"Stupid Tired"

A co-worker/fellow student of mine is also pregnant and due just a few days before me. The other day she said, "Wow, I am stupid tired!" and I thought, gosh, that is something. Well, it turns out, I too have been "stupid tired" and the reason I know this is because I finally got a good night sleep and I feel great! Wahoo!

"Autumn" food

We had two glorious days of autumn like weather and all I wanted to eat was tasty fall flavors like apple and pumpkin. Luckily, we received a few butternut squashes in our CSA share this week, so that started the weekend off right with Lucy's butternut squash soup. Initially, R grumbled about having soup for dinner, but he added some red pepper flakes and loved it!

Saturday morning I woke up ready to tackle the kitchen! First, I sorted our spices and filled up our spice rack. Then, I searched high and low for a pumpkin muffin recipe and decided to go with Lucy's pumpkin cream cheese swirl muffins. R was a great sport about these because 1. he doesn't really like pumpkin flavors and 2. we went to four stores looking for pumpkin! While we were out running errands, I "made" some applesauce from the apples we received in our CSA share.

This is a crockpot recipe my mom found and I totally love it ...
Ingredients:
4 lbs. apples (we like to have a mix of red and green apples)
1/3 - 1/2 c. sugar
2 cinnamon sticks

Directions:
1. peel and chop apples
2. Place the apples, sugar, and cinnamon sticks in the crockpot
3. Cook on high for 3 - 4 hrs.
4. Remove cinnamon sticks
5. Mash with a potato masher

(The first time I made this, I thought the apples weren't cooking down and we were going to have apple mush, but lo and behold, around hour 2.5, they started to get really soft and I used the masher to help them along).

I don't have a picture, but trust me, this applesauce is super tasty.

Purse

My purse and pouch are nearly here! Meg gave me a "sneak peek" at my bags before she mails them and I am so excited! I love the eccentric look of the purse and how the inside of the pouch matches the inside of the purse. yay!

The Windy City part I - the food!

R and I went to Chicago this past weekend to visit my brother and meet up with some of R's friends from HS. Overall, we had a blast! Nothing beats the Windy city when you have nice weather and great company. Pretty much, our weekend revolved around walking and eating. Some of our food highlights included:

Tempo Cafe - a great breakfast/lunch place near Loyola University and close to shopping

Vermillion - a latin/indian fusion tapas restaurant ... yes, it was spicy (the chef has been on Iron Chef and will be appearing again in October!!)

Ghiradelli - no explanation needed

Yes, I know no one should ever spend $8 on a sundae, but doesn't it look amazing!

I decided it was a preganancy craving and here is our conversation about such things (it is very logical)...

K: I would really like a sundae.
R: ok, sounds good.
K: I think it is a pregnancy craving.
R: Really, a craving?
K: yes, I'm pregnant and I want it. I think that means it is a craving.

Bread update

Rule of thumb -- it is probably best to take baby steps....


Sunday I worked on the Pioneer Woman's homemade cinnamon bread and although the cinnamon/sugar deliciousness was just as great as she said, the bread was ... well, a little bit more like soda bread. Next time I am going to work harder at creating a "warm hospitable environment" so the bread can rise a bit more than it did this go round.



R said it was a bit like tofu ... "tastes great, but a bit weird"

wah wah.

Busy weekend

Wew, it was a busy weekend!

Friday: long day writing reports for work followed by a pot-luck for R's company (which was subsequently followed by ditching such pot-luck a little early to hang out with work friends)

Saturday: relaxing morning and then R participated in a fencing tournament. I took some neat videos on his phone, but forgot the camera. Pretty much, all bouts look something like this (but in a large, well lit gymnasium with about 10 other bouts going on at the same time). It is actually pretty exciting to watch. The tournament ran long, so we'll be heading back there (date TBD) to finish the brackets!

Saturday cont.: We had hoped to see some good friends after the tournament, but since it ran so long, we missed them. We did get to see some other friends though, which was nice and a great shopping experience. Yes, you read that correctly ... I went shopping at my friend's house. She just had her second baby and gave me a ton of maternity casual shirts and a winter coat! yahoo!! R especially appreciates this since the last time I went shopping he texted me to let me know that "we have spent over $400 at Gap the past two months and by we I mean you." Oh, R. :) So, here's a picture of my loot ... some stuff for now, some stuff for later!

R has been diligently working on the baby's dresser the past couple of weeks. Shaina found it at a garage sale for us and now R is sanding it and will eventually refinish it. My job is to buy the knobs (being pregnant is great!)

I meanwhile, am making the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon bread and will let you know how it turns out!

Tomorrow starts the fall semester -- wish me luck (because I haven't started my reading for Monday yet)!

Purses and Diaper Bags

A friend of mine has a stupendously creative sister in law who designs her own purses. She has started a neat design blog and in the top right corner, features her 'Meg James Design' purses and bags. Long story short, she's going to make me a diaper bag and I am super duper excited (thanks Laura for thinking of the idea!!)! I've actually fallen in love with her designs, so she's going to make me a purse and pouch too. Today she sent me a photo of the three fabrics she's thinking of using in the purse and I am overwhelmed with excitement! I mean, how cool is it that a professional designer emails you and asks what you want?! Here is a sneak peak at the potential fabric for "my" purse.