Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

In order to make my life easier, lately I've been focusing on buying basic ingredients and making from them whatever I can.  Salad dressings aren't really a huge imposition to buy, as they're not very expensive, but there are several advantages to making your own.  For one thing, unless you're buying the gourmet or organic brands, there's probably a laundry list of things you can't pronounce.  I'm pretty good with pronunciation, but that doesn't mean I have any clue what they are.  Also the flavor of bottled dressings is NOTHING compared to homemade!  Combined with the ability to make as much or as little as you need and the fact that it's all relatively quick and easy, you kind of have a no brainer.

Steak and Veggie Stew

Got a new delicious cold weather recipe for you!  I came up with this one last week.  Hubs and I are challenging ourselves to pack the most veggies that we can into our diet.  I had a big cut of beef (I'm not positive, I think it was either a round or rib roast) hanging out in the freezer and thought maybe I could make some vegetable beef soup in the slow cooker.  I don't particularly care for VB soup, as it generally isn't very well seasoned and just seems kind of bland to me, but I was determined to do it better.

This is also a great clean-out-the-fridge recipe, as you can throw just about any bits and pieces of leftover vegetables you may have in the mix.  As it were, I had quite a few leftovers that got consumed this way.

Halloween!

For a long time Boo has reminded me of someone else.  His hair would get mussed up, and he would look like everyone's favorite imaginative, scheming, eternally six year old boy, Calvin.  He's full of life and just a tinge of trouble (that I'm sure will blossom fully in the next few years) so in addition to The Look, he potentially has the demeanor as well.

I've been a Watterson fan for as long as I can remember.  So I decided to go all in for Boo's second Halloween.  See, my sister is an excellent knitter/schemer/accomplice.  I told her I was thinking about doing a Calvin and Hobbes theme, and she was my hero!

Boo was hard pressed to make a decision as to which kitty was his favorite.

'A' is for Autumn and Apples!

Hubs and I took our yearly vacay to the mountains this past weekend.  We have friends there, and since both of us grew up near the beach, we like to change up the scenery every once in a while.  It was a beautiful weekend to go.  The evenings dipped into the 30's, but the days were bright and merely brisk.

On our way out of town we stopped into the farmer's mart and got some goodies.  Sold by the bushel, 'deer apples' are apples that hit the ground naturally before they can be picked off the tree.  They are somewhat bruised, but otherwise completely edible.  Hubs has been lusting over the thought of making apple cider, so he picked up a box with that purpose in mind.  We had also already grabbed a peck of hand picked Arkansas Black apples.  (We planted an AB the same day we planted all of our other trees, but this year it decided to go to tree heaven.  So we figured we'd have to buy them if we ever wanted to try any!)

We also got a quart of local honey with honey comb in tact (nom!), some very fresh heads of cabbage, and a cream soda.  For me.  Delish.  Oh, and when we were leaving home we came across a guy selling half bushels of sweet potatoes, so we bought two!  Think I'll have my work cut out for me soon enough...

Catching Up

It's been a while.  I've been lazy with the posting.  Things have been busy, Fall has definitely surpassed Spring and Summer as the official Wedding Season.  In addition to a stacked social calendar, lots of prep for Christmas and Thanksgiving, also Halloween and working, baking, canning...

Well I'm sure you're not so concerned with that, but basically I just wanted to reassure my readers (Hubs and Mom) that I haven't forgotten about you guys.  New posts coming up, and soon!