FANTASTIC PUMPKIN PECAN BREAD, AND OH NO, SHE'S MESSING WITH THE T.S.A., ONCE AGAIN!..................

Lots of fall baking and cooking going on in my cozy little kitchen this week--hey, why don't you come on over, grab yourself a hot cup of coffee and lend me a hand? I wish. As we speak, I'm cooking up another big batch of Apple Butter, because in a few days I'm heading here.................

That's right, my homeland, my City By The Bay, San Francisco. I'll be staying at a sweet little hotel in Berkeley, which is right across the bay from S.F. (never, EVER say "Frisco", unless you want to be, well,  a TOTAL GEEK!). I'm flying all the way 'cross country just because I miss this girl so much I can't STAND it...............

(I might not be doing another post for a week or so, because jet lag seems to hit me hard lately, but I promise to bring lots and lots of fun Bay Area photos home with me to share--promise!)

Little Miss Thing has requested that her mama bring some Apple Butter, which has just thrown me into a tizzy--how on EARTH does someone travel with something like Apple Butter in this day and age? Anyone who has flown anywhere after 9 / 11 knows that you can't carry more than 4 puny ounces of any sort of liquid onto a plane, and 4 oz. of Apple Butter, well, that t'aint NUTTIN', honey! So here's my devious plan....I'm gonna freeze a container of my homemade jelly, then put it in about 6 ziploc bags, and stick the whole thing in my suitcase and PRAY, just PRAY, that it doesn't thaw and run all over my clothes. My husband says this sounds like one of my typical Lucy Ricardo plans , and that I'm asking for trouble. But shoot, Ricky--"they" let us carry full -sized bottles of shampoo and hair jell in our checked luggage, so what's the harm in a little Apple Butter? I'll let you know how it all goes down.......

I'm also baking a couple of loaves of our new favorite obsession, Southern Living's (the BEST cooking magazine, by the way) Pumpkin Pecan Bread, which shall also be packed into my poor luggage..............

I tell you WHAT--this bread is soooo delicious, and it gets even better after being refrigerated for a few days...especially with a little cream cheese or butter slathered on top!

Believe it or not, I did not use a mixer OR food processor while making this bread--it's all done by hand, and is super simple! To begin, you'll want to toast your chopped pecans in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until they're fragrant....................

Stir together flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice and baking powder. Make a "well" in the center of your dry mixture.......

Whisk together pumpkin, oil and eggs, plus water, and add to dry ingredients......

Stir until just moistened, and stir in toasted pecans...............

Spoon batter into prepared loafpans (this makes 2 loaves)..............

Bake for an hour or so, and cool on wire racks. A no-fail recipe, and one I'm sure you'll love to have in your recipe box!........................

Here's the recipe.....

SOUTHERN LIVING'S PUMPKIN PECAN BREAD

Makes 2 loaves

1 and 1 / 2 cups chopped pecans

3 and 1 / 2 cup flour

3 cups granulated sugar

1 tblsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 15oz. can pumpkin

1 cup canola oil

4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan for 8 to 10 minutes or until toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through. Stir together flour and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl, and make a well in center of mixture. Whisk together pumpkin, next 2 ingredients and 2 / 3  cup water; add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Stir in pecans. Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 9 x 5 inch loafpans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool pans on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire rack, and cool completely (about 1 hour). Makes 2 loaves.

TODAY I'M SO THANKFUL FOR.....

***Sleeping in late this morning....I LOVE LOVE LOVE Sundays!

***Starbuck's French Roast with a little half and half......pretty much my only vice these days!

***The nice 4 mile walk that B.A., Wee Willie and I took this morning in the brisk fall air.....love days like these when I have lots of energy!

ROASTED RED PEPPER HUMMUS, MY WILDEST DREAMS AND SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE!......

Do you ever have one of those dreams where you wake up LAUGHING, hard, at how utterly absurd the whole stupid dream was? Well, I had one of those last night, and I'm still shaking my head about it, because it had a message, and the message was....THIS BLOGGING BUSINESS IS GOING TO TAKE OVER MY WORLD!! I mean, I really don't think it HAS taken over my life (yet)...it's all just really fun and creative, but my dream was trying to warn me......Here's how the dream went down:

So B. A. and I went to this dinner party, and when we walked in the door, Brian Williams escorted us to HIS table to dine with him. I'm not surprised at Brian being in my dream (don't know who Brian is? He's the super hotteeee anchor from the NBC Nightly News....my daughter thinks he's cute, too....I suspect we love him so because he's always impeccably dressed!), because I watch him just about every night.......

Guess who else was dining with us? Could it be....hmmmmm.....THE ROLLING STONES?..........................

And really, even THEY weren't a surprise to me, in my dream. What did totally freak my out? The fact that we were eating dinner with these amazingly interesting people, and I FORGOT MY CAMERA.....so how on earth could I tell my blog followers about the whole event? Would they even believe me?

This dream was meant to teach me one of two things. One : never, ever leave my camera at home. Or Two : Don't be so hard on myself when it comes to this blogging stuff, because it really is supposed to be SUPER FUN, and NO-STRESS, right? Sigh.

(By the way--B.A. and I saw the Stones in concert about 20 years ago, and they are still one of my all time favorite bands. BUT, I really hadn't been listening to their music lately or even thinking about them at all, so I don't know why they graced my dream. Aren't dreams just SO fascinating?)

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Big reason to celebrate this week.......my sweet little blog had its Twenty Thousandth hit! Sheesh--I feel like I should throw a party or something over here. At 100,000 hits, my brain is going to simply explode, and then I shall die of happiness.....

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Our "peak" Fall foliage season here in the Adirondack mountains has, sadly, peaked and gone, but I still find incredible beauty in the more subdued gold and brown hues I encountered on my rainy morning walk.............

These ferns are so blindingly lime green in the spring.....just look at 'em now!............

Pretty soon, all of our trees (well, except for the evergreens--thank GOODNESS for evergreens!) shall look like this, waiting for that first coating of snow.....

But this morning, well, I did find a few remaining patches of early October vibrancy.......check out these colors.....

I love the way these leaves decorate the evergreen boughs....reminds me of Christmas ornaments.....

Still some color hanging around here on Spruce Drive.....

The Barberry bush in our yard....another plant that is LIME green in the spring....check out the pretty little garnet berries....

One more thing....we planted this sweet little Red Leaf Maple tree about 5 years ago, after we had a dying Hemlock tree removed from the same spot. It is just now starting to turn its gorgeous red shade........

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One of our favorite things to eat around La Casita De Willard is Hummus. Any kind of hummus....usually I just buy it at the grocery store, but every once in a while I have a little mental freak out session over how much $$$$ I spend on the store bought stuff, and get motivated to make my own. It truly is super, super simple to make, and you can tailor it to your tastebuds. Sometimes I like it with just garlic, sometimes with sundried tomatoes, sometimes just plain! Regardless of how you eat hummus, it is extremely good for you....filled with protein from the beans, with really very little fat except a smidge of olive oil.

To begin, you'll need a can of garbanzo beans, or chickpeas (I've heard them called both).........

Drain and rinse them well. In a small dish, combine your spices.....you might want to be a little bit careful with the cayenne....I overdid mine recently and couldn't even eat it!.............

Put chickpeas in the bowl of your food processor, then sprinkle spices over......

Add Tahini, which is made from sesame seeds (my girlfriend Patty J. had to show me where to find Tahini the first time I made this...it's usually located next to the peanut butter in the organic section of grocery stores, but sometimes it's also in the middle eastern section. One jar goes a long way)................

Garlic (again, SO good for you!)...............

some lemon juice and roasted red peppers....I just used the jarred variety, but you can always roast your own..............

Blend in food processor..........

Once blended, add olive oil until hummus is the consistency you desire, and nice and smooth in texture. We like to serve ours with raw vegetables, crackers or pita chips....fantastic as an appetizer!.............

Enjoy! Here's the recipe......

ROASTED RED PEPPER HUMMUS

1 16oz. can chickpeas

2 tblsp. tahini

Juice of 1 / 2 lemon

2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 / 2 cup roasted red bell pepper, roughly chopped

1 and 1 /2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. coriander

1 / 4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 / 2 tsp. salt

freshly ground pepper

good olive oil

Drain and rinse chickpeas. In a small bowl, combine cumin, coriander, cayenne and salt--mix thoroughly. Put chickpeas in the bowl of a food processor and sprinkle spice mix over evenly. Add tahini, lemon juice, garlic and roasted red peppers, and blend. Add freshly ground pepper. Once hummus gets smooth, add olive oil until it reaches desired consistency. Store in refrigerator.

TODAY I'M SO THANKFUL FOR.....

***The free time I have in my life right now to volunteer locally.

***My funny little dog who is sleeping and snoring and farting at my feet as I type this!

***One week from today.....off to Kollyfornia for me!

ELEGANT PUMPKIN SOUP, SCARY CLOWNS AND A SASQUATCH SIGHTING!...................

Just so you know, B.A. is OBSESSED with seeing Bigfoot here in Upstate New York....don't know why, and personally I think it would be waaaaay too cold around here for a creature like that to survive the harsh winters, but he still believes! Could it be because B.A. has an ever - so - slight resemblence to the fabled furry beast himself? Hmmmm....I mean, we don't call him our "Missing Link" for nuttin'. The photo above was taken on our recent Sunday "field trip" outing to the beautiful Trenton Falls area.......here are some more of the former "Big Daddy" (week 3 of the official nickname change and still not sure I'm liking it), suckin' it in and looking dashing as always...............

Why so serious, Mr. Badass? (this is his, "Honey, come ON! look)...................

The next photo is my husband's attempt at getting even with me for being a brat.....gullible me, giving him my camera while I was in the LOVELY port - a - potty......ick!.............

Why am I rubbing my hands together? Because port - a - potties now have Purel dispensers.....shoulda rubbed it overy my whole self! NOT a place for budding germ - o - phobs like me!

So I had never hiked up to the Trenton Falls before, and because we really like to learn a lot about the areas we've been fortunate enough to live in, off we went on a slightly rainy Sunday afternoon. On the way up to the falls, you get to take in a spooky old cemetery up on a big hill...just in time for Halloween! I just love the old graveyards / cemeteries on the East coast....some of the tombstones predate the American Revolution, often with their inscriptions worn off. I don't think these were that old, but still they were wicked cool.......

And check out this spooky old barn, also on the trail up the hillside...............

If you're ever in the Central / Upstate New York area and would like to take a scenic and interesting hike, you should definetely check out the Trenton Falls Park....just make sure to check out their website first, located HERE, before you go, as the park isn't open all that often. Here are my favorite photos from our hike........

Finally, some SUNSHINE!.....

Gorgeous, no? Afterwards, we drove around the lovely Steuben / Trenton countryside, and B.A. humored me by letting me get up close and personal with some grazing horses.....I am telling you that I am truly a Horse Whisperer...they seriously  (I've been told I have a way with animals) LOVE me....but B.A. thinks they just want some food......he's such a stodgy old skeptic!...............

"Oh, come a little bit closer and let me nuzzle your nose, pretty please?"..............

See, I AM the Horse Whisperer~!  LOVE.........

If you live within an hour of me, you'll know this scary face well.......WARNING : scroll past quickly if you are as scared of clowns as I am!................

EEK!!! That's right...Muncho. Brings to mind a Stephen King novel, right? All Muncho  needs are some sharp fangs to complete this terrifying picture.....I'm so gonna have nightmares tonite. See, there's a cute little Ice Cream shack called The Kayuta on our way back to the Adirondacks, and that's where Muncho "lives", a.k.a. terrorizes and eats children. Terrifies me every single time I drive by, which is about twice a week. Well, I was shaky hungry after all of our hiking and horse chasing and photo snapping, so we had to stop for some soft serve....I'v been told there are ZERO calories in that stuff....please don't tell me otherwise and burst my delusional bubble.........

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Changing the subject now, big time. Have you ever had Pumpkin Soup? Sounds funky, right? Well, I'm here to tell you that it is deeeeeeeeelish......my Mom gave me this recipe about a gazillion year ago, and something about it is tres elegant...must be the splash of Sherry at the end of cooking. The recipe just feels French somehow, and would make an awesome first course for Thanksgiving dinner, maybe served in some cute little pumpkin shaped bowls. To begin, saute a yellow onion in butter until tender.................

Stir in a little flour and remove from heat. Add chicken broth, pumpkin, sugar and salt and pepper..................

Bring back to a simmer....and some Half and Half and continue to heat (without boiling)..................

Just before serving, stir in some Sherry and garnish with parsley. Test for seasoning....we like ours with homemade croutons....................

So easy and so delicious--you will just love this impressive little soup!!! Here's the recipe......

CAROL'S ELEGANT PUMPKIN SOUP

Serves 4

2 tblsp. butter

4 tblsp. chopped yellow onion

2 tblsp. flour

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups canned pumpkin

1 tsp. brown sugar

salt and pepper

1 cup half and half

4 tblsp. Sherry wine (or more!)

minced fresh parsley

Saute onion in butter until soft. Stir in flour ; remove from heat. Add chicken broth, pumpkin, sugar and salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add half and half and continue to heat. Do not let boil. Just before serving, stir in Sherry wine and garnish with parsley. Taste for seasoning.

TODAY I'M SO THANKFUL FOR......

***The wonderful day I've enjoyed with my husband, doing just about nothing!

***The cooking class our daughter is TEACHING today at the Food Collective at her college. You GO, Little Miss Thing!!

***Less than 2 weeks away from going to Berkeley myself...SO looking forward to hugging and hanging out with our daughter and her friends and spending lots of time with family. Uncle Joe, you are SO taking us out to dinner!