Name Change

There is a name change in progress...

I started doing craft shows a couple months ago and finally settled on a name and it's gotten such a warm response and has a lot of versatility that I'm bringing it over to the blog which I hope to have more to post about as soon as we move and I'm able to start decorating and gardening again. Things are just so boring when you have to keep a spotless clean house and half your things are in storage.

In the meantime you can find me on Facebook as Clara & Grace going to local shows and waiting for our tiny little starter house to sell.

Happy Spring!

Happy first day of spring! Our first day of spring was bitter cold and windy and forecasts of snow all around the area so the only thing that feels like spring around here is sitting on top of my microwave. The seed trays are already steamed up and will hopefully be sprouting soon. I'm a couple weeks behind but with the cold weather still in full force I think I'm going to be okay. Round one is the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.

Rotisserie Chicken

Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday season. We traveled 3 hours to spend Thanksgiving with part of my side of the family then we spent Christmas here with my husband's family. A baby's first Christmas is always such a special thing seeing them explore all of these new sights and sounds. Evie enjoyed the wrapping paper the most and then got her first tooth the day after Christmas. Our New years was spent camping out on the living room floor with the girls with every pillow we could find in the house watching the ball drop on tv.  Times like that are the most fun and more special.

I've been looking for some new crock pot recipes to make my life easier but don't involve more soup or stew or covering a piece of meat in liquid. I'm trying out the Crockpot Rotisserie Chicken from Semi Homemade Mom today. We get these great little chickens from a local meat market that have been tasty no matter how you cook them but I'll let you know how it turns out. Do you have any favorite crock pot recipes?

Roasting Pumpkins

Thanks for listening to my little rant yesterday. I feel better and I'm going to love every minute not trying to make myself something I think others would like.

Growing up, we never carved our pumpkins. We painted them with acrylic paint so it could be washed off and my mom could cook the pumpkins. I picked up a couple of leftover pie pumpkins the other day because, well, we never got around to buying any for Halloween.

In case you ever wanted to know, this is how to bake a pumpkin... or at least how I do it!

First, wash your pumpkin. Then cut it in half with a good sharp knife. I've heard a serrated knife will slip less. I have no idea if that's true or not, but be careful.  I actually put an oven mitt on my left hand that was holding the pumpkin as I cut with my right. Scrape out all of the seeds and flesh. A grapefruit spoon, you know the spoon with the little teeth on the end, works great for this. Place the pumpkin cut side down in a baking dish or roasting pan and poke a few holes in the skin with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees until your pumpkin is done. This little pie pumpkin only took 30 minutes. When it's done you'll have soft steamy goodness that can be used where ever you would use can pumpkin. When it comes out of the oven, I flip it over, cut side up and let it cool, then spoon it out of the skin and refrigerate for a couple days or put it in the freezer to keep longer.