}

Ingredients

4-6 cups kale, loosely packed, sliced leaves of Italian black (Lacinato, "dinosaur," cavolo nero) midribs removed juice of 1 lemon 3-4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 2 cloves garlic, mashed salt & pepper, to taste hot red pepper flakes, to taste 2/3 cup grated Pecorino Toscano cheese (Rosselino variety if you can find it) or other flavorful grating cheese such as Asiago or Parmesan 1/2 cup freshly made bread crumbs from lightly toasted bread

Instructions

Whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and a generous pinch (or more to taste) of hot red pepper flakes. Pour over kale in serving bowl and toss well. Add 2/3 of the cheese and toss again. Let kale sit for at least 5 minutes. Add bread crumbs, toss again, and top with remaining cheese.

Eat it :: Foster's Homemade Granola

Christmas mornings are spent at my parents. At Mom's Santa brings your gifts all set up and ready to play with. The kids play with their gifts while the adults attempt to wake up (usually after a late night of elf duty) with their coffee, then we open gifts one by one in age order. The youngest starts and everyone gets a chance to ooh and ahh over each person's present. After all of the gifts are opened we have a big Christmas brunch of my mom's most delicious Eggs Benedict. The only problem with this is as kids the first course was usually the goodies that were in our stockings; for some reason it took us years to wise up and we decided we needed a more substantial snack before brunch. So we came up with yogurt parfaits with homemade granola. Specifically the Foster's Market recipe. It's delish and I'll admit I skip the last step and don't add the dried fruit, not because I don't like dried fruit just because I want to get my hands on it! Here's the recipe just in case you decide you need yogurt and granola on Christmas morning too.

Foster's Homemade Granola
Makes about 6 cups

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup shredded sweetened coconut

1 cup sliced almonds1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

¼ cup canola or safflower oil, plus more for greasing the pan

¾ cup maple syrup

¼ cup honey

½ cup dried cherries or cranberries

½ cup dried apricots, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 275°F.

2. Spread the oats, coconut, and almonds on a large baking sheet with sides. Sprinkle with salt and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the ingredients are lightly toasted but not yet golden. Transfer the ingredients to a large bowl.

3. Increase the oven temperature to 350°F. Lightly grease the baking sheet with oil or spray with vegetable oil spray.

4. Stir the maple syrup, oil, and honey together in a small bowl, pour over the oats, nuts, and coconut, and toss to coat evenly. Spread the granola onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the granola is just crispy and golden brown, stirring several times while baking. Let the granola cool completely on the baking sheet, breaking up any large clumps while it is still warm.

5. When the granola has cooled completely, add the cherries and dried apricots and toss to mix. In an airtight container, this will keep at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Eat it :: More Pumpkin

You all may be getting tired of my pumpkin love affair but I heard Dorie Greenspan and Michele Norris talking about this pumpkin recipe on All Things Considered today and I couldn't help myself.

Seriously doesn't this look divine? The recipe is called Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good and by the looks of it I'll have to agree. You'll have to listen to the segment the way they talk about crispy bacon and the dish in general will make you swoon.

What's been going on

So things are not so hot with the SFD computer. I somehow got some malware on it and it's now out of commish until I can get it taken care of. Yuck. In other news the littles and I have big plans to make a pumpkin pie this afternoon. They've never been fans of it but maybe if they make it, they'll at least give it a try. I need them to like it because I will eat the whole thing myself. I love a cold piece of pumpkin pie with coffee in the morning. You should try it, you won't be disappointed. The weather here has finally cooled off and all of last week I made sure to dress in jeans and long sleeve shirts. It might be a little nuts for weather in the 70's but I'm so done with the hot weather. I'll just pretend it's a little cooler until it finally gets there. With the weather comes the soup, I love a good soup! I saw this Cauldron Curry on Martha and it looks yum. I bet I would be the only one to eat it though because of the curry. I live with a bunch of pickies.
I don't think that I mentioned on Thursday it was my anniversary. 10 big ones folks. Mr. SFD took me out to dinner on Friday night to a restaurant I've been dying to try called Noca. If you're in the Phoenix area you must go because it's so good. I ordered their tasting menu with the wine pairing and I'm still dreaming of my pumpkin soup served in a mini pumpkin. Dreaming of how good it was not to mention the cuteness factor was beyond. It's been ten years since I married the best guy ever. Not only am I lucky to have such a great partner in parenting he makes getting older so much easier. Hanging with him everyday makes me happy, each year is better and goes by faster. So thanks Mr. for being so cool.

Eat it :: Pumpkin

Like many of you I'm completely enamoured with pumpkins this time of year. Not just the sweet ones used for decorations but the ones that you eat! I've already made pumpkin risotto (this time I did puree the pumpkin and it was a hit) and today it was pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (This is the recipe I used but I followed the cook's notes on the first comment and substituted white whole wheat flour.)

{Not my pic but they sure look an awful lot like mine}

Next up a pumpkin pie and pumpkin soup.

Try it :: Jelly Shot Test Kitchen

Remember last October when I was dying to make these spooky jello shots? Now I've got something similar but a tad more sophisticated. Jelly Shot Test Kitchen. You heard that right peeps, classic and not-so-classic cocktails made into jelly shots complete with glam garnishes so they'll look right at home at your swanky cocktail party.

{Grasshopper & Pink Squirrel}

{Luckytini}

{Cosmopolitan}

I'm hosting a group of gals for my sister's bachelorette party in town in a few weeks and the Friday night we're staying in and these might be perfect for our evening. Although the theme of the evening is Trashy Bachelorette so maybe the old school jello shots in the little paper cups topped with whip cream from the can would be more appropriate.

{via Live Love Photography}

Happy eating...oh yeah I mean Labor Day

Hope your Labor Day is labor free! I've just been coasting through the weekend or actually eating my way through it. It all started with a Wednesday lunch at Nobuo with the darling Jaimee.

If you're a Phoenix local you must go there! I had the tofu salad and we shared the short rib steamed buns which were deee-licious! We ate them so fast there was no time to snap a picture. Oh and I can't forget dessert because it's not a girly lunch without dessert.

Friday, The Coffee Shop with Little, Mom, my brother and my sweet nephew B. Their scones are to-die. Seriously. (You can also see The Coffee Shop ladies on Cupcake Wars.)

Saturday after pilates I had to go to Essence Bakery for an almond croissant with a side of caramel macaron. Bad, bad bad.

Last night we had my parents over for dinner and my mom brought the stuff for Iceberg-Blue Cheese Salad and Creamless Creamed Corn (recipes from this month's Elle Decor)and we grilled chicken. The salad and the corn, YUM.

I haven't checked the menu for tonight I'm crossing my fingers that it includes a grilled burger, preferably with grilled onions and blue cheese. So now you know what I've been doing (stuffing my face), what's up with you?

Eat it :: Pavlova

My mom's famous Pavlova recipe made it's debut today.

Get it HERE.