Butternut Squash and Chicken Soup

Since we are getting into cooler weathers, and this whole Sandy business has made me aching for some home style goodness, I thought I would share a super simple recipe to take the cold out of your bones. This really just reminds me of home because it was one of those meals that everyone in the house loved. It is the season of the squash so you really couldn't get any better. Let's get started shall we!

So for this soup, you will need:

1 butternut squash (I would get the straightest looking squash available just so it's easier to peel and cut)
As many Bone-in, Skin-on Chicken thighs you want (I used a package of 4)
At least 1 yellow onion (you can add more if you want)
Chicken Stock
Salt, Pepper, and Olive Oil

That's all that's in it! The hardest thing is actually cutting through the squash. You just want to make sure you peel the skin off, take the seeds and gunk out of the middle bit, and dice the rest of the squash. There are youtube videos of this, but you can probably figure it out. Be warned that butternut squash is one of the hardest vegetables out there, so it will require a little man power. Add this to a cookie sheet (or jelly roll pan if you're fancy). I lined mine with foil just to help with cleanup. Then clean your chicken and season with healthy amounts of salt and pepper. Place those on the sheet and toss everything in olive oil. I then added a sliced onion near the end and mixed everything together to add a different texture and flavor to the soup. Then place your pan of seasoned butternut squash, chicken,and onions in the oven at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes. I ended up putting it in for longer because I wanted to make sure the squash was roasted enough. As long as everything remains golden and not burnt (but you can take burnt pieces out later), you're safe.

Once out of the oven, transfer all of your yummy-smelling pieces of squash and onion into either a large stock pot or pasta pot. I got a potato masher and just went to town on the squash. Add a bit of chicken stock at a time until you start to get a thicker soup mixture. It's really up to you if you would prefer a puree or a soup. I think I added about half of a carton of stock to my entire mixture. I also added some water just to thin it out even more without adding more sodium. It really is a personal preference. I've had this both thick and thin and it was delicious nonetheless. Once you get your soup base, head over to your chicken and start tearing pieces of meat off and adding it to the soup. I would probably not add the skin, but to each his own. Again, you have control over the size of chicken pieces you want.

And voila!!! you now have a fairly inexpensive soup that will last you at least a week in leftovers. This can also be frozen and eaten at a later day. This isn't a "real" recipe and I kind of just made it up based on what I remember from home. All I know is that it was delicious and tasted even better a few days after since all of the flavors could meld together better. So let me know if you try it and let me know what you think. Also if you have any questions I will happily answer them. Hope everyone enjoys and stay warm out there.

Riders on the Storm

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Let's have a report of Hurricane Sandy from Worcester shall we? School closed today, and what do you think Carly did? I sat by the window crocheting and alternating between watching Monty Python's Flying Circus. It was just that kind of day. Who wants to really go outside in Hurricane-like gusts? Not this chikeepoo. I'll probably end this action-packed day with some reading and studying for a midterm I have in two days. I might just paint my nails if I'm feeling saucy enough. Since I cleaned my room and did laundry yesterday, I thought I could treat this day like a mini snow day like back in High School. We in the Massachusetts area are definitely having some heavy storms, but I know that it's nothing compared to what folks back home in PA are dealing with. I just know that the Lancaster area is very prone to floods and I'm hoping that everyone is staying safe and dry.

I hope that everyone affected by Sandy stays safe and smart as we ride out this monster storm together. It's hard to think of anything with the name Sandy as something horrific and disastrous, but that's the name we're given. I definitely think that Frankenstorm fits the bill a bit more.

Life Lately: One of those Weeks...

You know there are some weeks that just take forever and you feel like you'll never keep it together 'til the end? Yeah. This was one of those weeks. On top of regular school work, I've been interning at the WAM two days a week (which I love), and I've spent 8 extra hours dancing. I'm sure it will all pay off. We've been dancing our socks off trying to prepare for this huge event we are co-presenting tomorrow (10/26) at the Hanover Theater here in Worcester. So excuse me while I place a shameless plug here.

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This Friday Clark University and WPI are helping to present An Evening of Swing Dance and music at the Hanover. It's going to be full of big band music, swing dancing (including Lindy Bop and Charleston) and some ballroom styles  for a night of tons of fun. Clark and WPI will also be doing some demonstrations and showcases. I'll be dancing in our Footloose number talked about here which will be awesome. We're also doing this pretty kickin' number involving a whole bunch of different dances. I'm sure WPI will impress too. There's going to be a ton of people there just having a good time. So if you're in the Worcester area tomorrow and aren't going to one of many pre-Halloween parties and like swing music, you should come check it out. Even if you don't know how to dance and just want to come to party with some pretty cool cats that would be coolio daddio (because I am that sad aren't ya glad). All proceeds from the night go to charity so you get to have fun and support a cause! If you want more info you can check out the Hanover's website.

So that's the major thing going on this week. Oh wait, no it's not. So Friday night I'll be swingin' on a star and Saturday I'm going down to New York City for a field trip with the rest of my art history peeps. We'll be hitting up the Met and talking to a bunch of art people so it should prove useful for future careers (at least answer some questions about that scary unknown). So it's going to be a fun, yet exhausting, weekend. I just hope that I live to tell the tale. On Sunday will be pretty chill for me so I'll try to get some research done for a paper. The rest of the ballroom gang is heading to a competition at UCONN so good luck to them! Let the weekend commence!

Facelift

I was getting bored with my old blog layout so I thought I would switch it up a bit. Please bear with me as I still try to figure this whole html thing out on my own. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It's good to change.

Over the Weekend: Harvest Fest in Maine

This weekend was a bit of a change for me. Instead of the usual weekend fun of catching up on whatever sleep I missed over the week, Amanda and I headed up to Maine/New Hampshire to partake in some Autumn activities. This weekend York, ME held their annual Harvest Fest and on Saturday, we road tripped up to check it out. One of my bestest friends Katie is from York and she took me and a few friends last year and I had such a good time that I just had to go back. Here's a little flashback of those fun times:

Look at all of that love on a beach in the fall! Anyway, we left Saturday morning and returned later that night. Some of the highlights were the local crowds, the beautiful weather, the questionable animal park, and THE FOOD! Here are a bunch of pics I was able to capture (with my new camera!!!!!!!!).

Obligatory road trip self-portrait.

Mirror shot in the super sad (and fairly racist) Fun Haus.

I bought a two tier wire fruit basket and had to carry it around. Definitely felt like a crazy person.

Kickin' pick guard

Def Leppard and Disney LPs in the same area? Yes please.

Delicious lobster roll and fried clam bellies. I love New England.

Amanda cheesing it up while eating apple crisp.

After we were fested out, we headed down to Portsmouth, NH which is only about 15 minutes away and walked around downtown and grabbed a bite for dinner. It is such an odd city that feels like if a college town had a baby with the Twilight Zone. It also looks like you can't live there if you don't own at least three dogs. I really dig its vibe though. 

We of course stopped in at Bull Moose to check out all of the movies/music they had to offer. Amanda picked out some great DVDs while I picked up two more records. One of them was my first 45 and I completely forgot that you need to add something to my player for them to work. Bummer. It was quite an exhausting day but so much fun. How was your weekend?

What I'm Listening To: Mika

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In case you didn't know, I am a massive Mika maniac (yeah for alliterations!!!). He is just a bundle of fun wrapped up in an attractive Brittish shell. Well his new album (The Origin of Love) was just released and so far I am loving it. I'm pretty sure my favorite song of his is still "Grace Kelly," but let me tell you "Elle me dit" (or "Emily" for the English version) is quickly rising to the top of the list. Seriously, how can you be sad when listening to him? His voice sounds like what an angel at a disco would sound like. You can just tell he's having fun and wants to share his experience with the rest of the world. That's not saying that he doesn't have a more subdued sound, and those add a nice respite to a kickin' album ("Underwater" is quite nice). Maybe it's because he brings back such great memories of my sister and I driving around and blaring/singing off key to both Life in Cartoon Motion and The Boy Who Knew Too Much. Such good times, and I'm kinda bummed that she won't be here to experience this new album with me. She'll be up in about a month for a visit so we'll probably have to have our Mika dance time then. I guess I'll wait, but until then, I wanted to share the love that is Mika. Check it out. If you haven't heard of him before, here are a few of my all time favorites. Let me know what you think.

I'm Obsessed: The League

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This is one of those posts where I think there might be too many things that I'm obsessing about to put them all into words. I started watching The League last year on Netflix just because it looked fun, and I'm never on top of things enough to catch it on the actual TV. Let's be frank shall we. I like football which might not be a big deal, but I feel like I'm a slight anomaly because I prefer college football to the NFL. I'll watch a pro  game if I'm with people, but I really don't have a team that I really support. I also have no idea how fantasy football works. I think this combination initially turned me off The League since it is really all about a group of friends and how they deal with their fantasy league. It's not necessarily the football that intrigues me (although there are a ton of cameos made by actual players), it's the one liners and characters. Every single person shines.Taco, Andre, Ruxin, Kevin, Jenny, and Pete instantly pull you in to their little screwed up world where the only thing that matters, is winning. Whether or not you like football, you have got to check this out. Way to go FX for making another hilarious comedy. The third seasons was just put up on Netflix and well worth a looksie. Let me know what you think. Have you experienced The League?

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Let's Get Nailed: Clark Cougars

So this weeks nails were something a little different for me. I got these nail wraps in a Birchbox delivery last year and I never got around to using them. They kind of intimidated me because I thought I would only get one chance to get them lined up. It was quite nice that there was no drying time, but I don't know if these were old, or just bad quality, but they kept falling apart. I eventually got it, but wasted a few "stickers" so I had to paint my middle nail, but I like the effect. I chose OPI's Woka! Woka! (Muppets!) for the red and the nail wraps are from Incoco (probably in Zebra). As soon as I picked the dark red, I knew I was getting into cougar territory. There's just something about the combination of animal print and deep red that makes me think of middle age women wearing clothes that are much to young for them. This also fit into my personal life. I may not be a woman sucking back cosmos at 8:00 in the morning, but I am a Clark Cougar. It might be the lamest mascot ever especially since I have yet to see an actual cougar in Worcester. All lies!!! I'm very much for us changing our name to the Fighting Freuds, but that's not going to happen in my college career. Our colors are also red and white so this was perfect. Showing a bit of school pride and supporting dating awareness for women in their 50s. My nails made me feel quite frisky I can tell you.

Stitch Fix #1

Yeah! I finally got around to doing this post! I'm a big fan of Stitch Fix and I can't wait to tell all of you wonderful people about it. I first came across it on Kaelah's blog and if you don't know what it is, let me fill you in. Stitch Fix is a service where you get your own personal stylist. You fill in an extensive survey with questions that range from your personal style to how much you usually spend on different types of clothing to what types of styles you would like to explore more of. You then schedule a "fix" and are sent 4-5 new items. You then try them all on (which is pretty easy for most people) and keep the things you want and send the rest back in the prepaid envelope (even easier!). That's that. You are billed for the items you keep and just get rid of the rest (I put more information at the bottom of this post). If you don't want to take the time to look at pictures below and want to head straight over to Stitch Fix click here. It's a great way to try new styles or fits that might not be your first choice without going out and dealing with those awful mall crowds. I've found a lot of new designers and styles that have really vamped up my wardrobe. I thought I would run down what came in my first box. Sorry I lost all of the information about brands and prices of each of these, but I'll give you my gut reactions.

This necklace was so pretty, and I might have worn it around the house for about an hour (while wearing my jammies) before deciding that it wasn't for me. It was so beautiful and laid perfectly, but it was just a tad bit TOO fancy for me to justify everyday wear. This was a hard one to say no to.

On my initial survey, I said that I was recently working the longer lengths and loving  what I call a "mullet" dress. Which is the same as a high-low hem, but mullets are more fun. When I pulled this one out, I had a spaz attack because not only was this a longer dress, but THAT PRINT. You see it right? It's amazing. The sleeves are adjustable and I could totally see myself wearing this around campus as well as to an internship. I was so close to keeping this, but it didn't quite fit my slightly curvy chest. If I wasn't 100% comfortable, I wasn't going to keep it. But it was a sad, sad day in the Babione household when I had to tell this beauty "no."

On my little style quiz, I said that I wear business casual sometimes since I do like to "dress" up a bit at my various internships over the years. This shirt would have fallen into this category. It was made out of this lovely silk and was really a pretty color and added a feminine touch with the ruffles at the top. It also had this wonderful hidden button across the chest so there wasn't any gaping around the bosoms area. I just don't wear button-down shirts that much and this mama was over $100 and I"m just not in the place right now that necessitates me owning a shirt of this caliber.

This is the only item in the box that I ended up keeping. It was at the right price and completely the right style. I don't own any tie front shirts and I liked the breezy, laid-back feel. These colors might be my favorite combination right now. My mother actually knitted me a blanket with these very colors a few years ago. I don't usually look good in yellow since it washes me out, but I can definitely get behind this more mustard/ocher yellow. I'm so happy I kept this shirt and will hopefully be showing pictures of me wearing it in the future.

This was the only thing in the box that I was "eh" about. It just wasn't special enough for me to really consider. I really don't like the baggy arm holes because I really hate it when you can see a girl's bra band when they lift their arms. The color was more of a jewel purple, but still not quite deep enough for me. The sleeves had nice detail, but it just wasn't enough.

For me, the appeal of Stitch Fix is the experience. It's a lot of fun to be receive a surprise in the mail whenever you want. There's a monthly subscription option, but you can also just schedule a fix whenever you want. I kind of like how they make it seem like this drug that you need to "get your fix of." I made a little oath to myself that I could do this, but I made a rule where I could really only keep 1 thing (or a few things whose total didn't exceed the $50 mark). Stitch Fix does have this thing that if you keep all 5 items in your box, you get 25% off your entire order. There are definite times where it is beneficial to keep everything in the box, especially if you're deciding about whether to keep just 4 things, or all of them. It is often cheaper to get the whole shebang. The styling service costs $20 whenever you schedule a fix. The really nice thing is that this $20 goes towards any item you buy in the box. So if you decide to keep an item that's priced at $35, you only have to pay $15 more and it's yours! You just send whatever you don't want back (free shipping!) and then they bill you for whatever you keep. You also fill in a form about each piece you received. You can say whether it was priced right, the right style, or the right fit. I have a few other Fix posts lined up, but if you have had any of your own fixes, I would love to see them. I think it's a lot of fun to see what other people might get in the mail. If you would like to find out more about Stitch Fix click here. Let's share the shopping love!

Thank You Judd Apatow

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Laughing might just be my favorite past time. I love to joke and laugh at other peoples' expense. I think that word play is one of the highest form of comedy. This love of smiling pervades into the realm of movies. I am always in the mood to laugh so ill watch anything from Abbot & Costello to The Hangover. So I thought I would direct this Thank You note to one of comedy's great directors: Judd Apatow.

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Dear Judd,

First and foremost, thank you for having the name Judd which allows me to sing "Poor Judd is Dead" from Oklahoma anytime your name is mentioned. It adds a darkness to your hilarity which both terrifies me as well as makes me smile. I could delve into the obvious and say that your movies are a godsend to laughter and that Anchorman might have changed my life, but I want to be more subversive. You use a cast of actors who understand humor as well as how important good chemistry is. The main reason for this letter and the biggest "thank you" is for letting Netflix show Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. Getting not only one, but two casts with both Seth Rogen and Jason Segel in them filmed in the early 2000s was pure genius. The fact that Freaks and Geeks was also set in the '70s with a kickin' soundtrack doesn't hurt either. It makes me almost miss high school (ha! yeah right). Sure you might have made some films that seemed to try a little too hard to be funny (Taledega Nights) or ones that don't quite understand the line between humor and drama (Funny People), but that's ok. There might be something wrong with you if you got everything right. You were able to show me that my fake, movie, not-gorgeous soul mate is out there. Jason and Seth I'm looking at you! Paul Rudd could join the club too, but he is rather on the short side. You also taught me that I don't have to be ashamed of my love of Rush. So thank you Mr. Apatow for just doing you. I will be interesting to see what your future will bring, but for now, let's look at your past and relish in the comedy.

Sincerely,
Carly B. (yes, not all of your fans are men)

P.S.- Thank you for slightly exploiting your daughter to make some of the funniest videos ever. Love you Pearl!

Fall Break: Woo!

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Eh, so this isn't quite the same holiday, but I'm not that creative, but you get the picture (ha! word play). Today was my first official day of Fall Break and I couldn't be more excited. It's just so nice to have a break (no matter how small) in the middle of the semester to give yourself some breathing room. Whether you stay near campus, go off to visit loved ones, or just go back home to chill it's wonderful to have some time where your brain doesn't constantly have to be on. 

I broke up my 6 hour drive down by staying overnight Thursday with my Maxine in New York and drove down the rest of the way yesterday. I'm catching up with my sleep and spending time with my lovely family. Today my mama and I basically went wherever the wind blew us. We started in downtown Lititz which was a hustle and bustle of activity because it was the annual Chocolate Walk , but we checked out a new thrift store that just opened, Uncle Funky's. It had a really funky vibe and I hope stays in business. Lititz really needed something a little funkier to give it that edge. We then headed out to another antique-y store outside of town where I scooped up some fun stereographs from the early 1900s for super cheap. It was just a hop skip and a jump over to my favorite record shop to pick up a few new albums. Last stop of the day was a trip to JoAnn's to get a new dress pattern and fabric so Mama B and I can start on a new little project that I'm super excited about. 

I'm tiredly waiting for Katie to get back from work so we can actually hang, but today has been such a great day and I can't wait for the rest of my break!

Let's Get Nailed: Pretty Pretty Princess

I've always loved nail polish, and recently I've been trying to paint my nails more frequently. It's not always easy, but as of now, my Tuesdays are fairly empty so I've been paying close attention to them. I've decided to make this a regular post since I've been so inspired about the finds I see on pinterest as well as various blogs.

I tend to label the outfits I wear with these usually obscure names (like sophisticated lumberjack for example), so why wouldn't I with nails? This weeks nails pay homage to a very near and dear children's game from my youth: Pretty Pretty Princess. Honk twice if you remember it and loved dressing your father in the earrings, necklace, bracelet, ring, and crown while laughing like you've never seen anything funnier. I used both Essie polishes: Fiji for the pale pink on the bottom and A Cut Above for the pink sparkles on the top. I decided to do my ring fingers in a gradiated waterfall sparkle and then a pseudo-french on the rest. They make me feel very pretty and delicate which is a nice change. I know it'll be a real bitch to take off, but I can never say no to sparkly things! Maybe I subconsciously painted them pink in honor of National Mean Girls Day yesterday, but I'd like to think of them more in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness. Either way, I dig them.

Item of the Day: Jump from Paper Bags

So I was just bopping around the internet today and came across Kaylah's , The Dainty Squid, outfit post today where she was wearing this sensational bag. I immediately went over to the site  to check them out. I don't really think I need to say much since these pictures speak for themselves. I'm still not sure exactly hoe much they can hold, but I don't think I really care because they are so aesthetically cool. I'm a big fan of pixelated accessories as well like the items seen on thinkgeek.com so this was right up my alley. So I think I will shut up and let everyone drool over the awesomeness that is these bags (as Carly melts into a puddle).

Both images from http://www.jumpfrompaper.us/