Butternut Squash Pasta

If you like butternut squash then you will love this pasta! It is probably more of a winter dish realistically but oh well...

Ingredients:

4 T Unsalted Butter

1/2 C Chopped White Onion

Salt and Pepper

1 lb 12 oz Butternut Squash (unprepared weight)

Pinch of Nutmeg

12 oz Dried Pasta

3/4 C Cream

4 T Fresh Grated Parmesan Cheese (plus extra for serving)

2 T Chopped Fresh Parsley (plus extra for garnish)

Directions:

1. Heat butter over low heat. Add onions. Sprinkle with salt. Cover and cook stirring frequently for 25 to 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, peel and chop the squash.

3. Place chopped squash in the pan with butter and onions. Season with nutmeg. Cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes.

4. Add pasta to lightly salted boiling water and cook until tender but still firm to the bite. Drain thoroughly reserving 2/3 cup cooking liquid.

5. Stir in cream, grated Parmesan cheese and parsely into the squash sauce and season with salt and pepper. If the mixture seems to thick, add some or all of the reserved cooking liquid and stir.

6. Mix pasta and sauce together and toss for one minute. Serve immediately and garnish with chopped parsley with extra Parmesan cheese for sprinkling.

7. Enjoy!

Beachy Bachelor Pad

While in San Diego I dropped Rick off with some friends before a surf session. How awesome is this house?

Obviously these boys like to surf.

Quirky Collage.

Their living room is very tall. At one point they had a trampoline in there.

More surfboards.

Cute little swing outside.

Pretty San Diego view.

Combo Meal Anyone?

We went to Horsetooth Reservoir the other day and noticed that something was amiss at their hot dog stand.

The combo costed more than buying chips, a drink and a hot dog individually.

This made me laugh.

Party Prep

Rick and I sat down to the computer to start planning Adelaide's birthday party.

10 minutes later:

Rick: "I'm going to go watch a movie. You're boring me... Not in a bad way, but..."

I guess I'll be planning this party solo. Gotta love men.

Pizza Love

I worked at a pizza parlor in high school and thought that having access to delicious pizza every week would make me sick of it. But no, I still love it like crazy.

We used to have pizza nights in San Diego but had to discontinue the tradition during summer because we didn't have adequate air conditioning in our apartment. Our A/C here works great, so we are back into the loveliness of pizza making with friends!

Whole wheat dough balls and lots of veggies!

(This morning we made omelets with the leftover toppings).

Everyone makes their own individual masterpiece.

Rick was in charge of the oven.

Delicious!

We made nutella & banana pizzas for dessert.

sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Miss Dakota obviously loved them!

How cute are her pigtails?!

And look at Jack's smile! Precious.

Life Lately

Colorado is soo beautiful and fun in the summertime... Here are some things we have been up to lately:

Rockies vs. Padres Game

We were rooting for the Padres, but we were sadly disappointed.

Fred came to visit!

Fred introduced us Bean Boozled Jelly Beans, which include disgusting flavors such as dog food, rotten egg, centipede, booger, baby wipes and barf.

Hanging out by the pool.

The babies love the water.

On the 4th it started hailing.

Adelaide has begun pulling her headbands off :(

We sold our car and then found a new one.

While carless we took many walking trips to the grocery store.

We have been bikeriding to the farmer's market on Saturdays.

I fell on our bikeride home from the Farmer's Market.

Long story short: Rick tried to kiss me and I couldn't handle it.

We love the gorgeous Colorado sunsets.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day everyone!

Today we are going to a BBQ with some friends and I made a special 4th of July cheesecake for the occasion. I used a cheesecake recipe from my Grandma Walton, and it is the BEST! And thank you Martha Stewart, for inspiring the decor.

A couple people have asked for the recipe, so here it is:

Ingredients:

Crust

1 1/2 Cup Graham Crackers (Crushed)

3 T. Sugar

1/3 Cup Butter

Filling

11 oz. Cream Cheese

3/4 Cup Sugar

2 eggs

Topping:

1 Cup Sour Cream

3 T. Sugar

1/2 t. Vanilla

4th of July Toppings:

Raspberries

Blueberries

Vanilla Frosting

Directions:

1. Combine the crust ingredients and press into pan. I normally use a round pie tin pan, but for this particular one I did a rectangular pan and doubled the recipe. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

2. Beat cream cheese until smooth, then add the sugar, add one egg, and then the other egg. (and if you doubled it add another egg, and then the last egg). Once smooth pour over the crust and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes after it is done baking.

3. Mix the sour cream, sugar and vanilla. (I usually double this, even if I did not double the rest of the recipe... so if you did double the recipe I would maybe triple this part... it is the best part in my opinion.) Carefully, very carefully, pour this over the rest of the cheesecake and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

4. Let cool and then refrigerate. I usually let it cool and set overnight.

5. Arrange blueberries in the top left corner and the raspberries in stripes. Then pipe the frosting however you want to make stripes and stars.

I have never done this cheesecake before with fruit/frosting topping. I liked the fruit, but wasn't a big fan of the frosting- it detracted from the cheesecake in my opinion. Normally, I serve the cheesecake plain with optional homemade berry sauce.

I hope you enjoy, this was my Grandma's recipe (minus the 4th of July additions) and is a family favorite!