Turtle Cupcakes

My coworker Kelley is getting married in just a few days (or maybe a week and a few days, I can't remember!) so we had a little gathering for her at work last week. I offered to bring in treats, of course - I can't pass up an opportunity to try out a new dessert recipe, since I rarely make anything for just Ben and I!

I asked Kelley if she had any flavor preferences, and she said turtle... I searched my google reader for "turtle cupcakes" and I found these beauties from Amber's Delectable Delights. Perfect! I originally considered halving the recipe, but I'm glad I didn't - I got 20 cupcakes out of the full recipe, and only took 2 home.

These were fairly simple - just make the brownie batter, mix in nuts, chocolate chips, and cut up caramels and bake! The toughest part for me was melting the caramels. I burned them, and then proceeded to burn my finger because for some stupid reason I touched the caramel. After that, I went with the jar of caramel sauce in the cupboard instead and no one seemed to mind :)

If you are a turtle lover, there is no doubt in my mind that you would love these - they are RICH and very decadent and delicious! Best enjoyed with coffee or a glass of cold milk :)

21 weeks (and 4 days)

Taken at a family friend's Oktoberfest party yesterday :) The stein was just used for the photo :)


The stump was for a game called Hammerschlager... a very tough game where you pound nails into the stump and then win money if you pound yours in first. I'm guessing it got more difficult after I left due to the large quantities of beer consumed.

Another uneventful week - I did have an appointment with a midwife on Friday, and I'm now up approximately 12 pounds from pre-pregnancy (a little difficult to know for sure since I'm not really sure of my pre-pregnancy weight). Blood pressure was low, my uterus was measuring a tiny bit large, and hearing the heartbeat again was great! She must have been active because it was almost at 160 :)

I am full on in maternity clothes (or loose-fitting normal clothes) now - I packed up all my stuff that won't fit. I could still do the bella band, but maternity pants are just easier. I am kind of addicted to buying maternity clothes too, but I promised Ben I'd stop now (for awhile at least :). I'm excited that it is finally cooling down now so I can wear all the cute fall/winter clothes I got!

We got the furniture out of the future nursery, so now we just have to give that room a good scrub down so my sister can come over and paint for us :) I have also been making progress on figuring out our baby gear - I have made decisions and registered for most things now, so that feels good! The only furniture item we still need to pick out is the glider - when at Babies R Us, Ben made the mistake of sitting in the super expensive one that fully reclines and now he is trying to decide if it is worth it or not - I am fine with the more reasonably priced one, so I told him it's up to him... we'll see what he chooses.

The other excitement this week was that my neighbor Molly had her baby! Baby Mia was born one week late, on our 4th anniversary, September 24th :) Nate and Molly got home from the hospital yesterday and we took a walk around the neighborhood with them and the wee one - she's so tiny and beautiful! It's pretty crazy to think that in just 4 months that will be us...

Blueberry Cheesecake

A few weeks ago (September 11th, in fact. Her 21st bday was 9/11/01. Very unfortunate.) it was my friend Becky's birthday, and we were having a gathering to celebrate that and the fact that Chelsea was home from cursed Montana.

I hadn't made a cheesecake in awhile, so I decided that would be Becky's birthday dessert after confirming with Rett that Becky would be okay with that. Originally I wanted to make Dorie's Tall and Creamy Cheesecake, but that required some kind of water bath that I didn't have a pan large enough for, so that was out. I had this New York Cheesecake starred from Annie's Eats that seemed like it would fit the bill perfectly!

I was totally dyslexic when making the crust and somehow read 8oz of graham crackers instead of 4, but it still turned out wonderfully :) This cheesecake was DELICIOUS - perfectly creamy and had great flavor. Yum!

I also made this blueberry sauce (Also from Annie's Eats, made previously for cheesecake bites) and it was a great topping, but not even necessary if you're a plain cheesecake fan. There were a few pieces left and I was happy to eat them with no topping at all!

I had a lot of cracks.... but I've never understood the obsession with getting a crack-free cheesecake. Who cares?? It's still delicious, cracks and all! Also, these slices were WAY too big - probably should have done 10 or 12 instead of 8 :)

CSA Box #7 and Pasta Salad with Tomatoes, Arugula, and Pine Nuts

Again I am delayed in posting about our last CSA box (a day before we get our next one!). Oh well. It seems like most of this box was used in non-blog worthy recipes, but I do have at least one to share with you! First, the box:

The best item in this was the romanesco - in terms of looks at least. I wasn't able to find many specific recipe ideas for it, but we just had it in a salad and it was pretty good.

In this box:
Arugula
Carrots
Cilantro
Edamame
Garlic
Green Beans
Green Pepper
Beets
Jalapeno Peppers
Red Iceberg Lettuce
Red Onion
Red Watermelon
Romanesco
Tomatillos
Yellow Potatoes

Unfortunately, there was some sort of fungal disease that ruined their tomato crop so we didn't get any this week :( Luckily they had planted more in a different location which are doing great, so we'll get a ton tomorrow!

The first meal we made again used up the arugula - it was this pasta salad with tomatoes, arugula and pine nuts that I had starred from Savory, Spicy, Sweet for over a year. I would just like to point out that this recipe does not have cream OR cheese, so this proves that we ARE capable of eating and enjoying meals without one of those 2 elements. Although we did comment that this would have been great topped with parmesan :)

20 weeks (and 4 days)

Taken at 20 weeks, 3 days

I am extremely sad that this pic is a little blurry, because it was the best belly pic photo op yet! Since I took the pics out of my living room, I have been making sure to have an interesting backdrop for each pic - this one was at a party my coworker had yesterday with a Hoedown theme :) The nametag on my belly says "Baby Cowgirl".

Another pic, taken with my neighbor Molly who is exactly 20 weeks ahead of me (so now at 3 days overdue!) after eating a spicy meal to try to induce labor (failed) I'm definitely arching my back a bit in this one :)

This week has been occupied mostly by thinking about baby gear, furniture, and all the other essential items a baby requires. I got Baby Bargains on Tuesday and have been poring over it all week, as well as reading reviews on Babies R Us and amazon. We made a trip to ikea to get the bookshelf and dresser for the nursery, which went quite smoothly. Today we headed out to Babies R Us to try out carseats and look around - we both have very small cars (a Jetta and a Geo Prizm) so it was definitely necessary to see if the carseat would even fit before buying! It fits... but the passenger (me) does not get to be very comfortable in the front seat. My days of having unlimited legroom and a reclining seat option are over! Oh well :) Luckily we don't really ever need to drive very far. I also started registering - it still seems really early, but I like to have decisions locked down so I can move on to other things, or else I get a bit obsessive. This way, I can do research, make a decision, record it on the registry and update later if anything changes.

When I started thinking about nursery decor, I knew I wanted to keep things gender neutral and so we can re-use items on a 2nd child, and also because I just don't really like super cutesy girly stuff. I'm not a pink hater or anything, but I KNOW she will have her fair share of pink stuff and doesn't need me to contribute to it :) The room our nursery will be in is the guest bedroom, which is about 10x10 and still white from when we moved in. I had decided light aqua would be a good color for the walls, and that white furniture would brighten up the small space. After looking at ohdeedoh (an offshoot of apartment therapy for kids stuff), I found this awesome nursery that pretty much embodies the look I am going for - how convenient :) Since I lack any style or crafting skills, our nursery won't be nearly as cute, but oh well! I did end up purchasing this print because I loved it so much :)

Print from Etsy seller The Wheatfield - she has a ton of items I love!

Oh yeah, the other big news is that I have started feeling movement! I have felt the same wiggling/muscle spasm sensations for 4 days now, so I'm pretty sure this is it :) Not too much else going on in the lower abdomen right now, so I'm thinking it must be the babe! It is still pretty faint and definitely isn't anything close to painful yet, but is very exciting and strange!

This is definitely a fun part of pregnancy - finally starting to look pregnant, feeling pretty good (as long as I can sleep and avoid headaches), feeling the wee one move about, and a ton of items to shop for!

Corn and Sausage Risotto

Right now, I have about 460 starred items in my Google Reader, most of them recipes. It's getting out of control. This particular recipe for Fresh Corn Risotto from Savory Spicy Sweet aka Liz's Cooking Blog has been in there for quite awhile... and I kept meaning to make it last summer, but it never happened. I really should have, because it was delicious!

We actually added ground sausage (added after onions, just crumpled and cooked right in the same pan before adding the rice) to this to make it more of a complete meal, since I hate making more than one thing for dinner :) I thought that was a great addition. Ben LOVED this, and raved about it several times. It was a great way to use fresh sweet corn from the CSA!

19 weeks (and 5 days)

Side view (taken at 19 weeks, 4 days)


and in case anyone is wondering what I look like from the front - taken with my mom when we inadvertently matched outfits on Saturday (19 weeks, 3 days)

This obviously is a much less exciting post than last week! The excitement is that I think I may have experienced my first migraine today - yay!!! It has not been an easy adjustment for me to not sleep on my stomach, so 2 nights without sleep = horrifying headache. I got a few hours of rest this afternoon which helped. I have taken more sick time during this pregnancy than I did during the rest of my life combined, which is really annoying to me. (my total is at like 2 days, so it really isn't much... I just never took any before) I suppose it is better to just deal with it and try to feel better than to keep working and end up feeling worse in the end though!

In other baby related news, I'm still not feeling movement yet... which is getting slightly annoying to me but hopefully it will come soon! I wore my first pair of maternity pants this week - they are pretty comfy :) Thanks to my coworker Jen for donating some of her clothes to me!! I have also started thinking about the nursery and baby gear, so I might devote a few posts to that in the future...

We did end up buying our little girl her first outfit last week, a cute pair of overalls from Target. They are the 6 month size, so she can enjoy wearing these next summer :)

Our baby also got her first present, from Janelle and Scott! A super cute teething toy, Sophie the Giraffe, and a custom made Scottoberfest onesie for baby to wear next year! (check out the line at the bottom :)

Scottoberfest is coming up again soon, and even though I can't sample the brews this year, I'm still quite excited :)

Hot Broccoli Dip

We got a large stalk of broccoli in our last CSA box, and when searching through my starred items in Google Reader for "broccoli", I kept seeing healthy recipes and thinking, no, no, next, no way, not now.... etc.... until FINALLY I hit this recipe for Hot Broccoli Dip on Erin's Food Files. It was a match made in heaven.

I made the recipe considerably less healthy by using full fat sour cream and mayo, and then I also added in 4 oz of cream cheese... because why not? The nutritional info was given for 2 tablespoons of dip. I ate WAY more than that, but since it had broccoli in it, I didn't feel guilty at all :)

Corn Chowder

We got 6 ears of sweet corn from our CSA in the last box - awesome! As I have previously mentioned, I'm not a fan of corn on the cob, but I do LOVE corn, especially fresh sweet corn - yum! Both Ben and I enjoy corn chowder, so I figured that would be an excellent way to use half of the corn.

I found this great recipe on Simply Recipes that would also use some of our red potatoes, as well as carrots and an onion from our box - perfect!

I was somewhat skeptical of this recipe (not really sure why) but this turned out to be DELICIOUS. I think the piece of bacon really gives it that little extra bit of awesome. If you are a corn chowder fan, definitely try this recipe! We used 1% milk and it was perfect.

18 weeks (and 6 days)

(Taken at 18 weeks, 4 days)

I delayed this post by a few days so that I could just post today and share the news from our ultrasound!!

My weekly update would have been boring anyway, still feeling good, not really feeling movement yet, blah blah.

So anyway, I don't think words can adequately express how nervous I was for our ultrasound. Most normal people probably just assume everything is fine until being told otherwise, but I like to mentally prepare myself for the worst case scenario(s). Why, I don't know. It's just the way I am. I wouldn't call myself a pessimist.... but something kind of close to that :) Anyway, it was great to finally go to our appointment today and actually SEE our baby for the first time in 11 weeks! and looking like an actual BABY, not just a gummi bear!

The ultrasound only took about 25 minutes - the tech took measurements of the brain, heart, organs, arms, legs, feet, etc... and everything looked great! There was a doctor who came in toward the end and looked over everything - I am measuring slightly ahead (19 weeks, 3 days) but not enough for them to change my due date or anything. I found out that I have an anterior placenta ("a perfectly good place for the placenta to be" according to the doctor - ha) so that might be why I haven't felt anything yet. He said probably within the next week or two.

So as I mentioned before, we wanted the tech to write down the sex and put it in a little envelope for us. However, I guess I have looked at enough ultrasounds in my perusal of message boards and blogs, because I could VERY clearly tell what I was looking at when we got a nice shot of the butt and legs sticking out. When I asked the tech at the end how sure she was of the sex, she said "oh, 99%... I've been doing this forever, I always know" so that made me feel pretty confident!

And on to the big reveal! After the appointment, we went to brunch at Good Day Cafe in Golden Valley (review will be posted on We Got Served soon) and I let Ben open the envelope.....

It's a girl! There will now be 4 girls born on my street (within 6 houses of each other) within 6 months!! Lots of playmates for our little girl! We are very excited, and are planning on a little shopping trip tonight - we haven't bought a single thing yet, so this definitely makes it feel real!

Here are a few pics from the ultrasound:

High five! nice...


Blowing a little bubble?

Blueberry Buttermilk Scones

When Ben was out of town last weekend, I decided to do a little baking on Saturday morning. We had a ton of buttermilk leftover from making the summer veggie cobbler, and I just happened to remember seeing these Blueberry Buttermilk Scones on Brown Eyed Baker a few days prior. Perfect!

I have made scones once before, and while they are pretty easy, they are definitely messy. Mine weren't "rolling out" in any sense of the word, and I just kind of plopped pieces on the baking sheet. Oh well! Luckily they still turned out great!

These were delicious - I would definitely make them again! I didn't have sanding sugar but I'm sure that would be a great addition. Of course, I forgot to take a pic the first time I made these (although I did take a pic with my iPhone and posted that on twitter), so this is from this weekend when I re-heated these after freezing - still delicious!

CSA Box #6 and Tilapia with Arugula, Capers, and Tomatoes and Roasted Red Potatoes

(Longest title ever!)

I have been a bad blogger lately. I have no excuse - I didn't even do ANYTHING this week, I was just too lazy to take the photos off my camera. Pretty pathetic!

We got our 6th box from Driftless Organics about a week and a half ago... lots of great stuff in there!

Tons of tomatoes! Unfortunately, although we used a few of these, by the 5 days after the box, several of these had gone bad :( I guess that is a lesson learned to eat the tomatoes right away!

In this box (this is from memory since the newsletter isn't online yet)
Arugula
Sweet Corn
Green Peppers
Some other kind of peppers
Sungold Tomatoes
Heirloom Tomatoes
Red Slicer Tomatoes
Red Potatoes
Curly Parsley
Yellow Onions
Zucchini
Broccoli

The first meal we made to use some of the arugula which quickly goes bad (although ours seems to last awhile in our crisper in our fridge... but maybe I just can't tell that it's gone bad, who knows!) was this Tilapia with Arugula, Capers, and Tomatoes that I found on Erin's Food Files. Ben did the cooking, but it didn't seem to take much time at all and was very flavorful!

As a side dish, I found these roasted red potatoes on Brown Eyed Baker. These were delicious! I think the addition of breadcrumbs to the mix was a great idea and made them extra crispy. It also used some of the parsley from the CSA too, which is a bonus.