Happy Life, Happy Wife

Did you know that I almost never win anything?  It’s gotten to the point where I say, “Why bother” entering a contest when I know I won’t win…  And truth be told, I forgot all about entering this one!  So imagine my surprise when I won LOL  Can’t wait to get that box in the mail with some signed cookbooks!

The picture that made it all happen:

A blast from the past – a recipe I did back in 2010 on my old site.

Ingredients:

• 4 large apples (Gala or Granny Smith)
• 2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 Tbsp Splenda brown sugar blend
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup sugar-free maple syrup
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. You can core the apples if you want to, but I just cut them in half close to the core.
3. Arrange the apples, cut sides up, in a baking dish and brush the cut sides of the apples with 1 tsp of the lemon juice.
4. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle the tops of the apples with the sugar mixture.
5. Pour maple syrup in the bottom of the dish.
6. Cover with foil and bake 10 minutes.
7. Uncover and bake 15-20 minutes more until the apples are tender.
8. Transfer apples to a serving platter and lay a piece of foil on top to keep them warm.
9. Pour pan juices (the syrup left in the pan) into a small saucepan and stir in the remaining 1 tsp lemon juice and salt.  Bring to a boil and then cook for about 4-5 minutes until the sauce is thickened, stirring constantly.
10. Serve the apples with the sauce and top with walnuts.

Originally I was missing because I felt too sick to climb up the stairs, sit at my computer, write out a post, or even THINK about a recipe.

Then I was missing because I was trying to think of a creative way to announce my pregnancy.

Now I’ve realized that I’m at week 29, in the third trimester, and the last post on my blog was about Thanksgiving.  LOL

So even though it’s not very creative, here he is:

We go for the 4d ultrasound this Wednesday and I am sooo excited

I hope that everybody has a happy and safe Thanksgiving shared with your loved ones.

My Grandma’s favorite Thanksgiving song:

I’m a big, fat turkey
I go gobble gobble gobble
When I walk
My legs go wobble wobble wobble

Remembering you especially today

Pop Pop’s coming over today for Thanksgiving dinner.  I know you know how much he misses you, but we’re taking good care of him.  And Mom’s still “making” the turkey just like you guys did that one year 

Wow!  I can’t believe it’s over.

I woke up early today, but this job was actually done about two weeks ago.  I totally forgot that organizing my books was on the list!  Haha.  Well I guess it’s fitting that a series meant to help me be more organized and tidy actually worked ahead of time!

The cookbooks were a new addition, but I had already organized the rest of my books.  I also have a dresser with three big drawers full of paperbacks.  (I love to read)

The pride and joy of my collection?  The Twilight series of course!  Closely followed by my Catherine Anderson and Judith McNaught books.  Although actually I really like the few I have that are large print.  I’m not supposed to read as much as I do, so the large print really helps.

Well, I really enjoyed doing this 30 in 30, and I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with myself now that it’s over.  I guess I’ll go back to recipes for a bit

Not only does Milly have an entire drawer full of toys, but they’re also hidden all over the house.

She’s far from being a smart dog, but she does know each of her toys by name.  The orange one on the bottom is Monkey, the pale pink one is Piggy (her favorite), there’s also Ducky, Nanny Hedgehog, Bone Shank, Daddy the Donkey, and then the long hot pink toy is Toy.  So I’ll say show me “Piggy” or “Monkey” and she always comes back with the right one.

That’s Baa Baa and Rachel the Raccoon… more of her favorites.

So we had a discussion about how we needed to clean out the toy chest because that’s Day 29.  Suffice it to say Milly was not happy!

In the end, we compromised and got rid of one grungy Rope Toy.

And I think she only gave that one up because it was Daisy’s.