Tonight reminds me of a Colts game that Adam and I went to with a couple friends.  It was Sunday Night Football and we were playing the Patriots.  It was a a big game for both of these reasons, so we had to get there and tailgate.

I wouldn’t go as far to say that Adam and I are Tailgate Pro’s… But, we are pretty experienced in the world of football tailgates. And, I don’t want to brag, but we do it pretty well.

We have done big set ups with friends and family. We have faced the elements of extreme heat and heavy snow.

And, that night, just before Thanksgiving, there were huge, heavy, wet snowflakes that fell over our tailgate and it became such a fun memory.

It was also fun because we didn’t have to get up super early to tailgate.  

With many noon games on our team’s schedule, super early means SUPER. EARLY.

And, after 5 AM wake up calls and setting things up everyone needs a little sustainance.  While it’s far from the traditional tailgate foods like wings and cheesy dips (and still a little too early, in my book…), breakfast is just the thing everyone needs.

When tailgating well you can’t just grab a plain old granola bar, instead breakfast should be part of the spread.

One of my favorite things to do is put a seasonal twist on traditional dishes, so during football season that means anything fall like pumpkin, warm spices and apples.

This crockpot French toast is brought to life by fresh, seasonal apples, but is perfect for an early morning at a tailgate because you can throw it all together the night before, set it on low followed by keep warm and it will ready to go come morning.

Or, if you have a baby that wakes up in the middle of the night you can prepare it then, too. Speaking from experience…

It’s also great for other fall events such as oh… Black Friday!?

I love books. But, the reality of me actually sitting down with a book? Embarrassingly, it doesn’t happen that often unless I am on vacation.

So instead, I listen to books while I drive.

I am in territory sales management so I am on the road a lot. Listening to a book helps make time go faster and the drive so much more enjoyable. So enjoyable that sometimes, if the book is really good, I don’t want to get out of the car… even in my own garage.

I recently listened to Amy Schumer’s, Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo.

It was trending due to it’s recent release and because I really loved Tina Faye’s Bossy Pants, I added it to my Audible list.

To be totally honest, I didn’t have high hopes. I just don’t really looove Amy. I don’t hate her, but she just kind of… eh. I honestly think it’s mainly because I have a bone to pick with women who think it’s “cute” to be hot mess.

I know, I know. How pretentious of me!

And, if you knew me in college you might be thinking, “Uh, hey Claire… I saw you a couple times… And, let me just be honest. Hot. Mess.”

Yes. Okay. I boozed with the best of them. I ate awful food like mozzarella sticks stuffed hot dogs at three AM. And, I may or may not have crept home at 7 AM with mascara under my eyes clutching my beer soaked stilettos.

I did those things. But, I got most it out of my system before the real world hit. However, there was (and still are…) the occasional, “Woah.  How did I just get so red wine drunk, alone, on a Friday night watching Glee Season 1…?”

But, since crossing over the threshold of being closer to 30 than 25, those instances are few and far between. And, I can’t help but ask, “When did responsibility become so bad? Why at this age are we still glamorizing the awkward, immature and uncertain?”

Because of this, I didn’t like Trainwreck and didn’t expect much out of Amy’s book.

I thought my initial thoughts were proven right right there in the first chapter as Amy writes an open letter to her vagina.

Cool. Body part humor.

Ugh. Lame, obvious, and cheap.

But as the book continued on, I surprised myself. I began to like Amy more and more as I learned she is not the girl who I thought she was.

She is smart and not as scandalous as I thought. Turns out, she is a relationship girl and complies her very few sex-capades into her whole comedy act making it only sound like she has one night stands 24/7.

The story of how she lost her virginity totally bummed me out. I get that most “first time” stories are… not awesome. But, even if you are dating and sex seems like the obvious next step, it shouldn’t be assumed like Amy’s high school boyfriend had thought.

The care she has for her father, suffering from MS, is amazing and made me so very thankful for the health of my parents.

And, the compassion for the two women who were shot in the theater watching Trainwreck– targeted at that particular movie just because they were women- is pretty remarkable. And, even as a supporter of the second amendment, I believe this connection to gun violence gives Amy more than plenty of grounds to speak her mind on gun control. I even find myself agreeing with her on occasion.

So.

I was wrong. And, I am now a fan.

Kind of like I was about butternut squash. (Smooth segue… I know.)

In 2013 and 2014, you found me writing that I don’t like butternut squash and that I wouldn’t grow it. Ever.

News flash. This dislike for butternut squash had no solid ground to stand on. I had never even tried it. I just had an issue with the name and the look.

Then 2015 came along and I tried a recipe that Adam got from his sister.

I was eating my words.

And, every butternut squash I could get my hands on.

I was so wrong. Butternut squash is great and versatile.  Totally fall and so tasty.  

But, nothing beats it in a soup. On cool fall nights, it warms me right up and I love to play with different flavors alongside the squash like goat cheese, bacon or apples.

This particular soup, that is more stew because it’s so chunky and hearty, is packed with flavors and texture. And, lots of other backyard staples like tomatoes, chicken and herbs.

Perfect to fill you up and warm your soul if you have spent the last week feeling a little sad, like me.

And, take what I have learned from Amy and butternut squash.  Don’t make blanket judgements based on one thing you know about someone or on what you think you know.  

You could be so wrong.

Now to end this post in the only way that seems fit: A little body part humor.

Last week, I ran into a neighbor while running errands and she asked about Theo.  I gave her a quick update: Totally cute and fun. Flirts with any and every lady he comes in contact with. Turned six months about a week ago.

“Six months?!” She squealed.

“I know. It’s crazy. He sitting up on his own and we just started experimenting with food.”

She smiled.

“Oh and I am sure you are making his food and it’s all organic and everything.”

There was a little, strange hand flip gesture with this statement too.

I tend to have an– unfortunately- expressive face so I fought making an actual frown in confusion. I was taken aback and found myself stuttering through a justification.

“I mean, yeah,” I stammered, “But, it’s just stuff from my garden.”

Here’s the thing: Yes, I have been making purees and plan to make Theo’s food. And, yes. It is organic.

“Organic” and even “homemade” get a bit of a stigma for being pretentious. Particularly in the mom world…  Those who preach all organic for their babies can be seen as looking down on others.

I can see that it could be an easy stereotype to make; but, to be honest, it is last place my organic, homemade meals come from.

I make my own baby food, because I can. I cook meals for Adam and I everyday anyways because we value eating homemade meals together. So, making food for Theo doesn’t require any extra effort.  I have organic food because I have the capability and space to grow it in my yard. It’s organic because I don’t see the need to purchase chemicals for a backyard garden.

It might not be for everyone, but it’s right for me.

And, with everything else you can second guess as a mom, I can stand confident in this decision for me and my son.

But, that doesn’t mean that I still didn’t have a bit of a learning curve when I began to navigate the wonderful world of food for my son.

I listened to our great pediatrician who assured me to follow cues from Theo and that its okay if we didn’t start him on food until he is ready. I turned to friends and bloggers I trust and learned what has worked for them. Things like skipping rice cereal and not making things special just for the baby, but rather using foods you are already cooking with stuck with me from these conversations.

And, as luck would have it, just as I started seeing cues from Theo that he might be interested in food (… He kept trying to munch on one of my apples!), a blogger-friend, Renee Kohley from Raising Generation Nourished, released her new cookbook “Nourished Beginnings Baby Food.”

Renee lives on the west coast of Michigan, a place near and dear to my heart too, with her three kids. Her blog and even her Instagram feed are full of amazing real foods that she is feeding her kids.

The cookbook, full of beautiful photos, serves as a guide for new parents to learn how to cook nutrient-rich baby food from scratch. The goal is to develop healthy eating habits right off the bat that they can carry with them for their whole life so they are not scared of vegetables thus making dinner time easy on mom and dad and creating adventurous eaters for the future.

Um.

Yes. Yes. And, YES!

With a big garden, dear little Theo will have to learn to enjoy veggies, so why not start right away?  Dinner is the last thing I want to become a chore and I hope that as an adult Theo is slow to judge, but rather willing to give anything a try… Especially when it comes to food.

The book is broken into three sections based on babies age. We are in the first, “Simple Starts for Baby,” and they go all the way up to Toddlerhood.

I love her slightly more adventurous take on basic purees like Beets with Beet Greens, Coconut Oil, Bone Broth and sea salt and how the recipes fit right into what is growing in the garden right now.  Theo’s first “taste” of Nourished Beginnings, as seen in these photos, was Avocado and Banana. While neither ingredient was from the garden, I wanted to start with items that would be easy on his stomach for his first food experience… Just in case. It was clearly a hit and we have begun to get more adventurous.

I know Renee’s great book will be a fabulous tool for many years as Adam and I hope to add a few more little foodies to our table.

Harvest is in full swing around here. Farmers are working ’round the clock to get their crops out of the ground, which means time with Adam is rare.

My other friends who have agricultural minded husbands joke that this time of year we are “harvest widows” because we see so little of our men.

Adam is gone by 6-6:30 and home around 8, if he is lucky. But it doesn’t stop there. There are always late night phone calls from a client out in the field who has run into a little trouble… Or, my favorite call, the call that comes in before 6 AM.

This really does happen.

Farmers are traditionally early risers and very hard workers. And, another Farmer Tradition is that Sunday is a day of rest and even this is- mostly- honored during a busy harvest.

For us, Sunday’s in the fall are so special because they are slower than the jam packed weekdays and Adam is finally able to spend some time at home.

This is one of the main reasons we both love football Sunday’s.

The games are an excuse to take it easy and relax.

We could spend the day running around and try to get things done or we could try to squeeze in one more adventure, but rather we take a hands off approach to Sunday.

We stay at home. Chores (besides the animals) can wait. Dinner is done in the slow cooker. Snacks are out all day in case someone gets hungry before then.

And, nothing says “Classic Football Snack” like a good dip.

We rotate through a few favorites from week to week and one of those favorites capitalizes on one of our very hands off garden veggies: onions.

Onions should be planted as soon as the ground is warm enough to work in the early spring, but it still doesn’t get too cold at night.

So of course, for us, this past year the timing was great… (insert sarcasm here) and just one week before Theo was born, Adam and I planted two beds of onion sets.

They did great in the two beds of loose, compost rich soil. Towards the end of July we harvested 160 pounds of red, white and walla walla onions. We keep them in a cool, dark place in our basement and I have loved how handy it is to have them in the house.

Onions are often the base for many dishes, but in this football game day dip, they are the star.

Used fresh, fried and roasted, they bring a variety of flavor to this dip that is a spin on another classic, French Onion Soup.

 

Do you celebrate Football Sunday’s right and have a great tailgate? Be sure to enter the Colts Best Tailgate Contest! And, check out the other great recipes from Indiana bloggers while there!

I have this strange habit of checking out at what people check out at the grocery store and wondering what they are like based on their food purchases.  

It’s mainly just curiosity combined with boredom.  And,honestly, it’s not meant to be judgey… although, I would be lying if there weren’t times that I didn’t size up someone’s nutritional habits based on what I saw on the conveyor belt.  

Yeah, whatever.  Bad me.  You know you have done it too.

The thing is, you could very easily make some assumptions based on what I purchase.  And, honestly, they wouldn’t be great ones.  

Half of the year, I have a booming garden.  The other half?  I am trying to get through all the vegetables in my freezer that I have preserved.

What is typically on my grocery list?  Three things.

Wine.  Duh.

Dark chocolate.  Obviously.

And, cheese.

Lots of cheese.

(Coincidentally, this was my exact diet when I studied abroad in Switzerland for a summer.  What wasn’t a coincidence?  The fifteen pounds I gained that exact same summer.  #worthit)

Parmesan, goat, Gouda, blue and mozzarella are pretty standard around here.

But, even mozzarella is falling off my shopping list because I have learned to love to make it from scratch.  I love it because it’s seriously so good.  There are very few joys in my life on the level of mozzarella that is still warm from it’s creation process.  

Not to mention, it only takes about thirty minutes.  Milk to cheese.  Seriously. 

I follow this process from The Kitchn; but, have learned a few tricks along the way to make sure it comes out right.

1. Use Rennet Tablets vs. Liquid:  I am not really sure why, but with liquid it just never worked.  We got our Rennet Tablets from The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company and they keep for three years in the freezer.



2. Use Raw Milk:  Pasteurized milk will not separate into curds and whey.  Raw milk can be a little tricky to find (and it’s actually “illegal” for human consumption in Indiana), but it is the only way we have found success in making mozzarella.  I also kind of love that it makes me feel like a little rebel… see the clip at 11 and 28 seconds below.  It’s funny because it’s true.
3. Use a Non-Reactive Pot:  I actually use a stainless bowl on my burner not a pot.  It works great. (My normal lid actually fits well in the bowl too!)



4. Don’t Over Work the Mozzarella: It’s hard to find the right amount of stretching and folding, but you will know right away when you have done too much… Still tastes good though!


Blah. Over worked mozz.

Here are some of our favorite homemade mozzarella moments!

It’s always fun to do with friends, too!

After college, Adam and I moved to Indianapolis.  Living in little apartments and adjusting to our new jobs and forty hour work weeks, our weekends became precious.  

We would be exhausted from the week on Friday evenings so they became nights in with a bottle of wine and take out.  Saturdays were always full of some sort of adventure be it visiting friends or going to check out a cool festival or destination in our new city.  

And, on Sunday’s?  

Sunday’s were for us and for relaxing.  We would sleep in and cook brunch complete with mimosa’s or bloody mary’s.  And, as the summer turned to fall, our afternoons of beer by the apartment complex pool change to beer during football games.  

(Life was good and easy at 22.)

Being in Indy, we had to root for the Colts.  Adam had his whole life and I, a newbie to the city and in love with a big fan, easily assimilated.

We would try our best to get tickets to a couple home games each season to get in on the action with tailgates or pregame drinks at local bars.  But, even when the team was away, we still would throw on our jerseys and celebrate with bloody’s followed by beers and, of course, something good to eat. 

We would make some fun appetizer or snack and switch it up from week to week.  But, for the main course, nine times out of ten we would make chili.  

Chili is easy.  It’s so football.  It’s so fall.  As it cooks, low and slow in the crock pot, all afternoon it fills the air with it’s cozy, warm, spiciness.  Perfect for a relaxing day in.

Since Adam and I started growing a big garden about three years ago, I also do my best to can or preserve anything and everything I can.  (Pun intended…)

I started doing lots of salsa because it was the obvious thing to do with lots of tomatoes.  But, over the years, I have come to learn that we don’t eat that much salsa over the winter. Instead, I looked at what we like to eat with a tomatoes as a key ingredient and it was a clear, I needed to can a lot of chili base.

Having chili base in the pantry makes heating up a pot of chili so easy.  The spices, heat from peppers and sweetness tomatoes are there.  We just have to add beans and cooked meat, throw it in the Crock Pot and it’s all good to go.

Onions, peppers, jalapeños, and tomatoes all from the garden make this a quick and easy base to whip up without a trip to the store.  And, even just making the base fills the house with great, fall smells thanks to the earthy spices and long cooking time.  

Perfect for a September Sunday game day when prepping for cold Sunday afternoons to come!

I am a seasons girl.

I talk a big talk of dreams of living in Southern California or even in the Carolina’s or Texas…

But, I love all seasons… hard.

I love snowy, slow days in the winter cuddled by the fire with a soup simmering on the stove top. I love that first day that shows a hint of spring and it feels like everything has come back to life. I love summer’s heat and garden abundance. And, I love fall.

I love the changing colors. Football season. Sweaters and scarves. I love the first pot of chili and trading flip flops for boots.

But, one of my favorite things about fall– particularly early fall- is the arrival of cool mornings.

Sometimes in the summer, the mornings are just sticky and being outside is the last place you want to be by 8 AM.

But, in the early fall, I love to start my day on the patio in an over-sized sweater, rocking bedhead, and clutching a warm latte as I ease into the day.

The slow, coziness of it all is so sweet.

… So, of course, I need something sweet and very “fall” to with it all. And, what goes great with lattes and good vibes? Donuts.

Every year, to welcome fall, I head to the apple orchard that is literally right around the corner from my house, Farlow Orchard.

It’s family run and one of the oldest orchards in the state of Indiana. To help preserve the integrity of the orchard, the family picks the apples for customers who can visit their small store front and get some of the freshest apples around.

My favorite variety of apple is Cortland and I always grab at least a peck for snacking, preserving and baking. This year, I ran by for a quick workday break and got my apples and a gallon of cider.

Cider always makes me feel like “back to school” time as kid.

My mom would make (non-alcoholic…) wassail or just heat up some cider with a bit of cinnamon and I would take a warm mug of it with me for the walk to the bus stop on cool mornings in grade school. I loved the spiciness and warmth. It literally tasted like the season of fall in a cup and even just the thought of the flavors takes me back to those cool mornings.

And, those flavors- apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger- served as inspiration for these perfectly fall donuts.

The donuts are baked, making it a no fuss production and easy enough to bake as kids run off to school or for slow Saturday mornings at home.  (And, hey, they are baked- not fried- so no regrets.  Right?)

The sugar and spice topping glitters; yet, melts into the just baked cake.

And, your [pumpkin spice] latte.

… oh, but have you tried Starbucks new Chili Mocha? Do. You won’t regret that either!