what's cookin', good lookin'?

First off, THANK YOU everyone who participated in Sew & Tell on Friday!  I'm so glad you are enjoying it and feeling inspired, that's what I was hoping for!

I have been cooking a bit around here lately.  I spent Thursday last week at my friend Deisha's (former personal chef) house learning how to cook some meals for freezing.  After a morning of chopping, dicing, sauteing and sealing, I have enough food in my freezer to last at least 6 meals, maybe more.  It will really come in handy on those nights when it's busy and I just need to heat something up!

I know the last thing you want to see is a picture of the inside of my freezer - but all that stuff on the bottom are flat packed meals - enough for 6 nights!!

We made enough for two meals (at least) each of  manicotti, stuffed peppers and creamy vegetable pasta.  I have the fixings to do a pistachio crusted salmon, chicken soup and Crock Pot Pork Chops!  I'm so excited!  Except now I think I need to upgrade my Food Saver to the fancy version with the pulse, wet and dry options....

And I think I've spoken of my love of Wegman's, the mecca of grocery stores.  Seriously, I'm not kidding.  They have an awesome bakery, patisserie, fish monger, butcher and catering counter.  Plus they put out a quarterly magazine with all sorts of good recipes.  I made this cauliflower and spinach gratin the other night.  Here it is cooking in the oven.

Mmmmm, okay so maybe it tastes better than it looks....

And I'm pleased to report that this pan was eaten all up!  Even the kids liked it! (Well, the secret ingredient is alfredo sauce.  How could it be bad?)  I'm planning on making a butternut squash and pear soup for a lunch potluck this week.  (The recipes aren't up on there web site yet - maybe when their next issue comes out, and then I'll share with you!)

Now, I tried for the first time to make apple butter!  Look at those glorious apples!  I used these two recipes: crockpot365 and recipezaar.  Unfortunately, I cooked it for 8 hours on high, not on low, and then I cooked it some more..... oops!  It made one pint instead of 4.  So now I'm trying to decide whether I make another batch and mix this stuff in, or if I should add some apple juice and thin it out.  I might do both.  I'll let you know.

And the other thing I've been cooking. . .

~insert ultrasound photo here~

Some of you probably figured it out already - we'll be moving Labor day to early May next year!

Plus, I've really been wanting to have a reason to buy something with this logo on it.

I hope this explains why I've been so slackery, tired, out of touch and unmotivated lately!  Now that I'm through the first trimester and my husband will be home all month I hope I can start feeling a little more normal again.   Plus, I'm going to have all sorts of fun baby things to sew!!  (This also explains my choice in patterns for that dress I'm making!)