Sweet Potato Bourbon Muffins, Pepita Pesto Pasta with Roasted Squash, Jazzed Up Corn Muffies, a Morning at the Park, and Fun at Home

On the plate:  Sweet potato bourbon muffins and pepita pesto pasta with roasted squash

Soundtrack to cook to:  Bonnie Raitt, Black Eyed Peas, and Notorious B.I.G.  It was quite an eclectic cooking session. :)

Stilllllllll waiiiiiiting for William's arrival.  We're now 4 days overdue and are twiddling our thumbs, just waiting for our little guy to give a hint as to whether or not he's going to come soon.  Hurricane Sandy was in full force yesterday and thankfully all we had in our neck of the woods were strong winds and lots of rain.  Other than that, we thankfully did not receive the worst part of the storm.  Thoughts and prayers to those who were affected by the storm.
Our Non-stress test was scheduled for yesterday (where they measure the baby's heart rate response over an hour), Monday, October 29; however, because of the state of emergency that the governor announced, the place where I was going to get it done was closed.  Thus, I'm going to go today.
Over the weekend, we made the most of the beautiful fall weather and went to Larz Anderson park to play around in the leaves and walk the beautiful paths.

Alexander, showing off his winning smile
while playing around in the leaves. 

Alexander checking out the leaves and looking
for "eight-corns" (acorns) while Joseph is walking Oscar
in the background.

Absolutely breathtaking colors, huh? 

The Franses men frolicking in the field. :)

Alexander loved running around out in the open.

For an extra fee (which I think is a bunch of bologna), we got
Oscar a special license so that he could run around off leash
in the Brookline parks.  It's totally worth it, though, because
he whips around so quickly and happily in the grass and you
can see the huge smile on his face.

A boy and his dog. :)

Our little guys had a blast running in the grass and essentially
having the entire grassy part of the park to themselves.

Joseph was showing Alexander how to kick the leaves up
into the air.

There he goes!

"Smii-ooooooo!" (Smile)

He really wanted to get up close.

HA!  "Cheeeeeeese!"

His on-cue smiles are getting much better. 

I personally like this picture because not only is he smiling and
posing, but he's got his little eyebrows raised as well.  What a ham!

Awww!  A daddy and son snuggle picture.

Awwww. :)  Warms my heart

My handsome men!

Here's Oscar walking around in the beautiful leaves.

We recently went to Costco and bought a big ol' box of sweet potatoes (my recent craving).  Normally, we just throw them in a 350 degree F oven for 2 hours and eat them plain.  They're absolutely delicious!  Unfortunately, the batch that we got were not nearly as sweet as what I had previously purchased at the grocery store.  So, I had to think of a way to use up some of the sweet potatoes.  Pinterest saved me yet again!  I found an easy and yummy looking recipe for sweet potato bourbon muffins.

In a large bowl, mix together the following dry ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 tsp salt

In a separate large bowl, mix together the following ingredients:
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Then, add in 1 cup of sweet potato (I used 2 cups of sweet potato
and the muffins turned out just fine).
Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients into this wet mixture and stir.
Add 1/3 cup of bourbon (I used Knob Creek) and another 1/3
of the dry ingredients and stir once more.  Finally, add 3/4 cup of milk
(I used 1 % milk) and the remaining dry ingredients and stir until combined.
The batter will be thick.

I placed the batter into 1 greased tray of 24 mini muffin tins and
1 greased tray of 6 muffie tins.  Then, place the muffins in a
350 degree F oven for 12-15 minutes.

In order to save a few calories, I surpassed the frosting and just
sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top.  The cinnamon sugar
added some really nice flavor to the muffins.  The muffins themselves
are not incredibly sweet, but they were a nice and spicy little treat
and pair well with a nice cup of tea, hot cocoa, or coffee. 

We had some leftover chili from the previous night.  Since my sister Kristen and her boyfriend Pete were visiting, we decided to serve the chili over some whole wheat penne pasta.  In order to make sure everyone had enough food in their tummies, I also decided to make some corn muffies.  I remembered a recipe that my mom used to make for cornbread that she would usually serve alongside her chili.  It's a very simple recipe for some jazzed up cornbread.  Here's what you do:

1. Buy a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix.
2. Follow the recipe instructions.
3. Add 3/4 cup of frozen corn kernels and 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese to the mix.
4. Bake as directed

Voila!!  1 box yields 6 muffins or muffies.  You get the lovely
sweet crunch of the cornbread, the juicy pop of the corn kernels,
and the gooey cheesiness of the cheese.  You could even add
some parsley to add some freshness and color to the muffies.
Delish!

Here's Alexander playing around with Pete's
hat while I was baking.  He's a thug. :)

The next day, I was catching up on my DVR'd shows and found an intriguing, healthy, and easy looking recipe for "Pepita pesto pasta with roasted squash."  I decided to add a little more protein to the dish and put some yummy langoustines into the recipe as well.

Peel and dice 1 large butternut squash.  Place the squash on a
foiled pan and drizzle with oil, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Roast the butternut squash for 18 minutes at 450 degree F.

This is my favorite part of the recipe!  All you do is dump
the ingredients in the food processor and the machine does all
of the work for you!  Woo hoo!  Place the following ingredients
into the food processor:

• 1/3 cup EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Nutmeg, for grating
• 1 cup packed mixed herbs (I used cilantro and basil)
• 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano 
• 1/3 cup toasted pumpkin seeds (Woo hoo!  I had just enough leftover from carving pumpkins)
• 2 jalapeño peppers, seeded
• 2 cloves garlic
• Juice of 1 lime

A delicious and very different version of a traditional pesto.
I, myself, am a huge fan of cilantro and jalapenos, so this was a welcome change.
Make sure you process this well, because the pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
can be pretty tough to chew if you don't.

Cook up the langoustines (you could also use shrimp if you'd like).
Then add the roasted squash, pesto, 1 lb of pasta (I used whole wheat penne),
and 1 cup of reserved pasta cooking water.

Here's the end result!  To be quite honest, I'm not sure if I'll make
this dish again.  It was very easy to make and was quite nutritious,
but the flavor was very different (maybe because I like the traditional
pesto flavor, and this was very much the opposite).  It's not a bad dish,
but it's not fantastic either.  It's got a nice herby taste with a
slight hint of heat from the jalapenos.  I would give this dish 3 out of 5 stars.

Gotta keep a toddler busy when you can't get outside!  During the hurricane, we stayed indoors and Alexander started off the morning with some painting projects.  Then, I scoured my Pinterest saved activities and had Alexander play with a few household items.  He had a blast!

Take a colander and some pipe cleaners and have your toddler
thread the ends into the colander holes.  Alexander had a lot of
fun doing this.  Plus, he's working on his fine motor skills. :)
*Don't worry, Joseph isn't passed out in the background.
He likes to study and take notes on the ground - he's done this
ever since I've known him. :)

Then, he took some beads and was stringing them on the pipe cleaners.

Joseph helped Alexander string some beads to make a bracelet.

Blue beads on a blue pipe cleaner.  He was quite proud
to show it off.

Little man in action!  Plus, we just found out that he

(with some prompting) can count to 10 in Spanish.

Many thanks to Alexander's teachers at school for that! :)

Here's Alexander with the cutest little dachshund
Halloween card that my friend Stephanie sent him in the mail.
He loves carrying it around the house.

We remained unscathed from Hurricane Sandy and had a fun little family bonding day indoors.  I secretly said a little prayer that William would NOT make his appearance yesterday, because delivering during a hurricane didn't sound like my cup of tea.  My feeling is that he will be a November baby and that I'll have to be induced this Saturday.  I suppose that's just how my body deals with babies.  We'll see though.  There's one more day left in October!  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki