Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

I have previously made a summer squash mac and cheese (that I don't know if I posted about it because we didn't really like it). The squash didn't blend well and it was just...stringy. I suppose I should've known but I had heard good things about mixing squash with the mac and cheese to get more veggie content in a meal. I had given up on the idea until I saw this recipe on Pinterest. It sounded promising!

So that afternoon, I roasted my squash (poke holes in squash, put in pan (foil lined for easiser clean up if you wish), and put in the oven for 90 minutes at 400). Then I scooped out all the good parts (not the seeds or little stringy parts) and mashed them in a bowl. I put it in the fridge until I was ready to make dinner.

Then I followed the recipe (for the most part). I will say that you definitely need more noodles than what was called for. There's no way you can make that much sauce for only 8oz of noodles! I used a whole 16oz box. I also have to say that the squash sauce looked heavenly! I could've just had noodles stirred into that without the cheese! I'm not necessarily a big fan of baking mac and cheese or with the bread crumbs on top but this did turn out really good.

With the squash and the breadcrumbs, David and I thought it tasted a little bit like Wheat Thin crackers. My toddler tried it and liked it too but she'll like anything if it's a noodle. I think I would rate this a 7/10. The leftovers are just as good as the first time too. And good thing for that because this makes about 6 servings (and that's generous servings).

I think I would make it again. It's fairly simple but not too quick, especially if you have to puree your squash first.

Roasted Cauliflower and Raspberry Pork Chops

For dinner tonight, I wanted to try something different. I found a pork chop recipe and modified it a little. I basically cooked the pork chops until cooked and then I added the ingredients I had mixed in a bowl to the pork chop pan. I cooked this for a few more minutes to incorporate the flavors and then served. The ingredients in the bowl were (no measuring) raspberry vinaigrette (from Ruby's!), brown sugar (about a spoonful), liquid smoke, onion powder, rosemary, and paprika.

This was a very simple recipe that took about 35 minutes. The cooking of the pork chops took much longer than expected because they were so quick. I didn't finish them off with fresh raspberries, simply because I didn't have any.

It turned out quite good and was a different recipe for pork chops than I usually make. I would definitely make this again but I might finish it off in the oven, if I use the thicker pork chops again, to make the cook time faster and more predictable. I did spend a lot of time in front of my stove top wondering why they weren't cooking as fast as the recipe said they should. It actually ended with my husband finishing the cooking process (he has more experience cooking meat than me) while I watched the kids (instead of the other way around). So if you keep in mind that the cook time is a more than it sounds like in the original recipe, this recipe is so basic and easy.

I served this with roasted cauliflower. I come across recipes all the time for roasting vegetables but they always start with raw vegetables. I'm never sure how to modify them for frozen vegetables. That's what makes this recipe unique: it uses frozen cauliflower! This recipe is also quite easy and simple. I used shredded Parmesan because that's what I had. I don't think it coated the cauliflower as well but the flavor was still there. I also left out the pepper. In other words: I coated my pan with non-stick spray, sprinkled my partially thawed cauliflower with garlic powder, salt, and shredded cheese and then threw them in the oven.

I could not believe how delicious this was! It smelled good before I even put them in the oven and when I pulled them out, they smelled even better. I'm not sure of pairing them with the raspberry pork chops but they were still good. I will definitely make this again and again and I look forward to trying it with other frozen vegetables too.

Review of Our New Mattress

We used to have a queen size lumpy mattress. David had bought it when he moved out of his parent's house and since we figured there was a good chance it would become our mattress after we got married, I helped pick it out. It was on sale for about $500 and in the store, we loved it! After he bought it, it quickly started to shape to his body...and not bounce back. He had it on the free-with-mattress-purchase boxspring but it was still saggy so he put it on the floor. Somehow, it still felt saggy even with the entire thing supported by the floor. 

When we got married, we decided to keep it since it was only a year or two old and mattresses are supposed to last 8+ years. After enduring it through being pregnant with my daughter, I knew we definitely needed a new one sooner rather than later. Ours wasn't going to make it many more years. Then I got pregnant with our son and we looked into getting a new mattress (because the third trimester is unbearable enough, even on a good mattress). They were all too expensive and it was a big decision to make because we didn't want to make the same mistake twice. 

Then (when I was no longer pregnant), David found a PuraSleep mattress for less than $500 on a daily deals site. It was a 10 inch thick, firm, all memory foam mattress. It sounded too good to be true. With the site, we had only four hours to decide if we wanted it. We justified that it wasn't an impulse decision because we had been wanting a new mattress basically since David had bought our old one. We read lots of reviews and they were all positive. Without the daily deal site, this mattress is over $2000. We debated between the king and queen sizes. Finally, we decided on the king.

We did have to rearrange our bedroom furniture to fit the king but it was SO WORTH IT! Just upgrading to a king was better. We had our own space when we wanted it and when our kids play in the bed (they never sleep with us), they can even fit sideways in between us! The extra space is just SO nice. The only downside was having to buy new sheets and build a king size bed frame (they recommend not putting the mattress on a box spring so David and his dad spent a Saturday building a simple bed frame with built in storage). 

The bed itself is AMAZING! It's firm and gives you support but still lets you sink into it. You can move around on your side of the bed as much as you want without disturbing the other person (a problem with our old bed. Every time one of us would roll over, the other person would get rocked). This bed makes it even harder to get out of bed in the morning. I look forward to going to bed (you think that's true when you have a newborn and you're always tired but our old bed sometimes made me consider sleeping on the floor instead). 

I had back pain if I slept on our old bed on my back for more than 20 minutes or so. With this bed, that pain is gone! I can't recommend this bed enough. I'm not sure if I would pay full price for it but every so often, it does come on woot.com (the daily deals site). If you get it for that price, it is SOOOOOO worth it. 

It comes vacuum sealed in a box the size of a kitchen chair and weighs 87 pounds (try lugging that up the stairs!). It takes up to 3 days to fully pop up to life and lose that new memory foam smell but we slept on it from day one anyway. These mattresses are made when you order them so it's not like it's been sitting in the back of a warehouse for years, sad and alone. 

If I haven't implied it enough, buy this mattress if you need a new one (or even if you don't!). 

Hosting Thanksgiving Year 2

Last year, I hosted Thanksgiving (see previous blog post--sorry I don't have the link. I'm not sure how to link that up). This year, I hosted Thanksgiving again. On Thursday, we went to David's side again and then hosted for my family on Friday. I should've read my previous blog post sooner than the day before because I did not remember how early to buy the supplies. I decided to buy them on Monday, the week of Thanksgiving, because I thought that might get me the best deals. Instead, I got the same deals I would've had the same week, lots of empty shelves, more stress, and less choices. Because of this, I got one of the very last turkeys. I wanted the biggest one since it was on sale and I can use the leftover meat in the future (freezer) so I found a neglected 24 pound turkey. Before checking with my previous post, I thought last year's was close to 20 pounds. Turns out, it was 15.

I started thawing my turkey in the fridge on Monday night. Turkeys take FOREVER to thaw so I knew it wouldn't thaw in time for Friday's meal around 2pm. I read that you can soak the (wrapped) turkey in cold water (such as in a sink), changing the water every 30 minutes. It takes a minimum of 30 minutes to thaw one pound. We started the soaking treatment at 3am on Friday (my wonderful husband took the first shift) and we needed the turkey in the oven by 9am, according to the package recommendations of cook time. At 9am, the turkey was still a little frozen on the inside (the downside to the soaking method is that you have to keep the turkey in the packaging but then there's no way to know if the inside is thawed or not) so I thought it would take longer than the 5-6 hours the package said for this weight.

Due to  poor planning on my part, the turkey didn't end up in the oven until 9:45am. I did the same method as last year. I started it at 475 for the first 30 minutes, then turned it back down to 325 for the rest of the cook time, covering with foil when darkening too much. It was cooked except for the very bottom of the turkey as of 1:20pm. Then I let it rest until everything else was finished cooking (about 40 minutes). I was able to cut the cook time! For the very bottom that was uncooked, heating it in the microwave will get it up to temp without overcooking the rest of the turkey.

Now, I should also mention that this turkey caused a lot of stress on my part. The night before, I discovered that none of my pans were big enough to hold my turkey. I ended up using a disposable roasting pan that *just* fit the turkey but this needs to be supported on the bottom so the turkey doesn't break through. I found my biggest, no edge cookie sheet and it wasn't big enough to hold the entire pan (but enough of the pan that it worked). I had to take my second oven rack out and lower the first rack all the way to the bottom. Even with all this, I could still barely fit my turkey (and its pans) in the oven. At the end of all of this, I bent my cookie sheet (I'm not even sure it's still usable) and I bent my oven rack slightly!

Lesson learned: never buy a turkey that big again!

(Everything else went just fine and we had more than enough food. Once the turkey was done, this was a less stressed day. Plus, I had lots of help from my mom. I don't think I could ever manage hosting a traditional Thanksgiving without her help.)