A Week With Barefoot

Last week our Barefoot Blog challenged us to make five different Ina Garten recipes- one each day. I ended up only making two of the five and both on the same night. They both turned out wonderful.

The first is one of my personal favorites, Caramelized Butternut Squash. I make this recipe at least once a week now that squash is in season. Sometimes I substitute the brown sugar for pure maple syrup. Fabulous and easy. Check out the link for the recipe.

The second recipe I made was French String Beans. I didn't add the peppers to this one because I didn't have any on hand and wanted to make the recipe anyway. Usually I would add them. A quick and easy side dish.

Here's the plate put together with a stuffed pork chop. This is actually my husband's plate. He put everything on there and thought his was much better looking than my plate, so I told him I would put his picture up instead.

Check out the Barefoot Blog for the other three recipes; Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars (I made them last summer and loved them), Chicken Chili and Roasted Potato Leek Soup.

100 Books to Read

A friend of mine recently sent me a forward in Facebook of 100 books that everyone should read. The survey stated that most people have only read about two books from the entire list. I have only read 36 and some of those I marked because I had seen the movie but can't remember if I actually read the book.
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Since I'm always looking for a good book I decided to tackle the rest of the list. I marked off two books that I had no desire to read and also marked off anything I have read in the past five years or so. That left me with 92 books yet to read. I'm sure this will be a list I work on for a few years. So, I thought I would pass this list on, piece by piece, throughout the weeks. I'll give you 10 books and let you know what I've read and where I'm at. Here's the first 10:
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• Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
• The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
• Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
• Harry Potter series - J. K. Rowling
• To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
• The Bible
• Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
• Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
• His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
• Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

From this list I remember reading a few back in high school but will reread them now. I marked off the Harry Potter series because I don't care to read those books. The Bible is always a work in progress for me, so I will continue to read that one on a regular basis.

I'm currently working from further down the list on Anne of Green Gables. I love this movie (it's one of my all time favorites) but the book is a little slow. Even so, I'm enjoying it.

Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes

Yesterday my husband and I were supposed to attend a fall party with some friends. Due to some circumstances we ended up not going, but I had already made my treat for the party- mini pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I loved the idea because they were small enough to grab pop in your mouth without committing to a big dessert.

The recipe I used is below and is for a large sheet cake. I cut the recipe in half to make about 36 or so mini cupcakes. I also added a little chopped chocolate to the the top of half the cupcakes just to make them more black and orange.

Pumpkin Sheet Cake

Ingredients:
1 can (16 oz) pumpkin
2 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs beaten
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Combine pumpkin and sugar, mix well. Add oil. Add eggs one at a time. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Beat into cake. Grease and flour a large sheet pan, add batter and bake at 350 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes. (About 12 to 15 minutes for the mini cupcakes.)

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
3 oz cream cheese, soft
5 Tbsp. butter, soft
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup to 2 cups powdered sugar
3 to 4 tsp. milk

Mix cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth. Add powdered sugar and milk, whip. Enjoy!

Max Reed

This past Friday my new little nephew was born, Max Reed. He was 6 pounds 9 ounces and 20 inches long; just a tiny little guy.

I was fortunate enough to get to spend a lot of time with him as the hospital where he was born is only about 10 minutes from my house. I got to go spend mornings with him so his mom could shower and have her breakfast and wait for dad to get out of work and come over. As a result, I spent HOURS just holding him and looking at him. I think we've bonded.

I'm looking forward to many more "bonding" sessions with this little guy.

Barefoot Blogger - Cheddar Corn Chowder

The first Barefoot Blog recipe for the month of October was certainly a fall-ish recipe. Jill from My Next Life chose Ina's Cheddar Corn Chowder.

I made a few variations. First, as always, I cut the recipe in half. Second, I didn't have any bacon in the house. I'm trying to cut back on the fat and calories, so I used Canadian bacon instead and felt the recipe still came out great.

Even though the picture is quite blurry from the steam coming off the chowder, I was hungry and didn't want to wait to take the picture, this recipe was really great. We enjoyed it in our house and will make it again.

Y0u can follow this link to the receipt: Cheddar Corn Chowder.

This is the only Barefoot Blog recipe I will be making this month. The next recipe is for Blue Cheese Souflee. I'm not a fan of blue cheese at all and can't think of a reasonable substitute, so I'm going to be passing on this one.

I WON!

I'm in the middle of babysitting my niece, Natalie, but wanted to take a second to say I won the Four Fat Chicks giveaway of a $100.00 giftcard to Target. You can see my progress calendars posted along the way of all the workouts I did.

I must say, this was a tough challenge. September was an awful month for me for getting in workouts and such. I had to really struggle to get things in even if it was a combo of pushups, jumping jacks, etc. for 20 minutes. Great cardio though.

Anyway, I'm grateful to have won the giveaway and am brainstorming all the ways to spend $100.00 at Target. Hopefully I can make it last.

I wanted to say a big Thank You to the Four Fat Chicks for their generous giveaway.

September Calendar Completed

Yesterday marked the end of September and, thus, the end of the challenge issued by Shopping is Our Cardio to work out for at least 20 minutes each day for the month of September. I succeeded in working out 29 days out of 30, which i still think is pretty good.

There were days I didn't go to the gym (a lot of them in fact) so I had to find creative things to do around the house to get in some cardio from running stairs, push ups, jumping jacks, etc.

I'm hoping to win the $100.00 gift card to Target but even if I don't I'm happy that I finished out this program.