Random Thoughts Friday: Fall

I love fall for mornings like this.

  • Crisp fall mornings are the best.
  • Makes me want to redecorate my home.
  • But I’m not confident in decorating… nor organizing.
  • House looks like a tornado again.
  • Home should be the sum of all your experiences. I think Nate Berkus said that.
  • Some days I feel like I’m in a constant state of reinventing. self-transformation.
  • Some days, I’m like, “I just want to sit with a large cafe mocha and watch tv.”
  • Can I have an uninterrupted phone call with friends? Just once?
  • There’s a lot of fabric waiting for me in my basement.
  • So many works-in-progress here.
  • Maybe I could add a few more hours to my day – wishful thinking.
  • I planted spinach in the garden.
  • Had a giant monster rabbit find its way into my fenced-off garden.
  • More chicken wire fixes everything… I hope.
  • Sometimes the cool morning air is all I need to refresh my head.
  • Enjoy these pictures from yesterday’s fine fall morning.

I gotta clean these or just get new ones.

Red Oak Leaf fallen

Maples are starting to turn

Free eats for monster rabbits (hopefully not)

Fruity Mooncakes

My in-laws received some delicious mid-autumn festival mooncakes from friends and shared them with us. If you aren’t familiar, these are delicious little Chinese pastries (you could even say, filled cookies) filled with red bean, lotus paste or maybe a hard-boiled duck egg. Ours are fruit-filled which bodes well for the kids.

The imprint on the cake is my favorite thing… I wonder if I can find some “stamps” from a Chinese bakery? Wouldn’t those be fun in a craft room display? And the box that the cakes came in, it’s so cute with a magnetic closure. We’re keeping that for something – maybe my craft supplies. Just when you thought there wasn’t anymore, you get plastic knife and tiny little forks that say, “OK”. You know, because waiting to eat the cakes until you get home from the bakery just won’t cut it.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving Kids 2009

Lots to be thankful for this year… my husband, my children… but this second half has been a hard one for my side of the family which makes Thanksgiving more bittersweet. There are both physical and emotional problems that some are enduring, but this week my family lost our oldest aunt, my dad’s oldest sister, Tess. I haven’t seen her for three years since she moved from Chicago to the Philippines, but she has been a big part of my growing years. I thought about her often after her move, and now, I believe she is in a better place without physical pain, without worries.

My dad’s three other sisters are in the Philippines now, making arrangements, while a few families are here in Chicago making the most of this Thanksgiving by coming together for dinner at our home. We give thanks for those here and abroad who have touched our lives in so many ways…

Thanksgiving pumpkin cupcakes

One Fall Day

Hope you all had a nice weekend. We certainly enjoyed ours. I should have been getting ready for the Craft Social, but I had other projects in line.

Enjoying the Backyard

The boy is crying not because he was hurt. He tried to lock me up in the garden and I yelled at him. Needless to say, he went back inside the house for a while.

Black and Decker Cultivator

This garden tool was pretty nice to use once the hard clay was amended with peat moss.

Planting Garlic

After planting the garlic, it was time to enjoy the leaves.

Fall Leaves

Life is Fun

**Updated: Wow! This is my 100th post – a great way to “celebrate”. Thanks to everyone who takes time out of their day to share time with us!

Butternut Squash recipes, anyone?

I love this time of year minus some of the unseasonably cold weather. The leaves changing color, falling, autumn harvests, apples… what’s not to like?

Squash, we love squashPeeling the Butternut Squash

So, I looked around for some squash recipes to maybe tantalize my kids into eating some of it. Growing up, my mom would cook up a stew with green beans, squash, onions, garlic and pork. Sometimes ground pork, but usually pork chops without bones and cut into strips. It’d be seasoned with patis (pronounced “pah-teece”), also known as Nam Pla (fish sauce also used in Thai cuisine), and we’d eat it with white, short grain, sticky rice. Mmm. I wonder now what that dish is named. Mom never called it by a name. But, I grew up eating and enjoying squash from an early age, but unfortunately, my family does not. I think my husband tolerates it now.

One time, I tried adding pureed squash into a grilled cheese sandwich as described in Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook. Sorry, that was a big mistake. My kids looked at me like I was out of my mind. I tried it, and it was edible by my standards. Just not the buttery, melty grilled cheese that my kids know.  The other night, I peeled it, cut the squash into strips, tossed the strips in a bowl with some olive oil, salt and pepper, then baked them for some “squash fries”. Even at 425 degrees F, in an convection oven, I didn’t quite get the crispness I thought I would. It was still good, and all that was left was enough for one person the next day.

I’d love to hear from others about their squash recipes. I’ve done soup, roasted, pureed, etc. But, until I hear from others, I’ll just keep trolling the sites for more. I’m sure Martha Stewart has something cooking in her (test) kitchens!

Hanging Frames Somewhere

Pressed Leaves in Frames

This may be one of my more visibly Martha Stewart-esque home decor crafts. I collected a few leaves around our neighborhood and pressed them in between the pages of a heavy phone book (Yeah, that’s what they’ve been reduced to. Never mind actually looking up phone numbers in them.) You’ve got to love autumn leaves. The colors are outstanding. Ginkgo leaves might be my favorite next to maple leaves. I forgot about my ginkgo leaves drying- for a year! But I re-found them, and added them to the maple leaves and red oak leaves from the backyard. The question is, where do I hang these up?

I was originally going to hang them in our guest bathroom in the basement. But they’re so pretty, they could go in our dining room or maybe our bedroom? You see the struggle I have with hanging pictures and frames? I probably would have more things up on the wall if it wasn’t for my complete lack of faith that I’m placing them in “just the right spot”. This is also just one reason why I’m not an interior designer or decorator.

Related Posts with Thumbnails