Frosted Arugula

This morning I went to pick the last of the arugula from the garden. I probably should have done it last night, but it was dark by the time I got home from work. Amazingly only one little part of the arugula patch got frost last night and I was able to harvest a good amount of un-frosted plants. This will go into more of the salad I made last night and possibly into an arugula pesto or arugula ravioli.

This is a little bit of a sad moment because it's probably the last thing that I'll harvest from my garden plot in Princeton. It was a good season and I hate to see it end. I learned a lot about what works well (arugula, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, tomatillos, sunflowers) and what didn't work out so well (cucumbers, bell peppers, squash, broccoli). It was also fun to watch everything grow and change as the summer went on.

Who knows where I'll be when next year's growing season gets underway, but wherever it is, I hope I can get in on a community garden, or better yet, have a yard to grow things in.

Salad worth blogging about

This is what I had for dinner last night and it was delicious! It's from Ina Garden's new(ish) cookbook - Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics. I know it's a lot of ingredients, but it's totally worth it. And I got to use arugula from my own garden and a butternut squash from the farmer's market. Mmmm....

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette

Ingredients nocoupons

• 1 (1 1/2-pound) butternut squash, peeled and 3/4-inch) diced
• Good olive oil
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons dried cranberries
• 3/4 cup apple cider or apple juice
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons minced shallots
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 4 ounces baby arugula, washed and spun dry
• 1/2 cup walnuts halves, toasted
• 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the butternut squash on a sheet pan. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, the maple syrup, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and toss. Roast the squash for 15 to 20 minutes, turning once, until tender. Add the cranberries to the pan for the last 5 minutes.

While the squash is roasting, combine the apple cider, vinegar, and shallots in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the cider is reduced to about 1/4 cup. Off the heat, whisk in the mustard, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

Place the arugula in a large salad bowl and add the roasted squash mixture, the walnuts, and the grated Parmesan. Spoon just enough vinaigrette over the salad to moisten and toss well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

My dad's birthday is at the end of October so they decided to come up today to celebrate at John and Jill's. As soon as Dad walked in the door, Emerson came running up with his gift and said "It's your birthday, open it, open it!". So right away we opened gifts. The boys had picked out a little target game and I went for a very traditional Dad gift in our family: Chocolate Covered Cherries. You always know it's going to be a hit. I also gave him some of the pumpkin seeds that I roasted and he was grateful for that, too.

Emerson is a birthday cake fiend! Jill made a nice chocolate bundt cake with whipped cream frosting and Em was pretty excited to get into that. Here he is caught in the act.

Later in the day he was caught with his fingers in the icing of some cupcakes, too. Good thing he's so cute!

Halloween in Montclair

On Saturday I headed out to Montclair to enjoy Halloween with my nephews. That morning I woke up early and scooped out 3 pumpkins and roasted the seeds from them and the seeds we saved from the night before. I also got dressed up as a witch, since I have a witch's hat and it was easy enough to just wear a black dress. It was a really warm day, in the mid-70s, but a little bit rainy.

Emerson was pretty excited about the pumpkin carving. I asked him if he wanted a smiling face or a scary face on his pumpkin and he opted for smiling. I drew a little picture and asked him if it was good and he said yes, so I carved it on the pumpkin for him. He wanted to try the carving, so I helped him do that, too.

When we were finished carving it he said "My pumpkin is laughing!".

Nathaniel drew his own pumpkin face and I helped with some of the carving, but he did a lot of it himself.

Sebastian also drew his own pumpkin face and I did the carving. It was so fun to see the different personalities come through in the pumpkins. Here's everyone's sketches:

And here are the final products. Sebastian's on the left, Emerson's in the middle and Nathaniel's on the right.

And here's me with everyone in their costumes. Emerson was Batman, Sebastian was GI Joe and Nathaniel was a grim reaper type scary thing. I somehow look really short in this photo, I must have been crouching down:

And just the three boys in their costumes:

It was a little drizzly so Emerson decided to carry his Batman umbrella.

And Sebastian really wanted to carry this J Crew bag instead of the GI Joe pillowcase Jill had picked out for him to put candy in. I asked him to give me a good GI Joe face and this is what he gave me:

John took the kids out and Jill and I enjoyed sitting on the front porch and handing out candy. It was so much fun to see all the different costumes. And after all the Trick-or-Treating was finished, we ordered some pizza and watched the World Series. It was a great Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving at my house!

On Friday evening I had my annual pumpkin carving party. Kim, Kelly and Karen came over and we had a good time carving, chatting and enjoying some good snacks and pumpkin beer. I think the pumpkins turned out great! Kim and Kelly ran into some trouble trying to find pumpkins (due to the pumpkin shortage), but Kim pulled through with the little pie pumpkins from Trader Joe's.

It was a great way to start off the Halloween Weekend.

Fall Colors in Princeton

Yesterday during my lunch break I took a few photos of the amazing fall colors around the Princeton campus. It really is the prettiest time of year here. Above is an amazing tree with Firestone Library in the background. Below is a beautiful yellow tree that's right outside my window.

When I got home last night there was a bunny hiding under the bushes near my front porch. This is the first bunny I've ever seen near my house. As I walked past it to get to my front porch it darted into the middle of the driveway and stood there for about 20 minutes, never moving. I don't know where he came from, but he was scared to death. When I went out later I noticed him under my neighbor's back porch.

And this morning on my way into work, there were workers clearing off the yard in front of Nassau Hall. The one thing you always hear around Princeton in the fall is leaf blowers. All I could think of was how much fun my nephews would have jumping into these huge piles of leaves!

Twins and Library Cards

I went to dinner last night at the Alchemist and Barrister with my friends Amy and Bror and as it turned out, Amy and I had basically the same outfit on. Totally unplanned and kind of amusing. I wish I had taken my jean jacket off for the photo, it would have been even more obvious.

And Bror got a public library card! It's his first American public library card. He's from Sweden and while Amy and I were chatting outside the library he went in and literally about 2 minutes later came out flashing his new card. Pretty impressive, PPL!

It was a fun evening indeed...