Try a New Recipe Thursdays - Stuffed Peppers

Need a hearty meal to warm you up on cool fall evenings? Try making these yummy, healthy, stuffed peppers. I recieved this recipe during a kitchen/cooking shower that was thrown for me by friends of my mom almost two years ago now and it continues to be one of my favorite week night go-tos. It is also a great way to use leftover ground beef and/or rice.

1 lb. cooked ground beef (or ground turkey)

1 cup cooked brown rice (1/2 cup uncooked)

1/2 small onion, browned

1 packet taco seasoning

4-6 green peppers (depending on how large they are)

1 cup tomato sauce

shredded cheddar cheese

Wash and core peppers, removing seeds and membranes. Mix together cooked beef, rice and browned onion with taco mix (if you don't have leftover beef, you can brown the beef with the onion). Fill peppers and place in baking dish. Poor tomato sauce over the tops of the peppers. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle cheese over top. Bake for 5 more minutes or until the cheese melts. Enjoy - the picture at the top shows my last batch of yummy stuffed peppers!

Exciting Wins!

Wow, what a night last night was for Philadelphians! The Phillies Phinally won the World Series. I am young enough that I've never been alive for a Phillies World Series title (they last won in 1980), so it was really amazing to see how celebratory the whole city was last night. Walking Broad Street after the game was absolutely a ridiculous sight to see and if it is anything like the pandamodium last night was, I can't wait to attend the victory parade tomorrow!

Last night also brought another fun surprise. I found out I won the recipe cards giveaway on Magnolias, Marriage and Manhattan!! I just adore these cards designed by the Paper Menu and can't wait to have some signature stationery to share my recipes on courtesy of the Paper Cafe. So special thanks to MMM and to The Prep-e Girl who posted on MMM saying she was sent to the contest by me. Props to you both for your fun blogs that I really enjoy reading daily.

Washed Out!

Mr. Prepster and I are great big Phillies fans. We endured this last night and are ready to go back for more of Game 5 when the weather allows. I can't believe I was actually at a baseball game in my North Face ski coat, Uggs, long undies and a horribly ugly enormous yellow poncho and was still wet and freezing. P.S. I am still feeling wet and freezing 12 hours later! Let's hope for better luck for us and for our beloved team tonight!

Recipe Cards Giveaway on Magnolias, Marriage and Manhattan!

Happy Friday! Be sure to check out MMM's fantastic recipe card giveaway today. She found adorable recipe cards designed by Paper Menu at the Paper Cafe and is giving away a personalized set of 20 to one lucky reader. Click here to see all the products by the Paper Menu that you can buy or win and be sure to leave a comment on her blog about your favorite design. You may just be the lucky one! My favorite is the pink and green striped recipe card with a circle monogram shown in the picture to the left. If you found the contest here, do me a favor and mention Prepadelphia in your comment.

Try a New Recipe Thursdays - Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Icing

I've decided to start a new feature to share some of my favorite recipes. Here is a yummy one for fall weekends that is so easy, and it was a big hit at a World Series gathering we attended last night.

Pumpkin Bars:
2 cups pumpkin
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cups canola oil
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
2 cups flour

Cream Cheese Icing:
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
3/4 stick butter, softened
1 2/3 cup powdered sugar
2 T milk
(you can also cheat with a store-bought variety)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together pumpkin, sugar and oil. Sift flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda and add it to the pumpkin mixture. Bake in an ungreased medium-sized jelly roll pan for 25-30 minutes. A fork should come out clean when it is done.

Beat softened cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar and milk and beat until smooth and creamy. Allow bars to cool before frosting them. Add a piece of candy corn or a mini candy pumpkin for a garnish if you wish. Store bars in the fridge until you are ready to serve them.

Exciting New Arrivals at J.Crew

I've been following J.Crew a fair amount lately thanks to one of my new favorite blogs, J.Crew Aficionada. They have some fabulous new arrivals for late fall/holiday that are a bit more creative and well-styled than their old standby cords and cardis (not that I don't love those too). Here are a few of their new things that I'm seriously coveting.

Victoria Ruffle Cami in Bright Fushcia:

Cashmere Heirloom Henley in Bright Papaya (or really any color):

Boucle Tweed Penny Jacket in Honey Glaze:

Can you tell I adore bright colors? What do you want from J.Crew?

Pictures of Harvest Table Setting

Here are some pictures of our new dining table centerpiece I described in my post earlier today. I set it (partially) with some of our everyday china for the photos. Not quite Pottery Barn store display worthy, but it definitely has some autumn spice now.

Harvest Table Setting

This weekend I made a special trip to the Pottery Barn to cash in on my "Family and Friends 20% off your Entire Purchase" coupon. I'm not quite sure why the Pottery Barn thinks it is my friend... hmm, maybe because we moved six months ago and gave them way too many of our $$ for furniture? Likely. In any event, I have been wanting to change up our dining room table centerpiece for a while but haven't had any brilliant ideas. So I went to good old PB for inspiration and ended up finding a very inexpensive way to put our table together with some fall flair. I will post pictures of the whole set up later because very few of the items I used are available on the PB website (so check back!), but basically, I purchased an orange table runner, some ivory linen hemstitch napkins, cute green napkin rings and several different vase fillers - pears, acorns, pinecones, etc. and went to work. Luckily I was able to use three small square vases and one large square vase I already owned and all of the different vase fillers were 30% off in the PB store right now, even before the additional 20% off coupon! All of the colorful filled vases placed together on the table looked great against the orange runner. This idea could be dressed up with a few votives or tealights and used for Thanksgiving dinner.

World Series Here We Come!

Mr. Prepster and I are huge Phillies fans and are beyond excited that they made the World Series this year. Congrats to the Phillies and best of luck in the next round! Here are some cute items for the preppy girls who are Phillies fans.

Preppy Things I Love: Mariposa

I hope everyone has a nice fall weekend! We had some friends over on Friday night so we had the occasion to use some of the entertaining items we received as wedding gifts. I was reminded how much I adore the Mariposa "string of pearls" serving pieces. You don't ever need to polish these items like you do traditional silver - Mariposa items stay glowing and gorgeous without effort on your part.

Since I discovered Mariposa's website this morning and they have many more items than I ever thought existed, I wanted to share favorite items with you all (though I can't copy the pictures, you can click on the links below). A lot of this stuff is going on my Christmas list!

Things I have and love:
-Pearled round platter with wood insert - perfect for cheese and fruit
-Pearled sauce dish - I use this on my cocktail table for pistachios or other nuts
-Pearled cake stand - this can be used to display cookies too
-Pearled round serving tray - so pretty for champagne service
-Pearled wine coaster - especially good for white bottles to guard against condensation
-Beaded box with butterfly weight - cute cocktail napkin holder (see more napkin holders, they are a Mariposa specialty)

Things I want:
-Pearled pie caddy - this would be beautiful on a Thanksgiving or Christmas table
-Pearled oblong casserole caddy - fancy lasagne?
-Pearled cupcake tier - who doesn't love cupcakes?
-Pearled cracker caddy - to match the cheese platter above
-Pearled spreader set - more cheese-related items

Any one else adore Mariposa as much as I do?

Cool Pink Stuff

Support Breast Cancer Awareness this month by purchasing any of the items featured in my Polyvore set below. Visit the websites for Coach, Polo, Kitchen Aid, M&Ms, Aveda and Bumble and Bumble to get more details and score one of these preppy pink products.
Show off that pink!

More from Cali

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful wedding we just attended in the Napa Valley... I still can't get over how cool it was to have dinner in the wine cave. What a fantastic touch.

Back from Cali

I'm back. California was wonderful. We cruised in a convertible, tasted lots of wine, enjoyed the fresh air, attended a beautiful wedding where we ate dinner in a wine cave(!) and visited with friends in San Fran. Other than some travel snafus on the way out there, the trip was a great success. A longer update will come once I've gotten back in the swing of things here at work. I'm loving October so far (today is a sweater day on the east coast) and excited for more playoff baseball in Philly later this week!

Off to Wine Land

This afternoon we're headed to sunny California to attend a wedding of my good friend in the Napa Valley. I've only been to wine country once, and only for a day that time, so I am definitely psyched to take in all the scenery and taste lots of yummy vino. Does anyone have suggestions for a must see place or a must taste wine? The wedding is going to be at Hans Fahden Vineyard in Calistoga, which from the website and the picture (left) looks absolutely gorgeous. Let's hope for a sunny, clear day for the bride and groom! I hope to keep you posted on our adventures over the course of the weekend...