Gracie Irene

I'll post more pictures and details later.. but Gracie Irene was born September 4th at 6:45 AM. She weighed 8 lbs 4.5 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long.
We couldn't be more excited!

A few recipes...

This month I have also been trying to keep preoccupied by doing some baking. I tried a few new recipes and so far everything has turned out great!

I don't have any pics of the first couple.. but if you are looking to make some great strawberry scones you should definitely check out Katie's recipe on Good Things Catered. I made them to have for breakfast this week and they were very tasty!

I also tried a new homemade pizza dough recipe. We used it to make cal zones. We even made our own pizza sauce w/ homegrown tomatoes we had been given. Everything was soooo good!

The recipe for the pizza dough was from a great blog Annie's Eats, go here to see recipe.

Yesterday I also made very my very first pie from scratch! It really wasn't all that difficult. The crust came together so easily, I don't know why I always thought making my own pie crust would be so difficult! Here's the recipe that I used for the pie and crust, I went w/ peach.. Matt's request:)

Both recipes are from Katie's Blog at Good Things Catered.

Summer Sweet Peach Pie

Ingredients:
1 recipe basic pie dough
8 large, fresh ripe peaches
1/2 c. brown sugar
juice of 1/2 small lemon
1 tsp cornstarch
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 egg white
granulated sugar for sprinkling

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 425 degrees and prepare pie dish.
-Roll 1/2 recipe of pie dough out and line bottom of pie dish.
-Place in refrigerator.
-Using a pairing knife, slice peaches into 8 pieces, peel skins, and slice into thin slices.
-Place peach slices into large bowl, add brown sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg and stir well to combine.
-Remove pie plate from fridge, brush bottom with egg white, and transfer peach mixture to pie.
-Roll out remaining dough and top as desired (lattice or traditional).
-Brush top with egg white, sprinkle with sugar for a crunch and place into oven.
-Bake for 20 minutes, then tent top with foil and reduce heat to 375 degrees.
-Continue baking until golden and juices are bubbling, about 30 more minutes (50-60 minutes total)
-Remove from oven and let pie cool completely on wire rack before serving.

Basic Pie Dough
America’s Test Kitchen

Ingredients:
2 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 c. vegetable shortening, chilled
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cu into ¼ in pieces
6-8 Tbsp ice water

Directions:
-Process the flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor until combined.
-Add the shortening and process until the mixture has the texture of coarse sand, about 10 secs.
-Scatter the butter into the flour and cut the butter into the flour until the mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse crumbs, with butter bits no larger than small peas, about ten 1-sec pulses.
-Turn the mixture into a medium bowl.
-Sprinkle 6 Tbsp of the ice water over the mixture.
-With a rubber spatula, use a folding motion to mix.
-Press down on the dough sticks together, adding up to 2 Tbsp more ice water if the dough will not come together.
-Divide the dough into 2 balls and flatten each into 4 in disks.
-Wrap each in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to two days before rolling.

Well.. I guess that is all for now. I've made a few other things that I'll try and post recipes for later and currently I'm making homemade hamburger buns! We'll see how these turn out:) Matt and I are off to take a walk.. got to get this baby out!

Random pics

Just for fun...
This picture is from the end of May...

And this is me just yesterday (same shirt), about 3 days before my due date on Tuesday...

Crazy how HUGE I felt back in May!

I also wanted to say a late Happy Birthday to my husband on my blog. He turned 28 August 19th! He was very happy our little girl decided not to come that day. He's not quite ready to share:) He was also very excited about his ice cream cake:)

5 days til Due Date!

Well, we have pretty much come to the end of the pregnancy.. My due date is this coming Tuesday and we are "ready" for our little girl to be here.. as ready as we can be anyways! I still can't believe that Matt and I are about to be parents. Even typing that just now still seems so crazy and hard to believe..

Pregnancy hasn't really been all that bad. I've been blessed w/ being healthy minus some aches and some very swollen feet! The time truly does seem to have flown by. I can't believe it was all the way back in January that we found out we were expecting!

Matt has truly been wonderful this whole time, so encouraging, so supportive. I was blessed w/ him being able to attend all of my doctor appointments.. it has been a lot of fun growing together as our little one has been growing inside. I am so thankful for the last (almost!) 5 years that we have spent together as just husband and wife. I wouldn't trade that time for anything. I admit at times I am a little sad to see this part of our life end but I know that we are gaining so much more.

So, hopefully I will have pictures of our little girl to post here soon:) I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week!

Maternity Pics!

Last week we had some maternity pictures done. It was a lot of fun and we really love how they came out! If you want to see some of them you can go here to look at our photographers blog where she put some up! I am 35 weeks in the pictures and as of tomorrow I'll be 36 weeks! CRAZY!

Hope everyones Monday is off to a great start!

A little laugh and an update on Baby Girl Maestas:)

Well I've been having kind of a blah day and then my husband forwarded this to me.. and I must say I do feel a little better:)

So if you are a fan of the Office you should definitely give this a watch!

I don't know about you but I'm excited for September for some new TV:)

And I guess while I'm here I'll give a quick update on whats going on w/ us and our little one who is on her way:)

I'm 35 weeks pregnant.. I can't believe how fast time is going! I started my weekly doctors appointments this week. Currently, our baby girl is being a little stubborn and is still transverse (side-ways)which is not the position we would like her to be in! Our doctor is thinking that this might be the way she chooses to stay, especially since she has been in this position for so long. She thinks that there is maybe a reason the baby is staying there. We are praying that she moves but if not we are most likely headed towards a C-section. I go in to the doctor again on Monday and then we will schedule an ultra-sound for next week to get a look at what exactly is going on inside. Following that appointment we will probably schedule a tentative C-section for at least a week earlier than my due date. So.. that is what I know as of right now.. other than our baby's position she seems to be healthy and moves Constantly.. especially right up into my ribs! I'm still feeling well also, aside from being a little overwhelmed w/ everything that is going on!

So I guess that's all for now:) I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!

A little cooking update!

Believe it or not I actually have still been cooking! I have taken a ton of pics of various new recipes that I have tried, but I just struggle w/ actually downloading them on the computer and than posting! Maybe some day.. maybe:)

This summer I got a fun new kitchen gadget.. a pasta roller and cutter! Matt and I have really been enjoying using it. It is EXTREMELY easy and the pasta tastes wonderful. I had never made homemade pasta before so it has really been a treat. Here are a few pics of us using it the first time. Our first attempt we just did a basic egg noodle recipe and for our second attempt we did whole wheat pasta.. both were delicious!




And for a quick recipe, this past Saturday for Fourth of July I made a key lime pie to take over to a party. It was sooo easy to make and tasted delicious! I must admit.. I did cheat and just bought a pre-made graham cracker crust:)



Key Lime Pie (recipe from Good Things Catered)

Ingredients:
10 honey graham crackers
2 1/2 Tbsp sugar
6 Tbsp butter, melted
zest from ½ large lime
7 Tbsp freshly squeezed juice from key limes
1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare 9 inch pan.
-In bowl of food processor, pulse graham crackers and sugar until broken down into fine crumbs.
-Add melted butter and pulse until loosely combined.
-Remove bowl from processor and, using spatula, stir to combine butter well.
-Scrape graham mixture into pie pan and carefully press to evenly coat bottom and sides of pan.
-Place shell into oven and bake for 10 minutes.
-Remove from oven and set aside (keep oven on) (like I said I skipped these steps and just used a pre-made crust.. its up to you!)
-In large bowl, combine remaining ingredients and stir until combined well (this will take a minute or two, make sure the mixture is even).
-Carefully pour mixture into pie shell and lightly tap to evenly distribute filling.
-Place carefully into oven and bake for 15 minutes or until set.
-Remove from oven and let cool.
-Once cooled, place into fridge for at least 4 hours and preferably overnight to set.
-Serve with whipped cream.

~Well I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm off work in about 30 minutes! Yay for Fridays!!