Happy Halloween!

I haven't handed out candy since high school! I can't wait to see all the costumes tonight. Here's our spooky yard:

Have you seen these pumpkins by Ray Villafane? Amazing!

I feel like ours is pretty close...

;)

Happy trick or treating!

Ahh the Weekend...

We threw a Halloween housewarming party on Saturday night. There were some pretty awesome costumes- Michelle and Barack Obama, pirates, Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat, and a sexy saxophone player who got Careless Whisper stuck in my head for the rest of the weekend. My cousin and I, much to both our surprise, both dressed up as flapper girls.

Graveyard Dirt Cake

I was racking my brain about what to do with the chocolate cake that's been in my freezer (besides eating the whole thing while watching Magic Mike in my sweatpants) when a graveyard dirt cake came to mind. Normally, I put dirt cake in plant pot and decorate it with flowers, but with a baby cookie tombstone and a gummy worm, it makes the perfect treat for our Halloween party this weekend.

I used Martha's dirt cake recipe and added crumbled chocolate cake to the Oreo layer.

Have a great weekend!

Bluberry Tea

See this?

That, my friends, is blueberry tea weather. To me, they don't really taste anything like blueberries. However, they are delicious and scientifically proven* to warm you up from head to toe and help you sleep.

Blueberry Tea
1-1 1/2 c. Orange pekoe tea, prepared
1 oz. Grand Marnier
1 oz. Amaretto
Optional: cinnamon, orange peel

Pour Grand Marnier and Amaretto in a glass. Add tea. Garnish with cinnamon and orange peel. Enjoy with slippers and a good book.

*not actually, but it always works for me ;)

Ahh the Weekend...

That weekend went by way too fast!

It was a busy one filled with great things. A return to Saturday circuit class, drinks with friends that we missed all summer, and a familia style dinner of fresh pasta, caesar salad with homemade dressing, and lots of vino.

Happy Friday!

What's up for the weekend? I've got book club, a bit of Halloween shopping, and my darling friend Sarah is coming over on Sunday to take engagement photos.

I'll leave you with this super cute video of Cookie the penguin.

And my own penguin experience at the Calgary Zoo!

Have a great weekend!

The French Fry Solution

Argg. Do you ever have weeks where absolutely nothing you cook turns out? I tried to make squash muffins before camping and they turned into dry, awful, dust bombs. I tried to make this butternut squash dish last night...

...looks delicious, right? Here's how mine turned out (of no fault to the original poster. My squash just refused to cooperate):

Not eating out/ordering in is starting to try my patience. The solution? French fries. Isn't it always? We very rarely eat potatoes, but after getting them every week for the last 14 weeks from our CSA, our crisper is full of them. Enter Gwyneth Paltrow in all her GOOP-y wisdom. Her tip is to soak the potatoes in cold water before baking them. This removes some of the starch and gives you crispy fries without the grease.

The ingredients are subject to how many people you're trying to feed and how big your potatoes are.

Baked French Fries
Potatoes
olive oil
salt

Preheat oven to 450. Cut potatoes into fries and soak in a bowl of ice water. Let them soak until the water gets a bit cloudy. Drain the water and soak again for about 5 minutes. Lay the potatoes on a paper towel and dry well. Toss them in olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Spread potatoes in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Cook for 20 minutes flipping them about half-way through.

Ahh the Weekend...

We took a beautiful drive up to Caroline to spend the weekend at a friend's cabin.

Quadding, fireworks, s'mores, and card games-all the camping essentials. Thanks Deana and Cole for being such great hosts!

Dylan/Knopfler

We're off to the Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler show tonight, so I put a little playlist together inspired by the two of them.

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Dylan/Knopfler

Most Like You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)/Mark Ronson Remix

Romeo and Juliet/The Killers

They've Trapped Us Boys/Jakob Dylan

It Ain't Me Babe/Johnny Cash and June Carter

Baby Let Me Follow You Down (Concet Version)/The Band feat. Bob Dylan

The Boxer/Mumford and Sons, Paul Simon

January Wedding/The Avett Brothers

Handle With Care/Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins

You can listen to it here.

Leftover Turkey Curry

Happy belated Thanksgiving! We took the long weekend to relax. We woke up late, drank coffee in our PJs, and watched movies. But no Thanksgiving is complete without a big turkey dinner and all the fixins.

We were lucky enough to leave Eric's brother's house with a big bag of leftover turkey. I decided to make turkey curry based on this recipe. After tasting it, I decided to add in a few extra ingredients to deepen the flavor.

Turkey Curry
1 large onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 tsp. coconut oil (or oil of your choice)
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 inch piece fresh gingerroot, peeled and quartered
1 jalapeno pepper, quartered and seeded
1 tbsp. curry powder
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 c. low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 c. coconut milk, unsweetened
1 banana, ripe, sliced
1/4 c. shredded coconut
1 1/2 tbsp. cashew butter (or nut butter of your choice)
2 c. cooked turkey meat, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 c. spinach, chopped
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
Optional- chopped cashews or almonds, raisins, lime juice

Heat oil in a medium saucepan. Place red pepper and onion in a food processor. Pulse until just chopped. Add to the oil and cook until just soft- about 5-7 minutes.
Place ginger, garlic and jalapeno in the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add to the peper mixture. Stir in curry powder and coriander. Cook until fragrant- about 2 minutes. Add chicken broth, coconut milk and banana. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally until the bananas are soft. Stir in the coconut, nut butter, turkey and spinach. Cook until warmed through. add salt to taste.
Serve over by itself or over rice. Top with chopped nuts, raisins and lime juice (optional).

Goals

Back in January I set some goals for the year. In true procrastinator fashion, I left the majority of them until October. How is it already October, by the way?!

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Here's where I'm at:

• Go an entire month without eating out or ordering in. As much as I love eating out I think it'll be a fun challenge to cook everything at home. Not only will it be healthier, but a lot cheaper! - Partially accomplished. We started on Monday and are going all of October without eating out or ordering in.
• Run a couple of 10k races- preferably somewhere new. I like 10kms. It's challenging while still being enjoyable. Part of me thinks I should try for the half marathon, but the other part of me, the part that includes the lungs, legs and brain, thinks that might be a terrible idea.- Nope. Pretty much the exact opposite actually. I ran one 5k race in the same place I did the 10k last year. Oops.
• Cook something in a water bath. As soon as a recipe calls for a water bath-I'm out, but not this year. Creme brulee, here we come.  Done!
• Take a class. I'm not sure what it will be yet, maybe photography or Photoshop 101, maybe another wine course, but I'm going to learn something new.- Nope. Not even close. I missed the canning class I wanted to take- AGAIN. I'm thinking an Indian cooking class might be a good substitute for our Sunday night Moti Mahal ritual this month.
• Have friends over more often. This one can never really be fully accomplished, but having a new place has brought lots of visitors.

To quote the ever-talented Meatloaf, 'two out of three ain't bad.' Except in this case it's three out of five, but you get the idea.

Ahh the Last Two Weeks...

Well, that was a bit longer of a break than I had planned. The first week was crazy with the move and so on, and then I just straight up couldn't find my computer (along with a long list of other things). Truth be told, I kind of liked not having it. Even after being gone for two weeks, not too much happened. I made these curried lentils and these carnitas, and my Mom and Dad were our first overnight guests for an early family Thanksgiving.

I was feeling like a bad Aunt for not having any toys in the yard, but once the cardboard boxes came out, none were even needed.