It's the day after Halloween and my husband and I are exhausted! We spent hours yesterday chasing my little man around his grandparent's neighborhood in the pouring rain. "Next" my LO would say, "knock, knock". Once the door would open he would get shy, hold out his treat bag and then say, "Thanks, treat" and run back to us....."Next". It's not just Halloween that had us exhausted, honestly, it seems like we've been burning the candle at both ends lately and I really don't see an end in sight. ...
The Kitchen
Halloween Activity Day 10 of 10: Carving Pumpkins and BBQ Roast Pumpkin Seeds
Do you cook your pumpkin seeds? If you don't, mail them to me! I'm serious! I love them! And being gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and nut free, pumpkin seeds end up being a great portable snack. Too bad we only get them once a year (which makes me wonder can you freeze them?)! We carved our pumpkins last night but I didn't roast the seeds yet because I was trying to remember how I made some delicious BBQ flavored pumpkin seeds last year (I didn't think I wrote down my recipe). In a last ...
Halloween Activity Day 6: Autumn Leaves Window Hanging
The leaves have been changing for a few weeks now, offering a ton of fun activities outside. I can remember, at like 10 years old, being so excited to go outside and rake up leaves. Then I would get out there and, after a few minutes of doing it, I would realize it was actually quite boring. I couldn't remember why I thought it was going to be so fun. My friends and I would rake them all up into a big pile and run through them, fall into them, throw them up over our heads....yeah, not really ...
Halloween Activity Day 3: Mint Chocolate Bat Cookies, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Nut Free
Mmmm....Remember Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies? Living gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and nut free means no girl scout cookies for us in our house but that doesn't mean we can't come up with a substitute! These chocolate mint bat cookies did the trick! They're also activity number 3 in my 10 days of Halloween activities series. We've done a few days of painting activities so I decided it was time to bake. My little man just recently became obsessed with mint after tasting an Altoid. Yuck! ...
Choo Choo Train, Vintage Railroad, Americana Themed Second Birthday
This Vintage Railroad, or, as my son calls it "Choo Choo Train" Birthday party was amazing so I have to share the details! The day of the party was perfect, 67 and sunny (the weather has since turned to fall and we've got cornstalks flanking the front door and pumpkins on our porch BUT I promised a post with all the details - better late than never). The party spanned my entire house. My driveway had some couches to lounge on, a table with beverages, snacks, and also in the front yard, a bounce ...
Crock Pot Rootbeer BBQ Pulled Chicken; Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Nut Free Recipe
As usual I'm playing catch up and I'm still trying to finish up all of the posts surrounding my son's second birthday party. I cooked everything from scratch (with help from my mom and step mom) and happily, everyone complimented me on both the party itself and all of the food (which was really awesome because although I planned the meal, I was winging the recipes - some I had made before but didn't write down, like this one, and some I completely made up)! We eat gluten free, dairy free, soy ...
GF Pumpkin Spice Cake Recipe; Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Nut Free Recipe
This pumpkin spice cake recipe is a hit! It was loved by everyone at my son's 2nd birthday party, even those who aren't gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and nut free so I figured it would be great to make again less than 2 weeks later for my grandpa's 90th birthday that was being attended by both gf and non-gf diners... We had my son's 2nd birthday party a few weekends ago and he had a BLAST (I promise I'll have a post dedicated to it)! As always, I have to make everything from scratch for ...
GF Pumpkin Pancakes; Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Nut Free Recipe
I can't believe it's that time again! Has it really been a year since I meant to post these gluten free, dairy free, soy free, nut free pumpkin pancakes? I read an article last night that blames the pumpkin spice obsession on Starbucks who created the pumpkin spice latte back in 2003. Well, sorry to say but my family has been obsessed with pumpkin spice everything for much longer than that! Even the newest member of the family loves these, in fact, they're his favorite flavor of pancakes so we ...
Convection Roast Whole Chicken; The BEST Tasting Chicken Ever!
Whew.....We have been busy! My little one's second birthday party was last weekend and we've been going ever since. He was such a little party animal - he partied too hard and then got sick! Nothing too serious, just a cold but I'm afraid to say that now, 3 days later I've developed it. Luckily, I knew this would happen so 2 days ago I convection roasted 2 whole organic chickens and made 3 batches of my homemade bone broth (I make it in the crock pot, directions here) so we've already been ...
Canning Homemade Tomato Sauce
I haven't really canned many tomatoes, mainly because while living in Chicago because the second the tomatoes would take on even a smidgen of that pinkish hue they get before they turn bright red, the squirrels would run up the stems, knock them off, take one bite, and then leave them. It made me ridiculously angry! In Chicago I could never find tomatoes priced low enough to make my own tomato sauce, so I never did (although I did do salsa - and have no idea where my delicious recipe went). Now ...