Stray Cats

So around the time I left off posting this winter, one my neighbors was forced to move and asked me to find homes for her three outdoor cats, after several months in my yard I am pleased to tell you I finally found a no-kill shelter that could take them and these sweeties have all been adopted out! Just sharing their pics with you now though really I should have posted earlier to see if they could find a home that way!

This one is Tommy

 This black and white one is Baby, she is really hard to get a picture of because she wants to be held!

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Butternut Squash Bread Pudding

Wow! well it certainly has been a while! No excuse I suppose but we've been busy just trying to keep up with expenses like everyone else these days.
This was a fun recipe I got to try while Boy was out of town so I only had to cook once for the week! And I got to use my pretty baking dishes! This recipe is from myrecipes.com http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/butternut-squash-parmesan-bread-pudding-10000000701119/ . I really enjoyed adding a little fresh sage from the garden though I found processing the squash to be s little more time consuming than I expected.

 

Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups cubed butternut squash
• 1/2 tsp salt divided
• cooking spray for the pan
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 2 cups 1% milk ( I used 2%)
• 1 cup fresh grated Parmesan ( I subbed the green can terrible I know but cheaper!)
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 3 large eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 8oz cubed stale french bread or about 9 cups

Directions:

1.  Arrange squash on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray sprinkle lightly with 1/4 tsp salt and roast at 400F for 12 minutes or until tender. When you take this out of the oven lower the oven temperature to 350F.
2. Heat oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes or until it softens, add the garlic and saute for one more minute. Remove from heat. Allow to cool while you prep the next step.
3. Combine in a large bowl, remaining 1/4 tsp salt, milk 1/2 cup cheese, pepper, nutmeg, eggs, and egg whites in a large bowl stirring with a whisk. Stir in squash and onion mixture. Add bread and stir lightly to combine. Let soak for 10 minutes, then place in a 2 quart baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until lightly browned. 

Notes: This was good but personally I love a little more intense of flavors so I think I would double or triple the garlic, pepper and nutmeg next time. I suggest this if you like intense flavors but then again, maybe I'm just weird! Enjoy!

Fried Breakfast Potatoes

Happy quintuple 1! Just thought I'd point out today's date: 1/11/11, got to notice it now since it's gonna be a long while until 2/22/22!
These are the fried potatoes that went with the frittata, pretty simple and easy, just a few steps, more time consuming than the frittata though so if want these with that you should start a bit earlier.

Mushroom and Spinach Frittata

This was part of my attempt to eat healthier, lots of veggies and not too high on the calories.

Silver and his Box

Silver in his box, intently staring at...well I don't really know, but clearly not the camera!

You might not know this, but cats really like boxes. Well, at least mine do! So I thought I would share some fun photos of Silver enjoying the box to our new space heater.

Pioneer Woman's Nantucket Cranberry Pie

When I saw this recipe on Pioneer Woman's website I knew I had to make it, after all I had all the ingredients but cranberries and those are actually in season right now. So I of course darted off to the store to stock up on cranberries, the rest sit in my freezer awaiting my next urge to make a cranberry recipe. And I nearly forgot to take a picture for blogging so this is the only picture I have, of the last tasty piece. We had a birthday party to go to so I had an instant excuse to bake!

New Years Resolutions and Blueberry Molasses Cake

So wow! I haven't posted in forever! Sorry while I have been thinking about blogging I haven't been very good at sitting down and assembling the posts lately. So in 2011, which seems really strange to type still, one of my resolutions is to blog more consistently and to get off on the right foot here is a tasty cake! This was made from a recipe I found on 101 Cookbooks for Old Fashioned Blueberry Cake, this wasn't the first time I had made the cake. I really enjoy having something sweet for breakfast and this is not too sweet and feels sort of healthy as a dessert, at least to me.