Theme Week: Fall

I did the silliest thing this past weekend. On Saturday afternoon, after the laundry was done, the kitchen was clean, What to Expect When You’re Expecting had been watched (twice), and the house was generally picked up, I was bored. Scott works a lot on the weekends, so typically I am on my own during the daytime hours. So, right around 2 PM I got in my car and drove away. I packed some stuff – a water bottle, my wallet, a FiberOne double-chocolate ninety calorie brownie, my cell phone and an extra jacket. And I drove to….Gettysburg!

Gettysburg is only about thirty to forty minutes away depending on traffic, and it is seriously a beautiful area. I think my life’s ambition might be to move there someday (yes….thirty minutes down the road). I would really like to show you just how beautiful it is during this time of the year, except, perhaps you noticed per my packing list above that I FORGOT MY CAMERA! I was so upset with myself, and no, I am not one of those people who owns a fancy iPhone. So, unfortunately, you won’t be seeing the beautiful leaves falling gracefully upon the cemetery, monuments with fiery foliage in the background or my pumpkin coffee from a local coffee shop. What you WILL see; however, is...

Yep, I made some monster feet out of two gourds. I have plans to improve upon them and create some type of game – I am thinking of a cross between an Easter egg hunt, that German Christmas shoe tradition and hiding the pickle on a Christmas tree – to play with my (future) children and/or nieces/nephew. I’ll let you know how those plans turn out.

These are a cinch to make. Just paint your gourds a monstery-green color with black accents, form some big toe nails out of Sculpey (bake at 200◦ for 30 minutes) and hot glue them on! They look cutest sticking out from under a chair or (eek!) bed. I am still trying to decide whether I would have been scared waking unknowingly to their presence as a child (probably...yes).

I also found it necessary to glue some googly eyes on the other gourds I have sitting around. Is the elementary school teacher thing making sense to you now? Someone needs to confiscate my glue gun before I glue eyes to the toaster and my house starts to look like an episode of Blues Clues.

In other glorious fall news, I have been drinking a lot of apple cider, roasting a lot of butternut squash and wearing a lot of layers. Did you know that roasted squash is just about the most delicious thing you can put on top of a salad? No? Well now you do.  

Just roast butternut squash and apple chicken sausage (with olive oil, salt, pepper and a touch of brown sugar) for thirty-five minutes at 400◦. Put over some chopped lettuce and chives and top with a Dijon mustard/olive oil/red wine vinegar dressing and voila! you won't eat anything else for a week.

WeThree will be back tomorrow with three fall recipes for you! 

Until then, here's to drinking lots of warm beverages in lieu of turning on the heat! Cheers :)

p.s.: I got the idea for the monster feet from the October, 2012 edition of Rachel Ray Magazine!