San Francisco

This past Friday we left, with some friends, for a quick 3 day trip to San Francisco. The weather was beautiful, so we got to spend all of Saturday walking around the city. My favorite part was getting a yummy clam chowder bread bowl at Boudin and ice cream at Ghirardelli. It was a bit much to drive there and back in a 3 day period, but it made for good memories.

What's Cookin'?

A GIRL!

We had our ultrasound today and everything looked good. A little girl will come around April 15th. I'll post pictures once I get a way to scan them. For now, we're just thankful everything seems on track.

Fall Baking

Today has been a rainy and cozy day so I thought I would bake something. I always make pumpkin chocolate chip bread, so I decided to try something different. My friend gave me some butternut squash from her garden, so I thought I'd try using it.

Here is the recipe I tried. It turned out really yummy! I made a few changes to it in order to make it more healthy. When the squash is pureed, it makes about 5 cups so there is plenty more to freeze for later. I have a friend who freezes it in ice cube trays and then adds it to her kids mac and cheese. Sneaky idea!


Butternut Squash Spice Bread (taken from www.seasonalrecipes.com)

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups granulated sugar (I think it only needs 2 ½ or a little more, but not 3)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ginger
1 cup water (I used about ¾ of a cup)
1 cup vegetable oil (I used natural applesauce)
2 cups butternut squash (cooked, pureed & cooled)
4 large eggs

Grease and flour 2 large loaf pans. Pre-heat oven to 325 F (My oven is old and won’t stay at 325 F, so I had to cook it at 320 F). I would think you could do muffins if you wished. They usually only take about 15-20 minutes.

Combine dry ingredients. Add water, oil, eggs and squash. Fill each loaf pan half full with batter. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Enjoy!

*Nuts, chocolate chips, or a glaze would be yummy in/on this bread*

16 Weeks

Here's a picture of me at 16 weeks. I'm finally starting to show, but can hide it pretty well. We find out what we're having on November 19th, so we'll keep you all updated!

Halloween

On Halloween we went over to our neighbors house for dinner and fun with the kids. They all looked really cute. We didn't dress-up (except for Mike's last minute costume in the picture below). I can't believe that next year we will have a baby of our own to costume-up!


Mike being a bush


Apple catching




Cute!

Intense pumpkin carving