I want...

How cute is this tee from JCrew's Crewcuts? I bought one for my little cousin for Christmas. Maybe if I lost like 25lbs I could fit into it!

I did however purchase this in a big girl size...hopefully it will be here before Christmas!

Mmmmm Butternut Squash Soup...

I am continually trying to perfect my roasted butternut squash soup recipe and I think I stuck the landing tonight with this recipe:

Ingredients:
1 large butternut squash (4+ pounds raw)
3 cup organic chicken broth
1 large onion (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
2 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tsp. nutmeg
olive oil
salt
black pepper

Garnish:
crème fraîche
toasted wheat croutons

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.

2. Slice the squash in half length wise. Using a spoon, core the seeds. Place in a roasting pan. Liberally coat with olive oil, salt, and black pepper. Fill about 1" of the pan with water. Roast in oven for about half an hour or until the flesh is easily pierced with a paring knife.

3. Remove from the oven, and let cool so it is not too hot to handle. Remove the skin and roughly chop any large portions of the flesh remaining.

4. In a large pot over medium heat, add 2 Tbsp. of butter. Once the butter has stopped bubbling, add 2 Tbsp. of olive oil.

5. Add the onion and then the garlic garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent and starting to lightly yellow, about 6 min. Add the nutmeg and stir. Cook for another 3 min.

6. Add the roasted butternut squash and stir. Let cook for about 5 min before stirring again. You should start to see carmelization on the bottom of the pan. Add the honey and let cook again for another 5 min.

7. Add about 1/2 cup the broth and deglaze the pot. Once all those nice brown bits are up from the bottom of the pot add the remaining broth. Bring to a boil and let cook for about 5 min at a low boil.

8. Turn off the heat and let cool for another 5 min.

9. Puree the mixture in a blender until you have a nice smooth texture. Return to heat and lets simmer until you are ready to serve.

10. Garnish by adding a dollop of crème fraîche and croutons. Serve very hot.

Enjoy!

Homage to BelleAge

This evening me and one of the bunco girls went to BelleAge Medispa's open house. All products were 25% off and many offered rebates as well! I purchased Latisse and an intense pulsed light (IPL) facial to zap off the damage I received in the Dominican. I debated on buying two IPL services, but thought one treatment did the trick the last time. Then much to my surprise I won an IPL treatment in the door prize drawing! I can't wait to start using the Latisse and plan on getting the first IPL after Thanksgiving. Hopefully I will have new fresh skin (brown and red spots sloughed off) and long lashes by Christmas!

One more reason to shop in Cincy

I move from NKY and great things come! WTF? Recently the Queen City became the home to Ikea (which is at the same exit as the Ballard Designs Outlet), Cincinnati Premium Outlets off of I-75 and now H&M! Jimmy Choo shoes starting at $129! Need I say more. H&M opened in the Kenwood Town Centre on November 5. To date the US site does not offer online shopping, but the Euro site does. Given that I don't understand Sweedish, that site is a little difficult to navigate.

Shine On

I regrettably learned tonight that one of the downtown fixtures, Lewis Gill Cobb, the shoeshine man passed away. I would bump into him weekly. The typical conversation started with him telling me how nice I look and then leading to him asking if I needed a shoe shine. I probably did on many occasions, but never accepted his offer.

While I was a prosecutor Lewis was cited several times by the city for peddling without a license. We could not dismiss any more charges and he understandably didn't want to pay a fine and plead guilty. He, with the assistance of the honorable Gatewood Gailbrath, set the matter for trial. I didn't want to prosecute Lewis. After all, he was just trying to make an honest living, shining shoes. Maybe I was the first person to ever read the "peddling without a license statute" and concluded that since it said one is guilty of peddling without a license when they are selling goods without a city license. I asked myself what 'goods' is Lewis selling...it's a service. I contacted Gatewood and we thought it would be worth a shot for him to file a motion to dismiss the charges since this ordinance didn't even apply to Lewis' operation. Judge Bouvier, a jurist whose talent's are wasted in district court, consulted the Uniform Commercial Code, and ruled that Lewis was not selling goods, but offering a service and thus could not be in violation of peddling without a license. All counts against Lewis were dismissed. From that point on, Lewis could shine all the shoes he wanted along the streets of downtown Lexington.

Lewis was such an intriguing character that a UK student produced a documentary about him. I purchased the movie, but am yet to watch it. Lewis would ask me weekly "have you watched my movie yet?", which I would honestly tell him I had not had time to do so yet, but was going to. He was one of those unique fixtures of downtown, along with Tony the shoe repair man and Butch, those folks you look forward to running into everyday. I will miss him terribly and can only hope that he is shining shoes in heaven.