pumpkin yum

I bought this yesterday. Yum. I had it on toast this morning with my coffee. It was perfect. I love apple butter too... actually I love butter. I do not discriminate against any kinds of butter. It's just delicious.

I haven't really done too much with pumpkin this season. I have been able to enjoy  Marm's pumpkin fudge and my brother's pumpkin snickerdoodles. I am an excellent taste-tester of all things pumpkin. Every year on Wednesday before Thanksgiving my sister-in-law, Shannon, and I have what we call Pie Day. We use it to prep for the Thanksgiving feast my mom cooks for a million people the next day and she and I make our famous pumpkin pie. It is famous, you know. People talk about it.

On my list of pumpkin recipes to try are:
Baked Pumpkin Steel Cut Oatmeal (recipe from the kitchn)

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (recipe from a friend, Laura, who blogs at The Happiness of Rainy Days)

Pumpkin Bread (recipe from Simply Recipes)

I need to get roasting this guy so I have fresh pumpkin to use and I can bake the seeds and try to not finish them in one sitting.

If you have a pumpkin recipe I have to try, please share!

making salad

Isn't this how everyone makes salad? With a screaming baby who was only going to be happy in her car seat, strapped in, and being bounced all over while tearing lettuce and figuring out how to put it all together? No? That's not how you do it?

A few more arms would be awesome. They are not completely necessary, but helpful for sure! 

family breakfast date

So a couple weeks ago I had the itch. I needed to get out. I need US to get out together. Lucy has gone on countless Target trips and grocery shopping adventures with me. I needed some time other than that. I needed some delicious food and good conversation. It gets lonely talking to only your baby for most of your days and nights. Cam's schedule has been a little tricky for this new mama and I've been craving time for him to be with Lucy and I.

I woke up one morning and said, "We're going to breakfast!" So we did. It was amazing. We went to Matt's Big Breakfast, which is amazing in and of itself. The coffee is delicious and I don't even look at the menu. I say, "I want the special." It doesn't matter what the special is that day. It's always awesome and always worth it. It's a good thing that it's worth it considering this place, which is in downtown Phoenix, always has a wait. I believe this was a Tuesday morning around 10 or 10:30 am and we waited 30 minutes. That's a really reasonable wait. If you go on a Saturday morning, prepare to wait for hours. I'm not kidding.

We sat and enjoyed our coffee and breakfast. Lucy slept through it. We talked and laughed and answered everyone's questions about how old she is and thanked everyone for saying how cute she is. :)

This little family date was much needed. It is the little things that you can find such joy in when you're looking.

busy day

On Monday I was waiting for the roofing guys to get here to get started on our brand new roof. Woo! Funny, the things that excite an adult. But while I was waiting I thought I'd bake something. I have been making blueberry scones this summer that are DELICIOUS and I love scones. I fancy myself a scone connoisseur. They have been requested several times by my husband. I decided to make scones, but that wasn't exactly what I had in mind while I was stuck at home waiting for them.

Then I remembered that my sister, Lindsey, sent me a link with a recipe for english muffins that she has used before. I figured that since I had never made english muffins at home that I should definitely give it a try. I am not very experienced with baking with yeast. In fact, I have ruined entire recipes requiring a lot of ingredients and hours of time (we refer to that as the "orange roll fiasco of 2010") because I guess I killed the yeast or something. Who knows. It irritated me and I haven't tried using yeast again in 10 months.

Monday was the day though. I ended up using my Joy of Cooking recipe for the english muffins.

Rising... I don't like waiting for them. 

Cooking on the griddle. 

Cooling on a rack. 

 mmm.... delicious. 

This was definitely my first time doing this and there are things I'll do differently next time. I'm so glad my sister got me thinking about doing this.

While I was waiting for the dough to rise I had time to whip up some simple and tasty blueberry scones. I use this recipe and add blueberries. The possibilities are endless as far as the types you could make.

I love that it uses things you have on hand already, except the blueberries. 

I like to make the scones small so I divide the dough in half and make 2 rounds. That way I can eat two scones and it's really only one. :) Also it's better for sharing them if they are smaller. You can give the love to more people when they are small and you have twice the amount. 

These are dangerously yummy. Just ask my brother in law, Dain. I think he ate four or five in about 10 minutes when he had them with us. 

In case you're wondering, the roof didn't even get started on Monday due to the 40% chance of rain. Go figure that I'd plan a whole morning at home for nothing. Well, I guess it wasn't for nothing. Baked goods are something. Have a lovely day! 

figs

Our fig tree has fruit that is ready to be picked, eaten, and enjoyed thoroughly by yours truly. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for them to ripen. If you don't know already: waiting irritates me. But I have been patient and ignoring the tree for a few weeks so she could get ready for me to get the goods.

Here she is in all her glory.

A fig tree is the perfect place for creepy things and birds to live. The whole time I was picking them I was trying to avoid any leaves that I thought might have a spider on it. Picking them is also a battle of territory between me and the birds. They love that tree and specifically like to do this to the figs. While you are picking there will be these skins that drop from the trees as the birds have lunch.

 

I am in love with the fact that I can pick these off the trees and eat them. I am known to kill plants. All plants. It doesn't matter how much I try to love them, they die. This tree was well established before we even moved in, so i feel pretty safe that it won't die because of me. (Cameron is the one that waters it though, so I'm sure she's pretty safe.) 

If you are looking for me, I'll be in the kitchen enjoying the fruit of Cameron's labor and taking credit for it all the while. Any ideas of good fig things I can make? Share ideas if you have them! I know they are amazing with goat cheese. mmmm....