Grow.Make.Brew.Eat

Since we don't normally stay up very late, especially now with fatigue setting in around 7:30p...haha...we opted for a nice quiet night in, just the 2.3 of us. The evening involved cooking and games...yes, games...and fun drinks. non-alcoholic for T a good tasty brew for A Bacon Wrapped Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates- We've made these a zillion times, but they are just so good that we couldn't resist making them again. This time I read a trick online for stuffing the dates. Cut your dates length wise on one side, then stuff with the goat cheese.  This way you keep your sanity while stuffing & make less mess. We also pre bake the bacon just slightly to make it easier to wrap and allow for less cooking time on the grill (read as: you won't burn your dates). When you wrap them up with bacon the goodness stays inside. These were tossed on the grill...yum.  FYI: Best we have ever made.  pre-grilling post-grilling/pre-eating Olive, Caper & Caramelized

The countdown continues. We have just 3 weeks to go...or 4 if you talk to my sister who so lovingly reminded me that it could be longer. Thanks Boo...(sarcasm inserted here). I've hit the uncomfortable stage, but have had a relatively mild pregnancy, so honestly it doesn't bother me that much. I do make a lot more noises these days when getting dressed, taking off socks/shoes, moving around in bed. It's kind of funny and really weird at the same time. The room is ready. Just trying to figure out a place for everything. The bag is mostly packed for the hospital...little outfits ready for the little man, snacks for Dad and the list of accessories to grab on the way out the door. This weekend that will be completed as well as the car seat will be installed so we can have our safety check done some time this week. And we're still getting some other house stuffs in order as well (as I type Andy & Dad are working on projects and scheming more projects for the future).

As written in previous posts, we haven't been cooking elaborate meals lately. I've been tired and like to spend my evenings on the couch. So it's been quick and easy meals lately, which still taste great, but we haven't taken photos or blogged much. So, finally the other day we decided to make a more time consuming dish (not super time consuming, but it took more time than our other recent meals. It was a  Butternut Squash and Noodles w/Coconut, Lime & Cilantro from Epicurious . We used homemade turkey stock, since we had some in the freezer, and I added turmeric to the mix of spices used. I should have read the reviews prior to making this as almost everyone said they would add more curry. I tend to agree that more curry would make the dish a little more flavorful. Also, I think we would roast the squash in the oven before adding to the dish. The squash didn't take up the flavors of the broth as much as we would have liked, but if roasted it would add some ot

Christmas Eve is our evening to spend with Andy's Mom, Peggy. We've done this for as many years as Andy & I have been together...let's see...at least 7 or 8 years! We spend the evening eating mostly. We typically end up stuffed with appetizers prior to even sitting down to eat our main meal. This year was no different...but we all managed to eat the whole meal, without stopping!! The best part of spending an evening of eating and cooking, is spending good quality time together. We started at 4:30ish and didn't leave until 10:45ish...super late for the preggo, but it was well worth it.