Cozy Autumn Cocktails

Cardamom Hot Toddy

The smell of fallen leaves, a fire in the hearth, the scents of apples and pie crust, a slow cooked roast...These are the things that let us know that Autumn is edging ever closer to Winter. During these darkening months, comfort often comes in ways that are different than the ways we achieve comfort in, say, Spring or Summer.

One of the ways I feel soothed in the Autumn is by the occasional after work cocktail. My favorite drinks to get while I'm out at this time of year are The Whiskey Fig at the Pour House and The Drunken Butterfly at the Shady Lady Saloon. But in an effort to save money it's always fun and frugal to create our own adult beverages at home.

These are some goodies I have found!

The Jonathan Chapman Cocktail: I call it Spiked Cider. I really like Food Republic.

Nutella Melt with Frangelico from "Winter Cocktails": More a dessert than a beverage.

Boozy Pumpkin White Hot Chocolate

Pomegranate Vanilla Sangria

Pear and Ginger Sage Sipper

The Best of Mood Boards and Collage

Loretta at Creatively Driven: My inspiration for this post.

Regina says I should know some HTML (#17) to have a successful blog and be a serious blogger. I tend to agree with her; she is an uber expert. I think that because I have a lifestyle blog. In addition to knowing just a tiny bit of code, it would behoove me to also know Photoshop in order to create mood boards like the ones here. As in poetry, a mood board (or color board as some would call them) captures feelings, textures, ambiance and indeed feelings that cannot be expressed by words alone. Don't get me wrong; you know I fancy myself a poet and I love the written word, but I love a picture too; it is said, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Now if only I could muster the time and commitment to take a Photoshop class.

Here is a collection of some pretty boards I've recently found while scouring around this playground.

Brianna Rose: Her style is impeccable.

Colleen at Inspired to Share: Her spirit is captivating as you can see in her imagery here.

All of these items are sold on Etsy. This warm board was curated by Sofia Budman.. She is someone I follow on Pinterest and she hails from Tel Aviv, Isreal.

Sara at Salted Ink is amazing. Her style is fresh; her branding sensational.

This was arranged by Kayla Kits at HGTV's Blog: the concept of bubbles is refreshing. I love her addition of the illustrated Kitty.

And finally...

Something Calm at Swooned for the last selection. It was created by Lauren Kathryn. I like the diamond elements.

Fall: It's Decorative Gourd Season

By the way, it really is Decorative Gourd Season and we love McSweeney's!

On that note, ever made Roasted Pumpkin Seeds?

While it's not Halloween anymore, we are in the throws of the Autumn Season. That means pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie. I still love to clean out the inerts of a pumpkin - not just for the puree that is needed for all the pumpkin goodies but for the roasted seeds especially.

The following recipe is very easy but you must keep an eye on these guys or they'll burn to crisp.


Ingredients:

The seeds of one large pumpkin (put under the faucet in a strainer to remove all the pumpkin pulp)
2 Tbs Butter, melted
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp. garlic salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste (I like to use Trader Joe's Flower Pepper for these).

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Pat dry the seeds between two clean dish cloths or paper towels.
In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients.
Stir well to coat all seeds with the seasonings and oils. (Fat is used in cooking because it carries flavor)!
Place the seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Put in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
Check the seeds about 5 minutes in and shake the pan around.
Lower the temperature of the oven to 300 and roast for another 15 minutes. You may hear some popping. When you do, go and shake the pan...
When the seeds are the color of brown you like, remove them from the oven and let them cool.
Transfer to a pretty bowl and serve.

The Human Marvels

Every year the husband and I throw a big Halloween Event. This year, in an effort to move away from my usual vampire theme, I decided to do "Freak Show" as a nod to Geek Love, A book I read this year and absolutely loved. You saw the invitations. In doing research for this party I became fascinated with the side show and with the glossary attached. The advent and history of the physically unusual accepting money for people to gawk upon their malformations has become somewhat of a little past time for me and a great addition to my abundant admiration of the macabre.

Happy Halloween! 

Enjoy "The Human Marvels" and this outstanding website called Montrous.

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Ghoulish, Dreadful, Macabre and Gruesome

It seems we try so hard to come off with really creepy, intense Halloween costumes and while sometimes we, as modern folk,s pull out all the stops and succeed, it turns out nothing is scarier than the Halloween costumes from early in the last century. This imagery is from all around the web and was compiled last year by Faux Magazine.

The Inspired - I Think You Need A Hug

"I Think You Need A Hug"

Office man, he’s pretty great.

He so committed, he’s never late.

Loves his job, though he’s sometimes blurry

As he confronts his cube with a touch of fury

At least he’s cool, not some tricky fool

Dreams of Porsches and drinks by a deep blue pool

Listens to tunes to make anyone swoon

Eats his lunch with a silver spoon

Look at line 4, right there above

Ain’t no joke, there’s really no love

Please throw our office man a bone

Simply get off his back and leave him alone.

The poem above represents most everyone who endures cube life. Isn't there more?

Mom's Apple Pie

I love Apple Pie. And I love the fall. Thankfully, they both come at the same time. Now that the apple harvest is happening, I've been getting some great varieties at the farmers market. If you love apple pie, but have never endeavored to make it. It's a snap and I recommend trying it. Plus, it's a great thing to have on hand when the occasional autumn guest shows up! I love a friendly stop by especially once the holidays begin!

I always use Granny Smith apples. They are large and firm and tart. But if like a variety that is equally as firm, you can use those instead.

Ingredients (Pie Filling):

6-8 Large Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbs. butter

Directions (Pie Filling):

Put sliced apples in a large bowl and allow to macerate in the sugar cinnamon combination for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make the pie crust.

Ingredients (Pie Crust):

2 1/2 cups flour
2 sticks cold, cubed butter
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 Cup water (roughly)

Directions (Pie Crust and Pie Completion):

Pre-heat oven to 350
Sift flour, sugar and salt together in a large bowl
Add the cold cubed butter and mix using your hands until the butter is combined with the flour mixture, resembling oatmeal
Add the water slowly, you may use less than the entire half cup. This is to form the dough.
Create a ball from the dough, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Remove the dough from the fridge and begin to roll into two round pie shaped forms...one for the bottom of the pie and one for the top.
Lay the first one in the bottom of the pie plate, add the apples, and dot the apples with the two tables spoons of butter.
Cover the pie filling with the second crust.
Seal the pie crust with your fork. (If you're my mom, you do really fancy stuff with the crust that seems to defy nature)
Poke holes in the crust for the steam to release (or if you want to be fancy, cut little shapes with tiny cookie cutters as I did here).
Place pie on a cookie sheet (in case of spill over)
Bake pie at 350 for 1 hour.
Serve hot or room temperature preferable with ice cream. ;)

My cute neighborhood. Someone got festive in the community garden.