Day 258 - Glee from iTunes to Our TV

HDMI cables are pretty sweet. Quinn and I used the summer reruns of Glee to watch the series (we didn't get into it last fall, but now love it) but last nights 2 episodes skipped one in between, so we paid the $2.99 to iTunes to watch it. Rather than watching it on our computer Quinn hooked up our laptop to the TV and we had HD-quality viewing - at first I thought it was a hassle, but it actually was really simple, took no time and was a great picture.

Good work Quinn!

Day 257 - Homemade Donuts

It's no secret that I love doughnuts, so tonight I thought it would be fun to try to make my own. I recently learned of a recipe for 'Krispy Kream' - like doughnuts, "Crispy and Creamy Doughnuts" from our family friend Ellen.

Ingredients (I adjusted the recipe to only make 9 servings):

Doughnuts
1 (.25 ounce) envelope active dry yeast
2 tablespoons warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 eggs
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons shortening
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups vegetable oil for frying

Glaze
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons hot water or as needed

Making the dough . . .



Time to let the dough rise

After the dough doubled (about an hour) roll it out and cut out your doughnuts

I don't have cutters for this, so I used a glass and a cherry/olive pitter . . . (yes I have this, but no biscuit/doughnut cutters)

As I was letting my cut doughnuts rise I brought some vegetable oil to temperature, 350 F and then got to frying

As I was cooking the doughnuts I flipped them a couple of time so they didn't over brown and then when they looked all ready I cooled them on a cookie drying rack

For the glaze, I went through 2 versions, the first was pretty thick and then I added more water to thin it out and make more of a glaze - both were tasty.

Overall I was pretty happy with my doughnuts. I don't think I have the dough enough time to rise in each step though because my doughnuts were a bit more dense than I would of preferred, but still yummy :)

Day 256 - Monday Night Football (and Train)

My office is celebrating 10 years of being in business in KC this year and to celebrate our entire office headed to the chiefs Monday Night Football game tonight.

I have never been to a Monday night game (this is the first time the Chiefs have had one since 2003) and tonight was the season home opener - so there was tons of hype and good energy through out the stadium

Quinn got to come to the game with me, which was nice because we opted to drive ourselves tot he stadium (rather than riding the bus) and there ended up being a huge storm that came through and Quinn took care of getting us ponchos and keeping us dry so we could actually enjoy the game and not worry too much about getting drenched.

Train played during half time, which would of been much more fun if the weather would of cooperated, but I enjoyed the show and was impressed that they go out there and rocked out in the middle of the rain to the thinned out crowd (most people were hiding out under cover).

The game was lots of fun and the Chiefs won 21-14 against the Chargers which made the rain & late night much more worth it :)

Day 255 - Butternut Squash Soup

Last time my mom came to visit me she brought this gorgeous butternut squash from her friend Ellen

I have never cooked with one before, and it looked good on our dining room table, so I let it be a decoration for a couple of weeks before finally using it tonight.

I decided some soup sounded good, so I looked one line and decided to use this recipe as my guide.

To get started I sliced the squash length-wise

and removed all of the seeds and insides

Then I baked it at 375F in a baking sheet cut-side down with a little water in the pan as well for about 40 minutes.

While the squash baked I sauteed some onions & garlic in butter. Once those cooked a few minutes I added the chicken stock and let that cook for a bit together.

Once the squash was fork tender I removed it front he oven and let it cool a bit, then I sliced the flesh into chucks and added them to the soup

(I didn't have an potatoes, so the squash was star in my soup)

I used my immersion blender and ended up adding about 8 ounces of cream cheese and seasoning the soup with nutmeg, cayenne pepper, ground ginger, a tiny bit of cinnamon and salt and pepper.

I didn't have everything the recipe called for, but that's the great thing about soup. You can just add what you have and throw in other ingredients that sound good to as you go.

The soup turned out yummy, a perfect fall-time meal.

Day 254 - Katie & Drews Wedding at Fontenelle Forest

Today was absolutely gorgeous out! Which was wonderful, because our friends Katie & Drew were married.

The ceremony & reception took place at Fontenelle Forest in Bellevue, NE. I had never been here before and couldn't have picked a better spot for this couple to say 'I do'.

I didn't have my camera with me to take any pictures, so here is a quick list of some of things I loved about tonight

• Their Personalized Vows (this honestly may be the first wedding I have ever been to where the couple wrote their own vows). Beautiful
• The Cakes. Katie & Drew asked their families to each bring a cake and they were all displayed so beautifully - plus there was just lots of cake, which made this pregnant lady very happy. I think I sampled 5 different cakes. Delicious
• The Dress. Katies dress fit her perfectly and she was beaming all through the night. Gorgeous
• Dancing under the stars. I loved how the dancing was set up outside, we had so much fun dancing the night away. Joyful

After the wedding Quinn and I headed to my parents lake house to sleep for the night and before we got ready for bed posed for a quick picture, mainly to share my growing bump (since I don't have a maternity dress yet I squeezed into a stretchy dress I have had forever)

Day 253 - Mochi Yo

Have you ever heard of Mochi? until recently I hadn't either, but with the frozen yogurt craze that has taken over Johnson County it keeps coming up. Mochi is a type of Japanese rice cake and apparently goes good with yogurt. So tonight while we were out running a couple of errands before dinner we came across a new frozen yogurt place called Mochi Yo and decided to try it out.

The menu was very simple with just two flavors of yogurt, green tea & original and 3 types of mochi, plain, strawberry and green tea. I went with the original yogurt and strawberry mochi as a topping.

The yogurt was good, it had a tartness to it, but I liked that about it. The mochi was . . . interesting. It was soft & chewy and had a very mild flavor. I liked it, but not loved it and I don't think I will make a point to go back to Mochi Yo, although next time mochi is on another menu I am looking over I think I will try it again.

The little yogurt shop also had a fun, modern style to it which I really liked ;)

Day 252 - Belli

My god parents, Renee & John, gave me the perfect birthday gift this year, a scrub and oil to use on my tummy during my pregnancy. I have been wanting to do some research and find some good products, but hadn't taken the time to do this yet, so when I received the Belli scrub & oil over this past weekend I was so excited!

Tonight, I used them for the first time and they were both so nice. The scrub has a peppermint scent and is gentle and soothing and the oil is scented with lavender and made me feel like I had a mini spa treatment.

Thanks John & Renee for saving me the time of discoving these wonderful prodcuts and for thinknig of me on birthday :)