As awesome as October can be, I’m glad it’s over because it was a month for me! It feels like I ran the Urban Cow 6 months ago, not one month ago! This year October was an emotional roller coaster of sadness losing Skipper and Shadow, celebration, lots of drama at work, and some adventure. It was nice to take a little down time and disconnect this weekend. Halloween was very laid back here, we had Thai takeout and handed out candy while watching Grave Encounters on Netflix. It’s a creepier blend of Silent Hill and The Blair Witch Project. It also rained here most of Halloween which probably sucked for the trick-or-treaters, but awesome since we need rain and it cooled the temps down nicely, low enough use the fireplace this weekend. Smokey and Miko were thrilled about that.
Miko enjoyed toasting his rear most of the morning.
And we started getting into the Christmas spirit already, why not? Hubby surprised me with these cute holiday door mats.
It’s been a pretty quiet this weekend food wise, lots of green breakfast smoothies.
And I created a curry cinnamon apple dressing that needs a little tweaking before posting.
We also saw Birdman which is an awesomely unique and original movie.
Since it’s been chilly here, I created a lima bean stew in our pressure cooker using the Chili Smith Christmas Lima Beans I picked up at the Farm-to-fork festival.
I’m still perfecting my skills in working with dried beans, I soaked these for 8 hours before adding them to the pressure cooker with water, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute, and maybe a few others I grabbed from the spice drawer, I was just going with it.
I cooked on high for 10 minutes and released on low for about 7 minutes.
The end result was came out very tasty and filling with a savory tang and variety of textures.
The texture of the lima beans was interesting, some were very soft, but a few were still pretty firm, but overall good. And the plentiful leftovers will be great for lunches this week.
OK, we had the exact same Halloween, only thousands of miles apart. I had every intention of making dinner, but we ended up ordering Thai food, handing out candy to the brave kids who ventured out in the sleet/snow and gale force winds, and watching scary movies. We should have started the fireplace but the winds were so strong that air was coming down the chimney!
Your soup looks really good, but I have never liked lima beans. Although, the last time I had them I was a little kid, perhaps it’s time to revisit them?
Too funny on Halloween, I wasn’t in a cooking mood either. Wow on your weather, crazy!
I wasn’t a fan of Lima beans as a kid either, bland flavor. But these have a unique texture with more flavor – worth trying!
I know you had a roller coaster of an October! You are a strong woman to have dealt and faced all of that – all in a short amount of time, to boot!
I’m glad that you were able to have some ‘down time’. The foods look YUMMY and I am going to have to look for that movie on Netflix, thanks! I have heard a lot of great things about the movie Birdman, too!
The photo of Mike ‘roasting his rear’ made me laugh! He’s so sweet!!!!
I have a lot of blogging to do – not sure where to start! It will be a mish mash of posts this week from me – for sure!
Yeah, it was an interesting month, ugh. Thanks for all the kind words!
Check out that movie, very scary and cool for a found footage movie.
Miko is so funny, he will sit in front of the fireplace until he’s panting and turning red.