Recently:

Decorating the Christmas tree

 

 

Enjoying grandma and grandpa's high chair

Aaannnddddd... first time climbing up stairs!

 

 

home

I absolutely love being home. I love hanging out with my brothers. I love doing stuff with my mom. I love chatting with my dad. I love all of the Christmas decorating. I love living in a place that doesn't feel like a cave. I love grocery shopping with my mom's credit card :) I love having a bunch of live-in babysitters. I love spending more time with Matthew. I could go on...

I L.O.V.E. being home.

November

This month truly was a lot slower for new meals, and just meals in general, when you factor in that I wasn’t feeling very well the first part of the month, and then my family was in town and we were out and about all day, and then we went to Colorado for Thanksgiving. Still, there are some things worth mentioning:

Apple Spinach Salad: A delicious, fall-themed salad with apples, spinach, candied almonds, and feta cheese. (Source: Annie's Eats)

Butternut Squash Soup: I’m pretty sure I’ve never had butternut squash before in anything, but the variations on butternut squash soup looked so pretty, I decided it needed to be tried. And...I almost like it. My reaction was “this is interesting. Not bad. Different taste…” but I couldn’t quite get over the hump of “this is interesting” and make it to “this is really good.” It was almost there. I’m sure if I’d had previous exposure to butternut squash I really would have liked it a lot. (Source: Loosely based on several different recipes)

Chicken Flautas with a Roasted Tomatillo Sauce: As far as I can tell, flautas are very similar to toquitos, but with a flour tortilla. We put beans, chicken and cheese in them, fried them up and served it with the tomatillo sauce. It ended up being a really good meal, and one that Matthew especially really loved. (Source: Galley Gourmet)

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles: These weren't too different from normal snickerdoodles, and the pumpkin flavor didn't make them taste "weird" or anything, so if you are looking for something a little different but not too crazy, here ya go. (Source: Annie's Eats)

Slow cooker pork loin with sweet potatoes, orange and cilantro: I liked the interesting combination of flavors that made an ordinary pork roast pretty exciting. (Source: America's Test Kitchen Cookbook)

Roasted Sweet Onions with Herbed Bread Crumbs: Love carmelized onions, and love bread crumbs. We really enjoyed the combination of the two flavors and textures, and it was definitely a unique side dish. (Source: For the Love of Cooking)