Sweet Potato Soup

  

Sweet Potato Soup?  Yes please.  The fresh parmesan and bacon garnish really made this dish so don't leave them out.

 2 lb sweet potatoes, halved lengthwise

1/4 C water

olive oil

1 C onion, diced

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp red pepper

4 C chicken stock

1 slice bacon/person

Parmesan cheese for ganish

Place potatoes cut side down in a microwave-safe baking dish.  Add 1/4 C water.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Microwave 10-15 minutes (depending on size of potato) until tender.  Cool slightly and discard skins.  I couldn't fit all my potatoes in the dish at once so had to split them into two cooking shifts.

Heat saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add oil.  Saute onion for 1 minute or so, stir in cumin and red pepper.  Add stock to pan, bring to a boil.  Place sweet potato and stock mixture in blender.  Blend till smooth (make sure you allow steam to escape through an opening in the top of the blender.  Mine has a tiny hole at top which is adequate but I've also opened the whole top and covered with a paper towel to allow steam to escape as it blends).  Return to pan and repeat with any remaining broth/potatoes until the soup is pureed.  I made my soup an hour before Geoff got home so it sat on low for an hour with a lid, but the directions say you can serve immediately.

Garnish with 1 slice bacon, crumbled, and some shaved parmesan cheese.

 And now a few pictures from Halloween night.  It was pretty cute following this little guy around as he went trick-or-treating.  He got side-tracked at one house where they had a TV outside and were sitting in chairs watching a football game.  He crawled right up into an empty chair, ignoring the offered candy, and said "ball, ball", happy to watch the game rather than get more candy.  Goofy kid, we had to forcibly pull him away from that house.  Oh, and yes he's shirtless but it was plenty warm Halloween night in Houston - comfortable in sorts and a T-shirt and no bugs to speak of.

 

Enjoying the spoils of his work.

Happy Halloween and Dinner in a Pumpkin!

We took Goose to a pumpkin patch last week and much to my delight they had sugar pumpkins for baking - those are hard to come by out here where all we ever see are jack-o-lantern pumpkins.  So, logically, when we got home I promptly starting looking up recipes for Dinner in a Pumpkin and here's what we came up with:

1 lb ground beef (or turkey, which is healthier and ALWAYS cheaper out here)
4 oz sliced mushrooms
1 onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 10 oz can cream of mushroom soup
2 C cooked rice, give or take (we just used leftover rice.  I don't know how much it was)
1/4 C soy sauce
3 Tbsp brown sugar

Cut 3 inch circle top off pumpkin and remove seeds and strings.  Replace pumpkin top.  Place pumpkin on a cookie sheet covered with foil.  If desired, draw a face on the pumpkin.  Brush the exterior of the pumpkin with oil and the interior with melted butter.  Bake the empty pumpkin for 45-60 minutes.

Meanwhile, brown the ground beef with the veggies until the meat is cooked and the veggies are tender. Drain any fat, if necessary.  Stir in the soup, rice, soy sauce, and brown sugar.  Fill pumpkin with meat mixture.  Return to the oven and bake an additional 1-2 hours, until pumpkin is tender when poked with a fork.

To serve, remove some of the meat mixture so you have room inside the pumpkin to scrape pumpkin flesh off the walls.  Mix pumpkin flesh into the meat mixture.

This was quite yummy.  We didn't pre-bake the pumpkin, but after 2 hours of baking the filled pumpkin it still wasn't done.  So when I make this again, I will for sure pre-bake the pumpkin as I directed here.

And finally, happy Halloween from Wilma, Fred, Bam-Bam, and Pebbles (coming Feb 2014!)

Pineapple Chicken Burgers

1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast, pounded thin and cut into two pieces
1 small can of pineapple slices (4 slices)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar + some brown sugar for pineapple
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 buns
Provolone cheese

Combine the juice from the pineapple can, soy sauce, brown sugar, and mustard.  Marinate the chicken overnight in juice mixture.

Rub some brown sugar onto the pineapple slices.

Send the husband out to grill the chicken (about 7 minutes on one side and 6 on the other, he said).  Add the cheese near the end so it can melt.  Right after you flip the chicken, throw the pineapple rings onto the grill, turning once.  Serve on buns with two pineapple slices per sandwich and any other fixings that sound delicious to you.

Here are some pictures from out trip out to Utah in September.  Since we spent most of our time chasing Isaac, most of the pictures we got were of his back as he swiftly ran off to explore something else.  

We spent most of our time at temple square trying to keep him out of the fountains.  We ran into my uncle and a few cousins and stopped to chat for a brief moment.  When we looked down at Isaac he had a foot in the fountain (not the fountain in this picture) and was seconds away from getting the other leg in, too.  My cousins two year old obediently stayed with his parents, watching our son spew craziness in every direction.

Creamy Veggie Chicken Tortilla Soup

This soup was fabulous!  But who can turn down a good tortilla soup.  And then, added bonus, it used all sorts of things sitting in our fridge that were begging to be used and even used a few carrots from the garden.

Another food that doesn't picture well - or at least doesn't picture well by me.  But trust me, it's delicious.

And, I know this looks like a lot of ingredients upon a quick glance, but they are mostly spices.  You probably have most things on hand to make this easy and delicious recipe.


Olive oil
1 small onion (or 1/2 of the huge mega onion that I had)
1 C diced carrots
1 C diced celery
1 bell pepper, diced
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
4 C chicken stock
1 C water
2-3 tomatoes, diced and then "crushed" in a mini food processor (it calls for canned crushed tomatoes but I needed to use up fresh)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
4-5 (6-inch) corn tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 C cooked, shredded chicken
1/2 C half and half (or just use milk)

Optional Garnishes:
Tortilla chips
Shredded Cheese
Diced Tomatoes
Cream Cheese
Green Onions
Diced Avocado

Heat oil in a large soup pan.  Add the onion, carrot, celery, and bell pepper.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook until veggies have softened (6 min).  Add the garlic, chili powder, coriander, cumin, oregano, paprika, and cayenne pepper.  Stir until fragrant (2 min).  Add the broth, water, tomatoes, and salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Add tortilla strips.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the tortillas have disintegrated (45 min)

Add chicken and half and half.  Simmer an additional 15 minutes.  Serve with any desired garnishes (we garnished with cheese, tortilla chips, and sour cream).

Thanks My Favorite Things for the recipe.

 

 

Our budding pianist.  This was not posed.  He crawled up there one day and sat down to play.

Grilled Chicken with Yummy Tomatoes and Avocado

A little boasting: our tomatoes are doing awesome.  Here is what I picked the other day, along with some green beans, a carrot, and a couple of onions.

Then just the other day I ran into this recipe in the last Cooking Light magazine and knew I had to make it.  I have the most wonderful husband who puts up with my cooking, even when it features things he doesn't like (such as tomatoes, avocados, and corn cut off the cob - he's convinced it should only be eaten if bit directly off the cob).  So I made this dish expecting a kind husband who would put up with an unfortunate meal.  Boy was I surprised when he took seconds of the tomato salad.  Even more surprised when he said this would be a good dish to make when we have people over for dinner, and that he would be happy to have it regularly throughout the summer while we have cherry tomatoes.  Moral of the story: make this recipe.  It's so good, it will convince even your picky eater.

Dressing:
1/4 C buttermilk (or I used 1% milk with a splash of lemon juice)
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 Tbsp fresh parsley (I used 2 tsp dried)
1 Tbsp shallots, minced (I used red onion, but shallots would be yummy)
1 tsp vinegar
1/4 tsp pepper
fresh ground salt, to taste
1 garlic clove, minced

Whisk together dressing ingredients.  Chill until ready to serve.

Chicken:
2 chicken breasts, cut in half
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp onion powder
3/4 tsp cumin
salt, to taste (btwn 1/4-1/2 tsp)
1/4 tsp chile powder

Combine oil and spices.  Rub oil mixture onto chicken breasts.  Send husband outside to the grill.  He will return 8-10 minutes  later with perfectly cooked chicken (turn chicken once).

Tomato Avocado Salad
2 ears corn, shucked
1 red onion, cut into 1/2 inch slices
2-4 tomatoes, diced
1 C cherry tomatoes, halved
1 avocado, diced

Grill corn and onion while grilling chicken (turn the corn regularly, turn the onion once).  Roughly dice onion.  Cut corn from cob.  Combine corn, onion, tomatoes and avocado.  Serve with chicken and dressing.

Amazingly delicious!
Original recipe from Cooking Light June 2013

Ok, the promised update from our trip to Frederick MD to visit Rob and family.  We had a superb time, eating varieties of deliciousness - including crab cakes, strawberry rhubarb pies (I wish we could grow rhubarb here), lentil tacos, and spinach artichoke pizza and sandwiches.

What if I just left it at that - told you what I ate and nothing else.  Sounds like classic Tiffany, right?  Ok, I'll give trip details.  We went to the air and space museum by Dulles airport.  Little boy, the goof ball, ran around screeching at the planes.  It took at least 15 minutes just to get him past the entryway planes so he could get to the main floor of the museum.  Once in the museum, he would run from plane to plane, screeching.  Occasionally he would want to get a better look at one of the planes hanging from the roof.  So, logically, to look up at the ceiling he would have to abruptly stop in the middle of the walkway, lay down on his belly and hands, and then crane his neck around so he could look at the plane above him.  I think he felt off-balance when standing and tipping his head back.  It was pretty funny to see him lay down and twist around, but it did make for near-miss trampling's.  We also went to DC one day to tour monuments and to take Little Boy into the history of transportation exhibit in the American History Smithsonian.  Isaac made sure we visited some of the lesser known sites on the mall, such as the shrubs around and behind the Lincoln Monument.  Also, we thoroughly conquered a small hill hear the Washington monument - Isaac, who is cursed to live in flat Houston, repeatedly climbed this small hill, more of a bump really, and then ran back down it.  Much to his delight and his parents amusement.  We also hit the beach in Annapolis and visited Mt. Vernon with Geoff's cousin and her two kids.  All in all, a fabulous trip.  Thanks to Rob and Anna for having us.

Cousins making trouble together

Isaac is getting ready to go chase some ducks that are just behind me

Mt. Vernon

Citrus Mahi Mahi!

Note the green beans.  From our garden!

1-2 lb Mahi Mahi filets (we had about 8 oz and that was plenty for the 3 of us - Isaac, of course, didn't touch his)
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 C fresh orange juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp allspice or pumpkin pie spice
1/8 tsp red pepper

Salsa:
1 avocado, diced
1/2 C red onion, diced
1 orange, diced
1/2-1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced (use half the pepper or all the pepper, to taste)
 2 tsp lime juice
3 Tbsp fresh orange juice
2 Tbsp cilantro, minced
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Combine the oil and 1/4 C orange juice in a large bag.  Add fish and squish around to coat.  Combine spices in a bowl.  Open bag and rub spices onto the fish filet.  Close bag again ad squish around again.  Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes.

When husband gets home, hand him the fish and send him outside to the grill.  Wait 5-10 minutes for husband to return inside with perfectly cooked fish!  (He heats the grill and cooks skin-side on the grill rack until the fish looks lovely and flaky.  He has oiled the grill rack in the past so that the skin doesn't stick to the grill - he doesn't oil the grill every time, though.  I don't know how often he needs to or if sometimes he just feels lazy and throws the fish on regardless.)

Combine all salsa ingredients.  Serve with fish.  DELICIOUS!  I'm sure you could do this with tilapia and even salmon, too.


And now for little boy:

Little boy is OBSESSED with cars.  When we drive anywhere, it is to a continuous stream of "car" "car" "car" coming from the back seat.  He points out every car, parked or moving, that we see.  It used to be a cute little high pitched baby voice saying "car-car".  Now it is a caveman, guttural,  grunt of "car".  Pretty cute.

He also found his new favorite book: Daddy's large classic cars book (a coffee table type book).  He just loves turning the pages and seeing all the cars. 

Asian Style Brown Rice "Salad"

 We enjoyed this salad for dinner.  And by we, I mean, Geoff and I.  Isaac fed his portion to Tina.  Isaac doesn't like rice - problematic since we eat rice at least once a week.

3/4 C brown rice
2 C water

1 C edamame, cooked and shelled
1 C carrots, finely diced
2 green onions, finely chopped
1/2 C toasted slivered almonds
3 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
1/2 C Black beans, cooked (1 can)

Combine rice and water in a saucepan.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.  Turn off heat, let stand covered for 10 minutes.

Add dressing, edamame, carrots, green onions, almonds, cilantro, and black beans to the rice.  Serve at room temperature.

Dressing - Whisk together the following:
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp sesame oil, toasted
pinch of red chili flakes

This weekend we took little boy and little dog down to the creek with some friends of ours.  Isaac LOVED it!  The world was literally his sandbox.  We got there and he promptly started filling things with sand - the wagon, the bag of coals, the box of muffins. . . Then he discovered the creek.  He sat there in little boy heaven throwing sand into the creek, onto Dada's pants, and occasionally at Tina.  After running out of new places to put sand, he decided it was time to go into the creek.  He occasionally got his feet in, but it was a bit chilly and so we tried to keep him dry.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Every time I think we've stuffed everything that can be stuffed, we come up with another veggie or fruit to stuff, bake, and eat for dinner.  I've never had acorn squash before but am always happy to branch out to another veggie.  Isaac ate a little but he doesn't like rice (unfortunate as we eat rice a few times a week) and acorn squash clearly was not his favorite squash.

3 small acorn squashes
8 oz Italian sausage - we used chicken apple sausage links instead and it was yummy
1 onion, diced
2-3 stalks celery, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 C cooked rice
1/3 C craisins
3 Tbsp fresh chives (didn't have any so we left this out)
salt and pepper
1/4 C Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 C Swiss cheese, shredded

Bake squash at 425 degrees for 40 minutes, turning over after 20 minutes.  Make sure they are just tender before removing from oven (we didn't bake it long enough and had to put them back in).  Let stand for 15 minutes.  Halve squashes and scoop out the seeds.

Saute Italian sausage until browned.  Remove sausage from pan and drain drippings if you have a ridiculous amount (Chicken sausage barely gives off any drippings).  Place onions in pan, saute for 4 minutes.  Add celery and cook another 3 minutes.  Add garlic and cook one more minute, stirring constantly.  Stir in sausage, rice, craisins, chives, salt and pepper, and parmesan cheese.  Divide rice evenly among the squash halves.  Sprinkle with Swiss cheese.  Place on baking sheet and broil 4 minutes until cheese is melted.

Delicious!  But how can you go wrong with rice and sausage?

And now for little boy:

Playing with Tina!

Grandma just came out to visit little boy and he was happy for about the first 3 1/2 days - possibly a record for him.  He just got over another ear infection and another bout of bronchitis and just finished with his top two molars (all of that in the course of 10 days) so this was a pleasant change.  By Sunday night though, he started fussing again and pulling his ear and by Monday we were back to the Isaac we normally see around here.  It was good for Grandma to see crazy boy - the one who screams so thoroughly - so she doesn't think I exaggerate too much when I say I've had it and am ready to sell him to the Russians.  Russia's far away, though, so usually I just sell him to daddy.  We are expecting his bottom two molars any day now.  Mothers who don't have fussy teethers are truly blessed.  On that point, mothers who don't encounter ear infections are blessed.

While some days I threaten to sell him, I do have to say, he sure is a cute little monkey.  He just started giving hugs and they are the most wonderful thing in the world.  Sometimes he may be squishing your face, sometimes they may be a little wet, but one hug from him and everything is forgiven. He also likes to hug Tina, something I'm not sure she appreciates, though she kindly puts up with it.  And on another note, he truly is a monkey.  Yesterday we went to chick-fil-a with some friends.  The play place has a toddler's section with mirrors and switches and things to spin but he disregarded that and promptly climbed to the top of the tower.  From up their he had an excellent vantage of the play car that sits at the top of the play place to which he happily pointed at and screamed at for the next 30 minutes.  It was the most relaxing afternoon I've had in a long time.  After my initial fear of him breaking his neck up on the tower, I then just sat at our table and enjoyed watching him stand on the platform pointing at the car and smiling down at me.  I did eventually have to climb up and get him and carry him down so we could leave. He loudly informed the whole store of his displeasure.

At the Houston Children's museum they have an awesome toddler exhibit with slides and mirrors and things to climb on (safely) and blocks and things to spin and doors to open ad this awesome car to sit in.  Isaac loved it.  He came back to it time and time again.

He also loved the ball pit, especially throwing the balls out.

Fried Rice

1/4 C soy sauce
1/4 C brown sugar
Sesame oil
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 chopped serrano chile
4 C brown rice, cooked
salt and pepper1 1/2 C thinly sliced daikon radish (we got a daikon radish.  I think it tasted pretty similar to normal radishes so you could use those instead)
1/3 C fresh basil
1/3 C fresh mint
1/3 C fresh cilantro
1 lime, cut into wedges

To make sauce: Combine the soy sauce and brown sugar.  Bring to a boil in a small saucepan.  Simmer 2 minutes or until reduced to 1/4 C.  Set aside.

Heat sesame oil in a large skillet.  Pour in eggs.  Cook, stirring once.  Remove from pan.  Add more oil to pan.  Add shallots, garlic, and chile.  Cook 1 minute.  Add rice, cook 3 minutes.  Add back in the eggs, soy sauce mixture.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Top with radish and herbs.  Serve with lime.

Original Recipe from Cooking Light Magazine Aug 2011


And now some Isaac stories:

Isaac is officially a little boy.  We gave him his first haircut and with the loss of his cute wispy baby hair I've had to admit that my baby is gone, replaced by a giggling, running, hugging, goof of a boy.  It breaks my heart how fast he's grown but he is so fun and so silly that I suppose it's ok.

His number one hobby is books.  I'll be playing the piano, or working in the kitchen, or on the computer and he'll periodically walk over and hand me a book.  We then read that book three or four times in a row as he cries when we get to the last page so we immediately start the book over which immediately brings a smile back to his face.  His number two hobby is trucks.  They are doing some construction on a road across from our house and Isaac will go stare out the front window to watch.  I think all mothers of boys need to be blessed with construction out their window.  It brings some wonderful moments of peace.  This hobby of trucks brings us to his third word.  He started with mama and dada a month ago and just recently added vroom vroom.  Is he a little boy or what?  I mentioned his love of books and crying on the last page.  There are a few exceptions to that rule.  We never get to the last page of books with pictures of trucks anymore.  Once we see a picture of a truck he holds the page corner down so that we can't turn the page.  Then he sits there saying vroom vroom.  What a goof.

Well, I'm afraid no picture of the little one today.  The camera battery is dead and if I wait to post this until after it's charged, it will probably take another week, the rate I'm blogging (I had uploaded the stir fry picture a few weeks ago with intentions of blogging, hence why we have that picture and no picture of Isaac).  So imagine a cute, wild boy attacking a dog while carrying a book in one hand.

Bombay Coconut Stir Fry

Reading through this recipe, I was a little concerned that it would be too spicy so I was a little conservative on the spices.  This was a mistake.  The food was delicious but FAR from too spicy.  When I make it again, I will use the full amount of spices called for, perhaps even a little extra.  My favorite part of the recipe was the mustard seeds.  I loved the little bit of crunch they gave the dish.

A little Chicken or shrimp
Salt and Pepper
1 1/2 C onion, diced
1 1/2 Tbsp curry powder
1 Tbsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp cinnamon
dash ground red pepper
1 C frozen peas and carrots
1 can light coconut milk
2 C rice
1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

For the coconut rice:  Combine rice, coconut milk, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 3/4 C water in a large pan.  Bring to a boil, stirring the bottom of the pan occasionally.  Reduce heat and simmer with a tight lid for 15-20 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed (stirring the bottom occasionally to avoid sticking).  Remove from heat and let sit covered for 5 minutes.  Rice can stay warm and fluffy for up to 1 hour if left covered.

Salt and pepper chicken or shrimp.  Brown in a little bit of olive oil, turning once.  Remove from pan.

Over medium heat, heat additional swirl of olive oil (if needed).  Add onions and cook 2 minutes.  Add salt, pepper, curry, mustard seeds, cinnamon, and red pepper.  Add 1 1/3 water and peas and carrots.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer for 4 minutes, reducing heat as needed.  Return meat to the pan and cook 1 additional minute.  Serve with rice and garnish with cilantro.

And now, we are long overdo for pictures from baby's trip to Austin, TX, where the natives don't mess around with football.  I'm pretty sure the whole town closed down during the football game and it was illegal to wear any color other than burnt orange.

We took Brewster to the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory.  It was awesome.  We watched ice cream being made, sampled dozens of flavors, and then we each got a dish of our favorite.  Baby was the star of the show.  We held him up to the windows to see down into the factory and workers waved and stopped working to see the cute little monster. (Why a monster, you ask?  Because of his innate ability to destroy.)

We gave baby his first ever ice cream (first dessert, for that matter).  It would be a crime to take him to  blue bell and not let him try some of their creamy goodness.  We gave him peach ice cream and daddy snuck him a few bites of his chocolate.

Here we are at the state capital.  Does visiting make us real Texans?

And finally, the whole reason for the trip to Austin:  seeing the bats.  Austin has the largest urban colony of bats living under this bridge and every night they fly out at dusk.  You have to get there an hour in advanced to have a decent spot to sit.  So we let the wild wiggle boy wiggle around while we waited for the bats.  No pictures of the bats, I'm afraid, it was too dark for our camera to get anything besides blackness.

Tomato and Egg Bake

This was super yummy, and even Geoff liked it (and if you had asked him 5 years ago when we were first married he would have told you he disliked tomatoes and squash).  So give this a try, even if you think you have picky eaters.

2 C red onion, chopped
1 1/2 C red bell pepper, diced
1 lb yellow squash, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1/2-1 C cooked quinoa
1/2 C thinly sliced fresh basil, divided
1 1/2 tsp fresh thyme
1 tsp salt, divided
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 C milk
3/4 C Gruyere cheese, shredded
3 eggs, beaten
small chunk French bread baguette
2 beefsteak tomatos, sliced

Preheat oven to 375

Saute onion in a little oil over medium heat.  Cook 3 minutes.  Add bell pepper and cook 2 more minutes.  Add squash and garlic and cook 4 more minutes.  Combine vegetables with cooked quinoa, 1/4 C basil, thyme, 1/2 tsp salt, and the black pepper.

Combine remaining 1/2 tsp salt, milk, cheese, and eggs.  Stir with a whisk.  Add milk mixture to vegetable mixture, stirring until just combined.  Spoon into a greased baking dish (11x7 or 9x13).  Arrange tomato slices over quinoa mixture.

Place bread in a food processor and pulse into crumbs.  Toast breadcrumbs on the stovetop in a little olive oil.  Sprinkle bread crumbs over tomatoes.  Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until browned.  Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 C basil.

Baby Pumpkin

Today I saw pie pumpkins in the store.  We rarely get the pie variety of pumpkins so I was tempted to buy one (or two) just because we may never see those pumpkins again.  However, when I made baby pumpkin it was in the middle of the summer and there were certainly no pumpkins in the store, so I used canned pumpkin.  Much to babies dismay, I was particular in making sure it was just canned pumpkin and NOT pumpkin pie filling. 

1 large can pumpkin
¾ cup milk
1 tsp. fresh ground cinnamon
½ tsp. vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. The recipe I was following instructed that you heat the mixture to 160 degrees.  I did so, but I don't know how necessary that step was.  Cool.  Freeze in ice cube trays.

And now, our final post with pictures from Maryland.  On one of my last evening there, we went and picked 10 pounds of blackberries and 5 pounds of rasperries.  It was a delicious evening.  And I got the smashed blackberry stain, courtesy of one Little Boy I know and love, out of my shirt.  The following morning we had banana pancakes with fresh berries on top.  Delish!

This Desmond smile looks just like a little Robbie grin.  All he needs now is a bright yellow mario shirt.