Happy Halloween!

I'm not in a writing mood tonight, so the text on this post is going to be sparse. I had the pleasure of helping with Halloween party decorations on Saturday. ALL of the ideas are from Martha:

Flyaway Favors (filled with candy)

glittered pumpkins

spooky silhouettes

glittery hanging spiders

a pumpkin shaped cheeseball
(all the great buffet decorations were by Breanna and Sheena)

Witch's Curtain

more silhouettes

(and more table decor by Sheena and Breanna)

After the party, I moved the decor to my apartment, which was fun because I never really decorate for Halloween:

I was "Halloween Pam" from The Office.

Happy Halloween!

pumpkin week?

I have craft weeks and I have cooking weeks, depending on my mood. This week has definitely been a cooking/baking week with a seasonally appropriate theme - pumpkins. I love the fall and Halloween, and all the treats associated with them.

This afternoon I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies using a recipe I found on the Food Network website. The cookies are very soft ... just how I like them ... with a hint of pumpkin and all the yummy pumpkin pie spices. They aren't the prettiest cookies I have ever made, but they make up for it in taste.


Speaking of pretty, my mom made me the table runner in the picture. One side is Halloween themed, and the other side has a fall leaf print. Thanks, mom!


For dinner I made Jared's favorite, Cornish game hens. As a side, I made mashed sweet potatoes and using a pastry tip, piped them to look like pumpkins. My inspiration came from the usual source - Martha Stewart. If you follow that link, you'll find a photo of sweet potato pumpkins and regular mashed potato (or rather, Boo-tato) ghosts. The mashed sweet potato recipe I used was in this month's Everyday Food magazine and there is also an article online.


Isn't my little pumpkin patch cute?

More pumpkin treats to come this week ....

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe - George Duran The Food Network 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 1 cup white sugar 1 cup light brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup canned pumpkin puree 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips, not semisweet Nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper. Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes Martha Stewart - Everyday Food

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons light-brown sugar
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

1. Set a steamer basket in a large saucepan. Fill with enough water to come just below basket; bring to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Place sweet potatoes in steamer basket and cover; steam until tender, 15 to 25 minutes. Drain, and return to saucepan.
2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring half-and-half, butter, and brown sugar to a simmer, stirring to combine; remove from heat. Add to drained sweet potatoes, and mash just until smooth; season with salt and pepper. Makes 3 cups.

pumpkin carving

Jared and I carved pumpkins tonight with some friends ... very fun. We don't have a front porch, or even a building stoop to put them out on, so we stuck with small pumpkins. Small pumpkins call for simple designs. We think ours look very lovable.

Jared's is the smiley face and mine has the teenage mutant ninja-turtle mouth (that one's for you, Megan).

Pumpkin Doughnuts with Spiced Brown Butter Glaze

A couple of weeks ago Jared and I went to the Doughnut Plant with our good friends Megan and Mitzi. It was there that I had THE BEST doughnuts I have ever tasted (sorry Krispy Kreme) - a cake doughnut with a pumpkin spice glaze and a tres leches doughnut. I can't stop thinking about how good they were.

Then, this afternoon I was watching the Food Network and Alton Brown was doing an episode on doughnuts. I just couldn't resist trying a batch myself. Since I am impatient, I went with a cake doughnut instead of yeast. I just searched for a pumpkin doughnut recipe online and found mine at the Presto (deep fryer) website.

Pumpkin Doughnuts with Spiced Brown Butter Glaze

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 cup canned solid pack pumpkin
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• Vegetable oil for frying

Sift 1 cup flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices into mixing bowl. In separate bowl, stir together pumpkin, butter, and eggs. Add to dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add remaining 2 1/2 cups flour and mix on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.

Turn out onto floured surface and let sit 15 minutes. Roll out to 1/2-inch thickness with floured rolling pin, or pat out with floured hands. Cut out doughnuts and holes with floured cutter. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Brush off excess flour. Let sit 15 minutes.

Meanwhile preheat oil in Presto® electric deep fryer. (I don't have an electric deep fryer, so I heated oil to 375 degrees in a deep pot). Fry 1 to 2 doughnuts at a time until golden, about 1 minute per side. Drain on paper towels.

Spiced Brown Butter Glaze

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• Pinch salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 or 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup walnuts, lightly toasted, and chopped

Melt butter in small saucepan over low heat. When melted, continue to heat butter over moderate heat until it begins to brown. Watch carefully. Remove from heat as soon as butter reaches a golden brown color. It will move quickly from golden to black (burnt) if not watched. Let cool.

In small bowl, sift together sugar and spices. Gradually mix in cooled butter, vanilla, and enough milk for desired consistency.

Dip warm doughnuts in glaze. Transfer to rack or tray until set. Sprinkle chopped walnuts over glazed doughnuts (I left out the walnuts).

They turned out pretty good! The only problem was, the friends we usually pawn off treats to weren't home, so not we have an entire batch for ourselves. Maybe I'll take them to church tomorrow. I just love pumpkin desserts, don't you? They taste like fall.

and the winner is...

Dawnell - yay! Hopefully Beckett enjoys this. Can you email me your new address? I only have your old downtown address.

So ... I was hoping this would draw in comments from the lurkers out there, but it looks like even free stuff won't do the trick. Oh well. Thanks to all my favorite people for commenting. :) I knew I could count on my bookclub girls (who made up for over 50% of the comments - and I included you too, Alicia).

Striped Dog & 100th post giveaway!

Hi everyone - to celebrate my 100th post (wow!) and a record number of visits to my site this week, I am giving away my latest Sock and Glove creation. For a chance to win the striped dog pictured below, simply leave a comment (any comment) by midnight on Wednesday, October 3. I'll randomly select the winner on Thursday morning. Thanks for reading!



UPDATE: Your odds are ridiculously good on this one. Leave a comment!

The next big adventure

We have a new startup: FriendFeed!

It's still early beta, and I'll write more about the product and company as soon as I get a chance. Until then, read the NY Times article and checkout our "about" page.