I made a few things this last week that I thought others might like to try.

Roasted Garlic and Spinach White Pizza. If I were you I would add even more roasted garlic and mix the ricotta with some pesto as it was a bit bland until I started dipping it in pesto while snacking on it at book club.

I knew I would have extra dough when making the above pizza, so I decided to whip up a dessert pizza as well. I rolled out my dough, brushed it with a bit of butter, baked it until golden brown, mixed together cream cheese-vanilla-powdered sugar-lemon juice to make a filling, sliced up strawberries, candied some walnuts, and drizzled the completed pizza with some agave nectar.

This past week I made:

Glazed Clementine Chiffon Cake for a friend’s birthday. Delicious, except I added in 7 medium egg whites because I didn’t have 6 large egg whites. I thought it tasted a bit eggy so I wish I would have stuck with 6 medium and called it good. Citrus fruit is cheap right now (I bought the cheapest citrus I could find, tangerines I believe, instead of clementines) and the glaze on top was really tangy and sweet.

And this weekend That Husband and I have been devouring the Baked Spaghetti I made. No picture because taking a good picture of a casserole is almost impossible. I used whole wheat spaghetti noodles, added in chicken and finely diced mushrooms, used less spaghetti sauce then it called for (probably half the amount) omitted the french fried onions, and sprinkled cheddar cheese on top instead of parmesan. It’s so good that TH has asked me several times if I’m going to make it again, since I rarely make the same dish twice (too many options out there for me to stick with one!). I don’t really like spaghetti normally, too much tomato, but I loved this dish, probably because of the cream cheese. I highly, highly recommend it.

I just finished a 6-hour cooking marathon, during which I made:

Burrito Pie

Chicken Pot Pie

Cozy Cottage Beef Stew Soup

(still in the crockpot actually)

Freeze Ahead Fried Rice

(I used pork)

Thanksgiving Muffins

(I substituted carrot puree for pumpkin because I forgot to pick up the pumpkin on my grocery run today)

Blackbery Strudel Cookies

(I used blueberry jam and dried blueberries)

After 6 straight hours on my feet this computer-addicted blogger/photographer is exhausted, and I still have to pack for 10 days in Washington. Why did I put myself through this? To prevent That Husband from surviving on tuna and peanut butter sandwiches for the 5 days that I will be in Washington while he is still in Texas (he joins me and my family on Monday). The chicken pot pie is in the fridge, meant to be eaten tomorrow, the beef stew is still in the crockpot (I’m guessing he will just store and eat it from the crockpot while I’m gone, never transferring it to another container), the fried rice and burrito pie are sitting in plastic bags in individual portions in our freezer,  the thanksgiving muffins are also being stored frozen in hopes he’ll have a “grab and go” meal in the mornings, and the cookies were made out of love (and because I knew I would want to snack on something sweet after all that cooking. If this keeps him full, I think I’m going to start cooking like this once a week, and keeping a freezer stocked with individual-sized homemade meals for him to grab when I’m not home. Does anyone else do this? Any cookbooks or websites you can refer me to for meals that freeze and reheat well? (Must be something that is cooked already, and can be reheated quickly in the microwave, otherwise I don’t think he’ll make it.)

*All images from this post found at the site where the recipe is located.

Last night we attended a church activity where they were hosting a cupcake walk (don’t you love cake walks?) and so I turned to Kissing Cupcakes for some inspiration for the cupcakes I had signed up to bring. She pointed me toward these super-simple candy corn cupcakes and TH can attest that I squealed loudly many times while icing them because I thought they were so dang cute! I used this recipe for the chocolate cupcakes and the icing and then just dyed two bowls of icing orange and yellow and piped the colors on one-by-one. I took home an empty cupcake carrier at the end of the night so I think they were a hit!

TH and I are doing the same thing we did last year on Halloween night, staying home in our sweats and watching a scary movie while we carve pumpkins. I really wanted to dress up at some point though, so I used the ward party as an excuse to make TH dress up in some way. There was no way I was going to get him into what one normally thinks of when they think “costume” so I went the witty route.

The signs were a hit with That Husband, and everyone else who read them so I’m thinking I’m going to have to work hard to come up with something similar each year! I’m excited to carve pumpkins tonight, as it is one of my favorite holiday rituals and I always get really into it. (See this photo of my 2007 pumpkin, and this one from 2008.) I’m thinking something baby themed this year as we did the wedding theme last year?