Christmas in pictures

So this one is blury, but if you squint slightly, you can get an idea of what the three Scheppmann kids and their significant others look like. And yes, Desiree and Lou will soon be welcoming Baby Boy Chiappetta. I am a very excited aunt! You can view their blog here.

A picture of Andy and I on Christmas Eve at my parent house.

It is a Christmas Eve tradition in our house to make a bunch of appetizers earlier in the day, go to church, and then come home, eat, and sit and open our gifts to one another. There is nothing better than keeping holiday traditions with your family! One tradition that Andy and I started last year was to put our holiday card picture in an ornament. We sure think it will be fun to decorate our tree in 10 years and look at each years pictures. And plus Hobby Lobby has so many cute picture frame ornaments!

Christmas morning we headed back to Iowa City to spend the day with Andy's family. We had a fabulous dinner and Andy and Brian were surprised with matching snowblowers! Iowa winters have proven to be a bit harsh, so it is a gift we will certainly appreciate.

Menu Monday

Southwest Tatertot Casserole

(So my picture isn't too appetizing, but you can tell by how much the two of us ate that it was really good!)

1 lb ground beef
1 onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 can diced chilies
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 pkg frozen tatertots
1.5 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk

Brown beef, add onion and peppers until cooked. Add taco seasoning , green chilies, and thawed corn to meat mixture. Combine milk and cream of mushroom soup in a seperate bowl.
Meanwhile, bake tatertots at 400 degrees for 26 minutes.
In a casserole dish, layer cooked tatertots, meat mixtures, and pour soup mixture on top. Fold together gently. Top with 3/4 c. shedded cheddar cheese. Cover. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Serve with a bit of sour cream and hot sauce if you desire. So good!

Let It Snow

We will certainly have a white Christmas around here! We are getting lots of practice shoveling...that is what we get for living on a corner. Although a hassle, it really is very pretty. Because we are in full holiday mode around here, a few pictures of our decor...

And a picture of Andy and his buck that he got last weekend on his "man's trip". Thankfully the deer was donated to a meat pantry. Having a big buck head above our couch is not my idea of classy decor! Sorry, Andy.

Thanks to everyone for the fun Christmas cards. I love coming home and opening them up each day. Enjoy the next few days of Christmas preparation!

Tasting Party

Tonight Andy and I went to a Tasting Party. It was downtown IC in a two story loft style apartment. We walked in and there were little dishes of food everywhere. The idea is that you eat one of these Magical Fruit berries and then sample the food to see how the berry changes the flavor. Lemons and limes tasted the same, but were not at all sour. We decided that it isn't the wierd berry that would later make us feel a bit sick, but the fact that everyone was eating sour cream (tasted like frosting), vinegar, straight lemon juice, and just about any other condiment. The strangest thing I tried was lemon sorbet mized with Quiness beer. It tasted similar to a coffee ice cream shake. Very strange, but fun! Here are a few pictures...



Here are the berries. The party host had them flown in from NYC, but apparently they are grown in Florida.

Andy, who usually doesn't like sour things (of fruit for that matter) enjoying a lime slice.
Here are Meghann and Alaina with some of the mood lighting behind them.

Still intrigued? Try googling magical fruit to learn more.

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas!

I received these two iron trellis' from my parents for my birthday. Although I plan to plant flowering vines in the spring, I thought I would doctor them up a bit for the holidays. Because we live on a corner, this side of the house needed a little something. Don't they look great?

What I love more than wreathes are garland and white Christmas lights! Here is our entryway all lit up.

And our front door. We woke up to about an inch of snow this morning so I was glad to have finished up the outside decor last weekend. Just in time!

And I have been swamped with SnugglyBaby orders the past two months. I love sewing, but I'm glad I am finally catching up. Here is a dress that I just completed. The lady who ordered it has a two year old little girl that will look so cute in this dress, white tights, and black boots!

NTA (Northside Trappers Association)

If neighbors knew what we were doing, they would probably have PETA protesting in our front yard. Actually, we were looking out for our squirrel friends and thought they would like City Park much better than our yard. These squirrels have been bothering us since we moved here. I have opened up our bedroom blinds to see a squirrel running outside the screen, they have dug up bulbs in our garden, and in general are just pests. Andy borrowed this trap from his dad and within a few minutes got em! The secret weapon was a cracker covered with peanut butter and bird seed.


We then drove him across the river (we figured his chances of finding his way back were slim).

Here is the big release at City Park. There are lots of tall trees here, which I'm sure they will enjoy. See, we are very humane!

Once Andy unlocked the door, the squirrel ran and ran and never looked back!

We have done this about 7-8 times since Wednesday. Yes, we are officially starting the Northside Trappers Association. If anyone is having problems with squirrels, just let Andy know. He is getting very good at this!

Second Annual Fall Feast

Here are a few pictures from our fall dinner that we had last night. For a long time I decided that I wanted to have a fall dinner every year. I thought it would be a nice time to get together with family when they wouldn't have to be stressed about going four different places in one day and making sure everyone would be able to be together. We hosted 16 people between my family and Andy's mom's side of the family and had a lovely time visiting and of course eating!


Andy and I planned the menu which included beef tenderloin, German potato salad, sauerkraut w/ sausage, salad w/ peppercorn dressing, broccoli, and dinner rolls.

Thanks to Aunt Jo for the lovely appetizers, Carol for the pumpkin and pecan bars, and Desiree for the caramel sauce and apples. It is fair to say that nobody went home hungry!

Tyler and Dana who drove in from Chicago with Desiree. My dear friend Lindsay Larson also drove in from Minnesota so it was a treat to have them all stay with us for the weekend.

Analise and Aunt Jo being goofy!

Birthday!

So today I turn 26! My parents were able to stop through on Wednesday night so I was able to celebrate my birthday with them then. Thanks for the trellis'!
All week long the weatherman kept saying that Friday was going to be blustery, cold, windy, and miserable. After expecting all that, the weather turned out to be okay and it certainly didn't stop me from enjoying the day!

I worked until noon and then met Andy and his parents for a great lunch at Taste on Melrose. As Carol mentioned, she said that you know it is a great day when you have a glass of wine and chocolate cake at noon:).

For dinner, Andy took me to a restaurant I've been wanting to try in Kalona called Tuscan Moon. The ambiance was great, food was fabulous, and we just had a nice time. They have a great outdoor patio so it may be a place to check out again in the warmer months. Here is a picture of us with a piece of caramel cheesecake. (my second birthday dessert of the day!)

Tonight Desiree, Tyler, Dana, and Lindsay Larson are coming to visit for the weekend. The fun is certain to continue!

Halloween

I was just about to go up to bed, exhausted from a long week at work when I realized "WE HAVEN"T CARVED OUR PUMPKIN YET!" Andy grabbed the newspaper and knife, I grabbed the pumpkin from the front step and within minutes we had a design and were going to work.

Andy wanted a traditional pumpkin face and I wanted a cute smiling pumpkin, so we morphed our ideas together to come up with this little guy. I think we did a pretty good job!

We are going to have a NEPHEW!

Desiree and Lou had their ultrasound this afternoon and it was clear that they will be having a little BOY! Yeah!

I hope this baby is ready for all of the smothering, cuddling, and kissing we plan to do to him!!

NYC continued...

Saturday night we met up wiwth some of Kristin's friends for a fun dinner. The weather was beautiful and there were lots of people out and about which made for fun people watching. Actually I'm sure there are tons of people who are always out and about being NYC!

Yes, we did lots of eating! After checking out a Brooklyn flea market, walking through China Town and Little Italy, we refueled. To be fair, I posted a picture of each of us with food in our mouths:)

Sunday afternoon we spent stolling down block after block of cute boutiques and shops. We found some really cute baby and maternity shops as well so Desiree picked up a few fun things for her and the baby. Sunday evening we had our farmers market dinner. Here Des and Kristin are chopping the goods.
The first course was tomatoes with avocado and fresh mozz.

Next was spinach and wheat pasta with mushrooms and grated cheese with garlic bread.

For dessert, we had fruit salad with strawberries, apples, bananas, raspberries, and pomegranate. It was SO good, but way too much food!

New York, New York!

Desiree and I had a weekend getaway to NYC this past weekend. We stayed with our good friend Kristin who has a great place right in the middle of it all! Here we are at the farmers market on Saturday morning. We decided to pick up a few things to make dinner on Sunday. Oh, and Desiree's major pregnancy cravings include apples:).

Here are the apple cider cake donuts. They were fab!
View from either Greenwich or West Village towards New Jersey.
Central Park. We have cupcakes from Magnolia's in those bags!
And we found a nice bench to rest our legs and enjoy the treat.

Farewell Dinner

Well I'm not going way for long, but Andy had the idea of making me a nice farewell dinner before I leave for New York City tomorrow. He is a great cook and I sure enjoyed the special treat!

Here is a link to the recipe if anyone is interested; http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/chicken-marsala-recipe/index.html
Yum! It really was fantastic!
Desiree and I leave tomorrow for New York City. We are visiting our good family friend Kristin and are really looking forward to our girls weekend. The weather is supposed to be 70 degrees and sunny all weekend. Perfect!

October Fest

More pictures of our day at the October Fest...

Andy even picked up a piece of his favorite pie at the Ox Yolk Inn to take home! It was such a fun day to be outside and enjoy the fun fall festivities.