tuesday breakfast

sourdough bread with raspberry jam, blueberries and veggie sausage.  coffee for me, chocolate milk for audrey.

no hummingbird, sorry.  they move too fast.

chip in one of my favorite coffee mugs = :(

succulent cuttings i collected from my grandmother's garden while i was in oregon. so glad they're doing well.

most of the veggie garden is rotting in ye olde wheelbarrow cemetery.

i said most.

plundered!

pear paired with a walk

off she goes!

mmmmm so good

need more pears!

i'm excited

we're having a halloween party/spooky movie night at our house on saturday and i'm making butterbeer. i found the recipe online and since the movies will probably go late, what's better on a chilly night than a hot cup of butterbeer??

4 cups cream soda
2-3 tbsp butter
2-3 tbsp brown sugar
1 cup cream
4 or 5 Werther's Originals

1. Put the cream soda in a pan to boil.
2. Melt the butter and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Pour the butter and sugar mixture into the pan of boiling cream soda.
4. Add the cream.
5. Add the Werther's Originals and stir continuously until they melt.
6. Serve hot

it's beginning again and....

....i'm feeling like it's time to bake something. autumn. i love autumn. i love the cool evenings, the fog, the smells, the crunch of dying leaves and yes, even the familiar itch of needing to bake. i think i've posted an "i love all things autumn" post every year since this blog's infancy. it usually happens after i get a little taste of cooler weather. yesterday was cool and cloudy all day. audrey was having a bad day & refusing her naps but i was left swooning over the weather and my fussy clingy baby. i saw halloween candy in vons, oh man that made my day too.

this picture is of laurelhurst park in portland, my favorite city park. i even love the name, laurelhurst. michael proposed to me on that hill two days before thanksgiving in 2005. i think he made me love autumn and thanksgiving even more, if that were possible.

i'm thinking brownies, peanut butter brownies.

bon appétit!!

had breakfast and a movie with maria this morning. breakfast was mama ham's buttermilk waffles and we watched julie & julia while we crocheted our baby blankets. we both were craving brie and baguettes afterward!

julia child would be proud of all the butter i used

also,

it's a little belated but....

i found some luck while watering my plants this week :)

mojito

i have about 95 more days until i'm due to deliver. i don't know what it is, (the sunny pleasant weather, thoughts of soon starting another vegetable garden or lazy mornings spent reading on the porch?) but i've been craving a mojito for the past week. michael says we can stop by the yardhouse on the way home from the hospital and he'll buy me a crisp mojito. i love that man!

simple pleasures...

...are enjoying yummy peppermint hot chocolate while at work, and streaming christmas music over the internet. (peppermint hot chocolate shown, christmas music not shown)

:D happy birthday to my momma too! love you! :D

fresh & pudgy

today a fresh & easy opened a few blocks from our house and i am so excited! i love their heat & serve entrees and quick lunch items. mostly though i love their grapefruit juice, they actually leave in the pulp! i'm a great lover of pulp in my citrus juices and until now, i've never known grapefruit juice to be sold with pulp before. i know it's such a small thing, but i couldn't wait to stop by on my lunch break and get some. pregnant women are easy to please sometimes. sometimes. :) i'm looking forward to shop here soon with my wonderful mil, i'm sure she'd love it. hear that mil?! if anything, it's a great excuse to have you come visit again!



speaking of pregnancy, here's my personal POV of my feet. i can still see them. also, here are my new shoes i've been wearing every time i walk out the door for the last two weeks. no really, nearly every time. i watered my plants in these puppies today. anyway, i like them. they remind me of peonies.

i can feel it, see it & taste it.

even though the days are still averaging about 97 degrees, i can definitely notice the evenings getting cooler. school is starting. touches of halloween greet me in stores. high school football is around the corner. blossoms are fading. the nights are getting longer.

every mid-august i start to look for signs of autumn. i let myself think of hot apple cider, roasted pumpkin seeds and beautiful grey skies. autumn is my favorite season, i love everything about it. i love the smells, scarves and coats, the crunchy leaves, the promise of family gatherings and peppermint, hot chocolate with marsh mellows, and shades of reds, oranges and browns. i love love LOVE autumn! :)

i remember living on my own in my first apartment in seaside oregon, watching the rain drip off an evergreen out my living room window. the cool beachy fog clung to the hills as i watched joey's breath puff when we were outside. that first autumn on my own really made me appreciate how beautiful the season is. now i'm excited for my first fall season in my new house! i'm excited to light some pumpkin spice candles, decorate indoors and out, and carve some jack-o-lanterns.

as i type this, i'm sipping on some trader joe's spiced cider. :D easy fall prep tip: heat some spiced cider and some lemon and orange zest on the stove for some yummy hot apple cider. it makes your kitchen smell amazing too!

i think...

...2nd day spaghetti is tastier than fresh spaghetti.

summer treat

green tea mochis, so perfect on a hot day!

tea for two (hundred)

on saturday i took my mother-in-love to our parish's 11th annual annunciation tea. the flowers were beautiful and the food was amazing. so many of the ladies worked hard to make it such a wonderful time to visit with one another.

my mil and i before the tea.

chamomile and jasmin blossoms.

dear maria and her mom.

yum!!!

dinner is served.

here is a baker favorite, meatless meatball (trader joe's brand, of course!) sandwiches with sweet baby ray's BBQ sauce and side salad. it's a favorite of ours even when it isn't lent. mmmmm, (drool!)

treadmills and tuna sandwiches.

so, as this year has been hard emotionally and physically, my new goal for the remainder of the year is working on getting healthier. with the help of church, family and friends i've improved on the emotional side and am now moving on to the physical side. due to stress and medical problems i've gained fifteen unwanted (and previously unknown) pounds. my solution is a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. i've started the exercising slowly, mostly just walking a mile on the treadmill, cycling and lifting light weights. as soon as i feel healthier i plan on continuing to cycle and lift weights and start running three times a week.

my diet: eat a sensible healthy breakfast, a sensible healthy lunch and a sensible healthy dinner. ha, sounds easy right? dieting is fun! no rice crackers for me though, for breakfast today i had coffee and almond granola cereal, for lunch i had a tuna sandwich on multigrain wheat bread with a plumb and apple slices, for dinner i plan on having barbecued buffalo burgers with broccoli and potatoes. yum. my biggest problem though is snacking, i love to snack. i bought grapes, crackers&cheese, and carrots when i feel the need to snack.

my plan is to reach my target weight by the time of my brother's wedding in november, that gives me three months to look great in a new little dress. :) admittedly though, one of my biggest incentives to lose weight is an excuse to buy a whole new wardrobe. of course, that would actually help with the emotional side too, or is it the superficial side? either way, i do need some new clothes. my jeans are faded and uncomfortable and my tops are all too casual.

(i'm blogging this so i can be held accountable, publicly. it's always the best way!)