Sights & smells of Autumn

1. Finally some new blossoms on my Lavendar plant! My kids and I always walk by this plant and rub the leaves and smell our hands! One of my favorite scents!
2. Nothing says "Fall!" like a beautiful Mum! Did you know that they can survive in temps as low as -20 degrees? I didn't but the info tag that came with said it could.
3. Oh my, not only do these fresh loaves of Pumpkin bread look yummy, they taste yummy! My whole house smells delicious!
4. Our beautiful Aspens are losing leaves and changing colors.

What’s for supper

I am not much of a cook but every once in awhile I will find a recipe that I enjoy making for my family. I do love to bake so my meals are always followed by something yummy. It “encourages” the boys to at least try the meal when they know that a nice homemade cupcake is waiting for them afterwards. Since we had a little taste of fall last week I was inspired to cook a meal worthy of autumn weather so I went out and bought organic pumpkin puree for homemade pumpkin cupcakes and  the fixings for White Chili. My house is still filled with the scents of ginger, cinnamon and allspice.
Here’s the recipe for the White Chili from my Betty Crocker cookbook. This recipe is awesome and is great with a dollop of sour cream on top. I go easy with the basil since it’s such a strong flavored spice. I start out using only 1 teaspoon and add a sprinkle if needed. I used the full amount my first time making this and it overpowered the flavor.

• PREP TIME20 Min
• TOTAL TIME1 Hr. 30 Min

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

4 cups 1/2-inch cubes cooked chicken or turkey

3 cups Progresso® chicken broth (from 32-oz. carton)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon dried basil leaves

2 teaspoons ground red chilies or Chili powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 cans (15 to 16 oz. each) great northern beans, undrained

1 medium tomato, chopped (3/4 cup)

Blue or yellow corn tortilla chips

• 1 Melt butter in 4-quart Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook onion and garlic in butter, stirring occasionally until onion is tender.
• 2 Stir in remaining ingredients except tomato and tortilla chips. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Serve with tomato and tortilla chips.

Here’s the recipe for the Pumpkin cupcakes which I found on MarthaStewart.com They were awesome as well. The only thing I would change is adding less butter next time. I am not sure how that would change the recipe but the cupcake liners were very greasy once the cupcakes were baked and cooling. The cupcake itself was not greasy so I am not sure I would cut out that much or maybe just add a tablespoon more of flour. I’ll test this out next time. This time I doubled the liners so in this photo you can’t see how much absorbed into the first liner. Anyhow the recipe says it yields 18 cupcakes but I ended up with 24 nice size cupcakes. More to enjoy!  I frosted them with a cream cheese frosting and topped them off with grated chocolate toffee bar. To.die.for!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree.
3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Valentines, knitting and baking…

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I did. We had a really nice date night on Friday. Since we only had 3 hours alone time we went to a local restaurant called Union American Bistro in downtown CR and LOVED it.  We had appetizers, a main course and dessert and I can’t say one bad thing about the whole evening. The service was awesome, the food was awesome and of course the company was the best. It brought back so many memories of our first Valentine’s together and how it was before kids. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love being a mom but I also miss the time I had alone with Jas. It’s such a rare thing to be alone with him and when it happens it allows me to remember why I fell in love with him. When we are with the kids, its chaos alot of the time (normal) and our focus is on them.
This weekend I decided to knit a pair of cable footies from “One Skein” by Leigh Radford. Awhile back I bought a hank of Fiesta Boomerang in Stargazer from the Loopy Ewe not realizing that this yarn was not your normal fingering weight. All the yarn I have ever ordered from that site has been so I assumed this would be too.I am not even sure what weight it is but it requires a size 8 needle (worsted?). I ordered this yarn close to two years ago and finally found a pattern to knit with it and it’s coming along beautifully.  In the book she uses a beautiful reddish yarn and the yarn I used is variegated so the cables aren’t as obvious BUT the yarn is to die for soft! I can’t wait to put these on my feet!

 
In other knitting news, Henry is doing great learning how to knit!

I also did some baking this weekend. I found this recipe on Carol’s blog and had to try it and while it turned out good I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t as chocolaty as I had hoped. Carol added chocolate chips which I didn’t have so I am sure that’s the only difference. Oh, and I didn’t have ice cream. Next time I will make sure to have both because I am positive that is what is missing! The recipe comes from Kara's Kitchen Creations.
Here’s the mixture with the brown sugar/cocoa mix

Here I am adding the water to the top. At this point I was skeptical it would make anything solid, but it does!

Here’s it is out of the oven. The holes are where the sauce bubbles through.

And voila, desert is ready!

Here’s a few more photos of the boys:
Owen with his “100 Days” hat and glasses. teehee he looks so cute here!

My crazy Jack “yo waz up dawg?” He’s got a funny sense of humor for a four year old!

Jason and Owen. *love*

Owen with his “Hunk of burnin’ love” shirt for his Valentine’s party at school.




Quote of the day:
For most of history, Anonymous was a woman. - Virginia Woolf