... and they're beautiful!
I'm thrilled that our photographer, Cassidy DuHon, and I clicked from our very first meeting, because his work is simply phenomenal. I'm pretty confident G will love the albums too - and I hope our parents think they're nice, too!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Chicken soup and pumpkin bread (take 2)
The past 72 hours have taught me that I am not meant to be a nurse. The possibility of nursing school had (briefly) crossed my mind at some point, but now I know - that's definitely not the profession (vocation?) for me. I'm neither patient nor nurturing enough - I opt for the "tough love" approach way too often.
G has been having trouble breathing, and thus sleeping and snoring, for, well, years. At least as long as I have known him. Last year, he finally went to consult an ENT about what was causing these difficulties, and the resulting inside-view images showed that he had a severely deviated septum that was severely impairing his ability to get sufficient air.
Our engagement and wedding put on hold any plans for correcting the deviated septum, and G finally got the septoplasty done this past Thursday. The hospital experience was grueling in and of itself - we got there early, as instructed, by around 6am and weren't released until past 3pm. And that's when things got challenging. No need to go into any of the less-pleasant details, but let's just say I kept busy changing the gauze pad under G's nose (to catch any umm drainage) frequently and feeding the ailing invalid (whose appetite clearly hadn't suffered one bit) frequently. After just day one, I was already tired and cranky... At least G's feeling better now, and his nose doesn't seem to be dripping quite as much stuff!
In other news, I'm waiting rather impatiently for the second experimental batch of my pumpkin bread to come out of the oven so that (a) we can devour our crockpot chicken soup, and (b) we can try the pumpkin bread to see what adjustments (if any) need to be made to the recipe. In the meantime, here's what I did this time around:
Pumpkin Bread (makes two 8" loaves)
1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 C white sugar
1 C dark brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 C all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp allspice
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp clove
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 (15oz) can solid pack pumpkin
1/8 C (approx) unsweetened applesauce
Sugar & Spice Blend
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 Tbsp white sugar
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine sugar & spice blend ingredients. Butter two 8" loaf pans, then sprinkle sugar & spice blend evenly on bottom and sides, about 1 Tbsp each pan.
3. Cream butter and sugars together, then add eggs one at a time while mixing. Add vanilla extract and mix in.
4. Combine all dry ingredients together, then gently stir into butter mixture until just combined.
5. Stir in canned pumpkin and applesauce.
Optional: Feel free to add some chocolate chips and/or chopped nuts. I folded in about 1 to 1 1/2 cup(s) of Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate baking chips, put about half the batter in one baking pan, then added about 1/2 cup of chopped toasted pecans to the rest of the batter before transferring it to the second pan.
6. Distribute batter evenly between prepared loaf pans. Sprinkle sugar & spice mixture on top.
7. Bake approximately 50 min to 1 hr, until cake tests done.
G has been having trouble breathing, and thus sleeping and snoring, for, well, years. At least as long as I have known him. Last year, he finally went to consult an ENT about what was causing these difficulties, and the resulting inside-view images showed that he had a severely deviated septum that was severely impairing his ability to get sufficient air.
Our engagement and wedding put on hold any plans for correcting the deviated septum, and G finally got the septoplasty done this past Thursday. The hospital experience was grueling in and of itself - we got there early, as instructed, by around 6am and weren't released until past 3pm. And that's when things got challenging. No need to go into any of the less-pleasant details, but let's just say I kept busy changing the gauze pad under G's nose (to catch any umm drainage) frequently and feeding the ailing invalid (whose appetite clearly hadn't suffered one bit) frequently. After just day one, I was already tired and cranky... At least G's feeling better now, and his nose doesn't seem to be dripping quite as much stuff!
In other news, I'm waiting rather impatiently for the second experimental batch of my pumpkin bread to come out of the oven so that (a) we can devour our crockpot chicken soup, and (b) we can try the pumpkin bread to see what adjustments (if any) need to be made to the recipe. In the meantime, here's what I did this time around:
Pumpkin Bread (makes two 8" loaves)
1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 C white sugar
1 C dark brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 C all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp allspice
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp clove
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 (15oz) can solid pack pumpkin
1/8 C (approx) unsweetened applesauce
Sugar & Spice Blend
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 Tbsp white sugar
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine sugar & spice blend ingredients. Butter two 8" loaf pans, then sprinkle sugar & spice blend evenly on bottom and sides, about 1 Tbsp each pan.
3. Cream butter and sugars together, then add eggs one at a time while mixing. Add vanilla extract and mix in.
4. Combine all dry ingredients together, then gently stir into butter mixture until just combined.
5. Stir in canned pumpkin and applesauce.
Optional: Feel free to add some chocolate chips and/or chopped nuts. I folded in about 1 to 1 1/2 cup(s) of Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate baking chips, put about half the batter in one baking pan, then added about 1/2 cup of chopped toasted pecans to the rest of the batter before transferring it to the second pan.
6. Distribute batter evenly between prepared loaf pans. Sprinkle sugar & spice mixture on top.
7. Bake approximately 50 min to 1 hr, until cake tests done.
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