An ode to Pumpkin

It has been way too long since I last updated, time has just seemed to fly by lately and now it is November!  I am getting very excited about all things fall. But of course living in Austin, fall is not really here yet even though it is November.  There was an amazing cold front the weekend we went camping and it was perfect camping weather.  But alas, it is in the very high 80's again now. All I want is to be able to wear a sweater on Thanksgiving, is that really too much to ask?  But cold or not, I march on doing fall-like things.  So maybe I did sweat a bit while carving pumpkins at out pumpkin carving party on Tuesday.  And maybe I do have to turn the AC down just a bit at work after I get a pumpkin spice latte.  At least I can rock a light cardigan at night.  

So, I know that pumpkin is being WAY over-marketed right now.  But even though it annoys some that everything is pumpkin flavored/themed right now, I must admit that I am totally the person that they are marketing to.  I love all things pumpkin.  Here are a few that I am jumping on the bandwagon about as I wait for cooler weather that will signal I can move on to even more fall-ish things like bonfires and cider.

Here is my super easy pumpkin soup.  I know there are lots of recipes like this out there, but this is the one my friend made in college and it was so easy that I have remembered it.  Other recipes call for roasted pumpkin, but this is the quick/easy/lazy way using canned pumpkin instead.  

Curried Pumpkin Soup with Coconut milk

1 Can pumpkin
3/4 cup coconut milk
5 cups vegetable broth
2 teaspoons cumin
a pinch of ceyenne pepper to taste
salt to taste
chopped green onion to garnish
toasted pumpkin seeds to garnish

Heat pumpkin, broth, and spices to a simmer.  Add coconut milk and use an immersion blender to get a smooth texture.  Garnish with green onion and seeds and enjoy!

Pumpkin Carving Party

 We were all more excited about eating, drinking, and hanging out together than carving pumpkins.  Our designs may not be elaborate, but considering the fact that our cheap carving tools were breaking left and right, the finished products were pretty impressive. 

                            

Pumpkin Roll Cake

My Nana makes this recipe and I adore it.  My favorite kind of dessert is one that is acceptable to eat any time of day, and this cake fits the bill since it is great will coffee in the morning as well as on a dessert plate.  I wanted her recipe, and found out that my amazing cook Nana uses this tried and true recipe found at food.com

Enjoy Pumpkin Season!

Backyard wedding weather

The weather is finally getting a bit cooler in the evenings here in Austin, and it has made me think back to this time last year- our amazing backyard wedding in October.  Since our anniversary approaches, and I love this time of year, I thought I would share some photos from our big day.  Planning our wedding was so much fun, as was the big day.  It took place in my parents back yard in South Austin.  My grandmother made our wedding cake, our dear friends played music and performed the ceremony.  My cousin's amazing wife did all the flowers and table decorations.  The day of, both of our families came together to set up, decorate, eat Taco Deli tacos,dance, and celebrate.  

Photos by the amazing Christina of Love Exponentially Photography. 

Put an egg on it!

It has been awhile since I have posted due to the inevitable "back to school" rush.  Back to school means back to work in my house, and it has been hard to shake the summer off and get back into the swing of things.  

I don't know if I can ever be the productive weekend warrior that preps meals on Sundays, organized and labeled in cute containers for the week ahead.  Those people are out there and I applaud them. I aspire to be like them.  But alas I am tired and need to take baby steps.  

So I am learning that for evenings that I come home wiped out, and early mornings when I am still too foggy to think straight, my heroes have been eggs and avocados.  When in doubt, put an egg or an avocado on it- or both in the case of the avocado and egg on naan bread amazingness I made last week.  Another favorite of mine is avocado, egg, and black bean tacos.  These are perfect for the tired and ill-prepared cook since they can be a breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  Until I am back on track from my summer of sleeping in and leisurely breakfasts, I will throw eggs and avocado onto things and always be happy with my meal.  

Black Bean Entree

 Austin has two restaurants that are open 24 hours and serve the perfect eclectic mix of Austin friendly foods for cheap prices: Kerby Lane Cafe and Magnolia Cafe.  People can get very intense with their loyalty about which of these similar places is better, but I have always felt equal love for them both. Each place has its unbeatable menu items.  At Kerby Lane it is the Kerby queso or the gingerbread pancakes.  At Magnolia, the MagMud queso, eggs zappatino, or the black bean entree. 

Of course theses were a staple in college for late night banana nut pancakes and coffee, but far beyond my college days I still think that they can't be beat.   I must admit that it was my husband who taught me to really appreciate the perfection of this simple (and ridiculously cheap I might add) black bean dish.  I learned traveling with him in Nicaragua that he really can have beans at every meal and never tire of them.  Being vegetarians, we eat a LOT of black beans and I can get burned out on them- but I never tire of this dish.

All this dish entails is mixing black beans with some garlic butter, and topping with amazing things. I use cheese, tomatoes, chives, avocado, and sour cream.  I aim to copy the original, but anything would be a great addition.  Maybe some marinated tofu or jalapenos.  At Magnolia they really do it right by serving this bowl with a cornmeal pancake.  What would I not have given to get my hands on cornmeal pancake ingredients yesterday.  But alas, it was 102 degrees and I was against the idea of leaving the house.  And guess what?  It was still an awesome meal without it.  Plan in advance when you try this easy recipe.  If not corn meal pancakes, some fresh corn bread will be perfect.  Enjoy!

Knit slipper project

I picked up this pattern book Whimsical Little Knits 3  when I was in Oregon earlier this summer at Websters, one of my favorite yarn stores in Ashalnd Oregon. I fell in love with this pattern for knit slippers and had this vision of me knitting piles of adorable brightly colored slippers that would be passed out at Christmas to everyone on my list.

Every summer I scheme that I am going to prepare amazing Christmas gifts in July, and this vision has never really come to life the way I envision it. I remember staying up until 1am on Christmas Eve frantically finishing an overly ambitious and started-too-late shawl for my mother.  Not my vision of gift prep perfection. 

I will now make the public statement that this year is

going to be different. I made myself a practice pair of slippers and now that I have figured out this fun and well written  pattern, I am going to start popping these out! We are going on road trip this weekend to my husband's family reunion, so I will seize this car time to start on my first giftable pair.

Please note that the practice pair is not giftable since one is bigger than the other.   I will probably re-do one of them, but for now I am ready to start on a new pair with some jewel tone teal yarn I am excited about working with.  Maybe I will fix up the practice pair for myself.  I think I might feel more giving if I have a pair for myself.  Hopefully mine turn out as cute as in this darling pattern.

       

Kale Salad

Before going out of town, we pretty much cleared out the fridge completely.  Therefore, coming home I had the perfect opportunity to try to stock up on super healthy stuff since some questionable items had been cleared out.  I bought 2 bunches of kale not having a recipe in mind for them, but was inspired by a friends amazing kale salad and thought I would find a fun way to mix it up salad style.

I remembered seeing a kale and chickpea salad recipe on a blog I really like, The Spontaneous Hausfrau - "A blog about (messy) cooking and (irreverent) domesticity."  Cute right?

I tweaked this recipe a bit based on what I had in the kitchen and it was excellent! The olive oil, lemon juice, and lemon zest dressing was so good, it was so simple and so flavorful.

Here is the link to original recipe from The Spontaneous Hausfrau  I didn't have any sundried tomatoes on hand like the recipe calls for, but I bet they would have been great. 
                                                           Ingredients:

For the dressing:

olive oil

lemon juice

lemon zest

*I added a little bit of ceyenne pepper for some spice 

Salad:1 bunch of kale

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes

1 can garbonzo beans

kalamata olives

*I added some thai basil

Salsa shout out!

I am back from my last trip of the summer.  We went to New Mexico to stay with my aunt and uncle who are not only the best hosts ever, but also have a home on a mountain in the forrest.  It was a great place to be and we had a great trip.           

Something that we did well on our trip (besides hike, visit, and see amazing views of course) was eat.  My aunt is an amazing cook and makes home made bread at least twice a week. (!!!)  I can't believe that we ever ate out considering what she can do in her kitchen, but we did go out for Mexican food.  Being from Austin Texas, I am no stranger to tacos, mole, enchiladas, and queso.  But Mexican food is different than the TEX-Mex that we eat here in Austin.  (If you have not been to Austin, trust me when I say that tacos are part  of our daily diet at least once a week.  Especially breakfast tacos on the weekends.)  

So after enjoying green chile enchiladas with an egg on top, and even corn chowder with green chile, I came home loving the spice.  Lucky for me, our fridge was stocked with... homemade salsa.  A trio of salsas was created by our good friend who is not only culinary creative, but also really good at it.  Getting three kinds of homemade salsa was awesome gift that lead to some great food moments. (Thanks guys!) 

 We had finished off the grilled pineapple salsa and the jalapeño salsa before even leaving town.  But we still had an almost full jar of the Habanero salsa.  The only reason it was still left was that it is VERY spicy.  Delicious, but spicy.  Not something to be had in large spoonfuls, but something to be applied in "dabs."  So it has been dabbed on everything since we got back and we have really made in dent in our jar.    

Salsa is a staple in our house, but I usually stick to the "mild" or "medium" variety.  So I am feeling so much more adventurous and spicier now.  I am going to keep it up this summer and try some new varieties and see what else is out there!

  

Cucumber Salad

When it is so hot outside, the last thing I want to do is stand over a hot stove or create heat with the oven.  So since getting back home from vacation in a lovely climate to Texas summer weather, I have only bought groceries that involve no heat.  This has also turned out to be a healthy move since we are eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies by staying in the sandwich, salad, and smoothies families.  I made this salad last night when friends came over for a pot luck grill out.  I had looked at a few new salad recipe ideas and ended up splicing a few together to create a nice summer salad concoction. It is cooling and a bit spicy at the same time.  Enjoy!

Cucumber Salad

• 2 cucumbers, thinly sliced
• About 10 radishes, thinly sliced
• 1 purple onion, thinly sliced
• a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley and/or basil
• about a tablespoon of chopped mint
• a squeeze of lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• 12 oz. crumbled feta cheese
• a salad dressing of your choice (I used a simple red wine vinaigrette)

Enjoying the Northwest

Josh and I went up to Oregon to spend a few days in Ashland with my parents for a few days.  I adore Ashland.  It is such a great town.  Filled with amazing parks, views, theater, and food.  It is easier to find good vegetarian food there than a good burger.  That is awesome since traveling as a vegetarian often means many grilled cheese sandwich meals.  Not that I don't love a good grilled cheese sandwich, but options are great too, and Ashland has them!  Not to mention some good local beer. 

After our time in Oregon, we rented a car and went up the Oregon coast, and then down into Northern California to see the redwoods.  Going to see the redwoods has always been on my bucket list, and they didn't disappoint.  After taking in all those trees, hikes, beer, and veggie food, I'm feeling as ready as I can be back home.  This also means that I will get back to the blog!  I'll be searching for and sharing some "beat the heat" remedies since the 100+ days are here to stay. 

  

Summer Whiten up

I am in the mood to brighten up and lighten up for summer.  We bought out house last September.  It is light and airy, but also eclectic.  So I love how easy it is to experiment. We have a great screened in sun porch and though we love using it, we have yet to really deck it out.  We are in the middle of making all kind of big plans  for our yard, so I was getting anxious to do something in the mean time.  So, on a "planning" trip to Home Depot, I picked up a few cans of white spray paint to make over 2 of our patio chairs.  Now I feel like spray painting everything white!  It brightened up our porch perfectly.  Now I can keep spray painting a few more outdoor items while I wait not so patiently to start on the "big" outdoor projects.  

Pavlovas + Lemon Curd

This weekend I finally had time to make the lemon curd I have been wanting to try. I also had a great excuse since our friends were coming over to grill up some dinner with us. Putting the lemon curd on top of the light and fluffy Pavlovas is just heavenly, but I am also in for eating it on toast, waffles, or just a spoon.  

I looked at a few different versions of these recipes, and kind of compiled my own version of the lemon curd that was perfectly tart and not too sweet.  One recipe suggested putting the lemon zest and sugar in the food processor so that the oil could infuse the sugar.  Since I hadn't made this before, I'm not sure if it made it any different than any other method, but it smelled amazing. 

After adding the zest of 3 lemons to the 1 1/2 cups of sugar, cream in 2 sticks of butter.  Once that is creamed nicely, add a 1/2 cup of lemon juice and a bit of vanilla extract and put it on the stove and stir until it begins to thicken (about 10 min.)  Then voila, tart, sweet golden amazingness.

                                       

Are egg whites not just amazing?  I went on a meringue cookie kick over Christmas and have been in love withe marshmallow center/light crispy outside ever since.  The only difference between this and the basic meringue cookie recipe was the addition on 1/2 tsp. of corn starch.  I could eat the pavlovas alone and be happy, but topping them with the lemon curd created the perfect kick off to summer dessert. 

It was a great weekend filled with great friends, family, and food.  One more week of teaching before the summer celebration can really begin.  I am definitely looking forward to more meals like this.  I will really be dreaming of lazy cook outs and lemony desserts as I push through this last week of work.  Welcome summer! 

Snack Supper Part 2

Sunday snack supper was awesome this week! I needed it too.  It had been a long hard week at work.  So enjoying a Sunday night eating good food with friends and watching some "Game of Thrones" instead of stressing about the week to come was just what I needed to wrap up a great weekend. One of my husband's co-workers had given us a huge bag of fresh dill from her garden, and I was excited to use it.  So I decided to whip up a nice dill dip with some Greek yogurt.  It went perfectly with all of our snacking items. Our fellow snackers brought wraps with hummus and all the fixings.  So we piled on olives, lettuce, the dill dip and anything else that struck our fancy.  We were all in love with the spicy guacamole, and don't even get me started on the amazing chocolate covered pecans. 

Tiny's Baby Blanket

Two of my favorite people had their first baby last night.  I can't wait to meet her!  I started making them a baby blanket when I found out she was pregnant.  When I heard the baby was going to be here a bit earlier than expected, I had to knit like crazy to finish it up before she arrived.  I love this lace pattern, "pine forrest baby blanket" from ravelry.com

The color is not done justice in these pictures, but the color I chose is a rich teal.  This is the baby of two rockstars, so I didn't think that the classic pink or yellow would do. I think that this color is much more their style and will match her light grey nursery perfectly.  I can't wait to deliver  this and meet the new baby girl!

Summer Sunday Snack Supper

 Every Sunday, we gather with our awesome friends to watch Game of Thrones. ("Winter is coming.")  Since we are all teachers, this Sunday night ritual is doing a lot to keep us motivated through the end of the school year.  Sunday nights can be such "back to work" drudgery, but  having this Sunday evening plan has done a lot to boost our back to work moral.


Part of our evening, or any of our hang outs for that matter, is some good food.  Sometimes I like to cook a nice meal on a Sunday, but as the weather gets warmer (which happens in May in Austin by the way), I am a fan of throwing together a snack supper.  Our friends brought some delicious stuff last night as they always do, and combined with the contents of my fridge, pantry and some wine, we had a pretty amazing meal.  


I am in full support of this being a summer tradition. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for some great snacks to bring to the table next week.  

Lemons

Why have I never fully appreciated lemons before? Maybe it's because I look terrible in yellow and have known to avoid it or risk looking like I am ill.  Though I still don't have the skin tone to rock a yellow dress, I just realized how brilliant they are in everything.  My husband's coworker had a dinner party and made homemade lemon curd with pavlovas for dessert and I am now officially hooked.  I almost fear making my own lemon curd because I know that if that jar of sweet lemony goodness is in the fridge, I will put it on top of everything. Here is the recipe I am wanting to try from bakedbree.com.   So for now, I will stick to a healthier dose of lemon until I have people coming over to help me eat the lemon curd.  Tell me this doesn't look delicious....Lemon Curd Recipe from Baked Bree

So since I am going to refrain from making large amounts of lemon curd (for now), I will focus on lemon in dinner as opposed to dessert form first.  I have made this fantastic and simple dish twice and will be making it again soon.  I love the simple combo of whole wheat pasta, wilted spinach, sweet peas, and creamy lemon sauce. The Kitchn (www.thekitchn.com) has some amazing recipes, and I love that they have a section of quick and delicious dishes I can manage after a long day at work. Go buy a few great lemons and give this a  try...Creamy Lemon Pasta with Spinach and Peas from The Kitchn

Smee Stripes

 

I am really in love with stripes right now.  Due to my constant wearing of stripes, I have begun to fear that I may look a bit like Smee, Captain Hook's sidekick. Luckily, unlike him, my striped shirts do cover my stomach.  But who cares if I sometimes resemble a Disney character, stripes make me happy! They probably did the same for Smee right? 

                     

                                     Wanted ahoy skimmers, endless.com $39.00  

                       Bungalow Stripe Panarama  shorts, madewell.com $59.50