Grow.Make.Brew.Eat

Last night we made an awesome enchilada recipe from Clean Eating Magazine. I don't have a link to share as the recipe was from a magazine from 2009. It looked like a huge casserole before (and after) it cooked. We ended up with 4 whole wheat enchiladas with chicken and homemade sauce. They were nice and spicy...could have used a bit more heat though!  Then we turned on Nightmare Before Christmas and carved pumpkins! Andy decided to carve Jack Skellington's face... I opted for an owl (imagine that).  We used homemade pumpking carving tools: Vice grips and electric jigsaw blades... They turned out pretty awesome.  We're roasting pumpkin seeds today!!!!

Last night my coworkers threw me my first baby shower. It was spectacular and they really outdid themselves. The food was delicious, company and conversation fun and overall we all had a great time...and I brought home a boat load of new items for the little man... Big A** Balloons... Amazing cake. It was white cake with key lime filling and a delicious silk frosting (kind of like a whipped cream topping but not too sweet!) Cutest diaper cake! So cool...It contains 72 diapers, 2 crib sheets, a diaper pad cover, and other goodies AND... a Herman look a like on top! It was custom made by  HappyWhosIts  on Etsy . He's oh so adorable.  We had trouble getting the music channels on the TV.... We watched half naked men sing until someone figured it out and then we listened to lullaby music while I opened some incredible gifts for the baby!  Thank you everyone!!!!

Andy was on call all week long and we have wanted to make a certain eggplant dish. Well it didn't happen and by the time we go around to it yesterday our eggplant was squishy and had gone bad. BUT we did discover more goodies in our garden: SO we decided to use our lovely looking zucchini instead. The recipe for the Ricotta Bites is from Food Network Magazine. We didn't fry them in oil and we used panko for the breading. We baked the zucchini in the oven at 350 for 25 minutes or so. Our basil got frostbite, so we used parsley from the garden, along w/tomato and a mix of malt vinegar and balsamic for the topping! The salmon has just a little olive oil, salt and pepper and a squirt of lime.  The green thing in the middle is just a grilled pepper. It was tasty.

I got home from work on Friday afternoon and much to my surprise had a goody bag of treats waiting for me from Andy. It was a nice surprise AND everything in the little bag looked spectacular. We had to try a bit of each little thing (of course)... The Roland Feng Shui Maki Rolls are awesome. They have a weird texture and flavor that kind of grows on you. The Funky Monkey Bananamon chips are freeze dried bananas w/cinnamon....yummo! The Mezzetta olives ...mmm. I just love olives. It doesn't matter what kind they are, but these have roasted garlic in them...delicious. They would make one hell of a dirty martini. I'll have to remember that one for post preggo-ness. One thing that didn't make the picture was a packet of Justin's Hazelnut Butter . It fell between the couch cushions when opening the bag. I have been eyeing this at the grocery store for a while. We had it on homemade pumpkin bread for desert..fabulous. And he even tossed in some glow in the dark sill

A friend, Eric Pearson , sent me a link to the templates for these cute little felt owls. They are time consuming, but they turned out so adorable that I'm going to have to make more!

Had my glucose tolerance test yesterday. For those of you who don't know it's a lovely orange drink (kind of reminds me of REALLY sweet Jarritos drink...non carbonated though). It has 75g of carbs/sugars. You drink it. Wait an hour. Have a blood test. It tells you whether you could have gestational diabetes. If you fail, you get to do a three hour test. If you pass, you are in the clear. If you don't you make some dietary changes. I'm waiting for the phone call as I type....wait.....they just called: I PASSED! yippeee. No gestational diabetes for me. 20 weeks (9.2.11):  The nice thing was that I was able to have an ultrasound while waiting my hour. We were checking for little man's growth. A few weeks ago we thought he was a BIG baby. It appears that now he is right on track. He is growing fast and ahead of schedule a bit, but they say that means nothing as far as delivering early. Yesterday he weighed about 1lb 15oz. I'm guessing today we are closer

Saturday did not involve baking, cooking, crafting or making anything for that matter, but it did involve a full day of Andy & I at parenting class at Swedish American Hospital ...where in just over 3 mo the little guy will arrive. We opted for the day long adventure vs the 1 day per week, 5 week course. It was a loooong day. Our instructor was great and super packed with knowledge and we had a huge class (most of which consisted of normal people...but there were a few folks we could have done without....). After a day of listening, taking notes, watching horrifying movies, trying not to hyperventilate when practicing some breathing techniques, and lots of giggles (some at both appropriate and inappropriate times...totally couldn't help it) we "graduated" from the class. We even have the certificate to prove it. And we celebrated the only way we know how...a cold one @ Carlyle (Beer for A & Root Beer for T) and then dinner out at one of our faves, Five Fo