Five for Friday

Previous Fridays

1 - You're a blog lurker
2 - You microwave a mean leftover
3 - You brought home soup for me when I was sick on Tuesday
4 - You like the things I cook
5 - If we get home at the same time, you give me the parking spot :)

Cooking Light: Butternut Squash Lasagna

Every Wednesday Hubs and I go over to our friends house for dinner and to watch Lost. Jane and I trade off making the main dish and the other is usually in charge of salad. When I was in school, the last couple months, Jane did most the main dish cooking and I made up for it with some tasty salads.

Yesterday was the first Wednesday, in awhile, I made the main dish. Since, as you know, I haven't been able to cook much lately, I really wanted to make something I'd never made before... Oh, and it needed to be low cal too! Jane and I always cook low cal options on Wednesday due to the amount of wine we all consume. Mmmmm wine.

So I looked high and low on Cooking Light's website for s dish that looks tasty, involved mostly ingredients I already owned and could be cooked easily at someone else's house or easily transported. This recipe won and it involves my butternut squash friend from above.

*Side note: We have an awesome farm about 2 miles from our apartment that sells organic and local produce... remind me to tell you about it soon.

This recipe calls for a specific kind of marinara sauce, "Smokey Marinara", so I'm going to give you the recipe for that first.

Smoky Marinara
Recipe adapted slightly from here on Cooking Light

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh or 2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 (28-ounce) can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes, undrained
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained

DIRECTIONS
1 - Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.

2 - Add garlic, basil, parsley, and oregano; sauté 1 minute, stirring frequently.

3 - Stir in vinegar and remaining ingredients.

4 - Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.

Now that you've made the sauce you won't curse me when you get to that part of the lasagna process. "Damn it Allison, now you tell me about the sauce!" <-- See it's done, so you're good :) Butternut Squash Lasagna
Adapted slightly from this recipe on Cooking Light

INGREDIENTS
3 cups chopped onion
10 cup fresh spinach
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded sharp provolone cheese
1/2 cup parsley flakes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
2 (15-ounce) carton part-skim ricotta cheese
3 cups diced peeled butternut squash
6 cups Smoky Marinara (recipe above)
12 oven-ready lasagna noodles
1 cup (4 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS
1 - Preheat oven to 375°.

2 - Heat a large Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Add spinach; sauté 1 1/2 minutes or until spinach wilts.

3 - Combine provolone, parsley, salt, pepper, eggs, and ricotta cheeses in a large bowl.

4 - Place squash in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover and cook on high 5 minutes or until tender.

5 - Coat the bottom and sides of 2 (8-inch-square) baking dishes with cooking spray.

6 - Spread 1/2 cup Smoky Marinara in the bottom of one prepared dish. Arrange 2 noodles over sauce; spread 1 cup cheese mixture over noodles. Arrange 1 1/2 cups squash over cheese mixture; spread 3/4 cup sauce over squash.

7 - Arrange 2 noodles over sauce; spread 1 cup cheese mixture over the noodles. Arrange 1 1/2 cups onion mixture over cheese mixture; spread 3/4 cup sauce over spinach mixture.

8 - Arrange 2 noodles over sauce; spread 1 cup Smoky Marinara evenly over noodles. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup Parmesan.

9 - Repeat procedure with remaining ingredients in remaining pan.

10 - Cover each pan with foil. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes.

11 - Uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes.

I Want, I Need, I Have to Have: Necklace

I have about 4 necklaces I wear on a normal rotation... okay 2... okay really 1 and the second one get bumped when I'm wearing the right shirt.

Since my parent's bought me the "Tiffany heart" in college I've worn it, pretty much everyday.

Source

(Don't worry, I clean it). I almost wore it on my wedding day, Hubs wanted me to, but I wanted to fancy it up a bit more, so I wore a pearl necklace I've had since I was 13. I bought a brand new singular pearl necklace, but I wore something I've had for 16 years. I'm a simple jewelry kind of girl.

Moving on... this Christmas Hubs about me a super cute birdie necklace from Etsy.

Source

I've added it into the rotation and I wear it almost once a week. This is BIG for me. Sooo, I've been thinking maybe I need more necklaces like the birdie one? How about just one?

Let's get this out of the way in the beginning, the necklace I really want it this one, from Tiffanys.

Source

Hint Hubs, hint, hint *nudge, nudge*. Buuut, since I know I won't get this one at least until my birthday in July, I'm not holding my breath. Enter Etsy...

1 - Natural Nest Necklace

2 - Silver Marquis Leaves Necklace

3 - Luxe Silver Teardrop Necklace

4 - Single Crystal Necklace

5 - Wire Whisk - Sterling Charm Necklace

Just because it's fun :)

Frenchie Kisses: Portraits with my New Husband

After the family portraits we dismissed our families and bridal party to enjoy cocktail hour while Mr Frenchie and I took our first photos alone as husband and wife. (Eeee calling him my husband still makes me giddy).

We talked around the winery taking places in areas I’d dreamt of taking wedding pictures, since the first time Mr Frenchie and I visited the winery years ago. Of course, we had to take a picture with the winery’s sign.

As I mentioned, there were a couple areas I’d dreamt of taking our wedding pictures, my favorite was this walkway in the middle of the winery.

Source

Our photographers had scoped out the same spot, it was perfect.

I love this picture of Mr Frenchie, it’s his classic trying to look cool, but I know I look silly face.


Mr Frenchie doing a better job of looking cool…


Me thinking he’s cute…


This is one of my favorites of Mr Frenchie…


And this is one of his favorites of me…


Next we moved into the barrel room… or snuck in because there was another wedding have a small reception on the other side. They were still milling around outside and we tried hard to get in and out before we were seen and intruding on their day.


This one is probably our best serious picture… if you haven’t noticed, we don’t do serious well.


Lastly we took advantage of this great light before we ran off to be introduced into the reception.

Although I was bummed we missed the entire cocktail hour, I wouldn’t have traded the time I spent with Mr Frenchie alone before the reception madness set in for anything. Are you planning on taking pictures during cocktail hour too?

So Far...
The Beginning
Gettin' Sassy
Me & My Bridesmaids
Mr Frenchie's Morning
Waiting to go down the aisle
The "I Do"s
The Big 'Oops'
Family Portraits

***Note: All photos, unless otherwise noted, are by the fabulously talented, and super awesome to know, Ohana Photographers***

Five for Friday

Previous Fridays

1 - You didn't know about March of The Penguins (funny story... should I share it?)
2 - You make a grill a mean steak
3 - You like to cuddle
4 - You like lounge music
5 - You like my friends