Elf on the Shelf 2014

We had so much fun this year with Lily's Elf on the Shelf, Pepper!

This was my FAVORITE! Pepper got naughty as Lillers slept.

Her response to seeing Pepper's handiwork was ADORABLE!

Pepper and pals climbed the rope. Reminds me of gym class in high school!!

Peppers friends tried to blackmail Pepper into meeting Santa. Pepper did NOT give in. Way to go Pepper!




Take that you Alien Scum!!!!


























Poker time! I wonder if Pepper will win!

Daddy helped me with their "hands" Poor Pepper is about to crap out.

Lily had an ear infection. To cheer her up, Pepper colored some pictures.




On this day, Pepper brought Lily a special Elf movie. She wanted NOTHING to do with it.
She liked watching other stuff on her little DVD player but what was having NONE of the Elf.




Caravan!







Scrub a dub dub! Marshmallows in the tub!

Merry Christmas 2014

It's been a busy busy holiday season! I have Secret Santa at work (for which I have been a terrible Secret Santa....MUST make amends with chocolates and a BIG gift card....),  many many fun Christmas parties, TWO Christmas cookie baking parties, and a lot of Amazon shopping. We're getting close to being all ready for The Big Guy!!

But no matter how busy I am,  I make my greeting cards every year. This year I wanted to try something different. I used overhead transparency sheets and Bubble wrap in the creation of my 2014 card. It's different than my usual and I got some lukewarm reviews but also some good reviews. However, no matter what folks thought-I love it!

Merry Christmas 2014

I also decided to make all the gifts for Lily Belle's preschool teachers. They were a big hit!

Bookmarks! All teacher can use beautiful bookmarks!!

And journals!

This Santa journal would inspire all manner of Christmas musings!

A beautifully decorated Christmas tree journal to get teachers in the holiday spirit!

Butternut Squash Fettucini Alfredo

It's been a while since I did a new recipe! (or maybe took the time to blog a new recipe.)  Lately, I have gotten into selling things through our town's Buy, Sell, Trade page on Facebook. 

I even sold our CAR!! (seriously-I posted the pics and description and in less than an hour a couple was at our house and they bought it!!) 

Anyway, so while perusing Buzzfeed I found several delicious looking pasta recipes. 

Buzzfeed27 Easy Pasta recipes

I HAD to try this one! 

Butternut Squash Browned Butter and Rosemary Fettucini Alfredo

The recipe promises it'll be ready in 30 minutes (and it was!), that it's a lighter version of Fettucini Alfredo, and has lots of flavor. All promises delivered!

Here's the recipe:

butternut-squash-browned-butter-and-rosemary-fettucini-alfredo/

Ingredients

• 16 oz. whole wheat fettucini noodles (or any other whole grain pasta you want!)
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 1 cup chicken stock (or vegetable stock or, in a pinch, water)
• 3 cups prepared diced butternut squash (about 1/2 a large squash)
• 1 cup milk
• salt and pepper, to taste

Cut up Butternut squash. This is about 1/2 of a large squash. This is about 3 cups.

You can look at my previous post on how to prepare the squash.

Butternut Squash Soup

4 tablespoons of butter and a small onion chopped

1 tablespoon of Rosemary finely chopped

Allow butter to get nice and brown, and onions cooked to translucent before adding the Rosemary and about a cup of Chicken Broth

Add the cups of butternut squash and cook on medium high heat for about 10 minutes till soft. 

Meanwhile, make your pasta. I had on hand regular Spaghetti noodles but you can use any. The recipe uses a Fettucini Noodle but these are just as delicious!

Once soft, mash with a potato masher.

Add one cup of milk, salt and pepper, heat milk through and then use an immersion blender to make smooth.  (If you don't have one you can use a food processor.)

Pour over noodles.

The flavors are so wonderful! The browned butter, rosemary and the squash. YUMMM

I also took it to work for my dinner and it reheated beautifully!

If you want- you can eat it as a soup!  

Thank you Buzzfeed! I can't wait to try more of their recipes!