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hello autumn

baking, breakfast, brunch, fall, meal planning, muffins, observations, pumpkin, puppies, recipes, themes September 23, 2017 Leave a comment

Happy first weekend of fall! In case you missed it, yesterday we celebrated the autumn solstice with record heat in St. Louis.

Because nothing says autumn like leaves just giving up and falling because they are too dry to hold on any longer.

But there’s hope for your weekend, still. Here are a few ways to make the most out of the new season even if summer won’t loosen it’s death grip just yet:

Step 1: Crank down your thermostat to 65.

Step 2: Wrap up in your giant blanket scarf and watch College GameDay.

Step 3: Boots still look cute with sleeveless dresses. Just don’t forget deodorant.

Step 4: Be thankful there isn’t a pumpkin shortage because both you and your dog are going through 2+ cans a week.

Pumpkin Apple Muffins with Streusel Topping (Makes 18)

1 C unsweetened canned pumpkin
2 large eggs
1/2 C vegetable oil
2 C peeled and chopped apples (Pink Lady or Honeycrisp)
2 1/2 C flour (I used half whole wheat, half all-purpose)
2 C sugar
1 TBL pumpkin pie spice mix (cloves, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Streusel Topping (because streussel makes everything better)

2 TBL flour
1/4 C brown sugar
1 TBL oats
2 tsp butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk sugar, flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice mix, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, blend pumpkin, oil and eggs together.

Add dry ingredients into wet and mix until just combined. Add apples.

Scoop into prepared muffin tins and fill about 2/3 of the way. Top with 1 tsp streusel topping per muffin.

Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

I make these nearly every year on repeat. They are a great excuse for a mini carb-load anytime of day and they freeze well if you’re afraid you might eat them all in the first few days.

Not that Matt and I would know what that’s like or anything.

Happy fall!

Of these things, I’m fairly certain

breakfast, brunch, Florida, halloween, holiday, meal planning, menus, mom, observations, pumpkin, recipes, themes October 13, 2015 Leave a comment

There comes a point in a thirty-something’s life in which the random things she’s heard, learned, experienced, seen, tasted and smelled over the first third of her life finally start to stick with her. After all, you rarely hear a twenty-something referred to as ‘set in his or her ways.’ No, this art takes years to perfect. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and call up your grandparents for a lesson. Don’t text them. Don’t email them. Pick up the phone and call them. Heck, by now your parents should be as set as a Ronco Showtime Rotisserie Platinum so you might as well ask them while you’re at it.

source

What was I getting at again?

Oh yes. Life lessons.

Up until this point, you’ve let these observations float in and out of your life without taking any ownership of them. Sure, you’re brand loyal to a degree, but you’re a millennial for goodness sake and you better believe that you are going to be flexible and adapt to the ever-changing world around you, right? Kind of like the way you’ve shifted every time Apple launches a new iOS or Facebook changes their newsfeed.

And then you turn thirty. And all of a sudden the phrases you use to utter in your 20s like pregaming or late night bars are replaced with let’s just have everyone over for a dinner party or do I have to put on real clothes or can I go in this?

So today I present you a list of things I’m fairly certain of:

That I will never get all of my personal identification documents to have the same last name again. Ever. This weekend I nearly had to provide a retinal scan at The Gap to pay with a (new chip-encrypted) card that still listed me as Murphy because it sat in my wallet next to a drivers license that lists me as Zalewski. Meanwhile, my handsome yet mute in these types of situations husband waits patiently as I toss two debit cards, two credit cards and a blood donor card at our friendly cashier to prove I’m not a spy.

Oh you have a Costco card? That will work just fine.

That there’s no way our dog proves my hypothesis about animals taking after their owners. Nope not our guy. So different, he and I.

That a landscape that includes pumpkins and palm trees will always be weird, but never having to wear socks will always be awesome.

That heckling is an art form maybe moms are just too sweet for it.

That if pumpkin obsession is a real addiction affecting basic girls everywhere, you can crown me pumpkin princess of autumnville. I actually felt a nervous swell when I realized I was down to my last can of pumpkin this weekend for a french toast recipe. And when my audible gasp was met with a side eye from Matt, I yelled, ‘there’s a shortage, you know!’

So I’ve got that going for me.

And because nearly everything I’m certain of this time of year relates to pumpkins, I’ll leave you with a recipe for pumpkin french toast sure to satisfy your cravings. That is, if you can get your hands on the limited supply!

Pumpkin French Toast (recipe adapted from Cooking Classy)

3/4 C almond milk (I didn’t have regular milk but by all means use it if you have it)
1/2 C pure pumpkin
4 large eggs
2 TBL brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
6-8 slices multigrain bread (or challah or texas toast)
Butter (for griddle)

Heat a cast iron skillet to medium heat. In a large bowl, whisk almond milk, pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar, vanilla and spices together. Set aside.

Prepare skillet with butter. Dip bread into pumpkin mixture until saturated. Cook on both sides until browned, repeating butter before each slice.

Serve with maple syrup or honey and dust with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

Happy Daylight Savings Day!

Uncategorized November 2, 2014 Comments: 2

Happy Daylight Savings Day! And good morning to those of you with small children.

Please know that Swiss Mountain Dogs with a precise feeding schedule share your child’s excitement for the 6:00 hour. May you be blessed with a short nap at some point today.

So how many Elsa’s did you count on Friday? I was going to attempt the Elsa-spotting drinking game but then I remembered I wasn’t in college and had to go back to work for the rest of the day. Regardless I had a count of 8.

8 Elsas. If that sounds low to you it’s because it is. My sister said Jake had 5 Elsas in his class alone. I even bought enough candy for 250 Elsas, but apparently living behind a gate and between two family-friendly streets only gets you a handful of trick-or-treaters. Either that or the cold really did bother them anyway.

I guess a low of 65 will do that to Floridians.

Disclaimer: When the home team is playing far worse than the Bears in an off-year, no one will heckle you for your last-minute Halloween costume.

But as Cubs fans say, there’s always next year. And next year when that little 4-year -old Luigi walks right past and tells us he’s already had enough candy for this year, I will chase him down, shove a king-size Snickers in his tiny plastic pumpkin and tell him there’s no such thing as too much Halloween candy. Never give up kid. Never give up.

royal icing, sugar cookies, halloween, iced ghost sugar cookies, halloween dessert, cookies, sugar cookies, goblin cookies, halloween treats

recipe here

But I digress.

It did cool down ever so slightly this week so I decided to try out a new chili recipe. I was getting a few complaints from a certain someone who will now be my certain someone from this day forward that my go-to chili recipe didn’t have any meat in it so I experimented a little for this one. Fortunately it worked.

I sort of loosely based it off of this recipe from Taste of Home but I’ve found that with chili you have a little more wiggle room on ingredients so don’t be afraid to try something new.

Pumpkin Steak Chili

2 center-cut high-quality sirloins, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can great northern beans, drained and rinsed
chili sauce (garlic chili sauce and cholula)
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 C canned pumpkin
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp chili powder

In a dutch oven, saute onions until transparent. Add chopped steak and cook until browned. Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Add spices and chili sauce to taste and water to thin. Simmer for at least an hour. Add a bay leaf to bring up the flavor.

Serve with chopped avocado, crackers or smoked shreddd gruyere cheese. Add more hot sauce.

Enjoy!

Squash Season

dinner, fall, meal planning, menus, recipes, vegetarian September 10, 2014 Leave a comment

One thing I love about fall is the pretty little gourds that fill the farmer’s markets on Saturday mornings. About as diverse as the people who shop for them, I’ve always had an affinity for collecting the weird-looking ones each season. The gourds, not the weird people. Not that there’s anything wrong with weird people. I don’t think you should make it your mission to collect them though.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I actually started cooking with these gourds. Growing up I was familiar with seeing things like summer squash and zucchini in dishes, but I never knew other types of squash could be so tasty.

Since I’m all about doing things fall even though it’s still 96 degrees outside this year, I decided to roast up a spaghetti squash the other night for dinner. I know what you’re thinking, no way is that going to take the place of the traditional pasta I know and love. And you would be right. The flavor is sweeter, the texture a little more, dare I say it, moist, and it’s a vegetable for goodness sake.

But isn’t it kind of cool that the weird-looking gourd you usually use to decorate your table each fall turns into these lookalike spaghetti noodles once it’s cooked? And that you can go for seconds or thirds without any guilt?

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

1 large spaghetti squash
2 TBL olive oil
salt and pepper
1-2 shallots, sliced
1 C fresh tomato puree or paste
1 clove garlic, minced
3-4 white mushrooms, chopped
1/2 C fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp red wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Slice squash in half and scoop out and discard seeds. Drizzle olive oil on the flesh sides of the squash and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place flesh-side down on a foil-lined roasting pan. Roast for 30-40 minutes or until top of squash is soft to the touch.

In a dutch oven, heat remaining olive oil over medium heat. Saute shallots until clear. Add garlic, mushrooms and chopped tomatoes. Add tomato paste and a little water if needed. Season with red wine vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper. Let simmer until sauce thickens.