Fall is in full swing in Wisconsin and I am seeing apple picking and pumpkin farm trips on a lot of my Facebook friends’ feeds these past weeks. I don’t think I’ll be making it to a pumpkin farm this year, but it was a great time last year. There are two pumpkins that my mom told me I could carve if I wanted to, so I’ll work on those next week. But I was able to use a few apples from a local orchard (Patterson’s in Greenfield). I came across this recipe from Lui in Cucina through my blog searching and Pinterest and although this was called a cake,…

My weeks are getting crazy busy but I wanted to show you what I have been up to – so here’s another phone dump for your enjoyment. Some of these will spawn into blog posts soon – I promise!   Homemade Beef Enchiladas – soooo good! Beautiful sunrise while heading to work! And a beautiful sunset on my first 4-mile run in months! And the awesome screw that I found in my tire on Sunday – a patch is working so far – fingers crossed! Ate at Christina’s on Sunday afternoon and the chicken was good – the sides could use some work. My nephews awesome iPhone skills – he…

Image courtesy of Key Westconsin I just had to take in the beautiful weather on Friday, because it might be close to one of our last beautiful Fall days in Wisconsin. I decided I was going to multi-task on my lunch by placing my lunch order, getting an errand done and then picking up the lunch, all while enjoying the colors of the trees, the warm sunshine, and the awesomeness that is downtown Waukesha. I chose Key Westconsin for lunch as the lobster rolls that I feasted on last time popped into my head last week and I decided it was time for them again. I checked out the lunch…

My company is celebrating 30 years in business in 2013 and back in January at our company Christmas party, my boss surprised us with a trip to Vegas! We were even invited to bring a guest! I brought my friend Carolyn on the trip and we had a blast eating our way thru Vegas while site-seeing, relaxing and exploring. Day 1:We left on a Saturday morning and arrived in Vegas around noon their time, 2 pm our time. We were definitely hungry already!!!!! We took the long-way to the Red Rock Casino and did a touristy trip down the strip with a great comical shuttle driver that entertained us on…

So now that we are officially in October, I am finding so many more pumpkin items out there. There are so many, that if I would buy them all, I would need a second source of income and a storage locker to house it all. I have found yogurt, bagels, butter, cream cheese, English muffins, granola bars, pancake mix, soup, M&Ms….the list goes on and on. I couldn’t buy all of those, but I did get some to try and so far I have been pleasantly surprised. Pumpkin Pie flavored lip balm. I found this in Spring at Good Harvest Market and it’s getting to the end, but I use…

My grandma’s friend Adeline (whom we knew as Auntie Adeline) canned everything. And because my mom scored a deal on a bag full of peppers ($2 for all of them!), we decided to make sweet pepper relish. So we chopped and chopped and chopped some more. And then we cried while cutting onions (chewing orange gum doesn’t help btw). But 8 cups of peppers and 3 cups of onions later, we were ready.  This canning experience was actually quite easy and it took my mom back to the BT days (before teaching, when she had time to can).  Combine everything, bring to boil and fill up the jars. Make sure…

The United Way in Waukesha County has started it’s third year of the United We Dine program. How the program works is that local area restaurants join forces with United Way in Waukesha County to donate part of their proceeds on a selected day to the organization. This year the program has expanded to run thru December! I participated last year by specifically choosing to go to certain places on certain days just to support the United Way in Waukesha County. And yes, I am specifically writing out their full name each time because the proceeds of United We Dine go directly to the Waukesha County affiliate of United Way.…

This month, Foodie Penpal’s changed it up a bit and we received a box from the same person that we sent too! I like this as you get to have more of a two-way street conversation about likes and dislikes on things. I hope this version continues 🙂 My penpal for September was from Michiana — 3 miles south of Michigan in South Bend, Indiana 🙂  She sent me a great box of goodies.  Melissa participates in NatureBox – a program where you get a box of goodies sent to you each month. I received a small bag of granola last month from my penpal and loved it. So I…

Fall has officially begun! It’s my favorite season of the year. Sure Summer is warm and such, but because my skin is not friends with the sun, I love Fall – warm days, cool nights and nature’s colors are truly fabulous. And the best part……Pumpkin spiced everything!!!!! I love that pumpkin is mostly limited to the Fall season for products as I would hate to overwhelm my buds and potentially dislike the flavor. I really, really enjoy it! I am on the hunt for Pumpkin and Squash flavored items and hope to share with you my opinions of what I have found. Please let me know if you have spotted…

I am a part of the WI Food Bloggers group on Facebook and a few weeks ago, the group was asked if anyone wanted to help out Landmark Creamery and test out their cheeses and write about them. I jumped at this opportunity and a few days later, a cooler with cheese arrived on my doorstep. The creamery is currently sharing samples of their cheeses in some local grocery stores in the area, so I suggest following them on Facebook to see where they will be next so you can try these cheeses. I was sent the Crescenza di Bufala and Nuage Noir. I had never heard of either of…