Craftiness

I was feeling a little crafty last night and decided to whip up some paper airplanes :) I was inspired by this post on Smile and Wave- Rachel made paper airplane valentine notes for her husband. So sweet!

So here is what I whipped up in 20 minutes while watching TV....

Pumpkin Recipe 6

Pumpkins for appetizers, pumpkins for cupcakes, pumpkins for chai bread, what else can you do with pumpkins?

BREAKFAST!

Sorry, I'm not sure how to make oatmeal look pretty, but its tasty!

I was so excited to try this recipe with my friend, Sarah, because I love breakfast and I love pumpkin, so we combined them!

I made pumpkin oatmeal (with rolled oats) with this recipe from Pham Fatale. It was delicious- but when I make it again, I'm going to downsize the portions a little and maybe use just a teeny bit less pumpkin. Sarah said the texture was a little too "puree-y" like baby food, so I'm going to reduce it just a bit. Also, it definitely made 3 servings so her roommate got a little breakfast surprise after we left for class. 

If you are a bigger fan of steel cut oats, I can't wait to try this recipe from Naturally Ella. I wanted to try it, but we had a short breakfast date this morning and were super hungry after 6am prayer with some friends from church.

Pumpkin = DEFINITELY a good breakfast food; not just for pie anymore!

Pumpkin Recipes 4 and 5 (and a Bridal Shower)

I had the lovely opportunity to help host a friend's bridal shower last Saturday and I claimed making the appetizers and desserts (my favorite parts of party food!) It also gave me an opportunity to use up my 15 cups of homemade pumpkin puree.

So, for the appetizer, I decided to make this pumpkin hummus recipe from Slash Food . 

PLEASE go out and make this. It was PHENOMENAL! oh, and if you don't have tahini, you can substitute peanut butter but check your local Indian or Oriental store because they will most definitely have tahini paste for a lot cheaper than a normal grocery store.

I also made pumpkin cupcakes from Gimme Some Oven. Also outstanding. The cinnamon cream cheese icing was perfect because it was sweet and cream cheesy, but the focus was totally on the pumpkin cupcakes. underneath. They were also easy to make :) I used a candy mold of wedding rings from Hobby Lobby and dark chocolate candy melts to top the iced cupcakes and some random fall sprinkles.

To round out the desserts, I made carrot cake cookies from Martha Stewart's Cookie Cookbook. They were labor intensive and the oven royally messed with them (although uniform as dough balls, some refused to flatten out and others flatted out to 3 inch diameter cookies... it was the oven's fault). They weren't super attractive, but boy, does Martha know cookies! They were super delicious and decadent. 

Overall, I had a great  time making some good food for a friend's party. It was a wonderful shower and the bride-to-be got some great stuff for her married kitchen (which I'm SO going to take advantage of, I mean use when I bake with her after she's married). 

All of the recipes were a hit, so try them before fall goes out of season (haha)!

In Love: Baked Explorations

I finally went and bought Baked Explorations after debating getting the book since before it came out. I LOVE it. I can't wait to make some desserts so much, but these are on the top of my list:

Nutella Scones
Malted Waffles
Sweet and Salty Brownie
Salt-N-Pepper Sandwich Cookies
Caramel Apple Cake
Maple Cupcakes

I'm having a sugar attack, but its wonderful. If you haven't checked out this book yet, you NEED to go find it! ASAP!

Caramel Apple Crostata and Recap

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything! I feel so slack :) My life has been moving at a million miles an hour- way too many exams and essays in the last week for "midterms" (even though that was October 7th).

Over fall break (last weekend), I was able to knock out some butternut squash pasta sauce with penne from this recipe from GoodLife Eats. It looks a little like mac and cheese in the picture, but do not be fooled! It was AMAZING!

Yum! My boyfriend's mom said it was one of the best pastas she'd ever tasted. Score!

I also toasted some pumpkin seeds using this recipe/tutorial. I'd never done it on my own, but it was wonderfully easy and delicious. And pumpkin seeds have folic acid, which is great! I used Kirby's 14 n 1 Spice from the Columbia All Local Farmer's Market and I added cayenne pepper for a kick for Jonathan- even better. (But we ate them so fast, I forgot to take pictures)

But last week, it was so crazy that I didn't get a chance to breathe, let alone cook! But Friday, I made it to Hobby Lobby for Christmas present supplies and started on some presents. But those are super secret!

Today, I made a caramel apple crostata from the recipe on Sweet Bake's blog. My apples must have been HUGE because I filled 2 9inch pie crusts and had a little to spare. But I cheated and used store-bought crust because I bought some a couple of weeks ago with the intent of making apple pie on a stick. But this was SO much better.

But this week, I'm going to be in a baking frenzy for my friend's bridal shower. So I'll post more as I go along! Have a wonderful week!

PS: I'm eventually going to get around to telling you about my AMAZING weekend in Savannah, but that requires a lot more time than I have right now :) but stay tuned!

Fall Break

Yesterday, as the beginning of my fall break, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen! After running around and getting some errands done, I settled in and bought a 16 pound pumpkin from Boone Hall Farms (it was the smallest baking pumpkin they had and it was only $3 or so!) And then I proceeded to follow this recipe and spend over 3 hours making 15 cups of pumpkin puree. I have NO IDEA what to do with all of it, but I froze most of it and a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving sounds like a good plan!

I also made some butternut squash puree and I have cleaned up the pumpkin seeds to toast tomorrow.

I also made this one-bowl blackberry cake. It was SO GOOD! It sunk in the middle for some reason (I think my oven gets hotter than it says it does and it cooked too fast).

See- it sunk in the middle :(

 I've already enjoyed being at home with a full kitchen and more recipe testing will be happening this weekend :)

Kiwi Blogger Swap

I like the idea that the other swappers had- making a post just for their blogger partners to post on! I haven't quite had the chance to organize my thoughts/pictures from this weekend in Savannah but that post is coming soon! Probably late because I have a TON of schoolwork to do, but its going to eventually be posted! Keep a lookout for it!