We’ve been bombarded with snow this week. Today’s Saturday, and the first storm was last Sunday night. School was closed for two days, and then another (smaller) storm came in Friday at lunchtime, so all the local schools closed early. My birthday is just a few minutes away now, and yet another snowstorm is set to head our way either tomorrow night or Monday, I think. And here’s the thing we’re learning about Washington–they don’t have a lot of snow plows.

It’s here! Trick or Treat Day came and went. I was so in the weeds with this Belle costume, which H asked for back in July, and I ended up sewing the whole thing on Friday night. I stayed up all night, it took 11 straight hours of sewing, I binged all 9 episodes of Stranger Things 2 while I did it. But she is so excited, and I love how this gown turned out.

This is yummy, no carb, easy on a weeknight if you can get some good shrimp. I found this one on Pinterest, from Carlsbad Cravings. This kind of recipe is everything I want for a weeknight. It takes no time to put together, and I don’t have to be at the stove watching it, but it still looks pretty when it’s done. I love thin asparagus–my favorite vegetable next to Brussels sprouts. It’s pretty light, like a summer meal, but the weather has been so mild this fall, until the last couple of days, that it’s still been good light dinner weather.

Our cherry season is over here, but it was a good, long one this year! Every year this is H’s favorite fruit picking trip, and she just keeps growing up on me.
Read more on Cherry Season, Low-Sugar Low-Carb Cherry Crumb Cake, and Classic Cherry Pie…

We made these last summer, and I never posted them, and they were such incredibly outside, fire up the grill meals. Could not be easier, and if you need to feed a crowd, here you go. I thought these were perfect with Memorial Day Weekend coming up. Now I want to make these again. The recipe was from Damn Delicious, and truer words have never been spoken.

I’ve made blueberry butter to go in the holiday teacher gift boxes for H’s school a couple of years running now, and once or twice in between. Sometimes I throw in some maple syrup, sometimes I make it with lower sugar, but this is the general recipe I like to use, from Chowhound. It’s pure essence of blueberry, and smeared on a piece of buttery toast it’s like nirvana. These ingredients make about 3 pints, or 6 little half pints (I like the small jars for gifts).

I’ve had migraines since Sunday night, ebbing and flowing. I’m in the middle of an ebb right now. My Valentine’s Day plans aren’t going as planned, but we’re pretty low key about V Day anyway. We never go out, and we typically let it pass with mild fanfare. Cards, maybe candy, a good dinner at home. Not so much today. But I did manage yesterday, before a migraine set in and lasted through the night, to make these s’mores bites with H to celebrate the day.

Because they’re still delicious, even if they did take out my MacBook. Here’s the thing: Adam travels a few days a month for work now, and he hates shellfish and seafood. So, when he leaves town I take advantage and cook myself shrimp, scallops, mussels. Especially mussels, this recipe has become my go-to dinner (because a bag of mussels is like $7).
Read more on These Spicy Chorizo Mussels Killed My Laptop, But Here’s the Recipe Anyway…

I’ve been cooking more fish this year, but my catalog of recipes is small. This is a good fall fish dish because the blistered tomato sauce is hearty, and cod makes me think of fish and chips. Even though this one is much, much healthier. It’s a recipe from Baker by Nature.