It's Pumpkin Wednesday!

Don't feel like going to work today?  Want to hide in a paper bag?

I love crinkly paper bags!

Well get through the day and Pumpkin's Post will be waiting for you tonight!

Go to Work!

-Love
Pumpkin Kitty

Cooking/Baking and Blogging or Blogging and Cooking/Baking?

I can’t decide if I am cooking more because I am writing this blog, or if I am writing this blog because it gives me an excuse to cook more.  Either way, I know my boyfriend is happy, and I will be writing another cooking/baking post J

This weekend, my boyfriend went to the historic West Side Market here in Cleveland to purchase a few items for our Saturday cookout.  While he was there, he brought home some Gala apples because it is most definitely apple season.  

I decided to get fancy and try to make apple pies, and not just any regular pies but mini apple pies.  It’s not clear how this idea came about, but who doesn't appreciate a "mini" desert.  Although I have a well stocked kitchen, I don't own any tart pans.  Still committed to this mini apple pie idea, I headed to the  internet to search for alternatives.  One site suggested muffin pans as a perfect substitute for tart pans.  Satisfied I could make the muffin pans work, I found a recipe on a vegan cooking website, made a few pro-dairy changes and cheated a bit by using store-bought pie crust.

To avoid ultimate failure, I also added an old standby ingredient to the pies: homemade whipped cream.  This relatively simple treat is both amazingly tasty and delightfully simple to make.  You can impress your friends without too much effort and cover up any mistakes you made in the baking process.

Here’s the easy recipe:

Ingredients:

1 half pint container of heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

You will also need:

1 hand whisk or electric mixer

1 metal bowl that has been chilled in the refrigerator

Directions:

Pour the cream into the cold metal bowl.  Add the vanilla and powdered sugar.  Beat (either with the hand whisk or the electric mixer) until stiff peaks have formed.  Refrigerate for a few moments and serve with your favorite fruit, ice cream, cookie, granola etc.

Op, the oven timer just went off.  Let’s go see how the pies turned out…

I started with just making three little pies (we had to try one).
I made a traditional top and one with the lattice top.

They look decent, and my boyfriend says they taste delicious with the homemade whipped cream.  I'm always skeptical about my baking ability so I will chalk this success up to a good recipe

Apple pie always makes me think of fall.  What instantly makes you think of the autumn season?

-Almost halfway through the work week!

Birthdays and Cookouts and Tailgating, Oh My!

Whenever you have an action packed weekend it’s not easy to head back to the office on Monday.  Normal beginning of the work week tiredness is even more unavoidable when much of your weekend fun happens on Sunday funday.

This weekend my friends and I took part in an NFL tailgate.  It was the opening weekend in Cleveland and the City was out in full force in orange and brown.  This was my first NFL tailgate and the dedication of the fans was unreal (I unfortunately saw a man wearing a Browns thong…) and the company was awesome.

However, having gone to a small Division III college, I don’t have the same tailgate resume as my state school friends.  Nonetheless, I did learn a few things that I'll be keeping in mind for my next trip back to the Municipal Parking lot…

A few Lessons Learned:

#1.  Remember to plan ahead if you are heading to a Sunday tailgate.  Most states do not allow alcohol sales before noon or 1pm on Sundays, and others prohibit it entirely.  Plus, you need to make sure that you bring some snacks to contribute to the group.  You can never underestimate how happy your friends will be to see you show up with a bag of potato chips.

#2. Arrive at your designated tailgating area early.  Getting a tailgating space is a process that is similar to the struggle for land in the Wild Wild West.  Also, the earlier you get in the quicker you can complete item #3 listed below.

#3. Stake out your territory.  Bring a card table or folding chairs to use as you establish the boundaries of your “base camp.”  The goal, I believe, is to establish as much space as possible for your group.  Gaining a large amount of territory will also prevent other tailgaters (typically “dudes”) from playing catch with a football near your head.

#4. Bring some delicious homemade tailgate food.  If you’re looking for a simple yet tasty recipe try out these “Classy Pigs in a Blanket” recipe courtesy of Lauren H.

Ingredients: 

Hillshire Farms Kielbasa Sausage

Pillsbury crescent roll dough

Preheat oven to 375.  Slice up sausage into bite sized pieces.  Roll out the dough and cut it into strips wide enough to hold the sausage.  Wrap each piece of sausage in dough.  Place sausages on cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown.  Serving suggestion: BBQ sauce.

What are your secrets to a successful tailgate?

-Best wishes for a wonderful week!

Tornadoes and Voicemails

There is probably nothing more exciting than getting a voicemail these days.  It seems reasonable to think there is something important when someone in today's age of fast texting and twittering actually takes the time to leave you their name, number and a detailed message.  

So today I was pleasantly surprised when I reached into my bag after being away from my phone for 2 hours to find I had not just one, but two voicemails!  As I dialed in and entered my password though, the messages I got were not a job, or a long lost call from a friend, but were a pre-recording from my little sister's college!

Being the overprotective big sister, I immediately panicked after voicemail number one told me there was a threat of severe weather in the area her college is located.  But voicemail two most certainly kicked my anxiety into high gear!  The recording on the phone just wanted to alert me that there was a tornado warning in the county where her college is located, but not to worry they would be seeking shelter!

I quickly hung up and called my sister, who seemed a little bit nervous, but was feeling more upbeat since the RA's let everyone leave the basement of her dorm room! BAH!

What does this have to do with anything besides me being a nervous wreck at the age of 25?  After all was said and done, these two voicemails were my cue that I was listed as one of my sister's emergency contacts.  Good to know, for all future emergencies and times of inclement weather.

To make my anxiety seem productive, I'd recommend everyone makes sure your ICE (in case of emergency) numbers in your cell phone are up to date, and throw a little card with your emergency contacts in your wallet.  And for good measure, make sure you let your emergency contacts know they are in fact your lifeline :)

Also, in preparation for the last day of the work week, here is my favorite commercial on TV.  Enjoy!

-Can't wait for the weekend!

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday

In trying to figure out what to post everyday (well 5 days a week) it seems wise to have one go to topic each week.  So, in a search for ideas, I thought what better than to head to my friends' blogs for inspiration!

For example:

• My very good friend Katelin, has a blog and publishes Hollywood news every Tuesday
• Another wonderful friend Jen, has a blog in which she writes about things she loves every Wednesday
• And my boyfriend's favorite sports blog (with an emphasis on college football) has Midmajor Monday where he can learn about all the non-BCS football schools...

With these topics in mind, I have decided that I must write about something I know, and know well.  So for my posts on Wednesday, I have decided to write about what I know and what I love...my kitty, Pumpkin!

Hello Pumpkin! Welcome to the Blog!

A quick bio for Pumpkin Kitty (Yes, her name is Pumpkin even though she is NOT orange)

Date of Birth: August 2007

Sex: Female

Breed: Barn Cat

Favorite Toy: The Crinkle Mouse

Pumpkin has a very cushy life, but has her fair share of adventures.  You can look forward to all my crazy cat lady stories and of course, more pictures every Wednesday!

-Best wishes as you head towards the weekend!

Dinner for Two

After putting out the garbage last night, I was reminded that I waste waaayyy too much food.  I feel guilty because that moldy watermelon hurts the environment and my dwindling bank account balance!  When I think about how much I threw away just this week it makes me shudder because I am most certainly an "average consumer."

A quick search of the internet suggests researchers have encountered a variety of obstacles when making models about how much food/energy/resources gets wasted from throwing out food.  But almost all of the numbers suggest that a great deal of food never reaches our table.  The Oberlin College Resource Conservation Team recycling facts list that Americans dump more than 21 million shopping bags of food into landfills each year!

With the economy the way it is,  I am even more concerned about how to avoid the extra spoilage.  There are plenty of tips and advice out there that range from buying seasonal produce to making more frequent trips to the grocery store.  

So in the spirit of saving food from becoming refrigerator orphans, I used my day old produce in a delicious although certainly not authentic pad thai.  My recipe came from allrecipes.com and with a few alterations (used spaghetti instead of rice noodles, added some red bell pepper and snow peas instead of sprouts and got by with using oyster sauce instead of fish sauce) the final product wasn't half bad.  My boyfriend even gave it a rating of 6 out of 10 (what that scale really means he's still working out)..

Mmmm Pad Thai

And as the highlight of the meal, my boyfriend helped prepare the chopped peanut garnish

Who doesn't love the SlapChop?

So in the spirit of conservation, what is your favorite pantry/refrigerator clean out meal?

-Almost halfway through the week!

I promise I'll start on Monday

During the weekend I find myself saying I will start (fill in the blank) on Monday.  Usually its something like going to the gym, getting back to the diet I am always trying to stick to, or finally throwing in that load of laundry that has been sitting in the hamper for too long...

But today I decided I have to start writing.  I believe Sean Connery in Finding Forrester said it best when he said "The first key to writing is to write!"

So here I am getting started.  It seems most appropriate to talk about what this blog will be about, but honestly I'm not quite sure exactly where I am headed.  But I suppose I can at least begin with why I got the itch to start this project.

I am the daughter of an honest to goodness real-live homemaker.  That's right, my mom was a stay at home mom and she taught me everything I know.  Even more impressive is that she has a degree in Home Economics making her my authority on all things domestic.  For me, I've always loved helping cook, bake or prepare for a party, and when all the fun was over I tolerated the terrible chores of cleaning the kitchen and folding the clean clothes.

Now as a 25 year old, all done with school and living really really on my own I want to share some tricks, tips and advice for all your modern domestic needs and wants!

Best wishes for a wonderful week!