Blackberry Cobbler

This recipe is very similar to the one found in "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" by Ree Drummond, which is one of my most favorite cookbooks!

Ingredients:
-1 stick of butter
-1 1/4 plus 2 tbsp sugar
-1 cup milk. We don't keep fresh milk in the house so I use powdered milk and it works just fine.
-2 cups berries. We use fresh picked blackberries and clean them well in a colander. Be sure to let them drip dry.
-1 cup flour
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease a pie pan or 3qt baking dish.
2. Melt the butter. If you aren't experienced with this, do it on a low power setting in small time intervals or it will EXPLODE and make a huge mess. Also, you only need to melt it about 85% of the way and let it sit on the counter. The rest will melt on its own.
3. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. We don't own a sifter so I just mix them together in a large bowl thoroughly.
4. Whisk the milk and 1 cup of sugar with the flour mixture.
5. Whisk in the butter. Pour into your baking dish.
6. Add in the berries.
7. Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar over the top (it's going to seem like a lot but trust me!) and bake for 50-60 minutes until golden brown. 10 minutes before it's done cooking, top with the last 2 tablespoons of sugar and return to oven.
8. Eat alone or with ice cream!

Adding the berries before cooking!

Roast Pumpkin & Pumpkin Chili

Around the Head household, we have a bit of an obsession with pumpkins. We put them all around the house and porch because they are pleasing to look at and we EAT THEM! We brew with them, and we can them. We love pumpkins and squashes in all shapes and sizes and colors.  For most people, carving pumpkins is the biggest spotlight they get, but around here, if we are cutting one up, it's to put it in the oven for dinner. 

One more little note: don't bother with pie pumpkins unless you don't have the space for leftover pumpkin.  Pie pumpkins are usually more expensive and don't taste any better. They do have a lot of seeds, if that's what you're after, and the are a more appropriate serving-size. :)

Roast Pumpkins!

Ingredients:
-Pumpkin
-2 cups water
-Optional: pumpkin spices like salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves

Directions:
1. Cut around the stem, similar to carving a pumpkin. You don't need to make the hole big enough to get your arm in, though. Just remove the stem and compost or throw it away.
2. Slice the pumpkin in halves using the stem-hole as a starting point.
3. Scrape out the goo and seeds with a metal spoon and your hands. You can save the seeds if you're inclined.
4. Place pumpkins cut side-down on a baking sheet or baking pan. Put enough water in the bottom to cover the pan bottom.
5. Roast at 350F for 30-60 minutes. All pumpkins take different amounts of time to cook. It's done with the flesh is pierced with a fork relatively easily. We check at 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and 60 minutes. You can add more water to the pan if it dries up, but if you forget, it won't dry out the pumpkin or ruin it.
6. When it's done, remove from the oven and flip the halves over. We use an oven mitt and big fork to flip them. Let them cool and season and eat!
NOTE: For roasted cubes that we use in the chili, take out when the pumpkin meat is soft when poked but not mushy. Let cool and cube.

You can scrape out the meat and put it in leftover containers. You can also puree it in a blender or with an immersion blender to make better than canned puree.


Pumpkin Chili!

Ingredients:
-1.5 lbs ground meat. I prefer breakfast sausage.
-1 large white onion, chopped
-1 large bell pepper, chopped
-2 cans (15oz) black beans
-1 can (46oz) tomato juice, reduced sodium
-1 can (28oz) peeled and diced tomatoes with juice
-1 can (28oz) pumpkin puree (or homemade stuff! we don't puree it since we like it chunky.)
-2 tbsp chili powder
-1/4 cup white sugar
-2 cloves of garlic, minced
-1/2 tsp each cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg
-1 can (15oz) corn
-Roasted pumpkin chunks from a 3-5lb pumpkin

Directions:
1. In a large dutch oven or soup pot, cook the meat over medium. While the meat cooks, chop the onion and bell pepper. Throw them in and let them cook for 5-6 minutes, until starting to soften.
2. While the veggies cook, drain the corn and rinse the black beans.
3. Stir in everything except the pumpkin chunks and simmer for 30-60 minutes over low heat.
4. Add in pumpkin chunks, simmer 15 minutes, and serve!

Love In Many Forms

Well, the baby is really real. (I know that sounds silly, but for the first few months, there really wasn't any indication that I was pregnant other than having to pee all the time!) Now I have a bump to show for it all.  :)

A bump and this incredible elation. I feel happy every minute of the day lately. We wanted a baby, not a pregnancy, but a BABY for so very long now. It feels real and it feels soon. Life couldn't be better.

But along with this newfound bump is a newfound exhaustion. I cannot figure out how to get out of bed. I sleep 14-16 hours a day and could keep sleeping!! Somebody told me this would pass with the first trimester but it's only gotten more intense. I have the utmost respect for women with five kids and job who are pregnant. I can't imagine.  It makes it easier and easier for me to say we are adopting the rest of our family!   :)

On the flip side, this pregnancy has been making me thing an awful lot about my birth mother. First of all, I have to say that she is somebody I rarely, if ever, think about.  I have a mom and a dad who are very real and very amazing and very much all that I need. We celebrated my "homecoming" day last weekend and my birth mom didn't even cross my mind. Not at all. That day is and was about a baby and two new parents. It's a day I can't stop anticipating for myself next spring! I've never wanted to meet or investigate my birth mother or know anything about her. The drive has never existed for me until now. Now, I can't stop thinking about how scared she must have felt, how sad she must have felt, and how brave she was. I can't stop thinking about how her pregnancy with me must have been the opposite, emotionally, from what my pregnancy is. I can't stop thinking about how lucky, how fortunate, how blessed I am. I am financially, emotionally, and physically secure. I can't stop thinking about how much happiness this pregnancy has brought me and how she didn't get any of that. I still, strangely, don't want to know her or meet her or anything like that but I am trying very hard to not feel heartbreak for her. I will never take for granted all of the horror she must have endured to give me the opportunity to be here today. I am realizing that despite the fact that she gave me up, she is still a real mom because she made the choice to break her own heart for my well being. And I know it's in my blood to do every thing my children need, whether or not it breaks my own heart.

Grapefruit Baby

Over the past few days, we've realized that we can feel the uterus now, which is really strange overall and also kind of cool...

Before I could feel it, I was just feeling doughy and fat....the growing uterus was pushing things up and out of the way but not actually "showing" yet so I had the honor of feeling fat and wide, but with nothing fun thrown in the mix.  Now that the baby is tangible in a small way, I feel better about how ugggghhhh I have been feeling about my physical shape.  There's a hard little grapefruit sitting in my pelvis!

Have you ever looked at maternity ads? They are ridiculous. Either the "models" are not really pregnant, or they have issues! They all have perfectly toned and skinny arms and legs with a pert, perfectly round little belly. Their boobs don't look like they're about to explode off of their bodies, and  they don't have a constellation of random acne on their cheekbones.  Fake, I say, fake!  

Speaking of maternity ads, I have decide to buy as little maternity wear as possible.  Maybe I'm grossly underestimating how fat and large I really am going to be...we'll see! For now, my jeans fit with extra room. When those don't fit, I have old pairs of 'fat' jeans that should work. And my last resort will be yoga pants and cotton skirts with wide, stretchy waistbands on the bottom. I might end up having to get some preggo leggings to wear underneath, depending on how harsh the winter is here. Or maybe I'll just cut the legs off of my old leggings and wear them like thigh-high leg warmers!?

For tops, I have tons of tops that should fit through most or all of the pregnancy. Empire waisted tops were popular recently so I have lots of those. Most of my t-shirts and long sleeved shirts are extremely stretchy and roomy in the gut.

So, I know that I'm going to have to buy bigger bras, preggo leggings, a warm cardigan or sweater, and something else warm to take place of my winter coat. I'll probably also need to conjure up a preggo raincoat since that's what it does here allllllll the time. Everyone talks about being warm all the time when they're pregnant, but I've sadly been the opposite. I will probably die of hypothermia this winter, on a 40F day, too. Pathetic!   :)

Finger's crossed that that's all I'll need! I purposly didn't buget much for maternity wear because I plan on slimming down asap after baby comes, and we don't know if I'm going to be pregnant again, so I do feel like it's sort of a waste of money. Oh, and jeans with stretchy bands at the top creep me out!

Cheap Rib Recipe

A few months ago, I found pork ribs on sale for a great deal, about $0.80 per pound for spare rib racks.  I really didn't have to think too hard about it...I just threw four frozen slabs in my cart and kept going! 

Last week we thawed a slab, and I realized I didn't have a good recipe for the pork spare ribs. Usually we spring for the baby back ribs when they are on sale at Costco, and they never fail to turn out tender and amazing.  I have tried spare ribs before and  they always turn out a little tough. Hmmmm.

Well, the ribs were already thawed, and dear husband was already hungry so I googled "pork spare ribs" and tried the fastest cooking recipe that popped up. My grandmother used to say, "If you starve 'em long enough, they'll eat anything," and I figured by the time the ribs were cooked, husband would be starved long enough to eat them, even if they ended up tough and stringy.

Lo and behold, they turned out awesomely.  (Thank goodness!! We still have three slabs in the chest freezer!)  Husband finished the leftovers up last night so I'm sure there will be another thawed rack with my name on it soon.

Here's the recipe:

1. Cut the ribs into portion sizes (3-5 rib chunks depending on your crowd). Put in a large pot, cover with water, and boil over medium-high heat for an hour. 

2. A half-hour into your boil, mix 1 cup ketchup, 1 cup bbq sauce, 1/2 cup brown sugar, about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons worcestshire sauce, 2 tablespoons steak sauce, a dash of hot sauce, and a clove or two of minced garlic into a small sauce pan. Cook over medium-low or low heat to combine and thicken, about 20 min. Also pre-heat oven to 350F.

3. Put the boiled ribs on a cookie sheet covered in foil and cover with the sauce you just made. I brush it  all over to make sure the ribs are well coated.

4. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

5. Uncover the foil and bake another 15-20 minutes until the sauce looks dark and thick on the ribs.

6. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Eat!