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Three Things, Roasted

November 16, 2017 / / 1 Comment

On Monday, our office had our annual Thanksgiving luncheon. The turkey, dressing & mashed potatoes are catered in and served by our senior leaders. The rest of the menu is brought in by employees, potluck style. I signed up to bring roasted veggies.

So, at 5:50 am on Monday I was loading a sheet of veggies into the oven. Along the way I snapped this pic & shared to Facebook, as captioned below.

Early morning roasting…cider glazed butternut squash, Brussels sprouts & cranberries to take for today’s office Thanksgiving lunch…

Not long after posting the pic, a friend asked for the recipe which I then shared – as the day progressed, the recipe was shared by others & based on comments it appears this colorful dish may make an appearance at several Thanksgiving tables next week.

So, on this Thursday before Thanksgiving, it seemed appropriate to share this 3 ingredient pan for Three Things…

  1. Butternut Squash
  2. Brussels Sprouts
  3. Cranberries

I made a cider honey “dressing” to toss the veggies in which provided a bit of a glaze as the pan roasted.

Glaze: Olive oil + Cider-honey vinegar (or cider vinegar + a dribble of honey) + Fresh ground black pepper + Garlic salt + A dash of powdered ginger [Note: no measuring – but this probably totaled about 1/2 cup]

Since I was roasting these early on a Monday morning, I tossed the squash & sprouts with the glaze the night before & kept in the fridge.

To roast: Set oven to 425. Spread squash & sprouts on baking sheet. Roast @ 425 for 20 min. Stir the sheet & increase temp to 450. Roast for about 12 min. Stir & add a couple handfuls of cranberries. Roast for about 6 min. Enjoy!

After the luncheon, there was less than a serving spoon of leftovers – I think they were a hit! This is a favorite trio for autumn roasting for me – the seasonings may vary each time I prepare a sheet full of this goodness – but its always a simple & satisfying side dish.

Linking up with Carole & Kat for Three on Thursday…

Recently…October 2017

November 8, 2017 / / 1 Comment

Ah, OCTOBER…a month filled with fall flavors…fall and falling leaves…the flavors of autumn…beautiful autumn skies…shortening days…a bit of travel…a return to blogging…and more…in the midst of it all, these are the things that filled my October days…

Arranging…succulents in a pumpkin! A Saturday morning class at my favorite garden center yielded this beauty for the mantel. When I signed up for the class, I thought it might involve scooping out a pumpkin to create a planter – no pumpkins were carved in the making of these. Rather, succulents were potted into the divot at the top of the pumpkin and then moss was arranged over the dirt. A simple design with endless possibilities – next year I will be doing this on my own, for sure.

Traveling…just one work trip to start the month. A quick overnight to Milwaukee for a one day meeting. As I arrived to my hotel room on the Monday evening, I was getting the 24 hour flight check-in notice for my return flight.

Adventuring…while home in Georgia for a long weekend, a Friday was a perfect day for some autumn adventuring with Mom & Rebecca. It was a gorgeous day to head north to the mountains. First, we stopped at the Georgia National Cemetery to visit Dad – it was our first time there since the headstone had been installed. After a quick lunch at a roadside stand, we continued north towards Blue Ridge. We braved the crowds & chaos of Mercier Orchards for apples (of course), fried pies, cider donuts and hard cider. Once back home in the Ville, we enjoyed dinner at a new to us Vietnamese restaurant that is fast becoming a family favorite.

Decorating…with Modge Podge and glitter! The office activities committee once again provided a pumpkin decorating station that was overflowing with possibilities in paint, stickers, glitter, pipe cleaners, ribbons and more. I went for simply and sparkly with the gold glitter topped pumpkin to decorate my desk.

Dabbing…Altitude Oil to keep my head clear …this was recommended by a seatmate on a flight to Milwaukee – she is touring as Mimi in the 20th anniversary RENT tour…she said it was a favorite for staying well with all the travel, so of course I had to track it down & order it. In addition to being a great energizer while up on the air, it has also been helpful in stopping rapid fire sneeze attacks and sinus headaches and keeping the start of a cold at bay.

Cooking…minimally but simply and healthy…my favorite Chocolate Chili was made and “stocked” in the fridge for most of the month and paired with all sorts of things for quick lunches & suppers – I see this being a common occurrence for the foreseeable future.  On a Sunday afternoon, local apples simmered on the stove for a simple batch of chunky applesauce – looking at my produce tower, another pot is on the horizon.

Enjoying…one final sweet bouquet from my local farmstand. These $5 arrangements bring joy, for sure. Early in the season, I go for the cut-your-own option. But I just love when the farmer’s mother begins offering these sweet “cup holder bouquets” of zinnias and other flowers and fresh herbs. As the season ended, it was fitting that it was a more autumnal bouquet of flowers paired with purple basil.

Wearing…a Life was Good shirt for Halloween. As I shared on Facebook, navigating life without Dad is filled with all the emotions – some days, all seemingly at once. While tears & sadness creep in, we also have plenty of smiles & laughter along the way. To some, this year’s Life is Good Halloween shirt might seem an unlikely choice for us. But, since Dad loved a clever pun…this was an obvious choice for Rebecca & me. I’m pretty sure Dad would say “well played, girls” with a twinkle in his eyes & a smile.

Lunching…a Saturday day trip over to Lancaster County included lunch with a dear friend from Chicago who lives in the area. It had been 10 years since we’d seen each other and as we each enjoyed our Halloween themed Eggs Benedict at Gracie’s on West Main we caught up on life.

Looking Ahead…November is always a favorite month with my birthday and Thanksgiving…I know it will be more bittersweet without Dad to celebrate with us…

What filled your OCTOBER days?

After way too long, once again linking up with Leigh for What I’m Into.

Three Things…Halloween

October 26, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Looking at the calendar, today’s Three on Thursday for me is seasonal…three simple Halloween costumes over the years.

For many years, I’ve been lucky to enjoy Halloween festivities with my TX girlies. With a flight involved to reach the girls, my costumes over the years have been simple/easy pack options. Here, a few favorites…

2007 – Super Sweet! – A Superman t-shirt + a quick knit Candy Corn Hat = Super Sweet. I knit the hat on the flight down to TX. This has been a costume I’ve used a couple of times over the years.

2009 – Fairy Godmother – I remember one Saturday morning that summer, Maya called me because the girls had a Halloween request for me – they wanted me to dress up as a fairy godmother. Well, of course. This was a chiffon skirt and sparkly sweater, some rhinestone jewelry, a dress-up tiara & a pair of butterfly wings that the girls had.

2014 – Rosie the Riveter – What fun to bring a favorite WWII “icon” to life. Jeans and a denim shirt, my hair pinned up under a red polka dot bandana, bright red lips and viola! My favorite memory was when the girls saw me dressed up, when I asked who I was they immediately replied with “Rosie the Riveter!”

What are some of your simple Halloween costumes?

Joining in with Three on Thursday hosted by Carole & Kat.

Three on Thursday…Back to Blogging

October 19, 2017 / / 2 Comments

The extended blog silence over the last couple of months wasn’t planned…but life has a way of changing things up. But I’m ready to get back to these pages and exercise the writing muscle more. So, as I join up with the “newish” Three on Thursday link-up, I’m sharing three plans for upcoming blog posts as I get back to writing.

  1. The world has shifted since the death of my Dad in early August – and as we move forward, I’ve been putting into words the story of the amazing week of Dad’s hospitalization, passing and celebration service and that needs to be shared.
  2. Before going silent, I had shared the first part of our epic summer sister trip…the parts are queued up and ready to go.
  3. It’s Fall, Y’all! As leaves change and temperatures drop, it’s time for trips to apple orchards, leaf lookin’ and more – today’ I’m heading to the Ville with a Fall Friday planned for tomorrow with Mom & Rebecca.

Joining up with Carole & Kat to share a quick 3 things. This seemed like a good way to dust off the blog and give a quick update.

Acadian Adventures

July 31, 2017 / / 3 Comments

My sister has a milestone birthday this summer. To celebrate, we decided to take a road trip to Acadia National Park and on up to Prince Edward Island. As the spring progressed, we booked our Airbnb stays…we built our itinerary…and before we knew it, Rebecca arrived to Pennsylvania on a Friday evening in late June for our adventures to begin.


On Saturday morning, we loaded up my car (aka Annie), picked up large iced coffees and were ready to hit the road. The trip odometer was set to 0, a new notebook was at the ready to capture the license plate game. A quick selfie was snapped. And we were off! As we hit the road, we came up with a few meal rules for the trip: No US chain restaurants – although Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee is a given; focus on local establishments; In Canada, enjoy uniquely Canadian eats.

Ready to hit the road!

The first day was a long haul drive to reach Acadia National Park. Traffic sailed through Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. In Connecticut, it became heavy and that continued pretty much through Massachusetts and New Hampshire until we reached the Maine state line.

On the road!

What is a road trip without homemade treats? Rebecca brought a bag of Mom’s classic road trip cookie – Colonial Rocks – with her & they were enjoyed throughout the trip.

Mom’s cookies for a road trip!

It was early evening on Saturday when we arrived to our motel, The Twilite Inn, a classic roadside motor inn that we found via Airbnb. As we checked in, we discovered our innkeeper was a Packers fan…Supper was seafood from a roadside lobster pound – a lobster roll and fish sandwich definitely said we had arrived to Maine.

Our classic Americana accommodations

On our way back to the motel, we decided to stop at a local dairy bar for ice cream. The “small” Wild Maine Blueberry ice cream cones were delicious – even more so after waiting 25 minutes from order to cone in hand (the teen boys behind the counter were struggling mightily with a large group of customers).

Glad we only ordered small cones!

On Sunday we headed into Acadia National Park. Our first stop was the visitors center – in addition to a few souvenirs, we also picked up the Audio Tour CD and used that as the basis for our wandering through the park. Once we pressed play on the audio tour, we were off and proceeded to spend most of the day looping around the park. Words can’t adequately describe the views that we enjoyed – I’ll let a few picture highlights do the talking. The color of the water is a gorgeous navy-teal.


It was mid-afternoon by the time we reached Cadillac Mountain. The views from up top were pretty spectacular – but we both agreed that being right along the coastline was what we enjoyed more.

As the audio tour ended we made our way to Northwest Harbor and then over towards Southwest Harbor and the lighthouse there before just driving around the island.

For dinner, it was another roadside seafood shack – this time, fried clams and fried shrimp. After a bit more driving around we tracked down the last piece of blueberry pie at a local restaurant to end the day.

Sunday eats

Next up…meandering through Maine and New Brunswick, Canada towards Prince Edward Island…

 

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