Jeff and I have joked before that right now we’re living in our “lost years” for holiday enjoyment. We’re not kids any more, so much of the magic has been replaced by general grumpiness at all the money spent around holidays and the work it takes to make things go off without a hitch. There aren’t as many raucous parties with friends anymore either and we usually end up doing a whole bunch of nothing on holidays. I know it’ll all change when we have kids and we get the chance to create the magic for them that our parents made for us on those few special days a year, but until then we’re just stuck in this lackluster “in-between” state.

It sucks because Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, and only in the last few years has it turned into a complete non-event for me. This year though, we at least have something to look forward to: Trick-or-treaters!

This is the first year that we live in a neighborhood with lots of young children and will surely be visited by droves of tiny ghosts and witches, superheroes and princesses. Maybe it’s a strange thing to be excited about, but it’s re-infusing this holiday that I love so much with the joy that it’s been lacking for years.

Yesterday, I carved a jack-o-lantern to put outside our door to let everyone know that YES, we do have candy!

After 2 hours of cleaning and carving, this:

Became this:

I don’t know what I was going for, but I kind of think he looks like a frog. Liam, of course, needed to sniff our new housemate…

Face. in. pumpkin.

I have named the pumpkin Robert; I have no idea why. Hopefully the trick-or-treaters will get as much enjoyment out of him (and the candy, of course) as we’ll get by being able to participate in the holidays again.

What was your favorite holiday as a child? Has your enjoyment of it changed as you’ve gotten older?

October 28, 2011 Alayna Discussion 7 comments

Ah! It feels good to blog again! I really think I’m inspired to keep on a schedule now.

I’m so glad to be able to focus my attentions on other things again. I’ve been so focused on the move and some other stuff going on in our lives for so long now that I couldn’t even bring myself to cook anything new. Seriously, we’ve been surviving on the same few dishes for months. It was definitely time to try something new.

I made this awesome turkey mushroom bake a couple nights ago that I’ve just got to share with you because it is so delicious!

Turkey Mushroom Bake

A filling pasta bake with turkey and peas in a thick onion and mushroom gravy.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

• 2 turkey breast filets
• half a box of dried penne pasta
• approx. 1 cup frozen peas
• approx. 2 cups crimini mushrooms (sliced)
• 1 medium onion (sliced)
• 2 large cloves of garlic (minced)
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 4 tbsp. flour
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• olive oil, salt, and pepper as needed
• parmesan for grating over top

Cooking Directions

1. Roast the turkey coated in olive oil on a foil-lined baking sheet for 40 minutes at 400 degrees. When turkey is cool enough to handle, shred with hands or a fork into small pieces.
2. Boil pasta and peas together until done and drain.
3. In a large non-stick pan, saute onions in butter until translucent then add garlic and mushrooms. Cook until softened.
4. Sprinkle over flour and stir in until it makes a thick paste with the onions and mushrooms. Add in vegetable stock and stir until the flour paste in smoothly incorporated. Stir in sour cream. Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Fill a 9x13 baking dish with the pasta, peas, and shredded turkey. Pour over the mushroom sauce and stir to combine.
6. Grate over parmesan cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

One way I’ve made this recipe quicker is to roast the turkey ahead of time. I like to buy a huge full turkey breast and cut it into 6 filets, then roast them all or save a few for dinners throughout the week. Then I can shred up all the roasted turkey and either freeze it or use it in other dishes. It really doesn’t take a lot of effort up front but saves me lots of time later when I have delicious roasted turkey on hand to use whenever I need.

I’ve also been getting ready for fall, which for me means a freezer full of pumpkin puree. I roasted this little organic pumpkin and I’m going to roast the seeds in a day or two as well. The big one will be a jack-o-lantern since we’ll undoubtedly get trick-or-treaters this year.

It’s getting really cold here too, almost time to turn on the heat. I’ve been trying to put that off as long as possible to save us some money, so the cats are having to find creative ways to keep themselves warm….like by falling asleep in the warm clean laundry.

YARN!!!!!

I’m just going to end up covered in their fur anyway, might as well save myself a step and apply the fur directly to the clothes as soon as they come out of the dryer. It’s easier that way. 😉

This weekends project: Finish sweeping out the basement and possibly even mop it, then bring down all the stuff we intend to store in it so that we can actually use that second bedroom for something. Yoga studio? I think so.

Where is the strangest place you’ve found your pet asleep?

October 20, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 1 comment

I *think* that things have finally slowed back down to normal now.

I cannot tell you how much happier I am now that we’ve moved. I didn’t even realize before how all the little frustrations I had with different aspects of our last place were adding up to affect my overall mood. It took all of about 2 minutes to feel completely at home in our new place, though. I honestly already feel like we’ve been here a long time, and that this is a place that we’ll continue to be happy in for many years.

Tour time! Here’s the living room setup, just needs decorating now. There’s a small room of to the side of it that I’m using as an office. The natural light in there will be great for blog photos!

Lucas and Liam are loving it. So many new windowsills to sit on, squirrels to watch, things to sniff…

We have a small dining room adjoining the living room and kitchen. We went out and bought this corner bookshelf from Ikea on the first day to add to our bookcases since there’s nowhere in the house that all three of the standard size ones can fit side by side. See me in the glass?

And I still have a few more books to put away…

Then there’s the kitchen. It’s pretty small, but there’s a ton of good counter space and lots of cabinetry.

Jeff even gets his own cabinet for tea. Well, he generously gave up a shelf for my spices since I can find nowhere else to put them for now.

And this little beauty, a gas stove! Everyone knows that the pros use gas. This is my first time using one and I already love how evenly it cooks compared to an electric.

The pantry is out in the hallway. Actually, I think this is supposed to be a linen closet, but with how much kitchen stuff I have there is absolutely no room in the cabinets for food. Pantry it is!

This might just be my favorite part of the house though….the shower!

We had a really gross and crappy shower in the last place. This one is large and clean and has these nifty little stone shelves built right in. Seriously, for me at least, a hot shower is one of life’s greatest pleasures. I wish I could spend hours in there.

Our bedroom is pretty large. It does have a relatively small closet though that Jeff and I share, but it seems to be just big enough for us.

And the other bedroom is currently housing a bunch of stuff that we need to put in the basement. We need to clean the floors down there first though, so what will one day hopefully become a nursery is for now a junk room. The closet in this room is really small and the staircase leading downstairs cuts into it so there’s very little usable storage room there.

And here’s the creepy steep staircase down to the basement where our washer and dryer are. It’s a tight squeeze and my hamper actually doesn’t fit through the door! I’m on the lookout for a bag-type hamper that I can throw over my shoulder like a backpack to replace it with.

That’s it for now, I’ll show some more as we get it decorated some. I’m really ready to get back into posting recipes and such though, so hopefully I’ll have something new for you soon.

I’m sitting here listening to the sound of walnuts loudly thunking the rooftop as the wind blows them out of the trees. It’s a sound I’m already coming to love as a part of our new home.

October 19, 2011 Alayna Discussion 8 comments