Some highlights...

Yes, I am fully aware that it's been over two months since I've posted anything. So, i thought I'd show you some highlights of what's been going on at our house.
First of all, Oliver had his third birthday. We celebrated by getting him a little cookie from the pet store. He was so excited about it.

Around mid-October I got adventurous with fall flavors and decided to make pumpkin cheesecake. Thanks to Nick and a few of his classmates, the entire cheesecake was polished off within just a few days of me making it.



Next came Thanksgiving weekend complete with - you guessed it - the Flaming Turkey. No, not that kind of flaming...there's real fire around this bird!

On Black Friday my brother & I ventured out around noon to see if he could snag an HDTV. Thankfully Sam's Club had exactly what he was looking for and he spent the rest of the day admiring his TV. Possibly admiring it a bit too closely...

And in early December I began making my holiday cookies. I was lucky enough to have my friend, Mary, join me for an afternoon filled with baking and fun. Here's Mary showing off her caramel-melting skills while chatting on the phone with her friend. Is there no limit to this woman's talent???


I know what you're thinking, 'did only good things happen to you for the past two months?' Well, there was one low light. Nick, along with one of his classmates, decided to adopt the Fu Manchu for 24 hours. It was horrifying. Luckily he shaved it off the next afternoon.

That about sums it up. Have a good night.

One of these things is not like the other...

This week magician David Blaine set out to do another one of his stunts - this time hanging upside down from trussing for 60 hours in the middle of New York City's central park. I've stayed quiet during his previous, ahem, death-defying stunts - hibernating inside of a giant block of ice, sitting inside of a clear box above a river, and who could forget camping out underwater in a giant bubble for a week - but this time I have to speak up.
While each of these stunts were, uh, classics, there is one thing that keeps sending up a big red flag in my mind: none of these are magic!!!!
I've seen him do magic tricks and, in fact, I was impressed. He ripped up a dollar bill, chewed up half of it, then spit it back out only to have it reattach itself to the rest of the bill. Totally blew my mind! But hanging upside down for 60 hours straight? Yawn. He didn't even stay upside down the whole time! This was partly due to the fact that doctors pretty much told him that his brain could explode and his eyes would burst out of his head if he stayed that way for 60 consecutive hours. So, once every hour he turned himself right side up, let the blood flow back into his extremities, and went back to hanging like a bat in central park.
Then, when he went to make his dramatic 'dive of death' as they called it, it turned out to be a total flop. Yet gobs of fans, who had missed school or work to see him hang upside down, still cheered him on.
What am I not getting here??? Anyone?

A Sunday night well spent

This past weekend was perfect in so many ways. I got to spend time with my fabulous husband, the fall weather was amazing, and I got to enjoy a Steelers game complete with proper football food - pierogies and Italian hot sausage sandwiches. I was especially thankful for the pierogies because we almost didn't get them. Nick and I went on a tri-store search before Dillons finally came through for us. One worker even asked if they were some type of organic food...uh, hardly. Here's a little glimpse of what proper football game food looks like:

But I digress. The game against the Cleveland Browns was great - especially because we came out with a win. The funniest thing, though, was that it was so windy in Cleveland that night that food wrappers and other garbage were flying around the field during every play. It was nasty.
Anyway, the important thing is that we came out with the W (despite some lame plays and half-hearted attempts on our part). The good news is that we've got a whole season to keep improving and working our way toward Superbowl ring #6.

Merman!

Alright this is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time and I just had to share. I've been watching the Olympics and especially got caught up in the excitement of Michael Phelps and his eight gold medals. Well, I found out today that he agreed to do a photo shoot with the famous photog Annie Leibovitz (famous for, shall we say, interesting shots). I'm all about creativity and thinking outside the box, but at no point in time would I think that it's a good idea to dress up like this:


It just screams Zoolander: "Merman! MerMAN!"

Obsession

Obsession might seem like a strong word, but as my Ozarkian husband would say "we sure do love us some coffee". Now we're taking it to the next level. Thanks to our friends Nate & Jessica we've been introduced to the world of at-home coffee roasting. We bought our coffee roaster and green coffee beans almost two months ago, and now, seven weeks and four pounds of freshly-roasted coffee later, we're hooked. Currently our latest shipment of green coffee beans is sitting in our kitchen just begging to be roasted to perfection by Nick, our roast master.
Some may say that roasting your own beans is unnecessary, but for a true coffee lover there's nothing like drinking a mug full of fresh java and knowing that it hasn't been sitting in a bin at a chain coffee shop for weeks and weeks. Plus, when those beans are roasting, my whole house smells like coffee! It's better than any air freshener that Bath & Body Works could ever offer.

Thelma's Beans

I've been lucky to have a lot of wonderful people in my life. The bonus is when they also happen to be wonderful cooks. This is the case with my Aunt Thelma. Affectionately known as 'Grandma #3', Aunt Thelma is my mom's best friend's mom. Have I lost you yet?
Growing up I have a lot of great memories of time spent with Aunt Thelma. My brother and I would go to her house and she'd paint my nails, let us do endless arts & crafts, and, of course, feed us amazing food. From pasta fagioli to caramelitas, Aunt Thelma served up a variety of tasty treats, but one thing was always consistent - everything tasted amazing.
We spent this past Christmas in Pittsburgh and I was reintroduced to a Thelma classic: bean casserole. It was so yummy that I had to get the recipe and share it with you:

- 2 cans of baked beans
- 2 cans of green beans (drained)
- 1 can of kidney beans
- 1 can of lima beans (drained)
- 6 oz. can of tomato paste (plus one can of water)
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 8 slices of bacon
- 1 diced onion

1. Brown the bacon and onion together.
2. Mix tomato paste, water and sugar together before mixing with the beans.
3. Combine all ingredients in a 9x13 baking dish and bake for one hour @ 350 degrees.

This recipe makes a ton, so it's a perfect dish for a picnic or potluck. Enjoy!

Up next - a recap of our amazing road trip.

Hermione the Wonder Dog's Amazing Kill

This is Hermione. She belongs to our friends Nate & Jessica. Yes, she's cute and cuddly-looking, but would you believe that she's a ferocious predator? Well, believe it. Allow me to reconstruct the scene.
On an average fall day, Nate and Jessica came home from work and settled into their evening routine - feeding their daughter and putting her to bed, making dinner for themselves, and relaxing. During the aforementioned activities, Nate let their little dog Hermione out in the back yard. Just as a little background, Nate and Jessica live out in the country and they've got quite a bit of wide open space behind their house.
A little later they went to let Hermione back inside and this is what they discovered:

It would appear that Hermione had gone head to head with local wildlife - and won. According to Jessica, Hermione started out just bringing tiny mice onto the porch, but it quickly progressed to larger mice, moles, bones of other animals, and finally a deer leg!
It's now time for you, fair readers, to decide - cute and cuddly or ferocious predator?