Unseasonably Warm

It has been unseasonably warm seemingly everywhere. 
Today was:

A hike at Castlewood State Park

Mac and cheese with spinach, broccoli, and zucchini: 

Yesterday was hanging with C man, a walk in Tower Grove Park with Gertie, and sleeping in. 

And for New Year's Eve, we hung with some friends, and I made Tres Leches Cupcakes. 

 The last day of the year, we ate outside with no jackets. 

With our new Nate-made mugs! 

I could get used to sleeping in, cooking, running and hanging with Robin and the pup!

New Year!

A couple of weeks of celebrating with family, and we are back in the groove at home. What a great couple of weeks, filled with:

-Lovely nieces and nephews:

 -Nate's graduation

-Puppies!

 -Hikes

-Grandma

Lots of family and lots of delicious food.

Hoping your 2012 is looking bright and exciting!

Halfway There

I am halfway done with my graduate school education! Pretty exciting....

This week was:

-Roasted cauliflower - why is it that every vegetable is so much better roasted? I honestly never have particularly cared about cauliflower, but roasted? Amazing.
-Said cauliflower and roasted sweet potatoes made into a warm salad with balsamic/olive oil/dijon/honey dressing. Best thing I've made in a while. It doesn't look like much, but if you like sweet potatoes I will make it for you sometime. Delish. And if you don't like sweet potatoes, don't tell me. Because I think that may be a travesty. ;).

-Hot chocolate at Hartford. Num!

-Puppy in a sunny window. Gertie is actually part cat ;)

 -And now I am definitely feeling festive. No school and the holidays coming quickly!!

December Harvest

No joke. One of the first few days of December, Robin took out our sad little front garden, and got this guy out of it! I could hardly believe we had a December pepper.

Cupcakes for a dinner party. I do love my little pastry bag for piping frosting!

And when I do them correctly, my mother's recipe for crazy cake is the best chocolate cake one bowl can make!

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder 
2 t baking soda
2 T vinegar
3/4 c vinegar
2 c cold water

Mix all the ingredients together, pour in 9x13 (or in my case, lots of muffin tins) and bake at 350 (I think theoretically about 35 minutes?). I topped these with some cherry jam and egg white frosting.

Any cake recipe that is easy enough I can recite from memory is good by me!

Feeling Festive

As all students are well aware, these weeks are crazy. Between school and papers and tests and presentations and trying to feel festive and get ready for the holidays, I don't know where the days go. But my "finals week" is a lot more calm than several previous weeks, so I am snuggled up with the pup on the couch. It doesn't get much better than that.

My last week has been full of:
-Coconut curry potato soup:

Chicken stock, coconut milk, curry, potatoes carrots and kale. Pretty decent and everything is better served with avocado ;). 

-Baked kale: last week I was listening to NPR and they gave a kale recipe, and one of the broadcasters disliked kale pretty strongly, and even the one who was giving the recipe stated he didn't think anyone could be passionate about kale. He obviously never met me!

 

I honestly think I could eat an entire bunch of kale in one sitting when it's tossed with olive oil seasoned and baked at 400. 

-Christmas trees, puppies and Christmas music. 

-Food from University Grill with two of my favorite people in the world: 

The hole in the wall Korean place is amazing. Definitely made Applied Linear Modeling work better! 

I hope your week is full of good food, good friends, and twinkling lights too! 

Happy Birthday Gertie!

Today our sweet girl is 1!

With Gertie, life is a lot more complicated but a lot more wonderful. And when she's snuggled up by my feet, I truly believe that happiness IS a warm puppy.

So here's to many more years of Gertie!

And a final 4 things:

27. Christmas approaching, and a wreath from Diane and Jeff! It's hanging on our front door - Gertie still feels the need to save us from the wreath, but it looks lovely.

28. Living close enough to walk to a variety of things. Just recently, there is a new consignment shop!

29. Down comforters.

30. Gertie's antics.

A Glimpse of Gertie

Watch this video (mute the sound for best effect) to see a fantastic impression of Gertie on an average prowl around the house. It's ridiculous how similar this paper dinosaur's mannerisms are to hers.

Happy Thursday.