Soundtrack to cook to: Get a Grip album by Aerosmith. I loooooove the song "Crazy" on there. It reminds me of my 20th birthday where I played that song on repeat, allllllll dayyyyyy lonnnnng because I was obsessed with it (I'm pretty sure I drove my roommates "crazy" as well).
Once I hear a song that I absolutely love, I need to hear it over and over and over until I've learned all of the words and am ready to move on to a new obsession. Great nostalgia and super great jams. :)
On one of the last beautiful fall days, my sister and I took the boys and enjoyed a wonderful morning at the DeCordova Museum. We had such a great time perusing the outdoor sculpture park and loved the unseasonably warm weather. It was fun to see the different sculptures that they had added since we went the previous year.
 |
| Alex with the "Two Hearts" sculpture - one of my favorites. |
 |
| My heart with the two hearts. :) |
 |
| Alex loved exploring each of the sculptures. |
 |
| "Smiiiiiiiiiiiiile!" |
 |
| Me and Alex getting snuggly by a large sculpture. |
 |
| This outdoor sculpture park is surrounded by gorgeous trees. It was the perfect fall day. |
 |
| Alex's favorite sculpture where you get to drag a stick across it and it plays a tune. |
 |
| Peek a boo!! |
1 - Trust me, it's AMAZING!
2- It's a crowd-pleaser.
3- It had two BIG meat-eaters clamoring for more (and there's no meat in it).
4- It was completed from start to finish in about 35-40 minutes.
Ladies and gentleman, here's the first, and last garden vegetable frittata recipe you'll ever make. It's that good and you'll never need to search again because BAM! Here it is:
 | |
| Oh heavenly deliciousness that I served alongside some turkey bacon and a fruit salad. Here's how you make this beauty: Ingredients: 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 5 small red potatoes, thinly sliced 1 bunch green onions, trimmed and sliced 1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced 1 cup baby spinach, torn 1 clove garlic, crushed 8 eggs 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil, plus more for garnish 1-2 cups shredded Asiago cheese Salt and pepper
|
 |
| Wow.Wow.WOW!!!!!! This frittata was AMAZING. It was hearty, healthy, and very satisfying. You got the nice pop from the tomatoes, the delightful herbaceous flavor from the fresh basil and the delicious saltiness from the Asiago. LOVED IT! |
 | |
| Take an entire head of cabbage and remove the core (pictured above). Then, place the entire head of cabbage (core side down) in a pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes. (Just enough to soften the leaves and make them pliable.) *FUN FACT: When I was first starting to cook, I wanted to make my own faux mashed potatoes by boiling a head of cauliflower, mashing it, and dressing it like I would regular mashed potatoes. I definitely put the entire head of cauliflower in the pot and wondered why it was taking SO long to soften. Friends...I was 22 years old. Yes, very embarrassing, but I thought I would confess. :) |
 | |
| In a large mixing bowl, combine the following ingredients: 1 onion, diced 1 pepper, diced 5-6 fresh basil leaves, chopped |
 |
| Then add the following ingredients and mix together: 1 lb ground turkey meat 1 lb turkey sausage (I used a roasted pepper and garlic sausage) 1/2 cup uncooked brown jasmine rice 1 tbsp thyme 1 cup marinara sauce (use your favorite jarred) Salt and pepper *Note: I changed the recipe up here because I felt that it needed an extra OOMPH of flavor. Plus, my dear friend Erin told me that her grandmother makes stuffed cabbage with sausage in it and I thought that would definitely add some more flavor to the stuffing. THANKS ERIN!! |
 |
| Remove the outer 14 leaves of cabbage and place like this on your cutting board. Chop the remainder of the cabbage and layer the chopped cabbage in a greased 13x9 casserole dish. Make a "V" cut in each leaf to remove the hard part of the core. Place about 1/3 cup of the meat mixture into the center of the leaf, fold in both sides, and roll the rest of the leaf up so that none of the meat mixture is exposed. Place the cabbage roll on top of the chopped cabbage in the casserole dish. Pour ~2 cups of marinara sauce on top of all of the cabbage rolls. |
 |
| Ooooooohhhh, yeaaaahhh! Aren't they cute? Cover the dish with foil and place in a 350 degree F oven for 1 1/2 hours (or until the meat in the cabbage is completely cooked through. |
 |
| I had some extra meat mixture leftover, so I made some meatballs out of them and froze them for later use. |
 |
| The men in my life LOVED what they were smelling and couldn't wait to dig in! |
 |
| Woo hoo!! Absolutely delicious and nutritious! This dish was a little time consuming to prepare, but there's definitely enough leftover for the next night's dinner. |
 |
| No worries...he wasn't eating dog food...at least not in this picture. :-/ |
 |
| You want some? LOL! Just kidding! |
I grabbed the meatballs and started cooking them in my Dutch Oven.
 |
| Cook these babies in about 1-2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. |
 |
| What do I have in the fridge? Ah yes, let's chop up: 1 onion 8 oz. cremini mushrooms 3 cloves of garlic 1 lb of kale, chopped |
 |
| Once the meatballs browned, add in the vegetables and cook them for about 8 minutes on medium heat. Then, add about 32 oz. of chicken stock, 1 lb of kale, and 1 can of cannellini beans and cook on medium-low for about 25 minutes. When life gives you leftovers, you can make a delicious and hearty soup! I served this soup alongside some nice crusty bread and a soft cheese. *If you're a salt lover like me, then top the soup with a little bit of parmesan cheese as well! SO YUMMY! |
 |
| We're so proud of him and it was so great to see the pride that he had in himself as well! Great job, little 3 year old! |
 |
| Peek-a-boo! He loves being cheeky. |
 |
| He's showing all of his teeth! I love when he scrunches up his little nose like this. He kind of looks like a little piranha. |
 |
| He's so silly. :-) |
 |
| William at the airport, about to enjoy some ice cream in his car seat before the flight. |
 |
| "Mmmmmmm!" |
 |
| "Whoa! That's cold, mommy!" |
Our family, getting ready to fly to Indiana.
 |
| William and Joseph on William's first airplane ride! |
 |
| He was very interested in what was going on around him. |
 |
| William and Mommy! |
 |
| Me and the boys. Since we took an evening flight, William dozed in and out of sleep. He was a little wiggly, but did pretty well for his first flight! |
 |
| Here's Alex on Thanksgiving evening. We got back later than we had expected, so William was NOT patient enough to get his picture taken. Big brother posed very nicely and looked dapper in his bow tie and sweater vest. |
 |
| The next night, we met up with high school and college friends at one of our old watering holes, "Harry's Chocolate Shop." After an evening of imbibing spirits, it was necessary to stop by Mad Mushroom for their cheese bread. (OK, yes, I'm guilty for spear-heading that venture. It was one of my favorite foods in college (hence the HUGE weight gain) and I just needed to have that cheese bread for the food memories.) This is the only picture that I took that night, sadly. |
 |
| William and I were both sick with a nasty head cold and fever during the first part of our trip, unfortunately. Towards the end of this trip, William finally started to feel better and was back to his cheeky self. |
 |
| There's our cheeky little panda! |
 |
| Here's Linda, hanging up the Hanukkah lights. |
 |
| Here's Alex and Linda, working together on some Hanukkah ornaments to put on the tree. |
 |
| Joseph's father, Elias, was having fun playing with William. |
 |
| Joseph used to play piano when he was younger and enjoys tickling the ivories whenever he's back at his parents' house. |
 |
| Daddy and William giving their best "Blue Steel" look. |
 |
| Elias joined in to help make the decorations... |
 |
| ...while Joseph and William goofed around. :) |
 |
| Alex needed some re-directing every now and then, but did a great job! |
 |
| Joseph helped to tie the string onto the ornaments at the end. |
 |
| Happy Hanukkah!! Now let's open some presents! Thanks so much, Nono and Nai Nai for getting the boys such thoughtful gifts! |
 |
| Alex, opening up his gelt and Legos. |
 |
| After William woke up from his morning nap, he got to open up his wooden car transporter. |
 |
| Alex seemed to be more interested in it than William. :) |
 |
| Our two boys playing nicely...this lasted a few minutes. Then it was an all out fight over who got to play with the truck and the cars. |
 |
| Here's Linda, Elias, Alex, and Joseph lighting the candles on the menorah on the second night of Hanukkah. |
 |
| Happy Hanukkah!! |
 |
| I decided to bring our kid Menorah as well and hung that up in Joseph's parents' house. That way, Alex could always "light" a menorah himself as well. |
 |
| Nono helped Alex that night. |
 |
| The boys got books, cars, a DVD, and singing dreidels. |
 |
| These boys got a great haul! |
 |
| Here's Alex playing with his spinning top. |
 |
| William and Grant had a great time together, while Alex played in the yard with Nono. |
 |
| It was so neat to see William and Grant interact with one another compared to the last time they were together in April. |
 |
| Grant was all about the singing dreidel. |
 |
| Awwww! William was sharing his Thomas trains with Grant. |
 |
| These boys were so cute together. |
 |
| Hanukkah Day #4! More books and silly dreidel headbands that I found at the party store when I was buying the Hanukkah decorations. Here's Linda giving Alex his presents. |
 |
| Alex had such a great Hanukkah with his grandparents! (And William too, but he was more interested in the wrapping paper than the presents.) |
 |
| Here's Alex, modeling his silly dreidel headband. Best 99 cents I've ever spent! Hilarious! |
 |
| And of course I had to get some for William!! |
To continue our tradition, I brought our Star of David cookie cutter and we made Star of David sugar cookies and baked them together. Although this year, I must confess, that I did take a short cut and got pre-made dough. They turned out great! Gotta love our Hanukkah cookies!
 |
| Here's Alex, hard at work, stamping the cutter into the cookie dough. |
 |
| Alex and Mommy preparing the cookies for the oven. |
 |
| They didn't really keep their shape, unfortunately, but we still iced them and put sprinkles on them. They tasted great! Happy Hanukkah 2013!! |
 |
| Here's Joseph, Elias, Alex, and Linda, lighting the menorah for the fifth night of Hanukkah. Do you see our dangling decorations that we brought? :) |
 |
| Elias had a grand time lighting the candles and reciting the prayers. |
 |
| One more present for the fifth night of Hanukkah! We love to get the boys new books! |
Love and kisses,
Nikki
No comments:
Post a Comment