PUMPKIN!

What I love most about fall are
...the decoration
....the smells
.....the meals!

fall is one of my favorite times to cook.

but on this lazy, chilly, cloudy saturday afternoon what I decided to try for the first time was a pumpkin spice latte in my CROCK POT!! glorious. if you have never heard of stephanie o'dea you NEED to know her. especially if you love your crock pot as much as i do. look her up here.

this is her amazing recipe and it is delcious.

3/4 cup strong coffee
2 cups milk (i used skim)
2 tbsp canned pureed pumpkin
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp vanilla extract

Add coffee and milk to your crockpot. Whist in pumpkin, spices, sugar and vanilla. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours. Whisk again .Ladle into mugs, and garnish with whipped cream and additional cinnamon. You can add a cinnamon stick to be FANCY! The recipe serves two so be sure to double or triple it if you are having people over or like to drink your body weight, like me :)











see....don't i look HAPPY!

E

I like to spell gray with an E.

grey.

What's so wrong with that?

Another little foodie post

A friend of mine, Tammi, has passed on some of her wonderful food magazines to me. Tonight I decided to try the "Beef Sirloin Tips with Smoky Pepper Sauce" from Better Homes and Gardens October 2010 edition.

Here is the dish

















1.5 lbs. beef sirloin tip steak
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika or paprika (I thought I had this at home, but turns out I didn't [oops!!] so I used cayenne pepper)
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 12-16 oz. jar roasted red and/or yellow sweet peppers
1/2 cup hickory or mesquite flavored BBQ sauce
1/4 cup chopped fresh italian flat-leaf) parsley

1. Trim meat and cut into 1-1.5 inch chunks; sprinkle with paprika. In 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add meat; brown 5 minutes or to desired doneness. Remove from skillet; keep warm.

2. Meanwhile, drain roasted red peppers, reserving liquid. Cut up roasted peppers. Measure 1.5 cup of the reserved liquid (if needed, add enough water to equal 1/2 cup). Add peppers and liquid to skillet. Add barbecue sauce. Cook uncovered, 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently until sauce is slightly thickened. Return meat to skillet; heat through.

3. Sprinkle with parsley. Makes 4 servings. Each Serving 367 calories, 18 g of fat, 111 mg chol, 510 mg sodium, 13 g carbo, 2 g fiber, 36 g pro.

















Shhhh, don't tell, but I added some asparagus. I think it added some nice flavor, color, and a delicate crunch.

I complimented the meal with a little Pinot Noir and some mixed greens with grapes (topped with creamy balsamic vinaigrette.)

YUM!!!!!! You should give it a try. I give it 3.7 out of 5 stars [I have NO idea what that is based on]. It was super easy and really tasty!

Happy eating.

Chance

I am on my second cup of coffee at 9:30a.
I have been completely tired this week.
This morning I set the alarm for 6am as usual, hit snooze three times.
....then reset it for 7am - and hit snooze three times again.
Do you ever have weeks like that?

On a happy note - E came over last night and we watched "Temple Grandin" - SUCH a good movie. If you have not seen it yet you should. So moving.What a motivating story.

The question/word I am pondering at the moment is CHANCE. How much do you let life dictate itself - taking you where it will and being a willing participant in all of the twists and turns that it brings, and how much do you will it to go where you want it to? Taking chances that scare you and make you hesitant and that you have NO IDEA how it will turn out? I've been thinking a lot lately about love and relationships and....Nepal.

Throughout a lot of my life I have just let relationships develop as they will, not invested a lot of myself into them, perhaps because I am used to being a bit transitional - having people that move in and out of my life. I tell people that are in my life now that "I don't say goodbye" - and it's true. I'm not good at it - and I think I offend people becuase of my lack of emotion. But I've been thinking lately that I have three of the most phenomenal women I have ever met in my life right now - surrounding me - investing in me. And that's something I want to take a chance on - invest in - pursue. Who knows, maybe something really deep and meaningful could come out of that. I don't always like being vulnerable, but as I have begun to open myself up and share the embarrassing or vulnerable things with them - they have also opened up more and the love and grace I have received in return has already been amazingly transformative.

Love is something that has never come easy to me. And perhaps it never will. Running? That comes easy. But what is especially hard is when you care a lot for someone that lives half way across the country....and you hate phones more than most things in life. Moving doesn't quite seem an option. So you wait for life to make more sense.

Nepal is perhaps what occupies most of my minds time. Potential opportunities present themselves - and they are EXACTLY what I have wanted to do with my life, in the country that I love more than life itself. But then the logical questions of finances, language barrier, abilities, etc. pop into my head and the opportunity seems unattainable -- or a bit more foolish to chase after.

When do you let go of logic and logistics and just take a chance? When do you decide you don't watn to follow life anymore but make your life follow you? And how do you know you're making smart choices?

I don't necessarily think there are any right answers to those. But...they are the pondering thoughts of the day.For now I am going to go camping with my girlfriends, enjoy some concerts and save the decisions for another day...

Mali Slave Camps

One of the most devastating stories I have read in a while...

Read the full story from BBC News HERE.
----------------------
Nigerian girls are being forced to work as prostitutes in Mali "slave camps", say officials in Nigeria.

The girls, many of them under age, have often been promised jobs in Europe but ended up in brothels, said the government's anti-trafficking agency.

The brothels are run by older Nigerian women who prevent them from leaving and take all their earnings.

The agency said it was working with Malian police to free the girls and help them return to Nigeria.

There has been no official comment from the Mali authorities.

Nigeria's National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (Naptip) said officials visited Mali this month to follow up "horrendous reports" from victims, aid workers and clergy in Mali.

They said there were hundreds of brothels, each housing up to 200 girls, run by Nigerian "madams" who force them to work against their will and take their earnings.

"We are talking of thousands and thousands of girls," Simon Egede, Executive Secretary of Naptip, told a news conference in Abuja.

"We are talking of certainly between 20,000 and about 40,000," he said, but did not give details of how the figure had been reached.

In a statement, Mr Egede said girls were "held in bondage for the purposes of forced sexual exploitation and servitude or slavery-like practices".

"The madams control their freedom of movement, where they work, when they work and what they receive," he said.

The trade is centred around the capital Bamako and large cities, but the most notorious brothels are in the mining towns of Kayes and Mopti, where the sex workers live in "near slavery condition", said Naptip.

Many of the brothels there also had abortion clinics where foetuses were removed by traditional healers for use in rituals, said Mr Egede.