Caite's Kitchen

I'm back! After Halloween I found myself with a fairly large pumpkin that was uncut (kiddo could barely hold it for above picture to show) and I just couldn't bring myself to throw it out which got me to thinking "what in the heck am I going to do with all this pumpkin?!" My family loves pumpkin pie, and it's that time of year to get our fill in, but I've already shared my pumpkin pie recipe and honestly I didn't want to make just another pumpkin pie with what I had. With my thinking cap on, I decided I wanted to go out of my family's comfort zone and expand our culinary palette. After some thought, I decided I would make a pumpkin soup and pumpkin bread. And of course, with all those seeds I just  had to make a super yummy snack of roasted pumpkin seeds for the kiddos to munch on. While I got mixed reviews from the kiddos on the soup, I loved it!, they absolutely loved the pumpkin bread and seeds. Make one of these the next time your in the mood f...

So dear readers it's been a while since my last blog entry and I'm sorry for that. The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind, starting with me getting a very nasty stomach bug and being down for the count for days and then it was Thanksgiving. I was really happy to be pretty much recovered by then so that I could actually make our turkey dinner. In all the craziness, I didn't have time to prepare any recipes to share, but I am working on some new recipes and expect to be back in full force next week. I appreciate your understanding, hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and yummy food, and will leave you with some pictures of our turkey dinner. We had much to be thankful for this year! Started with homemade pies! Brine for the turkey (this is the key to moist turkey!) Turkey before getting roasted. Turkey after being roasted and carved up. Sides! More sides! Munchies and desserts! Did you know? On this day in 1965, at 11 p.m. ...

Holy moly! It's November already. Where has this year gone?! The temperature has been getting colder which makes me want to turn on the oven for dinner to warm the house. This got me thinking that it has been a while since I've made lasagna and with my pasta lovers it was the perfect weekend dinner. I love lasagna because it is super easy to make and so full of flavor. Because the sauce is homemade I usually start cooking around noon, making the whole house smell delicious and tempting the family the majority of the day. The boys gather at various times due to smells wafting out of my kitchen - something I just adore. Make this the next time you are in the mood for a dish to warm your family's souls and they will absolutely love it! What's cooking in my kitchen this week: Lasagna What you'll need: 2 lbs sweet Italian sausage 16 oz fresh mozzarella cheese 8 oz fresh Parmesan cheese 15 oz ricotta cheese 1 box (12 oz) oven ready lasagna noodles 2 cans (29...

Goblins, ghosts, and ghouls, oh my! It's that time of year for dressing up and eating tons of candy and sweet treats. And it just happens to be one of my favorite times of the year! I mean who doesn't love decorating the house all spooky, dressing up, and scaring their children silly?! This weekend was filled with carving pumpkins, getting costumes ready, and making a favorite sweet treat - melted witches. I can't remember where I first saw this years ago, but they are adorable and super yummy! They are so memorable, in fact, that the kiddos remembered this treat despite not having made them for years and were very excited to have them this year! It is our tradition to have chili for Halloween dinner, as it can be warm in the crock pot ready to eat after trick-or-treating, which is much needed as it is always super cold here in Colorado on Halloween. It's kind of an unspoken rule that you make sure your costumes either are a little too big to put layers underneath ...