Five Things Friday -- Autumn Edition

This week was pretty uneventful…and I also forgot my camera everywhere we went.  (I have got to convince the hubby that I “need” a cell phone with a camera!)  We did have some fun times – Bible study on Tuesday morning, a play-date on Thursday morning, shopping at Target (which is always an adventure with my 2- and 4-year-olds) – but…no photos.

So today I’m giving you my five favorite things about autumn.  Because I can.  And because it really is my favorite season.  I think because we don’t have a “real” autumn in Arizona (I grew up in the Midwest, where the leaves have already changed and where it’s COLD about now and you freeze your tushy off at the local high school football game…ah, memories…)

Anyway – here’s my list:

1.        Blue Jeans.  With flip flops.  Because I live in Arizona.

2.       Holiday coffee creamers.  Pumpkin spice, Peppermint…whatever combinations they come up with.  Except I'm not a big fan of Gingerbread.

my current favorite

 3.       Pumpkin muffins.

4.       Pumpkin bread.

(Source)

5.       Pumpkin pancakes.

No pic - but here's the simple recipe!  Yes this is a postie.  I keep it on my fridge.  I am aware of my bad handwriting. 
(By the way, the scribbles "grd" in front of "cinnamon" and "ginger" mean "ground.")

6.       Pumpkin decorations.

One of my favorite autumn decorations - a tealight pumpkin house from Party-Lite.  I love the little mouse in the window - she's wearing a pearl necklace!

7.       Okay, so I’m giving you more than five things.  But I can’t pick just ONE!!

My Classic Winnie-the-Pooh Halloween tree.  Does it get any better than this?  I don't think so.

8.       I think I have an obsession with “pumpkin” anything.

Or eggplants.  Another Party-Lite favorite - my eggplant tealight candle house.

9.   New seasons of my favorite TV shows starting up.  I have a few that I like to follow.  It’s a weakness I have.

I can't help it.  I love this show.  Bryan calls it "nickus", though really "NCIS" looks more like "in-kiss." But "nickus" has stuck, and on Tuesday nights, Mama tries to watch parts of the show while Daddy tries to wrangle the boys to bed.

10.   Back-to-school supplies.  If you know the phrase “bouquets of sharpened pencils”, then you are someone after my own heart and I’d like to meet you. There is something about all those rows of notebooks, folders, pens, pencils, rulers, crayons and glue that make me want to go back to school.  I loved school.  (Remember, we’ve already established that I am a nerd.)

(Source)

11.   The leaves turning colors.  Because we don’t get to see this in Tucson, unless you go up Mt. Lemmon.  (Which makes me think…day trip!  The boys would love it!)   

(Source)




I'm sure there are more things I love about autumn, but this post is too long already.  Thank you kindly if you are still reading.  :) 

Happy weekend!! 

Pumpkin Muffins

I posted this on my FB page the other day and so many people were interested in the recipe, I thought I'd share the love on the blog, too. 

I found this recipe in a book that a friend gave us for our wedding.  It is so moist -- I think it's the honey (or molasses, if you use that instead).  And what makes them even yummier is baking them in an awesome silicone pumpkin- and leaf-shaped muffin pan.

Yes that is leftover "Pam" on the top. I couldn't scrub it all off and then thought: "Why bother?  I'm just making more next week!"

Here goes:

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup molasses (I have used molasses before, but this time I used honey since I didn't have molasses on hand, and liked that better - it wasn't so rich)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup cooked or canned pumpkin
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp grated nutmeg (I used ground and it was fine)
• 1/4 cup currants or raisins (but I used chocolate chips since I don't like raisins)

1. Preheat oven to 400*F. Grease muffin pans or use paper liners.
2. With an electric mixer, cream the butter/margarine until soft. Add the sugar and molasses (or honey) and beat until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg and pumpkin and stir until well blended.
4. Sift over the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Fold in until just blended; do not overmix.
5. Fold the chocolate chips into the pumpkin mixture until just evenly combined.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling them two-thirds full.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the tops spring back when touched lightly.

**My awesome pumpkin- and leaf-shaped muffin pan makes bigger muffins, so it takes longer for them to bake - about 20-25 minutes. So just watch your muffins while they're baking to make sure they're done (or not burning!).

Enjoy.

And you're welcome.

Easy Iced Coffee

Is anyone else HOT?  Holy cow.  We've been having 105 to 107-degree days here in Tucson -- WITH humidity!!  Now the rainstorm we had the other night was lovely - really, it was, I'm not being sarcastic - it topped off our 107-degree day well, cooling things off to a balmy 90-degrees or so.  I might be off a few degrees (but then, what else is new?  ha ha ha ha....)

So for my fellow coffee-loving friends, I want to share this amazing iced coffee "recipe" that my more amazing hubby came up with a few years ago.  It has saved us BEAUCOUP de dollars at McD's, Starbuck's, Dunkin' Donuts...wherever you can buy iced coffee through a drive-thru.  (Whoops, did I just tell on myself?  I mean, where you can buy iced coffee.  Period.)

Because when you LOVE and REQUIRE coffee while living in Arizona in the summertime, the regular ol' hot coffee is just...well...too hot.  To be very eloquent.

Okay, so what you need is:

• Instant coffee (Nescafe is the BEST)
• Your sugar/sweetner of choice (if any)
• Your flavored creamer of choice (if any)
• Ice (crushed is best)
• Milk
• Tiny bit of warm water

1.  Get a large glass.  You'll need room for the ice and milk.

2.  Put a little bit of warm water in it -- maybe a quarter cup or less?  We never measure.  You don't have to use warm water, but it helps to dissolve the instant coffee and sugar (if you use it).

3.  Spoon in your instant coffee.  A heaping teaspoon is usually good -- depends on how strong you like it.

4.  Add sugar/sweetner, if desired.

5.  Stir to dissolve the coffee and sugar.

6.  Add splash of flavored cream, if desired.  Or if you have any flavoring syrup around...or nothing here at all, if you are like my husband and don't want flavor.

7.  Stir it all up.

8.  Add ice...crushed is more fun, but any will work...but the ice is NECESSARY.  Fill it up to the top, or nearly there.

9.  Fill the rest with milk.

10.  Stir carefully, so you don't slosh the yumminess all over the counter.

11.  Enjoy. 

This turned out a bit light...so I dissolved more instant coffee in warm water and stirred it in to darken it up (later, after I took the photo) -- it's fun to be able to fix it up.

12.  Try to hide it from the kiddos.  Because they'll see it and somehow know it must be yummy, and they'll want some.  And unless you chose decaf coffee, you don't want them into your treat.  Or maybe you just don't want to share.  And that wouldn't set a good example, now would it?  (Um, am I telling on myself again?)

So...you're welcome.  Well, you can thank Bryan for coming up with this.  He is master at figuring out concoctions in the kitchen.  It must be an engineer-thing.  Also, an I-think-my-wife-is-going-through-McD's-drive-thru-every-day-and-I-need-to-put-a-stop-to-it thing.  :) 

If you like your coffee black -- then check out The Pioneer Women's recipe for Perfect Iced Coffee.  I think with her way of making it, you could leave it black.  My dear friend Noelle passed this on to me.  If I can ever have the supplies that PW has, and the huge amount of kitchen space, I'd love to do what she does for iced coffee.  Until then, I will be quite content and satisfied with my instant coffee rendition.