Football, Bacon Explosion and Good Times

Labor day weekend symbolizes everything about Fall for us. Its the start of college football, cool weather, city festivals, birthdays and our favorite holiday Halloween. So, we did it up in style. Saturday we hosted a College Football kick-off party. Jeremy made a pork monstrosity of bacon wrapped in pork sausage wrapped in bacon, grilled and sliced for everyone to enjoy. It was delicious but a little over indulgent. Our teams won their opening games, and we had a great time with friends.

Daddy showing his displeasure about Holden wearing Mizzou gear on Saturday

The weather around here gave us a little bit of a reprieve from the summer heat and we have been able to open the windows at night. I'm sure its short lived but appreciated. We have been harvesting hot peppers and tomatoes galore out of our garden and are thinking about trying our hand at some winter veggies for the first time.

We are headed to a cookout this evening. You can't have a complete labor day weekend without a cookout.

Bacon Explosion

1/2 Birthday aka 6 Months!!

Holden is 6 months old as of yesterday. It has gone so fast. He had his 6 month check-up this afternoon and is 16 lbs 2.5 oz (25th percentile) and 25 inches long (7th percentile). He is still on the small side but has had steady growth. We have decided he has his dad's patience (which is not always a good thing). He loves playing with dad, they have their very own peek-a-boo game. Here is how it goes...Jeremy covers his face, shows his face and says "boo"...Holden jumps and then laughs uncontrollably. We have yet to get it on film because he has started to notice the camera and therefore stops what he was doing to look at the camera. Holden went on his second beach trip and second camping trip in August. No crawling or sitting yet so we have a little while longer before we have to baby proof.

Eating our feet, makes diaper changes more challenging these days

He has been on solid food for about a month now and has tried so many fruits and vegetables already including:

• Sweet Potatoes


• Butternut Squash


• Avocado


• Banana


• Pear


• Prunes


• Papaya

Enjoying a good book

Holden's accomplishments this month:

• He is talking a lot, mostly to dad


• He is much more interested in the toys and can reach for something that he wants


• He can pass an object from one hand to the other


• He has found his feet and they are the new fascinating thing


• He has sat and watched both the cats and dog move around the room


• He is trying to blow raspberries with his mouth and hasn't quite mastered it yet

Laughing at Dad

Holden's Hugh Hefner robe

Juicy Lucys

Jeremy and I made our own Juicy Lucys tonight for dinner with some farmers market sweet corn. Don't know what a Juicy Lucy is? Well, your not alone...we saw the Juicy Lucy on the T.V. show, Man vs. Food on travel channel. It is a hamburger patty with the cheese in the middle originating at a restaurant in Minneapolis. We also topped our Juicy Lucy's with some leftover roasted Hatch chili peppers. Here is the recipe if you would like to make your own Juicy Lucy:



Homemade Juicy Lucy's with Hatch green chilies: Serves 2

1 lb of ground beef
A handful of your favorite cheese, we used cheddar cheese.


Heat up your grill. Quarter your ground beef. Take one quarter and pat the meat out into a patty but make a little bowl for the cheese. Place a handful of cheese in the bowl you made in the patty. Top your patty with cheese with another patted out quarter of meat. Pinch the two patties together to make sure the cheese is all inside the hamburger patty and that your meat is pinched together enough so it won't fall apart on the grill. Repeat. Grill your hamburger patties until well done. Serve with toasted buns and your favorite hamburger toppings. We topped them with roasted Hatch green chilies and about set our mouths on fire.

Foodie

I've been thinking about adding my love of all things food to the blog. We have been trying to eat healthier around here, and are dining in ALOT more than we did pre-baby so I have gone back to my cook books for some variety. So, with my love of Top Chef, Food Network, foodie blogs, recipe books and the art of cooking and baking I figure I could share some of my loved and hated recipes with the rest of you to try out on your own. Some will be healthy some not so much, but we have to indulge every once and a while.

Here is one of our favorite baked italian dishes (an indulgence).

Cheesy Baked Tortellini - serves 4-6
by Giada De Laurentiis-Everyday Pasta

2 cups marinara sauce (another day I will share our homemade marinara recipe)
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh italian parsley (or 2 tbsp dried)
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried)
1 lb purchased cheese tortellini
2 oz thinly sliced smoked mozzarella
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a square baking dish or casserole dish with cooking spray. Whisk the marinara, marscapone and herbs till blended. Cook tortellini until al dente. Add tortellini to sauce and toss to coat. Transfer to baking dish, top with mozzarella and parmesan. Cover dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake uncovered until sauce bubbles and cheeses on top melt, about 10 more minutes.

Notes: This is super easy and we have modified in a couple of ways. First we usually eliminate the "toss to coat" step and just lay the tortellini in the dish and pour the sauce over top, it all gets mixed together pretty easily. We have used ricotta cheese instead of mascarpone and its still good, the Teeter is kind of hit or miss on whether they have mascarpone in stock or not.

You could liven it up by adding fresh sliced mushrooms to the sauce or some cooked italian ham (prosciutto or pancetta).

Also, regular mozzarella works just as well as smoked if you can't find smoked.

Bumps on a Log

We went camping this weekend, just a short trip after work Friday and back Sunday morning. We were only about 50 miles south of Charlotte. Once we got all set up on Friday until we had to pack back up on Sunday, Jeremy and I did absolutely nothing. It was nice. No running around, no cleaning, no going out. Just sat in our camping chairs with our friend coors light and a good book.

We were at a SC state park and our camp site backed up to the fishing lake and dock. Its was picturesque, of course we forgot to take a photo. Holden enjoyed the cool morning but spent most of the afternoon in the air conditioned camper. South Carolina in mid August is not the coolest of places, it kind of feels like you are at the screen door to hell in the afternoon. But like I said, Jeremy and I had a supply of frosty beverages.

Our productive activities: a 2.5 mile hike around the lake, Holden took his morning snooze in the moby wrap during the walk and Malachi got to go for a little swim in the lake.

Like I said we did nothing. It. Was. Awesome.

Jeremy's new addition to the camper, the Owl Lights.

Hanging out

So Much to Do, So Little Time

We have had so many visitors and weekends away from home in the last month, the house has started to feel neglected. So, as the master of making lists, we had a long one this weekend. Somehow, the majority of the list still seemed to be all things Holden. Holden has outgrown all of his 3 month outfits and the dresser was a mess of clothes that didn't fit and clothes that did. So I got all of his too small outfits packed away, and we have already filled 2 large tupperware of baby clothes, diapers and gear and he is only 5 months old! We also had a marathon of baby food making on Saturday. Holden is going to have a smorgasbord of scrumptious fruits and veggies to try in the next month and beyond. We cooked and pureed the following goodies and froze them in either baby cubes or ice cube trays for individual servings:

1. Acorn Squash
2. Butternut Squash
3. Sweet Potato
4. Carrots
5. Avocado
6. Peaches
7. Banana

We still have some papaya and nectarines that are ripening. It isn't that hard of a project either you basically let the food processor do all of the work. I think we will be able to have him on homemade food for the majority of his meals and just jarred food when we are out and about, which is great.

We did manage to fit some play time into our weekend. Holden hosted a play date and I got a chance to catch up with the other moms. Its been awhile since we have all gotten together so it was nice to catch up. Two of Holden's friends have gotten their bottom 2 teeth already, and he got to hang out with his buddy Cameron before she went on vacation for 2 weeks.

We will be headed on our second camping trip for the summer next weekend so hopefully I remember to take pictures since I didn't get any from the beach trip last weekend.

Just For Fun

For the Grandmas

Getting ready for college football, wearing out all of my lesser teams colors before donning my Big Red Colors

Courtesy of the Godparents, showing my pride for the best pizza joint in Columbia, MO
Jumping!