When was the last time you had a Root Beer Float?

It had been a while for me, too.... until this afternoon.

And, man - was it good! Just like I remembered....

Just ask Haydie.

Mmmmmm.... nothing like a frosty ice cream treat in your backyard while you are wearing nothing but your finest SpongeBob chonies.

Piper wanted a taste, too.

But Hoot wasn't sharing. Not even one little smidge.
Poor Piper.

try this - I'll bet that even your kids will eat it!

It has been a while since I wrote out a recipe for all of you out there in Blog Land - I will try to be better.  I promise.  Consider this easy little gem an offering of repentance.  It is so easy, so cheap, and so tasty, you will forget all about how negligent i have been in the cooking department.  :)  And I bet your kids will eat it, too.

Sorry - no pictures - we ate it all before I had a chance to snap any.  Naughty me.  :)

Spaghetti with Roasted Butternut Squash and Sweet Onions

1 1lb box of spaghetti

1 large sweet onion, finely diced

1 package of diced butternut squash (You can buy a whole winter squash and dice it yourself – it is cheaper but it is hard and time consuming.  It will make this 15 minute dinner take longer, but that is up to you.)

4-5 cloves of garlic, pressed or finely chopped

4 tbsp of olive oil

A pat (or three) of butter

A drizzle of honey

¾ cup of whole milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Parmesan cheese for serving

Start a big pot of salted water boiling for your pasta. 

In a skillet over medium heat, add olive oil, butter, onion, garlic, salt pepper, and honey.  Cook until golden and caramelized – the squash will be pretty squishy at this point, which is good.   It gets sweeter and yummier as you let it get brown and caramelized, as do the onions, so let it go.  The mixture will cook to a deep orangey brown, but keep the heat a little lower so that it doesn’t burn.  That would taste gross.

When your water boils, drop your pasta in there.  Let it cook to al dente.

When the squash is sufficiently brown, add milk and let the sauce thicken over the heat, stirring the whole time. 

Toss sauce and pasta together and sprinkle with Parmesan to serve.  Enjoy!  Hoot scarfs this one down like it is candy! LOL

Also: if you wanted to add some meat to this dish, I would suggest Italian sweet sausage removed from it’s casing and browned, added to the sauce.  Sausage and orange veg = a match made in heaven. J

a productive (if a bit rainy and cold) Memorial Day weekend

We are sadly saying goodbye to a nice long weekend.  Our weather did not cooperate with us for the usual Memorial Day activities this year, but no big surprise there.  As you know, the weather isn't real cooperative ever around here. :)

Never the less, this family was busy.

Guess where my daughter has slept the last three nights?

Upstairs, in her bed, by herself!  We were all prepared for this to be a miserable transition, and while I refuse to count any unhatched chickens, it has so far turned out to be quite the opposite.  Every night, I have taken her up there, washed her hands and face, brushed her teeth, turned on her nightlight and sat in the rocking chair with her as she dozed off, put her in her crib and gone back downstairs - prepared for our familiar old 3am wake ups, bringing a kicking screaming  kid back to bed with us, all of the good things we have been subjected to for the last 16 months.

But they never happened.

We never heard another peep from her until after 8am the following morning.  My terrible sleeper has been not just sleeping, but sleeping IN.  Whose child is this? Certainly not mine who has never slept past 7am in her whole life. 

I cannot tell you how happy this makes me - but i also cannot tell you how silly this makes me feel.  all of this leads me to believe that she has been playing a trick on us, clever little girl.  Like she has been capable of sleeping all night and even sleeping in, but has been choosing not to because we are conveniently right close by to play. :-/

In other news take a look at this:

My husband has been a busy painter this weekend, hasn't he? Don't you just LOVE the hot pink stripes in the window seat nook!?  I do!  And it is the prettiest  shade of green!  I made the little pompoms over the crib while he painted on Saturday night after we put Hayden to bed - we were commenting that we hadn't been up past midnight in years, party animals we are. LOL It is so cute, I can't get enough of it - and I can't wait to find a dresser, make some artwork, buy the bedding, ect.! 

Hayden has been busy too.  Her Gramma and Grampa bought her this little four wheeler, and in between thunderstorms, she has been buzzing allover the yard on it.

She has not really figured out turning yet, so there are a lot of rescues by her pit crew (aka: Dada):

Here she is practicing for when she wins the race:

She has recently become aware of bugs, and finds them to be fascinating, yet terrifying.  The one is this picture is the tiniest roly poly (you probably can't even see it in the picture) but it had her screaming and giggling.

She suckered her Daddy into pulling her in the wagon during one brief moment of sunshine, and as you can see, it tickled her pink:



We wrapped this up with a private (indoor) barbeque for 3.5, prepared  for us by our favorite guy.

In the midst of all of these things, we also enjoyed a really fun (also indoor) barbeque with friends on Sunday night, a trip to the nursery, visits from Gramma and Grampa, and a lot of great time together.  so yeah, busy weekend.  Every second has been so full, and I am sad to see it end!  I hope that you all had a nice Memorial Day weekend, enjoying good company - and hopefully someone enjoyed better weather than we did! :)

Happy Memorial Day 2011!
 

Happy Valentine's Day!

We have had a great Valentine's Day today, Hootie and I.

We got an early start because we had big plans.  We ran errands, went to the store, and came home to make a Valentine's dinner for Daddy and Gramma, Grampa, and Uncle Owen.

We had Valentine's to make:

We had to salt eggplant and let it sit for Eggplant Parmasan:

I went all out and made my sauce from scratch this time.  No bottled stuff on Love Day!



We did a little decorating.

And my little helper was there by my side the whole time, dirty face and crazy ponytails and all.

It was taking a long time, so she caught up on some reading.

And she had to love on her Valentine, Piper.  (Piper doesn't love the loving as much as Hayden thinks she  does.)

A truck-load of time and work later, here is our delicious dinner - Eggplant Parmasan.  (I LOVE this stuff!!)

And later, there is a special treat for everyone - Chocolate Toffee Saltines.  (click here to make some- they are TO DIE FOR.....  and surprisingly easy to  make!) 





Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you all found a little love in your life today. :)  I know I did.  

Party Day

Hayden's party was PERFECT.

The Birthday Girl was gorgeous. (As always!!)

The decorations were great.



The goodies were all in place -

- including the best birthday cakes EVER made especially for Hoot by my cousin, Erin Rae:

There were presents galore!

The cake was eaten... or smashed.

And the Owl was pooped when it was over.

All in all, it turned out perfectly - and I really enjoyed it.  (That's a big deal for those of us suffering from The Clark Griswold Effect.) 

Thanks to the family and friends who all came to wish Hootie a Happy 1st Birthday.  It means so much to us that so many people love her.  She is a really lucky little kid.

And now, onward and upward - TWO, here we come.  We'll bethere before we know it!