Butternut Squash Soup, Apple Honey Cake, and Davis' Farmland

On the plate:  Butternut squash soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, and apple honey cake

Soundtrack to cook to:  Joss Stone The Soul Sessions:  Volume 2

Alexander in a panda hat!

Gorgeous fall weather, little family day trips, and enjoying every last moment together as a family of three.  That's what we've been up to during the past few weeks.  Joseph has the next three months off (can I get an amen??!!) in preparation for the arrival of our newest addition - William Asher.  Although he won't be home all of the time (he'll be doing interviews at hospitals around the country for his residency for next year), he'll mostly be home to help out with the kiddos.  It'll be great to have everyone home during the holidays. :)
Since it's fall (my favorite season!) I've been inspired to make comfort foods.  There's nothing more comforting, to me at least, than a big bowl of my mom's chili or soup and a gooey and cheesy sandwich.  Whenever it's a rainy day, or the seasons are changing from hot to cold, I always feel like it's time to make soup!  This recipe is one of my favorite soups to make because it is SO easy to make and is delicious!

To make butternut squash soup, chop 1 onion...

and take 1 medium-sized butternut squash (peeled and cut
into small chunks).

Place the onion and butternut squash into a dutch oven with
about 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.  Place the lid on the
pot and cook until the squash is fork tender.

While the squash and onions are cooking down, I assembled
some grilled cheese sandwiches on flax quinoa bread (one of our
favorites from Whole Foods), light havarti cheese (it's nice and soft
and will melt well), two slices of heirloom tomatoes, and I sprinkled
a little bit of herbs de provence onto the tomatoes.
Then I threw those onto a pan and started cooking them as well.
*I would have also added some caramelized onions to this as well,
but I'll be honest - I was feeling a little lazy.

Here's the fork tender squash and onions.  I then added 4 cups of
chicken stock, and 2 cubes of chicken bouillon.  Allow the
stock to warm up and cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes.

I took out my trusty immersion blender and blended the
ingredients until the soup was smooth.  I then added two
small dashes of nutmeg to the soup, stirred it, and served it
with a little sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top.
It tastes like a warm bowl of fall weather...smooth, creamy,
and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Delish!
*Alternatively, you can make this a completely vegetarian
dish by replacing the chicken stock and chicken bouillon
with vegetable stock and vegetable bouillon.

Here's the gooey and cheesy sandwich.  I'm a sandwich dipper.
I love taking a sandwich like this and dipping it into my soup.
So yummy!!

Shana tova!!  Happy new year to my Jewish friends!  In our house, we celebrated Rosh Hashanah and had a lovely dinner of brisket, broccolini (not traditional, but had to have some vegetables in our meal), potato latkes, and apple honey cake.  I realize that last year when I talked about it, that I never posted pictures of the results, so I thought I'd show the apple honey cake (since I only make it once a year).  It's a little decadent, unlike most of my dessert recipes, so that's why it's a real treat to have it in our household.

Peel and core six apples, then chop them into small chunks.

Toss the apples in 1 tbsp cinnamon and 5 tbsp of sugar (you
could even do half as much sugar, and I'm sure it would be just
as good).

Mix together 2 3/4 cup of flour, 1 tbsp of baking powder,
and 1 tsp of salt.

In a separate bowl, mix together 1 cup vegetable oil ( I used canola),
2 cups of sugar, 1/4 cup of orange juice, 2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract,
and 4 eggs.  Once combined, then mix this wet mixture with the
flour mixture.

Take a greased bundt pan, and put a layer of the batter.  Then,
put a layer of apples, followed by the remainder of the batter,
and the remainder of the apples.  Place in a 350 degree F oven
for 1 1/2 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes
out clean.

While the cake was cooking, Joseph read a book to Alexander
about Rosh Hashanah.  My sweet guys. :)

Yes, I said this was an apple honey cake...but I had no honey in
the recipe, right?  That's because I took some honey and
drizzled it on the warm apple cake.  The result is absolutely
delicious and is worth every calorie.  I look forward to making this
cake every single year! :)

One of my favorite things to do during the fall (B.K. (as my parents used to refer to it - Before Kids)), was going to the Davis corn maze in Sterling, MA.  It's a HUGE maze carved through a corn field and each year they have a new theme.  I was looking forward to taking Alexander to the corn maze this year, but then Joseph brought it to my attention that we're still potty training this kiddo and heaven forbid this kid has to go to the bathroom in the middle of the maze.  Good point, daddy....good point.

I've been dying to get out of the house as much as possible, because I know that once William comes, it's going to be difficult to get out of the house for a little while.  So I racked my brain to think of somewhere that we could go that we could all enjoy.  Then, I thought of Davis' Farm Land which is right across the street from the corn maze!!  We had never been there before and were excited to take Alexander.

Here's Alexander, checking out some cute little cats.

A sweet, sleeping ferret.

Alexander, looking at some little rabbits.

The cool part about this farm land is that you can pet almost
all of their farm animals and for a little bit extra (I think it was $3),
you can get a little cup of feed that almost all of the animals
can eat.  Here I am with Alexander, feeding an absolutely adorable
6 week old calf.  It was so sweet and docile that I just wanted
to take it home with me.

I was trying to convince Alexander that the calf was harmless...
for some reason, he just wasn't buying it.

Alexander thought that this calf looked much more friendly,
apparently.

Alexander is holding and petting a baby goat.  It was so sweet!

This mama is petting a llama! :)

Alexander with some sheep.  It was so cool to see all of the sheep
and goats roaming around the farm land.

Alexander looking at the geese - he was unimpressed.

Some cute little piggies!

"A donkey!  Just like Eeyore!" (Alexander's words).

Yikes!  This was a HUGE pig!

Joseph, offering a sheep some feed.

Becoming a parent, Joseph and I have had to overcome some
fears to prove to Alexander that certain, scary-looking things, are
not so scary.  We came up to this guy with the huge horns and both
went, "Whooooaaaa!"  Joseph even said, "I'm not sure I want to feed
this guy."  But, he seemed pretty friendly and harmless, so Joseph
obliged. 

Joseph said that it felt pretty weird and was incredibly slimy.

Having a great role model though, Alexander had no fear
of this animal and jumped right in to pet it. :)

Joseph also went on to feed some caribou.

The goats were pretty aggressive.

"Anudder donkey like Eeyore!"

"Hi turkey!  All done, turkey.  Anudder animals, please?"
Alexander shares our distaste for turkeys as well.

Alexander went on his first pony ride by himself!  What a big boy!
I was nervous at first, but he held his own and rode the pony all
by himself!  

He had a really great time, as you can tell!  We were so proud of him!

Joseph was also somewhat intimidated by this llama, mostly because
it was looking him straight in the eye and was SO tall!  But again,
he rallied and fed the llama and sheep.

I told Joseph that I felt as if he was having more fun at the
farm land than Alexander!  I think this picture proves it. :)

Towards the end of the morning, Alexander was completely
fearless and approached every animal willingly.  Here's Alexander
and Joseph petting a snake.

Alexander "milking" a cow statue. 

We had a blast at the farm land and cannot wait to go back again!  It was fun for the whole family (as you can tell from the pictures)!

We had a little touch of summer and Alexander
enjoyed dipping his toes in Jamaica Pond,
while skipping (more like just throwing) rocks
with Joseph.

Smiling with mommy at the park. 

Alexander, modeling his panda hat!  (sorry I couldn't
resist)

We've been thoroughly enjoying having Joseph home, and have been slowly transitioning Alexander to  daycare 5 days a week, but just from 8-12.  It's been going well thus far!  I'm in full nesting mode and have been thrilled to be crossing things off of my never-ending "to do" list.  Things are coming together and we're looking forward to our little one's arrival!  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki