Halloween Flashback!

This will be our forth Halloween "together", but only our third actually dressing up and celebrating it.

In 2008, we were invited at the last minute to a Housewarming/Halloween party. We went out that same weekend and got costumes half-price from Wamart. I don't have a picture of Paul (he was Freddy Krueger), but I have a few pictures of me, and Ruby.






I was a Pirate, and Ruby was a Skeleton.

Last year, 2009, we hosted our friends' Stag and Doe, on the Saturday before Halloween. It was Halloween themed, of course, and everyone dressed up and looked awesome. Paul and I were Zombie Doctor and Zombie Nurse.



Ruby was a normal doctor... Dr. Ruby VonRubenstein, actually.


Olivia was a cute little bumblebee.


This year, the dogs didn't get new costumes. They aren't going to the party we are going to on Saturday night, but I'll dress them in last year's costume for Sunday, when the kids come to the door. We'll see how long that lasts.

Our costumes this year are actually a surprise, but there will be many pictures of the awesomeness. I'll give you a hint, though. We are superhero partners. You have to check back on Monday for pictures!

The wind went and pulled me into the hurricane...

Seriously, how is it already almost the end of October? I feel like the days and weeks and months are just speeding by me, barely letting me grasp at them - nevermind enjoy them. I feel like I'm missing out, though I don't know what I feel like I'm missing.

Halloween is next weekend, and we haven't gotten anything to decorate the house, we haven't gotten costumes... nothing. It's our first Halloween in a house together, and we're basically missing it. When I was a kid, my dad put up the Halloween lights and we filled up the Jack o'lantern garbage bags full of leaves and put them out on the deck - as soon as October arrived. We started thinkng about what we wanted to dress up as (though we didn't go out and buy costumes, my mom made them). My dad hated Halloween, as it was his birthday, and he got teased when he was younger about it. But he always put on a good face for us. I miss my dad, alot. He would have been 54 years old next weekend.

I know that it's Friday today; I know this because everyone says it is. But to me, it feels like Wednesday. I only worked three days this week, and I work tomorrow. So, I guess tomorrow is my Friday. I hate when my work schedule gets messed up - I get messed up right along with it.

I drank a cup of coffee when I got home from work, at five p.m. I was tired, and I had alot of stuff I wanted to do this evening. Instead of waking me up and doing as I planned, now I have a headache. Potato Broccoli soup is cooling on the stove and as soon as I'm done here, I'm going to make myself dinner - grilled asparagus on toast, with a creamy cheese sauce. Paul will get home around 9:30 p.m., then we'll head over to our friends' place to watch a movie. I hope this headache is gone by then.

I turned the heat on the first time when I got home today, too. It was cold in the house. Olivia was shivering, so I knew it was time. The house heated up quickly, which was a nice surprise. I might turn it on again before bed tonight, as our bedroom stays pretty cold. Although last night we just added a second comforter and we were fine (actually, I woke up sweating).

Okay, now all I can think about is asparagus, so I'm off to make dinner and eat alone... wait, do Ruby and Olivia count as dinner guests?

Another recipe post!

Every Saturday, Paul and I go out to the Farmer's Market. Sometimes we just go to walk around, have lunch and check stuff out. Usually, I end up bringing home a couple bags of vegetables. This past weekend I got alot, including butternut squash, onions, red peppers, tomatoes and zucchini.

My plan was to make muffins and dog treats with the zucchini, and soup with the rest. So far, I made a cheesy potato and onion soup, yesterday. Today, I plan on making another batch of my favourite butternut squash soup. I found the recipe online and modified it a bit to suit my needs and to use up some stuff I had here already.

Here's my new recipe, that I made up:

Butternut Squash Soup, with Potato

Ingredients:
2 TBSP unsalted butter
1 onion, chopped fine
3 lbs butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced
3 med potatos, peeled and diced
3 cups veggie chicken stock broth
1 TSP thyme
1 TSP nutmeg
2 TSP minced ginger
1/2 cup heavy cream
Pinch of salt and pepper

Preparation:
1. Melt the butter in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about five minutes. Stir in the squash and potato, broth, and seasonings. Bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender, about twenty minutes.

2. Puree the soup in batches in a blender or food processor until smooth.

3. Return the pureed soup to the pot. Stir in the cream. Bring to a brief simmer, then remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.


Mmm, I know what I'm having for lunch again today. I love fall, and soup!

Doggie treats!

I know, I haven't posted in a long time. And today isn't really a real post, but... I have been busy. We had a really busy weekend, including the farmer's market, Thanksgiving dinner, going out to the bar (and getting far too drunk) and a wedding. And we had to fit our usual weekend errands and groceries in there, too.

Today I worked all day, and then decided I had to be productive. I made Cream of Potato and green onion soup, some dog treats, and a strawberry oreo cheesecake, plus vacuumed and cleaned up a bit. Whew, now I'm wiped out.

My friend Dani asked me to post a few recipes out of my organic dog treat recipe book, so that's what I'm doing here.





Hopefully, you'll be able to just click the pictures above to get the bigger image and then save them. All I did was scan the image from my book and save the image.

I'm off now to start on dinner - Veggie ground round taco salad!

Wash away the pain, and give me back control.

I never thought I was a jealous person. I am usually pretty good at congratulating, and being happy for other people, whatever the circumstance. I have always been happy with what I have/don't have. I don't consider myself very materialistic, either. I like to have nice things, but they are not important in the grand scheme of things. I am generally glad to be happy and healthy. I have an amazing husband, good friends and loving family. I am very blessed.

But today, I feel the exact opposite of those things. I am having a hard time being happy for people, who have what I don't have. I feel like snapping over the smallest of things. I really only want one thing right now and lots of people I know are blessed with it - but not me. I'm feeling sorry for myself and I hate this feeling. I would love to just go back to bed for the day, hopefully wake up tomorrow with a better perspective. But, of course, I have to go to work in half an hour.

Paul got a new phone this morning - the new Blackberry Torch. He's wanted it since he heard about it months ago, and it was actually all he wanted for his birthday. I'm happy that he's happy with it. But I'm jealous that he has a new, shiny phone. My Blackberry is still "new", I've only had it a few months. I love my phone. But out of nowhere, now I have this feeling of wanting a new phone? I don't get it. I don't want to feel this way. I don't want to be that kind of person.

Now, I'm in a bad mood. I tried to change this by taking the dogs for a walk, but since I haven't been walking them every day recently, they didn't behave very well, which put me in a worse mood. I know it's my fault for not walking them every day, and I plan on changing that starting today. At least they are tired out now, and snoozing on the couch. At least they can always make me smile, even when they are bad.

I think, on top of all of this, I miss my family and my friends, back home. Usually, I don't go this long without seeing them. This might be the first time since I moved away, that I've gone nine months without going home to visit. And, this year, my mom's coming here for Christmas. I'm excited and happy about it, but it means I don't get to see my best friends this year. I still can't believe it. I feel like we are drifting further and further apart, and eventually we will only talk once or twice a year, send birthday and Christmas cards... I so don't want that to happen. I feel like I should try harder. I don't know what to do.

Okay, my pity party is over. I have to go get ready for work. Happy Thursday?

In a crooked little town, I was lost and never found.

I've been a busy bee today. While I woke up exhausted, after a good seven hours of sleep, I wanted to go back to bed after Paul left for work. But I also wanted to clean the house, make muffins and make lunch all before I have to go to work at four. So, I forced myself to get moving, instead of laying down on the couch. I'm glad I did.

In the last two hours, I've cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed the whole main floor of the house, made delicous Zucchini chocolate chip muffins, made Zucchini bread treats for the pups, and tided up the living room. Now I'm making lunch (veggie burger) and then I'll have a shower before I head off to work. Whew.

Last night, we went over to Paul's parents' house after work. Paul's mom ordered me a new (second) Kitchenaid Stand mixer bowl, through her work, well over a month ago. It was supposed to take one week to be in, but finally yesterday it arrived! Now I have two bowls, so I can do the cupcake batter and then the icing without having to empty and wash the bowl in between! This makes me so happy.

This weekend is going to be nice and relaxing. We don't have any plans, other than watching a movie with friends tonight, and having a bbq at Paul's parents' house either Saturday or Sunday night. I'm going to make a big fancy cake, for his mom's birthday, which was yesterday. I'm super excited!

I'll stay here, as long as it takes.

So, first, an update. On my last post (which was, I know, too long ago), I talked about a cake a made, for an order. It was for a birthday, and Paul took it to work and gave it to the person last Friday. The party was the Saturday, and I had to wait until Tuesday to find out what they thought! Anyway, they loved the cake and even told Paul they want me to do a cake/cupcakes for their daughter's wedding/wedding shower next Spring. How exciting!

Secondly, I decided to branch out a bit from the Cupcake World this weekend. I made a couple batches of soup last weekend - Butternut Squash and Red Pepper tomatoe. They were both delicious. Today I decided to try my hand at making muffins. My first batch turned out great, and really tasty. I made Oatmeal chocolate chip. They didn't rise as much as I would have hoped, but still they were really good. Then, since we got a bunch of fruit from the market on Saturday, I made Apple Cinnamon Crumble. Paul tried one and really liked them; I'm not a big fan of apples so I didn't try one. He'll eat them for breakfast this week.

Here they are:



THEN, I went one step too far. I decided to try Mixed Berry muffins. I'm pretty sure the recipe I got online just sucked (or maybe I did something terribly wrong), but they came out horrible. They didn't rise... actually, they sunk in a bit. They are super small and chewy. Paul ate one, but I threw out the rest.

Round two of the Mixed Berry Muffins, with a new, better recipe, turned out pretty good, and really tasty.



Next time, I won't put them in the liners, because they stuck to them a bit. But otherwise I'm happy with them and I'll make them again.

No cupcakes this weekend, which is fairly strange for me. I've been baking cupcakes every weekend for months. But when I get home from work tomorrow, I'll be baking at least 80 mini cupcakes and a Red Velvet cake, so I'll be busy enough then.

ON another note, we had a super busy weekend. Yesterday (as I already mentioned) we went to the market and I got lots of fruits and veggies. Then we had some friends over for a movie in the evening. Today, we got up early and headed to a big dog party to raise money for the Humane Society. It was an off-leash area at a Water Park - the dogs got to play and swim in the wave pool. After that, we picked up lunch and headed home to get ready for our Trash the Dress photo shoot. I won't say much more than that, as the pictures will explain it all. I hope we get them back soon!

We've been home since about 7pm, and I've made dinner (veggie burger for me, chicken burger for Paul, and homemade sweet potato fries), did two loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, had a shower and gotten groceries (from across the street). I'm now exhausted and finally sitting down, for what feels like the first time today!

And, to end this already-all-over-the-place post, here are some cute pictures I just took of my pups and husband - the loves of my life.