pumpkin eater

As promised a fall recipe! This one comes from the kitchen of Martha Carter. She shared this with me about 3 years ago, and has pretty much become a staple fall item at our house. This is my 3rd batch so far since September 1st. Is that sad? Aaron and I think it will make any anti-pumpkin eater do flips. Trust me I hate pumpkin pie, and I think they are just fab. So grab yourself a nice cold glass of milk and enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

½ c. butter                                                1 tsp. baking powder

1 ½ c. sugar                                              1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla                                             ½ tsp. salt

1 egg                                                          1 tsp. nutmeg

1 can pumpkin                                           1 tsp. cinnamon

2 ½ c. flour                                               ½ c. chocolate chips

• Mix together butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg
• Mix in the pumpkin
• Then add the last 6 ingredients (+chocolate chips if desired) and mix well with a spoon
• Chill in refrigerator while oven warms to 350°
• Drop by teaspoon on a cookie sheet, bake 15 minutes

*Just a tip: baking soda makes your cookies "spread", baking powder makes your cookies "puff". See how this one calls for equal portions of both? So, you can cook these cookies fairly close together on your cookies sheet.

mum's the word

Now it’s officially that time of year. It’s the time where I take out all my Spring/Summer flowers, and replace them with my Fall/Winter. This year I had Impatient & Vinca overload. Out of all of my Spring plants they went crazy! My hanging baskets on our front porch are still exploding. Even though we are officially in Fall I’m leaving them up, because they look so pretty.

To me, Mum’s are the official flower of the Fall. Fall is probably one of my favorite seasons, so last year I told myself that we had to do lots of Mum’s! Well, after all of the planting, sweating, watering, fertilizing, and de-heading they lasted till the first of December. Luckily we also planted Dusty Millers, Dianthus, and Pansies. I was so mad, so this year I will not be going through that trouble. I’m only doing flowers that go from Fall to Winter. I went ahead and pulled up a few of the Summer blooms, and planted the Dianthus and Pansies.

Hope to get the rest of the yard done over the next few weeks! It’s a lot of work to use the green thumb! Can’t wait to share some of my favorite Fall recipes. Can’t wait to make Beer Chili!... Don’t worry I’ll share! Happy Fall!

(Looks like the Lantana are blooming.)

real housewife of the shreve

People think it’s funny that I love the Real Housewives on Bravo, but I don’t see what’s so funny about it! I mean this is the real world obviously total realistic. I mean everyone in the ATL is just like those ladies. Duh! I hope you know I’m not serious about that; however, totally serious about my love for the Housewives. I love me some NeNe from ATL, and love Bethany from NYC.

Didn’t really like it when Aaron told me I was the Real Housewife of Shreveport. I told him if that was the case we would need to upgrade a few things. Which, would be totally ridiculous, because I think everything is good just the way it is! However, if I was, I would wear this, just as my grocery store outfit. What would your grocery store outfit look like?

he calls me snack...that's not my name

As many of you know I am a snacker. Pretty much every day about 3:00pm I feel the craving hit. Some day’s the cravings are worse than others, but I always give in. In my opinion there is no reason not too! Ever since Aaron and I were dating he started calling me, “snack”, and every time he did I would always reply “that’s not my name”. For those of you that are Ting Tings fans, you just started singing in your head. So today, I have no snack with me, and of course all I can think about is food. In honor of my hunger I decided to make my Top 10 List of Favorite Snacks. Maybe you’ll try them, and love them as much as I do!

Top 10 Favorite Munchies

10. Apples
9. Fiber One Chocolate & Oats Granola Bars
8. Yogurt with Kashi Crunch Cereal
7. Carrots with Ranch Dressing
6. Grapes
5. Left over cookies…why do they seem so much more special the next day?
4. Ice Cream, favorite Mint Cookie or Coffee
3. Peanut Butter with Honey Wheat Pretzels
2. Popcorn with a Diet Coke…always this combo
1. Cereal!

I hope this inspires you to get your munch on!

google yourself

Don't act like you've never done it. Everyone has googled someone or themselves for some reason. I guess because we are curious to see what is out there about us. Or maybe we are scared to see what we might find. Have you ever googled imaged your name though? I mean there are some Margie's out there. Not very many in my age bracket, but that is ok... I'll take it. Margie is the one on the right with her teased hair blowing in the wind. If I was really into the whole teasing thing I could see how this could happen. If you need a laugh google image your name. I just did over a bowl of Kashi Crunch. Cheers!

just peachy

This past weekend we brought in Labor Day in my hometown Georgia. We had a great time... and I think the "girls" (a.k.a the dogs) had an even better time! They walked around like a reverse Oreo. On our hike that we took Saturday morning, Christi, Patti, Pop , and I reminisced about when we hiked the base of Mount Rainier as a family. We also discussed how I wore white leather Keds on that hike, because Pop wouldn't tell us what we were doing that "family day"... he wanted it to be a surprise. Now, I can rough it and don't mind roughing it, but we were hiking in the snow people and I was wearing Keds and stirrup pants! I promise to post the family picture that we took at the end of that hike as soon as I can get my hands on it. Overall, a great weekend hope yours was too!

Typical... cooking, Aaron with the candids.

The Family Shot

The Arbor that my Dad slaved to put up for our wedding!

Really miss my sister... Aaron was taking candids and loving it.

Patti & Pop

birdy

Y'all are probably about to get a good laugh at me... or maybe you'll be impressed! I have gotten so frustrated looking for art for the house that I went on a limb to create my own. Now, this is my first time to try this. Could it be my last? I'm really not sure. Aaron tells me it's good, but I give him ice cream to say that to make me feel good. So, here are my birds and all of their glory. My picture is terrible, but I couldn't get good lighting anywhere. We head to Georgia tomorrow to bring in Labor Day, and watch the Rebels bring in their first victory of the year over Memphis!