Green

It's cold & flu season.

Husband is fighting a cold, and it seems every other person I pass on these city streets is too.

Other than the lack of energy that accompanies a cold, making green smoothies seems like the right idea.

I've made this one once and give it a stamp of approval. 

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And this one (Kale, spinach, and pear) I want to try.

    

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Do you have a good green smoothie recipe?

Link up a recipe in the comments section.

Stay well!

Weekend Cakes

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Pancakes, that is.

Friends, these smashed raspberry chocolate chunk pancakes are decadent.

We haven't had them but an hour ago, I had to share them with you.

We've been in a Sunday night run of making pancakes, and these made me feel like I was sitting in a chic cafe... 

in my polka-dot socks and sweatpants.

I can't wait to make them for family and friends!

Dreammmy.

January

January.

I read somewhere on the web the other day, someone say, "January is my favorite month because there is absolutely nothing going on."

You have my attention.

January for me is some odd combination of catching up and moving forward.

One has me coming up from behind, the other has me leading out front.

It's a recover month and a reset month, all in the same 31 days.

Resume and rehabilitate.

Revert? Oh, no, not that one.

Or maybe, but let's not admit anything until February.

In my messy assimilation of "recover" and "reset," I by and large settle into a 31-day niche inside my little city apartment as often as I possibly can.

Chicago, as it were, makes being anywhere else within its city limits a misery of slush, ice, wind, cold, and snow.

Cooking at home gets special attention, which husband and I love, oh so much.

Here are a couple of our new favorites from this week.

Do you have any good new recipes you think we should try?

*Photo credit linked.

Pioneer Woman's Bruschetta

White Chicken Chili

First Fall Weekend

Image Credit

This weekend has been one of simple pleasures.

The greatest pleasure of all perhaps being the realization that all my angst over my lack-luster feelings for fall were all for not-

Fall only arrived by calendar date a couple days ago,

and she found Chicago sitting quietly in weekend mode under misty, rainy skies.

And all of a sudden, I was ready for her.

Oh, am I ready.

Our little home welcomed fall with these pumpkin spice pancakes.

And some reading of the October issue of Real Simple.

A couple cozy movie nights.

The return of the Sunday Bake: husband's bread baking ritual.

Essie's chinchilly.

Stock-piling cans of pumpkin in the pantry.

And my fall coat, found.

Swirled Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars & A Life Change

I'm having a swirled pumpkin cream cheese bar with a hot mug of chai tea while I write this.
A bite, set it down. Type. A sip, set it down. Type.
Not bad for a Monday night, eh?
Yes, I made another (delicious) pumpkin and cream cheese recipe. You can find it here.
Somehow I went 26 years without understanding the value of this combination, and you can bet that I will spend the next 26 years making up for it.

In other news, yes I have a life outside of pumpkin and cream cheese.
Let me tell you about one of its greater moments recently.
I had a chance to attend a presentation by a professor from Wheaton last week.
At some point in his delivery, he shared a quote from a book written by Henri Nouwen.
Upon hearing the quote, in a simple, unobserved moment, I felt changed.
What I'm sure was just a bullet point or another minute ticking by for everyone else in the room, felt like an epiphany to me.

"Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality."
-Henri Nouwen

Somehow, upon hearing that quote, that concept, I understand my life better.
I understand better what I've studied to do, what I love to do, what people tell me I do well.
(If there's anything I learned in grad school it was that counseling is actually more about listening than talking).
I love hospitality, and I learned it by example from my Momma.
But while I love to create beauty and make people feel welcome,
I like sitting and talking far better than cooking, doing dishes, and offering tea.

I love to make people feel welcome, as they are.
To make people feel comfortable, with who they are.
To invite people, to share their story.
I love to offer a safe space, where pain can be expressed.
To provide warmth, which brings comfort.
To feed, with words fitly spoken.
So, over a pumpkin bar and chai tea tonight, I'm thinking about how I feel changed.
Though nothing about me has changed, I feel that I am.
I think that's what happens when you see something about yourself or your life a little more clearly than before.

Cupcake Craze & A Recipe

There's been a bit of a cupcake craze overtaking the city.

If Starbucks is on every corner, then cupcake bakeries aren't far behind.
If this sounds like a complaint, then consider this moment a prime example of how the tone of the written word can be much more easily misconstrued than that of the spoken word.
In other words, the city's love for cupcakes has fallen right into my own affections as well.

Perfect for friend dates, husband dates, and for us this past year, after-hospital pick-me-up dates.
I can't tell you how many times I secured a quick promise of a cupcake from Neal right as a needle was going into my arm for yet another blood test.
What morale was drained from my arm, I refilled here and there with a cupcake.
I'd tell my cupcake tradition to the nurses as they prepared needles and tubes,
and they'd hoot and holler with approval, bringing to life the otherwise sterile blood-draw rooms.

Cupcake love is not just on our streets, and bringing life to our hospital rooms, but I've brought it into our little home now too.
Because at $4 a cupcake, well, let's just say that it's cheer is not without limits.
But online recipes? Free and limitless...
Until I went to the store to get the white chocolate for the particular cream cheese frosting.
$10.

But amidst the masses of recipes, I somehow found another fall treasure that is getting filed into my Anderson family recipe book and given a spot of honor in our autumn traditions from here on out.
You're gonna love it. A lot.

White chocolate, cream cheese, and butter for the frosting.
Pumpkin spice for the cake.
I'm not teasing... here's the link!

And if you're in Chicago, whether living here or visiting, here's the place you need to go: Sprinkles Cupcakes.




P.S. If you "like" Sprinkles on Facebook, you'll get in on codes for free cupcakes!