Life Update and a Yummy Seasonal Side Dish

Hello!

I thought I should be a good blogger and update you on what is going on in our little corner of the world. For starters, the little man is now 9 months old! I cannot believe it has been that long, but at the same time it is hard to remember life before he was born. He'll be a year old in less than three months! Mama's not ready! Right now I am just enjoying watching him grow and learn new things. He is crawling everywhere and cruising around on the furniture. I think walking is still a little ways off, but you never know. He could surprise me one day and just take off. When I'm not chasing my little crawler all over the house, we have been enjoying the GORGEOUS weather by talking walks and playing on the swings at the park (that is when people aren't bringing bees to the park along with their Sonic Happy Hour slushes. Ew).

Yes, that's a tube of Butt Paste. Why do I even buy toys?

This past Sunday Eli and I took part in our church's "Great Day of Service." Over 2000 people from our church and the community came out to serve our city and share the love of Jesus. People did yard work, painted houses, and washed windows. Some, like us, visited nursing homes. Eli and I enjoyed spending time with the 95 year old mother of the church's worship minister. It was so sweet to hear her talk about her children and her love for her late husband ("I saw him and he saw me and that was it....We were together forever ♥"). The experience really stirred a desire in my heart to be more active in my church and my community. During the worship service we sang the song "God of This City" and the lyrics affected me like never before. "Greater things have yet to come...Greater things are still to be done in this city..." That's true no matter where you live. I've been inspired to see what God is doing around me and open myself up to be used in those things.

The church really encouraged family participation in GDOS. They even made baby sized shirts! How cute is that?!

Earlier this week, I found a recipe for Spiced Vegetable-Stuffed Squash in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I can't seem to find it on their website, so I decided to share it with you here! It was REALLY good. Even Eli enjoyed it! I'm posting the full version of the recipe, but I cut it in half for our family.

2 medium acorn squash
1 1/2 cups chopped turnips
1 cup chopped carrots
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup coarsely shredded, peeled apple

1. Cut squash in half lengthwise; remove and discard seeds. Arrange squash halves, cut side down, in a 3-quart rectangular baking dish. Bake in a 350* oven for 45 min. Turn squash halves cut side up. Bake for 20-25 min more or until squash is tender. Cut each squash half in half so you have 8 quarters (or you can do what I did and just leave them as they are so you have "bowls"). Carefully scoop the pulp out of each squash quarter/half, keeping shells intact and leaving a thin layer of squash in each shell. Set shells aside. Place cooked pulp in a large bowl.

2. Meanwhile, in a covered saucepan cook turnips and carrots in boiling lightly salted water about 15 min or until very tender. Drain well. Add turnips and carrots to squash pulp in bowl. Coarsely mash vegetables with a potato masher.

3. Stir butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg into mashed vegetables; fold in apple. Divide vegetable mixture evenly among squash shells. Return to baking dish. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until thoroughly heated through.

When you make the full recipe and cut the shell into quarters in makes 8 servings. Since there are a lot of veggies in this dish and the butter and sugar is relatively minimal, we each had a half shell (with the recipe split in half). I will definitely be making this again!

So there you have it :)

Once again, I have lots of ideas for posts (and blog redesign!) in my head. I just need to keep on top of it!

Local Feast

I love food bloggers because they always take beautiful pictures of the fabulous dishes they create. I'm always too eager to eat to remember to take a picture, so use your imagination as I tell you about the meal we had tonight.

As I was preparing dinner tonight, I felt very excited about how much of it was locally produced. We had spaghetti and meatballs and zucchini bread. The sauce was made from locally grown tomatoes and herbs grown in a pot on my deck. The meatballs were made from grass fed beef from another local farmer. Finally, the zucchini and honey in the bread were also grown and produced locally. It makes me feel good to know that I am feeding my family healthy, nourishing food while also supporting growers from my area. I love knowing that I can potentially visit any of those farms and see exactly where my food comes from and how it is grown. You just don't get that from food in the grocery store (especially when you're buying tomatoes and strawberries in the dead of winter. Hm.).

To find your local farmer's market and growers near you, check out Eat Wild and Local Harvest.