Fabulous Fall Festival!

Well, it's not really a festival, but I figured we needed a Fall celebration at home since it's finally cold for a change and feeling like it's not summer anymore. This evening while Daniel watched college football (Baylor v. OU, Texas v. Colorado and Florida v. LSU), I did this:

Yes, that is ModgePodge, an Arthur paper plate and tiny pumpkins. They are going to be part of my lovely Fall decorations. :)

I also made these pumpkin cookies. I changed the recipe up a little (of course). I added 1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon in place of the 2 tsp. of cinnamon. I only used 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips and used 1/2 cup of pecans instead of walnuts. I also increased the oven temp. to 365 and cooking time to 12 minutes. They were scrumptious!

The pumpkin mixture

Mixing the wet and dry ingredients

Waiting to be put in the oven

The oh-so-yummy finished product

Christmas decorations?

I swear, retailers are tempting me earlier and earlier each year. And Pier 1 has been especially good at sending me previews of their Christmas decorations. I think this candle will have to be added to the collection:

I mean, how cute is that?

Thanks Easter Bunny...bock, bock...

I tried my hand at making chicken noodle soup today. I used 2 quarts of low-sodium chicken broth, 1 quart of vegetable broth, 1 rotisserie chicken (original flavor, all of the breast meat, 1 thigh and 1 leg), 1 big carrot (sliced), 1 cup of chopped celery and 1/2 package Reames egg noodles. I brought the broth to a boil and added the noodles and boiled for 20 minutes. While the noodles cooked, I sauteed the carrot and celery and a bit of garlic in 1 tsp. of olive oil until almost tender. I shredded the chicken while the noodles cooked, too. Once the noodles were done, I added the carrot-celery mixture and the chicken. I added a pinch of rosemary, pinch of thyme, pinch of sage and some freshly ground pepper and I simmered the ingredients for 10 more minutes. Homemade goodness!

Pumpkin pancakes!

Oh hooray! We made this deliciousness for dinner. (Non-fat Bisquick, added a little extra pumpkin and left out the oil. Of course I used soy milk, too.) We also had some preservative and nitrite-free bacon with the pancakes. It's the perfect way to celebrate Fall being here! If only the weather would cooperate...

Fall Decor

Oh, Pottery Barn...I could spend all my hard-earned money on your fabulous wares...

Homemade Pho

Alton Brown has a fabulous recipe for ramen shrimp pouches, which end up tasting like homemade pho. I found some GINORMOUS shrimp at Whole Foods (note to self: use smaller shrimp next time) and I added extra veggies (because we all need more veggies!) and used a triple-foil layer. The results were amazingly delicious.

Before:


Pouches ready to go into the oven:


Pouches out of the oven:


Yum!

No-boil goat cheese lasagna

I made lasagna for the first time ever! Here is the recipe. I subbed goat cheese for ricotta and pecorino-romano for the mozzarella and parmesan. It was delicious and cow-milk free. :) I forgot to take a picture on the day it was cooked, so here is a pic of the leftovers. Fancy!