Stuffed Shells and Breadsticks

We love to eat so limiting ourselves to a list of one or two favorites isn't something that we readily do however if we did have a list of our favorite meals Stuffed Shells and Bread sticks would definitely be on it.

It makes me feel like I'm eating out because it's something I never thought I'd be able to make - only it costs a lot less and tastes better than if I had gone out to eat (if I had someplace to go...my area is pretty limited on it's dining out options).

Of course part of this is due to the bread sticks...which are incredible. So good in fact that I can't seem to manage taking a picture of all the bread sticks before any of them are eaten. Somehow between pulling them out of the oven and aiming my camera a few of them manage to disappear - no mean feat as they are really hot at that point. I know this from experience. A lot of experience.

Point being if your looking for a little inexpensive extravagance in your life whip up some stuffed shells with bread sticks. It'll make you smile.

About Me (Part 1)

For the last six months or so I've wanted to do a post filled with little tidbits about me or one of the other members of our household - but mostly about me because well I just know the most about me. But then the last six months slipped by in a very silent and unreasonable fashion (my head is still reeling that it is almost August...what happened to February (March...April...)?) and I never pulled the grand vision that was swirling around in my head into a real post. Then today as I sat contemplating what to blog about (since blogging more is a top goal on my list right now) but not wanting to do the amount of work I normally put into a blog post I came up with the idea of breaking this grand idea down into many little posts. Just every now and then throwing out another little tidbit that you may or may not (and possibly don't ever want to...) know about me. This way whenever I'm short on blogging ideas (ha! I've got tons of ideas...) or just being blog lazy (far more likely...) I can just sit down and throw out another little tidbit about me. Everybody with me? Everybody excited!? Here we go!

I LOVE the smell of melting butter.  Actually in all reality I love the smell of many things - bread in the oven, (actually just about anything cooking in the oven when it has reached that moment of done-ness and smells divine - I've noticed that just about all foods have this point, that is the point when they smell done and just when this smell hits the living room I know it's time to pull that sucker out because it's ready for eating. Crazy I know but I've become an olfactic cook), babies skin and hair, babies milky breath (at least breast fed babies...don't know about formula - I don't have any real experience there), homemade chicken noodle soup, wood fires, fires burning in fall, fires burning in winter (yes they smell very different), apple cider - especially in the fall but not limited to just then, rain storms, chipotle...okay I think you get the idea. The point is I love to smell my world even the things I don't like the smell of I'd rather smell them than not. When it comes to the worst diaper changes or cleaning out the mystery smell that has developed in one of the girls car seats rather than in some way blocking my olfactic sense through mouth breathing or some other technique I have an odd need to breathe in through my nose and experience the smell. It's as though that is how I connect to aspects of my life and rather than missing an unpleasant moment I need to breathe it in and store it away in my catalog of experiences/knowledge/skills.

Christmas Favorites: Part 3 - Music

 I've delayed writing this one for a little while. (Partially because I've barely touched my computer in the last week...honestly where has it gone?) I wasn't sure if I should write about my favorite Christmas music because, well quite frankly Christmas music isn't a seasonal thing like decorations for me. It's more like a genre akin to country, pop or rock music. I listen to it at least eight months out of the year - sometimes more. I'm not shy about listening to Christmas music just because I feel like it. It is one of the most listened to playlists on my ipod and the cd's that weren't in storage from March to August. All the time I was thinking about this post I wondered if maybe Christmas music didn't really invoke Christmas for me because I listen to it so often when it's not Christmas. Turns out that isn't true. When I put on 'Sleigh Ride' (done by either The Ronettes or The Boston Pops Orchestra) my heart immediately flutters with joy and my mind shifts over to planning and thinking about all the great things I want to make and do for Christmas. The same can be said for many Christmas songs. Here in no particular order are my top 5 favorite Christmas songs for 2009: (hopefully I can keep it to five ;)

1: Sleigh Ride - I've loved this song forever (okay maybe not forever but at least as long as I've been able to make informed decisions on my preferences...) though to actually make it on this list it has to be either the version done by the Ronettes ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa-hTXE72G0 )or the Boston Pops Orchestra ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4rSocVAD6c ). Nobody else compares to their performances.

2: The Holly and the Ivy - This is a traditional carol from the Renaissance (or so I read somewhere...) and is a little hard to find. Don't know why I just love it. What? Never heard of it? I'm not really surprised I've never heard it on the radio. I stumbled across it when Mycal bought me an obscure Christmas cd. This isn't the best version on YouTube but it's the best with lyrics that I've come across so far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57l6dSbVppM&feature=related

3: Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan doing 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings' - okay so I obviously have a thing for traditional carols - still at least you're likely to hear this one on the radio. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGVNzgUxE-g

4: Josh Groban singing any Christmas music (its okay you can go ahead and laugh). If I had to narrow it down I would say either his version of Silent Night or Believe ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sFcisgUvGo )

5: Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella - This is a new one for me this year. It's also a bit older - originally written in the mid 1500's but the lyrics are great and the music beautiful. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNsrjNi7css )

Wow look at that! I actually kept it to five songs! Okay I'm immensely proud of myself right now. It was hard as there are so many great Christmas songs (runners up include 'Once in Royal David's City, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, and The First Noel). It's hard for me to adequately describe why I enjoy these songs so much. Part of it is the peace and joy with which they fill me...which may be why I listen to them frequently.

Christmas Favorites: Part 2 - Smells

I have been thinking about this post ever since I wrote about one of my favorite Christmas sights. (And I spend a lot of time doing fairly mindless tasks that allow one's mind to ponder deeply so there has been a significant amount of thought put into this, in fact I'd be a little embarrassed to admit just how much thought has gone into this.)  I worked to narrow down what my favorite smells that to me really define Christmas.  At first I thought maybe peppermint or pine - and while these were good they just weren't right.  True they are Christmas-y but they don't invoke memories or really get me into the Christmas spirit.  My next thought was the crisp smell of a cold snowy night or the smell of fires burning.  Both seemed close but were also not quite right.  More than being Christmas smells they were winter smells.  It wasn't until I walked into a bank and it hit me - literally.  As soon as I walked through the doors I could smell Christmas.  What was that smell?...it's exactly what Christmas smells like...memories where flooding in and I know this was the right smell I just couldn't place it.  While scanning for the source of the smell and racking my brain for what it was I spied a sign welcoming all customers to join in this bank's Christmas celebration by enjoying some cookies and wassail.  Wassail! That was it! Being more pungent than spiced cider it is able to fill a whole building with its aroma.  I could not begin to tell you why this smell so strongly invokes memories and thoughts of Christmas for me but it does.  It smells of warmth and special-ness. Yes I'm pretty sure that's not a word...what I'm trying to say is that it's something that you don't smell very often or really at any time other than at Christmas.  It like Christmas is only around once a year. I could walk into a forest and smell pine or a candy store and smell peppermint but for some reason I've only ever smelled wassail in conjunction with Christmas celebrations.

Christmas Favorites Part 1: Sights

There are so many things I love about Christmas but this year everything has been rushing by so fast that I haven't had a chance to really enjoy some of the happiest parts of this season so I thought I would sit down and write about some of my favorite things about this time of year.  Hope this helps spark some memories and get you in the seasonal mood too.

Part one of this is about my favorite Christmas sights.  If somebody where to ask me this question out of the blue without hesitation I would answer that I have two.  First are the lights - especially on Christmas trees.

For me lights twinkling on green branches immediately invokes Christmas. It's always been one of my favorite parts of the season - just staring at the tree all lit up in the mostly dark room.  

There have been many nights throughout the Decembers in my life where I have fallen asleep on the couch because I was mesmerized by the tree lights.  And every year after stringing lights onto the tree - spending hours to make sure they cover it just right, leaving no dark spots or overly bright clusters, the moment I stand back and actually look at the whole thing my heart opens up.  I remember many happy memories from Christmases past including nights spent staring at lights just like these and am filled with the excitement for the potential that this season has.  I think more than anything else lights on my indoor evergreen are the start of Christmas for me.

Samuel Makes Us All Happy

This little guy has completely won over everybody in this house. I think we are all in agreement that he is one of the most amazing people any of us have ever met. He's very relaxed and easy going (Mycal and I love that) always ready to grin (Liberty and Emmuska get endless enjoyment from this...okay I don't know anybody who doesn't get endless joy from this...) He's got a great little laugh and an attitude about him that makes you feel like whatever you do for him is genuinely appreciated. Not to mention he is so incredilby handsome - seriously this guy has it all, charm, charisma, dashing good looks...is there anyone impervious to his spell?

Soak It All In

I'm a fall kind of girl anyway but this fall has been amazing! I've got to say that I have absolutely been loving fall here. I can't believe how different it is from Utah. I mean superficially it seems the same but there are a lot of small things that I've enjoyed. One example would be the whole leaves changing color thing. I've always enjoyed this immensely but I've never really appreciated the orange/brown trees as much as the more vibrant reds and yellows. While I still loved those colors this year I gained a news sense of joy from the aforementioned oranges and browns. The thing about orange and brown leaves here was that the variety in shades (moving from orange to brown) was so perfectly blended that the landscape looked like it was covered in gold. Honestly it was amazing. Every time I went out driving I couldn't get over how beautiful it was. The change in colors made every drive seem new and different. (One time so much so that I missed my turn and drove into another county - all the while literally thinking 'I still can't get over how much the change in colors makes every drive look completely brand new - like I've never been on this road before.' Seriously my exact thought. Sadly it was another five minutes after this thought before I started thinking 'wait a minute...have been on this road before?'. Just for the record I timed myself after turning around and it turned out I was fifteen minutes past my turn. Still it was a lovely drive.)
Another thing I've enjoyed about fall here is how long it seems to last. In Utah it only seems that the colors are really there for a couple of weeks. Even the weather transitions rather quickly from summer to winter. Sure we might get lucky and have a few beautifully warm days after the chill has set in but one must endure a snow fall or two to get them and even still they are too few to really make up for snow in October. (I'm convinced those beautiful days are only thrown in to keep us fall enthusiast from revolting entirely...if there's one thing mother nature doesn't want to deal with it's a picket line...) Here fall has been an actual process that one can take in and enjoy. The leaves slowly changed colors providing ever changing and enchanting views for at least a month and then just as slowly the leaves fell (there are still quite a few hold outs...and they don't even all look dark and dead - they've still retains vibrancy). There have been a lot of rainy days (it's apparently been a very rainy year) but we've also had many gorgeous fall days. I don't know how to describe other than a legitimately paced autumnal season. I'd never realized how sorely lacking Utah was in this department (rushing from summer to winter and all...) but the difference is now glaring to me.
Another difference is that nobody around here rakes up leaves then stuffs them in bags. Honestly nobody. Everybody rakes their leaves up (generally into the ditches that run along both sides of the road) and burn them. This adds to the fall atmosphere by adding that gloriously smoky/earthy smell. I don't think there is any better way to describe it than Autumn.

Pink Burst

I don't know if I can adequately do justice to how much this girl LOVES her pink. This outfit is just one of three different head to toe pink ensembles she picked out for herself in a six day period. (she only has three pairs of pink pants the rest being boring denim or khaki otherwise I'm sure she would have scraped out a few more...) She just can't get enough of it. Under the sweater she is of course wearing a pink shirt and she has the perfect pink accessory in her back pack. I don't know what this girl would have done had white never been mixed with red. An indication of how deep this love runs can be seen in the following interview I did with her back in March (I don't think she'd change many answers...)
Favorite Color: Pink (obviously...)
Favorite Shape: Square (okay I don't know where this one comes from...)
Favorite Animal: Pig (because they are...pink)
Favorite Movie: Charlotte's Web (featuring a pink pig)
Favorite Toy: Her stuffed pigs Pinky and Stinky (and now Oinky the newest in the collection)
Favorite Thing to do: Play on Slides (I'll have to double check but this might have been replaced by making cards with 'sprinkles' that is to say embossing powder. She's pretty fair in this area though picking out any color that has sparkles...)
Favorite Beverage: 'Pink' (strawberry) Milk
Favorite Food: Noodles (unfortunately for her the cup-o-noodles that are packaged in pink writing are shrimp so she hasn't managed to talk me into buying that pink food item...yet...)
There you have it - my pink girl. Liberty on the other hand has decided that her favorite color is whatever isn't pink. I don't think this has anything to do with an aversion to the color as she will happily pick out pink clothes to wear, I just think she has gotten used to getting whatever wasn't pink (if I pull out two bowls a pink and an orange than Emmuska gets the pink and Liberty gets the orange...Emmuska has a pink plate and Liberty has a green plate...) and she has begun to make her decisions accordingly. It doesn't seem to have done any real damage as she still has a very solid opinion about what she wants and will let me know if I've done it wrong (just you try to give her pink milk instead of chocolate...)
And since I used these shots to illustrate one of Emmuska's pink outfits I have to tell you how funny it was when she fell asleep at her art desk. I was laughing so hard because first of all she dropped in the middle of talking to me - which does happen occasionally but still makes me laugh. Second because the desk angles down slightly so the pull of gravity combined with a slick hardwood floor was causing her stool to push out away from the desk so she was constantly getting further away from her sleeping surface - which made for some great moments as she tried to catch a few z's without finding herself face first on the floor. (Being a good mommy after I had my fill of pictures I picked her up and carried her to her bed where she was able to nap comfortably.)

Hear Hear

I saw this ad while waiting at my doctor appointment today. I haven't seen any other photo ads like this one from the current Hidden Valley campaign but can't forget the television one I saw a couple of years ago where at an outdoor carnival all the traditional treats have been replaced with veggies - displayed in such a way that one could easily see why anybody would switch their box of popcorn for a box of cauliflower. This great picture of broccoli 'cupcakes' was a wonderful reminder. What I love about these ads are how almost completely accurate they are (besides making food look astonishingly glorious.) I'm not saying the broccoli are really replacing cupcakes just that it's amazing how great veggies taste with Hidden Valley. (Side story here - I explained this to my mom while I was staying with her insisting that veggies are better with Hidden Valley which turned into a bit of a joke between us. A few weeks after this assertion my sister was visiting dinner was accompanied by a salad. Not normally a salad eater she began serving herself seconds off-handedly mentioning that there was something about this salad that made it really good - nothing like salads she normally consumed. I would love to say that it was because I'm an awesome salad maker but it was just some romaine with carrots (there were red bell peppers too but she had picked those out...) so I felt completely justified in the gratification of being right on this point. My mom and I shared a good laugh over the spontaneous and unwitting endorsement of my favorite veggie accessories.) I'm not sure when I discovered this truth - probably about four years ago - but since stumbling across this fact of life I've experimented with other ranches 'just to see'. While some are pretty good nothing quite compares. I love my Hidden Valley. Now I just need to go pick up some fresh broccoli.

And on that note

I have to tell you all how much I love Disney's 'Meet the Robinsons'. It is one of the funniest shows I have seen in a while - as far as a genre goes it might surpass 'Hoodwinked' for me. I absolutely love the story, characters, and message. I can't stop quoting it - and I've got Emmuska doing it with me. It's hilarious family fun.